Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time.
Speaker 2: This is Big Fight Weekend. Now here is your host,
DJ Leaves Yes, Indeed, we get ready for a Friday
night Most Valuable Promotions NETFLIX Heavyweight main event. Jake Paul
is back and you better believe it. Anthony Joshua is
the opponent coming in Miami, Florida. We're ready to preview
that and the other fights on that card. We've got
some recaps from midweek championship fights in Japan. Tim Zoo
also returned successfully in Australia. We're ready to go over that.
Some fight news. Oh. By the way, Terrence Crawford says
I'm retired. We gotta go over that as well. It
is the Big Fight Weekend preview. I am the somewhat
capable host. TJ Reeves Ho ho ho Dan Rayphiel Oh
Holiday season, Happy Hanuka of those that celebrate Christmas coming
best of us for the rest of us, and anything
else you like for the holiday season. Glad that you're
with us here on the pod, Apple Spreaker, Spotify, rate us,
and review us that will help us out in this
holiday season. We have had Big Dan some tremendous content,
if we do say so, ourselves in the preview and
recap mode. But we've even had special content this week
previewing this Anthony Joshua Jake Paul fight from different perspectives.
You heard from Ricky Carroll and David Payne who are
over in England and in Europe talking about the fight
from their perspective. Earlier in the week on the pod feed,
Christina Poncher joined us. Kudos to Dan with the assist
of getting Christina and she and I'm saying again publicly,
she was a pros pro to work with me and
make that interview happen in a crazy week where she's
doing her stuff for Netflix. Please go back and listen
to that on the pod feed as well. We appreciate
it as we go in the preview mode. So we've
built this up, talked this up and given you a
lot of coverage. So big Dan, welcome in. You and
I are doing this Thursday as we head into Friday
morning and the fight night is Friday night. It's here.
What are your am meeting thoughts here? Is we're about
to see this. I keep joking with you, whatever this is,
we're about to see it on Friday night.
Speaker 3: Listen, you keep saying that it's it's it's a mismatch
boxing match, but that's that's we've seen those before. It
just so happens that these guys have bigger names than most,
so they're gonna get in there. They're gonna do their fight.
It's an eight round heavyweight fight. They weighed in on Thursday. Joshua,
to no surprise, was two forty three and change. Obviously
they had that limit of two forty five, which is
really not any big deal. Jake Paul comes in at
two sixteen and change, a bit heavier than normal because
he's fighting generally as a cruiser weight. He did fight
in the two twenties when he headed when he had
to fight last year against Mike Tyson. Uh So, the
fact that they're separated by like close to thirty pounds
not at all a surprise. Frankly, they can be separated
by two pounds, one pound, jac and way more. It
wouldn't make a difference in my opinion. We're gonna see
a spectacle. We're gonna see. Uh The reason why people
are gonna watch this, probably on Netflix, is because it's
the same us why you would watch a car crash,
why you would watch sometimes an auto race. Why you
would watch anything where there's the possibility of something extremely
violent occurring.
Speaker 2: When Evil Knievel was on Wide World of Sports for
you and me back in the day.
Speaker 1: Jumping over a better chance that he was.
Speaker 2: Going to get seriously injured than actually make the jump.
Speaker 3: Going over the Snake River Canyon that Bob Aaron promoted.
So yeah, that's listen. I've said it ever since this
fight was made. I give credit to Jake Paul for
having the balls to do the fight. He may have
different thoughts when it's over. As far as Anthony Joshua
was participation, I can understand why you would take this.
As we've discussed, he was getting ready to fight Cassius
Cheney in a low key fight that was going to
be snuck in under the cover of night, basically to
stick him on the undercard in Saudi Arabia on the
night that David Benavidi's headlined against Anthony Yar, just to
get him back in the ring after a fourteen month layoff,
a very bad knockout loss of Daniel du Wi subsequent
elbow surgery, to for what is supposed to be a
very big twenty twenty six that will include a tune
up fight of some kind and then presumably the big
mega showdown that the world has waited for leers for
against Tyson Fury. But when he got the opportunity to
scrap that fight in Saudi and go and do a
fight against probably Frankly, an even easier opponent than Cash
as Shaney, because Cash is at least incredible heavyweight, if
not even if he's not a top contender, a world
championship material and by the way, make multiples of millions
more to fight Jake Paul.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: I mean this is like, you.
Speaker 3: Know, I remember when Floyd was at Floyd Mayweather was
at the end of his career and he would take
certain fights. He forget which fight he was. I think
it might it might have been the Connenbergregor fight where
he came in wearing a ski mask because it was
a heist, it was a robbery. He was getting paid
crazy money for easy work. And I feel like this
is the same thing for Anthony Joshua against Jake Bualth.
Anthony Joshua has anything left in that engine at all.
And yes, I know he come off a bad knockout
against a Wow, but that doesn't mean.
Speaker 1: His career is over. He's a massive man.
Speaker 3: He's got the thirty pounds or so weight, He's gonna
have about five six inches in height. He's got a
jillion more abilities in the ring than Jake Paul does.
He's a two time unified heavyweight world champ. He's an
Olympic gold medalist. This is a real boxer. This is
a real guy compared to the fighters that Jake as
fot because, as we've discussed, hej a thousand times. Yeah,
you can say, oh I beat Mike Tyson, I'd be whold.
He was Caesar A Chavez junior, and that's fine. But
they were name only type fights, right. Tyson was nineteen
years out of retirement at fifty eight years old. Of
the litany of physical issues Chavez had been in like
alcohol or drug rehab, ten years past his prime, forty
pounds over his best weight, just a name and he
won those fights easily. Dude, Anthony Joshua a different kettle
of fish absol.
Speaker 2: All right, So you and I have already spent some
time on the bet Us show going over this. We
are of the same belief that this is a knockout.
I think it might take a little longer, A little
longer than what, A little longer than you do? You
you thought under two and a half rounds. I thought
maybe into the middle of the third round, or certainly beyond,
certainly if this thing gets to a fourth or a
fifth round. This is where I'm headed to this. I
don't remember a fight in recent history, and you're the
great resource to go to where there's been so much
conversation of is there some kind of agreement that this
thing lasts a few rounds? And it even came up
in the press conference. Obviously you expected that it would
about you know, what happens if we get to a
fifth or sixth round. I think a lot of people
dubious is the word I'll use. People at that point
will be dubious that maybe something isn't going on here,
that Joshua was not trying to finish off a guy
that should be a smaller guy, that should be an
easy guy.
Speaker 3: Now, I mean just a smaller guy, a smaller guy
that can't experience, yeah, in terms of skills or experienced
or anything like that. So if I've said this sip
the fights on the up and up, and I alix
I I've seen a lot of stuff on my day
in cover and boxing, But I do believe it's on
the up and up, because if you're Anthony Joshua, you
have such enormous business riding on this next year in
terms of the Joshua fight against Fury as well as
whatever he may do in the early part of next year.
