Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big
Fight Weekend. No here is your host, DJ Leaves.
Speaker 2: Believe it or not, we are almost done with March.
Dare I say the final Big Fight weekend preview of.
Speaker 1: The month of March is about to take place.
Speaker 2: We got action this weekend in a couple of different
locales Cancun, Mexico, Las Vegas. World title fights that we're
ready to preview a former junior middleweight world champ Tim
Zoo with our own Dan Rayfield as well. A lot
of reason to be here. I am merely the somewhat
capable host TJ Reeves. You know it is a very
big day for one Dan Rayfield as we released this
podcast Thursday into Friday. I'm glad you could fit me in. Hello,
Dan Rayfield. You don't have anything going on today, do you?
Speaker 3: I got a few things going on, but I'm always
here to fit you in. TJ.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's because by the way, by the way, happy anniversary,
miss ray Field.
Speaker 1: My god, you've put up with him? How long? Twenty
what years?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 3: Twenty one years? Today? So are as I joked with
my wife's our marriage is now legal? Yeah of age right?
Speaker 1: Our marriage and speaking of drinking.
Speaker 2: That's almost like a I mean, that's that's like Sainhood
at this point for her happy anniversary to the ray Fields.
You're like antsy with me. I know the Yankees have
their home baseball opener. You do understand the playoffs cannot
be clinched today, my friend, they cannot be switched.
Speaker 1: Today on opening Day.
Speaker 3: I'm going to watch the little Opening Day baseball. We're
taping this a little bit earlier than you know, because
we usually do it in the evening. But I want
to watch some ball. I want to watch the Duke
game later.
Speaker 2: To then you got Duke basketball tonight exactly. I'm well
aware the Duke is playing the night.
Speaker 3: I have them in every at the anniversary dinner.
Speaker 2: Now, how are you working that the Yankee game is ending,
the Duke game is beginning, and you're trying to have
a romantic evening for your anniversary with MISSUSSII. Like a
TV with like a little handheld TV or a little phone.
Speaker 3: So the games, it'll be between the Yankee game and
the Duke game prior eating.
Speaker 2: We're gonna be eating for fifteen or twenty minutes in
between the Yankee game and the Duke game.
Speaker 3: The Yankees are at three.
Speaker 1: Are not a night game, that's true. All right, So
we've covered all of this.
Speaker 2: He's our insider Fight Freaks Unit as his substack you
should be subscribing. We got some uh, some tremendous stuff
on tap, not just on this pod, but future pods.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: By the way, we're going to talk about Bruce Shueshue
Carrington a little bit here from him on the previous
pod right before this one, in advance of his featherweight
showdown on the Top Rank card this weekend.
Speaker 3: And we also had Brian Norman also Ryan.
Speaker 2: Norman also last Friday. Norman about to defend the WBO
welterweight title. We're gonna preview those fights in a few moments.
Tim Zoo coming up in a little bit, some news,
some nostalgia. All right, all the pleasantries are out of
the way. Let's talk in the preview mode. William Zupaida
Tevin Farmer two. They're about to fight fairly quickly here. Hey, hey,
let's hear it. Get the rematch back in the ring
in a lightweight showdown for the WBC's interim title. The
number one ranking as well, because the Pida has been
number one rank in all the organizations at lightweight. This
is the Dezone Golden Boy main event in can Kun
for Saturday night. All right, thoughts from you, initially in
the preview mode, sir.
Speaker 3: First of all, the good the good news is that
their first fight that took place in November on the
Latino Night card that Golden Boy put together that was
in Riad, Saudi Arabia, was a heck of a fight.
I mean it was a real barn burner. It was
a very competitive fight. I didn't think there was controversy.
A lot of people thought that it was controversial because
the paida was the winner of the fight. I mean,
he did end up with a split decision. I thought
it was totally legit. I frankly didn't see how you
could give Farmer the fight, but they did. One of
the judges, okay, he did score a knockdown. And Farmer's
always been, you know, a guy that's been competitive no
matter when he's been in the action of these bouts.
So while he is the mandatory first of course Stevenson,
who is not yet ready to fight him, he was
going through his own injury issues and then he had
the fight that was in Saudi Arabia recently they decided
to make the rematch. I'm glad they did. I'm not
upset that Tevin Farmer is getting another opportunity. Zapaida is
not a guy that's ever ducked anybody, So they're going
to get back in there. They're going to do it again.
Just instead of doing it in read in an undercard fight,
They're doing it in Cancu, Mexico, in the main event.
And it should be another a good, solid fight. Farmer
seems very determined. Zapeida is a whirlwind, as anybody who's
ever watched over twenty seconds knows that. He just comes
in and throws a million punches and we'll see what happens.
And the thing that was so surprising kJ about their
first fight is, you know, of all the accolades and
all the good things you could say about Tevin Farmer,
and he's a really good boxer, and he's a good guy,
and the whole thing. Not a guy blessed with big
punching power, not a guy that's had a ton of knockouts.
But he did score a good knockdown against the Payda,
so that sort of makes a little bit of the
of the let's call it the storyline.
Speaker 2: That Len Scott forgets a Paida hurt his hand during
the fight. This is having problem with his hand during
the fight, So there's another variable. How healed is the hand?
Is that a factor?
Speaker 1: We don't know? Stay tuned right, Yeah.
Speaker 3: So it's uh, it's it's it's just a good solid fight.
And obviously if the Paida is the winner, I would
assume that they'll move forward to try to make the
fight with of course Stevenson at some point, he is
the mandatory fight. Schakor's got no other big fight happening
at the moment. You know, he's not getting a fight
with Tank Davis anytime soon. Who's going to be moving
towards the road t rematch and and and and others
in the weight class, in my mind are not any
bigger than Zepeida. It's a fight I think that Turkey
is interested to do on one of the cards, and
it's so it's a very makeable fight between Golden Boy
and match Room Boxing. So anyway, in terms of the rematch,
I expect him to sort of basically pick up in
uh in uh in the next round of the fight.
I mean, there's a lot at stake for both these guys. Yes,
Farmer doesn't want to have another loss in a row.
Is the paid is on the feet and he's right
there in the in the picture for uh, a title fight.
I am still irritated by the fact that they fought
the fight in November for the title and it was
only a schedule ten round fight. What are we doing here?
At least the rematch? Remember rounds?
Speaker 2: I do I do you remember you going off about that?
So here's to getting an entertaining main event out of
that one and again, UH Farmer a former world champion
as well at one one thirty.
Speaker 1: Excuse me?
Speaker 2: Very interesting, UH for this rematch. A lot of times
we talk and we're going to move on that. Sometimes
the rematches are contractual, you have to have them. This
is one where it seems warranted. I'm just saying that
it seems like there's legit reason to have another fight,
not unlike the Tank Davis Lamont roach fight.
Speaker 1: It's upcoming, so let's have the rematch.
Speaker 3: Well that the tank that the Tank fight is contractual
because he opted for the reason.
Speaker 2: But even but even still, that one is a compelling
here's the reason to have the rematch. Same thing with
this Pada was with the hurt hand and was losing
some rounds, so.
Speaker 3: It wasn't he wasn't getting this next rotation. Farmer wanted it.
Zapeeda was like, okay, let's do it, and Uh. Everybody
was on board. There was no issues. They made the
fight very quickly.
Speaker 2: Are you saying, are you saying to me again that
we have another solution of we can get back in
the ring in four months. We had this again, you know, recently,
not not too long ago of if we really want
to settle this same thing with the by the way
again the tank roach rematch. If we will to settle
this and get it done, we can do it in
two or three or four months.
Speaker 3: Anykon roach, You're gonna do it again quickly. We just
saw even though it was contract, we saw fury usick,
which was also compelling.
Speaker 1: There to be bold. They got right back in the ring.
Speaker 3: We're gonna see the other fight we're gonna talk about
this weekend. Mikaela Mayer and Sandy Ryan, same situation, so
Zipeida and Uh and Uh and Uh and Keevin Farmer,
similar situation, compelling first fight, both guys interested to do
it and we as fans are winners, and the two
guys get to uh, you know, whatever clarity they may
need to try to get some with this fight.
Speaker 2: All right, entertaining co feature fighter in Oscar Colaso, the
unified strawweight champion fighting someone named Edwin Cano. I defer
to you to help me on that defending those titles.
Tell me more about Klaso and the opponent here in
Mexico pill on the Golden Boys show.
Speaker 3: So I'm I'm I'm looking forward to the main event,
but I'm actually also very much looking forward to Oscar Colaso.
