Speaker 1: Well off of a weekend that has seen I'm gonna
say it a bad stoppage in the British main event
super middleweight win for Callum Simpson. We're gonna recap that fight.
You can already tell how I feel. What was this
in the WBC Women's fight. I thought it was a
TKO and then we're calling it no decision, technical draw. Whatever. Well,
we're gonna sort through that. We got a lot to
sort through. It is the Fight Freak to Night recap.
I'm the somewhat competent host. I rely on the insight
of one Dan Rayfield or insider. Fight Freaks Unit is
his substack, after all, Get on the substack, get on
the newsletter. We love that. We typically recap coming off
the weekend, so we got a little bit to recap here.
We got fight news, we got nostalgia. George Foreman's gonna
come up, Joe Frasier's gonna come up. We've got a
lot of other stuff. I'm told eighties dramas are gonna
probably come up too, a little bit later on off
the TV because Rayfield's going down the list of all
the shows he had to watch on like Thursday Night,
Fighting Night, your mother, your mother. I was letting Tanny
and eleven year old Dan Rayfield watch things like Dynasty
and Dallas and those kind of shows back in the
eighty eighty one era. What is up with that?
Speaker 2: I didn't watch them. Then I watched them a little
bit later. Oh wait, you're making assumptions. They ran through
the whole decade.
Speaker 1: I know, and none of them can hold a candle
to mimy vice. The debate will be on later on,
perhaps for a minute or two on the program. All right, Uh,
make sure you're following, subscribing to the podcast feed. We're
in a new year. If you're brand new. If you
found us on a social media link, Dan Substack newsletter,
five star reviews, help follow along, Apple, Spreaker, Spotify. All right,
can I give the full confession you you hit me with? Hey,
the main event is over Rayfield cash is. I was
about to try to find Callum Simpson Steve Woodall from
England to British Fighters super Middleweights Commonwealth one hundred and
sixty eight pound title fight. But no sooner could I
get to the Peacock app or wherever. But this thing
was stopped, and I'm saying awful stoppage by Mark Bates,
the referee. There is my take, Simpson was probably gonna
win the fight later in the second round, maybe even
in the third round, right Phil. I'm not saying it
wasn't gonna be a knockout. I just thought it was
a bad stoppage. There's my thought. Your thought on this
main event, because we previewed it a bit on the
bet Us Show on Friday, So that's our recap. What's
your thought.
Speaker 2: We're two, Well, a couple things about it. Number One,
it was a terrible show. Let's just be straight up honest.
The mismatch in the other fight that we'll talk about
for a minute, Duboi defending her lightweight WBC title against
It's like a Kamara, complete mismatch, as I said on
the bet Us show, and the main event was about
to be a knockout. Whether you agree with the stoppage
or not, a terrible fight. Look, it was such a
bad card. This as the joke going around is that
even Den Shalom, who is the boxer promoter, didn't show
up in his own card because he was over across
the other side of the country. This fight took place
in Sheffielding when he was in law and attending the
Ring Magazine Boxing Awards dinner al chic doing what he does.
So anyway, this was a bad card Callum Simpson Againsteed
would All in the main event. Kind of a crappy
main event, you know, even if you're a British boxing fan,
not a big time fight. But Callum Simpson it looks
like an up and comer in the sense that he
might be able to crash the top ten rankings at
some point in the one hundred and sixty eight pound
way class. You said he retained the Commonwealth title, but
he also retained the British super middleway title, and he
was in with an opponent that was coming off of
his best win and Steve would also that's pretty much
the reason why he got this fight. But it was
not much of a fight. I thought it'd be a
little more competitive, to be quite honestly, but he dropped
would All in round two and then in a little
bit of the follow up attack, you know, he was
punching him, which is its boxing. Guys get hit and
as you mentioned Mark Bates, I didn't quite get it,
just jumped in and stopped the fight. Now I'm all
for safety want to see a guy yet completely destroyed. Yes,
have an injury, but this was not a fight that
it seemed to me anyway where the opponent was in
serious danger of being heard had you know the knockdown happened,
but he seemed to be okay. He complained immediately about
the stoppage. Well, may I interjected, he got a bad,
not a bad, not a good stoppage.
Speaker 1: He had his hands up, he threw punches back as
Baits stuck his right arm out. I've gone back and
watched it twice. Now what All's about to hit him? Rayphiel.
He's got his arm and about to throw a right hand,
and he's like, what are you doing looking at the
referee while the referee says that's it, and uh, we
don't have to go on and on about this again.
It's not a world title fight. But I'm just gonna
point this out. You want, I did a little research
on the show. Give me a little credit here, the
little research on the show, because I'm thinking, Okay, what
else has Mark Bates been involved in. You go back
to September and we talked about this at the time,
the Hams of Shiraz Tyler, Denny fight on the undercard
of the Dubois knockout, the sensational knockout of Joshua Mark
Bates is the referee in that fight as well. Denny
gets knocked down in the first round, gets back up,
he's fighting back. Denny gets knocked out again in the
second round, and he got hit a couple of times,
but he is clearly up at the count of eight
and is putting his arms up to say I want
to continue, and Bates just decides to wave that fight off.
I now have two examples that have me concerned this
guy should not be in big time bouts right now
without some more scrutiny, because you've got fighters, careers, perse money,
whatever within your control. And that's two stoppages that I'm
gonna say we're premature. Because Woodhull just one more. I
saw an interview with him afterwards. He said, I have
been hurt in other fights and come back to win.
I was not hurt, he goes, I was trying to
fight back.
Speaker 2: I can't disagree with them, and he says, this.
Speaker 1: Is costly for my career because I've got a family.
I've got daughters. He goes, it's one thing if I
can't defend myself. I'm paraphrasing what he said. He said,
it's one thing. If I can't defend myself, he said,
But seriously, he goes, if I had knocked him down,
would he have stopped the fight like that? With his
crowd roaring and all that, would he have stopped the
fight like that? He said? I would have had to
have knocked him down and gotten the ten count to
get a stop.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's his thing. We don't know what bab
another thing. But the end result is it was a
shitty It was a shitty stoppage. The broadcasters were surprised
by it. I was surprised by you know, I think
even even Callum Simpson when you when you looked at
his body language, when when he realized the fight was over,
he seemed a little bit surprised.
Speaker 1: We're gonna move on. But do you agree now that
I brought up another one, that there should be some
more scrutiny of this ref I know that's for the
Brits and the Brits Boxing Board of Control because he's
got two prominent fights in the last four months where
you can look at and go, wait a.
Speaker 2: Minute, yeah, I had forgot. I hadn't realized that he
was the ref and that other fight I don't remember.
I mean, I remember talking about that fight, I didn't
remember specifically that he was the referee in the bout.
But I'll say this, if I'm the manager or the
promoter of a fighter that I have in a fight
significant or even otherwise, and he is assigned to be
the referee, and maybe my guy doesn't have the best
chin in the world, or you know, you might want
to have a little bit of your antenna up on that,
I guess I don't know if I don't think he's
doing anything on purpose. I'm not alleging that he was
on the you know, in the tank or anything. He
just sometimes you just have, you know, a perspective and
you're you're a little quick trigger and calling a fight.
Speaker 1: He's been a referee for about eight or nine years.
He's also been a judge, and we often talk about
this A lot of times, these guys will ref a
fight on a big card and then judge a fight
and then come back and ref a fight with the
British boxing I'm just saying, uh, just file this away,
all right. So we gave that some time on the
cod feature. Did you agree with me? I thought they
were stopping the fight for a TKO for Caroline to bloe. No.
Speaker 2: I knew that I was going to go to the cards,
the cards, but it was going to be ruled the tech.
