Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big
Fight Weekend. Now here is your host, DJ leaves.
Speaker 2: Well, we get ready for a fourth of July holiday
weekend here in the US of a red, white and
blue apple pie baseball and fights.
Speaker 3: Yes, there actually are a couple of fights, but you
know what, they're not in the United States. We're going
to talk about this coming up. It is the Big
Fight Weekend previewpot. I'm merely the somewhat capable host.
Speaker 1: TJ. Reeves.
Speaker 3: Hello to Uncle Sam himself, our insider Dan Rayphiel. Fight
Freaks Unite is the substack. It's a new month. Why
are you not subscribing on the Fight Freaks Unite substack
and newsletter. Good to be back with you. I can
confirm to the video audience Dan is not in a red,
white and blue top hat like Apollo Creed. However, it
is the fourth of July weekend. How are things? What's
going on?
Speaker 4: It's hot, muggy, yeah, uh, don't really feel like being outside.
But he got, like you said, one solid fight card
and we'll talk about correct and uh that's about it.
And then you know, I was kind of like the
calm before the storm. TJ. Because coming in the next
couple of weeks between UH the New York card in
the Tennis UH Stadium with h Berlanga and Shiraz and
then of course the week after with a ton of
stuff well also Katie Taylor and Toronto is the correct
at the Garden we plus you have Pacio's return, the
undisputed heavyweight championship fight Dan Rodriguez, et cetera. So UH,
take a little breather on the fourth of July weekend
watch one show and we'll reconvene.
Speaker 3: Did you say Edgar Berlanga I have. You don't have
to wait till next week. You're gonna hear Edgar Berlango
with Dan right here on this podcast in just a
few minutes. Stand by for that for that fight with Shiraz.
And you mentioned the Paquio week last last I talked
with you. You are planning to head, speaking of the heat,
head west to Vegas for the Pacquiao fight week right,
that is the plan? Yes, okay, so UH is definitely
scorching out there. I have returned from southern California with
my family with the twins turning seventeen and being part
of the Jake pol Pay per view, which again I
thought was entertaining. Again, maybe I'm a little slanted because
I was there and in person, and I understand, But
I mean, you got your money's worth with knockouts early
on on the pay per view before.
Speaker 4: That was more important than any of that. As you
survived the Tower of Terror.
Speaker 3: I did, and I did show you the photograph. I
did not put the photograph on social media. I did
show you the photograph of us surviving, of my twins screaming.
I'm sort of yelling out as that thing bounces up
and down, as my father likes to say, get your
prayer life in order if you're going to get on
that ride.
Speaker 4: Exactly nuts.
Speaker 1: It was nuts.
Speaker 3: So we did well at Disneyland. I'm back here in
West central Florida. By the way, it's supposed to rain
all through this fourth of July Thursday, Friday, Saturday, so
they're already canceling Rayfield a lot of the firework shows
in Tampa Bay. We'll just have to watch the other
shows on video, the one at the at the Nation's Capital,
or the one on NBC in New York, or YouTube,
theorized somewhere else.
Speaker 4: Maybe like me and not give all it could be.
Speaker 3: I didn't know that shit could fly. I'll just use
your quote, but if you say so, all right. So
thank you for finding us. Make sure you're following subscribing
to this podcast feed. We typically preview going into the
weekend and recap coming off the weekend. Summer is a
little different, but we do our best to do that. Apple, Spreaker, Spotify, follow, subscribe.
Also be with us for the bet Us Boxing Show
first mentioned. That is live even on July fourth. As
Raypael said to me before I hit the record button,
the Brits don't care about July fourth. That was a
losing effort for them as it turned out in the
Revolutionary War. So the Brits don't care about July fourth weekend.
They got a July fifth fight card. We'll be previewing
that on the bet Us Show on their platforms, YouTube,
social media one Eastern time on the fourth of July.
Tom Cruise was born on the fourth of July, movie right,
So that that yeah, that's out there all right. So
let's get into all of this, including that fight card.
It is Manchester, England, it is the match Room de
Zone show. It is Jack Catterall in the main event
with Harlem U Bank. It is a twelve round welterweight fight.
Tell me more about the main event. We obviously know
about Caterall and some of his recent battles, and U
Bank obviously clarify for me again. This is the nephew, right,
this is the cousin of Chris Eubank Am.
Speaker 1: I correct, Harlem, you Bank, this is the view of Chris.
Speaker 4: He's Chris Senior's nephew. He is Chris Juniors Parson, the
lesser known of the U Bank fighting family, but an
undefeated fighter. And as you mentioned, he's in this main event.
This is really a step up fight. This is this
is the first time he's in with a well known commodity,
a world class level fighter, a guy that's fought for
a world title in the past, who's been in the
ring with the good opponents. So Harlem is uh He's
already thirty one years old. He's been moving along. I
think when he turned pro he was not given a
lot of thought by most people when they were paying
attention to the family. They were paying a lot more
closer attention to Chris Junior. But Harlem has been doing
his thing. He's been a pro since twenty seventeen, he's
achieved a record of twenty one and zero with nine knockouts.
But you have to look at who the twenty one
fighters that he's faced are, and there's not a lot
of names on there that you would recognize. So I
would submit to you that even though he's looked pretty
good and win fights, a lot of the fights he's
been on actually have been able to watch live because
they've streamed on the Triller Plus app in the United
States and also very easy to find a lot of
his events on YouTube. But his last fight, which was
in March, was in my estimation, by far and away
his most notable opponent. It's, you know, being kind, but
it was Tyrone McKenna, who's been in the ring with everybody,
and I thought, Harlem, you bank looked very good in
that fight. It was considered like a test and he
didn't just win the fight, he pretty much dominated. You know,
he's got a tenth round knockout victory. He was knocking
McKenna down. I think he dropped him three times in
the fight, and he did a good job in that fight.
So that was sort of like that would open the
eyes and say, you know, what Maybe he's not a
super prospect or a top ten contender, but that's a
big step. And so now he's going into the fight
with Caterall. But Caterarell's got his own question mark. So
he's been around a while. People know he's thirty and two.
We don't have to relitigate the controversy of his loss
to Josh Taylor when they fought a few years ago
for the undisputed title. He did defeat him in the rematch,
but Josh obviously seen what's happened since then. He's probably,
you know, I had seen better days. But then he
defeated Regis Progray that was another fighter that might have
seen better days. And then in his last fight that
took place in February, he lost a fight that he
had no business losing, in my opinion, to Arnold Barbosa,
you know, who was undefeated, fair enough, but Barbosa had
gone to Manchester, which is where Jack is from that region,
and he lost a unanimous decision. That was in an
interim world title bout. And so it's sort of like
the ships are meeting at that time. You have Caterall
coming off of a rough loss, not from fact that
he got beat up by a fight where most people
expected him to win in front of the home crowd,
and maybe he's not what he once was. And you
have Harlem youw Bank, who has never really been paid
a lot of attention to by a lot of people,
but has been sort of making his way coming off
of his biggest win. And so one guy's kind of
on the upswing, the other guy's kind of a little
bit maybe on the downslide. And now they meet and
we'll see, you know, which one is on the better course.
I guess getting Harlem score another what would be by
far his biggest win, and not to say that this
would be Caterall's biggest win, but it would certainly go
a long way to uh saying I'm back, you know,
as a top contender in the one hundred and forty
seven division now because he's moving up the Barbosofi was
at one hundred and forty pounds and so Harlem new
Bank has been fighting at one forty seven, and so
he's going up that way.
