Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big
Fight Weekend. Now here is your host TJ Leaves back
aboard and rolling here in the month of March, and
we do have a cruiserweight title fight. What exactly is
the title that's on the line. We're gonna talk about
the Jai Opataiah Brandon Blanton title fight. Titling quotes coming
from ZUFA Boxing on Sunday night in the preview mode.
We've got news. We've got a victory for Oscar Dale
Hooya outside the ring at least for now, against Virgil
ortiz Oh. There will be lawyers, Raphael, there will be lawyers.
We will talk more about that.
Speaker 2: The lawyers always get their back, Yes they do.
Speaker 1: We got a WBC lightweight title fight that's been made
because Shakur Stevenson is no longer the champ. We're gonna
talk about that. Floyd Mayweather's up to five seven thirteen
exhibition fights before he fights Manni pack Yea. We'll talk
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with that, let's just get right to it. You interview
ji Opatiah. We played it on the pod. We have
it on the podcast feed. Immediately before this pod, the
one on one. It is now Fight Weekend upcoming. Reminder again,
this is a Sunday night title fight from ZUFA Boxing,
not the traditional Saturday or sometimes Friday night. Sunday night.
And I guess the optimum question before we get into
the matchup. What do we know Thursday night into Friday.
Is it an IBF cruiserweight title fight or not? What's up?
Speaker 2: Well, the main thing to me whether it's a IBF
title fighter now the newly created ZUFA title fight. I
were showing off pictures on social media what their new
belts look like. I know this ji Opa tie is
the lineal champion. He holds the ring belt, which usually
is emblematic of the lineal champion, but not always. That's
a story for another day. He'll defend that belt for sure.
He'll defend the lineal title, which doesn't matter about belts.
He is the number one cruiserweight in boxing, that is
by universal viewpoint I believe, and so he's the number
one guy. So he's the champ of the champs in
that weight class. And uh in terms of these sanctioning bodies,
he is the IBF champion. Now, as we have discussed,
there's a unclear situation of whether that title will be
at stake or not. I've been asking the IBF for
a long time. I asked them again before this pod.
I asked them earlier in the day and was given
the same comment that I had received before. They're very
polite about it, but they're like, we're still still not
making any uh comments about the stat status of that fight. Obviously,
if they're going to be involved, I mean today is
already as we tape this, it's Thursday. The fight's not
till Sunday, so there's still a little bit of time.
But they would be doing, like you know, the supervisor's
gonna have to travel, they'll do rules meetings. They got
to be involved with that. They got to do to
make sure everybody's on board it for a what would
be the their rules call for that morning of the fight. Wait,
check on Sunday morning, So you know, you got to
get your people in place, I guess is the point.
And if they're gonna have any input on anything around
those lines, they got to have to figure it out.
Speaker 1: You and I. You and I will get to the
match up with Brandon Glant in a second. But I
think this part is really fascinating, and I honestly, I
think it's going to be a bigger deal than whatever
the outcome of the fight is, unless Glanton pulls the
shocking upset right and he's a decided underdog. This this
part of the story is the story as far as
I'm concerned, And what what does your gut tell you?
You've done this for such a long time, What does
your gut tell you? Because I have speculation at a distance,
but the fact that they're not even getting back to
you to give you an answer says a lot to it.
Speaker 2: When they're getting back to me, they're just answering the question.
And by the way, the same goes as ZOO people
aren't answering the questions.
Speaker 1: Either, Okay, So which tells you that they are talking
and trying to work something out where they call it
an IBF title fight. What does it tell you that
that indication?
Speaker 2: Look, there's definitely issues because if you take Dana White
at what he has said from the moment that zupaboxing
was created and I'm not and maybe he's changed his mind,
or maybe he wasn't being one hundred percent when he
first said it. But you know, knowing the way Dana's
personality is, you got to figure he has no use
or desire if he can avoid working with the sanctioning bodies.
To avoid working with the sanction bodies, this is a person,
keep in mind, who for the better part of the
last three decades, is not dealt with sanctioning bodies in
the UFC. They are the sanctioning body, right. He doesn't
want to change, you know. That's his uh, that's what
he knows, that's what he's comfortable with, and he wants
to bring that same sort of set up to his
boxing business. I get it, and that's why they're doing
what they're trying to do in terms of changing the
Muhammad Ali legislation or as they say, amending the Muhammad
Ali legislation. I know this, and I've said this numerous
times as we've discussed it, both you and me on
this show. I've done some YouTube interviews with some of
my friends and other channels who've asked me the same
kind of questions. Jai Opataiah did not sign with ZUPA
Boxing to give up the title, and if you listen
to the podcast interview I did with him, any interview
that he's done, even when they brought him on Paramount
Plus to announce his signing, and they did an interview
with him on the broadcast of one of their recent shows.
His entire talking point, everything about what he says in
terms of what he wants in the sport of boxing.
You know, besides money, you know, part of his legacy
is he wants to be undisputed, and for better or
for worse, you cannot be considered the undisputed champion of
a weight division if you do not have in the
current formation of this fucked up sport all four of
the major organization belts and then includes the IBF. So
if he has the IBF and now he has to
vacate it, or he does vacate it, or they strip
him or what have you, that is detrimental to what
his goals and dreams are. And I think that he's
going to do everything in his power to maintain that title. Now, unfortunately,
sometimes the fighters are they don't there. Sometimes the pawns
like they get caught up in right, he may not
have the absolute say, so okay, what happens?
