Speaker 1: Yes, indeed.
Speaker 2: You know, sometimes you have to sell the show, and
I can tell you right now this year recap podcast
is gonna sell itself. It is the Fight Freaks You
Unit recap pod. I am you know what, I am
the caddie to.
Speaker 1: Tiger Woods here on this edition of the program.
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna hand him the seven iron and swing away. Hello,
Dan Rayfield, our insider Fight Freaks You Unite is his
substack after all the newsletter as well.
Speaker 1: Good to have you aboard again.
Speaker 2: We love previewing going into the weekend on this podcast feed.
Recap coming off the podfeed it is. You love this
an eagerly anticipated edition of the show, so much so
that since the controversy with was it a knockdown or not?
Why in the world is he allowed to have his
eyes wiped off while a round's going on and there's
not some kind of penalty punishment point taken away, We're
ready to straighten all of that out.
Speaker 1: As soon as all that happened.
Speaker 2: A lot of people were ready for this here pod
right here that we have on the Fight for Each
Night recap podcast. So make sure you're following, subscribing, radius
and review us. I say eagerly anticipating because I've had
people contacting me, and I know you've had people contacting you,
including on social media, wanting to know the latest and
when is the podcast out and when can we hear more?
And what's the under over on f bombs, which I
will set at twenty seven on the number of less
than twenty seven. Yes, we do not have a swear jar.
Usually there's a swear jar.
Speaker 3: Where did you mention what fight we're talking about?
Speaker 2: By the way, I just said Javonte Davis at Javonte
Davis Main Event PBC on Prime. Usually there's a swear jar.
We got to put like a quarter in or a
dollar in. You might get enough where I could go
to McDonald's and have an extra value meal after tonight.
Speaker 1: With this, all right, welcome in.
Speaker 2: Let's get into all of it, including the card, but
a lot of it is going to be spent on
the controversy around this draw. It ends up being a
draw with Lamont Roach in the main event at Berkley's.
We're going to get into that. We got news on
other stuff and nostalgia. We got a lot of fights
to recap. This wasn't the only controversy Rayphiel, because the
controversy in Belfast is did Patty Donovan hear the bell
or not he's deqed there after the referee in that instance,
we got controversy transatlantic here on the program. But let's
begin with what happened in the main event, Gervonte Davis
and LaMonte Roach. All right, three two one, blast off
on whichever way you want to go first, it does
end in a draw.
Speaker 3: Well, I had it a draw one fourteen to one fourteen.
But if you watch the fight, you saw what happened
in the ninth round. If the referee Steve Willis had
ruled that a knockdown as he should have, I would
have had that round a ten eight round and he
would have won the fight one fifteen to one thirteen.
He would have won the WBA lightweight title. He would
have handed the number one American boxing star his first loss,
and he would have been in position to command gazillions
of dollars more than he probably would be on a rematch.
That they do it now, because he would be the champion,
and he would have defeated Tank Davis, and it would
have been a glorious night for the career of Lamont Roach,
a fighter, by the way, who most people pissed on
before this show happened and didn't like the opponent. And
I remember very distinctly discussing with you and others over
the last couple of months since his fight is mate,
and I've said to everybody who would listen, this is
a real fight. Lamont Roach may not have the big
name that some of the other fighters in the weight
class in and around the way class have that you
might prefer to see. Whoever it may have been, of
course Stevenson, t Fia, Momopez, you know, pick a guy,
But Lamon Roach is a real fighter and Realmont Roach
is going to do a good fight. Didn't I didn't
pick him to win the fight, but I thought it's
a legit bout. He's going to be in it, and
he's going to make it competitive, and there is a
reason that he's in this matchup. And I was proven right.
He should have had the glory of a lightweight championship,
be a two division title holder, because he is still
the reigning WBA title holder in the one hundred and
thirty pound way class. But TJ, where shall we start
with this nonsense?
Speaker 2: Well, you just you set the stage, everybody, let's go
to the end. Everybody wants to know about the controversy
in the ninth round. You and I were not in communication,
full disclosure, and you're never in communication when fights are
going on. You're like, leave me alone, don't text me,
don't believe me. Whatever, it is, all right. So I
am in another world working college basketball coverage, different stuff.
But then I got onto the main event about halfway
through the fight when that was done, and I was
dumbfounded by That's my word. I was dumbfounded by what
I saw on several front. So let's just go right
to the controversy. You're watching like I'm watching remotely. Did
you lose your mind when this whole thing happened with
the knee and then he's in the corner and then
the referee is having a full blown conversation about whether
he should be counting or not counting. I will say
it for the first of several times, what are we
doing here?
Speaker 3: The broadcasters on the Prime video pay per view Marrow,
Ronalo app Mas, Brian Campbell, Uh, we're all Bryant, I
mean Abner Marris seemed to think that Tank Davis was
going to his corner because he didn't bring out his mouthpiece,
which even if that was the case, he would be
breaking the rules if he would. If that were the case,
he'd point to his mouth and the referee would see
it and call a time out and go and get
the mouthpiece. Marol Ronaldo was dead on when he basically said,
what you said, what are we doing here? What just happened?
Because here's the bottom line. In the more than one
century that men have put gloves on their hands and fought.
If you go down on the canvas and it's not
a slip, it's not a equipment malfunction, it's not a foul,
and you, of your own volition, you voluntarily go down
on your knee, that, my friend, is a knockout and
or a knocked out down and it has been that
way for a century. And so before he took the knee,
there were three punches thrown by Lamont roach. He threw
a right hand and he came behind it with two
quick jabs. Now I don't believe that the right hand
landed the jab. I think one or two of them did.
You couldn't really tell. But regardless, within the split second
of that happening, of those punches being launched by Lamont Roach.
Tank Davis literally took he turned to the side and
he went down on the canvas with his knee, got
up and then sprinted to his corner. And you didn't
know what he was doing, but he was shouting at
somebody and his coach, Calvin Ford in the corner, came
up on the steps with a white towel. I thought
he was thrown in the towel for a quick secon
when I saw the white towel, but he just wiped off.
Speaker 2: I honestly, my honest reaction is I thought it was
the mouthpiece, but they were wiping his eyes, which he
talked about after the fire.
Speaker 3: Well, we didn't know that at the time. You're like,
well at the time. So meanwhile, and by.
Speaker 2: The way, completely illegal, completely illegal to do that in
the middle of a round.
Speaker 3: I'm going to get to that simultaneous to uh the
referee Steve Willis, uh, you know, to Tank getting up
and run into the corner. Steve Willis appropriately sends Roach
to the neutral corner like you're supposed to do, and
starts to walk towards Tank Davis, who's back is to him,
but he's got his fingers up and he's starting to
administer the mandatary a yes, so he's calling it a knockdown, okay,
And then he stopped calling a knockdown, and Tank Davis
turned around and he went over to him, and you
could hear him because he was micd up. And if
you watch the replayer, go on your social media find
the clip, you distinctly hear.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: Steve Willis basically say to him, what's going on? And
then Tank Davis says something back. You don't hear what
he's saying because he's not Mike, and Steve Willis says, quote,
I understand you take an ee like that. It looks
like a knockdown, all right, And then he patted him
on the chest and he sent him back out to battle.
And you know why he said it looks like a
knockdown because it wasn't knocking.
Speaker 1: It was a knockdown.
Speaker 3: So there is this is there's like a cascading pile
of shit that's happening right now. Okay, let me go
through this so you'd be quiet for a second. On
the one hand, he fucks up the knockout of the
knockdown call.
Speaker 1: There's a first F word he's true.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. He calls it and then he abandons it.
So he should have called that a knockdown, and that
would have been a ten eight round unequivocally. Then he
could have penalized Tank for running to the corner, turning
his back and running away. He could have further penalized
the corner for coming up and wiping off his face,
which is not allowed during the courts of round. There
are no timeouts in boxing unless the referee calls the
time out for a reason. Furthermore, when the corner came
up on the on the on the on the on
the stairs to wipe off his face one hundred percent,
he would have been in his the right to disqualify him.
Now I am not saying he should have disqualified him.
