Speaker 1: Well off of a lighter weekend that has seen a
WBA strawweight titled fight in Australia. We span the globe
to cover it all. We've got some news, We've got
some nostalgia. It is the Fight Freaks Unit Recap podcast.
We have got Canelo Alvarez fight week looming as well,
now that we're into the new week, Sunday night into Monday.
Hello there, welcome back in. I am the somewhat competent host, TJ.
Speaker 2: Reeves. He is our insider.
Speaker 1: Fight Freaks Unite is the substack newsletter, the whole bit.
Speaker 2: Why are you not subscribing?
Speaker 1: Get on there because you're always going to get news,
the fight schedule, great nostalgia items from the Rayfield collection.
Speaker 2: Hello Dan Rayfield.
Speaker 1: Good to be back with you as we come off
of the weekend. Not exactly a stellar weekend, I'm being kind.
There were some fight results, but we hey, we have
meat on the bone here for the podcast audience.
Speaker 2: We had a feed to savages, how you.
Speaker 3: Doing I'm doing good, and it was you know what,
I'm not upset sometimes when there's a light Saturday night.
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2: I understand, call you your mother, do something.
Speaker 3: We in boxing, who follow it religiously, who work in
some capacity, whatever the case may be. Unlike every other
sport that I'm aware of, anyway, maybe UFC might be
a similar situation. There's no off season. Boxing goes basically
year round. I mean it used to be when I
first started, there was the networks would not ever even
think about scheduling something after like the second week of November.
They might do one show at the beginning of December,
and that, you know, because they didn't do stuff around Thanksgiving,
but certainly certainly by the second week of December. There
was nothing for about a month between second week of
December till about the second week of January. That was
I used to joke around that was like the off season,
right right, And even now that is not the case.
Now there was always the Japanese fights around the New
Year's holiday, but that wasn't so much particular to the
American audience. But now there's nothing is sacred.
Speaker 2: That is correct, including this show, by the way, including
the pods.
Speaker 3: I'm not unhappy to have the occasional side.
Speaker 1: I got you, but we have a little bit to recap.
Thank you for fun, thank you for finding us, make
sure that you follow. Make sure you subscribe Apple, Spreaker, Spotify.
We preview going into the weekend, we recap going Are
you saying there might be a little more attention on
Canelo Berlanga this week than.
Speaker 3: There was this yea, for sure there might be.
Speaker 1: Follow Subscribe, get all the great content automatically, including uh
great guests and interviews, all of it. Make sure you
rate us and review us. Take thirty seconds to do that,
give us a five star review. It helps, all right.
Uh so we had By the way, I'm proud of you.
I'm proud of you on the recap podcast. You know why?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because we've been talking for two minutes and you
haven't said that. Off the bet Us show, you went
four for four on your predict. You're going to be
the caper of the week probably on bet Us across
the star forms. Well, nobody can beat you.
Speaker 3: The only one issue every at least tied with somebody perhaps.
Speaker 1: I mean, you were what you had notakes by the
knockout and you got the over in the Friday night
Queensberry Lightweight European Lightweight World title fight, and then we
get into it. You and I were all already sparring
over the name Tom A Moon Nayomtrong Right, better known
as knockout CP fresh Mark. Even though you wrote to
further confuse me CP Freshman on the rundown, I knew
it was fresh Mark because of you.
Speaker 2: That's a type of I understand.
Speaker 1: So he won in Australia by majority decision. Now I
have to confess to the audience I have seen the
Noakes body punch that got his win Friday night. I
would be lying more honest to the audience. I would
be lying if I told you I've seen the fresh Mark,
the CP fresh Mart, the fresh Prince of bel Air's
win over Alex Winwood, not to be confused with Steve
Steve Winwood from the from our eighties Roll with it, baby,
not that guy. Alex Winwood did not win the fight
in Australia. In his home country, CP fresh Mart won
the fight. But I have not seen this. I've read
a recap that says he won by decision. I rely
on you, mighty one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, looks the fight is on YouTube. Uh and I
did watch a good portion of it. I didn't not,
I mean yeah, I mean highly competitive. Really, what it
came down to was the knockdowns, because it was a
majority decision in favor of your boy, CP Freshmart knockout,
CP Freshmart. But the main thing about it was this was,
in my opinion, a case of a veteran having the
experience against the younger guy.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: He was unflappable going to fight in Western Australia, in
the home area of his opponent, Alex Winwood. Alex Winwood
was an outstanding amateur. He was a twenty twenty Australian Olympian,
but he only had a few professional fights, and that
is a big difference. He only had four professional fights
going into this belt. The champion, we can call him
the Amtrong, we can call him Freshmart.
Speaker 2: We can still call you prefer the CP Freshmanti.
Speaker 3: The reigning WBA Strangway Champion. But here's the main thing
about what happened. He has vast experience and he's not
an old old fighter. From that standpoint, he did show.
I was concerned, as we discussed beforehand, about the fact
he was coming off of a layoff that was a
little bit over two years twenty six month layoff. Now,
sometimes you're not really too worried about layoffs, but what
I said, when you fight in the little weight classes
and it's a strain no matter when to make that weight.
He did it, and he looked pretty good. He scored
I think it was I can't remember if it was
two knockdowns or three knockdowns, but whatever it was that
turned out to be did He's almost had him out
of there in the seventh round. And you know, to
alex Winwoods, credit showed a lot of heart in that
fight to hang in there for the rest of that round,
and in the end it was the results were one thirteen,
one thirteen on the one square card, but the other
two judges had it one fourteen to one twelve a piece,
So it was really the knockdowns that made the difference,
and he dropped him in the fourth round, dropped him
again in round seven. I think I might have I
forget if there was two knockdowns in the seventh round
or one was a knockdown and one was ruled to
slip whatever it was, and then another one later in
the fight. But the main perspective is this was youth
against experience, and the experience went out. And now Neomtrog
has made what twelve world title defenses he is the
longest reigning active world champion in boxing. Now. Part of
that is because he's had these long, long layoffs that
he'd been a little more active over the last two
plus years, you know, had three fights, four fights over
that period of time. Perhaps he would have lost. But
in the end, you can't really sneeze at twelve title
defenses and still maintaining, by the way, an undefeated record.
I mean, this guy's twenty five and oh, I mean,
it's nothing to sneeze that. And when you talk about
I know, straweights don't get a lot of love, and
you know, we're probably talking more about strawweights right now.
And though we've done since we've been doing this show,
maybe right.
