Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big
Fight Weekend. No, here is your host, DJ leaves all right,
we get ready for a weekend.
Speaker 2: It has a Friday night Top rank main event involving
Keyshawn Davis and an extremely overweight opponent by the way,
that we shall talk about in preview. It has a
Saturday night Philadelphia Championship doubleheader. Dan Rayfield keeps saying Boots
and Vam, Bam and Boots, whatever you want to call it,
Jiron Boots, Innis, Jesse Bam, Rodriguez, separate world title fights,
Matt Room de Zone show.
Speaker 1: We're ready to preview all of that.
Speaker 2: Oh oh, and the former undisputed heavyweight champion of the
world Mike Tyson with the one and only Dan Rayfield
in a quick conversation in advance of next week's fight.
Will it happen? We hope it happens. We're almost to
the finish line Rayfield for Jake Poll and Mike Tyson. Uh,
thank you for finding us however you've done so. I'm
really the somewhat capable host. TJ Reeves here. He is
our insider, Dan Rayphiel, who says to me, right before
we begin, you know I'm in a grouchy mood right now.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: When don't you know the Yankees whatever else it's going on,
bad Halloween, Candy.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this question.
Speaker 3: Are you bad election results?
Speaker 2: I understand, well, it depends on where you are and
what you're doing. And it wasn't just the presidential result.
At least you have some results, because there's some places
where they still don't have the result on Thursday and
on Friday, and I'm saying again that is idiotic in
twenty twenty four that we still don't have results. All
I'm coming to is this, are you making dinner tonight?
Because I'm in charge of making dinner as well as
doing the podcast. On top of you being grouchy, I
got to go make food for the twins in a
little while.
Speaker 3: I am mine. We've got all this totally. Right before
we got on our call to our video to do
the show, got the call from my wife who was
explaining that she's bringing dinner home from working the show.
Speaker 1: So you've got carry out, you're taken care of.
Speaker 3: And while we're doing this, my son's at the kitchen
table doing his mathoverk all right, so.
Speaker 1: He's got his homework. The twins have done their homework.
Speaker 2: They've got basketball, and I'm in charge of dinner tonight
and a little later.
Speaker 1: But that's okay.
Speaker 2: You know what people don't care about that, They care
about the fights. Make sure you're following, make sure you're subscribing.
By the way, hopefully you heard Keyshawn Davis earlier this
week right here on the podcast feed with Dan in
advance of this fight on Friday. You got an automatic
notification if you're following in subscribing on Applespreaker, Spotify. If
that's the case, all right, So again we'll preview going
into the weekend. We'll recap coming off the weekend twice,
the ray Field twice. The fun is the year winds down.
We do this most every weekend. You're gonna get two
of them, preview and recap pod. Okay, so you and
I have been in communication. We're now communicating with each
other via the pod because I've been wondering for the
last couple of hours are they fighting? Okay, Keyshawn Davis's opponent,
as I like to say, not only missed the way
by a couple of exits on the interstate. He's on
a totally different interstate in another county. If he's sixty
pounds weight, if he's six and a half pounds overweight
for one hundred and thirty five pound fight, are they fighting?
Speaker 1: First of all, what do we know?
Speaker 3: Well, they're fighting, I mean, and Kishan will get a
goose to his purse and Gustabo Lemos will get less
of his purse. They do have to go through a
not they actually, it's just I mean, I guess they.
I guess Kishan doesn't. He made his weight, but Limos
will go through a Friday morning weight check. As we
tape this, they were still dickering around and negotiating what
the maximum that he can rehydrate to. It's probably gonna
be somewhere in that ten pound area. But here's the
thing though, Gustabo Lemos's previous fight was a one hundred
and forty pound tidal eliminator against Richardson Hitchins. That's one
hundred and forty pounds. He's fought in both weight classes.
He's fought plenty times in the lightweight division, so for
this fight he was coming down in weight. He lost
a competitive decision to Hitchins, which Hitchens in the mandatory
position and he's going to get the shot of the
title against Liam Paro coming up. So but la point
here is that Limos didn't even make thee hundred and
forty pounds limit, which is the weight limit for the
last fight, and he's supposed to be fighting the lightweight division,
so he comes in it also, so Kishan, by the way,
he's you know, been in good shape for his fights.
One hundred and thirty four point two makes the weight
inside the limit, which is one hundred and thirty five pounds.
There there is a or was at least for both fighters.
Now will just be for Kishan a regional belt at
stake in the fight, So the limit was strict. It's
not like they just decided, you know, let's do you
know the fight at this weight. It was one hundred
and thirty five because of the fact that there was
a regional belt in the in the mix. So Limos
comes to the weigh in, he weighs one hundred and
forty one point four. Now Top Rank said to me
they weren't unaware of his weight issues until Friday morning,
and then obviously they knew it was going to be
a big mess at the weight.
Speaker 1: And we gotta keep it straight from the first Thursday,
because the fights fight on. I know what you meant.
Speaker 3: Yeah, my bad. So yeah, So when he showed up
at the actual way in and he was over six
pounds overweight, we're not talking, by the way, TJ. If
he's a half a pound over a pound, it's guys,
can go do some stuff, shaken off, go run around,
or take a piss.
Speaker 2: You ain't losing six pounds six So it varies from
place to place, does it not? So obviously the Virginia
Commission would have been in charge potentially of is he
close to the weight or not earlier in the week,
because some commissions make you weigh in in lightness, don't
They make you weigh in a little sooner than the
actual way in to give you an indication, because there's
concerns about that. Like I said, guys trying to lose
way too much weight at the very end and can
endanger themselves.
Speaker 1: Just the reason.
Speaker 3: Right, here's the thing, some commissions, if you were this
much apart on the weight, the fight's canceled. You don't
even have a chance. I'm not talking about one or
two pounds. That's any I've never seen or heard of
any Commission where if a fighter is over the contract
limit that they don't have some sort of leeway to
make a deal, you know, three pounds, even six pounds
plus if this fight's in Las Vegas, fights off r
period and other places as well. Virginia, my home state,
not the most boxing heavy state out there. You know,
they don't view it as there's some kind of huge
problem in terms of, you know, a fighter is gonna
get hurt. With Kishan Davis, we're talking about an elite
fighter in terms of a past Olympian and one of
the top contenders and up and coming undefeated fighters in
the sport. So I'm not sure what it says on
the rules and REGs, but they're not canceling the fight.
Lamos will lose you know, five figures from his purse.
He's probably making you know, a decent low six figure
of pay day for this matchup. And you know when
you watched Kishan who spoke after the weigh in on
Top Ranks social media with Christina Poncher, you know, she
asked about it and he was like, we had no problem.
He's like, I'm gonna make more money now, So he
was okay with it. Look and it really puts everybody
involved in a tough spot. This is not just some
regular undercard fight where you can mess around. Maybe I
fight gets canceled, so you know that type of thing
that happens. Unfortunately on a regular basis. This is the
main event of a top ranked ESPN Plus card. The
co feature is kind of weakish and if you remember,
the original co feature was supposed to be Brian Norman
defending his walterweight belt against Quavis, but that was canceled
because of the fact that Brian Norman suffered an injury.
So what would have been still a pretty good co feature.
Now that's off too, So try Eisley, who is Keishan
Davis's twenty twenty US Olympic teammate, an excellent looking up
and coming middleweight. You know he's in an okay fight,
but it's not necessarily. It can't carry the show, is
the point. And on top of that, this is the homecoming.
This is a huge deal. Norfolk, Virginia the home of
sweep Pee Riddicker. You know, Keishan Davis's idol. He has
never fought there as a professional, He's never fought in
a main event. His two brothers are also on the
card his older brother who he's fought on this card
with Kelvin. They fought together on shows before, but he's
on this card. Their younger brother, the youngest of the
boxing Keisha of the boxing Davis brothers, Keon Davis, who
was an excellent amateur. Also he's making his professional debut.
They're fighting in a slightly over the wealthy way to
technically a junior middleway fight, so it's a big deal locally.
