Speaker 1: The ass off of a weekend that saw Anthony Joshua
win the main event in Miami, feeding Jake Paul by
sixth round knockout. We're ready to recap that main event
and the rest of the fight card from South Florida.
Speaker 2: We also have.
Speaker 1: A former world champion who's vacated his belt and moved
up to junior featherweight. Juneto Nakatani, through an interpreter, is
on the podcast with Dan Rayfield. Here is part of
the Fight Freaks Unit recap podcast. Later on in the program,
I am the somewhat competent host TJ.
Speaker 2: Reeves.
Speaker 1: Good to be with all of you, and coming up,
we're going to have a full recap of everything that
went on at the Cassea Center in Miami. This Anthony
Joshua came to the United States, and this time it
worked out a whole lot better than his knockout loss
to Andy Ruiz in twenty nineteen. Second appearance here in
the US of A. And he gets, as I will
keep saying, and you'll hear me talking to Dan Rayfield
about it, the expected ko So it may have just
taken a little longer. Dan and I debate that we
debate where Joshua goes from here to another fight or
straight to the Tyson Fury fight, and he also is
going to recap the undercard with the Alicia Baumgardner, Win etc.
Thank you for finding us on the pod. Feed on
Apple Spreaker, Spotify. It is Christmas week Hanaka in progress,
fest of us for the rest of us. Happy Holidays
from Dan and me. As part of this podcast, feed,
rate us and review us that helps us out this
holiday season. Put that in our stocking. Make sure you're
following and subscribed up on Apple Spreaker, Spotify. This is
the recap pod coming off the weekend again Juneto Nakatani.
Later on here in the podcast, Nakatani is on this
night of the Samurai card that is taking place in
Saudi Arabia coming up on Saturday. Nakatani moving up again
to junior featherweight and fighting Sebastian Hernandez, a little known
unbeaten fighter. Meanwhile, in a Way is fighting Alan David
Picasso and defending his four belts at one hundred and
twenty two pounds again in a way four belt undisputed
it both bantamweight and now at junior featherweight, and he
and Nakatani may be fighting, and Dan asks Juto Nakatani
about that possibility and about what he knows personally about
in a way, etc. Later on here in the pod,
So stand by for that again in the recap mode.
Let me set this up that we did our post
fight show on the YouTube channel on the Big Fight
Weekend YouTube channel. Did that first late Friday, early Saturday morning,
well after one am Eastern time noon or midnight Central
Time in the early morning hours of Saturday.
Speaker 2: So you're gonna hear that.
Speaker 1: You're gonna hear me make reference probably a couple of
times that we were doing this in the middle of
the night, late night Friday night, we had found out
Jake Paul had broken his jaw in two places, had
gone to be checked out to a local hospital and
have the jaws set and wired. After Joshua's win and
again a big payday for the former unified heavyweight champion,
and Dan and I are gonna talk through all of
that and the undercard, so let's get to that now
in the recap mode without further delay. Good long thoughts
from both of us back and forth about Joshua getting
those knock downs, about Jake Paul scrambling running as Dan's
gonna call it, you know, flopping and trying to tackle
Anthony Joshua overnover again. Full inside into that and the
undercard including Alicia Bamgardner being dominant in the co feature
in her women's world title fight. All of that right
now on the Fight Freaks Unit recap. Pot, Let's get
to what we thought of this tonight, all right, your
thoughts here, as it took until the sixth round before
Joshua finally got to Jake paul big right hand basically
in Paul says his jaw is broken. That might have
been the punch that broke the jaw. Dan, what are
your thoughts as as we watched all of this unfold?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I mean he knocked him down four times.
So one thing, you know, Jake, credit to him for
getting up all those times. He kept getting up. But
on the other hand, I lost track of how many
times he flopped during the fight, Like ridiculously. I thought
the Rep. Frankly should have taken him, taken some taking
a point away, not that it would have ended up
mattering because he ended up getting the knockout, but it
was it was a horrible fight for the first four rounds.
I mean, people may forget about that, because at least
the final two rounds when Jake decided to maybe try
to engage a little bit and Joshua caught up to
him and started landing in the right hands. So that was,
you know, definitely entertaining those last couple of rounds. But
for the first four rounds, he I mean, he fled.
I mean it was it was doing his best imitation
of William's skull against Canelo or Arislani Laura against Canelo
or Riggando or whoever. I mean, he looked like, you know,
he was in a a in a race, you know,
a road race or a foot race. It reminded me
of a abb and to date myself years ago covering
a Bernard Hopkins fight in Philadelphia when Bernard was the
middleway champion. He fought a petrified mandatory challenger from France
named Arod Hakr who literally ran in a circle around
the ring at times. And I love the fact that
Christopher Young, who was the referee, who was an excellent referee.
By the way, this is a round four after after
after after Jake Paul had flopped the canvas for literally
like the fifth time grabbing on the Joshua falling down.
It wasn't Joshua's fault, but he called them together and
he said the fans had not pay to see this crap,
and he was right, and they did.