Speaker 1: Well, the only other name is Oscar Colazo, who has
the WBO title, and we've talked about him some and
we've analyzed his fights and recap them. And so the
obvious question would be, would we ever see Klaso fight
your boy CP Freshmart? Would he have to go to
the Far East to do it, would Ceep Freshmark come
to this hemisphere to do it?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Look, if that fight ever were to happen, I mean,
and this is strictly speculation, you would think that most
likely it would be uh uh fresh mart that would
have to travel and come here because Colaso has the
backing of Golden Boy. There's a lot more money generally
speaking for fights in this side of the world than
there is in Thailand. And the reason why most of
these smaller weight fights, especially in the Straway division, so
many of them in know, little weight classes take place
in Thailand is because that's where the fighters are generally
from a lot of those smaller weight class fighters are
from Asia, uh and and and also they don't get big,
huge persons. But the way that the that the economics
often work in those types of fights, it's the government
that supports them. They go to a particular province or
a particular area and they and they put it on
the same way you know, uh, you would do something
as it relates to like advertising or you know, bringing attention,
you know, to sponsor a particular event the way it
happens in Mexico all the time. A lot of the
state governments in Mexico. When you see some world title
fights or some major shows that take place in and
around Mexico, uh, you know, for beltron at Zamford Promotions
has made a living out of of going and getting
government backing for certain events, and he's put on huge
mats and title fights over the years. And it's very
similar uh that that occurs in Thailand. So I would
I would suspect that he would have to travel to
uh to this part of the world. But listen, the
way you get interest in that kind of weight class
is if you make those types of fights. I mean, listen,
I can't sit here and tell you that if I'm
making my top ten list of the fights I want
to see in boxing, uh and and any strongweight fight
makes that list. But if you told me you know what, uh,
neilm Trong is gonna come and fight Colaso to unify
the titles, I'm interested. I mean, that's a wouldest for
one hundred five pound weight class. Man. That's a very
solid interesting fight. And you know, the other two title
holders in that weight class are not particularly well known
at all, at least on this part of the world.
You got Pedro Tatterrain to Ted Duran from the Philippines,
you are, you have Melvin Jerusalem, who's actually from the Philippines,
is going to defend his title coming up in the
coming week.
Speaker 2: Who Colaso beat back what a years ago for his title.
Speaker 3: Yes, so there's not like a huge match. So I
guess if you were really like, at least in my mind,
maybe somebody might different. But I was to say, if
you're gonna make a fight in the straweight division, uh,
to unify titles, I mean in the Philippines, I guess
it would be a big deal if you had the
two the two Filipinos meaning to fight each other Jerusalem
against a tatterin But from the non Filipino perspective, I mean,
Colaso against Neil Mstrong is probably.
Speaker 2: The interesting that's much the more interesting fight.
Speaker 3: But you know, we don't ever get those types of
things unfortunately in the sport of boxing, and that apparently.
Speaker 2: We apparently get fewer and fewer of the good things.
Speaker 3: I will say this though, the way that Golden Boy
has been moving Oscar Colaso and showing belief in him,
they put him in the main event of a smaller show. Uh.
He's got some swagger, he's exciting, he's bilingual, and he's
you know, yeah, they might actually maybe they'll. I mean,
all you can do is make the offer. I have
to think though that if they really are gonna do
something with Colaso, because you don't see a lot of
the promoters in the in the in the in the UH,
in this part of the world signing strawweights. It's it's
highly unusual, right, So they did sign him, and they
can maybe make a little business with him, whether it's
fighting in Puerto Rican areas in the United States, fighting
in Puerto Rico. So maybe they can, uh, you know,
offer offer his uh you know, Neo Trounk's team some
type of package that would induce him to come stateside
or to Puerto Rico or what have you and make
a fight. But that's you know, that's speculation. In the meantime,
you know, he looked pretty good, uh beating the young kid,
and hopefully Winwood doesn't let uh the defeat ruin him
because he's a you know, still a good young fighter.
He just needs the experience. I mean, he's he's not
a young man at a straweight level. He's already twenty
seven years old. But you know, dust yourself off, try
to be more active, and then you should be back
in the back in you know, win a couple of fights,
you mightn't even need that because there's not so much
competition in the straweight division. That's going to take you
a long time to get another shot. And if he
brings a crowd and has backing of his home area,
you know you're gonna be able to induce another champion
maybe to come visit.
Speaker 1: I like it all right, so we're fulfilling the obligation
of the recap. I'll ask you one question. Noakes got
the win in the Friday night Queensbury show. We did
handicap it on bet Us TV. Is he still at
least a couple of contending fights away from being on
the radar. Does he have to win two or three
more times to be on the lightweight radar? What's your opinion?
Speaker 3: I think any? I mean, first of all, he looked
pretty good. He took out Gene Luca Siglia in the
eighth round. They ended up stopping in the corner, but
he was hurt before that. In terms of Isia contender, Look,
the main thing is this, when you win the European title,
you're on the radar for a lot of people. You know,
he's going to get ranked in some of the organizations.
Probably I would and if it goes in the way
that the European title typically does. You know, it's an
important historical title, but it is somewhat of a steppingstone.
But if you look at the history of world champions
who come from Europe, many of them they go through
the pathway where they get a European title before they
move on and fight for a world title. So it
wouldn't surprise me if if Sam Noaks, who's now fifteen
to oho with fourteen knockouts and you know, probably not
into his prime yet at age twenty seven, if he
were to defend the lightweight European title, you know, get
a couple basically, spend maybe you have one more fight
this year, maybe not even one more fight this year,
but let's say spend next year two three fights, defend
the title, and then you're going to be in a
great position. You're still going to be young, and you
might be ready and set to go fight for a
world title. So I don't think it's the next fight,
but it's not. He's not waiting years and years if he's.
Speaker 2: Still I'm just saying this.
Speaker 1: If you're him, getting if if you're Queensberry getting back
in the ring, like November December January January at the latest.
Keep him relevant because it looks like you have something
there with the knockouts.
Speaker 3: Frank Warren has done a pretty good job, I have
to say, with developing some of the British talent in
terms of guys who start off with him and you're
not really sure prospects suspect they build them up, they
get the European title. Did the same thing with Nick Ball.
I saw Nick Ball, who now has the one of
the featherweight title, saw him fight on some smaller, you know,
on the small like lower undercards, and you know, he
was exciting and he was like this little like steam
engine that just threw a million punches, you know, and
wasn't really sure if he would develop, and he has developed.
And I think Noaks is kind of they don't have
the same style of boxing, but they in my mind anyway,
they fall into that kind of category where they started
off and did their thing.
Speaker 1: Did the same thing with Dubois, and Dubois has taken
some knockouts, but Dubois has also gotten some wins. He's
developed him and gotten a lot out of Dubois.
Speaker 3: But Duba was different because when Dubai entered the professional ranks,
he had massive height behind you. When Noakes and and
uh and Ball entered the pro ranks, it wasn't like that.
Speaker 2: You had to make them. You had to make them
and had to build them, and you had to sell them.
Speaker 3: A lot of people thought Duba was going to be,
you know, a serious fighter right out of the gate.
