Speaker 1: Well off of a weekend that has seen the Monster
get it done with the unanimous decision win in Saudi
Arabia of all places, and it does look like he
is setting up a matchup with Junko Nakatani, although Nakatani
had problems in his fight. We're going to recap both
of those the entire night of the Samurai Card. We
have some other action to talk about in Japan as
well as in Nigeria. We are worldwide. My Lord on
the Fight Freaks Unit Recap podcast, I am the somewhat
competent host TJ. Reeves. Hello to our insider Dan Rayphiel.
Fight Freaks Unit. Is the substack in the newsletter? I
did not ask this before I hit the record button.
Holiday sales still going on for the subscription of the
news letter or has that passed?
Speaker 2: I'm glad the mirror. Yes, it ends on December thirty first,
So a rights are out there? Yes, newsletter? Yes, and
want to contribute to the cause for the nominal fee, Yes,
you can go on my newsletter now. You can get
a discount for ten percent off and that expires either
for either ten percent off per month or you can
buy a ten percent off for the annual which is
only like seventy five dollars give me a break anyway, right,
and that expires on on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: Yes, But the way I like to put it is,
you either want to be informed or you're not informed.
You're not as informed as you could.
Speaker 2: I mean, some of the on the substack, some of
the stuff is free, not behind the paywall.
Speaker 1: But you know, by and large, if you've got insight
and breaking news and whatever, you want to be on
the substack, you want to be on the newsletter.
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a pop for those who do subscribe and pay for it.
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just say thank you while we're throwing out the bouquets.
You and I will be jousting with plastic silverware soon
enough on this podcast. While we are saying compliments, thank
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We're here. We have done a diligent job for four years,
you and I of previewing going into the weekend, recapping
coming off the weekend, and we're going to recap one
more time.
Speaker 2: And they said it wouldn't last exactly.
Speaker 1: Let me say this further. I have been in Miami,
as we touched on when we departed for the preview pod,
and it has not gone well again, my friend from
my Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Amazingly with all the bad football
that the Bucks fans and media and observers have endured,
seven losses in eight games, still including Sunday in Miama,
still not eliminated from the playoffs. It comes down to
a winner take on game with Carolina this week. I'm
just saying to the audience, if I'm a little shall
I go into the vocabulary bag, I'm a little pensive.
If I'm a little off tonight, there's a reason why.
It's because my NFL team can't make my Sunday nights
enjoyable anymore. The last two months.
Speaker 2: I sat through the New York fucking Football Giants, Yeah,
who have stunk out loud for the better part of
a decade, come to a game on the road where
they were winless this season to play the only other
team in the National Football League there was also two
wins and thirteen losses, knowing that if they lost the game,
they would since the number one pick in the draft,
which is franchise altering whether you make the number one
pick or traded for a boatload of players and draft back.
And what did they do. Not only did they take
the big first half lead, which I wasn't totally sold
they would lose, that they would win because they've blown
so many second half leads this year, but they went
on to route the Las Vegas Raiders. Did they my
entire life, where I ever rooted for them to lose
the game? They fucking won the game. You are still
alive in the playoff.
Speaker 1: I am.
Speaker 2: We couldn't even fucking lose when we needed to lose.
Speaker 1: Exactly. You can't even lose, right, you can't even you
can't even lose to the Raiders right now?
Speaker 2: You got me fired up, man, all right?
Speaker 1: I understand. So we got to get to the boxing
in a few moments. I'm just saying to you this
is kind of therapeutic in some ways too, because we're
talking something other than Baker Mayfield throwing interceptions. The buck
defense can't figure it out, and it's another loss such
as life. All right, uh, final, by the way, we
need to make mention of this final week of the year.
All right, We're gonna do this here recap pod, and
then you and I are gonna have two special podcasts
Monday night into Tuesday for Fighter of the Year, Tuesday
night into Wednesday, which will be New Year's Eve day
afternoon and evening Tuesday night into Wednesday, Fight of the Year.
We're gonna have separate pods on this feed about both,
So recap pod here Monday night Fight Tour of the
Year Tuesday Night Fight of the Year. You and I
shall debate, we'll finish with a bang. We'll do our
own fireworks before Wednesday night here on the pod. All right,
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God's sake, if you enjoy all this, Thank you to
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a five star review does help find the YouTube page
as well for the extra content. We love that. Let's
get into it. I did get a chance to watch
all of this on Saturday before leaving for Miami and Naoya.
In a way, did win, I will say at the top,
and then I will set you three two one blast off.
I really felt like he was trying to wear him
down Picasso and was going to take him out. I'm
a little disappointed is the wrong word. I felt a
little unfulfilled that he didn't go for the KO when
he's a world class fighter. He clearly is better quicker
than Picasso, and it's like he was content that, Okay,
I'll win by decision, I'll win by landslide decision. I've
won most of the rounds. I felt a little unfulfilled
by that. What is your take? He won, He won decisively,
that's all he needed to do. I get that, But
what is your take on what you saw out of
in a way in sauny Arabia.
Speaker 2: I thought, in a way looked absolutely spectacular. I mean,
I know he didn't get the knockout, and he himself
after the fight in his press conference or in his rather,
his post fight interview in the Ring said he was
disappointed with his performance, which a little surprising to me
because he won a shutout one twenty to one aw
eight on one score card, one nineteen to one oh nine
on the other card, which I thought, if you were
going to have any other score other than a shutout,
perhaps you could give Picasso maybe the last round of
the fight, where you know, he did like at least
make the effort and try, and in a way was
obviously you know, I knew he had it in the back.
And then another judge, even in a route gave gave
the score one seventeen to one to eleven. The fact
that Dad Judge could find three rounds to get to
give Picasso is absolutely like a mind fuck to me.
I don't even understand that. That is so bizarre.
Speaker 1: A good way we're gonna get to the chain or
two in the Knakatani fight coming up. But yeah, I don't.