Speaker 3: And we should mention that welter Waite has now become
a little more wide open. We're going to get into
this litt war with Brian Norman and Devin Haney in
a little bit, but Welter Waite is more wide open
if Innis is moving up and belts are now going
to be available. So I'm not saying that either one
of these would be in a world title fight next,
but that's kind of out there. If you continue to
win at one forty seven for sureling.
Speaker 4: Up right, Look, the guy that's going to be the
guy that emerges as the winner from this fight is
certainly going to be I have to imagine, you know,
somewhere in the top certainly in the top ten of
the various sanctioning bodies. And what that does. That puts
you in a position where you qualify to fight for a belt.
And if you are a guy that can, you know,
bring in fans and bring in money and attract some attention,
then you have an opportunity possibly to fight for a title.
As you mentioned, like you said, this is we're not
in the days where Terrence Crawford has become the undisputed champion,
or even at the time when you had Terrence Crawford
with a title and you had Aerol Spencer three of
the titles. You have the titles that are now splintered.
I mean, it's kind of a weird thing in boxing.
Everybody always wants see all there should be you know,
let's get the unification, let's get the undisputed, and then
that happens, and everybody gets pissed off because there's only
one champion. There's not an opportunity to fight for other belts. Well, yeah,
because one guy's got all of them. So you got
to kind of make your decision to live with it.
So right now there is no more undisputed champ because
of what Crawford did by vacating and moving up, and
now they are all splintered, even Bootsennis, who unified two
of the belts between uh, you know, with his victory
over stanionas he's about to vacate those two titles and
go to one hundred and fifty four, which will leave
those available. You got Barrios with the other title, and
now Brian Norman is holding the WBO title. So we're
back to we're gonna we're about to be back to
there being four belts splintered. Uh, and then we start again.
It's like it's almost like whack a mole, you know,
as soon as you hit the guy on the head.
The next one pops up. It's like, so you unify
all the belts.
Speaker 1: Were you ever any good at whack them Mole?
Speaker 4: That begs to a few times in the summer.
Speaker 1: I asked, were you any good?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was pretty good.
Speaker 3: You could score some, especially like at Chuck E Cheese
with your kids? Could you get five tickets off of wack?
Speaker 4: Not going to Chuck e Cheese? It was in the arcade,
at the.
Speaker 3: On the arcade, but at Chuck E Cheese I could
get I could get me some ten tickets off the
whack a Mole?
Speaker 1: I do.
Speaker 4: Do you understand the point though? It's like, yes, you
hit it down and then they now it's now it's
splinter again.
Speaker 3: Look all you're doing, all you're doing is making me
surly again that Ennis should have stayed and fought Brian
Norman in a unification and we would have a three
bet champion. But instead it's gonna splinter, as you said,
and we're gonna have four different champions.
Speaker 1: So there we go. There we go for the carrots.
Speaker 3: So again that is going to be Saturday afternoon for
Catterall and U Bank will handicap it a little more
on the bet Us show Friday.
Speaker 1: As you hear this on.
Speaker 3: The holiday on the July fourth holiday, we are live
people on the bet Us platforms to handicap that fight
a little more.
Speaker 1: Catterwall fights, all distance fights, it seems like.
Speaker 4: So I'm hopeful that this will not turn out to
be the typical Jack Catterall fight. And I'm hoping that
the u bank that I saw in the fight against McKenna,
who was a little more aggressive, who scored some knockdowns,
who let his hands go, we'll at least force Jack
into a bit more of a of a of a
crowd pleasing fight. I'm not saying that Jack should abandon
his style and suddenly become a defensive liability and become
very reckless, but you can do a little bit maybe
to take a step forward once in a while.
Speaker 3: All Right, That's the main event. In the co feature,
Joe Cordina, a former world champion junior lightweight, is fighting.
I wish I knew who Jarett gonzales kiros is. This
is why I rely on you.
Speaker 1: Tell me.
Speaker 3: Is this opponent even the least bit worthwhile for Cordina,
who's had some hand injuries as well.
Speaker 4: What don't we know, not a well known guy. I
find it interesting that Cordina, who is an Olympian and
a former world champion, he is seventeen and one and
his opponent that nobody really ever heard of is also
seventeen and one. Now it is a it is a
matroom boxing card. It is mattroom boxing bringing a Mexican
fighter to fight the home you know, the home guy. Now,
now Cordina is you know, he's actually not from England,
he's from Wales. But it's sort of the same thing.
You're bringing a Mexican to fight the guy in the UK,
and we don't have to go through it.
Speaker 3: But where's been the British favored fighter has not fared
well in these scenarios.
Speaker 4: That doesn't mean that Joe Cordina won't do his work,
because this is not the first Mexican that most people
would say are completely unknown, who would then, you know,
come over and make a name for themselves by beating
the British fighter. But so we'll say, now the one
thing that's significant two things about Cordina in this fight. Well,
back to Kiros for a quick second. He hasn't fought
anybody that anybody ever heard of that's the first thing.
I mean, I looked at his record, TJ. There's nothing there.
I mean, it's like, you know, again, he's got the record, fine,
but there's nobody on that record that you would recognize.
And most of the fights have been in Mexico. And
again I say this all the time. It doesn't mean
he's no good. It just means there's nothing else to
make the comparison to because there's literally nothing on the record.
And if you look at the records of his previous opponents,
his last opponent was seven seven and one. The fight
before that with the opponent was four wins, fourteen losses
in a draw. Before that was eight and one. Before
that was three wins, thirteen losses and two draws. So
you know, I'm not going to get hyped on him
as being the guy that's suddenly going to pull that
dramatic upset because if you looked at the records of
other guys that went to the UK, like Mauricio Lara,
for example, they at least had good records that had
fought like at least some reputable guys, even if they
weren't super well known anyway. But as far as Cordina,
he is moving up to lightweight from this For this fight,
he had been fighting obviously at one hundred and thirty
pounds where he was, you know, he held the IBF title.
But he's also coming off he held the IBF title
twice as a matter of factcause he got stripped and
then he won it back. But he's coming off of
a very harsh loss, go back to May of last year,
so he's coming off that long lay about fourteen months.
That was the fight in Saudi Arabia. He was heavily
favored against Anthony Kasachi and he got his clock fucking
cleaned and he just losed a fight. He got dominated
and he got knocked out in the eighth round and
lost the IBF title. And so he's taken a bit
of a time off to the wounds, get his head straight.
He has changed trainers, so there's always that element when
you're dealing with what happens. You know, I don't know
if you can necessarily blame your trainer for what occurred
in the fight. But it's not the first, nor will
be the last time where a guy loses a significant
fight and suddenly when he's back in action, he is switching.
So he had been trained for many years by Tony Simms,
that was gonna be trained by the former middleweight contender
long retired in Gary Lockett. And so we'll see how
that particular union works out. But obviously I don't think
they were looking to match him super hard after a
knockout loss and a fourteen month layoff and a change
of trainer. So this is about scene where Jack, or
rather where Joe Cordine is, you know, in his career,
coming off of that rough loss and seeing if he
can make a run in the lightweight division.
Speaker 1: All right, good enough.
Speaker 3: By the way, it was just a couple of weeks
ago we were touting Gallia Phi against Francisco Rodriguez, same
kind of scenario, main event, British fighter, and Rodriguez dominated
him and won the decision.
