Speaker 1: Well, another weekend has come and gone, and yet again
we see a fighter with everything set up for them.
Below it, we are ready to recap the upset of
Caleb Plant and a lot more off of the PBC
on Prime Card, plus Beck the Bully is a winner
on the Golden Boys Show Friday night, and we also
had results from Guadalajara, including Khalil Coe getting a revenge
in his rematch with Manuel Guyegus. We're gonna recap all
of this. We've got some sad news involving a Hall
of Fame fighter passing away this weekend.
Speaker 2: That and a lot more.
Speaker 1: It is the Fight Freaks Unite Recap Podcast. I am
the somewhat competent host TJ.
Speaker 2: Reeves.
Speaker 1: Hello, Big Dan, Rayphiel. Fight Freaks Unit is the substack?
Is the newsletter? Be subscribed on both of those? How
are we feeling? We got to be feeling a lot
better than Caleb Plant and PBC. I'm just putting that
out there in the first two minutes of the pod
after what we saw the other night, But how are
you as we begin things here off of It's a
brand new month, the month of June.
Speaker 3: It is I'm a little I'm a little bummed out
about McCallum. I gotta be honest. I mean, Mike McCallum
is passing, you know, kind of out of the blue.
I mean, you know, even if it wasn't, it still
would be unfortunate. But when it comes so sudden like that,
and he was the greatness of this man that cannot
be understated. We'll get to that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll get to that in a little bit. Thank
you for finding us on the podfeed. Make sure you're
following subscribing Apple, Spreaker, Spotify for all of our podcast content.
First of a couple of mentions, find the Big Fight
Weekend YouTube page as well. We started stacking nostalgia videos
there as well as other content live content that comes
on that channel. Big Fight Weekend YouTube channel. Help us
out do us a solid subscribe, like and comment below
the videos as well.
Speaker 2: That helps out also.
Speaker 1: All Right, so we get into it in the recap mode,
as I said, the second straight weekend where we're trying
to explain how with everything in front of a fighter
Josh Taylor last week fighting at home in glass Go
in this case, Caleb Plant in his home away from
home where he now lives in Las Vegas. Everything set
up for him, and he's just out fought beaten. Looked
like a faded fighter in the last two or three
rounds of the fight with Rezindez. My hand is up.
I did not see it coming. Your hand is figuratively up.
We did not see that coming.
Speaker 3: What happened, Well, nobody saw that coming. That's why it's
such a big upset. What was he thirty to one underdog?
Speaker 1: Something like cost market Place had him twenty eight thirty
to one. Matten, I mean you're getting in Buster Douglas territory.
Not quite, it's not Mike Tyson, but I mean that's
a massive, massive underdog.
Speaker 3: Resendez, you know, all due respect On had no resume
to speak of, unless you want to count a stoppage
against the faded junior midleweight champion Jared Hurd. He had
only had one fight at super midweight against just a
knockover opponent to sort of get his feet wet, which
was against a just a nobody a few months ago.
And now they put it in with kayleb Plan who
you know, he has suffered a couple of losses, but
his previous losses were against the best fighters in the business.
You talk about a fight where he competed with Canelo
and got stopped in the eleventh round in a fight
for the undisputed title back in twenty twenty one. And then,
as we've discussed, he did lose a decision to David Bennevitz,
where you know he'd get worked over pretty well the
last few rounds of the fight. But prior to those
last few rounds, you know, there was competition in that fight.
This was no walkover for David Bennet. He is certainly
not in the first half of that bout, and so
the lost to Resendas is a much bigger shocker because
you know, he was the underdog in both of those
other fights and he did end up losing, but again
they were the top dogs in the division. Armando Rizendez
is not in that realm, at least not at the
moment when he fought him. So, yeah, it's a humongous upset.
So he looked good the first seven rounds four or five.
Red put it like this after the seventh round, even
though Resendas had already started to come on when the
round seven ended. Now they don't know this because obviously
they're not using open scoring, but Caleb plant led sixty
seven to sixty six and all three scorecards, and then
the wheels came off because the eighth through the twelfth,
two of the judges gave ors in his every single
round of the fight. Uh, and you know at that
point he's not gonna win. And if you watch the fight,
you saw the aggressiveness, the uh, the power on his punches,
the stalking, all that stuff was taking its toll on Plan,
who was slowing down in terms of his output. He
was dramatically out punched over the last few rounds, especially
in the last two or three rounds of the fight.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: He just didn't have his usual you know, late fight kick,
so to speak. He just seemed a little bit tired.
He seemed not to have is. He just was a
step behind. Whereas he was a step upfront in the
first half of the fight. The second half of the
fight was pretty much all resients us. He had a
great uh uh, what do you call it? Motivation game plan.
You know, first of all, got to give some props
to Manny Roebliss, his trainer, who's been a guy that
has had his ups and his downs, but he's he
he's been a steady trainer with a lot of good
fighters for a long time. He also, Resendez made the
point leading into the fight and said it again afterwards
that he was super motivated because he had just announced that,
you know, his first son was on the way. He
was going to be born, you know soon, so that
was a motivating factor. Although you know, Kayleb Plant said
the same thing in his own fight because his wife
is pregnant with their second child, the son who's on
the way. So they both have their motivations. But the
difference of course, that Kayla Plant has already cashed a
ten million dollar check for the Canela fight, Armando Rozendez
has never sniffed, you know, probably in the in the
mid six figures, much less, you know, that kind of number. Look,
you know, that's why they fight the fights. You know,
you can't you can measure a guy's punching power, you
can look at his record, but you can't measure what
the guy's got inside or what the opponent has left.
And like you said, Kayleab Plant has been a good
soldier for a long time, but you know, he seemed
a little bit not what he's been, you know, and
he's had. Is that a tough career. He's had a
tough life. He's had some hard fights and you know
that's gonna happen. He's not an old fighter, and you know,
I felt like that he was very honest with everybody
after the fight, Like you know, he didn't bitch and
moan about the decision. He said he thought he won
a close fight. But again, he wasn't complaining. He gave
respect to Rizendez. He you know, said he was happy
for him because he knows what it's like when we
struggle to get to the level and he's got a
kid on the way, and he never made the big
money and all that. So you know, I always like
Caleb Plan. I mean, I know sometimes he rubs people
the wrong way. I've always got along good with them.