Speaker 2: He was absolutely speaking for all of us at.
Speaker 3: That hundred percent. So at the end of the day,
as I as I thought to myself, wasn't a train wreck,
wasn't wasn't boxing's best night, wasn't the worst night. It
just sort of was what it was. It was like
a mild diversion, And I thought, Eddie Hearn in his
brief comments to Ariel Hawani on the Netflix broadcast after
the fight, during a brief inner, you said, you know what,
credit to Jake for doing what he did, Anthony. Joshua
comes off a fifteen month layoff, gets in a few rounds,
and now it's into twenty twenty six for the real business.
And that's exactly the way to look at it. This
was shake off that, as Joshua stated, shake off the cobwebs. Yeah,
it took a little longer than I hoped for, but
in the end, it was an eight round schedule fight.
He got him out of there in six. He put
him on the canvas a bunch of times and that
was that. Was it four times? Or was it three times?
I'm not even sure now I think it was.
Speaker 1: Four officially, Yeah, And I really thought after the big
right hand the referee could have just stopped the fight
and said that's it.
Speaker 2: But you know, he chose to count him out and
there we go. All right.
Speaker 1: So again for the audience, thank you for finding this
again as we're doing this live in the middle of
the night.
Speaker 2: I know we're also.
Speaker 1: Using this on the pod replay for the Fight Freaks
Unit Recap podcast as well, but we did this live
in in the aftermath of what went on in Miami
late Friday night into Saturday. So I think a question
that a lot of people have. We'll see how many
of the Savages are sounding off about this. Joshua was
definitely tentative. We got the answer in the first minute
in the first round that he barely threw any punches.
I really felt like he was very concerned about getting countered.
He was trying to time him.
Speaker 3: It was I totally disagree.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, hold on it.
Speaker 1: He was really the first two rounds he was not
throwing punches and was tentative. Why do you think he
was that tentative on lack of punch output?
Speaker 2: That's it nice.
Speaker 3: I don't agree that he was tentative when a guy
is literally running, literally circling the ring and backing up,
and I mean Jake Paul backed up and ran so
much in those first few rounds. At one point he
was going backwards. He almost fell down. He was trying
to run backwards so fast he had to grab the
ropes to keep him falling down. So a guy is
not going to just waste punches when a guy's just
running away from him. That doesn't make any sense. He's
not going to just go out there and expend energy
for no.
Speaker 1: Let's go let it like this. We know Joshua was
a former two time world champion. He's fought at the
championship level for a decade. He knows that angles how
to cut the ring off. To me, he just looked
like I'm not wanting to throw a lot of punches
in the first In the second round, That's what it
looked like to me.
Speaker 2: Not cut the ring off.
Speaker 3: I just said he was look he was coming off
the layoff, you know, I said beforehand, you know, if
you want to spot him around maybe two, you know,
to just get some work in, I guess. But you know,
if a guy was coming, and I'm not saying that
Jake Paul should have just walked to him and got
knocked the fuck out in the first round, right, Obviously
that's not to be expected. But the compact you make
when you're a professional boxer, you're going to fight the guy,
and I don't mean to just be stupid on defense
and walk to the You know, you're walk into the propeller,
but you you're supposed to fight, and he didn't come
to fight for those first rounds. I don't I don't
blame him. I mean, he was trying to do every
thing in his power to not get knocked the fuck
out in the first or second round. So I don't
blame Joshua for that. You can't get blood from a
stone if you can't make the other guy fight. You
could he have done a little better, maybe, you know,
cutting the ring off like you said, Sure, but that's
never been his game. You're not going to teach this
old dog new tricks. He's been a pro for a
very long time and that's never been his forte. So
eventually his size leaning on him a little bit that
you know that Jake would try to grab him. That
you know, as Jake Paul said in his post fight interview,
the weight, you know, sapped him of some energy and
it was just a matter of time till he caught
up to him. Had Jake came out and fought even
a little bit in the first couple of rounds, I
truly believe he would have gotten absolutely annihilated there the
way he did in round number six. So, like Joshua said,
it took longer than it than it probably should have,
but in the end he scored a you know, a
clear cut, pretty crushing knockout. Yeah, when he landed the.
Speaker 1: Right things here that we can add to this, it
looked like in the fifth round that Paul buckled and
I thought was his left leg. They said on the
broadcast his right leg. I thought it was his left
leg and maybe his left knee. And clearly he looked
and we saw this. I saw this in person in
the Chavez fight, the Chavez Junior fight in June. We
saw this also when he fought Tommy Fury that when
the fight got to the fifth round, the sixth round.
He looked tired. He looked tired in this fight in
the fourth and the fifth round. That's when a lot
of the grabbing was going on. Third fourth round, and
he admitted after the fight, maybe I need to do
more cardio because he looked exhausted almost in the fifth
and sixth round. Plus the leg buckled. How big of
a factor do you think that was, Dan Rayphield?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, he didn't mention anything about the leg
in the post fight. It just seemed like it was
a brief tweak maybe, but I don't know if it
had put it like this, I think it had less
of an impact on his situation then getting hit with
right hands. Put it like that, I mean, in other words,
I don't think that was a cause for the reason
that the fight ended. You know, maybe did he did
he you know, you know, tweak it a little bit. Possibly.