Speaker 2: Gotcha, all right, So we'll see what happens with them.
Speaker 1: So we have done the obligation, which is give you
a recap, which is what we do.
Speaker 2: There's what happened this weekend.
Speaker 3: An obligation.
Speaker 1: No no, no, But I'm saying, if you're listening to
the Recap podcast, we sometimes have to get creative, but
we don't have a lot to recap. We just gave
you recaps. Peete, give us a five star review for
God's sake that you enjoy the recaps, because where else
are you going to get your CP Fresh Mart content
and your Sam Noakes content.
Speaker 3: I'm just and I can switch like it's almost like
a like you see like State Terrence Crawford. Yes, box
is right handed, switches easily to south, seamlessly switching back
switches again. I did the same thing from fresh Martin
the amschroan, it's all good.
Speaker 2: It's beautiful, all right. To the news. There is some
news and then we got a lot of nostalgia too
here on this pod. All right.
Speaker 1: So it looks like that Riadd's season is going to
come back with a very intriguing cruiserweight unification title fight.
What is going on and win here for this? What's
the latest?
Speaker 3: So if you if you follow Turkey al Chet from
Saudi Arabia on his social media, he had made a
post a few days ago saying that he and Oscar
de Laway, who obviously are doing business together. They work
together on other fights and they have a lot of
interest in virtual rotise, for example. But his post was
that he had spoken to Oscar and that they're gonna
do a Latino themed read season card in he didn't
mention the date, he didn't mention the fights. But when
you do a little make some phone calls and look around,
it's it's not hard to figure out what he's talking
about is a read card that's gonna be on November sixteenth,
not a pay per view. And what makes it sort
of interesting is that if you take a look at
the brief history of read season cards that began h
late last year with the Tyson Fury Francis Naganu show,
and they've done a series of humongous cards. Every one
of them has been a pay per view, and they've
been worthy papers. I can't knock them. They've all been
outstanding shows. I mean, Crawford, Majimov and Naganu against Joshua
and Naganu against Tyson Fury Tyson.
Speaker 2: We've had a day of reckoning.
Speaker 1: We've had reckoning chaos, we've had a five versus five.
Speaker 2: Yes, they've all been pay per views show.
Speaker 3: All those cards are worthy shows, but it does get
to be too much when it's nothing, nothing but pay
per view. So I think Turkey Alshka has heard what
the fans have to say. Say whatever you want about
what the Saudi program is all about, but he is
a boxing fan, and so they're gonna try to bring some.
As we've discussed lower priced pay per views, but also
in this particular case, a non pay per view. Part
of the reason, I think is because even though the
matchup we're gonna talk about is a really interesting matchup,
it's really not the kind of matchup that's gonna engender
large amounts of interest in terms of you have to
pay extra money for it. So if the goal is
to still get the read Season name and and what
they're trying to do with read Season out to the public,
you know, if there's nothing wrong with offering something for free. Now,
not only would it probably be on his own, but
Al al sheic And has post said basically, any network
or broadcast platform interested you know, will give you this event.
Just contact our people at read Season and will make
the arrangements. So the fight they're looking to do is
a in the main event. I don't it's not signed
yet from what I am told, but it's definitely gonna
get done unless something you know, unusual happens, which is boxing,
so that's always a possibility. But it feels like everything
is on the right track. Everybody wants it. Is Gilberto
Zerdo Ramirez, who is the current WBA Cruiserweight champion who
won the title earlier this year against Chris Billin Smith,
who is the WBO title holder. They have been discussing
that Chris Billen Smith has gone on his home broadcaster
Sky Sports in the UK and has spoken about the
fact that negotiations are taking place. I have spoken to
people involved in that fight who say that they're very
close to getting it wrapped up. One of the key
signs that you know what's going to get done is
because if you go back about a week or two ago,
you had the WBA scheduling a purse bid for Zerdo
Ramirez is mandatory against the former title holder Union Old Dordikos.
But Dordekos and the Golden Boy people, with the blessing
of the WBA, have made a deal where Dordikos will
step aside to allow this fight to happen. As long
as that, I guess it's part of the deal. He
gets the first shot at the winner in the first
part of next year, and that is a done deal.
And so Dordikos is going to make a lot of money.
Dway it was expressed to me is he'll make as
much money to stand down from this obligation as he
would if he were going to actually have a fight.
So from the perspective of the Dordocos people who I
spoke to, they're like, why wouldn't we do that. We're
gonna get paid a lot of money to not fight.
You know, we'll make sure you know, he's going to
train and they'll watch the fight and we'll be ready
to fight the winner. So that'll be the main event.
And then another fight that they've had done on the
Golden Boys side for a while. I think this fight
was agreed to back in June was a junior welterweight
fight between Josey Ramirez, the former unified title holder, against
the undefeated Arnold Barbosa. Now, they both spent their careers
with Top Rank, then they both became free agents and
they both wound up signing with Golden Boy within a
brief period of time. They're both managed by Rick Margion,
and they were trying to make that fight out Top Rank.
It didn't get done, and now Golden Boys made that
match and Ramirez will fight Barbosa in a fight that
should provide the winner with an opportunity to fight for
a title again. So that will probably be the co feature,
and then while everything else is being sorted out, you know,
you hear different things. So one of the guys likely
to be on the cart as William is Apaida, who,
as everybody knows, turkeyof Chikh's plan is to do shakhor
Stevenson who was fighting Coordina coming up later in the
month and then do him in his next fight against
the PAIDA. And so while the paida is the mandatory,
the paida is gonna get another fight this year also,
so that seems logical. And again I don't know if
this is a done deal yet, but another fight that's
been out there as a good possibility is another Golden
Boy fight. This is a really interesting matchup. To me,
he got Oscar Duarte, a good heavy puncher who gave
a good account of himself and a loss to Ryan
Garcia against Kenneth Simms, who was a high level contender
in the junior walterweight division. Taking each other out of
another fight. I mean, there's been a bunch of different maps.
There's one thing I can tell you though. There was
a lot of rumors that it would be Williams z
Apeida against George Cambosis, and I am told I check
with the Camboses people, multiple people on the Cambos team,
and they said, that's just not true, that George Cambos
is not fighting Williams of Peida. That there was some
conversation at that, but George Camboses is going up to
one hundred and forty pounds he's done in the lightweight division,
and I can't say I'm disappointed, because all due respect
to my man, George Cambos is who I love as
a just the heart and the tenacity and the boss
to fight anybody. That would be a bad fight for
him in my.