Speaker 1: Kay. I realize she's got the cutover the eye, but
the swollen right eye was because she's getting popped and
popped and it's swollen shut.
Speaker 2: But they're stopping it specifically due to the cut. That's
the reason I think.
Speaker 1: I honestly, if i'm Dubois camp, they've got a strong
argument that should be a t KO. She couldn't continue,
she could not see out of her right eye. That
had nothing to do with the with the cut over
the left eye. Here we go back to the official,
and remember, let's clarify, elaborate, the referee is ultimately in charge.
The doctor can recommend, but it's up to the referee
to whether the fight continues. He agreed with the doctor,
he waved it off. I just I agree with Dubois.
She says, Hey, I stopped her. I had her nose
busted up and bleeding. What did they clarify it? Did
they clarify that no decision or.
Speaker 2: What I'm gonna tell you. Let's I'm going to back
up to the beginning, because you'd like to jump in
the middle of the story instead of start at the beginning.
So she's making her first defense. She had been elevated
from the interim champion to the full WBC champion at
the convention back in December when Katie Taylor vacated. So
now she's making her first defense. It's kind of a
big deal. Everybody looks to Caroline Duoa, the younger sister
of Daniel Dubois. It's one of the best young women's
box in the world and with probably a good, long,
successful career in front of her. And they handpicked kamaraw
who was her opponent for this fight. Not a fight
where I thought it would be competitive at all. I
said it on the Friday that US show, right, and
Duwa dropped her in the first round. Was clearly overpowering her,
clearly more talented, clearly in every possible way, Kamara is
showing heart. I'll give her that credit. And when they
had a head clash, she got you know, the injury
from the head clash. Now, whether she was being beaten
up in other manners, the official reason why the fight
was stop was due to what had occurred from the
head butt. So that's what is the reason for the
stop it. You can say what you think if there
were some other issues to stop it, but that's It's
sort of like if you are in a fight and
you're cut by a punch and there's another cut that
happens on a butt, but they stopped because of the
punch from the cut from the butt, it's going to
be ruled that reason, not from the other one. And
that's what happened this particular case. Now, they rang the
bell for the third round and then they called the
time out, so technically it's the third round. The doctor
took a look and the ref took a look, and
they decided that's it. So it goes down because four
rounds are not complete, and it is a world titled bout,
it goes down as a technical draw. Now, if the
fight's taking place in the United States of America, that
fight is a no contest. They have slightly different rules
in the way that their administrator. So my particular view is, yeah,
it sucks that she's gonna have the draw on her record. Yeah,
she was gonna probably stop her in my opinion, it
definitely cost us on the bet us because I thought
she was gonna walk right through Kamara, and it costs
us on the betting U. But she should have a
no contest, not a technical draw. And I wish that
the British Boxing Board would change that rule everywhere else
that I'm aware of her most places anyway in the
world that play that it would have been a no contest.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: And now it's a technical draw for no reason but
to Ba is tremendous younger and take a lot of
ass over the next few years.
Speaker 1: All right, there we go on that. Now, two other
points on this one. Kamara was definitely leading with her
own head on more than one occasion. In fact, one
time they cracked heads early on in the second round
with her leaning right in and I don't know how
well she could see out of the right eye, which again.
Speaker 2: She got cut by the one on the left.
Speaker 1: Yes, but the right eye has nothing to do with
head butts. That's a punch, and her eyes started to
swell badly from it. She was being beaten up, and
I'm just saying to Bash it should have gotten better.
And so then the second part of this, how soon
do you think we see Duboi back in another title defense,
because this was basically two rounds of nothingness. Yeah, she'd
be back in ninety days, you know.
Speaker 2: I means that's simply a matter of Boxer's calendar and
what they've got scheduled for their shows. They generally do
is show a month on Sky Sports in the UK.
Obviously they are simulcast here on Peacock in the United States,
so I don't know what their calendar looks like, you know,
two to three months from now. Caroline is not necessarily
in the position at the moment to be the main
event of these cards. So if they have a spot
as a co feature on an undercard, absolutely she can
be on that. But again, it's not a matter of
her health or her ability. It's just simply a matter
of what are the logistics for her promoter and other
obligations that they have to other fighters. So I'd like
to see her back in the ring as quickly as possible.
Hopefully Boxer will accommodate that and they'll make a real
fight for and not a complete mismatch like they did
on this matchup.
Speaker 1: Good enough, let's move on to some news, some nostalgia
all right, Naoya in a way was supposed to be
fighting Sam Goodman in a couple of weeks. He was
previously cut, delayed their Christmas Eve fight December twenty fourth,
and I you know, I'm going about my business on Friday.
Was it Friday night or was it Saturday morning? And
my Dan Rayphael Substack is right there and Sam Goodman's
cut again. Bud, Wait, wait, it's not going to delay
the date. It's a new opponent now for in a way,
come up? Well again the details here? Yea? What's going on?
Speaker 2: You got to just feel terrible for Sam Goodman. I
mean he took he didn't take the fight, and he
let in a way fight the Dohaney fight, he took
a sort of a tune up fight. He won that,
and then he gets the title shot. He gets the
injury that costs him the fight on December twenty fourth.
Now here we are a couple of weeks before he's
supposed to have the fight. He's spar again, and by
all accounts are taking every precaution in the training camp
because he still got a spar even if he got
the cut, and they're trying to protect it and wouldn't
you know, he gets hit right on the same exact
spot and the cut bus open even worse this time.
Now it's not even just a matter of a few stitches.
He's going to do classic surgery. I actually got an
email from his manager who sent me a picture of
the new injury, and it looks way worse than the
first one, which at that time Sam Goodman had a
picture that he posted on his own social This is
a very bad cut. He's going to be out four months.
They're saying maybe six months. He's out between the surgery
and healing process, and you know, in a way, is
not about to wait for Sam Goodman. You know, Sam
Goodman is a good fighter, but he's not gonna run
in a way's career or the junior featherweight division. So
the team around in a way they found on short notice.
I don't know if they had him on standby or
he's a guy that was maybe training for another fight,
what have you. But they have another opponent for him.
They've gotten an opponent named Yee June Kim. He is
a Korean fighter who is thirty two years old, who
is twenty one victories with two losses. He's been I'm sorry,
twenty one wins, two losses, and two draws. He has
thirteen knockouts. He has never been stopped in his two losses.
He does not have the type of a record where
if you were peruising down his resume of the different
fighters that he has faced, you know, you might fight
one or two guys that you might be familiar with,
but no big names, no big wins. You know, he's
done various you know, regional titles, you know, a youth title,
you know, the IBF Asia title, things like that, so
he you know, he was in ratings and that sort
of thing, but again, not a big name at all.
But I can't even blame in a way because he's
ready to make a double mandatory because Goodman was the
mandatory for both the IBF as well as I believe
it was the WBO, and he was ready, willing, set
to do the fight twice. I mean, they postponed a
month to accommedy Goodman's injury, and so now they're moving forward.
The card will take place, still going to be on
January twenty fourth, still going to be on ESPN Plus
in the United States, and in a way is going
to go in there and defend this world, you know,
defend his on disputed title.
Speaker 1: And we knew, I mean, no offense here in a
way is the drawing card, and he's the reason for
the discussion about any and all of this. We get this.
So this is a new opponent, slot, a new opponent
in there. I'm just looking too and for ye the
opponent here, he's fought all over the place. Just looking
at his background. He's fought in Mexico, he's fought in
the United States, he's fought in Australia, and he's fought
recently in Thailand in his last four fights. So it
hasn't just primarily been in Korea, for example. I don't
know that he's going to be any opposition at all.
