Speaker 1: All right off of a weekend in which Jaron Ennis
did what we thought and he did it very quickly
with a blowout first round knockout win as a junior middleweight.
We're ready to recap that from Philadelphia. We're ready to
recap and entertaining. It was entertaining Matmudov versus David Allen
heavyweight battle that could be David Allen's final fight again
as a fan favorite England. We're gonna recap those fights.
We got lots of fight news. I'm bummed we're not
gonna get Fundorra Thurman. At least for now, we're gonna
talk about all of that.
Speaker 2: Welcome in.
Speaker 1: It is the Fight Freaking Night Recap podcast. I am
merely the somewhat capable host TJ.
Speaker 2: Reeves.
Speaker 1: Hello to our insider, Big Dan Rayfield. Fight Freaking Night
after all is his substack and newsletter be subscribed up.
You get all the intel to find out what's going on.
Full disclosure, we're doing this Sunday night after my Buccaneers
have won again. You're actually in a decent mood because
the Giants clopper the Eagles.
Speaker 2: The Buccaneers have won.
Speaker 1: Buccaneers look like one of the best team right now
in football with the way they're rolling after a five
and one start. So I'm in a particularly good mood.
How are you feeling as we're ready to recap some
fights off the weekend.
Speaker 3: I'm good because it was Sunday and the Giants couldn't
lose because they played on Thursday.
Speaker 2: Can I tell you something?
Speaker 1: Thursday night is the reason why you don't bet on football,
because after your team blew a game into the New
Orleans Saints, who would have thought they were going to
beat the Super Bowl champs, much less take the crap
out of it.
Speaker 3: What we're seeing, though, is the learning curve of the
young quarterback Jackson is That's the thing. It's a learning curve.
That's what happens in the NFL.
Speaker 1: And come for the boxing, stay for the quarterback takes
of Dan Rayfield here.
Speaker 3: Don't you think that's like, Yes, the guy's barely had
any snaps in the NFL.
Speaker 2: He's see learning.
Speaker 1: Tell you what you're seeing out of Baker Mayfield of
the b U C C A N E E R
S Go Bucks.
Speaker 2: He looks like the MVP right now. It's exciting stuff.
But nonetheless, the peeps are here to hear us talk boxing.
Speaker 1: Uh so let's get into but after all, make sure
that you find us, make sure you subscribe. We've been
very dedicated about being here, even with lean times, with
the fight cards, et cetera.
Speaker 2: We do our best. Upfront.
Speaker 1: We're gonna save the Joseph Parker interview for his upcoming
interim WBO heavyweight title defense that's in a couple of weekends.
We're gonna save that interview stand by because we've got
plenty of news to go over, including the collapse of
the Sebastian Fundora Keith Thurman pay per view card that
was due to be here in a couple of weeks
as well. All right, let's start with Jaron Ennis. No
one's gonna remember this opponent, but he did what he
was supposed to do. It was impressive, it was quick,
it was overfast in the matchroom, disown min event in Philadelphia.
Speaker 3: So there's a lot of ways that we can look
at this. The first thing is exactly what you said,
when you're matched with a nobody, do what you're supposed
to do to a nobody, and that's annihilate him and
leave no doubt and just destroy him. Because if you
go in this type of fight and meres three, four, five, eight,
twelve rounds. You may win the fight, but you're gonna
suffer some criticism because they're like, what's he doing letting
this guy hang around for twelve rounds? Are however long
the fight win. So boots Ends did what he was
supposed to do, nothing more, nothing less. He destroyed the
man in about two minutes. And I said from the
get go, and I certainly wasn't the only one, this
was a disgraceful fight. This was a total mismatch. This
was a piece of shit I took in coming from
Eddie Hearn, which is fine. I'm a big boy. You
know who criticized me for having that take. I was
proven right. The guy showed absolutely nothing. He had no
We're talking about Uzima Lima, who had no credentials coming
into the fight unless you are a big proponent of
the IBO title, which I am not. So there's that.
I have nothing against him as a person. He came
in good shape. I'm sure he tried. He spoke well
during the build up in terms of what he wanted
to accomplish, and then the bell rang, and you know,
there's as the as the kids say, DJ, there's levels
to this, Yes, And this was Boots Ennis, who is
clearly a hum massively talented fighter in with a guy
that if you consider Boots to be like an A
level talent, this guy is like a Sea level ish
type talent. It's just not in the same league, both
in terms of the size. Not the size. The size
that was the one thing he might have had going
for him, but the speed, the power, the technique, the defense,
the experience in the professional ranks. And so he went
in there and he blew the guy away. He wins
the the unnecessary in annoying WBA Interim Junior Middleweight title.
It was, as we just toussed many times, this was
his his debut in the one hundred and fifty four
pound weight class. He had unified two of the titles
at walter weight, had been struggling to make that weight
for a while, and it was a you know something.
We all knew that he was going to go up
and wait at some point, and this was that. Now
is a way class that is for my money right now.
Maybe it's not populated by megastars, but it's got some
of the best talent and in depth of any of
the divisions in the whole sport. So he got to win.
He looked good doing it, but he still doesn't proven
anything in my rage. But if we get nice things
in boxing, which we often don't, but it looks like
we may if Virgil Ortiz Junior takes care of his
business and he's in a much tougher fight than Boots
Ennis was. He has titango with Eric Slubin in November.
If he can get through that fight, then it feels
like they're serious and they're going to make ns against
Arties for the first quarter of twenty twenty six. Eddie
Hern has said a thousand times that when he signed
Boots Ennis to his contract extension for their promotional deal,
there was an agreement in place between him and Boots
to do that fight. So they're on apparently on board
for the terms. They still have to tidy up with
Golden Boy. I'm sure Golden Boy has to tidy up
with Virgual Artis. Eddie says, the Zone is on board.
