Speaker 1: Well off of a weekend that has seen Ryan Garcia. Yes,
Ryan Garcia.
Speaker 2: Get it.
Speaker 1: He's back with a very impressive, arguably the biggest win
of his career, impressive decision over Mario Barrios cat.
Speaker 2: Yes, how could you say arguably?
Speaker 1: We love to argue, Well, we love to argue, and
you're arguing in the first minute of the podcast. It
is a win for Garcia for the WBC welterweight title.
We're gonna talk about that in the entire ring pay
per view from the Zone from Las Vegas. Also, Lee
Wood victorious in his rematch with Josh Warrington in England.
Hearty atmosphere, a lot of action in that fight. We're
gonna go over that. We've got fight news, including a
sensational swerve in the whole zoofa boxing thing that we're
gonna definitely dissect. It is the Fight Freaks Night Recap podcast.
I am the somewhat competent host TJ Reeve. That voice
you heard is, of course, our insider Dan Rayfield, always
ready to launch off of launching pad one. A Fight
Freaks unit is the substack and the newsletter Get subscribed
up beyond the newsletter, get all the intel you know,
like when Oscar de la Hoya and Virgil Ortiz are
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got the t He spills the tea with the info.
Be on the substack and on the newsletter. Thank you
for finding us on the pod feed by the thousands
and thousands and thousands every episode, every weekend, the tens
of thousands of you every month. I'll say again, Dan,
the hundreds of thousands of you that we're listening all
throughout twenty twenty five. Thank you. Give us a five
star rating and review that helps us out, That helps
in the algorithms on Apple, on Spotify, on spreaker, give
us a review, give us the five stars.
Speaker 2: Were like the show that could well.
Speaker 1: Yes, but you know what, we actually are making an impact.
We're consistently here. You and I get a lot of
feedback from those inside the sport that that listened to us,
and there's a lot of fans that appreciate what we do.
And there are a lot of fans that appreciate the
bickering back and forth, like we're an old married couple
that ain't changing anytime soon. Ray feels in a particularly
good mood because he's Duke Blue Devils beat up on Michigan.
How were you not in the hiszy because the game
was in the Washington Wizard's Washington Capitals Downtown Arena. That's local,
that's regional for you near northern Virginia.
Speaker 2: Where, yes, where Tank Davis fought. That's where Mike Tyson thought.
I've been there.
Speaker 1: That did not get to the Duke Michigan game. We
should mention phenomenal hockey win. I know you're not a
hockey guy. The US hockey team has one goal for
the first time since the Miracle on ice. Watched me
tie it back to boxing. They have one gold beating
the Canadians. Stop crying, you Canadians. This is your sport
and you got beat in the gold medal game by
the United States USA USA. And if you go back
to the United States win to clinch the gold medal
against Finland forty six years ago. The anniversary is Tuesday,
February the twenty What is that fourth is Tuesday? If
you go back in the rabbit hole of the YouTube
after Mike h Ruzioni the captain has led the title,
you know these names, Rayfael Herb Brooks the coach, the
vice president at the.
Speaker 2: Time, Waltim Craig the goalkeeper.
Speaker 1: Yet Jim Craig the goalkeeper, Walter Mondale is the vice president.
They go to the ABC live coverage in the locker
room and your boy, Jim Lampley is there on YouTube
doing the post hockey gold medal interviews. Forty six year
old Easter Egg. To go find that now you fast forward.
Jack Hughes is the hero forever with the overtime goal.
Never has to buy a meal or a beer ever.
Speaker 2: Again, might have to buy your toothsho Yes.
Speaker 1: Got his teeth literally knocked out the in the gold medal.
Speaker 2: Game to become a boxer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it could be a couple of boxers, so kudos
to them. The winner. Olympics are done. We move on
with our lives. Except Rayfield's ready to launch and it's
not even boxing relating And I'm like, ho, have you
not figured out in the four years we've been doing this,
this is the fourth year of you and me doing this.
Save it for the record, button, save it for the podcast.
What are you mad about on Sunday night? That has
nothing to do with me and nothing to do with
the fights. You'm sad.
Speaker 2: I'm frustrating because here in northern Virginia where we're going
to get and it's as we tape this, it's snowing outside.
We'll have probably the forecast is calling for like between
two and four inches. Maybe I'm seeing.
Speaker 1: From what I'm seeing on the weather channel. That's nothing
like in the northeast is getting like two feet? Am
I wrong?
Speaker 2: But whatever? In northern Virginia, they have no idea how
to get rid of snow. The reason I'm perturbed, how's
that for a word, is because once again in the
outlying areas of the county there may be a little
more snow. So once again school from ice on is closed.
We just don't go to school.
Speaker 1: Is it easier, Is it easier to count the number
of days in this semester that he's been to school.
It's because he's missed like the better part of two
plus weeks because of snow. You had holidays, there's a
you got a winter break looming allegedly, or are they
going to go to school during the winter break to
make this up? So they're not going to school July fourth?
Speaker 2: How about how about they do like a day off
at the end of the quarter and then like a
half day because and then there's another day off because
it's like a teacher, you know, planning day, right. I
don't know. I asked what I said to my wife
the other They said, when's the last time that the
kids went to school five days in the week, like
Monday through Friday. I couldn't.
Speaker 1: It's probably the beginning of December from what it sounds like.
Speaker 2: It was like in January at some point. But it's
been free infrequently, all right.
Speaker 1: But again for those of you, I'm here in Florida,
and it's going to get cooler for us, but it's
been in the eighties for those of you in the
New York area, the northeast. I saw all the New
York airports are shut down on Sunday night. How about
the US hockey team and a lot of the US
travel party for the United States Olympic teams were trying
to fly back to New York night and tomorrow morning
from Italy. They can't get back to New York. The
US hockey team's gonna fly to Miami. Let's go to
South Beach. They're gonna have the gold medals.
Speaker 2: On South Beach. Right FI.
Speaker 1: Podcast exactly on that, all right, so we empathize. I
have a buddy of mine that's in Providence, Rhode Island,
and he's like the winter storm advisory's already in. We're
gonna be socked in with two feet of snow for days.
So you all just hang in there and let's get
to the boxing. Let's get to all of it with
the results and the news. Ryan Garcia, Okay, how much
of it was him being that good? How much of
it is have we just overvalued Mario Barrios and every
time he's in the biggest fight, we don't really see
it from him. And Garcia took advantage of that. What
would you say, because this was a twelve round, one
sided whitewashing. He's the new WBC Walterway Champ.
Speaker 2: It's a combination of both things. The one end in
terms of just strictly Garcia to think about the guy
that showed up all over the place against Hany and
even though he won the fight in the ring, then
had the fel drug test, talked about how he was,
you know, too much drinking during camp and fight week,
which is why he didn't make the weight. All kinds
of you know, erratic behavior, gets of course busted for
the ped use and then takes the one year suspension
and was generally an unhinged human being. And then even
when he came back and he got into the ring
and the things seemed to at least be a little
more calm around him, although not totally. And he had
the Stink the Roof fight last spring against Roly Romero.
In the Times Square fight, he didn't show up at all,
so that you know, didn't throw any punches. I mean, yeah,
he had a little bit of an injury, but you know,
dying in and box zone. Yeah, So to look at
that fighter who performed against Romero or didn't perform, frankly,
and to then look at the guy that showed up
and fought Mario Barrios on Saturday, in terms of the
physical conditioning, apparently the mental conditioning, because just you could
listen to the way Ryan spoke and handle himself during
the build up to the Barrios fight was much more.
Even Keeled had gone through the trainer change, you know,
had his you know, you know, all the not not
a change, but the controversy with his former trainer Joe
Goosen training Barrios. He stayed pretty calm about that. Let
basically his father have most of them say so in
that situation, it just remarkable that it was the same
person because he came in great condition, He was fast,
he was in shape, he was accurate, They had a
great game plan. We all know Ryan as a great
left hook fighter, but and I didn't really I kind
of had. I knew this, but I kind of forgot
it when he was talking about in the postfight because
he used he used his right hand so much in
the first half of the fight, including using it to
get the knockdown against Barrios in really like the opening
twenty seconds of the fight. Talked about how when he
was a younger fighter he was as an amateur, also
that he was relying on his right hand that was
his best punch, but he had suffered some injuries through
the years of the right hand, so he had to
go to school and really work on building up his
left hook, and that really became the biggest weapon in
his arsenal. And so those of us who followed him
for the last number of years as a pro think
about him as being this great left hook puncher. But
he really does have the right hand. He just didn't
really use it a lot. He really got to going
on Saturday. But that was as complete a performance as
you can ask for. There is no argument that it's
the biggest win of his career or that it's the
best performance of his career because it was under a
big spotlight. It was in his first world championship fight.
He had a while back, been an interim title holder
for five minutes, but we don't really count that too much.
So he did this on the big stage, you know.
And I mean, look, I've had my difference with the Ryan.
This is no shocker. I was, you know, vilified by
him for my accurate reporting about his drug testing situation.