The place is a ten thousand seed arena at the Scope,
it is sold out or close to it. I mean
when I was told this is a couple of days ago,
I was told by Todd de buff from Top Rank,
who was the president of Top Rank, that there were
just scattered single tickets available and obviously by the night
of the fight it'll be a clean sellout. They sold
like eight thousand tickets for this fight on like the
first day or two in a place that has not
had big time boxing in decades, so there's a pent
up demand. So, to make a long story short, when
your opponent doesn't act like a professional and shows up
more than six pounds overweight, you put everybody in a
tough spot. If you cancel the show. It's a fucking disaster.
You know. It ruins a lot of stuff for a
lot of people, including Lamos's opportunity to score a career
defining victory. And so they're making the determination that it's
okay to go through with the fighting. They just have
to cross their fingers and hope that he makes whatever
the rehydration. Wonder that they that they come to an
agreement on on Friday morning and doesn't come, you know,
further mills up.
Speaker 2: One other thing that we've often talked about is they
will sometimes have a stand by opponent. For whatever reason,
best of your understanding, there's not a stand by opponent.
Speaker 1: So that's why.
Speaker 2: And then there's one other thing that I keep thinking
when you were just talking down I thought earlier today,
remember the whole Devin Haney Ryan Garcia thing where Garcia
flaunted it after the fact I wasn't trying to make
the weight. I just wonder aloud, he didn't even try
to get down to one thirty five. That's an advantage
for him, and so I wonder how much, if at all,
that's a concern.
Speaker 3: You can't say he didn't try to get down to
one thirty fives.
Speaker 2: I can, I can, and I just did. He didn't
even try to get down to one thirty five. If
he's one forty one, he wasn't trying in the last
couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: I can, I just did.
Speaker 3: That's fine. I can disagree. I'm gonna agree with it.
What I'm saying is he got to a certain point
where he and his team felt like no more was
coming off and they weren't going to ever make one
hundred and thirty five. So I'm not going to indict
him and say he didn't try. I assume he went
through some element of a training camp to prepare for
this fight, which was probably gonna be his biggest payday
or close to it, an opportunity against a top young
fighter in a main event, which he has not been
in too many of, And so it's just a fucked
up situation, and it really puts up It's just a.
Speaker 1: But is it a risk for Davis?
Speaker 2: It's my only thing here that he had to cut
weight get down to one thirty five and the opponent
did not, and they're going to follow through because it
was a big deal to Devin Hainey.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So what do you think of that? Real quick.
Speaker 3: I don't think Gustava Lemis is as talented a fighter
as right, of course, that's part of that. Not that
kind of a fighter, not that kind of puncher, et cetera.
So listen, it's always a risk. I mean, you know,
I go back to the days of like the whole
messed up thing with Diagle Kraus and Josey Lewis Castillo.
They had the brilliant first fight, that's the all time
great fight, and then for the rematch that was several
months later, you had his situation where Castillo missed the weight.
They made a deal, they went through with the fight,
Corrales got badly knocked out in what was a non
title fight, and then when they went to do the
third because now they're went on and they were doing
that fight, once again, Castillo missed the weight, and this
time he missed the weight pretty badly. It was like
over three pounds. As my recollect, I was standing there
in the Caesars Palace ballroom when they stood on the scale,
and I can still picture in my mind to look
on Jimmy Lennon's face, who was the MC when the
weight was so jurassically above one hundred and thirty five
pound limit. Anyway, here's the point though, At that point,
Diego Krauz says, fuck that, I'm not fighting, like they
canceled the fight. You know. His perspective was, you know,
fully once, you know, shame on you fooled me twice,
shame on me. And he wasn't going to go through
that again. It caused lawsuits. It was all big mess
up and the entire that was a major main event
on showtime at the Thomas and Maxon and now they
still went through with the broadcast and they had like
a my recollection is a Vic Darchinyan Flyway title fight
in the co feature. That was the nominal mane of.
Speaker 2: Laughing because Pokes I could see him a dance doing
that off the top of his head, remembers that.
Speaker 1: From twenty years ago.
Speaker 3: I'm just normal like that.
Speaker 1: I don't doubt you. I don't doubt you for this reason.
Speaker 3: But that was supposed to be. Here's the thing, though,
that fight was like a sold out Thomas close through it,
like they were gonna have you know whatever, it was
gonna be seventeen thousand people.
Speaker 1: Around the event, world title fight, all those things.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so now the main event gets canceled and they
still go through at the remainder of the show, and
I go to the fight because I was in Vegas
to cover the main event, and I show up anyway
for the other fights, had like maybe two thousand people
in the building and was so anyway, this is the
same kind of disaster because they've got a sold out
building for this young man, Kishan Davis's homecoming fight, as
well as boxing matches involving his brother, as well as
the other fighters who were on the cart, Troy Isisley,
who was from Virginia. You got the outstanding lightweight prospect,
Abdullah Mason was on this card. So they'll go through
with the fight. And you know what I'm gonna say this,
I hope Keishaan Davis punishes punish the Gustavolemos, you know.
And I'm not saying that because I'm some kind of huge,
you know, like I'm a diehard t Shine fin er,
I'm some kind of hat I'm just saying that motherfucker
deserves to get beating for this.
Speaker 2: And I'm just looking here for the verification. You have
it in front of you two. He fought Kitchens back
in April of this year at one forty. He fought
someone named Javier Jose Clovero in December of last year
at one forty. The last time that he made one
thirty five, he was one thirty four and a half
was all the way back in March of twenty twenty two,
if I have this right, when he fought Lee Selby
of England in Argentina.
Speaker 1: So if you.
Speaker 3: Look, if you look over his whole career, he's had
plenty of fights in the.
Speaker 1: Way for the last couple of years.
Speaker 2: Obviously he is walking around wait and not having to
worry about one thirty five. It makes a difference here
on this. And let's see what what Kishan will do.
All right, So you alluded to that that's the main
event and again as we released them, pot this is
Friday Night people, Friday Night main event, so that you
know for Kishaw, Davis and Limos. All right, what else?
What else here about this that we need to know,
including the rest.
Speaker 3: Of the on the car go ahead, well as far
as the ban of Incos and you know, and obviously
Kishan is the favorite in the fight number one. He's
super excited to be fighting at home. He's gonna probably
do some kind of tribute in terms of his ring
walk to Parnel Whitaker, who was his idol, who he
never saw him fight in terms of like when he
was alive as a professional, but when Kishon was a
teenager training as an amateur before he went to the
Olympics and won a silver medal, Parnel Whitaker worked with
him and his brother in the gym as a trainer
first every week before he went off to the Olympic
training facility. So he has nothing but law for Parnel,
as do many of boxing fans and sports fans in Norfolk, Virginia,
So there's that aspect of it. You know, he's in
the same weight class where Parnell first became champion and
won the undisputed title out lightweight, so they haven't had
big time boxing there quite a long time. So anyway,
that part of it's a big deal, but also more
significantly along with the brothers who were on the card,
which kind of gives it that family affair kind of deal.
It's a highly important fight for Kishon David because he
even though it's not officially an elimination fight, basically it's
an elimination fight because Keishon is rated in the top
three in three of the four organizations, and by all
accounts if you talk to top rank, the plan is
if he wins and looks good, they're going to endeavor
to in his net perhaps as soon as his next fight,
make a world title fight Kishan, and you listen to
the podcast that I did with him. In the interview
talks about how he and Denny's Barentchek have been going
back and forth privately on their direct messages talking about
let's fight, and he's got a really good chance to
get to fight with Barentchek. Now the look owns a
title fight against Mark Chamberlain is off because Chamberlain lost,
so that could be the title defen title chance in
the early part of next year.
Speaker 2: And k Shawn's an explosive marketable fighter, big moment for him.
I'm with you, Let's hope he looks spectacular. Let's hope
a title fight is in the offing, maybe next or
certainly soon.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna tell you this, that's the idea. If Kishan
Davis in his first hometown fight could sell ten thousand tickets,
it instantaneously him among the top draws in terms of
live Gate in the United States among American boxers because
there are not that many fighters that fighting. And I
guarantee you the folks in Norfolk, Virginia do not know
who Gustavo Alemos is. They know because he's their guy
from home, but they don't know Gustavo Alemos from Adams,
so he's instantaneously a top draw. There is only a
handful of guys you can think of in this sport
that can draw those kind of crowds. And in terms
of the undercard, as you mentioned, I mean again, it's
not the big undercart. Troy Eisley has been slowly but
surely improving and getting better and looking good. He's fighting
Tyler Howard. Eisley is thirteen and oh. Like I mentioned,
he was Keishawn's Olympic teammate. Howard is twenty and one.
