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Speaker 1: Don't Countdown is on to fight Time.

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Speaker 2: This is Big Fight weekend. Now here is your host,

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DJ Leaves. Yes, indeed, we get ready for a ring

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magazine to his own pay per view main event, Mario

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Barrios and Ryan Garcia for the WBC welterweight title. We're

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ready to preview that. We're ready to preview the two

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junior wel toweight world title fights that are on the

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undercard as well as that whole pay per view. We've

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got an intriguing junior lightweight rematch in England earlier on Saturday,

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US time plus Claressa Shields is back Sunday. We've got

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a barrage of fights to go over and plenty of

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fight news as well. It is the big fight wee

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can preview pod. I am the somewhat capable host. TJ Reeves. Hello,

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Dan Rayfield from Fight Preach, to Night to Substack and

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the newsletter. He's our insider. Always love getting to chop

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it up with you. We get ready for this weekend,

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and you've already done great leg work because on the

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pod feed they heard from Mario Barrios. You're one on

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one with him prior to the Garcia fight. You heard

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from Richardson Hitchens if you were on the pod feed

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as he gets ready for his title defense in the

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co feature with Oscar Duarte. Intriguing fight that we're about

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to talk about. How are you as you've been hustling

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and we're getting ready now for this show. We're within

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as we released this pod, we're within the forty eight

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hours now of the fight card getting under way in Vegas.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, we got a big like you mentioned, all those

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fights we got come up. It's several notable fights on

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this card and then good fight in the UK Claressa

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back in an Action on Sunday. We're back into the

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groove after I think somewhat of a slow start to you.

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I've had some big fights between you know, we had

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Chicora and Tiafimo and now we got this card. We've

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got some other stuff coming up, so we're getting back

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into the groove.

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Speaker 2: We do, we do have business. We have, We have

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lots to go over. Thank you for finding us. Make

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sure you're following subscribing Apple, Spreaker, Spotify here on the

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pod feed. Also find the Big Fight Weekend YouTube page.

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You can see Dan with Mario Barrios and Richardson Hitchins,

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if you so desire, on the pod feed, we also

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have great nostalgia.

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Speaker 1: On the YouTube channel.

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Speaker 2: On the YouTube channel, excuse me, on the YouTube channel,

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forgive me subscribe like us there, rate us there, review

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us there because you've got great nostalgia on the YouTube

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channel as well. That's good any time to go back

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and relive some of these great moments, and we do

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occasional live stuff there as well, different than the pod feed.

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All right, let's get into it. You did interview Mario Barrios.

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I've seen plenty of Ryan Garcia the full disclosure. They've

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not completed the press conference. So if somebody picked up

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a chair like the WWF and slung it at somebody,

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Rayfield and I don't know that right now. While we're

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taping the pod, we hoped everybody behaved. I think the

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Joe Goosen stuff's getting totally overblown, but you never know

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with Ryan Garcia because he used to be his trainer

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for a fight and now he's Barrios's. Yeah, there you go.

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So we have the fight approaching. Give me your thoughts

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now as we get closer. There are a lot of unknowns.

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Barrios's last two fights have been draws. Garcia, we don't

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know what we're getting after what we saw on his

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last outing where he also had an injury and lost.

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So what do you think here about this?

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Speaker 1: Look, we know what Mario Barrios brings to the table.

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We've seen him plenty of times. He's very consistent, he's

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very good. He's not great, but he he I always

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look at like this. He's like the B talent with

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the A plus work ethic and effort, and Ryan Garcia

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is like the A talent but a lesser grade in

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the effort. So if I was scouting boxing and I

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could pick my guys, I'm always wanted to take the

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guy with the B talent but the supreme work ethic

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and heart and desire, as opposed to the guy with

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the A talent who doesn't live up to the potential

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because he doesn't work as hard as he should and

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doesn't have the proper mentality. So that's why I can

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absolutely see Mario Barrius winning this fight because but you know,

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the true thing we're gonna find out is this is

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not about Barrios, because, like I said, he's like a metronome.

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He comes to fight, he's in good shape, he gives

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the effort sometimes, uh you know, he makes things close because,

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as you mentioned, the two fights he's had in his

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recent defenses were both draws. The gigantic wildcard, which we

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just have no idea what to expect is which Ryan

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Garcia shows up. Is it the dynamic guy that's in

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shape physically and mentally, or is it the guy that's

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got eight thousand things going on outside the ring and

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is distracted and you know, isn't maybe in the best

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condition and you know, is not doing drugs or drinking

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or performance enhancing drugs. I mean, you just don't know

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what's going to show up. I've seen some of the

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videos of his preparation for this fight that they post

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now that you have to take with the grain of

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salt because he's controlling what's being put out. But it

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looks like he's fucking training in his living room. It

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reminds like when Julio cesar Chobs was training for, you know,

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some of his big fights and Freddie Road. You wouldnt even

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come to the Jimmy Freddi Roach would go to his

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house and they would move the couch out of the

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way and set up an area on the fucking on

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the floor to do their to dontwork and all that business. So, uh,

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you know, Ryan, all due respect, his father, Henry Garson

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started in that one boxing, but Henry Garcy is not

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an elite professional boxing trainer. Uh. And that's who Ryan's

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trainer is for this fight. It's not a Joe goosen

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Er some of the other you know, a Derek James

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or some of the other you know, truly top nots

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professional trainers that have worked with you know a number

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of quality fighters. So I don't know which one is

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showing up. He's coming off of a performance hancing drug

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suspension after the Devin Hainey fight in his return that

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took place last uh is what June. I guess it

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was May May May At the time he didn't show up.

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He had a sleep walk through a decision loss and

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a shitty fight against Roly Romero for a title belt.

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You know, did have an injury, but plenty of guys

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have fought through, fought through hind injuries if all things

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are taken equal. So here's the reality. I'm not opposed

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to the match as far as like the potential for

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it to actually be good, because if Ryan is in

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shape and Barrios. We know he comes in good shape.

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It could be a fun fight. But let's just be honest.

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Ryan Garcia does not deserve this title opportunity. He's coming

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off of a suspension for drugs and he's coming off

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of a defeat where he looked shitty. It's not like

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it was a great fight and it was a close loss.

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I'm like, you can see him getting the opportunity. He's

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coming off a non performance and a non effort in

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a terrible fight where he got knocked down and then

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the WBC unsuspended him because he said all kinds of

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terrible racist things and you know, anti gay things, and

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you name it. It's boxing, it's business, and he brings

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supposedly a big crowd. Although I must tell you spend

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two seconds looking at the ticket mamithest any of your

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ticket broker sites or on the you know, the second.

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Speaker 2: Market, the secondary market too, not even not even.

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Speaker 1: The secondary market, the first what is it? The first?

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The primary market? The primary we did.

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Speaker 2: If you went through, you just go on through the arena. Well,

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I mean, the one thing I keep thinking when you're

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saying this is we're not talking about the Ryan Garcia

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of like twenty nineteen, twenty twenty one. At this point,

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after having lost to Jervonte Davis, the mess with the pds,

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and and even though he won the fight in the ring,

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being basically stripped of that victory and suspended for a year,

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and then how awful he looked a year ago. There

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there are serious question marks about what we really have

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anymore legitimately, about whether or not this guy has championship

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level talent. Is he ever going to be championship level

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talent at this point.

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Speaker 1: He had the one fight in twenty twenty four, that

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was the no contest with Haney. He had the one

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fight in twenty twenty five, the shit fight against Romero.

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He's got this fight against Mario coming up on Saturday.

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You know, he hasn't really looked good. I mean, even

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though he officially got in no contest. You know, he

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did have his hand raised on the night against Hany,

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but we all know that that was partially you have

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to acknowledge the depositive drug test. The last time he

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actually looked good was in December twenty twenty three, when

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he scored an eighth round knockout against Oscar Dwart. They

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were going to talk about Hi Minu, who was on

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the undercard. That's a wind that actually is sort of

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aging pretty well. So I will give him credit for

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that was his bounce back fight after you know, he

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decided to quit on his knee against Travonta Davis in

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their fight in a big, humungous fight in twenty twenty three.

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So the upshot here on this one is, I know

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what I'm probably gonna get from Mario Barrios a steady, consistent,

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good effort, maybe not ultra dynamic, but a guy that's

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going to be in shape, and you know, has done

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his homework. And obviously I don't think having Joe Goosen

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in his corner is a bad thing. I think Joe

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is a great trainer, and the fact that he's extraordinarily

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familiar with Ryan can't hurt. But the giant question mark,

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I'll go back to it, it's what are we going

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to get from Ryan Garcia? That is the only intrigue.

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It seems as though the public is not the most

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intrigued by it, just from the mere fact that the

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tickets are dead. That's just a fact. I got an

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email blast from Golden Boy Promotions offering fifty percent off

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tickets you know, on the you know, the primary market,

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if you will.

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Speaker 2: Not not exactly a good sign the week of the fight.