I've always liked the guy. I respect the background that
he's come from and how he's pulled himself off, you know,
from the bootstraps as they say, and and made himself
into something when you know, I've seen a thousand guys
like him just fall by the wayside, but he he
got through and he became something. And you know, we'll
see if he can get get another run going. But
you know, the the headline that we're bearing the lead here.
Is that most likely because of that defeat, that Charlotte
fight that was supposed to happen in the end of
the year, that's probably ruined at this point because of
that loss.
Speaker 1: More on that in a second. Again, credit Resindez with
the body work. I mean, it was shocking to look
in the ninth to tenth round and beyond it, how
red that plants left side of his chest, his rib cage,
and even his back where Resindez was hitting him in
the side and the kidneys on how red it was
in his and his face too. But I mean the
body work I think had an effect. And I think
this is very telling, and I said this to you
seventy two hours ago on what does he have left
physically and otherwise? Bred Man Edwards in the corner was
admonishing him, we need these last two rounds, the eleventh
round and the twelve rounds.
Speaker 2: He was honest, but I.
Speaker 1: Mean you could tell he could not put anything together
at the end of the fight. Didn't have anything left
at the end of the fight. Again, some of that
is credit Resindez, but there have to be real questions
at this point about what he has left if he
can't beat and I'll be kind, he's a B level
fighter the guy he's fighting, all right, we'll be kind
and say he's a B level fighter. If you can't
stumps on the gas and beat that guy, I think
it's fair to say, as we sit here right now,
I don't know about the Charlot fight. You're gonna expound
on that a second. At this point, he's not an
A side fighter. Now he's not. I just I can't
after that loss, I can't see that.
Speaker 3: So I don't know. I hate that because that's that's
a matter of who he fights. Okay, that's a matter
of who he would be against. If he's fighting, you know,
a regular guy, he's still going to be the A side.
But but I don't I never really gave a shit
about aside B side is who can fight the fight,
who can win the fight. But you said that that,
you made the point about how Rizendez was the one
that was dominating down the stretch of the fight those
last few rounds, and I was gonna now get to
the point where I'm gonna have to savagely attack the judge.
David Sutherland, of course, just agreed with you because the
judge David Sutherland. He actually had the audacity to score
rounds ten eleven and twelve each for one uh Caleb Plant,
which is a is as terrible a scoring as I
can think of in my entire career of writing about boxing.
It's one thing to have a score where people will
disagree or have you, uh you know, labeled as the
as the outlier or the controversial or whatever. I don't know.
If there were three rounds there were more crystal clear
than the most past three rounds of the fight. I
think even if you put Kayleb Plant under tooth certain
even if he thought the fight was very close, he
might even tell you I lost the last three rounds
of the fight. So, David Sutherland, who's had some shaky
cards in the past, one fifteen to one thirteen for
Kayleb Plant is an atrocity in a in a in
a in a sewer of boxing atrocities beyond your normal atrocity. Okay,
I don't know how much strongly I can.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you're going there have been horrific decisions besides this,
this is not the most horrific decision as to that point.
Speaker 3: I'll just interject, but It's not about the decision, TJ.
It's when you when you go below what the actual numbers,
understand and you see how he derived the one fifteen one,
I understand that that is absolutely horrendous.
Speaker 1: Okay, hold on, because first of all, at the end
of nine rounds, he actually had Resindez winning the fight
before he did what he did, all right. Second of all,
if you're watching on the line broadcast and I scan
back and watched this again, Larry Hazard, who's highly respected,
who was giving Resindez every round, actually gave Caleb Plant
the eleventh round, which I thought was surprising and shocking
that that's that's a bit surprising, And am I not?
Speaker 2: Am I not quick?
Speaker 1: In the eleventh round, Resindez outlanded Plant twenty nine to
eight in punches. I believe that was the eleventh round.
How do you get how do you give Caleb Plant
the eleventh round?
Speaker 3: For that's not even about like, yeah, that's not even
about copy box. Anybody with a fucking pair of eyes
that's watching a fight, you know, if a guy, if
a guy outlands somebody three to one, Yeah, in a
high energy kind of round, it's not that hard to tell.
So but I'm making the point here about yoused to say, hey,
Larry Hazard had this round or this or that. It's
one thing if you miss around. We've all been there.
I'm guilty. We've all been guilty. He missed three in
a row at the critical stage of the fight, right,
and he gave it the plan. I mean again, I'm
gonna say what I say. Basically, it feels like every
single week there are a range of acceptable scores in
this fight. I actually thought you would be perfectly within
reason to have this fight for Rizenda's one seventeen to
one eleven, nine rounds to three totally legit. One sixteen
to one twelve, which was eight to four, seemed to
be the prevailing score. That was how two of the
judges had it. That's how I had it. I saw
plenty of scores like that on social media. If you
want to make it seven to five, I don't like it.
I can live with it, I see. Frankly, you'd have
to really really do everything in your power to find
it to be a draw.
Speaker 1: To find five, to find five rounds of Taylor plant one,
I agree much less a draw, much less him win
with the five round seven.
Speaker 3: So here's here's the thing. I'm watching the fight and
they're announcing the scores, and I know who the judges
are because they've announced it before the fight. So they
read the the Sutherland card as one fifteen to one
thirteen in favor of Kayleb Plant. They had read Max
Lucas card won sixteen to one twelve, where I felt
like we weren't going to get a ridiculously hurnd this
decision and it was going to be the right one.
Is the last card that was read was one sixteen
one twelve, and that was the card of Steve Weisfeld,
who I have said numerous times is the best judge
in boxing today. So when I heard that he was
the one with sixteen twelve before they said who he
scored for, in my mind, I'm thinking, Okay, at least
Rezendas is gonna get the decision. And then of course
Steve Westfeld was dead on the money and he had
the fight going for Resendas. So that's a career making
victory for Zendez. It's a debilitating loss for Kayleb Plan,
who now has fallen to you know what two and
three in his last five fights. He's got this loss
and the losses I mentioned before against Canelo and against
Ben Avidie's. He has won the knockout which was a
pretty solid knockout, and a good performance against McCombe. He
had the win before that when he came back off
the loss Canelo and he knocked out Anthony Durrell. That
was a big win for him. Terrible, terrible fight, but
a spectaguon knockout. And uh, you know, Revenda isn't isn't
a great position now he's he was calling out Charlotte
after the fight. He was calling out all the big
daddy's after the fight. We'll see what he does. But uh,
you know, cayleb Plant, when when we should notice or
take notice of the fact that he does have the
right in his contract who he rematched. This was him
defending the WBA interim title. Whether you like it or not,
he did have the right to a remat because it
was not a mandatory bout and so maybe he'll exercise that.
