Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big
Fight Weekend. Now here is your host. DJ leaves all right,
amidst all of the mayhem going on with spring break,
with college basketball, that we got boxing. We got everything
you would want right now in the world of sports.
Let's add some boxing to it. Shawie. It is the
big fight. We can't preview pod, but we're also going
to recap a couple of fights in a few moments.
I'm the somewhat capable host. TJ Reeves. My insider Dan
Rayfield so fired up from what he saw as we
do this on Thursday in the Japanese world title card
in Japan, including the Taraji main event. He wanted to
do the podcast two hours ago. I'm like, big Dan,
I got to get off the air on the other
stuff that I do for college basketball and then we
can get to it. I heard that laugh, Dan Rayfield,
our insider is here. Fight Freaks Unite, the substack and
the newsletter Man. We got a lot to get to
recap mode from midweek, including a Keith Thurman knockout preview
of fights. Nick Ball in action as the IBF Featherweight
Champion coming up.
Speaker 2: WA featherweight champion WBA Featherweight.
Speaker 1: We had a lot. We got a lot going on
here on the program. Thank you for finding us, rate us,
review us wherever you are those ratings and reviews, help
five star reviews, help follow, subscribe. Let's get into it,
my friend, Let's get into it in the recap mode.
Let's back up to Wednesday. We did talk about it.
Let into it, and Keith Thurman delivered a knockout in
a contender fight at junior middleweight, went all the way
to Australia from Florida and Ko brock Jarvis fairly quickly.
What were your impressions and what is likely next?
Speaker 2: Well, my impressions were welcome back. I mean Keith is
good for the game. I mean he's fun to watch.
He's got a great personality. He's willing to fight anybody.
And the only issues there have been with Keith Thurman
is the act. The inactivity basically due to injuries, not
entirely but mostly so. He's fought vveryous sporadically over the
last number of years. I mean, you have to go
all the way back, but I did have the two
fights in twenty nineteen, which is still now. You know,
several years ago. But before that, you know, it had
been a while since he was a truly active act.
The fighter. One fight in twenty sixteen, one, nothing in
twenty eighteen, the two I mentioned in twenty nineteen, nothing
in twenty nothing in twenty one, one fight in twenty two,
and now finally back in the groove, nothing in twenty four.
Back in the groove here in twenty five. We know
about what happened last year with the injury before the
fight that was supposed to be against him, Zoo had
to pull out, you know, less than two weeks before
the fight. So he's like just a round once in
a while. But when he's in the ring, he's really
fun to watch and like I said, great personality. So
I was really happy to see him back in the action.
Seems like everything is good health wise. I have not
heard anything since the fight ended against brock Jarvis that
there's any kind of injury, so that's a good thing.
But look as far as the fight goes. Knocked him
out in the third round. Little rusty in the first round,
totally understandable, totally acceptable. Landed some very stiff right hands,
but took several shots, was backed up in the ropes
and Jarvis, who was really just a straight brawler with
not much skill, was all over him and landed some
very solid shots. Keith took him. He's aways had a
good chin. Now he's fighting at one fifty four. But
Jarvis really, you know, made most of his career at
one hundred and forty pounds, so it wasn't like there
was a much bigger guy than him or anything like that.
But after the first round, which was a very exciting round,
you know, Keith just started to take over, started to
do his thing, tagging with shots and eventually third round,
beautiful combination, multiple punches, like four shots in a row, upper.
Speaker 1: Kid, left, upper cut. Oh yeah, a couple of times.
Speaker 2: Really really good shot put Brock Jarvis on the canvas.
You got to tip your cap to Jarvis for even
being able to get up from that knockdown. He did
get up. The referee let the fight go. I thought
that letting it go was okay. And then two more
or three more shots and boom and he's on the
deck and the fight's over and he's out. And you know,
it was a big win for Keith because not only
was his return from three plus years out of the ring.
He's on the other guy's home turf in his hometown
in Sydney, Australia. Not only does he win, he scores
his first knockout since two thousand. I had to look
this up. He had had a knockout since twenty fifteen
of five. I was ringside for in your neck of
the woods. Again, it's Louis Calaso.
Speaker 1: We were both We were both in the Old Sun
Dome in Tampa that night separately. We hadn't even met
each other. Ten years ago was the last ko.
Speaker 2: But he's only had a handful of fights since the
so but yeah, so he found that, you know that
the joke had become you know, Keith one time. His
nickname was one Time because of the knockouts, but he
became Keith sometime because he wasn't fighting he you know,
no time because he.
Speaker 1: Was he's not enough of the time.
Speaker 2: Yes, he had had a knockout in years. So just
checked all the box, right, you know.
Speaker 1: So he wins in Australia and they do try to
line these things up. What is that set up now.
Speaker 2: Well, it sets up at tim Zuo fight, no doubt.
Tim Zoo was their ringside as one of the commentators
on the main event pay per view, which we can
watch this live. It was geo block pretty much everywhere
except in the United States. It was available for free
the actual simulcast of their pay per view on the
PBC's YouTube channel, so people missed it, they can still
go watch, not just taped out but the whole card anyway.
They had tim Zo ringside along with Sean Porter and
the rest of the regulars from a main event in
Australia who do a good job with their boxing coverage,
and tim Zoo was getting his first look at Keith
Thurman up close and personal. And the end of the day,
he's got a fight coming up next month in April.
He's taken on the American Joey Spencer, so they've set
it up nicely. Keith went to Australia knocked out in
Australia as an American fighter. He got Timsoo, the Australian
popular star, though coming off back to back defeats, still
has popularity. He's in with an American fighter who's going
to be a big underdog. He's supposed to do the
job and if he does the job in April, and
Keith is good to go and he's good to go.