Speaker 1: Okay? So I heard him on with you great job
getting him, and in his own words, he said that
this stuff is above the fighters. The you know, the
fighters want to fight. I'm paraphrasing here, but he was told,
from everything I've been told, this is for the IBF
titles we told you about a week ago. Yes, okay,
So now here we are to the moment this weekend
where all of this has to go down. And I
keep coming back to this, and I'm not putting you
on trial, but I keep coming back to this. You
cannot have all sides of the argument. You can't tell
the fighter that, hey, you're going to be able to
defend your IBF title. You can't tell the public we're
not going to deal with the organizations and then have
all of this up in the air, and then it's
going to end up potentially being only for the ZUFA
Boxing title and have this go well, because at that
point the fighter is gonna be irate for everything that
you just described. So I again say to you, I
think it's far more compelling and far more entertaining. Does
he get introduced as the IBF champ, is the IDF
belt in the ring? Hold on? This is just my point. Well,
you're saying now, it's not gonna happen at all.
Speaker 2: So you're you're missing what I'm trying to say. Even
if he's allowed to defend the title, YEP, based on
everything I know about the way it operates, what we've
seen in past iterations of this type of issue between
a promoter and a sanctioning organization. He can go in
the ring and the ring announcer is not obligated to introduce,
you know, and maybe they won't let him hold that
the announcer.
Speaker 1: You've talked about that, and the announcers won't mention it.
Speaker 2: Well, by the way they did face offs where I
saw the video, they did it this week, you know,
yesterday or whatever, and he was holding the ring magazine title,
but he was not holding the IBF delt so uh huh.
That doesn't mean though that the IDF won't get a
sanction fee and do a second wa check and.
Speaker 1: May and and maybe they will, but this is far
more compelling to me. On does all of this goes
sideways after this fight because the IBF decides to strip
him and now exactly what you laid out his goal
and his plan of unifying and or becoming undisputed is
out the window. Stay tuned. And it's further. It's further
that this would not be the first time, even in
recent history, where a promoter is saying to a fighter
and we'll get to this. With Oscar and with Virgil Ortiz,
I can make this fight happen. I can make this happen.
I can make that happen. I can get you the
unified or the undisputed title shot Terrence Crawford with Aerol Spence.
If you re sign with me top rank and Bob
aarm and that didn't happen, There's example after example. It
wouldn't be the first time that it's happened. It's not
anything unique in that. But there's a reason I'm fascinated.
Speaker 2: There's a reason why this is bigger than just what's
gonna happen with the Opataia and the IBF and ZOOFA
on this particular fight. This is the first time Zufas
existed for a few months. They've done a couple of
you know where, they've done three shows. This is the
fourth show, and this is the first time where the
rubber is going to hit the road on what they
mean when they say they don't want to work with
the organizations. So this is gonna my opinion, whatever the
result is is going to have ramifications beyond Guy Opa
tie because.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying. That's what I was just saying. Yes,
everybody's wing.
Speaker 2: But here's the other thing about it. They don't maybe
want to do organizational titles on their paramount plus Zoo
for boxing numbered shows, but they're the promoter of record.
I believe they're going to be anyway, for like when
Tyson Fury fights on the Connor bencard, and you know
that when they do other fights on Netflix, there's gonna
be title fights. That's just inevitable. At some point, they're
gonna have to do fights that they're gonna try to
sign the top talent that are going to have to
involve the sanction bodies. Now, let's go back to the
very first event they were ever involved, and obviously they
were brought in late in the game. They were the
official promoter, let's say, of when Canelo fought Crawford. Obviously
that was for all four titles. So they promoted a
fight card with all those belts. That's take not to
mention undercard fights that that other organizational belts involved. So
they're willing to do it, but I don't think they
want to do it on those paramount shows. And we'll
have to wait and see. But right now, Opataia is
like the canary in the coal mine, if.
Speaker 1: You that's right, Like the guinea pig, like the test
case exactly, and by the way business is business. Everybody
else is watching this. That's smart. Management is watching this,
that's smart. And as soon as this goes sideways, if
it does, they will all say to each other, do
not deal with these people. Look what they did to Gyopataia.
If it happens, watch, watch, and it's happened before watch.
Speaker 2: Well see, well I don't necessarily think they won't deal
with them. I think it's going to be about how
much are you going to pay us to not deal
with the organization.
Speaker 1: Well, that's true too, because.
Speaker 2: The money is always the money.
Speaker 1: But if you have a title, I mean you know this.
If you have a title, and you have a shot
at unification, and you have a shot at a seven
figure pay day and a significant payday by going with
other promotions and other systems, why am I going with
you When you misled ji Opataia and he got himself
stripped and he's angry and he's upset. I'm not saying
any of this is gonna happen. I'm saying, if it happens,
this is this is the fascinating part. Okay, so we
covered that thoroughly.
Speaker 2: Well, I want to say one more thing about that.
DJ Yeah, and Anybody that has known me, or followed
me or read me for any number of years, or
even for five minutes knows that I certainly have had
my issues with the sanction bodies a lot through the years,
all of them at one time or another. And as
I like to say oftentimes on this show, the IBF
does IVF. Thanks all that said, for the sake of
ji Opataia, who wants to have the IBF title, I
hope that they can work it out and he's able
to defend the belt that he worked hard to get.
Speaker 1: I would hope so too, But Opataiah made his decision
to go with ZUFA and if they have misled him
I'm using that word, if they've misled him and it
can't be worked out, then it will be fascinating. On
does he have a multi fight deal anymore after this
fight and what happens? And do we have more lawyers?