It's a stretch that Picasso won more than a round.
Speaker 2: I would agree, I mean, forget about it. I mean anyway,
but I wasn't disappointing to get the knockout. I mean,
some guys have great chins and they're not going to
get knocked out of it given night. I don't think did.
Speaker 1: You really sense in the back half of the fight
that he was looking to go for big combinations, big punches.
It kind of seemed like by the eighth or ninth round,
it was like, Okay, I can tag him to the
body when I want, I'll put a combination together here
and there. He's not really hitting me. I'm winning the rounds.
Speaker 2: I look, I think that I don't. First of all,
the best fighters don't look for knockouts. They come, I
mean when you land, So I don't think he was
there thinking like I'm I mean, I'm sure he said
he wanted to get a knockout, but I don't think
he was like trying like I'm going to get a
knockout with this next punch. So sometimes you have to
give credit to the opponent. And David Picasso came in
to this fight undefeated. He is a good contender. I
don't think he's even close to the same level as
an inn Away, but he you know, he was coming
down from featherweight. You know, if he sticks around at
one hundred and twenty two pounds, you know, once in
a way leaves the division or if he goes back
to featherweight, like he'll give other good guys, you know,
tough fights and win some of them. I am sure
it's just a different level. So I wasn't disappointed.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: Again we talk about the focus on in a way
not getting a knockedout. I also look at it like
sometimes you have to give the opponent to credit for
not getting knocked out. You know, he was there to
take whatever was coming his way. He was a very
tough fighter, and uh, you know, I give him credit
for hanging in there for twelve rounds and fighting one
of the greatest fighters of our generation and not getting
no doubt.
Speaker 1: There's no doubt. I mean, he is amazing with the run.
Speaker 2: I'm not disappointed, just to be clear a couple things,
but in a way, real quick, he's a great fighter still,
even even though he's now getting a little older. He
has of course risen through the weights. Remember he started
his career in terms of his first world title was
at one hundred and eight pounds. Now he's undisputed one
hundred and twenty two pounds, So I don't think his
power is the same at one twenty two as it
was when he was in a smaller way class payer.
He also has gotten better from just a just the
reps in the activity level, and this was his sports
fight of the year. He's a he's a much better,
I think, guy that uses his speed, angles his jab.
He's not just a gunslinger like he was in his
early days. He's he's refined his style a little bit
and sometimes that's going to lead more to boxing than all.
Speaker 1: Right, So one interesting aspect, And if you were gonna
give Picasso around, I thought the second round might be around.
You gave him. He landed several left hands in the
second round. And one thing we have seen in the fight,
starting with the Luis Nary fight and then with the
Cardinias fight earlier this year, he got dropped by left hands.
Is that something to pay attention to moving forward that
in a way tends to get hit with lefts and
a power puncher might give him problems.
Speaker 2: What say you, Yeah, I mean, that's that's fair. I mean,
but not like they don't know that. I mean, they'll
they'll study that. I mean, obviously, if he does fight
Knakatani in the next fight, like is expected, Knakatani is
a southpaw. He's got a great straight left hand, and
that's gonna be something that that potentially could be problematic.
But uh, you know, he did get knocked down a
couple of times, but how many times has he drilled
guys with body punches with right hands of his own
or taking a good left hand. And just in terms
of the scoring that you mentioned about, you know, what
round could you give Picasso? I'm looking at the official
scorecard Steve Weisfeld, who had it eleven rounds to one
in favor of anyway, he gave Picasso the twelfth round,
which I thought was not out of the realm. Obviously,
one of the judges how today shutout and then one
of the other judges, the one that ridiculously gave Picasso
three rounds. One of the three rounds he gave him
was in fact also the twelfth round. So the twelfth
round was in the majority of the judging panel. That
was really, to me anyway, the only and I didn't
give it to him. I scored to fight a shutout,
but if I was gonna give him one round, it
was the twelfth round. But in a way, look, he's
like old man over these days, he's twenty seven and
oh now in world championship fights in a row. It's
not like some guys have a ton of world title
fight appearances and they have a great record in world
title fights, but they don't necessarily do them all consecutively.
Though when they move up to the next division sometimes
that first or second fight is not A champion in
a way has gone from one division to the next,
to the next to the next, all in world title fight.
So twenty seven consecutive victories in title defense in title
fights rather uh and two division undisputed, four division overall
in terms of world titles. Just a brilliant fighter. And
by the way, with the retirement of Terrence Crawford in
the recent weeks, it is not even a discussion. I
don't think that if you don't have either in a
way or usk as your number one pound for pound,
I just don't respect your list number one and number two.
I thought it was absolutely fucking fantastic that Alexander Usik
was at ringside sitting with Ganati Glovkin by the way,
watching the fight, and after the fight. I don't know
if he and I know I'd ever met previously, but
they met and there's I saw a video on social
media where he was getting in a ways autograph on
his credential. I mean that they shows you.
Speaker 1: That that is, you know, as the kids like to
say game that was game or game respects game. I'm
just gonna say what that's what that is?
Speaker 2: So that I mean two two greats to two time.
I mean, uh, what do you call it in a
way being two division undisputed? You think being two division
undisputed clearly number one and number two or one in
one A or one whatever you want to say, town
for pound. But the fact that they would they would
have that moment. I hope somebody got some good photos
of that because that's a great picture. And they're both gonna,
you know, be Hall of famers someday. I mean, it's
just it's just, look, we can talk about boxing is
not what it once was years ago, and you and
I go back to the eighties when we grew up
watching fights, and maybe even the late seventies. Uh, and
it's certainly not what it was. But I would tell
you that a guy like Alexander Usak and know you
in a way, I don't care what an era you
want to talk about. They would fit in and do it.
Speaker 1: Let's have fun. Can we have fun for ninety seconds?
Speaker 2: Sure?
Speaker 1: In a way, Salvador Sanchez, I know it's a featherweight fight.