They're going to fight each other most likely in July
sometime this summer, and that'll be at what it would
have been before when it was that Tim had still
had the title and even though Keith was coming off
of a lesser layoff. But remember also when Keith Thurman
was fighting Tim Zoo before he suffered the injury, that
was a one hundred and fifty five pound non title
fight because the WBO would not sanction Thurman to be
in the title fight because of his inactivity level, the
fact that he had never fought at one hundred and
fifty four pounds was not ranked by the WBO, so
that was not going to be a championship fight. So
it lost a little bit of luster given the time off,
the injury and Tim getting you know, two losses in
a row, particularly the bad knockout loss that he took
in October when he lost to Martazoliv challenging him for
his belt. But I'm down for Zoo and Thermo. I'm
telling you, personality wise, these guys can talk. They're going
to build up the fight and it's going to be
a tremendous battle in the ring. Both guys make super exciting,
entertaining fights. So it may not be World championship boxy,
and I couldn't care less. I want to see that fight,
especially after seeing Thurman display the power he did granted
against a much less in Jarvis, But uh, you know,
boxing is fucking entertainment. I don't need it to be
all pound for pound shit and world titles stuff. You
give me a good fight between guys who I know,
who I've seen, who have stories, who have personalities and
can fight their asses off and make fun fights. You
sign me up for that all day long. And this
is that kind of fight.
Speaker 1: Can be that compelling and one time is back. Now,
let's see if Zoo does his part. Can we have
good things? Can we have good things later this summer?
Speaker 2: I think we're gonna get good things.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned well, he's gotta stay healthy and I love
me some one time.
Speaker 2: I think he's okay though he's come out of fighting.
They got to do it through the camp, but knock
on wood, I think you know, hopefully you can get
in it.
Speaker 1: You know that's not all in the recap mode. Before
we get to the nick Ball preview for the WBA,
FE have the waight title h this Taraji Akooie fight.
Speaker 2: Well, first of.
Speaker 1: All, I have to swat you, all right. I have
my own mayhem going on in my house with the
twins and trying to get them to school on Thursday morning.
I don't know what time it is or where I
am because I was in Indianapolis doing college basketball two
nights earlier. I'm trying to scramble and get to Atlantic
City for college basketball.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: I get back in after taking them to school. I'm
trying to watch in semi real time the Taraji fight.
And it's a great action fight, and I'm in like
the sixth round time displaced on ESPN Plus and who
is texting me? I cash the Karaji the Taraji ko
in the twelfth round, but Dan Rayfield bro, I.
Speaker 2: Was worried about that he got the ko in like
a bro.
Speaker 1: I'm trying, okay, So now I know that I don't
know you're watching. Now. I know that Taraji's knocked him
out in the twelfth round, and I got a scan ahead.
So this was Thursday morning, US time, Thursday night in Japan.
Wild fight. Pick it up from here and Taraji gets
the ko while behind on the cards. Late in the fight.
Speaker 2: This was a spectacular fucking fight. I know we're only
in March, I get it, but we've seen this before
plenty of times. Doesn't matter. It could be December, January,
beginning of the end of the year, middle of year, whatever.
This one hundred percent, one hundred percent is gonna be
in the conversation for the fight of the year. It
may not win, you know, there may be something comes along,
and I mean it wouldn't shock me, frankly if there was.
But there's no doubt that this is a special kind
of fight these two guys. From the opening bell was
like watching a video game and they were just winging
away to each other, but not without skill. I mean
Taraji dig into the body, right hands a Kui's, some
subtle moves, some good body shots also, you know, a
stiff jab. You know, it was a really really good fight,
superb fight, two champions, rare all Japanese unification, and Taraji
spoke about that in the comments after the fight, about
that aspect of it. I think that made it even
more special for those guys. A unification fight is a
big deal when it's so rare in a country like Japan,
where they have such a great boxing tradition and history.
I think it's even more meaningful. I'm gonna tell you
right now that win, in the way he did it
and the stakes that were there for Taraji, I thought
this before this fight. He's already in my mind been
like a borderline Hall of famer. I think he's probably
cashed his ticket with that kind of victory. This is
a guy now who was sixteen and one with eleven
knockouts and bonafid world championship fights. The one loss in
a world title fight. He avenged by knockout in an
immediate rematch against Yabuki to regain the WBC title in
the junior flyweight division. He's gone up to fly weight.
He scored now knockouts and winning the title against a
former world champion in Christopher Rosales. He has defended the
title and unified with a knockout against a Koui in
a fight of the AAR contender. And you can go
back and look at his resume. He's got a lot
of good names on that resume for those small weight classes.
He's a very exciting He's a combination right now to
me in terms of his ability, his resume, his exciting style,
one of the most exciting and entertaining guys in the sport.
But the combination of entertainment value and how good he is,
he really can do pretty much everything, and he's got
such a reservoir of just desire and balls and heart
and shorted a Kooi in this fight, and there was
a thousand times these guys could have wilted, and he
just would never take a fucking step back.
Speaker 1: And so let's pick it up on that because he
did not know how far he was behind on the
cards or not. But he hurt a Koui in the
eleventh round, and I thought, I thought maybe it was
gonna put him down, and a Kooi kind of came back,
and then in the twelfth they're bombing each other. Kooi
got hurt by an upper cut. Taraji was scoring with
the right upper cut and with the right hand left
eye swelling shot. Did you agree, I mean, I know
we both wanted the knockout prop on the bet Us show.
Did you agree with the stoppage at that point with
the referee leaping in it?
Speaker 2: When I when I first saw it, I was sort
of like, to me, it was like borderline, but that
had been such a hard, hard fight. The referees right there. Yeah,
when he merged from the stoppage with blood all over
his shirt and the referee so Kui was bleeding from
somewhere and he was will thing. So I can't really
argue it. I mean, was it the greatest stoppage I
ever saw? No, But I didn't see a Koui complaining
about it. You know, the body language he.
Speaker 1: Was, look Wolan left badly in this.
Speaker 2: Type of violent fight and the things that they did
to each other for those elemenus rounds, I'd err on
the side of caution that that's the stoppage. I can't
really argue. Now here's the thing about it, and this
is what makes it so special and was so dramatic.