I am just making the point that there are a
multitude of things that he could have done that would
have somehow penalized Tank for that situation. Yet he did
none of them. And so the fight goes on. It
starts up again a roach, you know, and they go
to the final bell and he loses, or it doesn't lose,
but he gets a draw. It's it's it's one fifteen,
one thirteen for tank and two judges had it one
fourteen to one fourteen. Obviously, if he gets a ten
eight round, it's one fifteen one to thirteen twice and
one fourteen, one to thirteen, he wins the unanimous decision. Now,
some people were asking, well, what if the judges can't
they score a ten eight round on their own, And
the answer is no, you cannot score that a ten
eight round because it was not an official knockdown. And
if you read the Association of Boxing Commissions and their
criteria and their guidelines and their best practices for judging,
then you would know that the only way you can
score a ten to eight round without a knockdown. And
they recently changed the verbiage in their in their guidelines,
and I forget the exact word that they used, but
if something like overwhelming or domination or whatever was but
clear as day that what occurred in round nine, there
was nothing of the sort for either fighter. And you
had a bunch of You had three judges who were
highly highly experienced championship judges, Eric Marlinsky, Glenn Feldman and
Steve Weisfeld, three of the best judges in boxing, and
they were not about to score that, you know, a
ten eight round without having a knockdown, that would be
against the rules.
Speaker 2: So in the cascading water fall of Kaka, let me
interject a couple of things. The first thing is he
could have taken a point away and did not for
him going over to the corner right, So that's important.
The next thing is clarify the instant replay, because so
many people are going on and on about the instant replay.
Speaker 3: Go okay, So in New York State, they have the
ability to check a replay. They can they can't do
everything in terms of what you would want them to see,
but certainly whether the instance is a knockdown is absolutely
one of the items that they can check the replay for,
and so they could look at that and then they
can make the determination. Now the way that they do that,
they have a certain length of time that they're allowed
to do that under the rules. And I checked on
this because I actually spoke to people involved with that
this morning. They have the period of time that is
left in the round, which in this case, the knockdown
happened at about two minutes and seventeen seconds left in
round nine, and so by the time that willis finished
doing whatever he was doing, and they fight started again. Figure,
there was about two minutes left in the round, so
they add the rest of the two minutes to look
at the replay, plus the one minute rest period. Plus
they could also add an extra thirty seconds, so at
the most they add three minutes and thirty seconds to
which they could examine the replay and check that out. Now,
if you watch the Prime video pay per view, you
heard the thing happened with whatever. And then, however, long later,
Mara Ronalo says that that they had been informed that
the replay official had declined to make an intervention or
do something or change it or call it to the attention.
So that was very striking to me because you're like,
what are you doing here? It's the most basic knockedn Ever,
let me just finish this. If you go down of
your own volition for whatever reason, it is a knockdown,
unless the referee has called a foul or something dramatic
has happened that would somehow mitigate that. That did not occur.
Lamont roach through punches. Tank went down, no question about it,
and he got up and ran to the corner, and
he even talked about it in the post fight press cards.
Not that I'm not talking about what he said on
the television about it, but when he went into the
media room and he did the actual postfight press comments.
I'll read you his quote because he was asked more
about that. He says, oh, the the reason he gave
was because he had gotten his hair done. I thoughtow
right back to the Amanda Serrano situation, and he got
his hair done and they put some kind of gail
or grease or chemicals in the hair, and it was
getting in his eyes and was burning, and that's why
he did what he did. Now, again, that's against the
rules of my advice and any fighters, don't get your
fucking hair done with grease and chemicals. I'm during fighting.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's what we've seen it before, and yes, here
it is again.
Speaker 3: So he said that during the interring interview with Brian Campbell,
when he went into the media center in the media
room and he did the interviews, you know, and the
and the than the full blown press crimes, and I quote,
I didn't want to get caught while my eyes were burning.
You can get knocked out like that, so I'd rather
take the knee.
Speaker 1: He now he's admitting it.
Speaker 3: Yes, one hundred percent. You can go it's not not
making this up. You can call up the video to
say yourself.
Speaker 2: Let me interject, go back to the replay thing from
what you have learned, because these are all important things.
Is that an alternate referee that's looking at it? Because
I know in a lot of cases it is all right,
So that's an alternate referrama.
Speaker 3: But I get I got to get to the important
fact here. So I talk to people today who are
in the production truck, okay, who are dealing with this,
and I asked them to explain to me what the
mechanism by which the replay official would get the information
and vice on versa. So the way that it works
is they have they're on a headset and they're at
the ring apron and they're sitting next to the executive
director and the commission people, and so when they need
to see something, they can hit the button or whatever
and talk to the there's a replay producer in the
truck that they can ask, or an assistant and they
will send them the replay on their monitor at ringside.
And actually, as I am told, and that's not the
kind of thing they talked about on the broadcast because
it didn't change anything, it wasn't necessary to go through it.
But there were times during the fight because of cuts
that happened during undercard fights where they wanted to check
was it a headbut was it a cut? Because those
are the things that they look for. And I was
told by the commission when I spoke to somebody from
the commission later, that they were having trouble in the
undercard fight getting the replay sent to them properly. Now
go back to my conversation with the people in the truck.
They said to me that that the replay official asked
for the replay, they sent the replay and that was
the end of it. And so I said to that person, well,
did anybody check and see like what happened, you know,
like what he saw? Like why he didn't call that said,
We were just told that they weren't making any decisions
about it and it was what it was. So I
was left with the impression that absolutely the replay official
saw the replay and decided, you know what, way, we're
not going to do anything about this. Now fast forward
till later in the day when I'm having a commissioned conversation,
and I asked the same question, and I was told
that the ref the the replay official, which is an
excellent refereen named Ricky Gonzalez, who does plenty of New
York fights. I've seen him referee a million fights. It's
like you said, it's usually an alternate ref that is
doing that position. That he never actually that they continued
to have problems with the technology and he never actually
got the replay to view within that within that three
and a half minute.
Speaker 2: Here. Oh, that would be an important distinction between the
conversation of they looked at the replay and didn't deem
it to be worthy of a knockdown, versus they're now saying,
help me if I'm wrong. They're now saying they didn't
get a clean look at anything in the time frame
in which they had to get.
Speaker 1: A clean look. That is, yes, that's their story now
at the New York Commission.
Speaker 3: Interesting and they acknowledged that when they did look at it,
it was a knockdown, but they couldn't do anything about
it in the context of the timing. Won happened now
Roach's team, I assume, and I will follow up on this.
I assume they're going to file the appropriate penalty, you know,
complaint or asking for you know, for a hearing or
for you know, a protest, what have you?
Speaker 2: Can we take a time out for a second. Who's
the head of the New York Athletic Commission right now?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm legitially asking who is the head?
Speaker 3: Oh, there's a there's a man named Matt Delaglo who
has been recently appointed as the executive director. He had
been a wrong saying hold on. He was the interim
when the previous person left the position, and that is
a season boxing person's sport for a while. He's there
last night, Yes, of course.
Speaker 2: How is the head of the New York Commission not
involved in the in in the whole mechanism here? Of
we want to look at that replay with what just happened.
How is he not involved with the TV truck and
whatever proactively on? We need to see that this could
be important asking. I'm just asking.
Speaker 3: They couldn't just ask a replay in time between the
rounds the thirty you know, I said they had the
remainder of the ref They.
Speaker 1: Had like three minutes. That's an eternity in our busy.
Speaker 3: I'm not a technician.
Speaker 2: There's another f work, but there's a fourth one. But
but you're telling me what the New York Commission's answer is.
And what I'm saying to you, how does the director
not even maybe have to stand up on the apron
and go hold on and do that. I mean, I'm
talking about in between rounds, in between rounds and say, hey,
we're looking at this to make sure while we.
Speaker 3: Have that everybody knew what was going on. I think
it was handled in his hand. It is ast on
what my understanding the why I've heard it from both sides.
I don't think there was anything nefarious, but it still
doesn't change the fact that Steve Willis started to count
and then stop because I out said Dravata Davis call
the time out for himself, which is not legal. It
was a cluster fuck from everything five. There's so many
things that happened that were wrong about that. And Lamar
Roach got fucked out of the title. He got sucked
out of seven, the best, the number one American attraction
in that he got. He got fucked out of the
glory of being handed the title, and it probably fucking
cost him a whole bunch of money.
Speaker 1: Did you said that.
Speaker 2: All right, are you repeating yourself? Now let's go over
a couple more important points. Did all three of the judges,
because I've not seen the breakdown of the cards, did
they all three give Davis the ninth round?
Speaker 1: In question? They all they did, not all three give
it to it. So that's interesting.
Speaker 2: But at least one of them that called the fight
a draw, if not both of them that called it
a draw. That was Weisfeld and Felderman. Am I correct
had the.