Speaker 1: Let's see what happens. They're in that co feature fight again.
Speaker 3: That is Saturday afternoon from Manchester, England for the match
Room the Zone show. And that again there's not a
prominent US fight card this weekend, so that's pretty much
it in terms of the fight cards. But but when
we get to next week, it is is Edgar Berlanga
Hams of shiraz In the July twelfth matchup at Louis
Armstrong Stadium in New York. Before that fight week, Dan
Rayfield spoke at length with Edgar Berlanga, man that fought
who uh Canelo Alvarez for the undisputed super middleweight title
back a year ago?
Speaker 4: Undisputed?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 4: Or was it undisputed?
Speaker 1: It was not? Did they strip him at that point? Whatever?
He was three belts? He was three belts. I think
you're right he.
Speaker 4: Had been stripped of that at that point.
Speaker 3: It was.
Speaker 4: It was for the time he fought, he fought, he
stripped of the IBF title. Correct.
Speaker 3: He fought Canelo last fall. So it's a big moment
here for Berlanga. Hear him in his own words right
now with Big Dan.
Speaker 4: Well, it is my great pleasure to welcome back to
our podcast this week. It is the super middleweight contender
and former world title challenger, Edgar Berlanga. Edgar, you have
a pretty big fight coming up. I'll tell everybody what
you've got going on. You're fighting the britt Hamsa Shiraz
July twelfth. It's on his own pay per view. It
headlines the Ring Magazine card at the Louis Armstrong Stadium
in New York, your hometown, a card that Turkey al
Chica is putting on, and I'm looking forward to seeing
you back in action and seeing this matchup. How have
you been. I know before we clicked on the video,
you said you just finished up training getting ready for
the fight. Yeah.
Speaker 5: I just finished up training, doing my first workout of
a day. I feel good. You know, I'm all here
and Boulder just tapeer and down camp now, you know it.
It was a long camp, hard camp. You know, been
working hard. Man. I'm excited. You know what I'm saying.
Gilotof is gonna be a big knife for me.
Speaker 4: Yes, sir, It's gonna be a big night I think
for boxing. Ten months ago, you had the biggest opportunity
of your career. You got an opportunity to challenge the
unified champ, the superstar Canelo Alvarez. Big fight in Las Vegas.
You know, he knocked you down in the third round.
He won a pretty wide decision. But you know, as
we've discussed before, but it was a good fight for
the fans, and you did a heck of a lot
better than a lot of people thought you were going
to do in that fight. A lot of guys and
gals didn't think you're getting out of the first couple
of rounds, but you gave him a solid go for
all twelve. And I wonder what did you take from
that experience? From the fight? What did you learn about
yourself and frankly your position within one hundred and sixty
eight pound weight class.
Speaker 5: You know, it was a great experience just learning, you
know what I'm saying. I felt like, you know, you
know that when when Canelo fort Floyd, you know, he
learned a lot. You know, I feel like it was
the same thing. I learned so much from that fight.
I'm just being in there, you know, with a god
at that love. You know what I'm saying. You know,
I gained a lot of experience, a lot of IQ
and now you know what I'm saying now, I just
feel like nobody could stop me. Now, you know, I
know that nobody could fuck with me. I think right now,
you know I'm at man, So Chris stopped calling me.
Speaker 4: Little technical difficultly, I'm here from here.
Speaker 6: Continue as you were saying, you know, just you know,
being in the ring with him, you know, it was
a great experience. You know what I'm saying, I'm just
getting all I I feel how it feels to fight
in front of twenty thousand people and then twenty thousand
Mexicans at that, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: There there was a few perto Ricans. There are also
for you.
Speaker 5: You know that every one Puerto Rican was probably like
a hundred Mexicans in that you know, so being in
his being in another guy's basically home turf. You know,
I took everything. Well, you know what I'm saying. I
was built for this man, like I'm a superstar, you know.
Speaker 4: And well you didn't let the loss break you, right, you?
I think, did you tell me if I'm wrong about this?
Like you got the lost. Fine, guys lose fights like
Canelo you mentioned lost to Floyd, but I feel like
you gained, Like you're like, yeah, I can really compete.
I can be in this thing. I I'm I'm gonna
be more confident the next time. I know, I'm I
can be involved in these big events.
Speaker 5: Yeah for sure. Listen, man, you know I just needed
the experience, you know what I'm saying. You know, now
now that I got it, that's all I needed. You know,
I'm ready to go. You know what I'm saying. I'm
ready to take over the one six state division. You
know I know that, man. You know I got discout everything.
You know that lacked that fight was experienced, you know
what I'm saying. And obviously he thought how many how
many grace you for? You know what I'm saying. So
you know, I just stopped from from from from a
low level to the lead level super fast, you know,
and then I handled it up pretty well. You know
what I'm saying. I think that you know now is
off to the races. You know what I'm saying. Jul
twelve is gonna be another day, you know, another day
in the office, you know, you know, to to the
story his dude, Sharras Man, you know I'm gonna, I know,
after this fight. You know what I'm saying, I'm gonna be.
I'm gonna be. I'm gonna be with Turkey after this fight.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 5: So So let's see, you know what I'm saying. Let's see.
Speaker 4: So your last fight, you know, you came back after
the Canelo fight, and you came back this past March
and you scored a very easy first round knockout against
Jonathan Gonzalez O Kenda, who really had nothing for you.
He was had a great record, but he hadn't fought
for a while, or he's been uh not had big
wins or anything like that. You dusted him like a
lot of folks expected. First of all, you had that big,
long streak of first round knockouts the start your curt.
Did it feel good to get back to getting a
first round ko Yeah?
Speaker 5: Oh good, I got seventeen first rounds.
Speaker 4: Well what is the fight like that for?
Speaker 5: People don't want to embrace that. The onely guy at
the middleweight I'm the only guy right now current and
boxing that has seventeen first round nagos. You know what
I'm saying. I got eighteen gos, seventeen of them on
the first round. You know, so, people did not.
Speaker 4: Do anything for you that fight. They're coming back in
such an easy kind of win. What did that do
for you?
Speaker 5: It wasn't easy none to lose. Everybody'll be doing that. Yeah,
well I bet you. I'll put my life, I'll put
my life, put my bank on. Nobody was stopping that
man in the first round like that. Nobody, I'll promise you, nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody.
Speaker 4: That was your last fight with with Eddie Herd and Mattroom.
And there was a lot of discussion beforehand about the
way that that all came out. You wound up on
an undercard because of your contract situation, you didn't do
an extension, et cetera. We'd all disappointed kind of with
the way at that end. You know, you go from
the huge spotlight of a main event against Can. We
was already set.
Speaker 5: We already was set to fight. Was in March eighth
and Trolie sail in Puerto Rico, sixteen thousand people, you know,
and I was supposed to be main event, and I
had a lot of fighters in Puerto Rico, young fighters.
I was going to be on that car getting ready,
you know. So they was upset, you know, because that
was going to be a big turnoff for me, you
know what I'm saying. Being in Puerto Rico, you know,
headlining and pr was was going to be something. You know,
it was going to be a dream for me, what
I'm saying, Especially to do it at the Troy Sale.
You know, that's the biggest that's like the Masters Square Garden,
but in Puerto Rico. You know, so when they shifted
me over to to the courrier or y'all call me
an event. I was like, I was like, give me
that ship, then you want to play that give me
a I take it. I took it for a reason
and I took way less money.