But for all our person issues that maybe Ryan and
I've had through the years, I give him his credit.
Mand The guy fought a great fight. He showed up,
he fought his ass off, he got to win, and
he's champing now. And by the fight he's how much
a star hold on He was already a star, allowed
him to do certain things, kind of pick the fights
he wanted. Now as a star with the title, it's
gonna make him even bigger.
Speaker 1: And more on that, But how much back to the fight,
how much the tone setting first thirty seconds twenty five
seconds where he lands the right on the top of
the head and Barrios is down on the seat of
his pants, like right away. That's not the whole fight,
that's not even close to the whole fight. But he
set the tone which had and it made Barrios I
thought apprehensive of the right hand as the early part
of the fight unfolded.
Speaker 2: Mario was not. I didn't think anyway. He wasn't really
hurt by that shot. It was really a flash knockdown,
but it counted. But I think, like you said, it
wasn't that he was hurt by that particular punch and
he was going to be out of the fight. It
was like it put in his mind like, oh shit,
I gotta worry about the right He really does punch
and he's and the thing about it, more so even
just then, the power is that he's so quick that
he never saw the punch coming. And now you've got
to think about more stuff now. I know they said
they worked on defending against the right hand, and I'm
sure they did go over that. Joe Goosen is the
kind of trainer that's not going to leave that type
of stone unturned. But I'm sure that the bulk of
it was we're going to be looking for the left hook,
and he never landed the big left hook. He landed
the right hand several times. He hurt Barrios a number
of times. Now, But you asked about which was it.
Was it how good Ryan was or how maybe not
good Mario was. Obviously I think it's a combination. But
here's the thing about Barrios. There is a reason why
everybody called him out because he has a prestigious belt
in the WBC, and he was viewed as a very
beatable opponent. He is coming off back to back draws
where he got to keep the title, but he didn't
get wins. One of them was against an you know,
a forty six year old mannipac Yao. One of them
was against you know, a regular opponent in Abo Ramos.
So he was viewed as vulnerable, and you know, the
people that were looking at him thought, Okay, I'm targeting
my various opponents in the in the title picture, at
the at the welterweight limit. He's a guy, but I
can probably make someny against if I can land the fight. Now,
you know, Ryan put up a great fight. Now, That
is different than did he deserve the fight in the
first place. Now, the answer to that is no, And
I don't care what anybody says. He did not deserve
the fight because of the drug testing thing, cousin the
loss against Romero.
Speaker 1: Back he hadn't even beaten anybody in the welter webs.
Speaker 2: He but the WBC gave him the shot. He brought
money to the table. It is a business, and he
got the opportunity. And for Ryan's perspective, you know what,
he made the most of it. So good for him.
Barrios made a lot of money that night. I already
made like around eight million dollars. Good for now. He's
got a young family, and he's had a hard life.
Speaker 1: And we know and we know he made big money
with Pacquiao, so you would think.
Speaker 2: He made good money with Pacio. He made pretty good money.
I think with a tank Gavis back a few years ago,
one hundred and forty pounds.
Speaker 1: So here's one more component to this. And I laud
Sergio Mora. I enjoy him on the commentary, and Todd
Grisham pressed him and said, what's going on with Barrios?
And and Sergio said, this is the same thing we've
seen in the other fights that you watch. When he
steps up in competition, he can't get off, he can't
let his hands go. He's an easy target in the night.
Speaker 2: What you say, anybody making an assessment about the matchup,
I mean I thought that Ryan was to me, if
Ryan was was clear headed and healthy, he's gonna win
the fight. I didn't. I didn't really think it was
a hard pick. Frankly, and nothing against Barrios. He was
always gonna even if Ryan was not at his best,
he was always going to be slower, he was always
gonna be less of a puncher. I mean they both
have good experience against good opponents. I didn't think like
one guy was out of his depths. I mean Ryan's
been in big time fights, fought against Tank Davis and
other you know, quality opponents, and obviously Barrios has fought
other quality guys too. But the skill level, the speed, uh,
just the overall package is a totally different level. I mean,
whatever wherever you rank Ryan, you have to rank Barrios.
You know, even going into the fight, you know a
good step or two behind him. Now, the thing that
was interesting about it was to the scoring, so I'm
watching the fight and I'm scoring. Now he give him
a ten eight round to to to Ryan for the
knockdown in the opening seconds of the fight. And to me,
this was as one sided and asked will Wing. To me,
this was the epitome of a shutout. I thought that Ryan,
even in the rounds where he wasn't lights out, even
in the later half of the fight, when he had
injured his right hand, he told his father in the
corner and he stopped using the right hand, you know,
to to top effect. He was still dominating. He was still
doing basically what I really knocked out.
Speaker 1: I really thought the only round that you could really
give Barrios was the eleventh round I had. I was scoring.
Speaker 2: I didn't even give him the eleventh.
Speaker 1: I was scoring along, going along, and I'm going it's ten,
it's eight nothing, it's ten nothing. This is a this
is a she lacking.
Speaker 2: For so he win on my card. I had a
twelve zero plus the knockdown. One of the official judges
had it the same. One judge did what you said,
gave him round number eleven and had it one eighteen
to one oh eight. And our buddy Steve Weisfeld who
was I've said a thousand times I considered the number
one judge in boxing gave him the eleventh round and
gave him the twelfth round. So I didn't agree with that.
I thought that was awfully generous. But again, it wasn't
gonna change the outcome of the fight no matter what,
because you know, even the worst judges couldn't have messed
up that fight. I didn't think. I mean, I don't
know what else you can say. There's nothing negative to
say about Ryan's performance in the fight. He did it
on offense, he did it on defense, he scored the knockdown,
He came back from a horrible loss and an injury,
and you know now he's in the cat bird seed,
as they say. I mean, it was a really sensational performance,
all right.
Speaker 1: So two things. One, let's tease the audience. What you
love it when I give a good tease, and you
get good at the teasers too. I'm gonna ask you
about what's next in the context of what we're talking
about in the news, because things seem to be kind
of lining up. Stay tuned. Am I wrong to sit
here on this Sunday night? You know where I'm going? No,
I don't Is this the last chapter on what happened
this weekend or do we have to wait and see
about the pre fight drug test and the pope postfight
drug test. Are we not always wondering if there's another
shoe with Ryan Garcia?
Speaker 2: No, I'm I'm giving him as flowers in this podcast,
but I'm not closing the book on this event un
till I get the results of these.
Speaker 1: We are we wrong to the audience to sit here
and wonder what else?
Speaker 2: I mean, you should always wonder about what the drug
tests are going to be, but in the case that
has failed the drug test, you should always be making
sure you get to get the results.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, so stay tuned. But it's a great
night for him. It's a win for him, big moment.
Still got a lot of career in front of him too,
if he could keep his head screw.
Speaker 2: It's only twenty seven years old, even though he's says
he's been around forever. I mean, I've known Ryan since
he's about seventeen years old. He turned pro at a
young age and got a lot of star power and
a lot of attention at a you know, I think
it was kind of too much, too soon sometimes is
what happens to me. What's going to be very interesting
is how does Ryan now winning the title in that
moment and having such a good performance, how does he
He's he's had a lot of stuff come out and
a lot of people, a lot of hangers on, a
lot of all kinds of craziness. Now he's champed. How's
he going to handle that? Because it's if it's gonna
get worse.
Speaker 1: Now stand by more on the next steps when we
get to the news in a few moments. Let's go
over the rest of the card. So, first of all,
the news came out on Saturday, late afternoon. I saw
it and I actually sent you a message and I
got my obligatory at least once every couple of days,
I get the what the effort you're talking about text
back from Rayphiel and I don't know about it. It's
on social media that Richardson Hitchins is ill and is
out of the.
Speaker 2: Fight, contrary to popular belief. Yeah, I do spend some
time of my life not on social media. There you
go it Saturday morning, where I know I'm going to
be super busy the day with boxing. I was doing
some things that were not related to boxing, right, which
is allowed.
Speaker 1: So I sent you the message and take us through
what you found out, because I saw you reporting this
on social media on what happened, including with the secondary
way in, because there's been a lot of conversation about that,
and Hitchins ends up not fighting at all with Oscar Duarte, Okay,
just hours before the fight.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So Hitchins is the IBF Junior welterweight champion. He
was supposed to make a defense in the co feature
against Oscar Duarte, which to many people was the best
fight on the card, even including the main event that
there was a lot of high hopes for that matchup,
and both fighters went to the Friday way in. Both
made the weight with no issue Saturday morning. As per
the IBF rule in a non unification fight, they were
required to make a second day weight. They were not
allowed to be more than ten pounds above one forty
so one hundred and fifty pound maximum. Both fighters went
to that morning weight check. They both made the weight comfortably.