Speaker 3: Fight a draw? And in round number nine. I'm looking
at the card. It's on my Substack newsletter, so you
can go and check it out and see the card
for yourself. It was ten nine for Gervonta Davis for
the Feldman card in round number nine. It was ten
nine on the Eric Marlinsky score card for Gervonta Davis
in round number nine, and it was ten nine for
Lamont Roach in round number nine from the Stage Lifeboat card.
So the fight would have been a unanimous decision in
favor of Roach had the score been ten to eight
on all three cards.
Speaker 1: I was just curious, by the way, so one of
them gave the round to Roach.
Speaker 2: Anyway, it wasn't as if that point was the difference
on two of the cards in the fight being a draw.
Speaker 1: It was on one of the cards, So that's important.
Speaker 3: Esting I would like to just reiterate again, it's not
it's not up to the judges to determine whether it's
a knockdown. If the knockdownis called, based on the way
that the ABC rules had been updated and then not
too distant pass, they are compelled to score that round
ten ten to eight rather not ten to nine.
Speaker 2: And and by the way, while you're going on and
on about the score cards, because I don't know this,
what did the judges score the twelfth and final round
as who did they give it to? Did they all
give it to Davis? Because that's important because two of
the cards ended up tied.
Speaker 3: They say it Feldman had a ten nine in favor
of Laant Roach, Marlinsky had it ten nine in favor
of Germanda Davis, and Steve Weisfeld had a ten nine
in favor of Lamont Roach. In fact, Steve Weisfeld gave
the final four rounds of the fight to Lamont Roach,
and uh, you know that that got him into a
one fourteen one to fourteen tie, right, So if you
take if you take that as a ten end round,
it becomes one to fifteen to one thirteen. I mean,
the bottom line is it was just a it was handled.
It was handled like a hand.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: So let's let's bring it back to what you were
saying in the aftermath of the fight. I thought, Lamont
Roach his dad handled it with class. They obviously deserve
a rematch. Here I am asking for good things again.
The WBA should step in and should order a rematch,
and should say, because of the controversy, let's do this again.
Let's have this again. I'm not saying they're.
Speaker 3: Probably gonna do rematch. It's not even necessary in my
mind that the WBA would have to order number two.
Tank is a WBA lightweight champion and Roach is a
WBA Junior lightweight champion. So the fact of the matter
is they're both associated with that organization with their titles.
I think both of the camps both said they want it.
Clearly it would be a bigger commercial event than it
was even the other night, which was, by the way,
nineteen two hundred and fifty people in the Barclay Center,
the largest attendance in the history of the building for
any event, boxing or otherwise. It will be the second
highest gate in history of the building, around seven million dollars.
It'll be just shy of the all time record, which
is a Rolling Stones concert at the Bark Play Center,
which is kind of ironic or coincidental, whatever word you
choose to use that. When Tank Davis broke the record
for gate at the Capitol One Arena in Washington, d C.
In twenty twenty three, the gate record that he broke
was a Rolling Stones concert that was more than five
million dollars. So Tank and the Stones are connected right now,
and they're going to obviously have a rematch and it's
going to be a big deal. But it still doesn't
change the fact that Lamont Roach should have got the way,
and there probably would have been a rematch anyway because
of the fact that he would have handed Tank the loss.
I didn't think Tank fought a particularly good fight. He
didn't do shit for the first five or six rounds.
Not that Roach did a whole bunch more either, but
it was a nip and tug close fight, and then
they both turned it on in the second half of
the fight and The one thing about Lamont Roach. He
may not be as big of a puncher as Tank Davis,
but one thing he can do is he can take
a shot. Because he got hit with a lot of
straight left hands, he got with a lot of good
body shots. Tank was going after him and Lamont Roach
stood up to all of it. And remember they fought
his amateurs. They've been around each other for years. They're friendly.
Lamont's father was an amateur coach of Tank Davis's when
he won an amateur national Golden Gloves. They've been in
the same boxing circles for a long long time. They
have a healthy respect. I wouldn't say they're necessarily friends,
but they definitely like each other. And there's a healthy
competition there. And when you have the guy that's the star,
who's the champ, and he's standing in the ring doing
his interview and he's the one asking for a rematch,
you know he lost the fight.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and give again Roach moved up in wait.
Speaker 2: Give him the credit in all those circumstances that you
mentioned with him being the a side fighter and all
of that. And I will come back with one more
thing that I continue to reiterate it.
Speaker 1: We've done this for about two years, and you know that,
I don't swear.
Speaker 2: Sooner or later you have to start putting your foot
down and fire people that do incompetent things judging, refereeing, whatever.
Speaker 3: It is is. Yes, the judges all did a good
job with the judges. But I'm saying, but usually usually
when we're on these and we're railing, we're picture moaning
about the judges. The judges did their right, did the right,
they had good scores.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: But Steve Willis, who has been for a very long
time a very good and quality referee.
Speaker 1: Uh, there's some questions about him in the past.
Speaker 3: And the reason, I don't know anything off the top
of my head. But so it is, this was not good.
Speaker 2: And yes, and you've got to reprimand or or make
changes and or get rid of people to reassure the
public about what's going on when you have a gregious,
horrible thing like you mentioned. This is millions of dollars
for Lamont roach because of that decision, and there needs
to be accountability. I'm just I'm big on that. And
we're going to talk about anything within the next fight a.
Speaker 1: Little later on.
Speaker 3: I don't I don't I don't understand how you can't
have a fighter who three punches get thrown from his opponent,
he turns away, he kneels down, You start to count,
and then you abandon the count for no apparent reason.
Speaker 1: It is no there is no explain there is no explanation.
What are we doing here? All right?
Speaker 2: So we covered that one, and hopefully we get a
rematch maybe later this summer.
Speaker 1: That'll have a lot more build up. I don't know
how quick it'll be.
Speaker 2: Remember Tank Davis, Tank Tank Davis kept saying I'm gonna
fight three times in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: Well, let's get busy, let's talk right later.
Speaker 3: I don't think either guy came away with any kind
of injuries of any kind of significance or anything whatsoever.
There'd be zero reason why this fight could not happen
this summer.
Speaker 2: Yes, run it back. Can we have good things? So
now we go to the undercard, and here's a word
for the co feature win by Gary Antoine Russell against
Reo Valenzuela, who's a Valezuela for the WBA Junior Welterway
title domination. He dominated that fight. I did not see
that coming. I thought Valanzuela would win much less, and
I think Valenzuela would barely be able to get around
off of Gary Antoine Russell.
Speaker 1: Why was Russell so good? From what you saw while
we're in the recapt.
Speaker 3: Listen, I think that he took it seriously, I thought,
I don't think. I think he wasn't necessarily as amped up.
Let's say, for what happened in his previous fight against
Alberto Puyo, when he lost a split decision, and you
could argue that he certainly won the fight, it was
very close, but he did not fight with that kind
of tenacity, with that kind of conditioning, with with that
kind of purpose, and that that's important when you have
the purpose, and he really obviously was in great condition
for this fight. He came out against a fighter that
did not he did. Reo Valenswoeld did not do what
he does best. He tried to box with Gary Antoine
Russell rather than fight with him, and I thought that
was a terrible strategic error because he's just not that
kind of boxer. He'd have been much better off if
he went and let it all hang out and tried
to get the guy and done some damage in that manner.
While he never let he never let Valonzuela breathe from
the opening bell, he kept a massive pace. He threw
a million punches, lots of jabs had him off balance.
You know, he was moving, he was making a miss.
Valonzuela could never get on track with anything offensively the
entire fight. Literally, not one I was a one real
solid punch that you could say was like game changing
or anything. And even if he landed a few punches,
which obviously he's a professional fighter. He landed some punches,
but they were one at a time. There was no
combination punching. This was a masterpiece from Gary Russell. I
mean it was. I thought it was an entertaining fight
to watch on the pay per view, even though it
was totally one sided. I'm actually pissed off that two
of the judges gave Valonzuela a single round. I thought
it was twelve to zero without even a shadow of
a doubt. Two of the judges gave it eleven rounds
to one. One did one judge, Tom Shrek did have
it twelve to zero. Valonzuela was massively disappointing. You want
to talk about the highs and the lowest. In August,
he beats Pitbull Cruise by split decision in a very
good fight to win this title. In his first fight
move up to one hundred and forty pounds, he makes
his first defense against Gary Russell. Was coming off of
a loss and he doesn't even compete and so Gary
Russell tremendous victory. I mean, he had been, in my opinion,
a massively talented fighter, but was wasting his career because
he was fighting once a year as a pretty young
fighter relatively speaking. He's twenty eight now, but he's been
a professional a long time. He was an Olympian. You
got to go all the way back to twenty sixteen.
