Speaker 1: Well, well, happy New Year, or are we still allowed
to say that, because, like Larry David said, it's only
allowed like the day after New Year's Day and you
can't say that. I'm just I'm still gonna say it.
It's the Fight Preach to Night Recap podcast. It is
a new year, it is twenty twenty six. I am
the somewhat competent host TJ. Reeves. Hello to our insider,
Big Dan Rayfield. I say happy New Year to you.
Sure here on the point, is it allowed? I mean,
Larry David, the comedian says no with that funny bit
on Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, HERB is one of my all
time favorite shows in correct, all respect for me and Larry,
But yeah, you can.
Speaker 1: It's we're still within the realm right now on.
Speaker 2: Them on January fourth, and we haven't really spoken since.
Speaker 1: The first weekend of the year, so we're underway. There
are going to be fifty two of these weekends, and
so this is the first of those, and we're ready
to recap what Amanda Serrano did in her main event
in Puerto Rico defending her unified featherweight titles. We also
had a Japanese world title fight as well.
Speaker 2: Since last you've got quite a world title fight.
Speaker 1: But okay, all right, what is eliminator for kaz Ioka.
We're going to talk about that fight. And then we've
got some fight news scary stuff with Anthony Joshua that
you and I have not yet had a chance to
talk about on the podcast. We're going to update that
and in some other fight news. Thank you for finding us.
Thank you because there are thousands and thousands and thousands
of you listening to us that we appreciate, come off
of another huge year on the podfeed, Apple, Spreaker, Spotify.
Also go find our YouTube page as well, the Big
Fight Weekend YouTube page for the extra content. There, great
interviews that Dan has, our nostalgia Whenever we have nostalgia pieces,
we put them up some live content. Big Fight Weekend
YouTube page is where you find that. So I just
say thank you again publicly to the audience for hanging
in there with us. I think you very much enjoy
the content. Hopefully you enjoyed the previous two pist because
Dan and I put those out last year. At the
beginning of last week, we put out the Fighter of
the Year and we put out the Fight of the Year,
and those are the two pods that are immediately preceding
this one. So if you don't know what we chose,
you know what, I'm not going to ruin it. I'm
not gonna tip it. Go back and listen to both
of those pods where we had some good debate for
about twenty twenty two minutes something like that on both
Go enjoy that and.
Speaker 2: They also by the way, DJ, go on my website
slash newsletter and read my articles. That's correct, all of
my picks and corresponding cop top.
Speaker 1: Candidates, corresponding verbiage from you on the substack. They need
to be subscribing. They need to be on the newsletter
as well, keep you up to date. So with all
the promos out of the way, let's get to business
and what we do, and that is recap. Let's recap
the Dizonne MVP Most Valuable Promotions main event and the
rest of the card that is noteworthy. I defer to
you on what is or isn't noteworthy. Off of this,
Amanda Serrano did win and retain her WBO and WBA
Women's Featherweight Unified titles by virtue of her decision over
Raina Tayaz. Tayaz actually missed weight on Friday before this fight,
so she could not win the titles. But honestly, I
saw a couple of clips I read your recap. She
didn't come close to winning the fight really anyway, Serrano dominated.
I'm saying that, what are your thoughts in the recap
mode on that.
Speaker 2: Well, one thing about in terms of the weight situation,
the weight limit, of course is one hundred twenty six pounds.
She weighed one hundred and twenty six point six pounds,
just couldn't get down all the way to one twenty six.
And you know, tip of the hat to Amanda Serrano,
you're seeing wearing my baseball hat. She didn't make a
big deal about it. She didn't even like care if
she made it. She didn't take any extra money from
her because she was very appreciative of the fact that
Taz had taken the fight on like two weeks. Notice
that we're supposed to have the rematch with Erica Cruz.