Both of guys were inside one fifty. I think Richardson
Hitchins I went off tought Matt. I want to say
it was like one forty nine point two or something,
and Duarte was about the same. They were, you know,
tad room to move. You know, there was they had
a cushion there. They weren't you know, pushing exactly one fifty. Okay,
so we got a fight. Now. Once that happens, you know,
they've done their obligations. They've made the first weight, that's
the official weight. They've done the second weight. Now the
commission they worry about the Friday the Saturday way in
I mean, I mean the Friday way in the official waycheck.
The other shit's just IBF related, So the Commission's not
even involved with that.
Speaker 1: You just have that's interesting. We should just thing. Wish
you just laid it out like the WBC doesn't require this,
so I Mario Barrios didn't have to go through this.
The WBA correct doesn't require this. So we're going to
talk about Gary angelin Russell's title of defense. They didn't
go through it. This is an IBF thing keep.
Speaker 2: And this is the thing that's been a rule. I
forget the exact year it was created, but I think
it was during the time since I've started. I want
to say with some time in the early two thousands
that they implemented this. I don't like it. I don't
think it's appropriate, but whatever. Anyway, but the point is
both fighters made the weight that the official way in
on Friday, and both fighters were within the required limit
of the IBF in the Saturday morning waycheck. And once
that happens, you're like, okay, now let's let's get ready
for the fight. So what I found out because I
called and spoke to Richardson Hitchins's manager, which is Keith Connelly,
who was there with him in Vegas obviously uh he
and he told me. He gave me his version of
what happened. He says, Look, we went to the waycheck
and Richie was fine. He made the weight. He actually
made it a lot easier than he's made it in
the past. And you know, he's talked about not liking
the IBF waycheck, but he does it because he's champing.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: He made the weight no problem. So, like they normally
would do, they went as a team, him and and
UH and the fighter and the and the trainer and
the you know, the whole crew, and they went that
breakfast after the way check, because it was at like
eight o'clock in the morning. They had breakfast in the MGM,
and an hour or so later, Hitchin starts throwing up,
and Connley says he vomited like several times during the
rest of the day and he was all fucked up
and sick, and so obviously at that point you can't
You're not going to go through with the fight. So
the question I have and I don't know the answer,
and I don't think anybody truly knows the answer. Was
it because of making the weight? Was it because you
maybe took in and you rehydrated too quickly?
Speaker 1: Was it food poisoning yet something? Yeah, he ate breakfa
he eat something that disagreed with him and that caused it.
Speaker 2: Who knows, now, eggs or whatever, just a normal breakfast.
Speaker 1: And let's just dispel this. Once you've made the secondary
weight there, I mean, he had to be making seven figures.
I don't know how much, but he's the k fiah
he was. You're walking away from a million dollar pay
day the afternoon of the fight. So I don't believe
any uh bs.
Speaker 2: Once you make the weight with the commission, which both
of them did on Friday. Once that happens, if the
fight is now off and it's not your fault, and
it's something happens with the other fighter. I believe that
the promoter is obliged to pay the boxer half of
their purse, not Hitchens. But Duarte did not walk away
empty hand it. And so there is a movement now
to try to reschedule this fight for as soon as
they can. We'll see when it actually can take place,
you know, so who knows what will be.
Speaker 1: But I'm just coming at it, you know where I'm
coming from. There's not a reason for him to want
to back out at three o'clock in the afternoon.
Speaker 2: I've seen people say he was scared. If you know
Richard or Hitchens even a little bit, the dude would
fight a fucking grizzly bear if he had to. Ye, okay,
this is not about that. The other thing is I've
seen some people, even even people in the media who
I respect, making the comments that he should be stripped
of the title because this. I'm like, what the fuck
are you talking about. You have no proof for evidence
that it's because he didn't make the weight, but he
actually did make the weight. So to me, if you
make the weight twice and he's doun, your obligation and
something happens. That's life, because I don't see any reason
why not making or you know, getting sick or throwing
up or whatever how you want to put it. How
is it any different if he couldn't fight, because like
he's you know, he's wanting to You're walking to his
hotel room and he trips and he sprains.
Speaker 1: His ankle and can't stand.
Speaker 2: Could be anything. So he's not going to get stripped
of the title, and hopefully they can just put this.
You know, it's unfortunate. It totally sucks. Uh. You know,
you feel bad because both guys put in the you know,
a normal lengthy training camp, which costs money. It takes
takes out of you physically because you've sparred, you know, however,
many dozens of rounds or whenever.
Speaker 1: You weight drained in Duarte's case to get down to
the weight, and so did Hitchins.
Speaker 2: So I don't look at there being some big conspiracy.
I think this is just one of those things that
happens every now and again. It's happened a couple of
times in the Morking.
Speaker 1: Do you believe that Hitchins will just vacate and move
up because Walter Waite's more popping. You think he'll try
to stay at one forty.
Speaker 2: Okay, Richardson Hitchins at one hundred and forty with a
title makes seven figures. Richardson Hitchins with no title at
one forty seven is just the guy in a cart.
Speaker 1: There you go, there's the answer to that. Stay tuned
on when they are able to reschedule. Now that Gary
Antwin Russell fight did come off. When we left the
Peeps the Savages, we were wondering if Hirioka, the Japanese
fighter was going to get in the country on the visa.
He did, they had to fight Russell Wins give me
your your insight on that.
Speaker 2: On the victory, well, like you said, he was this
is a long time coming this fight. He's the mandatory
challenger who was supposed to take place in the fall
on the what would have been the the Tank Davis
against Jake Paul fight that got canceled, So the fight,
as one of the PBC parts of that event were
called off. So they had to wait until this card
to put it back together. And then he had the
problem with the visa. Thankfully he got the visa, but
you're still kind of thinking yourself, Oh shit, he's got it.
But now he's not even getting to Vegas till Thursday.
This is coming all the way from Japan. That's like
a long freaking trip, you know, with you know, with
time zones, and you're trying to make weight. In me,
you're like, it's just kind of like in your mind,
I'm thinking it's a recipe for disaster. What's what's he
gonna be like? And early on it looked like it
wasn't much because the first first of all, he's a
lot taller than and than Gary Antoine Russell, and that
was obvious. He was a much longer fighter than dary Antoine.
And for the first probably six seven rounds, it was
a horrible fight to watch. I mean, nothing happened as
six rounds. I guess you had Gary Russell trying to
get on the inside and rough them up and go
to the body, and he was doing what he should do.
But Heroca was as anti fighting. He was like di
violence that that first five six rounds, like he just
didn't want to be part of the fight. He threw
a few jabs, he moved around and just never engaged
at all. And then suddenly mid fight he starts to
explode and starts going after Gary Russell on the entire
fight change. So Gary dominated basically, not because he was
doing damage so much, but he was just easily winning
the rounds because he was at least doing something and
Heroka was doing absolutely nothing. And so you know, it
was about out of the realm to have him up
five to nothing, maybe five, you know, four to one
something like that after the first five rounds. But then
Heroka really started to make a big time comeback. So
he did really well the second half and it went
from an unwatchable piece of shit fight to a very
interesting fight. Those last you know, the second half of
the bout, I think Heroka just ran out of rounds
and uh, you know didn't. There was just not enough
time to catch up. So now the official scorecards were
one seventeen to one ten, one sixteen to one eleven twice.
So I thought that Gary was absolutely the winner of
the fight. But I felt like those were a slightly
maybe you got a little bamboo now, you know, you
saw how good Gary looked in the first rounds and
you kind of you don't, you didn't let the you
didn't catch up to what was really happening in the fight,
which was Heroica coming on, you know, going to the
body and banging Gary around a little bit had him
hurt a couple of times. There was a point deduction
for what was a I mean there's low blows and
then there's Andrew Gillotta low blows. This was a dick shot. Okay,
this was a really bad so he got he got
hit low. I forget what round it was. I want
to say to be like the the tenth or eleventh round.
He got hit very he got hit low. He got
he got a stern, stern warning from the referee, Allen Hudgens,
and then a few minutes, you know, a few seconds
later or whatever in the round he went lower. And
I don't think it was on purpose because he's so
much taller than Gary. He was kind of reaching down
to kind of throw what would look like sort of
like an uppercut type of shot. But he caught him
way but not just like on the belt line, not
in the groin area. He caught him like almost underneath
his balls. Yeah, that's how low thet was and Gary
went down on the ground. I mean that's how he
was hurt by that. It was a brutal, brutal shot.
This was round ten. There was probably about forty seconds
left when he went down on the mat. Now Gary
got some time to recover. Uh But but Huggins, after
having warned him sternly for the first knockdout our first
on low blow, took a point because it was that
of it. That was such an egregious low blow that
you know Gary's probably singing, you know, alto these days. Uh,
it was. It was bad, and then he ended up
finishing the fight and he won the decision. It was,
like I said, it was a tale of two fights.
The first half was unwatchable because of Heroka. The second
half was way better, highly entertaining, and the right guy
won the fight. And you know, Gary makes a successful
first title defense. Uh, he's in the picture in a
very deep weight class that has a lot of good names.
You know, he wants to unify. That was what he said.
