1 00:00:05,160 --> 00:00:07,160 Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time. 2 00:00:07,519 --> 00:00:11,640 Speaker 2: This is Big Fight Weekend. Now here is your host, 3 00:00:11,839 --> 00:00:17,280 DJ Leaves. Well, you thought you got rid of us, 4 00:00:17,359 --> 00:00:20,679 but it is a new year. Hello and welcome into 5 00:00:20,679 --> 00:00:23,879 twenty twenty five and the Big Pipe. We can't preview. 6 00:00:23,920 --> 00:00:26,600 But wait, wait a minute, do we have a fight 7 00:00:26,679 --> 00:00:29,120 to preview this weekend? We've got to get creative on 8 00:00:29,160 --> 00:00:32,079 the first show of twenty twenty five. Nonetheless, I am 9 00:00:32,159 --> 00:00:36,359 the somewhat confident host. He is our insider, Big Dan Rayfield, 10 00:00:36,359 --> 00:00:39,920 Fight Freaks United is the substack, the newsletter you should 11 00:00:39,960 --> 00:00:42,520 be subscribing. You should be on that. Good to be 12 00:00:42,560 --> 00:00:45,000 with you, Happy new year, my friend. We have survived, 13 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:49,039 Proof of Life, Proof of Life. We have survived the 14 00:00:49,200 --> 00:00:53,439 holiday season, at least to this point. How are things again? 15 00:00:53,439 --> 00:00:55,439 We gotta get a little creative here on the show 16 00:00:55,479 --> 00:00:58,479 because we don't really have a fight this weekend to preview. Nonetheless, 17 00:00:58,520 --> 00:00:59,359 good to be back with you. 18 00:01:00,159 --> 00:01:03,039 Speaker 1: Back. We always have things to discuss previews or otherwise. Yeah, 19 00:01:03,039 --> 00:01:05,359 howadays we are quiet low key. You know, I may 20 00:01:05,400 --> 00:01:07,400 be in the minority about it, but I don't mind 21 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:09,359 there being a little bit of a lull in the 22 00:01:09,400 --> 00:01:13,120 action boxing. Unlike every other sport in terms of the 23 00:01:13,400 --> 00:01:15,359 major team sports, let's say, or even like the individual 24 00:01:15,400 --> 00:01:18,959 sports a tennis, a golf, auto racing or whatever, they 25 00:01:18,959 --> 00:01:21,560 have seasons. Boxing is the one sport there's really no 26 00:01:21,719 --> 00:01:24,840 defined season. When I first started to cover boxing a 27 00:01:24,879 --> 00:01:27,040 long time ago, as I entered my twenty sixth year 28 00:01:27,079 --> 00:01:30,680 on the gig full time, there was like an unwritten 29 00:01:30,719 --> 00:01:34,680 rule that when the second week of December past until 30 00:01:34,719 --> 00:01:37,879 pretty much like the second, maybe even third week of January, 31 00:01:38,239 --> 00:01:40,920 there was basically nothing there might be like the premiere 32 00:01:40,959 --> 00:01:43,959 of say Friday Night Fights, there might be the New 33 00:01:44,040 --> 00:01:46,760 Year's Eve events that would take place in Japan, but 34 00:01:46,959 --> 00:01:49,920 pretty much there was nothing doing besides that. And it's 35 00:01:49,959 --> 00:01:53,400 different now, but I'm not unhappy that there's a little 36 00:01:53,400 --> 00:01:55,000 bit of a lull. Gives me a chance to write 37 00:01:54,840 --> 00:01:58,239 the stories looking back on the year of the fights, 38 00:01:58,319 --> 00:02:01,040 the boxing events throughout the count year. With discuss some 39 00:02:01,079 --> 00:02:03,120 of this in the show Fighter of the Year, Fights 40 00:02:03,120 --> 00:02:05,799 of the Year, et cetera. But we're gonna gear up again. 41 00:02:05,840 --> 00:02:08,120 It'll be not too long before we're seeing some major fights. 42 00:02:08,360 --> 00:02:10,960 Speaker 2: That is true, and you and I have talked about 43 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:13,599 this that at least in the United States there was 44 00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:17,879 nothing really Christmas weekend, then the New Year's weekend, and 45 00:02:17,960 --> 00:02:20,879 now this weekend. We had intended and by the way, 46 00:02:21,039 --> 00:02:23,800 you need to be following, subscribing to the podcast feed, 47 00:02:24,120 --> 00:02:26,639 give us the five star review, be sharing it out, etc. 48 00:02:27,159 --> 00:02:29,879 We say that every time we do make the effort 49 00:02:29,960 --> 00:02:32,280 to be here going into the weekend with a preview 50 00:02:32,319 --> 00:02:34,000 and coming off the weekend with a recap. If you 51 00:02:34,080 --> 00:02:37,960 enjoy that, help us out. So we did intend to 52 00:02:38,120 --> 00:02:41,520 talk some on this pod about the Tuesday main event, 53 00:02:42,199 --> 00:02:49,280 the WBA Junior bandamweight rematch with Puma, Fernando Martinez and Kazioka. 54 00:02:49,360 --> 00:02:53,360 You and I even handicapped the fight last year on 55 00:02:53,400 --> 00:02:56,000 the Friday bet Us show. And then we get to 56 00:02:56,080 --> 00:03:00,599 New Year's Eve Traditional Boxing Big Fight Card night in Japan, 57 00:03:01,199 --> 00:03:03,800 and we got no main event because Martinez was sick 58 00:03:04,280 --> 00:03:06,960 and could not get better, could not get well enough. 59 00:03:07,680 --> 00:03:10,400 And so that's going to lead our topic and discussion. 60 00:03:10,919 --> 00:03:14,240 Fight didn't happen. What do we know about win and 61 00:03:14,280 --> 00:03:16,439 if they will put this back on what do we. 62 00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:18,840 Speaker 1: Know that was? That was a big disappointment because their 63 00:03:18,879 --> 00:03:21,759 first fight that was in July was a tremendous fight. 64 00:03:21,840 --> 00:03:23,719 It was a bona Fide Fight of the Year candidate. 65 00:03:23,759 --> 00:03:25,639 It's it's not the winner, but it was a great, 66 00:03:25,680 --> 00:03:29,199 great fight, a worthy candidate. They went to battle, both 67 00:03:29,240 --> 00:03:32,240 guys fought very well. You know, Martinez was the clear winner. 68 00:03:32,280 --> 00:03:35,000 He unified the two of the titles that the in 69 00:03:35,039 --> 00:03:36,680 the junior bandeonweight division, and they were going to do 70 00:03:36,719 --> 00:03:39,280 a rematch. He ended up giving up the IBF title 71 00:03:39,639 --> 00:03:41,719 because they wanted them to do a mandatory that was 72 00:03:41,759 --> 00:03:43,719 against an opponent that was not well known, and then 73 00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:45,680 would pay him a tiny fraction of the money that 74 00:03:45,680 --> 00:03:47,560 he was set to earn in the rematch to go 75 00:03:47,599 --> 00:03:50,479 back to Japan from Argentina a to fi aoka again. 76 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:52,759 So he was down to the WBA belt that he 77 00:03:52,800 --> 00:03:56,159 had won in their unification fight back in the summertime, 78 00:03:56,439 --> 00:03:58,599 and all you know, during the week and h you know, 79 00:03:58,639 --> 00:04:00,560 I hadn't heard about this total sort of closer to 80 00:04:00,599 --> 00:04:02,520 the fight, but you know, he had made that long 81 00:04:02,560 --> 00:04:05,400 trip from Argentina, and when he got to Japan, he 82 00:04:05,439 --> 00:04:09,960 was suffering from effects of having like literally influenza, the 83 00:04:09,960 --> 00:04:12,919 flu didn't show, didn't was not able to go to 84 00:04:12,960 --> 00:04:16,399 the to the public workout, did not go to the 85 00:04:16,639 --> 00:04:18,600 to the fight, week press conference. They were trying to, 86 00:04:18,720 --> 00:04:20,279 you know, get to a point where least he could 87 00:04:20,519 --> 00:04:23,959 make weight and feel okay, and in the end, it just, 88 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:26,040 you know, the body does not allowed to do that. 89 00:04:26,079 --> 00:04:28,639 You know, when you're sick with the flu or even 90 00:04:28,639 --> 00:04:30,720 just a bad cold, forget about getting in a ring 91 00:04:30,759 --> 00:04:32,920 and fighting a guy for twelve rounds or less. You 92 00:04:32,920 --> 00:04:34,480 don't even want to get out of your bed to 93 00:04:34,560 --> 00:04:36,600 like get a drink or go to the bathroom or 94 00:04:36,839 --> 00:04:39,000 answer the phone or answer the door or anything like that. 95 00:04:39,040 --> 00:04:41,240 You just want to lay in bed and then put 96 00:04:41,240 --> 00:04:43,319 a wash club over your head and just you know, 97 00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:46,079 just die basically. And so he was not going to 98 00:04:46,120 --> 00:04:47,959 be able to fight. So anyway, it's it was a 99 00:04:47,959 --> 00:04:50,519 bummer because that was the last sort of it was 100 00:04:50,560 --> 00:04:53,439 the last main event of the last part of the 101 00:04:53,879 --> 00:04:56,480 of the year of any consequence for a last world 102 00:04:56,519 --> 00:04:58,439 title fight that was supposed to take place on a 103 00:04:58,480 --> 00:05:01,800 remash that was of a great first fight. So I 104 00:05:01,839 --> 00:05:04,319 sort of felt like it was the kind of like 105 00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:08,600 the apropos ending to what I considered a pretty lackluster 106 00:05:08,680 --> 00:05:10,800 year overall in boxing, even though there was definitely some 107 00:05:10,920 --> 00:05:14,680 high points of the year. But anyway, from what I've heard, 108 00:05:14,920 --> 00:05:16,639 and I've not talked to the promoters, but this is 109 00:05:16,639 --> 00:05:18,639 what I've just sort of heard through the grapevine, is 110 00:05:18,639 --> 00:05:21,000 that they're hoping to reschedule this fight, probably within the 111 00:05:21,040 --> 00:05:23,920 next month or so, maybe in February, and hopefully they'll 112 00:05:23,920 --> 00:05:24,279 get it up. 113 00:05:25,920 --> 00:05:30,199 Speaker 2: There had been some belief that it might be sooner 114 00:05:30,399 --> 00:05:35,519 than that, with Martinez over in Japan already, but obviously 115 00:05:35,560 --> 00:05:37,439 if he's had the flu, hasn't been able to train, 116 00:05:37,480 --> 00:05:40,800 and probably lost some weight, lost significant weight. You would 117 00:05:40,839 --> 00:05:44,279 think from doing that, there's no just as we are 118 00:05:44,319 --> 00:05:47,079 doing this fluid here, there's no chance that you think 119 00:05:47,120 --> 00:05:49,959 he stays there and they somehow figured out a couple 120 00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:52,519 of weeks from now, this is probably at least a 121 00:05:52,560 --> 00:05:53,399 month from what you're here. 122 00:05:53,519 --> 00:05:55,079 Speaker 1: I mean, it seems like that. And the reason I 123 00:05:55,079 --> 00:05:57,759 say that in particular, it'd be one thing if they 124 00:05:57,759 --> 00:06:01,240 were just postponing the entire event by a couple of weeks, 125 00:06:01,800 --> 00:06:03,879 but they actually went through at the rest of the cart, 126 00:06:04,639 --> 00:06:07,000 so there's no refunds I guess for the ticket buyers, 127 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:10,079 which means they're going to have to sell an arena again. 128 00:06:10,199 --> 00:06:12,519 I'm gonna have to put together an undercard again. Because 129 00:06:12,519 --> 00:06:14,680 the guys that were on the undercard in the first 130 00:06:14,680 --> 00:06:17,199 place had their fights on New Year's East. So the 131 00:06:17,240 --> 00:06:20,120 answer to that, I mean, I don't know the nuances 132 00:06:20,600 --> 00:06:22,600 of how it necessarily works in Japan, but I would 133 00:06:22,600 --> 00:06:25,480 be very surprised if they could just do that on 134 00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:28,079 such you know, within a couple of weeks, when it's 135 00:06:28,120 --> 00:06:29,959 not just the main event. You've got to put together 136 00:06:30,040 --> 00:06:33,439 another handfors for the show, get an arena, sell tickets, 137 00:06:33,839 --> 00:06:35,959 presumably promote the fight a little bit, you know, even 138 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:39,160 though people got the promotion from the fight that was postponed. 139 00:06:39,199 --> 00:06:41,199 So you know, they'll they'll figure it out. I mean, 140 00:06:41,240 --> 00:06:43,319 these are professional people that put these events on. 141 00:06:43,759 --> 00:06:46,360 Speaker 2: It just occurred to me while we play amateur matchmakers. 142 00:06:46,439 --> 00:06:49,319 Obviously in a ways Title Defense, which was supposed to 143 00:06:49,360 --> 00:06:52,639 be Christmas Eve? What Sam Goodman is now? What January 144 00:06:52,680 --> 00:06:56,279 twenty fourth, not this weekend? Three weeks away? Would there 145 00:06:56,319 --> 00:06:59,160 be any chance they stick this on that card or 146 00:06:59,199 --> 00:07:00,680 do you think they're going to stick to Hey, it's 147 00:07:00,680 --> 00:07:03,480 a rematch. Ioka is very popular. This needs to be 148 00:07:03,560 --> 00:07:05,240 a main event on its own thing. 149 00:07:05,879 --> 00:07:10,439 Speaker 1: Again, I don't know the nuances of Japan's political stuff 150 00:07:10,480 --> 00:07:12,879 that goes on there. But I would say virtually zero 151 00:07:13,079 --> 00:07:15,360 chance of that happening. And I say that just based 152 00:07:15,399 --> 00:07:19,199 on the knowledge that a Ioka and Martinez is a 153 00:07:19,279 --> 00:07:22,199 significant title fight in Japan. It was a main event 154 00:07:22,240 --> 00:07:24,800 the first time the rematch was anticipated, was going to 155 00:07:24,800 --> 00:07:27,199 be a main event again and as a different promoter 156 00:07:27,560 --> 00:07:28,720 and it's a different broadcaster. 