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Speaker 1: Right, and they put it in a big building. It's

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in the Team Mobile Arena, which is a cavernous arena

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that's hosted the biggest fights in boxing. While this is

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not I'm not saying this is a bad it's a

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good card actually because you know, even if you like

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the main event or you don't like the man event,

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the rest of the cards quality. But again, it's a

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humongous building that they're putting it in, and to be

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quite honest, there hasn't been a tremendous amount of buzz

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for it. In fact, I found it very strange. Now

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I've covered a thousand pay per view type fights in

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Las Vegas, and you know, typically, you know, you've got

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your arrivals on Tuesday, there'll be a press conference on Wednesday,

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maybe the workouts on Tuesday or Wednesday, they'll do an

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undercard press conference on Thursday. Uh, there'll be obviously the

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way in on Friday, they'll do trainer round tables, they'll

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do all kinds of different, uh, you know, different promotional activities,

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and of course on the day of the fight is

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the fight. Their fight week schedule for this event didn't

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even start until today. There was no official arrivals, there

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was no workouts that I'm aware of, There was no

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under card press. They have Thursday press conference, which I

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guess is for the entire card, followed by right and

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then the fight on Saturday. That's so we tea.

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Speaker 2: We can pretty well say at this moment, because we've

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been doing this for a while, that this is almost

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like going through the motions type situation, and maybe they

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know this is not going to be huge crowd, huge

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pay per view and whatever it is it is, and

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they're kind of it is certainly not a Canelo fight

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weekend in Las Vegas. Nobody's even suggesting anything like that, right,

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a mega fight, not.

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Speaker 1: Even a Tank Davis Frank Mark and fight week promotion

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or David Benavetez against David Morrell type of promotion. So

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I'm not sure why, you know, they say what a

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big superstar Ryan Garcia is, you know, and I think

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I think they have to.

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Speaker 2: I think it's wrong. I think it was. I don't

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think it is. I think it's was with Garcia. It's

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a was thing.

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Speaker 1: The only metric that they are amazing. That on is

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the fact that he's got ten million or whatever followers

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on Instagram, and that does not a star maker. A

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star is when you sell seats and when you sell

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pay per view, and he has not done that except

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for the Tank fight, right.

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Speaker 2: And by the way, you win, and you win big,

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and then and then you you fight frequently. While you

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win big, I'm getting on my soapbox now. And then

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that then the public demands they want to see more.

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We haven't seen that, all right.

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Speaker 1: This DJ, the boxing public is well aware that he

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lost his last fight and looked like shit and came

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up with a positive drug test and misweight in the

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fight before that.

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Speaker 2: So there you go, all right, So now we'll he just.

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Speaker 1: The kind of ignored that basically.

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Speaker 2: And that leads us to the co feature. And I'm

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actually a little intrigued by both of these fights, because, gee,

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we've done this enough. You lay it out, we talk

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about it. We got two junior well toweight world champs

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in separate fights on the same card. The possibilities are

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out there that they could end up fighting each other,

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maybe depending on how they look. So stay tuned for this,

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and let's see what happens here with Richardson Hitchins and

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Oscar Duarte in fight number one. That's the IBF Junior

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welterweight title that Hitchins has. You talked to him earlier

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in the week. You mentioned Duarte, who recently fought Ryan Garcia.

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You know about a year and a half ago or so,

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all right, what are your twenty twenty three? Yes, so

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give me actually about two and a half years ago.

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Give me your thoughts here on what we suspect for

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Hitchens and Garcia or Duarte.

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Speaker 1: Well, these are good matchups. You mentioned two junior welterweight

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title fights between Hitchins and Duart. Team we'll get to

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Gary Antewon Russell and Andy Heroka. The mandatory look. We

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all know after what happened a couple of weeks ago

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that the Junior Wealthyweight World champ Dellennial Champion as well

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as holding the w BO BELTI show course Stevenson, so

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he's number one. But these guys are real guys in

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the division. So Hitchins, he he was a guy. I

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think that a lot of people, I would say they

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overlooked him, but they kind of maybe looked down on

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him a little bit because and he and I talked

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about this inn the interview that you referenced, because he

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wasn't maybe the most exciting guy, but he boxed beautifully.

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He won all of his fights pretty handily at boxing,

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great amateur background as an olympian, but he really showed

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a lot of ability to go forward and to make

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it crowd pleasing and also still be responsible on defense.

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And this is back in June when he absolutely demolished

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George Cambosis in his first title defense. Now, I know

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George Cambosis was as a lightweight champion, hasn't done much

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as a junior welterweight and was kind of on the

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back side of his career, but nobody ever did that

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to George Cambosis. So that was a big feather in

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his cap. And now he's going in the ring against

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you know, a very credible fighter in Oscar Duarte. So yeah,

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Oscar lost the fight when he fought against Ryan Garcia,

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you know, a tough loss rohim. That was in December

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of twenty twenty three, a very solid victory, a decision

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where he looked pretty good against Battier achmadav who was

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an Olympian who was a very good fighter. And a

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legit contender. He thought Miguel Madueno was not a bad contender,

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maybe not an elite, but a pretty solid guy. He

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beat him. That was a pretty good performance. He knocked

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Hi out in the seventh round. And then he got

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what I think is probably his biggest win of his career,

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and that was in August of last year. He scored

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a twelve round decision going to the hometown of Chicago

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of Kenneth Simms Junior, who was a very good fighter contender,

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and he won a unanim He won a majority decision

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against him in Kenny Simms's hometown. So Duarte take whatever

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you want from the Garcia knockout loss. Anybody can get

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caught by Ryan Garcia's left hook, but he's put together

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a very solid four fight streak and he's he's compared

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to a lot of fighters in boxing. He's earned this

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title opportunity. This is nobody's handing. And this is not

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Ryan Garcia being served up a championship fight on a

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silver platter having done nothing to earn it. This is

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this is a quality guy in Duarte going out there

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and taking care of business over a recent period of

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time and earning the fight. He'll be there to fight

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with Richardsonichens. My question is is he athletic enough, is

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he quick enough? Is he defensive enough to avoid you know,

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the problems that the Hitchens is going to give them,

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both on offense and on defense. Because if Richard Hitchins

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shows up the way he did against Cambosis and is

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even mildly offensive minded, and we know already about his

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great boxing technique and his defense, it's gonna be a

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tough night for Kennison for Oscar Duarte if he's able

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to land anything solid at Hitchins. If he does, maybe

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he can give him some problems because de Warte is

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a pretty solid puncher, so to me, you know we

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talked about in the main event, this is not about Barrios.

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It's about which version of Ryan Garcia shows up. For me,

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this co feature between Hitchens and Duarte is what are

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we going to get out of Duarte? I feel like

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I know what I can get at Richards and Hitchins.

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Is Duarte going to be there on his best to

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be able to show the type of performances he has

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shown in those victories I mentioned to you before.

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Speaker 2: And in Hitchins case you mentioned the stoppage with Cambosa's

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He had been a distance fighter in the previous four wins,

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including the getting the championship victory over Liam Parro prior

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to that. So it doesn't have a ton of knockouts,

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but is definitely crafty and obviously the favorite here in

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this and there are big things riding on this fight,

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and there's no doubt about that. There's there's a chance

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at unification obviously straight ahead, if Hitchins can follow through.

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Say a little more about that.

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Speaker 1: Real quick well, he mentioned in the interview that we

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did that his management, his team has talked about the

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possibility of if he is the winner of potentially a

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unification with Dalton Smith, who is from Britain, who had

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won the WBC title, coming to New York recently and

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getting a big win against Sabreal Matias. So that would

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obviously be intriguing. Look one hundred and forty pound way class.

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You know, as I mentioned before, the king of the

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Hill right now is of course Stevenson based on the

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victory against Tia Fim Lopez, but there's still lots of

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other good guys. Tf Mo Lopez is still there even

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if he lost the fight. Dalton Smith, I said, won

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the WBC belt. We're gonna talk about Gary Antonine Russell,

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who's in the other fight on this card. Do you

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still have guys like Isaac Pitt Bull Cruz who's holding

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an interim title. I mean there's there's names and you know,

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good fighters in this division, and a victory by Hitchins

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puts him in the mix for any of those guys.

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He also talked about possibly going up to wellweight. Furthermore,

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he is going to have to address at some point

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his mandatory defense. And a good thing about Hitchins is

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mandatory defense. It's not against a complete nobody. It's against

359
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Landolfel doll Got was a Mexican Olympian that's been winning

360
00:18:02,559 --> 00:18:04,640
and you know, has an exciting style. He's a top

361
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rank fighter, or fought not that long ago on a

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card in Mexico. So there's all kinds of opportunities for Hitchins,

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whether it's at one hundred and forty to unify it's

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the mandatory, perhaps it's a step up to one forty seven.

365
00:18:15,599 --> 00:18:17,440
But at first, for the first things, first, he's not

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in This is not a showcase fight. Sometimes it's easy

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to look ahead because you got a guy in front

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of you that's got no shot, Oscar Duarte. Well, he

369
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is certainly the underdog and should be. This is not

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a no hope or type of event. This is a

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fight where a quality performance by Duarte might be able

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to get the job done.

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Speaker 2: Okay, that's the cod feature and Junior Welterweight Championship one

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hundred and forty pound title fight number one, Title fight

375
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number two. Is a guy that hasn't been nearly as

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active as he should be. But then again, he comes

377
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from a lineage of brothers that don't fight it awful lot,

378
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Gary Antwan Russell. He is fighting for the WBA Junior

379
00:18:54,160 --> 00:18:58,599
Welterweight Championship, defending it that he has against Andy Heroica.