I don't think it was enough was going to cause
it end to the fight or anything like that, or
use it as any kind of excuse, because to say
that's why I got stopped it just added to like
his mounted of issues. Put it like that, you know,
between the fact that Anthony Joshua was so much bigger
than him, was leaning out into some degree. He was
flopping down on the mat. He'd been hit with a
couple of solid jabs in the right hands. There was
one right hand in there. I forget what round it
was where he actually took it pretty damn well. I
actually give Jake credit for that. He took a really
good punch. This is I think at the end, around five,
he'd already been down.
Speaker 1: He landed, by the way, Jake Paul a couple of times,
he landed a pretty good overhand right and never moved Joshua,
that's exactly right. You're finding a championship level fighter, and
it tells you how much harder Andy Ruiz and Alexander
Usik and Daniel Dubois hit in the heavyweight division because
they were able.
Speaker 2: To move him and knock him down.
Speaker 3: But that didn't knock him down.
Speaker 2: He didn't knock him down, but he moved him.
Speaker 3: He moved.
Speaker 2: And he's a heavyweight. He's a true heavyweight.
Speaker 1: On this again, we'll get to a couple of audience
comments in a few moments. Again, Joshua got what we expected.
Just a little later. By the way, I joke with you,
one of us had the over two and a half
had the end. I still thought like third round or
early fourth round, and it just seemed Joshua was content
to maybe make him I don't know that this didn't
get asked. He did make reference to it though, about
wearing him down a little bit, get him into the fight,
get him into the fifth round, fourth round, fifth round,
get him tired, and then he's an easy target or
an easy er target.
Speaker 3: Just basically, he basically said, you know, pin him down,
hurt him, and you know, take my time. I mean,
I can't tell you how many times I've heard guys
say after a fight, you know, I took my time,
which is okay, and I'm not mad about that. At
the end of the day. You know, he got him
out of there. I mean, it's embarrassing that he didn't
get him earlier, but I think it would have been
more so if he was there to actually fight again.
The running was overt. I mean, it was just absurd.
It wasn't just like I'm gonna move and box. This
was not a guy, you know, it was a stylist
and he's gonna give you lateral movement and angles. This
is not you know, Lomachanko moving to the side or
you know, somebody with those types of skills. This was
somebody you know, for lack of a better phrase, like
fleeing for his life. Like yeah, it was almost like
he had robbed a liquor store and was running away
from the cops. I mean it was very, very blatant.
And what was supposed to do. I mean, you know,
you know, he was winning all the rounds. I mean,
I haven't seen what the official scorecards were. I maybe
if you wanted to be super generous, because there was
like one or two punches landed in the first round,
I could maybe see you given Jake Paul round one.
But you know, josh whatever.
Speaker 1: The netflix of unofficial score was, gave him the fourth round,
gave Joshua the first three, gave Paul the fourth, and
then obviously the fifth there's two knock downs, and the
sixth there's two knock downs.
Speaker 2: The right.
Speaker 3: The unofficial judge was Sean Whelock, who has been on
broadcast before. I've seen him plenty times. Does a good job.
I don't necessarily remember something specific in round four when
I would think it was enough to actually give him
the round, particularly because round four was the round where
Jake literally literally flopped five times by my account, when
he's running around like that, forget and let me just
talk about Joshua for a minute. As far as like
mentally speaking, like number one, he's coming off. People have
to remember the last time he was in the ring.
He didn't just lose a boxing match. He got fucking destroyed,
like obliterated, I mean devastated by doing.
Speaker 2: Questions about whether that has ended his career when.
Speaker 3: And then he had surgery on his elbow and he's
off for the fourteen to fifteen months. And I agree
it went too long, but I'm still willing to cut
Joshua some slack because in the end, he got the
job done in style. And it's easy for us to
not think about the last time I was in the ring,
I got pulverized. But if you're the guy that got pulvarized,
I guarantee you that was on his mind. I've been
covering boxing for a long time. I have talked to
countless fighters who've talked about, you know, the mental aspect,
the coming back from a devastating loss. It's not easy.
So I'm willing to show him some grace in that
particular sense.
Speaker 2: Another part of this.
Speaker 1: But the audience that's nowt here with us, thank you
for finding us at the light button. Make sure you subscribe.
This is exclusively on YouTube again. The pod audience is
hearing it as a replay. We did this first in
the middle of the night Friday night, Saturday morning after
the Anthony Joshua ko on YouTube on the Big Fight
Weekend YouTube page. Do you believe Anthony Joshua will take
another fight? You've been theorizing and hearing that it might
be in February, or will he just try to go
to Tyson Fury next.
Speaker 2: I want your take first, and I'll weigh in. What
do you think does he take another fight?