157 00:07:28,879 --> 00:07:29,480 Speaker 2: So there you go. 158 00:07:29,560 --> 00:07:31,040 Speaker 1: The chances are almost zero. 159 00:07:31,480 --> 00:07:34,480 Speaker 2: This is why we have the Mighty One here to 160 00:07:34,560 --> 00:07:37,879 set all of that straight. So we begin with that. 161 00:07:38,639 --> 00:07:42,399 Speaking of Japan, there was supposed to be a Ryan 162 00:07:42,639 --> 00:07:46,879 Garcia whatever this was. He's got an injury, and you 163 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:51,959 have an update including it looks like Garcia is going 164 00:07:52,040 --> 00:07:54,399 to be out for a little bit. Give us the 165 00:07:54,480 --> 00:07:55,560 latest on that as well. 166 00:07:56,040 --> 00:07:58,920 Speaker 1: Okay, So he was having this one hundred and fifty 167 00:07:58,959 --> 00:08:04,079 three pound catch boxing exhibition with the kickboxing star Rukiya 168 00:08:04,199 --> 00:08:07,360 and Po who. If you're an American boxing fan, when 169 00:08:07,399 --> 00:08:11,879 you don't follow him as a kickboxer in Japan, you 170 00:08:11,959 --> 00:08:14,720 know that he had an exhibition in twenty twenty four 171 00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:18,040 against Manny Pakyao, who he beat like you know, a 172 00:08:18,079 --> 00:08:21,439 red headed stepchild, as they say. And so they ended 173 00:08:21,519 --> 00:08:23,920 up doing the match between him and Ryan Garcia, Ryan 174 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:26,879 Garcia playing it like, you know, he wants to avenge 175 00:08:26,879 --> 00:08:29,000 Manny Pacyao. You know, take that for what it's worth. 176 00:08:29,040 --> 00:08:31,639 But anyway, they had scheduled this as part of a 177 00:08:32,120 --> 00:08:35,039 rising card that they do on New Year's Eve in Japan, 178 00:08:35,080 --> 00:08:38,639 which is oftentimes sort of a mixture of whatever combat 179 00:08:38,639 --> 00:08:41,320 sport events they do. Sometimes there is a boxing match, 180 00:08:41,360 --> 00:08:45,919 it's MMA, maybe it's a kickboxing event. Anyway, they had 181 00:08:46,080 --> 00:08:48,840 an event schedule for December thirty first, and it was 182 00:08:48,879 --> 00:08:50,879 supposed to have that as the main event in a 183 00:08:50,919 --> 00:08:53,559 boxing exhibition that it was actually gonna be here in 184 00:08:53,600 --> 00:08:55,879 the United States on a fan MEO pay per view base, 185 00:08:55,919 --> 00:08:58,679 and they had put on some other boxing exhibitions, including 186 00:08:58,759 --> 00:09:02,960 Ryan's younger brother anyway, as well as the fights that 187 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:05,000 were real in terms of the other combat sports they 188 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:07,519 were putting out. Anyway, the card itself went forward, but 189 00:09:07,600 --> 00:09:11,600 Ryan Garcia had to withdraw because in December he suffered 190 00:09:11,639 --> 00:09:15,080 an injury to his right wrist. And during the broadcast 191 00:09:15,120 --> 00:09:16,919 that they had of the card that went on in 192 00:09:16,960 --> 00:09:20,399 its place, I guess Ryan was there and Ryan announced 193 00:09:20,639 --> 00:09:22,840 during the interview when he talked to the folks that 194 00:09:22,879 --> 00:09:25,440 were doing the broadcast that not only was he going 195 00:09:25,480 --> 00:09:27,720 to be out because of the injury, you know, still 196 00:09:27,799 --> 00:09:30,919 wasn't sure when they could reschedule that exhibition, but that 197 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:32,840 he was going to have surgery on that right risk 198 00:09:32,879 --> 00:09:35,360 at some point. Now, remember, in terms of his professional 199 00:09:35,360 --> 00:09:39,559 boxing career, he's already out at the minimum until April 200 00:09:39,600 --> 00:09:41,720 because of the suspension from the New York State Athletic 201 00:09:41,759 --> 00:09:44,799 Commission because of his positive drug test. So now he's 202 00:09:44,840 --> 00:09:47,279 going to be out due to the surgery. And you know, 203 00:09:48,440 --> 00:09:50,200 I don't know exactly when the surgery is going to 204 00:09:50,200 --> 00:09:53,039 take place, but you got to figure if you're having 205 00:09:53,240 --> 00:09:55,720 a surgery on your wrist, that's got to be at 206 00:09:55,799 --> 00:09:59,919 least a couple of months of rehabilitation and letting things. 207 00:10:00,039 --> 00:10:02,159 Speaker 2: You know a lot of orthopedists either, but we just 208 00:10:02,200 --> 00:10:04,120 play them on the podcast, and I'm with you, I'm 209 00:10:04,159 --> 00:10:07,320 not that's not something where he's going to be ready. 210 00:10:07,399 --> 00:10:09,840 I'm just saying this, like March first, if he's having 211 00:10:09,960 --> 00:10:12,039 this surgery, it's going to set him back. 212 00:10:12,159 --> 00:10:15,279 Speaker 1: Listen, the bottom line is this, between the suspension that 213 00:10:15,320 --> 00:10:19,519 doesn't end until April and the impending surgical procedure on 214 00:10:19,559 --> 00:10:25,080 the right wrist, you've got to figure even if he 215 00:10:25,399 --> 00:10:28,000 is good to go after the surgery and the risk 216 00:10:28,039 --> 00:10:31,559 gets better on the normal timeframe. But whatever the doctor says, 217 00:10:32,039 --> 00:10:34,480 and he is going to get the license back because 218 00:10:34,480 --> 00:10:36,399 he does all the things that the commission asks him 219 00:10:36,440 --> 00:10:39,159 to do. Then it comes to the point where are 220 00:10:39,159 --> 00:10:40,960 they going to try to reschedule the exhibition? Is he 221 00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:42,600 going to come back to the boxing ring in terms 222 00:10:42,600 --> 00:10:45,159 of a real fight against an actual opponent. You know, 223 00:10:45,200 --> 00:10:46,399 what does he want to do? I think it's going 224 00:10:46,480 --> 00:10:48,279 to take a little bit of time. I mean, everything 225 00:10:48,320 --> 00:10:50,240 that goes on with Ryan Garcia when you're scheduling one 226 00:10:50,279 --> 00:10:52,919 of his events, you know, it's a drama show. It's 227 00:10:52,960 --> 00:10:55,559 always a saga and a soap opera. Nothing is ever easy. 228 00:10:55,799 --> 00:10:59,320 Ryan is an extraordinarily high maintenance athlete, and his whole 229 00:10:59,320 --> 00:11:01,679 team can be so what high maintenance. There's always a 230 00:11:01,840 --> 00:11:05,000 drama And so honestly, if you said to me, you 231 00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:08,360 know TJ, you always asked me like on the rayfield meter, well, 232 00:11:08,600 --> 00:11:10,600 the rayfield meter on this one, I would say, I 233 00:11:10,600 --> 00:11:13,320 don't think we see Ryan. I don't think we see 234 00:11:13,360 --> 00:11:16,200 him back in the ring probably till June, somewhere like 235 00:11:16,240 --> 00:11:17,080 in that area. 236 00:11:17,159 --> 00:11:19,360 Speaker 2: And at that point, why would he go fight this 237 00:11:19,440 --> 00:11:23,679 unless it's ridiculous money versus having a legit fight, which 238 00:11:24,600 --> 00:11:27,240 is a pathway to make more money, I would think. 239 00:11:27,679 --> 00:11:30,200 Speaker 1: Keep in mind also that when this fight was supposed 240 00:11:30,240 --> 00:11:32,159 to go forward on December thirty first, and I don't 241 00:11:32,159 --> 00:11:34,600 think this had been quite clarified yet even and then 242 00:11:34,639 --> 00:11:36,399 he ultimately pulled out because of the injury, so they 243 00:11:36,399 --> 00:11:40,440 didn't have to continue to do the fight. But there 244 00:11:40,519 --> 00:11:43,039 was an issue between him and Golden Boy because Golden 245 00:11:43,039 --> 00:11:45,960 Boys is an exclusive promoter worldwide in any combat sport. 246 00:11:46,440 --> 00:11:48,799 And even though this was not a Golden Boy event, 247 00:11:48,840 --> 00:11:51,720 it was a fan Meo and Rizon event, they had, 248 00:11:51,720 --> 00:11:55,039 I guess agreed to allow him to participate under certain terms, 249 00:11:55,320 --> 00:11:58,000 but those terms had not been fully set in stone 250 00:11:58,039 --> 00:12:02,120 and memorialized in a contract. So we're saying, hey, we're 251 00:12:02,159 --> 00:12:04,639 not This fight's not happening yet because we haven't signed off. 252 00:12:04,639 --> 00:12:07,120 And until Golden Boy signs off, there was never gonna 253 00:12:07,120 --> 00:12:10,159 be an event unless it was gonna get into a 254 00:12:10,159 --> 00:12:14,000 a protracted legal situation. So there's that element of it 255 00:12:14,120 --> 00:12:16,759 about whether they were going to allow the fight to happen, 256 00:12:16,759 --> 00:12:18,440 if they're gonna if he's gonna still go forward with 257 00:12:18,480 --> 00:12:20,679 an exhibition. Obviously, Golden Boy is still gonna have to 258 00:12:20,679 --> 00:12:22,679 sign off on it. If he doesn't go forward with 259 00:12:22,720 --> 00:12:24,960 an exhibition and he comes back to boxing, he's gonna 260 00:12:24,960 --> 00:12:26,440 have to sit with Golden Boy and work things out 261 00:12:26,440 --> 00:12:29,000 for whatever the next fight's gonna be. Anyway, it'll be 262 00:12:29,039 --> 00:12:31,279 a drama. I'm sure there'll be ups and downs and 263 00:12:31,399 --> 00:12:33,600 twists and turns before we see Ryan Garcia back in 264 00:12:33,639 --> 00:12:36,320 the ring. I'll say this, I mean, whatever the issue 265 00:12:36,320 --> 00:12:38,480 has Alreadys had with all the craziness, you know, hopefully 266 00:12:38,480 --> 00:12:39,840 he gets to risk taken care of it. It's not 267 00:12:39,840 --> 00:12:40,960 an issue for him. I don't want to see the 268 00:12:40,960 --> 00:12:41,759 guy injured. 269 00:12:42,759 --> 00:12:45,200 Speaker 2: All right? Can I just one more and then we're 270 00:12:45,200 --> 00:12:47,000 gonna get to what we're doing for the rest of 271 00:12:47,080 --> 00:12:49,279 the pod, which is going over some of the year 272 00:12:49,440 --> 00:12:53,639 end awards. Is the Devin Haney lawsuit still a thing 273 00:12:53,799 --> 00:12:56,720 and still progressing as far as we know, because he 274 00:12:56,799 --> 00:13:00,919 not only got the result overturned and Garcia suspended, but 275 00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:03,799 he is suing. He's suing everybody but Santa Claus As 276 00:13:03,799 --> 00:13:05,320 I like to say in the holiday season. 277 00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:07,639 Speaker 1: It is still a thing in the lawsuit is still 278 00:13:07,639 --> 00:13:10,240 in effect, and if I'm not mistaken, Ryan Garcia countersuit him. 279 00:13:10,240 --> 00:13:13,159 I'm not sure exactly what the terms of that countersuiter, 280 00:13:13,440 --> 00:13:17,120 but it like like these cases often happen, is they're 281 00:13:17,159 --> 00:13:19,960 they're announced and they're dealt with, uh with fans there, 282 00:13:20,399 --> 00:13:22,759 and then you get mired in the legal process and 283 00:13:23,159 --> 00:13:25,639 these things take time to play out. I mean, it's 284 00:13:25,679 --> 00:13:28,120 the kind of thing that could take It's not weeks 285 00:13:28,240 --> 00:13:31,559 or months, frankly, it could be years even unless they 286 00:13:31,559 --> 00:13:33,679 come to some kind of settlement. As far as I know, 287 00:13:33,720 --> 00:13:36,240 there hasn't been any like actual hearings yet or anything. 288 00:13:36,559 --> 00:13:39,039 This is just one of those things that's clogged up 289 00:13:39,039 --> 00:13:41,879 in the legal system worse than you know you're plumbing 290 00:13:41,879 --> 00:13:42,960 after Thanksgiving dinner. 291 00:13:43,080 --> 00:13:46,000 Speaker 2: Thank you, and the lawyers are gonna get paid. There 292 00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:48,480 will be lawyers, shall we move on? 293 00:13:48,519 --> 00:13:50,080 Speaker 1: The lawyers are the ones that make up the best 294 00:13:50,399 --> 00:13:51,200 of course. 295 00:13:51,200 --> 00:13:54,120 Speaker 2: There will be lawyers, all right. So again with the 296 00:13:54,200 --> 00:13:58,360 full understanding there is not a significant fight card worldwide 297 00:13:58,440 --> 00:14:01,440 this weekend. We will I'll be talking here's a tease 298 00:14:01,679 --> 00:14:06,320 on Sunday about the ji Opataiah cruiserweight title defense in Australia. 299 00:14:06,600 --> 00:14:10,240 But that's not until next Wednesday, so babe, we gotta 300 00:14:10,279 --> 00:14:11,799 have something for the Sunday show. 301 00:14:12,159 --> 00:14:14,600 Speaker 1: So we were talking about this anyway, this is good stuff. 