Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big
Fight Weekend. Now here is your host, DJ leaves. Yes.
Speaker 2: Indeed, off of the Christmas holiday, we actually have some
boxing action the Night of the Samurai early on Saturday
from his own pay per view the Ring five card
from riodd season. We're ready to go over that, some
fight news and get you into the weekend. I am
merely the somewhat capable host TJ Reeves here as we
get ready to preview the weekend. We have survived you
and I the holidays, the Christmas holiday, the whole bit.
Hopefully everybody that's out there had a wonderful holiday season.
We're almost to the end of the year, Big Dan.
Good to be with you, and unlike some of the years,
we actually have some championship fights and some boxing on
Christmas week week or Christmas weekend now in Japan they
usually do at the end of the year, but at
least we have it for this weekend, So welcome in
and we're always up for some fights. I mean, we've
been around family members and friends. Everybody gets aggravated with everybody.
Speaker 1: There was no.
Speaker 2: Hostility at least for me on Christmas Day or Christmas
Night in and around the reeves gatherings, but some people
get in the mood for some fights, some boxing, and
now we have that for this weekend.
Speaker 3: Good to be with you, Yes, sir, you know you
mentioned about Japan is often the time where they have
these championship fights at this time of year, during Christmas
week on New Year's Eve. This year, though, it's very light,
and the fights that would have been in Japan presumably
on this week are actually the event that's happening in
Riad because of the fact that in Away's on the card,
Nakatani's on the card, So just kind of look at it.
As Japan goes to the Middle East for the week.
Speaker 2: They loan it off for this night of the Samurai.
All right, again, we will get to the other two
bouts below the main event, the main events, the biggest. Again,
I say to the audience, you did an excellent job
with Junto Nakatani.
Speaker 1: I got a little bit of feedback.
Speaker 2: I don't know how much feedback you got that people
actually enjoyed getting to hear that conversation again through the interpreter.
We had to get creative with the audio version of this,
so you've gotten to hear him. That's immediately before us
on the podcast feed. We'll talk about his fight in
a moment or two, but the main event is obviously
the Monster is back, and hey, let's hear it for activity.
As we say all the time, fourth time this year
that we're getting Naoya in a way, this time to
spending defending the undisputed Junior Featherweight championship with Alan David Picasso.
This is a twelve round main event, so I'm excited.
I know it's going to be early on Saturday, but
I'm excited to see what the Monster does here in
this matchup. Give me more in the preview mode about
what you think about his latest defense here.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, listen, he is very active. As you mentioned,
there is something to be said for activity, especially at
the top level. I mean, every time time he fights,
you kind of know right away that there's another fight
coming up. And it's no different now because even though
this is going to be a fourth fight of twenty
twenty five, we know that if things go the right
way for him on Saturday and for Nakatani, who fights
in the co feature, that they're going to be in
the next fight against each other come this spring. So
that's a great thing. So you can look forward to
see him fight Picasso, you can look forward to seeing
Nakatani and on their card, and then obviously if they
both win, it's not just a big mega fight for
Japanese boxing, probably the biggest fight in the history of
their country for boxing in terms of an all Japanese fight,
but great for boxing fans who just love to see
you know, elite, you know fighters who are on Hall
of Fame trajectories. Anyway, he's already going to be a
lot of Hall of Famer. Nakatani seems to be pounded
his way down that road. But in terms of the
actual fight he has on Saturday, on this on this
card in Saudi Arabia, Look, David Allen Picasso has been
for Alan David Pakasso. I always get that mixed up.
They list them strictly as David Picasso on box Wreck,
but his name is actually even Alan David Pacazo. Nonetheless,
he's a hand picked kind of guy, like he's undefeated,
he's got a great record. He's thirty two to h
to one with seventeen knockouts. They wanted him to fight
a Mexican opponent. He is a reputable opponent in that sense,
you know, kind of got a gift and not a gift,
but was very very close to losing the fight he
had in July against another Japanese fighter that took place
in Las Vegas. And you know, he's getting this great
opportunity to fight for the undisputed junior featherweight title. But
he's a heavy underdog. And you know, if in a
way is you know, been what in a way has been,
which is just a brutal puncher and a top guy
for years, this should not be too much problems now
if you look at his recent fighte So there's been
a couple of kinks in that arm or so to speak,
because he did get knocked down by Ramon Cardenis back
in May in a great fight. He ended up getting
the stoppage in a way in round number eight, but
he did get dropped in the second round. It was
a legit knock down. It was a few fights before
that where he's nearly put him on his rear end
for the first time in his career. He did get
some competition from Acmadalia of that was the you know,
the supposed boogeyman of the one hundred and twenty two
pound division that he had not yet fought. Other than
that he had fought everybody. He finally fought them fought
him in a long overdue mandatory that took place in September.