So he's supposed to be back in like February time frame.
So you don't want to hang around and put yourself
through too much when you're gonna be getting ready for
another fight, and you want to make sure that the
theory fight is as big as possible.
Speaker 2: And as preposterous as this sounds. You and I, I
think are in agreement on this. I'll speak for me
and then you can answer it. The only intrigue of
Jake Paul is a lucky punch, and so the longer
that you let the fight go on, if you're letting
the fight go on, you're risking a lucky punch could
potentially hit you and hurt you fair. That's the only
intrigue from Jack's.
Speaker 3: Unless unless and Joshua, you know, is able to beat
him up a little bit but just can't quite get
him out of there quick and Jake is maybe a
little bit damaged, and you know, is not is more
defensive mind that, and can't really throw back and just
sort of takes a beating for a little while. But again,
if this thing does get into that later part of
the fight, remember it's only an eight rounder. I mean,
I think Joshua was spending his entire career going twelve
rounds for the most part. I mean he has He
did have a ten round schedule fight when he fought
Frances Naganu, but that was a quick ko in the
second round. But that was obviously because Naganda was not
an experienced boxer. But if you go back and look
at Anthony Joshua's career other than that Naganu fight that
took place, which was the quick knockoutler obviously special circumstances
and not being a real fighter as far as boxing goes,
it's certainly an mma. Anthony Joshua had not had a
ten round schedule fight since his prospect days when he
stopped a fighter named Kevin Johnson in the second round
in twenty fifteen, so a full decade ago, and all
the longer because that's.
Speaker 2: Much much less an eight round fight. This is an
eight round fight, not round fight.
Speaker 3: His previous fight before the Kevin Johnson fight, which was
earlier in twenty fifteen, was an eight round schedule fight
against the legendary raphael A Zombano and turn him in
to the stars who fought everybody so he could do
twelve rounds in a sleep.
Speaker 2: Listen, it's anything else strike you from the press conference
or any of this. They did do the weigh ins,
as you mentioned. As we go to the build up
now for Friday night, anything else strike you? Before this beginning.
Speaker 3: Little jovial like they were joking around, which I don't
really like to see.
Speaker 2: I don't that lends to what some people are saying.
Something else is going on here.
Speaker 1: And I like the I don't. I don't.
Speaker 3: Here's the thing. I mean, there's a fine line. I
like when guys show sportsmanship. I like when guys you know,
don't get into fistfights that weigh ins and nonsense like that.
But you know, I also expect there to be you know,
if you want to call each other some names and
make some threats and threat and knock out it, I
know you want to gully bump a little bit. I mean,
you want there to be some kind of tension, like
because these guys are going to go to battle.
Speaker 1: I get it. So you know, I don't know. I
don't like that.
Speaker 2: Give me your thought. I take that as they've already
won because the public we've bought in figuratively I'm talking
about we've bought in. They are making tens of millions
of dollars. What happens, whatever happen, they've already won. Jake
Paul has already won. He's gotten himself into a main
event in Miami with the former unified heavyweight champion without
having to fight any contender at heavyweight or establish himself
against anybody. So he's won in the air quotes. He's
with it in the publicity sense and in the financial sense.
And I think that's why you see I will cup
the jovial stuff.
Speaker 3: I will quote the great philosopher Floyd Mayweather. Yeah, who
once told me years and years ago, and I asked
him about the prospect of I don't remember what fight
it was, but the prospect of a lost in one
of his big megafights, and he looked at me dead
in the eye and he said something to the effect of,
you know what, when you're making this much money.
Speaker 1: There ain't no losers. Yeah, that's sort of the thing.
I mean.
Speaker 3: These guys are making like in the thirty million dollar
plus range for this fight.
Speaker 1: Yes, I mean.
Speaker 3: And the good thing for us in the public is
we'll see the fight if we choose to watch it,
and it doesn't cost anything beyond your normal subscription. So
it is not pay per view, because I have to say,
if this was on pay per view, it probably would
still do it's business just because of the freak show
sort of.
Speaker 2: Hey, hey, let's say this, this is the truth. Jake
Paul's done an amazing job of bringing extra attention, publicity, audience,
sellout arenas everywhere that he's been fighting. All right, and
this is fair for some segment of the fight fan,
combat sports fan, or people that are looking for entertainment.
They haven't cared what Anthony Joshua was doing in Europe
and haven't been watching him and don't really know who
he is. I'm talking about the non boxing fan, the non.
Speaker 1: Hardcoreican in America.
Speaker 2: That's correct in America. So at this point, he's at
least energized interest in a heavyweight fight, even if Jake
is a complete novice, like what David Payin and Ricky
Carroll were saying, you're talking about a novice fighter in
terms of accomplishment and experience. He's still done. Credit to
him an amazing job of creating interest in the heavyweight
landscape in the United States, if only for one night,
and if only if Joshua was not gonna wipe him out.
Speaker 3: Do we have to address the prospect of what happens
if Joshua loses. I remember the last time he came
to the United States, he got knocked up by Indy Ruis.
Speaker 2: I think it's a very remote possibility, but we have
to acknowledge it is a possibility that Jake Paul hits
him and suddenly he's tentative, and suddenly he's not aggressive,
and then what happens or what if he catches him
clean coming in. That's where we'll move on here in
a second. But you and I have been going over this.
Let's go over at one more time. Do we believe
that Anthony Joshua will cautiously approach the beginning of the fight,
or will Anthony Joshua will come right towards him within
the first minute, if not the first thirty seconds, And say,
prove to me that you can keep me away from you.
Speaker 1: Show me that. What do you think I think he
goes for it.
Speaker 3: I'm not saying it's going to be reckless, like you
know Hackler, hearns, but I'm saying he's not gonna lay
back and feel him out. And j Game's a jet
I mean Anthony Joshua. And the thing I liked about
the way Anthony is approaching the fight at least, you know,
if he's if he's being on the up and up
about it. When he spoke at the press converence and
I wrote about this in my the top stuff in
my in my big notebook that's on my substack, or
that the subscribers got in the newsletter today. He talked
about people who don't like that he's taking this fight
because like he's lending his you know, his name, or
his popularity or his credibility, his accomplishments to a fighter
like Jake Paul that's not done anything as a boxer
other than you know, make a lot of noise and
not fight anybody. So his his thing was, you know,
I know that I have to carry boxing on my
back with this fight. And if that's his mentality, that
I have to carry boxing on my back with this fight.
That does not mean going in there and fucking around
in the first round. That means going in there and
getting rid of a guy who a lot of people
think is an interloper, who doesn't belong and in this
man's you know, party, to get rid of him quickly.
So I think he's going to have that mentality, you know.
I say this, don't take Anthony Joshua's kindness because he's
an for weakness.