302 00:14:14,679 --> 00:14:16,600 Speaker 2: This is good stuff coming here. But if you're wondering 303 00:14:16,639 --> 00:14:19,000 about when are we talking about the Opatia title defense, 304 00:14:19,039 --> 00:14:20,799 that's going to come on the weekend in what would 305 00:14:20,799 --> 00:14:23,919 be the air Quotes Recap podcast, so stand by for that. 306 00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:27,080 So this gives us the perfect opportunity to talk about 307 00:14:27,120 --> 00:14:29,159 what you've been running about on the substack on the 308 00:14:29,159 --> 00:14:32,960 Fight Freaks Unit substack, which is your fighter of the year, 309 00:14:33,080 --> 00:14:34,919 your fight of the year, you're knock out of the year. 310 00:14:34,960 --> 00:14:39,519 Let's get into some of this. Let's go over fighters 311 00:14:39,639 --> 00:14:43,559 of the Year in the men's and women's category. Elaborate 312 00:14:43,639 --> 00:14:46,879 here for the pod audience what you went with and why. 313 00:14:47,960 --> 00:14:50,759 Speaker 1: Well, I feel like this year and it's like this 314 00:14:50,879 --> 00:14:53,919 most year is actually in my experience, this is now 315 00:14:53,919 --> 00:14:56,039 the I actually to me. Ask me about this early 316 00:14:56,039 --> 00:14:57,799 today and I'll kind of figure it out. But the 317 00:14:57,840 --> 00:15:01,639 awards I'm putting out this week between my own thing 318 00:15:01,679 --> 00:15:04,240 I've done all the years I did it for ESPN 319 00:15:04,559 --> 00:15:07,080 and the years I did it for USA. Today this 320 00:15:07,120 --> 00:15:10,120 would be the twenty fifth set of my annual awards. 321 00:15:10,600 --> 00:15:12,960 The first ones I did came in December of two thousand, 322 00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:15,279 which was the end of the first year that I 323 00:15:15,320 --> 00:15:19,000 had as the boxing reporter for USA Today, and in 324 00:15:19,039 --> 00:15:20,960 most of those years, and I have kept my list 325 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:24,879 so whenever I post the article on my sub sect 326 00:15:24,879 --> 00:15:27,360 now and even when I was at ESPN or USA Today, 327 00:15:27,600 --> 00:15:29,679 you can see the complete list of my twenty five 328 00:15:29,759 --> 00:15:32,639 years worth of picks. And if you go through and 329 00:15:32,679 --> 00:15:36,960 you go those year by year, most years, not every year, 330 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:39,679 but most of the year. Most of the years, there's 331 00:15:39,720 --> 00:15:43,759 been good candidates, but there's typically been one that stood 332 00:15:43,799 --> 00:15:47,679 out that was the obvious sort of no brainer, where 333 00:15:47,679 --> 00:15:49,799 it was not a complicated pick to make, and there 334 00:15:49,879 --> 00:15:51,720 was not you know, there was a lot of good 335 00:15:51,720 --> 00:15:53,960 candidates maybe, but there was one person that you know, 336 00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:57,080 stood tall, let's say, And this was one of those years. 337 00:15:57,080 --> 00:15:58,360 This was not a hard year, and now there were 338 00:15:58,399 --> 00:16:02,039 some good candidates, had some big time accomplishments. Arthur better 339 00:16:02,039 --> 00:16:05,960 Biev became the undisputed champion and also pummeled Callum Smith 340 00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:08,679 in a very good victory. You had Daniel Dubois, the 341 00:16:08,720 --> 00:16:12,080 heavyweight who obviously had a big year culminated with his 342 00:16:12,279 --> 00:16:15,440 uh Well before the culmination, he had scored the upset 343 00:16:15,559 --> 00:16:19,600 knockout against Philip Hervitch to become the IBFS interim heavyweight 344 00:16:19,639 --> 00:16:23,240 title holder. Then he destroyed Anthony Joshua to defend that 345 00:16:23,279 --> 00:16:28,200 title which he had been elevated to. I also thought 346 00:16:28,240 --> 00:16:31,039 as a good candidate was Gilberto Zerdo Ramirez, who in 347 00:16:31,080 --> 00:16:34,120 his first full year as a cruiserweight scored, you know, 348 00:16:34,159 --> 00:16:37,279 two significant wins. He won the w b A title 349 00:16:37,519 --> 00:16:39,639 and then he looked and that was like basically a 350 00:16:39,679 --> 00:16:42,600 shutout against Gula Marian and then he went to Saudi 351 00:16:42,600 --> 00:16:45,200 Arabia on their Latino night that took place a couple 352 00:16:45,279 --> 00:16:47,679 of months ago, and he looked spectacular and just beat 353 00:16:47,679 --> 00:16:50,600 down Chris Bild and spent to unify the titles. Bam 354 00:16:50,679 --> 00:16:53,519 Rodriguez was a guy that had a big year. He 355 00:16:53,919 --> 00:16:57,559 went down, returned to the junior bandonweight division and scored 356 00:16:57,559 --> 00:17:00,600 a spectacular victory and a terrific fight against the future 357 00:17:00,600 --> 00:17:04,480 Hall of Famer at Wan Francisco Estrada, and then as 358 00:17:04,519 --> 00:17:07,039 his encore, fought on the boots and his cart and 359 00:17:07,039 --> 00:17:10,599 scored a resounding knockout against Pedro Guavar, who was the 360 00:17:10,640 --> 00:17:14,839 interim title holder. I loved Oscar Colazo, the Puerto Rican 361 00:17:14,880 --> 00:17:18,799 straweight who fought three times in the year defended the title, 362 00:17:18,839 --> 00:17:21,759 but also on that same Latino night in a very 363 00:17:21,759 --> 00:17:26,920 impressive victory against ne Amtrong who at the time TJ 364 00:17:27,440 --> 00:17:28,920 and we talked about this in the lead up. Yeap 365 00:17:29,039 --> 00:17:31,839 not only an undefeated fighter, but the fighter who was 366 00:17:31,880 --> 00:17:34,880 the longest reigning male champion in boxing and held his 367 00:17:34,960 --> 00:17:39,119 title since twenty sixteen. And Kalaso went in there and 368 00:17:39,160 --> 00:17:41,400 just beat him down after a couple of rounds again things, 369 00:17:41,559 --> 00:17:43,720 you know, getting used to things, and also unified the 370 00:17:43,720 --> 00:17:46,039 titles in the straweight division. So those are all good candidates. 371 00:17:46,160 --> 00:17:48,839 I even give it up to Jonto Nakatani, who also 372 00:17:48,880 --> 00:17:51,039 fought three times. He went up to the bandamweight division, 373 00:17:51,440 --> 00:17:56,079 scored a big knockout and defended the title two times, 374 00:17:56,079 --> 00:17:59,400 and you know, probably the most exciting Japanese fighter out 375 00:17:59,480 --> 00:18:00,960 there out there except for in a way, and he 376 00:18:01,039 --> 00:18:04,119 also had himself one heck of a year. But you 377 00:18:04,200 --> 00:18:05,880 notice the guy I didn't mention is the guy that 378 00:18:05,920 --> 00:18:07,279 I gave it to, because I don't think it was 379 00:18:07,319 --> 00:18:09,559 even close in terms of who should actually get it 380 00:18:09,720 --> 00:18:12,079 and that's the heavyweight champ of the world. That's Alexander Usik, 381 00:18:12,400 --> 00:18:15,480 who was the underdog when he fought Tyson Fury in 382 00:18:15,559 --> 00:18:18,319 May for them to unify the four titles. He won 383 00:18:18,359 --> 00:18:20,880 that fight. He almost stopped Tyson Fury in the ninth round, 384 00:18:21,319 --> 00:18:24,039 and he became the first undisputed heavyweight champion in twenty 385 00:18:24,039 --> 00:18:28,119 five years, the first ever undisputed heavyweight champion in terms 386 00:18:28,119 --> 00:18:30,759 of having an era with four belts. And it was 387 00:18:30,799 --> 00:18:33,119 a tremendous fight. And then he was forced basically to 388 00:18:33,160 --> 00:18:35,000 do the fight again on the contract. I mean when 389 00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:36,880 I say forced, that was the contractual thing. But it 390 00:18:36,920 --> 00:18:38,839 was such a good fight. I think if they had 391 00:18:38,839 --> 00:18:41,119 done it again just on their own, it wouldn't have 392 00:18:41,799 --> 00:18:44,839 been met with resistance from the public anyway. In the 393 00:18:44,880 --> 00:18:48,400 rematch that took place just two weeks ago, he scored 394 00:18:48,440 --> 00:18:51,079 another victory against Tyson Fury. So you go in there, 395 00:18:51,119 --> 00:18:53,599 you become the undisputed heavyweight champ, and then you beat 396 00:18:53,599 --> 00:18:57,160 the guy again. Two good close fights. I think there's 397 00:18:57,160 --> 00:18:58,920 your Fighter of the Year. So I gave it to 398 00:18:59,039 --> 00:18:59,759 Alexander Ussik. 399 00:18:59,799 --> 00:19:01,640 Speaker 2: Yeah, if you did not in all of that mention, 400 00:19:01,720 --> 00:19:04,599 the name Canelo Alvarez, which he did have two wins 401 00:19:04,839 --> 00:19:08,359 over Haimi Mungia and over Edgar Berlanga and also Naoya 402 00:19:08,440 --> 00:19:10,880 in a way did have two wins. Didn't get the 403 00:19:10,920 --> 00:19:13,960 third fight with Goodman, but he actually got knocked down 404 00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:16,440 in the first of those two title defenses by Louise Nery, 405 00:19:16,480 --> 00:19:19,720 got up and got the win. I mean, I don't 406 00:19:19,759 --> 00:19:23,119 disagree with you. I take Usik for the historical significance 407 00:19:23,160 --> 00:19:24,920 and the fact that he beat Fury twice in the 408 00:19:24,960 --> 00:19:26,799 same year. I agree with you he's the fight of 409 00:19:26,799 --> 00:19:28,920 the year. Now, as I love to do. Let me 410 00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:32,799 pose the hypothetical. Had Fury one and we have a 411 00:19:32,880 --> 00:19:37,359 split of their two fights, would you have maybe slid 412 00:19:37,519 --> 00:19:41,119 in a way in what would you have done hypothetically 413 00:19:41,839 --> 00:19:44,640 if both guys had won and lost against each other, 414 00:19:44,680 --> 00:19:46,119 Fury and Usik. I'm just curious. 415 00:19:46,119 --> 00:19:47,640 Speaker 1: When I do my list, I can put as many 416 00:19:47,640 --> 00:19:49,079 people that I want. I mean, I try not to 417 00:19:49,119 --> 00:19:52,039 go over to understand. So I think I had six candidates, 418 00:19:52,440 --> 00:19:55,559 you know, a winner plus five additional fighters, and so 419 00:19:55,720 --> 00:19:57,720 you know, if they had split the fights, neither one 420 00:19:57,720 --> 00:19:59,839 of them would have made it. Frankly, Fiery or Usik, 421 00:20:00,519 --> 00:20:03,440 because it's it is rare to have a guy on 422 00:20:03,440 --> 00:20:05,200 that list that has a loss. It's not it's not. 423 00:20:05,240 --> 00:20:07,480 I think the people went back and read every article 424 00:20:07,519 --> 00:20:09,359 I ever wrote about fight a Fighter of the Year. 425 00:20:09,880 --> 00:20:12,039 There has been at least a time or two where 426 00:20:12,079 --> 00:20:14,319 a guy might have made the list who had a loss, 427 00:20:14,319 --> 00:20:17,079 depending on the on the victories that they had, you know, 428 00:20:17,119 --> 00:20:21,440 besides that or subsequent to the loss. Uh. So I don't. 429 00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:23,480 I probably wouldn't have put Usiker fear on there, and 430 00:20:23,839 --> 00:20:25,440 but I don't think I would have slid in a 431 00:20:25,440 --> 00:20:28,160 way or or Canelo on there. And look, they're both 432 00:20:28,240 --> 00:20:30,599 great fighters, They've both been Fighter of the Year in 433 00:20:30,640 --> 00:20:32,480 the past, they're both going to the Hall of Fame, 434 00:20:33,039 --> 00:20:35,440 and they both scored Uh you know, both were active 435 00:20:35,440 --> 00:20:37,920 in terms of your average boxing superstar by fighting two 436 00:20:37,920 --> 00:20:40,319 times in the year, but neither one of them fought 437 00:20:40,480 --> 00:20:44,599 a truly significant opponent. They they basically kept the chains moving. 438 00:20:44,680 --> 00:20:48,920 They won fights against you know, solid contender types, but 439 00:20:49,079 --> 00:20:50,960 nothing that was going to put them in a pantheon 440 00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:53,400 where they're gonna get some hardware out of it unless 441 00:20:53,400 --> 00:20:56,200 it was just an absolute terrible year. So again, I don't. 442 00:20:56,319 --> 00:20:59,960 I don't have a problem with Canelo defeating h Berlanga 443 00:21:00,119 --> 00:21:04,400 and Mongia, both you know, solid contenders, both were undefeated, 444 00:21:04,880 --> 00:21:07,079 and he took care of them in you know, a 445 00:21:07,119 --> 00:21:09,920 pretty good spash. Neither didn't get a knockout against either guy, 446 00:21:09,960 --> 00:21:12,240 but still won by a landslide. And in terms of 447 00:21:12,240 --> 00:21:17,519 in a way, look, Neary was a good opponent because 448 00:21:17,519 --> 00:21:20,559 of the the the notoriety he had in Japan, but 449 00:21:20,599 --> 00:21:23,039 I didn't consider him to be that much of a threat. 450 00:21:23,319 --> 00:21:26,319 And Dohaney I didn't consider a threat at all, and he, 451 00:21:26,359 --> 00:21:28,079 you know, he got knocked down against Deary. So again, 452 00:21:28,119 --> 00:21:29,960 in a way, got two and zero on the air 453 00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:33,200 and scored a pair of victories and actually got what 454 00:21:33,240 --> 00:21:36,920 two knockouts in those fights. But to me, that was 455 00:21:36,960 --> 00:21:38,960 not a Fighter of the Year camp a fight fighter 456 00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:41,319 of the year campaign. So again they're both on my 457 00:21:41,599 --> 00:21:44,480 pound for pound list, very very high, but in terms 458 00:21:44,559 --> 00:21:47,319 of the Fighter of the year recognition, no shot to 459 00:21:47,359 --> 00:21:49,359 me anyway, No matter what happened with some of the 460 00:21:49,359 --> 00:21:50,880 other guys in my list, up, they're making my list. 461 00:21:51,079 --> 00:21:52,680 Speaker 2: And as I said to you, I agree with you 462 00:21:52,759 --> 00:21:56,480 on Usik for winning those two historically significant fights, the 463 00:21:57,039 --> 00:22:00,559 most historical significant fight in twenty five years, as you mentioned, 464 00:22:00,599 --> 00:22:02,359 was the first one. That's probably good enough. Even if 465 00:22:02,400 --> 00:22:04,319 he only fought one time and not had the rematch, 466 00:22:04,400 --> 00:22:05,440 that's probably enough. 