380
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All right, so tell me about this again. Russell's got talent.

381
00:19:03,599 --> 00:19:05,720
We just haven't seen a lot of him. Give me

382
00:19:05,720 --> 00:19:06,039
your thought.

383
00:19:06,119 --> 00:19:09,480
Speaker 1: Russell has prodigious talent. I mean he was an Olympian.

384
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He comes from a great fighting family. His brother was

385
00:19:12,440 --> 00:19:15,960
the very talented but extraordinarily an act of Gary Russell Junior.

386
00:19:17,359 --> 00:19:20,279
This is a guy that knows how to fight, and

387
00:19:20,359 --> 00:19:24,920
compared to Gary Russell, his brother Gary Antoine is blessed

388
00:19:24,960 --> 00:19:28,279
with much more punching power that you know, Gary Gary

389
00:19:28,359 --> 00:19:31,039
Junior was a fantastic is a fantastic boxer. You know

390
00:19:31,079 --> 00:19:34,039
when he decides to get in the ring. Russell, now

391
00:19:34,119 --> 00:19:36,359
this particular layoff to these hats. So his last fight,

392
00:19:36,640 --> 00:19:38,440
but you go back two let's go back two fights

393
00:19:38,440 --> 00:19:43,039
to go. He lost a split decision in a WBC

394
00:19:43,160 --> 00:19:46,039
interim title fight to Alberto Fueyo that was considered a

395
00:19:46,039 --> 00:19:49,160
big upset. It was a split decision. He returned from

396
00:19:49,240 --> 00:19:52,559
that fight not quite a year later and he had

397
00:19:52,559 --> 00:19:55,880
a big unanimouscision to win over Jose Valezuela. That was

398
00:19:55,920 --> 00:19:59,079
a victory to win this WBA belt. Now, he was

399
00:19:59,079 --> 00:20:01,279
supposed to be a little acted because he was originally

400
00:20:01,319 --> 00:20:03,559
scheduled to have this fight. Who was supposed to be

401
00:20:04,079 --> 00:20:07,720
back when Tank Davis and Jake Paul were supposed to fight.

402
00:20:08,160 --> 00:20:10,559
Obviously we know what happened there. Part of making the

403
00:20:10,599 --> 00:20:14,480
deal with with Tank and Jake Paul was that PBC

404
00:20:14,680 --> 00:20:16,640
got the chance to put one of their fights on

405
00:20:16,680 --> 00:20:21,119
that card, which was this Gary Antelin Russell mandatory. When

406
00:20:22,440 --> 00:20:25,480
Tank Davis's problems mounted and he was dropped from the

407
00:20:25,519 --> 00:20:29,839
fight because of his domestic violence legal issues. When they

408
00:20:29,880 --> 00:20:33,319
rescheduled Jake to fight a month later. Three weeks later,

409
00:20:33,359 --> 00:20:36,279
whatever it was against Anthony Joshua, the PBC fight was

410
00:20:36,279 --> 00:20:38,440
gone because they were no longer involved. So he's had

411
00:20:38,480 --> 00:20:41,319
to wait to get this fight. Now he's got it now.

412
00:20:41,559 --> 00:20:44,000
The good thing is there was a lot of trepidation

413
00:20:44,200 --> 00:20:47,880
in the last few days because Heroka he didn't have

414
00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:51,640
his his FISA had not been set by the embassy there.

415
00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:52,960
They had done the paper work, but.

416
00:20:53,400 --> 00:20:56,480
Speaker 2: Key part of being able to participate in the pay

417
00:20:56,519 --> 00:20:58,920
per view Saturday night, you gotta be able to get

418
00:20:58,920 --> 00:21:01,359
into the country Raphae exactly.

419
00:21:01,720 --> 00:21:05,319
Speaker 1: So Fortunately, and I was checking on this earlier today

420
00:21:05,359 --> 00:21:09,160
as a matter of fact, that Heroca is. I guess

421
00:21:09,160 --> 00:21:11,359
he's here or he got here or was about to

422
00:21:11,400 --> 00:21:13,759
get here. But he's he got his visa squared away,

423
00:21:13,799 --> 00:21:15,759
so the fight will be able to take place. The

424
00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:18,920
question is is it enough time for him to applimate

425
00:21:18,960 --> 00:21:20,720
to get because he should have been here, like you know,

426
00:21:21,240 --> 00:21:23,000
many days ago, and that was the plan, but it

427
00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:26,519
took time to get the visa together, which is just

428
00:21:26,559 --> 00:21:29,359
the way it is. Unfortunately happens all the time. Boxing

429
00:21:30,319 --> 00:21:32,559
people make the efforts to go get these PaperWorks done

430
00:21:32,599 --> 00:21:34,599
well well ahead of time, and it just takes forever

431
00:21:34,640 --> 00:21:37,079
sometimes because the federal government doesn't give a shit if

432
00:21:37,079 --> 00:21:38,400
you're here to be in a boxing match or not.

433
00:21:38,759 --> 00:21:41,480
You know, it's just the way it is. So thankfully

434
00:21:41,599 --> 00:21:45,200
does have the visa, he will be in the ring.

435
00:21:45,720 --> 00:21:49,079
The question is how much of it toll did the

436
00:21:48,720 --> 00:21:52,079
the anks of getting it done, the travel, it's always

437
00:21:52,079 --> 00:21:53,599
tough if you're trying to make weight, if you're going

438
00:21:53,640 --> 00:21:55,400
on those long flights. I mean, I've heard those stories

439
00:21:55,400 --> 00:21:58,400
a thousand times. But if Andy Roka's you know, in

440
00:21:58,480 --> 00:22:03,519
the proper shape and there's no other issues, it's it's still,

441
00:22:03,519 --> 00:22:05,960
in my opinion, a fight that Gary Antonine Russell should

442
00:22:05,960 --> 00:22:09,640
win pretty handily. I mean, Heroka has got a great record.

443
00:22:09,680 --> 00:22:12,720
He's twenty four and oh with nineteen knockouts. He's probably

444
00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:14,359
one of the better fighters in Japan. That's not a

445
00:22:14,359 --> 00:22:16,519
world champion at the moment. The problem is if you

446
00:22:16,559 --> 00:22:19,039
take a look at the record, there's so precious little

447
00:22:19,079 --> 00:22:20,759
on the record to merely speak of. He has a

448
00:22:20,839 --> 00:22:24,359
verst all. He hasn't fought since September of twenty twenty four,

449
00:22:24,720 --> 00:22:26,880
and that was maybe your boy, the old man Ishmael

450
00:22:26,920 --> 00:22:29,920
Barroso by a ninth round nine. Oh man. Yeah, if

451
00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:31,720
you take a look, if you take a look at

452
00:22:31,720 --> 00:22:36,200
his record, that's really the only quasi name guy that

453
00:22:36,240 --> 00:22:37,680
he ever fought. You have to go all the back

454
00:22:37,680 --> 00:22:42,160
to twenty twenty one. This was back in a Japanese

455
00:22:42,240 --> 00:22:45,799
title fight against Jin Sasaki, who gained fame because of

456
00:22:45,839 --> 00:22:49,359
the devastating knockout he took against Brian Norman and hasn't aside.

457
00:22:49,559 --> 00:22:53,240
He came back after the horrendous knockout literally today and

458
00:22:53,279 --> 00:22:55,799
Scott got a knockout in his comeback fight in Japan.

459
00:22:56,039 --> 00:22:57,599
But those are the only two guys that are even

460
00:22:57,640 --> 00:23:00,880
remotely like notable opponents. And I don't even consider Sasaki

461
00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:02,839
that big of a name if you go back five

462
00:23:02,920 --> 00:23:04,559
or six years ago when they first fought each other.

463
00:23:04,960 --> 00:23:07,359
So he's got a lot of proving to do. To me,

464
00:23:07,440 --> 00:23:09,240
Gary Antoine Russell is just going to be is a

465
00:23:09,279 --> 00:23:11,200
level ahead of him in terms of I've watched Heroca

466
00:23:11,200 --> 00:23:13,960
fight because a lot of the matches he had, he

467
00:23:13,960 --> 00:23:16,720
would show up on the undercards on the big Japanese

468
00:23:16,799 --> 00:23:19,000
cards at top rank, would bring in from teak in

469
00:23:19,039 --> 00:23:20,640
boxing that when they used to have all the shows

470
00:23:20,640 --> 00:23:23,519
on ESPN Plus. So if you pay attention to those shows,

471
00:23:23,559 --> 00:23:26,799
his fights were easy to see. But Russell's got the speed,

472
00:23:27,079 --> 00:23:29,960
He's got the pedigree as an Olympian, He's got good

473
00:23:30,039 --> 00:23:34,559
professional experience against several, you know, quality opponents, whether it's

474
00:23:34,599 --> 00:23:37,839
Valan Zuel, La Pueo, Rancis Barthelmy, Victor postol at Me,

475
00:23:37,960 --> 00:23:40,720
go on and on. So the proof's going to be

476
00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:42,240
in which Heroca shows up. Can he land the big

477
00:23:42,279 --> 00:23:46,559
punch to neutralize Gary Antoine or does Gary Antoine, you know,

478
00:23:46,720 --> 00:23:48,720
play with him? That that to me is going to

479
00:23:48,759 --> 00:23:51,000
be the question. But it is an interesting fight just

480
00:23:51,039 --> 00:23:52,960
because of the physicality of Heroca.