It'll obviously be a pay per view. The perspective of
Golden Boy is, look, we want to do the fight,
but let Virgil get through the fight in November against
Lubin and then we'll sit down. And I can understand
that you don't want to be making fights while you're dealing.
Speaker 1: With of course, but you fight the guy in front
of you and be worried about that. But let's not
revise history here.
Speaker 2: Let's be clear.
Speaker 1: And by the way, you take care of yourself greatly
on social media, swatting people, going back and forth. And
I was entertained watching your stuff Saturday night and Sunday
because that was bred man Edwards. You were going at
it with too, as well as Eddie heard.
Speaker 3: Let's be clear, I was not going at it. Bread
mean and I are friendly, we understand, but.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm talking about in a good way. You're
going back and forth with difference of opinions.
Speaker 3: But are some guys I'll rip the.
Speaker 1: You know, and you don't do that to me there
at least most of the time.
Speaker 2: You should be good to bet.
Speaker 1: But let me say this, all right, the Ortiz fight
could have happened a year ago, yes, and the let's
don't revise history. The reason is is because boots and
Is screwed around when he knew it was going to
be one hundred and fifty four pound fight. So let's
don't revise history that that fight could have already happened.
You've pointed it out, I've talked about it, We've talked
about it on this podcast. So this knockout on Saturday
night doesn't change the facts, the facts, the facts.
Speaker 2: That it couldn't happen.
Speaker 3: It doesn't change what happened then, but it does change
now they can move forward maybe at the end of
the day. Boots ns and I'm not taking sides, I'm
stating facts. Yes, they had a deal in place, whether
it was him or his people, or his promoter or
the network or whoever. The weight was changed in the draft.
That Golden Boy was given from a one hundred and
fifty four pound fight to one hundred and forty seven
pound fight, which was obviously ridiculous. You know, burgel Artis
ended up in the hospital because he tried to make
one forty seven. He had a serious situation there, and
he had taken a couple of fights already went fifty four.
He was not going back to that's amen.
Speaker 1: Anybody that knew anything about that situation that was never
gonna happen.
Speaker 2: Non starter exactly.
Speaker 3: So Anyway, the bottom line is NI is still in
his heart wanted to at least have a unification. He
had that. He looked great against Daniotis kN tak away
from him. He unified the belts. Virgil went on and
had other fights and uh, you know, had some exciting
you know, he had you know, fought some good fighters
Boatchuk and obviously he had the uh who's the other
guy he fought, oh magrum Off. You know, he had
some he had some good fights, and so now there's
no more excuses. Boots has got his tune up, so
to speak, in the fifty four pounds weight class. Yep,
Virgil is not taking a tune up.
Speaker 2: Ericson.
Speaker 3: Lubin is a formidable, legitimate top contender, and that's a
much more difficult fight, at least on paper. Uh you know,
this is no guarantee that Virgil wins that fight. So
that that's you know, first and foremost. And I do
like what Boots was saying. He goes, look, if Virgil
doesn't win that fight, you know, I'll fight Lubin. And
then he started also naming all the other champions and
then you know he's talking about uh, you know, talking
about Xander's eyes. He's talking about about uh Baker Martazaleev.
You know he's talking about you know, any of these
other guys, they all can get it. Who's the other
champion in the weight class? There was find Fondora was
the other guy he mentioned, So he mentioned Beru, who
is now the the you know, he's actually the mandatory
now because he won the interim belt and Baru was
became the only title holder when Terrence Crawford went to
one sixty eight and left behind the fifty four pound
weight class. So that will hopefully be if he wins Virgil,
that would be a big fight for us to look
forward to in the first part of next year. It's
a tremendous battle. I may not agree with Eddie Hern
on everything, but I do agree with him when he
talks about how it's an outstanding fight for American boxing.
You know two guys who are prime fighters right now
in their twenties, both with a lot of skills, both
a lot of power, both with growing fan bases. You know,
one fighter from Texas, one fighter from the Northeast, different regions.
One's a black fighter, one's an American Hispanic fighter. I mean,
you got a lot of fan bases that you can
service with that kind of matchup. You got companies that
are certainly capable of putting on a quality undercard. You
put Golden Boy in Mattroom and osc He and Eddie
promoting together, obviously they can get the word out. I
mean it really does have all the hallmarks for a
true fight fans kind of fight.
Speaker 2: So hopefully and we have good things.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned and again you've qualified it or Teez has
got to get through this fight with Lubin coming up
in November, and then we'll see.
Speaker 3: One thing about about Ennis. Very fast, good with the punches,
put those shots together and knock and lean out scored
the two knockdowns like he didn't like Lima did even
look like you knew what hit him.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's caught him, and I don't think he
ever recovered from the upper cut that initially caught him.
Speaker 3: He basically took like about a minute to get into
the fight Inns, and then he was all over him.
Two knockdowns and you know he's blasting them away to
to to Lima's credit, he did get up twice on
harsh knockdowns and then at some point you know later on,
you know a few seconds later when he was quartered
and Boots is real and off literally like about a
dozen unanswered punches. Obviously, the referee, who did a good job,
Sean Clark, had no choice but to jump in there
and then waved this bad boy off, and it was
what it was. But I will take issue with anybody
who says, like, you know, and I was kind of,
you know, jib in a little bit with my man
Sergio Mora on on Twitter about it. Don't tell me
that he's a great fighter, or that's a generational performance
or blah blah blah or whatever whatever he had to say.
Same goes for Eddie, because again he's a tremendous talent,
but he still hasn't done anything.
Speaker 1: Show us something like that against Virgil Ortiz. Of course,
even we start having that, you beat if you beat.