You know. He basically was like, you know, he's friendly
with cha course Stevenson. They'd known each other for years,
they sparred together. He's like, I let me get a
unification with either Dalton Smith, who's the BC champion, or Hitchins,
who's the IBF champion if he sticks around, and then
I'll take on Shaquor and we can, you know, do
it for the unification, you know, for the all the
all the marbles.
Speaker 1: This is vi that Gary will fight more than once
a year, which he hasn't done in need the last
three calendar years.
Speaker 2: Well he should have thought twice last year. Wasn't his
fault at.
Speaker 1: The time, I'm saying what he should have done. I'm
saying the last three years, one fight a year. We
got to get him back in the ring. It's only fun.
Speaker 2: What I'm saying too, is he had a second fight
last year scheduled in November and it was canceled, no
one to no reason for him. Wasn't his fault that
was canceled. That was because of his boy Tank Davis
getting kicked off the show. But anyway, shaquer was there
at the fight. He was doing some punditry work for
Dezone on the broadcast and their respect for each other,
and I could that's a fight that could happen in
down the road. I doubt it, And certainly I don't
think Gary's going to get a fight with Hitchin's or
Adulton Smith anytime soon. But I can appreciate the desire
to want to fight the best guys. And look, Gary's
a really talented fight He was it Olympian, you know,
his one loss was very close. You know, I'd like
to see him back in the ring against an opponent
that will fight more like Heroka did in the second
half of the fight than did in the first half
of the fight.
Speaker 1: Okay, give me the rest of the rundown on the card,
the ghost Frank Martin a draw in this fight, Beck
the bully of Victory. What else saw off the undercard
real quick before we move along here?
Speaker 2: Well, Frank Martin not here. Albright was sort of like
on paper for me, and I think for a lot
of people that know these two guys, was sort of
like the sleeper fight, Like you're like, that's gonna be
a pretty good fight. And I actually tweeted that right
before the fight when they were doing the intros, like
this is going to be probably, I think it's going
to be a good fight. It turned out, in my estimation,
really maybe the best fight of the night. I mean,
very very good fight. It turned out to be a draw,
but plenty of action. Both guys showed a lot of heart.
Both guys did a lot of work, really entertaining fight.
Both guys talked about being open to doing a rematch.
You had. It wasn't a split draw, it wasn't a
majority draw. It was all three judges ninety five ninety five.
I didn't look at the scorecard to see the exact
if they all scored all ten rounds the same, but
if all three judges came out in ninety five ninety five,
I put out right before they announced the decision that
in my opinion, this fight was probably absolutely could be
a draw. If it's not a draw, maybe you give
it to Frank Martin by a round. I felt like
he kind of maybe eked it out a little bit.
But there there's no question it was close. Neither guy,
you know, they both they always say like I thought
he won the fight, but it wasn't like strenuous. Both
guys like, I'll do the rematch. And you know what, Albright,
you know, isn't as well known maybe as Frank Marty
had the kind of hype that Frank had. But Martin,
you know, he gave a solid fight to Keishon Davis
as an unknown guy. That's a loss that's looking better.
That was, of course, the fight that became ultimately a
no contest due to the positive marijuana test that Keishan
had back a couple of years ago. So hopefully they'll
do the fight again. I like the matchup, I thought
Frank this was his second fight since being a full
time junior Walter Wade. He looked awesome when he came
up to the way class and at lightweight. He got
knocked out badly by by Tank Davison, a title shot,
took about eighteen months off, came back in December, had
a sensational knockout on the undercard when it was Lamont
Roach against Pittbull and just splattered Rancis Barthellomy. And you're like,
oh my goodness, he didn't fight that well. But but
they hear Albright is a fresher fighter than Brantis Barthellmy.
So I I still think though that he can be
a factor at one forty and seeing the way Albright
fought there, even though he's as not as heralded, let's say,
as Martin like here, Albright will give a lot of
highest problems. Man. He's a very solid fighter. He seems
like he got a good chin, a good fighting spirit,
and then the best part is in his interview after
he was done talking to Chris Mannix. He he he
said he was like the Philadelphia version of Tyson Fury
broke out into like singing a love song. It was hilarious.
So he's he's got a little bit of a little
charisma to him also, So that was that was the
best fight on the car. Now you mentioned about beck
Timir Belkuzia. Now he went into this fight as already
the WBA's mandatory challenger at super middleweight. He had won
an elimination fight against Darius Fulgrum in his previous fight
that was a very good fight, and now they put
him in what was really like a showcase fight, a
tune up fight, if you will, against a guy that was,
you know, in shape and strong, but just not gonna
be there at the end of the fight. Most likely
that was sene Beco, and uh, you know, beck took
him apart and stopped him. Uh, it kind of went
as I expect. It wasn't a particularly good fight, but
at the end of the day, he got the knockout
and he keeps his his mandatory position. He did suffer
a couple of cuts, so we'll see how long that's
gonna keep him out. And then you get to the
to the part of the card where he had some
of the prospects. Now Golden Boy has a kid named
Amari Jones. Uh at one point was a big part
of the Devin Hainey camp. He's trained by Virgil Hunter
out of Oakland, California. He's a middleweight, really good looking prospect.
He's got the same manager as Virginal Artises with Rick
Marigey in that team. He looked really really good like
he fought uh luis Arius. Now louis Arius is a
steppingstone kind of opponent. He's had a lot of experience
against good guys. Had only previously been stopped once though
in his in his like four or five losses, he
got clipped by Ericson Lubin back three four years ago.
Uh So when Amari Joneson going there and not only
deliver a beat down but also get the stoppage, uh
that you know they stopped it on the on the
in the corner. Uh it was that's a really good performance.
After the fourth round they stopped, he just gave him
an absolute beating. So Jones is I mean, he's in
a position where you can say he's he's now sixteen
and oh with fourteen knockouts. He's only twenty three. So
is he a contender? Is he is he a rising prospect?
Speaker 1: What do you say? What do you have him as
prospect than contender?
Speaker 2: Still, he's probably still like at the tail end of
prospect diness. If you will, you know he I think
he needs.
Speaker 1: Like don king word on.
Speaker 2: I'd like to see him get another fight against a
similarly reputable, like tough, like known opponent. I'm not talking
about like a top ten guy, but somebody that's experienced,
that's durable, that that knows how to handle himself. Let
him see another similar type of opponent. If you can
do that again, then I'm like, you know what this
kid is going places again. He's very young. He have
some good amateur times. But the thing about it that's
so interesting if you if you like the style that
he fight and it was crowd pleasing. He's in the
middleweight division. We've talked endlessly for as long as we've
done this podcast about how fucking shitty the middleweight division
in general is. So anybody that can come in with
talent and some interesting style in which they fight, can
maybe make some noise in a decrepit division. So I think,
you know, in the next couple of fights, Amaro Jones
could be right there knocking on the door of a
title fight in this weight class. So that was that
was good to see. And then you had a couple
other fights on the show. You had the Saudi Arabian
junior lightweight Mohammed Alakal, who has looked good in terms
of his technical ability, but is not showing a lot
of punching power. He came into the fight seven and
zero two with one knockout. Now he leaves eight to
zero with two knockouts. He looked good. I got a
second und knockout against you know, just a regular kind
of opponent. He trains with Abel Sanchez, who's, you know,
obviously a well known top Hall of Fame level trainer.
He's been on the Hall of Fame ballot for years.
He's a worthy candidate, and he got the knockout. He's
very young, he's only twenty one, and he's one of
the couple of Saudi Arabian fighters that the read season
in Sela and Turkey al Chic are bringing along that
would love nothing more than the FI a championship level
fighter from their country that they can feature on their
big shows, and they're getting him his exposure. And you know,
the kid looked good, so good for him. And then
in the opening fight of the card, h this was
a huge disappointment. If you ask me, you have the
heavyweight Olympian from twenty twenty four from the United States,
from Houston, Texas, a guy named Joshua Edwards. Now, he
came into the fight five and zero with five knockouts,
and he looked pretty good. As a professional. I remember
when I We've talked about him a couple of times.
I watched it in the Olympics. I was wholly unimpressed.
But as a pro he's looked, you know, much more
dynamic and pretty interesting. And they matched him up with
my new favorite fighter, Brandon cal Antonio with the mullet
and the harry and the and the chest hair. He's
twenty nine, who looks like he's about thirty five, looks
like he used to be like he's like he looks
like a guy that in the old nineteen seventies cigarette
Yes magazine ads.
Speaker 1: Or perhaps out of the movie slap Shot for Exac
Old School hockey.
Speaker 2: With God God bless Brandon cal Antonia looked like he's
in a He's a guy from Canada. Looked like he
was going to get knocked out about the first round,
just based on the way he looked. I gave Edwards
a tough, solid fight. He lost every round. I actually
thought he could have won one round in there, but
the three judges scored at fifty sixty to fifty four.
But he went and he made Joshua Edwards show that
he is not yet ready for primetime or even close to.
