Speaker 1: All right off a weekend that has seen Noel mchaleon
get a revenge decision win in Southern California and become
the WBC Cruiserweight Champion yet again. A weekend that has
seen Diego Pacheco win, but it wasn't easy, including he
got knocked down in his main event on his own.
We're ready to recap both of those fight cards. We
got lots of fight news and much more. It is
the Fight Freaks Unit Recap podcast. I am the somewhat
competent host, TJ.
Speaker 2: Reeves.
Speaker 1: Happy Holidays to everybody, Hanika Underway, Christmas coming. Fest of
Us for the rest of us because Rayfield and I
are big Seinfeld fans.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, aren't you a Seinfeld guy?
Speaker 1: Through what about k Kwonza could probably count and there's
probably seven other ones. But fest of Us for the
rest of us and the tests of strength, the feats
of strength, the airing of the grievances, all that goes
off with that, which is like a regular basis on
this podcast, the airing of the grievances for fest of Us.
Speaker 2: Good to have you with us, however you have found us.
Speaker 1: I have to say this, when we left this podcast,
I said, you would know how my weekend was going.
My Thursday night football with the Atlanta Falcons, So Raphel,
you know that that was a bag over the head,
kicking the crotch Thursday night, figuratively for the Buccaneer fans,
the Buccaneer broadcasters, everybody involved. But now I'm a little
cheered up as we come this way on Sunday night.
That's because in my NFL world, which I'm paying attention to,
the New Orleans Saints did the Bucks a favor.
Speaker 2: They won the game with Carolina.
Speaker 1: So now the playoff hopes are still within grass the
Bucks playing the Panthers twice in the last three weeks.
Speaker 2: So I'm a little cheered up.
Speaker 3: Heja.
Speaker 4: Here's the only thing that matters for you New York
Football Giants have retained their hold on the number one
overall time. That's right, obrolably miserable loss.
Speaker 1: How do you continue to win by losing? The Giants
are doing that for your number one pick in the
miserable season. But I'm just saying the two words playoff
check are still in play for the host, and I'm
happy for that.
Speaker 2: For down the road. That's down the road, So I'm
in a particularly good mood.
Speaker 1: Rayfield has already got Hanikah in progress with young Raypheel.
I gotta go Christmas shopping with the twins by the way, too,
which that makes that should probably be a podcast in
and of itself. So happy Holidays everybody, and we are
going to be here throughout this week too. Wit let
me explain what's going on before we get over going on?
All right, here's what's going on. First of all, big
previews coming for this Jake Paul Anthony Joshua fight card
coming up as you hear this podcast. Sunday night and Monday,
we'll have a special podcast with my guys Ricky Carroll
David Paine. We got to work out the time that
we can do this. They're over in England, Rayfield, and
I want their point of view. And what are they
saying in the UK about. Is this a total joke?
Is there some concern that Joshua is washed enough that
Jake Paul could beat him. We'll see what those guys say.
So that's gonna be on the pod feed on Tuesday.
I'm saying that to the audience. We'll make that happen.
There may be another I want to want to run it.
There may be another special pre show interview that we
do midweek. And then here's the chronology of what you
and I are doing while I'm promoting everything. You and
I are going to do the bet Us Boxing Show
back on their platforms on Wednesday. Make d Jake Paul,
Anthony Joshua was special for Wednesday Wednesday. Wednesday Wednesday on
bet US's channels, which is on kick dot com, on
the Rumble app and on Twitter x no longer on YouTube.
Find us through bet USTv on any of those outlets.
We'll be promoting this. It is a Wednesday live show
at one Eastern time where we'll handicap the fights a
couple of days in advance, because it was going to
be a bigger challenge obviously to be handicapping just hours
before the card got underway on Friday. So Wednesday, bet
Us TV on those platforms, you'll find us there.
Speaker 2: But wait, raise more. There's more.
Speaker 1: On Thursday night, we'll be back on this podcast, feed, Applespreaker,
Spotify with a full preview of everything. If you didn't
find the YouTube show, we'll have fight news and much
more Thursday then. But wait, there's more on the night
of the Jake Joshua fight card in Miami when it
is over, on our Big Fight Weekend YouTube page, you
and I will go live. We'll do it live on
the YouTube page exclusively Friday night after the fight. Were
you taking notes? Do you have all that for the
audience and to day. I will be good on the
will be good on the promos.
Speaker 4: And might not be able to make the YouTube if
Anthony Joshua loses, because I'll probably be passed out somewhere from.
Speaker 1: Yes, well, I mean that is the only element I
think that we have that would be a shocking surprise
because most everybody believes this is going to end and
end badly and quickly for Jake Paul.
Speaker 2: But stay tuned, stay tuned.
Speaker 1: It's back saying anything can happen as we're about to
talk about with our recaps. So again, keep it locked
in on this podfeed. Be following subscribing because you'll get
all the content, you'll get notified, and you'll get all
the content when that's out. Go find us on bet
Us TV Wednesday afternoon live. Go find us on our
YouTube page Friday night after the fights. All right, promos
out of the way, let's get into the action. Let's
start first with the Cruiserweight world title win for Noel
mcaylean in a fight that had fouls, that had some
craziness at the end of the eighth round that eventually
saw mchaylean wear down. I believe Badu jack and he
won the fight convincingly in the championship rounds to win
the unanimous decision and he regains the WBC Cruise aweight title.
Your thoughts did you agree with this that this was
mcalean taking the fight over in the back half of
the fight.
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
Speaker 4: In fact, two of the three judges scored at one
sixteen to one ten, the third judge score at one
fifteen to one eleven. As we've talked about probably a
thousand times on the show, the range of acceptable scores
that those two seemed to be the right scores. I
had at one sixteen to one ten. If you tell
me you had it one point closer, no argument for me.
But it was really the exact opposite of what occurred
when they had their first fight in May. So in
that fight you had, that was the card that was
where they fought at five o'clock in the morning on
the undercard of Canilla against Skull and read Saudi Arabia.
So that was a fight where it was a majority
decision in favor of Ba du Jack, and the way
that he won it was because he won the final
two rounds on the scorecards to get him the margin
of his victory. He came on strong the last couple
of rounds. Mccallon's point of view was, Listen, you know,
I took the fight on three weeks notice, which is true.
It wasn't entirely as prepared as I maybe could have
been for this particular fight. He at the full camp.
There was no late you know notice or anything like that.
They fought at a normal time, and so from that perspective,
you know, he was much more prepared and it showed
to be quite honest. And but dude, Jack is now,
you know that many months more older. He's forty two
years old. That's hard on any professional athlete, particularly boxing.
There's very few people in the sports history, you know,
there's a few who've been any type of significantly effective
at that age. You know, we can cite a few
of the major examples up in an Art Hopkins and Archie Moore,
Foreman and even George Foreman when he got that at age.
You know, it wasn't that effect of you know, he
did land the big monster punch, but he wasn't consistent
fighting and fight out like a Hopkins was, or an
Archie more for that matter. In any event, so the
scores I thought were perfectly fine. McKellan though, Listen, he
had a good job that was very snappy. He was
the guy that was probably doing most to make the fight.