And we've talked about this before term time Dak Foster
when he defended the title against EDWARDO Hernandez down in Mexico,
the fight that we saw early last year between Raymond
Ford and Komotov. Here's a fight where you have a
world championship fight and it's only the sixteenth time. I
went back and looked because I have kept records. My
good friend and everybody's favorite Hall of Fame broadcaster the
legendary Steve Farhood. I came up with this list. I've
kept it and been adding to it as time has
gone on. This is another reason why when I talk
about the type of accomplishments of a tragy for potential
Hall of Fame candidacy in the history of boxing. Behind
on points going to the last round, whether it's round
fIF teen, round twelve, round twenty, whatever it was, this
is only the sixteenth time in history that the fighter
trailing in a world championship fight entering the final round
won the fight by a knockout. I was looking at
the official scorecards which people can see. I have posted
it on my on my social media on my Twitter
slash x. Going into round number twelve, Akui was ahead
one five to one oh four on two score cards yep,
and Taraju has had one six one oh three on
the other. So he needed at least knockdowns, if not
the knockout to win the fight, and he did it
in very dramatically.
Speaker 1: Ten to nine round four. Taraji is a draw if
it comes to that, so he had to have a
knockdown and win the round or knock him out.
Speaker 2: I didn't do the math, but I'll take your work. Y.
Speaker 1: Yes, he's down one point on two of the cards,
so a ten to nine win in the final round
by Taraji's not good enough to get the decision win.
He got the knockout. So the other thing.
Speaker 2: About it, though, you mentioned about how he didn't know
the scores. Yes, I believe they were using open scoring,
that we didn't see it or hear it what the
cards were on the ESPN, plus they were taken into
the studio from Japan. But the way that that is
conducted is after round four and round eight they give
the open scores. Now I'm not entirely sure because it
was a unification if the WBA approved that or not,
But if they were using the open scoring, you would
have known how tight the fight was after round eight.
Speaker 1: Now, well, the announcers in the eleventh round were saying,
we don't know how close is stated right now because
I didn't have the info right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I'm not sure about that. But in Japan
usually those types of fights in WBC would have open scoring.
But the point is regardless of open scoring or not.
As you said, that's only after eight. You don't know
what the scores were after nine to ten and eleven,
And all I know is if you like boxing, you
need to watch this fucking fight, because I don't care
if you don't like, you know, boring fights. I get
that this is not that. This is a just a
really really top level.
Speaker 1: Go back and dial it ESPN Plus from Thursday. Don't
just take our word for it. It's still there. Go
see Taraji's main event.
Speaker 2: I'm all messed up, Tea. You I've been waking up early.
Speaker 1: I understand. I'm messed up too. You were having breakfast
with the Japanese. I wasn't.
Speaker 2: No, I wasn't in breakfast. I was laying in bed
with my sleep patch still on, watching on my fucking phone.
Speaker 1: All right, the other two wins were in title fights. Uh,
give me the give me the breakdown of the other
two wins real quick, and then we're going to move
on to the preview mode on the Japanese card from Thursday.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, nothing that we saw on the undercard
compares to what we saw in the main event. But
there were, like you mentioned the word, two other world
title bouts. He had Anthony Ala Squaga, who won a
twelve round decision over the former Junior flyweight champion. He
wrote to kay Gucci that was to retain the WBO
Flyway title. Obviously, if you're Ali Squagua and you're fighting
in a flyway title defense on the other app where
the main event is a unification fight in the flyweight division.
Depending on what Taraji wants to do, he may want
to move up to the next weight class. There was
a sort of a discussion about that as a possibility.
He's also ain't getting any younger. He's thirty three. Maybe
he wants to go for another unification. Point is that
fight is now set up that they if they wanted
to and Taraji's interested, they can make a three belt
unification with Alis Squadua. Look, he won a close fight.
I didn't think the one score that was one hundred
and eighteen to one oh nine seemed a little overly
generous for Alis Gaga, which.
Speaker 1: Been a while since we've had one of those in
a world title fight. But there it is again.
Speaker 2: But it was a competitive fight. Look, he did get
a knockdout in the eleventh round. He landed a nice
shot and he forced the uh the Kaya Gucci to
take a knee, so that did obviously assist him in
terms of the scoring, and you know, kay Gucci was
was was aggressive like he always is, but just not accurate,
kind of ragged listen. He was a good fighter in
his day and he had some big time fights, but
he's sort of I think past his best days unfortunately
for him at this point. But that was that. Like Alis,
Gagua is a young guy. He's you know, he's trained
by the great Rudy Hernandez. He shares the trainer with
Jonto Nakatani, and he's he's well schooled and he doesn't
have a lot of professional experience, but he's no joke.
I mean, this is a guy who's come a long
way in a short period of time, and he's been
he's found a home in Japan. He's a he's a
kid from la but you know, which is where Rudy
is based. But he fights on a regular basis in
Japan because he's with Teaking and with mister Honda, and
so that's where he's kind of found a home and
he's made a living in the last you know, a
couple of years on these Japanese undercards and he's done
a pretty good job in those fights. Remember when Kaya Gucci,
who he beat today. His biggest fight, he got stopped
back a couple of years ago by Taraji when they
met in a light flyweight unification fight. So Taraji, by
the way, has now unified titles at one hundred and
eight pounds and now we today unified the titles, you know,
in that way we're talking about in the in the
in the flyweight division. So he's done some great things
in the sport. In terms of the other title fight
that was on the card, again, the Taraji was a
great fight against h you know, against Akui Alaskagua. Solid fight,
nothing that you're gonna like necessarily be raving about for
years to come. And then the other fight, you know,
very pedestrian. Being honest, I didn't even see the entire fight.
I kind of was in and out of consciousness when
that one was on. That was Renee Santiago from Puerto Rico,
a journeymanish kind of fighter who's now fourteen and four
with nine knockouts. He won a decision over Iwada to
win the WBO's Junior flyway title. You know, pedestrian decision,
not much to write about talk about. It was a
fast paced kind of fight, but every round was sort
of the same from what I saw, you know, it
was what it was.