Speaker 3: He said he wanted Fury next, and I don't blame
it for that. But the deal that they have, to
my understanding with Turkey Olschk is that each guy would
get a fight sometime in the first quarter, and then
they would fight a second time, you know, in the
year against each other, probably in the fall. So I
think if that is what that was the sort of
the plan ahead of time, they'll probably stick to that.
I mean sure, I mean anytime, especially when you're the
ages of these guys and you're you and you're basically
at the end of your career. Tune up fights are
never a good thing, but in that particular sense, uh,
it's it's even more of a of a calculated risk.
I guess. So I'd like to see them fight next,
but you know, obviously they want to put another pay
day in their pocket. And if they do take tune
up fights, I just hope they take like like bums, basically,
just like get it out of the way and let's
move on.
Speaker 2: I don't I don't understand, and this is my take.
Speaker 1: I don't understand why Anthony Joshua would take a risk
of losing to somebody so like you said, like you said,
the fight would probably be a knockover opponent, and I
don't know that we have to see that. And in
Fury's case, he hasn't fought in a year and his
last two fights were losses. Maybe he does need the
tune up fight that essentially Joshua got tonight here in
mid December.
Speaker 3: Like I said, the plan he may be calling for
Fury next, and I appreciate that, but I think they
already have a deal with Turkey that says you're getting
a fight each and then we're doing the fight with you,
with you against each other. I mean, whether we like
it or not, we're not the ones paying the bill.
If Turkey is okay with it and he's the one
paying the money, you've got to figure Joshua and Fury,
they'd love to get paid a lot of money to
fight a bunch of stooges before they fight each other
in the big one. So I'm assuming that they'll probably
have fights that are on the you know, knockover type opponents,
probably do them in Saudi Arabia, and then have the
big one at the end of the year. I assume
it would probably be geared towards because they try to
do a big fight when the read Season festival, which lasts,
you know, like four months when it opens, that's usually
like in the beginning of late September early October, so
I think that's when they would probably look to have
them fight each other. We'll have to wait and see,
but you know, I'm very confident that as long as
they don't lose, that they're gonna fight next year.
Speaker 1: Remember we didn't get the Deontay Wilder Anthony Joshua fight
because Wilder lost to Joseph Parker on the same card
with Anthony Joshua.
Speaker 2: We might a risk.
Speaker 3: Now, we might get Anthony, now, we might get Alexander
Russi against Deontay Wilder.
Speaker 1: After all that, all right, give me some thoughts on
the Jake Joshua undercard again. Alicia Bombgardner wins her junior
lightweight three belt unification title defense one sided. I thought
the fight could have been stopped. She knocked Boden the
opponent down, or Boudoin the opponent down, the French Canadian
in the seventh round badly, swollen.
Speaker 2: Eyes, puffed eyes. The fight did go the route when
the full twelve rounds.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they did fight under men's rules three minute rounds
for the women at twelve round distance, which is something
that bomb Garner has wanted to do, sort of like Serrano.
The difference with Serranos, while she's happy to do the
three minute rounds, her fights that have been at the
three minute level have just been the normal women's length,
which was ten rounds. I thought the undercard was pretty bad,
to be honest, I didn't think that mid Wine had
any chance to beat her. She looked timid, She looked
sort of out of it. After the first couple of rounds.
You know, Bombgarner's can be physical, but she's also got skills.
I did not really. I mean, the fight out better
later when when you know, their opponents started to get
much more tired, so she kind of had a stand
and fight a little bit more. But I could have
lived without that fight, particularly at twelve and three. Uh
the Anderson Silva which was a fight that preceded that
was two washed up MMA guys who were still trying
to give it a go in boxing. So respected them
for doing that. And Anderson Silva at age fifty, you know,
look pretty good against Tyron Woodley.
Speaker 1: Was at Woodley with an upper cut and again Woodley
I was in the arena in Tampa. Woodley got destroyed
with the big right hand by Jake Paul and Silva
caught him with an uppercut and wobbling hit him again
with another punch, and then Woodley just wasn't there. And
the referees right there looking at Woodley after he gave
him the count and was going to put the fighters together,
and he's like, no, you.
Speaker 2: Have the vacant look.
Speaker 3: That's it. Hej wasn't him. It was the corner that
threw in the towel.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the above, all the above, but that was.
Speaker 3: Not I mean I didn't. I mean no again, no
disrespect those guys. But Wooley's now owing three in boxing.
You know, two losses to Jake including I knockout. Now
there's loss to silviil by knockout. You know, Silva just
keeps doing this thing. He's, like I said, fifty years old.
I get it. From the standpoint of the marketing. You're
trying to draw in some folks that are you know,
MMA guys. They always usually, you know, whatever undercards that
MVP does for these types of bigger shows, they usually
have some sort of oddball ish kind of fight. Like
just not to say this oddball because at least it's
it's apples to apples. It's two MMA guys in a
boxing match, as opposed to we've seen MMA guys come
and try to box against a boxer. So at least
you know these guys are somewhat contemporaries. They both had
fought Jake Paul, They're known to the Jake Paul audience.