Speaker 2: He definitely has a multi fight deal, but there.
Speaker 1: Are the lawyers. More on the lawyers coming up if
he tries to get out of his deal. Who knows?
More on the lawyers coming up later in his podcast
as well. All right to the fight itself, Yes, realistically,
what kind of chance does Brandon Glanton have to hang
in here in this? Because Opataia has been scoring a
bunch of knockouts, granted the last couple of title defenses
not exactly household names either. What do you make of
the fight itself?
Speaker 2: Go Ji Opataia is a devastating puncher. Number one, He
has sent something like I don't know five of his
last seven opponents or something like that that the hospital.
Even in non knockout situations, guys have had to go
to the hospital. I mean, he's a devastating puncher. The
knockout he had in December against Henryson Karra is one
of the sickest knockouts you'll see. He was a top
regarded knock of a Deer contender by most people. The
knockout he had against Claudio Squao in the previous fight
before that was devastating. A knockout before that he had
against David Nika of the Olympian who was undefeated, was
a devastating knockout. I mean, he's a bona fide puncher
in that two hundred pound weight class, so he hurts
man badly. Brandon lann has got a nice record. He's
twenty one and three with eighteen knockouts. He is coming
off a very impressive knockout victory against Marcus Brown, who
was a former light heavyweight title challenger who had moved
up to cruiser weety. It never reached his potential, I
think to most people's view, was the United States Olympian
that came with a lot of hype, got beat up
and knocked out by Arthur Better. Biev. It is only
other loss is this loss to Brandon Land. And he
also had a loss one other loss, but this was
the Those are the two knockout losses that he had
in his three losses overall. Does he have a chance
against Opataia? I mean Opatai is fresh, he's been active,
he's strong as a bull, and Glenn, you know, he
kind of got beat up a bit, uh and lost
a decision to Chris Bill and Smith in April of
twenty twenty five. I mean he's a good professional and
he's got good power. His resume is is not anything
to speak of. I mean he even the other fights
that he's lost, he lost to a guy that was
three and oh, I mean back in twenty twenty three.
He is lost or not. The guys that you would
necessarily have heard of ken he land on the chin
and do damage. I've never seen Opataia hurt in his
in his uh well once he was buzzed for like
a quick second I think actually against Sinkara, who then
took the brunt of a does destruction after that. Look,
there's a reason why he is the big underdog. I
believe he was picked because he fit the bill for
the IBF even whatever may come with that belt. He
is in their top fifteen, so we qualified for an
IVF title shot because certainly when they were making this
match for JII, they were looking for somebody that will
qualify the challenge for the IBF title. Listen, I expect
it to be an entertaining fight and in the end
for Opataia to do his damage. That's how I look
at it.
Speaker 1: That wouldn't shock you if Opataia blasts him out of
there in the first or second round, would nothing that
you would not shock.
Speaker 2: You Opatai, And knocking anybody out in rounds one through
twelve would not be as surprise him.
Speaker 1: No, I mean early.
Speaker 2: I mean I'm saying anywhere in the fight, if you
knock him out in one, I'm not surprised if you
knocked him out in the twelfth I wouldn't be surprised.
He's got power up and down the first round through
the twelfth round, he can knock you out. So if
he did so, to one shock me. I mean, and
some guys they come with a reputation of being a
slow starter, you know, may take a few rounds, so
like see what they got in front of them, or
before they really get rolling or work up a sweat
or whatever. Opatai has scored some knockouts in the earlier
parts of the fight, certainly with the first half, fourth round,
sixth round, first round against Alazorro, that was a fight
that was in riality. Bulitz him in the first round.
So he's knocked guys out in the in the early
part of the fight, he's knocked guys out in the
middle part of the fight in his career, and he's
knocked guys out in the later part of the fight.
So unless Brandon Lanton can do something to get his
respect early, yeah, that to me is what to look for.
Can he can he do something in that without if
he doesn't get clipped in the first couple of rounds,
they at least give Opataia something to think about, like,
oh shit, I gotta watch out for this. The guy
can punch maybe better than I gave him credit for
or whatever, and it's gonna maybe take a little longer.
But in the end I believe that this is you know,
Opataia is a man in his prime. He's the best
in the world right now in the weight class, and
Glanton is not all right.
Speaker 1: That is again Sunday Night, Paramount plus ZUFA boxing card
and stay tuned. Rayfield will also be reporting throughout the
weekend on what's the deal with the IBF. Now I'm
sounded like Jerry Seinfeld all of a sudden, what's the
deal with them? Uh? Stay tuned. Uh, let's get to
some fight news, shall we. And speaking of there will
be lawyers. We did get a ruling earlier this week.
Speaker 2: Justice delayed?
Speaker 1: Is justice not delayed anymore? Question as to whether it's denied.
Oscar de la Hoya doesn't think it's denied. He thinks
it was justice that was done. Judge Christina Silva in
Nevada says, Golden Boy, I agree with you. This should
be arbitrated with an arbitrator. And furthermore, your temporary injunction
stays because Virgil Ortiz and his management can't make a
deal without the blessing of an arbitrator saying you're free
to go, so she leaves the restraining order intact. Okay,
I got a couple more thoughts on this, but your
initial thoughts, and you did some reporting on this. I
read you, I read several others on this legal victory
for now pending an appeal to the Nevada Court of
Appeals and pending the arbitrator. The victory for now for
Golden Boy go ahead.