Speaker 1: Santiago will get a better pay day now that he's
a world champ.
Speaker 2: Oh, no doubt on the belt.
Speaker 1: There's no doubt about that, all right. So that was
a bevy of fights on Thursday. So he had Wednesday
and Thursday, midweek action Australia to japanj.
Speaker 2: Not just midwek. But shit, that's at like six o'clock
in the morning.
Speaker 1: I understand, And we're trying to make it all work
with the college basketball and everything else that's happening. Traveling
spring break coming here, there's.
Speaker 2: Gonna be that's your problem.
Speaker 1: God, I know, well Florida for spring break. It's gonna
be on coming up, all right. So speaking of it's
on coming up, let's talk about Saturday in the preview mode.
It is a preview pot after all. Nick Ball WBA
featherweight champ, back defending in his hometown of Liverpool, England,
big fan favorite, kind of a squat fighter, smaller featherweight muscular.
Kej Dohaney my namesake is the name that we've seen
in in a couple of significant fights. But this is
this is a fight where Nick Ball at Home should roll.
What are your thoughts in the preview mode here Saturday
afternoon US time, Saturday night in the UK.
Speaker 2: Yeah, don't. I don't disagree with that. I mean it
is you know, go back to twenty four he had
that really close draw where he was challenging Ray Vargas
for the WBC title. A lot of people thought he
won the fight. That was one of the fights that
took place on a big show in Saudi Arabia. It
was very disappointed he didn't get the nod in that fight,
but he came back and he looked really good and
he won a unanimous decision against Raymond Ford or I
take that back a split decision uggause Raymond Ford. Remember
that was on the five on five card, that was
Matt Fighters against Queensberry Fighters, and that was a good fight.
He won the belt and now he's in the midst
of his defenses. He's not fighting the absolute elite of
the division. He hasn't had a unification fight just yet.
They Matt Queensberry did the right thing. They took him
home to Liverpool in October. He fought the veteran contender
who's been a good fighter for a long time, but
kind of near the end in Ronnie Rios and he
stopped him, and now they're doing a similar thing. They're
taking on TJ. Dohaney, who has been a title holder
in the smaller weight class. He is coming off of
being knocked out in the seventh round challenging Noya in
a way for his title at one hundred and twenty
two pounds, So not only is he moving up, but
he's coming off a KO loss. He's kind of seen
better days again. It should be a good fight to
watch while it lasts, but in the end, you know,
nick Ball is a heavy favorite in this fight. One
of the interesting elements of this is this is the
final it's on his own in the United States, but
in the UK where this fight is taking place. This
is the final main event of the contract that Queensberry
Promotions has had for the last several years with TNT
Sports in the UK, and when this is over, their
next show they will commence in April with their new
multi year deal to be exclusive to his own not
only in England but all around the world. So that's
sort of this is the bookend of that particular contract,
so that's the main event there but Nick Ball, whatever
you think about Dohaney as the opponent, you know, Nick
Ball kind of like Taraji in some respects one of
the more entertaining, exciting smaller weight fighters in the sport
to watch. He always brings it and I love watching
nick Ball.
Speaker 1: All right, So we're interested in what he does Saturday
afternoon here in the preview mode for us in the
United States. Now, let's move to the match room show
not far from me in Orlando again, Rayfhel, I'm gone
or I might have been at this matchroom card about
seventy miles away from me in Orlando, where Austin Ammo
Williams is back headlining in the middleweight main event, Edgar
Berlanga on the other card on the undercard in the
co feature, back off the loss to Canelo Lalvarez where
he quitted himself well even though he lost. And then
Omari Jones, the prospect that you talked to the US Olympian.
He's making his debut on this card. So three fights
that were interested in preview away on Saturday night in
the United States on Dezonne in Orlando, Florida.
Speaker 2: I'm interested to see Omari Jones's pro debut. You know,
people could hear the interview on the previous podcast one
of the last episode or two, because it always good
to see the young guys come into the pros and
what they look like and how they handle themselves under
that spotlight, which is different than the Olympic spotlight. So
there's that, and then the rest of the card is
very pedestrian. It's kind of meant to me. I'm not
saying that a Mario joneses some legendary matchup, and just
I have a personal interest in watching the Olympians have
their pro debuts. Berlanga is in a complete mismatch in
my opinion. And the reality here is this, this is
his last fight with match from boxing. They originally were
going to have him be the main event in Puerto
Rico and they couldn't work out the money and so
they basically agreed to take a much smaller amount of
money to be the co feature and he'll be free
agent after this fight. So Edgar is going into the market.
He should do so again. Jonathan Gonzalez Ortiz, who was
his opponent, is an undefeated fighter, but as no particular
he's thirty five years old, he has no wins of
even remote consequence on his record. It's I mean, on paper,
this looks like the get well fight for Berlin, who,
like you said, he quitted himself very well in the
fight against Canelo Alvarez, where a lot of people thought
he was gonna get blown out in a couple of rounds,
and he went twelve rounds against Canelo. He did get
dropped in the third round, but he gave it a
heck of a run, and he had a couple of
moments in the fight and this and that. You know
he lost to fight, but so this is the comeback fight.
Mattrim has not done anything to promote his out because
they know he's a free agent, so I think there's
some issues there. Berlang has been speaking out about it
and feels like he's been treated badly blah blah blah.
So he's interesting to watch, but I mean, I don't
think there's gonna be a whole lot of competition in
that particular matchup. Then you got the main event of
the Austin M. L. Williams, the middleweight he's taken on
Patrise Voney. The fact that an Austin Williams Patrise Voney
fight would qualify as a main event on any channel.
It's sort of weird today. I mean, I mean, as
I was being honest, I'm not knocking Amma Williams. He's
still a good young fighter coming up. He's only got
the one loss. He went eleven rounds before he got
stopped against Hamsa Shiraz, also on the five v five card.