Not so much because the opponent is a superstar opponent
or unification or some big big name. But Oscar Colaso
has got swagger, he's got power, he's got personality, he
can box.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: He is to me the most compelling fighter in the
strawway division, a division that has not had a compelling
fighter of any kind for uh, you know, maybe since
Roman Gonzalez back however many years ago he was champion.
So Klaso is an excellent fighter. And if you recall,
we just mentioned the Latino Night card on which Tevin
Farmer and Zepeida had their first match on that same
card you had the the the unification fight where Oscar
Colaso looked tremendous and scored a seventh round knockout against
your boy uh Neomtron, who was going into that fight.
But here's the thing, TJ. Before they got Neamtrong in
the fight, Golden Boy had made the match between uh
Colaso and Edwin Cano, but they had the ability if
that Neamtrung was available, because they had been talking that
they could put him out of the fight and slip
Neom Chrung in, and they felt like it better to
do the unification when we can, and so that's what happened.
So Cano was kind of backed out of the fight,
but they've kept their word to him and in the
next defense Klasa was going to fight him anyway. So
there is the element that this was a fight that
was made for November. He got the unification instead. Now
they go back to Cano for this fight, and so
the compelling part about it if there is not again.
Cano is not a big household name by any stretch
of the imagination. You know, he's you know, he's won
three of his uh well, he's unbeaten in his last
four with three wins and a technical draw, unfortunately because
of a headbutt situation. I believe it was. Anyway, here's
the point, though, he goes into this fight where he
is the Puerto Rican and he's had no problem taking
this fight by going to Canoe's home country of Mexico
to fight, and he's sort of been, you know, in
a in a I think a good natured way kind
of shit talking the Mexicans. You know, I'm being the
Puerto Rico fighter comeing to Mexico. So he's I love
the fact that he's there.
Speaker 2: Any Is there any good way to do the crap
talking between Puerto Rico and Mexico and the boxing ring.
Speaker 1: I don't know if there's.
Speaker 3: He's been doing it in a good natured manner.
Speaker 1: Needling. He's needling, that's what you're saying.
Speaker 3: And so that makes it interesting because you know, Puerto
Rico Mexico is a great boxing rivalry and this guy
has shown absolutely zero, uh issues or problems or he's
done nothing but embrace the fact that he's going to
fight in Keno's home country, and uh, you know, that'll
add a little spice to the situation. And then you
you you put that on the same card that also
has the main event. That's an interesting matchup. You know,
we got to I think the pretty nice card.
Speaker 2: And for Colazo, let's hear it again for activity since
winning his title when he beat Melvin Jerusalem in May
of twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: I'm counting up.
Speaker 2: One, two, three, four fights since then in less than
two years. It's going to be his fifth fight in
less than two years as a world champion. Again, let's
hear it for activity, keeping yourself relevant, building up a
good will with the fans.
Speaker 1: If you put on entertaining fights. We like this. Good
for him part.
Speaker 3: Of that is and you can never let this escape
you when you talk about that level activity for a
world champion. Because he's in a strawweight division and is
not a superstar name. Although he's edging towards being a
more of a of a more better known fighter and champion,
he fits the budget when you're when you're in those
small weight classes, you can stay more active because you're not.
You know, he's making good money relative to the division,
and probably the biggest money he's ever made, but it's
still in the context of the sport. It's not crazy money.
So he's they're able to pay him and keep him
busy because he can be in the main event or
the co feature and not command you know, money.
Speaker 1: Like he fits under the cap, he fits under the
Salarid cap. He fits. But still kudos for him.
Speaker 2: And let's see if Calaso is entertaining here, because he
does have several knockouts in his title defenses as well.
Speaker 3: So that was a really good puncher. He's exciting. He's
got eight knockouts and eleven wins. I know he's not
vastly experience, but he got to the championship, you know,
in fewer fights than any other Puerto Rican fighter in history.
Speaker 2: And I pretty well love the fact that as a
little guy he gets up on the shoulders of Oscar
de la Hoyer or Bernard Hopkins. But he's done on
more than one occasion for photographs with the straw hat
on in celebration in the ring. I'm looking to see
if that will be the case in can Kun.
Speaker 3: I don't recall him being on top of Oscar shoulders,
specifically for Bernard Goetta.
Speaker 2: Look, I know it's his I know it's his cornering,
but I thought he was on top of Bernard Hopkins
one time carrying him around a ring, and it may
have been Oscar. Maybe I'm wrong about that. We got
to go back and look at the photography on that
as a case. But he's clearly an entertaining fighter. He's
in the co feature Saturday night in Mexico again. Tim
Zoo coming up in a few minutes. Let's talk about
the ESPN Top rank card. Oh, by the way, world
titles on the line. Here a rematch in the Ladies
Welterweight title fight WBO Women's World title fight with MICHAELA.
Mayer and Sandy Ryan here again. We just had this recently.
There was controversy out of the ring. Mayer ends up
winning the fight and we get a rematch Dan Rayfield.
Speaker 3: Really good fight. Again, it's based on merit, based on
interest from the fans, interest from the fighters, interests from
the promoters, not because of some contractual obligation. They fought
the first time in September in New York City. It
was an outstanding fight, one of the better women's championship
fights you'll see. And Mikaela has been in several excellent
matchups that we could talk about in terms of entertainment
value than Tasha Jonas fight was terrific. The bomb Gardner
fight was very good. I was ringside when she thought
Maya Vahaima Douche for a unification was a spectacular fight.
So Mikaela has become not only an excellent boxer, you know,
which he has that pedigree as an Olympian, but she's
also become a fan friendly fighter as well. Sandy Ryan,
you know, similar, they have no care for each other
at all. This is a very hotly contested rivalry. They're
not pals, they're not friends. They've known each other since
the amateurs and we don't have to rehash it, but
you know, remember she got insaney Ryan left the hotel
to go to the fight, had paint thrown on her,
accusing Mikaela and team of setting that up. There was
all that stuff about how she was upset because mayor
because of their trainer. She started working with one of
Mikayla's assistant trainers in Kay Caroma, and Mikaela found out
and wasn't told about it and fired him. So there
was some bad blood there. There's a lot of like stuff,
you know, going on in the background besides just the
actual combat. When they got in the ring in September,
they put on Shermand this fight as you mentioned, and Mayor,
you know, Mayor did win the fight and took away
that title from Sandy Ryan. And it was a competitive
it was action packed. It was a majority decision in
favor of Michaela on that night, and so, uh, you know,
as soon as the ff I was over, Sandy Ryan
was like, I want to rematch Mikaela's Michaela and top
ranker given it to her. So they're doing it again
and it should be another good fight. And there's been
a lot of tension in this build up, like is
to be expected given the fact that there's no love
loss between these two women, and I would anticipate another
another barn Burner kind of fight. And to me, yeah,
Michaela won the first fight, but I feel like this
fight could go either way.
Speaker 1: Probably it was fairly close.
Speaker 2: We'll probably talk about this, in fact, we will, we'll
handicap it a little more on Friday's bet Us Boxing
show at one Eastern time about what will happen in
the rematch. Can I just say one more thing before
we move on on this card? It's incomplete on what
happened with red paint being thrown all over the outfit
and the legs of Sandy Ryan outside the hotel as
she was going to leave and head towards Madison Square Garden.
Maybe it is just the skeptic in me that it
still doesn't add up that MICHAELA. Mayer's people would do that.
It almost just seems to me that that was something
maybe contrived. I'm saying this my opinion by her own
team to fire her up to have an angle.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know what to make of that.
Speaker 3: I don't think her own team would have done that,
unnerve her like that for no reason.
Speaker 2: I mean, but you know what, maybe she was in
on it. Maybe she was in on it as something
to fire her up and to go back it.
Speaker 1: I don't know. It just it was very random and
very doesn't make sense.
Speaker 3: Like did you also think that we never land it
on the Moon?
Speaker 1: I do not.
Speaker 2: I do not think that I know that we landed
on the Moon because there's a bunch of astronauts that
could talk about it, and there's been people flying around waitlessly.
Speaker 3: But maybe that will just remain one of the great
mysteries of boxing of what actually happened on that afternoon
before they went to the arena. Well, I mean, we
may never know.
Speaker 2: I don't people make stuff up all the time. I'm
not saying specifically to this people make.