The guy's been a pro since twenty seventeen. Early twenty seventeen,
he's only got nineteen fights. I mean, that is just
not any kind of activity.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you what, my brother, My initial reaction
was great performance by him, and I believe this.
Speaker 1: I firmly believe this.
Speaker 2: As we sit here on March the second, we're not
going to see him again the rest of the year.
Speaker 1: He won't fight.
Speaker 2: The rest of the year, he won't fight against anybody,
because that's that's what is that's what his brother did,
and I believe that's the mentality of I just made
whatever he made. I have no idea what he made,
but I got to believe in a co feature fight
he made hundreds of thousands of dollars. He may have
made a million dollars, but I don't know that. We'll
see him the rest of the year. I will be
the first one to say I am shocked. If Gary
Russell's fighting Antoine Russell is fighting in like October November,
I hope I will apologize.
Speaker 1: I will say I'm shocked. Don't hold here's publisher.
Speaker 3: There's good fights for him. The most obvious fight for
him is Alberto Poeyo, who is the WBC champ barely
want to split decision against him in the last time out,
which was at the time an interim title. He won,
that elevated when Haney became franchise and vacated, he became
the champ, and we'll talk about it. Defended the title
on this undercard. That's an easy PBC fight to make.
That's a very solid matchup. There's history, there's a story,
it's a unification, and it seems logical, and uh, we'll
see if they follow through with the logic.
Speaker 1: Let's hope that it is.
Speaker 2: But I mean again, with Gary Russell Junior, his older
brother who's now his trainer, he would fight once a
year and that was it.
Speaker 3: Just remember one thing that the brother are not the
same person.
Speaker 2: I understand the brothers are not the same person, but
the mentality is the same. I got my dollars. I
don't have to fight, and that's what we've seen. And
so now stay tuned, all right, So now move on
to PLAYO because I must confess I did not watch
the Albert Puoyo Sander Martin fight, but Poyo did win.
Did I miss much to uh to keep his WBC
well forty time?
Speaker 1: Did I miss much? What did I missed? I missing?
Speaker 3: I had said in the build up to this fight
that I thought this was it was a it was
a fine fight, a reasonable fight to make. It was
a mandatory fight, and it was a deserving mandatory kind
of fight. Sander Martinez earned the opportunity. But I figured,
knowing and having watched both of these guys fight plenty
of times, I just felt like style wise would not
be a very appealing fight for the crowd. It was okay,
But because I had zero expectations. It actually was a
lot better than I'd expected. So does that make it good? Yeah?
It wasn't terrible. I mean it was it was not.
It wasn't on the level of a lot of you know,
top notch fights that we have seen. It wasn't even
as good as Antoine Russell against Balezuela, which may have
been one side of it was still good to watch,
but Po and they put on a much better show
than I expected. So tip of the hat to those guys.
It was really close. Payo won a split decision. He
won one fifteen, one thirteen and one sixteen, one to twelve,
and one judge had it one fifteen to one thirteen
in favor of Martin. I thought Sander Martin won by
the same score, seven rounds to five. It was that
kind of fight. There was a decent action. I thought
that Pueo, he was a little bit taller and longer
than Martin, and it was very frustrating because he kept
trying to come inside and he kept smothering himself. He
didn't you. All you had to do was take a
step back and give himself a chance to extend his punches,
and he never really did that, but look, it was
a very close fight. You could have either gone either way.
Martino is going to be the guy that feels aggrieved
because he's got two really close split decision losses in
New York. This fight for a title. If you go
back a couple of years ago, he was in Madison
Square Guard and he lost in a ten rounder. This
is before Tafimo Lopez became the champion. He lost a
very close decision, split decision to tia Fimo. We knocked
t Fimo down in that fight. He didn't get it.
So his perspective is what the heck do I have
to do to win a fight in New York against
one of these other top guys. But hopefully he'll be back.
He's still a very talented guy, even if he's a
little maddening to watch at times and pueo. You know,
this is set up on a tee for him to have,
hopefully a unification with Gary Russell Gary Antoine Russell, who
now has one of the other titles in the weight class.
Like I said, they're both with BBC. Should be a
fight they can make. I don't see him getting an
opportunity at any time in the future against Richardson Hitchins,
who's the IBM champion, tiafi Ma Lopez's schedule has already
you know, taken up with what he's going to be
doing next, as we all know, and so what else
is there out there for him? And by the way,
he does not have a mandatory do next. He is
in an optional period now where he doesn't have to
fight a mandatory in his next fight. So they easily
could make the Antoine Russell fight if they all decide
to do that.
Speaker 2: You are more optimistic than I am that Antoine Gary
Antoine Russell will want to have that fight this calendar
year again. I will happily apologize later this year if
that's the case, and we'll talk more about Suprio Matias
winning the IBF eliminator in a few moments, but just
finish up on the card because Jonis Taez and Jay
Rock Williams that I saw some of that, some highlights
of that as well. You know, Jay Rock hits and
gets and gets hit. There's no mystery we know that.
Speaker 3: But you know that Tayaz has been one of my
favorite prospects for the last couple of years. I thought
he looked really, really good. This was a big step
up for him. You know, Julian Williams may not be
what he was when he was the Unified champion and
he had scored some good wins and was knocking guys out,
but so he may not be at that level anymore,
but he's still, you know, a litmus test for a
young fighter that only had not nine fights going into
the fight and not a lot of experience. He'd fought
some good opponents, but nobody on the level of a
former champ like Williams and Jonas Teez. The kid is
the goods. He's I've been saying it from the time
I first watched him. I have massive respect for Ronnie Shields,
his trainer, who I've known for a very very long time,
and he told me a couple of years ago, keep
an eye on Taz. He's the real deal, and he's
showing it because he looked tremendous. He went out there
and he won easily, won nineteen one oh nine, one, seventeen,
one eleven, one, eighteen one ten. Basically, Julian Williams came
out and won the first round without a question. He
won the first round in all three score cards, and
then Taya has dominated the rest of the fight. Maybe
a judge scored one round here, one round there, but
he totally dominated the fight. He out punched him, out
muscled him, he outfought and me out He out slicked him,
He landed quicker, sharper punches, and it was a great
learning experience for him. He does win with his victory
the WBA's interim title at one fifty four and I
know we laugh and snicker about the interim titles, and
they deserve to have our derision, but this is one
of those cases where actually he's going to mean something,
most likely because the reigning champion of the WBA at
one hundred and fifty four pounds is Terrence Crawford, and
Terrence Crawford is most likely never fighting in the one
hundred and fifty four pound division again, certainly not in
the near future, because he's got business, most likely in
September against Terrence Crawford, I mean against us Canelo Alcohols
at one hundred and sixty eight pounds. So that will
make once he vacates that title, that will take yo
nsts and will boost him from the interim champion of
the WBA to the full champion. That's inevitable in my opinion.
Speaker 2: All Right, so a big win for Taz and then
also on the card, you want to mention another win,
This was Johann Gonzalez beating Jared Heard.
Speaker 3: And really I'm really mentioning the loss, not the win.
Speaker 2: And you you've mentioned this before, that Heard and you
were you were, I think putting on social media here
that Heard is just a shell of what he was
and that's a shame. And he basically in the ring
said that's it.
Speaker 1: I am done well.
Speaker 3: He had said before if he couldn't win against a
caliber fighter like Joan Gonzalez, who was basically journeyman, but
you know, he comes to fight, but if you're if
you've got some level of world class talent, you should
beat him. And Jared Hurd said I would retire if
I didn't win the fight. And he went out there
and look, they called the split decision, which to me
was ridiculous. He got his ask kick, he lost basically
every round. He might have won one or two rounds,
but it was a wipeout. Joan Gonzalez, you know, out
punched him and had him bloodied up and and swollen up,
and you know, just did a number on him. And
Jared Heard was at one time for a few years
in the junior middleweight division, unquestionably the number one fighter
in the way class. He was a unified champion, He
was the winner of of some some incredibly action pack fights,
and those types of fights, unfortunately they take their toll.
He go back to two thousand and eighteen and I
was ringside for this fight, spectacular war against Arizlonti Laara
in a unification fight that took place what was at
the time called the Hard Rock in Las Vegas. And
he was he needed, you know that his corner thought
he was winning the fight, and he wasn't going to
listen to the corner. I've told the story. He said,
forget about it. He went out there and he fought
his ass off. In the twelfth round, he scored a
knockdown against Laara in the twelfth round, and lo and behold,
he wins a split decision, and if he doesn't get
the knockdown, he doesn't win the split decision. So that
was a spectacular fight, twenty eighteen fight of the year.