Speaker 2: Especially in this situation. All right, so we've said a bunch,
they'll have the fight. This is the first mention. We
will be on you and I in the aftermath of
the main event from Miami when it is over, when
the Netflix broadcast is over on our YouTube page exclusively
on the Big Fight wee can YouTube page, You and
I will do a post fight show and we'll recap
some of the undercard as well that we're about to
talk about, but mainly whatever happens with this Anthony Joshua
Jake Paul fight. And by the way, you did you
did pose it, so I will I will just simply
follow up here one more time that if somehow Anthony
Joshua loses this fight. He's finished. He is absolutely finished,
and we never get to I mean, what's the There's
no value to a Tyson Fury fight at that point
if you've lost to Jake Paul after being knocked out
by Duboi. But I think that is so remote that
it might as well be on the moon. As I
like to say, I just don't see it happening, don't.
I don't see it happening. It may take a little while,
but there you go. But anyway, you and I look
forward to recapping it. Be with us on the YouTube page.
It will be live, will take interaction. It's exclusively on YouTube,
not on Twitter, not on any other platform, Facebook, any
of that. Come find us on the Big Fight Weekend
YouTube page Friday night and we'll be promoting that as well.
When everything is over late night Friday night, early Saturday morning,
Eastern Time, Central Time, etc. You and I will be
on for a little bit recapping this fight, because let's
be honest, if you're listening to this podcast right now,
you're intrigued by what's gonna happen, and none of us
really know what's gonna happen, and we're gonna be ready
to talk about it with whatever happens fair, Yes, agreed,
I think so, all right. Rest of the card, Alicia
Bombgardner is the co feature fighter, three belt unified Women's
Junior lightweight champion. We don't know a lot about the
French Canadian opponent, Leila Bowden. That's the second best fight,
but it's more about what bomb Gardner might have if
she is impressive after this fight. But go ahead and
give me a little bit on that in the preview month.
Speaker 3: Well, she's the undisputed, She was the undisputed champion in
her weight class. She gave up the WBC title much
in the same manner that Amanda Serrano vacated the featherweight
title of the WBC because she was undisputed I should
say at featherweight, and the reason was because the WBC
will not approve or sanctioned women's boxing matches to be
anything other than ten rounds and two minute rounds. Serrano
has long advocated for three minute rounds, and Alicia Bomgarner
wanted to do the same thing. So not only did
she vacate the title to make this fight with go
to win a fight in which the rounds are three
minutes long, they're actually doing twelve rounds for a female
boxing title fight. So obviously the commission in Florida signed
off on that, the opponent had to sign off on that,
otherwise she wouldn't have gotten the fight. So there's that
element of it. This is a women's fight that not
only is going to be three minute rounds, but also
twelve round saying merles apply as will for the men
in general terms, and so she's out, I guess prove
similar concept to what Serrano says, that the women are
perfectly capable of doing the same kinds of things in
the ring that the men do. But like you mentioned,
if she wins the fight and her opponent and Bedowin
is not, you know, she's not maybe the most known fighter.
She's got a good record, she's thirteen and one, but
she only has two knockouts, so the power is not
so much there and she doesn't really have a lot
of accomplishment. She was only fighting, you know, much lesser
type opponents. She did step up and fight a woman
named Elon mccalin, who was in a common opponent that
Alicia fought also, who was I guess within boxing circles,
and you know, a pretty known fighter out of France
who fought Alicia and lost a ten round decision tour
in twenty twenty three, also in a challenging for the
world title and listen at the end of the day MVP.
Although Jake Paul obviously is their big name fighter that
they that they have, he's not, you know, the co
owner of the company. They've made their name within boxing
by promoting women's boxing. I mean they are the premier
promoter for women. They've signed so many of the top females.
They obviously have a man to Toronto on their roster.
They did they were doing all three of the fights
with Katie Taylor, and she's one of the people that
they promote, but they also have signed lots of other women.
So for example, they recently signed just in the last
week or two, Caroline Dubois, who was the sister of
Danie who was the WBC's women's lightweight champion. Certainly, if
bomb Garner is successful defending one hundred and thirty pound title,
I don't think it's like the next fight necessarily, but
if they want to make a pretty big fight for
women's boxing, bomb Garner against Dua would certainly fit the bill,
and so they'll look for those types of fights. So
she's in the co feature and we'll see how that goes.
You know, Netflix has shown a willingness to put on
the women's fights. They put on the Katie Taylor Serrano
two when Jake, Paul and Tyson fought their fight that
was one of the undercard in the co feature they did.
Then they all women's card earlier this year where the
third fight headlined, but the rest of the main card
was all female world title fights. So they're going to
get Alicia some nice exposure with this type of positioning
on this card and you move on. Now there's four fight. Now,
there's a whole bunch of other fights on the preliminary
card which are on the Netflix Sports YouTube and the
MVP YouTube, and there's other women's title fights on Thatchernikah
Johnson is defending the undisputed Women's VANDAM waight title. I
mentioned the Caroline Dubois title defense against Camilla Panetta. You
have Jocasta Vaye, who's an excellent female champion. She's defending
the WBC Women's Strawway title. And there's other fights as well.
But in terms of the main card, besides Jake Paul
and a man to Toronto. You also have and this,
you know, this sort of fits the the mo of MVP.
They're they're doing a little bit of a hybrid kind
of you know, unusual type of fight. Two of the
most famous MMA fighters obviously are Anderson Sova, considered by
many to be, you know, one of the poundful pound
grades of all time in that sport. You have Tyron Woodley,
also a former UFC champion. They are both guys who
came to boxing that Jake Paul defeated the outpointed Anderson
Silva a few years ago. He beat Tyron Woodley twice,
including by a monstrous knockout. So yeah, Anderson Silva and
Tyron Woodley are fighting in an official boxing match in
the cruiserweight division, a sixth rounder, so we'll see what
they can do.
Speaker 2: We saw that, we saw Silva beat you mentioned Chavez Junior.
He beat Chavez Junior in an actual boxing match. I
honestly don't know as Tyron Woodley won another boxing match
or two since the Jake Paul knocked out back three.
Speaker 3: I believe he's got I believe he's only got the
two uh.
Speaker 2: The two fights with j Paul and and again he fought.
I still remember this in all the build up he
fought as a welterweight in the UFC. He was moving
up to a heavier way to fight. The uf weights
are different than the I understand that. But he's you know,
he's a smaller guy.
Speaker 1: Right he is. Oh, he is.
Speaker 3: I just looked it up while we're talking. He's oh
and two in boxing. And the second Jake Paul fight
was in December of two thousand and one. He hasn't
had a boxing matcher. I don't think so.
Speaker 2: I don't know really what I mean. This is just
two guys on the four years uf Yeah, UFC guys.
Speaker 3: But they're they're well known guys. I mean they're they're
they're big names obviously within UFC and within m m
A in general. And also if you take a look
at the record of Anderson Silva as a boxer, he
has not had a boxing match since he lost the
decision to call back in the later part of twenty
twenty two. So they're both coming off boxing layoffs, and.
Speaker 2: They both got paid big to do what they did
with Jake Paul.