Speaker 3: Guys like Virgil Ortiz, you beat guys like any of
those other champions, You beat guys Alive mag or mav Boa,
show any of these guys, you know whoever. You beat
fighters like that, and you do it on a consistent basis,
and you string together two or three wins in a
role like that, Yep, you're gonna get the credit. But
right now, it's just sized. We're tantalized.
Speaker 1: Down, settle down, and let's see what happens. All right,
heavyweight action on the cod feature. And you did explain
in the preview pod this got moved up because of
an injury in the other fight that was gonna be
the co feature. And look, we had fireworks from the
heavy weights, including Guido Vianello, the former Italian Olympian, and
he scored a big knockout.
Speaker 2: Give me a little more on that.
Speaker 3: This was a very fun fight, I know, like you mentioned,
it was elevated from a little bit further down the
cart into the co feature position because of the light
heavyweight Khalil Co with drawing with an injury, so his
fight with the Philadelphia fighter Jesse Hart was canceled off
the cart. But when they made this match between Viennello
and Burri, I sort of like was like, this will
be a fun fight. You know, I've seen Burreri fight
a couple of times, big guy, strong guy, not too
much professional experience, had about the same number of fights
as Guido did, but Guidos fought much better opposition in
my mind, so this was sort of like you look
at Vannello's record he's fourteen to three and one, not
the greatest record in the world. He has one knockout loss.
But if you know that what happened that knockout loss,
that was a due to a cut and a kind
of a freakish situation. That was a couple of years ago.
Twenty twenty three, had very very close split decision to
a jog But he certainly could have won that fight,
really really close fight. Had the victor. We're gonna talk
about Arslan Beck Mackmanduv in the next fight, but he's
got a knockout victory against him that followed up that
Ajagua loss. He's got a decision loss to Richard Torres
that he was coming off of. So he has been
kind of up and down. But he had that background,
and you know, he was not stepping up in top
of a level competition, and they put on a really
fun fight, exciting fight, and in the end, Guido just
had the He really I feel like he wanted it
more like I think Brari thought like I'm the favorite,
I'm supposed to win, and I don't know, I'm not
just my like sort of my read it. I can't
say for sure, but it felt like he wasn't taking it.
Speaker 1: As Vanello showed punching power. He dropped him and he
finished him.
Speaker 3: He knew that this was a do or die kind
of fight. You can't go losing three out of four
in the heavyweight division and expect to still be in
a in a solid position on the card and maybe
an A side and make the real money. And he
did a tremendous job. So he took the shot, and
he delivered some heavy, heavy duty leather and he knocked
the guys as the Brits say, spark out in the
fifth round, and he dropped him and he didn't get up,
and that's all shrot He had him. I think, if
I'm not mistaken TJ, I think had him down twice
in the fights. I mean that was probably I mean
not to be too dramatic, but I guess that win
and maybe the Makmadu have win. Those were like his
best performances he has had so far as a professional.
And you know what, I'll tell you one thing, you
could probably put Wiedo Vnello in with pretty much just
met anybody in the top ten. He may not win
those fights. He may win here and win there. He's
gonna probably always be in a fun fight though, because
he's not afraid to step in there and throw shots.
He's taken shots, and he's in great condition. When he
comes into these fights, he takes it seriously. So to me,
there is room in boxing for just good contender types.
Not everybody's gonna be the heavyweight champion or a champion
in their weight class, but you need fighters like Guido
Vannello to make the visions fun, to give the fans entertainment.
He can make a living, he can make still good money.
You know, he won that fight. If he loses another fight,
it's not like his career is over. And you know,
on the on the right night, maybe he does pick
up a big time win against you know, somebody even
a level better than Alexis Berrari. But that that was
a very entertaining fight, certainly the best fight on otherwise,
you know, not not the biggest name card. And of
course we talked about the main event. That was a
complete one sided ass kicking that we all, or at
least I did figure that it was going to be.
So that was the fight of the night in my estimation,
and it was worth it because heavyweights always delivered the
goods when they have that kind of battle.
Speaker 1: All right, So speaking of heavyweights delivering the goods, good
segue so earlier in the afternoon US time, and it
was Saturday night primetime in Sheffield, England. The return of
David Allen, a fighter that's retired a couple of times.
He was off for more than two years.
Speaker 3: I don't think he ever actually retired.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I mean I thought, yeah, he made an
announcement about his retirement, were writing about it on the website.
But he's back and as as we thought, this was
quite an atmosphere. There was a partisan crowd for him.
I'll say it this way. He acquitted himself well on
taking punches, giving punches.
Speaker 2: I just don't know how much he had left.
Speaker 1: And as you mentioned, Machmdov ends up winning the decision,
a fight that I know you were saying in advance.
Speaker 2: This could be over quickly.
Speaker 1: They both showed chin, they both showed heart, and it
went the distance and there was a lot of toe
to toe action, especially in the back half of the fight.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this was two like CS level guys who were
I guess somewhat evenly matched going in there trying to
you know, save their careers in terms of being in
this level of a fight, and mach Madouv, who was
to me, he's the better skilled fighter and the better puncher,
but he's so vulnerable because his chin is so terrible
that you just never know what's gonna happen. This was
only the second time he's ever heard the final bell
in his career, because all of his wins before were
by knockout but one, and his two losses were by
very harsh knockout. He was going into the Lions then,
as they say, he's a Russian fighter that's based out
of Montreal. He was fighting in England where Dave Allen
had you know, is a beloved figure, and it was
like a love fest fall a whole week. He had
the whole crowd on his side. They did like nine
ten thousand people in that arena for a fight of
that level, which is not you know, at the championship level,
is a pretty amazing feet when you think about it. He's,
like I said a popular guy that the way that
Makmandu won this fight is he he did have a
lot of you know times where he was out punching him,
but he basically won it because he was out boxing,
which is amazing because Makandu has always been kind of
a one punch I mean, like a one trick pony,
and that's the big punch. So he kind of banked
a lot of those rounds in that first half of
the fight where he was way up on the cards.
