Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big
Fight Weekend. Now here is your host, DJ Leaves. Well,
it has certainly been a wild build up.
Speaker 2: To the weekend in the Reeves household, here for the
Big Fight Weekend preview.
Speaker 1: As we've been dealing with a hurricane.
Speaker 2: I don't know what the action is going to be
like in the ring in New York, or in Sheffield, England,
or in Fayetteville, Georgia, or anywhere else that the fights
are going on this weekend, but it has definitely been exciting.
I am the somewhat confident host TJ.
Speaker 1: Reeves.
Speaker 2: He's our insider. Hello, Dan Rayfield. Fight Freaks Unite is
his substack Bigfight Weekend dot com insider. He is not
dealing with Hurricane Helene. We are here in this area,
but we're ready to preview. Nonetheless, we've got some action
to preview, We've got some news, some nostalgia. You're a
lot drier than I am right now. How are things
in your part of the world in Northern Virginia.
Speaker 3: It's good we had some rain, but not a hurricane, thankfully.
Speaker 2: This thing is a mess as we do this Thursday night. Again,
I don't downplay this serious stuff headed to the state
capitol of Tallahassee and into Georgia, into South Georgia as
a category four Dan Rayphield four out of five hurricane.
Thankfully it has stayed west of the main part of Florida.
I mean, the thing is one hundred miles from us
and we're getting wind and rain as we speak during
the show Rock and Roll Show, Brother Rock and Roll
Show Through a Hurricane. We're here for the fans. We
preview going into the weekend Thursday into Friday.
Speaker 1: We come off.
Speaker 3: We got to put on the Scorpions, you know, Rocky
like Hurricane.
Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe so, and one.
Speaker 3: Of the great rock fans of all and I'm a
kiss fan, yet I'm also low key Scorps fan.
Speaker 1: Also, just go ahead and say it here, I am hurricane.
Speaker 2: Whenever you see Jim Cantri of the Weather Channel in
your town, it ain't good and he's been here and
then he's headed out.
Speaker 1: But rock Me Like a Hurricane is right.
Speaker 2: Make sure you're following, make sure you're subscribing on this
podcast feed, and let's go. Let's get into the preview mode.
We don't have to wait long for the Friday night action.
The top rank ESPN card. Just six days later, we
have another top rank ESPN card, this one from the
Theater at Madison Square Garden. Main event, Mikayla Mayer challenges
Sandy Ryan for the WBO Women's welterweight title. We got
Xander Zaiez and Shoeshoe Carrington on the undercard. All right, Dan,
let's get into the preview mode a little bit for Mayor.
When last we saw her, she was in a title
fight and lost a split decision at welterweight. Now she's
right back in another title fight in this scenario here
in September. Give me a little more on this as
we began.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, look, Mayor was a top champion. She
was unified champion at one hundred and thirty pounds, and
when she lost, she then began to move up. And wait,
and she's gone up very quickly, and I think she
really just stayed. I think what she obviously most of
recrre at one went up to one thirty five, how
to fight at one forty and then went to one
forty seven where she jumped up and she fought Natasha
Jonas for a title in January. It was a really,
really excellent fight, super close fight. She lost Razor close
and pretty much everybody was talking about they're gon do
a rematch. Both sides were talking about doing a rematch.
It was supposed to get done. It's supposed to happen,
and then I'm not sure what exactly happened, but it
didn't get done because you know, in boxing, a done
deal is a signed deal, and this one was supposed
to be done and it never got done. And so
that fell through, and she's not coming back down and wait,
so she stayed at welterweight and Top Rank was able
to work out a deal with Matchroom Boxing they don't
do a ton of business with with Eddie Hearn and
Sandy Ryan, you know, who has the WBO title, agreed
to do the fight, and so she's coming to the
United States. She's fought here once before. This will be
her second fight in America. She's of course from England.
And they go to the Madison Square Garden Theater, which
to me, to tell you the truth, was are a little
surprising that they would put I'm not saying that the
fight's a bad fight, it just didn't strike me as
the type of main event that's going to do big
business in the Madison Square Garden Theater. Now Top Rank
is very intelligent the manner in which they construct their shows.
So they have put together a card where even if
Sandy from England and Michaela you know an l a
girl who lives in Colorado, are not exactly local attractions
and I'm not really had a history of fighting in
New York City. The undercard, dough is what's going to
sell the tickets. So they got like you mentioned Xander's Ice,
a popular Puerto Rican fighter, not from New York, but
certainly the Puerto Rican community, Shushu Carrington, the featherweight from Brooklyn,
and then they put on an assortment of other fighters
Needo mil Nicky, for example, from New Jersey. He's got
a fan base and you know Dominican fighters, and they
just say, make a nice undercard. So there's that. But
in terms of the fight, you know, she's going for
a world title in another way class Mikaela and Sandy.
Ryan's looking to defend her title for the third time. Remember,
she's coming off that really uh just terrible. I don't
know she's coming off it, but she had that terrible
draw where she got robbed against mccaskell, and you know,
a lot of people thought she won that fight. I
thought she won that fight any in any event, So
the fight itself is like an intro matchups just from
the standpoint if you're into like the women's walterweight division
and a lot of good names in and around that
weight class. But what sort of made this fight go
from just another sort of average title fight to sort
of a little bit more heat, let's call it is
the back and forth ofteen Ryan and Mayor. Now they
were admittedly they were acquaintances as amateurs. They had, I
guess had some training together because michaela was on the
United States team USA and in the Olympics in twenty sixteen, Ryan,
you know, fought with the Great Britain national team, and
they guess they must have had some work together. They
met each other a couple of times, no particular animosity.
But then came the accusation that in the process after
the draw with McCaskill, Sandy had come to the United
States to train. She was looking for some new folks
to train her, and she ended up working with Ky
Caroma and another assistant who was along part of Mikala's team.
You know, everybody knows Alan Mitchell, the former Olympic team
coach and you know, top pro trainer a little bit
older now he was her head trainer, but in the
ring doing mits and on, you know, uh did the
work with the with the actual physical part of with
the fighter. That was Kate Caroma, an excellent young trainer.
And uh. You know when michaela fent out that he's
he was also working with Sandy Ryan, she was upset
about that because her point was, look, I'm going to welterweight,
She's gonna be one of my opponents probably in the future.
And so she was pissed off about that and she
basically fired him and and uh and and got rid
of the other person that was with them also, uh.