I'm excited to watch the continuing evolution of Abdullah Mason,
who is a phenomenal up fifteen and oh, just a dynamic,
explosive I believe a guaranteed future world champion. Thirteen knockouts
for this young man in fifteen fights, taking on an
experienced fighter in Joan Vasquez, who is twenty six and five.
This is an eight rounder. But the thing about about
Mason is he's looking to just wrap up what is
a year that is a very good chance of making
him the prospect of the year from a lot of people.
I mean, he's already he's basically been spectacular every single
time he's been in the ring. You know, this is
gonna be his fifth fight of the year. I know
how much you love the activity. He scored knockouts in
all those fights this year. He has not yet in
calendar year twenty twenty four been beyond the fourth round.
So that's definitely a guy to watch. And because this
is an ESPN Plus card, they're just gonna start to
show at six twenty is Eastern time, and they'll just
run through the whole show, and he's the I guess
not the main event, but he's like maybe three four
fights before the main event. So definitely a guy to
keep an eye on for sure. I mean, he's actually
right take that back, he's right before the Issley fight.
Isley' is the co feature prior to that is Mason,
and then you've got the Kelvin Davis, which is the
brother and then another fight and then before that, the
other brother in the pro Debi and so on and
so forth, and you know, even buried on the undercard
of the first fight at you got the featherweight Salim
who has been a good junior featherweight contender and he's
moving up to featherweight. He's going to be on this
card also to try to see how he performs in
the new weight class. He could be a very interesting
addition to the one hundred and twenty six pound division.
Speaker 2: And we keep emphasizing Friday night for the ESPN top
ranked cards, So as this podcast release, we're also going
to handicap the Davis fight on the bet US Show
one Eastern time Friday.
Speaker 1: But these are Friday Night in Virginia again.
Speaker 2: Mike Tyson coming up in a few minutes, but we
got to spend some time on what's happening Saturday night
in Philadelphia Championship doubleheader, the return of Jeron Boots and
his to Philly. You talk about a guy selling on
an arena as he did before, but he's fighting a
fight here well documented on this podcast. You've said it
numerous times, we've discussed it, you've written about it.
Speaker 1: Now the fight's actually going to happen.
Speaker 2: I don't know who wants this fight outside of Karen
Chikazi and his team, his family, but this is what
we get. The IBF basically forced this fight. It's the
main event. The co feature is Jesse Bam Rodriguez defending
his WBC Junior banhamweight title, which we're intrigued by. All Right,
so a few words about the match Room de Zone
show and the Championship doubleheader please.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's it's really it's really disappointing that
that Boots has to be saddled with this fight. I mean,
it's just a it's a horror show. And you know,
I'll give credit to everybody involved with match Room and
Dezone and Ennis and his team, like they're trying to
make the best of it. He's a young fighter that
is in a position where he still needs the belt.
If this was Canelo Alvarez, he tell him to probably
stick it up their ass, but you know he can
do that because he's Canelo. Boots Enis is still a
fighter that needs a title to help him in terms
of his exposure, his notoriety, you know, his marketability and
everything that goes along with that. So he had no
choice but to do this mandatory fight or or vacate
the belt, which I know he didn't want to do,
and so it's very unfortunate that he has to fight
a rematch with a fighter in Chikazi and who already fought.
It's one thing that you're forced to fight a guy
that nobody knows and has no record to speak of
and has never done anything in his career. It's all
different matter when that same fighter is a guy that
you were already put in the ring with for the
interim title in January of twenty twenty three, only a
couple of fights ago for Boots, and you didn't just
win the fight, you won literally on all three scorecards,
one hundred to twenty to one oh eight. And as
I had a joke with you, I was there in
the ring in the arena that night. That was when
Tank Davis headlined against Hector Luis Garcia. They fought in Washington,
d C. An arena that's about thirty minutes from my home.
And on the bottom line was I'll never get that
forty five minutes somebody like back. That's how bad this
fighting was. I felt bad for Boots. He tried, but
the guy just ran and wouldn't engage. It was a
terrible shot case.
Speaker 2: So that is a perfect segue of how concerned are
you that we're gonna get the same thing or are
you encouraged that Boots is gonna cut the ring off
a little more?
Speaker 1: Maybe go after this guy? What is your's the case?
What's your thought?
Speaker 3: Chikaziin is a is a slickster. He's a tricky guy.
He's he's he seems like he you know, has good
technique and skills. He's just boring and has never fought anybody,
and he got wiped out by Boots. I do hope
that Boots does show his aggression and maybe can track
him down and knock him out, you know, if that's
what you know, And if Chikazi and King, you know,
knock the other guy out, Sobie and I'm just saying,
if Boots is the winner of the fight, you hope
it's not another boring snorre fest twelve round where you
want to just get up in the middle of the
fight and walk out. You know. I think the fans
in Philadelphia where he is from, who supported him so
well with a huge crowd when he fought David avanessiin
in his first hometown fight, his first defense that took
place back in July. It's one thing to do that
fight against a somewhat unknown opponent, but it's the celebratory homecoming,
it's the first defense. Now to try to sell the
second defense against a guy that is even more unknown,
who already you beat easily, it's a little bit, probably
more of a hard sell. So that's I think one
of the reasons why Mattroom has at least tried to
put their best foot forward and put a top young
fighter on the card with him, like Bam Rodriguez. So
if you take a look at the way mattrim has
been promoting the show, it's almost like Boots and Bam
are fighting each other because it's all about them, not
about their opponents, because they know that Takazi is a
dog fight. And in terms of Bam Rodriguez, it's not
that his opponent is a bad opponent or anything like that.
Pedro Gavar is actually a pretty solid opponent. He is
the interim title holder. He will be in. This is
a mandatory fight also, so Jesse Bam Rodriguez is defending
his WBC junior Bandam White title. So but at least
in Guavara, he may not be the most known guy,
maybe an underdog and all that, but he's still a
He's a very credible opponent. He's coming off a victory
against Andrew against Andrew Maloney that he that he fought
in Australia. He has another one before that when he
when he won or when he lost his last time out.
It was against Carlos Quadras. It was in an interim
title fight.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: That was a very competitive decision.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: And when Quadris was injured and was not able to
make the fight, he ended up becoming the interim titlelder
when he when he beat Maloney. But the point here
is he's an experienced guy. He's held the title in
a smaller way class. You know, he is a quintessential
kind of Mexican. He's gonna come forward and try to
make the fight. So even if BAM is a heavy
duty favorite, you gotta figure there'll be some entertainment value
for that fight. But the fact that you're gonna have
two of the best American younger star fighters on the
same show together, that at least makes it interesting from
that standpoint, because whatever the opponents bring to the table.
You as a fan at least get to see two
of the best in the business together on the same night,
you know, and they're making the best out of it.
No Chryna trying anyway, TJ to make what lemonade out
of Lemons? I guess yeah.
Speaker 2: And they are both explosive fighters. I use that again,
so let's see if we get some fireworks with that.
And Bam Rodriguez we're definitely intrigued by and entertained by,
and he seems to have a more credible opponent. So
they are making the best of it, and again, the
big things ahead for both of them, you would think
if they get this done all right, So what else
on this card before we get to Mike Tyson that
stands out?
Speaker 1: Because they've got a fairly link the undercard. What else
is there?
Speaker 3: Yeah? They do. I mean, I'm looking forward to seeing
in the fight below those two title fights that we're
just talking about. You do have the return of the
former featherweight Todd holder, Raymond Ford, who is from nearby Camden,
New Jersey. So you got to figure out a few
of the folks in the crowd cheering him on. He's
coming off of that split decision loss that he suffered
in the five on five card in June. That was
in ried Ray lost his WBA title to Nick Ball
and what was a very very good fight. So I'm
looking forward to seeing him back in action against you know,
he's not in with a big name, but he's in
with Orlando Gonzalez who's got an excellent record at twenty
three and two. I'm interested also in the light heavyweight
undefeated up and comer named Khalil Co. He is a
fighter who is managed by Keith Connley, who's been bringing
him along with Mattrew. He seems like he's starting to
turn the corner a little bit, showing some explosiveness. No
longer has had issues like he did in a couple
of fights of being on weight and being in good shape.