Speaker 3: It wouldn't shock me if it was somebody associated with
the Mayor camp, not necessarily part of her immediate I'm
not blaming her or her team, but somebody that thought
that that that was close to the team, that was
an outside like a like a lone wolf, so to speak,
thought maybe they're helping her out rowing exactly, and may
have done it in that respect. So interesting that she
was innocent, her team was innocent, but a person close
to the team thought that would somehow be helpful to
her and did it without their knowledge. That's my I'm
not saying that's what happened.
Speaker 1: It's just my fel that's a ray Field working theory.
Speaker 3: It seems like that's a reasonable explanation. I do not
think that Sandy Ryan's own team contry. That would not
make any sense to me anyway.
Speaker 2: Well, I got all those fights on a lot of
things in boxing don't make sense, all right. Brian Norman
is the co feature fight you interviewed him last Friday
in advance of this matchup with Derek Quavis, who is
a Puerto Rican little known Norman making the first defense
after being elevated.
Speaker 1: He's had a hand injury. All right, give me a
little more on this.
Speaker 3: Brian Norman's a really good young fighter. I mean, I
thought he came off really well in the podcast interview
I did with them that we played on our last
on our two shows ago. I guess right, and look,
he is excited to get back in the ring. He
had a spectacular victory as an underdog. He went to
Giovanni Santition's hometown in San Diego. He dominated, he stopped him,
He won the interim belt. I don't want to hear
and I talked about this with a movement on the podcast.
I don't want anybody to say that he's somehow the
email champion because he was the number one contender, you know,
matching or not, he was number one. I guess he
was the next guy, but him and Santoine Santana were
the two top guys. He beats Santion, but everybody going
into that fight knew that Terrence Crawford, who was the
undisputed champion, or maybe had already given up a belt whatever.
He wasn't gonna stay in the welterweight division. He wasn't
going to ever make any of the mandatories, and he
ultimately won by one, vacated those belts, and of course,
in August went up to the next weight class, you know,
just a few months after this Santion fight, and became
a title holder in the junior middleweight division. So he
looked really good taking Santion apart, stopped him in the
tenth round, knocked him down two times, bloodied him up,
and just really really I thought, I said this to him.
I'd been watching a lot of his preliminary ESPN plus
fights when he was just you know, a good young,
up and coming undefeated prospect, and he was unhappy with
some of the performances. He had gotten some hype from
top rank. I talked to some of the people at
top rank who thought a lot of them, but we
sort of were kind of left hold where he hadn't
seen him shine. Well, he did against Santion and he
really you know, broke out. But he hasn't been seen
since then because he he re injured a hand that
had surgery on before that had a forced this Quavest
to be postponed. That was supposed to take place in November. Remember,
around the same time, there was the possibility that he
would pull out of that fight and they would do
the unification with Boots Tennis. He went back for they
were five hundred thousand or so apart and they ended
up not making that deal. So now is really the
chance he's healthy? He says he's back to defend the title.
You know, he's on ESPN, you know, on the main
network as well as on ESPN Plus, so people can
get a chance to see him. He's got an engaging personality.
He you know, if he fights in the same kind
of style that he's been fighting in, especially the way
he fought against Santition, he's got a chance to be
a good crowd pleaser as well as a good boxer.
He's the youngest current boxing champion of men in the
world at age twenty four. He's a few months younger
than Angel Ayala, who has one of the Flyway titles.
So he is, you know, a baby in the sport
by championship standards, and he's got big aspirations. You know,
he wants to take care of this. He talks about
being a future Hall of Famer, being the type of
goals that he has, and being that as sort of
a new look wealth division over the last you know,
year and a half or so, since the you know,
Spence and Crawford and Porter and and Danny Garcia and
and kel Brooke and different guys have moved up in
wait or retired. You know, it's like a new group
of guys. It's him, It's Barrios, It's it's Ennis and
Stanionis Stanionis and it is gonna unify. But you know,
his perspective is I want all those guys and I'm
gonna tell you I'm gonna I'm gonna be number one
when when the last man is standing. So I like
the swagger, I like the but it's not it doesn't
come off as arrogant. So he's got a lot to show.
You know, Quavis is not a known guy. He's got
a good record. He's won four fights in a row
by knockout. Uh, this is his chance. Let's see if
you're the goods. Let's see if you can deliver in
an excellent performance the way you did against Santion and
if you can, uh, you know, move on to the
next I mean he wants to smoke, as he says.
I love the fact that he invoked when we were
talking about things, uh quotes, he quoted Pernell Whittaker. So
it shows me he has an aptitude for what came
before him. He understands, you know, the greats and uh
and and the and the sort of the the found
nation of the history of the weight class, and and
and who the top guys were that he's following in
the footstep submar he hopes to uh, you know, Prnel Whitaker,
of course was a great welterweight champion himself before he
died and retired. So I'm actually as much as I'm
interested to see uh Mikaela and saying he duke it
out in the main event, I'm very interested to see
how Brian looks coming back off the layoff a spectacular
performance in his previous fight, having now gotten the full title,
and see if he can put together a run. You know,
he's an interesting personality. And the welterweight division is a historically,
you know, great division, and you want to see guys shine,
and there's important fights in that division between Stanionis and
and Is in a unification. Barrios just had a great
fight on the undercard of when Jake Paul and Mike
Tyson had their fight. That was a tremendous battle. And
now next up in the rotation is, uh, you know,
we're gonna see Brian Norman back in.
Speaker 2: Actually, yeah, Brios was lucky to get a draw in
that fight in November hand his belt.
Speaker 3: So that's the fight that he really wants because he
he talked about in the interview about always wanting to
you know, as much as he likes to having the
WBO title, he really wants to get his hands on
that BC belt. And he mentioned the fact that you know,
always seeing when he would watch Floyd Mayweather and Muhammad
Ali and uh, you know, and these guys always right right, well, no,
it was actually he mentioned Sugar Ray Leonard. Those are
the three he mentioned it guys who always had the
WBC belt, and that's that's a belt he really covets
at some point in his career.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: Also, who you just recently talked to on the previous podcast,
Bruce Shoeshoe Carrington and Jose Enrique Vivas. This is a
featherweight WBC eliminator and Shoeshoe on the rise here. We're
looking for a big performance from him on this card,
his top ranked card on Saturday Night.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's the official eliminator. If he wins
this fight, he's going to be the mandatory for the
WBC featherweight title. And it's so that makes it an
important fight, similar to what we talked about with the
interim title fight that took place between Zepeida and Farmer
the first time around. It drives me, Battie, that this
is not a twelve round fight. I know, technically, within
the rules of the WBC it can be made a
ten rounder. I do not agree with that at all.
If you're going to fight in an elimination fight to
get a chance, they.
Speaker 1: Do whatever they want. Well, they do whatever they want.
Speaker 3: Again, if you take five minutes to read the rules,
you'll see it as legal. It's just not the thing
that they normally read.
Speaker 2: Their rules and then they change their rules. They don't
follow their rules. Don't lecture me about read their rules, Rayfield.
They make it up there to follow.
Speaker 1: Go ahead.
Speaker 3: More importantly, in terms of the fight itself, the winner
will be the mandatory challenger for Steven Fulton, who recently
won the WBC title when he defeated in their rematch
Brandon Figueroa. So Carrington is fired up for the fight.
I'm assuming that Vivas is also. But the thing that's
interesting is that Vivas uh not a well known fighters
twenty three and three and the three losses that he
took are all against reputable opponents who all fought for
world titles. So this is the measuring stick. Is Shushu
gonna perform against a guy who showed that he could
go the distance? You know in some fights that were
complete blowouts, others that were a little bit closer. But
for example, as three losses are all against guys that
fought for titles, Ruben Villa that was a complete wipeout,
you know, he basically got shut out. Edward Obias who
fought against En Navarette and did not win that fight obviously,
but he went to a majority decision against Vivas, and
Vivas lost this one and then back in twenty twenty three,
he also fought ah not that big of a good
fight to watch, but not the most competitive in terms
of the scores, against Joet Gonzalez, who has fought for
world titles on multiple occasions. So those are the guys
that have lost to Viva's. I'm sorry that Vivas has
lost too, So now it's up to Carrington. Can he
do what they did and look even better and separate
himself as he tries to strive to get this title shot. Now,
I still think that Shushu Carrington has even if he
wins this fight and becomes the mandatory an extremely limited resume.
Extremely limited resis not a guy that, in my opinion,
based on a win against Vivas, should be the mandatory challenger.