And so when Alan finally came back to some degree
later in the fight, like I believe it was in
the ninth round, at the end of the round ninth, yep,
he had Mackmanduke out on his feet at the end
that there's maybe ten to fifteen seconds left in the round.
Maybe he gets him out of there. But every time
Dave Land did a good shot and you see Mackmanduv rock,
he's got such a it's so like he in boxing.
One of the things you do as fighter. And I'm
not that I'm a fighter, but I've heard fighters talk
about this. Sometimes he got a bullshit your way through around.
You can't show that you're hurt when you're hurt. The
thing about mahkma Do is every time he gets hit,
it's all over his face, like you know, he's messed up,
and the judges that and that has an impact on scoring,
not that it's mattered because he's knocked most of his
guys out, but every time Dave Allen hit him, he
rocked him. And Dave Allen would take shots and never budge.
And after the fight was over, Dave was talking about
like he hurt me six seven times and he's the
best puncher I've ever faced, et cetera. And macmado, if
you could tell, was kind of I won't say scared,
that's not fair, but you know, worry about getting hit
because he did so much holding that that Ultimately Steve Gray,
who was the referee, the duck did two points from me.
He took one in the sixth round for excessive holding,
and then he took one in the twelfth round for
excessive holding. And even with the points off, he still
was the clear winner one seventeen to one oh nine,
one fifteen to one eleven, and one sixteen to one ten.
But Dave Allen it was maybe a whisker away from
scoring a knockdown or maybe a knockout in that ninth round.
Close the close the fight really well. They battled. The
toe to toe was a very entertaining heavyweight fight. I
suspect that even with that loss. The populatory that Dave
Allen has, the lovable loser, unfortunately is the tag you'll have.
But he's gonna be able to still have a career
if he wants to put the work in, if he
if he if he's if he's interested to continue, I'm
sure Mattrium or whoever would be willing to work with
him and put him on other shows, maybe even in
a main event, in the right kind of circumstance, and
he can make a living and and uh, and still
do something in Macmandou. Look, it's the best win of
his career. Uh, I don't know. You know where he's
going if you believe him, And this is important. And
he was calling out Anthony Joshua after the fight. He
showed what he claims as a screenshot of a direct
message on social media that was between him and Anthony
Joshua where Joshua was saying, if you win against Allan,
you know, I'll fight you next. And so he calls
out after the fight, and so I think, I guess
that's a distinct possibility, because look, Joshua, you know, if
they if they can, I still don't believe they're gonna
make the fury fight, and immediately I think Joshua was
gonna want to come back off of the elbow surgery
and the knockout loss and try to bank some kind
of win. They talked about maybe a fight in Africa
even in December and to be kind of short notice,
but perhaps at the very beginning of next year, and
he's gonna fight somebody. They brought mac Madouf to the UK,
so he has some profile to a degree in England,
where Joshua is from. So if Joshua fought fighter like
him and then and and would, and even Joshua in
a diminished state, I still think athletically and speed wise
and power wise probably gets rid of Mackmanduf and at
that point later and next year, you know, late in
the first half of next year, hopefully they do make
that Tyson Fury fight. But Mackmandou by winning in a
good fight, probably scared.
Speaker 1: Himself, only helped himself and in his dollars exactly on
a higher profile fight.
Speaker 3: Just just clarify the one thing on this fight. This
is not elite heavyweights. What they are is hard working
guys that could put on a good show that entertain
the fans. And and again similar to what I said
about Guido Vanello in boxing heavyweights or otherwise. You need
these types of fighters and fights to you know, they're
the middle class. If you will not everybody's in an
all start fight or a superstar fight or a huge
money fighter, a championship fight. But but you make entertaining
matchups with competent guys who are you know, who are
who are good professionals to put in the work, you're
gonna get good fights like we got with Guido Vnelli
in Brari, like we got with Makadu and Dave Allen.
Speaker 1: All Right, good stuff, Let's move to some news while
we have a few minutes. Listen, I leave you in charge,
and you know, we're going about our business. And the
next thing is suddenly the virtual press conference that Premier
Boxing champions had set up for Sebastian Fundora and Keith
Thurman to have happened on Thursday didn't happen. I immediately
said to you, something, something's up here. You said back
to me, well, listen, press conferences get canceled all the time. Well,
it turns out this was something, and it's Sebastian Fundora
with a hand injury. You did some digging. You did
some reporting, and not only is the main event off,
but the entire pay per view card for a couple
of weeks from now in Las Vegas is now off.
That surprises me a little bit. We'll circle back to that,
but start with Fondora the injury, and now we're kind
of in an unknown as to when he can fight again.
And if I'm just gonna say, if if the that
the Thermon Fight's gonna still be there, go ahead and
tell me what you've learned on the weekend.
Speaker 3: Okay. So this was scheduled to be the main event
on the PBC on Prime Video pay per view October
twenty fifth at the MGM in Las Vegas, and as
PBC announced, and I had actually broken it a little
before they announced it, actually because I had been told
about it earlier in the day. But they the way
that they described it in their announcement was that Fondora
had suffered a hand contusion in sparring, which was a
I guess a very bad bruise inspiring, not a fracture.
That was made clear to me when I spoke later
to his promoter, Samson Lukwitz, but that the doctor that
they saw said look, you gotta lay off for three weeks,
no punching with the hand, and obviously if the fight's
are two weeks away, you know that's a problem. So
the way Samson's played looked the fighter. Like a lot
of fighters, he wanted to go through with it. He
wanted to see if he could do it. But between
the doctor and his father, Freddie, who's also his trainer,
they're like, no, we're gonna sit out. We're gonna we're
gonna make sure we're healthy, and so they called off
the fight. Now they are planning to reschedule the fight.