She had an atypical fight for clembuterol in nervada test,
not a positive test, but a test that needed more exploration,
if you will. So she was dropped from the bout
and Taz took the fight on short notice. She was
stepping up huge in terms of her opposition. She was
taken on her first like real serious opponent that people
would know. She was also, you know, putting her undefeated
record on the line and in her first ever scheduled
ten round fight and Sarana.
Speaker 1: And another thing is she's Puerto Rican and even admitted
in the build up she looks up to Serrano as
a hero. So you had all that working on, Let's
go ahead and call it a title fight, and we're
not going to make a big deal about her being
slightly overweight? Did I not also read on my Dan
Rayphaeld substack that Tayas had primarily been fighting at the
division higher and was having trouble with the weightcut. That
was another man of factor. She'd been fighting at like
one point thirty or even bought a couple times at lightweight.
Am I not mistaken and had to try to do
the weight cut here on short notice?
Speaker 2: Well? She was, I mean, she had fought a bunch
of fights in the featherweight divisions. She fought a while
back around on her thirty, but she really actually had
fought her last fights at twenty two. But I don't
think it was so much about the weight that she
couldn't make the weight division because she was coming down
in weight from fighting at a heavyweight. It was more
because it was a short not you know, she only
had two weeks and I'm sure these you know, these,
you know, none of the fighters, they don't really usually
walk around close to that weight, So it is a
struggle if you're taking the fight out of short notes.
But the point I'm making about the weight is that Serrano,
she's she's a real sportsman, sportswoman if you will, wasn't
making a big deal that it appreciated the fact that
her opponent showed up and came to fight, and you know,
Aman has made great money in recent years. She wasn't
going to try to take from the purse of Teaz
who's never made you know, you know, fifty cents for
her fights. Most likely in any event. In terms of Serrano, now,
she had been the featherweight champion for a long time.
She was on disputed. She ended up giving up the
WBC title because they declined to do sanction female boxing
matches for more than two minute rounds. That standard, which
is for women. This was a fight where they did
for three minute rounds. She also had vacated the IBF title.
I believe that was because of a mandatory situation that
she did not do and she hadn't fought in the
weight class in two years Amanda, because remember any follow
Toronto knows as great as she's been as a featherweight,
she kind of guys sidetracked when she ended up going
into the rematch with Katie Taylor. Remember she took the
tune up if you will, at lightweight against Stevie Morgan,
who she blasted out, and then she had the back
to back fights slightly over the one hundred and thirty
five pounds limit, challenging Katie Taylor for the undisputed women's
Junior welterweight title. The second fight at the end of
twenty twenty four one of the most spectacular fights you'll
ever see, male or female. Just an amazing fight. And
then in July they had the third fight, which did
not live up to that type of situation. Was actually
a pretty bad fight. But nonetheless, she had done the
two the three fights that were over featherweight. Lost the
back to back fights to Taylor, and now with that
behind her, a lot of people questioning, what does Amanda
Toronto have left? I mean, she's been in a lot
of tough fights. She's thirty seven years old, and she's
coming off back to back losses and one of them
is one of the most grueling, physical, you know, fights
you'll ever see. Ever, what does she have left now
that she's back at Featherway. Well, as it turns out,
against a very game, tough opponent in TAAs who gave
everything that she had, and I think we'll see more
from her in the future, she showed that she's still
got something left. Man in Toronto, she boxed very well,
her speed was there, her timing seemed on. She was
in great shape, she was in great spirits, and she
fought out of a fight, and she had an opponent
in TAAs who was hungry, just not as talented, not
as skilled, and obviously taking a big step up. I'm
sure she learned from that fight, and so it was
a very entertaining fight. If you ask me, I totally
enjoyed it. But in the end, the scores were academic.
I mean, he had Serrano winning seven rounds to three
on two of the score cards eight rounds to two.
On another card, I think you can make the argument
it was like nine rounds to one. Teas won around
maybe two. Two judges obviously thought she went three. But
it was very good entertainment value there was. They never
said on the broadcasting. You couldn't tell on the replay
at one point, I want to say around like the four.