He's done that in the last few fights. He's been explosive.
And he's not a twenty two year old kid either.
He's a little bit older. At twenty eight, was a
good amateur, and so I think this is the kind
of fight where if he can show some more explosiveness
as he's been doing, you know, he can move along
very quickly in the light heavyweight division. So that's definitely
a guy to keep an eye on the undercard. And
also you got the return of Austin m O Williams,
who was a top notch up and comer. He's coming
off getting knocked out by Hamza Shiraz in the five
v five card. And Ernesto Mercado, who was a prospect
a lot of people were talking about in the one
hundred and forty pound way class, who was a rare
fighter that was considered and known by a lot of
folks as a prospect, but hadn't signed with the promoter.
They were doing it on their own actually with him
and his dad and they were getting some good traction.
But he finally signed with mattrom and so this will
be his matchroom debut. Ernesto Tito Mercado, He's sixteen to
zero with fifteen knockouts, definitely a prospect to also keep
an eye on. So there's a lot of good talent
on this card, even if the matchups themselves are not
going to blow you away all right.
Speaker 2: And again the Championship double feature were interested in as
well obviously and will handicap those fights on the bet
US Boxing show at one Eastern time. The Dezone matchroom
card from Philadelphia. With that, now let's go to your
conversation with Mike Tyson that you had just recently, and
we should say to the audience, this is not the
typical lengthy Rayphaield conversation. And the reason why you could
explain this a little further, you were one of several
getting the rare opportunity to talk with him in advance
of this Jake Paul fight. And as it turns out,
you were like Derek Jeter for your Yankees. You were
in the one spot. You were the lead off guy
here when you got a hold of him, and it
took some work to get it done, but you got
that done.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we got it done. I mean, look, Number one,
I have a good relationship with Mike and always have
ever since the disastrous first interview, you know, twenty some
years ago. I was in the one slot because to
make it happen, the one thing I have, and you
know this, my hard schedule on Friday is our bet
Us show, That's right, And the time when Mike was
available was like right on the edge of that show,
and obviously I didn't want to miss the show. And
that's a mess up, you know. That would be a problem.
Speaker 2: We don't have a contingency that if suddenly Mike was
delayed and you had to leave during the show. We
were gonna let you leave and come back and tell
us how that was going. I was kind of sort
of not that I wanted it, but I was kind
of sort of intrigue, how is this going to go?
Speaker 1: But it turns out they were on time. You got
your time with him, right.
Speaker 3: So they Mike had they What they did was they
basically were going to do like I think Mike was
doing about an hour of interviews, and they lined up
different people to do these interviews with short interviews, you know,
five ten, five, eight minutes, whenever it was going to be.
And so I say, you know, and again I've got
a good relationship with those folks. They said, listen, I
can make it work, but can you put me first
so I can make sure I'm out by the time
I have this committment position? Exactly? So they did. But
here's the thing. Mike was, uh, you know, first of all,
I don't care if you're if you're doing an interview
you're three or four minutes late. I don't consider that late.
He was within a few minutes. It was good. Like
I said, I've known Mike a long time. They hadn't
talked to him for an interview in several years, even
though I saw him in Vegas not that long ago,
and actually, uh, you know, spend a little time shooting
the shit with him. But uh, anyway, we talked about
the Jake Paul fight that's coming up on November fifteenth,
and got into a couple of things about that, and
it was good to talk to me. Look good. He
was in a good mood. You know. I was always
concerned is he going to be on time, because that's
not necessarily Mike sporte timeliness. But you know what he's
He's taken this and acting like a true professional, it
seems to me, And it was. It was excellent to
talk to him. I'm glad that we got it done
and now the fans can hear what he has to say.
Speaker 1: An excellent segue.
Speaker 2: Let's get to that conversation with Iron Mike fighting Jake
Paul coming up next Friday night.
Speaker 1: Here you go right now on the pod.
Speaker 3: Well, it is my great pleasure to be welcome to
our podcast today none other than the former Undisputed heavyweight
champion of the world and dare I say boxing icon
Mike Tyson. Mike, it's been a while since we've had
an interview. I really appreciate It's great to see you.
How have you been. Basically, you're doing great.
Speaker 5: I've been training over a year so fun.
Speaker 4: Now I'm just grateful to be healthy, grateful to be here,
and looking forward to tonight.
Speaker 3: Well, I know a lot of people are looking forward
to this, And I must say, you know I covered
your career when you were thrown active fighter back in
the early two thousands. Uh, you know, you were still
one of the biggest attraction stars in boxing. I don't
think that's changed actually, even though you haven't been fighting.
But it blows my mind that twenty five years later,
I'm still covering professional boxing. But it blows my mind
more that Mike Tyson's getting back in the ring for
what is an officially sanctioned oubt despite a few rules squeaks.
And I wonder what is your motivation for this event
other than obviously you're being paid very well for it.
Speaker 4: Well, now, you know this payday wouldn't change my life
any you know, my life would still be the same
if I didn't get received this person is just that
I want to test myself.
Speaker 5: I want to get outside my comfort zone.
Speaker 3: Okay, I mean everybody knows your history. You were, at
age twenty, the youngest heavyweight champion in the history of boxing,
and as you know, your mentor, the Great Custom Model,
predicted that it was his prophecy. He unfortunately died before
he was able to see you realize that. And I
wonder if you ever given a moment thought to what
he would think that now you're coming out of almost
a twenty year retirement to fight again.
Speaker 4: He would love it because he thought that fighting was
psychological one of one of the physical.
Speaker 5: And if we'll.
Speaker 4: Fighter stayed in shape and he stayed the active, you'll
still be successful at old age as well.
Speaker 3: What do your kids think about this? Because they weren't
around when you were champion, they weren't around when you
were a top contender and still active, and they're gonna
get to see their dad fight for the first time.
Probably most of the you know these.
Speaker 4: Some of my kids probably say you crazy, you know,
you know kids kids don't look at you, and other
people look at you, look at your dad to see
your flow of Hey, you're crazy dad. I think your
old lad Dawn or something like that. But you know,
I think they're gonna be an exciting scene. They'd be
exciting to see that the flags more than an old man.
Speaker 3: All right, you mentioned old man. I mean we all
know you're fifty eight years old. Your your opponent, Jake Paul,
is twenty seven. He's thirty one years younger than you.
So what do you say to the people, Because you
have so many people out there that love you, idolize you,
just you know, think you're one of the greatest fighters
of all time, but probably acknowledge that men who are
sixty year years old probably shouldn't be in the boxing ring,
particularly with a guy that's young, with good power and
in his physical prime. What do you say to the
people that are concerned for you?
Speaker 5: A lot of things I shouldn't be doing more than fighting.
Speaker 4: I shouldn't be out in club thinking that I'm a
big shot of something, out of a big event, being
worshiped by people. I think I'm too old for that crap.
You know, I think I'm too old. A sieve award
the iconically, I think I'm too old for that. But fighting,
kicking somebody death. No, I don't think I'm too old
for that.
Speaker 3: No, what do you say to the people then who
look at this? And again, they know Mike Tyson, They've
seen the highlights, They maybe watch your fights, maybe they're
fans of Jakes, but they look at the pairing between
you two guys, they say, well, this is kind of
a sideshow. What is your response to those folks.
Speaker 4: I'm not their opinion. It's the other things I could say,
but you're right that they're opendent it.
Speaker 3: So I'll take you. I'll take you back when you
had your fine fight obviously before this one, your your
last official fight against Kevin McBride two thousand and five,
almost you know, twenty years ago. I know I covered
that fight. I can vividly remember. I don't know if
you remember this. You tell me fights over you did
your press commence, you announce your retirement, and you and
me and I was early in my days at ESPN,
and my former colleague from USA today who I know
you know well over the years, John Sarasino. The three
of us sat at the table at the at the
Dais after your press commence, and you talked to us
for like a half an hour and basically said, I
don't ever want to fight again. I'd never want to
pick up gloves. I hate to smell of the gym.
I'm done.
Speaker 5: Remember that. You remember that implicitly, but you have to
really consider it.