He did rebound and scored a victory on a droont
Ennis undercard back in November, stopped his opponent in the
in the fifth round, and now he's taken on Vooney. Now.
Vonney is based out of Canada. He's nineteen and one.
He's a Montreal fighter. I remember seeing him fight in
person one time when he fighted Skeevia Falco and it
was just got awful for five rounds. So it was
a technical decision, you know. I mean, Williams is the favorite,
I guess, but honestly, compared to Nick Ball, compared to
what I saw with the excitement of what Thurman did,
compared to the incredible action of the Taragi fight. You
know what, I'll watch the show because that's what I
do from my job, how I make a living tor
and to observe these events but I can't sit here
and tell you with truthfulness that I have a lot
of excitement level for this particular card.
Speaker 1: It is there, we are in the preview.
Speaker 2: We keep it real.
Speaker 1: We do keep it real, and I agree with you
that would that be a main event and a lot
of other situations. It is this, and you do have Berlanga,
and you do have Omari Jones on that card coming
up Saturday night in Orlando, and that does lead us
now to the news, and there's a lot of it
involving Naoya in a way, as we've been saying, he
is coming on what is Cinco de Mayo weekend, the
first weekend of May. He's going to fight on the
Sunday of that weekend, all right, So enlightened me on
that news. You've learned something about the co feature fight
as well, and the rest of in a way schedule.
So the monster we're gonna he's gonna stay busy here
in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, this is not unexpected. What's what I
guess was not entirely expected originally, but it became evident
they were going to do this as haveing fight on
the Sunday. I don't know if it's because Canelo is
fighting on the Saturday, and that's going to take up
a lot of the even though that's in Saudi Arabia.
But Baal, I know is gonna be a huge boxing
weekend because if he got in a way on Sunday,
one of the best pound for pound fighters in the
world coming back to the United States, where he hasn't
fought for the last few years. He's only this will
be his fourth fight in the United States. And on
the Saturday, you got Canelo Alvarez, the face of boxing,
who's going to be on in Saudi Arabia. But they're
timing it so it's in prime time in America as
opposed to most of the Saudi cards, which take place,
you know, in the morning all the way through into
the early evening. And then on Friday night in New
York City in times where he got the triple header
that Turkey is also doing, which is a Ryan Garcia
against Roly Romero, and obviously he got the other fights
on there with Devin Haney and Jose Ramirez, and obviously
the other fight which is the most interesting it seems
to me, which is Barbosa challenging Ti Fimo Lopez anyway,
Big boxing weekend and the caps off with Annoya anyway.
So look, he's gonna defend the undisputed title at the
TM Mobile Arena. You know, it's his first big arena
fight because he fights at America. He was on an
undercard that took place in la and then he had
his other two fights were in smaller venues. One was
pandemic ish, one was like, I think, a limited capacity
in a smaller type of place. In any event, it's
a big opportunity for him to be seen. Now he's
fighting Ramon Cardenas. There was a lot of conversation early
on when this fight was being planned he would fight Picasso,
the Mexican up and comer, that the deal did not
work out. He's taken on Cardenas, who was not a
well known fighter by any stretch. He's a San Antonio fighter.
He's got a good record. He is twenty six and
one with fourteen knockouts, twenty nine years old, so I'm
not an old man, just doesn't have a lot of
experience against top level guys. So obviously it looks like
a showcase fighter anyway, But let's see what the what
the guys got but what's intriguing to me? Well, first
I'll get to that undercard fight. This didn't right, So
Top Rank and the Japanese promoters announced the inn a
Way and Cardenas fight on Wednesday, And even though this
has not been announced, I have reported that the undercard
fight is going to be the WBA featherweight champion Rafael
Espinoza taken on Edward Vasquez in the co feature. And
why is that interesting Because obviously at some point in
a way, he's gonna move up from junior featherweight to featherweight,
and so what better way than to feature Rafael Espino's
on his undercard the same way they did back a
couple of fights ago when they brought the then wo
featherweight champion Robasi Ramirez to Japan to also appear in
his card. Not an accident that they're doing that, because
when he moves up, they're gonna want the Japanese fans
to understand and know who these champions are that he
will ultimately be challenging us. That is an obvious possibility
for him, you know, down the road when he gets
to featherweight. But he ain't going to featherweight just yet
because he's got a very intriguing schedule coming up. TJ.
We talked all the time on this show and in
boxing in general about activity level. SOI in a way
already fought in January and he knocked out Kim and
that was the late replacement fight, and because of the
fact that Sam Goodman was injured and he couldn't come
to the post, so he knocked him out in the
fourth round. That was coming back on May fourth for
his second fight of the year. That's gonna be this
fight against Ardanis if he wins that fight and he
comes out clean. They are in the process of finalizing
a step aside deal with MJ Achmadally of who is
the WBA Interim champion and the mandatory and their team
has been back and forth with the WBA and the
INNA team for a while, complaining and moaning as they should,
about being skipped in line and not getting their opportunity.
He is long overdue for his mandatory defense. So I've
talked to that Dean Kornilov, who is the MJ manager,
and they are in the process of doing this step
aside deal, and what that means is, in a way,
we'll fight the fight in May with all the belts
at stake, and then if everything is good, he's going
to Japan to fight in a way in the mandatory
that will take place September fourteenth, that's the date that's
penciled in for that particular fight. And if anyway comes
out of that fight with the victory and there's no injuries,
he is, as he said after his fight against Kim,
He's off to Saudi Arabia as part of his agreement
to be sponsored by Riad season to fight another fight
in December. So the guy who's our you believe, number one,
number two, number three pound for pound megastar in Japan.
They have two fights at home in Japan this year,
two fights on the road, one of the United States,
one in Saudi Arabia. Four fights that has not been
done in a very long time by an elite fighter.
Speaker 1: And we say bravo activity, sir monster. We love that,
and his marketability goes up because of this.