Speaker 1: Opinion, especially at this stage. All Right, So we'll see
who's the payda ends up fighting.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 1: Lots of good info, right there, peeps on that November show.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: So while we're on the same subject, you did talk
about this briefly on our preview pod going into the weekend,
but Top Rank has made it official on the weekend
that the better bvbvol fight, which is headlining in Saudi Arabia,
is theirs, and it's going to be on ESPN Plus,
no additional pay perview. Do I have this correct? No
additional pay per view. If you have ESPN Plus you
can see that fight. Meanwhile, the pricing announced for the
other fights on the card, which you have to have
to z own to see. And let's hear it again,
it's affordable if you want to see this, pick it up.
Speaker 3: Okay, So a lot of people have been confused about this.
I post stuff like this on social media and people
like they just have no fucking clue how to read.
Speaker 1: Well listen, they're not you. And sometimes, like the school teacher,
you have to go over it for the eighteenth time,
go over it for the eighteenth time.
Speaker 3: So I'm gonna say this once again. If you live
in the United States of America, you might be familiar
with that large country there that sits in the middle
of the globe.
Speaker 2: Or you and I live either side of the Atlantic,
and the most of our audience is listening to us.
Speaker 3: Yes, in the United States of America. If you want
to watch b VOL and Better Be for the undisputed
light Heavyweight title on October twelfth from Read Saudi Arabia,
all you do is if you subscribe to ESPN Plus
is turn on your app and call up the fight
and you'll see it live. Not complicated. If you live
around the world and every other country that has the zone,
you'll have to buy it on a pay per view basis.
Speaker 1: Better BV and BVOL for individually.
Speaker 2: Well, no, the event you'll get so pluted. Okay, Oh
it's pluted.
Speaker 3: Okay, So now you're making them more confusing from people.
But in the United States, while you have to. You
can get the main event at no extra cost as
long as you're a subscribed at ESPN Plus, which is
no different than if you watch an HBO fight or
a Showtime fight. You were subscribed to HBO or Showtime.
Now if you want to watch the rest of the
card in the United States, remember in the United States
when I'm talking about your course, Stevenson, Joe Cordina, Chris
Ubank against Kimille Zermetta, the rematchtween Fabio Wardley and Fraser Clark,
Jai Opataia defending the cruiserweight title against Jack Massey, Ben
Whittaker against Liam Cameron, skuy Nicholson in a women's featherweight
WBC title defense against Raven Chapman. Okay, that's the rest
of the show that is going to be a separate
pay per view on his own pay per view presume.
I'm not sure if they're going to carry it on
other platforms. It might wind up on your in Demand,
it might wind up on PPV dot com that is
not tinnus, but it will certainly be on the Zone
on a pay per view basis. And if Turkey al
Chic the follow throughs with what he's saying it will
be cheap. It will be like fifteen bucks thereabouts, which
is a hell of a lot different than you know,
fifty sixty seventy noways it's not worth sixty seventy eighty
because even though the fights are good, you know, they're
not going to be able to show the main event
on the pay per view in the United States. Now
everywhere else in the world, if you want to watch
the event, you're gonna buy it on his own pay
per view period there you go. Maybe they'll make it
available on a skybox on a Skybox office in Britain
or TNT Sports are there'll be some other ancillary outfit
the way there is here in the United States where
you can pick it up on you know, other other
sometimes an ESPM plus basis or a PPV dot com
or what have you. But think about it like this,
if you want to watch the entire show does own
pay per view all around the world except America. In America,
it's on pay per view, except the main event is
free on on on a first subscribe with So the
point is, if you're if you don't really care about
the undercard and you really just want to watch the
big fight, which this in mind that I've said this
a million times, SJ. You and I've talked about it. Yep,
best fight on the boxing schedule of the year in
my mind. Better bevan people. It's just part of your
sub the same way you can watch any you know,
any show that's on.
Speaker 2: All the content on ESPN, plus all the live games,
all the stuff. It's right there.
Speaker 3: But the reason for the conversation about this today is
because on I forget what day was, on Thursday or
on Friday. Top Rank made a formal announcement with a
press release with yes quotes from Bob aerm the whole
nine that specifying that the main event and even talk
about the underguard will be available to their subscribers. It
was important to ESPN and to Top Rank to deliver
this fight as a non pay per view for their subscribers.
Top Rank and I'm going to give them a big
pad on the back, as I have done several times.
They have done an absolutely phenomenal job since they've had
their agreement with ESPN dating back to twenty seventeen, with
delivering virtually all of their content boxing related in a
non pay per view way. They've had other fights that
they could, that they definitely thought about putting on pay
per view that they didn't, that they probably could have,
and they've done very very minimal pay per view they
did like you know, Lomachenko, Devin Haney. Obviously they worked
in conjunction with PBC and Fox on part two and
part three of Tyson Fury against Deontay Wilder, which are
bona fide pay per view fights, those heavyweight fights, and
dated a couple of Terrence Crawford fights when yeah, they.
Speaker 1: Tried those and they weren't very you know, they won't
a lot of buys, but not a lot.
Speaker 3: But the point is is that they have done largely
mostly non pay per view, and to put a fight
of that caliber as a non pay per view is
a wonderful thing if you're a boxing fit.
Speaker 1: Amen, let's just get to the finish line, please, because
we've waited twice now with better be.
Speaker 3: The I'm getting nerv well, I need I need them
to wrap, uh better be than like plastic wrap.
Speaker 1: Yes, because he's had the jaw surgery, he's had the
knee surgery. Let's get him there, Okay. Do I have
to bring this up on the rundown?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 1: It is because you just want to slap it and
ridicule it again.
Speaker 3: I also do it because I know how much it
annoys the.
Speaker 1: The I thank you like I don't have enough banngst
in my life. Right now, the.
Speaker 2: IBF has officially.
Speaker 1: Announced, No, not the IBF, the promoter, well, the promoter
announced and the IBF is sanctioning this. And it's it's
almost on the same scale of better BV and B
Bowl and Canelo this week and uh and also Furyousic
rematch and all the all time Ali Fraser, you know,
Leonard Hearns, all the all time, you know Tyson Holyfield.
Because when you think big time boxing, you think.
Speaker 3: Mega fights Baby Mega fight Skull Sishkin.
Speaker 2: This is happening.
Speaker 1: Go ahead, When when do we have to hold our nose?
Speaker 3: So William Skull the absurd, ridiculous, horrendous mandatory challenger for
the IBF Superman Away title against Latimir Shishkin, solid up
and coming guy, can't really gardue too strengleous sly about it. Uh,
this is why they stripped Canelo Alvarez to make William
Skull against Latimir Shishkin. And so the promoter of William Skull,
which is Agon Sports. They did a deal with Latimir
Shiskin's promoter, which is Dimitri Salita, and this fight will
take place for the vacant belt. It will take place
in Falconessi falcon Sea, Germany, near Berlin, for the vacant title.
William Skull is a Cuban fighter, but he's based out
of Germany and this is a fight that maybe in
that area and maybe a few of the devout Shishkin fans,
if there are any, will care about the fight. I mean,
the thing is I mean, couldn't.