Jack initiated a lot of the clinches when they would
have some type of burst of offense. It seemed to
me that it was always Jack that was initiating the clinch,
and when the ref broke them up, it was always
mckellian that was the one that came out of the clinch,
firing first, taking advantage of things back in. But dude,
Jack up and so from that perspective, he just had
a little bit better offense. I feel like he had
a little better defense. And the reality is bidu. Jack
also got tired of the backside of the fight, and
we didn't know this at the time. He didn't talk
about in this post fight interview. On Sunday. I saw
his post on his social media, which you know, we
follow each other on social media. Had posted a picture
of himself in the hospital, said that in the middle
of rounds you know exactly what round that he had
suffered a fractured cheekbone, so he was fighting through that. So,
you know, he is a warrior type fighter. We've seen
him in some tough fights with that horrendous cut. We
saw him in fights. We've seen him, you know, in
just massive barn burner brawls with James de Gale. So
this is not a guy that's going to just you know,
get up there if times to get tough. So that
was you know, that was just the bottom line is
that you know, time waits for nobody, and when you're
forty two and you're fighting a fairly well preserved guy
that's thirty five, which is no spring chicken either, that
was what, you know, it wore him down. Now, the
craziness you mentioned, I mean, there was a lot of grapplings,
so from certain parts of the fight, wasn't that entertaining
overall though, I actually kind of liked it. Yeah, But dude, Jack,
in the eighth or in the seventh round, I should
say mckellyan, he gets docked one point for hitting behind
the head and that was that was the referee, Jerry Cantu,
who had his hands fall all night long with a
lot of the rough stuff. He made the right decision
to take the point on that one and there had
been warnings issued for the rough stuff. And then in
the eighth round, which is really when because it was
Jack that wins round seven, partly because McKellan gets the
point deducted. So I had that round of ten to
eight round, you know, because he got the point deducted,
so it makes it a two point round for me.
In the eighth round is really when Kellyan, you know,
showed that he's the guy. He kind of took over
the fight and swept. If you look at the cards,
the way he got to the victory was he won
rounds eight through twelve on all three score cards and
that put him a head in the fight. But in
that eighth round he did damage, but due Jack also
got penalized for hitting after the break with there was
a right hand that came in, so the two point
deductions sort offset each other. But it was the damage
that Nick Kelly was doing. He was hurting him a
little bit. You could tell he was getting tired out
and he kind of never looked back. But the nutty
part at that eighth round is when he hit him
with the shot that caused the point to be deducted.
It was after the bell, and it reminded you of
the one of the Holy fell Ritic Bow fights where
they kept fighting after the bell and the corners had
to jump over. It was like in rock Yes to
jump over into the ring and pull them apart. This
was just like that where they were going at it
after the bell. Their corners had to get in the ring.
Can two had to get in the ring and break
them up. And I'll tell you that they were talking
about the on the pay per view. This for Jerry
Kanto has been referring for a million years. This was
his last fight as a referee. He's going to still
continue to work as a judge with the California Commission.
But what away from to finish his referee card with
a really hard fight to keep controlling lost?
Speaker 2: I thought he was struggling to keep control to fight
at that point.
Speaker 4: I think any refere would have struggled though. I mean,
Kanto has usually been a good ref so I'm not
gonna I'm not gonna get on his case. But these
two guys are you know, they're they're pretty big guys,
obviously close to heavyweights, and you know they were you know,
rubbing heads with each other in each other's chest, they
were fighting for position throughout the fight. So it got
a little messy. There was some tension there. But in
the end, look, Noah mckellion backed up what he said,
you know, and made the point. Like I said before,
I took the fight on short notice before weird time
wasn't really as good as he could have been, and
in this fight he was much more prepared. And you know,
bid dude Jack, good sportsman, showed class, you know, didn't
didn't complain, didn't take it, didn't mention his injury you
know during the interviews and just said, you know, he's
a better man tonight. And to me, now it's a
matter of a couple of things. Number One, at age
forty two, what does bed dude Jack do. He's been
a champion at a light heavyweight, cruiser weight, also at
super middleweight. At forty two, does he retire? He first
sounded like that in his post fight interview, but you
never know, so we'll see what he ends up doing.
In as far as mckellian, he's sitting in the cat
birds see right now, because like not five minutes when
the fight was over and they had announced the decision.
I think I got the press release before they went
off the air from the broadcast, and that was the
folks at Tasman Fighters, which are the co promoters in Australia. Giobatia.
Now we all have talked about this several times, how
badly he wants a unification. He thought he might get
an opportunity to fight zero zero opted for a higher
profile fight, even if not a bigger legacy fight, a
bigger money fight, probably also to fight David Benevidio. So
he's gonna go do that, which kind of left Opataia.
If you want to unify and you've got one belt
and Ramirez has two of the belts, there's only one
other belt you can go for, and that's the WBC
belt and that's now mckellon's title. So immediately after the fight,
there was you know, ample quotes from from ji Opataia
and from his co promoter Mick Francis from Tasman Fighters
about why let's make this fight happen.
Speaker 1: Of course, well, you love me for a lot of reasons,
including my humor. Don't you believe they had two versions
of that press release that they had the blank whoever
the name was, just the name and punch sind That's absolutely.
Speaker 2: What they did.
Speaker 4: Definitely, there's no doubt about it, because ji Opataia is
the kind of guy where he didn't give a shit
off but due Jack want or McKellan when he wants
to win that belt, whoever's the one holding it h
and you know he had just fought as we've discussed
him the last couple weeks, because.
Speaker 2: I stand victory by fill in the blank.
Speaker 1: I cannot wait to fight fill in the blank on
a big time show.
Speaker 2: And I would be willing to fight fill.
Speaker 1: In the blank on a fifty to fifty terms now
fill in the blank exactly so.
Speaker 4: And he's he had been in the new is making
the case for unification coming off of the fight from
two weeks ago when he knocked out Sinkara in a
spectacular knockout. So hopefully he gets to fight, because I
don't believe that now that this rematch is over, I
don't think there is a due mandatory in the WBC.
Speaker 3: He'll have to.
Speaker 4: You know, they'll be one eventually, but he should have
time enough to do a unification if they're serious about
doing it. Now, the fly in that ointment is is
mckellan's promoter is Don King and going strong at ninety
three and ninety four is still a pain in the
ass and do business with when it comes to making
a big fight or not so big fight, because the
you know, the the the making of the deal is
so onerous. But sometimes people just throw up their hands
and be like, forget about it. So but if King
is in reality and they're serious show about making the fight,
which I believe they are, there's no reason in the
world why this fight should not happen.
Speaker 1: All right, So stay tuned. But mchalean gets his hand raised,
gets the victory. So that was in southern California. So
slide up the I five to Stockton, California a few hours.
Speaker 3: How could you with the directions You just go a.
Speaker 1: Little geographical here on the fight preach unit recap or something.