We'll see. That'll be you know, a conversation that he'll
have to have with Al Hayman and with the team
with PBC and Louis de Coubis Junior and with Tom
Brown and see what he does. But Resendez, I mean,
he's a Kyle fight anybody you know, and it's uh,
and he makes a good fight. I mean, how could
you not be happy for the guy?
Speaker 2: He was aggressive?
Speaker 1: But again, uh, you know, it's more about cayleb Plant
in the aftermath of this.
Speaker 3: It's also more about David Sutherland in the aftermath of
this as well.
Speaker 1: I don't know, And I will keep saying what I've
said with you for the better part of two years
or more until you start suspending or firing guys with
horrible cards and gals. I mean, you gotta have some accountability.
You're not gonna work any more big time fights. If
you keep having horrible cards, You're gonna be gone what.
Speaker 3: I would like to see happen. And they just don't
do this. I mean, I've been asked many times why
why don't the writers ask the judges about their their
cards or to get an explanation. And I'll say once again,
I know for a fact, because I have done it,
that plenty of us have inquired to get their thoughts,
and the Commission won't allow it. My my my perspective
is at the very least allow there to be a
pool reporter, and that means one person to go and
ask the questions and then report back to the pool
meeting the rest of the media corps and they share
the quotes or the comment. But it's very rare, and
the Commission does everything their power to protect the judges
and won't every anything bad about it, and uh, and
look that there's there's no way. And I'm not saying
David Sutherland's a bad guy. I'm not saying he's corrupt.
I'm not saying anything other than on Saturday night he
turned in a fucking shit card uh in favor of
Caleb Plant that night, and that needs to be explained
to the public. We deserved it, as fans and consumers
who spend our time and money to watch the sport
and to get no explanation. And it's not like baseball football.
We're at the very least, even if they don't do
it exactly right away and there's controversy, there are league
offices that will make rulings and guys will get fined,
we'll get suspended, We'll have an explanation given to the public,
and I think the public deserves an explanation of how
are you as a supposed championship level judge scoring the
last three rounds of that doubt for Kayla Plant, which
gives him a victory, which is a joke.
Speaker 1: All right, you alluded to it, and that is Jamal
Charlo did his part. I mean, say what you want
about level of competition again, he got the win, he
got the knockdowns, he got the TKO.
Speaker 2: Give me some quick.
Speaker 1: Analysis of that with Cornflake Lamana and does this nix
the Kayla Plant loss?
Speaker 2: After it? Does this nicks Charlo and Plant?
Speaker 1: Because there's some belief as we do this on Sunday
night that they may go ahead and fight anyway.
Speaker 2: What is your thought first on Holo, look go ahead?
Speaker 3: My thought is that that fight won't have happened because
I can't imagine that PBC would will it would do
that match knowing that they were going to make that
a pay per view. You cannot make this a pay
per view fight with him coming off such a bad performance.
And I have faith and trust in people like Al
Haman and Tom Brown and Louis Dekoubis that know the
business very well, that they're intelligent people about boxing. Now,
if this was going to be a live prime card
or back in the day a live HBO or showtime card. Okay,
maybe you do it anyway, but to put it on
as a pay per view and ask the public, you know,
for seventy five bucks. No, that ain't gonna happen. So
they can say that, but I mean, you can never
say never, I guess, but i'd be al.
Speaker 2: Just want to Jack Leb will keep it real.
Speaker 1: That was a garbage pay per view main event anyway
for those two to charge seventy nine ninety five, eighty
nine to ninety five or whatever they're going to charge.
Speaker 3: So that's a different matter. But that was still based
on their on their business model. That fits their bill
as a pay per view main event. End of story
about that. But now after what happened, I don't think
you can possibly do that. I mean, look, Charlotte did
what he had to do. He didn't I didn't think
Charlot looked great. But I'll give him. Cut him the
benefit of the doubt. He is coming off an eighteen
month layoff. He is fighting for, as I pointed out,
only for the fourth time this decade, coming off a
lot of problems in his life, drinking and arrests and
all kinds of issues and mental health, you name it.
Glad to see as a human being, He's got his
life under some kind of order. At this point he
seemed to reinvigorated, at least from the pepinist step kind
of view of it, where he was back with Highland
Williams Senior, his trainer who was him trained him and
his brother when they were amateurs as well as in
the earlier parts of their professional career. But again he
was fighting Thomas Lamana, who, as I said in the
bleed up to the fight, was made to order. Thomas
Lamont is not a world class fighter. He's a nice guy,
but not much of a fighter. Every time he stepped up,
he's been beaten decisively. This was no different. He got
knocked down three times. You know, I credit Thomas Lamana's heart.
You know, I don't care what your skill. He showed
all the heart and balls in the world. He kept
getting up fair enough that they did the right thing
by stopping this fight, because even though there may not
have been a singular telling punch where he thought he's
about to get knocked out cold, he didn't need to
take more punishment. He lost every single second of every
single round he was bleeding, he was full, and he
was taking clean punches. He hadn't landed really anything of consequence.
And so when they called the time out at the
beginning of the sixth round and the referee looked at
him and recommended to the referee Mark Nelson to stop
the fight, which he did. So that's why it goes
down as a TKO six at one second. But in
essence this was ended in the fifth round. He got
knocked down in the third round, in the fourth round,
in the fifth round, and they were all like, legit,
clean knockdowns. I mean, this was like you know, a kid,
you know, picking wings off a fly. There was zero competition.
This was Charlotte scraping off the rust, getting used to
the new weight and doing his thing, and then he
had to sit by and watch his fight go down
the foot.
Speaker 1: All right, So stay tuned on what's going to happen
or not uh with uh with with a Caleb Plant
fight with Charlo, or who does Charlo fight next? If
that's not the if that's not the fight for him?
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 1: So also on the undercart of his PBC on Prime,
Jonil Hernandez victorious and uh jo En le Jo Joen
Lee my mistake on that and Isaac Lucero. You can
tell how much attention I paid to either one of
these fights. Isaac Lucero was a quick knockout winner as well.