Speaker 3: I guess all right as far as boxing goes, And
then you know, and I'm looking this is the opening fight,
I believe on the on the main card, you have
the excellent United States Olympian Jamal Harvey, the junior lightweight
who was going to have a second professional fight against
a fighter named Kevin Servante's. This was a fight that
was originally scheduled back when Jake Paul was supposed to
fight against Servante Davis back in November. When that fight
was canceled, his fight ultimately was just moved to this card.
He's an excellent looking young prospects scorer, you know, look
good in this pro debut and I'm anxious to continue
following his development as a professional.
Speaker 2: All Right, So all of that again is Friday night
and you'll get a little more. Also again I second plug.
Go back and hear Christina Poncher talking about the women's
fights and what it means and etc. And she's given
you some great insight on being involved with the broadcast.
Maro Ronalo is on the call. The former Showtime boxing
announcer David Hey, the British heavyweight, is on the call
with Christina Poncher. They're the main broadcasters on Tomorrow.
Speaker 3: Tomorrow is known now as the guy that does the
big Uh. Does the PBC pay per views also correct?
Speaker 2: Yep, so check that out all right? Uh so we
did have this is interesting some fights midweek, the teak
In Promotions card in Tokyo saw the WBA Bantamweight Championship
stay with say Yasussume fighting the legendary Nito don Air.
Nito don Air. All right, so recap this because honestly,
with everything going on this week, I had to get
to my Dan Rayfaeld, substack and on social media to
find out more about what had happened and where I
know you're always locked in breakfast in Japanese boxing.
Speaker 3: So it wasn't breakfast in boxing because there was no
American outlet. This was not live on a YouTube. This
is not live on a top rank ESPN Plus or
at a fast channel. This was scour fucking YouTube like
after the fact and see if you can fucking find
the fight, which I did, if not in the greatest
wow out of your level of completeness like I would see,
but I did manage to watch the fight.
Speaker 1: This was a really good fight. I know.
Speaker 3: Donair is forty three years old, and you know, obviously
in the twilight of his career. If he had won
the fight, he'd broke his own record as the oldest
fighter to ever win a bantamweight title. And they put
on a great war. I mean, I don't have any
more of them. At forty three, Dona Airs got left.
But assume he is, you know, twenty nine years old
and you know, probably in his prime or thereabouts.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: They fought a badass fight and in the end it
was Assumi who was the better man over the second
half of the fight. That want a decision, It was
a split decision. It was you know, hard to score.
I mean what I was watching one seventeen one eleven
and one fifteen to one thirteen for s assuming One
Judge had one sixteen to one to twelve for Donair.
All's so funny about it? Well, no, this is sometimes
that you can understand. I mean, sometimes it makes no sense.
Sometimes it's the kind of fighter like I get it.
Speaker 2: But I mean, one seventeen one eleven means that judge
had nine rounds for SUSUMEI and then one sixteen one
to twelve means that judge had eight rounds for Donair.
And you're saying the rounds were that close and hard
to score.
Speaker 1: It was it was it was a that kind of fight.
Speaker 3: But the thing that was interesting if you take a
look at the scorecard, and I I uh, I have
I looked at a copy of the score card. The
way down Air got off to a great start. I mean,
he won the first seven rounds on one scorecard, he
won the first five rounds on another scorecard, and he
won three of the first four on the third score card.
And he broke to whom he's nose, you know, in
that first part in the first few rounds of the fight.
But then Tosume Me, you know, got himself together, was
able to make a comeback, and he almost got knocked
out in the fourth round.
Speaker 1: Tosume Me.
Speaker 3: At the end of that round, don't Eric hit him
with a bunch of shots, including a big right hand
that made him do a big dipsy doodle. A referee
almost you know, was standing right there. He almost knocked
almost knocked him down, and then the round ended, so
he didn't really have a chance to follow up. And
when he came out in the next round, he just
could not he could not finish him off, and he
basically he let that moment escape to assume he had survived,
you know, I call it the crisis, and he was
able to kind of gather himself and really do a
good job. Late in the fight, he you know, and
don Air was fading a little bit, and uh, you know,
the younger guy, the fresher guy, I guess ended up winning.
You know what was a fairly close fight other than uh,
you know, the near knockout that he took in the
fourth round or near knockdown anyway, and uh, look, don't Air,
you know, even at this age, to put on that
kind of performance, it was pretty impressive. But uh look,
I love knowing you know, Donaire as much as anybody.
I've covered him for basically his whole career as a
championship level fighter. I've known him for a long time.
I know his family, his wife, they're they're great people.
Uh you know, but enough is enough, it seems to me.
I mean, he's going to be a first bout Hall
of Famer. You know, he's been doing some commentary. He's
done commentary on some of the MVP shows that they've
done with his own. I don't know what's next for him,
but you know, whenever it's over three years later, he's
going to be a first bout Hall of Famer. The
guy's done everything, titles in multitude of divisions, from him
to featherweight.
Speaker 2: And by the way, we saw obviously one of the
greats right now in In in a way the monster
destroy him and that was back what three years ago,
I think in their rematch, three or four years ago,
and he continued, He's continued to fight on. But you
really wonder what I mean, you already have the record
for the the oldest bantamweight champion ever. You've been. You've
been a multi time world champion in a couple of divisions.
Speaker 3: So I'm with he's unified. He's been the fighter of
the year. He had the knockout of the year. He
gave No in a way, probably the toughest fight of
his professional career when he lost a close decision in
the I forget what year was, but it was the
fight of the year that year. You know, listen, he's
gonna have to figure it out. But I wish nothing
but the best for no Nato Dunar Sasumi. You know,
he gets a signature victory for himself, and so that
was a great That was a tremendous fight for.
Speaker 2: What about the rest of the card? What else was known?
Speaker 3: So the other the other fights. There were two other
world title fights on the card. He had Renee Santiago
who had one of the one hundred and eight pound titles.
He had Kaisuki Tommy Takami who had the other one
of the other titles. There was a w BA WO
title unification fight. This was a pretty good fight. I
mean it was another split decision, a very close call.
The Santia I think kind of just out hustled in
the end. I mean, that was really what it sort
of came down to. He ended up winning again. It
was a it was a split decision once seventeen to
one eleven. It was the same scores as a don't
air fight, one sixteen to to one, fifteen, one thirteen,
and the other judge had it for the for Tacami
one sixteen to one to twelve.
Speaker 1: They put on a good fight.
Speaker 3: Santiago was sort of like not a guy you would
look at it and say, this guy's gonna be unified.
Champion's thirty three years old. He kind of was journeyman
Isia for the last few years. He got a belt
in Japan in his last fight He's fifteen and four
with nine knockouts, not a big time record. Sometimes in
these lower divisions, like the guys, they find their groove
and the titles though they end up changing hands like
every couple of fights, and that sort of seems the
way that it's going right now in this division. I mean,
congratulations to him. I don't see him as a long
term champion, but he had a big night in a
big moment for his career to unify these titles and
doing so on the road because he went to the home,
you know, country of Tacami and he's coming from Puerto Rico.