So if you take a look at the if you
characterize the in a way year before fights, that's a
great thing. But it's not been against top guys. He's
been the late replacement for Sam Goodman, which was a
mandatory which I didn't really think was that big of
a fight anyway, but they stepped down to the replacement,
which was ye June Kim that took place in January
in Japan. He wiped him out in four rounds. Then
the Kardenas fight, you know, Cardian has put up a
great battle against him and got the knockdown like you mentioned,
and ultimately got stopped and just off. As an aside.
It was this past Thursday, in the headliner of a
pro box card that Cardenas had his first fight since
then and looked really good, getting a very highlight reel
type knockout on the main event for that show. But
after he beat Cardenas in Las Vegas in a way
went back home to Japan, in September, he had the
big win against Akhmadaliav. That's the one sort of top
level victory of him for twenty twenty five. And now
he goes into this fight against Picasso in Saudi Arabia.
So not only four fights DJ, but four fights, two
in Japan, one in the United States, and now one
in Saudi Arabia. So he's not only fighting regular he's
being the definition of a world champions fighting all over
the world. And by the way, like that, yep, he
has been in nothing but world championship fights all the
way back to twenty and fourteen. I mean, he's closing
in on the record that Chavez.
Speaker 2: What's the number right now? It's twenty five, right, I.
Speaker 3: Believe I think this is going to be his twenty
seventh consecutive title fight, right, He's going to be involved
in the record that Tavis has is somewhere in like
I forget what is exactly, It's like thirty two or
thirty three or something.
Speaker 1: But this at this point, it's a fair statement to make.
Speaker 2: There is no one in the last seven or eight
years of boxing that has fought this regularly in this
any championship fights besides this guy.
Speaker 1: I mean he's been in active, yes.
Speaker 3: In the heavyweight division. When he retired in his after
his final fight against Anthony Joshua, it was Vladimir Klitschko
boxed in twenty nine world championship fights throughout his career.
That's the most in the heavyweight division. And in a way,
I mean, I'm I mean because he's he's not going
to have the record ever probably in one single division,
because he's boxed in multiple weight classes. He's fought, you know,
championships in you know, going all the way back to
when he started out. He was all the way down
in like the junior bandamweight division. So and and actually,
if you go all the way back to the beginning
of his career, his first world title came in one
hundred and eight pounds, and then he skipped over the
flyweight division. But anyway, the point is he he'll never
break a record for an individual weight class, probably because
of the fact but he fought in multiple divisions. But anyway,
he is already a historic figure. And now he's taking
his game to Saudi Arabia. They have a sponsorship deal
with I'm not really sure who the audience is for
this fight. I mean, I'm not a post of the
fighter anything like that. I'm happy to see the best
fighters in boxing. But in the United States, it's like
a fifty dollars pay per view at four o'clock in
the morning.
Speaker 2: Right, which I can't believe they're going to have. It's
going to get any people by that.
Speaker 3: For it's it's such a bizarre time for us in
our country.
Speaker 2: They're catering to he I mean, this is obvious. They're
catering to his Japanese audience because that's prime time Saturday
night in Japan, and so that's what they're doing, uh
with this And they're paying him a boatload of money.
And you have said this on more than one occasion.
I mean, he is making huge bag.
Speaker 3: As the kids say, you think they'red on the street
for this fight TJ. He's getting paid about thirty million dollars.
Speaker 2: For year, I mean, and that tells you right there
what Turkey Alchik sees as the value. You didn't say
three million, Notice you didn't say five million.
Speaker 1: You said what again, thirty.
Speaker 2: That's that's some serious bank for who this guy is
and for the bouts that are coming up. So U
stay tuned. If Picasso can give him any problems. Does
it take more than a couple Does it take more
than a couple of rounds for in a way to
figure him out? The one thing I love about in
a way, Uh, fantastic body puncher, and he will begin
to break guys down with the body shots. He did
it to ak Madaliev, if I'm not mistaken the Korean fighter.
It ended on a body shot. He did the same
thing with Cardinias when he was having trouble earlier in
the fight, he'd been knocked out. He went to the
body like I'm channeling my inner Mickey. We'll mention Rocky
a game before we're done.
Speaker 1: The body that's what he loves to go to and
on Saturday.
Speaker 3: You can make a very strong argument that in a way,
is the best body puncher currently in the sport of boxing.
I mean, there's other guys that are that are good
at body punching, but he is scoring a number of
knockouts in that in that manner, and he loves to
do it, and he goes there all the time, and uh,
you know that's a hard shot to return.
Speaker 2: You can make the you make You can make the
argument too with Crawford retired with USAK and Limbo basically
fighting like once a year. This guy's probably the pound
for pound guy if he's fighting frequently enough. So enjoy
it while it continues three times a year, four times.
Speaker 3: If you take Crawford and if you take him at
his word on the retirement, and that takes him out
of the equation, and then you're down for a long time.
We've talked about that. There's the top three and then
everybody else. So maybe now it's the top two hoosick
in in a way, uh, you know, a Van Rodriguez
knocking on the door, you know, better being up and
people share and a few other guys, but you know,
in a way, he's not only is he doing it impressively,
but he's doing it consistently regularly, and even though not
every opponent's a top dog, you know he has beaten
the the you know, you can't argue with the results.