Recap both of those real quick.
Speaker 3: Well, you should be paying more attention to Jole Hernandez.
This kid is tremendous. I've watched a few of his
fights since he's been shown on some of these streams.
He is a fantastic prospect. He's a Cuban twenty seven
years old. He's now eight and zero. This was the
first time against Kien Davis he went the distance. He
was actually happy about that because he showed himself that
I can do it and still feels strong and fast
and not wind it at the end of the fight.
So it's always good, uh, you know, to do that
to get that experience so you know that you can
go to ten rounds. One of the biggest things about
young fighters where they get worried is when they've never
been the distance and they're used to getting quick knockouts
that they're not sure how they're going to react when
they have to go ten rounds or they have to
go twelve rounds. The only Hernandez showed he go ten
rounds against a reputable, legit professional in Kyron Davis and
not really feel winded. This guy was tremendous upper cuts, combinations,
very very strong puncher, good output, good engine, good stamina,
and Kyroon Davis. You know, I'm not saying he's a
world class guy in the sense he's gonna be a
world champion, but you know he had to win over Isaac,
not Isaac against Elijah Garcia. That was the big upset
that got him into a fight like this. You know,
he is a you know, he was a United States
Olympic alternate back you know, a number of years ago.
You know, he's not like a bum by any means.
He's a good, solid professional. You know, he did go
seven rounds even what he got stopped by Devid Benavidez
back a few years ago. But Hernandez looked like a
season professional. He is a outstanding prospect, you know what
I You and I spent a lot of time over
the last couple of years, has been doing the show,
and we moment about the terrible uh nature of the
middleweight division. You and Lee Hernan is about to put
some excitement back in this weight class because he's a
real solid, legit guy to keep an eye on. Like
he's a top prospect right now. He may be you know,
contender level by the end of this year if he can,
you know, continue to stay busy. So he looked really,
really good in this fight. I have nothing but praise
for his game. Uh and looks strong as a bull.
And in the other fight you mentioned about Lucero, he
fought his professional debut in the United States and has
been primarily in you know, all of his fights, I
guess since I had been in Mexico until this fight
where he comes back a product, another guy that's been
sort of uncovered and found by Samson Lukawitz, who's one
of the best guys in the business in terms of
finding talent. And you know, he was fighting a fellow
Mexican also undefeated in Omar Vellezuela, and Isaac Lucero looked spectacular.
He scored you know, a couple of knockdowns in the
second round and just beat him up and U and
that was all she wrote. I mean, this was a
very impressive performance. Uh what can you say. I know
this when you see the end of the show, you know,
we know what Plants and Charlote are, and now we
know more about Zendaz. We you know, Lamana is what
he is. But one of the things that I like
when a show like this ends, it makes you want
to see more of you andle Hernandez makes you want
to see more of Isaac Lucero because they are exciting,
they are young, they are guys on the rise. They
are guys for exciting.
Speaker 2: Say a little future, say a little in the future.
Speaker 3: We like that one hundred percent, I mean, and that's
that's uh. You know, Hernandez has been on at least
one of these previous Prime undercards, so it's not the
first time people have been exposed to him. But he
was definitely taking a step up against Davis, and he
didn't let him in the fight. I mean, it was
legit one hundred to eighty nine on all three score cards.
That extra point was because he scored a knockdout in
the second round of the fight. He did everything you
could ask a guy to do other than get the knockout,
and Lucero look great getting a knockout. So two guys
emerge from the show with bigger profiles, and I would
imagine more fans if they tuned in to check it out,
because they look really good.
Speaker 1: Continuing in the recap mode, we go back to Friday Night,
the Golden Boy de oone main event in Las Vegas
at the Virgin Hotel and Casinos saw Beck the Bully,
Bekimir Makuziev and Melakuzia.
Speaker 2: Melakuziev I think.
Speaker 3: Before our shows, I'm gonna start to give you a
tutorial and I.
Speaker 1: Have to get we have to get all the different names.
So Beck the Bully wins in what was a battle
over twelve rounds, an entertaining fight, and he gets the decision.
Speaker 2: What does this mean?
Speaker 3: Number one? This was a spectacular action fight. This is
going to be probably on a lot of people's list
at the end of the year. It won't be the
fight of the year, but when people do their top ten,
top twelve fights of the year. At this moment, it's
definitely on that list. This was from the opening bell.
These guys were back and forth trading. I've been hard
on Melakuzia at that times because he's come with so
much hype. He's an Olympic silver medalist. He's had a
lot of hype around him, and every time I watch him,
I leave like, I'm just not impressed. I was impressed
because he made a really good fight and he was
able to gut out a really tough fight. I think
the difference between what he did and his opponent did
is that he just had more experience at the higher level,
and Fulgium was a guy that just is still even
though he's a little bit older. He's twenty nine or
twenty eight. I guess twenty eight that he's not doesn't
have that experience level. He was also a good amateur,
but not on the level of the bully, and that
that showed itself. I felt like, but the big the
big thing was you had. Melikuziev got deducted a point
for holding Thomas Taylor. The referee had warned him a
couple of times. He took a point away from him rightly,
so I thought in round number seven, so now he's
maybe slightly desperate. It was a very close, competitive fight,
and he broke through. Biggest moment of the fight came
in round number twelve where he scored a legit knockdown,
and that that was a huge moment in that fight,
and in the end he wins one fourteen to one
twelve on all three of the scorecards. And it was
a significant fight, not only because it was exciting because
he scores a big win and even in the loss
Fulgium to me, to me, he showed a lot. I
don't care that he lost. I want to see him again.
I feel like he can get better. Definitely gonna learn
from a fight like this, but more notably from Melakuzia.
This was officially a WBA title eliminator. Now, whether that
means he's gonna be mandatory for Kenelo Alvarez or the
WBA will do WBA things and make him the mandatory
for the new interim champion, which is a Rizendez. You know,
who knows what they're gonna do. But the main point
is it puts Beck in a position to fight for
a bigger title, to be in a position to be
in a bigger fight. And this was a really good fight.
And I just I watch a fight like this and
I see these guys lay everything on the line. They
go out it tooth and nail. They beat the shit
out of each other. They put on a spectacular fight,
you know, just let it all hang out. And if
they made for the fight, I don't know. If this
fight combined there was made. If they made three hundred
grand something like that. And then you watch some of
the shows we've seen where the guys are getting paid
crazy millions of dollars and they just sleep through it.