467 00:22:05,799 --> 00:22:07,640 Speaker 1: I think you're about that. And by the way, just 468 00:22:07,680 --> 00:22:11,200 one thing about Usik also, and this is at least 469 00:22:11,200 --> 00:22:13,119 in my time of doing Fighters of the Year in 470 00:22:13,240 --> 00:22:16,960 twenty five versions of them, he's the first guy to 471 00:22:17,359 --> 00:22:20,480 win that. There's been multiple fighters that have won the 472 00:22:20,480 --> 00:22:23,839 award twice, but no one's ever been that in terms 473 00:22:23,839 --> 00:22:28,000 of because they're undisputed in two different divisions. And when 474 00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:30,200 I say that, I mean at cruiserweight and heavyweight, I 475 00:22:30,200 --> 00:22:32,680 mean Crawford has done it, you know that type of thing. 476 00:22:32,720 --> 00:22:36,240 But you know, Usik was the consensus Fighter of the 477 00:22:36,279 --> 00:22:39,079 Year in twenty eighteen when he won the Cruiserweight tournament. 478 00:22:39,079 --> 00:22:42,160 And while I haven't seen every single person's list or 479 00:22:42,519 --> 00:22:45,119 outlets list that they've put out at the end of 480 00:22:45,119 --> 00:22:48,480 twenty twenty four, the ones I have seen, I haven't 481 00:22:48,480 --> 00:22:52,319 seen anybody not pick Alexander Usik. I'll be interested to see, 482 00:22:52,319 --> 00:22:54,400 Like the Ring Magazine is going to do their awards 483 00:22:54,480 --> 00:22:59,000 ceremony coming up in a week or so. Turkey al Sheik, 484 00:22:59,039 --> 00:23:01,680 who bought the magazine doing some kind of like an 485 00:23:01,680 --> 00:23:05,359 awards show. I guess, and I believe I saw. I 486 00:23:05,400 --> 00:23:07,720 forget the date, but it's in January anyway. I'm pretty 487 00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:10,160 sure Usk's going to be their fighter there also. But 488 00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:12,400 you know, I don't I don't know how you can. 489 00:23:12,680 --> 00:23:14,720 Who else do you pick if you don't make the 490 00:23:14,799 --> 00:23:16,519 argument if you can and I'm not saying that you 491 00:23:16,599 --> 00:23:18,039 are arguing right, not me, but if you were going 492 00:23:18,079 --> 00:23:20,240 to play the Devil's advocate, who would you pick? If 493 00:23:20,240 --> 00:23:21,759 it wasn't Alexander Russik. 494 00:23:21,440 --> 00:23:23,160 Speaker 2: Probably the only other one would be in a way 495 00:23:23,880 --> 00:23:25,440 that would probably be the only other one. And we 496 00:23:25,480 --> 00:23:28,640 discussed that and discussed why. So we covered that, and 497 00:23:28,680 --> 00:23:30,680 I'm with you. I think it's too sick as well. 498 00:23:30,720 --> 00:23:33,119 I show Female Fighter of the Year while we progress 499 00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:37,599 down the list here a little bit. I think I 500 00:23:37,640 --> 00:23:39,160 think I have a good idea. I've read that. I've 501 00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:42,079 read it also on the sub stack as well, So 502 00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:44,799 go ahead and give me Female Fighter of the Year. 503 00:23:45,880 --> 00:23:48,839 Speaker 1: Female Fighter of the Year was again this was you know, 504 00:23:49,039 --> 00:23:50,759 I haven't done that many female fighters in the year. This 505 00:23:50,799 --> 00:23:52,680 is only maybe like the third or fourth year I've 506 00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:54,680 done it. Because there hasn't really been a need before, 507 00:23:54,720 --> 00:23:57,079 but now he got so much good competition among the 508 00:23:57,079 --> 00:24:00,559 women and emerging fighters. Who are you know, making season 509 00:24:00,559 --> 00:24:04,640 and then partaking in important and significant fights. This was, again, 510 00:24:05,079 --> 00:24:07,680 unlike a similar to what I mentioned about the men, 511 00:24:08,480 --> 00:24:09,839 not all that hard to me. I mean, you could 512 00:24:09,880 --> 00:24:12,039 you could pick a Katie Taylor who won the rematch 513 00:24:12,079 --> 00:24:15,559 against Amanda Serrano, and I certainly thought that was a 514 00:24:15,559 --> 00:24:17,359 fantastic fight, but a lot of people thought she lost 515 00:24:17,359 --> 00:24:20,519 the fight and then deserved the win. And there was 516 00:24:20,559 --> 00:24:22,839 other women that did a lot of good work. Natasha 517 00:24:22,880 --> 00:24:26,000 Jonas had some big wins, Mikaela Mayer, she lost to Jonas, 518 00:24:26,039 --> 00:24:28,319 but came back and got a big win against Sandy 519 00:24:28,400 --> 00:24:29,599 Ryan at the end of the year. But to me, 520 00:24:29,640 --> 00:24:32,160 this was a really easy one. Frankly, this was Gabriella 521 00:24:32,160 --> 00:24:35,200 Fondora's year. Not only was she winning all of her fights, 522 00:24:35,400 --> 00:24:37,599 she fought three times she won by knockout in some 523 00:24:37,640 --> 00:24:40,000 of those fights. She looks very, very good, and she 524 00:24:40,119 --> 00:24:42,039 did something no one has ever done before. She became 525 00:24:42,079 --> 00:24:45,759 a four belt undisputed women's champion, which has happened in 526 00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:48,319 terms of Katie Taylor, but she was the one who 527 00:24:48,359 --> 00:24:50,160 was the youngest to do it. She became the undisputed 528 00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:53,960 flyweight champion. She defended her title early in the year, 529 00:24:54,240 --> 00:24:56,640 and then and she and then later in the year 530 00:24:56,680 --> 00:24:59,720 when she became undisputed, she fought in a fight where 531 00:24:59,759 --> 00:25:03,839 her oponent, Atlantis, was the she had she had the 532 00:25:03,839 --> 00:25:06,759 other three belts, and she scored two knockdowns against her 533 00:25:06,799 --> 00:25:09,000 and forced her corror to throw in the towel in 534 00:25:09,039 --> 00:25:10,519 the tenth round. You know, a lot of times we 535 00:25:10,559 --> 00:25:12,920 talk about in women's box we don't see a lot knockcouts, right, 536 00:25:13,279 --> 00:25:16,880 Gabrielle Fandora has been scoring some knockouts, so she's looked 537 00:25:16,880 --> 00:25:19,519 good doing that. She made history. So I'll give you 538 00:25:19,519 --> 00:25:21,640 a little bit of the of the history that she 539 00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:24,119 made beside just doing a big accomplishment to be coming 540 00:25:24,119 --> 00:25:29,160 in undisputed champion, first undisputed women's flyweight champion period, the 541 00:25:29,200 --> 00:25:33,240 youngest undisputed champion in any weight class in the four 542 00:25:33,279 --> 00:25:37,759 belt era, men or women, because she's ever have the 543 00:25:37,799 --> 00:25:39,400 four belt era, which is not that long. But the 544 00:25:39,400 --> 00:25:41,720 point is she's only she's only twenty two years old, 545 00:25:41,839 --> 00:25:45,079 so that makes sure the youngest and uh, it takes 546 00:25:45,079 --> 00:25:47,720 two on this particular aspect. But when she became the 547 00:25:47,799 --> 00:25:53,680 undisputed flyweight women's champ, she joined her brother Sebastian Ferndora, 548 00:25:53,720 --> 00:25:56,720 who's the unified title holder in the junior middleweight division, 549 00:25:57,039 --> 00:26:01,160 to be the first brother and sister to hold world 550 00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:05,240 titles simultaneously. Now we've seen brothers do that, for example, 551 00:26:05,599 --> 00:26:09,839 the Charlote brothers hill titles simultaneously. Matter of fact, at 552 00:26:09,839 --> 00:26:12,559 first they held them simultaneously in the same weight class 553 00:26:12,599 --> 00:26:15,160 because they each had a piece of the Germidaway title. 554 00:26:15,359 --> 00:26:17,640 But you have now a brother and a sister who 555 00:26:17,720 --> 00:26:19,599 are who have done and actually on top of that, 556 00:26:19,880 --> 00:26:22,400 they're both unified because some nationals got two belts and 557 00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:25,079 she's got all four belts. So to me, that was 558 00:26:25,160 --> 00:26:27,720 not a very difficult pick. The ones that I looked 559 00:26:27,759 --> 00:26:30,480 at as the serious challengers, if you will, the runners 560 00:26:30,559 --> 00:26:33,039 up as I call them, Natasha Jonas, who I mentioned 561 00:26:33,440 --> 00:26:36,000 Sanisi Estrada, she just fought the one time, but it 562 00:26:36,039 --> 00:26:39,000 was a huge victory to defeat yo Costa Vaye to 563 00:26:39,039 --> 00:26:42,759 become the undisputed women's shralweight champion. Then she retired undefeated, 564 00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:47,160 and you also had Sky Nicholson, the Australian undefeated a 565 00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:50,799 former olympian who won the vacant WBC title and then 566 00:26:50,839 --> 00:26:53,000 made two defenses and then all three of her fight 567 00:26:53,079 --> 00:26:55,559 she won by you know, basically shut out or close 568 00:26:55,599 --> 00:26:58,559 to shutout decisions. But Fondora she it was a big 569 00:26:58,599 --> 00:26:58,960 year for. 570 00:27:00,640 --> 00:27:04,960 Speaker 2: All right. So that's interesting more so than Katie Taylor 571 00:27:04,960 --> 00:27:09,640 in the huge fight with Amanda Serrano that took place 572 00:27:09,680 --> 00:27:13,240 on the Mike Tyson Jake Paul undercard in the AT 573 00:27:13,319 --> 00:27:16,160 and T Stadium. Although I have a feeling that we're 574 00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:17,599 going to talk about that right now, why don't we 575 00:27:17,599 --> 00:27:19,359 stay with the ladies. Is that the fight of the 576 00:27:19,440 --> 00:27:21,319 year for Dan Rayfield twenty twenty. 577 00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:23,599 Speaker 1: Four, that my match, I think that'll be the fight 578 00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:25,400 of the decade, I mean, or the fight of the century. 579 00:27:25,440 --> 00:27:28,400 That was I know that their first fight when Katie 580 00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:30,720 and the Manda fought each other in Madison Square Garden 581 00:27:31,039 --> 00:27:34,200 in April of twenty twenty two. At the time, that 582 00:27:34,359 --> 00:27:37,720 was Amanda moving up from the featherweight division to challenge Katie, 583 00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:40,440 who at that time was the undisputed lightweight channel And 584 00:27:40,480 --> 00:27:42,799 we don't have to rehash what happened there, but they 585 00:27:42,799 --> 00:27:46,839 put on a sensational all action just incredible battle for 586 00:27:46,880 --> 00:27:50,160 the ages, and it was a popular fight. It did 587 00:27:50,160 --> 00:27:52,400 a big business. They sold out the Garden, had a 588 00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:54,839 big viewership around the world, and it was just a 589 00:27:54,839 --> 00:27:57,920 spectacular event. It lifted women's boxing as a whole. It 590 00:27:57,960 --> 00:28:00,759 was lifted all of boxing, frankly, as all women's It 591 00:28:00,799 --> 00:28:04,759 was such a well received, such a fantastic fight, two 592 00:28:04,920 --> 00:28:08,720 very respectful women, two women that just go in there 593 00:28:08,759 --> 00:28:10,839 and fight their hearts out. There was nothing not to 594 00:28:10,960 --> 00:28:14,640 like about that. And you had not only a great fight, 595 00:28:14,680 --> 00:28:16,880 but you had the great Irish fans of New York 596 00:28:17,160 --> 00:28:19,960 supporting Katie. You had the great Puerto Rican fans of 597 00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:23,720 New York supporting Amanda. You had, you know, the promotion. 598 00:28:23,960 --> 00:28:25,880 You got Jake Paul on one side with a man. 599 00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:29,359 You got Eddie Hurd on the other side with Katie. 600 00:28:29,359 --> 00:28:31,680 You know, those guys can talk like anything. So it 601 00:28:31,799 --> 00:28:33,799 just made for a great event. Now they try to 602 00:28:33,839 --> 00:28:36,039 do the rematch, and you know, it didn't happen right 603 00:28:36,079 --> 00:28:38,839 away for different reasons. Amanda, they had made the fight, 604 00:28:38,839 --> 00:28:41,400 and Amanda, if you recall, she got injured and so 605 00:28:42,200 --> 00:28:45,079 in order to save her date, Katie Taylor ended up 606 00:28:45,079 --> 00:28:48,279 moving up in Wait and challenging Shantel Cameron for the 607 00:28:48,359 --> 00:28:50,480 undisputed title in the Junior about the Right division, and 608 00:28:50,519 --> 00:28:53,000 she lost, and so they went through their situation where 609 00:28:53,039 --> 00:28:55,519 they had two fights and she regained the title in 610 00:28:55,720 --> 00:28:57,599 what I picked as the twenty twenty three fight of 611 00:28:57,599 --> 00:29:01,200 the year, when they had Chantell Katie rematching Katie won 612 00:29:01,200 --> 00:29:02,920 by the swimits of margins. It was there. Both were 613 00:29:03,039 --> 00:29:07,720 very close, outstanding fights. Finally, they make the rematch with Serrano, 614 00:29:08,279 --> 00:29:11,200 and once again it gets postponed, not because of anything 615 00:29:11,200 --> 00:29:12,920 that happened with them, but because it was supposed to 616 00:29:12,960 --> 00:29:16,000 be on the Jake Paul Mike Tyson onder card, and 617 00:29:16,039 --> 00:29:18,720 when Mike Tyson had his medical issues and the fight 618 00:29:18,759 --> 00:29:21,279 was postponed from July, the whole card was postponed. So 619 00:29:21,359 --> 00:29:23,559 rather than have the rematch in July, Katie and demanded 620 00:29:23,559 --> 00:29:25,359 we had to wait even a little longer. They didn't 621 00:29:25,359 --> 00:29:27,680 get in the ring again until November. And when they 622 00:29:27,680 --> 00:29:30,000 got in the ring, I gotta be honest, I think 623 00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:31,799 they put on a better fight than the first one. 624 00:29:31,839 --> 00:29:34,000 As crazy as that may sound to some people, this 625 00:29:34,279 --> 00:29:39,119 was just a first of all, a riveting fight to watch. 