I just know, I just know that you can drive
the I five all the way up and down the
West coast, all right, So slide up to Stockton and
diego Pacheco.
Speaker 2: Now you did say now.
Speaker 1: First of all one of us said on the podcast
bad Jack's forty two years old, and you got to
wonder if he starts showing his age, And that happened,
and so I will take credit for that.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 4: I don't think that was anything shocking.
Speaker 2: I think we I think if we replay the pod.
Speaker 1: You kind of disputed that with me, if we want
to go back and re replay the pod.
Speaker 2: But nonetheless, well.
Speaker 4: Let me put you like this, It's not about so
much the age. The fact that McKellan was the winner
the fight does not surprise me in the right.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 1: But I will prop you because you said to us
when I said, I don't really know a whole lot
if anything about Kevin Leley Sajoe, and you said, real dude, thick,
can fight, can punch. And oh, by the way, he
dropped Diego Pacheco as he hid the way through this fight,
and we began to find out some things about the
rising prospect at super middleweight.
Speaker 2: He guts out the decision. When what are your thoughts?
Speaker 4: I mean, there's two ways to look at it. If
you want to take the glasses half full approach to it,
you could be like Eddie Hern and say Listen, this
is a guy that on a night where it wasn't
his best, he still came through against a guy that
not a lot of people wanted to fight, who's dangerous
because he's unknown, but he's strong as a bull, and
he comes forward and he's there to fight and he's
not looking to run around, and you know, you got
to be on your game or you're going to be
in some trouble. He's very physical. He used his head,
you know, especially when he got inside on him, you know,
and it was kind of one of those Mutton Jeff
type of fights. And that's going to be the way
it is when you're dealing with a super middleweight. In
Sajo was five foot eight and a and a super
middleweight like Pachecko was six foot four. That there's obviously
a stark difference, you know. You could, you know when
you see the photographs that look from like the press
conferences and the face off and the way, and he
knew there's gonna be a big size difference. So Sajo's
goal was to just get into the chest and just
stick his head right on top of Pachecko and swing
away on the inside. And Pacheco, you know, can do that,
but he'd prefer a guy more his thighs. He would
have preferred, i think, against Sajo, to fight a little bit
more on the outside, and Sajo wasn't having any of that.
So the glass half full aspect is okay. We have
never seen him in that kind of distress or that
type of crisis. He got dropped, there was a legit knockdown,
and he got up and he came back strong, and
then in the last couple of rounds of the fight
he really started to bring it on. Round eleven, he
had him hurt, almost knocked him down and knocked them
out possibly, and he came through the other as Eddie said,
came through the other side and win the fight, which
is the bottom line, And it was, you know, the
type of performance you hope you don't see. What if
you do, you see your guy prove that he can
deal with, you know, some type of a difficult situation.
So he wins the fight one seventeen to one ten,
one sixteen to one eleven, and a little too close
for my taste, one fifteen to one twelve. And so
he moves on and we'll see what he does.
Speaker 3: Sajo.
Speaker 4: I feel like even in the loss, he raises his
stock because he was here too before unknown other than
by the dorks like myself. And now I think people
see this is a guy that can actually fight and
handle himself. He may not be a world champion, but
he certainly could, you know, compete I think with pretty
much anybody, you know, save maybe like the you know,
the Terrence Crawford's or the Canelos.
Speaker 3: People like that.
Speaker 4: So if there's never a good loss, let's say this
was a good loss for Sajo and for Pacheco. You know,
he came through the crisis. Now on the negative side,
he didn't look good because even besides a knockdown, he
didn't look very good. He looked tentative, he looked flat footed,
he kind of slow, He didn't he just he didn't
have you know, the spring and the step. It'sn't seem
to me. And this is really tg like the third
fight in a row where this has been the case.
Now he's gotten wins in those other fights, obviously because
he's kept his undefeated record, but he didn't look exactly
spectacular going the route with Trevor McCombe back in July,
and he looked even worse going the route against you know,
Steven Nelson in January. So he got in three fights
this year. He won three decisions against good opponents, but
not great opponents. And so maybe maybe he's been exposed
a little bit perhaps, or maybe he's reached a certain
plateau and he hasn't yet gotten to the next level.
We'll see if he can get to the next level.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 4: After the fight, Ady Hearn was saying, you know what
we've done our apprenticeship. This young man is twenty five
and zero, and now it's time for a big fight.
And they were asking for Haimi Mungia, which was you know,
would be certainly a fun, exciting fight. You have a
Mexican national against a Mexican American. You know, they would
certainly fill up a you know, a good arena in
Los Angeles. Which is the point that Eddie was making
a fight that Diego Pacheco said he wanted. I don't
think Mongia said for anything at the moment. So we'll
see if they can actually make it. But you know,
he made the point, if we can't, there's other guys,
you know they were talking about, like Ams of Shiraz.
Now Kerkiyashikha is out there saying we'd like to make
Pacheco Sharaz in February. You know, convenient to mention that,
of course, when he's coming off one of his worst performances.
But right, I mean, if you can't get them on
Gia fight Sharaz would certainly be an acceptable kind of fight.
Do that fight on one of the riad season cards.
But you know the other thing that Eddie said, and
I totally agree with this because I think about these things.
When you see a guy that's got a lot of
hype and he has a rough night and nobody has
previously really wanted to fight the guy, and you see
him get dropped out, get dropped and maybe look.
Speaker 3: A little vulnerable.
Speaker 4: Suddenly the other top guys are like, yeah, you know what,
maybe I'll take I'll take the guy. And so in
some ways, having a less than stellar performance, and even
with the knockdout, once it's over with, it may turn
out to be a good thing, be because other people
will then decide, hey, you're.
Speaker 1: Risk indirectly helped the fight to be made, and so
all right, so we'll see that that would be quick
ninety days to turn around. And Shiraz obviously is off
of destroying Edgar Berlanga, and so stay tuned if that
can be made or what can happen with that. All right, now,
I'm gonna say this, This will be my take. I
think Joe Cordina had the performance of the weekend just
because he literally came eight time zones away to the
West coast of the United States from where he is
in the UK and put it on Gabriel Flores in
the co feature fight, winning decisively for the WBO's lightweight eliminator.
That's me saying that could Cordina was impressive in this,
and very impressive for the circumstances of doing this in
the other guy's hometown.
Speaker 4: I mean I didn't really rate Flores that highly in
the first place. I mean, he got a lot of
hype when he was and the reason he got it
of hype because when he came into the professional ranks
with Top Rank, he had become he was like he
was signed when he was like sixteen or seventeen years
old and was the youngest fighter at that time to
ever have signed with Top Rank, you know, in like
fifty years or whatever it had been that they'd been
in business. And he got off to a good start,
and then you know, he took a tough loss Luis
Alberta Lopez, and you know, there was another fight where
maybe he should have been stopped and there was like
they were crying after the fight. It was kind of
a mess, and he kind of got a lot of
negativity surrounding about that. You know, him and the dad
they had. They had also told the story about how
his mother had been killed, so that you know, that
humanized him and his family. So he'd got a lot
of hype because of that. But when it comes to
the actual can he fight, can he be a world champion?