And that became a thing. You know, she blamed Sandy first,
sort of being sneaky about it, like if they were
supposedly friendly, like you might say something to me. And anyway,
it's been this whole soap opera back and forth. I
kind of think it's a little bit overwrought, to be
quite honest, and that you know, Michael has taken a
little bit out of context, a little bit too personal.
Speaker 2: But right, whatever creates a little sizzle, little heat. The
background you just gave me. That's some intrigue. That's some
intrigue for the fight, little bad blood, and it seems
to be genuine bad blood, not contrived.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So they'll settle the issue of the championship in
the ring, and they'll settle the issue of of the
stuff related to the trainer. The the the ironic part
is in her comments this week, Mikhail has made the
point like that she's happy that it's worked out this
way because Al Mitchell still her head trainer and still
her guy who's been with her from day one, and
she brought in as like the hands on assistant in
the ring doing the midst and that sort of stuff,
and the more physical attributes brought in Kofie John Tua
Coffee John Tua, if you're familiar, it was a top
junior middleway contender, you know, throughout the two thousands. And
she said how happy she is working with him, and
that it's you know, sort of refocused her. And so
you know, in the end, maybe Sandy Ryan did her
a favorite if you believe the story that they did
this on purpose, and she tried to, you know, get
in between her and Coroma, you know, and from and
the other thing about it is, I don't I'm told
that that even though Kay has worked with Sandy leading
into this fight, he's actually not officially down on the
on the bout sheet or on the listing sheet to
be like the head guy in the corner. He'll be
there at the fight because he's got other charges on
the undercard, but that he won't necessarily be in her core,
even though he did spend a lot of the time
helping prepare her for this fight. So there's that interesting
sort of soap opera sidebar to the fight.
Speaker 2: All right, very good, and again we're going to keep
emphasizing this. This is Friday night as we released the podcast,
and we got the bet Us show Friday where we
will handicap at one Eastern time. All Right, So you
mentioned and I mentioned that Xander Zayas and Shoeshoe Carrington
are on the immediate undercard here on the main undercard.
What do we make of both of their fights here
where they both get a chance again in front of
the New York crowd and including a national cable TV
to show what they can do.
Speaker 3: Go ahead, Yeah, I mean Xander Zias, I mean nothink.
We've known for a while, and I was still only
twenty two years old, but it feels like he's been
around forever because he's been a professional since he's seventeen
years old. But he's still a work in progress. As
I mentioned, he's nineteen and zero, has a fan base
among the Puerto Rican fans. He's you know, he lives
in Florida, but he's drawn and sold some tickets in
New York when he's fought in these cards, and he
is fighting Damian Sosa, but he's coming off of you know,
I don't think there's a question about it that it
was his biggest win in June, where he basically ran
to a shutout. Not that he ran, but he rolled
to a shotout, I should say, against Patrick Decida, who
is a former junior middleway title holder, a little bit
past his best days but pretty still a pretty rugged, durable,
solid guy and by far and away the best opponent
that Xander had fought, and he just routed. It wasn't
a particularly good fight, but he you know, it was
a one sided, you know, you know, easy decision. And
in Sosa, he's fighting an opponent with a couple of losses,
but a guy who's never been stopped, who's still in
his twenties, a tough Mexican fighter, but he's not really
faced anybody, So to me, this is sort of like
a placeholder fight just to get some more rounds and
you know, continue to develop at some point. I know
he's still young at twenty two, but when you've been
a pro five years, at some point, Xander's gonna have
to step it up a little bit. And we'll see
if top rank how much belief they have in him
by when they do that. Because right now, this type
of fight is just another sort of in the long
line of similar kind of matchups. In terms of the
other fight you mentioned Shoshoe Carrington, the featherweight contender slash prospect.
However you want to look at him, he's twelve and zero,
a little bit older as a featherweight for for a
prospect at twenty seven, but he turned professional later. But
he's from Brooklyn. He brings a crowd, he's got good
punch and power, he's got swagger, he's definitely got ring
IQ and intelligence, and he's a very very good up
and coming fighter, and you know he knows how to
to He knows how to box, and he also knows
how to get the crowd excited. So he fulfills what
what every promoter wants is you have a fighter that's
got talent of course, you know, to win fights, but
he also have the marketability and the swagger to go
with it to help you sell yourself and sell your
you know, your your fights to the fan base. So
he's definitely a guy to keep an eye on. He's
coming off some some great knockout wins. He's uh, this
is you know, he's been fighting in New York on
a regular basis on these cards. This is gonna his
third fight in a row at the Madison Square Garden Theater,
and I think it's like his fifth fight overall since
he's been a pro. He's only got twelve pro fights.
So he'll have Brooklyn in the house. And it's an
interesting matchup because he's fighting a fighter named Suliman Segawa.
He's a Uganda native. He actually lives in my neck
of the woods in Silver Spring, Maryland. He's a tough, durable,
journeyman type of ponent, but he's also a guy that
can definitely score the upset. He's seventeen to four and one.
He's only been stopped the one time. But if you
remember back earlier this year, this was in the summer
in July, he had by far and away his biggest win.
He pulled a very very big upset in a very
clear decision, a pretty one sided decision as a matter
of fact, against the featherweight contender Ruben Villa, who had
fought for a world title, who had defeated Louis Alberto
Lopez before Louis Alberta Lopez had won his world title.
That was a great win for him, and he just
easily outboxing, you know, out punched and out everything against
Ruben Villa. So his reward for that big win against Villa, who,
by the way, after that fight was over Top Rank
released him because of that loss. He gets another opportunity
on a top rank card on television and he takes
on Carrington, and you know, I'm gonna tell you right now,
Carrington's not on his game. This is a this is
a winnable type of fight for Segawa because he's a rough,
tough customer. I don't know if he's got the speed
or the power to hang with Carrington, but if he
can frustrate him a little bit, maul him a little bit,
maybe get a little physical with him, and and kind
of drive him a little crazy in there, and and
while getting in some good shots. Like it's not an
unwinnable fight for him in my opinion. You know, this
is a very solid, durable guy. He mentioned he's only
got the one knockout loss. He's only got six knockouts.