The guy became un disputed to multiple divisions, which meant
you had to beat a lot of other champions to
do it. So he's beating the top guys in the division.
Even with Picasso. Again, he's not I don't consider him
to be like an elite contender, but he's an undefeated fighter,
and uh, you know, he is in a position to
have this opportunity. He's fought the guys he's supposed to
fight to get there. You know, I don't look at
him as like he's no, he's no like Tomato can
or anything like that. It's the opportunity of a lifetime
for me. I always try to think about we talk
about the stars, the you know, in a way, the
A sides. I always trying to think about things from
the perspective of the guy that's getting the opportunity. You know,
this is not the tenth biggest fight of Naway's career.
This is everything to Picasso, and sometimes that level of
commitment and anticipation and how important it is to you
can sometimes swing the balance that the talent is close,
but not so for the talent is close. But we're
gonna find out.
Speaker 2: What you know, apupsets do happen, But the likelihood is
this guy's focused. He's got dynamite in both fists. He
is a star, a big time star in Japan, and
he's headlining this card again early morning Saturday US time,
but it is Saturday night in Japan. All right, on
to Knakatani. We spent some time talking about him. We
touched on it as we played the interview on the
Recap podcast the other night. This is a little known opponent,
a junior featherweight opponent. I thought it was interesting when
you interviewed him that he was saying, yes, it would
be an honorive fight in a way. You asked him,
do you really know him? He said no, he doesn't
really know in a way, but he's excited.
Speaker 1: To be on this card.
Speaker 2: You do not have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure
out what they're putting into motion here and Now's right,
it's like an open secret. Now Nakatani's got to take
care of business Saturday, and do we expect him so?
Maybe he is moving up in wait to be spectacular
in this fight.
Speaker 1: Does he need to be spectacular in this fight.
Speaker 3: When you get to the edge, to a point where
you're going to be in fighting it away and vice versa.
It's not about I mean, you'd like to look impressed him,
of course, but you know, in the immortal words of
Al Davis, just win baby. Just when you're on the
press business of the biggest fight in your country's history,
go out there and get the w Now, they don't
really know each other, but if you look and you
read and you talk to people around the business, they
kind of have always sort of known they probably fight
each other eventually, and so when there were opportunities for
in a way in Nakatani to spar together, they were
kind of like steered away from that, not to spar
with each other just on the champ. I mean, you know,
obviously guys spar and then they end up fighting. That
happens all the time. But for whatever reason, they decided,
you know, let's not do that, uh and uh and
move away from that particular situation. So if you ask
me in terms of Kna Katan, he's fighting Sebastian Hernandez,
who was twenty and zero, not a like you said,
not a well known fighter. He's got eighteen knockouts, clearly
can punch. Also from Mexico, twenty five years old. His
biggest win. If you look at the record, he hasn't
really fought too many known guys, but he does have.
In his last bout that took place in May, he
defeated in a ten round decision, Azat Jovinisian the crazy
crazy a who's been in some wars, was with the
Golden Boy for a long time off off for the
title at one twenty two, always gave great efforts and
was in some tremendous battles. That's like the one win
he can hang his hot out. And if you ask me,
and I've talked to a couple of people in the business,
there's a lot of people that think that the fight
that Nakatani has against Sebastian Hernandez, if if either guy
is gonna get upset on this card, that maybe Hernandez
has the better shot to do so than Picasso gains
in a way, So that's something to keep in mind.
But the bottom line is if they are the winners,
they're going to fight each other. The plans are may
at the Tokyo Dome, which will sell out and do
a huge crowd. I mean, they're camp's top rank was
talking about this two years ago, probably as a possibility,
and na Katani is kind of taking the back seat
a little bit because of the fact that in a
way is the superstar. But na Katani has a lot
of accomplishment. Also, he gave up the unified bandamweight title
recently to move up to make his junior featherweight debut
in this bout. He's also been a champion in two
other weaight classes three overall, so he's looking to make
his debut here at one hundred and twenty two and
then in his next fight get the chance to try
to become a four division world champion by bump, but
not only get the titles, but also to do so
against the number one fighter in Japanese boxing history. I mean,
if you take a look at the history of Japan,
they produced a ton of champions through the years, a
lot of great fighters, several Hall of famers. The lling
notion is that the greatest fighter in Japanese history is
fighting Herada. But in a way, maybe because of the
number of weight classes and the regular activity and the
devastating power and and that sort of stuff, may have
surpassed him at this point. I think a lot of
people would say that is the case, and Nakatani, if
you can then go in the ring. And by the way,
not like Nakatani doesn't have an impressive record. Uh, in
a way is thirty one to oh, but guess who
else is also thirty one to know? What's twenty four
knockouts junto Nakatani also, by the way, as a southpaw,
and also is I mean maybe in a way is
the best body puncher in boxing, but Nakatani might be
number two. I mean their their records are very similar.
He's thirty one to know what twenty seven in a way,
Nakatani's thirty want to know what twenty four knockouts? So
and they've been They've both fought, you know, good opposition.