Speaker 4: But yeah, but you became.
Speaker 5: I didn't. I didn't let them enjoy nothing. I gave
it to that man in one round, you know what
I'm saying. So it's like, yeah, want to cheat me
like that and I'm not gonna think out in the
first round and ye're not getting no show.
Speaker 4: And then you became a free agent, a.
Speaker 5: Free agent, and now you know I'm not still I'm
still not signing nobody. You know, right now, I'm still
a free I'm basically still a free agent. I'll just
find it. I'll just on the one deal with at twelve.
So you know, after what I'm saying, after this fight,
we're gonna see who really who really gonna drop the bag?
And you know who won't really make it happen. You know,
I want to I want to fight one more time
this year.
Speaker 4: You know, So, were you at all surprised that they
gave you Sharaz as the opponent? And I say that
nothing against Sharaz, but he had fought in middleweight title
fight his previous fighting announced his intentions to move up
after the draw that he had against cler What's that?
Speaker 5: I said? He was on my list?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was gonna say so that that sort of
to me, it sort of it kind of came out
of nowhere though, Like there wasn't like the boxing fans
and media talking about Berlanga Charaz. Both fighters were known
to boxing fans and media, but it was sort of
seemed like an unusual How did that come about? In
your mind?
Speaker 5: They just they just you know, Pieve, my dad, you know,
Louis just came and it was just like we got
to offer for you, you know, find July twelve. I said,
we're in New York. They're like, yeah, listen, because I
know Turkey like to do all these big fights in
one card. I said, let me tell you something. The
only way I'm taking the fights of my main event,
I'm not being no care main event for anybody in
New York. Right, Well, fuck who it is? You know
what I'm saying. I said, if I'm not main event
in my city, scratch me off that card. And there
was like, now we're promising you that we're gonna put
your main event. I was like, all right, send them on,
let's do it. And I really want to, I really
want to like Mogia or something, or like Caleb or
one of those guys. But you know, Caleb just lost,
fucked up the bag. Monea tested positive, fucked up the bag,
you know. So you know it's starting to like, you know,
my list is starting to like drop little.
Speaker 4: So when when Sharaz fought Adamas Uh, it turned out
to be a draw, as I mentioned, but a lot
of people thought that it was a kind of a
poor performance from Hamza and also that should have won
the fight. I wonder what your impressions were.
Speaker 5: Of that, oh step fight. He got gifted because he's
in Saudi and he got he had you know, uncle,
his poppy Turkey with him. You know that Turkey's trying
to push him to beat his big, big, big thing,
you know what I'm saying, because that's his baby. So
you know, they they scoreded a draw, but he got
his ass w bro. So now, don't blame the trainer,
you know what I'm saying. You know, you can't blame
the trainer. You know, it was just when competition, stepped
stepped up, he folded, He got beat up in his
in his home town.
Speaker 4: He is moving up in wait to fight you. Uh,
and so I wonder how you think that that will
make any difference. I asked that specifically, because even him
coming up to a next weight class, he's still a
couple of inches taller than you, be six foot three,
a little bit a little bigger than you, still got
a little bit of a reach advantage on you. Do
you think that that plays any part that he'll have
at least some physical advantages from that standpoint against you.
Speaker 5: He ain't gonna have nothing anything he try to do.
I'm breaking him down. I'm culting him. He's like he's
a he's a he's a tree. Cut him down or
cut him down. You know what I'm saying. He don't
got more IQ than me. He don't got more foot
movement at me. He don't got more head movement in me.
He don't got the same man. His man and power
don't don't don't add up either. You know what I'm saying.
My power is out of this world, and I'm gonna
beat him mentally. You know what I'm saying with this,
with the mind. You know what I'm saying this, I
don't care what he what he got going on. You know,
I'm unpredictable. That's the problem with me everything. You guys
people a way.
Speaker 4: You guys have been going back and forth hard with
each other on you know, the press conference, social media
that kind of thing. Uh is that is that sort
of like are you like? What is that? What annoys
you about him?
Speaker 5: And I know it's personal. You know you've seen what
Turkey put out. You know, if Sharaz gets knocked out,
it's gonna be a disaster, you know for my plans
that I have for him. So it's personal. I'm taking
I'm taking.
Speaker 4: The very personal like you know, for him to win
the fight.
Speaker 5: Of course, obviously that that post was set everything. You
know what I'm saying, But I already knew that what
I'm saying, But I'm not I'm not afraid of smoke.
You know, I know who I walk with. You know,
I woke he was christ and let me talk. Yeah,
that fight, it's gonna be something spectacular.
Speaker 6: Man.
Speaker 5: They just he just built it up even more to
where once I destroyed this dude, I'm gonna become the
one of the biggest stars in the sport of boxing.
Speaker 4: Do you at least give him some credit for coming
to fight you in your hometown.
Speaker 5: He was forced, we think, I don't know, he was
forced to take the fight on him. You know why
he was forced because Turkey said, Hey, you gotta fight
this guy, but beat him. I'm gonna give you Canello.
So come on. You know it's gonna be New York,
you know. And you know what I'm saying, he didn't
want to take that note. A man, a man that
loses his last fight, ain't gonna jump into a harder fight.
You know what I'm saying. They ain't gonna want to
do a rematch with the guy that they got. They asked,
will buy just a foots to the people right me?
You know, I'm legit. You know it was it was
a close fight, you know, I wipe this dude off
the floor and then you get a hard fight after that.
But he ain't want that smokes. So now he's jumping
to me because Turkey's is offering him Cando, you know.
And everything I said is the truth, you know what
I'm saying, Like you've seen that post what Turkey said, Yeah, yeah,
so you know I'm just you know, I'm locked in, man, whatever, So.
Speaker 4: I gotta I gotta wrap up with one more question
that this is sort of like when I when I
saw the stuff that was going on, I was like, boy,
maybe maybe Edgar Burlang is gonna have to have two
fights next week because I seen all the stuff. Yeah,
and I've seen all the back and forth that you've
had with de la Hoya, who is Golden Boy is
one of the promoters of this event. What in the
world is the deal with you? He's threatening you to
slap your you're threatening to slap him or he's gonna
slap you, and he's making videos about you like you're
living in his head. You've been posting stuff and you're
social about him. At one point he tried to sign you.
You guys talk nothing but good things about one another.
What's up with you? Guys?
Speaker 5: Wanted it was him? He was throwing the shots. You know,
he he's throwing shots, you know, because we didn't want
to sound his his white guys. You know, he robs fighters, man,
so you know, fuck fuck Oscar Joy And like I
said in New York, he better have security because I
heard that he's he's packing up with a lot of security.
He better have a lot of security. Care he goes
next to me, I'm smacking the shit out of him.
Speaker 4: You know, you don't want to mess up your bag.
Maybe all right, we will leave it there, Edgar, thank
you very much for your time. Oscar.
Speaker 5: Fuck Oscar.
Speaker 4: I'll be agnostic. I like both of you guys, so
I wish you good luck in the fight and uh
and I'll be watching man all right, thank you very much.
Speaker 3: All right, So there we go, both guys with something
to prove coming up. Because Sharaz, I keep maintaining this
had the draw in a fight that I believe he lost.
Speaker 4: Back the WBC Carlos A Damas.