But he's a tough I've seen him fight a few times,
not just the ruben Via fight. You know, he can
drive you fucking crazy. And uh, you know the one
time he did get stock was against Jermaine Ortiz. That's
a couple of years ago, and that was, you know,
back in twenty twenty. But listen, I think this is
a very good learning fight for Carrington. If he can
beat this guy, it's gonna show me a little bit
more than I have seen because he's winning impressively Carrington,
but it's he's not really beating name guys. He's still
a young in his career. So I'll win against Togawa,
especially if it's somewhat impressive that that would tell me that,
you know, he's to go to at least the next level.
I don't think that's necessarily the championship level, but like
maybe a top type twelve fifteen contender, legit type guy.
Speaker 1: Good stuff.
Speaker 2: All right, quickly here, there are several other fights that
are on the undercard, prospects on the on the undercard,
you mentioned Veto Melaneki and also Tiger Johnson. What else
that's here because they're getting a lot of guys some
action here in late September.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, this is going to be the second
fight since Vito mil Nikki split with PBC and signed
with Top Rank. And by the way, there's a reason
he's on the card because not only does he bring
a crowd from his area of northern New Jersey, but
because he also fights in the junior middleweight division. Top
Rank is clearly building towards I think, probably sometime next
year a fight between Vito mil Nicki and Xander's Eyes.
If they both continue to win, they've called each other out,
they're both very young, they're both you know, can bring
a crowd, whether you know it's Puerto Ricans from New
York against the Jersey guys. I mean, that'll be It
may not be a world championship fight, but that will
be a fight that will you know, get the guard
and hop it. It's the kind of fight where I
could see, you know, with the right promotion, in the
right undercart, they might move a fight like that to
the big room, you know, to the main arena, like
on a Puerto Rican day perid the weekend, by the way,
something along those lines. I think that could be a
big attraction fight. I mean, you know, not every fight
has to be pound for pounds stuff. Not every fight
has to be some big world tip of fight. There's
still something to be said for two young guys who
have futures in the sport in a good solid fight
for b rice, you know, for you know, I got
the best of you, or it's my neighborhood, that type
of thing, and that's what that is. So the mil
Nicky stays active on this cart. You mentioned some of
the other guys. They have Tiger Johnson, the Olympian, who's
still undefeated. He's stepping up a little bit against the
Omar Alamo who's been in the ring with some good
solid guys. Elvis Rodriguez who's back with top rank now
after a brief split, the Dominican fighter. He's a very
good prospect also on this undercard, but the guy that is,
he got the least attention, and he's been fighting regular
but he's always kind of really at the bottom level
of the you know, the early parts of the undercard.
I think he's a tremendous prospect, that he's one of
my favorite prospects. I talked to Todd the Buff from
Top Rank, the president of Top Rank, on a regular basis,
and I always tell you, I said, where's my man
Rohan Polanco? When am I seeing him again? He's an
Olympian from the Dominican Republic. He's thirteen and zho. He
has eight knockouts. And I'm telling you everything I have
seen in this guy, and I've watched basically every one
of his fights, but he's always on the ESPN plus
portion of these cars, and I watched them religiously. He's
a good fighter, he's solid, he can punch, he can box.
I think he's a tremendous talent. You know, he's in
another sort of developmental fight. The one interesting aspect of
this particular about as I said, he is thirteen to oh.
This will be his first schedule ten rounder against an
opponent named Marcelino Lopez. So we'll see, you know, if
he can go, if he has to go to the distance,
if he's got the stamina to do so. He has
been the eight round distance before.
Speaker 2: But I love this prospect, all right, good stuff on
the top rank Fighting Night shows. There's also a Friday
night separate women's undisputed junior lightweight title fight, and that
has Alicia Bombgardner in it. Bombgardner has been on a
drug suspension for ped violation. She's fighting Delphine Person And
I just brought that up because I wasn't really fully
aware until my man Dan Rayfield is letting me know
about this.
Speaker 1: And you want to pick it up on.
Speaker 2: That that there has not been a lot of publicity
for this. How many people actually know that this is
going on on Friday Night?
Speaker 1: While we're in the preview mode, right.
Speaker 3: Here's what's funny. We spent a lot of time talking
about Mikayla Mayer challenging Sandy Ryan for her welterweight title
main event ESPN National Television. A legendary arena like the
Madison Square Garden Theater, you know, getting a lot of
publicity this week, and by the way, she beat Mikhayla
Mayer when they met in a unification fight back in
twenty twenty two. And because bomb Gardner had her drug situation,
I don't know if she was never actually technically suspen ended,
but because the DO Michigan Commission is such a wreck,
but she obviously he was off for a long time.
She hasn't fought. This will be her first fight in
fourteen months since that questionable situation that had followed post
her victory against Christina Linda Dartu back in July of
last year, So she has been off for a while.
But she is defending her title against Delphine Pursuon. And
if you're familiar with women's boxing, Pursuon, as she's been
a world champion, she's fought everybody. He's only got three losses.
And she has been in the ring with Katie Taylor,
and she's fought Katie Taylor twice as a matter of fact.
In fact, the first fight she fought against Katie Taylor,
which I was at was the Anthony Joshua and de
Ruiz Undercart and myself and many people that night thought
that Delphine person got the raw deal on that fight,
that she actually deserved the victory against Katie that night,
which would have given her you know, three of the
lightweight winter of the undisputed lightweight women's world time. But
this is a very experienced fighter. She's fought all the
you know, the women of the consequence offered of her
in and around that weight. She is the mandatory in
the WBC. So they're fighting this fight. It's on if
you subscribe. I subscribed to Triller Plus TV used to
be the old you know, fight TV. It's like, you know,
seven or eight bucks a month, and it's not a
pay per view. Just get this as part of your subscription.
So I'm going to watch the main event of this fight.
But when I tell you, as you mentioned about, you
didn't know the fight was happening. The promoters of this
fight stink out loud. Let's just be rich.
Speaker 1: Just you just gave it more promotion than I even
knew about.
Speaker 3: That's how from the Global Combat Collective. I believe it's
who they are. He's like her promoter slash advisor manager
or whatever, you're not manager, but like he's deed works
with Alicia for most of her career, have done such
a future job of promoting this fight is just sick,
and I mean, you don't have to spoon feed me.