Speaker 2: Amazing fight, but I mean because.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to equate it in a way. Pernell Whittaker, right,
was an early featherweight or was he always super featherweight
and lightweight?
Speaker 2: Now he was? He won his first world title at
one hundred and thirty five pounds, So lightweight, they're just
not the same size.
Speaker 1: I mean, give me another one, give me another all
timer in the seventies, eighties, nineties that you would have
loved to have seen in a way fight featherweight junior featherweight, man,
I mean junior featherweight.
Speaker 2: And but I mean obviously him and will fred O Gomez.
I mean he was the big bomber at one twenty
two who had a long stretch of like, you know,
a million knockouts in a row. If you went further down,
you know, when he was at like one hundred and
eight pounds, imagine in a way against like a Michael Carbahall. Oh,
those types of fights. Chiquiita Gonzalez, you know he he's
in the conversation. You know for greatest fighter maybe of
all time anywhere from like flyweight and below. And he's
certainly making a name for himself. He did so at
vandam weight. Look, he became undisputed Bandon White champion, only
the second one in fifty years and at one twenty two.
I don't think he's achieved necessarily on the level of
what will fred O Gomez did, but he is now
in the four belt era that we've discussed. Sometimes he
has more defenses than anybody that's ever won. It's crazy
or four world you know, the unified the four titles.
Speaker 1: This was all the fighters that fight once a year.
This guy has literally fought like ten times in the
last two and a half years.
Speaker 2: Well this was his fourth fight of this year. Yes,
he's now made seven defenses at junior featherweight. Six of
them have been of the four belts. That's the record.
The next guy that's made the most defenses of four
belts is Canelo, who did it four times in his
first run with the super middlewent title. So he's spectacular.
So TJ. Reeves can be disappointed with his performance.
Speaker 1: But I would not say. I said disappointed is the
wrong word I said. I felt unfulfilled that I really
thought he could step on the gas and get that
guy out of there.
Speaker 2: I didn't look at it. I didn't look at it
the same way.
Speaker 1: All right, But I'm not saying it was a bad performance.
It clearly was a good performance. And he is that
much better than almost everybody he fights. So you worry,
you know, does he lose interest here or there or
whatever in one of these fights and get caught blah
blah blah. I don't know, all right.
Speaker 2: He seems to be like one of the most focused
and serious fighters.
Speaker 1: The body puncher, dynamite in either hand. He is tremendous
for the sport because he's been active. We get to
see him a lot, we get to debate him a lot.
He's fought worldwide. He fought in the United States, he
now fought in Saudi Arabia.
Speaker 2: By the way, he's also I mean, maybe Saturday's fight
wasn't like one of his classic exciting fights, but he
was in the Fight of the Aar a few years
ago against Nonito don Air in their first fight. He's
been in highly entertaining fights against like Luis Neeri and
other fights. So he gives you value for money. He's
a spectacular technician, he's a great punter. He's just a
fantastic fighter. You know, he's just the one place where
he kind of lacks, at least my way of looking
at He known then the biggest personality in the world.
Maybe it's a cultural thing. I don't speak Japanese obviously,
so maybe he talkshit in Japan and we just don't
know it.
Speaker 1: But uh, apparently not a whole lot.
Speaker 2: I say that's like jokingly, he's a great fucking fighter.
I absolutely love it.
Speaker 1: Okay, So that leads us to what could be next.
And we had built it up and you interviewed Junto
Nakatani moving up to super bandom way junior featherweight, whatever
you want to call it, and he had problems. Oh yeah,
on I mean obviously on Saturday, and I'm gonna say it,
lucky to escape with Sebastian Hernandez going toe to toe
with him and at times wobbling him. A couple of
times he wobbled him, swollen right eye badly. Then we
comically get the scores red and we've got the the
the once again, the one eighteen one ten should be
a hashtag at this point, what planet is that judge
on that Hernandez only got two rounds on that card.
I can understand you didn't give Hernandez seven rounds for
the win, but two. Yeah, he was winning the back
half of the fight, Dan, I mean you look at
that eye of Nakatani. He was in danger in the
eleventh and twelfth round with an eye.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent. I mean I thought the fight was
one fifteen to one thirteen, as did two of the judges.
Speaker 1: HM.
Speaker 2: Seemed perfectly appropriate on the Zones broadcast it was the
draw f one fourteen to one fourteen. Uh. I saw
some smattering of people on social media that thought it
was one fifteen to one thirteen in favor of Hernandez.
I think maybe very slightly generous, But the reality was
Nakatani was the dominating figure through the first four or
five rounds, like to the point where I thought maybe
he would stop Hernandez. Like he was that dominating. He
slowed down a little bit, he got caught, the eye
started to blow up. Hernandez has got a big heart,
He's obviously a sturdy puncher, and he just kept moving
forward and doing his thing. I feel like Nakatani maybe
he got a little bit tired and in the end,
you know, it was everything he had to do to
hang on. If you take a look at round twelve
in that thing, I thought, and I think it was
mentioned on the broadcast as well, it almost got the
feeling like he was looking up at the screen to
see how much time was left to tiny to kill
the clock, to make just to see how much there
was left now. The one thing that is very irritating
to me is while we consider and we can say, yeah,
one fifteen one thirteen for Nakatani seems perfectly fine, the
issue is, and this is completely fucked up, is that
the way that they achieved the one fifteen one to
thirteen was the problem is because all three judges gave
Nakatani the twelfth round, which the way I looked at
it was like that was a really big round for Hernandez.
I thought he definitely won the twelfth round of the fight,
and that Nakatani still had won enough rounds on my card, right,
who still emerges the winner. Even if you give hernan'z
round er, you had him up.
Speaker 1: Three, you had him losing the twelfth round to finish
up to one fifteen one thirteen, and the two judges
that scored it officially one fifteen one to thirteen, they
had it even going to the final round.