Speaker 1: I couldn't resist listening listening to the devout fans. Maybe
there are a few, Okay, And.
Speaker 3: By the way, let me just say this, it's not
like it's a bad fight, you know.
Speaker 1: No, no, it's not a bad fight for the title title.
Speaker 2: Yes, as a matchup.
Speaker 3: If you said to me, we're doing a boxing show,
you know, and uh, you know, this was like a
fight a ten rounder.
Speaker 2: On a card, two fights down.
Speaker 3: On a card they're fighting for like the NABF title,
or they're fighting even an elimination fight, you know what
I mean. Like, Okay, I'm okay with that. But to
have put the greatest superstar in boxing today, Canelo Alvarez
in a position to decide do I either vacate allow
myself to be stripped, or do I fight William Skull,
who as if you listen to the interview I did
with with Canelo and the previous podcast, I asked them
about this, and while he didn't seem at least outwardly
harbor any real grief, you know, he says, the IBF's
got to do what they got to do. Essentially I'm paraphrasing,
He's like, I don't even know who williams Skull is,
which I found to be hilarious because when he fought
Haimi Mungia back in May, William Skull in an eight
rounder fought it was such a low fight on the
under card. It wasn't on the preliminary stream. It was
like the third fight of the night, like a defense.
Speaker 2: He probably wasn't in the building yet, he didn't know.
Speaker 3: Canelo was like, you know, I think he was oblivio.
Speaker 2: I mean, didn't you tell me.
Speaker 1: Didn't you tell me you weren't in the building yet,
You had not gotten in the building yet for the
Skull fighter. You got in there as it was ending.
Speaker 2: No, I don't.
Speaker 3: I didn't that it was earlier than it was supposed
to be, at least the way the schedule that I had,
so I didn't get a chance to see much of it.
I'm sure Canello knew about it, that it was happening,
just because you know, they have to run that strip
buy in, because they had to make a deal to
do that so he could do the Mangia fight. But
they weren't going to do another one apparently, And so
now it'll be Skull and Chikin on October nineteenth. Who
knows if there's any TV in America, I have no
idea it'll be a YouTube fight. But you know what,
at the end of the day on October nineteenth, I'll
be busy watching Tim zoo Amen in his world title
fight against martazze Leev in Orlando, Florida on Prime PBC
on Prime.
Speaker 1: You did that just to aggravate me. You know what
I'm gonna press on. You know why, because we have nostalgia.
We have lots of nostalgia, all right, Speaking of big
time names and big time controversy, let's begin with thirty
one years ago, Tuesday, September.
Speaker 2: Tenth, nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 1: I still I still remember this for a myriad of reasons.
I'm doing five day a week sports radio in Tampa Bay.
This was a big topic going into this fight because
I talked boxing all the time on the show, and
the old radio station, the old sports radio days of
the eighties nineties. We did a promotion where a location
had the pay per view and I was there, Raphael
hosting for this and Pernell Whittaker dominated Julio Sesar Chavez
in the Alamodome, and then I will say it was robbed,
was robbed blind of getting a decision win, which would
have been Chavez's first loss. And the immediate belief was
that this was fixed, that the judges were bought. How
in the world did he not win that fight? So
the controversy still goes on with the late Pronell Whittaker
and Julio says our Chavez now thirty one years ago,
all right, your takes please.
Speaker 3: There are a few fighters I love more than Julio,
says Our Chavez. Love him, have had a chance to
meet him, hang out with him, just to I know
back in the day he might have you know, he
had that nasty demeanor about him, kind of like Duran
used to have, but as they've gotten older, they're much
more lovable. He's a beautiful guy to hang out with.
I've seen him so many fights in Vegas, and so
I've got nothing but love for Julio, says Our Chavez,
and I had love for Parnel Whittaker also. I was
a big Pronol Whittaker fan. I mean, I'm not a
I like guys that make exciting fights and punching and
brawl a bit, but I haven't a certain appreciation for
a guy like Whittaker who was a consummate boxer but
didn't run.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: That's why I always couldn't stand the guys like Riggando,
because they would run.
Speaker 2: Whittaker.
Speaker 3: He would stand in the pocket and just shimmy the
shoulders and move the head and move the feet, and
he would just make you miss and drive you crazy.
I mean, he can just watch that in many of
his fights anyway. So this was a big deal fight
back in the time in nineteen ninety three when this
fight occurred, this was for a pound for pounds supremacy.
This was two fighters at the top of their game.
Colonel Whittaker was the welterweight WBC champ. Chavez was the
junior welterweight champ, undefeated. As you mentioned, he was moving up.
They did the fight. I forget the exact weight, but
it was a catchwaight a little bit under one hundred
and forty seven, but which was not a big deal
because Whittaker was not a big welterweight. No, you know,
he'd already he had come up from lightweight back you know,
years earlier. Anyway, this was a huge fight San Antonio
in the Alamodome. They had a crowd of something like
sixty three or sixty four thousand people there, one of
the biggest indoor crowds in the history of American boxing.
Not director, but a huge, huge crowd, big event, showtime
pay per view back in the day called set pay
per view. There wasn't a bigger fight. And Colonel Whittaker
went out there and took Chavez to school, some might
say took him to the woodshed. And when they announced
the scorers, it was a joke. You had. Mickey Van,
a British judge, scored the fight one fifteen to one fifteen,
which is a disgrace because there wasn't like there was
point deductions and there were, they're just scoring even rounds.
Apparently you had the judge Franz Marti also scoring the
fight one fifteen to one fifteen, and you have the
one judge that even with his scorer, still got it wrong,
had it one fifteen, one thirteen in favor of Whittaker,
which was still too close. So when I did, I
went on box wreck. Actually, and if you look in
their little wiki area, sometimes for the big fights, they'll
show like unofficial cards like I've seen my own scores.
I give you pick some big, huge fight. They might
list like a series of media scores that you know
were reported. Uh. In the case of the Whittaker against
Jabez fight, they listed several from Associated Press, News Day,
Ring Magazine, Sports Illustrated, the Washington Posts. These are all
like reputable mainstream outlets that were there covering the fight.
Every one of them had Colonel winning the fight. One
had it on fifteen thirteen, but the other ones were
one seventeen, one to eleven, one sixteen, one to twelve.
Speaker 2: He won the fight clear cut.
Speaker 3: Now you don't see it today because a Sports Illustrated,
which back then was a very important and significant publication,
if not the single most important publication in sports. Uh,
and they don't even publish a hard copy anymore. I
don't even know do they still publish correct and boxing
was on the cover on a regular basis for the
biggest events, certainly through the seventies and eighties and then
even into the nineties, and then it pretty much stopped.