This may be over, maybe over quickly when we come
around to it.
Speaker 2: But the bottom line is that I mean, and this
is nothing against Goodman or any other junior February or
anything against Kim. But the reality is right now, most
people would tell you that there's nobody in the one
hundred and twenty two pounds way class that would be
a serious test, you know, And even if you're a
person like myself that supports the idea that Achmadalia should
get the opportunity. You know, I'm not so sure that
he provides any kind of humongous tests either. So right now, he,
you know, in a way, is the champ. He's undisputed.
He's beating the guys he's supposed to beat in a
variety of different weight classes, and he's a superstar, and
he's the kind of fighter, at least in Japan where
he can fill up an arena regardless of his opponent.
It's not like Sam Goodman was bringing you know, thousands
of people to the arena to celtickets and that sort
of thera. This is the inn a way show, end
of story.
Speaker 1: That's right. They're there to see the meal, but you need.
Speaker 2: Another body across the ring from you. And so it's
not going to be Sam Goodman as the opponent come
January twenty fourth. It will be ye ye June Kim.
And if he somehow does something it has a moment,
it's still gonna be viewed as like an upset special
because he's taken this fight on such short notice and
he is, you know, entirely unknown unless you're the most
I mean, I heard of him, but I can't say
I've seen a lot of his fights, or any of
his fights for that matter. But when I look at
the record, seen a couple of names I recognize. But uh,
you know, like most people, you're there to watch NOI
in a way do his thing up.
Speaker 1: And then we gave you a little bit about where
he's been fighting, and that is in a couple of
weeks on January twenty fourth. All right, little Rayfield news,
this is why you got to be on the sub stack.
We've been hearing about Sebastian Fundora and Eryl Spence brother Rayfaeld,
Is this this is gonna happen? Apparently they're down the road, right,
go ahead, Well.
Speaker 2: Like this is this fight has been discussed since. If
you go back to when Fondora defeated Tim Zoo in
the Big Upset and he won the WBO one hundred
and fifty four pound title. He also in that same
bout won the vacant WBC title. Errol Spence, who was
also a PBC fighter, was their ringside at the Tmobile
Arena and got him in the ring after the fight,
and Fondora and Spence had a friendly back and forth
and took pictures together and they started to talk about
fighting each other. Of course, you know, Errol Spence would
be coming up from the welterweight division, where he has
not fought since he got his clock cleaned very badly
in a knockout loss to Terrence Crawford for the undisputed
welterweight title when they were there to unify all four
belts back in July twenty twenty three, and ever since then,
there's been lots of conversation. But Fondora had his injury
problems because of his nose, and he was suspended medically
for a period of time and was taking some time
off understandably after that very very difficult, rigorous fight. His
promotion team at that time said he ain't fighting until
the end of the year the earliest, and that you know,
that ended up not happening, And so there's been and
then and then Errol had a problem with his eye
once again that he had to have handled. So you know,
they were both having their issues back and forth, and
so there was never to my recollection, I don't remember
there ever being an actual date officially said Okay, this
is when it's going to be either announced or even
through the rumor mill that this was the date. Okay,
but there was always sort of the intention that they're
going to fight each other, to the extent that even
there was discussions with the sanctioning bodies where the WBC
was willing to sanction and do the fight, but the
WBO they drew their line in the sand and said
that they would not allow Errol to challenge for their
title because he'd been off for such a long period
of time, he was coming off a bad knockout loss,
he was not in the WBO ratings. There'd be nothing
to put him in the WBO ratings because he hasn't
been active, and so there was a lot of things
about that that even if it happens, it would be
only for the WBC title. I guess Fandora wouldn't lose
the WBO belt, but it just wouldn't be at stake,
and that if he lost the fight, I guess it
would go vacant. But anyway, so now for the I
don't know. I can't say it's the first time, but
I was told in the last several days, and I
wrote a little bit about this on my snubsack and
posted it on my social media. Again, I'll be a
little surprised frankly, if this does come to pass that
they're talking about a specific date, which.
Speaker 1: Is March twenty ninth.
Speaker 2: Yeah, March twenty nine exactly, so when headline a a
PBC on Prime Video pay per view card, so that's
the date that they are talking about that is being planned.
I am told the venue would be the MGM Grand
Garden area in Las Vegas, obviously one of the main
places that those types of fights land. Now I have
said and I wrote specifically, so I don't want anybody
to accuse me of misinformation. I was very careful and
specific in the words that I chose. The fight is
not signed. To my knowledge, no one is that it is.
It is not one hundred percent on the calendar just yet.
And I have to be honest with you when I
was told this the March twenty ninth date, which I've
now seen reported elsewhere confirming saying, you know, confirming the
Rayfield report. So it made me feel better anyway. It
is highly unusual for a promoter in this case PBC
slash TGB to put on two pay per view fights
in the same month. And the reason for that, and
this goes back when I first started covering boxing and
I learned these types of things back in the days
of HBO and Showtime. Is the last thing in the
world that these companies want is for their customer to
have two pay per view bills in the same billing cycle.
Now that works a little bit differently now because a
lot of people access a pay per view if they
buy it on streaming or as a one off. But
still you get the credit card bill and there's multiple
pay per views. So I still don't think that that's
a good thing. So the reality is that March twenty
ninth is in the same month as March first, when
PBC also has a fight with Tank Davis against Lamont Roach,
which is still scheduled. Not despite his Tank Davis's efforts
to sabotage his own event by saying it's canceled, it's
actually not canceled. So we'll see if March twenty ninth
actually comes to pass. But that is in fact what
they are discussing and planning. Sebastian Fandora is training now
in aerol. Spence supposedly is back in the gym. Also,
we'll see what happens.
Speaker 1: I was just to go there with you've got the
Benavidez Morel pay per view coming on February first. Then
you've got Tank Davis. This is a pay per view fight.
The only okay. Errol Spence has done nothing at junior
middleweight to want a title shot, first of all. Second
of all, the last time we saw him, you and
I were there together and everybody else saw it in
Las Vegas in July of twenty twenty three, and he
got blasted in that fight. I would feel better on
the credibility of this if Erol Spence had a fight
against somebody at junior middleweight before he got this shot
to show what he can do.
Speaker 2: Let me jump guys.
Speaker 1: I go in. I go in skeptical that we aren't
gonna see Fundoro wipe him out because I am not an.
Speaker 2: Almost not I have never really had a problem with
a fighter who's not been in a particular weight class
to go to that weight class and challenge for the title,
because that's a lot of guys who go from one
weight class, move up and challenge for another title. To me,
is not in any way, shape or form an issue
when you're one of the top fighters in the world,
like I had no problem. Terrence Crawford coming off of
having beaten Erol Spence go into drumior middleway and challenging
for a title. That's not an issue. The problem is,
and I'm an I love Erol Spence, but the issue
that people would have is not because he's going up
and getting a title opportunity. It's because he's going up
to get a title opportunity after his most recent fight,
not in that weight class, got absolutely destroyed. Even if you,
let's say, if you had lost a close decision to
Crawford or something along those lines, I still probably couldn't
really argue with the fight where he gets the opportunity
to fight for a title. So it's not that he's
coming off a loss and fighting for a title, even
the defeat. It's that it was the manner that was
so so so one sided that makes you skeptical. And
again it's going to be the third PBC pay per
view in less than three full months, that's obviously, and
they don't they don't charge cut right prices. These are
seventy to eighty dollars pay per views or more.