Speaker 4: Back then, I'm doing cocaine, I'm doing liquor, I'm doing
all kind of drug. I'm killing myself. I'm not having
a good relationship with myself my time. Times are different
now I have I have a totally different relationship with
myself from God, and I don't feel like that anymore.
Speaker 3: Well, I guess I'm glad to hear that. What what was? Uh? What?
Speaker 2: What?
Speaker 3: What is the status of your health? Because this fight
was scheduled a few months ago and they had.
Speaker 4: A bleeding ulsa and I was leading bad food. I
had a bleeding ulsa and I started feeling exhausted during
my workout and I couldn't understand that because just a
week before that, I was going eight rounds, ten round
and I would go three rounds and I was exhausted.
Speaker 5: And they said, I'm looking good. But they said, but
I said, I'm exhausted. What do you mean I'm looking good?
And then I want to get checked.
Speaker 4: I went to the hot I was getting ready to
go to Los Angeles and I was.
Speaker 5: On the plane and I passed out on the plane.
Speaker 3: And you're good now or they're still astription now I'm
perfect now, okay? Uh, you know, And this is one
thing I wonder also. I mean, I guess you and
I've heard you say this. You know, once a fighter,
always a fighter. But do you still have it in
you like you did when you were the baddest man
on the planet and would go into the ring and
destroy your opponents. Maybe you can do that, maybe you can't.
But do you have the mentality still that that's what
you want to do? Go in there and destroy Jake
Paul on November I believe I could do it with
Jake Paul. You do. Yeah, So we're gonna see you
think we're gonna see a classic Mike Tyson knockout.
Speaker 5: I'm coming again him coming straight forth.
Speaker 3: All right, I wrap up with just this last question then, Mike.
They amended the rules a little bit, made the two
minute rounds fourteen ounce gloves a little different than your
average men's boxing match. You would normally as a heavyweight,
where uh the the ten ounce gloves and have three
minute rounds. Can you just tell me just a little
bit about your thoughts about the rules changes with.
Speaker 4: Two minute rounds would be more action, and I don't know,
this is a fight regardless about those rules.
Speaker 5: This is a fight and sometimes we been the low.
Speaker 3: All right, Mike, I really appreciate your time. I know
our time is limited, so I just will say thank
you very much and I wish you good thing you again. Yeah, Mike,
great to see you. Also, thank you very much. And
like I said, best that's lucky in the fight.
Speaker 2: Can I just tell you that just hearing that, I mean,
that's tremendous. I didn't I don't you know, I don't
get the privilege of seeing it because again you did
a video interview with him, and we only get to
hear it. But just hearing that gets you rolling. I
don't know what this is gonna be in Arlington, Texas.
I'm talking about hearing him here on the pod with
always the mere fact that I'm just getting to hear
him gets me in a bigger more anticipatory is that
the right word mood?
Speaker 1: For the jay? I don't know what this is gonna
be with Jake's.
Speaker 3: All the interviews that we've had on the pod. That's
that's the biggest name.
Speaker 2: With certainly certainly massive there on that. So again, I
hope we get to the finish line. We're now within
a week of getting to the finish line because he's
had health problems. He's fifty eight. But at least you
got to hear from Iron Mike about this. All right,
wrap it up as we now get ready for fight
week for that week next week.
Speaker 3: Well, I just say there's a lot, a lot of
differences between doing some interviews with some boxing writers and
reporters and media personalities compared to getting in the ring
and facing a twenty seven year old man that's throwing
punches at your head when you haven't been in a
real fight in twenty years. So, you know, for for
everybody's sake, I hope it's not a train wreck that
a lot of people are expecting. I don't know what's
going to happen. I certainly have my feelings about how
the result's going to happen. We'll get into that later
as the fight gets closer. But I hope that when
it's over that people are not disappointed. At least a
good thing about it is compared to having spent maybe
seven or eighty dollars in a pay per view. At
least this is not a pay per view. It's part
of a regular Netflix subscription. Obviously, millions and millions of
people have Netflix, so no extra charge. You watch it
the same way you watch anything else you might watch Netflix.
So from that standpoint, it is good. And they have
some interesting fights on the undercard, obviously the Katie Taylor
rematch against Amanda Toronto, so it's going to be, you know,
an event. So let's put it like that.
Speaker 2: We have at least gotten in range of fight week
brother Rayfield. So that's good, that's upcoming, and excellent job,
excellent hustle with getting iron.
Speaker 1: Mike.
Speaker 3: Let me tell you that all I know.
Speaker 2: Is when you shared that photo with me, I privately
shared it with our bet Us people, who went absolutely
bonkers that you were talking to Mike Tyson even though
they couldn't hear the interview. I'm like, this is what
he's doing. Right before we do the live show as
we plug again for Friday. So we've gotten that interview.
Now we get ready for Jake Paul and Mike Tyson
coming up. All right, some news and some nostalgia. Have
we solved?
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, what is this on my rundown? Have
we solved? The Connor ban? Saga?
Speaker 2: Is the word that I will use with his drug
suspension with the British Boxing Board of Control. My eyes
glazed over like months ago, but apparently it is now
solved and he can now fight in the UK again.
Speaker 1: Fill in the gaps please.
Speaker 3: Well, I don't know if I would use the word solved.
Here's the bottom line. He basically served about a two
year period of time at home in the UK where
he didn't fight, which had he just dealt with it
when it first happened and taking the suspension, it probably
would have been a two year ban anyway. So at
some point he was going to be allowed to fight again,
and as everybody probably knows, because of technicalities, he was
able to fight twice in that period of time in
the United States, where he was licensed by Florida and
also by Nevada, because the ABC removed him from the
United States, uh, you know, the suspension list, the national
suspension list, because the ABC attempted to get some clarification
about his case in Britain, and as I was told
by the ABC, they were not helpful. They did not
answer our queries about what's going on, and so they
felt like we can't just hold this guy up forever
without Ali's getting an acknowledgement about what's going on from
his home commission. So he did fight two times, but
his money, his name, where he means something is obviously
in the United Kingdom and so therefore it was very
important for him to be able to fight there if
he's going to carry out his career. And after a
lot of stuff, you don't have to get into every detail.
I'm sick the fucking death of it. I've been writing
about it and it's making me wane of thy row
up most of the time. The bottom line is this
week on Wednesday, the British Boxing Border Control lifted his
provisional suspension that was related to the two belt drug
tests are really I guess the one is what made
it happen, where he failed for a banned substance boma fene,
and it forced a fight with him and Chris you
Bank Junior to be canceled a few days before the fight.
It was very, very a big deal in the UK
all around the boxing world anyway, after a lot of
back and forth, they lifted the suspension and behind the scenes,
I've known this for a while there was always the
back and forth about how it's going to come to
an end. It just matters are going to be lifted
now before the end of this year? Are they going
to make him wait till they get into like March April?
And for whatever the reasons were, they ended up lifting
the suspension. Now u COD which is their drug testing
agency in Grape in the UK, they have the right
to appeal this and they in their statement they said
we may appeal this. They have twenty one days, so
it may not one hundred percent be over. We'll have
to see what happens within that three weeks, if they
go through and see.
Speaker 2: If he corrected me correctly. It's not completely solved. It's
solved from the British Boxing Border Controls point of view.
Can I just ask one simple clarifying question, So why
did they not just levy a suspension and say here
is the length of suspension. What's the simple answer to that?
Speaker 3: Because the British Boxing Border of Control is a private
entity and they lacked balls, and they lacked financing, and
they were worried that they were going to get sued
into oblivion.
Speaker 1: But he had flunked a drug test.
Speaker 3: Now I'm gonna tell you what happened with that.
Speaker 2: I'm not I'm not trying to take sides. He flunked
a second where they could buy unless have gone after him.
There's a very specific reason for that. No one is acknowledged.
No one is saying he didn't sail a test. Obviously.
Speaker 3: Connor Benn says whatever they found was not on purpose.
The WBC, which was his original test as part of
the Queen Boxing program, was a positive test also, but
that was not the one that caused the a'st least
in that one came to light after the cancelation. But
the way the WBC says, and they went and did
their so called investigation, they said they had absolved in
because under the WBC rules of the Clean Boxing program,
they do not go by the concept of strict liability.