I kind of had my doubt's nice kid, nice dad, whatever,
they're good people and all, but you know, I'm skeptically
ever gets to that point. So for Cordina, I feel
like it was a calculated risk, you know, and just
this is thing I'd like to clarify also, like and
I actually it's funny everybody was referring to this as
a WBO lightweight title illuminator. I got a WhatsApp from
Gustavo Oliveri, who was the president of the WBO okay,
and you know, it was not an official WBO eliminator,
And I said Okay, that's fine. Maybe it's not official,
but certainly it's unofficial because it was the number one
guy in your ratings against the number two guy in
your ratings fighting for your top regional belt. It would
seem to suffice to say, if the one guy beats
the two guy, or the two guy beats the one guy,
the winners.
Speaker 1: Organizations, these organizations, good god.
Speaker 4: In any event, Cordeina did look did look pretty good.
You know, he's new to the lightweight division, relatively speaking,
after being stopped in his losing his title at one
thirty by Casachi. That could have been a scenario where
the weight was becoming too much of a burden for
him to make. So, yeah, good friend, he came all
the way over here. Yeah, and he looked good. He
got to win.
Speaker 1: And I think, and sometimes you know, this is easy
for us to say, we're in the armchair, we don't
take the punches or whatever. I think we can pretty
well conclude. I'll say it's stronger than you did. Gabriel
Flores is never going to be a world champion. He's
never going to be able to step up it, or
he would have done it already. And this was another
example where he had a chance to do it in
his own home setting, and he got dominated in this fight.
Speaker 4: I'm saying, I'm not disagreeing. I mean, no, Listen, I
loth to say the word never, because there's plenty of
guys that can cherry pick a belt here and there.
But to think that he'll be at the elite level,
I guess the way I look at it.
Speaker 1: But the cheery picked the belt, he's got to fight
another top contending fighter like Cordina, And where has he
against a top contending fighter.
Speaker 2: They didn't get it done.
Speaker 4: I just I never say never. What I would say
is maybe maybe he would win a belt, but I
don't think people will ever consider him to be an
elite fighter in whatever weight class.
Speaker 1: Eason, My line always is, be careful with the words
never exactly. Always the three words I love you. Be
careful with those words as well. Those could always get
I'm just here to make you laugh.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: So Cordina gets that win and we'll see what's next
for him. Now give me the rest.
Speaker 4: So if he gets just to just to be clear,
if he does get the title fight, I don't think
the mandatory is quite due. Theoretically he would be in
position to fight Abdulla Mason, which would be a pretty
intriguing fight. I mean, I'm not sure what top ranks
plans are for Mason at the moment. You know, he's
obviously a very talented fighter. He's coming off a big win,
but where he got the belt, Uh, they'll probably be
slightly judicious in the first defense. Maybe take him home
to Cleveland where I wouldn't anticipate that he's in with
a super top guy, but he's going to be in
position where maybe he does fight Cordeina, you know, a
couple of fights from now, and that would that would
be an interesting fight.
Speaker 3: I could see that.
Speaker 1: Being one with another Englishman in Sam Noakes on that
on that undercard in in Riot all the.
Speaker 3: Rest of the card.
Speaker 4: I think the guy really that kind of stole the
show was Ernesto Tito Mercado. He was the next fight
down the show prior to the Cordeina fight. He's a
junior Walter Waite. He's now eighteen and oh with seventy knockouts.
For the last couple of years, I've had him on
my top prospect list. He's only twenty four years old.
He comes from Mona California, the hometown of won Hall
of Famer Sugar Shane Moseley, and we've seen his talent.
He was off for a little while because of an injury.
He had signed with Mattroom and there trying to bring
him along and they mad. They did the exact This
was the exact perfect fight where you've seen him look good,
but against nobody in particular, and not to say Antonio Moran.
His opponent was some superstar opponent, but he is the
epitome of a gatekeeper. He'll beat your ass if you're
not ready, but he can also be you know, he'll
lose to the top guys. And so it's time to
find out where does Mercado fit and is he a
guy that is a pretender and a guy like Moran
can expose him and beat him, or is he going
to look good and do what the other top guys
have done to Antonio Moran. Antonio Moran has been He's
got eight losses now after it's the loss that he
took against Mercado, but he'd only been stopped previously twice before,
once by Devin Haney. And I've said this before. I
was sitting five feet in the ring that night when
he went splatter in front of my face. He got
absolutely destroyed by Hani that night. He also got knocked
out not that long ago by Andy Cruz, the Cuban
Olympic gold medal winner who was on his way to
fighting for a world title against Ray Maretaya, you know,
in the coming weeks, And the question was could Mercado
replicate or something similar of that type of domination if
you really think Mercado was the goods like a lot
of people do. And guess what, he showed that he
could do that because he scored a clear knockdout in
the first round. He dominated the fight, and he dropped
him twice more in the sixth round and got the knockout.
So he did what those other guys had done, which
was to stop him, and he looked really good doing it.
I mean, Mercado, based on that performance, I don't think
he's quite ready for fighting for the world title or
anything like that. But you can absolutely step him up
against a real guy at one point forty and it'll
be very fun to watch. He's young, he's fast, he's
got some charisma to him. He's got that swagger like
he knows he's never been beaten. He's fresh, he's hungry,
and he's fun to watch. I mean to me that
he checks every box that you as a boxing fan.
You want to see guys who are committed to what
they want to do. You want to see guys who
are out there to hurt you and knock you out.
You want to see guys who have skills and speed
and are responsible defensively, can move, can punch with both hands.
You know he pretty much does all that.
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 4: Look, I think it looked really, really good and Marianne
again is no joke if you're not ready, and so
he took care of business and looked great doing it.
So for me, I know you thought Cordina looked great.
If I had to give like my MVP of the night,
I'm giving that to Tito Morraato.
Speaker 1: On car and also the women's WBC interim title light.
Is Sky Nicholson getting a decision when any other thoughts
on that? I know you poo pooed on her in
the preview of nothing Special.
Speaker 4: Well, in this she had been a title holder at
featherweight and she lost the belt. She had come down
and wait, this was her second fight since dropping down
to one hundred and twenty two pounds, and she has background.
She was an Olympian for Australia. And they match up
with a Yulon Luna from Mexico for this interim title.
I'm not sure why they did that, but whatever, And
she went out there and she did what she did.
She boxes a boring fight, she wins a clear decision,
and listen, she seems like a lovely woman. I have
nothing against her, but honestly, and I'm not trying to
be a dick. I mean, I'm just being real. Life
is too short to keep watching Sky Nicholson fights ten rounds.
Thank god. Her fight's only two minutes apiece at each round. Okay,
I mean, she just doing it entertainment. She's a talented boxer,
but I find nothing dramatic, nothing exciting. It's like, you know,
good luck for her. I hope she goes out there
and becomes a Hall of Famer and wins titles and
does all the good things. But I don't need to
be watching it. I gotta be honest, all right.