481
00:23:53,119 --> 00:23:56,000
Speaker 2: And again when you just emphasize one more time, Gary Antoine,

482
00:23:56,039 --> 00:23:59,200
Russell has not fought since last March, eleven months ago.

483
00:23:59,480 --> 00:24:02,160
One fight in twenty twenty three, one fight in twenty

484
00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:04,599
twenty four, one fight in twenty twenty five. What does

485
00:24:04,640 --> 00:24:06,279
he have? Does it take him a while to get

486
00:24:06,319 --> 00:24:11,039
warmed up and get going or not? Stay tuned for

487
00:24:11,119 --> 00:24:13,200
that part, all right? What else here? Off of the

488
00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:16,880
preliminaries and on the night I know Frank Martin the

489
00:24:16,920 --> 00:24:19,559
ghost is back. He's on this card. Beck the Bully

490
00:24:19,599 --> 00:24:23,240
is on this card. Amari Jones, up and coming middleweight,

491
00:24:23,799 --> 00:24:26,279
former Olympian is on this card. What else intrigues you

492
00:24:26,440 --> 00:24:29,440
here on the Ring magazine to his own pay per view.

493
00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:33,000
Speaker 1: Well, I think the former olymping you mentioned is Joshua Edwards,

494
00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:36,640
the heavyweight from the United States. You know, Amari Jones,

495
00:24:36,680 --> 00:24:42,000
excellent young middleweight, a rising contender prospect, Joshua Edwards the Olympian.

496
00:24:42,559 --> 00:24:45,279
You got the Saudi Arabian junior lightweight Mohammed Akl. Those

497
00:24:45,319 --> 00:24:49,359
are the preliminary guys. But in terms of the main card,

498
00:24:49,759 --> 00:24:53,519
you mentioned Frank Martin. Look, he took a puff loss

499
00:24:53,559 --> 00:24:56,039
in a big knockout against Tank Davis in a lightweight

500
00:24:56,039 --> 00:24:58,359
title shot. He took a long layoff, I think it

501
00:24:58,359 --> 00:25:01,160
was about eighteen months or so. He came back and

502
00:25:01,240 --> 00:25:04,319
he looked absolutely spectacular. He moved up and wait for

503
00:25:04,359 --> 00:25:06,319
the fight when he when he returned from that layoff,

504
00:25:06,680 --> 00:25:10,880
and he scored a sensational knockout and really, in my opinion,

505
00:25:10,920 --> 00:25:13,400
I think anybody that was paying attention really announced his

506
00:25:13,480 --> 00:25:16,000
arrival as a junior walterweight. I mean as a as

507
00:25:16,039 --> 00:25:19,759
a real legitimate threat. He you know, ransist Barthelemy was

508
00:25:19,759 --> 00:25:21,680
the opponent he was. He's an older fighter. This was

509
00:25:21,720 --> 00:25:23,960
a fight that took place in December. This was on

510
00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:28,079
the on the Pitbull Cruise Lamont Roach undercard. He scorched

511
00:25:28,119 --> 00:25:31,440
him four rounds and absolutely devastating knockout, had him down twice,

512
00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:33,119
and you're like, you know what, this is a guy

513
00:25:33,160 --> 00:25:37,039
who really is going to benefit from those extra five pounds.

514
00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:40,000
So I'm very interested to see what he can do

515
00:25:40,039 --> 00:25:42,160
against the heir Albright. Now, Albright's not as big of

516
00:25:42,160 --> 00:25:44,839
a name as Barthelemy, but he's a more natural guy

517
00:25:44,880 --> 00:25:48,160
at the weight and he's not nearly as shop worn

518
00:25:48,240 --> 00:25:50,920
and as old and inactive as a Barthelmy has been

519
00:25:50,960 --> 00:25:53,519
through the years. So Albright, if you remember, he gave

520
00:25:53,839 --> 00:25:57,440
Keishawn Davis pretty decent fight. That was the fight that

521
00:25:57,480 --> 00:26:01,039
became a no contest because Keishawn had tested positive from marijuana.

522
00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:04,960
He then was the fighter that went and defeated Kishan's

523
00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:07,519
brother Kelvin Davis. That wound up in a melee or

524
00:26:07,559 --> 00:26:11,400
a physical confrontation when Kishon Davis and the other brother

525
00:26:11,880 --> 00:26:13,960
attacked him in the dressing room. That was back in

526
00:26:14,039 --> 00:26:16,000
June when he had that fight against Calvin Davis. He

527
00:26:16,039 --> 00:26:18,319
went to Kelvin's hometown in Norfolk, and he pulled the

528
00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:20,920
upset in a in a majority decision. And now he's

529
00:26:20,920 --> 00:26:22,880
in there with Frank Martin, and you know Frank should

530
00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:25,559
be the favorite, but here Albright is is a good

531
00:26:25,599 --> 00:26:29,519
quality professional fighter. So Frank Martin I think is the

532
00:26:29,559 --> 00:26:31,839
better fighter. He should be able to take care of business.

533
00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:34,519
To me, it's not about does he win the fight.

534
00:26:34,839 --> 00:26:38,079
It's key can he showed the kind of spectacular nature

535
00:26:38,119 --> 00:26:40,880
that he showed the way he erased Barthelomy And if

536
00:26:40,880 --> 00:26:42,920
he can do that to a guy like Nhir Albright,

537
00:26:43,279 --> 00:26:46,160
who has two losses but has not been stopped in

538
00:26:46,200 --> 00:26:49,839
either defeat, to me, that means you must now consider

539
00:26:49,880 --> 00:26:53,000
Frank Martin a bonafide contender at one hundred and forty pounds.

540
00:26:53,000 --> 00:26:54,480
He already, in my mind, he already is based on

541
00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:58,480
the way he looked in the last fight. But you

542
00:26:58,480 --> 00:27:01,279
know he's got he's got a has to do some

543
00:27:01,559 --> 00:27:04,480
damage here against all Britton and just continue to burnish

544
00:27:04,640 --> 00:27:07,079
his reputation as somebody that you're really gonna have to

545
00:27:07,079 --> 00:27:09,440
be fearful of at one hundred and forty pounds. So

546
00:27:09,839 --> 00:27:12,200
that that's that fight, and you mentioned about Beck to Bully. Now,

547
00:27:12,200 --> 00:27:15,000
Beck to Bully is in an interesting situation. He's already

548
00:27:15,039 --> 00:27:18,839
sitting there as the mandatory for the WBA in the

549
00:27:18,880 --> 00:27:22,039
super middleweight division. That fight is not happening right away,

550
00:27:22,279 --> 00:27:24,359
so he's not going to just sit around and be inactive.

551
00:27:24,359 --> 00:27:26,960
So they match him with a journeyman. His opponent in

552
00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:29,880
Senna ag Beco, who has been stopped three of his

553
00:27:29,920 --> 00:27:32,599
four losses. Honestly, if Beck to Bully is, you know,

554
00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:35,559
even decent shape, this should be it should be a

555
00:27:35,599 --> 00:27:38,599
whitewash in my mind. But he's got to stay active.

556
00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:41,799
They didn't put this high up on the card. You know,

557
00:27:41,839 --> 00:27:44,799
Beck looked really good when he when he had his

558
00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:47,880
last fight. That was the tremendous battle that he had

559
00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:50,240
against Darius Fulgen, that was the eliminator. He won a

560
00:27:50,319 --> 00:27:53,519
unanimous decision, tremendous fight. And now he's back in action

561
00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:57,000
to continue to push forward to to try to get

562
00:27:57,000 --> 00:27:57,839
the mandatory fight.

563
00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:02,599
Speaker 2: Certainly will be a busy day, there's no doubt in

564
00:28:02,680 --> 00:28:06,640
Las Vegas day and night building to that main event.

565
00:28:07,519 --> 00:28:09,119
Speaker 1: Yes, I think the best fight of the weekend might

566
00:28:09,160 --> 00:28:12,440
actually be the legal battle between Golden Boy and Virgil

567
00:28:12,559 --> 00:28:15,720
Artisa's team. They'll be in court on Friday, the day

568
00:28:15,759 --> 00:28:17,200
before the pay per view.

569
00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:19,759
Speaker 2: Yeah, that could be interesting. More on that in a

570
00:28:19,799 --> 00:28:23,680
couple of moments. So earlier in the day US time

571
00:28:24,279 --> 00:28:27,920
in England in Nottingham, England. As a matter of fact,

572
00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:32,279
Lee Wood and Josh Warrington will rematch as junior lightweight's

573
00:28:32,720 --> 00:28:38,440
twelve round battle. This is obviously significant in the UK.

574
00:28:38,839 --> 00:28:41,200
Worth the mention here, give me a couple of thoughts

575
00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:42,839
on what we're looking forward to.