I talk to people at PBC and Samson. Everybody is
trying to reschedule this fight by you know, so it
won't happen in October. They're looking for a date in January.
So good chance that they rescheduled this fight for January. Meanwhile,
you have him, he'll try to heal up. I kind
of felt really terrible because Keith Thurman is like mister
hard luck in all senses here, because he's a guy
that had his entire career upside down because of his
own injuries that forced various postponements and cancellations, and finally
apparently he's healthy and ready to go, and this time
it's his opponent that suffers the injury that causes this
fight to be delayed, so he has to lay off
even longer. Unfortunately Keith sapro and so look, if they rescheduled,
great and hopefully they'll find their date. They didn't say
where will be rescheduled. But the rest of the card
you have the co feature, a very solid fight between
Stephen Fulton moving up from he's one of the Featherway
title holders, moving up to du or lightweight to challenge
the WBC title er Oshaki Fosser, a fight that was
a pretty interesting fight. That fight has not been It's
not necessarily going to be canceled, but it's not necessarily
going to be rescheduled because they got to figure out
when it's going to be. Remember, this fight was agreed
to back in April, back when they were still trying
to do Tank Davis and Lamont Roach rematch. It was
supposed to be the co feature. That fight was going
to be on a various bunch of dates. They kept
getting delayed, delayed, delayed, and then finally Tank pulled out
and went sideways and decided to go fight the exhibition
with Jake Paul, So that fight was sort of kind
of lingering out their top rank and PBC, like I said,
had made that deal in the spring of you in
April of this year, and so it was on this card.
And so now, given the fact that I already been
postponed several times, the contract that I am told this
by Top Rank is they haven't opt out. They don't
have to. Most contracts have a provision to reschedule a
fight within whatever it could be, thirty days, sixty days,
ninety days, whatever it is. But the way I understand
is that with the fight not happening on October twenty fifth,
they can opt out immediately. They don't have to wait
for any kind of rescheduling. That's not to say that
they will, but they need to sit down and talk
to their fighter, Oshaki Fossar, to see what he wants
to do. So maybe they'll reschedule it, and then again
maybe they won't. It's a real bummer because, like I said,
interesting fight. It's too bad. I have an interview that
I had just conducted like a couple of days before
that with Stephen Fulton that we were going to play
on the podcast, maybe we can salvage a little bit
of it, or or maybe we won't, but whatever, we'll
see what happens with that. And so now you go
to the rest of the car.
Speaker 1: So could I just ask real quick, Yeah, why couldn't
they proceed and just make this a PBC on Prime
Card and not a pay per view without the main
event and then figure out a way to use whatever
money in the bank to pay the fighters that are
lesser than Fondra and Thurman's asking price. Probably, why couldn't
they just go ahead, keep the data and have the
other guy's fight and not make it a pay per view.
Speaker 2: Again, that seems too logical, makes too much.
Speaker 3: Sense because Prime is apparently not interested to do that
at this point. It's not the kind of thing they
can probably budgetarily change at the last minute. I mean,
I'm theorizing you have to plan these things out now.
They're not paying money for a lot of these shows,
or maybe they're doing production or they're paying a little bit,
but mainly it's it's being done. They're the distributor. They're
not really that's right. They don't have skin in the game.
Like when HBO and Showtime were doing fights. They were
paying big money, or when ESPN was paying top rank,
or when for example, Fox was paying PBC. Different kind
of model. So in a perfect world, you're right, they
would have just like, okay, no main event and we'll
just you know, put some of these fights on and
just do it like a non pay per view. That
would have been great, but it's not realistic. I don't
think they could have it was you couldn't really keep
the MGM grand for that. I mean, look, Fondora Thurman
is a heart sell at in eighteen thousand Seed Arena
in Miami in the first place. Now you take that
fight off the show and you're left with.
Speaker 2: Fulton probably it's only two weeks away. That's a copy.
Speaker 3: They're really good fighters, but they're not selling tickets to
that big arena. I mean, I'm sorry, that's just not
the way it works.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: You could put that in like a three thousand seater
and they might not sell it out. So that's the
reason for that. But so we'll see what happens. Fondora
and Thurman will get rescheduled. I guess in January. The
jury is out on what's going to go down in
terms of if and when they reschedule Foster against Fulton,
the other fights which were on the pay per view,
which and and the and even the preliminary fights that
they announced. You're talking about Jesus Ramos against Shane Mosley
Junior that was for the WBC's interim middleway title. YadA
Isaac Lucero, a good up and coming junior middleweight taken
on Roberto Valenzuela Junior. I was told that more again
not done one hundred percent, but most likely they're gonna
swap those because they hadn't done this yet. They're working
on it. They're gonna take those fights and they're gonna
move them just a few weeks later. Instead of taking
place on October twenty fifth on the pay per view
with Fondora and Thurman, they're gonna shift them to December sixth,
and they'll be on the Pitbull Cruise Lamont Roach Junior
pay per view. And the same may go for some
of those fights that are, you know, further down on
the card that we're gonna be safe. For example, the
free preliminary fights, Frank Martin's fight where he was coming
back from the long layoff he was supposed to fight
against Rancis Barthelmy, and they had announced a couple of
other fights. So it's a pretty good bet that when
you see the lineup on December sixth, some of the
bouts you see on that pay per view and the
preliminators are gonna be awfully familiar because they were the
ones who were supposed to take place on October twenty fifth. So, look,
it's unfortunate that when one guy gets hurt, the whole
card has to get you know, rearranged and postponed. But
that's life in boxing. Unfortunately, sometimes you can salvage it
and do other things, and in this particular case, for
different reasons, it wasn't the case.