This is what do you want to see. This is
what prize fighting is about. This is what real you know.
They they showed skills, but they showed toughness and they
went at each other. They put on a show. And
that's to me, that's that's the name of the game.
I'm not suggesting you out there and recklessly, you know,
put your life at risk. But these guys, uh, they
thought the way you're supposed to fight, and uh, the
fans loved it. And when and Lewis, I guarantee you
that both these guys created more fans in that sense,
and so they earned every dollar that they were paid.
I mean, to me, it's the kind of fight where
you know, you wish there was like a bonus pool
where you know, the guy that wins can get a
little bit of a bonus for it. But this was
one hell of a fight, and I would say that anyway,
who didn't watch this one? If you've got a sour
taste in your mouth from some shitty scorecard you may
have seen recently, some terrible fight that you you know,
you see, you slept through because it was so bad,
do yourself a favor and.
Speaker 2: Just went on, Yeah, this is a great Friday.
Speaker 1: And again for Beck the bully, off the loss to Risotto,
off the booming punch a couple of years ago, he's
rebounded nicely for whatever the future holds for him. That's
not all on Friday night, as we referenced, Khalil Coe
in a life heavyweight main event from match Room in
his own beat Manuel gegos by TKO. They stopped the
fight in between rounds. It's officially a t KO six
and also on the undercard, mj Akmadayev is also victorious
the junior featherweight contender. So give me more on those
two fights from Friday in the recap mode as well.
Speaker 3: This was like a career salvaging win for Co. Not
to be overly dramatic, but he'd had inconsistencies in previous fights.
He'd shown up where he wasn't on weight in other fights.
He had some medical issues that he kind of kept
a secret before the first fight against Gyges that took
place in November. This was the immediate rematch. Now, in
the first fight, which was on one of the Boutennis
undercards in Philadelphia back in November, he got stopped by
Gagos in the ninth round. That was a big offset
and so I give Khalil call credit. You know, he
really didn't have any choice, but he took it, took
the fight, got himself in good shape. I guess was
healthy year than he was before. And not only did
he take the rematch, but he agreed to go to
Guadalajara in Mexico, UH to fight the Mexican fighting Guadalahara
is not guy who was his hometown. But he's still
fighting in Mexico against a Mexican and he delivered. He
looked really good. This is one of his best I
would say this may be his best performance he's had
as a professional. He came into the professionals with a
big reputation. A lot of promoters were looking to sign him.
He had a good amateur career. You know, he's got
a little bit of a late start as a pro
because he had spent some time in jail. But you know,
when you can show and you know you can put
it all together. When when it's all on the line
for you and go and put on this type of
performance against the guy that knocked you out in his
home country, you know, that shows you something. There's something
to work with there. So I don't know how far
he's going to go. He's now nine and one with
a draw, and h this was a you know, this
was a big win for I take it back. Now
he's ten in one with the draw, because that was
the tenth win. This is a This is a an
important step for this guy. So he may only have,
you know, a relatively few amount of fights, but not
a guy that's going to need to have, you know,
another ten or fifteen fights to get himself in a position.
This guy can fight. To me, it's not about his ability,
it's about his mentality. Does he put in the work,
does he come in shape, and does he fight a
smart fight? He did that. He checked all those boxes
in this rematch.
Speaker 1: All right, and then mj Akmadaiev wins also on this
card and the name Noyoya in a way, the monster
is looming down the road as well, so give me more.
Speaker 3: Well, this was obviously the last hurdle. If you will
to get to that fight. We all knew that they
had made a deal for in a way in Acadive
to fight. He is the long awaited mandatory. He's the
interim title holder of the WBA, he's a former unified champion,
and I think if you ask most fans that follow
this weight class, they would tell you without a question
that he's the best guy still in the division that
in a way hasn't already beaten. And frankly, a lot
of people if you matched Achandive up with some of
the guys that in a way has beaten, they would
favor Akmadhalia against him. This was the fight that's been
long overdue AKA Dive was getting in his so called
tune up fight. Obviously, in a way fought the defense
he had a few weeks ago in Cardenas, that was
in Las Vegas, and so now that he is safely
through this fight, he scores the eighth round knockout against
the smaller and slower and less powerful Luis Castillo. They
obviously weren't trying to match him super tough, but we've
seen what happens, you know, you take it tune up.
We saw what happened with Caleb plant right, it should
happen sometimes, but now that he's safely through this fight
no injuries, gets to win there on September fourteenth, in Japan,
he will challenge in a way for the undisputed title.
The only question is what the exact venue is. Top
Rank and the Japanese promoters that work with in a
way it will figure that out, but you have to
assume it'll be in either Tokyo somewhere or the say
Thomas super Arena. That's generally the locations in Japan where
he fights. My big question is where will it be
in terms of a broadcaster, because at that point Top
Rank and ESPN will have parted ways unless there's some
miracle that comes to pass. But the bottom line is
AKMAEDIAV is on his way to Japan in a few
months and they'll fight for the title.
Speaker 2: All right. So that leads us to the news.
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, when you and I put the podcast
to bed and even the bet Us show on Fridays
one Eastern time on their platforms, when we put that
to bed head of the weekend, I thought that Devin
Haney and Taya Femo Lopez, we're going to be able
to be fighting because Taya Femo Lopez had essentially, like
in middle school, angered the bully, angered the guy that
you don't want to anger. And so now suddenly here
we are Sunday night into Monday, and what is this
I see on my rundown, in my Dan Rayfield social media,
et cetera.
Speaker 2: The fights back on.
Speaker 3: It appears that way. I am told by multiple sources
who are directly involved with this event that look, and
I said this before when we talked about it leading
into this, if Lopez did not apologize to Turkey, that
there was no way that they were going to put
this fight back on. And so whoever was responsible for
doing so, whoever put the pressure on, whether it was
Turkey's office or the Haini camp or Tifimo's dad or
management or promoters that top rank or whoever, whoever. You know,
we're all together basically try to talk some sense into him.
Don't be a knucklehead. I know, I think everybody sort
of understood. Look, we know you wanted to fight Ennis.