Speaker 2: Well, they're going to go to arbitration. That's what their
judge said. Most promotional contracts, I don't remember the exact language,
but I'm fairly certain that in in the promotional agreement
between Golden Boy and Virtual Arties, which I'm have become
familiar with because it's attached to the original lawsuit as
an exhibit, I'm pretty sure there's language for if you
have certain issues, you can't work this out, they make
terms that it needs to go before an arbitrator. They'll
use the the the outfit called JAMS, I forget what
it stands for, but they're they're a group that does arbitrations.
I've covered several of them over my time in boxing.
They're the ones that did the arbitration when Deontay Wilder
and Tyson Ferior were knocking heads over the terms of
their if they were going to do their I forget
it was the remap. I guess it was the third fight.
They're the ones that arbitrated between Top Rank and Golden
Boy when they were trying to work out their issues
over many Pacio's contract. In other words, they have experience,
not only obviously in arbitration because that's their business, but
they've got people there that have worked on boxing cases,
which is a little bit more you know, niche and nuanced,
and they know their shit. So they're gonna have to
go to that. And at the moment, everything, as you said,
is on hold. There will be no I mean not
to say they couldn't theoretically get on the phone tonight,
tomorrow or whenever instead of this immediately. I doubt that's happening.
So barring some kind of miraculous pre arbitration settlement, there
will be no drawn Dowitzenna's fight.
Speaker 1: This sprint, Virgil Ortiz took to social media, was just
going to get to that and said I'm done with
Golden Boy. So I don't know that there's going to
be a phone call with he, with Oscar or anybody
on his behalf. I know you got you wrote, you
wrote up a little bit about it, and you were
putting it out there on social media. That was on
Wednesday night, that that Virgil Ortiz said I'm done with
Golden Boy. We're gonna tell that.
Speaker 2: That's all well and good that Virgil says that, but
the arbitrator may have something different to say. And what
the judge said in her ruling on the original case
is that the two sides have to report back to
her by September two, which is obviously several months after
right or within five days after the arbitration is said,
whichever comes first.
Speaker 1: Okay, so this is an important distinction, and we don't
have to go for fifteen minutes. But again, you know,
I love this and you love this, and we go
running around with the lawyers. I read you, I read
Jake Donovan who wrote about this. I read somebody else
in Nevada that wrote about this. I don't know if
it was Last Vegas Review Journal or or what it was.
This is important, just on this distinction. What she ruled
is you have to go to the arbitrator. She didn't
say who was right, who wasn't right. She said follow
the contract. And so the argument still exists for now.
From Whortez's side, we don't believe that we have a
promotional agreement. Go ahead and address that. But the judge
did not rule who's right who's wrong on that point.
Speaker 2: The deans to go tell it.
Speaker 1: The judge said, go tell it to the arbitrator.
Speaker 2: Go ahead. The nuance is that the judge was not
ruling on the merit of the case.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 2: The judge was ruling that the contract that Virgil has
with Golden Boy called for in these instances you must
go to arbitration. So she was not assessing if his
case is correct, if Golden Boy is correct. She was saying,
according to the legal and I'm not a lawyer, but
what the contract says of your promotion, that you are
required to go to arbitration to figure this thing out.
Even though he claims I'm free, and Golden Boy obviously
says you are not. So Virgil made his statement about
that his time with Golden Boy is done, that he's
confident things are going to go in his direction, and
he's always in the gym staying ready and anyone fifty
four of the once again it can get it. And
then Oscar did his clap back Thursday, you know, a
few hours before we started the tape tonight's show, and
you know he basically he actually tried to make nice
with Virgil, but he ripped the shit out of Virgil's manager,
Rick Marigian. That to me, that's the issue here. The
other people involved in Eric Gomez, Virgil Ortiz, if you
know them, I know all of them involved. They're pretty
mild mannered people. Virgil's an animal in the ring, but
a pretty chill guy outside the ring. You know Eric
similar he works for Oscar as the president. He's been
Oscar's best friend since there. But he's not a stand
offish guy. He's not looking to mixed up. He just
wants to, you know, try to do the job and
get everything done. But then you take a little more
high high, highly strong, more individuals like Oscar and Rick
who's who? And I get along boat with both of
those guys, but their personalities with each other is like
loyal and water. Unfortunately, so they got to figure that out,
and I hope that this does not cause VIRTUALI sit
for months and months that the example I have seen
others suggest and I wrote about it and covered the
whole thing, was when Mikey Garcia got got caught up
in a in a lawsuit with that he filed against
Top Rank under similar kind of circumstances. In the end,
Mikey Garcia lost two and a half years of his
prime sitting it out, and that's unfortunate, and it costs
him big fights. It costs him a lot of money,
et cetera.
Speaker 1: Two more points. You laid it out. We don't know
when the arbitration can happen, how soon. It's apparently not
going to be very soon.
Speaker 2: So why he said that it could happen and starting
next week for all you.
Speaker 1: Know, it could, but it's not. It's not likely to
happen next week now, it's not going to be. It's
not gonna be July before they start. The other thing
that's important to emphasize, the legal wrangling is not over yet,
because if either side had been unhappy with the ruling
and they want to go to the Nevada Court of Appeals,
they can do that. And let's see if that's what
Ortiz's side does to try to expedite things and say,
we want to make this lucrative fight with Jeron Ennis.
We believe we are free agents.
Speaker 2: Or any fight for that matter, right but the most.
Speaker 1: Lucrative one that's on the table is about to expire.