Speaker 1: To say it, what are we doing here? Uh? And
the one other factor, all right, and again these guys
take risks. I understand that to get in there. But
if you remember, going back to the summer of twenty
twenty three, in the aftermath of this, there was serious
concern with how brutally beaten up Eryl Spence's face was
on the heels of the fact that he had had
reconstructive surgery for his jaw, for his mouth, his teeth,
et cetera, after that bad car crash. Don Okay, well, no,
he had reconstructive surgery after the car crash. I'm talking
about and the way, and I don't know what's been
done since then, but the way that Terrence Crawford brutalized him.
They were talking about stopping that fight maybe after the
second round because of the swelling the blood, et cetera.
And now you tell me there's more eye trouble, which
there is that's out there. I am so skeptical of this.
I am dubious Rayphael on a Sunday about this. Are
we even gonna get to March the twenty ninth when
it comes around in sixty seventy five days, We shall see.
Speaker 2: Like I said, we'll see. But I mean, the reality
is that is what they're discussing. My job is to
report the reality of the facts on the ground, and
there is no doubt or dispute that that is the
date and that they're discussing his fight again, whether it
actually gets done and signed for that date, I wouldn't
be shocked at all. If it didn't happen on that date.
Speaker 1: There you go, Or if it doesn't happen at all,
I wouldn't be shocked. It don't hap at all. I'm
saying that, all right, so I listen.
Speaker 2: I will say this. I still do think it will
happen because it's the fight that both camps seem to want.
It's the cant to Fandora. He can have any different
way he could go with different routes. He could maybe,
do you know, find a fight with a rematch with
Tim Zoo, maybe try to unify with Martazoliev, who's part
of PBC in some sense because of his relationship and
doing the Tim Zoo fight. They could maybe go after Crawford,
but he's always been sort of steadfast on Spence and
his team, and Errol wants another title opportunity and there's
not a lot of other opportunity for him. He's not
getting at crawf rematch. At the moment or anything like that.
So I do think ultimately, if if everybody's healthy, that
that fight will happen. To me. It's not a matter
of if, it's only a matter of when.
Speaker 1: I'm dubious he got destroyed. It hasn't had another fight since.
I'm just putting it on a record, all right, Moving on,
We did talk a lot on this pod going into
the weekend about Tea Fimo Lopez and not wanting to
fight Mattias, turning down the numerous fights. All right. Since
then on Friday, the WBO has now upgraded the Jack
Catterall on Arnold Barbosa fight that is upcoming early on
in February to the interim. Is that the interim situation,
the vacant interim title is now on the line. Clarify
what they did announced, please.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they did do that. So, first of all, I
don't think it that Just to back up for a second,
I don't think that I'll defend Tia Fimo Lopez at
the moment, and sometimes he's hard to defend. I don't
think it's that he was ducking Subril Mattias or didn't
want to fight him. I think it was he was
unhappy because he wanted more money like most fighters do.
But that's besides the point. He's been in active. But
by by boxing standards, he hasn't been that inactive. He
just fought in June relatively speaking. That's that's like a
that's like a short weekend, you know, get away. But
in that weekend, in that period of time since the
June fight against Steve Claggett, he has turned down numerous fighters.
So he hasn't been active in the sense that he
Number one hasn't fought in those number of months. Number
two has nothing scheduled. Number three has turned down the
variety of fights that I just mentioned. And so you
have Catterall and Barbosa, who are both in positions where
they have send it to the top of the weight class.
Barbosa had won the fight over Hoser Ramirez, although he
declined to make that the official eliminator. But Caterrell was
a guy that certainly warrants another world title opportunity. So
many people feel like he was robbed in the undisputed
fight against Josh Taylor. He's got to win more recently,
where he did a good job against Regis Program. Anyway,
these are whatever you think about their styles or their
resumes or whatever it is. There's no dispute that among
the top handful of guys at one hundred and forty
pounds are Jack Catterall and Arnold Barbosa Junior. So they
had signed to do the eliminator that's going to take
place February fifteenth at the co Op Live in Manchester, England.
It's the Zone main event. Manchester is essentially Jack Catterall's
home area. You know, he's from a small town, you know,
fifteen twenty minutes from there, and so it was the eliminator.
But because of the situation that was going on with
Ti Femo, the WBO decided Gustavo Alverari, who's the new
WBO president, was interested to do this, in his opinion,
to try to keep the division moving, keep things active.
You know, they'd like to keep their their coffers filled
and their fighters fights and the rankings moving and all that.
I can't even blame him, be honest. So because of
the un as he described it in his own comments
that he said about it, this was in light of
the uncertainty regarding Ti Fimo Lopez his career, and then
he felt that it was in the best interest of
boxing and in the one hundred and forty poundsion to
make this an interim title fight to can sort of
keep things going. So they I guess he consulted as
I texted him after he made the post, and I said,
this is this actually official, because originally he was just
saying this is what he would like to do, but
he still has to consult with his championship committee. So
I messaged him before I wrote about it in the
you know the next day, and he was like, yes,
it's been done and it will be for the ternom title.
So it will now be for the term title and
as he finished his original message, the show must go on.
And that is true. T Themo Lopez and every other
champion in boxing is not above the sport. You know,
you have every right to go and do your career
how you want, but you do not have a right
that if you're not going to fight, which is again
your prerogative, you cannot hold up your title and the
division for a long periods of.
Speaker 1: Time, unless, of course, it's Jamal Charlow three years with
the WBC without defending it once. I'm just putting that
out there one hundred percent organization.
Speaker 2: But yes, and by the way, I actually think that
if the WBC had to do that again, they might
do it in a different But that's besides the point.
I feel like the WBO.
Speaker 1: Had like an extra year to do the right thing.
I'm just saying, and I don't want to sidetrack us.
Speaker 2: But again, I'm not here to discuss what doubt is them.
I'm here to talk about the WBO junior welter.
Speaker 1: H what it's the likelihood that tam Femo fights the
winner of this fight later in the summer, is that
I mean, that's compelling. The winner in this fight obviously
would be a compelling opponent for Taya Femo.
Speaker 2: I don't think it's impossible. However, I think ta Femo
frankly is looking for bigger names, bigger money. It's no
surprise that tia Fimo was in London at the Ring
Magazine gala dinner. He met with Turkey al Chik. At
this dinner, you know there's big things afoot. Turkey has
said that he'd like to see tia Fimo win a
fight against the likes of a Ryan Garcia or a
Devin Hainey, somebody like that, so well, it's not out
of the realm of possibility. I think there'll be other
bigger things growing.
Speaker 1: Fair enough on that one more note, Oh hey, Jeron
Bootsenis is on the rundown here coming off the weekend.
The IBF welterweight champion is apparently trying to figure out
if he can have a unification fight now with a
Mitis stanionis. All right, so tell me the latest here
and there also is obviously a mandatory challenger as well.
Tell me more that it has to be accommodated in
this what's going on here?
Speaker 2: Well, and as you know, and everybody who follows us
knows that he was supposed to fight which would have
been a great fight against Virgil Ortiz Junior, that was
going to be on the February twenty second card in
Saudi Arabia, the big big show they're doing. Main event
of that of that big event is the rematch between
Arthur betder bievan Dimiti Bibol for the on disputed light
heavyweight title. And then of course in they were trading
their paperwork and well, I don't know, it suddenly showed
up that they were going to do the fight at welterweight,
which was never contemplated for the bout, and so myself
and others, I mean, whatever you say to me, that
was just a point out, flat out duck, you know,
quack quack quack quack quack qack quack quack quack. But
one thing is after Ennis had his uh win, although
not a great performance in his rematch with Karen Chikazi
and the mandatory, he made a whole big thing about
how he wants to go to you know, possibly go
to junior middleway because he's really having a hard time
making the welterweight limit. But also he wanted to unify
before he moved up. And as we discussed that nauseum,
at that time, there were no unification fights to be
had because the other title holders were not currently available.