576
00:28:43,960 --> 00:28:45,359
Speaker 1: Well, these are two of the better names over the

577
00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:48,799
last few years, mainly in the featherweight division of British

578
00:28:48,880 --> 00:28:52,640
rivals of course, and you mentioned it's a rematch. So

579
00:28:52,680 --> 00:28:56,799
they first fought in Sheffield, England. This is October twenty

580
00:28:56,880 --> 00:29:00,160
twenty three and Lee Wood is down on all three

581
00:29:00,200 --> 00:29:03,559
scorecards by wide margin on two of them fifty nine

582
00:29:03,599 --> 00:29:06,079
to fifty five, he's down fifty eight to fifty six

583
00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:10,200
and the third and he rallied to stop Leewood in

584
00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:14,160
the seventh round and retained the WBA featherweight title. And

585
00:29:14,200 --> 00:29:17,079
so they've been rivals, they've talked some shit with each other.

586
00:29:17,920 --> 00:29:20,200
There's always been sort of discussion ever since that that

587
00:29:20,279 --> 00:29:23,880
there would be a rematch it is now happening now

588
00:29:23,920 --> 00:29:27,440
in the wake of that loss. You know, in terms

589
00:29:27,480 --> 00:29:29,839
of Warrington's career, we've we've discussed this in the past.

590
00:29:30,160 --> 00:29:33,880
He lost to lee Wood and then he lost in

591
00:29:33,920 --> 00:29:36,720
the upset to Anthony Casachi. He came back had a

592
00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:40,079
small time win in twenty twenty five. Now he's coming

593
00:29:40,119 --> 00:29:42,519
off of that layoff about ten months and he's back

594
00:29:42,519 --> 00:29:45,279
in the ring against Leewood for the rematch that both

595
00:29:45,599 --> 00:29:48,599
of them have wanted. In terms of lee Wood, you know,

596
00:29:48,799 --> 00:29:54,079
he's been on the positive of the knockout loss. I mean,

597
00:29:54,119 --> 00:29:56,079
I mean the knockout win rather that's kind of come

598
00:29:56,119 --> 00:29:57,880
from behind. He's been on the on the wrong end

599
00:29:57,920 --> 00:30:00,000
of it in terms of a loss. And look, there's

600
00:30:00,119 --> 00:30:01,640
not a lot left for either one of these guys

601
00:30:01,640 --> 00:30:03,000
in terms of what's out there for them. They're a

602
00:30:03,039 --> 00:30:07,359
little older, they've had their ups and downs. Lee Wood

603
00:30:07,400 --> 00:30:09,599
is coming off of defeat. He got stopped by Casachi

604
00:30:09,640 --> 00:30:12,319
in the ninth round, so that was back in May

605
00:30:12,359 --> 00:30:14,920
of twenty twenty five, also coming off a similar layoff.

606
00:30:15,279 --> 00:30:17,759
And so it gets to a certain point in lots

607
00:30:17,759 --> 00:30:21,240
of fighters' careers where they that won't work after the

608
00:30:21,440 --> 00:30:24,599
fight in their back pocket when there's nothing else really there,

609
00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:27,759
no big fight, no title opportunity, but something they can

610
00:30:27,799 --> 00:30:31,119
still kind of get people in there among their fan

611
00:30:31,160 --> 00:30:33,559
base excited. And that with this fight is they're now

612
00:30:33,599 --> 00:30:36,400
fighting as junior lightweights on the rank to headline this

613
00:30:36,480 --> 00:30:39,079
matchrom Card on his own, like you mentioned, for us

614
00:30:39,079 --> 00:30:41,480
here in the United Stystem, during the day before the

615
00:30:41,480 --> 00:30:43,759
pay per view, you want to have like consider your

616
00:30:43,799 --> 00:30:48,359
appetizer before the pay per view and we'll see. You know,

617
00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:50,119
it's kind of like the loser goes home kind of

618
00:30:50,119 --> 00:30:52,519
fight and the winner probably gets to move on to

619
00:30:52,519 --> 00:30:54,519
have at least some other decent fights. These are not

620
00:30:54,559 --> 00:30:57,119
young guys. Wood is thirty seven years old and Larrington

621
00:30:57,160 --> 00:30:59,319
is thirty five years old, and as I mentioned, they've

622
00:30:59,359 --> 00:31:02,319
had their share of losses and some tough fights, but

623
00:31:02,400 --> 00:31:03,880
they can make a lot of things right with a

624
00:31:03,960 --> 00:31:04,920
victory on Saturday.

625
00:31:05,960 --> 00:31:08,799
Speaker 2: Okay, so we look forward to that one earlier in

626
00:31:08,839 --> 00:31:13,079
the day. Now you fast forward beyond to Sunday night

627
00:31:13,200 --> 00:31:17,440
and in Detroit, Claressa shields his back and fighting Franchon

628
00:31:17,599 --> 00:31:22,279
Cruz deserm who's a familiar name. They're doing this at heavyweight.

629
00:31:22,960 --> 00:31:26,960
Here we have talked and look, Shields is a tremendous fighter,

630
00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:31,920
but the whole heavyweight undisputed thing. We've well documented. It's

631
00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:34,880
a struggle to even find ten of heavyweights in the

632
00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:38,559
female category for a top ten. But Shields is back

633
00:31:38,599 --> 00:31:42,279
in the ring again. It's a Solida Promotions Desonne main event,

634
00:31:42,359 --> 00:31:44,200
so give us a little bit on that as it's

635
00:31:44,200 --> 00:31:45,200
going on on Sunday night.

636
00:31:45,920 --> 00:31:48,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, and when it comes to the women, for the

637
00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:50,480
most part, when they do these fights that are labeled

638
00:31:50,480 --> 00:31:52,319
heavyweight fights, there you know they're going to fight in

639
00:31:52,359 --> 00:31:54,920
like the one seventies probably in terms of what their

640
00:31:54,960 --> 00:31:59,440
actual weights are. But the the universe of competent professional

641
00:31:59,519 --> 00:32:05,039
female boxers above super midiweight even is extremely minuscule. So

642
00:32:05,240 --> 00:32:07,519
Claressa has sort of been stuck in that position where

643
00:32:07,799 --> 00:32:09,839
we know she's a great fighter, we know she's an

644
00:32:09,880 --> 00:32:12,759
awesome technician, we know she's I think by most people's

645
00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:16,039
view clearly the number one female boxer in the world

646
00:32:16,279 --> 00:32:19,400
pound for pound, but she just doesn't have anybody to fight,

647
00:32:19,839 --> 00:32:21,440
you know. And it was even a struggle when she

648
00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:23,759
was fighting as a super midweight, as a middleweight, and

649
00:32:23,799 --> 00:32:26,160
even as a juerim middleweight to find the top type

650
00:32:26,200 --> 00:32:28,720
of opposition. But she has won all of her fights

651
00:32:28,799 --> 00:32:32,319
rather handily. She continues to be undefeated at seventeen to know,

652
00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:35,839
she barely loses rounds. So this was a reatch that

653
00:32:35,880 --> 00:32:37,920
I think if you will follow her career or you

654
00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:42,640
follow Franchon's career, this was sort of an inevitability. It

655
00:32:42,680 --> 00:32:44,640
was going to have to happen at some point. Now.

656
00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:47,400
When they first fought in their first fight, and I

657
00:32:47,440 --> 00:32:49,319
was actually a ringside for that fight, you go all

658
00:32:49,359 --> 00:32:52,000
the way back ten years ago, they fought a four rounder.

659
00:32:52,039 --> 00:32:55,160
They were both making their professional debuts. Claressa was coming

660
00:32:55,200 --> 00:32:57,160
off of winning her second gold medal in the Olympics.

661
00:32:57,160 --> 00:33:01,119
Franchion Cruise Desern was a known amateur, was turn and

662
00:33:01,160 --> 00:33:04,960
pro as well. This fight took place and it kind

663
00:33:04,960 --> 00:33:06,480
of I did say it sold the show, but in

664
00:33:06,559 --> 00:33:09,200
terms of the preliminaries, it kind of was. Everybody was like, Wow,

665
00:33:09,319 --> 00:33:11,720
good fight. This was on the undercard of one of

666
00:33:11,759 --> 00:33:14,039
the fights between andre Ward and Sergey Covala. That tells

667
00:33:14,079 --> 00:33:16,240
you how longo it was. And although Claressa Shield has

668
00:33:16,279 --> 00:33:19,039
won the four round decision, this was a true battle.

669
00:33:19,079 --> 00:33:22,359
I mean, this was a really exciting, highly entertaining fight.

670
00:33:22,880 --> 00:33:24,680
They just slugged it out, and that's typically not the

671
00:33:24,720 --> 00:33:27,200
way Claressa fights. She's more of a technician, more of

672
00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:30,200
a boxer. She ended up winning forty to thirty six

673
00:33:30,200 --> 00:33:32,799
and all three scorecards. But it was if you watch

674
00:33:32,880 --> 00:33:35,400
the fight, you'll know why. Like it's not. It didn't

675
00:33:35,400 --> 00:33:37,240
look like a shut out, like every round was a

676
00:33:37,279 --> 00:33:41,160
tough round and franchise cruiz desern. She bounced back from that.