They determined, whether you agree with it or not, is
that he did not take it knowingly and so therefore
he was not going to be punished. Whatever. Say what
you want about that. In terms of what was going
on with Yukot and the other tests that caused the
fight to be suspended. Remember, Chris Ubank Junior and Connor
Ben hired and contracted with Evada to do testing before
this fight that was scheduled for October eighth, twenty twenty two. Now,
when that sample was taken, the test result that came
back positive was tested by Vada, who they hired to
conduct the testing. While they were being tested by Vada
u COD which also has discretion over British athletic contests,
we're also doing testing. He did not fail a u
contest and so the argument is again right or wrong,
is that Vada has no right to be involved with
our testing and have it go to the British Boxing
Board because our home testing UH company is Yukat and
so he felt they test it has no bearing on
our rule. So there was the whole I get.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I'm not trying to bog us down. I'm
not trying to go into all the wage. You did
a good job of explaining that. But here there's the answer.
Speaker 3: Connor Ben is free to fight in the UK and
most likely we'll see on the first part of next
year the.
Speaker 2: Last you unless the Yukat appeal slows that down, which
you just pointed out.
Speaker 3: So That's why I remember if you go back a
few weeks ago when when better BF and Bi Boll
had their fight in Saudi Arabia, Chris U Bank Junior
was on the undercard uh torturing poor Camille Zarametta and
knocking him out. And who was in the ring face
to face with him after the fight to drum up
and reignite the hype for a possible fight was Connor
Ben and that fight. I'd be very shocked if to fight.
Speaker 2: That's not next, right. We believe that, and they've been
trying to lay the ground for that for a year
and a half. And let's just say one more time
because I'll share this with the audience, just like I
shared it before I took clomaphine clomed trying to have
children as part of fertility. The male human body does
not make that. You have to take it.
Speaker 3: Well, unless you eat too many eggs, which was his excuse.
Speaker 1: Dog ate my homework.
Speaker 2: The human male body doesn't make it, large amounts of
it that showed up in tests, et cetera. It's primarily
a female drug, but males can take it as well
as part of fertility.
Speaker 3: And so please you know I'm sick.
Speaker 1: Can we move on?
Speaker 3: Let's move on.
Speaker 2: He's sort of reinstated until u COD files their appeal
and you and I are going to laugh if that happens.
I am already tipping that. All right, more news the
Monster nao yah in a way. What's going on here?
He's done a deal with ri Odd Season. I'll tell
you what's going on. It's for a lot of money.
What is this? What does this mean? What does it mean?
The Monster up with Riad Season.
Speaker 3: Well, it's interesting because they made him the so called
read Season Ambassador, which is like a you know, a title, uh,
and they are they're promoting their read Season event and
their logo, and then.
Speaker 2: How don't we get to be ambassadors and get some money?
Can you look into that? Please make that check that out.
Speaker 3: So Turkey Alschk is apparently a big Naya in a
way fan. I don't really know any boxing fans that
don't love watching him fight. But the thing that's so
crazy about this is that the other fighters that they
have worked with and signed up to be so called ambassadors,
people like Hamsas Shiraz and Jared Anderson and Terrence Crawford
and some others. They fight in Saudi Arabia or they
fight on read season cards.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: You know Terrence Crawford, he headlined a read card Read
Season card in Los Angeles. Obviously I'm just Araza spot
over there. You know. Tyson Fury obviously is part of
that whole thing. He's fighting in Saudi Arabia. Anyway. The
thing that's amazing is that they gave Noia in a
way three billion yen, which I looked that up on
that conversion chart because I'm like, holy shit, that's a
lot of money, which it is, but when you hear billion,
You're like, damn, I wonder how much that is Anyway,
in American money, it's about twenty million dollars. But they're
giving him twenty million bucks to basically where the logo
and promote Saudi Arabian, promote Reance season. But nothing in
the agreement it says he has to fight in Saudi Arabia,
which was amazing to me. Now he may ultimately do
that as he continues the relationship with those folks in
Turkey who met with him and did this deal. So's
it's there. They're trying to raise the the profile of
Saudi Arabia in Asia to the Japanese folks to get
them to try to maybe make a trip to Saudi
Arabia and take part in reance season and the festival
and all the activities and things that they do there.
But I just thought it was interesting because it's a
big amount of money and there's really not a lot
you got to do. He doesn't even have to leave Japan.
Speaker 2: Said, how do we get one of those ambassador jobs.
I don't say for twenty million, but we got a look.
Speaker 3: One near thing is even if he wanted to, at
least for the current way his schedule is situated, it
would be unlikely he'd fight there for a while anyway,
because as you know, he's fighting in Tokyo on December
twenty fourth. If he wins that fight, he's then gonna
probably come to the plan is anyway f him to
fight in Las Vegas probably around the April time frame,
and then if everything goes well in that fight, it's
a trip back to Japan to have the Knakatani fight
at the Tokyo Dome sometime you know, in the summer
early fall. Now, if he could squeeze in a fourth fight,
maybe they do it in Saudi Arabia at the end
of the year, we'll be within the context of Riot Season,
which runs from roughly October till like March, so we'll see.
So I just thought that was a fascinating thing to
see him. Good, big money deal with not a lot
to do.
Speaker 2: Cash in if you can cash in, and we'll talk
more about the monster and an anniversary of a tremendous
fight here in a few minutes. Cash inn, get the
money while you can get the money, all right. So
as we continue on the news and injury to junior
welterweight contender Kenneth Simms has him off speaking of Riat Season,
their upcoming what is it Latino Night card that they
have in another week or so?
Speaker 1: What's up here? With the injury going on?
Speaker 3: This was the disappointment. I mean, they have a really
good looking card that Golden Boy is doing in conjunction
with a Riat Season. It's so Latino Knight. It's an
excellent main event, which is gilbert O Zerto Ramirez who
was obviously Latino taken on the britt Chris Billin Smith
in a title unification fight in the cruiserweight division. And
it's a deep show, but one of the undercard fights
was I thought was a really interesting, good looking fight.
It was a title eliminator between Oscar Duarte, who's a tough,
ruggy guy. We know him from you saw him, even
though a loss, put up a good fight against Ryan Garcia,
but a very powerful puncher. And Kenneth Sims, who's also
a very good fighter, was a top notch amateur. Really
just a good, solid fight and it unfortunately Kenny Simms
suffered a knee injury and had to pull out of
the fight, so instead of fighting on this card, they
replaced him. It won't be a ten eliminator and it
will be a little bit over the one hundred and
forty pound weight limit. They'll do a fight at one
hundred and forty two pounds. He's going to take on
Batier Akhmedov, who is also a very good fighter, who
if you actually follow this type of stuff close, you
remember back in twenty twenty three, Achmandov and Kenny Simms
had a fight of the Year candid on Showtime that
was absolutely sensational. So we know Achmandov has been in
some great fights. Duarte is in good fight so as
a replacement fight, this one's not too bad. At all.
I just would have loved to see Sims and Duarte
do their business. I thought that was a hell of
a fight. Maybe they'll be able to rescheduled at some point,
and certainly hope Kenneth Simms's knee is nothing serious and
he's back in the ring sooner than later.
Speaker 2: And one more note before the nostalgia. Former light heavyweight
world champ Joe Smith Junior in the United States.
Speaker 1: Is now going to be back. What have you learned?
Speaker 2: And I know he fought previously against Zerdo Ramirez.
Speaker 1: What has a cruiser weight? What does it look like here?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean Joe lost his light heavyweight title when
he got knocked out in the second round by Arthur
better vieav in a unification fight. That was a great
performance from Better Beef. And Joe hasn't really fought a
whole lot since then. But when he did have his
he's lost two in a row, one against Better bf
That was back in what June of twenty two, and
he didn't fight again until he fought in the end
of last year, like around a year ago from where
we are now. October of twenty twenty three, he fought.
He moved up there it wasn't like the full cruiser
limit at two hundred. They fought like in the one nineties.
I forget what the exact contract wait was, but he
moved up and he fought Zerdo Ramirez and he lost
a decision in that fight, and you're kind of like, well,
maybe that's the end for Joe. Not really sure if
he's gonna come back. It's now been, you know, a
year since his last fight. So Joe Diguardia, who was
his promoter from Star Boxing, I guess he talked about
it at the WBO convention, but he also told it
to me when we were texting back and forth in
the last couple of days, that he's bringing Joe Smith back.