I assume it'll be a big celebration for him once
he gets back home, because there ain't a lot of
Puerto Rican world champions at the moment, and certainly not
in the in the sense of a unified champion. We
may have another one at the end of January if
Xanders Ayas unifies the titles at one fifty four, because
he has the fight in San Juan against Peru. But
this's a great accomplishment for Santiago and it was again
it wasn't the caliber of excitement level as the first fight,
but it was pretty good and then you had on
the on the opening of the three fights of the
title fights. Anyway, he had Anthony Olaskagua, who's been generally
fighting in Japan, but he's from Los Angeles. He he
scored a knockout and has retained his title for the
fourth time. He took care of business against another Japanese fighter,
Taku Kawahara, stopped him in the fourth round. Pretty even
fight up until the knockout, but then he just started
laying beating on him and just unloaded like a flurry
of punches in the referee really had no choice but
to step in and to stop that fight. So he
moves on. I mean, he's a guy that's sort of
coming into his own. It seems to me he is
a guy that has a great team behind him with
you know, you know, he's with mister Honda as this
promoter even though he's American, but he has been fighting
in Japan. But Rudy Hernandez is his trainer, one of
the most underrated trainers in boxing. Shares that trainer with
Jento Nakatani and others. So good win for the kid.
And as it wasn't a world title fight, but segu Akui,
who was the former flyweight champion. He was coming back
from having lost his title. He fought in a scheduled
eight round fight just to sort of get back in
the groove, and he knocked out his opponent of Vincent
Lacar in the third round of the eight rounder.
Speaker 2: Well, it's a little midweek recap in Japan, same thing
on Wednesday morning, US time, Wednesday night in Australia, Tim
Zu did make his return over the limit of junior
middleweight technically a middleweight fight, catchweight, whatever you want to
call it. He gets a decision win over Anthony Velasquez,
who I don't really know a whole lot about. Tell
me more anything of note here other than Zoo getting
back up on the bicycle, as we like to say,
and trying to resurrect championship contention if he can eventually.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, listen.
Speaker 3: He looked terrible when he got beat in the July
rematch with Fondora. He basic he quit on the stool
after like round seven or so. He had been knocked
down in the first round, he had been cut. So
he had a second loss to Fandora, but in a
much more dominating fashion for Fandora after the first fight,
which was the blood Death we all remember, the very
you know, made on short notice, was a great fight,
but he had suffered that terrible cut to a scalp.
The rematch was a domination by Fandora, so he just
got his ass kicked. And remember before that he had
had a home fight to sort of shake the cobwebs off,
like this one was meant to be when he went
home and he had a fight over against your boy
Joey Spencer. But before before that he had been annihilated
by Bakram Ortazalev when he challenged for the title and
he got dropped. He got dribbled off the canvas about.
Speaker 2: Fours and stopped in Orlando.
Speaker 3: So that was so he's in the position where he
come into this fight having lost three of his last
four fights, twice the Fandora in title fights, once the
Baker Man a title fight, and just to win against
Joey Spencer, which was the handpicked sort of lesser type opponent.
Now to sort of salvage his career, he had another
sort of same thing, a hand picked opponent not even
at the same level as Joey Spencer. They they picked
out Anthony Velaskas, who was on defeated going into the fight.
But he's basically like a New England club fighter. He's
from Massachusetts. If you take a look at his record,
he fought predominantly on that New England club scene. They
did their right scouting, they brought him in. He was
tough man, he gave a good effort, but he just
was out outclassed. They fought the fight, as you mentioned,
over the limit. It was a catchwaight of one hundred
and fifty seven pounds. There was no reason to make
one to fifty four. It was only a ten rounder.
Just sort of get back in the groove. And I
didn't think that Zoo looked that great, but he certainly
had enough to be the guy like Alaskas, who was
a willing participant but just outclassed in every which way.
And so when you looked at the final cards, he
had two guys scored the fight one hundred to ninety
which is a shoutout. Obviously he had another fight another
judge scored one hundred to ninety one, which I guess
that means there was a ten ten round in there somewhere.
So he gets back on the winning side. Of the track,
and you know, we'll see what's next. I don't know
if he's planning to go back to one fifty four
or if he's gonna want to move up to one sixty.
I guess they're going to discuss that. Incidentally, Also, I've
note this was his first fight under the tutelage of
the trainer Pedro Diaz, who has a tremendous amount of
respect within the business. He had parted ways with his
career long trainer Igor Agolobev, who is his uncle as well.
That's the uh, the brother of I guess it's the
brother of of Costa Zoos.
Speaker 2: I think it's I think it's uh Costazoo's sisters husband.
I think we straighten all of that out.
Speaker 1: Yes, they've been together his whole career.
Speaker 3: So they split or he left him and went to
work with Pedro down in Miami, Florida, where he's based
out of. And uh, we'll see if he can bring
him back. And then and one thing at tim seems
to have the desire to do it, and that's a big
part of it, to sort of right the wrong. But
can he get back to the top level. You know,
you'd be you'd be foolish if you weren't skeptical.
Speaker 2: Let's put yeah to be determined, because those were again
the matas we talked about this, and the Fundura defeats
were hard losses, knocked out badly by Martaz Alive and
then brutally stopped by Fundura. So stay tuned, stay tuned
on Tim Zoo, who obviously had a rising career in Australia,
and I think the argument can be made once he
came to the United States and stepped up in competition.
I mean, there you go, all right, other news Oh.
Speaker 1: Hey, oh hey, hey, about.
Speaker 2: Thirty five minutes into the show. First of all, you
need to fess up Southern term. Did you have any
clue that Terrence Crawford was looking to retire? Tell us
the truth on the pod. Had you even heard a
murmur about that?
Speaker 3: I mean, it's always something you might think about when
a guy.
Speaker 2: Was but you hadn't heard a murmur he might be
thinking of quitting. You had I mean, you would be
the most plugged in person to ask you hadn't even
heard a murmur he might be looking at hanging it up.
You hadn't heard that.
Speaker 1: I hadn't.
Speaker 3: And the reason I hadn't heard that was because there
had been not from the Crawford side, but from team Canelo.
There was conversations that they were looking at doing that
Canelo was not going to have a spring fight like
he would typically have in the May time frame, and
then they would wait and do a rematch against Terrence
Cowford in September. Eddie Reinoso, who was obviously the manager
and trainer of Canelo, who obviously wields a lot of
influence and certainly knows what's going on when it comes
to Canelo's boxing career, was on Mexican television TVs TECH,
which is one of the big broadcasters there. They do
a lot of boxing, was talking about that plan. But
it does take two to tango, so they can talk
about their plans all they want, right if the other
guy is not willing or interested to do it now, listen,
I have heard behind the scenes that Crawford probably would
have done the fight, but he had a certain price
tag in mind, and if Turkey or whoever wasn't going
to meet the price tag, you know, I'm gonna just retire.