That said, his talent is undeniable. He's got good punching
power for the featherweight division. He definitely got marketability, and
he's a he's got everything that you want to see
in a young contender. He can fight, and he can talk,
and he can, you know, bring in a crowd and
get people talking. But his resume does lack. But he
has aspirations to fight the best guys and so he
wants Stephen Fulton. That's a he said he thinks his
high Q is better than Stephen Fulton's. I'm like Shushu
all respect. Stephen Fulton's been in the ring with a
lot of good guys. He's been in there twice with
Brandon Figueroa beat him twice, had the stones to go
over and compete against Noida in a way in Japan.
I mean, you know, he didn't win, but it's not
like he didn't know what he was doing. And he's
fought other you know, Angelo Leo, he has a win against.
He's fought good quality guys. So kind of like Brian Norman.
There's a lot of swagger from from Shushu the way
there is from Norman. Now it's see if these men
can back it up.
Speaker 1: There you go for both of them.
Speaker 2: Again, that's a top rank show in Las Vegas. All right,
Moving on, this guy's got a lot to prove and
he's here to talk about it. Tim Zoo when last
we saw him, he was knocked out Rayfield in the
words of Howard Cosell, whose birthday, by the way, would
have been earlier this week. Cosell would have been one
hundred and seven years old. He's born in nineteen eighteen.
Speaker 1: Believe it or not.
Speaker 2: I remember because I was there for Bakram Martazelajev beating
up Tim Zuo and knocking him out last October. Well,
now Zoo is off of that knockout and will now
fight on April fifth in the United States April sixth
in Australia against American Joey Spencer. But you do not
have to wait, as I like to say, until next week.
Here from Tim Zoo right now with Dan Rayfield on
the comeback trail. Keith Thurman may be in the offing.
Let's hear from him right now.
Speaker 3: Well, it's my great pleasure to welcome back to our podcast.
It is the former WBO Junior Middleweight world champ, Tim Zoo. Tim,
welcome to the show. I'll tell our folks what you've
got coming up. You're gonna be taking on the American
Joey Spencer in Sydney, Australia. It'll be Saturday night, April fifth,
and the fight will be on prime video here in America.
It will be Sunday afternoon on pay per view in Australia.
Get that out of the way. I get all confused
with the time zone change between here and Australia, but anyway,
thank you for doing this. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 4: Have you been yeah, going, Everything's gone good.
Speaker 3: I'm glad to hear that. Well, we're gonna get into this.
It's a little bit of a different scenario than when
you had your last fight back in October. This will
be your first fight since you had the IBF World
title challenge against their junior middleweight title holder, Baker Matazalev.
That was October. You came to the United States again,
fought that fight in Orlando, Florida, and look, we all
know it was a big shocker. You were a heavy favorite.
He knocked you out. He dropped you four times, three
times in a round two, another time in round four,
got the stoppage. That It's been a few months and
this will be your first fight since then. Have you
what have you like spent time sort of if you
have even reflecting on what happened, what went wrong, how
that all became such a mess that night.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think I think I went into early and
go caught with the first shot. It was the first
one to land it, and I felt like I never
really recovered from from there. I remember at that time,
with the first bunch, my I could have filled my
legs and it was it was.
Speaker 4: An up to battle. It was more like in my head,
I was.
Speaker 5: Like I needed to just keep getting up and I'm
Meloria and I'm just gonna stay up and try to
get up no matter what. So it wasn't more about
like winning the fight anymore after that first knockdown.
Speaker 4: It was more about just trying to survive.
Speaker 3: I guess, well, listen, one thing, It's one thing to
get stopped in a fight. But I think anybody that
saw that saw, like you said, a warrior, because you
got up, you know, three times, and we're getting up
the fourth time, and that showed a lot of heart.
But I wonder when that occurs and you then go
back and analyze what happened afterwards, was any part of
it in your mind that maybe I underestimated him a
little bit because you were the heavy favorite, you were
coming off of the loss of Fandora, But there was
some special circumstances with that one, given the cut that
you suffered and the close nature. Even with the cut,
still a split decision, Did you underestimate Bakram at all?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'd say a certain extent. Yet I'd say, uh,
I thought I was gonna.
Speaker 4: Take him out in under two rounds.
Speaker 5: In my head, I was I was feeling on top
of the world, and I felt like, yeah, I was
just gonna cleave him out.
Speaker 3: I wonder why you would think that, because his background
was strong, good power, good record, comes off a very
good performance in his title victory against a reputable opponent,
maybe not an a class fighter in cul K, but
still a pretty solid veteran. So I wonder what made
you think It's one thing to believe in yourself that
you're gonna win and maybe get another Okay, but two rounds,
that's that's kind of bold.
Speaker 5: I thought, Yeah, how the way I felt before coming
in and how I had my prep and how everything
was going.
Speaker 4: I was in this crazy state of mind that.
Speaker 5: Everything that I was going to touch was just going
to explode, you know.
Speaker 3: So how did you process the loss? How'd you deal
with it? Particularly because I mentioned it was your second
loss in a row.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I just took it with how it was. Boxing
is a game of interest, man, it really is, you know,
and that fight it was that fight was a cost
of interest.
Speaker 4: It wasn't. That's all it was.
Speaker 5: And for me, it's just about regrouping, analyzing, and just
becoming better from it.
Speaker 3: Have you put it out of your mind? Are you
over it? Or is it help you get motivated for
what you have in the future. I was wonder when
a fighter comes off of a loss like that, do
they forget about it? Do they want to think about it?
And I asked you that because I go back a
long way with with Vladimir Klitschko. Vladimir Klitschkow became a
great heavyweight champion, set records, became a Hall of Famer,
but obviously had some very high profile knockout losses. And
the one thing he told me a long time ago
is when he got knocked up by Layman Brewster, he
never wanted to forget it. He had pictures of it
up in his office. He had thought about it, you know,
watched it back when he would prepare for fights. He
wasn't studying his opponenty, he was watching back, you know,
his loss to Layman Brewster, because he never wanted to
forget about how it made him feel. And I always
wonder the mentality of a fighter coming off of that
kind of loss and where you stand. Are you trying
to just put Bachram out of your mind or do
you want to have it kind of stinging hurt so
it motivates you.
Speaker 5: No, it's a motivation for me, just because I still
say I still feel it and something that I don't
want to feel ever again. And it was age mistakes
were made just by inches, and.
Speaker 4: Those inches I'm not gonna shove over again.
Speaker 3: A lot of fighters, they take a loss, they blame
the trainer or the promoter or the manager, you know,
a bad breakfast, whatever the case. Maybe other guys they
suck it up and they put it on themselves and
they take the responsibility. Where do you come down in that?
Are you making changes to your team? Are you just
taking like a man like you know, we're going to
get through this and you know, keep the status quo.
What was your perspective now as you prepare for Spencer.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was all my fault. You know.
Speaker 5: I came in swinging like a meadow, you know, and
and I came in and I guarantee if the if
the fire, if the file was fought most strategically a
round four onwards, it would have been a different story.
And that's the part that I regret.
Speaker 4: But there's no point regretting things because it's not the fall.
It's always how you get up after you four.
Speaker 3: I agree with that. So okay, now you're back home
in Australia after the two fights in a row in
the United States, it's you feel good to be home.
I mean, you got obviously a huge support there with
the fans. They love you. Does that more comforting to
be there than back here in the United States?
Speaker 4: For me?
Speaker 5: It was for me, it didn't really matter. I'm glad
to be home. It's a good feeling. He especially to
be fighting front of the fans. Ara makes it a
big day, a big occasion. So it's always it's always
good because you're doing part of the reason you're doing
this is for the love.
Speaker 4: Of the fans and the love of the sports. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So let's talk a little bit about Joey Spencer. He's
nineteen and one, he has eleven knockouts, a little bit
younger than you. He was only twenty five years old.
He has won three fights in a row since his
loss by a knockout the Hazers Ramos. This is back
in twenty twenty three. Some people viewed him as a prospect.
Some didn't really view him as a big prospect based
on the type of guys you've been fighting, and understandably,
given the circumstances, it seems like a little bit of
a step back in terms of the level of your opposition.
Totally understandable, like I said, but what is your assessment
of Spencer and your own uh, your own career and
maybe taking as a little bit of a step back
from the caliber over the opposition that you have been fighting.
Speaker 4: I think he's a.
Speaker 5: I think he's a real good player in all honesty,
I think he's got good skills. Entirely losses against brummost
that's like, that's a he's a He's one of the
top dogs in the division.
Speaker 4: You know, it's it's an interesting fought, it's an interesting style.
You know.
Speaker 5: They always that type of stall, the ones that are
sleek that a movie. They always present a tremendous task.