It took him the sixth round distance. It's the first
time he went the distance in his professional career. Hopefully
from the Edwards perspective, to learn and grow from that
particular fight. And you know what, call Antonio ain't ever
going to be a world champ. He's not going to
be a contender. But you know what, if you got
a guy that's a young heavyweight that you want to
give a test to, you bring me this guy and
let me see him, because he was he had a
good style. He gave a great interview after the fight.
He deserved to be interviewed after that fight, the effort
he gave. So he's my guy.
Speaker 1: Now love that? All right? Let's get to the British
main event, which was the Junior Lightweight Showdown Lee Wood
Josh Warrington rematch one by Lee Wood. It was the
match Room de Own main event, great atmosphere in Nottingham, England.
These are two well known British fighters. Warrington again had retired,
had unretired, Wood had previously beaten him. Full confession. I
had a bunch of stuff going on on Saturday. I've
seen I've read your substack, I've seen the highlights of
the fight. It looked to me like Wood was mostly
in control, although his face was marked up some at
the especially right eye, right cheekbone, right eye. What are
your thoughts on the Warrington win? And it's interesting because
both guys came out of the fight saying maybe this
is it again, including Lee Wood.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, yeah, well these are, like you said, they're
two well known fighters in the UK. For sure. They
both fought a lot of good guys. They both gave
great efforts and had some tremendous big nights and big fights.
They both are two time featherweight title holders. They had
a fight back in twenty twenty three, so it's been
about two and a half years since their first fight.
Leewood was a defending WBA champion going into that fight.
Warrington was beating his ass through the first five rounds
or six rounds, and then you know, he was up
on all three score cards, and in the seventh round,
Lee Wood rallied and scored a knockout, and so it
was a big win for him, down on the three cards,
and there was a lot of conversation right then that
they're going to have a rematch. It didn't happen immediately.
They both kind of took some time off, they both
went their separate ways. They both ended up losing to
Anthony Kissachi. They both moved up in wait the Warranton.
As you mentioned, a very brief retirement. Lee Wood is
a little is he's a little older than him, but
it felt like he had a little more left in
the tank, if you will. But anyway, they made the
rematch and it was in Wood's hometown this time. They
sold the place outs, like about eight thousand people at
this arena, but it sounded if you're watching on the
TV about you know, twenty thousand, which help you know,
both of both of the fans that support would and
this The fans that support Warranton have been great through
the years. I'm sure that those fans that were there
that there was a good amount of people that had
made the trip from Leeds, England, which is where Warrington
is from, and it made for, like you said, a
festive atmosphere, but would look really good now he got
the knockout. Lee is a good puncher. Uh. He went
the distance in this fight. He won very wide, one
nineteen to one ten on two score cards, one seventeen
to one eleven on the third score card. It was
a very crisp performance. It was a very u controlled performance.
He was very disciplined. He didn't get uh you know,
uh let let Warrington get get going really at all.
He was much faster than than Josh was and he
just really put it all together. So when you talked
about like after the fight, when both guys are sort
of asked to assess their future, neither guy would commit.
Now the way that Warrington spoke, he was like, I'm
not going to make any rass decisions, which I can appreciate.
I hate when fighters say in the ring I'm going
to retire because it's never usually true.
Speaker 1: Remember he famous to think about it. He famously waved
goodbye to the crowd, his gloves off, left the gloves
in the ring, you know, the poetic goodbye, and he's
fighting again six or eight months later exactly.
Speaker 2: So let him take some time to think about to
talk it over with him, with himself, with his team,
with his family, and figure out what he wants to do.
I would like to see him retire. I don't think
there's much left for him to do in this sport.
It's it's hard, and he's taken some damage, and he's
got some losses now as they mount. For lee Wood though,
coming off of not a long long left but less
than a year. But you know, hasn't really been in
the in the mix very much recently. Uh. I mean, granted,
you have to understand who he was against. He was
against a diminished Warrington, so that can maybe elevate the
way he looked. If he's fighting one of the top
guys at junior well lightweight, it might be a different story.
But for what I saw, he still has some speed,
he still had his his uh you know, his technique.
He still was decent on defense. I know he did
get a bloody nose and he did have a little
bit on the of marked up on the right eye,
but that that that did not indicate the way he
fought in the fight he got. You know, of course
you're gonna get hit in the boxing match, and Warrington
is they can land some solid shots. But I thought
we will look as good as he looked in the
last few years. So to me, if if if this
is the end for Warrington, good if Lee. If Lee,
if Lee decides that he wants to retire, also fine.
But certainly Leewood, based on that performance, that victory, his
fan base, his punching power, absolutely can line himself up,
I'm sure for some kind of meaningful fight in the division.
I think that he could bring another, you know, big
event to his hometown. Certainly, you know, make a big
fight with one of the other top guys. If you
take a look in the division, I'll give you an example.
So next week, and we'll do this on our preview
show later in the week, we got a great unification
fight between Navarette and nunyez Es for the IBF and
the WBO title. That Troom Boxing is the promoter of
that card. They are the promoter also of Nunyez they're
also the promoter of Lee Wood. Obviously they could theoretically
make a match with Nunya's Visa win or even Navarete
because they're doing business with top rank on that show.
Now you look at the other guy who needs a fight,
that's a WBC champion, Oshaki Foster. He's with top rank,
which was not a deal. You don't think that maybe
they could convince Oshaki Foster to with the right paycheck
to go fight Leewood in Nottingham, England and you know
and give him a title shot. Uh, based on that performance,
I can see that. I don't think that's crazy. I mean,
neither guy's got some kind of obvious fight out there.
I know Foster, they're looking for something. So if Wood
wants to continue, by all means, you know, yeah, there
are I can see. I can see that. Warrington sounded
like he's probably gonna, you know, call him to day.
He did say, you know, he thanked everybody, and it
felt like a farewell speech. I mean though he wasn't
going to make that decision right away in the ring,
so you know, all in all, for a one sided decision,
it was a pretty good fight and uh, you know,
glad to see if they got the rematch going after
you know, the demand for it after the first fight,
and uh, you know that was that.
Speaker 1: Okay, we have fulfilled the recap portion of things. Now
we get to some juicy stuff with the news and
what's been going on since last you and I talked.
Do you want me to say at the beginning or
at the middle or both are? Do you know? You
know what I'm gonna say about Floyd Mayweather and Mike
Tyson Floyd Mayweather and Mike Tyson being officially announced for
an exit or whatever.
Speaker 2: This is? No, that was not that was that was
that's already been announced. This was not that the news
was not the announcement.
Speaker 1: Well yeah, but I mean they're now going to fight.
That is going to happen, yea. And Floyd wants to
come back and have real fights at forty nine years
of age. What are we doing here? I mean we
talked about it, bro, we talked about the lawsuit with showtime,
But are we seriously going to see Floyd Mayweather get
in there? And don't boxing commissions come in? They will
at some point. This is for down the road on
you're forty nine years old, who are we gonna let
you be in the ring with is it mankiw?
Speaker 2: There's gonna be like if you tried to do a fight,
let's say in Vegas or some other states. They do
have more comprehensive medicals that you have to pass as
an older fighter in the.
Speaker 1: Age range has to be similar, which we've seen fights
rejected for that in the past.
Speaker 2: But it's they in the that of for example, they
based it on not only age, but the number of
rounds you've had h So there is some uh examination
of your record in that respect. The PAQW fight is
absolutely possibly they're it's about the same age Floyd's gonna have.
Supposedly this spring exhibition against Tyson, Manny is going to
have the exhibition that we talked about last week against
pro Vadnikov. They're both within a few weeks of each other.
And if they both come out of those exhibitions, it's
not out of them, you know. Yeah, hold on, Mayweather
Pack you have too on Netflix this fall.
Speaker 1: Are we seriously eleven years later talking about this with
both of these guys in their upper forties, I don't know.
Fortune Yeah, apparently we are.
Speaker 2: But the story was not the Tyson exhibition, although they
haven't one hundred percent announced the date and the specific site,
although it's rumored for April and Africa, I think in
like Congo or something. The announcement that was made on
Friday was that Mayweather, after the Tyson Exhibition, is coming
out of retirement fight yeah, to put his fifty to
oh record on the line. He turns forty nine years old,
by the way, on Tuesday, so he'll be, you know,
one year closer to his you know, will he be
fifty years old going in the ring at fifty and oh?
I mean it is what it is. It's not the
first time, but.
Speaker 1: Is like walking around weight seventy or eighty pounds heavier
than Floyd Mayweather. First of all, that what are what Tyson?
What are we doing here.