Because Eddie Hearn has already been saying, and we understand this,
she wrote about it. They'll Ennis will go fight somebody
else for sure. That's that's what's at stake.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you right now. Whatever happens in this case,
it is my belief that there's zero chance basically that
Ennis and Ortiz happens next unless there's a very very
very quick resolution. That most likely not because he's ducking
him at this point, but because, like you said, Eddie
and John Boots Ennis, they got their own business to
worry about if they can't get the guy in the ring.
The one hundred and fifty four pound weight division is
very rich, and he made the point that he has
another champion in that weight class, which is Josh Kelly.
They may maybe they'll give him another defense before he
fights Ennis, but that's something that could happen to be
at the end of the year. They were saying, let's
try and do a fight with with Xander Zayas, who's
got two of the titles. I mean, there's other fighters
in the weight class. We'll see what happens with the
result of what happens at the end of March with
Sebastian Fondora against Keith Thurman. I mean, there's a lot
of good names in the division that are out there
that are going to look for marquee type of fights,
and Naturroom Boxing is certainly a promotion company that is
capable of delivering marquis fights. So the only one in
the end if there's a long layoff. I mean, certainly
Golden Boy would like to do a fights with Virgil
and make the money that goes along with that, but
the one that it ends up hurting is going to
be Virtual Artise. He's the one with the career that
the clock is taking, and if he has to sit
out for any period of time, it's gonna you're never
gonna get that time back. You don't get that money back.
So hopefully they can work their shit out.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned, all right, other news, I saw you writing
about this midweek. God, we're not going to go on
for fifteen minutes. But no, you always say that the
WBC is going to have a vacant lightweight title fight
after stripping Shakur Stevenson, and it's William Zepeda and Lamont Roach,
which on the surface that's number one against number two
in their rankings. The one dangling participle, as you like,
how I just come up with a metaphor is they
have an interim champion at the moment who's not involved
in the title fight. So get in here and explain
what's going on. Because Herrera YadA, hear Herrera has their
vacant interim title, but he's not involved in this fight.
Speaker 2: So Shakor got stripped, as we know, soon after he
defeated Tafimo Lopez based on their beef over the sanctioning fees,
so that title became vacant. And so then normally, and
this has happened numerous times in the WBC as well
as other organizations, if there's an interim title holder, then
that fighter is automatically elevated to the full champion. The
WBC has in recent times not always done that, which
I'm okay with. I guess, make the guy fight for it.
I don't quite get why you'd want to be the
interim champion if you don't get upgraded, but whatever, so
they'll make them fight for that title's we saw that
just recently with Bruce Shu Shu Carrington, for example, he
was the interim featherweight champion. He ended up when it
became when that title became vacant, he fought cash show
for the vacant title, Okay, and he won the fight.
Now he's the champion. In the case of Yadia Herrera,
who became the interim champion back you know a few
months ago, you would figure if now Shakor has been
stripped of the title or had vacated title or whatever,
that he would be elevated. Okay, that didn't happen, So
they would then go to Plan B, which is the
secondary option to have, which is to order that interim
champion to fight the next leading available contender for the
vacant title. In this case, it would have been Williams
of Baina, who was rated number one in the lightweight
division by the WBC. So I was a little surprised
because this is I can't find another Maybe if somebody
can look it up, you can certainly send me a
message on social media. I believe this is unprecedented. This
is the first time in any organization a WBC here
otherwise where an interim champion is not one half of
a vacant title fight or at least given the opportunity
to be part of that fight that person. Perhaps they
could have said no and vacated the interim title, but
that they weren't even offered the position in that particular fight.
So by based on the rankings, if they were going
to make the interim title be filled by a fight,
it should be Herrera, with the first offer going to
William Zupaida. If he turned it down, then you go
to Lamont Roacher's number two. If he turned it down,
you go number three. You go on down the line,
So he is not involved now. The way Mauricio Soliman
explained it to me because I asked him about how
they came up with the fight between Zepeida against Roach,
is that before they were gonna, before they ordered any
kind of fight, they were approached by a variety of
promoters sending them their their thoughts like hey, could you
order this fight for the vacant title? Could you order
that fight for the vacant title, and one of the
ones that they spoke about, I believe it was in
person when they're when a bunch of the people involved
were at the Ryan Garcia Mario Barrios fight and was
suggested to do this fight between one verses two and
they the Mauricio and other members of the WBC liked
that idea, and so they decided to give it a
vote of their board of governors and they did that,
and and are the comments that Mauricio said to me.
They liked that idea. Uh, they said, this was like
a high prestige fight, high interest, and we believe it's
good for the sport. And nothing against Herrara, who I
think is a tremendous young fighter, but Roach and the
Paid are much better known, they have more accomplishment than Herrera,
So I kind of get it from that perspective. But again,
my my thing is this, what is the impetus that
have an interim champion in the first place, And why
would anybody want to win the interim title if you
have no chance to get the title upgraded, if the
guy gets shipped, or to even behalf of the title fight.
Speaker 1: So on the one hand, to onoard I.
Speaker 2: Liked the Paid versus Roach. I think that's a heck
of a fight.
Speaker 1: That's a separate argument, that's a separated.
Speaker 2: But Herrera should be involved. So I've got my quarrels
with that. But in the it's weird. It's just weird.
Speaker 1: So again, they will fight at some point soon, and
the WBC did stipulate the winners then gotta fight Herrera
or if Herrera is fighting somebody else, then it becomes
so nebulous.