So it would be interesting.
Speaker 3: Now. I know you're coming off of as we talked
about the stoppage loss, and I think back. You know,
I'm old enough to remember going back to nineteen ninety
seven when your father, Kasazu, who at the time was
the IBF Junior welterweight world champion, he took a tenth
round knockout laws and a massive upset against Vince Phillips.
And I wonder if you've ever thought about the fact
that after your father lost his fights as a huge
favor and lost the belt. That he went on after
that to have the biggest wins of his career. It
was really what he did after that lost to Vince
Phillips that made him a legend, that made him a
Hall of Famer. He became the undisputed champion, scored the
biggest wins of his career, and that maybe you look
at what he did and say, you know what, Okay,
I took a couple of losses, my best days ahead.
I can do what my dad did, and I can,
you know, go on and fulfill my dreams of being undisputed,
of being a Hall of Famer, that type of thing.
Do you ever think about that?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: For sure, for sure.
Speaker 5: And the road to success it's never just a straight road.
People always mistake that. You know, there's bumps and roads
on the way, especially in this sport. You know, it happens.
It happens. It's it's how you mentally deal with it.
And I say examples such as my father, someone is
so opposed to me, to say what he's done and
see how he came back.
Speaker 4: You know, that's an inspiration from me.
Speaker 3: Has he given you any kind of pep talk and
reminded you of that himself, of what he went through.
Speaker 4: I haven atlready spoke to him about it.
Speaker 3: Okay, fair point. Well, on March twelfth, you were back
ringside doing a good job, by the way on the commentary,
because I watched it when Keith Thurman was in Sydney
for his main event against your Australian countryman, Brock Jarvis.
He came back after a three year layoff Thurman. He
scored a knockout against Jarvis in the third round. And
anybody who follows boxing knows that the talking point has
been if Keith Thurman goes to Australia and takes care
of Brock Jarvis and Tim Zook comes back and does
the same thing in the upcoming fight against Joey Spencer,
that there's going to be a fight between you guys,
probably this summertime. And I wonder what your thoughts are
about how Thurman looked and just your perspective on you know,
if you take care of what you got in front
of you, that that would be still, you know, a
pretty big fight. I mean maybe not at the level
of the world title when it was originally scheduled before
he got injured, and had to pull out of Obviously,
he ended up fighting Fandora as the replacement. But give
me your just your assessment of what you thought of
Keith and your interest in having that big fight.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it's there's definitely some unfinished business right there.
Speaker 4: I think he looked slightly old. Really, yeah, I think
he looked slightly old.
Speaker 5: I was there bringside, so I was able to see
how he was breathing and stuff like that. He was
a bit shocked after the first round and then he
sort of adapted.
Speaker 4: But he did fight.
Speaker 5: Brock Jervis, who's again not a level final. So but look,
of course it's interests me. But I'm saying focused this
one final at the time.
Speaker 3: You know, do you give him any slack for being
out of the ring three years with the major injuries
and he had one back.
Speaker 4: Happened. It happens, man, it happens. It's changed as well.
Speaker 5: He had kids and honeymoons and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: That's true, I mean, but he seemed to really get
to get the fans in Australia very excited because Keith
is a great promoter and talker and it seems like
if he does match up with you that just from
the promotional point of view, and frankly from the action
that you guys would put together in the ring. To
me anyway, it seems like a really exciting fight, a
fight that can propel the winner into something very big,
even bigger than the fight against each other. Is do
you do you think about it like that at all? Again,
I know you gotta fight for sure?
Speaker 4: For sure is a big name.
Speaker 5: He brings a big calup of farts you know when
you find him, and and a victoria of us a
guy such such as it only uh brings positivity into
the into the division.
Speaker 3: You guys fighting a really good division because besides yourself
and and Thurman, who both have great names, uh. And
then there's lots of other fighters who are are quality Fandora,
Uh you know who you've shared the ring with. He
just won a title defense. And and I would think
that at some point in your career, at wherever it
takes you, that you'd like to have a rematch and
get that back. Maybe some they may be a rematch
against bakerm at some point, who still has his title,
uh do you? And then there's also you mentioned before
about haus Ramos, who's got the victory against Joey Spencer,
who fought on Fundor's undercard, scored a good knockout victory.
Talented fighter as well, good contender. What do you think
about the makeup of the division And you can certainly
fit yourself into any of those fights if you continue
to do what you gotta do.
Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure, you know the division is still right home.
Speaker 5: And even though I took a buckward step in the
last one, I intend to get back to the back
to the drawing board and be still with the with
the big bulls there and and revenge mon.
Speaker 3: Losses is the measuring stick on how you perform with Spencer,
that that you need to do what Ramos did, which
is stop him, because there's only loss was the stoppage
against Ramos. Is that is that the intention to out
there and get rid of him the way that Ramos
did and maybe even do it even better.
Speaker 4: No, on this one, man, this one, I'll just want
to be getting there and and and film myself. Man.
I just want to be the teams that I've always been.
I always been and and they take calculated, calculated.
Speaker 3: Risks, So not not the reckless tim Zoo. Maybe that
came in the right against Backram exactly Lesson Lesson learned.
Speaker 4: I guess, of course, of course the hard way.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, it is the hard way. Well, you know,
you got a good to send to humor about it,
and it feels like you have a good demeanor about it.
So I appreciate that a lot of guys don't like
to answer those questions and talk about what happened in
such a rough one, but I appreciate that. I wish
you the best of luck against Joey Spencer. Town.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much.
Speaker 3: You bet good luck to you.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: So again he is fighting next weekend April sixth in Australia,
that's Sunday afternoon, April five, Saturday night late in the
United States against Joey Spencer. And it was fascinating in
the interview that he opened up to you about getting
knocked out that night last October and didn't seem to
want to shy away from it.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Actually, you know, I was happy to hear that
because sometimes I've talked to plenty of fighters coming back
from lost is, coming back from knockout losses, and it
ain't their favorite subject to dissect. So you know, you
ask the questions, and you kind of at least the
way I handle is, you know, you ask the questions.
I mean, as I always say to fighters, you know
I have the right to ask the question. You certainly
have the right to say no or to answer it
however you choose. But you kind of take their temperature
when you ask and see, you know, if there's gonna
be a reasonable position for a follow up. And I
thought that Tim Zoo handle it like a pro. He
is a pro. He didn't shy away from talking about
He didn't shy away from saying that, you know, he
may have taken him lately, he talked about how I
thought I was going to go in there and just
knock him out as soon as I touched him, and
that you know that he did not have the right
frame of mind that he should have had going into
that fight. And so hopefully he learned from that for
the sake of his his career. We'll see what happens.
But it's a it's a it's a it's a fight
that he should win against Spencer based on what Spencer
has done, But we also have no idea how Tim
is making more physically. Now. My opinion based on the
conversation is that at least from a mental standpoint, he
seems to be good because he knows that Fandora lost
before that, because he's lost too in a row. There
was extreme extenuating circumstances and what happened against Fandora because
of the cut, and it was still a split decision.
I kind of throw that one out, even though it
did happen right, but the Martaz delay of one, you
can't really overlook that. This was not he got caught
with one shot again rounds.
Speaker 1: I was in there.
Speaker 2: I was in that carib Royal resort, in that ballroom,
that big ballroom, and the gasps. I can still hear
the gasp in my mind from the Australian media around
me when Martaz Alaya drilled him in the first round
and knocked him down and I'm still struggled.
Speaker 3: He got round two, not round round.
Speaker 2: Two, but he got hurt. But then he got He's
down in round two and they were gasping. I still
remember standing five feet from Tim Zoo after the fight
was over, and this was this was interesting and compelling.
They were asking him about what happened uh with the knockdown,
and he said, I don't remember. He said, I can't,
I can't remember what happened, and he I mean, he's
basically still concussed and.
Speaker 1: An hour plus after that fight. So that was just interesting.
So now he's got to shake it off again.
Speaker 2: You've got a very winnable fight with Joey Spencer, and
the fight in the offing is Keith Thurman one more time.
We believe if he's victorious, we'll talk more about it
next week. But that's obviously the carrot that's out there.
Speaker 3: That's again it's nothing apparently assigned on that yet. But
he's got to do his business and then presumably if
he comes out of that, okay, I've heard of no
particular injury issues from Keith's victory you know, a couple
of weeks ago against Brock Jarvis. They're on the same
time schedule. It's a great it's a great setup. I mean,
if he goes in there and does the business against Spencer,
let's see the fight.