677
00:33:41,200 --> 00:33:42,799
She went on to have her own accomplishman and she

678
00:33:42,839 --> 00:33:46,720
became an undisputed champion. She has done her job, you know,

679
00:33:46,759 --> 00:33:49,200
fighting in the super middleweight division. Over the years, she

680
00:33:49,279 --> 00:33:52,680
has moved up as well as Claressa has. And so

681
00:33:52,759 --> 00:33:56,079
now they're doing this rematch. Claressa's got popularity in that

682
00:33:56,160 --> 00:33:58,920
area in Michigan. She's from Flint. They're fighting in Detroit.

683
00:33:58,960 --> 00:34:01,400
She's done good bus this at the Little Caesars Arena.

684
00:34:01,720 --> 00:34:04,200
I suspect they'll do good business again. It is on

685
00:34:04,240 --> 00:34:06,599
a Sunday, which is not the norm, but nothing wrong

686
00:34:06,640 --> 00:34:11,440
with that. Uh, there's good boxing competition on Saturdays for

687
00:34:11,480 --> 00:34:14,079
the viewers. So de Zonne and everybody involved decided, hey,

688
00:34:14,119 --> 00:34:15,960
let's go on Sunday. I guess the building was available

689
00:34:16,400 --> 00:34:20,159
and they'll do it. That said, I don't I don't

690
00:34:20,159 --> 00:34:21,719
see why it's going to be any different in terms

691
00:34:21,719 --> 00:34:23,960
of the outcome, and it's not a knock on on

692
00:34:24,119 --> 00:34:26,920
Franchise Cruise Dessert, who has established herself over recent years,

693
00:34:26,960 --> 00:34:28,760
is one of the top female boxers in the sport.

694
00:34:29,199 --> 00:34:31,440
But I just think so much highly, so highly of

695
00:34:31,440 --> 00:34:35,360
Claressa's talent and her skills that frankly, this could be

696
00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:38,199
another one of those kind of you know, one sided decisions.

697
00:34:38,199 --> 00:34:41,000
She's Clara, does not have powers, only got a couple

698
00:34:41,039 --> 00:34:44,280
of knockouts in her entire career, but she embarrasses opponents.

699
00:34:44,480 --> 00:34:46,960
She wins every single round, which she's rarely.

700
00:34:47,280 --> 00:34:50,400
Speaker 2: Been challenged, Yeah, rarely been threatened, even if she doesn't

701
00:34:50,400 --> 00:34:51,920
have the knockout power. And we don't have a lot

702
00:34:51,960 --> 00:34:53,199
of reason to think this.

703
00:34:53,280 --> 00:34:56,119
Speaker 1: Way so different. Cruise Desern is probably your best opponent

704
00:34:56,119 --> 00:34:59,239
in the last few years. But I don't, you know,

705
00:34:59,440 --> 00:35:01,440
I'll say that Cruise has earned is her best opponents

706
00:35:01,440 --> 00:35:04,079
since she had a victory in twenty twenty two against

707
00:35:04,079 --> 00:35:07,079
Savannah Marshall, who had given Claressa her only loss ever,

708
00:35:07,400 --> 00:35:10,440
and that was way back in her amateur days, and

709
00:35:10,519 --> 00:35:15,079
since then she's fought decent professionals, but people that were

710
00:35:15,159 --> 00:35:17,719
way less than she is. And I don't think franch on.

711
00:35:18,199 --> 00:35:21,079
She's probably better than the women that Clorsa has beaten

712
00:35:21,119 --> 00:35:23,320
in her last few fights since the Savannah fight, but

713
00:35:23,440 --> 00:35:27,360
I still think still a definite step below. So you know,

714
00:35:27,440 --> 00:35:29,440
if you're a Claressa fan, she's going to go out there,

715
00:35:29,480 --> 00:35:32,280
I think, and do her thing and display her talents

716
00:35:32,280 --> 00:35:34,039
and continue to be the number one female boxer on

717
00:35:34,079 --> 00:35:34,679
the planet Earth.

718
00:35:35,480 --> 00:35:38,599
Speaker 2: And that again is on regular Dezone with your subscription

719
00:35:38,840 --> 00:35:41,719
for Sunday Night so Plenty in the preview mode. All right,

720
00:35:41,760 --> 00:35:44,079
you teased it, Why don't we go right there with

721
00:35:44,159 --> 00:35:47,760
the latest with Golden Boy and Virgil Ortiz. Now, we

722
00:35:47,800 --> 00:35:50,960
did not do a full podcast coming off the weekend

723
00:35:51,400 --> 00:35:54,000
when the news had come out that Oscar de la Jolla,

724
00:35:54,199 --> 00:35:58,079
his lawyers, and Golden Boy had gotten a temporary restraining order.

725
00:35:58,320 --> 00:36:02,199
So as we release this podcast Thursday into Friday, there

726
00:36:02,280 --> 00:36:05,519
is a hearing in Las Vegas where they're trying to

727
00:36:05,719 --> 00:36:10,480
iron out whether or not Virgil Ortiz essentially is a

728
00:36:10,480 --> 00:36:13,800
promotional free agent or whether or not Dala Hooya's agreement

729
00:36:13,840 --> 00:36:15,719
still stands and he gets to be in the middle

730
00:36:15,719 --> 00:36:18,239
of negotiating a jiran in his fight. We don't know

731
00:36:18,360 --> 00:36:22,280
that answer as we're releasing the podcast, but obviously that

732
00:36:22,360 --> 00:36:25,119
will make news. Stay locked in on your social media,

733
00:36:25,480 --> 00:36:29,400
on your sub stack on what happens with that. So

734
00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:31,119
give me a give me a thought, because we haven't

735
00:36:31,159 --> 00:36:33,920
really talked about Dala Hoya took the measure of getting

736
00:36:33,920 --> 00:36:34,679
the restraining order.

737
00:36:35,519 --> 00:36:38,239
Speaker 1: So he went and he saw what's called an emergency

738
00:36:38,320 --> 00:36:40,719
temporary restraining order, but it was for a very limited

739
00:36:40,719 --> 00:36:44,079
amount of time. So the judge in this case, this

740
00:36:44,119 --> 00:36:46,840
is in Nevada State court, it is on a very

741
00:36:46,880 --> 00:36:51,760
accelerated are you Novada districtort? I can'tmember if it's state court. Whatever,

742
00:36:51,880 --> 00:36:54,280
they're going to court, it's at a very accelerated pace.

743
00:36:54,280 --> 00:36:56,840
A lot of times these lawsuits take forever to play out,

744
00:36:57,599 --> 00:37:00,440
but they're doing it within basically a week of when

745
00:37:01,199 --> 00:37:04,000
the judge issued the temporary anyway, So in that period

746
00:37:04,039 --> 00:37:07,000
of time from when it was issued until they meet

747
00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:10,199
in the court room on Friday in Las Vegas, the

748
00:37:10,280 --> 00:37:13,960
two sides had to give their responses, their rebuttals, and

749
00:37:14,000 --> 00:37:16,440
so they've been going back and forth showing portions of

750
00:37:16,480 --> 00:37:19,599
like agreements, making disclosures. If you're into the business side

751
00:37:19,599 --> 00:37:21,599
of boxing, it's very fascinating reading about offers that were

752
00:37:21,599 --> 00:37:25,480
made and you know, supposedly things that were breaching Virgil's contract.

753
00:37:25,519 --> 00:37:30,639
It's kind of getting really nasty. And in the end, look,

754
00:37:30,679 --> 00:37:34,000
the Zone still wants to make Virgil versus Boots Tennis

755
00:37:34,599 --> 00:37:36,960
nroom boxing. They still want to make the fight. That's

756
00:37:36,960 --> 00:37:41,039
of course the promoter for Jern Hennis. The question is

757
00:37:41,079 --> 00:37:43,519
going to be is it going to be with any

758
00:37:43,559 --> 00:37:46,199
involvement from Del la Joya? Is he going to be

759
00:37:46,199 --> 00:37:48,639
allowed to fight? There's lots of there's been that room disclosed,

760
00:37:48,639 --> 00:37:51,239
an offer that they had made. The Virginal Artis side

761
00:37:51,239 --> 00:37:54,199
says they're being restrained from making a living because of

762
00:37:54,199 --> 00:37:57,000
the craziness that Oscar has partaken in with this clap

763
00:37:57,079 --> 00:38:02,320
back Thursdays. It's without to every dirty detail. It's it's

764
00:38:02,360 --> 00:38:04,440
one of the nastier back and forth I've seen in

765
00:38:04,519 --> 00:38:08,119
a long time. Here's here and even if wins, even

766
00:38:08,119 --> 00:38:09,800
if Golden Boy wins the case and is going to

767
00:38:09,800 --> 00:38:13,760
be involved, that that that that relationship is so damaged

768
00:38:13,800 --> 00:38:15,119
right now. I just don't see it working.