But one thing I always remember is when I got
you know, I subscribed to Sports Associated for most of
my life. You know, I was twenty three years old
or whatever it was when this fight happened. And I
remember still to this day getting that issue of the
magazine a few days after the fight, and it was
a picture of Colonel Whitaker jamming a punch down down
the middle against Javez and the headline simply said rob
yes an exclamation point, I remember, and that pretty much
to me, that summed this up. This was one of
the worst decisions in the history of boxing now. At least,
and this is the silverst of silver linings, Parnel Whittaker
at least didn't lose the title because he was the champion.
It was a draw, so he retained the title, but
he still got ripped off by not getting the official
win against an undefeated icon, like Julio says, our Java
is now Paronel Whitaker. Obviously when he did the fight,
they know him and his team main events and their group.
They know they're going to fight in the lions Den
because San Antonio against the Mexican, the number one Mexican. Obviously,
you know you're on enemy turf. That there was a
you know, ten Prono Whitaker fans in that crowd. It's
a lot, all right.
Speaker 1: So I want to go over a couple other things
because you love nostalgia. On top of the nostalgia, And
I told you where I was. And again this was
not pay per view, was mostly new. This was an
event at a location where we had the closed circuit
on a big screen and we had like two hundred
people there and I'm hosting the event, and everybody went crazy.
But this fight came at an interesting time period. So
number one, Whittaker's teammate on the US Olympic team, Meldrick Taylor,
was this close. You can't see me, Raphael cant but
he was this close to beating Chavez and scoring the
first ever win when the fight was controversially stopped with
two seconds left after he got knocked down, and many
believed in and around that time that Richard Steele was
maybe somehow nefariously involved in stopping that fight.
Speaker 2: I don't believe that. You then fast.
Speaker 1: Forward, Mike Tyson has been arrested, tried, and convicted and
gone to prison, and that is the guy for Don
King in terms of his promotional empire. Chavez is probably
next on the list. And so there was a lot
of belief. I remember taking calls about this, and this
was out there in the media that King had somehow
manipulated these judges, which we've seen before, to make sure
Chavez didn't lose. He didn't win, but to make sure
he didn't lose. That was a real topic and a
real debate. I remember it thirty one years ago. So
I don't have.
Speaker 3: That aspect of what I do. What I do buy
is judges are human beings, and they know the deal.
They know who's quote unquote the house fighter, who's supposed
to win, if you will or not to say that
Childs was supposed to win, but that it's better for
a business if he wins. And so I'm not even
suggesting that these judges are doing anything purposely untoured, but subconsciously,
like they're giving like potentially a close around to one guy.
And it's just human nature. It happens all the time,
and that's why we see some of the scoring that
we do. So I don't believe that there was like, hey,
here's a bag of money, vote for my guy. I
just don't buy that. But I do believe there's pressure
on them in their minds that I need to do
this in a certain way that if I see a
reason to give a guy around, I got to do
it because I understand that, and that's where my next
assignment's gonna come from. Obviously, maybe they're impacted by the crew,
which is obviously hugely Mexican. And by the way, let
me say this, this is one of the greatest things about
Colonel Whittaker and Chavez. The ringwalk that Parnel Whittaker did.
This is a huge moment, right. You know, fighters get
nervous there. You know they've got their you know, their
their nerves as they enter these big moments. And now
you're entering an enemy territory in a giant stadium sixty
five thousand I've never seen ever. I don't think to
this day a fighter more loose, more chill, more happy
to be there, more anxious to get to the ring,
not nervous. He came out to uh uh to a
to a hip hop song uh, and just danced all
the way to the to the ring. It was an
amazing ringwalk. You should go check it out on UH.
I think it was. I think it was what's that
the old song?
Speaker 2: Opp? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Now with opp like that was. I don't know why
that's his ringwalk, but that was the song that was playing.
It was a phenomenal ring He.
Speaker 1: Was a phenomenal fighter. He was relaxed and maybe he
knew after what Meldred Taylor had done for most of
that fight that he was going to be able to
do a lot of the same things. And we can't
overemphasize enough. He decisively won a fight and was robbed
of that victory, still ends up being a Hall of Famer. Tragically,
we lost him in a hit and run accident as
a pedestrian back a few years ago Pernell Whittaker in Virginia.
Speaker 3: But I don't think it was quickly a hit and run.
I think he just got hit in the the internet.
Speaker 2: Run over in the night right.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, on the side of a road while walking on
the side of the road.
Speaker 3: But he was, I mean he was.
Speaker 2: He was an amazing fighter.
Speaker 3: Yes, he was thirty two and one going into this fight,
and the one loss was highly controversial to Ramirez. And
as you mentioned, when he when Chavez got in the ring,
Chavez was undefeated. He was eighty seven and zero. I mean,
these were the two best fighters in the world, right right,
that wasn't even like you know, like today we argue
and we discussed is it in a way, is it
Alexander Usik? You know, is it Terrence Crawford. They're not.
None of those guys are even close to the same weight.
So Husik is a heavyweight obviously in a way, is
still like, you know, barely one hundred and twenty two
pounds and Terrence Crawford's moved to one fifty four, so
they're they're way apart in terms of weight. You'd never
see any of them fight each other. But when the
two best fighters in the world at that time, by
universal acclamation between Pernel and Chavez are separated by just
a few pounds and they can easily fight each other.
That's what we got with this was like the sum
meeting of summer meetings. It was a huge fucking deal.
Speaker 1: Thirty one years ago Tuesday on September tenth. Go watch
it and be prepared to get angry that Pernell Whitaker
doesn't get his hand raised. Right, Let's continue real quick
with the nostalgia. You were mentioning the Clitchkow brothers a
bunch on our bet Us Live show on their platforms Friday,
and it turns out that on Sunday, as we released
this podcast into Monday, September eighth, twelve years ago, twenty twelve,
September eighth, Batally Clitchko's final fight, a heavyweight title defense
took place. Give me more nostalgia, please, real quick.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean he defended the title against Machmuchar, who
is actually still around and it still holds. Has since
become the WBA's a regular titlelder. Actually as a defense
that's going to come up before the end of the
year against against Kubrat Pulav. Nonetheless, this is back in
twenty twelve and going into this fight, Vitally Klitchkow, who
was at that time the long reigning WBC champion. Remember
he had won the title. He had had an injury
to his back and knee and retired and was out
of the ring for like almost four years or so.
Came back and in his first fight decimated Samuel Peter
to regain the title. He took advantage of his champion
emeritith status by getting the title shot in his first
fight back, and then went on a long title reign.
Who had like nine defenses this was the ninth in
the final one, and defeated some good fighters along the way.
But he went in the ring against Machmoudshar at the
time known as Manuel Shar, and had made it known
before the fight had taken place that this was going
to be his last fight. Now, he was not a
young fighter at that point, but he certainly was still
highly talented. Was not a shot guy. You know, I'd
never been knocked down. You know, I'd been completely dominant.