Speaker 1: Yep, more on that next week.
Speaker 2: All right, news and some nostalgia right back to top rank.
They have made official what we've been talking about previously
on this potty Manuel Navaraate is back on May the tenth.
Charlie Schuarez is the opponent. Tell me more about the card.
They announced the card as well, you already mentioned earlier
in the pod Giovanni santition. Tell me more about his
involvement as well with his main tenth card.
Speaker 3: Right, So none of this comes as a big surprise.
I had reported on these bouts previous to the official
announcement which did happen. So, as you mentioned, it's the
WBO Junior Lightweight tight holder Emmanuel Navarrette. He was going
to defend against the undefeated Filipino Charlie Suarez. That's the
main event he's going back. The fight card is going
to take place on May tenth. It's going to be
at the Chang Arena in San Diego, which is a
place where Navarrete has kind of made a little bit
of a home base in the United States. Is gonna
be his fourth fight in that arena. But the previous
fight that he had in that arena was when he
lost in his jump up to lightweight to fight Denny's
Brentchik for the belt in that way class. So you
know his mentality. As he said in his comments when
the fight was announced, that he's sort of you know,
he's kind of got some unfinished business, if you will,
in that building. So he wants to go back and
you know, basically saying i owe San Diego a win
and I'm going to settle that debt by getting a
dominant victory. Now, Suarez is not a guy that is
well known, but he's been boxing on some of the
top rank ESPN Plus cards. Like I said, an undefeated fighter.
So that's the next defense. I I'm not. I have
no particular issue with them making that particular matchup. I
am personally disappointed though, that they did not take the
opportunity to make never at the against against Oshaki Foster
in the unification fight. You know, I totally get the fact,
even though I hate to say it, that sometimes fights
do need to marinate a little bit. I get that
this is not one of those times. These are two
guys that have had their titles for a minute. These
are two guys that are not getting any younger. There's
zero reason in my estimation why this fight was not.
Speaker 2: Now I'll tell you what the reason most likely is.
They didn't pay him enough. They weren't going to pay
Foster enough. That's what my thought is. And that's why
we want to do it again that we talk about budgets.
We talk about budgets right and being able to make
it work right.
Speaker 3: No question but that. But it's a fight that they
had already spoken about in terms of saying that's what
their agenda was to try to make that match. So
it seemed like this was the logical time to do
it when they're was no mandatory problems with anybody anyway.
They're doing the fight with Suarez, so so be it.
So that's the main event, and then the co feature,
which we've talked about before with Lomachenko on the shelf
with an injury and his future somewhat uncertain at the moment.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: There, the IBF is permitting this fight between Raymond Maretaya
and Zadliav to be for the interim title. We'll see
if Loma ever comes back to defend against the winner.
But this is actually an interesting match with me because
Murtaya is n defeat. He's been waiting for this type
of opportunity. Abd Eliv who's a Russian fighter, he has
won nine fights in a row, uh and he's been
active and his only he's sponsor them. Okay, guys. His
only lost he had got to go back a few
years ago when he was boxing for the WBC's interim title.
Uh and and that was down in the lightweight division,
where you know staying. He's still in the lightweight division.
That was an interim fight back at the time when
he got stopped by Devid Haney, not a big puncher,
but uh, it did happen. But he's won, like I said,
nine fights in a row since then. So this is
a competitive matchup, I believe, between two guys that are
reasonably rated within the top ten of your lightweight division.
And they got stakes at hand. And it's the undercard
fight you mentioned about Santon. He is at home in
San Diego. So in the other fight that was announced
that's on the ESPN Plus part of this event, he
will be back in the ring to face the fellow
south boy Angel Beltron in a ten rounder, trying to
sort of get himself back together and try to make
another run of the title.
Speaker 1: All right, more news.
Speaker 2: We saw Sebastian Fundora, the Towering Inferno Blitz Cordeal Booker
last weekend. There's already movement on his next fighting. There's
also we saw his sisters celebrating.
Speaker 1: In the ring with him.
Speaker 2: She's part of his corner, part of his team. More
encouragement than anything. Gabriella Fundor, there's news about her, Fundora
and Fondora news.
Speaker 3: All right, So I'll start with Sebastian. As you mentioned,
he got the victory against Cordel Booker, and in the
ring with him after that fight, taking pictures with him
was the young xanders Ayas who.
Speaker 1: Was not we like to say on the pod that
was not an accident.
Speaker 3: Yes, So he is the WBO's number one contender in
that way class at one hundred and fifty four pounds.
And it was known ahead of time that because Gustabo Olaveri,
who was the WBO president, had said publicly that he
was going to recommend that they make him the mandatory.
But it still has to go through the you know,
the process of their committee and the whole thing. So
it didn't come as any surprise when a couple of
days later, after the fight was over, that the WBO
announced that the committee had done their due diligence, I guess,
and announced that now indeed they have made xanders Ayas
Fandora's mandatory challenge and ordered the fight, and the good
news is he wants to fight Fandora seems to be
fine with the fight. They were taking pictures, like I said,
and their teams are already talking about the fight. I
don't know if it's happened yet, but I reported. And
when we're done with this, I'm actually gonna make a
couple of calls to see what actually transpired. Is that
members of their teams were supposed to meet in Las Vegas,
you know, for like a friendly lunch on Thursday, to
have a conversation and sort of see what what's uh,
you know what everybody has in mind if it does
end up getting worked out and they don't have to
go to a purse bit. Uh, it's probably gonna be
like a July ish kind of fight, maybe in augustish
kind of fight. But it seems like both sides are
okay with moving forward to try to get the match done.
And uh, look, how could you complain about that?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 3: Yes, there's lots of big fights are I should say,
bigger fights that Fendora could pursue in that weight class.
You know, he could fight like for example, we've talked
about Tim Zoo, but he's gonna probably have the Thurman
situation coming up, so those the winner of that fight,
if it ever happens, would seem to be a good
opponent for Frondorra, but that's still a little ways away.
He had the the young Jesus Ramos who scored a
good win on the undercard. That's that would be a
great fight. Also, I don't think that's anything more spectacular,
that much better than like a Xander Zayas fight. Uh
And so anyway, that would be a pretty good matchup.
I would I would be interested by that. I think
it would get a good amount of attention.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: I love the fact that Zius is embracing the fight,
just wants to get the shot at the title. You know,
he's a young guy, been working hard since he turned
pro at seventeen. So again, not done yet and they're
just starting those conversations, but it feels like that's what's next.
And as far as his sister, Gabriella Fondora, well, she
is the undisputed women's Flyway champion and her next defense
is a mandatory against her IBF challenger that was just
announced by Golden Boy. They're doing a card where she
was and this is kind of cool, Like you don't
see a lot of Golden Boy shows where the woman
boxer is the main event. So she is going to
be headlining this fight. It's going to be in you
know where she lives in California, in her area, I guess.
And it's April nineteenth in Oceanside, California. And they have
Charles Conwell, who's the undefeated junior middleway contender, another guy
that fits in the picture with any of these guys
in that way least. He'll be on the undercard against
Jie Garcia Perez. And so we got lots of fun
door news going on.
Speaker 2: Good stuff on that following up. Also off last weekend,
George cambosas did I did win, struggled really to put
away and get the decision with Jake Wiley a last
minute replacement. And you were eluding on the recap pod
that Richardson Hitchins is likely next, and you've zeroed in
on what the date probably is and maybe the wear.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so this is not a total surprise. Eddie Hearn
spoke about it after the fight after Cambos has got
the victory that you know, even going into the fight,
it was always assumed that the next up is going
to be Cambosis to challenge Hitchins. Hitchins, of course has
the IBF one hundred and forty pounds title, and that
was Cambosis's the fight you mentioned about against Wiley, that
was him moving up to the one forty weight class.
But Eddie said that the target day was June twenty first.
They're looking to try to do that fight at the
Madison Square Garden Theater. Richardson Hitchins is from New York.
It's a building where Cambos has pulled his greatest victory
when he got the upset win against t Femo Lopez
to become the lightweight champion. The people at Madison Square
Garden would love to host that fight. That's where Richards
and Hitchins and his team want to fight. Natru Mes
certainly put fights on there in the past, including the
fight with Cambosis and Lopez. So now it's just a
matter of you know, sitting down with both sides and
you know, working out an agreement and try to get
the fight done. But the big question that Eddie had
was what's going to be the status of the cut
that George Cambos has suffered because his perspective was whether
it's George cambosas or whoever we're going in June with
Richards and Hitchins. So the onus is gonna be for
Cambosa to show that his cut is not going to
be an issue. It didn't seem like it was bad
enough to keep him out for that long. But you gotta,
you know, cross your fingers and hope there's no issues.