And one of the one of the things that was
the reason for that is because Amanta Stanionis, who was
the WBA champion, had a mandatory order from the w
BA to fight his mandatory challenger, which is Chakrum Giosov,
the Olympian, who had just fought a few days before
the August reat season card on the Santa Monica Pier
where I attended and watched him. You know, look kind
of pedestrian, to be quite honest with you. But anyway, Uh,
they had gone back and forth for quite a bit.
And so Eddie Hearn, who was the promoter for Giasov
and and Uh and Sanionos is with Pebs see they
had made a deal and although they hadn't announced when
and where the fight would be, but the WBA said
they had made a deal canceled the person. However, you
have Gisaw who was with Mattrow. But oh, by the way,
bout tennis is matter trom Also so it is said
to me by the WBA that Giosov had agreed to
step aside in the last you know, say a week
or two or whatever to allow for them to do
a unification fight, if that is what can take place.
And when Eddie Hearn was in Australia last week where
he was co promoting ji Opataiah's cruiserweight title defense, he
did a bunch of interviews with some of the press
in Australia and when he was asked about different fighters
in his table, he was asked about boot Tennis and
he said, yes, we are negotiating or trying to make
this match between Boots and stanionis uh and so that
is where we're standing. They are negotiating the fight they
have Apparently, according to what GILBERTA. Mendoza, the president of
the WBA, told me, that chiosav had agreed to step aside.
It appears as though if they can come to terms,
they have a clear pathway where the title will be
available in the fight. So I suspect that that will
get made at some point. And while it's not as
good or as interesting a fight as one against Virgil Artis,
at the very least it is a unification fight to
the stilly worthy interesting matchup. They are both undefeated, they
both make entertaining matches, and I'd be happy to see them,
you know, both of them get their opportunity to unify.
Speaker 1: And I will say one more thing to this, It's
not our job to do public relations for Jeron Innis.
It's been a mess. He's taken broadside hits. But if
he wants to stay at welterweight and accumulate belts and
try to become a more noteworthy if not, you know,
have a significant part of his career be welterweight world champion,
if that's what he has in mind. Okay, I'm behind
that now Again, I'm on the record as we sit
here January the twelfth, correct the year twenty twenty five
of our lord. If he's moving up to one fifty
four after he fights stanionis that this whole thing as
a joke, this whole because he could have already been
at one fifty four. Well, no, no, we both have
our opinions. I'm giving you my opinion if he ducked
out and it is a duck of the Ortiz fight
to have maybe one more fight to get an extra
belt and then eventually move up to one fifty four. Anyway,
my opinion is that's a joke. If that's what he
does now, that's a hypothetical.
Speaker 2: Thing should be true at the same time, I if
he fights the unification, he will have justified his desire
to stay because he said he wanted atification fight. Now,
I don't think he's staying for the long term because
I don't think those other unifications are necessarily going to
be there, but they might be maybe Brian Norman, if
he wins his fight in his defense in March, they'll
revisit that fight potentially. But I would be a little
surprised if he's able to do an undisputed situation that
takes a lot of effort, and there is a lot
of talent at sixty four, so I don't think, and
again I've been very harsh on Ennis that it is
a duck of virginal artists. But that said, if he
stays and he Unification fight, and then he goes up,
he'll have done what he wanted to do, which is Unified,
which is still in the pantheon of anybody's resume and
career important, and there will still be opportunity for major
fights at one fifty four, perhaps even to revisit a
Virgil Ortiz fight down the road, which would make the
whole episode of his supposed ducking part of a storyline
that would make that fight even bigger.
Speaker 1: I understand, And my opinion is if his next fight
after whatever's being proposed here, is at one fifty four,
that's a.
Speaker 2: Joke, because you probably it probably will be.
Speaker 1: The greats, the greats in the eighties, which you and
I are nostalgic, and we're about to get to the nostalgia.
Leonard would move up and move back down to Reynard
would durand would move up and move back down. Hearns
would move up and move back down. Marvin Hagler was
like the only guy out of the four Kings that
stayed at middleweight. They would go up and come back down.
In wait, it's not like it's unheard of to take
a fight at one fifty four and then come back
and be a great champion at one forty seven. Happened
before I'm off my soapbox.
Speaker 2: Not just sadies where that's happened. It's happened plenty of time.
Speaker 1: Sure, So all right, we gave that enough time. Stay
tuned on whether that fight gets made or not, or
whether we go another few months and we don't see
Jeron Innis fight anybody other than Jacazi, in which we
saw twice. Nostalgia time, shall we? It was eight years
ago on Tuesday, January fourteenth is the date we're talking about,
twenty seventeen, where James Degail and Badu Jack bought what
Raphael calls an epic super middleweight unification fight that ended
up with no winner. You were ringside, and also some
guy named Gervonte Davis Tank Davis became a world champ
for the first time. You were there Barclay Center, correct, Brooklyn,
New York. What do you remember about that doubleheader?
Speaker 2: This was a great show. And by the way, besides
just those two bouts that you mentioned, which were the
main TV fights on Showtime, he also had Amanda Serrano
in a world title fight on the undercard, and I
don't even think was televised to my recollection. Maybe he
was on Showtime Extreme or something like that. But anyway,
the two main fights, the main event was spectacular bed
dude Jack and James de Gale. James de Gail, for
those who don't remember, was an Olympic gold medal winner
for the UK, you know, for Britain, and was a
heck of a heck of a professional before he retired
back in twenty nineteen off of a loss to Chris
Yubang Junior. But I think the high mark of his
career in terms of like entertainment value and just you know,
an all real, true, first class kind of big time
fight was this unification fight against Badu Jack. Just a great,
great battle. I went back, I knew we're going to
talk about this. I went back and looked at my
past Fights of the Year list, and even though I
didn't take it as the fight of the year was
on like among my upper echelon top, you know, three
four or five fights of that year. Just a great battle.
It was really because it's so early in January, this
was really the first of twenty seventeen. It was like
the first major world title fight of that calendar year.
And they really they went at it. Man, it was
a heck of a fight. Bed dude. Jack got knocked
down in the first round. He came back and had
a twelfth round against James de Gale. There was bloodshed
in the fight my recollection as James de gal had
one of his teeth knocked out in the fight. I mean,
it was a really rough, rough, rough, tough fight, and
both guys fought their hearts out and in the end
you had two judges score or I take that back,
one judge scoring about one fourteen, one to twelve in
favor of the Gale, but the two other judges scoring
the fight one thirteen to one thirteen. And I went
back and I looked up my original article from my
ringside story. I also scored the fight one fourteen to
one twelve in favor of the Gale. Who, by the way,
when I say got knocked down in the twelfth round,
barely survived the twelfth round. I mean he survived the
twelfth round, kind of like Tyson Theory survived the ninth
round against Usig. He was on the verge of being
stopped without question. And both of them retained their titles.
They were both making their third title defenses against each other,
so they were both in a similar spot in terms
of their championship. Brain bedue Jack actually was his second
draw in a row. He had a draw in his
previous fight as well. Uh, but you know, a very
memorable fight. Barclay Center when it was hosting fights all
the time, I felt like I was making a trip
to Brooklyn for fights like every other month practically they
did in the in the cards were pretty deep also,
And so you mentioned about the other fight. This was
back when Tank Davis was still a very young fighter,
and in fact, when he defeated by knockout the then
undefeated Jose Right, who was an Olympian who was undefeated.
Now and now, most people look at Madraza today, you know,
he's just a good name. He's kind of a journeyman.