But he had some other tremendous fights, you know, just
one one battle after another. And like I said, it
takes its toll, and he had a couple of injuries
and he's never really been the same since roughly like
twenty eighteen, so it's been kind of a long slide.
He had moved up to middle eight and he's lost now,
you know, with the loss that he took the other night,
He's now lost three of his last five with one win,
three losses and one draw. And you know, time waits
for no man in boxing. And I'm glad he called
it a call out a day. He's a good dude,
he's a nice guy, had a heck of a career
and there's no reason that he needs to keep getting
beat up. And I've told this story before. I do
have a special place in my heart for Jared Hurd
because on the night that he won the world title,
the vacant IBF title in Birmingham, Alabama, on a Deontay
Wilder undercart, he knocked out Tony Harrison in the ninth round.
And Jared lives not too far from where I live
in Northern Virginia. He lives in Maryland, right over the river,
probably twenty minutes from where I live, half an hour
where I live, so Anyway, we're both flying back to Washington,
d C. After that fight, and I was in the
van within that morning at like five am, and we
got our bags and we're sitting in the van and
we're on the way to the airport and Jared heard
is wearing the belt on his treet clothes in the van.
It was one of the most endearing things I've ever
seen in my career. He was so proud that he
is wearing the belt. And it was kind of interesting
because a lot of times you get the belt, you
don't actually keep the belt. You got to give it
back because the other guy you borrowed it for the pictures,
and then the organization sends you the title, sends you
the belt. But they were fighting for a vacant title,
so the belt was there and whoever win it got
to take it home. So we got to travel with
the belt any war to the airport.
Speaker 2: I love. Presumably he had to take it off for
the X ray machine, but other than that, he wasn't
taking the belt off. Probably from the night before he
wasn't taking the belt.
Speaker 3: But it's just you know, look, people we laugh about
the belts and all that, and we bitch and moan
about the the regulars and the interims, and I get that,
and I'm totally into that. But for the athlete themselves, now,
in this case there was a full IBF title, fine,
but it means some of them, it's the tangible evidence
of their hard work and the blood. And Jared Hurt
had a heck of a career and I wish him
good luck in his retirement.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: So that was a bunch on the PBC on Prime
and you got a lot for your money there with
what we were just talking about and discussing, including the
tank roach controversy.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: So also you mentioned Subrio Matias. Let's just cover that
real quick. He won in Puerto Rico the Dezone Salida
Promotions fight on Saturday night in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, winning
the IBF one and forty pound eliminator. He beat Gabriel Valenzuela,
a different Valenzuela in a fight that was a competitive,
if back and forth fight. Valan Zuela had a cut
over the eye that they kept examining him. Mattias wore
him down Dan and eventually knocked him down, and the
referee waved the fight off with Valenzuela bleeding and obviously
hurt in the eighth round. So Mattias gets a good
bounce back win for him and that sets up what
you referred to in the one hundred and forty pound division,
him and Richardson Hitchins. Looks like that's the logical fight
next for another piece of the junior Walter White crown.
Speaker 3: It's not a matter of logical, it's a matter of
that he's now the mandatory. That was by the way,
it was not a bounce back win. That was his
second win in a row. If you remember that. In May,
I mean sorry, June of last year, he was upset
in Puerto Rico and lost the title to Liam Paro.
That was considered a major upset. Paro then went on
and lost that title to Richardson Hitchins. In the meantime,
you have surreal Matias coming back in Puerto Rico back
in November, scored a second round knockout against a less
than stellar Roberto Ramirez and what everybody sort of figured
it was a wipeout, which it turned out to be.
He steps up a little bit against balin Zuela, a
fight that I thought he would win, you know, by knockout.
He did do that. It was a tougher fight than
the Ramirez fight, but he got the job done. He
makes good fights. He's a big puncher. I'm not sure
how much he's got left at this stage of his career,
but the fact is he is now in the position
to challenge Hitchens in a mandatory fight, and we'll see
if that actually takes place. It very well may because
there had been some conversations that Hitchins might be fighting
t Femo Lopez next, but that won't be the next
fight for Tia Femo, so Hitchins is now available to
do the mandatory We'll see if they can make a deal.
And that's an interesting fight also because he got that.
We all know there's nothing fancy with with Subril Mattias.
He's a bomber. He comes to straight ahead and take
your head off. Hitchins, you know, is a solid offensive
fighter also, but he's really a great boxer in terms
of his movement and placing his punches and being smart
with where he throws and how he throws, and that
that's going to be I believe could be a much
of a technical nightmare for a fighter like Sabril Matigaz,
who has trouble with that type of style.
Speaker 1: All right, so stay tuned. He did what he was
supposed to do. But wait, there's more.
Speaker 2: And controversy was not exclusive to the Barclay Center in Brooklyn,
New York. It was also in Belfast, Northern Ireland again
for the main event on the Matchroom de Own Show,
where Paddy Donovan was dominating the IBF one hundred and
forty seven pound eliminator was getting the better of Lewis
Crocker had hurt Crocker. Crocker was fighting back some but
he had hurt him, and then there was a here
we go with the referee again. Then there was a
moment where Donovan got a point taken away because of
head butts. And then at the end of the round
he has Crocker hurt the bell rings and it's a
late punch. It's a late punch that he hits Crocker
with Crocker is down, Crocker's holding his left eye and
the referee disqualifies Paddy Donovan, who's clearly in command in
the fight. And this is rare where you see a
fighter crying on all fours in the ring. It was
some serious real life drama in the ring in Belfast
on this DQ Dan Rayphiel.
Speaker 1: It's not every day that we see this kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: It was crazy if it wasn't for Steve Willis and
the shambalicness of what happened in New York on the
Tank Davis and Lamont roach card. Marcus McDonald will be
mister Shambalack of the weekend because he handled this fight
like a fucking hand grenade terribly. I thought, yes, a
mess now he had first of all, it was first
things first, one side or not. It was good. It
was a very good fun fight. Though crowd in Belfast
was going nuts. I I really enjoyed this fight. I
watched it in the afternoon before all the uh the
stuff from New York City with the with the Tank card.
Marcus McDonald did a ship job in this fight, and
I'm not.
Speaker 2: We've talked about him before, Eric talked about him before,
but go ahead elaborate.
Speaker 3: So he took a point for a head buddy in
the sixth round, which I didn't think was a warranted
uh point deduction. But okay, now Donovan is winning the fight. Handling.
Crocker is a good fighter, but not on the same
level as Donovan in my opinion, donnod it was the
big prospect, the rising guy, even though Crocker was undefeated.
But good Irish fight. The crowd's going crazy and they're
making a fun fight. And again their stakes here because
it's an eliminator, you know, for a world title, so
that's a big deal for any of these guys. It's
an IBF one hundred and forty seven pounds elimination fight.
So the winner is going to be in the mandatory
position for the belt that is currently held by Bootennis.
But obviously Ennis is having the unification with a man
to Staniona, So the winner of this fight is supposed
to be the mandatory for the winner of that fight
that will take place shortly meantime. Paddy Donovan, like I said,
he's kicking his ass. He's winning the fight. He's even
with the point the ducks and he's still winning, you know,
very very clearly. Now the eighth round comes around, he
gets another point taken away for a head butt, which
was the one of the worst calls I've seen. They
both had their heads on each other, there was no intent.
It was absolutely an accidental headbutt and both guys were
doing it, and Marcus McDonald took a point, but after
the fight resumed, Paddy Donovan is now kicking Lewis Crocker's
ass is about to knock him out. He knocks him
down with a big shot and he barely survives. And
I'm like, Okay, this fight's about to be over. And
what happens the referee. I mean, they're they're fighting at
you know, in close, and they're both roaring it. Yeah,
the clock is ticking down and the bell ends to
end the round. And yes, he threw a light punch
after the bell. Whether we can have a conversation whether
he did it on purpose or not. I don't believe
he did it on purpose. And it wasn't like Crocker
reacted to the bell either, and he threw it a
beat after the bell. It was after the bell, There's
no doubt about it. But it did not, in my opinion,
based on the way I watch it and see in
the replace, did not rise to the level of a disqualification.
I think Marcus McDonald woke up on the wrong side
of the bed and was at the fuck somebody that day.
As the bottom line.