I've been a journalist for over thirty years. I know
how to do my work. But you can't even get
like basic information about anything on the fight. I couldn't
get like a baut She couldn't get like what weoure
the weights couldn't you know? There was nothing I found
out about some of the aspects of it, just because
Triller put it up on their website with a couple
of details on it. But I mean zero response from anybody,
So you know, I don't have a lot to say
about it. But if Bombgarner with that time off, we'll
see how she does against a veteran like pursuing. I
have no idea what kind of shape viewithers women are in,
what their mentalities Areciser's No, I didn't see anything on
a press conference. I haven't seen that quotes. I haven't
seen anything. So whatever is going to be is going
to be enough set about that show?
Speaker 2: Will Women's World title fight like a tree in the
forest with nobody around to hear it if it falls?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 2: So the opposite, because I saw some of the press
conference stuff and they'll do the way in On Friday
is the match Room de Zonne card in Sheffield that
is headlined by two more females.
Speaker 3: Third is a big women's weekend.
Speaker 1: That's correct.
Speaker 2: Third women's world title fight, and we'll mention here Rihannan
Dixon and Terry Harper battle and this is for the
WBO Women's lightweight title.
Speaker 1: Interesting for Harper, she's moving down. You talk about this
all the time.
Speaker 2: She's moving down a couple of weight classes, right from
welter weight down the lightweight to challenge Dixon for the
WBO lightweight title. That's Saturday afternoon, Sheffield, England, main event
from match Room. Another thought on this real.
Speaker 3: Quick, well, keep in mind that Terry Harper she has
been previously. Yes, she is coming down and wait for
this particular fight, but she has fought the most of
her career at one hundred and thirty slash one hundred
and thirty five or thereabouts in her career, so it
shouldn't be that big of a deal. She didn't really
look like she was that big when she was fighting,
say in the you know she like in her last
fight she fought to a draw. Was Cecila Brack who's
in a junior middleweight vacant title fight, and now she's
going down one more weight class to welterweight. But before that,
she had been a title holder, you know, at one
hundred and thirty and I think also one hundred and
thirty five, and she's fought all the top women, you know,
and she has a knockout lost to Bombgarner. Matter of fact,
when Bombgarner won her WBC world title, it was when
she knocked out Terry Harper back in twenty twenty one.
So the women that Bombgarner has defeated in world title fights,
Terry Harper and Michael O may our higher profile fights
this weekend than the woman that beat them both and
is defending her on this speed of title. You know,
what is the old saying, just say no to drugs?
Speaker 1: I guess yeah, that's that says all. That's all so Ryan, you.
Speaker 3: Know, not Ryan? Uh, you know, I know in Harper
by the last she's Harper, she she had to draw
against the Cilia and as I mentioned, for the vacant
one hundred and fifty four pound title. Her next fight
after that, she also got stopped by Sandy Ryan in
a welterweight title fight, so now she's getting another title fight.
So she goes from junior middleweight title fight, draw drops
down welterweight, gets knocked out, dropping down now to lightweight
and what she hopes is not the third time of
getting a loss in a world title fight. So she's
taken on Dixon. I don't think you got to worry
a lot about a knockout because rihann and Dixon is
ten and oh with one knockout, so obviously not a
lot of punching power there. But she's defending her title
for the first time and in the UK where they're
both from. Uh, you know, this, I guess is a
big enough deal where it's going to headline the matter
card on his own. They've they had to kind of
rearrange some stuff because if I'm not mistaken, this iight
was originally supposed to be on the Jack Catterall undercard
that's coming up with him against Regis program, but when
that fight was postponed that Trumada shifted around some of
the other undercard fights, so this wound up as its
main event. So there's that situation, but nonetheless that's that's
the main fight on Saturday's design card.
Speaker 1: Interesting.
Speaker 2: All right, So that's Saturday afternoon US time, and again
we mentioned that we'll handicap some fights on the including
this one on the bet US Boxing Show Live one
Eastern time. Adjust your time zone accordingly on the bet
us YouTube page and platforms.
Speaker 1: Some news and some nostalgia.
Speaker 2: Hey, hey, weren't you and I talking about Oscar Colazo
maybe meeting your boy CP fresh Mart for the strawweight
unification battle.
Speaker 3: Hold on, that's knockout CP fresh Mark.
Speaker 1: Oh, knockout CP Freshmart. Let's get it all straight.
Speaker 3: Better known as also known as Neom and Trunk.
Speaker 2: All right, so Niamatrong, fresh Mark and Klaso, this is
actually gonna happen. It looks like in November now now
that we were theorizing it, give me more.
Speaker 3: So this is totally a coincidence. When when when Neam
Trong had the victory against Alex Winnwood in Australia a
few weeks ago, right, it was a very slow weekend,
as you recall, when we were recapping the fight and
discussing it, and we were amusing about like, what's a
big so called big fight in the strangweight division. And
the only thing I could think of that would move
the needle at all for anybody, really would be maybe
if Neomtrong, who was the longest reigning title holder in
boxing currently among men's champions, the only guy in the
division that was at least in our hemisphere anyway, that
had some heat that was sort of interesting, that was exciting,
that had some swagger, was Oscar Colaso from Puerto Rico,
who had won a world title very quickly in his
professional career. That somehow, some way, maybe Golden Boy, you know,
they got the backing of his owne. They obviously are
involved with the Red Seasons folks, maybe they could make
that kind of fight and lo and behold that fight
is now in the process of being finalized. I spoke
to Eric Gomez actually just a you know, earlier in
the day today from Golden Boy, who had called me
about a couple of things, and this was one of
the topics of our discussion, and I sort of joked them,
I said, I said, we we just were talking about
the prosputus on our podcast, you know, a couple of
weeks ago after he had won the fight in Australia,
and Eric sort of joking, he goes, you know I
was really I was eve dropping. I was listening in
to the podcast, right, I don't I don't think that
was the case.
Speaker 2: But wait, wait, wait, wait, So maybe some of what
we say has a slight influence. I don't know how
much my influence, but it could have a slight influence.
This is this is interesting for November. I'm interested in.