I just made like sixty million dollars for the fight.
Speaker 1: Again. Canelo and I'm good.
Speaker 2: So now we fast forward to Thursday evening, I'm not sorry,
Tuesday evening. As we do this Thursday Tuesday evening, suddenly
there's a video. And as I like to joke with you,
that was not the McDonald's drive through version of putting
out a retirement video. That is something that took some
time to put together, with him voicing it over, very
well done production wise, with him announcing for five minutes
that this is it and this is why I am retiring.
So I have to say I was shocked when I
saw that, because I really thought there was probably one
more big fight or something that he was seeking. Then again,
the more that I've considered it, what else is out
there that he has to challenge himself with at this point?
So I understand it from that viewpoint. All right, I
said a lot. What are your thoughts now that the
video came out that Terrence Crawford says he's retired.
Speaker 1: Well, you make the right point.
Speaker 3: The reason why I give this a lot of credence
is because, as you and I joke before we started,
this was not Tyson Fury waking up one morning and
grabbing his phone and you know, going on a rant
for forty five seconds, saying I'm retired and ending his
video after he posted to his social media this was
as you mentioned, this is a thoughtful video that took
time to make to produce, that was very slickly done
to get him to narrate it, where he you know,
spent five minutes talking about what he had done, why
he was doing this, you know, given the thanks to
all the people that were helpful to his career, whether
it was family members, the guys in the gym with him,
his promoters that he's worked with, different people of that
eld Turkey Alshik of course, and others, and called it
a day. And it is unusual, especially when you get
to the point where you're at the level where you're
still really really good. I mean, he walks away essentially
as the pound for pound number one, two or three
at worst. You know, as we've discussed many times, it's
him in a way, and it was sick in that
upper echeline and then everybody else. So he walks away
with that. Now, maybe he wasn't going to get you know,
one hundred million dollars or something like that for a
rematch with Canelo, but trust me, he could still command,
you know, very very strong, you know, twenty thirty forty
fifty million dollars type persons I would imagine for certain fights.
But the combination of not having an obvious opponent other
than a rematch with Canelo, which I'm not against, but
I just don't think the public really would have cared
as much. So while the fight would have been fine,
I think if you're on Netflix or you're a Turkey
wherever's putting up the money, you would be willing to
do it, but not at that same time you're gonna
be taking a reduction.
Speaker 1: He probably didn't.
Speaker 2: And I said this to you, and I want to interject,
he doesn't have anything to prove by fighting Canelo Alvarez again.
He already beat him, right, But I mean, you've made
tons of money off the Spence undisputed fight. You made.
You made a good chunk of money. I don't know
exactly what he made in the in the fight with
madram Off, and now with this fight with Canelo. It
can't just be about the money. It's generational wealth type
stuff that you've gotten in the last.
Speaker 3: Three years, well in excess of one hundred million dollars.
Speaker 2: It is a couple of hundred million at this with
the Spence well, with the Spence fight and with a
Canelo fight.
Speaker 3: You don't know, No, I know so not, but it's
still mind figures. And keep in mind he doesn't live
in Los Angeles Manhattan. He lives in Omaha, Nebraska. Correctly,
the bashing of a high high cost.
Speaker 2: I will pose it this way. I will pose it
this way, and I think this I don't. I don't
know Terrence Crawford. I've never actually interviewed him. I've heard
him be interviewed. But I think part of this is
I walk away saying nobody ever beat me. Thing is Mayweather,
same thing as andre Ward in the present. You mentioned
Joe kal Zagi, who's the bigger UK star, the European star,
than than what we know we famously know. Rocky Marciano
walked away at the height of everything. It's before our time,
but at the height of everything as the heavyweight champ.
He walked away. But I think part of this is
I can walk away and say nobody beat me.
Speaker 3: He walked away also because it's a matter of in
his words, basically, I beat the system. Yes, I was
a guy that wasn't known out of the amateurs by
that many people. I fought my way to the top.
I had my battles with promoters, you know, obviously not
you know, he had a great run with Top Rank,
but at the end it was not great, partly because
he was frozen out from the PBC top guys, because
there was still the all encompassing battle between Top Rank
and PBC, so he was as Aero. Spence famously said,
you're on the other side of the street, and that
became an issue. So if you take a look at
the title defenses that Crawford made at the latter stages
of his welterweight run, be prior to the fight with
Sean Porter, you know, he was stuck fighting the remnants
of Amir Khan, and I guess Kabalaska's a good fighter,
but not well known, you know, just not big names
and not big fights unfortunately. But he persevered, he got
it done and he made his money. And I think
also there's something to be said for walking away at
the top. If he truly stays retired, his legacy will
continue to grow as time passes. When Lennox Lewis retired,
now he wasn't undefeated, but he retired as the heavyweight champion,
and his legacy has grown astronomically since that day. He
walked away and gave up the title, and so it's uncommon,
but there's guys have done it. It's not a lot
of guys that walk away when they have a chance
to still make career money. Lennox could have taken the
rematch with Vladimir with rather with Batally Clitchko, perhaps moved
on to Vladimir Klitchko fight which WO paid him huge
amounts of money. Andre Ward had just beaten Sergey Kovola
for the second time, was at the height of his
earning power. He walked away. Terrence Crawford is in a
simi situation. So it doesn't happen a lot, but it
does happen from time to time. And you know, listen,
if he's retired, you know, good good luck to congratulations.
He had a hell of a career. And I'll get
my Hall of Fame ballot in three years and certainly
check mark his name. No problem there. If he does
decide to come back, it wouldn't be a total shock
to anybody.
Speaker 2: No, And they all come back, it seems like.
Speaker 3: But they but andre didn't and anlyntics, didn't you know?
So it does happen. The great rumor, by the way,
is that Rocky Marciana retired and never will look back.
The reality was before he was killed in a plane crash.
If you go back and read like that the stuff
of the times, he was talking about coming back. He
just didn't live long enough to do so, because he
unfortunately was killed in the plane crash. But if he
hadn't been killed in the plane crash, there's a really
good chance we had Rocky Martin.
Speaker 2: He still is. He still is in the lore the
standard of nobody ever beat him. I agree, Uh, Floyd
Mayweather can say the same thing. I will say what
I said to you earlier on the bet Us Show
when we were talking about this. I will believe Terrence
Crawford is retired. If next Chris US next holiday season,
Terrence Crawford hasn't fought anybody. Stay tuned.
Speaker 1: Here's here's another aspect of Theaytun Who.
Speaker 2: And the bigger question is who is it that would
lure him out of this? And I don't know that
there is one, So go ahead.
Speaker 3: So to me, it's one thing when a man retires
or a woman retires. But if they hold their titles
and they announce a retirement, then the thing becomes okay, Well,
when do you tell the organizations, you know, thank you
on retiring, and here's your belt back or your title back.