Speaker 1: There's another F word.
Speaker 2: I was just gonna draw the comparison to the morele
Benavetez late punch at the end of the eleventh round
in Las Vegas, and you were there ringside for that.
That to me was more blatant than this one on
Saturday night. Yes, it was late, and I understand late
at the end of the round I'm talking about. I
understand the argument is too. We're hearing it differently on
the TV audio. When the bell rings, I don't know,
We're not there. We weren't there. Marcus McDonald could well
could the fighters hear it over the crowd?
Speaker 1: Could McDonald hear it?
Speaker 3: McDonald clearly heard the bell. You could tell if you
watch the fight. He definitely heard the bell. Whether Crocker
and and Donovan did is still I don't know. But
even if even if he felt like he's in the
sequence of throwing a punch that happens, it was not
even if he heard the bell. That's not the kind
of thing you're gonna dque a guy with, especially when
you know he's been kicking the other guy's ass, had
him down earlier in the round, and you could have
maybe taken a point away. Maybe you could say it's
a purposeful. You could have taken two points, but to
disqualify him in that position was absolutely bush league Marcus
and McDonald needs to go. He's he did a worse job.
Speaker 1: So you're now with me.
Speaker 3: He did work with me.
Speaker 2: You got to take action on these guys. If they
continue to do this.
Speaker 3: Has the market. McDonald has a long track for does
not correct.
Speaker 2: So let's see if the British Boxing Board of Control
does something about that, because clearly Eddie Hearn in the
ring was saying, we're protesting. This is a horrible, horrible
decision by the referee.
Speaker 3: Ed he's got both guys, so he's got a walk
of fine line.
Speaker 2: But he said, but he said, this is you know,
Crocker obviously deserved better than this. Even if you take
another point away and warn him, if you do anything
else then I'm going to disqualify you.
Speaker 1: But instead it's a dq.
Speaker 2: On that and I've I've seen this in the past
and they did not do this where the referee will
go ahead and count and if the fighter cannot get
up because of the count and the bell did ring.
But if the fighter cannot get up, then you have
more of an out to say you did that after
the round and I counted him out and now I'm
going to dq you for what you did. He didn't
do that, Dan on Saturday. M uh the referee.
Speaker 3: Uh just it ruined a good fight. It was a
mess and and Patty Donovan got robbed. In my opinion,
they're probably gonna do a rematch, you know, we'll see,
but again, it shouldn't come to that. It should not
come to that the same way. You know, if they're
gonna do a tank rematch with Roach, it should be
because either he's got a rematch clause or it's such
a good fight that's what the public demands, and not
because Lamont Roach got screwed out of a win.
Speaker 2: I'm with you, all right, let's still a little news
and then some good nostalgia here on the pod.
Speaker 1: So we left the air and there had not been an.
Speaker 2: Official announcement, but while we were on the bet Us
Boxing Show, the announcement actually came Friday afternoon, officially May
second pay per view triple header READD season US card.
Speaker 3: Not because the seasons, no no, no, no, no, no, let
me talk. It is not in anything to do with
the reac season. It is branded. It's a ring magazine,
the Ring.
Speaker 2: What are they calling it with the the comics.
Speaker 3: It's the video game, but it's the Ring magazine branded event.
Speaker 2: So the ring event, not the reat season event. I
stand corrected. Triple header Times Square. We knew this because
you had reported this and it had been talked about
that it's Ryan Garcia back against Roly Romero, who we
talked about on the wrong end of a KO loss
to Gervonte Davis last week. And Devin Haney against Jose Ramirez.
Those are essentially are they calling it like co main
events Cole mainz.
Speaker 3: Here because they call a triple main event.
Speaker 2: Well, okay, but because the belief is those two were
going to fight each other coming up Garcia and Hane
May if they're both victorious, go ahead.
Speaker 3: They have a deal in place where they're fighting. This
interim bouts Orlando Romero against Ryan Garcia ridiculously for the
vacant WBA regular welterweight title that Ryan Garcia after a
drug suspension, and the antics leading into the first Devan
Any fight gets to fight for some caliber of by
world title whatever. Hani will fight Jose Ramirez, the former
unified junior welterweight title. There they are both moving up
to welterweight for this fight, and they already have a
deal in place where if they both win, they are
going to fight in Saudi Arabia in the fall. And
remember when this card, when Turkey first put out, he
didn't put out the details of the specific of the date,
just may or the location specifically in New York it
was supposed to be on. The third fight was the
heavyweight eliminator for the IVF between Faa Jaga and Martin Bocolei,
but we all know what happened with Martin Boccoley the
ib of Bouncton out of the eliminator because he went
to Saudi Arabia and got knocked the fuck out by
Joe Parker, So that took that fight off the table,
and they were talking about having Tia Fimo Lopez do
this cockamami fight on Alcatraz, which I thought was bizarre
in the first place. But now that there's no heavyweight
fight with Boccoli and Faa Jaga on that card for
an eliminator, Tifa Mo Lopez is going to be on
there now. He is still with top rank, but they've
done a three fight deal with Turkey and this will
be the first fight of that deal. So tia Fimo
will make a defense of the WBO in the lineal
title against his WBO mandatory, which is Arnold Barbosa, who
recently won that significant fight so against Jack Catterrell. So
he's going to have this opportunity to fight for the title.
And that's the trip letter. So you got three really
top names, you know as the A sides, three guys
who are going to be certainly underdogs, but they're good
names also in those on those B side slots. And
they're gonna do this outside in Times Square. Supposedly we'll
see how they how they situated. But that even the
bigger news in that was that probably just half an
hour before we started taping the show, they posted on
the Ring magazine social media platforms on the Instagram, there
was a photograph of Turkey al Chic, who was in
New York, you know, because they've got the press conference
for this fight coming up on Tuesday, and then I
believe on Thursday they're gonna have another one for Canelo
Alvarez and William Skull. So he's in New York City.
He met and he took a picture with Jim Lampley
and then there was a video Jim Lampley will be
the voice of the of this particular card. He will
call the action for this trip letter ob his first
time behind the mic doing a fight since HBO went
off the air at the end of twenty eighteen. You know,
there was a he flirted with doing fights with Triller
and had a contract, but the fights never actually happened.
In coincidentally, was supposed to be for one of the
Ta Fimo Lopez fights against Cambosis, but you all know
the story how it ended up with, you know, go
in a match from boxing because Triller defaulted on the purspit,
et cetera. Anyway, he never ended up doing a fight
with them, So he literally has not called a fight
since twenty eighteen. He's maintained involvement in boxing to some
degree because he's been working with our friends at PPV
dot com. Yeah, doing some stuff for those guys, videos
and the chats on the night of the fights, like
he did over the weekend with Tank Davis and the
Lamont Roach. But to hear Jim back behind the mic,
hey man, hopefully he goes into the training and he
sounds just as good as he always did.
Speaker 2: Love it, love having him back. And again you also
have learned and put this on social media. This we
wondered how it's gonna work, but apparently it's gonna be
like a limited ticket event. But I mean, if you're
having it in Times Square, you want the public to
somehow see it, even if it's on like one of
those TVs on one of those big buildings. I think
it's how are they going to do this or what
have we what have we found out?
Speaker 3: They haven't announced anything, but I am told that they
because of the location, they can't charge money for tickets
because of where it is. It's not like a stadium,
there's not it's like in a street. They're gonna have
a law right by law, it's gonna be like invite
only VIPs or whatever. They'll be of a limited number
of people apparently the be able to go, or maybe
they'll have first come, first serve and people will line up,
but you know, you know, one o'clock in the morning,
you know, before they can get a ticket or something
like that, and they'll have a limited number of folks
and get in from the public like that as well
as invited folks that show up and most people who
are going to see it are gonna watch it. Obviously
they're going to buy the pay per view, But it
is an interesting concept. You would think they would want
to put this type of card with these names and
and what's at stake, you know, in a bigger arena
where everybody can see it. But they obviously have their.
Speaker 1: Own way gathering attention.
Speaker 2: And again, they could put the video of the fight
up around Times Square on some of the buildings. That
would be a way to gather attention.
Speaker 3: I'm just saying I'm interested to see, like how they
build it out because you know, obviously've done big events
in Times Square, the ball that drops every New Year's
even the concerts you know, on different TV shows and
this and that, but they've never had a boxing event
that I'm aware of, So they have to build things out.
You need a place with your production for your TV.
You need a place to have whatever fans are going
to be allowed in. Obviously you're going to have some
media there.