But listen, I'm not a big fan of cambos Is
getting the title shot off a win over Jake Wilie
or even if he had beaten the original opponent with
no particular history in the division and coming off you know,
some rough losses. But once the fight's made, those guys,
let me tell you TJ, they're gonna shit talk like
there's no tomorrow. Because Cambos is a great talker, Hitchins
is a great talker, Hitchins is a new y. It's
Cambosa's going back to the scene of his great victory
if in fact they get the fight done for that building.
So there's definitely some compelling storylines to the fight, and
you know, we'll see what happens with it.
Speaker 1: To quote my guys, you two and bono.
Speaker 2: This fight happening June twenty first for cambosis will happen
with or without you. As they say, I will not
sing on the pod, but let's see if it does
get finalized that it is him. There are reasons for that.
All right, Two more things here nostalgia item coming up.
Sadness that off the weekend where we lost George Foreman,
the former heavyweight champion of the world, the Hall of Famer,
the iconic personality really of the last twenty five thirty years.
As well out of the ring that we also had
the death of famed British boxing journalist Colin Hart, who
died over the weekend at the age of eighty nine.
I know you want to say a few words about
covering numerous prominent fights and being around Colin Hart.
Speaker 3: It was a rough weekend, like you mentioned, between George
Foreman passing away, the w the former WBBA lightweight champion
living Stone Bramble was sixty four when he passed away.
Speaker 1: At I did not know that what happened with him
heart attack or they.
Speaker 3: Didn't say what the cause of his death was. But
if you watch boxing in the nineteen eighties, especially the
mid eighties, into the early nineties, living Stone Bramble was
always on TV in a variety of different shows. He
obviously had a very brief reign as WBA lightweight champion,
but he had a compelling two fight series with Ray
Boom Boom Mancini, and he fought a lot of great fighters.
He just didn't win most of those fights. He fought Costazu,
Buddy mcgert, Roger Mayweather, Freddie Pendleton, Charles Murray, Raffael rowlless,
Oba carr On, and on and on. In terms of
Colin Hart, Colin Hart was a great writer, a great
boxing mind. Covered fights for felt like a million years.
Here's a man who was a ringside in zi year,
who was ringside for any number of megafights, certainly covered
all of the of the big time British champions. I
was fortunate to get to know Colin when I first
started my career. He had come to the United States
for many fights involving the likes of Joel Kalzaggi and
Lyric he Had and Prince Nassim and Lennox Lewis, and
those were the top stars when I was first on
the box and be covering these, particularly the early days
when I started in Lennox, Lewis and the Prince were
doing their thing, and so Colin was always kind to me,
was our gentleman. I've told the story before about being
in Louisville, Kentucky in the hotel room leading up to
the Danny Williams Mike Tyson fight, and Mike Tyson entertained
a handful of writers myself and maybe you know five
or six others, And I've told the story about the pigeons,
remember that, TJ. Yeah, fi around. So we went into
the one room where the pigeons, and Mike saved one
of the writers from sitting in a pile of pigeonshit
in the chair. It was Colin Hart that he saved
from sitting in the pigeonshit in the chair. I will
never forget that for as long as I live. So anyway,
very very uh, you know, I bummed out. I mean,
you know, when you get to be eighty nine, that's
gonna happen. But Colin was a good guy. And what
Colin holds a distinction that's kind of a big deal
because in the Boxing Writers Association of America, which I've been
a member of for a better part of twenty twenty
four years of my twenty five years of writing about
professional boxing as my living. In twenty eleven, he was
the first ever non American to be honored with that award,
which is only voted on by the past winners. So
that was like a pretty big deal and I first
was very honored that in twenty thirteen, I was the
winner of that award. But Colin Hart, you know, so
when I look at the list of guys that won that, like, Okay,
I've been doing what I've been doing for a long time.
But I look down the list of that and I'm like, man,
I can't believe I won an award that these other
guys also won. And you're talking about some of the greats,
some of the legends of journalism. So what And I
look at and I see that Colin Hart and I
only separated by like two years. It really does blow
my mind because, you know, I guess they made an exception.
I wasn't voting for it at the time because I
hadn't won it yet, So I'm not sure what the
situation was why he got in twenty eleven, because he
could have won it, you know, any time in the
nineteen eighties or the nineties or the two thousands, whatever.
But I'm glad that he got it because you know,
he's one of the greatest boxing writers who ever lived,
in my opinion, and it well deserved to be in Tannesaota.
Speaker 2: And obviously, if you're a longtime fight fan in the UK,
you hinged on what this guy was writing in the
recaps in particular because bear in mind this thing called
the Internet we often talk about, this didn't exist back
in like the seventies the eighties when Colin Hart would
have been writing about the biggest fights that were going on. Oh,
I mean you had to, like you hinged on their recap.
You hinged on their opinion, not.
Speaker 3: Just their reap, it was just the coverage during the
fight week.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know.
Speaker 3: And he worked for a big paper like one of
the where I think he was probably best known. He
worked for the for the Sun in England for many
many years, which you know, cover boxing, still does cover boxing,
and you know, but he you know, he made many
trips the United States, covered like for example, Leonard Hearns
won at Ringside. I mean, I covered a lot of
fights within Vegas and New York and you know Connecticut Casinos,
winning seam on med fought, et cetera. So you know,
I was bummed out and I saw that. I knew
we had kind of been a little bit aling. I
hadn't talked a little while, but I know people that
are in touch with them through my connections with other
people in the media business. So I was I was
bummed out when I read about that. When I heard
about that, So, you know, rest in peace, my man,
Colin Hart.
Speaker 2: Excellent stuff there, rip to Colin Hard. I just looked
while you've made mention of it. Livingstone Bramble lost twenty
six times in his career. I would have never believed
that he kept fighting on and lost that many times,
a guy that legendarily beat Boom Boom Mancini. That is
a shocking boxing factoid to me on a Thursday.
Speaker 3: Holy he did become, you know, unfortunately a pretty much
just a journeyman with a good name towards the latter
part right of a scare. But like I said, in
his heyday, during that period of time in the mid eighties,
he was in a lot not mistaken.
Speaker 2: It isn't that Mancini's first loss is living Stone Bramble
if I'm not mistaken, we got double check on that.
But he beat him twice, I know that, But I
would have never thought that that he lost that many times.
And rest in peace, Livingstone Brands.
Speaker 3: They were certainly compelling fights. I mean, like you know,
Mancini was a big star and then and Bramble may
not have been the level of the star, but he
was certainly known to the boxing public.
Speaker 2: Upset because boom boom again in the nineteen eighties, the
early eighties, the mid eighties was iconic in American Am
I wrong? It wasn't Bramble his first loss. I believe
that is the case, Raymoncini. I believe it is from
back in the day.
Speaker 3: No, his first loss was Alexis Argueyo back in the day.
That was the title.
Speaker 1: My bad, all right.
Speaker 3: So his next, his next, his second loss, and his
third loss were the losses to Bramble. One was a
knockout in the fourteenth round when he lost the title,
and then in the rematch that took place eight months
later he lost. That was a fifteen round decision.
Speaker 2: And again I go back to what you said last
week about George Foreman. There is no way I would
have ever believed he had twenty five comeback fights in
the in the late nineteen eighties and early nineteen nineties
before he fought Evander Holyfield, and that actually really happened.
It's crazy when you look it did, and then it
happened for real with the knockout. But think about now,
I mean, if somebody had taken a long time off,
they're not going to have twenty five fights before a
title fight, a prominent fighter, a big world time haul,
you know, world times.
Speaker 3: George. George is willing to take the money available. But
then there was also at the time what they thought
the putting aside HBO in showtime because of those fights
that George had, some of them were on HBO. He
did fight a few guys before he got the title shot,
but the bulk of those fights were done on ESPN
and USA Tuesday Night fights, and that's how he was
able to do it.
Speaker 2: Yes, all right, So tie it back to George Foreman
with one piece of nostalgia to close it. It was
twenty seven years ago tomorrow, as we released this Friday
Thursday nine into Friday, March twenty eighth, nineteen ninety eight,
when Lennox Lewis defeated American Shannon Briggs and retained the
WBC heavyweight title. And Briggs, as you have in my Rundown,
had controversially beaten George Foreman in and around that mid
nineties timeframe. All right, so give me some nostalgia on
Lennox Lewis and Shannon Briggs.