I just think Nakatani is a spectacular fighter to watch
as is in a way, and I have said to
you many times that the fight I want to see
the most as boxing would be Nakatani against Sam Rodriguez.
But you know what, I'll certainly take in a way
against Nakatani, and maybe the winner that fight could tee
it up with with Bam at some point. But look,
it did the the matchups are not spectacular on this
card in terms of like the name recognition or the accomplishments
of the opponents. It's all about seeing the two top
guys who are great elite fighters in the sport today
go in there and do their thing and try to
set up the big fight. It's no different than back
in the day, for example, when you know Top Rank
was trying to build up to Julio Sesar Chavez Senior
against Oscar de la Hoya and they fought the prelude
to Glory on HBO and they both took on master
opponents to set up the big fight. We've seen those
types of things happen a thousand times in boxing. This
is just the next one. It just happens to involve
two Japanese and it's taking place at four o'clock in
the morning the United States Eastern Time in Saudi Arabia.
But it's the same old tried and true concept in boxing.
Get the big champions and the top dogs to you know,
go in there, get their so called tune up with
the appetite for the fans even more, and let's go
for the big one after.
Speaker 2: That and real quick cify, clarify because you always are
in on this and I love the insight. The agreement
is to fight in the Tokyo Doma and that is
Turkey al Chic backing that or is it teaking in Honda?
Is it both of them? And listen, is there anything
else in the way of it or what do we
know that could be in the way of it.
Speaker 3: There's no political issues and ill who's going to be
the promoter? First of all, mister Honda oversees lots of
things in boxing, but Ohashi Promotions is the actual promoter
for in a way, Na Katani has been with mister Honda,
he's been co promoted by Top Rank. I'm not sure
if they're still involved in a way. Of course has
been involved with Top Rank, but when he's fought in
the United States, even though they've shown Top Rank to respect,
when he fights in Japan, because you know Bob Aaron
will go over to the fight things along those lines,
regardless of the promotional entanglements, regardless of whether it's involving
of riad season or anything like that. All you got
to know if you're a boxing fan is that if
they win on Saturday and they come away without any
particular injuries, that there's a almost certainty that they will
fight each other in the spring and what will be
a very very big fight. High for one will very
much look forward to it and absolutely and as far
as the Saturday show goes, look, I'm going to watch
the show because that's what I.
Speaker 1: Do well real quick.
Speaker 2: Willibaldo Garcia can Shiro Taraji. Maybe a little bit of
an underrated fight because Taraji always seems to mix it up.
Had the tremendous fight with a Koui that was earlier
this year, right, and this is now for Willibaldo Garcia's
IBF Junior bantamweight championship. So that is a third fight
we get again. For the audiences listening to us in
the West, if you're up late on Friday night and
hanging out, you'll get this fight probably before you knock off.
For those of us in the East, we're probably in
the bed at some point in the middle of the night.
But that fights say a little more about that fight
before we move on.
Speaker 3: Taraji for years has been a tremendously fun and exciting
fire to watch. It's been a lot of top guys
in the lower waight classes. He's been a champion for
a long time that junior flyweight when he lost that fight,
lost that title to Yabooki back in twenty twenty one
on a tenth round knockout. He then came back in
the next fight and scored an even easy and scored
an easy knockout against him to regain that title and
get the revenge. So he became a you know, a
two division or a two time champion in one hundred
and eight pound way class. He then moved up in
way to the flyweight division. You know, he defeated Rosales,
who was a pretty good fighter to win that title
back in twenty twenty four. Then he referenced the tremendous
twelve round knockout against the Koubi to retain the title.
He then lost in a huge upset in July. He
lost the flywaight title in that very big upset to
Ricardo Sandobal, the American golden boy fighter that went to
Japan and scored, you know, a huge upset. And so
now he's now fighting for a different version of the
flyway title, or he's moving I should say he's moving
up to this to the one hundred and fifteen pound
weight class and taken on Wilebaldo Garcia for the IBF
title in that weight class. Now, Wilibaldo Garcia is a
guy that if whoever wins this fight, whether it's Wilebaldo
or it's Taraji, the obvious fight is going to be
a Daan rodriguezro undisputed. Willibaldo got the title because of
fighter vacating to not fight him because there was a
big This was back in the day of Ioka who
went and took the rematch with Puma Martinez and Willbaldo
ended up winning the title. So he made some good fights.
He had a draw with Renee Calixto and they got
a rematch for the title with still vacant, so he
won that fight. So he's now making his first offense
and if Taraji's got anything left, this should be quite
the battle because Wi Lebaldo is going to be the fight.
And we all seen Taraji if you watched any of
these Japanese cars that have you know, thankfully been available
to American audiences for the last few years at the
time when Top Rank was doing all of these events
on ESPN Plus, they would do these fights on ESPN
Plus all the time. As we discussed many times Breakfast
in Japanese Boxing. Yes, sir so Taraji Wi Lebaldo. Honestly
that that has a chance maybe to like steal the show.