Speaker 1: A place that houses the fighters near right dressing rooms.
Speaker 3: Right bathrooms, and that kind of stuff to accommodate. He
didn't need a place for the commission to do their business.
I mean you know, there's and again I'm not saying
they can't do it. I'm just not aware what the
particulars are. But it's clearly a detail heavy, big, big
job to do an event like this in that location.
Speaker 1: So we'll learn more.
Speaker 2: And you want to clarify too, that this was supposed
to be Fa Jagba and Martin Bocoli. We've explained and
you were explaining the other night off the Bocoli loss.
He's not part of that. But we don't know right now.
Is a Jagba still on the card to be determined?
Maybe maybe not, We don't know.
Speaker 3: At this point. It's you know, who knows he's going
to be ordered to fight somebody else in the IBF.
I doubt that will get done before this fight takes place.
Speaker 2: All right, So, and again that is Friday night, May
the second, So stay tuned for more of the announce Here's.
Speaker 3: What I'm trying to figure it out. Yeah, so if
Turkey Alschic is going to be in New York on
May second for this card, I would imagine it'll be
in New York because it's the first. You know, it's
a big deal for him doing a fight in New York.
City in Times Square the first fight card that's branded
Ring Magazine. But on the third he's got Canelo Alvarez
against William Skull. So I mean, I guess it's conceivable,
like the fight ends, and what takes a private jet
from New York back to Saudi Arabi. I guess it's
not out of the rum of possibility, but it'll be
interesting to see how that works. And the other thing
I have a question about and I don't have an answer.
Hopefully i'll find out in this, you know, in the
next few days when they do the press conference. Is
remember Ryan Garcia is now returned to train with Eddie
Reinoso was also the trainer for Kenelo Alvarez. I'm trying
to understand how if Eddie is his trainer, how is
he going to be exact with Ryan Garcia and he's
not leaving Canelo to go to Saudi Arabi by himself.
That's his guy, that's he's been with him for his
whole career. So that's there's some logistics that need to
get figured out there.
Speaker 1: You're wondering.
Speaker 2: Maybe you know, they go through the training camp and
then he has whoever the qualified chief second or second
in command is is maybe with Ryan Garcia.
Speaker 3: But you know the thing is Eddie. Eddie doesn't usually
keep a big stable, so he usually doesn't have other
assistants that travel. But Vibert Garcia, for example, who's got
a lot of fighters. He has other people that he
works with, like his son for example, who is a
gun handled fighters. Plenty of times when Robert might have
another obligation on it given night and they did the
up the work like that. His father is around to
help out as well, and they have you know, other
assistants too. Freddie Roach has always when these when he
was very busy with guys, he always had like his
second that he could send. For a time it was
Marvin's emodio. At one point there a little while was
Michael Moore. But anyway, I don't think that that Eddie
to my knowledge, doesn't have that guy. So it'll be
interesting to see how they handle this situation between Tank,
I mean not Tank, but Ryan and Canelo fighting within
the span of twenty four hours, but on two super continents.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a long way away, all right. One more news
on them.
Speaker 2: The WBC is updating some of its statuses for divisions,
including they want David Benavitez to get the shot if
a new un disputed champion Dmitri Beevil For what that's worth.
What else is coming out of these announcements of what.
Speaker 3: Every every so often, like every quarter usually or thereabouts,
they'll send out, uh a note with update for all
of the divisions. Now, some of the stuff is the same,
and they start with the preface of what they order
at the convention that took place in December, and then
they tell you how it played out and what's next. So, uh,
there was a few divisions where there was a few
things that were updated, uh, you know, not exactly earth
shattering stuff like they updated like you know, Kevin Lorena's
situation for his bridgerweight title. Not huge breaking news necessary,
But in the light heavyweight division, you know now that
the Bevo Better BF fights are over for the time
being and Bibol is now the new undisputed light heavyweight champion.
The WBC said in their in their missive that that
Bivol must next fight David Benavitez, who was the interim
champion and the and the mandatory. Now, uh so they
made that that point. Now that's well and good, but
the problem is a couple of things. One, there might
be a third fight between Better BV and b BOL,
which we'll see what happens with the belts. Maybe it
won't be for undisputed. And even if it's going to
be for the Belts, I think the WBC forgot or
just decided to cut the line. However they wanted to
look at it is that when they made the rematch
being Better BVMBVOL, they did so because the IBF mandatory
was up next, which was Michael Eiffert from Germany. He
agreed to a step aside deal. He didn't agree to
a step aside deal for multiple fights. He agreed to
let them do the unification for undisputed. He's supposed to
be the next challenger. Now you may disagree with that,
you may say he doesn't deserve it, you may not
know who he is, but that does not change the
fact that he is the IBF mandatory and he's already
taken one step aside deal. So they have to deal
with him, and then that can have to see what's
happening with Better b OF. Now that's not to say
they can't make another deal with Eiffert, pay him money
to stand aside and make the bigger fight with Benavides
if there's not going to be a bivil better BF
number three. But the point is just because the WBC
said it, when the updated their status, doesn't mean it
will necessarily take place. And then they went through a
few other things. They reiterated, for example that with Carlos
A Damas at Middleway getting the draw against Hamsey Sharaz,
they had already said beforehand that he would have to
do two mandatories. One was Sharaz, because that's the rule.
If you win the vacant belt, he now is obligated
to fight a Russian fighter and named Mariam and Nurstazilov.
We'll see if they can get that going, what that's
going to be like. They announce a title eliminator in
the welterweight division that was rescheduled that had been canceled
because of a previous injury, which is actually a very
solid fight solo man Sosoko against the mean machine Kavalowskis.
That's a very interesting fight to make the mandatory in
the WBC welterweight division. So those were just some of
the examples. They also reiterated that if Pueo won the
fight against Sander Martin, which ultimately he did that he
would be allowed to have a voluntary defense, which is
the reason why perhaps they could make the Gary On
Twin Russell fight. They also made it knowing that Dalton
Smith is now the official mandatory and so he'll get
an opportunity at some point. He's a very good up
and coming British fighter, and they went through all the divisions,
but those are the ones. Oh the other thing that
was interesting, and this is not like a big secret,
but they were the first ones that sort of put
it out there at any kind of official capacity, the
undisputed champion that junior featherweight now you in a way
everybody knows if you follow knows that they're bringing them
to the United States to fight in his next fight.
The date for that has been rumored to be May fifth.
They said that's now gonna be May fifth. So they
haven't announced the specifics on the opponents in this net
but they're working to get that squared away. But it's
gonna make for a very very interesting weekend because on
May second, you're gonna have the big show in New
York City. Obviously, with the fights that we were just discussing,
that's on the on the Friday night on May third,
they're gonna do the fight, uh, you know with Canelo
in uh, and they're gonna have this fight on the
fifth of May, which is Monday, which is the time
that they like to have the fights in Japan.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: And that this would be a literally on single demayo
in Las Vegas. So it's gonna be a big on
you know. That is interesting, Yeah.
Speaker 2: As it comes as it comes about. Okay, Uh, Now
to the nostalgia, and I.
Speaker 3: Wouldn't be surprised by the way if if maybe the
BC was jumping the gu little bit and maybe they
ended up making that fight on the fourth on the
Sunday on Sunday for in a way yeah possibly.
Speaker 2: Unless of course, in a ways maybe fighting out Mexican fighter,
and then it makes some sense maybe to do it
on Monday. But Monday not a great day, especially in
Vegas exactly. So there's a point to be made, all right, nostalgia.
It was twenty five years ago, Monday, March three of
two thousand that Felix Tito Trinidad, who we've talked about
a lot recently here in the nostalgia on the pods
were defeated and we're gonna talk about him here.
Speaker 3: He defeated David ree When did we talk about him recently?
Speaker 1: We talked about him. You were talking about him about.
Speaker 2: The the Oscar de la Joya fight and the big
rally by Dale Oajoya and how it related to Dike
Quarte and all of that, and we talked about him
about another fight recently too, something else.
Speaker 1: There was another anniversary with Tito.
Speaker 2: There was recent but now Tito defeating David Reid is
twenty five years ago Monday, March third, two thousand. Read
the former US Olympian, the gold medalist, Trinidad won the
WBA middleweight title. Yeah, excuse me, junior middleweight title. So
tell me more about Tito Trinidad in the prime of
his career, still there in March of.
Speaker 3: This is the dead prime of Tito Trinidad. He started
a run that was very historical and impressive. Now he
had defeated controversially so Oscar de la Hoya in September
of nineteen ninety nine to unify two of the welterweight titles.