Speaker 2: With the exhibition? Aspect of the Tyson thing, to me
is not that interesting. It's the fact that Mayweather would
actually put his actual official record on the line, after
preserving it for so many years and being so proud
of retiring at fifty to zho a nice glossy round number,
to then a decade after his retirement from official fights,
ending with Connor McGregor in twenty seventeen to come back
and risk that, because even at forty nine, you know
there's a very good chance you might lose. I mean,
it's can depend on who he fights. But you know,
things happen when you get that age. I mean, I saw,
you know, Bernard Hopkins was in his fifties, he got
knocked out of the ring, I mean Smith. So Floyd
coming back is uh, say whatever you want. There'll be
a lot of intrigue. More so, he's had eight previous
exhibition matches, by the way, the Tyson Exhibition will be
his ninths. But there's been very little interest in most Yes,
but Floyd in an actual fight risking fifty to zero,
whether it's against Pakia or some other reputable opponent, you know,
that's a different story.
Speaker 1: All right, stay tuned. Now we get to a juicy
part of the news, and that is the news that
came out what on Friday, yep, that Connor Benn has
decided to ink with ZUFA boxing. Hmm. Very interesting on
several fronts. And I've been reading your substack. I've been
reading a lot of the reporting, been listening to Connor
Binn's comments in statements that he's made I don't know
if he did an on an on camera interview or
an audio interview. Eddie Hearn has obviously been out there.
I did not hear what he said on the dizone broadcast,
but I've read his comments and using the word betrayal
as he's left Matchroom Boxing. All right, get to the
particulars and then I'm on the launching pad about ZUFA
Boxing and Dana White and all the hypocrisy every which directions.
So go ahead first with the pertinent stuff.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, well, Connor. First things first, Connor Ben fought
the rematch and won against Chris you Bank Junior in
their second fight, and that he was out of contract
with Matchroom. So it's no different than if you are
a pitcher or a base you know, a hitter. At
the end of the baseball season, your contract's up. You
go into the free agent market. Same when when the
basketball for agency uh portion of the of the year
opens or or anybody NFL, anybody in boxing, their contract
is up. You know your you have the right to
go and explore where you want to. You know, uh,
do your events, do your do your career. Now that
that was the case, so it came as a surprise
because he's been so tied to match Room and to Eddie.
Now there's a couple of things here. One, he took
the deal with with with ZUFA. My reporting is that
it's a one fight deal with no options and no
strings attached. One fight will take place in the United
Kingdom before the end of May. Basically, you know, bring
an opponent, you know, somebody reputable, but they're not like
forcing you know, a top guy on them or anything
like that. And uh, it's fifteen million dollars, which is
life altering money if you're if you're Tyson Fury or
your Anthony Joshua or your Canelo Alvarez or something like that.
A fifteen million dollars pay day. I mean, it's a
lot of money, sure, but it's not.
Speaker 1: Any Alexander Terrence Crawford that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, these guys have made one hundred plus million dollars.
Connor ben Is in his two fights with you Bank,
I think made a total of about twenty million, and
the rest of his career he's made, you know, maybe
a couple million if you want, so, fifteen million in
one fight where you're not even being required to fight,
you know, a super top level opponent. That's life altering money.
So I have no problem with the guy if you're
if you're unencumbered contractually to their sign was only making
you the biggest offer. Now here's where the things can
be a little bit or I get where Eddie's coming from.
To some degree, Eddie's crying disloyalty and he was shocked
by this, and he made a mistake by not having
him under contract, et cetera, et cetera. And by the way,
the engineer of this is, obviously you know Dana Nick Cohn,
Keith Connelly. He was the manager for Connor Ben.
Speaker 1: And Turkey Ali Sheik, the money guy.
Speaker 2: Of course, that's where the money's coming from for sure,
because he supports the ZUFA business as well as his
own ring magazine and you know the access to the
Rea season money. Could the Ben camp have handled it
a little better, Yes, I believe that Mattrim had the
right to match an offer. I guess they didn't match
the offer, and Eddie was I guess disappointed or sad
in or upset or ticked off, forever you want to
describe it. It's one thing if you leave, it's another
thing if you leave and you don't even have the
courtesy to make the phone call and say listen, Eddie,
I just got this unbelievable offer, and I you, and
I appreciate everything you have done for me and my
family over the last ten years, standing beside my yep,
beside me and my family through all of my problems,
through my drug testing nightmare where everybody ridiculed me, and
you for standing by me, and you really went to
the mat for me, you know.
Speaker 1: The British media, the British media has reported this. He
allegedly fronted Connor Bean advanced him some money while he
was suspended.
Speaker 2: That's what he didn't have to do, correct, So when
Connor was broke basically that's right.
Speaker 1: Well, the suspension was going.
Speaker 2: On and such legal bills related to the case. So
it's no problem if you are a free agent to
go on about your business and go elsewhere. But I mean,
I can speak for myself. I know that it is
if I was in that position, the way that I
would have done it is I would have called or
even that face to face and explained to them this
amazing opportunity and said listen, I appreciate it. But and
you know, if the person is really your friend and
you can really go out there and make way way
more money and that person can't give you the same offer.
What do you do? You slap my ney and said, listen, man,
it's one fight. I wish you nothing but the best,
and when you're done, come back and let's talk.
Speaker 1: But it's it's boxing, and there's underhanded things that have
gone on forever.
Speaker 2: With But the crocodiles here from Eddi though, are a
little bit much.
Speaker 1: Better well of course, of course, because he got one
put over on him. And all right, so let's go
through the full chronology of what happened late last week,
because I only became aware of this like Thursday Friday.
So Dana White a week ago tonight after the ZUFA
Boxing third car the FAA jogbamb main event that he won,
and now this all lines up. He starts after talking
about the fights going down the road, about all of
these guys, all of these promoters are such babies. I'm
beating up on babies. I'm paraphrasing, but he did use
the word babies.
Speaker 2: He said, I'm beating up babies.
Speaker 1: And then he and then he says about Eddie, hearn
that he's been working for Dad, spending Dad's money. Well,
now it lines up that they knew they were talking
to and doing a deal. Obviously they didn't maybe have
it last Sunday night, but they were on the verge
of doing this deal. So the needling there was almost
like a foreshadowing of what was gonna come later in
a week. And I think that's irked Eddie Hearn even
more that the insults led to this fighter coming in.
But here I come, Raphael with this. You can't have
all sides of the argument. You can't sit and say
we're gonna revolutionize the sport. We're gonna have our own league.
We're gonna have fighters that only fight for us. We're
gonna have this and that and our own titles and
our own rankings, and we're gonna call all the organizations
evil and wrong, and we're gonna do our own thing.
And then, out of the other side of your mouth,
as soon as it's in your financial interest and as
soon as Turkey Alashik wants to do it, you do
a one off deal with a fighter who's making ridiculous
money compared to what everybody else is making. This this
whole thing is hypocrisy. Let me tell you what's going on.
What's going on is they are a promotional outlet now
not unlike all the other promotional outlets, and when it
makes sense for them to do a one off deal,
they'll pay that fighter of ten million, twenty million whatever.
With your reporting, you'll tell us what they're making all
this stuff about we're gonna stamp out the other boxing
promotions and the organizations, and we're gonna we're gonna revolutionize boxing.
I don't need the end of the year. You have
the answer right now. They are just like all the
other promoters. When it's in their interest to do a deal,
they're gonna do a deal just like this for one
fight with no other further off.
Speaker 2: But I mean, why would anybody expect anything otherwise.
Speaker 1: So yeah, because what they have said since this got
formed is we're not dealing with these other people.
Speaker 2: We're gonna revolution because they're not dealing with.
Speaker 1: The organizations, and we're gonna revolutionize it. Do our own thing,
our own rankings, our own belts.
Speaker 2: They but I'm not sure how that's any different.
Speaker 1: So okay, what this what this demonstrates, What this demonstrates
is they are no different than top ranked boxing. They're
no different than Golden Boy.
Speaker 2: They're no different than the reason why they're different is
because they have actually gotten the United States Congress to
approve or get on this, and that's not changing the legislation,
but that's it will make what they do a lot easier.
Speaker 1: But that's their different argument about whether that should be
allowed to go on or not. What I'm saying about
business from a business standpoint.
Speaker 2: That's good for their business. They are.
Speaker 1: Right, But this is a boxing promotion that's just going
to do whatever's in their interest and it doesn't have
anything to do with a zoofa boxing league.
Speaker 2: What what what? Boxing doesn't do what's in their interest.
Speaker 1: But that's what I'm saying to you, So stop talking
to me about.
Speaker 2: How they never said in their interest.
Speaker 1: But I heard the word we're going to revolutionize this,
we're gonna change it, we're gonna bring it under all
of it. They are the same, TJY are the same.
Speaker 2: I've covered boxing for a long time. I've seen and
in the immortal words, and I'm not saying that Zoofa
is going to be one of these people, because I
actually think they're going to be able to be around
a long time because of the combination of their platform,
their financing, and the intelligent people that run it. But
there's plenty of promoters that have come in talking the
same way that ZUFA had done and throw a lot
of money around and been gone in lickety splits, stayed
they're gonna be able to.
Speaker 1: I have no idea. I have no idea if they're
going to be around. What I do know is Turkey
alsk has the money. The Saudi PI.
Speaker 2: Don't forget they're getting like one hundred million.
Speaker 1: They are, but they they will burn through that money
doing deals like this in a hurry on their own
without Turkey Aloshik.