Speaker 2: And they gave him the last round. So I'm not
sure what that says. Doesn't look good, you know, because
what happens is you see the final score, like, okay,
fifteen and thirteen.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry they had my bad on the math. And
again I'm fuzzy because I've been in Miami. They had
him up by one point, where if they had given
Hernandez the final round, it's a draw. Instead they gave
it to Nakatani and he wins by two.
Speaker 2: So again, the one fifteen one thirteen is fine, but
when you dig underneath a little bit and you look
how did you arrive at one fifteen one to thirteen,
you have a little bit of an issue and a
little bit of a problem. Regardless, he did win the fight. Uh,
it clearly was not his best night. This was a
man who was moving up to one hundred twenty two pounds.
Perhaps he was a little tired, Maybe the size difference
was getting to him because of the punching power of Fernandez.
Maybe it was on his mind that he knows the
big fight is there, and you know, he kind of
froze up a little bit of thinking about like I'm
gonna maybe blow this big, big, mega fight and didn't
have his best night.
Speaker 1: But he clearly, I mean, we talk about this also
a lot of heart. That's clearly. Clearly it's a pressure
pack situation for him, mega fight on deck. He's moving
up against a guy that is tough, that is and
he looked again Hernandez looked bigger, looking on the rehydration whatever,
and was, yeah.
Speaker 2: Hernandez was undefeated. He didn't know how to so he didn't.
He was there to preserve his record and get a
big himself.
Speaker 1: So I mean, he was obviously in a dog fight,
if you will, in a battle, he gets the victory.
I guess the way that I will phrase it to you,
does this give you some pause, some concern about how
Nakatani might fare moving up in way to fight a
much more accomplished championship level fighter, Like in a way,
what do you think.
Speaker 2: Got he got the one fight at one twenty two,
uh in in his you know, in his experience now
and now he's gonna have this next fight again against
in a Way at one twenty two, and that's a
good thing that he got that experience in there. But
as you mentioned earlier, one of the things that does
give in a way some trouble is the left hand.
That's Nakatani's best punch from the south bust stand. So
that's a positive. If Nakatani was always going to be
the underdog against in a way, so now maybe because
maybe his performance wasn't the best, he'll be a little
bit of a bigger underdog. But the bottom line is,
you know, once that fight gets announced and everybody gets
excited about this, I mean, he had he had to
go through with the gauntlet and he had to win
a tough fight, and you know, I think there's not
that's not necessarily a bad thing when guys just win easy, easy, easy. Yep,
you know it's it's not necessarily a good thing because
you have to think that once he looks back at
the video of this and Rudy Hernandez his trainer, and
they go over it and they talk about it, and
then of course they got to prepare for anyway. You know,
they're gonna learn some things from this fight. It's sometimes
it's good to have that.
Speaker 1: But what I thought was interesting and I knew I
wanted to bring this up, and you just prompted me,
so well done. Is you interviewed Nakatani through a translator,
and we played that obviously on the pod feed. But
Hernandez Rudy Heran is right? Do I get the name right?
Forgive me, because I'm in many places. He's speaking English
in the quarter the whole time He's saying stuff to
Nakatani and English, and I couldn't tell was there an
interpreter like whispering in Nakatani's ear, But it seemed to
me like Nakatati was understanding him.
Speaker 2: I think it's like a lot of fighters that are
not English speaking as their first language. He spends a
lot of time in the United States and trains in
the United States in Los Angeles. If you notice, when
he wrapped up the interview on his own, he spoke
in English and said, you know, thank you to the fans,
or thank you very much, or something like very basic
English obviously, but it sounded good. So I think that he,
like a lot of guys, he understands a lot of
what is said, but he's maybe not as comfortable.
Speaker 1: I thought that was interesting. Yeah, because in in a
way's corner in the next fight, they were speaking Japanese
NonStop to him. I don't know how good his English
is or how much he understands, but they were going
ninety miles a minute, and it was it was funny
at times to hear the translator for the Dizone broadcast
trying to keep up with what they were telling him,
and they kept saying, go to the body, use the
left of the body. I loved the advice, by the way,
skipping back to Picasso's corner in Spanish, saying to him
stop standing in front of him. If you don't move,
you're going to get hurt. Exactly. Well, the thing pasta
modesty in the corners on Saturday in.
Speaker 2: Saudi Ara, and Picasso actually said to his quarter one
point that that he got hurt to the body, which
you don't really ever hear. So there was, honestly and
just by the way, as far as the language situation,
Rudy Hernandez, obviously he's you know, he lives in Los Angeles,
He's Mexican. He speaks Spanish also, uh, but he also
has worked with through the years a lot of Japanese fighters.
He's been a favored trainer for a lot of the
fighters that come out of teaking promotions in Japan. He's
gone to Japan a thousand times so and I've known
Rudy for a very long time. I don't know if
he's fluent in Japanese. But if you spend that much
time training Japanese fighters, and you spend that much time
going to Japan for fights, you know you know how
to speak boxing basically. I'm sure he knows you know
the word jab or or what left left or whatever.
So you know they're able to be able to communicate
me the time.
Speaker 1: So Nakatani gets to win. And what's the latest on
the mega fight we've been talking about and when it
might happen? Just real quick, one more time for the
audience tonight that might not have heard his talking about.
Speaker 2: Yeah, look, the reality is it. I don't think it's
like signed or anything, but the plans are to do
this fight in May at the Tokyo Dome. I am
told it will be Sunday, May third. Maybe that will change,
but you know, again have to lock everything in and
get it announced. I mean in a way in his
postfight interview, was a little bit evasive when asked specifically
about the fight. You know, he kind of smiled and says,
you know, we'll see, but you know, I think the
Japanese fans will be very happy. We've got something, something great. Obviously,
that's what they're talking about. And there's gonna be huge
amount of money at stake, a tremendous amount of stakes
in terms of pound or pound in the undisputed championship
for Japan. It's going to be the biggest fight between
two Japanese fighters, I think in the history of the country.