Speaker 2: One other fight card.
Speaker 1: We did not mention this because it was going to
practically be going on right as we were releasing the
podcast Friday morning US time Friday midday. That was in
the UAE and Dubai, where Murat Gassiev, the former cruiserweight
world champ, scored a booming knockout of the forty four
year old Khu brought poolv an upset win in that
he was the underdog and he was really being dominated
through the first five rowns. But this is why boxing
is different, Big Dan.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I don't know if I say he
was being dominated. He was certainly losing the fight on
the cards, but the rounds I felt like were.
Speaker 1: One card was five nothing, one card was four to one.
Two of the three judges thought he was being dominated.
But continue on.
Speaker 4: No, No, what I'm trying to say is sometimes scorecards
are misleading. Yes, he was losing the rounds, but within
the context of each three minute period of time, he
was competitive in those rounds. So he lost the round,
but it wasn't like he didn't compete and didn't have
some moments, but that instead again, he was down on
all three scorecards, five to nothing on one, forty seven
on another, and forty nine to forty six on the third.
And as as you said, Gassi was a former cruiserweight
unified title holder when he met Alexander Usik in twenty
eighteen for the four belt unification in the final of
the of the tournament that the World Boxing Super Series
he was routed. He lost I believe literally like twelve
rounds and nothing in that fight. You know, he got complete.
That was a domination, Like he never even came close
to winning around in that fight. He had kind of
been off the map for a while. He moved up
to heavyweight, hadn't really done anything in particular, hadn't beaten anybody,
had lost a decision to Auto Whalen, which is never
a good sign for your career prospects. Other than that,
he had, you know, won like a bunch of other fights,
but again not against anybody that you would know, Like
whaling was the one guy that he lost to that
people have heard of because he had fought a tough
fight with Tyson Fury and that was a split decision,
so it was competitive. I guess he gets this opportunity
to remember the pool at people who had won this belt,
this secondary title belt, and they had gone through this
whole process with the BBA. There was an arbitration, there
was all kinds of lawsuits and litigation over this mandatory
and that mandatory, and they asserted their rights for the optional,
and it was a whole disaster all because they wanted
to fight Mara Gassia, because the people from the IBA,
who operate out of the UAE, were putting up a
lot of money to do the fight on one of
these cards that they do, and this was the main
event of that show. And Gasiev, whatever you say about him,
the dude can fucking crack. I mean, he's was a
tremendous punch or a cruiser weight. It feels like that
that power has carried to some degree into the heavyweight division.
Pulev's two of his three losses prior to the fight
the other day, he got knocked out by Klitchko in
a legit World Championship fight all the way back on
twenty fourteen. I picked it as the knockout of the
ear that year. He got knocked out during COVID when
Anthony Joshua fought in front of like a thousand people
at the Wembley Arena that he was the mandatory. Anthony
Joshua stopped him in the ninth round. That was like
twenty and twenty I believe or twenty twenty one, and
the only other fight he lost was a split decision
against Derrek Tsa and Pulev. You know, he's forty four
years old, he's in great condition, just doesn't have the chin.
And when Gassiev landed like a picture perfect left hook,
it was almost the exact same punch that Clitchical landed
on him and knocked him out. He just went splatter
all you know, on the canvas. He was out, tried
to get up to his credit, gud to all fours,
but he was done for.
Speaker 1: When I say it was boom goes a dynamite left
to the chin and he could not beat the count.
And it was a shocking moment. This is why we
love boxing because again he was in control, he was
winning until he was KOed with one shot.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and now he has the WBA Regular heavyweight title
and a lot of people will shit on that and
piss on it, which I totally get. But here's the pint.
It's gonna help Mara Gassi make a shitload of money.
And the reason is because he if he follows through
with this, he based on the when they made the
settlement with the WBA to allow Pool Left to go
through with this fight. The edict was okay, fine, among
the various other circumstances that they outline, was the winner
of this fight. Ohe's the next fight, not two fights,
not three fights. The next fight is the mandatory against
Moses and Tom. Now he Tom has rated in other
organizations and he has perhaps a roadmap to take him
to another belt. But if he opts to pursue the
WBA avenue, he will be the next opponent for Gassia.
Vergassi will have to vacate or be shipped of the title.
So his reward in quote marks, if you will, for
knocking out Kubra Pula very impressively, I might add, is
probably a trip to England to face the much faster,
much younger, probably similarly heavy handed puncher, as as the
young twenty year old maybe he'll be twenty one by
then in Moses Etama. But you know what, if you're
gonna fight as a professional fighter and get and get
a loss, I'd rather lose for a whole shiload of
money right to a guy that could go on to
be great than to lose to some you know, Jimoke
for a lot less money, so Gassi of at least
gonna cash in. And you know, if he lands, I
don't care if you're if you're who you are, if
you're Puola, if you're Atama, whoever you are, or if Moroc
Gassi of lands, you know, his best shot man, he
can do some damage. So we'll see if they actually
get that fight made, unless the Tama goes another direction,
because he also could perhaps pursue a you know, a
mandatory with one of the other organizations. But it feels
like that's a fight that they could make because Gassi
of you know, there's not like some natural fighter out
there that can bring him a ton of money. And
if you go and fight a Tom in England's.
Speaker 2: That's a seven figure pay day in England.
Speaker 1: Absolute gotta be so stay tuned on whether that can happen.
And also, I don't know if the fight fans have
heard this, but Nico Ali Walsh is the grandson of
Muhammad Ali.
Speaker 3: Is that right?
Speaker 1: I like to point you and I like to point
that out whenever we bring him up, because it's not
said enough, it's not promoted enough.
Speaker 2: He was on this card and he was also victorious.
Speaker 4: This was a you know the reason I put that
on the rundown, not just because it's Niko Ali wash
the grand son of Mhammad all that kids, you hadn't heard.
It was a really good fight. It was a sixth rounder.
He's a middleweight and he fought a very entertaining fight,
and you know, he got a you got you got
to win a decision victory was he was competitive, but
I felt like he was clearly the winner of the fight.
And this was a fun fight. I can't think the
fighter he fought was a fighter from originally from Uganda
who was based in Dubai, whose first name is Jeremiah
and the last name is So Where to sa.
Speaker 2: So, where to Sata tomato tomato?
Speaker 4: But yeah, exactly so he won the fight. Nick Nico
Ali watched fifty nine to fifty five and fifty eight
fifty six twice and it was a it was a
like I said, a very fun fight to watch. And
he's staying active. He's coming off the draw that he
had just had like about I don't know, maybe six
weeks or eight weeks ago where he fought on the
on the card that took place that celebrated the anniversary
of the fiftieth anniversary of the Thriller in Manila, where
he got a draw on that card that was headlined
by the strawweight World Championship fight involving Melvin Jerusalem.
Speaker 3: So here you have.