Like the good thing about it is Taragi Nakatani in
a way are all action fighters. All three of them
make action fight. They're all very crowd pleasing guys, and
they're really good. I mean, Taraji doesn't have the profile
of it in a way, it may not have quite
as much accomplishment, But I look at his record, and
I've watched tons that I've watched pretty much all Taraji's
world title fights. He's twenty five and two with sixteen
and the one of the losses he avenged by a knockout.
He is a borderline Hall of Famer to me. I mean,
if he keeps doing this thing for a couple more fights,
I mean to me, he's going to get in the
Hall of Fame someday. Whether Willibaldo Garcia can hold him off,
Whether the weight will make a difference, because he's moving
up on other three pounds. It may not sound like
a lot, but in those little weight classes, it can
make a big difference.
Speaker 2: That is what we're about to find out. So those
three fights again early early Saturday morning in the United States,
and again a lot of people will probably watch with
your if you have his own et cetera. And again
it's a pay per view later in the morning. If
you choose to watch this. The highlights will be available
on social media and on YouTube.
Speaker 1: And we'll obviously talk about it on the recap podcast.
Speaker 3: There are also there are also two other fights on
the show, just not at the championship level, with the
prospect another Japanese fighter, and unfortunately, because of the injury
to Hayato Sasumi, his title challenge against James Dickens for
the WBA's one hundred and thirty pounds title was canceled.
So that should have been on this card also, But
now that's not happening, all right.
Speaker 2: Can't do anything for Dickens there in the one week
breach they had for that. Maybe those two will fight
again down the road, but just not on this card,
all right. Some news as expected. We kept using that
phrase around Anthony Joshua was expected to knock out Jake Paul,
You and I said that. Everybody basically said they thought
that would happen, And I said to you, I believe
this audience would be And I even couched it as
not only live but on demand in the immediate probably
twelve hours or so after the fight, this would probably
be a thirty million audience. I gauge that off of
what and we'll compare it to the Mike Tyson, Jake
Paul Netflix broadcast, I said around thirty million. It he
ends up now that they announced on Tuesday of Christmas
week here thirty three million people watched it in their
metric live watch some part of the fight live worldwide.
That's a tremendously strong audience. And so Dan, we'll pick
it up on that. And that does not even count
who watched it time displaced on demand later on. Obviously
a large audience.
Speaker 3: Go ahead, Yeah, I mean, I think that doesn't come
as a surprise, Jake Paulus John audiences that are sizable.
And if obviously, if you don't have to buy a
pay per view and if you just subscribe to Netflix,
like hundreds of millions of people around the world, do
you can just get it by putting on your stream
like you would watch a movie or a TV program
or a documentary or whatever. It's a beautiful thing. And
just to put it in a little comparison, here the
announcement for Netflix about what this fight did. They announced
it did thirty three million viewers. That is for the
bout that is Bell to Bell from the bout that
is not including the undercard, that is not including the
talking heads and all the other stuff. That's the first
bell rings and then the knockout happens. That's what they're
looking at. That's still a strong number regardless to put
a little texture to it. The co feature, which was
Alisha Bomgarner defending the Unified Women's one hundred and thirty
pound title against Laila bodo Win from Canada. They said
in their announcement that also put out the thirty three
million number for the main event, that her fight in
the co feature did fifteen million viewers globally. This is globally.
This is not just the United States, is every country
that Netflix is in. So that's a very strong number.
Also for a women's fight where I mean nothing against
a Lisia Bombgarner, but those two women who were in
that fight are not exactly howse whole names.
Speaker 2: But here again, you're on the platform. He's raised it
with the platform, and this is fair to say, this
is not just a cheap shot. Alicia Bomgardner hasn't fought
a fight, hasn't fought in her career that's probably had
a million people watching it, maybe if she's fortunate a
million people, and so fifteen millions, that's a tremendous.
Speaker 3: That's true enough. I mean, maybe her fight with them
making with Mayor because they've had a lot of hype
on ESPN Plus and ESPN might.
Speaker 1: Have done it had a million.
Speaker 3: You're probably right about that. So I mean, but that
this shows you the platform and thea compared.
Speaker 2: Okay, again, Mike Tyson is Mike Tyson, and there was
all the build up obviously for that, and Netflix said
at the time, and I know some people dismissed the
number and the methodology. They said like a hundred and
four million something like that Live bilde Bell and the
Serrano Katie Taylor right before it was like seventy something million.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you what it was for that. So the
first of all, one thing about this particular event with
Paul against Joshua is it was monitored by by Nielsen.
When they did the numbers for the Tyson fight, it
was not done by Nielsen, and so there were some
skepticism about the way that it was compiled. But it
would just take it on the face of what they
announced and what they announced for this one. The Tyson
fight was one hundred eight million viewers globally. But Tyson
is a different animal all the time of course, was
that was such like Anthony Joshua within boxing, you know him,
he's a superstar, he's a massive draw, he's a former
two time heavyweight champion, but he is a pimple on
the ass of Mike Tyson compared to how well he's known.