Speaker 2: So we love That's gonna depend on who he fights,
because well, right, Kim was not a top guy, is
not a top guy. Achmadaim is the best guy in
the division who he hasn't fought, and we'll see what
they have in store for the December fight. Maybe that
will be a featherweight debut. Maybe you'll make one more
defense at junior featherweight. But I'm always happy when Noi
Ineway is in the ring. He is the monster after.
Speaker 1: Thank all of us. I think all of us are
all right? What's up with Alexander Usik and the WBA
wants him to fight the wo Excuse me, the WBO,
I gotta keep all this straight with your help. The
WBO's interim champion is Joseph Parker, and they want Usik
to fight Parker. But what is this all mean? Because
I thought wasn't the USK team talking about they want
to try to fight Dubois again in a bigger, more
lucrative fight. What have we heard? What do we know?
Speaker 2: So this is how it always goes when you're a
unified champion. The thing that I find to be amusing
about this is the WBO is following its rules. They
have always said when there's an interim champion, they want
to get rid of that interim as quickly as possible,
and that's what they're doing, so that's why they ordered
the fight. The hilarious thing to me, though, is that.
It was just a couple of days before that that
it was the WBA that announced that they had extended
he is the super Champion of the WBA, that they
had extended his mandatory period. They've given him two years
before he has to make a mandatory And while they
were making that announcement, they also ordered the regular champion
who brought Pulev to make a mandatory of that belt
against Fabul. So the point is Lustik is encumbered by
to the do for a while, but the WBO wants
him to do the defense against Joseph Parker, which personally,
I have no problem with that. To me, I'd rather
see that. I understand. If you fight it's to Wah.
He'd be doing it again to be undisputed because they
took away the IBF belt, which Juah got as the
interim champion. You know whatever, He's already been the unisputed champion.
It's like, it's not that good big of a deal
to beat the guy who got the belt that you
already had. And oh, by the way, you already knocked
the guy out, you know, a couple of years ago
one sided fashion and the title defense. Uh before he
was the IBF title holder. That was back when he
was your WBA mandatory, when he had the WBA regular belt.
So if you can follow all that nonsense, Joseph Parker
at least as a fresh fight and a guy who's
well deserving.
Speaker 1: Parker's been active, He's beaten big names. Can we have
good things?
Speaker 2: I don't know the Dua fight if I'm not, I'm
not opposed to the d rematch because since he got
knocked out by Usik, he's come on strong and he's
won fights by knockout. He obliterated Joshua right he cut
up and he stopped Hergovic. Before that, he had a
terrific fight and stopped the undefeated Jerald Miller and and
and Hergovich was also on the and so I'm not
opposed to the rematch. But if I had my pick
to see a fresh fight, because you already beat Dubois
Pillar to post, basically give me the Parker fight, who's
on a similarly top level run. He's knocked out, you know,
or not knocked out necessary, but he beat you know,
Zilly Zang, he beat Deontay Wilder. He's coming off the
knockout against Martin bccoley. That was on the undercart. Granted,
mccoley took the fight on short notice, but he was
supposedly the Boogeyman anyway. The WBOS ordered that fight coming
at a moment in time where it was just a
couple of days earlier that the USIK promoter Alex Krasiak
was talking to Sky Sports in the UK about how
they've already discussed and had negotiations or in the process
of negotiating the Dubois rematch. The reason why this is
significant if you care about the belts, is because if
he fell, if he finalizes the fight against against Duba
and the WBO sticks to its guns about forcing the
Parker fight, he would probably lose the WBO belt. So
we'd be fighting Dua. Originally thinking it's now for undisputed
once again, but maybe it will only be for three
belts in the end. Maybe the WBO will allow that
to happen. I'll get the exception to you know, Nolah
bless and he fights to Blah. If not, Parker is
a hell of a fight also, you know, either.
Speaker 1: Way, what's your educated guess on when we see usk
summer July ish, something like that June July ish against somebody.
Speaker 2: I mean they're talking about if he was fighting. While
they're talking about doing the fight at Wembley Stadium. You
have to do that in a time of year theoretically
where the weather is okay.
Speaker 1: And the English Premier League factors in as well soccer on.
Speaker 2: What I can tell you is that that they're talking
about the fight. I've not heard anything specified as the
time frame, just the loca. So we'll see.
Speaker 1: We would think this summer against somebody, whether it's Dubois
or Parker.
Speaker 2: Now, if you're fighting Parker, you can't put that at
Wembley Stadium because Parker is not.
Speaker 1: Where do you and where do you put it? And
that's another it's a whole nother discussion.
Speaker 2: Don't get me wrong. You could, You could put it
in England in a place where maybe or maybe and
it would sell out.
Speaker 1: But maybe maybe it's back in Saudi Arabia for money.
I don't know. Maybe it's there because they have both
fought in Saudi Arabia now two or three times.
Speaker 2: Well, and the point I made in what I wrote
about and people can read my notebook where I detail
all this stuff, uh that I published uh late Wednesday
night at the end of the day, Turkey Alschikh is
gonna probably wild a lot of influence over which fight
f Sick takes because he's the guy that has not
only been bankrolling Usik in the Fury fights and and
and the Dubai and uh, you know, on these fights
that have taken place, he's also been putting on Parker
on the REA season cards. And he's also been paying
the money to Dubois as well. So, uh, I figure
Turkey's gonna have some say so. So if you know,
if he wants to see it he usk uh Dubois rematch,
I guess we'll probably see that. If he prefers the
Parker fight, I guess we'll see that. I mean, if
he's paying the freight. You know, if you're the buyer,
you know, you get to say so and what you
want to spend.