Speaker 4: You know, the one thing we can say that he's
similar to his grandfather in terms of boxing, maybe not
so much in his ability for his skills, but that
he's going around the world and he's fighting wherever, because
he's now fought plenty times in America. He fought this
fight here in the UAE, he had that fight I
just mentioned, in the Philippines, he had fought I think
two fights. He's had in various places in Africa. So
he's going all over the place. And you know, I
give the kid credit. He's in a tough spot that
this spotlight's constantly on him. He may not develop or
probably won't develop into you know, forget about you know,
his grandfather, but even a top contender for that matter.
But he's put in the work. And you know what,
the kid made a hell of a fight against He.
Speaker 2: Got to win, and he got to win.
Speaker 1: On the weekend, all right, some fight news, Okay, So
Anthony Joshua, Jake Paul Fight Week this week, but not
to be outdone, Turkey al Chic has released it on
social media and has been talking.
Speaker 2: About this that hey, we have a deal.
Speaker 1: The not retired Tyson Fury will apparently fight Anthony Joshua
in twenty twenty six, but we have some variables.
Speaker 4: Go ahead, Okay, So this is the thing. As you mentioned,
we got the Friday fight between Joshua and Jake Paul.
As we sit here today, you and me and anybody
else that has thought about this fight probably thinks that
Anthony Joshua rolls through j Paul. What's the proverbial life
through hot butter, I guess mm hmm or hot life
through butter in any event, So once that's taken care of,
then we'll hear from everybody I assume that's involved. Eddie
Hearn alluded to that in some interviews. I saw him
do that. He did up in Stockton when he was
talking about his car, but he was obviously asked about
Anthony Joshua's future. So apparently Turkey's got them on board
for a two fight deal where they'll each have a
fight and then they'll fight each other in the back
half of next year. So the plan has always sort
of been even before the Jake Paul fight came up.
This is I've written about this, everybody's written about this,
that Joshua would come back and fight whoever in February
and then they'll be supposedly a big fight in the
in the second half of the year. So I think
that's the plan. They'll fight to fight December nineteenth. If
he destroys Jake Paul the way most people think he will,
there won't be a too big of a problem from
the return to the rank February timeframe, maybe March whatever,
and then move on if he wins that to some
type of like Folish September type fight against Fury, and Fury,
wh will have been out of the ring for over
a year, probably will want to come back and take
a tune up fight or something or other, get paid,
and then if wins, move on to the big fight
against Anthony Joshua at the end of twenty twenty six.
And obviously that is the fight that you and I
have talked about, that everybody in boxing has talked about
that should happen, even more so than when we talked
about Deontay Wilder against Tyson Theory and so we will
see hopefully that will get done. And like we've discussed
many times, they may not be what they were at
their best. They are no longer champions. They're certainly closer
to retirement than certainly in their primes. But for the
sake of the history books, this is a fight that
must happen. You cannot go through your long careers and
the two best heavyweights in Britain for a long period
of time, who had titles and were back and forth
and never fight each other, they got to do the fight,
and hopefully that's what we'll see in twenty twenty six.
Whatever the stakes are.
Speaker 2: Well and that's provided.
Speaker 1: I mean, we got again the injury variable is still
there for Anthony Joshua and I'm not doing this for
the preview. We got a preview upcoming with Jake Paul,
so we got a question mark on his elbow injury
and coming back from that. Both older Fury beaten in
his last two fights and has taken.
Speaker 2: A full year off.
Speaker 1: We'll see lots of variables in play, but at least
for now, Turkey Alischik's gonna follow through with Joshua and
Fury at some point in twenty twenty six. All right,
you mentioned earlier about the options at cruiserweight with Michalean winning,
with Jai Opataia wanting a unification fight. So now Zerdo
Ramirez was to have had a fight in January, but
that may not be happening now before he fights David Benavetez.
Speaker 2: What have you learned?
Speaker 4: So I talked to people that are directly in bob
with this event, and so Golden Boy is ready to
go with their January sixteenth event.
Speaker 3: We've discussed it.
Speaker 4: When they made the rematch between Curio and Alexis Rocha,
they had a fantastic fight that was I think it
was a year ago today actually that we're taping this
where they put on a tremendous battle turned out to
be a draw to you know, good weltirweight contenders. And
so they're doing the rematch on January sixteenth in Palm Desert, California.
And the idea was with Zerdo Ramirez having had the
victory against Dordacost that you were at back in June,
he then underwent he had a suffered a shoulder injury
in that fight. He had surgery to repair that.
Speaker 3: In July.
Speaker 4: He was going to be out until the end of
the year, and it would you know, try to come
back in the early part of twenty twenty six. And
so the plan sort of in pencil was Zerdo will
come back and fight on that card, perhaps even in
the headliner if they change it up, because he's I
did find it weird that they would have the unified
cruiserweight title holder fighting on an undercard of a non
title fight where it's not like one guy is the
massive crowd favorites all all the tickets. You know, Rocha
draws a crowd, but Zerdo would draw a crowd as
a champion for a type of fight like that anyway,
But anyway, they would put him on the show, whether
main event or otherwise. And the name that was said
to me and others was that he would fight the
other another Golden Boy cruiserweight, Robin Safar, who was the
undefeated fighter that had kicked Sergey kovolevs Ass in Saudi
Arabia not long ago. In any event, it has come
to my knowledge as I speak to the people involved,
that Zerdo, while he wants to test the shoulder and
make sure he is sound, because remember he has signed
since for the May fight against David Benavidez. He didn't
want to go into that fight off the layoff and
off the injury without having a test now. But now
it's now time where the rubber is going to meet
the road. So he's in the process duel. I Actually
he's been training, I am told. But is he going
to take the gamble and actually fight in January? That's
still up in the air. I'm told he probably won't fight.
If he does fight, I was told unequivocally he will
not be fighting Robin so Far that I think everybody
understood that is too danger of as an opponent to
put in front of him with the.
Speaker 1: Benavide Because on the table, I saw a couple of
people that said they got to Sfar who was at
the LA show, and so Far says, we have an agreement.
Speaker 2: What do we know? Do they have a signed agreement or.
Speaker 4: So far with saying was that we're still negotiating in
it's fine for him to say that, but he's.
Speaker 1: An agreement and not being signed or two different things.
Speaker 4: But he also is not the one that has to
say no offense to so far. He's the opponent, So
they opt to change the opponent. That's that he's got
no say over that matter, as he doesn't have a
signed contract where you could, you know, suit them or
something like that. So if it's if I'm the one
that's the betting man, I would tell you most likely
that he probably won't fight and he'll go to the
big fight in May. And that's what makes fucking sense
because it's not like he's coming off a two year left.
He'll have been out of the ring for about what
eleven months? Right in today's boxing world, for championship level fighters,
that is absolutely no big deal. If you're really worried
about your shoulder, you know what, Quietly close the gym door,
take the head gear off, bring in one of your guys,
and go for four rounds out out, you.
Speaker 3: Know what I mean.
Speaker 2: You don't need to know, and then.