And that's not a knock.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, that's basically.
Speaker 3: Every fighter in the history of boxing other than you know,
Sugar Ray Leonard and Muhammad Ali and people like that.
So that obviously did a huge number. And as you mentioned,
the women's fight that was the co feature that night
did seventy four million between Toronto and Taylor. Was one
of the great if not the greatest women's boxing match
in the history of the of the women's side of
the sport. But I want to put it in first
of all before we get to some other perspective of
it a few a couple other numbers that they announced
related to this event of how sort of much it
caught fire is that Netflix obviously is all around the world.
It was a top ten program in ninety one countries
and was number one in forty five countries. They claimed
the United States, Number one in the United States, number
one in the UK, number one in Canada, Germany, Australia, Mexico, Argentina.
Those are a pretty big, you know, pretty big deals there.
They talked about the amount of impressions generated. I mean,
I'm not into that, but anything that starts with a
B as an million, they got to be impressive.
Speaker 2: It was the number one trending topic Friday night worldwide
on Twitter X.
Speaker 1: That's verified through them.
Speaker 2: And they're talking about the they're talking about the hundreds
of millions of impressions on the knockout punch, the signature moment,
the knockout punch that everybody saw.
Speaker 3: Not to mention by the way, yeah, they claimed and
just within the United States of America another roughly six
hundred thousand people watching out of their homes, meaning like
at bars and restaurants, casinos, you know, different places like that.
That brought the fight in as opposed to just in
your house or on your screen or wherever you happen
to have your phone or whatever. So it did big business, okay,
But now have to put in all perspective that was
thirty three million is obviously a big number. Now the
biggest fight in terms of like significance that Netflix has done.
This was their fourth ever event on Netflix. They did
obviously Tyson Jake Paul. That was the first one that
was really big. That was last year. They then did
they did the all women's card that had That was
this past July, which featured the Serrano and Taylor third fight.
Obviously that was much lower. That did like six million,
nothing to sneeze at, but obviously not anything loose to
the level of what we've seen with the other events.
But then the most important fight they did, another big
mega fight, but a real boxing match, not a freak
show sort of thing like a Jake Paul Mike Tyson
was the Terrence Crawford upset victory over at Canelo Alvarez.
It took place in September. That did thirty six point
six million viewers globally, they say for the bout, So
it's not that much more than what Jake did against
Anthony Joshua, even though in terms of significance to the
sport right they're not even comparable. One's a mega world
championship fight between and two future Hall of famers.
Speaker 2: We should also say too, that this was thrown together
sort of with about five weeks to build it up,
and it's a British fighter that hasn't been fighting on
mainstream United States vision. Yes, he's been on the de
Zonne app So, I mean, there's.
Speaker 3: What happened in Britain. I mean in Britain obviously is hugely.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I would love to know, And they didn't
they didn't say, they didn't tell us. I would love
to know what was the on demand after the fact
viewership in London, in the UK, in England.
Speaker 1: I would love to know. Is that two million? It's
gotta be? Was it ten million?
Speaker 3: Was it also because for them it was in the
middle of the.
Speaker 2: Night, that's right when they got up on Saturday. Did
it become twenty twenty five million? I would buy that
that watched it on demand because again, if you have
a Netflix subscription, you didn't have to pay twenty nine
ninety five, thirty nine ninety five, forty nin ninety five.
You just clicked it on and watched. So I would
love to know what that is. They didn't get into
that cerimply it's a victory for them with that kind
of audience, that kind of attention.
Speaker 3: One more time, they also paid, you know, huge amounts
of money for this. Sure it's going to be up
to their executives to decide is it worth to put
out a nine figure payment to do a rough I mean,
I don't know the exact figure, but by all accounts
they were probably putting up around nine figures to do
the event. Is that worth it to bring in an
audience that's in the thirty millions around the globe and
certainly they got a ton of publicity. Also, they're going
to look and see tooth. I mean, anytime you're involved
in subscription based things, and I know this by the
way somebody that runs my own subscription based thing with
my newsletter, you have to do two things. You have
to One, you have to give content that's going to
keep your existing subscribers, and number two, you've got to
do things to help generate new subscribers because inevitably you
want to build your product. And you also have to
deal with the churn, which is a real thing. Trust me,
I know all about it and doing.
Speaker 2: My feting people that leave versus people you bring, right exactly,
that's the term for it.
Speaker 3: So I'm sure, Look, they got smart people over there.
They're going to run those numbers. But based on what
they've brought in over their first four times being involved
in boxing, it feels like they see some value in it. Now.
I don't expect them to suddenly be doing like in
a monthly show like we used to see on an
HBO or Showtime along those lines, or even like the
Friday night Fights or show Box that type of thing.
But if three times a year they want to move
a big event, I'm cool with that.