But I personally, because I don't follow MMA, I really
couldn't have cared less about that. Particular fight, but Silva,
you know, for a fifth year old guide they pretty wealth,
you ask me. And then the opening fight which turned
out to be, you know, pretty one sided. That was
the twenty twenty four United States Olympian, the junior Langway.
Jamal Harvey who Jamal Harvey, who is the newly signed
to MVP. He's now two to zero. He went at
the distance in a sixth rounder against a very tough
Kevin Servantes who showed a lot of heart but really
didn't do anything. Lost every single round, got knocked down,
you know, midway through the first round with a nice,
nice combination. Harvey's the real deal. He's a really outstanding
looking prospect. This was not on paper going in. This
was not like a walkover kind of fight because his
opponent was five and oh with five knockouts, stilly gung
guy at twenty five. So not that I thought that
they weren't going to mismatch him or anything and he
was gonna lose. But that's not the kind of record
usually put a guy in in his second fight. So
Harvey's Harvey's a guy to keep an eye on. But
that was sort of like, you know, put him on
in the opening fight. You know, you're gonna have huge
exposure because of the fact that the fight is on Netflix.
There's probably a lot of people that saw him that
might have enjoyed the style and say, you know, maybe
I'm gonna try to follow this kid. So from that standpoint,
I was I was good with that. I'm glad they
put him on this member. This was this fight was
supposed to be Jake against Tank Davis back in November
Jamal Harvey. Jamal Harvey was gonna be on that card
in this matchup, and they moved the fight to this
card the same way they moved the Bomb Gardner fight,
and that's that's the same thing with Silva was supposed
to fight Chris Widman, another former UFC champion, So they
essentially moved the full show, you know, from the one
day to the.
Speaker 1: Other understood and by the way back to Bomb Gardner.
There are options here. Amanda Serrano is obviously fighting as
the featherweight champion or the end of her career as
an MVP fighter in Puerto Rico, headlining that she could
maybe move up. I'm saying that Caroline Dubois won on
the undercard here.
Speaker 2: She has a lightweight title.
Speaker 1: Bomb Gardner could move up to fight her, So there's
still some options here with other MVP fighters, including Dubois
being on the card on Friday Night, right, I sort of.
Speaker 3: Doubt it's gonna be Serrano. I think Serrano right now
is sort of playing out the string. I'm not to
say that she'd be a scared to fight or anything
like that. I just I just feel like she's gonna
do a few other things. But Bombgarner was calling out
Caroline Dubois after the fight. She's like, you want to,
you know, come up and see me. She wants to
do a twelve round fight. Caroline probably will have some
say in that because if she moves up, it'll be
Caroline who is defending her title as opposed to going
to fight for bomb Garner's title. That I'm sure will
be a bone of contention if they do decide to
negotiate to fight.
Speaker 1: Because Caroline Das titles a WBC title right and she
would not be able to fight a twelve round fight
without the double.
Speaker 2: You got to give our bel top so interesting on that.
Speaker 3: But if she wants to fight for the lightweight title,
I mean, you know, if she has to do the
two in the you know, two minute rounds and ten rounds.
That's the way it's going to be if she wants
to fight for the belt. Now, Caroline could give up
the title, but to be quite honest, you know, sometimes
you need a title to make the fight, and in
this particular case, the only the reason to make duoi
against bomb Garner is because she's got a lightweight title.
It doesn't doesn't really seem logical to me that she
would give up that title just to acquiesce to bomb Garner.
There's other people she could fight, but we'll see how
that goes. I don't think it was ever going to
be the next fight. Anyway. She'll be back and they'll
do something else, whether she defends her title or maybe
she ties to move up and take a non title.
But I think that bomb Gardner will stick around at
least for another fight and defend And even if she
goes up to fight Caroline or somebody else for a
title in the lightweight division, doesn't mean she's gonna automatically vacate.
She could see how she feels afterwards if she wins
and she loses whatever, and then return and defend her belts.
I mean, by all caps. As they mentioned on the broadcast,
she should have been undisputed, but because of the WBC's
situation where they won't sanction a fight for women that's
you know, three minute rounds or a twelve run fight.
She did what Toronto did. She vacated the WBC title,
so she defended the other three. But you know she
is the number one fighter in that way class obviously.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get back to a couple of other
comments before we are gone. The aircraft carrier says the
women shouldn't be doing three minute rounds moving forward, based
on what some would argue though that you might get
more action, more knockouts if somebody's a little more fatigue
and around, as opposed to the two minute rounds. There's
a counter argument you get more action in two minute rounds.
Potato potato right on that.
Speaker 3: I mean, I look, I mean, I'm I'm sort of
agnostic about it. I don't really care. I mean, I
kinda especially because some of the women's fights are not
at a high level compared to some of the men.
So in that instance, you'd rather see the two in
the ten because at least they'll be over quicker. But
in terms of like Bombguner. She can really she can
do the twelve in the and the three and she
is a real solid professional, So I don't necessarily mind it.
But I'm okay if they decide to do two minute
rounds and ten rounds, I'm fine with that. But just
to say they shouldn't do three minute rounds, that that,
I mean, that's that's UH aircraft carrier's opinion. That's fine.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we love we love the Savages handles.