And if you're a boxing fan, even if in Nakatani
didn't look spectacular in his victory, I don't know how
you would possibly miss that fight.
Speaker 1: Good stuff, all right. On the rest of the card,
we unfortunately did not have the Wilibaldo Garcia kin Shiro
Taraji fight. You're about to explain why that did not
happen and and give me a little more on any
of the other action that caught your eye real quick
in the recap mode.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, So, Willibaldo Garcia was to defend the IBF
Junior bandamweight title against Knciro Taraji. You know other than
in a way in Nakatani is probably the next top
Japanese fighter going today. That was a big deal him
trying to win this title, and it would have been
I think would have been terrific fight. They weighed in,
both guys made the weight that was in the morning,
then they had the ceremonial way in later in the day.
The guys did interviews on his own after the ceremonial
way and you're like, okay and listen TJ. Once you
get passed the way in, and then the ceremonial way in,
like the fight's happening, I mean very rarely. I mean
I can think it maybe a couple of times, but
it's almost unheard of for something to happen. But Willibaldo
became ill and ended up having to cancel the fight. Now,
it's not clear to me if this is the reason,
but it strikes me that it probably is is because
this was an IBF title fight. Even if he once
he made the one hundred and fifteen pound weigh in,
it you have to keep yourself within ten pounds because
you have to weigh in the next morning because the
IBF has a stupid rule. Because the IBF does IBF
things to me. If the weigh in is on Friday
and you make the weight, that's it, unless for some
reason there's a rehydration clause between the combatants, which happens,
but it's very rare and it's only occasional that the
organization should.
Speaker 1: Not do that.
Speaker 2: Or if you're going to do that, require the same
day weigh in for the actual fight and we'll see
how many fights your company does. Regardless. He apparently was
having some trouble keeping the ten pounds within that limits
there as he's not rehydrating as much as he should
have and became ill stomach problems. They took him to
the hospital and the fights off, which totally sucks because
it fucks up Taraji, who probably spent the last eight
weeks training his rear end off. Same thing for Willibaldo Garcia,
and further, it fucks up the prospect of Bam Rodriguez
trying to go for the undisputed title against the winner,
which is what was something that everybody was interested to
try to do because he's not going to stick around
in that weight class for much longer anyway, and so
it fucks up everybody that had an interest in that fight,
the fans, the fighters, the promoters, you know, the even
the IBF who doesn't get paid either. I mean, it's
just it's a terrible rule. And I again I believe
this to be the case. Had he just been able
to go to the weigh in and rehydrate like normal,
everything would have been just fine.
Speaker 1: But instead we don't get that fight.
Speaker 2: So and by the way, we have other that fight. Yeah,
so that fight got canceled. We already had another fight
that was supposed to be a world title fight with
the WBA one hundred and thirty pound title holder, James Dickens.
That fight was canceled because his fight against Sutsumi was
canceled because of an injury to Sutsumi. So that fight
was off and they couldn't replace him on literally like
two days. There was no time to get somebody new.
And so that card, you know, took another big hit
with the two title bouts to being off. They did
have two other fights. It was only a four fight card.
This was these were prospect fights. You had the the
Japanese lightweight prospect Taiga Imanaga, who was the slight favorite,
I guess, against a fighter named Aaronson and Garcia, who
was much more experienced, and he pulled the upset. Good
for him. He got to split decision victory. That was
a really good fight in terms of entertainment dout, even
if it didn't have big, big stakes, but heck of
a fight. And then you had a Ray tu Satsumi
who was the brother of the other Tatsumi who got injured.
He was a prospect and he scored a fourth round
knockout against Leo Bardo Tuintana. Also a good performance for
another young prospect to definitely keep an eye on. He's
one of the more interesting prospects I've seen out of
Japan in a long time, maybe frankly going back to
the time when in Away was a prospect.
Speaker 1: And clearly in a way was the star delivered. Nakatani
got his win. We looked for that fight and we
gave you a little more on the rest of that corn.
And that was not all of the action back in Japan.
These were in Sauni, Arabia. Back in Japan, there was
also action this weekend for the IBF flyweight Championship. Correct,
what's the recap? What happened?
Speaker 2: So this was the champion, Masamichi Yabuki, who is you know,
his record is nothing spectamt He is now nineteen and four,
He's been stopped twice. He's got eighteen knockouts in his
nineteen wins. He's no spring chicken at thirty three fighting
in the flyweight division. But he is a hard man,
as they say. He's got good, good punching power and
when he's on his game, he can be very, very formidable,
and if you look at the way he has conducted himself.
He does have a victory by knockout against Taraji back
in twenty twenty one. That was an upset when he
won the flyweight WBC title. He stopped Taraji in the
tenth round. They had an immediate rematch. Taraji scored a
third round knockout in twenty twenty two. That is, you know,
was a big win for Taraji to get that title back.
But to Yabuki's credit, after that was over, he ended
up getting an opportunity at the end of twenty twenty
four against Nonshinga. They fought in a you know, he
got an opportunity to fight for the IBF Junior flyweight
title and he won that title by knockout and he
didn't even defend it. He went strade from there up
to the flyweight division and he scored a twelfth round
knockout in a very good fight against Angel Ayala, also
in Japan, and this was his first defense of that title.
Felix Alvarado is a veteran, a veteran. Okay, this guy
is now forty two wins and five losses. He's thirty
six years old from Nicaragua. He had never been stopped
before in his five defeats. He is a soldier of
the sport if you will. Fought a lot of good
fighters through the years, including a loss he had to
angel Ayala by decision. Has a unanimous decision, but a
very very close fight. When he challenged Sonny Edwards for
this IBF flyweight title back in twenty twenty two, like
he's never going to be a Hall of Famer, but
he must be respected. He's a damn good fighter. He's
fought all over the world, a very tough dude, and
this was the first time he ever got stopped. Yabuki
was ahead on all the cards and he scored a
very impressive knockout in the twelfth round. It was a
little quick for my liking. I was a little surprised
that they stopped it when they did, but nonetheless he
got the knockout, and it's a great win for for
Yabuki in terms of just the way he did it
and against who he did it again, not a pound
for pound guy, but Almabado, a tough nut to crack man.