Speaker 1: Speaking of Brits and heavyweights, we got Lennox Lewis nostalgia
at a second. But speaking of other Brits, we know
about Chris u Bank and Connor Ben and eggs for
the February press conference, and now we know how costly
the egg stunt, the crack the egg on the side
of the face of Connor Ben was and it's not
we think eggs are expensive right now in America. Are
you feeling me right? Heel with my life, I'm working
at hard. I feel this was some expensive eggs for
Chris Ubang. Tell me more.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So as people remember, it was back on February
twenty fifth, they had their kickoff news conference for their
fight that's coming up. They're very popular, I think sold
out fight now that's at the Hotspur Stadium in London,
Mega fight for Britain. And he smashed him in the
face with the egg at press conference that took place
in Manchester. Obviously he was going to be punished if
it seemed.
Speaker 1: Like a raw egg right the head now.
Speaker 2: And the reason that we don't have to keep this
deligating this, but that was because the excuse that Connor
Ben gave for his multiple positive drug tests was a
consumption of eggs of eggs. Obviously he's making a joke
about that, so we smashed him in the face with
the egg. I'm still still processing a month later that
or you know, three weeks later, whatever it's been, that
this man came to a press conference with a pocket
filled with raw eggs, planning out this stunt, multiple eggs
to take care of business anyway, So the British Board
of Boxing Control find him one hundred thousand pounds or
that hit. Now, I mean you're saying, whoa, but he's
gonna be making millions and millions and none.
Speaker 1: Saying that's an expensive egg is what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: But the best part, a doubt it was when when
when that came out and so the British Boxing Board
of Control announced that that was the fine. If you
take a look on one Chris ubankat Junior's social media,
I found that this to be absolutely hilarious that he
posted his response. There was a picture of you know,
the the notification that he was being fined that enout
and he wrote and I quote worth every penny.
Speaker 1: Okay, I guess, by the way you're the historian, that
would be the most expensive fine ever in the history
of an egg stunt in boxing. You're confident in that,
we're comfortent with that. I'm pretty sure about on an
egg stunt. With the press conference for these guys to
fight coming, what is that April that they're going to
be fighting.
Speaker 2: This this is a title this is a fight that's
not a title fight. This is a fight with a
guy in Connor Ben who's never fought anybody at any
kind of top level. You know, you Bank has been
in the ring with some good guys. Again, he's lost
when he's stepped up most of the time. You know.
He did get the big revenge against Willam Smith. They
split their two fights. But the fact that this is
the magnitude of it is is just amazing to.
Speaker 1: Me because of the dad's because the bullshit.
Speaker 2: Between the two of them, but it's all stems from
the fathers. Because Nigel Ben and Chris hu Bank Singr.
Put on two of the greatest fights in British history
and certainly of the nineties, and hugely popular fights. And
there's that, and it looks like it's going to be
a good fight based on the way that they box.
Speaker 1: All right, some nostalgia and then we are done in
the craziness. It was twenty six years ago today, March
the thirteenth of nineteen ninety nine, Nix Lewis and a
Vanner Holyfield unification about for the heavyweight title. And as
Rayfaeld wrote, and this is not an exaggeration, and you
didn't even put it in like all caps with an
exclamation point. One of the worst decisions in boxing history.
It was bad.
Speaker 2: I don't think we need all caps. It's pretty much
clear as day and that that's yeah.
Speaker 1: All right. So let's go back twenty six years ago
when Lewis and Holyfield and the draw.
Speaker 2: You know, this was one of those deals here where
first of all, getting this fight made was like, very
very difficult. This was Don King dealing with main events.
You know, we have HBO pay per view involved. Holyfield,
you know, was in need of a big fight, even
though he had had a number of big fights obviously
at this point, but he had been fighting on showtime.
So they had to make the deal. That was not
easy to do. They finally, finally, finally were able to
do it because both guys had been fighting their booked
obviously top notch fighters, but you had a Vander Holyfield
coming off and absolutely, I'll use a big, multi syllable word,
it's probably worth a quarter on the show. Decil Tory
decision against Vaughan desolatory. Yeah you like that. I like that.
Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, go.
Speaker 2: Against one and only Von Bean, who was just a terrible, terrible,
terrible fight. I mean, you know, so there's that. So
Vander who was obviously a popular figure. You know, he
had a world title. You had Lennox Lewis, who again
similar situation. That Von Bean fight was a mandatory fight,
which was a terrible mandatory But you have you have
Lennox Lewis. You know, he's knocked out Galata, he knocked
out Shannon Briggs. Then he comes off of a decision
win in another I shall use it again, TJ desolatory
victory over the then unknown and heretofore still unknown Zelko Maverravich,
who was undefeated at the time. But what a garbage fight.
I mean, just a terrible, terrible fight. So they both
were like the public was sort of like, okay, guys,
good enough with the bullshit fights. Let's get it on.
This was the biggest fight in boxing. They finally made
the fight huge, massive, massive promotion. Madison Square Guarden, HBO
pay per view. This is nineteen ninety nine, a different
ear of than now. This was a mega mega fight
They're going to unify. At the time, three belts needed
for the undisputed title. This is still the three belt
ear And just to give you in a perspective of
how long it has been. It wasn't until later in
that year when they when they had their rematch that
Lenox became the undisputed champ and had taken that long
from then all the way to when Usik defeated Fury
in the first fight to have another undisputed champion, in
this case in the four belly Ear. But this was
the first fight between Evander and Lenox Lewis. And unfortunately,
when we talk about like Fury and Usik as one example,
a fight that had massive amounts of hype that lived
up to the hype, tremendous battle became the fight of
the year for Yeah, Evander Holyfel. Lennox Lewis won was
pretty much the opposite, very very interesting, very boring fight
and in the end most people figured Lennox Lewis won
this fight hands down, in just a Waltz boring, tactical,
sleep inducing shit fight. But he won the decision. And
then they announced the scores, and I tell you it
was one sixteen to one thirteen in favor of Lennox
Lewis and one fifteen one thirteen in favor I.
Speaker 1: Remember the name correctly.