Speaker 3: So, so what they're doing is they are Yeah, First
of all, it's it's it will It'll be the first
drawat Unification fight in a number of years. I don't
remember when the last one was. There's been a few,
but they're not very common at all. Number two, for
what it's worth, you know, it will crown, I guess
according to the Ring magazine this will be for the
Ring magazine title. They're the number one and number two
guys in the division, I guess, and it's worthy. It's
not a deep weight class so much. There's some okay
names if you really get down in the weeds, but
these are the probably the two best guys anyway. And
so back a week or so ago when when Golden
Boy announced their Latino Knight card in Riad that's headlined
by Zerdo Ramirez in the Unification that cruiser waiting against
Chris Billam Smith. That's got Arnold Barbosa against Josey Ramirez,
Williams of Paidas on the card and what's supposed to
be a tune up against Tevin Farmer before he fights
Shakor Stevenson. They announced also Oscar Duarte against Kenny Simms,
and the other fight was on the card was Oscar
Clazo defending the title against Edwin Hernandez. So the way
it was explained to me by Eric was they couldn't
make the Neomtrong fight at the time because he still
hadn't won the fight against Wyndwood, so they made the
fight with Hernandez. But I guess they had some language
in their agreement that said that they could get Neam
Chung in that Hernandez would, you know, still get paid
a certain fee and step aside and then maybe get
a chance not guaranteed, but maybe get a chance to
fight the winner. But the bottom line needs so make
money and they'd be able to slip the I'mtrong in
if everything came out and they able to finalize the deal,
And that's exactly what happened. They signed the Hernandez fite
to make sure Calaso had a defense on this card.
I'm trong won the fight against Winwood. They were able
to make the deal and now it's all. But it's again,
it's being finalized. As the vernacular I'll use, it's not
one hundred percent signed there. You know, they're basically sending
the contracts back and forth to make sure that what
they say they agreed on is memorialized in the paper.
And keep in mind, you know, you're dealing with people
from the United States who speak English and or Spanish,
and folks from Thailand who speak tie So there's you
got to deal with the language and the translation. But
by all accounts from what Eric was saying, this is
going to get done. And that adds a really interesting
fight to this non pay per view read season card
on November sixteenth, and look, if you like one hundred
five pounders and they can bring the action, this is
a damn good fight.
Speaker 2: And Palazzo can punch. We've talked about this and so
I'm compelled. I'm compelled here so good. I've always said,
if the Puerto Rican strawweight champion is meeting the tie
straweight champion, you got to do it in Saudi Arabia.
Speaker 1: I've always it's kind of like half way between maybe
all right, mean.
Speaker 3: If you measured the distance I don't know from Thailand
to Read and Read.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2: How many times if we come in here and say
it can't we have good things? And so we were
talking about it and this may be a good thing
uh here.
Speaker 3: You know, I know a lot of people have uh
had certain complaints about the read situation and their involvement
in this and that for whatever reason, and I understand
some of that, but I know this, in terms of
strictly boxing, there would not be fucking Colaso Neomstrong to
unify strawweights for the absolute degenerate fans like myself if
they're not involved. Right, we wouldn't Ramirez against Chris Bill
and Smith in a unification fight on the same card, No.
Speaker 2: Way, Because it's amazing how everybody can get along, make
these fights and figure it out when somebody's providing the bread,
the move, and that's what's happening.
Speaker 1: That's what we're seeing on that.
Speaker 2: Okay, so hey, that's a good segue, speaking of providing
and the Saudi's being involved. We have the upcoming undisputed
light heavyweight title battle couple of weeks away.
Speaker 1: Now, Archer better.
Speaker 2: B of Dmitri b Bol and these guys met with
the media and the undercard met with the media on Wednesday.
Anything compelling out of this, We've been waiting a while.
We're kind of getting now in the go zone here
for this. Anything off the press conference, Well.
Speaker 3: I mean they had done a press conference previously when
the fight was announced, but remember I got postponed. It
was supposed to be in June, but then Arthur better
Beev had the knee injury and was and they had
to call the fight off. So now they did another
press conference, and they brought in the whole undercard, including
like guys like Fabio Wordley and Fraser Clark who are
going to have their rematch on the card, and Chris
Ubank Junior against Aram Metta. Anyway, all the different fighters
there on the show were there. But the guys that
most people I think we're probably paying Post's attention to,
We're better be having people. And so now like you said,
we're getting just a few weeks away from the fight.
I'll say it again as I said all along, it's
the best fight that you can make in boxing. I
don't agree with a lot of things with Eddie Hern,
but as he said at the Press covers, this is,
you know, the best best fight in boxing. Unquestionably I
agree with him about that. And they both guys looked
in great shape. They neither one of them are men
of a lot of words. They both spoke about their desire.
They've spoken English, you know, Biviol spoke in English for
a long time. Better, beevs. English has gotten a lot better,
just about how meaningful it is to be undisputed, and
not only will the winner be unisputed, but they'll have
achieved that undisputed status by beating then the other best
guy in the division. I mean, you got better bv
who's got the lineal title and three of the belts.
You have that Bivol who's got another belt, also undefeated.
One guy's made like eleven or twelve defenses, the other
guys made what seven or eight defenses. Both guys have
been circling his other for a long time, not getting
any younger, I mean better b is up to age
thirty nine at this point, but he hasn't shown any
signs of slippage when he in the ring. You know,
He's obviously had a bunch of injuries, but it's not
necessarily injury related to his age. He's just a fragile guy.
But when he's in the ring, you know TJ. He's
the only boxer in the sport right now with a
perfect knockout percentage among the champions twenty zero with twenty knockouts.
And Biovo, who's not been known as a big puncher,
at least in his last fight, he scored his first
knockout in like eight fights since like twenty eighteen. So
I just I just I love this fight. It's a
good card, but the main event is really interesting and
at the end of the day, the winner is going
to hoist all the belts, not only be the first
four belt light heavyweight champion since the four belts, but
the first undisputed champion in the division in twenty five years.
You got to go all the way back to nineteen
ninety nine three belt era when Roy Jones routed and
shut out Reggie Johnson to unify the three major titles.
And we all know the greatness of Roy Jones, and
if you don't, you could YouTube it up. Kids. Yeah,
this is a big time fight, and so They were
both very calm. There was you know, no nonsense, no pushing,
no shoving, no nonsense, no bad words or anything. Very respectful,
very professional, very classy fighters in that sense. But this
is a bad This is this is highest level you
can get in the sport. It may not have the
magnitude of a mega pay per view. A lot of
people will ignore this fight in the United States. You're
not going to see articles about it in your newspaper.
But if you like boxing, it literally, in my mind,
doesn't get better than.
Speaker 2: This compelling and you feel for Bevol. Let's get to
the finish line. He's been waiting for like a year
and a half for better B, who had a jaw injury,
had to have a jaw surgery and then and then
had the knee injury earlier this year.
Speaker 3: But you know, listen, better B has been waiting for
the fight also. It's you know, just because his injury helped.