He had him hurt.
Speaker 1: He did.
Speaker 2: He did a hell of a job in that fight,
and that was that was you know, I watch it
on YouTube. The fight in its entirety is there. It's
worth watching if you like little flyweights. In Japanese commentary,
it was a good fight.
Speaker 1: All right. And then also from last week, we didn't
we didn't make mention of this. Ike Abyabuci.
Speaker 2: Oh, your boy who we've.
Speaker 1: Talked about before, who's fifty two years of age, was
in prison for a long time, former heavyweight contender. He
actually had a fight and it says on my rundown
he lost.
Speaker 2: He did.
Speaker 1: Is this going to be the end of the club
level crusade of Abayabuci in Nigeria?
Speaker 2: Well after? Okay, Well, let's back up a little bit.
In the late nineteen nineties, I K. Babuchi was the
number one heavyweight contender period, whether you're talking about sanction
bodies or just deserving. Because he had one of the
great heavyweight fights of the nineteen nineties that he won
by decision against David Tua. It's an amazing, sick battle,
just massive punchers team off. We've talked many times in
the past about when big punchers fight each other, sometimes
it doesn't turn out to be the big punch fest
you think it's going to be because the guys are
so they realize what they're in with and they're a
little more careful. So he got this great win against Tua.
A couple of fights later, he had a devastating knockout
against Chris Bird, who was undefeated at that time, who
went on to win versions of the heavyweight title twice.
And after the Chris Bird fight, you're like, this guy's
on his way to the heavyweight championship. He looked a part.
He was menacing, he was undefeated, he was built like
a fucking piece of granite. He was fighting on HBO
and then he got himself in trouble. He was arrested.
He had a sexual assault charge against him. He ended
up doing sixteen years in prison. He had all kinds
of mental problems yep, and he got eventually when he
got out, then he got the poor. There was talks
of comebacks at the time back in the day in
any event. From nineteen ninety nine till twenty twenty five,
he went twenty six years. He didn't have a boxing
match at fifty two years old. In August of this year,
after lots of rumors and discussion, he actually did fight
in Lagos, Nigeria. He is from Nigeria and he won
by a third round knockout against an eighteen and eight
opponent with two draws in Lagos at fifty two and
promptly declared after that fight. You can watch the interview
on YouTube. As I have done that, I want to
fight Alexander Usik for the heavyweight chick. We can always
dream big, you can't. I don't deny anybody their dreams.
And this was the second fight of the so called
comeback against a fighter named Kebiru Tolawani, another Nigerian fighter
with the robust record of twenty six and sixteen, who
was a relative spring chicken to the fifty two year
old ike Ayebebuci. This man was just a mirror forty
five years old, and they fought fight on on Christmas
Eve on December twenty fourth. I have not seen the
complete fight, but I did watch a highlight package of
it on YouTube. Amazingly, this was available on a streaming
service for like thirty dollars pay per view. That was
probably gonna like infect my computer if I had even
thought about buying, right, I mean, you know, I just
wasn't going to go for it.
Speaker 1: But he was beaten in this fight, and.
Speaker 2: He lost a decision in a twelve round fight.
Speaker 1: So so he finally gets to win the forty five
year old that was twenty six and sixteen. So I
asked as the lead up, is this the end for
a Beyabucci? Or is he going to keep fighting like
all of them do? Is he gonna keep fighting at
fifty two years old?
Speaker 2: I would I would think that he's probably gonna keep
fighting because.
Speaker 1: This is club level stuff and.
Speaker 2: What else is he gonna do? All right, but he
had become like within boxing, if you were following fights
in the nineties, he was always like this great what
could have been? And he had like his cult following
the nickname the President, you know, I know.
Speaker 1: After uh Ike, you know, Eisenhower yeah, I go.
Speaker 2: I mean, so he had this whole mythic thing about him,
and so now you know, a quarter of a century later,
the guy's back. And so to me anyway, I had
to like see what actually happened. And so from my
interest of even like remote interests, I guess now I
guess over it's been exposed. He takes his first loss,
no harm in losing, but at fifty two, losing to
a forty five year old, you know, there's no prayer
for anything. I mean, but he can still if he
draws in and he has to make a living. I
don't think he's about to go become a you know,
a rocket scientist anywhere. So he'll fight, that's what he does.
Speaker 1: Let's get to some news. So the January thirty first
Taya Femo Lopez of course Stevenson Ring six Madison Square
Garden card has now been filled out, Turkey Alischik announcing it,
and there there are some intriguing names and fights here
go ahead, So.
Speaker 2: In the co feature at least when they when I
say co feature, that's the way that it was listed
in the graphic that that Turkeyoshik posted to his social media.
It will be Kishan Davis, the former WO lightweight title
holder who had probably one of the worst years in
boxing in twenty twenty five that he could possibly imagine.
He will be taking on Jamaine Ortiz in a twelve rounder.
He's moving up to junior walter right now. Kishan, as
people recall, was supposed to defend his title in Norfolk, Virginia,
his hometown, and then missed weight by about four pounds
pound pound wasn't quite five pounds, but it was a lot.
It was like, I want to say, four point three
pounds or something like that. So he wrecked his hometown fight.
He fucked up top ranks event, he fucked up ESPN's event.