His only two losses were injury related. If you remember,
he got the terror cut in his eye against Lennox
Lewis in a fight he was actually ahead on the scorecards,
and he had had a very severe torn rotator cuff
in his first loss against Chris Burden, retired on the
stool giving up. At that time, the WBO heavyweight title
on Chris burd won that night, so he was top
of a food chain in the heavyweight division along with
his brother Vladimir. But he made it a point I'm
going to retire. He was getting older, he wanted to
pursue politics. He went out there on that night. They
did the fight in Moscow. As a matter of fact,
kind of ironic. Give him what he's fighting against that
with Ukraine against Russia, and he dominated charge. Char was
undefeated at the time, he was twenty one to zero.
I don't think anybody thought he was like some superstar
like on his way to like big time things, but
a credible guy at the time, twenty one and zero.
Like I said, he got knocked down in the second
round by Clitchcow and then Clitchcow busted open a cut
that was similarly terrible as when he got cut against
Lennox Lewis, and they ended up stopping the fight in
the fourth round. And you know, you just don't see
too often a champion at that level of the sport
making that kind of money in those types of events.
Because this was a big event in Russia. Uh walk
away and give up the title and give up all
the money and the accolades and the and all the
trappings that go with being a heavyweight champion. Uh, and
then get involved in the Ukrainian politics and he ended
up becoming uh involved, you know, very very uh you know,
uh at the highest level. Now he's the mayor of Kievan.
He's one of the one of the leaders of a
country that's you know, under attack daily by Russia. And
so to think that all those years ago he was
just you know, an outstanding heavyweight and uh and I
held the world title. To think what he's done now,
I mean, he's gonna always be remembered as a as
a top heavyweight champion. He's a boxing Hall of Famer.
But in his life's accomplishments, I think being the leader
of one of the great country is a big deal.
But that fight, you know, they showed it on HBO
uh and uh he he walked off and and he
did what I think some other boxers would be better
to do occasionally, is you know, leave the audience wanting more.
People were not tired of Clitch Go. They wanted to
see more from Clinchgow. He had beaten you know, fighters
like Thomas adamk which is a big fight in Chesaora,
he had defeated the undefeated Olympian Olanier Solisi, he had
given a beating to Shannon Briggs. I mean he'd fought,
you know, some good guys. He had a big fight
in la which I covered at a time when Chris
Ariola was undefeated and was considered a very serious challenger.
He shredded him and stopped him in the tenth round.
I mean, he has some good wins. And to come
out of the retirement the way he did and just
pulverized Samuel Peter, who was a very, very reputable fighter
who had the WBC title at the time and just
beat the living shit out of him was very impressive.
So that was the end of the story for Latality
as a boxer, and he's now on the world stage
as a statesman as a mayor.
Speaker 1: Well put, that was twelve years ago on Sunday, all right,
So move forward five more years to September ninth, twenty seventeen,
seven years ago Monday. You were ringside, and I still
remember watching it. I cannot say that I paid a
lot of attention on the undercard fights, but I watched
this rematch where Syrika sett soaring VSI had bombed Chaka
Latito had won the first fight, and he bombed him
again in the main event.
Speaker 2: You were there.
Speaker 1: It was an HBO turned out there were a lot
of big time names that we maybe didn't know as
much about back seven years ago.
Speaker 2: WI, we certainly do that this what do you remember?
What do you remember about? What the Superfly card? Right?
Speaker 3: They called it. They called it superfly because there was
a triple header on HBO. It was all in the
one hundred and fifteen pound division, junior band and weaight,
which is what I generally call it, but obviously it's
also called superfly weight, so they just titled the card Superfly.
Tom Loeffler, the promoter of the event, had worked closely
with HBO to deliver what would the expectations were action
pack fights, but not necessarily the biggest names like HBO
wasn't really doing like they didn't do a ton of
fights like below, say, like featherweight. Really they did some occasionally,
but this was a thing where they had seen the
first fight that happened between Roman Chocolate, Tito Gonzas and
Swiss against a Run, a spectacular fight of the Year
candidate that was on pay per view on the undercard
of a triple G fight, and they were doing the rematch,
so it was it was uh strissicat Roman Gonzalez two
the headlines Superfly one, because eventually they did multiple editions
of super Fly. I think they ended up doing three
in total. But yes, I was, I was in ringside.
I was ringside for this fight at what at the
time was the Stubbubs Center, the stub up Center in
a person or I can't remember, it was Stubbub or
Home I guess was StubHub and then they'll change it
obviously later to Dignity Health Park. Anyway, in the main event,
you had the remastering Roman and and Trisakat and a
lot of people figure, you know, Roman, kind of in
my mind, you should have won the first fight. Lots
of people thought he won the first fight, bad call,
that he would get the revenge in the rematch, And
not only did he not get the revenge of the rematch,
but it wasn't particularly competitive orout that close, and he
got absolutely iced and not cold in the fourth round,
And many people at that time were like, oh, you know, Roman,
remember before he fought Swiss to get the first time
he was pound for pound. Most people had him pound
for pound. He had he had been winning, dominating against
all the small guys, top guys, coming off a win
against quad Dress, who was an excellent fighter and undefeated
at the time before he fought Swiss to hit the
first time. So his pound for pound status evaporated. And
now he goes from being number one pound for pound
too many people, suffering a very controversial loss in the
first fight, and then a few months later he fights
him in the rematch and he absolutely gets pump you know,
just knocked cold, like knocked out of the year tech.
Speaker 2: And I will say this just Di inter Jecke.
Speaker 1: It was shocking because he did he got laid out,
and I thought Chocolatito was going to win the rematch,
what do I know?
Speaker 2: And you were right there, but you.
Speaker 3: Weren't the only one. I mean a lot of us
thought that that he was never going to ever be
the same. And he took a long leg, you know,
to a year layoff after that, came back, had some
smaller fights, and then he recaptured a totally defeated the
undefeated Cali of five. I was at that fight too.
This is in Frisco, Texas looked spectacular that night, and
and went on and had two more great fights against
one Francisco Estrada, a close loss, defeated Julio Caesar Martinez,
who was a guy that was moving up, that was
a champion that was given a really good chance to win,
and he beat the living shit out of him. And
he's and he just won a fight, you know, a
few months ago in July, to continue his campaign now
fighting at a bandon weight, looking for another title shot.
But that was a shocking ending to a significant fight.
But the thing about it was the rest of the card.
This was the one and only time that I got
a chance to see Nya in a way in person.
I had interviewed him before the fight. He was coming
over to America for the first time. He's fought here
a few times since he's been.
Speaker 1: Ye, if you remember, what did you think before you
saw him, and then what did you think immediately after
you saw him?
Speaker 3: Well, don't forget I had seen him fight numerous times.