Turkey wanted to see that fight. But at the end
of the day, Turkey can do a lot of things,
but he can't make somebody fight. And so if Ennis,
for whatever his reasons are decided that he didn't want
to do that match because either he just didn't want
to fight you, or they've got something else lined up,
who the heck knows. The point is you cannot make
him fight you, So don't blame Turkey for that not
happening and say that he didn't deliver and be upset
where a fight that may not be quite as big
because the fact that there's no title at stake, that
you're going to get paid probably a little bit less money,
but still bigger money than you can make with anybody else.
And so apparently commer has prevailed. And if you take
a look at t f MO Lopez's social media, he
did post a full throat apology and I quote to
his Excellency Turkey al Chic, I take full responsibility for
my inappropriate words on the x app. I publicly apologize
to h E, which means his excellency I will conduct
myself with greater respect, humility, and professionalism, sending love and
light to all. Thank you. So t f MO Lopez
does his part. And once that happened, as again, I
am told by sources who are directly involved, that was like, okay,
we accept the apology. And hey, by the way, guys,
remember those contracts that you already had in place where
everything was agreed to to fight and read on August
sixteenth to do so in a twelve round bout at
one hundred and forty five pounds. Now it's okay to
go ahead and sign the paperwork and execute it because
we're now going to do the fight because Turkey accepts
Tiafimo's apology. So I am told that that is the
direction that things move in, and that presumably in the
next short amount of time, all of that paper will
be signed, sealed, and delivered and we'll have a fight
August sixteenth.
Speaker 1: As you like to say, it is agreed to, but
it's not signed. You're always very you always say words matter.
It's not done until they sign it. But at least
the apology has happened, the apology is accepted, and he
would be nuts not to sign the deal for the
lucrative money and follow through with the fight.
Speaker 3: I'm saying that, oh, yeah, you're right about that. I mean,
but the thing about it is, yes, you're right, the
thing has to get signed, obviously, but they'd already gotten
to the point where the camps had the paper as
they all agreed, and so the terms were agreed to.
The paper apparently was okay. They weren't redlining it going
back to make changes. Everything was done the way they
expected it, and now was a matter of signing off
and sending it back. And they were basically put on
hold because of tia Fimo's meltdown. And now it appears
as though that will be that that issue has been
removed and they will go forward and do this fight.
And so again, anything can happen, but at this moment,
as we tape this, I'm told that both sides are
on board. Everything is good. Turkeys has agreed to to
move forward, accepted his apology, and it was a pretty
good apology actually, I mean he didn't, you know, mess around.
I mean a t femo. He's kind of like the
IBF t Fimo doing ta femo things.
Speaker 1: Uh So, all things being equal, I think we qualified
it enough.
Speaker 2: Looks like they are fighting.
Speaker 1: That's the bottom line on Lopez and Hainey until Tayo
Fimo does something else.
Speaker 3: Hopefully he won't help Listen, We'll say we know what
we saw in the recent fights, but if these guys
are going to fight their next fight, and and NS
and Lopez are not going to do a fight. This
is a very reasonable fight. It is an interesting matchup.
I feel like that t Femo is going to feel
like he's got something to prove because of all the
stuff that went on uh to make the match, and
feel like, you know, he's going to show why. Maybe
in his mind he believes it and has ducked him.
I have to believe that heiny, you know, he understands
the criticism that's been leveled at him in the post
fight of the Jose Ramirez fight. I don't think he's
too happy about that. He might want to show a
little bit more and so maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised
and get ourselves a good fight. The only thing I
say about it is it's just disappointing to me, and
I think to a lot of boxing fans that you
have equality match like that that will be on the
same day as another quality match, which is another pay
per view, which will be the rematch against between Lamont
Roach and Tank Davis. But such as life, at least
the best are fighting the best.
Speaker 1: And that leads us to the next item, which is
on the on the weekend. On the Saturday, they did
officially have Manny Pacquil and Mario Barrios. They're in Las Vegas.
Prior to the pay per view or to the Amazon
PBC on Prime card, they met with the media. They
had them on the pb see on Prime broadcast, and
they also announced the full undercard. So fill in the
blanks on Pacquiao being there in Vegas and everything being
announced as it was with the media.
Speaker 3: Not at all surprised. I mean, if you have an event,
I mean, this is a tried and true you announce,
you bring your guys together to talk to the press
who's there covering that event, to announce the next event.
This is that event will be at the MGM Grand
on July nineteenth. Pacyao will challenge Mario Barrios for the
WBC welterweight title. We've already dissected the good, bad, and
ugly about that situation, but they did make it official,
even though it's been like not even a secret, everybody's
known it's happening. They also had Sebastian Fundora and Tim
Zoo there on hand in Las Vegas to announce officially
that they will meet in a rematch where Sebastian Pandora's
WBC Junior middleweight title in a rematch of their fantastic
first fight that was on short notice but turned into
be a bloody classic that Sebastian Pandora was able to
win the WBO belt and the vacant WBC title. Obviously
he's been stripped to the WBO because he decided to
go through and do this rematch was Zoom rather than
to fight the mandatory xandersyis. But this is a whatever
beltzer at stake. This is a great rematch. I remember
when they did the first fight with Fendora ZOOTJ, it
was the main event. This is the co feature of
a pay per view. So I feel like between the
main event seeing Pac Allen Barrios whatever that's going to become,
and then having this as a second fight on the
cart and then as you said, they'd announced officially the
other fights that are part of the pay per view.
I've written about these, but they made it official. Tremendous
rematch between Isaac Pittbull Cruz and Angel Fierro back earlier
this year in the lightweight in the junior welterweight division.
I should say they fought absolutely spectacular fight, Fight of
the Year candidate. They're going to do it again. And
they also made official fight that I also have reported
about at a very solid featherweight matchup between Brandon Figueroa
and Joet Gonzalez. Figureo is coming off the loss to
Fulton in their rematch. Joe Gonzalez actually is coming off
of a upset mild upset, I guess, in his most
recent fight. And the main thing though is these guys
are both in a position where to get a win
it was be very important to them they can shake
off not not that Joet's looking to shake off a loss,
but to get a little bit of a groove going
because he's only lost to the best guys he's faced,
and for figure out a chance to get back in
the w column after the loss against us Stephen Fulton.