Speaker 1: How about CMU pins fan says Bombguner has to finish fights.
She's not marketable when she can't finish things. I mean,
I'm an exciting fight with Michaela Mayer that she won
that wasn't understand.
Speaker 3: The concept she's not marketable because she doesn't finish fights.
Katie Taylor has barely any knockouts in her career. She's
one of the most popular boxers in the Female Shields. Right,
You'll sells a ton of tickets. When she's fighting at
Literal Little Caesars, she puts you know, ten twelve thousand
in the arena. She's had like three knockouts in her
whole career. Mikaela Mayer is not a big knockout puncher, right,
I mean, we can go on down the go on
down the list of the of the of the more
well known boxers. Even Amanda Serrano has scored a lot
of knockouts, but it's been a while since she's had one.
She's one of the best to ever do it. I
mean Natasha Jonas not known for her being a big puncher.
I mean, do I have to continue to go on?
So you got it? You know it is what it is?
Speaker 2: Final thoughts from you? Anything else for tonight?
Speaker 1: Anthony Joshua, what does get his knockout that we thought
he would gets over? A couple of people were asking,
is Jake Paul gonna fight a legitimate fighter next or
are we going back to the MMA or the Over
the Hill whatever whenever he's back, what's your speculation.
Speaker 3: He just had his jaw busted, he just got dropped
a bunch of times by a top heavyweight. He's gonna
take some time off, as he said, and we'll let
him reassess. I mean, if he decides to take another
unusual kind of fight. Let's say he does fight another
MMA fighter or another boxer that's retired and coming back,
or whatever the case. May be who knows, I mean,
but his events are his events. They they're there, They're
there one section of boxing. It has no bearing on
like the the bona Fide championship level fights. So, as
I've said ever since Jake Paul's whole thing started, boxing
is a big ten and there's room for these types
of events. There's room for as I said before, club fights,
there's room for the big time championship fights. So it's
not like because he's fighting these kinds of matches that
we don't get to see other kinds of matches. So
it's not impacting the quote unquote real boxing matches. We're
still gonna see fights like you know, Shakor Stevenson against
t Fimo Lopez. We've still seen lots of top fights.
We still saw any number of outstanding matchups. We're still
gonna see the top fighters take on you know, real
championship level type fights. Uh. And if Jake Paul wants
to do his own thing on the side and fight
these types of you know what's the word like science
show type masters meticals, Right, that's fine because the fans
turn out, they seem to enjoy it. They do big
numbers on me he.
Speaker 1: Has filled arenas all across the country. I think conservatively
Netflix will tell us in a couple of days with
the metrics, and it may be into the middle of
next week. There were probably thirty million people that either
watched this live or on demand.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go with that number.
Speaker 1: Especially because of the UK interest and people that are
going to watch this morning UK time on demand on
Netflix that didn't see it live because the fight didn't
start till four point thirty in the morning ish in
the UK.
Speaker 3: They also, you know, there's you know, listen, that's an audience.
Speaker 2: That's a massive audience.
Speaker 3: It's not it's also not rocket science. The networks and
streaming services. They put together not just one event, but
they they had the big boxing event that was the
lead up and coming on afterwards. A lot of people
were excited because it was the premiere of the of
the brand new Dave Chappelle comedy show, so that was
gonna have an audience. So you put them together and
it's like, you know, a good night of people, We're
going to just hang out and watch our Netflix. So
that was the point. Make a big event, which is
what they did. Now you talk about how he fills arenas.
And you know they may deny this, but I mean,
I know for a fact from a ticket brokers that
I speak to a regular to get my real, true intel,
I want them in the tickets. They gave away a
lot of tickets for this fight. They did a lot
of two for one deals. They were giving away blocks
of fifty tickets. I was told that doesn't mean there
was a lot of people that also bought tickets and
went out.
Speaker 1: To the But I understanding in Anaheim they may have
given some away, but a lot of that was sales.
And he's he has sold out previous arenas. Maybe this
has run its course, just one more time here where
the public looks at this and says, you know you've
been You've been fighting Mma, guys. You fought a fifty
eight year old Mike Tyson. You fought a washed up,
bloated Chavez Junior. You got in there with a real
fighter and got knocked out.
Speaker 2: We're over this.
Speaker 1: The market will dictate that on whether people watch and
whether people want to buy tickets to it.
Speaker 3: My perspective, though, is like this, It's that if you
don't go into a Jake Paul event thinking you're watching
a guy on the pound for pound list, or you're
watching a world championship fight. That's fine. Not every fighter
is gonna be able to be at that level. So
Jake has found an audience. I think he's done a
great job marketing himself. And you know, look, he tries,
he comes in shape, he gives a great effort. He
took some bombs from Joshua and actually didn't get knocked down,
So you know, a lot of people couldn't do that.