626 00:29:39,599 --> 00:29:41,559 And the thing about it that in my mind sort 627 00:29:41,599 --> 00:29:43,480 of almost made it better than the first fight. They're 628 00:29:43,519 --> 00:29:46,920 both great fights. Is you already are watching or at 629 00:29:46,960 --> 00:29:48,839 least I was. I can't speak to everybody, because there 630 00:29:48,839 --> 00:29:51,279 was million, tens of millions of people that were watching 631 00:29:51,319 --> 00:29:53,920 this fight on Netflix. It generated an audience in the 632 00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:57,480 United States alone of an average over the course of 633 00:29:57,480 --> 00:30:00,920 the fight forty seven million people. That makes it the 634 00:30:00,920 --> 00:30:04,640 most viewed women's boxing match of all time. It makes 635 00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:08,759 it the most viewed women's sports event in United States history. 636 00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:12,920 So and those people were treated to an unbelievable fight. Now, 637 00:30:13,039 --> 00:30:16,079 for a section of those people, like myself, like you 638 00:30:16,119 --> 00:30:18,680 and many other die hard boxing fans, we watched that 639 00:30:18,759 --> 00:30:20,880 fight already with the knowledge of what had occurred in 640 00:30:20,880 --> 00:30:22,240 the first fight, which. 641 00:30:22,039 --> 00:30:24,519 Speaker 2: Do you remember, If I can interject, I told the 642 00:30:24,559 --> 00:30:27,839 guys that I was around watching the fight with. I said, 643 00:30:28,079 --> 00:30:31,319 you're gonna stop what you're doing, stop all the chit chat. 644 00:30:31,359 --> 00:30:33,880 You're gonna want to be locked in here. And they're like, oh, 645 00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:36,680 the women's fight. A couple of them knew a little 646 00:30:36,720 --> 00:30:40,359 bit about Amanda Serrano, et cetera, and by the third 647 00:30:40,440 --> 00:30:44,319 round they were on their feet yelling and hollering. Where 648 00:30:44,319 --> 00:30:47,079 we were watching the fight, and frankly, it was a 649 00:30:47,119 --> 00:30:49,400 better fight, more action packed fight than the main event 650 00:30:50,400 --> 00:30:54,359 Paul and Mike Tyson. I'm not revealing an Einstein theory 651 00:30:54,519 --> 00:30:58,839 theorem there on. I'm with you. It had drama too 652 00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:01,240 with Serrano with the ripped open Is it going to 653 00:31:01,279 --> 00:31:04,079 stop the fight or not? She's bleeding profusely, She's fighting 654 00:31:04,119 --> 00:31:05,519 on tremendous fight. 655 00:31:05,759 --> 00:31:07,559 Speaker 1: But I was gonna say, though about when you watch it, 656 00:31:07,599 --> 00:31:09,960 when you already know about the first fight. Yeah, you 657 00:31:10,039 --> 00:31:12,440 have sort of a context of what the second fight's 658 00:31:12,440 --> 00:31:15,119 happening in and that makes it much better because you 659 00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:17,240 know the history. Now keep in mind, also what made 660 00:31:17,279 --> 00:31:20,039 the second fight in my mind even more interesting was 661 00:31:20,079 --> 00:31:25,160 because Amanda had moved up from featherweight to lightweight, two 662 00:31:25,240 --> 00:31:28,160 weight classes to fight her in the first fight. Now 663 00:31:28,200 --> 00:31:30,160 she took a tune up fight at one hundred and 664 00:31:30,240 --> 00:31:31,759 forty ish, not even all the way up at one 665 00:31:31,799 --> 00:31:34,440 hundred and forty, but she's basically moving up now three 666 00:31:34,519 --> 00:31:37,880 weight classes to fight her in the third fight. I mean, 667 00:31:37,920 --> 00:31:40,880 I mean in the rematch rather and again close, super 668 00:31:40,920 --> 00:31:45,079 close fight, much more action, much more blood. The numbers. Again, 669 00:31:45,160 --> 00:31:47,720 we talk about copy box sometimes and I know that 670 00:31:47,720 --> 00:31:50,559 does not necessarily hold the end all be all of 671 00:31:51,599 --> 00:31:53,200 what happens in the fight. But I can tell you 672 00:31:53,240 --> 00:31:55,279 one thing you know as well as I do, that 673 00:31:55,319 --> 00:31:58,599 women's boxing matches they fight two minute rounds, not three 674 00:31:58,599 --> 00:32:01,519 minute rounds. And that makes even more impressive when you 675 00:32:01,559 --> 00:32:03,440 look at what they did in terms of the statistical 676 00:32:03,480 --> 00:32:06,880 breakdown of the fight. They were throwing crazy numbers of punches. 677 00:32:06,880 --> 00:32:10,119 I'll give you one example, the seventh round, which was 678 00:32:10,480 --> 00:32:14,000 just mind boggling by all, I mean, even compared to 679 00:32:14,039 --> 00:32:16,599 the other great rounds in this fight. These two women 680 00:32:17,079 --> 00:32:20,920 landed and it's two minutes, it ain't three minutes. That's 681 00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:23,880 a huge difference. That's, you know, not to be a mathematician. 682 00:32:24,039 --> 00:32:25,960 That's a third less of a round. 683 00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:28,160 Speaker 2: Public school math. 684 00:32:28,200 --> 00:32:29,759 Speaker 1: I love it, Yes, I know, I did, okay in 685 00:32:29,799 --> 00:32:32,960 my math. They landed eighty nine of one hundred and 686 00:32:32,960 --> 00:32:35,519 seventy six punches in two minutes, according. 687 00:32:35,160 --> 00:32:36,359 Speaker 2: To between the two of them. 688 00:32:36,519 --> 00:32:39,319 Speaker 1: Yes, the creach is insane and that was like that 689 00:32:39,480 --> 00:32:41,279 round it Now, that was the high water mark of 690 00:32:41,319 --> 00:32:43,279 the fight. But they had a bunch of rounds where 691 00:32:43,279 --> 00:32:45,319 they were landing like crazy on that and as you mentioned, 692 00:32:45,680 --> 00:32:49,960 h Serrano was cut by the head butt. She's cut 693 00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:52,839 again by another head butt, and I was kind of 694 00:32:52,839 --> 00:32:54,400 grossed out. I mean, it was one of the worst 695 00:32:54,400 --> 00:32:54,960 custom I was. 696 00:32:54,920 --> 00:32:59,119 Speaker 2: Going and she was right eyes. 697 00:32:58,880 --> 00:33:00,920 Speaker 1: Talking about stopping it in the corner. At one point 698 00:33:01,039 --> 00:33:03,720 She's like, we're not doing that. The doctor, you know, 699 00:33:03,839 --> 00:33:07,359 examine it. They let it go anyway. It just the drama, 700 00:33:08,079 --> 00:33:11,599 the heart, the will, the knowledge of what we had 701 00:33:11,640 --> 00:33:14,319 seen two and a half years earlier in their first fight, 702 00:33:14,759 --> 00:33:19,079 the audience, the spectacle of Cowboy Stadium. I mean, all 703 00:33:19,160 --> 00:33:21,400 due respect to Madison Square Garden in the you know, 704 00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:23,519 twenty thousand or so they had there, I'm not sure 705 00:33:23,559 --> 00:33:26,240 you can compare that to at and T Stadium with 706 00:33:26,480 --> 00:33:29,720 almost seventy five thousand people there and tens of millions 707 00:33:29,759 --> 00:33:31,960 of people watching all over the globe. So to me, 708 00:33:32,079 --> 00:33:36,079 that was the no brainer fight of the year for 709 00:33:36,119 --> 00:33:38,000 the women, and there was really Honestly, there were some 710 00:33:38,039 --> 00:33:39,680 other good fights, and I'll give you a couple of them, 711 00:33:39,720 --> 00:33:41,599 but nothing that came close to that. The other ones 712 00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:44,359 I identified that I thought were worthy of, like Honora mentioned, 713 00:33:44,599 --> 00:33:47,880 and that was Mikaela Mayer and Sandy Ryan, who had 714 00:33:47,880 --> 00:33:50,880 that excellent welterweight fight with the craziness of Sandy Ryan 715 00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:54,599 being accosted outside her hotel and having paint thrown at her. 716 00:33:54,680 --> 00:33:56,160 Not that that was the fight, but I'm just setting 717 00:33:56,160 --> 00:33:59,680 the age of what was going on. And also another 718 00:33:59,720 --> 00:34:02,240 ext and fight this is Winis Strada. As I mentioned earlier, 719 00:34:02,279 --> 00:34:05,960 she defeated you Costavayi by a unanimous decision to become 720 00:34:05,960 --> 00:34:08,400 the undisputed Shrolwey champion. That was a real feud kind 721 00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:11,880 of fight, and it was a very very good battle 722 00:34:11,880 --> 00:34:14,440 between two women that you could see both of them 723 00:34:14,440 --> 00:34:16,599 being on the pound for pound top ten lists, and 724 00:34:16,599 --> 00:34:18,960 the Strada got the job done and then as I mentioned, 725 00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:21,880 retired undefeated. But there was nothing that I saw that 726 00:34:21,920 --> 00:34:25,639 came even close to what Katy Taylor and Amanda Toronto did. 727 00:34:25,679 --> 00:34:28,480 Speaker 2: Just a enough fight and you've already broached it that 728 00:34:28,559 --> 00:34:32,760 the Usik Fury fight, for the significance the Usik win 729 00:34:32,920 --> 00:34:35,320 the four belts, that that is the fight, and I 730 00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:36,880 agree with you, that's got to be the fight of 731 00:34:36,920 --> 00:34:41,679 the year, just the historical significance uh and Usik's lineage, 732 00:34:41,679 --> 00:34:45,920 as well as the cruiserweight undisputed champion, Fury as the 733 00:34:46,119 --> 00:34:50,119 guy really building up to that having beaten Deontay Wilder, 734 00:34:50,320 --> 00:34:52,360 and yeah, so that's the fight of the year, we 735 00:34:52,559 --> 00:34:55,880 would agree. So I'm just curious, what did you seriously 736 00:34:55,960 --> 00:34:59,119 consider along with that? What other one or two fights 737 00:34:59,119 --> 00:35:00,679 did you seriously can con fighting? 738 00:35:00,920 --> 00:35:02,599 Speaker 1: You know, they're they're like I said to you before 739 00:35:02,639 --> 00:35:04,559 about the fighter of the year, were oftentimes it's a 740 00:35:04,639 --> 00:35:07,519 it's a slam dunk, that's a no brainer, which was 741 00:35:07,559 --> 00:35:08,880 that I thought the case this year and pick an 742 00:35:08,960 --> 00:35:11,159 Usik in terms of the fight of the year. A 743 00:35:11,159 --> 00:35:12,960 lot of times it is also a no brainer. Like 744 00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:14,599 it didn't take a lot in my mind back in 745 00:35:14,639 --> 00:35:17,559 the day to pick like Diego Corrales against the Jose 746 00:35:17,679 --> 00:35:20,880 Luis Castillo fight one, or you know, Mickey Ward, Arturo 747 00:35:20,920 --> 00:35:23,320 Gotti three or fights like that, I mean, or with 748 00:35:23,360 --> 00:35:25,400 a Vasquez Marquz fights. You can just go down the 749 00:35:25,480 --> 00:35:29,559 year by your list. Uh, this year, I don't know 750 00:35:29,599 --> 00:35:31,800 if it was a slam dunk that it was going 751 00:35:31,880 --> 00:35:34,960 to be fury Usk, But in the end, my analysis was, yeah, 752 00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:36,360 that's absolutely the fight of the year. So yeah, I 753 00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:39,360 did pick that. So I never really considered another one 754 00:35:39,400 --> 00:35:41,559 to be number one. When I actually sat down and 755 00:35:41,599 --> 00:35:43,360 made my list and started to actually think about it. 756 00:35:43,719 --> 00:35:45,719 But there were a number of other good, excellent fights, 757 00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:49,559 and so I did my top ten, but I definitely 758 00:35:49,559 --> 00:35:51,440 picked usk In Fury as number one. Now some of 759 00:35:51,440 --> 00:35:53,639 the now, just to clarify, I'll give them metric because 760 00:35:53,639 --> 00:35:56,239 some people have a different, uh sort of thought process 761 00:35:56,280 --> 00:35:58,519 about what constitutes a fight of the year. For me, 762 00:35:59,800 --> 00:36:03,400 it's it's like it's like a good recipe, like you 763 00:36:03,440 --> 00:36:04,639 take a little bit of this, a little bit of that, 764 00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:07,400 but the most important thing is the action. Is it 765 00:36:07,440 --> 00:36:09,280 a great fight to watch? Is it an entertaining fight? 