They get the obviously keep the physical belt. When Lennox
Lewis retired as I'll bring him up again, he had
a press conference announced his retirement and then promptly gave
up the WBC title. Sometimes it doesn't quite work like that.
In the case of Terrence Crawford, he has vacated the
WBO title. I checked with his team. I checked with
the WBO, and he has notified them that that title
is now vacant. They still are going through the process.
They'll they'll notify. I'm sure you know it'll they'll get
to it in the coming days. I guess they'll notify
the WBA and the IBF. I also checked with those
organizations well, and received word back from both of them
that they had not yet heard from Terrence Crawford as
related to the title situation, but that will come. And
Doue time here obviously had been stripped by the WBC
because of their beef about the lack of payment for
sanction fees for the previous two fights. But when a
fighter announced the retirement and then promptly starts giving up
his belts, that's when I take it seriously. You combine
that with the video that was that was a thoughtful
piece for them to do, you know, and it adds
up and you know, maybe he's done.
Speaker 1: I know. We always want to say, we always want.
Speaker 3: To be contrary and and and and suspectful that it's
not you know, real in terms of like what their
reasons are. Sometimes guys just say, you know what, you
know what, I've had a great career, I made a
shitload of money.
Speaker 1: I'm healthy.
Speaker 2: Let me put it to you this way. It would
not surprise me if in I'm not calling my shot here.
But if in the next sixty days Alexander Usik says
I'm done, that wouldn't surprise me because at this point,
what else is there for him to put.
Speaker 3: Usik's probably gonna fight Deontay.
Speaker 2: Wilder, maybe whatever. But if he were to say in
January February, I'm done, I would believe him. What else
is there to prove? You've made tons of bank with
the with the last few fights, you've had. It's not
about the wealth, it's not about who you have to
fight anymore. He didn't have to fight Deontay Wilder, just like.
Speaker 1: No he wants to fight. Probably gonna happen by stay tuned.
Speaker 3: But even if but hold on DJ, even if that
does happen, it's not like Alexander usiks in it for
the long term. He did some interviews and he posted
some stuff on hold On, hold On where he said
I'm fighting for three more years.
Speaker 1: I'll believe that one I saw.
Speaker 2: Oh, I agree with you on that. And my premise
was if he were to suddenly announce you know what,
I'm good, I would not shock me. It would not
shock me. You're at the end, you're undefeated. You can
once again say nobody beat me. So stay tuned, stay
tuned on that. A couple of other news items before
you and I are done. You did mention Amanda Serrano
before would she possibly be a name with Alicia Baumgardner.
We obviously she's aligned with MVP. MVP is going to
do an opponent switch because of an irregular or what
is the word atypical it's a drug to a typical
drug finding for the opponent Erica Cruz. So a new
opponent for Serrando's January third about in Puerto Rico. That's
coming sooner than you realize. It's coming here in a
couple of weeks. Yeah, go ahead, what's the latest?
Speaker 3: The latest is on Wednesday, or maybe it was Tuesday
for say was I reported that they had dropped Cruise
from the fight and that they were replacing her with
a fighter named Raina Teyes And that was you know,
per my sources about that. And then just before we
came on this zoom call to record this podcast, I
had received the press release from MVP that in fact,
that's what's happening. They have replaced Erica Cruz with the Teyas.
So that's going to be the fight. So'll defend her
WBO and WBA featherweight titles in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
A homecoming fight for January third against Tyas and Erica Cruz.
She had had a phenomenal battle with her back in
twenty twenty three, was like one of the best women's fights,
not just a fight of the year type fight, but
like one of the greatest women's fights you'll ever see.
And they were going to do a rematch, But the
combination of the atypical fighting, which in the word atypical,
this is a Vonda test. There's adverse, which means it's
a positive test, and atypical means it's something other than adverse,
but it needs to have more testing, So they decided
to drop Crews from the fight. I think if she
didn't have a previous testing issue, they probably maybe would
have gone through with it. But the problem was back
in a couple of years earlier in twenty twenty or
last year. In twenty twenty four, she had a draw.
At a time she was the bba's one hundred and
twenty two pounds champion, she had a fight where she
tested positive for a banned substance that was like a
hardcore steroid. She ultimately was stripped of the title. That
fight ended up as a draw, but she was stripped
because of that drug test. Now, the substances were different
in that fight in twenty twenty four. It was a
hardcore drug standisol which is if that he remembers, that
was Ben Johnson many years ago. In the case of
what happened in her atypical finding that just was returned
from Vada, it was for the substance clembuterol, which is
something that has become unfortunately very common when it comes
to Mexican athletes. Famously, that was what Canelo Alvarez had
his positive drug test for. They've changed the levels because
of so much a contamination that takes place with the
food supply in Mexico. But Serrano was well within her
rights if she had a positive test in twenty four,
and now she's got one. That's not quite right here
in twenty five, we're the star.
Speaker 1: We're dropping.
Speaker 3: We're going to fight Taz instead. Taa is not a
well known fighter eighteen and two with a draw in
four knockouts. But this is the man the Serrano show anyway.
Speaker 2: Okay, so again that's for January, third new opponent. We
did make mention of this, I know you wanted to
repeat this that Badu Jack did go to the hospital
after the Michalean fight on Saturday night with a fractured
cheek bone. He put that on social media. We were
talking about that in the aftermath. Doesn't appear to be seriou.
And here we are again wondering is this fighter going
to retire at forty two years of age?
Speaker 3: Yeah, like you said forty two, he'd just come off
of a was a wasn't like a hard, hard, ruling,
physical fight, but at forty two he certainly faded in
the second half of the fight. Mckellian was, you know,
on point, a bigger jab, bigger guy, member of Bad Due.
Even though he was the cruiserweight title holder, he had
previously been a title holder in light heavyweight and super middleweight,
so he's come up, you know, over the years to
much heavier weights. And I saw the picture of him
on a social media in the hospital, had suffered a
broken cheek going in the second half of the fight,
and I just think that that is a very reasonable
understanding of why he may have faded down the stretch,
because if you take a look at Bedu's career, you
know he has had fights where he was really good
in the second half of fights. James de Gale fight,
for example, phenomenal super midaweight battle that turned out to
be a draw, one of the best super middlew fights
you'll ever see. Strong in the second half of that
fight won the first mccallian fight because he closed now
strong and rounds eleven and twelve, and obviously he wasn't
quite the same that he did last Saturday. And you
have to understand if you got a bust of cheek bone,
the fact he still continued to fight while you're getting
hit in the cheekbone.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it.
Speaker 3: Shows you the kind of toughness that I do. Jack
ap so I have a lot of respect for doing
his career.
Speaker 2: One more note, and there's another injury. This is a
fractured orbital bone for the Japanese junior lightweight Hayato Sasumi. Now,
which susume, what's the relation to the other Susume if
there is one that we were talking about earlier in
the show, I don't think.