So this shapes up in my mind. This is a
very solid card and it won't be on the main
pay per view And they didn't announce this, but I
talked to his team, but the former featherweight title holder
Mark mcsio is going to be on this card. Also
probably be one of the pulmonary fights I would imagine
that we'll see on the free stream in the junior
lightweight division. He has no oppony yet, but he's excited
because like every Filipino fighter, Pacio is his idol and
to be able for him to be on a Manny
Pacio card is a huge deal for him. So that's
that's what we're looking at. That's you know, lover hate
the main event. The rest of the card is pretty
damn good.
Speaker 1: And Paquil again is saying all the right things. But
forty six years of age, four years out of the ring,
we shall see.
Speaker 3: We got plenty were starting to convinced when I was
listening to him talk the other day, So you know,
by the time this fight rolls run in July, we'll
see if he's got more people convinced.
Speaker 1: Okay, stay tuned on that sad news unfortunately, and this
kind of ties into nostalgia because we're going to get
nostalgic with this guy's Hall of Fame career. Mike McCallum,
the body Snatcher, passed away in Las Vegas at the
age of sixty eight. Hall of Fame, Multi division world champion,
and as you said at the top of the podcast,
this was kind of unexpected. I know you have you're
as plugged in as anybody, and you have a network
and different people. But this really, to me, it came
out of the blue. We didn't know that he had
been sick, etc. So if you watched the eighties and
the nineties, there were some spectacular KO wins in particular,
Hello left hook bomb on Donald Curry, the body snatcher,
Mike mccalum exactly.
Speaker 3: Look, Mike, I don't think it was I don't think
he was a matter of in being sick. I mean
the way that that was reported. I actually the first
place I saw this, they had reported it in some
of the press in Jamaica, where even though Mike has
lived in Las Vegas for a number of years, he's
one of the great sports legends of the island of Jamaica.
And basically what it said was he was just not
feeling well and he pulled his car over and he
was ended up being found deceased unfortunately. I mean, a
sad situation at that age. But in terms of his boxing,
you know, he is right up there. He didn't have
the ability. I shouldn't say that he didn't get the
opportunity to fight the Big four. Leonard Hearns Duran and Hagler.
But if you asked anybody around in that era, fighters, managers, promoters,
TV people, media people, every single one of them will
tell you the Mike McCallum was on the same level
of those guys and would have competed and perhaps won
some of those fights. And I'm not going to ever
say bad about Sugar Ray Leonard. You know, he was
one of my idols of all time. Sugar Ray Leonard
did not want to fight Mike McCallum because he knew
that was a very, very dangerous fight that wasn't necessarily
worth the kind of money in his prestige that there
was when he took the gambles and took the fights
with guys like like Hearns and Hagler and Durant. Mike
McCallum was on that level. This is a man who
had a phenomenal amate. He was two hundred and forty
and ten as an amateur. He was a top level
amateur for a long time before he became, you know,
a top professional. He was an Olympian in nineteen seventy six,
the same Olympic Games that we saw the Sphinx Brothers
and Sugar Ray Leonard and plenty of other greats come
out of and as a professional, you know, he did,
you know, he was with that Lou Duva George Benton group.
He had a great team behind him in terms of
his management and the training team that he worked with,
and through the career he also had top guys like
you know, besides lou Duva, he worked at one point
with Eddie Futch. I mean, these are the elite trainers
of that time. Had the great nickname body Snatcher, and
why because he's a phenomenal body puncher. Obviously he was
at one of the great body punchers of all time.
He won titles in three weight classes. Junior middleweight where
he held the title for quite a while, middleweight, and
then eventually he went up and he won the title
in the light heavyweight division. And he beat a whole
bunch of good quality guys. Now, a lot of people
like might remember him because you know, at the end
of his career, you know, he got shut out basically
lost every round to Roy Jones. Ah, you know, he's
no good, But that.
Speaker 2: Was one of us. Was in the house in Tampa,
Florida that night.
Speaker 1: That was me, but the body Snatcher against Roy Jones,
and you you appointed that the past that was near
the end of McCollums career, He's not, well, you shouldn't.
Speaker 3: You shouldn't ever think about that as it counting like, oh,
that doesn't really mean a lot. He had a draw
with the prime James Tony, He beat Ayub Kalule, who
was a top jinger. Middleway, he beat Julian Jackson, Milton McCrory.
You mentioned the spectacular knockout against Donald Curry, Stevie Collins.
Stevie Collins split the fights with Sambu Colombay, who was
a guy that should be on the Hall of Fame ballot,
but for whatever reason hasn't been. Jeff Harding in the
light heavyweight division. Uh, he did lose two times in
the in the first two fights against James Tony. He
also lost to Roy when he was near the end,
and he didn't have the loss to Fabric Tioso, who
had his peak you know back in the day, was
another top fighter. It didn't last as long as McCallum's prime.
But I'm saying he mixed with the best guys that
were willing to fight him. But the big four of
hearns Leonard and Hagler and Duran, the wodn't They didn't
want any part of him. That's just the reality.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: He asked anybody that was around of that time, you know,
basically came down to a one point because he was
with Emmanuel Stewart. Emanuel basically chose Hearns over McCallum. I
don't think it was because Hearns was necessarily more talented,
but you know, Emmanuel could be a business person also,
and not Callum wasn't going to bring him as much
money as Tommy Hearns, who was making a fortune because
he was packing the house and scoring big knockouts. And
as great as Mike was as a boxer, he never
drew those kind of humongous crowds, but he fought a
lot of top guys, and he also, you know, was
heralded by everybody. You go back and look at the
old publications like the Ring Magazine for example, back in then,
you know, in the day in like the mid nineties
when they were doing like the greatest junior middleweights of
all time, you know, they picked him as the second
best junior midleweight in the history of the division. I mean,
I don't think even if you were doing the list today,
you know, thirty years later, I don't know if a
lot of that would change. He was inducted into the
Hall of Fame in two thousand and three. I mean,
he was one of the greats of the great and
unfortunately he's known besides how good he was, the thing
that people know him for is because guys wouldn't fight him.
But he didn't have the Unfortunately. Yeah, like I mentioned
a lot of the guys he fought, but he didn't
have the glory of fighting his true peers when he
was at his best. Him and Sugar Ray Leonard would
have been obviously a very competitive fight, and I feel
like it would have been a classic.