766 00:36:09,639 --> 00:36:11,920 That's that's number one? And Fury definitely and Usik in 767 00:36:11,960 --> 00:36:14,760 the first fight it definitely was that. But then also 768 00:36:15,440 --> 00:36:17,480 to a lesser extent, but still part of the equation. 769 00:36:17,639 --> 00:36:20,079 It doesn't have to be if the fight's so overwhelmingly 770 00:36:20,159 --> 00:36:22,920 ridiculously violent, and also you're comparing it to the other 771 00:36:22,920 --> 00:36:26,039 fights that took place in that calendar year, but significance 772 00:36:26,079 --> 00:36:28,960 as part of it, maybe the backdrop of the atmosphere 773 00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:30,679 of the promotion, all the things that go into it. 774 00:36:31,159 --> 00:36:33,440 The character is involved in it. So to me, it 775 00:36:33,480 --> 00:36:36,639 wasn't difficult to pick Fury Usic, especially when you compared 776 00:36:36,639 --> 00:36:40,039 it to the other competition that it did have this year. 777 00:36:40,360 --> 00:36:43,159 So my number two pick and I ranked these you 778 00:36:43,199 --> 00:36:45,960 can read my article I ranked them in order. 779 00:36:46,480 --> 00:36:46,559 Speaker 2: Is. 780 00:36:46,599 --> 00:36:50,119 Speaker 1: I picked the Virgil Ortis Sarah Boatschuk fight that took 781 00:36:50,119 --> 00:36:52,840 place on August tenth at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, 782 00:36:53,159 --> 00:36:54,880 that I picked as number two because that was it 783 00:36:55,320 --> 00:36:58,199 fit the bill in terms of just the unmitigated violence 784 00:36:58,199 --> 00:37:01,840 and action and back fourth between those two guys Number one, 785 00:37:02,159 --> 00:37:05,440 number two. It was for some stakes, maybe not the 786 00:37:05,760 --> 00:37:11,000 undisputed heavyweight championship, but there was the position as a 787 00:37:11,119 --> 00:37:15,400 top contender in the germid Away division. The WBC's interim 788 00:37:15,840 --> 00:37:18,039 Jermid Away title was at stake. I'm not saying that's, 789 00:37:18,159 --> 00:37:20,440 you know, a big boy debt, but it's something that 790 00:37:20,480 --> 00:37:23,039 these two men wanted to have and it was certainly 791 00:37:23,039 --> 00:37:25,039 going to set the winner up for something pretty pretty 792 00:37:25,119 --> 00:37:27,320 darn big. And they put on just a tremendous fight. 793 00:37:27,400 --> 00:37:29,320 So that was a terrific fight. It was close or 794 00:37:29,440 --> 00:37:32,159 he's got off the deck from two knockdowns. So another 795 00:37:32,159 --> 00:37:34,280 part of any kind of fight is drama. Drama, So 796 00:37:34,519 --> 00:37:36,960 when I picked Usik Fury, there's the drama of the 797 00:37:37,039 --> 00:37:39,480 ninth round where Usak almost comes within a whisker of 798 00:37:39,519 --> 00:37:41,719 knocking Fury out, but the bell rang. If there's a 799 00:37:41,760 --> 00:37:43,480 few more seconds, he might have got him out of there. 800 00:37:43,679 --> 00:37:45,440 Mark Nelson, who was the referee in that fight, gave 801 00:37:45,519 --> 00:37:48,760 him every benefit to continue to go. And anyway, in 802 00:37:49,079 --> 00:37:51,920 Ortiz and Bochu, there was those two knockdowns, a flash 803 00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:54,960 knockdown in round one that was actually originally ruled a 804 00:37:55,000 --> 00:37:57,800 slip a change to a knockdown when they examined the replay. 805 00:37:57,840 --> 00:38:00,480 They changed a couple of rounds later. And there was 806 00:38:00,519 --> 00:38:03,679 another round where he got dropped clean uh put it. 807 00:38:03,719 --> 00:38:05,360 He didn't get dropped like flat on his back, but 808 00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:07,280 he got hit. And I think it was the eighth round. 809 00:38:07,480 --> 00:38:09,280 He put his gloves on the canvas to keep him 810 00:38:09,280 --> 00:38:11,920 from falling on his face. So that I picked his 811 00:38:12,039 --> 00:38:13,280 number two. And I'll just run through a couple of 812 00:38:13,280 --> 00:38:16,039 other ones. And these were all had excellent action, had 813 00:38:16,079 --> 00:38:20,840 stakes and had you know, enthrawling, sort of like you 814 00:38:20,840 --> 00:38:23,280 would want to watch them again on YouTube or you know, 815 00:38:23,320 --> 00:38:25,559 on your device or whatever. A fight that I'm in 816 00:38:25,559 --> 00:38:27,800 love with and I've watched it several times, A tremendous 817 00:38:27,840 --> 00:38:31,039 fight that was the vacant WBA featherweight title fight. It 818 00:38:31,079 --> 00:38:33,920 took place on March third at the Turning Stone Casino 819 00:38:33,960 --> 00:38:35,880 in Verona, York. It was an a top rank event 820 00:38:35,920 --> 00:38:38,599 on I believe it was only on ESPN Plus as 821 00:38:38,599 --> 00:38:41,000 opposed to also on the network. And that was Raymond 822 00:38:41,039 --> 00:38:45,039 Ford in a last second knockout of odebac Comotov. Yeah, 823 00:38:45,559 --> 00:38:47,079 and I'll tell you it was sad about that. Now. 824 00:38:47,119 --> 00:38:48,480 First of all, it was a terrific fight all the 825 00:38:48,519 --> 00:38:50,639 way through. That's the first thing. And this is a 826 00:38:50,679 --> 00:38:52,199 great one of the great stats you can think of 827 00:38:52,840 --> 00:38:55,519 in the entire history. Stopped him with seven seconds left 828 00:38:55,519 --> 00:38:58,039 in the fight. Ode back Kolmotov had a knee injury 829 00:38:58,239 --> 00:39:01,199 and he was fading and four corners tell him, you 830 00:39:01,239 --> 00:39:02,960 have to get the you know, you got to get 831 00:39:02,960 --> 00:39:04,840 this guy. Uh, you know, we got to win the 832 00:39:04,880 --> 00:39:07,679 last round, get a knockout, and you know, do it 833 00:39:07,719 --> 00:39:09,480 for you the way I remember. And I went back 834 00:39:09,519 --> 00:39:11,119 and I got the quote for the story that his 835 00:39:11,159 --> 00:39:13,880 trainer's comb do it for your family, do it for everybody. 836 00:39:13,880 --> 00:39:16,039 You know, you got to finish strong. I mean that, 837 00:39:16,280 --> 00:39:19,440 and then he's yelling at that him basically got the 838 00:39:19,519 --> 00:39:22,199 job done with seven seconds left and here's not only 839 00:39:22,199 --> 00:39:24,679 does he win the world title, he does it in 840 00:39:24,760 --> 00:39:28,639 the fashion that is extremely rare in the history of boxing. TJ. 841 00:39:28,800 --> 00:39:31,440 Think about all the world championship fights in the history 842 00:39:31,480 --> 00:39:31,880 of boxing. 843 00:39:32,639 --> 00:39:37,079 Speaker 2: It's thousands, thousands, thousands and thousands. 844 00:39:36,159 --> 00:39:40,239 Speaker 1: In the entire history of world championship fights. And then 845 00:39:40,280 --> 00:39:42,679 I will give credit to my dear friend Steve Farhood 846 00:39:43,119 --> 00:39:47,360 uh the great UH former ring magazine editor and everybody's 847 00:39:47,360 --> 00:39:51,360 a favorite showbox UH commentator and an unofficial score back 848 00:39:51,360 --> 00:39:56,079 in the day on showtime. Anyway, this is his stat uh. 849 00:39:56,119 --> 00:39:59,039 He became the fifteenth fighter in the history of world 850 00:39:59,119 --> 00:40:03,079 title bouts to trail going into the last round and 851 00:40:03,119 --> 00:40:07,400 score a knockout to win, highly highly unusual in boxing. Yeah, 852 00:40:07,400 --> 00:40:08,039 we did that. 853 00:40:08,239 --> 00:40:10,480 Speaker 2: We did talk about that at the time, and it's 854 00:40:10,519 --> 00:40:12,199 a it's it's an interesting list. 855 00:40:12,880 --> 00:40:17,519 Speaker 1: I all like Shaggy Foster against uh Rockey Hernandez was one. 856 00:40:17,519 --> 00:40:20,400 Speaker 2: That was late last year, right, but one that always 857 00:40:20,440 --> 00:40:22,440 the one that has always come to mind for me 858 00:40:22,719 --> 00:40:25,639 is Mike Weaver and Big John Tate of Knoxville, Tennessee. 859 00:40:25,679 --> 00:40:28,880 Were Weaver, if I'm not mistaken, lost virtually every round 860 00:40:28,880 --> 00:40:31,719 of the previous fourteen. He may have hurt Tate in 861 00:40:31,760 --> 00:40:34,400 the fourteenth round to win in and then he timber 862 00:40:34,559 --> 00:40:36,880 faced first knocked him out in the fifteenth and final 863 00:40:36,960 --> 00:40:40,800 round while hopelessly behind on the scorecards. But yeah, it's 864 00:40:40,800 --> 00:40:41,320 a rare thing. 865 00:40:41,400 --> 00:40:43,800 Speaker 1: And that was a culmination of what already was a 866 00:40:43,880 --> 00:40:46,599 turrific fight like Tate and Weaver as just one existed, right, 867 00:40:47,280 --> 00:40:50,239 not a great fight, no, no, a one sided beating 868 00:40:50,280 --> 00:40:53,800 basically until the last moment. Solomotov and Ford was a 869 00:40:53,880 --> 00:40:57,039 terrific fight, but Ford was clearly losing the fight and 870 00:40:57,199 --> 00:41:01,480 he scored the dramatic knockout. Uh to already a tremendous fight. 871 00:41:01,559 --> 00:41:03,519 So that was another one. And then I'll just well 872 00:41:04,000 --> 00:41:06,880 a couple others here. This was one of those early 873 00:41:06,920 --> 00:41:09,360 morning risers for those of us in the United States 874 00:41:09,599 --> 00:41:13,760 on ESPN plus January twenty third, so a full year later. 875 00:41:13,800 --> 00:41:16,800 Basically it's still held up as my number four. And 876 00:41:16,840 --> 00:41:19,480 that was a fight took place in Osaka, Japan. This 877 00:41:19,679 --> 00:41:26,039 was Canciro Taraji defending his WBC WBA Junior Flyway titles 878 00:41:26,320 --> 00:41:30,239 against Carlos Canazalez, who just got robbed in Thailand last 879 00:41:30,280 --> 00:41:33,239 week in the in the chance to win the vacant 880 00:41:33,679 --> 00:41:38,199 Junior Flyway title, and that had been vacated once Taraji 881 00:41:38,239 --> 00:41:42,280 moved up in Wait. But anyway, this was a really outstanding, 882 00:41:42,280 --> 00:41:46,000 all action fight. Taraji eked out a majority decision, legit. 883 00:41:46,079 --> 00:41:49,920 So but they just there's certain fights, especially in these 884 00:41:49,920 --> 00:41:52,920 little weight classes, where you watch them. I swear to God, 885 00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:55,400 you'd like you're watching a video game. Or it's like 886 00:41:55,400 --> 00:41:57,760 if you're watching it like on a on a DVR 887 00:41:58,119 --> 00:42:01,679 or Kevin forbids a VCR for kids who don't know, 888 00:42:01,960 --> 00:42:03,719 it'd be like you're watching it on fast forward. 889 00:42:03,800 --> 00:42:04,519 Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. 890 00:42:04,679 --> 00:42:07,639 Speaker 1: I mean, they just put on a remarkable back and forth. 891 00:42:07,760 --> 00:42:10,480 So now that's one hundred eight pounds. Now let's go 892 00:42:10,599 --> 00:42:13,559 up about another one hundred and twenty pounds. We'll get 893 00:42:13,559 --> 00:42:16,079 to the heavyweight to the big boys. And as we 894 00:42:16,159 --> 00:42:18,440 talked that in the lead up, I had hope, I 895 00:42:18,480 --> 00:42:21,320 had dreams that this would be just a all out, 896 00:42:21,519 --> 00:42:25,079 just fucking slaber knocker of a heavyweight battle between two 897 00:42:25,079 --> 00:42:28,199 guys who had great hearts and a lot of us 898 00:42:28,239 --> 00:42:30,320 still driving them but even though they were no longer 899 00:42:30,320 --> 00:42:32,599 where they once were, And that was the heavyweight fight 900 00:42:32,639 --> 00:42:34,639 that kind of came out of nowhere. When they matched 901 00:42:34,679 --> 00:42:38,440 up Derek Chesaora the old Warhorse against Joe Joyce July 902 00:42:38,599 --> 00:42:42,760 twenty seventh in London. Chessaura hugely popular British fighter. Joyce 903 00:42:42,920 --> 00:42:45,639 not as popular, but still, you know, closer to his 904 00:42:45,719 --> 00:42:48,599 prime anyway than Chasaura. And what do they do, TJ. 905 00:42:48,639 --> 00:42:51,320 They put on a fucking slabery knocker and they beat 906 00:42:51,320 --> 00:42:53,360 the living dogshit out of each other. The great line 907 00:42:54,039 --> 00:42:57,079 from Chessaura in the pre fight going into that was, 908 00:42:57,559 --> 00:42:58,960 you know, talking about how great it's going to be 909 00:42:58,960 --> 00:43:00,880 a great fight because neither one of them goes backwards, 910 00:43:01,199 --> 00:43:03,039 and as she sort of said, so, what I'm thinking 911 00:43:03,559 --> 00:43:05,280 is that by the time we finished, someone's gonna have 912 00:43:05,280 --> 00:43:06,960 a less brain. So I was left in their brain. 913 00:43:07,559 --> 00:43:09,840 And by the way, after they got finished braining each 914 00:43:09,880 --> 00:43:12,480 other for ten rounds, that's exactly what it was like. 915 00:43:12,639 --> 00:43:15,320 Jo Sora, you know, was wobbly for a round after 916 00:43:15,400 --> 00:43:17,559 round in the late going, couldn't barely stand, but he 917 00:43:17,599 --> 00:43:19,159 found a way to get through it and out of 918 00:43:19,159 --> 00:43:21,880 nowhere he scores a knockdown against Joe Joyce with the 919 00:43:21,960 --> 00:43:25,559 right hand in the ninth round and he ends up 920 00:43:25,559 --> 00:43:28,679 winning the fight. It was a very fierce highly contested, 921 00:43:28,719 --> 00:43:32,599 outstanding battle. Just uh you know you like heavyweights, you know, 922 00:43:32,679 --> 00:43:34,880 go find that on YouTuber Dezonne whoever you want to 923 00:43:34,880 --> 00:43:37,360 watch her actually might have been ESPN plus, but just 924 00:43:37,440 --> 00:43:39,519 an awesome fight for heavyweight's just a lot of fun, 925 00:43:39,559 --> 00:43:40,119 a lot of action. 