But back then, you know, he would have like I said,
he'd been in the Olympics. He was a bona fide
uh you know, top guy at one hundred and thirty pounds.
He was undefeated and he'd been rolling through everybody, and
Tank uh just completely annihilated him, basically dropped him and
stopped him and really opened a lot of eyes. I
think people the Tank was considered like a top prospect,
but he hadn't really been tested at that point. He
hadn't really fought anybody like super top notch, I mean
a couple of like good, like middling contender types. But
he went through him, dropped him in the seventh round,
stopped him in the seventh round, and looked outstanding and
won the IBF title at one hundred and thirty pounds.
It was the first of the various belts that Tank
has won in his career. In fact, there are some
people who might still look in terms of not necessarily commercially,
but the stakes in terms of where he was in
his career and the type of a pony was fighting,
that this might be the still the most significant fight
of his career. I mean, obviously Ryan Garcia was a
bigger fight commercially, but in terms of the danger posed
by the opponent that he was fighting a top guy
in his prime when they fought, and a lot you know,
Tank's been accused of fighting maybe some lesser guy, maybe
some guys with good names that were you know, much smaller,
like a Leo Santa Cruz for example. But this was
a really good win for Tank Davis and when he
won this fight, and again this is a lot. This
is back in twenty seventeen. At that time, by winning
the fight, he was at that moment in boxing, the
youngest active world titlelder in this he was twenty two
years old at the time when he won this bout.
So that was a terrific showtime card with that kind
of matchup in the main event. That was just a
very memorable fight. And it's it does you know, it's
one of the sometimes you see these fights when they
unfold and everybody raves about him. They get on all
the lists and they're in the end of the year
type of fight of the Year candidates, and you know,
people love the matchups and it fades because other obviously,
you know, the next year goes by and maybe it
wasn't the winner of the fight of the year. But
don't make any mistake. This fight between the Gail you
know and and Bad ju Jack is a legit, superb fight.
If you never saw it, you can find it on YouTube.
Definitely go check it out because it is a It
would be a fight of the Year contender in any
year period.
Speaker 1: All Right, two more notes here on the nostalgia Again,
that was eight years ago Tuesday, on the fourteenth, George Foreman,
they do George Happy Birthday. Big George turns seventy six
on Friday and also forever linked on his on his birthday.
Roundabout Joe Fraser, who would have been eighty one on Sunday,
the epic Forever Howard Cosell screaming down Goes Fraser, Down,
Goes Fraser, Forever linked Joe, George Foreman and Joe Fraser.
A lot of people don't remember they fought again. Actually
a few years later after the lost to Ali and
Foreman in uh in the Islanders Hockey Arena in Uniondale,
Long Island, New York, knocked out Joe Fraser again in
the rematch. But those two are forever linked as great
heavyweights for sure. With birthdays this weekend. What else do
we want to say about that?
Speaker 2: That's the you're talking about the Nassau Coliseum.
Speaker 1: I was from Nassau County Coliseum. That would have like
Islanders hockey, WWF wrestling, and maybe something else the circus,
and then it had the Foreman Fraser rematch. Belave.
Speaker 2: It hosted its share of boxing events, I mean on
the in like just as one example, Mike Tyson fought
there very early in his career. You know, Danny Jacobs
fought there back a few years ago in a televised fight.
I think it was a middleweight title fight anyway. But
when Fraser and Foreman did their thing, you know, the
first fight, of course is their memorable one because George
Foreman just stomped them out in two rounds. And as
you mentioned the famous call for Howard Cossel when George,
you know, this was a WBC heavyweight championship, it was
like a super big deal. When they met in the rematch,
Fraser was much more close to the end of his career,
but yet he still lasted into the fifth round in
the rematch. And remember the thing about that that was
so memorable is that he comes into the ring. He
was wearing that the you know, had the jacket on
with the hood up and when he pulled the hood down,
it showed that he had a bald head like chid.
Fraser had shaved his head, and it was like a
big shock to a lot of people. I'm right. Howard
Cosell calling that fight also was sort of like surprised
by the bald look. That actually was Joe Fraser his
second to last fight of his career. This is the
second fight was in June of seventy six. Joe basically retired.
He came back and had one more fight that he
fought to a draw in nineteen eighty at the end
of nineteen eighty one. But yeah, Foreman and Fraser, you know,
they're two fights together, they are that linked them. And
of course the third, uh, the third of that of
that threesome of the greats was obviously Muhammad Ali, who
obviously knocked out George Foreman, but uh went two and
one against Joe Fraser lost the biggest fight maybe in
the twentieth century in terms of attention, the first fight
between them undefeated when they met each other, Fraser holding
the belts, Ali still being the lineal champion. But uh,
you know they're two they are still you know even
today if you talk to people who are the greatest
headweights of all time. You almost you know obviously mentioned
Ali first, but when you start going down the list,
like it's always you know, Fraser Foreman Forman and Fraser,
Like you can't possibly like say their names without saying
the others. And you know obviously with Ali also they
needed each other to make each other.
Speaker 1: I love forever intertwined. For sure, they are forever intertwined Forman,
Fraser and Ali.
Speaker 2: And here's the thing, like we've spent not we when
the just mean we collectively as a society has spent
a lot of time on the bad things that happened
between Ali and Fraser. You know, they had that, you know,
sometimes very difficult relationship, and there was a lot of
bad feelings between them at times, particularly Joe about some
of the things that he perceived that Ali had done
him wrong by the one thing though unless somebody can
prove me otherwise, Like you never heard about harsh words
or bad feelings or bad blood or anything between George
and Fraser. Not to say they were like best friends,
but they had an affection for each other. Certainly George
did for Joe. I've heard George talk about it. I've
talked to George about it personally in the past, never
had that type of conversation with Fraser. But I'm just saying,
you know, there's a litany of things you could read
and watch about the difficult relationship between Ali and Fraser.
You won't find that about the similar things between Ali
and Foreman. They had a much more respectful and I
guess I can't stay closer because there was an element
of closeness between Ali and Fraser, even if there was
some bad feelings. But look like you can't stay one
with that the other. There are a few years apart
in age, but the birthdays are within a couple days
of each other. And they're just two of the greats
of all time, and I could. I love sitting and
talking about George Foreman and Joe Fraser, their fighter unforgettable.
Speaker 1: Any mention of the nineteen seventies is going to have
to have one of these three names in it. In
the heavyweight division, I mean the greatest obviously, but the
fact that Fraser beat him and handed him his first
loss intertwines them forever. And the fact we cannot convey
enough how massive the fight was, even in Africa, even
on late night in the US in movie theaters, et cetera, worldwide.
And Ali won that fight. But then Foreman went to
have a second chapter of his career. And whatever you
want to believe about the Michael Moore fight, it's legit.
It's a legit knockout. He was. Again, Well, I'm just
saying a lot of people look back on that and
say that, you know, it was a lucky paunch. Michael
Moore said that so many times he won, he won
the heavyweight title. That was the oldest heavyweight champion ever,
George Foreman.
Speaker 2: So listen, the greatest, the greatest thing about about Foreman
and winning that title back I m Moore two things.
One he was it was almost twenty years to the
day since he lost the title to Ali and Zaire.