He's gonna fight in February. They're still trying to nail
down all the details of the opponent in a exact date.
He said he's working on some kind of broadcaster deal
for that. I just know this, whatever Joe does, I
enjoy watching Joe Smith fight. He's been some excellent boxing
matches over the course of his career. A real good dude,
and you know, we'll see if he can. He's thirty
five years old. He's not getting any younger. You know
he does. He has lost two fights in a row,
and we'll see he's got anything left to make, maybe
one more run at a title in the cruiserweight division.
Speaker 2: All right, good enough nostalgia. Time to wrap it. And
on this day that we're recording the podcast, Thursday to Friday,
November seventh has two significant anniversaries. Let's go back to
November seventh, nineteen eighty eight, thirty six years ago when
the Sugar Ray Leonard defeated Donnie Lalan, a Canadian, and
I'm gonna I'm gonna have fun going back and forth
with you because it ends up being for two titles
in two different weight divisions, which is cuckoo as it
is the WBC's newly created super middleweight division. And also
Donnie Lalan was the light heavyweight world champ as well
for the WBC, so it's a.
Speaker 1: Knockout for Leonard that night.
Speaker 2: I still remember vividly watching this fight, seeing this fight
in the knockout, a brutal knockout of Lalan, who was
exhausted by the way at the end of the thing,
as well as being hurt.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get into the nostalgia. Go ahead, My friend.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean Donnie Lahan had won the WBC light
heavyweight title, he defended it once, and now he has
the opportunity to make this mega fight against Sugar Ray Leonard.
I mean, imagine a social media existed back then though,
where he's fighting for two titles in the same night.
People would have ripped on Sugar Ray Leonard and on
the WBC about it. But it's not like it's never
happened since then. I mean, one of the things that
you remember, remember when Leo Santa Cruz and Tank Davis
had their fight. They fought the fight at one hundred
and thirty pounds, but it also had a light white
title at stake. Also, I mean, so it's not and
they actually compared it to the Leonard and Thelon fight.
But remember where Sugar Ray Leonard was in his career
at this point when they're making this match. He has
in April of nineteen eighty seven, he has scored a massive, historic, monstrous, gargantuan, humongous, upset, legendary.
I don't know what other words I can use. TJ
victory against Marvel as Marvin Hagler to win the Middleway
Championship of the World in one of the most entered
you know, just a huge, huge, one of the biggest
fights in the history of boxing. Gigantic fight, huge. I mean,
talk about Ray Leonard in his greatness, and he's got
a lot of huge wins, but I'm not sure anything
is bigger than what he did that night against him.
Speaker 2: Great came out of a what three year retirement, three
and a half years of invincible and Leonard beat him.
Speaker 3: Moving by the way, he was moving up two weight
classes to fight him.
Speaker 2: Right, and now this is roughly a year and a
half after all of.
Speaker 3: That, right, so he did exactly so he I don't
I don't think Ray retired after the Hagular fighting. Maybe
just didn't. Maybe he did or didn't announce it, but
in ye he'd been out of the ring another you know,
good not not almost you know, three and a half years,
but still quite a while. And now he's going to
move up even heavier in weight. So he's now fighting
for as you said, the newly created super middleweight belt
of the WBC. Lalan is the light heavyweight title there.
So in terms of where they weighed, Ray weighed in
one hundred and sixty five pounds, so still not at
the full super middleweight limit, but that by far the
heaviest he ever weighed in his curb because he was
only one fifty eight when he waited against Marvin Hagler
for the middleway title, and Lalan came down to one
sixty seven to do this fight for the two belts,
and it was a big deal Caesars Palace in Las Vegas,
you know, big close circuit kind of fight, and Sugar
Ray Leonard, you know, the flair for the dramatic as
he always had in his career, looked absolutely spectacular in
this fight and scored a devastating knockout.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: I don't remember when the fight was being discussed and promoted,
like if people gave Lalan a huge chance to win,
I just don't remember. But the reality was, even if
you thought Ray was gonna win, I'm not sure people
thought that he was gonna abolutely destroy Laalan the way
he ended up doing.
Speaker 2: And it was the best that I recollect And I
remember a lot of this because you and I we
often say this were huge Sugar Ray Leonard guys, growing up,
how could you not be? Was that Lalan was not
well known, He had not brought on TV a whole bunch,
and so the belief was Leonard's got a real chance
to beat this guy that not many people knew a
whole lot about, and then he ended up doing so.
I just will say the one thing though, looking back
at the historical part of this, it's silly that it
was for the light heavyweight title when they weren't fighting
as light heavyweights and they were.
Speaker 1: Under the limit.
Speaker 2: And Leonard, by the way, vacated immediately, and never if
I'm correct, never fought it light heavyweight ever again, never
fought in the first place, never fought as a light heavyweight.
But nonetheless it doesn't take away from him, you know,
a year and a half later splatting a much bigger guy,
which he did in this fight.
Speaker 3: After this fight, Ray fought four more times. He fought
two middleweight fights, the third draw, the third fight which
was a draw against Hearns, the fight we shall not
speak of, the horrible shit show. Third fight against Duran.
Then he tried to make one fifty for he got
knocked out by Terry Norris, had the long layoff and
then came back also as a middleweight and lost to Camacho.
But the lawn fight, remember Donnie knocked Sugar Ray Leonard
down in the fourth round of the fight, and Ray
going into that fateful ninth round, this is a close
fight on the cards. I just looked them up while
you were talking. Sugar Ray Leonard was leading seventy seven,
seventy four, seventy seven to seventy five, and one of
the judges had Donnie in the line up seventy six
to seventy five. So going into round number nine, this
fight is still on the table. And like I said,
Osray has done, had done throughout his career, had a
flare for the dramatic, and he just ruined don Lulan
in that last round before he stopped him. Just an
absolutely tremendous knockout. I mean it might. I'm not going
to say it's the knockout of Sugar Ray Leonard's entire career,
but it was a pretty because of the stakes, because
he'd been off for a while, because he was moving
up yet again in Wait. It was a big deal
at Caesar's Palace. It's a you know, the quintessential, like,
you know, big fight setting for him to go in
there in a fight where he'd been knocked down, a
fight where he was trying to make some history by
winning the two belts, whatever you may think about about
that situation, and to end it the way he did
was very unforgettable. I mean, just just an amazing performance.
Once again.
Speaker 2: One other footnote from this. He had split leading up
to this fight from Angelo Dundee and I remember I
remember very well, obviously still this day, being angry because
that was the team.
Speaker 1: I mean, the the Angie Dundee that's in his ear.
Speaker 2: Saying you're blowing it, Son, You're blowing it, and is
in his ear telling him to go get Thomas. Hearns,
the Angie Dundee who had been with Muhammad Ali. How
did we not work this out over money?
Speaker 3: Which was anny, That's what happens.
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, but I mean come on the team,
the Superpowers and Sugar Ray Leonard.
Speaker 3: With their trainers. And so Angelo was still pissed off
because he got he felt that he was given like
barely any money relevant. Angelo was old school, you know,
he was you know, you don't get a fee, you
get a percentage. And Ray, in Angie's mind, dramatically underpaid
him for the Haglar fight where Ray made crazy money.
And then when they went to go do this Donny
Lallan fight. They were ticked off about what they were
getting paid in Uh you know, He's gonna get like
one percent of the person and Angie was like no.
And at the end of the day, they did not
work together on that fight, and so he had other
guys in the corner. He had, you know, and guys
who was who are familiar with Ray Janks more than
Dave Jacobs, Peppy Karrah who had worked with him. They
were his quarter that night. But Angelo, uh you know,
was obviously the well known.
Speaker 2: Let the record reflect after this Lalan fight and after
all of that that, Ray Leonard never looked like Ray
Leonard again virtually after that without being and you could
say stuff about age and you know, Wade and whatever,
but he wasn't the same sugar Ray Leonard ever again
without Angelo Dundee.
Speaker 1: I think they needed to be together.