926 00:43:40,639 --> 00:43:42,119 Speaker 2: Right, So you went over fight of the Year and 927 00:43:42,199 --> 00:43:44,159 you also morphed it into knockouts. 928 00:43:44,599 --> 00:43:45,960 Speaker 1: Well, no, that wasn't about the knockout. 929 00:43:46,000 --> 00:43:48,199 Speaker 2: That was about understand I understand, but that one ended 930 00:43:48,239 --> 00:43:49,159 in a in a in a t. 931 00:43:49,280 --> 00:43:52,119 Speaker 1: J ALRIGHTNA give me throw I'm not gonna go into details. 932 00:43:52,119 --> 00:43:54,840 I'll throw you. A couple more top fights we mentioned 933 00:43:54,840 --> 00:43:59,199 Fernando Martinez first fight against Ioka, right, another heavyweight fight 934 00:43:59,239 --> 00:44:02,159 that ended in a dr Fabio Wardley Fraser Clark one. 935 00:44:02,199 --> 00:44:04,639 Remember in the second fight, Warley knocked him out in 936 00:44:04,679 --> 00:44:06,480 the first round. That was on a read season card. 937 00:44:07,159 --> 00:44:09,880 Another fight that sort of I think gets kind of 938 00:44:09,880 --> 00:44:12,360 lost in the in the shuffle. It was an undercard fight. 939 00:44:12,400 --> 00:44:14,679 This was when Arthur better Be fought the fight I 940 00:44:14,719 --> 00:44:18,360 mentioned earlier against Callum Smith. On that undercard, you had 941 00:44:18,599 --> 00:44:23,440 Jason Maloney defending his bantamweight title against Soowel Sanchez in 942 00:44:23,519 --> 00:44:26,960 just an all out freaking war of wars, a tremendous fight, 943 00:44:27,400 --> 00:44:31,079 and Mario Barrios albo Ramos, they fought a tremendous battle 944 00:44:31,079 --> 00:44:33,960 to a draw on the undercard of Tyson and j Paul. 945 00:44:34,039 --> 00:44:36,880 This was the fight that was before Amanda Serrano and 946 00:44:36,960 --> 00:44:39,480 Katie Taylor. So while the main event between Paul and 947 00:44:39,519 --> 00:44:42,280 Tyson might not have been as satisfying as many would 948 00:44:42,280 --> 00:44:44,320 have liked to see it, certainly those two undercard fights 949 00:44:44,320 --> 00:44:47,880 were terrific. And I thought Daniel Dubois in his bloody 950 00:44:47,960 --> 00:44:50,800 victory against Philip Perkovich, stopped him on cuts. That was 951 00:44:50,840 --> 00:44:52,760 a tremendous battle for the eight rounds of that fight 952 00:44:52,840 --> 00:44:54,920 lasted in their interiment. 953 00:44:54,719 --> 00:44:57,159 Speaker 2: Like and Robbins, you're up to thirty one fights of. 954 00:44:57,159 --> 00:45:01,400 Speaker 1: The year, I had ten fights. Ten fights. 955 00:45:01,559 --> 00:45:04,559 Speaker 2: I'm just saying, but the fight of the year, I 956 00:45:04,599 --> 00:45:07,159 agree with you going back fundamentally has to be the 957 00:45:07,320 --> 00:45:09,960 Usk win over Fury for all of the different grama. 958 00:45:09,960 --> 00:45:11,960 All right, so for knockout of the year, you and 959 00:45:11,960 --> 00:45:14,320 I are actually going to disagree here on the knockout 960 00:45:14,360 --> 00:45:16,199 of the year. Let's wrap it here on the pod 961 00:45:17,079 --> 00:45:19,039 with what your knockout in wine. Then I'll give you mine, 962 00:45:19,079 --> 00:45:19,480 go ahead. 963 00:45:19,639 --> 00:45:21,119 Speaker 1: I want to hear yours first. You always let me 964 00:45:21,159 --> 00:45:21,920 go first. 965 00:45:22,400 --> 00:45:24,519 Speaker 2: Listen to you turning over a new leaf in twenty 966 00:45:24,559 --> 00:45:26,639 twenty five. You care about what I have to say first. 967 00:45:26,800 --> 00:45:30,880 I love this. I'm gonna go Angelo Leo knocking out 968 00:45:30,920 --> 00:45:34,360 Luis Alberto Lopez with boom goes the Dynamite. He returns 969 00:45:34,400 --> 00:45:38,440 to Albuquerque, his hometown, even though he's been primarily living 970 00:45:38,519 --> 00:45:42,480 and training in Las Vegas for several years, and delivered 971 00:45:42,519 --> 00:45:46,280 a one hitter quitter bomb left hook to win a 972 00:45:46,360 --> 00:45:50,199 world title. I'm gonna go with that one for the 973 00:45:50,280 --> 00:45:53,079 knockout of the year. That that's the one that I 974 00:45:53,119 --> 00:45:56,760 remember and in terms of significance the most, that's what 975 00:45:56,880 --> 00:45:57,880 I would choose to do. 976 00:45:58,000 --> 00:45:59,920 Speaker 1: Now, there's nothing there's I can't I can't argue with that. 977 00:46:00,119 --> 00:46:03,239 I mean, again, this is all mostly opinion, obviously, I mean, 978 00:46:03,760 --> 00:46:08,280 especially when there's nothing that stands out so dramatically above 979 00:46:08,320 --> 00:46:11,239 all else. And I'll just use my Keralus Castillo example. 980 00:46:11,480 --> 00:46:13,360 If you were picking a fighter a Fight of the 981 00:46:13,440 --> 00:46:16,000 Year in two thousand and five, and you didn't pick 982 00:46:16,000 --> 00:46:18,719 Corrals Casillo, then you should go jump in the traffics 983 00:46:19,159 --> 00:46:21,920 in jail, go go go to jail. You know, just 984 00:46:22,000 --> 00:46:23,639 don't even bother watching boxing anymore. 985 00:46:23,639 --> 00:46:26,039 Speaker 2: And fine, and we should say that the criteria I 986 00:46:26,239 --> 00:46:30,559 used significance was a world title fight and dramatic, out 987 00:46:30,599 --> 00:46:32,280 of nowhere booming knockout. 988 00:46:32,760 --> 00:46:34,719 Speaker 1: That's what like like esthetically pleasing. 989 00:46:35,000 --> 00:46:37,400 Speaker 2: Yes, so that's what I started knockout. 990 00:46:37,639 --> 00:46:38,960 Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, if you look at my 991 00:46:39,039 --> 00:46:42,079 past knockouts of the Year list, you will see that, Yes, 992 00:46:42,079 --> 00:46:44,800 while significance is certainly important, there are a number of 993 00:46:44,880 --> 00:46:49,559 knockouts over the years that were not dramatically, uh, that 994 00:46:49,599 --> 00:46:53,199 were not overwhelmingly significant in terms of like world titles, 995 00:46:53,320 --> 00:46:55,719 but they were just so esthetically pleasing you couldn't take 996 00:46:55,760 --> 00:46:57,320 your eyes off it. I'm going to give you a 997 00:46:57,320 --> 00:47:00,239 few from years past to kind of jogumentry. People can 998 00:47:00,280 --> 00:47:03,639 YouTube him up. The first round knockout on Showbox between 999 00:47:04,039 --> 00:47:10,119 Alan Green and Jaydon Codrington, spectacular knockout heavyweight Calvin Brock 1000 00:47:10,519 --> 00:47:13,480 one hitter, quitter as you say, against Zuri Lawrence. I 1001 00:47:13,519 --> 00:47:15,199 was actually ringside for that fight that sounded like a 1002 00:47:15,199 --> 00:47:19,559 bomb went off. An ESPN fight between Darnell the dingling 1003 00:47:19,679 --> 00:47:22,639 Man Wilson and Emmanuel and Nwodo in the eleventh round 1004 00:47:22,639 --> 00:47:25,400 in two thousand and seven. I'm looking at my list, 1005 00:47:25,440 --> 00:47:26,920 so I'm not pulling this one out of my brain. 1006 00:47:27,320 --> 00:47:30,639 Just an unbelievable knockout. How about Edison Miranda against David 1007 00:47:30,719 --> 00:47:33,800 Banks when he knocked Banks out and he was out cold, 1008 00:47:33,880 --> 00:47:36,639 like doing a teeter totter between the ropes. I mean, 1009 00:47:37,239 --> 00:47:39,920 my point here is this, This is the one category 1010 00:47:40,199 --> 00:47:44,000 where I believe anyway that the significance is not necessarily 1011 00:47:44,039 --> 00:47:47,559 as important as the esthetics of the knockout, the crowd 1012 00:47:47,599 --> 00:47:50,880 pleasing nature of the knockout. So for me, this is 1013 00:47:50,880 --> 00:47:52,679 one of those years. I totally get what you're saying 1014 00:47:52,679 --> 00:47:57,519 about Leo knocking out Lopez, partly because of the significance, 1015 00:47:57,760 --> 00:47:59,519 but I went with the one that to me anyway, 1016 00:48:00,159 --> 00:48:03,840 was number one completely out of nowhere and number two 1017 00:48:04,280 --> 00:48:10,039 as violent, as resounding, as nasty, and as just punishing 1018 00:48:10,400 --> 00:48:13,480 and esthetically pleasing as any knockout. You'll see that I 1019 00:48:13,559 --> 00:48:15,519 actually felt really bad for the man that was on 1020 00:48:15,559 --> 00:48:17,719 the other end of this, and that was the fight 1021 00:48:17,800 --> 00:48:20,960 that was on the undercard of when Jake Paul thought 1022 00:48:21,000 --> 00:48:24,639 Mike Perry, and that was the lightweight undefeated Canadian Lucas 1023 00:48:24,719 --> 00:48:30,320 body in the massive four punch combination to put Ashton 1024 00:48:30,440 --> 00:48:35,440 Sill of the MVP promoted Prospect out so cold. It 1025 00:48:35,519 --> 00:48:38,000 was just he wondered for the man's health. 1026 00:48:38,119 --> 00:48:40,719 Speaker 2: I have said this when we've brought this up in advance. 1027 00:48:40,760 --> 00:48:43,079 We talked about on the US Show. I was in 1028 00:48:43,119 --> 00:48:48,880 the arena, yeah, Tampa, and it was crazy out of nowhere. 1029 00:48:50,199 --> 00:48:54,199 Having been there, I begin the significance of that fight. 1030 00:48:54,440 --> 00:48:57,320 It is a devastating knockout, but it was not for 1031 00:48:57,360 --> 00:48:59,840 a world title. That's the litmus test that I would 1032 00:48:59,840 --> 00:49:00,159 come here. 1033 00:49:00,199 --> 00:49:00,480 Speaker 1: It too. 1034 00:49:01,239 --> 00:49:07,519 Speaker 2: There the brush, the shock, and then the roar from 1035 00:49:07,559 --> 00:49:10,320 some of the crowd when sylv went face first. I 1036 00:49:10,400 --> 00:49:14,199 still hear that in my BA not first. 1037 00:49:14,159 --> 00:49:17,159 Speaker 1: Not moving number one right, number two. Also, we have 1038 00:49:17,239 --> 00:49:19,880 to put in perspective. It wasn't just he got knocked 1039 00:49:19,880 --> 00:49:22,159 out fast first in the fights over he got knocked 1040 00:49:22,159 --> 00:49:24,920 out in the fights over face first. He had won 1041 00:49:25,199 --> 00:49:28,559 every single second of the fight before the fight ended, 1042 00:49:28,559 --> 00:49:30,880 and that was the sixth round I believe it was. 1043 00:49:32,079 --> 00:49:33,199 And then he put him out and. 1044 00:49:33,559 --> 00:49:36,559 Speaker 2: Look, Jake Paul, Amanda Amanda Serrano was coming out next, 1045 00:49:36,559 --> 00:49:38,760 and Jake Paul talked about this, and so did Amanda Serrano. 1046 00:49:38,800 --> 00:49:41,920 After the fight, they're in the back watching and they're horrified. 1047 00:49:43,400 --> 00:49:45,599 He's their guy in the promotion and he is laid 1048 00:49:45,599 --> 00:49:48,480 out and there was serious concern for him and they 1049 00:49:48,519 --> 00:49:51,519 took him to the hospital obviously after that, I'm with you. 1050 00:49:51,559 --> 00:49:53,920 I'm with you that that deserves to be right there 1051 00:49:53,920 --> 00:49:54,360 at the top. 1052 00:49:54,480 --> 00:49:57,000 Speaker 1: This goes to another level because I don't know about you, 1053 00:49:57,039 --> 00:50:01,199 but I have heard, certainly the ring announcer make announcements 1054 00:50:01,199 --> 00:50:04,679 of results of the fights. However, many fights I've watched 1055 00:50:04,719 --> 00:50:07,639 thousands and thousands and thousands of times, I've never quite 1056 00:50:07,679 --> 00:50:11,719 heard this. When Ashton Silvas is knocked out cold and 1057 00:50:11,760 --> 00:50:13,840 they're getting it out of the ring and you don't know, 1058 00:50:14,000 --> 00:50:15,679 you know, if he's injured, The're gonna obviously take him 1059 00:50:15,679 --> 00:50:18,440 to the hospital for evaluation to make sure he's okay. 1060 00:50:18,679 --> 00:50:20,559 They're ring. And I have this as the exact quote 1061 00:50:20,559 --> 00:50:23,280 because I put it in my article. He told the crowd, 1062 00:50:23,320 --> 00:50:26,119 we asked you please to extend your thoughts and prayers 1063 00:50:26,440 --> 00:50:29,599 to H two O Silver and may God restore him 1064 00:50:29,840 --> 00:50:32,199 h O being his nickname. Yes, I've never heard that's 1065 00:50:32,239 --> 00:50:34,320 that that almost give you like a lump in your 1066 00:50:34,360 --> 00:50:35,440 throat that's how bad he might. 1067 00:50:36,039 --> 00:50:37,760 Speaker 2: Yeah, and it was interesting when he did that in 1068 00:50:37,760 --> 00:50:40,400 the arena as well. That's Joe Martinez, by the way, 1069 00:50:40,559 --> 00:50:43,079 or to him the tip of the hat. He's primarily 1070 00:50:43,119 --> 00:50:45,239 known for doing the Golden Boys shows, but he was 1071 00:50:45,280 --> 00:50:49,280 there for the m v P pay per view that night. 1072 00:50:49,320 --> 00:50:51,280 But yeah, it was that devastating of a knockout. 1073 00:50:51,400 --> 00:50:55,440 Speaker 1: So yeah, and Solava hasn't foughts. Incented and obviously Body 1074 00:50:55,519 --> 00:50:57,920 came back and he won. Also on the undercard when 1075 00:50:58,000 --> 00:51:00,639 Jake Paul and Mike Tyson fought. I got a few 1076 00:51:00,639 --> 00:51:02,800 others to give you, but when you mentioned Leo and 1077 00:51:03,400 --> 00:51:06,599 Leo and Uh and Lopez, for me, I had that 1078 00:51:06,679 --> 00:51:10,119 number five on my list just for perspective's sake. My 1079 00:51:10,280 --> 00:51:13,840 next two were the concept that I talked about often 1080 00:51:13,840 --> 00:51:16,800 in boxing, where sometimes you're the windshield and sometimes you're 1081 00:51:16,840 --> 00:51:21,559 the bug. And this was uh Daniel Dubois making Anthony 1082 00:51:21,639 --> 00:51:25,079 Joshua the bug when he knocked him out devastatingly so 1083 00:51:25,239 --> 00:51:28,559 in the fifth round in the Big Wimbley Read season 1084 00:51:28,599 --> 00:51:31,880 card back in September, a devastating right hand on the button. 