Speaker 1: Well, and it's interesting it's all intertwined to that Donald
Curry knockout, because we've gone over this before, but we'll
just briefly mention it here that that was in and
around the time period where Leonard was fighting Hagler and
Donald Curry was mad and suing Sugar Ray Leonard because
he believed that Leonard misled him into fighting Hagler for himself,
and so then they are having the fight and the
Curry team is trying to get against McCallum. The Curry
team's trying to get Sugar Ray Leonard off the broadcast,
and there's all this talk about, well, if Curry wins
the fight, will you fight Curry, and Leonard's trying to
stay out of that, and then McCaw with the big
booming left and I still remember Barry Tompkins, the great announcer,
the great HBO Hall of Fame announcer, was with us
previously on the podcast, and he told us the story
that night that he took a date to the fight
in Las Vegas, the Caesars Palace pavilion for the McCallum
Donald Curry fight, and the date who he later married
somebody else, but the date was sitting behind him on
the HBO broadcast. He got a great seat right behind him,
a couple rows behind him, and when McCallum landed the punch,
he said, I can hear my date on the crowd,
Mike screaming, Oh.
Speaker 2: My god, he's dead.
Speaker 1: He's dead, and I know it's her behind me. He's like,
I'm shrinking. I'm paraphrasing, I'm shrinking in my chair while
I'm falling the end of the fight because I can
hear her.
Speaker 2: It was that devastating of a knockout.
Speaker 1: And one more footnote, Dan Rayphaiel After Sugar Ray Leonard
saw that left hand. I think he probably decided once
in a frol I'm not fighting Mike McCallum, the body stature.
Speaker 3: I made the point it's not that Sugary Litter was
scared to fight anybody. It said, he just made a
business decision to go in a direction that would pay
him crazy amounts some money to fight other guys when
the riches were not necessarily in the same in ballpark
to fight against mccount, who, by the way, had long rains.
You know, I look this up. Know one we were
going to talk about the unfortunate passing of the great
Mike mccownt Thirteen wins, three losses, one draw, and eight
knockouts in world title fights and you know, over three
way classes. I mean, he was the real deal. I mean,
there's no doubt about it. He was one of the
greatest fighters of his time. He is vastly underrated. I
bet you there's people that maybe listen to our show.
They certainly know the Big Four and they know the
modern stars, but then they made a hurt of McCollum,
but they never really watched his fights. I would say,
you know what, take yourself down a rabbit hole on
YouTube and go watch some of his biggest fights and
you'll be impressed, because not only was he a tremendous puncher,
but he was a tremendous technician and he had a
lot of skills. He was really like I always have
said this many times that the kinds of fighters I
like to watch our guys who are good boxers, who
can bring the sweet science but aren't afraid to mix
it up and can crack also, and he kind of
fell into that kind of category of guys that could
definitely fight and could definitely box, and sometimes in the
right certainces he would bring it out and he would
fight you, and there was other times where he would
do what he had to do to win the fight
in box. I mean, he was versatile. He was extremely
capable of fighting in a variety of styles forward, backwards,
and obviously the body punching was second to none. And uh,
you know, it's an unfortunate loss. You know, I know
a lot of people in the business that have been
around Mike for years and I've seen I've I've been
around Mike many times in Vegas because he lived there,
and he wasn't like a you know some guys they
come to every fight. McCallum would show up at the
fights occasionally, but it was always, you know, a cool cat,
you know, had that like laid back sort of Jamaican attitude.
I remember one time they were doing a fundraiser for
the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame that was run by
my pal Rich Morada, and they were doing some sort
of like like a mixer like sort of drinks and
fundraising thing at one of the lounges in Vegas at
the hotel we were at for the fight, and Mike
came by, and you know what, there was a lot
of like pop boxing people there. There was a ton
of people around Mike McCallum because everybody that was there
was a diehard and they all knew who the guy was.
And you could just tell looking at him he was
having the time of his life and wing being around
because he's been retired at that point for a long time.
You know, he was the kind of guy who wasn't
super super famous. He could walk, you know, go to
the store, go to the restaurant. A lot of people
might not even recognize him, but you put him in
a group of boxing people and all of a sudden,
you know, he's, uh, you know, he's the center of attention.
He could tell he was enjoying himself that particular night.
Speaker 1: And that leads us to other nostalgia, and that includes,
on this very day, June the first, now six years ago,
the shocking upset of Andy Ruiz with a TKO stoppage
of the unified heavyweight champion of the World, Anthony Joshua.
Anthony Joshua was unforgettable US debut and uh, he got
knocked out. He got knocked out that night at Madison
Square Garden. Now you were there, we should say to
the podcast audience, we want you to go to the
YouTube page because we're going to talk about this fully
on the YouTube page. But suffice to say it's up
there in all time heavyweight upsets generally speaking.
Speaker 3: Yes, oh, absolutely, no question about this was a This
was a shocking shock upset I remembered being we'll get
into it on the on the in the video part.
But like steeled boxing people who've been around for decades,
the looks on their faces when this fight was over
at the press conference, and even before we left, ringside
just could not believe what they had seen. That that
Anthony Joshua, who looked like he's cut from granted, who
was a heavy duty favorite, who was undefeated, who was
the unified champion against Andy Luiz, you know, the short
fat guy, Dad bah Yeah, yeah, big time dad Bob. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But he got the win that night as stunning as
there's been. So go watch the YouTube video. We're pushing
you peeps pod audience, Dan and I talk about this
fight in full, including Rayphiel having to pick up the
jaws of many people around ringside after what happened that
night at Madison Fame, Madison Square Garden, June first, twenty nineteen.
As we do this on the pod, all right, listen,
we've been here a little bit, great recap stuff. We've
had the news, We've had a little nostyle. We get
ready for a key Shawn Davis fight week here in
the new month by coming up later this week in
the top ranked main events.
Speaker 2: Other than that, are we good? Are we ready to
have a good week?
Speaker 3: Are we good? Yes?
Speaker 2: Sir, I believe that we are.
Speaker 1: There, Goes Damn Rayfield, I'm merely TJ Reeves followers. Subscribe
on the pod feed, Apple, Spreaker, Spotify, Go find the
YouTube page for all the other content, nostalgia and otherwise
great stuff there. Subscribe there, get the like button. Help
us out on YouTube peach if you love the content,
help us out with that. For now, you've been listening
to the Fight Preach Unite recap podcasts