Speaker 3: Middleweight challenge with a Damas on what was that the
undercard of the Bevil and Better BV main event back
earlier this year. So, but Sharaz has been having trouble
making the weight. But there's something to prove for both
of these guys now at super middleweight here with Berlanga
and the headlining main event. Any final thought as we
head to that fight week next week, just.
Speaker 4: That you know it's a it should be an interesting matchup.
It's it's Sharaz moving up in weight, but he's actually
the as I discussed with Edgar in the interview, he
is the larger person in general in terms of his
reach and his height, even though Edgar has been a
super middleweight for you know, his career. But Sharaz is
moving up and look there's a lot on the line.
As you said, Berlanga can win and look good. You know,
he's gonna put himself right back in the mix for
another big, big fight. And if Sharaz wins, as has
been discussed and mentioned, he puts himself in a position
to challenge Canelo Alvarez sometime in twenty twenty six, assuming
that Canelo takes care of the business with Terrence Crawford.
So that'll be an interesting matchup and it's a good card.
Speaker 1: All right, Good on that.
Speaker 3: You know, you and I have had an evolving rundown
of news with two or three different things that we
wanted to talk about.
Speaker 1: We've added something.
Speaker 3: So as we are doing this podcast and we're getting
it out a little early to the public because of
the holiday, you and I have both become aware.
Speaker 1: Of a fascinating story. I can't even say it with
a straight voice.
Speaker 3: That just last Saturday Night Julio Saysar Chavez Junior was
fighting Jake Paul in the main event of a pay
per view card in Anaheim, California. Rayfield, you know, I
know that I was there. I was in the building
in the Honda Center in Anahei. Well, guess what Thursday
has brought us. According to multiple reports and confirmation from
the Department of Homeland Security, Julio saysar Chavez Junior has
been arrested by US immigration officers and is being processed
to be extradided back to his home country of Mexico.
This is because there's an active investigation and an active
arrest warrant in Mexico for Chavez as alleged involvement in
a criminal enterprise, a crime ring that includes trafficking of firearms,
ammunition and explosives.
Speaker 1: There is an arrest warrant for him in.
Speaker 3: Mexico, so he was gathered up, shall we say, by
the Department of Homeland Security, which has confirmed this in
a statement. Chavez was in the United States at the
time of the arrest after having fought last Saturday night,
which we know. He was arrested in Studio City, California,
Wednesday evening. According to the Department of Homeland Security, Rayphiel.
Sometimes the material practice stranger than fiction.
Speaker 1: Here.
Speaker 4: I'm no big fan of the immigration policies, let's say
of the United States of America right now, but if
you have an active investigation against you in your home country,
that would make you at least a suspected criminal, and
that's the type of person that probably should be removed
from the country. Now. Job has does spend a lot
of time, to my knowledge, in Los Angeles. All I
can say to the to the immigration officials is I
wish you would have done your fucking job back before
the Jake cull fight gave us all the time of
that nonsense. I'll leave it at that.
Speaker 1: Could you imagine?
Speaker 3: Could you imagine if we were getting ready for that
fight night and in the arena and the main event
ain't happening because Ice has taken Julio s a Star
shop is Junior into custody.
Speaker 4: I've never seen that, but I've seen I've heard of
fighters being taken into custody when they get out of
the ring.
Speaker 1: Yes, all right, so that did happen.
Speaker 3: While we totally digress, that did happen for a Tampa
Bay fighter not from Tampa.
Speaker 1: But a guy that had been fighting on cards.
Speaker 3: Who's your guy from top rank that was the matchmaker
for all the Philo Lessi shows back in the eighties.
Speaker 1: He can better fill this.
Speaker 4: In well, Jacobs, the matchmakers. Brad Jacobs is a chief.
Speaker 3: Brad Jacobs will be able to pick up on this
whole story. So there was a fighter fighting under the
alias Roberto Medina. I remember this, and he was fighting
in the eighties and I went to a couple of
the fights as a teenage TJ and Medina was moving
up in whatever weight class and he actually got a
national television fight on ABC's Wide World of Sports on
like an undercard, one of two fights. And I believe
Dan it is before the fight happened, he got taken
into custody for being a wanted criminal and using the
alias Roberto Medina. It wasn't his real name, and the
fight never happened, and so they were having to explain
on whid World of Sports for some reason. I want
to say, Dan Dierdorf was doing the play by play
the former football player of the former Monday night football broadcaster,
and he's on ABC having to explain there's not going
to be a co feature with Roberto Medina, And we
don't even know what Roberto Medina's real name is because
he's been taken into a in the custody. So when
you said that, you prompted me to think of that.
That that really happened in the nineteen eighties before a
network televised. It wasn't the main event because we were all.
Speaker 4: But they shouldn't in Tampa make his money.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so they let him do that, and now they've.
Speaker 4: Taken I don't know if they let him do that,
they might not have known or not realized.
Speaker 1: How do they not know where he is? My friend?
They were promoting it everywhere.
Speaker 4: Nothing but trouble for years and years and years.
Speaker 3: Man oh man, all right, so there's the there's the
breaking news while you and I do the pod. Hey,
guess what else? On Thursday, Tyson Fury says he's not retired.
Speaker 4: Dan, Oh my god, are you serious?
Speaker 1: Fill in the blanks? What's going on?
Speaker 4: Do we believe anybody that really believed that Tyson Fear
is retired is an absolute fucking idiot. I'll say that
flat out. Uh. Normally, when fighters announced retirements, I generally
take them at their work because you know, they're going
to think about it. But I truly don't believe that
Tyson Fiverry thought he was going to never fight again.
That it was a you know, maybe take a little break.
And at some point he knew there's big fights out
there for him. He knew there's a lot of money
that he can still make. Tyson Ferry has always been
about the money. Uh, and now he's won all the titles,
so now it's only about the money. But the thing
that was weird to me, so there was some uh turkey.
Alchik posted to his social media on Thursday that he
was going to come out of retirement and that the
reason wasn't for an Anthony Joshua fight. It wasn't for
some other fight. It wasn't for Danieu Duwad. Let's say
of Dubai. This happens to be the winner of the
fight that will take place in ah in a you
know later in July against Usik for the undisputed title. No,
he said he's going to fight in read uh in
uh next you know in uh in April? No was
it uhmbley statem in April, but that they're quote unquote
hunting rabbits that's Usik and Tysoon Fury. They're looking to
make that rematch or the third fight, and I'm thinking
to myself, well, what happened that Daniel Dewad defeats Stick
in their fight, which is a rematch, which is certainly
a possibility, would they still do that fight? So I'm
not really sure what that all means. And I got
to be honest, I mean, yeah, they fought too good fights,
but enough is enough. How in the world could you
possibly go and try to make Tyson Fury against Usak
in a third fight when the fight that most people
want to see is, you know, get Joshua back with
a win this fight.
Speaker 3: I was just gonna go there. I was just sort
that was the logical place. Why would they not have
that fight first? When we're talking about this proposals all
the way to next April.
Speaker 4: I have no idea aside from the.
Speaker 3: Fact that Fury would be concerned that he might lose
and it could it could cost him the other fight because.
Speaker 4: Gonna fight.
Speaker 3: If Joshua was ready to go in like August or September,
why would you not have that fight and make all
that mega money and then he.
Speaker 4: Certainly won't be ready in August. It's more likely going
to be later in the fall. But the point is,
if he's not fighting until April, you let him fight
the fight whatever it is in this fall, and he
can be ready by April. Look, the reality is he's
gonna fight again. It's not a surprise. He's gonna make
a lot of money if it happens to be Usik.