Speaker 2: One guy's been healthy and this thing's been a no
go twice because of the other guy.
Speaker 1: So let's just get to the finish lines.
Speaker 3: All I'm saying, well, I think this my understanding is
after the press conference was over the other day in London,
I believe the way it was explained to me, it
was better be it was going directly from the UK
to do the rest of the camp in Saudi Arabia either,
And all I can think is, just take this man
in a wrap, bubble wrap.
Speaker 2: I thought you were going there that you were told
he was wrapped in bubble wrap.
Speaker 3: Oh my, all right, so let's get keep him healthy
before a fight.
Speaker 2: Let's get there on that for a couple of weeks
from now. We can't wait to analyze that one more
and get the fight week of that week.
Speaker 1: Okay, you've learned.
Speaker 2: More about the Boots, the Bam and Boots, the Boots
and Bam card in Philadelphia, and another name that is
going to be added to that card in November. Tell
me more into the news category here.
Speaker 3: Sure so. Earlier this week, Matchroom Boxing announced the rest
of the undercard, and it makes a lot of sense
for what they've added in the in the main fight
below the main event, which is Ennis against Chakazi and
their rematch for the welterweight belt, and then the co
feature that we've discussed, which is Bam Rodriguez against the
interim title of Pedro Guivara. The next fight down the
show is the return of ray Ford. Ray Ford won
the WBA featherweight title uh in A in a dramatic
fashion against Kolmatov. Memory did it with seven seconds left
in the twelfth round. Yeah, a tremendous fight of the
year type fight and he pulled it out. Big, big,
big win. And then, unfortunately for ray Ford, in his
next fight, which was on June first, he was part
of the five on five in Riad and he lost
a close decision against Nick Ball Yea. So and he
you know, we knew this going into the fight that
that win or lose, that was gonna be his last
fight at one hundred and twenty six pounds. He's been
struggling to make that weight. So now he's going to
be making his one hundred and thirty pounds debut. In
this undercard, he's going to take on a fighter named
Orlando Gonzalez, who people might know who gave you know,
he had fought a couple of years ago against Robessi
Ramirez pri Ramirez winning a world title. You know, he's
got some good experience. So this is a chance to
see what ray Ford can do. Ray is from Camden,
New Jersey, not that far away from where this fight
is taking place in Philadelphia. So if there's some ray
Ford fans from the hometown, they bring a few people
to see him fight, but they're going to try to
make a run at a title one hundred and thirty.
This is the first step. If he wins, the fight
looks good, you know, I have no doubt in my
mind that match will be able to get him a
bigger fight. They've also added the light heavyweight up and comer,
undefeated khalil Co, who was a tremendous prospect, was a
top amateur. He's taken his training from what I have
told a lot more seriously, last couple of fights really
looked sharp, scort, some big knockouts. He's taken on an
opponent Manuel Gegos in a ten rounder. He's also from
New Jersey, Northern New Jersey. He'll bring some fans probably
to the fight as well, so regionally speaking, it makes
a lot of sense. And then another fight that they
put on, remember a few i't maybe a month or
so ago, Ernesto Tito Mercado, an excellent up and comer
junior welterweight that was on my prospect list and it's
rare to find a prospect on anybody's prospects list that
doesn't have a major promoter. And everybody was talking about
Tito Mercato. His father built him on separate cards. They
went and did their own thing. They had interest from
a lot of different promoters. They didn't sign, but Matt
from Boxing finally signed him. You know, probably, I guess
said in the last month or six weeks or so.
So he's going to make his debut for the company
on that card. No opponent yet, but he's a very
good looking, young twenty two year old junior walterweight, and
the card will also feature the return of Austin M.
L william the middleweight who, of course was one of
the top up and coming fighters and as we like
to talk about in otherwise bereft the division for the
most part. But he gave it great Yeah, well, he
gave it great account of himself in a rough loss
though again on the five versus five card on June
first in Saudi Arabia where he got knocked out by
knocked out by Hamsas Sharaz. And now if Sharaz goes
on to do it, I think a lot of people
think he can do a knockout loss at eleventh round
to Sharaz. It isn't gonna look so bad a couple
of years from now if Sharaz has done what we
think he can do in terms of being a champion.
Speaker 2: All right, one more news item, and speaking of top rank,
they have signed a prospect. The name is one Mita
Lopez de Jesus. All right, So the name in and
of itself may not mean a lot I do see
on my Rayfield rundown. He was a Puerto Rican Olympian.
But it's who's his dad that's interesting. The lineage here
is interesting. Tell me more about this signing real quick.
Speaker 3: So his father is went by the nickname jan Ma
Lopez one Manuel Lopez for those who aren't familiar with him.
First of all, the son Jon Mita Lopez DeJesus, he's
eighteen years old. He's going to be fighting as a
junior bantamweight. He was a flyweight in the twenty twenty
four Olympics. He had a rough draw. I mean, he
had the worst draw. And it's one thing to lose
in your opening round match. But if there's ever such
thing as a forgivable loss in the opening round match,
it's this one because he had literally the worst draw
that you could get. Here's a kid that's eighteen years
old and his first round matchup is with hasenboy Dusmantov,
who had won the gold medal in twenty twenty in
the delayed twenty one Games in Tokyo and is coming
back now to go for a second gold medal. He's
been one of the great amateurs in boxing for a
very long time. He's got a handful of professional fins.
This is like a man versus a boy in Dsmotov
won the fight in the Olympics and went on to
win a second gold medal. So no harm or no
nothing bad to say about the eighteen year old kid
getting bounce in the first round, but a lot of
people were interested in signing him. You know, one thing
I have thought about is since the paras Olympics ended,
usually there's a rush, you know, within the month or
so or a couple of weeks, a few weeks after
the games, where you see a lot of the big
promoters they start to sign some of the metal winners
or even the non metal winners to promotion contracts. And
I'm not saying that none of them have signed, but
I've yet to hear about anything substantial at all. The
big promoters haven't signed anybody yet. You know, you've not
seen a No. Mattroom hasn't signed Olympians. Frank Warren, Golden Boy.
You know, PBC Top rank, nobody until now Top rank
has signed. This kid won me to Lopez Deezus, But
his father was very familiar to fans and also at
the top rank because Top rank promoted one Manual Lopez.