Speaker 1: All right, Let's move on to a couple of other
items you were reporting, because I read my substack it
is the Fight Freak Nite recap pod here and the
Fight Freak Night substack told me that it looks like
we're gonna get a unification middleweight title fight with janebec
Alim Canooley who has two of the belts, a WBO
and the IBF belt, and aris Landi Laura, the WBA champion.
What have we figured out and when might this be
as well?
Speaker 3: So what I was mentioning to about those fights from
the postponed Fundora and Thurman fight moving to December sixth,
some of them probably will Moseley Junior fight against Ramos
and Lucero his fight against Valezuela. But the co feature,
because these are usually four fight pay per views, the
co feature is supposed to be if they tidy things
up this fight between Janebec and the unification fight against Laura. Now,
there had been a lot of conversation because PBC has
Lara as the WBA champion, and they also are involved
with Carlos and Damas, who was the WBC champion, and
there was conversation between them and their fighters and with
Top Rank, which is the promoter for Janebec, about perhaps
doing Janebek against a Damas. I don't know if it
was a financial situation or the preference or whatever it was,
but a Damas is out and Lara is going to
be the opponent. So this is not even like uh.
This was specifically PBC officials and Top Rank officials both
telling me that they were tidying things up and that
everything was moving along and they didn't expect there to
be any hang ups. Everybody was sort of on the
same page. So you know, I I wouldn't say it's
done yet, but it looks like it's let's call it
a trending in that direction, and that they were feeling
like there was not going to be any problems and
that will be Is it the biggest attraction fight ever? No,
But what it does is it it will continue to consolidate,
you know, a poor weight class and at least put
one guy in a great position to have three of
the belts. And you know, if you think, what's Terrence
Crawford are going to do next? Maybe he comes and
fights the winner to try to win three belts and
make some history there, and then there's just the one
belt left after that, which maybe he would you know,
if he were gonna fight let's say twice next year,
maybe he goes after that because the other a fighter
would be the WBC champion, which is a domis. So
you know, you never say never, but it'll give the
winner between janebec and Laura at least a carrot to
stick out there to potentially to fight with Terrence Crafford.
But on its own, look, Laura has fought a bunch
of absolute shit fights for the last However, many years
he's just absolutely miserable opposition. Since he came to middleweight.
He was so fighting complete drects his in his waning
days at junior middleweight. You know, he fought Danny Garcia
in his last fight. Now, Danny is a potential future
Hall of Famer, but not as a middleweight. The guy
was coming up all the playoffs, had never fought above
fifty four, and he just got absolutely just you know,
just killed basically in that fight. So I'm not saying
that Danny is not a good fighter, but at middleweight
it was ridiculous. And if you go and look at
Laura's record, it's pathetic what he's fought at middleweight. And
janebec you know, he unified against Goltieri who had the
title for like thirty seconds that you never heard of
who and you'll never hear from again. Uh, And he
has that's not his fault. You know, he has not
fought top opponents either, because he didn't fight another champion,
and you know, he's been somewhat inactive. He fought an
unknown guy in his home country of Kazakhstan his last fight,
so he's kind of been off the map, off the map,
at least if you put these two guys together. Look, Laura,
you love Martam. He's a well known commode. He's been
around forever, uh and he's still a pretty good fighter.
And even in his older age where he used to
stink to join up, I run in our mood, you know,
staying away from everybody, those forty two year old.
Speaker 2: L and Jay.
Speaker 3: He can't get away that much, and he's got a
big heart.
Speaker 1: The carrot again is you're a three belt unified champion,
and maybe the name Terrence Crawford is there as you.
Speaker 2: Just laid out, so that that has some incentive.
Speaker 3: In and of itself if you can make a unification
fight and it adds some depth to that card. Look,
I said to you on when we were discussing their
press conference from the other week between Pitt b Roach
on its own, you know again pay per view main event. Notwithstanding,
I really like the Pitbull and Roach fight. You throw
on a three belt unification that probably will be pretty
good in the ring because Janebek is an aggressive fighter. Yeah,
and Laura, you know, he just doesn't move like he
wants it. He's sort of ever since the Jared Herd
fight basically he's he kind of has to stand and
fight and he's got big heart, so he'll do it
if he has to, so we'll see. Maybe that could
be a fun fight. So that will be the co feature,
assuming they get all the paperwork wrapped up in and
that'll be December sixth and San Antonio.
Speaker 2: Sticking with the theme of can we have good things?
What is this now?
Speaker 1: I saw this also on my news and Notes on
my Rayphael Substack that Archer Better Biev is not going
to be part of the Massive Ring magazine card in
Saudi Arabia November the twenty second. But it's not necessarily
an injury. I mean, we what have we found out here?
As he's now forty one years.
Speaker 3: Old yet not yet forty one.
Speaker 2: Soon to be.
Speaker 1: But the third with Better but with Bevil is maybe looming.
But he's off this November twenty second card.
Speaker 2: What's up?
Speaker 3: Well? When they made it, it was sort of like position.
It seemed to me that he was gonna stay busy
while waiting for Bevill. Everybody knows Bevill had the recent
back surgery. It's seemingly unclear just how long he's going
to be out, but it just feels like they're not
trending towards that third fight right now. Better BM was
announced to be on this big card on November twenty second.
He was a late addition. They'd already announced some of
the other bouts to my recollection, and then he was
added to the show. It was the weakest of the fights.