Speaker 1: You were saying, so you had a high opinion of him.
You knew who he was absolutely, And then in person.
Speaker 3: I was put it like this. As much as I
was excited to see Roman Intriska in the rematch because
of how great their first fight was, plus my adoration
of chocolate Tito Gonzalez. I was super pumped to use
the pun superfly, super pumped to see in a way
in person, because I mean I'd been watching his videos
from Japan for a long time. He was coming to
the fen the WBO title at one hundred and fifteen
pounds against you know, not a top top contender, but
an American that was had some you know, had a
decent had a good reputation, Antonio Navis, who only had
one defeat. I don't think anybody was picking him to
win the fight, but it was all about let's see
what inn Away can do in his American debut, and
in a way with spectacular as usually, he knocked him
down in the fifth round. He pummeled him with adous
a tremendous amount of body punches as we know, in
a way that's his calling card pretty much. And in
the end he just completely overwhelmed Antonio Navis and the
corner stopped the fight after the sixth round. It was
a spectacular American debut for him. He then went back
to Japan and has fought there. Ever, he fought their
first several fights after that, did come back and fight
in America twice during the bubble, and now he's been
fighting in Japan ever since. But now, as we talked
about recently when he won the fight a couple of
days ago against against TJ. Dohaney, he's gonna have the
next fight in Japan at the end of this year,
and then they're bringing to the Vegas for a main
event fight probably at the Team Award at the at
the MGM Grand As opposed to a co feature defending
one hundred fifteen pound title. Instead, will be defending a
title in one hundred and twenty two pounds, maybe even
moving up to featherweight for all we know at this point.
But seeing him in person, I'm happy to say, because
the chance of me going to Japan for another fighter
not happening, And now when he comes to America, I
probably will make the trip to Vegas for that, But
I'm marry pleased. I can say at the very least
I have seen in a way fight in person, and
it was spectacular. And by the way, that wasn't it,
Because now the third fight on the card was the
first fight that took place in Jan Francisco Astrada and
Carlos Squadras.
Speaker 2: I mean, the.
Speaker 3: Four kings, if you will, of that small weight class
are Strissiqet Roman, Gonzalez, Estrada, and Quadris. And this was
a match between Quadris and Astrada. They were fighting in
a title eliminator. Another terrific fight, and in the end
it was one Francis was Strada winning by a very
close decision, scored a knocked down in the tenth round
pretty much to seal the deal. And this was a
spectacular card. I mean, this was this was what non
pay per view, premium cable boxing should be. Three interesting fights,
good names, good matchups, good action, and this was terrific
and I was really really thrilled that I was able
to go cover this. And as an aside, like a
PS PostScript, if you will, So the fights on Saturday
night in Carson, now the now. The usually you get
on the plane and fly home on Sunday, but Rafael
didn't do that on Sunday because the following Saturday in
Las Vegas was the first fight between Triple G and
Canelo Mega Mega fight, huge fight. So what I did,
and I had discussed this with ESPN. I road tripped
from LA to Vegas on Sunday. I actually drove with
some of the fight people that were going out to
Vegas also, and actually, you know I did ESPN. You know,
they were like, we're trying to figure out how can
we save a few bucks. So I'm like, well, I
can get a ride. I don't need to take an
you know, take a plane ride. I'll just I'll just
go in the car with the with soft I'll figure
I said, I'll figure out. Don't worry about it. Like
all right, if you can save a few hundred bucks
by by not a taking a plane ride, we can
do that. So I did that. I drove with some
folks and you know, many people have come from the
LA area that drive to Vegas all the time for fights.
You know the Drilli. We stopped in Bristow and they've
got like all the outlets in every restaurant you can imagine.
You know, we went for lunch and and then continued
our trip and got.
Speaker 2: To go over the mountain, right, you got to go
over the mountain coming.
Speaker 3: East exactly, so you get to Vegas. Get to Vegas
on like Sunday, like late afternoon, you know, into the
afternoon and you know, and then you're there for the
normally for the Canelo type fight against Triple G. Like
I'm gonna do for Canelo, bro I would go Tuesday
at the earliest, but probably on Wednesday. It just happened.
I got there on Sunday and this was such a
huge fight that it was worth it to be there
for the a few extra days.
Speaker 1: And by the way, as a teams, you're headed back
to Vegas for Canelo, and I have a feeling that
Canelo Triple G one will probably come up in nostalgia
when we do the preview podcast and we'll see it
seems to all tie in there. You go, excellent stuff
here on this Sunday. My friend, did we leave anything
else out?
Speaker 2: Are we good? We got some recare I.
Speaker 3: We spent some time talking about it. Ittally Clitch show
against Manuel shar in his final fight on September eighth.
That same day on HBO, they did like the two sites.
I was in Oakland, California on that day for Andre Wards,
a super midiweight title deventse. He was coming off of
the victory against Carl Frotch in the in the tournament
to unify the titles. His first defense after that was
against Chad Dawson, who had was the light heavyweight raigning champion.
He dropped down in Wait and went to Oakland, California,
to Andre's hometown, to do that fight, and andre Ward
looked about as good as he ever looked at his
entire current and absolutely destroyed him, knocked him out in
the tenth round, and Chad Dawson was never the same
and to me, as great of a run as andre
Ward had in the super midiweight division. Obviously, with the
victory against Carl Frodz being one of the big ones
and Michael Kesler, I think the Chad Dawson fight is
maybe one of his greatest victories. Chad was a top dog,
you know, he was a pound for pound kind of guy.
He was, you know, a bigger man, you know. I
guess coming down to Wait obviously was not a turn on.
Have to be a good thing for him. And you know,
I had gone to Open to cover that fight, and
you put on a spectacular performance. That's the one time
I actually was able to travel to Oakland to cover
an andre wordfight, and it was worth the trip to
see him put on a spectacular performance keeps.
Speaker 1: You got nostalgia on top of nostalgia with brother Rayfield
here on the show. All right, well done on all fronts.
Get yourself to Las Vegas. Will you for Canilo Berlanga
fight week. When we regroup and talk again, you will
be out there covering all of it. They need to
be locked in on the substack, be locked in on
the newsletter because you're gonna have lots of coverage, lots
of ancillary stuff.
Speaker 2: Look forward to all of it.
Speaker 1: Look forward to being with you later this week when
you are out there, my friends, save travels. All good
here as we put the recap podcast to bed.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Dan Rayfield, good stuff, problem man.
Speaker 3: I will talk to you later.
Speaker 2: There you go again.
Speaker 1: Follow or subscribe on this podcast. Give us a five
star review. It's a big fight weekend podcast feed. You've
been listening to the Fight Freaks Unit recap. We come
your way twice every weekend. Thank you for being with
Dan and me for the Fight for Each Unit Recap
podcast