For most of his career. He was a pro and
one of the top junior featherweights and featherweights during the
two thousands. He was a professional and was a big
puncher of south paw. Also a Puerto Rican Olympian. Interesting
stat here, TJ first time ever in Puerto Rico that
there's been a father and a son to both become Olympians.
So that's sort of a big thing. But the dad
fought from two thousand and five to twenty nineteen. He
was involved in some tremendous backs titles on HBO on
Showtime and was a popular figure. Didn't maybe quite get
to the level where we could include him like on
our say our top you know ten or twelve or
fifteen all time Puerto Ricans, but he's probably in the
top twenty. Won the titles in two weight classes at
Classic battles with Orlando Toledo. You know, fought Mikey Garcia,
fought a lot of good guys, got some good wins,
got some rough losses. But this is his son who's
going to turn pro. They'll turn them pro at the
beginning at sometime in early twenty twenty five. And that
was the signing that they announced this week, and not
to me. You know, that's that's a very interesting signing
for top rank.
Speaker 1: All right, good stuff.
Speaker 2: Now we get to some nostalgia, and wow, how about
this heavyweight title nostalgia.
Speaker 1: But from a while ago, on.
Speaker 2: Wednesday of this week, September twenty five, sixty two years ago,
September twenty five, nineteen sixty two, the Sonny Liston became
the heavyweight champion of the world with a first round
ko of Floyd Patterson. And you talk about fearsome fighters,
he was as fearsome a fighter for that three or
four years that he had the belt, two three four
years that he had the belt, and his reign began
sixty two years ago earlier this week, I even know
this for those that questioned whether or not Liston's first
round knockout of Patterson in their first fight was a fluke.
When they fought again, he destroyed him in the first
round just to make everybody understand, this guy's got nothing.
Speaker 1: I'm going to detroy him again. But the point is
he became the.
Speaker 2: Champ, the heavyweight champ, the biggest of deals in boxing,
sixty two years ago this.
Speaker 3: Year, at a time when boxing was still a top
notch premost part. He actually didn't rain as long as
you think he did. He won that title what we're
talking about on the anniversary in nineteen sixty two, by
a first round knockout of Floyd Patterson at Tamiski Park
in Chicago. By the way, how about that a city
that doesn't have a lot of boxing of consequence these days.
In any event, that was in September of nineteen sixty two.
He only held the title until February of nineteen sixty
four before he lost in the first fight. Two. Then
Casius Clay became Mohamed Ali when he's so called remember
and wagging his fingers staying I shook up the world.
So it wasn't that long of a title reign. But
the thing that's kind of crazy about Listen he was
a big puncher coming up and continue to knock people out.
But he's really most famous for these four fights in
this brief period from end of sixty two to middle
of sixty five. KO one against Patterson to win the title,
won successful defense against Patterson, and at KO one who
knocked down three times. That was one of the first
big title fights in Las Vegas actually in nineteen sixty three.
And then in his first in his second defense after
beating Patterson, that's when he lost to Cashus Clay became
Muhammad Ali in the famous I Shook Up the World fight,
and then of course the controversial first round knockdout loss
to Muhammad Ali in the rematch, where there's been a
lot of debait and questions for decades about whether he
was influenced by the Mafia. Did he throw the fight
the one that ended up taking place in Lewis and
mean after having had to be moved from Boston. But
the anniversary of when Sonny Listen was at his meanest, nastiest,
powerful best was destroying the Chinney but very popular floy
Patterson win the heavyweight championship, and back then there wasn't
four belts. You were the champ and that was it.
There was one heavyweight champion period. There wasn't a lot
other guys, you know, other guys to say also were champs.
He was the king of the world when he knocked
out Patterson and then did it again less than one
year later.
Speaker 2: And bear in mind, we talk about this all the
time that at that time in sports, it was primarily
baseball as the most important, most prominent thing of any
of the big sports, but boxing and the heavyweight champion
was so mainstream. This was the biggest of big deals.
This is the lineage of Rocky Marciano before this, Joe
Louis before that, this was the biggest, and eventually Cashius
Clay Muhammad Ali right after listing big.
Speaker 3: One thing about this, the reason why they had the
immediate rematch is that, you know, I know, we bitch
and moan a lot today about all the guy has
a rematch clause? Why does he have a rematch clause?
To my knowledge, I mean, I may be wrong about this,
but this is like one of the first fights where
there was a rematch clause in the contract. The reason
why Floyd Patterson got the immediate rematches because he had
the right two to do so in his contract. Then
obviously it turned out to be a bad move because
he lasted less than two rounds and two fights against
Sonny Listen.
Speaker 2: Uh the same song, second verse could have got better
or only got worse?
Speaker 1: As the ly goes, he knocked him out again. I
would you know what?
Speaker 2: I would have lost money to you that Liston only
fought one title defense before he fought Ali, after beating
Patterson the two times, the second Patterson fights the only
title defense. How about that nostalgia and the trivia, and
there's so much that that Showtime documentary was phenomenal on
Sonny Liston's life, Charles Sonny Listen and whether or not
he threw the Ali fight, and whether or not the
mob fixed that fight and how they might have done it.
And then Listen ends up dead suspicious circumstances at his
home in Vegas, where he had been dead for several
days with his wife out of town, and there's a
lot of belief that it was the mob getting rid
of him to cover everything up. There's a lot there
if you want to go back and research and YouTube
it up and go watch that documentary on Charles Sonny
list in one more p do you.
Speaker 3: Can watchak to watch both of the Patterson fights in
less than like five minutes.
Speaker 1: That's true.
Speaker 2: Very quickly, and understand how menacing I mean before Mike Tyson.
This guy was like a menacing version of Mike Tyson
in the early sixties, for.
Speaker 1: What that's worth.
Speaker 2: All right, let's move way forward to two thousand and nine,
and as we released the podcast, it was fifteen years
ago Friday. We've had a lot of Clitchkow brothers in
the nostalgia. This is the tally clitch Goo and a
knockout of Chris Ariola with you there in Los Angeles,
September twenty sixth two thousand and nine. What do you
remember fifteen years later about that WBC heavyweight title fight,
HBO fight.
Speaker 1: You were there.
Speaker 3: This was a big freaking deal at the time. Remember
Vladimir Klitchko was still there, of course in the heavyweight
division doing his thing, but his brother vitally had retired
because of injuries, had a cancel fight against Hassim Rockman.
This is back in two thousand and what the early
part of twoousand and five, I guess it must have been.