Speaker 3: Well. In November of nineteen ninety seven, George Foreman, in
what became the final fight of his legendary career, fought
Shannon Briggs in Atlantic City, and George, even though he
had no longer had the sanctioning body belts that he
had won when he knocked out Michael Moore, he was
still the lineal champion. He was the man who beat
the man who beat the man, et cetera. So there
was no dispute about that. What there was a dispute
about was the fact that they gave Shannon Briggs the
majority decision in that fight in Atlantic City, that most
people thought that George won the fight. Now, in retrospect,
I'm never saying it's a good thing that a guy
gets robbed. But in the end, George didn't get to win.
It caused him to retire, So that was probably the
right decision, and Briggs went on and in his next
fight just four months later, like we're talking about the
anniversary March twenty eighth, nineteen ninety eight, he faced Lennox Lewis.
Lennox was the WBC champion, so this was the fight
that allowed the lineage to transfer smoothly to Lennox Lewis,
who then kept it until he retired. I mean, there
was ups and downs because he lost, regained it, et cetera.
But ultimately when he retired, that void was filled by
the consensus, the coalescing, if you will. Around Vladimir Klitschko
was the dominant figure and had won three of the belts,
but the fight between Lenox and Shannon Briggs. Going into
that fight was a match and everybody kind of pissed
on because everybody's like, well, Briggs okay, lineage aside, it's
only kind of important to dorks like me. But you know,
he was not given much of a chance. It was
considered a pretty bad matchup. As it turned out, when
the expectations in life, I guess, including in boxing, when
they're very low and the event even remotely exceeds them,
it turns out to be a good thing. And Shannon
Briggs and Lenox Lewis. Considering how much people thought this
was going to be just a shit fight, turned out
to be an exciting fight, a really good, highly entertaining,
far better than anybody gave me credit for. Now. Lennox
totally dominated the fight, but Briggs hung in there. He
got dropped twice in the fourth round. He got dropped
again in the fifth round before the fight was stopped.
But you know, it was a good, good old slug fest,
and Lennox got the victory. And that's how the lineage transferred.
George Foremant to Shannon Briggs to Lenox Lewis. Now, for me,
you got to keep in mind when this was taking place.
This is taking place in the March of nineteen ninety eight.
I'm working as a general assignment reporter at the Presence
On Bullet, the newspaper in Bingham to New York. And
now I've been writing about this and about that. But
now I'm on the double a Binghamton Mets beat. That
was the number one beat you could have at the paper.
That was our minor league affiliate of the New York Mets.
So the boss sends me to Port Saint Lucie for
two weeks to cover spring training, to do some features
on the big league club, to get to know the team.
I'm going to be spending the next several months with
to do features to prepare for our you know, the
tab that we put out the big preview section leading
up to the season. So I was down there for
a while, and I'm staying at like a long term
hotel for two weeks, and I'm going to the ballpark
every day, but that's Saturday night when I'm there, I
want to watch the fight and I'm in I'll never
forget this. I'm in a hotel TJ. When I tell you,
we must had fucking five hundred channels in that hotel room.
I didn't have HBO though, there was no HBO in
the hotel, and I was like losing my fucking mind.
So I go to the ballpark and I was friendly
with some of the coaching staff and I was like, Hey,
you know they're they're staying in a different hotel that's
maybe like five minutes down the road from our I'm stay.
And I asked one of the coaches, I'm like, hey,
if you guys had HBO in your hotel, is that
as a matter of fact, Yeah, we do. Why do
you ask? Guys? Said, well, there's this HBO boxing event
coming up Saturday night. I really want to watch. He's like, oh, yeah,
well we get HBO in the hotel.
Speaker 1: He was like, all right, cool, who is this way
way way way way?
Speaker 2: You're downplaying? Who's this from the Mets coaching staff that
you're trying to mooch off of watching their HBO?
Speaker 3: No, no, no, it was one of the minor league coaches.
Speaker 1: The minor league coaches, not the Mets major league coaches. Okay.
Speaker 3: I was like I wanted to go to his room
or anything. I'm just like, I want to know if
the if the hotel had HBO, because maybe it'll be
on in the bar, maybe it'll be a place to
watch it. Whatever. So having really no, I didn't know
anybody down in that area, I was like, there's no
another place I could go. So I took it on
a chance, and I drove over to the Met's team hotel.
I know where they're staying, and so I ran. I
saw like the one of the Valets, and I said,
I explained to him who I was, why I was there,
what I was interested in I said, you guys, you know,
is there any place to watch the fight? He goes,
you know what, he goes, I'm a huge boxing fan.
Come with me.
Speaker 1: I remember this. I remember you saying this before.
Speaker 3: So he takes me to like a conference room and
he's like, I wanted to watch the fight. Also, he's like,
and they walk into a conference woman, you know, oh
you go to hotel that was at like TVs and
when they have different different meetings and this and that.
Speaker 2: So in the port they only understand in nineteen ninety eight,
this would have been a TV on like a big
think of like a refrigerator type rolling console thing that
you roll in and out of exam that would have
a VCR probably below it to record something that's what
you're watching.
Speaker 1: Lewis eggs on.
Speaker 3: So he takes me into the conference room and he
puts on the TV, puts on HBO and it's a
pretty big size TV. Again, it's it's a conference room
where you'd have a business meeting or a luncheon or whatever.
And he's like, I'll be right and this is, you know,
maybe ten minutes before the show is supposed to start.
He's like, I'll be right back. Just sit tight, all right,
So I'm hanging out. He comes back in uh, and
and HBO was on and once't you know, we're able
to watch the fight. Now. My recollection is, uh, when
HBO showed the show. I'm almost I'm positive this when
HBO had that particular broadcast it. You know, most of
the time EASHA would do these events, it was a
it was a double header or a triple header. My
rec collection is this, They just showed the one fight
that night, just the one live fight, which is Shannon
Briggs against Lennox Lewis. So it's not like we had
to wait through another like, you know, a long period
of time to get to the main event. And sure enough,
we watched the fight, the two of us, me and
and Valet Man, you know, sitting in the in the
in the conference room at this hotel where the the
where the where the minor league mets are staying for
spring training. We watched the fight. Lenox gets rid of
him in the fifth round. That's that, and I leave
it and go back to the hotel. But I was
so desperate to watch the fight because there was no internet,
there was no fucking that wasminine. So I gotta go
find the fucking fight. So I went to a hotel to.
Speaker 1: Miss by you.
Speaker 2: That's a miss by you when checking into the hotel
that you did not look on the marquee for the
free HBO for breakfast.
Speaker 3: I didn't have a choice. This was my sports editor
in Binghamon making my reservations. It was a nice hotel
where I was staying, and I had good accommodations and
I was going to be there for two weeks.
Speaker 2: You gotta look back in that day for the free HBO.
And in the South they would have like free air conditioning,
free HBO air conditioning.
Speaker 1: I remember on the marquee.
Speaker 3: That reminds me of one time of talking to one
of my old friends in the HBO PR department when
they would battle back and forth with Showtime and we're
shooting the shit about something to the other, and he was
like banging his chest about how much better HBO boxing
was than Showtime. He goes, you know what, you drive
down any place in America, you passed by a hotel
or a motel, and it doesn't fucking say free.
Speaker 2: Show three Showtime rights, free HBO HBO exactly. But you
like my line that in the South in the hotels
free air conditioning or air conditioning on the Marquee to
reply that the other hotels don't have air conditioning and
we do.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: Listen, we've been here a bit good stuff with Tim Zoo.
We've got the previews again that we've given you of
Zapada and Farmer in the Golden Boy main event, the
Championship doubleheader on Top Rank with Mayor and Ryan, followed
by the Brian Norman first full world title defense on
the Top Rank show in Las Vegas. Let's reconvene you
and me and talk on the bet US Boxing Show
Friday at one Eastern time and handicap these here fights
on YouTube and their platform sound.
Speaker 1: Good to you.
Speaker 3: That sounds good.
Speaker 2: There is Dan Rayfael. Happy anniversary, my friend. Thank you
very much everybody that's listening. My god, Miss Rayfield is
a saint. I'm merely TJ Reeves. The baseball season underway,
March madness. She'll know what kind of mood Rayphiel is in,
depending on what happens with the Yankee and Duke basketball games.
A Yankee baseball debut in the Duke basketball game. We'll
find out. In any event, we are good, thank you
for being with us here on this latest edition of
the Big Fight.
Speaker 1: We Came Preview