Speaker 2: Eugenia Williams, Sir so pot Card was as bad as
well as it was was over. First of all, even
the sixteen thirteen card that was given by Stanley Chris
Adoulu was a little questionable in my opinion, because I
thought Lenox Wonka probably nine to three, ten to two
type of score. So but anyway, he got the right guy. Then,
like you mentioned Eugenia Williams, who is you know, etched
on the face of Ignomini in boxing history for that wretchedness,
she scoreded for holy Field, which is a fucking farce,
including the round I forget what Ryan it was where
he almost knocked holy Filled out. That was the one
exciting time in the fight.
Speaker 1: I think it was like the fifth She gave the
round a holy Field. I didn't remember that.
Speaker 2: She did give the.
Speaker 1: Mismarking the card and the column.
Speaker 2: And then you add Larry O'Connell who scored the fight
one fifteen to one fifteen. And the magnitude of this
controversy was taken to an even higher level than it
normally would have been because it was in New York
City and the New York papers and the New York
is like no other in the world, and it was
just an absolute chaotic scene for weeks after this, that
the accusations of corruption and bribery and blah blah blah.
I mean this was I know that that they both
kept their titles, so neither guy got a loss. So
neither guy lost in that sense that it's even worse
because you've robbed the guy of the title. But I
just always have in my mind I was watching this
on pay per view, is in the In the words
of Jim Lampley, who was obviously the call calling the
fight for HBO, he said what everybody was thinking when
he said this when they announced the decision, Lennox Lewis
has just been robbed of the undisputed heavyweight championship of
the world. And Jim has told the story by the
way way that in his ear, because you know, Jim
was played it straight for the most part, but it
got the voice from the producer, Ross Greenberg in his ear.
And as Jim has told me this, I don't even
think there was communication between them. He kind of knew,
I think what Jim was thinking, and he just said,
go for it. That was Ross telling. And Lampley went
off and made that comment, and there was investigations and
blah blah, blah. And in the end, obviously they made
the rematch, which was no easy thing to do either.
They put that in Las Vegas. That was at the
end of the year of ninety nine, and Lennox won
the decision, became the undisputed champion. My memory of that
was the press stour leading up to the rematch. I was.
I was at the USA Today during a four month
period on what was a loan program before I got
hired full time from my home paper that I was
working at, and they had come to Washington, d C.
To do a press stop at the Hotel by Dallas
Airport and I got a chance to go cover that
for USA Today. So that was like the first time
I ever met Lennox Lewis in person, net Evander holyfielden
person that don King in persons. That was a great
memory from the rematch. But the bottom line is it
should never have been fucking necessary, right because they fucking
rob Lenox in that fucking fight.
Speaker 1: I don't disagree. I still remember how awful the fight was,
and then the decision was just dumbfounding and everything that
went on that day. Again, at this time period, while
you're relating what you were doing I'm doing five day
a week sports radio in Tampa Bay and this is
in March. This is after the NFL season. The Tampa
Bay Rays had not yet started up in baseball for
that season. That was a topic on that Monday Tuesday.
I remember taking calls about the horrible judging in the
pay per view with Lennis Lewis and a Vander Holyfield.
And remember, now, boxing and the heavyweight title a much
bigger deal even in nineteen ninety nine. Certainly even into
the early two thousands, heavyweight title meant a ton. It
would lead Sports Center, for example, be on the front
page of something called a newspaper gen Zers that we
don't have anymore. It would be that big of a deal.
Speaker 2: This Lenox may not have been a megastar, at least
in the United States, but he was still a known
fighter in the America. Holy Field was a mainstream star.
I mean he was. Evander was the kind of guy
at that.
Speaker 1: Because you're coming off the wins over Tyson, he's known everywhere.
Speaker 2: But even before that, he was an Olympians, he'd been
a cruiserweight champion, He'd been in big fights against George
Foreman and the trilogy with the ridding bow and the
back that the you know, the tyson and the ear biten.
Lenox was not ever at that level. But Holyfield was
one of the few guys in the sport who could
pretty much walk down any street in the country and
people know who he is. You don't have that today.
So when they called that a draw, and again, like
I said, it was in New York. On top of that,
it was a front page story of negativity at that boxing.
That fight and what happened I believe, very very badly
damaged the sport for quite a while. I don't know
if it ever truly recovered from that. It really took
a big hit because here you take the Sports Diamond,
like the biggest event you could possibly put on, and
you have the most controversial thing with like a like
I said, allegations of corruption and bribery and crookedness and
just ineptitude, whatever you want to talk about. And then
Eugena Williams scoring the round for the wrong guy when
the other guy had probably his best round of the fight.
That was so fucking obvious. It was. We've seen a
lot of great nights for boxing. This was one of
the worst nights for boxing.
Speaker 1: And that was twenty six years ago on this Thursday,
March thirteen of nineteen ninety nine. All right, with that,
we have been busy recapping at the beginning previewing. We're
going to reconvene you and I on the bet Us
Boxing Show again. Full disclosure. I'm traveling to Atlantic City,
the home of many of these heavyweight title fights and
big time fights, doing college basketball this weekend. I'll be
with you on the bet Us Show live from Atlantic City.
Speaker 2: Here.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about the Nick Ball by the weight title
main event, We'll talk about the Ammo Williams fight from
a handicapping perspective, any other news etc. On that and
then off the weekend, and I got to figure out
when we can do a recap pod all off of
this and with all the college basketball, etc. We will
try to make all of that happen, my friend. Thank
you as always again for the peeps. If you have
not seen the Taraji fight, go check that out from
Thursday morning US time on ESPN Plus. If you have
it or find it on the internet, how are you
gonna find it? We love that, Dan, Thank you. Have
a good weekend. We'll see you on the bet Us Show.
Speaker 2: All right, TJ enjoyed the basketball.
Speaker 1: There is one Dan Rayphiel. I'm merely TJ Reeves. Follow, Subscribe, Apple, Spreaker,
Spotify Here to this podcast feed. We preview going into
the weekend recamp coming off the weekend. You've been listening
to The Big Fight Weekend Preview pod