I mean whatever I mean.
Speaker 3: Does this indicate that Usik just doesn't have anybody else
to fight after the Dubua fight, that he would be
interested in fighting a guy that he's already beaten twice.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know it's funny.
Speaker 4: But here's the point about it. If you're only about
the money, then you fight theory.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 4: But to me as a champion, and Husak has always
shown this, and before he was heavyweight champion, he ran
through a lot of the top guys. But you can't
tell me that there's not other reputable opponents that he
could give an opportunity to, Right, There's there's plenty of
guys out there. There's Joseph Parker, There's Fabio Wordley who's
making a name for himself. There is uh Ajkabiel, your
boy I.
Speaker 1: Mean there's a fa a Jagua, right, Well.
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm not gonna put him on the top
of the list, but I'm talking guys who are more
more more.
Speaker 1: On the top of their list, right a Jagma.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I'm just saying, like there's other guys
that would but he a jaga I'm not going to
even go there. But the other guys, I'm saying, Cabo
has been impressive and explosive. Same thing with Fabia Wordley,
Joseph Parker's earned it, so to me, yep, you know, yeah, yeah,
they can do the match and it's nothing terrible about it.
But it's like, I mean, I'm glad they made the
first two fights, I guess, but it gets to be
to the point where it gets to be kind of
overkilled where they're just going against the same game and
these other guys aren't gtting their opportunity.
Speaker 3: Right if they had split, there would be a reason
for a third fight. Usik won the first two fights,
Fury hasn't beaten anybody else in the interim to have
a third fight, so there wasn't like, I mean, here's
the other thing we got the.
Speaker 4: Controversy there wasn't like a big controversy after the rematch.
Speaker 3: There's there's such a long runway here too to get
to next April. Why do I get the feeling it
could be somebody else for Tyson Fury, We'll sing.
Speaker 4: The The main thing is he's supposed he's coming out
of retirement, which again.
Speaker 1: No shot at all, no shock all right.
Speaker 3: So, speaking of Turkey Ali Chic and news that he's making,
it is confirmed that Brian Norman will defend the WBO
welterway with Devin Haney, a fight that I think we
are both and a lot of fight fans interested in.
So tell me more on the details of that and
also how it right might relate to David Benavetez being
back in the ring too.
Speaker 1: Go ahead.
Speaker 4: Well, the Haine and Norman fight was being discussed, and
it was really one of these kinds of fights where
you wish you saw it more often in boxing, where
we're so used to guys dancing around with each other
for weeks and weeks and endless negotiations, and they fall
apart and they go their separate ways and maybe they
come back together, maybe the fight never happens. This was
a fight that I don't think anybody was even thinking
about Now, it's not a bad matchup, but it wasn't
like I never heard one person ever say I need
to see Brian Norman against Devin Haney. But you know,
fights make fights, is the old saying. And Devin Haney
is looking for a fight because he got stood up
by Tiafimo Lopez, so that you know, he decided not
to do that fight. Before that, it was Ryan Garcia
losing and also being injured, so we got rid of
their potential for the ringmatch. So Hane's been looking for
a good matchup and a good fight. Meanwhile, you got
Brian Norman has been looking at outstanding, he looks spectacular
and recent fight in Japan, and so this fight really
was started to be discussed literally a few days after
the Brian Norman fight took place in Japan. And Norman
is not looking to avoid guys. Just look at the
guys he's faced in terms of when he won the title,
going to the hometown of Santion, going to Japan to
fight Sasaki in the hometown. He had the one sort
of layup against Quavis, but he wants a big fight
and Devin Haney his record speaks for itself. He's been
willing to fight the top guys. He did fight Garcia,
he did go twice to Australia in the Cambosas fights.
He's fought Lomachenko, He's fought pro Gray. I mean, he's
fought a lot of top guys. So he's gonna now
stay at one forty. You know, he fought the fight
in his last fight, that terrible matchup against zier Mirs
where they were contracted at one for four. This fight
will be at the full one forty seven, I am told,
and they're doing this matchup. And Brian Norman, who had
won the Javat Japanese fight in top rank was had
said to me what their plan was to do when
I also had spoken to his manager. The plan was,
let's go forward and try to figure out a game
plan and do a fight for Brian in the fall
in the Atlanta area, which is where he is from. Obviously,
when the money becomes what it is, and the offer
to fight a bigger name like any you know, it's
the kind of thing where it's like an offer you
can't refuse. So they're getting on the plane and going
to read to do the fight and so that'll be fight.
They didn't say a date, but it'll be in a
Read in November. And you said, how does that relate
to David Denavitez. I think it does because it was
on Thursday morning that Turkey Alschik made it public that
he had done a one fart. He didn't say this,
but Ben Aavid's people have told me this. He has
a one fight deal with David to fight against Anthony
Yard in Read and again in November. No specific dates.
So David, as you know, has been elevated to the
full title holder in the WBC. He'll defend the title
against Anthony Yard, who's a good puncher from the UK,
who has been in the ring with some quality opponents.
Gave Arthur better be of a solid fight. And so
the problem for Benavide's in terms of the fights in America,
you know he's been headlining on paper, user been on
he shared the tank Davis cart Is. They were having
trouble finding a good opponent that was willing to come
here for the money. They went down a lot of
whole different routes and they were just coming up dry.
And so when this came to their attention, the PBC
and Turkey. We're gonna make the deal. Sampson Lukawitz, who
is the promoter Fordnavies, he signed off on and so
that's what's happening. That's unfortunate because David when he had
his last fight, made a very big deal about not
to in soult Turkey, but was like, I want to
fight in the United States in Las Vegas in front
of my crowd, which is obviously an American in a
Mexican American crowd. Obviously that's not gonna happen. So he's
gonna have this fight in Saudi Arabia and just becomes
the latest American to go fight in Saudi Arabia.
Speaker 1: Does it indicate maybe to you?
Speaker 3: And I'm just speculating here because the fight is for
him to fight Bevil. If Bevil wins, I was advocating
that Bevil should defend the four titles against Benavitez, and
instead he elected to vacate the WBC belt and have
the third fight with Better BV.
Speaker 1: We can connect some dots here.
Speaker 3: The Turkey Ali Chiek's been bankrolling the first two fights
with Bevol and Better BV. Might he bankroll let's say
a Las Vegas fight at some point with Ben Avetez
and Bevol if it comes to it, we'll see, I mean, maybe.
Speaker 4: Ve Las Vegas or yet. I mean, but the point is, obviously,
if you're a light heavyweight and you have a title
and then Bevol is there as the lineal champ and
has other belts, that would make sense. Obviously that's an
interesting matchup. Uh Beeble is interesting situation now at the
moment because the IBF, which has been very leaning in
terms of the Michael Eiffert mandatory, has reordered that here.
But he may step aside. They make it, they might
make a deal, he may vacate whatever. I mean, nobody
in the world nothing against Eiffort. You know he got
the win by knocking out or by beating Pascal. He
didn't uh you know that was a while ago. You know,
I'm I'm done with the belts at this point with
some of the ship because it's like whatever, I know.