And two he was wearing the same trunks ye in
the ring that night that he had worn in the
ring against Ali in Zaire twenty years earlier. So that
was an extraordinary accomplishment. And George is remembered by you know,
two different generations, basically fans like I remember as a
small kid knowing about Foreman and maybe catching a little
bit here and there on like an ABC wide world
of sports, but I didn't really know him know him
at that time. It was when he made the comeback
when I'm basically, you know, in college and an adult,
when he's you know, on the comeback trail and had
you know, he got the opportunity against Evander Holyfield, he
knocked out well. Actually, the anniversary of this knockout is
actually this weekend also, which was the first time that
people started to really take him seriously. During this comeback. Remember,
he had exited retirement after about ten years, and it
wasn't because he suddenly had an epiphany that I can
be heavyweight CHAMPI of the world again. It was an
epiphany that I am in need of money, and he
was doing it to make to put money in the
bank and also to help his church. But he had
a lot of fights before anybody really believed that he
was matched with a whole series of absolute freaking stiffs.
But on January fifteenth, nineteen ninety, so the anniversary of
that would be coming up this coming Wednesday. It was
when he was matched up with my good pal Jerry Cooney,
and he walked through Jerry Cooney, who was obviously not
what he once was, but was still a dangerous puncher
and the first sort of opponent that people said was
credible for George to fight on the comeback trail. And
they did a pay per view fight at the Convention Center,
Atlantic City. It was a big deal, a showtime pay
per view back then set pay perview, and he walked
through Jerry Cooney in two rounds. It's one of the
most aesthetically pleasing knockouts. And I hate to say that
because Jerry is a wonderful guy and I've gotten to
know Jerry pretty well over the last number of years.
I call it's the drive by uppercut, right. He walked
to him with the uppercut and then came over the
top and just absolutely obliterated him. That's another one. You
can find the clip of on a YouTuber.
Speaker 1: That's nostalgia on top of your nostalgia And I pop
quiz you because we've talked about this before. Where did
Foreman get that little shuffle step and then come back
with the uppercut from Do you Remember Mighty One?
Speaker 2: I don't remember what you're in, say Jersey.
Speaker 1: Joe Walcott famously blasted Ezra Charles to win the heavyweight
title the same way, faking to the left and coming
back with a left uppercut when the opponent kind of
stepped out of the way. And that's the same thing
Foreman replicated with the knockout of Jerry Cooney, and I
do not want to accept that's thirty five years ago Wednesday.
Speaker 2: The amazing thing, though, is of all the as closely
associated as they always will be, between Foreman and Fraser
as well as Ellie, the fact that George was retired
for that length of time. I mean, guys, coming out
of retirement in boxing is no different than the sun
coming up in the morning and setting in the evening.
That is a common thing for a guy to be
retired a year, two, maybe three, four or whatever and
fight again. But the fact that not only did he
fight again after ten years, but was good, still could
still get the job done, was still a big puncher,
still had success or regained the heavyweight championship, and even
in his loss, even in his loss against Evander Holyfield,
which was a few fights after the Coony fight, he
had the Battle of the Ages, the first ever modern
pay per view fight that most people watched in their
home instead of going to a theater where you could
actually just order on your cable box. That was the
birth of TVKO, which became HBO pay per view. He
competed in the fight, Yeah he lost, almost like a
rocky thing where yeah, he was the underdog and he lost.
He's the one that kind of won the event because
people had so much respect for what he did. And
by the way, TJ. George Foreman against the Vander Holyfield
for in their heavyweight championship fight, he is probably one
of the most ridiculously underrated, exciting action fights. That was
a great battle. And even after he lost that fight,
George didn't hang it up. He went and he fought
three more fights and got wins. And then he fought
Tommy Morrison. Now that was for the WBO belt in
nineteen ninety three when the WBO belt was still not
considered anything significant, but Tommy Morrison was a significant opponent
and he lost that fight too, and then coming off
of that loss again he went to distance. Wasn't all
that competitive. He basically pleaded with the then HBO President
of Sports Seth Abraham to give him the shot at
Michael Moore to agree to televise and pay for the fight.
Now that fight with Tommy was in June of ninety three.
So now fast forward to November of ninety four, almost
a year and a half later, George came back. So
he'd been out of the ring for a long time.
But set de Abraham, who is now in the International
Boxing Hall of Fame where he belongs. It took him
a while to get there, but he should have been
in on the first ballot. Seth was a person that
understood showbiz and and what the fans wanted, and he
greenlit that fight. And guess what, George Foreman, almost twenty
years of the day after zayre regained the heavyweight title
against Michael Moore, and one of the most extraordinary things
in the history of sports. I've told the story. I
was still living at my mom's house. I'm I'm just
out of college, you know, I've been, you know, maybe
a year year or so out of college. I'm in
my first jobs as a journalist. But I'm home on
Saturday night. I'm watching the fight alone in my bedroom.
My mom is asleep, my sister is asleep. Foreman wins
the title. I go fucking bonkers and I make all
kinds of crazy noises, and my mom and my sister
come out and what the hell is going on? And
I was like trying to.
Speaker 1: Almost got your selfie young George film.
Speaker 2: The heavyweight title. My mom and my sister couldn't given
shit whatsoever. I just got the stink guy from both
of them, and they went back to bed.
Speaker 1: They were just glad that you weren't, you know, somehow
in danger. Uh listen, great.
Speaker 2: One more thing, by the way, Yes, after he won
that heavyweight title fight, you know, he never defended it
because he got stripped to the belts because he wasn't
interested to do mandatories, et cetera. So he fought you know,
a series of like you know, Okay Axel, Schultz, Crawford,
Grimly Loose Savay's. He won those fights, and then when
he fought Shannon Briggs, who was considered a dangerous opponent,
George lost by a majority of decision in a horrible robbery.
He should have the win over Briggs and and he
retired off of that fight, but he was still going
strong in one sense at that point. The only the
only positive thing about Briggs getting the absolute gift decision
was it allowed him to take over the lineage. And
then Lennox Lewis knocked him the fuck out and was
able to not have the lineage get broken.
Speaker 1: One more note, Big George with his comeback and all
those fights had eighty one pro fights. Ali had sixty
one pro fights, and I believe it's correct. Joe Fraser
had what forty one thirty six four and one? Am
I right on that? So Fraser can to fight? Or
thirty two four and one? I'm sorry, So he had
thirty seven pro fights only, so Ali heid right out
sixty Forman had like right at eighty.
Speaker 2: So Joe Fraser, though, was in a much more. He
got hit a lot more and he didn't have nearly
the chin that alleys.
Speaker 1: It was blind. He was blind in one eye and
they were hiding it. They were hiding it throughout the
seventies that his vision was getting worse and worse and
basically blind in one eye.
Speaker 2: Well, it's not so much about the number of fights,
it's about the number of rounds. Sure, So Big Joe
Fraser finishes.
Speaker 1: Brutal rounds by the way, Well, yeah.
Speaker 2: He finished his record his career thirty two four and one,
but in two hundred and twelve rounds. So two hundred
and twelve rounds is really you know, in the pantheon
of top all time fighters and heavyweights especially not that
big of a deal. George Foreman, as you mentioned, finished
seventy six and five. He had three hundred and forty
nine rounds. That's quite a more obviously. And then if
you take a look at what happened in terms of
with Muhammad Ali, who obviously you know, fought well passed
when he probably should have been fighting as well. He
finished his career fifty six and five. He had five
hundred and forty eight rounds. So it shows you the
difference between those those guys.
Speaker 1: All right, one more thing I teased this is it today?
It's today, that's the anniversary the first or is it Monday?
The first airing of one of Rayfhael's phaves, the drama Dynasty,
John Forsyth, because it's nostalgia and I'm going somewhere, let
me get there, Okay, Okay Forsyth, Linda Evans, Joan Collins
for the audience. It's older. For those of you that
are gen Zer's millennials, you got no idea what' talk about?
Were talking about a d TV so dynasty, nighttime TV drama.