1085 00:51:32,159 --> 00:51:34,199 You know you got Anthony Josuer already been down a 1086 00:51:34,199 --> 00:51:36,440 few times in the fight. He starts to get to 1087 00:51:36,519 --> 00:51:39,000 Danga Dubas finally hurts him a little bit, is going 1088 00:51:39,039 --> 00:51:41,800 for another right hand and Daniel Diboi's right hand got 1089 00:51:41,840 --> 00:51:44,400 there first and put Yep put Joshua on his face 1090 00:51:44,440 --> 00:51:47,079 and the yes, he's trying to get up and his 1091 00:51:47,159 --> 00:51:48,639 leg is in the air and he falls down. I mean, 1092 00:51:48,960 --> 00:51:51,199 he was all discombined by spectacular knock and that was 1093 00:51:51,199 --> 00:51:51,480 for me. 1094 00:51:51,719 --> 00:51:54,440 Speaker 2: The Britch would argue with us and fight us. That's 1095 00:51:54,480 --> 00:51:56,760 the knockout of the year for them. I understand the 1096 00:51:56,920 --> 00:52:01,840 historical significance for them, especially with that being at Wimbley 1097 00:52:02,519 --> 00:52:04,719 and man he laid him out, there's no doubt. 1098 00:52:04,719 --> 00:52:07,719 Speaker 1: But when you're the windshield. It was when he knocked 1099 00:52:07,719 --> 00:52:13,039 out Francis Naganu spectactually in the second round back in March. 1100 00:52:13,440 --> 00:52:16,559 So he is a guy on my list who's the 1101 00:52:16,599 --> 00:52:19,920 winner of a spectacular knockout in my number three knockout 1102 00:52:20,119 --> 00:52:23,159 and the loser by devastating knockout in my number two knockout. 1103 00:52:23,159 --> 00:52:25,840 Because when he put frances Nagano away, I mean France 1104 00:52:25,920 --> 00:52:28,320 Nagano didn't know what the mention he was in. That 1105 00:52:28,360 --> 00:52:29,800 was such a spectacular. 1106 00:52:29,320 --> 00:52:32,039 Speaker 2: Hold him in half with the right hand, and the. 1107 00:52:32,000 --> 00:52:34,320 Speaker 1: Shots that we're talking about, these are big head shots, 1108 00:52:34,360 --> 00:52:36,960 big like you know, knock your head off, knock your 1109 00:52:36,960 --> 00:52:40,000 block offf type of knockouts. But I'm always gained for 1110 00:52:40,039 --> 00:52:42,760 a good body shot knockout too. We can't ever forget 1111 00:52:42,800 --> 00:52:44,639 about them. So you got to take a look at 1112 00:52:44,679 --> 00:52:47,159 what Jesse Daan Rodriguez did against the future Hall of 1113 00:52:47,159 --> 00:52:52,800 Famer Jan Francisco Estrada. Juana Strada had knocked him down 1114 00:52:52,800 --> 00:52:55,679 earlier in the fight, and Rodriguez had put him down 1115 00:52:55,719 --> 00:52:57,480 earlier in the fight, but he finished him and it 1116 00:52:57,519 --> 00:52:59,960 was a terrific fight on a big body shot left 1117 00:53:00,239 --> 00:53:04,119 just writhing on the mat, you know, pinpoint, the classic 1118 00:53:04,199 --> 00:53:06,559 left hook to the liver. And then I had Leo 1119 00:53:06,639 --> 00:53:09,480 and and Louis Alberto Lopez after that, and I'll just 1120 00:53:09,519 --> 00:53:12,079 fire a couple more. I know you loved in a 1121 00:53:12,119 --> 00:53:13,880 way as a candidate for Fighter of the Year, I 1122 00:53:13,880 --> 00:53:16,480 didn't have that opinion, but I did think strongly of 1123 00:53:16,480 --> 00:53:18,920 his knockout against Luise Neary, the way he put him 1124 00:53:18,920 --> 00:53:21,159 away in the sixth round with that nice series of 1125 00:53:21,159 --> 00:53:24,239 punches that left him basically like leaning against our ropes 1126 00:53:24,239 --> 00:53:26,519 with his arm over the over the bottom rope and 1127 00:53:26,559 --> 00:53:28,599 basically out on his well, I'm not on his feet, 1128 00:53:28,639 --> 00:53:30,559 he was on his rear end, and the ref stopping 1129 00:53:30,599 --> 00:53:33,039 the fight because he was going another dimension. Also, and 1130 00:53:33,079 --> 00:53:36,920 by the way, how can we forget about the unknown 1131 00:53:36,920 --> 00:53:40,000 French Pastry Brunos Serrace who goes in there and absolutely 1132 00:53:40,000 --> 00:53:43,719 annihilates Imean Mongie a down punch loss every round and 1133 00:53:43,760 --> 00:53:46,920 just knocks him out. And I also, this was a 1134 00:53:46,920 --> 00:53:50,800 fight I was ringside for a tremendous knockout, a blistering knockout. 1135 00:53:51,119 --> 00:53:54,199 Was Tank Davis's one ring appearance this year back in June, 1136 00:53:54,800 --> 00:53:59,239 putting away Frank Martin devastating fashion, another sensational knockout, and 1137 00:53:59,360 --> 00:54:02,199 because of the way that it happened, maybe aesthetically it 1138 00:54:02,239 --> 00:54:05,840 wasn't the greatest knockout, but the significance historically because of 1139 00:54:06,039 --> 00:54:08,760 what the stat I mentioned earlier, was when Ford stopped 1140 00:54:08,800 --> 00:54:12,360 Komatov to rally from that big deficit, not a big deficit, 1141 00:54:12,519 --> 00:54:14,159 but enough where he needed the knockout to win the 1142 00:54:14,199 --> 00:54:17,199 fight and to become a guy. Only the fifteenth time 1143 00:54:17,199 --> 00:54:19,320 in the history of boxing to get a knockout in 1144 00:54:19,360 --> 00:54:22,880 the last round of a title fight. To rally and 1145 00:54:22,960 --> 00:54:25,079 win the title. So I thought that was enough to 1146 00:54:25,079 --> 00:54:28,199 make my list. And then again I talk about a 1147 00:54:28,199 --> 00:54:32,280 body shot. We had the Strada getting knocked out by 1148 00:54:32,679 --> 00:54:35,239 Jesse Bam Rodriguez. But if you go back to July 1149 00:54:35,360 --> 00:54:38,960 in Tokyo, Junto Nakatani, who was one of my candidates 1150 00:54:39,000 --> 00:54:42,079 for Fighter of the Year, he put away Vincent Astralabbio 1151 00:54:42,400 --> 00:54:44,159 with just a gut shot and it was such a 1152 00:54:44,159 --> 00:54:47,000 brutal shot that a belly that astral Lobbyo actually got 1153 00:54:47,079 --> 00:54:49,599 up and realized that was a bad idea and dropped 1154 00:54:49,599 --> 00:54:51,719 back down again. And what's counted out? I mean it 1155 00:54:51,800 --> 00:54:53,920 was like he didn't realize how bad the pain was 1156 00:54:54,320 --> 00:54:56,159 until he got up, and then he like just winced 1157 00:54:56,199 --> 00:54:58,360 and dropped down again and all she wrote over and 1158 00:54:58,360 --> 00:55:00,000 out in like, you know, two and a half minut 1159 00:55:00,239 --> 00:55:02,840 of the first round. A lot of good knockouts this 1160 00:55:02,920 --> 00:55:04,719 year and there and by the way, we could probably 1161 00:55:04,760 --> 00:55:07,360 have made a list that goes fifteen or twenty, but 1162 00:55:07,440 --> 00:55:08,920 you got to draw the line somewhere. 1163 00:55:09,800 --> 00:55:12,719 Speaker 2: I agree. All right, listen, we did well here on 1164 00:55:12,760 --> 00:55:16,199 this pod. A tease again that we'll have some more 1165 00:55:17,239 --> 00:55:21,760 here in terms of Round of the Year. And much 1166 00:55:21,840 --> 00:55:26,039 more a trainer of the year, upset of the year, 1167 00:55:26,119 --> 00:55:27,719 those kind of things. I think we know what the 1168 00:55:27,800 --> 00:55:30,440 upset of the year is. You just made reference to 1169 00:55:30,480 --> 00:55:31,840 it right at the end of the year with Haimi 1170 00:55:31,920 --> 00:55:35,320 Mungia crashing down in Tijuana. We'll do that on the 1171 00:55:35,360 --> 00:55:37,719 show coming off the weekend. So again I say to 1172 00:55:37,760 --> 00:55:41,199 the audience that that's where we'll also preview the ji 1173 00:55:41,360 --> 00:55:44,800 Opataiah cruiserweight title defense that is coming Wednesday morning in 1174 00:55:44,840 --> 00:55:47,920 the United States Wednesday night in Australia. We'll do that 1175 00:55:48,000 --> 00:55:51,760 on Sunday. Other than that, we've done a bunch here 1176 00:55:51,800 --> 00:55:53,760 and they need to get on your substack and read 1177 00:55:53,880 --> 00:55:57,360 more about what you have been talking about here with 1178 00:55:57,599 --> 00:56:01,239 fighter fight and knockout of the year, what else? What 1179 00:56:01,360 --> 00:56:03,239 else here? And closed against we headed the first weekend 1180 00:56:03,280 --> 00:56:04,519 of twenty twenty five. Anything else. 1181 00:56:05,519 --> 00:56:07,360 Speaker 1: Now, it's gonna be another quiet weekend. I mean there's 1182 00:56:07,400 --> 00:56:09,559 not much going on. I mean nothing this weekend in 1183 00:56:09,599 --> 00:56:11,599 terms of fights. The next fight. Put it like this 1184 00:56:11,679 --> 00:56:13,360 on the calendar that I keep, the schedule that I 1185 00:56:13,480 --> 00:56:15,880 update every single day. There are some small club shows 1186 00:56:15,880 --> 00:56:18,000 scattered around the world, obviously, which I don't necessarily lost 1187 00:56:18,039 --> 00:56:20,360 every single boxing but in the calendar. But the next 1188 00:56:20,360 --> 00:56:22,519 fight of any merit anywhere in the world is not 1189 00:56:22,639 --> 00:56:25,360 until that card that we're going to discuss, which is 1190 00:56:25,360 --> 00:56:29,480 the Opataia title defense. And as a matter of fact, 1191 00:56:29,480 --> 00:56:32,079 you know, we talked about before how Opataia was originally 1192 00:56:32,079 --> 00:56:35,679 supposed to fight his mandatory from Germany, whose name escapes 1193 00:56:35,719 --> 00:56:37,880 me at the moment. But nonetheless they actually made a 1194 00:56:37,880 --> 00:56:40,199 better fight for him because when his opponent fell out 1195 00:56:40,760 --> 00:56:43,559 with an injury, they still wanted to keep that date, 1196 00:56:43,599 --> 00:56:45,559 so they ended up finding another opponent. They match him 1197 00:56:45,639 --> 00:56:47,760 up with, like a guy that he knows well from 1198 00:56:48,360 --> 00:56:50,599 sparring with each other. But this was David Niyika, who 1199 00:56:50,639 --> 00:56:53,880 was an Olympian in twenty twenty, who is one of 1200 00:56:53,920 --> 00:56:56,119 the better up and coming younger fighters, and he embraced us. 1201 00:56:56,599 --> 00:56:59,039 He doesn't have as much experience as Opataia, and we'll 1202 00:56:59,039 --> 00:57:00,239 get to that and we do the full of you. 1203 00:57:00,320 --> 00:57:03,159 But I feel like they made a better fight between 1204 00:57:03,159 --> 00:57:05,440 Opataia and Niki than if he had fought the mandatory. 1205 00:57:05,519 --> 00:57:08,599 So even though I love Opataiah in terms of entertainment value, 1206 00:57:08,800 --> 00:57:12,000 I'm much more interested in seeing him fight this opponent 1207 00:57:12,039 --> 00:57:14,960 than I was when he was fighting the mandatory. 1208 00:57:15,599 --> 00:57:17,440 Speaker 2: Love it all right, So we'll do all of that 1209 00:57:17,599 --> 00:57:21,079 on the weekend on Sunday night leading into Monday. In 1210 00:57:21,079 --> 00:57:23,480 the meantime, you need to wish my Buccaneers. Well, your 1211 00:57:23,480 --> 00:57:25,800 giants are like Shamou. They're in the tank trying to 1212 00:57:25,800 --> 00:57:26,480 get the number one. 1213 00:57:26,559 --> 00:57:28,079 Speaker 1: They're not in the tank trying to get number one. 1214 00:57:28,119 --> 00:57:30,280 They that up. You're getting eat well, I know they 1215 00:57:30,320 --> 00:57:33,159 won game well, they went from number one. Now they're 1216 00:57:33,239 --> 00:57:35,480 lucky if they draft fifth. They might even drop to 1217 00:57:35,599 --> 00:57:37,280 eight if they end up beating the Eagles. We're not 1218 00:57:37,320 --> 00:57:38,440 going to play another starters. 1219 00:57:40,000 --> 00:57:41,599 Speaker 2: This is angering you on that. Just root for my 1220 00:57:41,639 --> 00:57:44,159 Buccaneers to make the playoffs because the two words playoff 1221 00:57:44,280 --> 00:57:47,280 checks come into play, which we like in the Reeves 1222 00:57:47,280 --> 00:57:50,480 Household with the teenage twins. So that's coming on Sunday, 1223 00:57:50,920 --> 00:57:53,360 and then you and I will pick back up on 1224 00:57:53,840 --> 00:57:57,039 some of these different year end awards and preview the 1225 00:57:57,039 --> 00:57:58,440 Opataia If sound good? 1226 00:57:58,920 --> 00:58:00,519 Speaker 1: All right? 1227 00:58:00,519 --> 00:58:03,559 Speaker 2: Again? The bet Us Boxing Show is also on Friday 1228 00:58:03,559 --> 00:58:07,039 at one Eastern time. The preview handicapping show. We will 1229 00:58:07,079 --> 00:58:11,480 be handicapping the Opataia fight on their platform on YouTube, 1230 00:58:11,559 --> 00:58:15,280 their social media etc. Friday, one Eastern time. Look forward 1231 00:58:15,280 --> 00:58:17,519 to that, and then we're off the weekend here with 1232 00:58:17,559 --> 00:58:19,519 a recap that doesn't really have a fight to recap, well, 1233 00:58:19,519 --> 00:58:21,760 recap some of those other categories of fights of the year. 1234 00:58:21,800 --> 00:58:23,920 For now, we're good for Dan Rayfield. I'm TJ. Reeves. 1235 00:58:23,920 --> 00:58:26,840 Thank you for being with us here on the podcast feed. 1236 00:58:26,880 --> 00:58:28,159 It's the big fight we can preview