Speaker 3: And I don't disagree with that, but I don't think
that I don't think that he didn't look good against
Hearns in the third fight or Duran, which he won
by earns Hears the second I mean Turns second fight,
Duran third fight, which were the next two fights after
this Laalon fight. You know that was whoever the trainer was.
I mean, at that point, you know, Ray's not going
to be taught new tricks. I mean he was old
and he was kind of used up at that point,
and it just so happened that Duran was much more
used up then Ray was.
Speaker 1: And the least was just about it. It was the
least used up of the two of them for that night.
Speaker 2: And we've often talked about Hearns beat him in the rematch,
he just didn't get the decision. He got two knockdowns
and still didn't.
Speaker 3: I just loved the Laalan knockout. I love the knockout
it was.
Speaker 2: I mean, he was exhausted, he was hurt, and I
was a bit surprised that after he got up it
was Richard Steel, right that let the fight continue to
go on and he got splatted along the ropes by
Sugar Ray Leonard And you're right, Signature.
Speaker 3: It's funny you mentioned that Steele, who at the time
was like the go to ref in Vegas like we see,
you know for many years with guys like Kenny Baylis
and Tony Weeks, and now we've got Tom Taylor and
a couple.
Speaker 2: Of guys for the present day again, jen z Ers
that thinks, as I often say, boxing began in two
thousand and six.
Speaker 1: This is your Thomas Taylor that right now.
Speaker 3: Interestingly, Richard worked the Hagler fight, Richard worked a Lalan fight,
Richard did the Hearns rematch, and Richard did the third
Durant fight. He worked those four Mega uh Sugar Ray
Leonard fights in a row. He was the go to
guy that tells you where he was on the totem pole,
on the you know, in terms of boxing hierarchy of
who's going to you know, get those assignments. He was
at that time. He was the best in the business.
Speaker 1: You know what you've done. You've made me.
Speaker 2: Now want to go back and watch this YouTube it up.
I'm gonna go watch that knockout after we're done here.
When we do these segetes six years ago.
Speaker 3: When we do these segments, a lot of times like
I look the date up and I know what's up,
but I don't actually go back necessary and watch them
before we talk about it. But Dn, you and I
have the conversation, I get all geared up and I'm like,
you know, Dan, well, and when this is over, yeah,
I'm gonna I'm gonna hit up.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of the audience too.
Speaker 2: Go find the fight from November of nineteen eighty eight
thirty six.
Speaker 3: You made a good point, so this is this is
the last great night of Sugar Ray Leonards. Yes, he
fought four more times after this, but the draw should
have been a lost turns. The Duran fight was horrible,
and then the two losses.
Speaker 2: So this is the laws chectma right, the last great
night of Sugar Ray Leonards Caurreer, I agree with you,
all right, speaking of greatness, and we mentioned the Monster
Naolia in a way. We're also now on the fifth
anniversary already of his spectacular fight with Nonito don Air,
another future Hall of Famer to unify the bantamweight titles.
That was November seven, twenty nineteen in Japan. And this
was a highly entertaining, high stakes when and it helped
launch the Monster into being even.
Speaker 1: Even a bigger star. Obviously reminisce a little more.
Speaker 3: Just an absolutely tremendous fight. One thing, first tip the
hat to Nono donairho was already considered even though he
had a belt going into the fight, was certainly you know,
in the twilight of his career, and he gave He
gave Noi in Away by far and away Aiman to
this day, it's the hardest fight that Inn a Way
ever had. He broke his his his I think he
broke his orbit Bony. Yes, he slusted him up. He
heard him a couple of times. And even though Donair
did not win the fight, and it's not even like
you could say it was controversial. You know, in a
way was the rightful decision winner of this fight. But
Noi in Away was in a fight that night that
he'll never forget because, by far, this was the toughest
fight he ever had. And you know what it's It
was against a guy that's gonna, like in a way,
going to be in the Hall of Fame someday. Everybody
picked it as the twenty nineteen fight of the year.
It was the fight of the Year by the boxing writers.
It was the fight of the Year by the Ring magazine.
I picked it as the fight of the year for ESPN.
I mean pretty much anybody that was picking fights of
the year, this was the fight of the year. It's
just an awesome fight. Not only was it to unify
two of the titles in the bandamweight division, but it
was also the Ring Magazine title was on the line,
which is emblematic usually of the lineal title, and it
was highly competitive. Don Air did get knocked down in
the eleventh round on a body shot, and we know
that Noise in a way the monsters. I think you
can make a really good, strong argument to these the
best body puncher curly in the sport of boxing. But
a very dramatic, very action packed fight between you know,
the younger Hall of Fame to the Hall of Famer
to be and the older Hall of Famer to be
and it was really app I mean Donair. This was
also this was part of the World Boxing Super Series
when they were they were doing the tournament, so that
that that the fact that no Donair went into the
tournament obviously was good for his career. He had he
had been able to beat some good guys going into
this fight. He had beaten Emmanuel Rodriguez and UH and
Jan Carlos Paiano, not big name but guys that had
had belts UH and he just looked absolutely spectacular. But
I think that this victory, doing it on that stage,
being able to unify titles, winning the final and the
big trophy along with the belts that he unified against
a great opponent in Donair. Uh it really it took
in a ways popularity not only in Japan but around
boxing and the rest of the world to another level
that is even growing, you know. Uh, you know subsequent
to that, where he's now gone up and become the
undisputed champion of Dana White. After that, then moved up
and became the undisputed champion in the junior featherweight division.
Now everybody thinks he's one of the top pound for
pound guys in boxing. And you know, and there was
not just a couple of fights, three fights or so
after this, maybe he was spourt fights after this. He
did have a rematch with Dona Air. I was just
what he had in that first fight, about how close
and how hard hitting and how much punishment they both took.
Uh he dusted Don't Air in two rounds and just
didn't make a look how.
Speaker 2: Good Donair had to be in that first fight, the
one that we're talking about now, the anniversary fight, to
have pushed him to have fractured his eye orbital twelve
round decision, I tell you.
Speaker 1: And then and then the and then the rematches a destruction.
So I tells you how I would have loved.
Speaker 3: To see these two guys fight when they were both
in their prime, because in a way it was in
his prime and as great as Donair was, you know,
I don't think anybody would say he was in his
prime at that point, but the prime Donair might have
been in a way on that given night. Uh, I
mean I would rank in a way probably his accomplishments
are maybe greater than a Donair overall, but it was
a spectacular fight when they were not both in their prime.
If they were, oh my goodness. But it was a
great It was a great fight, a classic fight, a
great win. If you look at in a way's record
right now, He's been a lot of quality guys in
various weight classes, but that to me is still his
biggest and best win so far.
Speaker 1: Love it, great stuff here, Jam packed preview. Again.
Speaker 2: I keep saying I have said it several times. Friday Night,
Keishawn Davis main event. As we put the podcast to bed,
we think, we hope every indication is they are still
fighting with the vastly overweight Gustavo Limos.
Speaker 1: Again, We'll have further.
Speaker 2: On this on the bet Us Boxing Show at one
Eastern time when we handicap it. That's a Friday night
top ranked card Norfolk, Virginia with him headlining. Then Saturday
Night Jaron Boots Innis title main event, undercard co feature
main event for Jesse Bam Rodriguez. We gave you some
insight on that well, handicap those fights on the bet
US Show. You heard from Iron Mike, Mike Tyson. You
got news in nostalgia. Dan, I'm ready for the weekend.
I'm ready to go watch the.
Speaker 1: Letard Lalan fight. After I make dinner. I want to
go watch the end of the Letard Lalan fight probably tonight.
Speaker 2: And I'm gonna be ready for you and you're gonna
be ready for me on the bet Us Boxing Show tomorrow.
Speaker 1: But good stuff, good night tonight on the preview.
Speaker 3: That sounds good. I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 2: All right, good stuff again. Follow subscribe on this feed.
Whatever happens a fight, Freaks Unite, recap off the weekend.
We're always here at preview and going into the weekend,
we recap. We do our best all the way through
the holidays. Here, We're going to do our best. We
do previews and recaps. For now, we are good for Dan,
rayphiel On, TJ. Reeves, enjoyed the fights. We'll see you
Friday one Eastern time on the bet Us TV Boxing show.
And you've been part of the Big Fight Weekend preview