Speaker 2: One of the other fights that was suggested to the
WBC by Queensberry Promotions was to do Herrera as the
interim champion to fight for the vacant title against their
another Queensberry fighter, which is Sam Noakes, who had that
tremendous battle in a close loss against Abdul la Mason.
He's number five in the WBC rankings. Uh, And that
was I guess a no go. So as again, Maursio said,
the winner of Roach versus the paida should fight Herrera,
or Herrera if he fights another person, be it Noakes
or somebody else, the winner of that particular fight. But
if Noakes knows he's I mean, if Herrera knows he's
getting a title shot, it probably means the Noakes fights
dead in the water. Why is he gonna take the
gamble when he knows that in a few more months
he can get the title shots. It's kind of a
no the greatest situation there.
Speaker 1: I just that's one way to put it. I'll just
continue to say to you, these organizations do whatever they want,
whatever is in their interest. And here it is again
with the WBC and Mauricio Suliman. No one is arguing
that the Zapada Lamont roach fight commercially and from fan
interests is a bigger fight. We agree, we all agree
on that, but is that the right thing to do
with the right thing to do is to take care
of Herrera who fought for your vacant interim title and
the thing.
Speaker 2: That is Zapaida was number one in the ratings even
though it's coming off the pretty one time.
Speaker 1: But he lost also and in a roach.
Speaker 2: He's got back to back draws, that's right, the very
controversial one against tank uh and as well as the
one that was a draw that was at one hundred
and forty yep against Pitt pull Cruz where he's fighting
for the WBC's interim title. In that way, class, So
it's it's a little bit of an unusual situation.
Speaker 1: How about that, so Zapada Roach later in the year,
hopefully not too distant in the year, because both of
those guys want to get back in a ring. They've
both been off well. Roach has fought more recently with
the Pitt Bull cruise draw. All right, other items, We're
back to Floyd Mayweather. What are we up to on
the number of exhibitions He's gonna fight Mike Tyson. He's
now fighting someone named Mike Zambidas, a retired Greek kickboxer.
This is legit that he's doing before the many Pacquiao fight.
Speaker 2: In theoretically.
Speaker 1: Go ahead.
Speaker 2: Theoretically this is the case. So a few things. Number One,
there were several people not I didn't. I did not
report this, but other other outlets did report in recent
weeks that the Mike Tyson Mayweather exhibition would take place
April twenty fifth in Congo. Uh. I never had confirmation
of that on my reporting. I never believe that, to
be quite honest, I never reported that. And now what
I have reported is that that is not happening. That
they're still contracted to fight, for sure, but it will
not happen on April twenty fifth, that will happen. If
it does happen, presumably it's going to be several weeks
later into May, and in Congo. While still as a
possible location, is definitely not the only location. There's still
other potential places they could do the fight. Now if
that does move into May, okay, fine Floyd. Then, unrelated
to the to the moving of the Tyson exhibition, Vaut
announced earlier in the week on his social that he
would be taken on this Greek former kickboxer Mike Zambidas, who,
by the way, his career as a kickboxer ran from
two thousand to twenty fifteen. He did come out of
retirement have one boxing match a few years later where
he did win against you not any particular name, thought
to fight in Germany. So he would then take this
exhibition supposedly against Zambidas in Athens, Greece, supposed to be
June twenty seventh, and then come September on the nineteenth.
That's the Netflix fight, the official actual match, the one
that would count, that's ancient as a real fight, that
would potentially impact his fifty and oh if he were
to win he'd be fifty one to know if he
loses accounts as a loss fifty and one. And still
pak Yaw theoretically is taking his own exhibition in April
against Ruslan Ervandikov. So all these guys are taking a
ton of fights. I went back and looked this up
because I was like, when the so Mayweather now theoretically
is on the books for three bouts in twenty twenty six,
two exhibitions, and you know May June, or you know
April May one, in June in the Greek in the
fight in Greece, and then the real fight in September.
Do you have to go all the way back to
dj when I was a much younger man in two
thousand and five. We both were two thousand and five.
Your son was not born yet, not born, I was,
were not married yet. You weren't married yet. I was married.
Speaker 1: My twins, who were about to graduate from high school,
weren't born yet in two thousand and five. Yeah, and
that's the last time Floyd fought three times in a years.
What you're gonna tell me?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So in two thousand and five, he was had
was transitioning from he had moved up fromweight. He scored eight.
He actually fought three times that year in official fights,
three knockouts. Knocked out the legendary Henry Brucellis. Then had
the big victory that was his pay per view debut
against Artaro Gaddi. He stopped him and won the WBC's
junior welterweight title, he never defended. He moved up later
that year to the welterweight division. He knocked out the
former junior welterweight title holder, scharn Bay Mitchell. So that
was three fights in two thousand and five, and since
then he has never had three fights in a year.
And now theoretically he's gonna have two exhibitions plus the
pack Yll rematch. So I'll believe all that if all
three of those bouts actually come off as planned. I mean,
nothing really shocks me in boxing, but I'd find that
to be a little surprising. That seems a little aggressive
to me. We'll see, stay tuned. You're gonna go to
Greece to check it out.
Speaker 1: No, we're not going to Egypt. We're not going to
Greece is what I thought. We established.