He fucked himself up because he missed out on a
million dollar plus payday. He lost his title, and then
at that was not bad enough, he and his brother Keon,
who was his younger brother who boxed on the undercart,
went into the dressing room of the opponent that had
defeated by upset their older brother on the undercart and
attacked him and then later in the bowels of the
arena and got involved in a melee and had to
be kicked out of the arena by the police in
his own hometown. An absolute fucking embarrassment and shameful to
the Virginia Commission that still has not issued any kind
of punishment that I am aware of, and I have
checked with the Commission. But nonetheless, he is coming back,
and by the way, and then after that was over,
at some point he went on his social media and
claimed he was retired, which nobody believed, and he was
not retired obviously, So he is coming back and going
to try to, you know, make a mega go of things.
He has changed his team around. He has parted ways
with Brian McIntyre, his trainer. He has not announced to
my knowledge who his new trainer is, but hopefully he
has one because he's fighting in a month. He has
signed with the manager James Prince, which I'm sure is
how he ended up getting on his card because James
is also the manager of Shaquor Stevenson, who was in
the main event. And he's taken on Jermaine Ortiz, who
has only got two losses, but they were against the
very best fighters you could find when he was fighting them.
He lost a very competitive decision against Vasili Lomachenko, and
then when he challenged Tiyafimo Lopez for the junior welterweight title.
It was one of the worst fights to ever lay
eyes on. It was absolutely terrible. But I thought he won.
I thought he won the fight. He stunk him out,
any buddy, I thought he won that fight close seven
to five type score. Horrible fight. But again he gave
TFMO all he could handle, and so now it's up
to him to see if he can give young Keyshan
Davis a test when he moves up to the next
weight division. So that'll be the co feature. Then you've
got a couple other title bouts on the card. Bruce
Shushu Carington, who is currently the WBC's interim featherweight title holder.
He has not been elevated to the full champion in
the wake of Stephen Fulton vacating the The WBC doesn't
necessarily have to do that, so in this case, he's
taken on Carlos Casher, who is the number one contender,
and they will meet for what is the vacant title,
so he's not an interim title holder being elevated and
they'll just say and still champion in the ring if
he wins. But if he wins or coastra Wins will
just say the new champion, not interim, and so I'm
glad about that aspect because this as an interim. Him
having an interim title was ridiculous in the first place.
So that's on the card. And then you also have
the WBC Middleway champion, Carlos A. Damis is defending the
title against Austin M. L Williams. This is not a
surprise at all. The Shoes Shoe Carlos Cashrow fight not
really a surprise, just now official. In terms of the
Kishon situation, that fight was originally supposed to be a
Jermaine Ortiz against Richards and Hitchins for the IBF title,
but they made a switch and Hitchins posted on his
social media I had reported that the fight was made.
He said they had signed for the fight, it was
supposed to be on the card, but apparently they've made
some kind of arrangement either with matrim or with the
Saudi's that he's gonna have another fight soon after and
what he claims is a bigger, better fight. We'll see
what they come up with. In terms of the rest
of the part. They also added the heavyweight Jerald Miller,
who was a New Yorker. He's in with Kingsley Ibea,
who has been on a really good winning streak even
though he's not really fighting top guys. And then the
Saudi welterweight prospect zaiyad Omleyoff, who was in the ringing
an eight rounder in the opening fight. So there's your
your here card for January thirty first.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I have an affinity for Bronco Adamis, who
I think has been long overlooked neglected on getting bigger fights.
Had to wait forever on Jamal Charlow never got to
fight him, so it's good to see him back after
that Shiraz draw previously. So I mean that stacks up
as some intriguing names on that car. All right, you
were doing some digging here, we talk about the fight
Freak Unit substack, and I stay on my substack and
I stay on your social media. So give me some
on Zoofa Boxing because they're going to begin their new
series here in the new year in January, and they
have begun to sign at least a couple of names
that some of us might recognize, right.
Speaker 2: Correct, So they have said their first event of this
new ZUFA Boxing League which is part of a deal
that they made with Paramount Plus or with Paramount as
the parent company. But Zoofa Boxing's events will will stream
on Paramount Plus much like the UFC, which obviously Dana White,
it's involved with both obviously in any event. So the
first event is going to be January twenty third. They
haven't really announced any other details. I'm told it's going
to be at the Apex in Las Vegas, which is
a place where they do a lot of the smaller
UFC events. People referred to it as warehouse fights, you know,
small crowd whatever. So January twenty third is right around
the corner. I mean we're talking like three weeks away basically,
and there had been no details on anybody that they
had signed or a certainly not with the matchups we're
going to be for any of their cocoming shows that
are going to be monthly. So in my conversation with
boxing people on a daily basis, I have names of
a handful of guys that they have signed. Now it
has been misconstrued by some people that these are guys
that are on that first card. I never said that.
I just said their first cards in January. Here's some
guys that they have signed that they're going to be
working with, and a couple of them will be recognizable.
One of them is the former WBA Junior welterweight titlelder,
Jose Reo Valezuela. He has parted ways with Robert Garcia.
He has signed with this league and again he's of
of the guys I've heard. He's like probably the biggest
name so far. You know, he had a fight with
Pitt Bull Cruz. He's been in the ring with some
other good fighters. So he's making his way from PBC
toa ZUFA. You have the former WBA Regular welterweight tit
holder radzab Buttayev, who was involved in some fights. You
may have seen him on showtime. He worked with PBC
also not anymore. He's been very inactive, just have like
I think one fight in the last like two years
or so. He's going to be involved with this. They
have the undefeated junior lightweight prospect justin Valoria. We mentioned
earlier in the show one of the undercard fights from
Riod that took place on Saturday, the lightweight Ariicson Garcia,
who scored the upset against Imanaga from Japan. He's one
of the guys that's going to be involved with this league.