I know this. If you're a boxing fan and you
follow the sport, even to a small degree, you know
the number one heavy waiting in boxing at the moment
is Dmeetri people, and whether he has one belt, two belts,
three belts, four belts or has no belt. He's the
number one guy. You want to see him fight the
next best guys. I'm all for making unification fights, but
when the sanction bodies are counterproductive, you know you can
just say thank you, but no, thank you, you're wasting.
I'm not going to get mad about it. It's like,
you know, they're doing their following their rules effert and again.
Maybe Eifer will step aside, maybe they'll make a deal,
maybe they'll put them on the undercart. But if the movement,
if their teams, if Turkey and the money, if they
want to make the fight, they're going to make the fight,
regardless of what belts are at stake. Period.
Speaker 3: Two more things here, Oscar Valdez looking to be back.
What are the details on this? What have you found out?
Speaker 4: So Oscar obviously a two division world champion, been a
champ at one hundred and thirty and one hundred and
twenty six. He's coming off of a loss that was
He's only two and three in his last five doubts,
but he is coming off that very one sided, six
round knockout loss against Emmanuel Never at the in their
So he's looking to get back on the horse. And
in order to do that, he will go and have
a fight in September date to be announced in Mexico,
where he is from, two time Mexican Olympian, and I
went and looked this up because I knew we're going
to talk about this. This is what I'm reporting. But
he had only had in his whole career two previous
fights in Mexico. He turned professional in Mexico and then
in I don't know, maybe his like six or eight fight.
He had another fight well before he was at the
championship level in Mexico, but all the rest of his
fights have been in the United States. So he'll be back,
and it's an opportunity to get a win under your belt,
to put the put the loss to never At Day
behind you, and try to create another opportunity to fight
for a world title. What's interesting though, is that he
is a Top Rank fighter, but they have a very
close relationship and have had for decades with the team
at Zanfer Promotions, which is one of the big promoters
in Mexico. And because Top Rank right now has an
unsettled broadcast deal, they're looking for opportunities and sort of
cherry picking spots. Maybe where it makes sense for everybody
to put some of their talent on other shows, because
when they do figure out what they're doing, they're obviously
gonna have some kind of backlog. Uh you know, I
don't know what they're gonna wind up doing. What I
am told is they're not gonna whatever they if they
do get a deal, they're probably not doing anything in
the month of August. Okay, so they're gonna take this
opportunity to put Valdez on a card in September. They've
made a deal with PBC for Oshaki Foster to fight
Stephen Fulton that will be on a PBC card, presumably
the Tank Davis and Roach rematch card. They've got some
of their prospects that they're keeping active on some local
shows where maybe they've become ticket sellers in California where
they can bring in some people and they're just sort of,
you know, trying to try to do that. They've had
some of their fighters uppear on some probox cards, that
type of thing. They they had Brian Norman, you know,
just go to Japan to fight on a car there.
They just made the deal with with the Fight for
him to now go and fight the fight against Haiti
and Saudi Arabia and Valdez is part of that thing
where top rank is obviously not given up. I think
they're going to get a deal. I've heard a few things.
But in the meantime, until that sign stilled and delivered,
they got to get their guys fights, and this will
be one of those opportunities for Oscar to go back
home to Mexico and have a fight.
Speaker 1: All right, so touch on this. Why not we do
the podcast?
Speaker 3: We keep it real. ESPN was dropped by Major League Baseball.
They are the ones that decided we're going to opt
out of the deal right now. Reportedly, ESPN, for the
first time in months since that happened, is back talking
with Major League Baseball about continuing a relationship with Major
League Baseball from talking with top ranked people, is the
door potentially still open to stay in some capacity even
on ESPN Plus, etc. From what you're hearing, because that
seems to make a lot of sense. There was buzz
out in California that maybe they're going to work something
out with ESPN to at least stay on ESPN Plus
as a platform as.
Speaker 1: Opposed to going to DIZONN.
Speaker 3: Have you heard anything about are they still talking beyond
the expiration of the deal later on this month, anything
to that, I.
Speaker 4: Wouldn't say that that while I would never, you'd never
say never. And you know, I think in terms of
the baseball and ESPN, it makes sense for ESPN to
not have Major League Baseball. It seems insane to me.
But they're not going to do it at the price
they were paying. This was all I got to get
it for a better price. And so obviously if ESPN
has made a decision, they're not going to pay Top
Rank what they were paying. And so if I'm not
sure what they're willing to pay of anything to keep
them in some capacity. But to answer the question, I've
not heard anything credible that says that there's even a
remote discussion that that may happen. Now, that doesn't mean
it won't happen, because they can keep secrets sometimes pretty well.
It would be my great hope, frankly, that they would
still maintain a presence on ESPN what Top Rank because
and I may be in the minority, which I really
don't care about, but I will tell you from my perspective,
I feel like ESPN and Top Rank have done that
Top Rank has done a very good job in there
in their relationship with Top Rank. Not every fight has
been a winner, and it's never going to be my one.
It's not a criticism, it's a critique, my critique of
what the error was in the marriage between Toppering and ESPN,
and I think the promotional company and the network both
have to take some blame for it. And I do
think that it hampered what they were trying to do,
is that when they went to ESPN, ESPN had the
entire slate topped the bottom the Schmorgensport, from the prospect
fights on preliminaries on ESPN all the way to the
big mega you know, big championship level fights. Even like
when they were doing in partnership with Fox the Wilder
Fury two and three big pay per view fights, they
never got to a point with their non pay per
view fights and they didn't do a lot of pay
per view fights. That might be one problem where ESPN
was not thrilled that they were not able to somehow
create a pay per view star. I think like a
t Femo Lopez and a Looma Chenka were hampered by
the pandemic with that. But put that aside. What they
didn't do a good job about was to let the
public and the media understand that there were different levels
of shows that similar to the way we saw it
with HBO, where you a World Championship Boxing you had
Boxing after Dark, or on Showtime where you had Showtime
Championship Boxing and Showbox. They never like explain that they're
different levels. So one week you might see Tithy Maloba's
against against Lomachenko in a big unification fight. Er you
might see the undisputed lightweight championship fight from Australia with
Haney and Cambosas, and they did plenty of other major
fights on the network. And but the next week you
might see, you know, Wido Vnelo against Faa Jagua. Not
a bad fight, but it's certainly not at the level
level recognition or the financial commitment. So they never like
explain that not everything that somebody these are going to be.
To use the vernacular, a boxing after dark level show
compared to a World Championship boxing show, I feel like
you cannot take the same product and present that the
exact same way when there's such vastly different levels of
what the expectations are that was a major, major with
and I feel like it costs the whole program.
Speaker 3: All right, Well, let's see what they end up doing.
And it would not supprise me if the dialogue is
being had or maybe comes around to ESPN Plus because
it is so vast and so many different entities do
deals with them, you could, you know, I'm just speculating,
you could have a fight of the Month on ESPN
Plus from top rank if you wanted to. You wouldn't
have to be exclusive to there, but it'd be a
way to keep your name out there, keep your fighters
out there if you wanted to. Maybe they are divorced,
maybe they're not gonna be together anymore.
Speaker 1: I don't know. We'll see.
Speaker 3: But there was some speculation out in southern California on
what are they gonna do and would they just go
with a deal with the ES.
Speaker 1: Let me put it to you this way, and this
is the truth.
Speaker 3: There are a whole lot more people interested in the
wide array of what's on ESPN Plus with ESPN promoting it,
then what's on Dezone, even though Zone's got a lot
of boxing. I understand that point in that premise too.