So you know, just because he didn't win the fight
doesn't mean it was a complete waste for him. He
probably proved something to himself. Look, he can go for
the rest of his life to say I may not
have won the fight, it may have got my ass
kicked in the end, but you know what, I went
six rounds with an Olympic gold medalist and a two
time heavyweight world champion and I've only been boxing amateur
or pro for like five six years. I mean, there's
not a lot of people that could ever say that.
Speaker 2: By and by the way, nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1: An unbelievable job of marketing and hype to get himTo
the moment, because that's what got him to the moment.
It wasn't on in ring accomplishment that got him to
the moment. It's marketing and hype that got him to
the moment. And Jake Paul has easily made nine figures
out here over the course of the last two or
three years with the Mike Tyson fight and now this fight.
So there you go, all right, final thought, we're gonna
get out of here. We've been here a little bit
in the middle of the night Friday night into Saturday morning.
Any other final thoughts, Well.
Speaker 3: My final thought will be sort of what I started with.
It wasn't boxing's best night, far from it. But you
know what, thankfully it wasn't boxing's worst night because in
the end it was not a complete train wreck, and
there was you know, Jake didn't have to go to
the hospital. I'm glad about that. You know, I went
to the hospital for the job, but not because he
was like seriously seriously injured. So in the end, you know,
the circus moves on to the next town.
Speaker 1: And that segues us now to an interview off of
the conversation in the recap mode of the Joshua will
win and the rest of the card in Miami that
was the most prominent card for the weekend. Now we
segue to what will happen this weekend in RIODD, Saudi
Arabia for the re ODD season, A Night of the
Samurai Boxing card Again Naoya the monster in a way,
arguably the best pound for pound fighter in the sport.
I know the Terrence Crawford fans will argue, I know
the Alexander Usik fans will argue, but the inn Away
fans are arguing the same way. Four belt champion at
one hundred and twenty two pounds. He's in the main
event fighting Alan David Picasso. Now in the co feature fight,
his countryman, Junto Nakatani, former bantamweight world champion, is fighting
Sebastian Hernandez in what is essentially a tune up fight
at the higher division to potentially fight in a way
down the road if not next. So Dan's gonna talk
now with Nakatani, and through the magic of radio and
editing and the effort, you're gonna hear Dan ask the
questions and obviously, in the context of the interview, Nakatani
speaks very little English at all, the interpreter would re
ask the question in Spanish, I'm sorry in Japanese, and
then Nakatani would answer in Japanese, and then the interpreter
would answer Dan's question in English. What we've done, what
I've done. By editing this, you'll faintly hear Knakatani answering.
Speaker 2: I can verify, and.
Speaker 1: When we put this up on the YouTube page, you'll
see it Nakatani's answering the questions. But it does nobody
any good that doesn't speak Japanese to have that. You'll
hear the interpreter Moto giving you the answers in English
to Dan's question, give you Nakatani's answers. So now enjoy
this for a good seven minutes or so, Dan interviewing
Junto Nakatani. He did this back a few days ago
before Nakatani left Japan to fly to Saudi Arabia. Let's
get that conversation in now on the recap pot.
Speaker 3: But is my great pleasure to be joined from Japan,
Junto Nakatani, the former three division world champion now moving
up in wait. Junto, welcome to the show. You have
a big fight coming up in Rie Saudi Arabia'll be
taken on Sebastian Hernandez will be your first fight in
the junior featherweight division, so welcome and thank you. We're
going to get some help from the trans letter Moto,
so Moto, thanks for doing your thing today. Thank you
are very good Motov. You could ask him about as
I mentioned, he is won world titles in three divisions, flyweight, junior,
bandam weight. He had unified titles at bandam weight. Now
he's vacated those bantamweight titles to move up to the
junior featherweight division to fight this fight with Hernandez on
the night of the Samurai pay per view card in Riad,
Saudi Arabia. And I'm wondering what went into his decision
just to move up and wait? Was it problems with
the weight? Was it the fact that he just wanted
to go for another title in another weight class. Was
it the attraction of Noya in a way being in
that weight class.
Speaker 4: Okay, so as my weight control was getting difficult, that
was the one reason I moved up to the superbaton.
But at the same time with of course, in a
way is in that rank, so that's another reason I
move up to super bantam.
Speaker 3: So of course that is part of the story of
what goes on with this card. In a way is
in the main event, Junto is in the co feature.
I wonder how does he stay focused on taking care
of business against Hernandez knowing that if he wins and
if in a way is the winner, that the plans
are to do this huge mega fight in the spring
at the Tokyo Dome where him having the opportunity to
become the undisputed champion at one hundred and twenty two pounds.
Speaker 4: Okay, so soon. In my career, I always value the
fight in front of me. Every fight is very important
to me, and if I do my best and win
the fight, then I will see the next scene after
the war. So right now concentrating the fight.
Speaker 3: And so if he emerges with the victory against Hernandez,
is the plan is he just gonna kind of come
back out the ringside and relax and see what happens
in the n a a fight and then maybe face
off with them afterwards if he wins.
Speaker 4: Also, if I have a time, I'd love to uh
see his fight.