Speaker 2: And again, the audience was obviously there. To those that
have been laughing or mocking it, there were tens of
millions that cared and were interested. All Right, a couple
of other notes and then we'll skidaddle. Terrence Crawford obviously
had announced his retirement. You kept saying, because you are
you pay attention to him vacating the titles. He immediately
vacated the WBO title. He had already been stripped of
the WBC title. The WBO has wasted no time. Christmas week,
Merry Christmas to Diego Pacheco and Hams of Shiraz right now,
fill me in on that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they are the two leading available contenders within the
WBO's rankings at one hundred and sixty eight pounds. And
this feels like a good like a reasonable fight for
the vacant title. Sometimes you see vacant title fights and
you're like, one guy is worthy and the other guys right,
he kind of scratched her head. But Pacheco has been
doing his thing. He'd just come off a win last
week against Sajo, a tough fight. He's undefeated. You know,
he's a good looking young up and comer. Shiraz the
one blemish was a draw in a middlewaite title fight.
A lot of people thought, you know, maybe could have
gone the other direction. But nonetheless, when he did move
up to super middleway, you looked spectacular when he absolutely
drilled Edgar Berlanga earlier this year. And so that's the
match that's gonna fill this title if they can get
the deal done. I am told behind the scenes that
they probably are going to get this deal done, and
there's a good chance that this fight will actually happen
good and see that, you know, probably sometime within the
first few months of two thousand and twenty six. So
that will fill the WBO title. And as we discussed,
when you see them vacating the titles, that's like a
big deal. So he had, like you said, vacated the
WBO has now was tripped obviously the WBC, and even
though the WBO vacating was several days ago, it was
just this week that the IBF announced that he had
formally announced that he was giving up the.
Speaker 2: If them what Tuesday, we're doing this going off of
the Christmas haute. He notified them Tuesday, the IBF, I'm vacating.
Speaker 3: He sent them the word, right, So now the IBF
title is vacant, they'll go down their rankings, you know,
they'll see who's going to be willing and available to
go into that Canelo Albert is just high up in
the rankings, but he's injured and has been said that
he's not going to fight uh until at least the spring,
until at least the fall. I guess, so I wouldn't
count on seeing the Canelo in that vacant title fight
to try to win back his old belt. At this point,
you know, he's going to take the biggest fights, whether
there's belts available or not. So we're down to the WBA,
and you know, I had talked to Terrence Crawford's people
and they're like, it's not like they're holding onto it.
They just haven't gotten around to like either you know,
answering the email from the organization or calling them up
or emailing them and let them know. But the WBA
title will be vacant, I'm sure in the next little
bit also, so there you go. The the super middleweight
division is going to be once again wide open.
Speaker 2: And how long if if he does come back, what
would Crawford come back for?
Speaker 1: How long does he stay away?
Speaker 2: All that's unknowns, but he certainly right now is following
through with the big thing, which is he's not going
to keep the belts in any short term.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 2: So that's interesting on that point about Crawford off the
Canelo win and his announced retirement. All right, Matchroom has
announced the undercard for the upcoming January twenty fourth show
with Raymond Murratia speaking of the IBF fighting for the
IBF Lightweight Championship with Andy Kruz, the Cuban Olympian who's
now been on a fast track for a title shot.
What's on the undercard here? What got announced real quick?
Speaker 3: Right? So the main event, of course is Murthia's first
defense against the Mandatory Cruise that was announced a few
weeks ago. Now they filled in the undercard, so among
the fights that are on there. You have the return
of Israel Madromov, who was the former WBA Junior Middleweight champion,
gave Terrence Crawford arguably the toughest fight of his career
when he lost the belt. That was the fight that
was in the summer of twenty twenty four in Los Angeles.
Really good performance although not a victory. And then he
obviously after that, had another close decision lost to Vergil
Artis in a WBC interim titled Doubt. So he's lost
two in a row, but he's still a really good fighter.
I don't hold that against him. He's coming back on
this card. He'll fight a fighter trying to remember the fighters.
Speaker 1: They will fight David Salazar, right Louise.
Speaker 3: David Salavar from the Dominican Republic, who was twenty wins
and one loss. He's won five fights in a row,
so that'll be the co feature. I can't say I
know a whole lot about David Louise David Salazar, but whatever,
we'll see if Bajramov can get back on track they
have This is a pretty solid fight. Actually, I'm kind
of interested a light heavyweight fight between Khalil Coe who
has been prospect ish, has a loss in the job,
but is a strong guy when he's in shape. That's
his biggest thing because sometimes he doesn't make the weight,
but when he's ready to go, he's a very top
tough guy to take care of anyway. He's going in
the rank to fight against the two time Superman awaight
title challenger, Jesse Hart. That was a fight that was
supposed to be back a couple months ago in October
when Boots Ennis was in the hometown, Philadelphia fight against
Hussima Lima, but Khalil Co had a hand injury and
so the fight was postponed. Jesse is also from Philadelphy.
He was going to fight in his hometown. Now this
fight will just go to Vegas and know the reschedule.