769
00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:17,559
Speaker 2: And here's the bottom line on all of this. It

770
00:38:17,599 --> 00:38:20,239
did not have to get to this point, and you

771
00:38:20,239 --> 00:38:22,639
you laid it out. Oscar de la Hoya is the

772
00:38:22,719 --> 00:38:25,360
reason why it got to this point because he was

773
00:38:25,400 --> 00:38:29,320
trying to renegotiate what had already been agreed to. And

774
00:38:29,400 --> 00:38:32,000
so now here we are with the managers, the lawyers,

775
00:38:32,320 --> 00:38:35,239
and the judge, and ultimately the judge is going to

776
00:38:35,320 --> 00:38:38,719
decide whether or not dal La Hooya's case can proceed

777
00:38:39,199 --> 00:38:40,920
or whether or not he's going to say because this

778
00:38:41,039 --> 00:38:43,480
is what the other side wants. This is what Rick Marigian,

779
00:38:43,519 --> 00:38:46,800
the manager, has talked about on social media. Uh, he's

780
00:38:46,840 --> 00:38:48,320
put it out there. They put it out in the

781
00:38:48,320 --> 00:38:51,440
court filing. They believe they are a promotional free agent,

782
00:38:51,480 --> 00:38:55,280
and they notified Golden Boy in writing in early January.

783
00:38:55,719 --> 00:38:58,599
We believe the deal is up. We have notified them

784
00:38:58,639 --> 00:39:00,840
in writing we want to make this deal with Jeron

785
00:39:00,920 --> 00:39:03,519
Innis and Matt Troom and go ahead without Oscar Dale

786
00:39:03,159 --> 00:39:04,480
and the judges got a.

787
00:39:04,400 --> 00:39:08,079
Speaker 1: Sort of and they claim the virgil ort side claims

788
00:39:08,079 --> 00:39:12,599
they have various offers for you know, significant money for

789
00:39:13,320 --> 00:39:15,280
not only this fight, but for other fights in terms

790
00:39:15,280 --> 00:39:17,639
of a longer term contract with Matchroom, and they claim

791
00:39:17,679 --> 00:39:20,079
there's another promoter that they had not mentioned. The issue

792
00:39:20,119 --> 00:39:22,719
here also is while this is all playing out, you

793
00:39:22,840 --> 00:39:25,679
still have Golden Boy in the Zone trying to make

794
00:39:25,719 --> 00:39:27,920
a new rights agreement. Their agreement based on all the

795
00:39:27,920 --> 00:39:31,559
disclosures in this lawsuit, their agreement ended on December thirty. First,

796
00:39:31,840 --> 00:39:34,400
they did the one off show that was from a

797
00:39:34,480 --> 00:39:38,159
few weeks ago while all this is taking place, that

798
00:39:38,239 --> 00:39:40,559
Golden Boy was trying to do this March fourteenth card

799
00:39:41,599 --> 00:39:43,079
out of you know, trying to get their new de

800
00:39:43,199 --> 00:39:45,840
Zone deal done. Was going to be Ernold Barbosa moving

801
00:39:45,920 --> 00:39:47,840
up to Wealth Wait to fight Kennis Sims. You know,

802
00:39:47,880 --> 00:39:50,239
two guys coming off losses, but a pretty evenly matched

803
00:39:50,239 --> 00:39:52,599
type of fight that would would certainly lift the winner.

804
00:39:53,079 --> 00:39:56,360
But the interesting to me fight to me was they

805
00:39:56,360 --> 00:39:59,360
were supposed to do a three belt strawweight unification fight

806
00:39:59,360 --> 00:40:03,199
with their excellent champion, Oscar Colaso in a rematch with

807
00:40:03,239 --> 00:40:06,960
Melvin Jerusalem, who's the WBC champion. Kalazu had defeated him

808
00:40:06,960 --> 00:40:10,480
for the WBO belt, but he had since become the

809
00:40:10,599 --> 00:40:12,800
WBC champ, so that was a way to consolidate those

810
00:40:12,840 --> 00:40:18,559
titles further, plus the undisputed flyweight women's champion Gabriella Fundor

811
00:40:18,599 --> 00:40:22,679
and the title defense. And so now that they had

812
00:40:22,719 --> 00:40:25,679
this issue going on in terms of the lawsuit, that

813
00:40:25,679 --> 00:40:27,760
that fight was now k not going to happen, Suddenly

814
00:40:27,960 --> 00:40:30,920
it's back on as a one off, not because they've

815
00:40:30,920 --> 00:40:35,280
made a new rite, but conveniently the really big time

816
00:40:35,320 --> 00:40:37,840
fight as far as the stature and the stakes between

817
00:40:37,880 --> 00:40:40,960
Klaso and Jerusalem as not happening because Jerusalem is off

818
00:40:40,960 --> 00:40:43,480
the card. I suspect I don't know this, but I

819
00:40:43,519 --> 00:40:46,679
suspect it's because they're getting less money from the Zone

820
00:40:46,719 --> 00:40:48,119
to make the card because it is a one off

821
00:40:48,159 --> 00:40:50,519
as opposed to part of a deal, and they kind

822
00:40:50,519 --> 00:40:52,119
of had to eat the Melvin Jerusalem and not have

823
00:40:52,199 --> 00:40:54,159
him as the opponent. I guarantee you they got the

824
00:40:54,239 --> 00:40:57,000
challenger horrow a lot less money for him than it

825
00:40:57,000 --> 00:40:59,320
would have if they got Jerusalem for the unification. So

826
00:40:59,360 --> 00:41:02,559
that's a big disc appointment. But nonetheless they're going to

827
00:41:02,599 --> 00:41:04,239
do this one off, and it's all taking place under

828
00:41:04,239 --> 00:41:07,159
the cloud of this you know, terrible situation between de

829
00:41:07,239 --> 00:41:09,960
own Golden Boy and Virgil Artis's team. It's a real mess.

830
00:41:10,559 --> 00:41:13,599
Speaker 2: Stay tuned on that, all right. So that leads us

831
00:41:13,599 --> 00:41:16,760
to what other interesting announcement, and that was Manny Pacquiao

832
00:41:16,920 --> 00:41:19,679
earlier in the week at age forty seven is going

833
00:41:19,760 --> 00:41:21,960
to come back, but this is going to be in

834
00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:25,480
a ten round welterweight exhibition. And do I see the

835
00:41:25,559 --> 00:41:30,119
name on my rundown, Russlon Pravadna Koff, I do see

836
00:41:30,159 --> 00:41:32,760
that for April. He's been out of the ring for

837
00:41:32,800 --> 00:41:36,400
a while too. Pakiao, of course fought Mario Barrios. It

838
00:41:36,440 --> 00:41:38,920
circles back to Barrios, who's in the main event Saturday night.

839
00:41:39,559 --> 00:41:41,519
What about this? Dan Rayphiel, give me, give me a

840
00:41:41,519 --> 00:41:43,159
little more insight into this.

841
00:41:44,159 --> 00:41:46,639
Speaker 1: In the immortal words of my good pal TJ. Reaves,

842
00:41:46,719 --> 00:41:47,360
what are we doing?

843
00:41:47,480 --> 00:41:48,960
Speaker 2: What are we doing here?

844
00:41:49,079 --> 00:41:53,079
Speaker 1: Yes? So, look, Manny looked pretty good. I thought he

845
00:41:53,119 --> 00:41:55,920
won the fight against Barrios in the summer, and frankly

846
00:41:55,960 --> 00:41:59,440
should be the WBC welterweight champion. For whatever reason, they

847
00:41:59,440 --> 00:42:01,599
were not able to make an actual fight for him,

848
00:42:01,639 --> 00:42:04,280
and there was a lot of conversation about challenging Roly

849
00:42:04,360 --> 00:42:07,920
Romero for the DOBBA title, but it never came to pass.

850
00:42:07,960 --> 00:42:09,960
I'm not really exactly sure what happened with there. I'm

851
00:42:09,960 --> 00:42:12,360
sure something had to do with how much money everybody

852
00:42:12,400 --> 00:42:15,079
wanted in the fight, so they didn't line up a

853
00:42:15,119 --> 00:42:19,800
real fight for him. They have this new player, something

854
00:42:19,840 --> 00:42:24,920
called Intry Media. My Ole pale Art Polula from Danna Promotions,

855
00:42:24,960 --> 00:42:27,519
who was the long time promoter of Rustlin Pravdnikov, who

856
00:42:27,559 --> 00:42:30,400
has been retired literally for a decade. They're going to

857
00:42:30,480 --> 00:42:33,320
do this at Thomas and Maxenter on April eighteenth in

858
00:42:33,400 --> 00:42:36,039
Las Vegas. It's the same day as one of the

859
00:42:36,079 --> 00:42:39,119
days of WrestleMania. I'm not sure It's the greatest scheduling

860
00:42:39,599 --> 00:42:43,039
situation I've ever seen in terms of big events in Vegas.

861
00:42:43,599 --> 00:42:45,679
I have no idea what sets this apart and makes

862
00:42:45,719 --> 00:42:47,800
it an exhibition fight, because I've not seen or heard

863
00:42:47,840 --> 00:42:51,400
any differences, like why isn't it an actual fight? But whatever,

864
00:42:51,800 --> 00:42:55,599
They're supposedly no headgear. It's a ten round exhibition match.

865
00:42:55,639 --> 00:42:58,760
I'm not sure what I mean. Whatever. Here's the thing

866
00:42:58,840 --> 00:43:01,239
about it. They got Provodnikoff, and as my sources tell me,

867
00:43:01,480 --> 00:43:03,760
they offered this fight to three others who turned it down.