Speaker 2: But I guarantee you, okay, I can guarantee you that
it is crazy to pay a Connor ben fifteen million
for a regular fighting. I know. I don't know what
the reason is, but I know there is a reason
because I know the people that run ZUFA and they're
smart business people. Okay, Well, can anyone who will underestimate
Nick Kahn. I'm not their own peril.
Speaker 1: All I'm saying to you is enough with the whole
we're gonna revolutionize it. We're gone that The second thing
is and this is the ancestual part of all of this.
Turkey Ala Sheik has what he's doing with Rion Season,
the Saudi Entertainment Authority and putting these fight cards on
like what just happened in Las Vegas and what happened
with the other ring fight card uh late in the
year last year, and he's and that's correct, right. So
now now you're in the nebulous confusing thing that this
is him making deals under the ZUFA umbrella too, and
it's all the same thing he's behind.
Speaker 2: By the way, it's a way around this for them,
so they can at least keep to their word in
quotes of not dealing with the organizations, but they will
if they sign an Opataia like they're gonna do.
Speaker 1: Which they did, which, by the way, helped me while
I'm here, because you just jogged me. You do the
best at anybody at finding this out. Is Opataia on
a multi fight deal or is this fight March the
eighth of one off?
Speaker 2: He's signed a multi fight deal?
Speaker 1: Okay, very good, But here's the here's the point.
Speaker 2: That I'm gonna make though. If Turkey al Chik his
his side, they're the ones funding ZUFA Boxing. Besides you
know the one hundred mil that they get from Paramount.
He also, of course is involved with everything related to
their ring and real season events. So the way that
you can be ZUFA Boxing stick to what you said
you're gonna do with your so called league is have
the ability to that outs. And I don't think there's
a I think this is a good thing. Actually, if
you sign a Jaio Pataya, he's not gonna only be
within the confines of ZUFA. He'll be able to go
and fight on a ring card. He'll be able to
go fight on a Read season, which means they can
make deals because ZUFA, I mean not sorry Read Season
and ring magazine. The one good thing about Turkey is
he'll work with other promoters. Okay, the card hold on Chakartifimata,
I got you.
Speaker 1: He's been. He's been dealing with Bevil, he's been dealing
with U Sick, he's been Tyson Fury with all of it.
But here we come back to the main point, which
is they are the same. And the reason why UFC
has succeeded to the point that they have succeeded is
that all of the money funnels into one organization. The
fighters are essentially salary capped making X and we've seen
fighter after fighters screaming about fighter pay out of UFC.
There's been lawsuits involved in a couple of them are
still ongoing judgment. This is the reason, right Connor McGregor
fought that fight with Floyd Mayweather because he made as
much money, if not more, in the one night with
Mayweather than he made the entire time he's been in.
Speaker 2: UFC, much more.
Speaker 1: This is this is the reason why the UH the
fighters should be skeptical about the model that was previously
used because it's going to cap their money. And I'm
just I'm gonna sit back and watch all of this,
but we're we're already here.
Speaker 2: And you're not capping Connor Ben's money. It's not right.
Speaker 1: And so then and so then what happens is once
the word gets out on how much you're paying these guys,
you're going to have a harder time with the salary
cap with some of the other fears that because you're.
Speaker 2: A guy like an Opataia that's a major league world champion,
or a guy like a Connor Ben who doesn't have
a lot of accomplishment. But as a superstar, whether you
like it or not, they're gonna be getting more money.
They deserve more money than a guidance.
Speaker 1: They can get right, but they can get more money
from Turkey alas Sheik without being in zoop of boxing.
They can just do their one offs, do their fight deal.
So let's just watch all of this unfold. I'm just
sitting back laughing at the hypocrisy.
Speaker 2: I'm enjoying it. I don't. I don't care for the
for the constant back and forth between hearing Matt, you know,
Eddie and Oscar de la Hoya and Dana ripping each other,
that's tiresome. I don't. I don't. To me, it's boring.
But what I do find interesting is the arms race,
if you will. In the end, it's gonna probably end
up being good for the fighters because of course multiple
there's competition.
Speaker 1: The last three years on the highest end has been
phenomenal with Turkey Alaschic, and again we should illuminate this
for the audience because I have understanding outside of boxing,
like you look at the Live Golf League sure where
they have lost hundreds of millions of dollars signing all
of those prominent golfers with a business plan that is
not obligated to make any money, they can just lose
hundreds of millions of dollars. They tried a sig. They
still have a Saudi soccer league, and they signed Cristiano
Ronaldo to that soccer league to a one hundred million
dollar deal at the end of his career to place
two soccer seasons Rayfael fifty million a year. That league
doesn't make anything. They're just losing money.
Speaker 2: But when they spend that kind of money, it's like
if you and I went and spent, like, you know,
we had like a ten dollar breaklest.
Speaker 1: No, yeah, but it's not a ten dollar breakfast. But
still it's ridiculous money for the fighters, and that's good.
The free market is good. This is the reason why
constricting the fighters under an umbrella and saying where you're
a promoter, where you're a manager, you'll make what we
say that you're making, and that's it, and we have
long term deals with you that you have to sign
or else.
Speaker 2: I think what everybody I think what everybody has to
do when they look at the ZUFA situation is you
just have to understand that there's one sort of boxer.
You know, young guys still trying to make their way,
or even older veterans that are maybe on the way out.
You know, you can talk about some of the prospect
types that they had on there. You can talk about
guys that had opportunities in world title fights but haven't
really gotten over THEMP like a Seria Boetchim for example,
or like a hot Rod collegiate or fighters like that.
Are a Vodzik that's trying to Alexander Vodzik, the former
light eavyweight champion, trying to come back like they're at
a certain point where this is probably the best thing
for them because they can get regular activity, make reasonable purses,
and other promoters aren't looking to use them because they
consider that either not real prospects, vallid guys playing out
the strat or just looked at his opponents. But then
there's gonna be the special type of guys who are
legit stars and money making entities like like top tound
for pound level championship fighters like in Opataia, like Oconnor
Ben like others that they're inevitably going to sign in
the future.
Speaker 1: Now I got you, yes, and you got to look
at them and keep them saying and I look at
it this way, and I'm saying it for like the
third time. Don't talk to me about being any different.
You're one of them. You're doing the same things.
Speaker 2: I guess. I look at like this, TJ. You put
you put too much stock in their words. I don't
believe promoters of the time.
Speaker 1: I agree. I agree with you on that, and we're
seeing proof of it here. All right, one more thing
and then we're going to move on to the final
news and get out of here. Ryan Garcia in victory.
We know that Turkey Ali Chic. Here we go again.
Wanted the Ryan Garcia Devin Haney fight to happen last
year in a rematch, and then Garcia ends up losing
to Rowley Romero. What is the likelihood that that would
be the fight? Or am I wrong to think that
the tea leaves here are Ryan Garcia maybe and Connor
Ben Would I be wrong on that? For all that
money in a mega fight later this summer, I.
Speaker 2: Think that there's a lot of possibilities. So there's a
couple of things. Number One, Obviously, a rematch between Hany
and Brian would now was always going to be a
big deal based on the situation from what happened the
first time, but now it becomes even a bigger deal
because they're both champions. It would be a unification fight
because Ryan won the WBC title in fine fashion on
Saturday Night against Barrios. And then you go back to
the end of last year, you had Devin Haney looking
real sharp and win in the fight against Brian Norman
to win the WBO title. So they both have adults
and they start can make hey in that situation, that
would be obviously a big time fight, the headline a
future show whether they do it and read or do
it in you know, Las Vegas or wherever. That's a possibility.
After the fight ended between Garcia and Barrios, you had
the back and forth between Ryan Garcia and Chaquar Stevenson,
who would set out fight him. And now the reason
why I don't I think that would be a big
deal commercially, The reason why I have slight pause about
the reality. It's one thing for them to shout each
other's names out after the fight, but when you listen
to cha, course, I'm not going up above one hundred
and forty four pounds now you're in a situation where
you're gonna Ryan couldn't even make one forty seven. Granted
he was drunk, but you know, you know he's he's
really a welterweight at this point. I'm not sure with
the leverage he has as a champion that he would
necessarily go down to one forty four. He doesn't need that.
He can fight anybody and make a ton of money.
Chakor would be the one that would have to be
willing probably to move up or he can fight whatever
he wants, I guess, but that Ryan would have to
be able to be at one hundred and forty seven.
Maybe he would give one pound or something like that,
which frankly wouldn't really make much of a difference. So
while that would be very interesting, I don't necessarily think
that's gonna happen. Connor Ben is gonna go fight a
regular opponent. In my estimation, come May, you're.
Speaker 1: Gonna get like fifteen or twenty million to fight a
regular opponent.
Speaker 2: Fifteen million to fight a real world and now after
that we'll see. I mean, now, even though it's a
one fight deal, if if they want to still work
together and he's enjoyed his time with them, and there's
another big offer. I mean, why wouldn't he stay?