At the time, it was the biggest non heavyweight pay
per view fight in boxing history. It did one point
four million buys, and it made Trinidad even a bigger
star than he was, and obviously Oscar was already a superstar.
And so after that fight was over, he vacated the
titles and he moved up to Jingior Middleway and he
started what was a three fight reign of terror, as
I like to call it. It was a very impressive
three fight run and started with the David Reid fight.
David had won the WBA title. They had moved him
very quickly because he had the drewpy Island. If you
go back and you can google David Reid Drew Biiland,
you can read all about it. The true yes, but
David was undefeated at the time. He was fourteen to
zero and it was considered a toss up fight. People
weren't sure how Trinidad was going to be at one
hundred and fifty four member Tito, even though he was
a great fighter, he'd been knocked down several times and
now you're going in with a much bigger guy. Anyway,
they did this fight on pay per view. It was
a Friday night outside at Caesar's Palace, one of the
last fights they did like that through the years, and
Tito Trinidad. It was a somewhat competitive fight for the
first six rounds. It was, you know, pretty much a
toss up fight. But in the second half of the fight,
Tito Trinidad put an absolute fucking destructive beating on David Reid.
He didn't stop him, but he did everything other than that.
It was an absolutely devastating performance. He knocked him down
in round seven, He beat him up, He knocked him
down three times in the eleventh round. He did get
a point deducted for a low blow in the eleventh round.
But the thing about this fight, and I always remember this,
on one of those knockdowns, and it's absolutely disgusting, David
Reid got up and he put his glove to his
nose and he like blew out his nose because he
had gotten obviously hit. And when I tell you that,
it was like either brains or snot shilly string shot
across the ring. It was one of the most disgusting
things I've ever seen. He took such an ass kicking
in that fight. He was never the same. He lost
lopsided and got absolutely pummeled. And then Trinidad moved on
and this was the first fight of Trinidad's I covered.
I had just gotten hired to be the boxing writer
for a USA Today, but so I did not cover
the Trinidad fight in person, but I watched it knowing
I was going to be writing boxing for USA Day
starting in a few weeks. So the first fight at
cover was a few months later. He had a mandatory
against Mammadu Tiam who he defeated in three rounds on
a knockout, blew up his eye and stopped him. And
then the third fight of this destructive reign was one
of the great fights. Probably the greatest championship fight in
junior middleweight history was when he had the unification against
field likex Tito Trinidad against Fernando Vargas and they put
on an absolute war and he stopped him in round
number twelve in an amazing, legendary fight. But the David
Reid fight was the first of those three dominating performances
in the one fifty four way class before he went
up and won the middleweight belt against William Joppy. But
the David Reid fight was a spectacular, spectacular performance. And
by the way, when he beat David Reid, he had
defeated another Olympic gold medalist. His previous fight, he had
defeated the Olympic gold medalist Oscar de la Hoya, and
two fights before that he had defeated the Olympic gold
medalist Prono Whinaker. So that's a pretty good run. The
Puerto Rican work on the American gold medalist.
Speaker 2: Yes, he had a lot of success against them. And
again that was twenty five years ago. Wow on that
all right, So back up to Saturday for March. First,
come forward eight years March first, two thousand and eight.
That is Vasquez Marquez three, the two thousand and eight
fight of the year, again the first day of March,
with nine more months to go. It was the fight
of the year as Israel Vasquez won the decision and
retained the WBC Junior Featherweight title. Memorable, memorable series of fights,
including this third one.
Speaker 3: Tell me more, well, they had four fights. We kind
of disavowed the fourth one, which would never have happened.
That was a terrible mismatch at that time because it
just at that point, you know, Vasquez was just a
shove himself. And of course we know that Israel Basque
has recently passed away, and you know, there was a
lot of love and a lot of stuff, but this
was really this was the signature win probably of his
entire career. Now, they had fought three times in a row.
They had fought the first fight in March of two
thousand and seven and Israel Vasquez you know, suffered a
broken nose and got stopped in the seventh round. That
was a WBC one hundred and twenty two pound world
title fight that he you know lost. He lost the title.
They had an immediate rematch five months later and that
was a six round knock that were avenged the loss
and he regained the title. That was a spectacular fight. Now,
because Marquez won against Vasquez and Vasquez Marquez two both
took place in the calendar year of two thousand and seven,
only one of them could win the fight of the year.
So the winner of that fight of the year was
the second fight. But in any other year, if the
Vasquez Marquez had been in the end of twenty four six,
it would have probably been the fight of the year
and they would have had two in a row. So
right away he got one fight of the year, but
it really could have been too. Then they had the
third fight back to back to back. This was again
March of two thousand and eight, so in the span
of one year, a couple of days less than one year,
they fought three absolutely hillatious, brutal, ruling fights. But this
third one was the best of all of them in
my opinion. It went the distance. It was an absolutely
hillatious fucking battle. I mean, beyond anybody's normal comprehension of
what these two athletes could take from each other. It
was just a spectacular fight and it was highly competitive,
you know, But in the end it came down, excuse me,
came down where you had him knocking down Vasquez in
the fourth round. Marquez, that is, punished him in the
seventh a lot of jabs, a lot of right hands.
It was just a and then they just back and forth.
Was over the top. I mean, the action was absolutely wild.
Now in the end of the fight, in the final
seconds of the of the twelfth round, so you know
the fight's about to end, and you're like, okay, we know,
we think we know how this is going. Marquez got
knocked down and that's ended up what it only he
got knocked down because the ropes kept him from falling.
But the referee made the right call because he would
have been out of the ring, and that's what changed
the result of the fight, and he ended up winning.
Vasquez ended up winning a split. This same just an amazing,
amazing fight.
Speaker 2: So what you're saying is a knockdown in the final
round seventeen years ago was the one point difference, as
it turns out on at least one card for that fight.
And here we are seventeen years later talking about a
knockdown that didn't get called a knockdown that would have
totally reversed the decision for Lamont roach against.
Speaker 3: The way that it went was that Vascuz ended up
winning one fourteen to one eleven and one thirteen to
one twelve, and then the other judge had at one
fourteen to one eleven in favor of Marquez, so.
Speaker 1: That we have a draw. So we have a draw
if that had not been a knockdown.
Speaker 3: So but I mean, it really is that that put
the forget the fourth fight. The first three fights back
to back to back is just some of the most
electrifying combat you can see in boxing. Just when you
think about, like the definition of the quintessential stereotypical Mexican
warrior boxer. That's what these two guys did in those
first three fights. I mean, there's not much that you
can compare it to. There's lots of great Mexican fighters
have had great fights, but I don't think you can
think of a trilogy where it's Mexican versus Mexican who
did what they did to each other.
Speaker 2: Barrera Morales is around the same time, but you're saying,
in your opinion, this is better for those three fights.
Speaker 3: The reason I say that is because as inglorious and
amazing and as popular as the Bura Morales trilogy are,
and it's higher profile because it was on a bigger
TV channel and it got a lot more love, some
big pay per views at the end of that the
second and third or pay per view fights, it got
a huge amount of hype. The second fight was a
really good fight, but it didn't come close to living
up to what the other fights were. For one and
three are spectacular in this trilogy. The first three, all one, two,
and three are sensational. Like I said, two thousand and
seven Fight of the Year, two thousand and eight Fight
of the Year, and the only reason fight number one
wasn't also a Fight of the Year was just had
the misfortune of taking place a few months in to
two thousand and seven as opposed to two thousand and six,
And so it's an awesome it's an awesome trilogy, even
though technically it's a four fight series. I like to
think of it as a trilogy with a bonus garbage
thrown out the end of it.
Speaker 2: And so Vasquez got that win on March one, March
first in two thousand and eight, seventeen years ago.
Speaker 1: There we go.
Speaker 2: There's some nostalgia again, a ton on this recap pot
it is a brand new month again. Rate us and
review us. Those ratings do help keep engaged with us. Follow, subscribe,
find the Big Fight Weekend YouTube channel as well for
other content clips of these shows to see Rayfield ranting
and swearing on video, just like what you're hearing here
on the podcast feed. Other than that, are we good,
my friend? As the month of monch March is now off.
Speaker 3: And we're good.
Speaker 1: I think we are.
Speaker 2: Thank you for finding us wherever you found us here
as we preview going into the weekend, we recap coming
off the weekend for Dan Rayfield, I'm merely TJ Reeves
It is the Fight Preach Unit Recap podcast