Speaker 2: We'll see, so we were gonna think about going on.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to figure out how to pay for the
Twins graduation party, the Twins' vacation, final senior thing that
they want to take and college and they want to
and now you want to go to Egypt in Greece. Uh,
moving on, oing on on the fight news. So Most
Valuable Promotions has a press conference coming Friday. I keep
receiving info from them about press conference, major announcement, Press conference,
major announcement. They're not saying what it is, but Man
Rayfield is on it. You have learned what it is,
You've put it out there. What do you have?
Speaker 2: Well, I think this, you know, depending on when you
listen to the show. If you listen to this in
the afternoon on Friday, it will already have been announced.
But my reporting and I've been digging around about this,
and you know, the MVP people are very tight lipped
about it. They don't want to talk about it, which
is their progative, but it is also my progative to
find people who will talk about it and then report
about it. That is my job. They're hosting this press
conference at the Madison Square Garden on Friday, and they
will announce at that press conference a card that will
take place at the Theater on April seventeenth. It is
my understanding that the head they have a date and
if you look and you got the press lease where
at lists a bunch of the participants in the press conference.
One of them is Lisha Bomgarner, who was the unified
three belt women's champion at one hundred and thirty pounds.
She will defend her title against the Korean fighter bo
Me ray Shin, who gave a really good account of
herself in a loss a majority decision where she challenged
Caroline Dui a few months ago or like sometime last year,
I guess for her lightweight title. She has won one
fight since then, and they'll have a variety of whatever
other bouts they put on the show. I believe Shadejah Green,
for example, is listened on that list. Maybe she'll defend
her super middleweight title. And other of their top female
boxers on there Stephanie Hahn and Holly Holm, and a
variety of different fighters that were listed. So that's one part.
But the other part of it that to me is intriguing. Again,
my reporting says that this will be a fight that
and this I think is the part that's the major
part that they're referring to is that this will be
televised on ESPN and it will be the first fight
of a multi fight agreement they have with ESPN. And
I thought to myself, boy, they have a deal with
the Zonne. And as I come to find out, because
I check with my people at the Zone, I said, hey,
what's going on. Do you guys still have a deal
with the z Oonne Because you know, if you remember,
besides the big shows that they were doing like on Netflix,
there are Prospects series and some other funds that they
have done have been on the Zonne. So the de
Zone folks tell me, no, we don't have a contract
with the MVP any longer. I don't think there was
any kind of falling out from the way I understood it,
and that they would be willing to do events with
them on a one off basis, but they're not obligated
to each other at this point. And so apparently MVP
has gone and made a smaller type of deal with ESPN,
and this card that they're going to do in April
will probably well not probably, this will be the kickoff
of that particular particular endeavor. Now I don't know if
this is part of it. This is just my own.
This part is my conjecture. If you go back a
couple of weeks ago, ESPN announced that in lieu of
some of their baseball coverage and some of their summertime plans,
they're going to devote a certain block of their programming
on the weekend to women's sports. I think it was
going to mainly be on Sunday nights in the time.
Speaker 1: Space basketball for example, and other things.
Speaker 2: Yes, but in the time slot where they would normally
have shown what they showed for thirty something years, which
was Sunday Night baseball. Now this card that Alisha is
going to be on on the seventeenth of April, this
is a Friday night card, not a Sunday card. But
I'm thinking to myself, if they get involved with MVP,
that means obviously some of the events are going to
do are going to be heavily female oriented because of
the women's boxing that they are so heavily involved in.
So that seemed to be like understandable why they would
match up with them in terms of as a broadcast partner.
So that part is my conjecture. But anyway, if it
all pans out the way I've reported, This is a
great thing that ESPN is going to be back paying
the rights feed to put boxing on whatever type of boxing,
as long as that at this type of level, MVP
has been known to do a lot of good cards,
so I'm happy about that. It still blows my mind
that Top Rank doesn't have a deal at the moment
in time. But MVP if they can grab something on
ESPN and put on some entertaining fights, and you know,
good for them and good for us as fans.
Speaker 1: So look for all all of that tomorrow and you'll
be reporting on that on Friday as we do this,
as we release the pod with the MVP show and
the press conference coming from New York. Couple of more things. Okay,
the plot thickens on this whole. Dana White ZUFA Boxing
and Connor benn is now part of ZUFA Boxing, except
he's not really part of ZUFA Boxing. It's Turkey Alischk
making the fight for Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Nonetheless, there was
a big bally who about that about a week and
a half ago. So now we get an intriguing, interesting
development involving Eddie hearn and he announced on Thursday that
he has agreed with UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall to
be his manager right and be in his corner if
he so desires for a UFC about a UFC title fight,
not in the corner like literally, but I don't know.
But he's at least figuratives part of the team involved
in the team, the management team for Aspenall.
Speaker 2: So he'll keep his own management that he has in place.
So what they did was Eddie has this new company
that's been created called match Room Talent Agency, in which
are going to provide management services and talent services to
their clients, not as a promoter in boxing, but it
could be any athlete I assume if it's tom Asmenal
in UFC, I don't see any reason why they wouldn't
maybe sign a soccer player or you know, some other
athlete that they may be involved with. But the interesting
part is not so much that they're going to branch
out their business into this part of uh the business
side of the sports that they're involved in, or even
if they're not involved in like UFC, but that if
they're going to be working with tom Asmenal in particular who.
And I'm not a heavy UFC follower, but I certainly
known and heard and read about.
Speaker 1: I know, I know of him, yes, yes, But the issues.
Speaker 2: Have been like that, the one you know, people always
want to say, well, UFC makes all the big fights,
but the reality is they actually don't. And the one
fight that has gone on, mate, and I don't know
whose fault it is. I'm not blaming anybody, and I
really don't give a fuck because I don't follow UFCA.