So that's the kind of fighters that has been explained
to me that they're signing, and now that's actually happened,
they haven't announced it, so they're getting like that Onan's well,
I would consider somebody that boxing fans have heard of,
maybe I've seen, certainly know as a former champion, tie
of less so partly because he's been so inactive. And
then some prospects like this Garcia, like Valoria, and that's
what we're gonna wind up seeing. We'll see who else
they announce in the coming weeks. I guess they're gonna
have to announce their fights at some point. And I
would say getting guys like that there, it's actually better
than I thought it would be, to be quite honestly.
I mean, I'm sure we're gonna see some, you know,
dsh level type of guys, but you know, to get Abutai,
who's a world class guy, even if he's been an active,
getting of Alezuela who's got some accomplishment, even an undefeated
prospect like Vloria Garcia coming off a good win and
a very exciting fight, that's not a bad thing.
Speaker 1: Common sense is they got to have at least a
couple of names here and there that people would recognize
what this is gonna be. It's a work in progress.
Speaker 2: And I the one person I know actually described this
to me as like and and it wasn't said in
like a negative way, but and I'm very familiar with
this because I used to cover it independent league baseball,
where they can play a really good brand of baseball.
They had a lot of good Colays guys that went
high up in the minor leagues, and every team usually
sort of had like a guy that might have had
a little bit of a cup of coffee in the
major leagues, or was maybe a major league veteran that was,
you know, no longer good enough to play in the
major leagues, but had a good name like that. That
to me, at least in the early stages of the
zoof of boxing, uh rollout. That's kind of what it
feels like. Now as the years go on, I assume
they're gonna up their level of talent as people see
how this is going to have to Yeah, of course
it feels like it it has. And again I don't
say this in a negative way because I loved my
days of going to see independent league baseball games, both
as a fan and as a as a reporter covering
that for the local newspapers I worked for. They would
play a very fan friendly type of baseball, put on
you know, uh, you know, good games and have great promotions,
and it was just a lot of fun. And if
we can get fun, even if we're not gonna have
major world championship fights involving sanction bodies or things along
those lines, but we can get good fun entertaining fights
with guys would good stories. That is a good start.
And these first few guys they signed, like I said,
better than I thought they would be seeing early on.
Speaker 1: All right, So stay tuned on how regular and what
the names are and how much interest there is. All
of that to be determined, and it's a long play
for them. We get that one other thing before we
are gone. Matchroom Boxing has made an announcement to about
their February show in Nottingham, England. I'm just gonna keep
it real and I'm a little tired of a little punchy.
The announcement of these names doesn't do a whole lot
for me. But over ahead with what's.
Speaker 2: There well, it doesn't do a whole lot for me either,
but you know, we give the people the news, good Bady.
So the main event is obviously a fight. A lot
of people wanted to see the rematch between Leewood and
Josh Warrenton. Obviously the main event's got to carry the show.
And they also had previously announced the British and Commonwealth
junior middleweight title down between Ishmael Davis and de Laal Fawase,
so those were already announced. But in terms of the
rest of the cart they announced that, you know, a
couple of prospects in Juni in Boston and the female
band weight Tia Maya Iten. But they also announced the
return of David Allen, who is the cult hero heavyweight
in the UK. And then the other fight of some
consequence was Sandy Ryan, who's the former women's welterweight titlder.
Obviously we saw her in two significant fights against michaelam
Mayer back to back where she lost. She is now
moving down in weight. She's going to challenge for the
vacant WBC Junior welterweight title against Carlo Ramos from Mexico.
And that is the lineup of what they've added to
the show. They'll probably add maybe I guess maybe might
add another fight. I don't know, but that's what the
show is. But obviously the main event is what sells
the show anyway.
Speaker 1: And again that will be in February. February first, yes, sir,
for that. All right, we've given you a full recap.
We're not done in twenty twenty five because once again
I'm promoting here. You and I are going to come
back Monday night into Tuesday, as we do this on
the podcast feed with Fighter of the Year, and then
Tuesday night into Wednesday, which will be New Year's Eve
Day and New Year's Eve, you will have another new
podcast that will be Fight of the Year debate. You
and I spread it out here over the next couple
of days to end out twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: We're not gonna we're not doing like an hour on
the Fighter of the Now. No, it'll be a show.
Speaker 1: It will have some good debate, but uh, you know,
I think it's pretty well established. Let's put it this way,
what the Fight of the Year is and what the
Fighter of the Year is. But we can certainly debate
two or three probably in and around it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I means that for a tea, stay tuned, stay tuned
on what we think.
Speaker 2: I think that the you know, we'll get to it
and we actually do the show. But in terms of
the Fighter of the Year, there's only two candidates. We'll
get to it, and in the Fight of the Year
there's a few good ones. I mean, yes, I have
my I actually I have to be honest. I mean,
I'm gonna write my piece about that, and I've had
in my mind what I think it's gonna be. But
what I always do is I go back and I'll
probably do that at some point like today or not today,
I'll probably do it tomorrow or the next day. Is
go back and at least watch like large chunks of
the fights that I think are the number one candidates
and see which one kind of gets me more emotional.
Let's say, yeah, new deal of it? Hi to move
me if you will to this day there is the.
Speaker 1: TS fight a Fighter of the Year first, then Fight
of the Year coming on Monday night and Tuesday night
on the pod feed. That's why you got to be following,
subscribing and be here ratis and review us. Again. We're
almost done for twenty twenty five and the calendar over
later in a week.
Speaker 2: Go take advantage of the final days of the subject.
Substacks out.
Speaker 1: You've got the substeck, you got the Rayfield. The gift
of Rayfield right now is discounted before the end of
the calendar year. Make sure you're following subscribing to this podfeed, Apple, Spreaker, Spotify,
RTIs and review us here as well. My friend, let's
reconvene and talk Fighter of the Year. That'll be the
next pod here on the feed. But for now we're good,
I believe on the recap, Big Dan, have a good week,
good into twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: Thank you, sarting you too.
Speaker 1: There's Dan Rayphield. I'm merely TJ Reeves. Thank you for
being with us on the Fight for You Tonight Recap
podcast