Speaker 4: Then you'll know what's up. So uh, Now, if he
does go through with the fight, so be it. We'll
see who they who they dig up for him, and hopefully,
if it happens he comes out of the fight unscathed,
then we get the big fight in May. Uh and
if if if it falls apart, then shame on everybody
involved because to me, taking a dangerous tune up fight
before a big time money fight before a big time
attraction fight is just stupid business, all.
Speaker 1: Right, And we've seen that happen some even recently. Well
I've seen you've seen and you've seen it. Well, yeah,
taking the tune up fight and getting beat.
Speaker 4: By the way, the same thing can be said. What's
going on with Joshua and the Fury right now?
Speaker 2: That's correct.
Speaker 3: The fact that we.
Speaker 4: Would spend so long finally trying to get to the
point where the fight could be made and they take
to fight.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say this to you. Can we just
circle back to that for one second? Then we got
to move on.
Speaker 1: If Anthony Joshua was steam rolls Jake Paul like, we think,
why why can't the Fury fight be the next fight?
Is Fury gonna be insistent that he has to have
a fight. Why can't that be the next fight like
in the spring.
Speaker 3: Because it's just not gonna be.
Speaker 4: I think probably what it has to do with twofold
one is if you take the tune of fight, everybody
gets an extra pay day number one, uh number two.
Speaker 2: But these guys don't need that. Who cares? I mean,
they've made hundreds of millions of dollars.
Speaker 4: Yet, but that's everybody want. They always want more as
the bottom line, but I think more for putting that aside.
I think this the timing of it is. Remember this
is Turkey's calendar that he's operating with. They do their
biggest events within the context of the riad season, so
they're gonna do probably this February ish type fight, which
would be around when the when the festival is ending,
and they try to do a big event when the
festival kicks off because it runs from like late. So
it seems to me that fury Jib would happen to
kick off the next festival. That's the reason for the
timing of it, seems to me.
Speaker 1: All Right, a couple of more news items. So when
we uh left on the podcast Thursday night into Friday,
we were wondering what would happen with Oshaki Foster now
that he had gotten the WBC interim lightweight title bestowed
upon him for winning a fight that should have just
been for his title, but whatever.
Speaker 2: So now Foster's made his decision.
Speaker 4: That's but Fulton was that overweight, so that's why it
wasn't for the title.
Speaker 1: Well, but you could have still had it be for
Foster's one hundred and thirty pound title with just him
being the winner and blah blah blah whatever. All right,
So Foster had a decision to make, and Stephen Fulton
has now also made a decision since we put that
pod out, So what are the updates?
Speaker 4: Okay, So, when Foster defeated Fulton to win that interim
belt and did so in very impressive virtual shutout fashion,
when it was over here, he's sitting there with the
WBC interim lightweight title. He also was still the BBC's
junior lightweight champion. And because the organizations don't let you
hold multiple belts in different divisions, you know, unless you
make that call, you get a few weeks gracetime or
a month or whatever. They made an exception years ago
for Floyd Mayweather, but that was Floyd. He doesn't have
to play by the rules. Apparently, in any event, they
gave sho Shaky Foster fifteen days to decide am I
going to keep this belt that lightweight or am I
going to retain my belt at junior lightweight?
Speaker 3: And he didn't waste a lot of time.
Speaker 4: He didn't go to the last limit he weighed, you know,
less than a week and told the WBC, I'm going
to keep my belt at one hundred and thirty pounds,
and so therefore he vacates the title of the interim
version at one hundred and thirty five pounds. And Stephen Fulton,
who was the featherweight champion who was supposed to challenge
for the one hundred and thirty pound title but came
in two exits, passed the highway. Yeah, hundred thirty two pounds.
Clearly is not going to be able to make one
hundred and twenty six pounds any longer. So he also
vacated the featherweight title, and presumably is if he whatever
he decides to in the future, probably I would think
would still be at one thirty. That he'll he'll be
able to make one hundred and thirty. Maybe he won't,
Maybe I'll stay at one thirty five. Who that knows,
But the point is Foster keeps the belt at one thirty.
Now with the featherweight situation, Bruce Shushu Carrington is the
WBC's interim champion. Now, typically if there's a champion who
vacates and there's an interim champion, the interim champion is
automatically elevated, and that is certainly the case in the
WBA and in the IBF and the WBO. In the
case of the WBC, it's not a guarantee. Sometimes it
can be, sometimes it isn't. In this particular case, Shoes
Shoe Carrington has a fight scheduled January thirty first, probably
on the t FEMO card against Shakur lesser chance on
the Xander Zayas card in Puerto Rico on the same day,
which is also that's a top rank show.
Speaker 3: But he's going to.
Speaker 4: Fight his mandatory or the number one guy whoever, however
you want to phrase it in Carlos castro So. While
he'll be the interim champion going into the fight, they're
actually fighting for the vacant WBC featherweight title that Fulton
left behind, so at least he has to fight for it.
He won't be a just a quote unquote email champion.
He'll be able to win the vacant title in the ring,
whichever the guy guys come out of that particular fight.
And the one thing though that's interesting is that the
WBC really dodged a bullet here, a potentially extraordinarily embarrassing situation,
possibly litigation if it didn't go the way that the
promoters were expecting at the convention. A few days before
they approved the fight for the interim title between Foster
and Fulton. They had approved the fight at their convention
for the interim title between Jada Herrera, an excellent prospect
or had on my top prospects list at the end
of last year, Who's a Queensberry fighter against Ricardo Duniez
for the interim title vacant interim title even though it
was unnecessary to begin with. Nonetheless, they had approved it
was going to be January tenth on the undercart of
your boy g Cabiel's German homecoming fight in the WBC
interim heavyweight title. But then they approved the Foster Fulton fight.
So Foster wins that interim belt. What if he decided
to keep it? They had already approved and stipulated that
the other fighters that title, So what are they going
to make two interim titles? So they dodged a bullet
because Foster just was, you know, decided to give it up.
I'm actually very curious what would have happened if he
had actually kept it.
Speaker 2: Well, thing if benj to just to have the number
one contender.
Speaker 4: Him and well, TJ stop making so much sense.
Speaker 1: Exactly, all right, So that is resolved, by the way,
while we're here, you have also you mentioned to us
that Richardson Hitchinson Richardson Hitchins exclude excuse me, was likely
to be on the January thirty first card. You have
more on that off the weekend. Here, what's the latest
about Hitchins on this Tea Femo Shakor card.