868
00:43:03,800 --> 00:43:07,159
One was many pack had to do another fight, although

869
00:43:07,199 --> 00:43:09,559
an exhibition against Wan Daniel Marquez. Of course, they've got

870
00:43:09,559 --> 00:43:13,480
the amazing rivalry that took part over four incredible fights.

871
00:43:13,800 --> 00:43:19,039
Timothy Bradley Junior, who had three pretty bad fights against Pacou,

872
00:43:19,119 --> 00:43:21,119
but a huge controversy in the first fight. I don't

873
00:43:21,119 --> 00:43:23,760
need to see that ever again. And also Marcus Maydonna.

874
00:43:23,960 --> 00:43:25,480
They fight that a lot of people wanted to see

875
00:43:25,519 --> 00:43:28,000
back in the time when Maydonna was an active fighter.

876
00:43:28,840 --> 00:43:30,840
For whatever reasons, they all turned it down, and Ruslan

877
00:43:30,880 --> 00:43:33,599
Pravandikov was who I guess has done a couple exhibitions

878
00:43:33,599 --> 00:43:37,239
over the years in Russia, decided okay, I'll take it.

879
00:43:38,320 --> 00:43:40,840
They haven't announced what the broadcast situation is. Obviously we'll

880
00:43:40,880 --> 00:43:45,559
be shown somewhere. Ye look, TJ. It is what it is.

881
00:43:45,599 --> 00:43:46,880
We live in a different world now.

882
00:43:46,920 --> 00:43:50,440
Speaker 2: It's many pakiaw at forty seven, still fighting and Pravadonnikov,

883
00:43:50,480 --> 00:43:54,599
who hasn't fought in what six eight years fighting, So

884
00:43:54,719 --> 00:43:55,199
there we go.

885
00:43:55,360 --> 00:43:57,559
Speaker 1: I don't have a problem with pak fighting a real

886
00:43:57,639 --> 00:43:59,760
fight because of how we looked against virus. I just

887
00:43:59,760 --> 00:44:02,320
don't get the whole purpose of the exhibition. I don't

888
00:44:02,360 --> 00:44:02,760
get it.

889
00:44:03,079 --> 00:44:05,960
Speaker 2: I got you who's watching this, I'm with you, by

890
00:44:06,000 --> 00:44:08,400
the way. One other note, they did make it official.

891
00:44:08,480 --> 00:44:12,039
Fabio Worldly will defend the WBO version of the heavyweight

892
00:44:12,039 --> 00:44:16,760
title with Daniel Dubois May ninth and Manchester, England. Correct,

893
00:44:16,800 --> 00:44:19,400
we have some time, but it is now official, right

894
00:44:19,400 --> 00:44:19,880
real quick?

895
00:44:21,480 --> 00:44:24,239
Speaker 1: Yeah, not a surprise. I mean, look, Fabio ended up

896
00:44:24,239 --> 00:44:26,920
becoming elevated to the full title when Usik decided to

897
00:44:26,960 --> 00:44:28,400
vacate because he was going to go try to do

898
00:44:28,440 --> 00:44:30,760
his own thing. And as they looked around for opponents,

899
00:44:30,800 --> 00:44:32,599
I mean, if you are a British boxing fan or

900
00:44:32,679 --> 00:44:34,639
you are a heavyweight fanning you were in England and

901
00:44:35,639 --> 00:44:39,800
whatever you think about Duboi, he comes to fight. Usually

902
00:44:40,360 --> 00:44:43,639
both possess good punching power. Frank Warren promotes both guys.

903
00:44:43,679 --> 00:44:45,559
They'll talk a lot of shit together. It is that

904
00:44:45,719 --> 00:44:48,639
rare all British heavyweight title bout. And they'll make an

905
00:44:48,679 --> 00:44:50,599
event that if it'll be his own pay per view,

906
00:44:50,719 --> 00:44:52,880
it'll be again one of these fights similar to what

907
00:44:52,880 --> 00:44:56,159
we're gonna see on Saturday with Garcia challenging Barrios. That's

908
00:44:56,159 --> 00:44:59,920
part of that ultimate plan that if you upgrade your subscription,

909
00:45:00,440 --> 00:45:02,760
it all comes as part of it. That's the thing

910
00:45:02,760 --> 00:45:04,400
that everybody has to decide do they want to go

911
00:45:04,440 --> 00:45:07,039
and all these different one off spend the money, or

912
00:45:07,079 --> 00:45:08,599
just suck it up and buy the whole package. I

913
00:45:08,599 --> 00:45:10,559
don't know what the right answer is for me, you know,

914
00:45:10,880 --> 00:45:13,039
because this is what I do. I have the full package.

915
00:45:14,199 --> 00:45:17,880
But Warley in Dubois as a heavyweight fight goes, if

916
00:45:17,920 --> 00:45:20,480
you look at the landscape of what's available, it's a

917
00:45:20,480 --> 00:45:22,239
pretty good fight. It seems to me like it'll be

918
00:45:22,360 --> 00:45:25,400
it'll be exciting. Uh, you know, I don't know, you

919
00:45:25,440 --> 00:45:28,559
know what to expect exactly, because Dubai has been hot

920
00:45:28,639 --> 00:45:31,760
and cold. Worley sometimes like against Whooney, was dominated, but

921
00:45:31,800 --> 00:45:35,000
he did land the big you know, eraser punch coming

922
00:45:35,039 --> 00:45:37,639
back in a big rally, had a very exciting fight

923
00:45:37,639 --> 00:45:41,079
with Joseph Parker. I mean, one thing about about Wardley

924
00:45:41,119 --> 00:45:44,519
and Duwa is generally win or lose. So you know,

925
00:45:44,559 --> 00:45:48,119
if Fabio was undefeated, Uh, they give you their money's worth,

926
00:45:48,159 --> 00:45:50,920
you know, So it is it'll be probably a great

927
00:45:50,960 --> 00:45:54,000
crowd there and high stakes. Because whatever you think about

928
00:45:54,039 --> 00:45:56,880
the way that Warley became the WBO title holder, he

929
00:45:56,920 --> 00:45:59,039
does have that title. It is an important part of

930
00:45:59,320 --> 00:46:02,159
the landscape and let them go do their.

931
00:46:02,000 --> 00:46:05,039
Speaker 2: Thing, So that'll be in May. That is official. We

932
00:46:05,119 --> 00:46:06,960
got some time for that. But we're ready now for

933
00:46:07,039 --> 00:46:11,920
the weekend again, very interesting prominent card, the Ring fight

934
00:46:12,000 --> 00:46:14,280
card pay per view the de Zone in Las Vegas.

935
00:46:14,320 --> 00:46:16,159
What kind of crowd, what kind of atmosphere, what kind

936
00:46:16,159 --> 00:46:19,039
of main event with Mario Barrios and Ryan Garcia again

937
00:46:19,159 --> 00:46:23,599
Richardson Hitchens title defense at one and Gary Anjwan Russell

938
00:46:23,679 --> 00:46:26,679
title defense at one as the two prominent fights there.

939
00:46:26,719 --> 00:46:29,320
We got the Lee Wood Josh Warrington fight. We look

940
00:46:29,400 --> 00:46:32,760
forward to all of it. All right, Big Dan, let's.

941
00:46:32,559 --> 00:46:36,079
Speaker 1: Come back on TJ. Yeah, go ahead, And we were

942
00:46:36,119 --> 00:46:38,320
just talking about these different events on the Zone. We're

943
00:46:38,320 --> 00:46:40,480
never seeing a lot more matchroom boxing on the Zone

944
00:46:40,519 --> 00:46:43,400
because they just announced that they extended their contract for

945
00:46:43,480 --> 00:46:44,719
five more. So there you go.

946
00:46:45,360 --> 00:46:49,159
Speaker 2: Yeah, not surprising that they extend that deal to help,

947
00:46:49,880 --> 00:46:52,840
you know, further what they're doing matchroom in the UK

948
00:46:52,960 --> 00:46:54,960
and in the United States. So there we go on that.

949
00:46:55,360 --> 00:46:57,119
So we look forward to that. We got Lee Wood

950
00:46:57,559 --> 00:46:59,960
speaking of de Zone earlier in the day, and Matchroom

951
00:47:00,000 --> 00:47:02,800
we got Leewood and Josh Warrington saurday afternoon US time

952
00:47:02,920 --> 00:47:05,840
read Dan substack for more beyond the social media again

953
00:47:05,880 --> 00:47:09,119
for the Dale Hoya stuff with Virgil Ortiz. What is

954
00:47:09,199 --> 00:47:11,239
the judge rule on Friday? You want to be locked in?

955
00:47:11,239 --> 00:47:13,440
Why don't we see everything that's going to happen and

956
00:47:13,480 --> 00:47:15,159
come off the weekend and do this again in the

957
00:47:15,159 --> 00:47:15,800
recap mode.

958
00:47:15,880 --> 00:47:17,400
Speaker 1: Sounds good, sounds good.

959
00:47:18,039 --> 00:47:20,679
Speaker 2: Love it. There goes Dan Rayphiel. I'm merely TJ. Reeves.

960
00:47:20,679 --> 00:47:22,880
Thank you for being with us as we preview going

961
00:47:22,920 --> 00:47:25,400
into the weekend on The Big Fight Weekend Preview Podcast.