Speaker 3: I wonder when the idea of facing in a way
came to him a house. At what point did it
become a serious thing for him because they were separated
by some weight at different times, and so uh you
know when they become a big deal for him? And and
how closely has he followed in a way his career?
Speaker 4: Okay, so what became the champion on Denton? Uh? I
thought the fighting against you know where it becomes uh serious,
the real thing to me? And after that, I've been
watching his fights, uh actually actual fights and always think
about him as an opponent. So you come up.
Speaker 3: Do they know each other? Do they have any kind
of relationship? No?
Speaker 4: Not really?
Speaker 3: Okay. A lot of people say that he's already in
a way the greatest Japanese boxer of all time, and uh,
I wonder you know does he think that and how
does he see himself eventually matching up with him? Yes?
Speaker 4: I know he's a great fighter, but myself I wanted
to be called as a great fighter as well. So
then winning against him, uh that's uh that makes me
greatest spiders. So that's that's kind of motivation I have,
uh right now?
Speaker 3: Okay, Well, before all of that, he's got to fight
Sabash and Herdandez. That's the fight that's coming up. So
I wonder if you could ask him, you know, what
does he know about him? He is undefeated, so there's
that he hasn't really faced a lot of opponents. Are
really only just one opponent I think that people might know,
and that's Asavinissian. So when he thinks about him, what
is what does this take on his opponent?
Speaker 4: Okay, so he has a strong punch, a hard punch,
and he's very tough. So that's I always considered that
and why I'm training.
Speaker 3: So this fight is going to take place in Riyad,
Saudi Arabia. He has fought in America twice. All the
rest of the fights have been in Japan. I'm wondering
what is his perspective, his thoughts about going all the
way to Saudi Arabia to have his first fight in
the Middle East.
Speaker 4: Personally, I like to go to fight, and this time
Saudi Arabia. I'm so excited to be there, and that's
I'm expecting to have a crowd. I want to make
sure to satisfy him. I want to I want to
fight so other people who satisfy my fights.
Speaker 3: All right, I'll just wrap up with one more question
that we've been talking a lot about the possibility of
this fight against in a way, you know, as long
as they're the winners come December twenty seventh. It is
spoken by boxing fans, by people in Japan other reporters
that if they get together in this big fight in
the spring, that's going to be the biggest all Japanese
fight in the history of boxing. There's been a lot
of great champions that have come from Japan, and some
of them been fought each other. What is he when
he when he hears that, it's like a big thing,
Like what is his thought about? Like, Oh, my goodness,
I might be in maybe the biggest fight in the
history of my country for so much at stake, with
the undisputed title and undefeated records.
Speaker 4: Yes, great honor to be part of it, and so
I'm really exciting and uh enjoining you, and of course
this opportunity, I have to make sure it's going to
be on my career and step up to the next
That's what I feel about it.
Speaker 3: All right, very good, I thank you very much for
your time. Jento, best of luck to you on December
twenty seventh against Hernandez, and if all goes well, the
world will be watching you and in a way if
he wins also, so thank you very much and best
of luck. Thank you very much, appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Night of the Samurai upcoming Saturday from Riot again in
a way is the main event, expected to win and
probably win by knockout. It would be a fourth victory
for him this year if he gets it coming up
and again Junto Nakatani maybe the next fight. And thanks
again to everybody involved with Junto Nakatani to help that
interview happen. Moto the translator, we say publicly again thank
you to him for making it happen and we brought
it to you.
Speaker 2: Here on the audio pod.
Speaker 1: Not the easiest thing in the world to get questions
in Japanese asked and then answered and then have it
be coherent on an audio podcast, but we got it done.
We got it done here on this edition of the show.
All right, that'll wrap it up here. Off the weekend. Everybody,
have a great holiday, a great Christmas. Hanik will be
wrapping up Christmas Eve obviously Wednesday.
Speaker 2: We'll have Christmas on Thursday.
Speaker 1: Dan and I will come back with a preview show
for the weekend. We'll work it out, we'll figure it out.
You'll have it as part of this podcast feed. This
Big Fight weekend podcast Feed within a Way headlining one
of the best pound for pound fighters going for a
fourth win this year. Does that make him the fighter
of the Year. We've been debating that. Dan doesn't believe so,
but the debate will continue. In any event, Anthony Joshua
has gotten the big win. We recap that in the
entire card from Miami. I hope you enjoyed all of
this again, Happy holiday's, Merry Christmas everybody. I'm merely TJ
Reeves for Big Dan Rayfield. Find his substack. Fight Freaks
Unite is the substack online the newsletter. Sign up for
it fight Freaks Unite newsletter and make sure that you
are following and subscribing on Apples, Spreaker, Spotify to this
podcast beat because you get tons of great content from
us on the Sweet Science.
Speaker 2: We're almost done. We're twenty twenty five. We're done for
now again.
Speaker 1: Everybody, enjoy the holiday, the winter holiday break here with
Christmas coming up, etc. We're back later in the week
to be ready for the weekend. You've been listening to
the Fight Freaks Unit Recap podcast