You would be promoting to a lot more than just
boxing people. If you were promoting that boxing was on
ESPN plus.
Speaker 4: I don't know what they're I've never heard of any
real discussions between the Z and maybe there's Zone and
Top Rank.
Speaker 1: I don't I don't know, and so what is the outlet?
Speaker 4: And I mean, I'll be honest you, I hope that
Top Rank isn't on the Zone. And it's not because
I am antid Zone. It's just because I'm a very
strong believer that it is terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible for
the industry for everybody to be rolled up on one platform,
particularly when in the United States that platform does not
have a large subscription. So good point. Yeah, nothing against
the Zone, but they have Matchroom, they have Golden Boy,
they have Frank Warren, They've plenty of good boxing content
Top Ranked. Hopefully they get a deal somewhere else. PBC
is doing their thing at the moment with Prime Video,
and if the people say, well that it makes them
making the big fights harder. It's always harder to make
big fights. It's not the easiest thing, even if you're
on the same platform. So if the fight is big enough,
there'll be a way to make it happen. I know this.
I lived through and covered and wrote extensively about Mike
Tyson and Lennox Lewis, and it happened. And I did
the same thing for five years before it happened on
Manny Paco and Floyd Maywether. If the fight is there,
it can be made. Where there is a will, there
is a way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right.
Speaker 3: One other thing, what are you just trying to put
comedy in for July fourth weekend? That on my rundown
it says Gary Russell Junior is ending a three and
a half year layoff?
Speaker 1: Is that?
Speaker 3: Is that a comedic punch line to something? What's going
on with this? Give me the give me the quick version.
Speaker 4: The quick version is PBC made their formal announcement of
what the free preliminary fights are going to be on Saturday,
the July nineteenth in the in the couple of hours
before the Paco pay per view begins. And one of
the and I've reported on the two other fights. One
of them is the return of the former featherweight title
older Mark Megsio, who actually defeated Gary Russell Junior. He's
coming back in a junior lightweight fight. Against Jorge monta Quaar.
And then you also have a guy that's been in
the news is Alan David Picasso against Kayan Kamita from
Japan in the second fight. He's trying to win that
fight to set up what he hopes will be the
December match against in a way in Saudi Arabia. And
the main fight among the preliminary baubts is the return
of Gary Russell, who last was seen, as you said,
three some years ago, losing his featherweight title to two Magxio,
and he hadn't fought for a while. And you know,
Gary Russell's entire career unfortunately has been.
Speaker 3: What has he had two fights since the first Trump
administration began?
Speaker 4: Maybe, I mean, I'm not even sure that man. I mean,
the problem with Gary is that he was the epitome
of the once a year fighter and he has held
that delt hostage. But again in the last fight, which
was what January of twenty twenty two, he lost the
WBC featherweight title in a close fight by a majority
decision to Mark mccio. He has not fought since, and
so I didn't know if he was ever coming back.
I never he never announced his retirement. But the main
thing is the last time I saw Gary Russell wasn't
in the boxing ring as a fighter. He was in
there because he was working as a trainer with his
brothers that you know, he works with his brother Gary
and Twin Russell as a world title and who know
if he was going to come back, but he's not
coming back at featherweight. He's not even coming back at
junior lege way, it was announced as a lightweight fight
and we'll see he's fighting Hugo Castaneda, not a particularly
well known name. I think this is just a matter
of let Gary ease back into things. It's sort of
striking to me that he's on the same card fighting
above him on the show as Mark Magsio, but Maxio
is the guy that beat him front of the title
back a few years ago.
Speaker 3: By the way, for the record, Gary Russell Junior fought
someone named Joseph Pedraza Diaz in February of twenty eighteen.
He fought Keiko Martinez in May of twenty nineteen, and
then he lost or he beat Niambaar in February of
twenty twenty, and he lost to Magsio in January of
twenty two four fights since the May of twenty eighteen,
four fights in seven years.
Speaker 4: At the moment, Garry Russell is that when he was
coming into the pros off the Olympics, as naturally talented
and gifted as anybody you've ever seen, I would tell
you to me the fastest hands I may have ever
seen period in my life, and that include the prime
Roy Jones or Floyd Mayweather. Phenomenal, phenomenal talent, had power, obviously,
come from a great background with his father and the
whole family, just a tremendous talent, and just never really
seemed to really care that much boxing.
Speaker 1: Well, there you go.
Speaker 4: It was his life from the standpoint, that's what they
were doing. They were always in the gym with the
brothers and training and this and that. But he just
never seemed like he had that true zest for the fight.
Speaker 1: So is he doing this for money? Is he?
Speaker 3: I mean, it can't be that much money to fight
on a prelim card of a pay per view that's
not the pay per view? Is he doing this because
because he wants to be a champion again and now
wants to fight. That's a great mystery question.
Speaker 4: I'm assuming I'm assuming he's doing it because he wants to.
I don't think it's a matter. I mean, even if
he's not making the money he was making when he
was champion. You know, I think everybody understands that you're
not going to just jump in after three plus years
off and a loss and be making a million dollars
a fight. That's not realistic. But Gary seemed to always
be quite happy to make his you know, low seven
figure perse for his title fights and go about his
merry way. I've always thought highly of him as a
fighter because of the talent I just outlined. I picked
him as the prospect of the year way back in
the day, and so all that said, it's so weird.
He's one of the single most disappointing fighters ever that
I have covered, not because he was a bust. Some
guys you pick as a prospect of the year, you
think is gonna go to the promised land, be a champ,
be a Hall of Famer, and they just completely shit
the bed and they're gone in a couple of years
and they don't do anything. Gary Russell was not that guy.
Gary Russell had massive talent, he was supreme fighter, but
he just like if I care more than you do,
that's a problem.
Speaker 3: He just didn't have a passion to be one of
the greats or a great champion or a great fighter,
or he would have fought morning, would have fought better fighters.
Speaker 4: And it wasn't like he laid off because he was injured.
Whe there was no fights in now fight he you
know whatever, And I wish you good, lucky to come back.
Speaker 3: I'll say like that, all right, So he's back on
July nineteenth, we will be back off of this holiday
weekend again. We began talking about the Jack Catterwall main
event in England that will take place on Saturday afternoon
from Manchester. We'll recap the fights, we'll see what other
fight news that there is as well, and then we'll
get ready for the double header. Friday night is the
Katie Taylor Amanda Soroano Trilogy main event for the Madison
Square Garden All Ladies card in New York. And then
as you heard from Edgar Berlanga on this podcast, Berlanga
and Shiraz is the headlining fight on the card the
next night in Queens at the US Tennis Center Stadium,
Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Speaker 1: So we got double header next week.
Speaker 3: With that, my friend, be well. For everybody that's traveling,
that's listening to us, please be careful. Dangerous, dangerous weekend
on the roadways because there's so many more people on
the roadways. Good luck with the airlines, I say with
a face. I mean I did well on the airlines
last weekend getting back home, but so many people have.
Speaker 1: Had a mess. Be careful on the airline.
Speaker 3: Other than that, mister Rayphiel, I'll see you on the
bet Us Boxing Show. We'll do it live Friday as
you hear us at one Eastern time. Other than that,
my friend, Happy July fourth weekend.
Speaker 4: Thank you Tjay and there.
Speaker 3: We go, and we thank you for listening on Apple, Spreaker, Spotify.
This is the Big Fight Weekend Preview podcast.