He was basically staying busy. He was gonna fight, not
in a big championship fight or anything like that. Obviously,
the bivol had all the adults until he gave up one
of the titles. That ended up, you know, because of
mandatory reasons and all that business. But he was gonna
he was gonna be on this card and now he's
not now the reason, I'm told by people involved with
Better BV directly he is not injured. It's he was
fighting Dian Nicholson, not obviously a top name. If anybody knows,
they may have saw him. He when Deontay Wilder had
his return fight a few months ago, he fought on
that undergarden and got you know, and performed on that
pay per view. I feel like it's probably a financial
thing that maybe Turkey was like, you know what, I
don't want to spend crazy money on a Better Be
a fight against a Dion Nicholson level opponent when I
don't even know if I'm going to get a B
B all third fight. That sort of seems to have
lost a little bit of the luster in terms of
the interest in it. That as as more time goes
by since the second fight, and as we tape this,
by the way, where one year removed from their first
fight on this day one year ago on Sunday, so
Better b is not on the card now. The interesting thing,
as I was recording this, it has come to my
attention that you know, promoters love to, like, you know,
go crazy when they sign a fighter and it gets
announced and they have press releases and press conferences and
you know social media and they talk to the reporters
and do YouTube interviews in all that business. When they
contract runs out or they release a guy here they're
not with the guy anymore. That sometimes stays quiet. So
as I'm reporting what's going on with better Viv, that
he's not going to be in this November twenty two card,
which by the way, is still a phenomenal card because
you still got Dnavidis against Yard and you saw have
Brian Norman against Devin Hating used to go Bam Rodriguez
against Puma Martinez. He's still got Abdulla Mason against Sam Noakes.
It's a stacked cart. And I don't use the word
stacked lightly. I bust chops when promoters use it when
it's a bunch of shit. This is not that this
is a tremendous card. But as I'm reporting this outday,
it comes to my attention that the contract that Arthur
better Biev, who was for several years, ever since he
first won a world title, you know, a number of
years ago, he's been with Top rank, that contract ran
out like June July. So he's a free agent in
terms of his promotion, and there is no a paper
maybe morally or what they were promised or whatever, but
there's no contractual obligation to this third Bibo fight. So
we'll see what he decides to do. He's not hurt.
Maybe he'll stick with Turkey and do something else with him,
Maybe he'll go elsewhere. I just don't know the answer.
But the bottom line is he ain't with Top rank anymore.
He's not fighting on November twenty second. He's not injured,
and the Devo fight for the third time, seems farther
away than.
Speaker 1: Ever TBD on Better BF. Interesting, Yeah, and what a
difference a year makes. And again he's up there in
age and he's had some injuries, but as you are reporting,
this is not an injury thing for November twenty second,
so stay tuned on where he re surfaces.
Speaker 2: Sad news.
Speaker 1: And I remember this name from my youth. Alex Wallow,
who was a longtime boxing analyst, writer and analyst for
ABC on their TV on their Wide World to Sports
boxing and their big events, has passed away at the
age of eighty.
Speaker 2: I do know this. You and I didn't rehearse this.
Speaker 1: Wallow previously battled cancer battle throat cancer actually and had
surgery many years ago.
Speaker 2: So Dan pick up the trail here.
Speaker 1: The newer boxing fans don't know that name, but you
and I are the nostalgic type. The older fans, we
remember him calling a lot of the network TV fights
in the United States.
Speaker 3: So if you watched Wide Role of Sports post Howard
cosell Is nineteen eighties, this is when the blow by
blow announcer was Jim Lampley before he went to HBO,
and then after Jim Lampley went HBO. You had for
many years, you had the retired NFL player Dan Dierdorf,
who did a great job blow by blow. But their
analyst for most of those events was Alex Wallow, a
tremendous announcer, a very well respected person within the business,
and and you know, an Emmy Award winner, did a
lot of great calls on fights. You know, I watched
a ton of fights that he did back in the
day with Deardorf. He was very concise with the way
he described it. He didn't you know, one thing I appreciated.
The way that Walu did the job was no bullshit,
like in a different way, not not folks see the
way that like a Larry Merchant was. But he was
a he was a truth teller. If the fight stunk,
he said it. If a guy was fighting badly, he
said it. And he didn't beat around the bush, you know,
he said what was up. I mean, his job was
to give his view and to analyze what was happening,
and he did that. But he was known to the public,
I guess mostly because that's he was a front facing
talent doing these events at ringside. But he you know,
he also was a producer. He directed. But the thing
that's so bizarre, I think, and that some people think
this is kind of weird. He went from basically being
a commentator and a producer eventually worked as wet. He
became the president of ABC, like all the way up
to the top level. Been retired for you know, several years.
He was eighty years old when he passed. I found
out about it because I had received a statement from
Jim Lampley, from his publicist, our good friend, Fred Sternberg,
because Jim had been close to Alex for years they
worked together, and you know, he offered his condolences. And
I saw also from Bruce Trampler, the longtime top rank
Hall of Fame matchmaker who knew Alex really well for
a million years, posted on social media about the fact
that he had passed. You know, ABC hadn't done a
fight since two thousand. The last fight they did was
on the afternoon in June of two thousand, before or
later that night was when Oscar de la Hoya fought
Shane Moseley, and Alex did that event with Deirdar. So
he hadn't been doing boxing coverage twenty five years. Now
Here we have in twenty twenty five. Right, like you said,
a lot of folks may not know him, but he
was absolutely top of the food chain, elite broadcaster for
a long time, and he's been on the Hall of
Fame ballot for several years, and you have to go
back and look. I'm pretty sure there have been times
where I have voted for him, because you only have
so many guys you can vote for in the category.
It's such a hard category of the of the observers.
But Alex Wilder was, without question, you know, Hall of
Fame worthy, and it'd be really unfortunate if he I mean,
it'd be'd be great if he got in, but on
the on the flip side, because the ballots are due
in the next couple of weeks, it would be unfortunate
for him to get in. I'll give the right after
he died, fans.