But the fight that's supposed to be the big fight
in UFC is John Jones against aspinall and for whatever reason,
it's gone on made for a long long time. And
so uh, now that Eddie Hearn is going to be
working alongside Aspinal with the rest of his team, that
puts him across the table, you know, in metaphorical terms,
with with with Bill White. And they've been knocking each
other for the last couple of weeks. You know, Eddie
Hearn's been saying what he has to say. Dana White's
been calling Eddie names, uh, and it makes for a
very interesting thing. And what I can see is this
is like a Okay, the point is okay, Dana, you
went and signed Connor. This is my power move. Now
I'm I'm gonna become involved in the management of your
heavyweight champion. And now we'll give Eddie Hearn within the
UFC fan hood and and media echo chamber or whatever
you want to call it, where he can now spend
a lot of time rallying against Dana about match, about
m m A and UFC fighter pay, which is and
he can say, look, you know, I'm here to get
all you guys better paid in the UFC the way
I get my guys paid in boxing, and that will
drive Dane up a fucking wall.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned on the needling and the drama and the
whole bit. So just one more layer to it.
Speaker 2: Okay, that'll be interesting to.
Speaker 1: Say the least. So one more item as well. Oscar
Duarte is again under the category of somebody that needs
to be made whole in the figurative sins here, Oscar
Duarte didn't get the title fight with Richardson Hitchins when
Hitchins got sick on the day of their IBF one
and forty pound title fight. All right, so, but Duarte
apparently will now also be involved on a future show.
What have we learned what have you found out?
Speaker 2: So when he lost out on that Hitchens fight because
of Hitchins's illness and the fight got canceled after they
had weighed in, he had spent two months or so
training for the fight, had spent money on his training
camp and did not get what I have report. What
I am told was a purse of six hundred and
fifty thousand dollars and the folks at Sella are the
ones that were paying the freight on the fight, even
though he's a Golden Boy fighter. Remember Sela and Turkey
and then bought the show for this was on the
Barrios Versus Ryan Garcia card. They bought that show from
PBC and Golden Boy, which put them involved in terms
of making Germany got paid. So Duarte didn't get anything.
You know, I don't think he's gotten any money. I
guess Oscar promised he was gonna pay him something. I
don't know if he's actually done so yet or not,
but he's obviously pissed off because I put all that
time in I didn't get Not only did I get
the shot, I didn't get paid my money, right, So,
you know, Golden Boy, I think they I mean they
got to feel bad about that. I'm number one. I
know they're trying to get Seala to at least paid
part of the money. I don't he's not. Look, you
don't fight, you don't get your whole first period, even
if it's not your fault. I used to get so
maybe you did right. You did say previously.
Speaker 1: It's not automatic, but it's common that you would get
maybe half, correct, I mean not as much as half.
Speaker 2: So I know, like in certain places, off the top
of my head, like in California, for example, I don't
know the rules for every single place, and honestly, I'm
not sure what the rule is into that. I don't
think that anybody's obligated in California, if you make the weight,
if you go to the way in and you weigh in,
and then the fight is canceled, you're entitled to a
percentage of your purse, regardless of the fight happens. In
any event, So, in addition to Golden Boy claiming they're
still trying to help Duarte, they get at least some
of the money from the purse that he did not
get for the fight that was canceled. Eric Gomez and
I spoke today. He's the president of Golden Boy Promotions.
He said they are gonna add Oscar. He would that
he would like to be able to reschedule the Hitchins rematch.
That's unlikely, and not because I don't think Hitchens is
ducking d'artet like some people have foolishly suggested, but because
after that fight didn't happen, he was ordered to make
the mandatory which was part of the ruling to allow him.
That the option against the Warte in the first place
is that whether it happens or it doesn't happen, your
next fight has to be the mandatory side. He's gonna
be kind of stuck with that mandatory fight. So if
they can't work that out and get him the fight
with Hitchens in quick order, they're gonna put him on
May second. He'll box on the on the pay per
view in which David Benevitez and Zerdo Ramirez are the
main event in Las Vegas. And I'll at least get
a chance to be on a big stage and to
make a good person.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: You know, I don't think it will be a title fight,
but hopefully against a reputable opponent. And uh and and
even though it's gonna have to wait a little longer.
At least, it's not like he's waiting deep into the summer.
You know, he misses the rotation completely. It sucks that
he had to missed the fight when he did, But
the end result is if he's if he's got to
put it off by a you know, a couple of months,
that's not the end of the world.
Speaker 1: I guess somebody take care of de Warte exactly what
we're saying here on the pod.
Speaker 2: And let's so at least they're putting him on the
next all right, and he gets and he gets to
fight on a prominent card.
Speaker 1: I believe we have pretty well covered what we need
to come here in the preview mode again the ji
Opataiah title fight, I say again quotes for ZUFA Boxing,
which will be taking place in Las Vegas, will be
Sunday night. We will come your way off the weekend
on Sunday night to recap that fight, give you the
fight news, etc. Other than that, I think we're good
here for a preview edition, are we not. Mister Arthur,
thank you, and we will catch up with you off
the weekend in that recap pod. Make sure you're following
subscribing here to this speed Apple Spreaker, Spotify, go find
the Big Fight Weekend YouTube page as well. For now,
there you go, full show on the news and everything else.
We get ready for that Opataia fight on Sunday night,
and for now we're good on the Big Fight Weekend
preview