Speaker 1: He's related to say, yes, assume who is the one
that beat them?
Speaker 2: Assume me to be named later that now has a
fractured orbital bone in training, he was gonna fight the
WBA Junior lightweight champion, James Dickens, but now cannot fight him.
So what's going on here with a replacement opponent or
is the fight you know, Dickens without an opponent or
what what's gonna.
Speaker 1: Happen for the time being?
Speaker 3: The fight just off, I mean, and just so you know,
like even if he and I'm not positive, I don't
think he's related to the bantamweight champion, say yes, assuming,
but he has a brother who was an undefeated prospect
who's also been fighting on these read cards and ring cards,
who's also a good prospect also as assume me. I
get them mixed up to be quite honest, but Heyato
is a little bit more advanced in his professional career.
He's the one that suffered the injury. He was supposed
to fight Dickens on the undercart of next week's fight
on the twenty seventh of December, where the main event
is in a way against a Picasso that also has
Jendo Nakatani on the card against Hernandez, and so Dickens,
you know, unfortunately, you know he's out of the fight.
I'm sure they'll either they'll rescheduled at some point or
they'll find him another opponent on a different card. Dickens,
just so people can understand, you know, you mentioned he's
the WBA Junior lightweight champion. The reason for that is
he had been the interim champion and as unfortunately is
the case with a lot of boxing these days. When
Lamont Roach fought Pitt poll Cruz a couple of weeks
ago at one hundred and forty pounds and hadn't defended
one hundred and thirty pound title in ages because his
previous fight was at one thirty five against Tank Davis.
When the fight started, that title was vacated, and so
at that point Dickens is now upgraded from interim to full.
This was supposed to be the first defense on this
card and it's not being. They're not finding a new
opponent to my knowledge. And remember this cart is essentially
World fighters against Japanese, so they would have maybe limited themselves.
Now you've got to go out and find a decent
contenderish type on a very short notice. Who's Japanese traveling
from Japan all the way to Saudi Arabia. You know,
it just seemed like it wasn't gonna work in that sense.
So I'll hopefully assume he gets better, because he's a
pretty good up and coming fighter. I frankly think I
think he would have beaten James Dickens had they got
the fight going.
Speaker 2: Okay, but that fight not happening, and it doesn't look
like a replacement opponent. With that, we have covered a
bunch here again, you love it one more time? Whatever,
this is gonna be. Did you stop that and was
stay tuned? You know what it is on Saturday. All
I'm saying to you, Ray Phil is if something bonkers happens,
just just know that I was preparing you. Whatever this is,
it will be, Uh, it will be a moment and
you and I will come back around on the Big
Fight wee can you two page Friday night late when
the fight is over, Depending on when they get it started, etc.
It's gonna be after midnight. We're gonna work late in
the night on the YouTube page exclusively, so we'll be
promoting that on social media, et cetera. But that's the
place to watch you and I live live interaction, all
of it on the Big Fight Weekend YouTube page. And
when everything is over this weekend, we will also have
a fight prea q U night recap off the weekend.
Do you want to go ahead and plug what's also
going to be on that podcast on the weekend recap podcast.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're gonna shout.
Speaker 3: We're gonna have my interview that I conducted a couple
of days ago with Jino Nakatati from Japan Beautiful before
he travels to Saudi Arabia for his fight on the
undercart of in Away against Picasso, and obviously a lot
of our conversation besides talking about his fight, which all
respect to Hernandez, this is about the fact that he
and inn Away are on the same card. He is
moving up from bandam weight where he vacated the unified
title to go to junior featherweight. Obviously the reason for
that is in a way is in the weight class
and if he wins, and in a way wins the
main event, they're fighting each other at the Tokyo Dome
in the spring. It will probably be the biggest fight
in the history of Japanese boxing in terms of Japanese
fighter against Japanese fighter. Humongous fight, awesome fight on paper,
and uh we talked about it and it's it was.
Speaker 1: It was. It was the first time I've ever interviewed Nakatani.
Speaker 3: We had a good translator, my Man Moto, who did
a nice job, and some people will be able to
hear us us.
Speaker 2: By the way, you're giving me more of a homework assignment,
because that means I've got to put together the audio
version of the podcast correct where you're gonna hear not
only Dan's questions. You're gonna hear Nakatani's Japanese answers, and
you're gonna hear quote my man Moto relaying them in English.
Speaker 3: And by the way, let me just tell you how
that came about. So I had been dealing with the
folks that are handling the pr for the event, who
are working with in a way and working with Nakatani
and others. We were trying to get me to get
some time within a way, and we just couldn't get
on the same page about my schedule in his schedule.
So unfortunately I did not get a chance to do
the interview with anyway, which would have been good. I
interviewed in a way once years ago when I covered
his fight, his first fight in the United States and
took place in Los Angeles. So I didn't think I
was going to get anybody from the show. I got
hit up like late late whatever night it was.
Speaker 2: It was Monday night.
Speaker 3: It was Monday night, I think it was Monday night,
and it was sort of like like a last gitch, like, hey,
this like ten o'clock, ten thirty at night. I was
in my office, though you know, I don't know if
you're around but we've got Knakatani and this he's in Japan,
so it's like a twelve hour time difference right next day, right,
so he was midday for me, it's late night. They like,
do you think you could do it at like twelve
or twelve thirty am. I'm like, yeah, that's my wheelhouse.
Like I'd much rather do an interview at twelve thirty
at night than you know, six o'clock in the morning
when I'm still asleep usually. So anyway, I was able
to get that done like that was just kind of
lucky that we that I was still in my office
stut and had a nice interview Naka Donny. He's kind
a funny guy. It was good, all right.
Speaker 2: So you will hear that interview on the recap pod
as well as our cover cheer on the podcast feed
of the Jake Paul Anthony Joshua Recap Stay Tuned. Rayfaeld
and I both think it's a Joshua Koh boy. If
it's not, if it's something else, look out.
Speaker 1: Why it's boxing, please, not just us.
Speaker 2: The whole world does, yes, But I mean, this is
why it's boxing, This is why it's different. Stay tuned
Netflix will have it from Miami Friday night for Jake
and Joshua, and again you and I will do the
postfight show on the Big Fight Weekend YouTube page. Then
you and I will come Sunday night into Monday with
the Nakatani interview and with that recap right here on
this pod feed. Other than that, enjoyed everything that's going
to go on with Jake, Joshua and that card, and
let's reconvene late night Friday night, early Saturday on the
YouTube page. Shall wait to recap it. Thank you as always,
Dan Rayfield.
Speaker 1: All right, t JIT, there you go.
Speaker 2: I'm merely TJ Reeves follow, Subscribe, Apple, Spreaker, Spotify. A
lot of coverage on this podcast feed of the Anthony
Joshua Jake Paul fight coming on Friday night. You can
obviously find that we preview going into the weekend, we
recap coming off the weekend. You've been listening to the
Big Fight Weekend Preview podcast