Speaker 1: A couple of Easter eggs, two or three Easter eggs.
He did the Marvius Praiser Mike Tyson Destruction live with
Jim Lampley on the call when the fight didn't even
last forty seconds. He's also on the call all for
the George Foreman knockout of Jerry Cooney, which which I
believe that was the delayed call because it was a
pay per view, but they ran it on ABC.
Speaker 2: I remember him on that.
Speaker 3: You know, what's a great call that he does. By
the way, most people know Meldrick Taylor and Chava is
one of from HBO, you know, with Lampley and Larry
Merchant doing that call. But ABC replayed that fight, and
I actually, when I saw that Alex had passed, I
always remembered that call to fight. I went and I
searched it up as the kids say on YouTube, and
I watched round twelve of Chavez Meldrick Taylor one where
Deerdorf and while they were calling the fight, they did
just a greater call, if not better than what was
on h I mean, that was the level of fights
they did, because as you said, HBO had it live
and then like a month later, however, long after the fact,
they showed it on the network. That's the way of
boxing stuff happened back in those days. That's just, you know,
it's a sad thing. But he was a tremendous broadcaster
and in many ways that was along with the h
Biel crew Lampley, Deardorf and later a Lampley and Wallow
and Deardorf and wall In. Any Ways, the soundtrack of
my boxing like as.
Speaker 2: A team, very noteworthy. Rest in peace there for that?
All right?
Speaker 1: One more quick note. Diego Pacheco was going to be back.
When is he back?
Speaker 2: How soon? What we think here?
Speaker 3: Well, they announced it during the Nslee McCard on his own.
This is not a surprise. It's always sort of been
I guess known, if not official, that he was going
to fight in December on a dizone matchroum USA card,
And that's going to happen December thirteenth. It'll take place
in Stockton, California, and he's going to take on Kevin
Lele Sad Joe, who was if you follow your the
European scene, he's a pretty good contender.
Speaker 2: I rely on you.
Speaker 1: I don't know this is this is a guy that name,
so educate us a little more real quick.
Speaker 3: No, just a just a good contender. I mean he's
he's a strong African fighter, uh and just just good
chant it seems like. And he's got good power. And
they're bringing them to America to take on Pachecko. Now
they haven't announced, like what the stakes are. I guess
at least I didn't hear that. Perhaps it'll wind up
being some type of elimination fight, but he's gonna be
on that card. They also announced that the junior welterweight
up and comer Tito Mercado will be on the show,
and so that's gonna be probably I guess that'll be
the last match from American card of this year. And
Pachecko gets back in the ring. But again he's taken.
I don't know if it's it's maybe a decent step up.
He's certainly, in my mind, a better opponent than Celeski was,
who he knocked out in the first round, even though
Celeski had never been never been stopped previously, or maybe
he had been stopped, but certainly not that quickly. But
but look, Pachecko is a is an excellent young fighter.
You just want to see him have the development, keep active,
you know, keep what they say, lining them up and
knocking him down, and he'll get his chance. He's still
very young fighter. There's still plenty of room for improvement,
plenty of things he can learn. And you go in
the ring with a with a tough, solid fighter like
Joe and uh, you know, you're gonna learn something. However,
the thing ends up. I mean, so they've been matching
them the right way. You know, he's been a good
building job by match him. They sign him out of
the amateurs. I mentioned you about when he knocked out Celeski.
It wasn't the first round, it was the sixth round.
But that was the first time he had ever been stopped.
I was thinking about because after that, a couple of
fights later he fought Mobilly and the abillity stoped Celeski
in the first round. But yeah, Pa Gecko, this is
back in twenty twenty four. He was the first, the
first one to stop him in a fight. And so
you know, sad Joe will say, I mean, like I said,
strong guy. Uh maybe not the most uh gifted in
terms of his skills, more of like a rugged type
of you know, come forward type of guy. But feels
like I had a good chin. We'll see it's gonna
be again. Is it the biggest fight of all time? No,
but it's if you're if you're a boxing geek, I
feel like that's a pretty interesting matchup.
Speaker 1: And uh again, this is for December, for the return
of Diego Pacheco as we're talking about h and we've
we've gone over plenty here tonight again it is a
Danny Garcia fight week Later this week the return to.
Speaker 3: Brooklyn interview, my interview with the Missouri.
Speaker 2: The interview is up.
Speaker 3: By the way, I didn't mention about his first TROGI goes.
I just looked us up and we're talking. He's twenty
six and oh with twenty three knockouts.
Speaker 2: The guy that's gonna fight Pacheco.
Speaker 3: Right, he's a little older, but he's not like a
used he's thirty five, but he's not a used up
shot guy. I mean he's and he said, like I said,
strong as a bull.
Speaker 2: Stay tuned for that.
Speaker 1: Listen, great stuff here off the weekend. Everybody have a
good week as we rock on in October. Disappointing that
the Fundurra uh Thurman card is gone, but Joseph Parker,
who you'll hear later on this podcast feed in the
coming shows, is still scheduled to defend the WBO interim
title also on that same weekend, so we still do
have some action here as the month. Fabio Wardley, right,
Fabio Wardley could be it would be dangerous here with
Parker again risking his position to maybe fight User or
be the full champion.
Speaker 2: Stay tuned, Stay tuned for that listen.
Speaker 1: Have a good week and for all the Peaks, have
a good weekend, Rayphiel.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 3: Bet DJ.
Speaker 1: Follow and subscribe on the substack and the newsletter. Find
us on this pod feet going into the weekend with
the preview and recapping coming off the weekend on Apple, Spreaker, Spotify.
You've been listening to Fight Freaks Unite Recap pot