Speaker 4: So he will be on the card, opponent his TV
and now so he'll be defending his IBF title, which
is not a surprise to me at all. He had
been a free agent, but they had a relationship with
Turkey and you know who was obviously the one backing
the show, but the official promoter of the event is
mattrom Boxing. Of course, when he fought his last fight
and he knocked out George Cambosis, he was a free
agent because that was his last fight. But what Eddie
Hearn took exception to, because Eddie's a little sensitive sometimes,
is that when Richardson did his interview with his own
post fight, he said I'm now a free agent, and
that irritated Eddie, who had ample time, by the way,
to resign him at any point leading up to the fight,
but regardless, so they had their back and forth between
Hitchins and Eddie and Eddie and Hitchens manager is Keith
Connolly and Connolly and and Eddie and whatever. But apparently
when they were having the press conference for Shakhor and
Tiafimo in New York City last week, Eddie and Connolly
sat down and met with each other. They brought Richardson
in to also meet with them, and they had done. Listen,
whatever you think they have, there's a lot of strong
personalities in that room. They understand that they all benefited
from each other, and they decided it was best to
not break up the band. And so Richardson is back
with Eddie at least for the time being. And the
first fight of this new arrangement is going to take
place on this undercard, and that makes logical sense putting
the promotional aspect aside. Is here you have a brash,
talented fighter like Richardson Hitchins defending his one hundred and
forty pound title. He is a New Yorker, and the
main event, by the way, happens to be in the
same way class and so if you're trying to set
up future fights, even if it's not the next fight,
you give him visibility and exposure and watch him defend
his title on the same card where the number one
champion and tia Fimo was taken on, you know, arguably
the top lightweight.
Speaker 1: And as you said the other night, he's a draw
to a degree in New York. He's got a following.
So all of this makes sense. It all lines up.
Everybody figured it out. So opponent TBA, you'll hear him
that soon. And if I had to wager, the guy
that's on the pod with me will have it on
the fight Preach United, Substack or on one of the
names that.
Speaker 3: Was one of the rumored names.
Speaker 4: And you know, I've been at one point you hear, okay,
this is the guy then here, Well it's probably not
going to be the guy now here again, Well, maybe
it'll be the guy one of the names that's been
very prominent in terms of who he'll fight. I don't
know if it's actually gonna happen, but is Jermaine Ortiz,
who has certainly been in the ring with good fighters.
He gave Vasili Lomachenko one of his toughest fights, even
though he lost a decision. I thought he beat t
Fimo Lopez the night they fought. He lost a very,
very razor close decision that night. I thought he won
that fight, as horrible of a fight as that was.
So that's one guy that's possibly is going to get
this assignment. We'll see who else they come up with.
Speaker 1: And one other note, and I'm intrigued by this fight
that you have on the sheet here. WBA Featherweight champion
Nick Ball will make his latest defense in the new
year on February seventh.
Speaker 2: Tell me about the opponent. What are the deats here?
Speaker 3: I'm going to give you the t is that we're
talking about me the.
Speaker 1: T spill the tea right here, right now, Nick Ball,
this intriguing fight. Tell the public.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 4: So back in like late October, I want to say,
or mid October, the WB ordered his mandatory defense, which
is against Brandon Figueroa, the former featherweight and junior featherweight titleer.
He had won a title eliminator. Off the top of
my head, I want to say it was on the
Manny pac Yao Mario Barrios undercard that took place in
July was at the fight, but I don't remember if
that was the show.
Speaker 3: It was at any event.
Speaker 4: He escaped with a victory in that particular fight, and
they ordered the mandatory and so they didn't have to
go through a lot of nonsense. They want to quickly
make the deal and U just in the last couple
of days, Frank Warde announced that that fight will in
fact headline on his own February seventh. It will take
place at the M and S Bank Arena in Nick
Ball's hometown of Liverpool, where he's going to be fighting
yet again. It's like a fortress Roomy's fault or now
if this will be I think his third fighter's third
defense there. He's fought there earlier in his career, I guess,
But I'm talking about as a champion and uh, figure
out will make the trip from the United States to
go to England to do the fight.
Speaker 3: And it's a good name.
Speaker 4: I mean, figure out has got accomplishment, he's gotten some
good wins. He's been in the ring twice with Steven Fulton,
He's fought some other good opponents and Nick Ball always
comes to fight, very exciting fighter, and look.
Speaker 3: It's a real fight I mean, I think Figure like
this matchup.
Speaker 4: I definitely think Figure is gonna have to step his
game up from the way he's looked at his last
couple of fights. But it's not like he's not capable
of winning the fight. And certainly Nick Ball is capable
of winning the fight. You got to give him a
little bit of a of a cushion because he's at home.
But uh, this is not one of those hand picked
you know jimos as I say, where you just bring
the guy in and you get an appearance fight. This
seems to be on paper like a legitimate fight compared
to I'm not talking about nick Ball in particular. I
just mean certain times when the champion goes and has
a hometown fight and they try to find like the
least guy they can get away with.
Speaker 3: This is not that case.
Speaker 4: Brandon Figueroa not only is he the mandatory, but he's
a if you believe he won the last fight as
close as it was, he's a legitimate mandator. This guy
with some accomplishment, and he's been in with the ring
with a lot of good guys, and he's got a big.
Speaker 2: Name, all right. So that's for February. There you go.
That's a full show.
Speaker 1: As we head now to Jake Joshua Fight week and
I say again, be on this podfeed because we're gonna
do a special podcast with my guys in England, Ricky Carroll,
the managing editor at Big Fight Weekend dot Com, David Payne,
who's a contributor, the boxing writer, to see what they're
saying over there about this fight coming in Miami on
Friday night. Once again, you're gonna be with me a
bunch Dan Rayfield Wednesday, Dan bet Us Boxing Show Wednesday
that will be one Eastern time on their platforms again
no longer on YouTube, bet USTv, on kick dot com,
on the Rumble app, as well as Twitter X with
the bet Us platforms, you'll see us Wednesday one Eastern time.
You will get a full pod preview on this pod
feed right here, this audio podfeed Thursday night into Friday,
and then is if you haven't been with me enough,
Big Dan, be with me after the fight card in
Miami on Netflix Friday night late, probably not before midnight
Eastern time, maybe even later than that. You and I'll
recap whatever happens with Jake Joshua and the rest of
the fight card off of Netflix Friday night on our
YouTube page exclusively Big Fight Weekend YouTube page. Go there
be there be subscribed up, help us out. Other than that,
I think we're good to get this Fight week rolling.
They need to follow and subscribe to this podfeed. They
need to be on your newsletter and on the substack.
Subscribe up. You've still got the holiday sale in progress.
So other than that, I think we're good here for
the week and we're ready to start talking Jake, Paul, Anthony,
Joshua and whatever this is gonna.
Speaker 3: Be coming, whatever this is gonna be, we don't know.
Speaker 1: We don't know what this is gonna be. Stay tuned.
We might think we know, and then then again it's boxing.
Uh standards our as our.
Speaker 4: The legendary Larry Merchant calls it thet very much. So
I think a lot of us think this is going
to be the expected and maybe will be proven wrong.
Speaker 1: Maybe may be proven wrong, but this is what he
meant all of those years ago. The unexpected sometimes happens, uh,
And stay tuned, all right, Big Dan, have.
Speaker 2: A good week.
Speaker 1: They search up with you later in the week, obviously
on the bet Us Show first and then on this
pod feat Thursday in the preview mode as well. I'm
merely tj Reefs. You've been with us on the Fight
Preaching Night Recap podcast