Speaker 1: Uh?
Speaker 2: Maybe then you make that type of fight. The bottom
line though, is Ryan against Hani in a rematch is
a big fight. Ryan against your corp is a big fight.
Ryan against Connor. Ben, would you.
Speaker 1: Play Ryan as like a one right now or a
two or a little better? No?
Speaker 2: I think I think commercially speaking. Commercially speaking, the fight
that would probably make the most noise would be the
re would be would be a Ryan against Shakur and
and maybe Hani after that because Hani, while he looked
good against uh Brian Norman, there's a lot of people
that are kind of cold on him. I would love
to see the fight from my perspective, but there's a
lot of people that that just are not fans of
Haney that I don't know if that's gonna be. That's
gonna really it would be the big deal, don't get
me wrong, but would be bigger.
Speaker 1: Remember when Haney, when Hanny won the fight on that
ring card on our Ben was calling him out, calling
him boring after the fight. That is that the guy
is that the fight stay tuned.
Speaker 2: I mean either fight like he fought like Haney against Ramirez. Look,
he won but looked terrible. But then the Haini that
fought against Brian Norman looked much better. So you know
which guy shows up. It's kind of the same thing.
One thing about Devin any you know, generally speaking, he
fights because he's willing to fight the top guys, and
he wins his fights. I mean, you know, we we
can't forget what we saw with the knockdowns and the
loss against uh Ryan that became a no contest, but
officially it's still he's still undefeated.
Speaker 1: All right, One more item. Zerto Ramirez and David Benavidez
met with the media on Saturday prior to the Ryan
Garcia main event with Mario Barrios. The media assembled there
got to go too for essentially and be part of
the kind of kickoff press conference. It officially announced the
may Sewi Sinco de Mayo PBC on Prime pay per
view fight Zerdo and his two titles at cruiserweight, Benavidez
the WBC light heavyweight champion. So it's official. Give me
a little more on this with the conference.
Speaker 2: It's been official. It was you know, they've all talked
about announced that. They've said the date, in the location.
But they finally did the the the photo op and
talked to the press and and did all their their media.
This is an exciting fight. I mean, I know a
lot of people were hoping to see Opataia against Zerdo.
They were calling each other out of been a further
unification fight. We've discussed the reasons why it became Benavide's.
It's just a bigger fight commercially in this country. And
they know each other, They've sparred with each other, they're
they're friendly with each other. But uh so, there was
no like trash talk or you know, pushing and shoving
or all the other typical nonsense that we see at
a lot of boxing press covers. But trust me, when
that bell goes, man, these guys are going to be
there for blood. I believe this is a good, interesting fight.
There is gonna have a nice crowd, t Mobile Arena,
Sinko DeMaio, I'll be a festive Mexican atmosphere. Knowing the
way that PBC does their events, I'm sure they'll put
on some uh you know, quality undercard fights. I like
the fact that you have Golden Boy working with PBC
on this event. Because of course they're the promoter of Zerdo.
That has not always been an easy relationship, going back
to the early days when they split with Hayman a
number of years ago. So it's good to see them
being able to work together. And frankly, the promoters, uh,
you know, the the so called old school promoters, they
are gonna have to work together because if they're looking
at Zoofa, they know that they're in their crosshairs and
so you know, it's the old you know, the enemy
of my enemy is my friend kind of concept. No way,
don't work. No, I mean, look, Golden Boy, PBC, top rank, Matroom,
not Mattrium so much. But but they yes to some
agreed but they can all help each other. And Queensberry
for that matter, if they all work together, you know,
they can get some stuff done. Now Mattrium. The reason
I say not necessarily is because or at Queensberry rather
no matrim because the mat are the ones that promote
most of the read season slash Ring magazine cards. They're
like the official promoters. Now, they were not involved in
the card over the weekend that was Golden Boy and
and PBC. But when they should court to a FEMO
fight happened. It was Mattrium, you know, as the official
promoter doing all the logistics and everything. I'm talking about
the legacy promoters here in America, top Ratch, Golden Boy
and PBC.
Speaker 1: Hey. One more thing before we get out of here,
and that is we went into the weekend wondering when
is the judge in Nevada going to rule on the
Virgil Ortiz and Oscar de la Hoya Golden Boy Promotions
lawsuit and countersuit. Judge did not make a decision on
the weekend. By the way, judges can make decisions whenever
they want. What is it You've done some reporting and
some digging. What's the educated thought on how soon the
judge is going to rule? No love my phraseology, it's
not educated thought.
Speaker 2: It's I am called by both sides that the judge
said that that. I don't know if it's one hundred percent,
but most likely they'll be a ruling on Monday.
Speaker 1: On Monday, because my philosophy is what I've heard in
the legal world for years. It's been in movies and TVs.
Justice delayed is justice denied? Baby Virgil wants a deal
with Jiron Ennis. Let's let him either make a deal
or make him adhere to the continents.
Speaker 2: They're not making a wait for six months.
Speaker 1: The fact that what I'm saying is the longer he
waits right now, jon Nis is going to fight somebody
else time out.
Speaker 2: There is no delay of this justice because they had
a hearing on Friday, and in the normal course of
legalities in America, to go and wait the weekend or
a few days after that is not the way.
Speaker 1: An Let me educate you on some couple of months.
Let me educate you on something. So two or three
things happened. The first thing that happened is they had
a hearing back about eleven days ago, and the judge
granted the tr a very restraining order. And the judge
then said, submit all your materials to me off the holiday, a.
Speaker 2: Very very last, very very quick turnaround.
Speaker 1: Off the holiday, last Monday, President's Day. Submit all your materials,
your case, law, the precedents to me on Tuesday, so
that when we reconvene about this tro on Friday, I
can make a ruling.
Speaker 2: There was never a guarantee of a ruling over that.
Speaker 1: It was not a guarantee. I didn't say there was.
I'm saying line up on the timeline that the judge.
Speaker 2: Asked for all you're just talking nonsense.
Speaker 1: I am, I am not talking nonsense. I'm telling you
what happened, and I'm telling you what I heard about it. Okay,
So understand this. The judge asked for all the precedents
for all the things that are in the arguments and
had the hearing on Friday. So now the judge's taking
two or three days this weekend, make the ruling, make
the rule.
Speaker 2: Whether it's exactly what the fuck is going to happen,
stay tuned. I mean, the reality is this one hundred
percent compared to your normal case this day, even with
the eleven days and the and get your materials in.
Every single thing on this has been in a dramatically expedited.
Speaker 1: Course because of the urgency of Ortiz.
Speaker 2: Didn't play with themselves for two more three more days
before the judge makes a ruling.
Speaker 1: Rather, Oscar de la Hoya doesn't care if this goes
on for another month. The golden no, no, no, This
is where we got to be clear on this. Don't
make that little flippant comment. Golden boy doesn't care if
this goes till June.
Speaker 2: That's not true, they want to do a fight, and
they finally the longer the longer that that there's one
that that there's uncertainty about Virgil is gonna it's continuing
to hold up their dealings with his own. So you're
completely wrong about that. They know, I'm saying from the
stand is done one way or the other as soon
as possible.
Speaker 1: But from the standpoint of Virgil Ortiz, they don't have
the same urgency right now. They can have it wait
two or three weeks because maybe Ortiz ends up fighting
somebody else. And dale Hoya said, so, I got other
options for him to fight somebody else.
Speaker 2: But he's not gonna be with Oscar most likely.
Speaker 1: I don't disagree with that. But if we're talking again
about hypotheticals of who care about an urgent ruling or
not just saying.
Speaker 2: It's a couple of days, bro, we just wasted five
minutes on nothing, because you know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: It's not that I don't know what I'm talking about.
I laid it out. I know exactly what I'm talking about.
Justice delayed. It's justice denied.
Speaker 2: By the way you sound like fucking don King. I
want to shoot myself.
Speaker 1: I'm just king was quoting all the other you know,
twelve Angry Men or all the other criminal justice movies,
Law and Order TV shows that he watched. I'm just
saying to you, let's get Virgil Ortiz in the ring
with Jaron Innis and Oscar had his chance and he
screwed it up. There you go, all right with that.
Ryan Garcia's victory is the big story off the weekend.
We got some interesting action with Emmanuel Navoraatee and Sugar
Nunez to talk about later in a week. Other than that,
try to behave with your son off from school in
the snow. I'll be thinking of you. I'm gonna make yes,
that's it. There's gonna be a lot of snow to shovel.
I've seen that. Yeah, do that, Junior, Get out there
and clear the driveway with that, Dan feel have a
good week. They need to read the substack in the newsletter.
Thank you for the time here on the pod, Yes, sir,
it goes Dan Ray Phil, I'm merely TJ. Reeves. Follow
Subscribe Apple, Spreaker, Spotify for the pod feed. Also find
us on YouTube the Big Fight Weekend YouTube page that's
there as well. And thank you for being with us
off the weekend on the Fight Preach Unite Recap podcast