And he retired for like four years basically, and when
he came back, he made use of the WBC's labeling
him a champion in recess or an Ameritis champion or
whatever it was. And he got the next shot when
he decided to come out of retirement when he was
healed up, he had back injuries, he had a knee injury. Anyway,
in his first fight back, he absolutely destroyed Sam Peter
in an Asia of Rokka and started to defend the title.
But the first title when he won was in Germany,
and he fought another defense that was in Germany against
the former cruiserweight champion Jian Carlos Gomez. But now he's
coming back to America. Remember he was living at that
time in Los Angeles, or was making his life in
La As. He was, you know, as one of his
children was born in Los Angeles. He was really sort
of adopting la as his home, even though now obviously
he had you know, back several years ago, went back
to Ukraine and now he's the mayor in Kiev. But anyway,
at this time, it was like a big deal because
Chris Ariola was undefeated He was the great hope of
the let's say, the Southern California Mexican Americans Mexican fan
base that he could become the first Mexican, a Mexican
American heavyweight champion. Obviously, he didn't do that. It ended
up being Andy Ruiz that did that, you know, many
years later. But Ariola at the time was the big hope.
He was twenty seven and oho going into this fight.
He was a very very top notch contender. He'd gotten
a lot of airtime on the networks and they made
this fight for Staple Center. Was a big HBO event.
As you mentioned, there was a lot of people that
thought Chris Ariola had a hell of a chance to
win this fight because the perspective from some people was, well,
you know, klitchkow, he'd been off for a long time. Yeah,
I know, he'd beat Peter, but Gomez was a really
a cruiserweight, and you know, how's he gonna do against
a real hard punching heavyweight like Chris Ariola, particularly where
Ariola is going to be like the crowd favorite and
all this, and he had Dan Goosen as promoter, who
talked this thing up as good as you can talk
up a fight, and then the bell rang and Klitchko
absolutely pummeled and overized and destroyed and beat down Chris Ariola,
who was in you know, a lot of times maybe
didn't come in the greatest condition for his fights, and
you know he admits that, but for this fight, he
was ready for this fight. It did a big amount
of people on HBO. This is back in the day.
They did like over two million viewers for this fight
on the live HBO fight at Staples Center. But a
lot of people, I remember that building was was hopping
that night. And in the end though, he just delivered
so much punishment to Chris Ariola, who didn't really win
around it didn't seem to me looking at the scores
on the official cards now that I see it here,
one judge had a shutout. Two judges had given Ariola
one round, but he had just taken so much that
at the end of the tenth round they pulled the
plug and called the fight. And it was just a dominating,
huge victory at that time for Vitalic clitch who went
on then to make a number of other defenses. But yes,
what do I remember, Here's what I remember specifically, It
wasn't about the fight. It was the post fight, sitting
in the chick Hern chick Hern media room, article done
and trying to transmit my article to my people at
ESPN and having a dramatic meltdown with my laptop. And
I'm gonna give him a shout out, my boy, Dougie Fisher,
editing chief now of The Ring magazine.
Speaker 2: We we love doug Fisher, we love the Ring, but
you've loved him a lot longer for this reason.
Speaker 1: Keep going.
Speaker 3: So Dougie Fisher hooked me up with the what do
you call that thing? The I don't know what it's called,
where you can take your content to your your file.
What is it? A thumb drive? A thumb drive, right,
a thumb drive. So we was able to hook the
thumb drive up to my laptop or a memory stick.
Oh yeah, I fire whatever it was and get to
get my story off of my laptop onto the drive
and then put it into his laptop and then send
it to my office so I can get my story in.
And so after clits, go beat down Chris al Chris Ariel.
That night, it was Dougie Fisher who saved my ass
in the press room to get my story into ESPN
the night. So I was forever grateful.
Speaker 2: Building a building that was known more for Shaq and Kobe,
and Kobe with the assist to Shack, but we remember
Magic and Kareem. If you if you followed the Lakers,
you're more of a Knicks guy in a New York guy.
But the assist that night doug Fisher, Dougie Fisher from
the ring helping out Dan Rayfield the night and was
down Ariola.
Speaker 3: That was a very big win for Klitchkow. Remember the
last time he had fought at Staples Center was a
couple of years earlier before it, like four years earlier,
which I was also at. That's when he won the
vacant ws PC title in a tremendous underrated heavyweight UH
brawl really against the South African Corey Sanders. And a
couple of fights before that was when he had the
classic where he lost by because of a of a
cut over his eye, a terrible cut in the very
classic battle with Lennox Lewis. So he has some interesting
history at the Staple Center. A tremendous battle with Lewis
and the loss, wins the title in a brawl underrated
brawl against Sanders and then had the one sided beat
down against the undefeated Ariola that a lot of people
thought might have the chance, and uh, you know he
made He made a name for himself big time in
that building.
Speaker 2: Great stuff all the way around again, plenty of preview.
The ESPN Top Rank Show again is Friday night in
New York, as we released this Thursday night into Friday morning.
Get ready for our handicapping of that card. Further on
the bet US Boxing Show one Eastern time Friday on
their platforms and their YouTube again for the British Women's
World Title Fight WBO Women's Lightweight Title Fight. That's Saturday
afternoon US time with Rihanna Dixon and Terry Harper the
Matchroom des Own Show. We'll handicap that one as well.
Good news, good nostalgia. Hey, the power stayed on in
my place with Hurricane Helene again. This is gonna be
nasty overnight Thursday into Friday. Stay safe, everybody in like
the Florida Panhandle, Georgia, I mean Rayfield. This thing's gonna
rocket all the way through Georgia into Tennessee and Kentucky
all on Friday.
Speaker 1: So I don't know where all they're hearing us in
the Deep South, ETCEPTA.
Speaker 2: Everybody stay safe with that and we'll get ready for
the boxing, the of fights this weekend and whatever happens, let's.
Speaker 1: Come off the weekend. God willing with a Fight preach
Unite recap podcast.
Speaker 3: Sound good to you, that's good to me.
Speaker 1: We love all of that. He is our insider, Dan Rayfield.
Speaker 2: Why are you not following and subscribing on the Dan
Rayfield substack Fight preach Nite substack and to the newsletter
Follow and subscribe to this podcast feed. We preview going
into the weekend. We recap coming off the weekend. I'm
TJ Reach for Dan Rayphield. Thank you for being with
us on the Big Fight Weekend Preview