This again, is no Internet. You basically got three choices
besides PBS showing Masterpiece Theater, you got three choices on TV, ABC, NBC, CBS.
So you had Dynasty. You were big into Dallas with
Larry Hagman and all the other as, Charlene Tilton Wright
and all the other actors, Victory, your girl, Victoria principal
Linda Gray. Why is all of that coming back to
me all of a sudden? Anyway, Dallas, you had Dynasty,
you had Falcon Crest, right, I was bigger. Forget about
all of the dramas of the rich and the who's
sleeping with who? And who has whose baby? And who's
stealing who's money? What about Hill Street Blues, the cop
show in the early eighties, the.
Speaker 2: Great show, Yes, one of my one of my dad's
favorite shows. I didn't watch that because it was on
opposite not Landing, and you'd.
Speaker 1: Have wait, you just went down five points in my
book that you put aside Hill Street Blue, Yes, absolutely,
with Andy and Bobby and Hey be careful out there
every day that they would begin at the role call.
You put that cop sho aside for notts Landing. What's
along with you?
Speaker 2: Nothing?
Speaker 1: Early teenage Rayfield? I love that and by the way,
none of those shows can top Miami Vice in the eighties.
Miami Vice.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, you really want to go there.
Speaker 1: Miami Vice Electric revolutionized TV on Friday night, revolutionized team
with music soundtracks too.
Speaker 2: Got no issue with Miami Vice. Cool show, No, not
in any way.
Speaker 1: Tell me you're gonna take Dynasty or Falcon Falcon Crest
for Miami Vice.
Speaker 2: Come on, those are on different nights. Dynasty largely was
on Wednesday night, not sunthing was on Thursday night. Dallas
was on Friday night. Now, if you remember at the beginning,
I believe this was at the beginning of the nineteen
eighty six eighty seven television season, Dallas uh was they
were on at separate times on Friday night, Miami Vice
and Dallas. Then they then I forget which moved it,
if CBS moved Dallas to a new time or NBC
moved Miami Vice to a new time, But the bottom
line was it set up Miami Vice to be on
at the same time as Dallas. Now, this is pre
d VR day, so it wasn't It was not easy
to time shift your television programming. But in the end,
Dallas kicked Miami Vice's were end is my recollection in
the Nielsen ratings, and I was definitely on.
Speaker 1: Well, Miami Vice by eighty six or eighty seven, the
meteor had now cold.
Speaker 2: Dallas.
Speaker 1: Yes, because Miami Vice in the in the eighty four
eighty five range was arguably the hottest show on television
and it was Friday night. NBC stumbled on, suddenly we
got something on Friday night that people will stay home
and watch and not go out. All right, So I
just thought I would share all of it. But Dallas,
how long did it take you to figure out?
Speaker 2: Dallas, Dallas beat Miami Vice head to head.
Speaker 1: I understand at the end, at the end, it wasn't
It wasn't beaten Miami Vice.
Speaker 2: In the day. You're wrong about that?
Speaker 1: Are you talking about in the eighty four and eighty
five television seasons range? Well, no, I'm talking about did
it have better audience? Because I believe Miami Voice had
had better audience on Fundy Night than anything else like
in eighty five, eighty four, eighty five. You gotta look
that up. You gotta get back to me on that. Well,
I have one more note, At what point did you figure.
Speaker 2: Out I'm looking on Google as we're talking.
Speaker 1: For what it's worth.
Speaker 2: In nineteen eighty four, Dallas generally had significantly higher ratings
compared to Miami.
Speaker 1: Vice nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 2: Dude, the whole crime period, Dallas always was one of
the top rated shows when they were on at the
same time, coming when they went head to head. Did
they at what.
Speaker 1: Point, don't don't disparage Crockett and Tubs right now, I'm
gonna come back at you. At what point did you
figure out that John Forsyth from Dynasty was the voice
in the box Charlie from Charlie's Angels.
Speaker 2: So I always knew that, No, you didn't a little kid.
Were knew the.
Speaker 1: Kid when that was going on, when Charlie's Angels was
going on.
Speaker 2: But I used to read stuff in the paper.
Speaker 1: They didn't reveal that in the paper.
Speaker 2: Of course they did. They knew, We knew, did the
voice with John forsythe come.
Speaker 1: On okay, hello Charlie? And then suddenly you see the
guy talking on on TV on Dynasty.
Speaker 2: By the way, in nineteen eighty five, nineteen eighty six,
I'm looking at the ratings, okay, please. In the final
ratings of nineteen eighty five nineteen eighty six, the Cosby
Show was number one. Family. This was back when NBC
was dominant in terms of Thursday Night. So you had
Cosby one and Family Ties too. You had the CBS
program Murder, she wrote, You had obviously the the the.
Speaker 1: NFL football lead in right on Sunday nights.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the legendary news program sixty minutes, followed by Cheers,
which was also on Thursday Night at NBC. Then came Dallas,
then came Dynasty, then came Golden Girls, then came Miami Vice.
That was eighty five eighty.
Speaker 1: Mia Advice being beaten by Dynasty, Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2: And by freaking the Golden Girls.
Speaker 1: For christ, Golden Girls is classic TV, though, especially when
they had all the sexual innu window.
Speaker 2: Okay, so now let's look at I'm looking at eighty
four eighty five final ratings for the season. Number one, Dynasty,
number two, Dallas number three, The Cosby Show, Dude, you
Gotta go. Miami Vice is not even in the top
twenty in that year, but vote your show. Hellsheet B
loses number thirty that year.
Speaker 1: All right, we covered it with the TV nostalgia and
even the voice of Charlie from Charlie's Angels.
Speaker 2: Listen, here's the bottom line is the it is the
anniversary of the first episode of Dynasty. It is a classic,
legendary show.
Speaker 1: I think I watched two episodes of that ever Everna.
Speaker 2: That's I suggest that you start watching it. Why because it.
Speaker 1: Was so much more in my life right now than
to go back to watch Charlie from Charlie's Angels running
around with Joan Collins or.
Speaker 2: Well, he wasn't even on for the first two seasons.
I don't think of the first season.
Speaker 1: The fact that you know that without looking at it,
I just I shake my head with that. We have
put to bed yet another pod, some recap of the
British fight card, the the Boxer Promotions card as some news,
some nostalgia. I dare say, we don't really have a
big time main event again this weekend. I put it
out there once again. It is a swing and a
miss for the likes of Golden Boy, top Rank, PBC,
somebody that didn't have a significant I'm not saying pay
per view fight in the month here of January on
one of these weekends where nothing else is and a
year ago there were a year ago. Haimimongia fought at
the end of the month a year ago. Better bv's
light heavyweight title defense by top rank was in January.
It's a swing and a miss, but we'll come up
with something creatively later on this week as we head
towards the weekend, and then eventually we get a Naoya
in a Way title fight coming in a couple of
weeks as well. My friend, have a good week. Appreciate
it as always, Dan Rayphiel.
Speaker 2: Washington Dynasty on YouTube.
Speaker 1: I don't know you can bet on certain things in life.
I wouldn't bet on me doing that between now and
the next time we're talking. By the way we have,
I've done this pod in advance of my Buccaneers playoff
game with the Washington Commander, so you will know how
my Sunday night and my Monday is going by virtue
of that NFL playoff game. We love playoff checks Rayfield.
We want this to continue. Let's see if it does
here in the football world. With that, have a good week,
my friend. Thank you there is Dan Rayfield. I'm merely
TJ Reeves follow Subscribe Apples, Freaker, Spotify to the Big
Fight weekend preview and also coming off the weekend, you've
been listening here to the Fight Freaks Unit Recap podcast