And another fight they announced for the show among others,
is the junior middle eight amar Omario Jones, the United
States twenty twenty four bronze medal winner. He keeps doing
his thing. He's four to zero four knockouts as looks
spectacular and you know he's going to keep, you know,
the the learning curve going. He's taking on an undefeated
fighter named Jerome Baxter and he's going to be in
a sixth rounder that watsed me on that show, and
I've enjoyed watching his journey and I think that he's gonna,
you know, become a very good fighter down the road.
Speaker 2: All Right, Again, that's January twenty fourth that the Zone
Las Vegas card Maretaia Cruz headlines. All right, So February
twenty first, on that day we got to fight a
title fight that's off. But then we also have an
addition to the Barrios Garcia title card that is that
night as well. All right, So what's the fight that's off?
Speaker 3: Go ahead quick, okay, So one thing at a time.
So Angelo Leo, who the IBF featherweight champion, was supposed
to fight a South African fighter, Laaratro de Lamini. That
was a fight that was scheduled to take place in Albertquerque,
which is Angelo Leo's hometown. That fight has been postponed.
I talked to Gary Jonas, who was the owner of Probox,
who was the main promoter for Angelo Leo, and what
he said to me was that the fight is still
going to happen, We're just moving into a different location
on a different date. I think there were some maybe
some logistical issues or some scheduling problems. He didn't get
into the details. But the fight's still gonna happen. It's
just gonna be a little bit later.
Speaker 1: There's not an injury at the moment, is what you're saying.
Speaker 3: From what my understanding, there is not an injury, but
just it'll be good to see Leo back in because
he's you know, he's looked good in recent fights when
he won the title, uh, spectacularly, when he when he
knocked out you know, scored that big knockout to win
the belt. And then he went over to Japan and
he looked good in a title defense over there. And
now he's supposed to have a hometown fight. Obviously this
one won't be in the hometown, but he's still get
to defend the title. And then on the same day, uh,
they're supposed to be the fight between Mario Barrios defending
his welterweight title against Ryan Garcia. Now that fight has
not been officially announced, but everybody involved that said it's done.
They probably just haven't announced it because the holidays. You know,
why would you waste your time announcing it in the
middle of Christmas in New Year so I'm pretty sure that,
you know, maybe next week before New year'sn'll announced it,
but maybe they'll announce right after the New Year. But
the bottom line is that fight's gonna happen, and one
of the fights that's gonna probably be on that undercard
is supposed to be the overdue mandatory fight between the
WBA Junior Welterweight Champion, Gary Antoine Russell and Andy Heroca. Now,
if you remember when Jake Paul was supposed to fight
Tank Davis back in November, obviously Tank was with PBC.
One of the accommodations to BBC was to put that
fight on the cart and so when Tank got dropped
from the fight because of his domestic violence problems and
they ended up rescheduling Anthony Joshua against Jake Paul and
moving Jake State into December, that fight went away from
the show and so now they're looking for a spot
to put it because now PBC is back trying to
do it, and so they're going to reschedule that fight
for that date, and again not official, but that's what
is in the workst.
Speaker 2: So Gary Anchowin Russell's not been that active, but he
is talented and that fight again for February twenty First,
you're reporting that we love that. Hey, that's a full
show off the Christmas holiday and headed to the weekend.
Why don't we enjoy some early morning night of the
samurais the night of the Samurai in Japan and in
so the morning, but it's the morning of the Samurai
for us in the United States. And whenever the monster's back,
we pay attention. We're looking forward to seeing what he
can do. Knakatani in the co feature again. Hear more
from Nakatani on the pod feed in his own words,
love that in the pod just before this one, Big Dan,
have a great weekend. I am headed to Miami this weekend.
Can my Tampa Bay Buccaneers blinging to life for a
playoff spot?
Speaker 1: Get a win and.
Speaker 3: Sabe Before you head to the stadium, you can go
to the to the kiss, see a center where they
had the jay right and see if you look for
some of Jake's missing teeth.
Speaker 2: But perhaps that's a good line, as we conclude after
the broken jaw, I might have to look around. You
bring up a great point there in South Florida, So
I will be there this weekend. I missed it by
a couple of weeks of being there for Paul and
actually probably about eight or nine days for Paul and
Anthony Joshua. But for now we are good. I'll come
back off the weekend with you on Sunday night. You'll
know what kind of mood I'm in. If my Buccaneers
can get the win, we'll recap this and we'll look
ahead at the end of the year for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: Big Dan, have a great weekend.
Speaker 2: Let's see what happens in these fights in Saudi Arabia
with the Monster with Nakatani and then also the Taraji
Willibaldo Garcia fight. Check all those out through his own
pay per view. Big Dan, have a great weekend. Thank you,
my friend.
Speaker 3: All right, Jane, Merry Christmas to you with all of
them there we.
Speaker 1: Go to all the audience.
Speaker 2: I hope the Christmas holiday was good and everything was great.
Speaker 1: Should I say it?
Speaker 2: Merry Christmas to all? Into all a good night. I
think we're good. Thursday night into Friday. Find Dan on
the Substance by the way, his fight Freak Tonight, Substack
and newsletter. Find this pod on Applespreaker, Spotify. It is
The Big Fight Weekend Preview podcast, ye