At their fifth round, Serrano ended up with a big
shiner under her one of her eyes was all about
black and blue when the swelling was getting worse as
the fight went on. So I'm not I've never been
clear one hundred percent of it was a puncher head butt.
I thought it was a head butt, but and I
never saw specifically. But that added a little bit of drama,
I guess, because Taz was getting in some solid punches.
But Serrano she did a very good job to just
you know, you know, handle her base.
Speaker 1: So that so that leads to you said, thirty seven,
there's some belief that this may be the final year
that she fights, So you posed it. What else is
out there that challenges her that she hasn't done already?
She's got a Hall of Fame resume, what do you think.
Speaker 2: Well, she's made it very clear that, I mean, she
knows her career is coming to an end. But what
her big thing is she wants to get the fifty wins.
So now she's forty eight and four with a draw,
so she wants to get to the fifty wins, they say,
and I don't I've never researched it. So this is
what was said on the broadcast. Hopefully they have some
researchers that in women's boxing, the record for knockouts is
thirty two by Christy Martin. I don't know if that's true,
but anytime you can match yourself with Christy Martin, you're
in good company because she's one of the female greats
of all time, so much of the extent that you know,
we in the Boxing Writers Association of America, we have
a women's Fighter of the Year, and a few years
after it was created, we renamed it and we call
it the Christy Martin Award for Female Boxer the Year. Anyway,
so Serrano wants to get the fifty victory. She's got
forty eight, and she wants to at least match or
beat Christy Martin's number of knockouts, which is thirty two.
And Amanda now is thirty one knockouts. Now it's been
a while since he's had a knockout. She was going
for a big time in the fight on Saturday Night.
So those are two things that will probably motivate her
to keep her around and not to mention that in
the featherweight division, and either if there's fighters coming up
or maybe fighters going down, or if she decides to
go back up to one thirty or one thirty five,
because you remember she has won titles all the way
up to one forty. She is won titles in you know,
the record for female boxing. I mean in men's boxing,
of course the record is many packet with eight, but
in the women's boxing side of the sport, the record
is seven. And that's Amanda Serrano all the way up
to one hundred and forty pounds. So there's other fighters
out there she could fight. You know, she was thrilled
to go back and have a home area fight in
Puerto Rico where she hadn't fought for five years or
remember we talked about it in twenty twenty four. She
was supposed to have a headliner right where Jake Paul
was the undercart and that thing happened with the.
Speaker 1: Hat got in her eyes and burned her hand and
she couldn't fight A day later.
Speaker 2: She canceled the fight in the dressing room of the
night of the fight. So she was very thrilled to
go back there have a hometown defense. And you know what,
I also like the fact that she knows she's winning
the fight easily. Obviously you don't even This was not
like you know it's going to be a close call.
She was standing there toe to toe with Teas in
the tenth round looking for a knockout, not running around.
And keep in mind they were doing three minute rounds,
so this was not the typical where you can you
know that two minutes six flies by. They were still
showing a tremendous amount of stamina in the tenth round.
And by the way, if you look at the comfy
box to stats, Toronto was throwing over over ninety three
punches in like seven of the ten rounds, over one
hundred punches and four of the rounds and the fight
high was in the final round, when you figure you're
most tired, she threw one hundred and nineteen punches.
Speaker 1: I have said this for the better part of the
four years plus that you and I have done this
going back to twenty twenty two. That she is a
highly entertaining fighter, got a good left hand, active action fighter.
I mean, there is everything to like when she goes
in to fight. I just wonder again, how many more
times are we going to see her? You think at
least two, and maybe it's going to be more than that.
Speaker 2: We'll figure out the time. Unless there's a reason that
she can't fight. You know, something happens, if there's an injury,
something along those lines, I you know, or she you know,
maybe suffers a terrible loss or something like that, a
dad knockout or something. I have no doubt in my
mind that she will fight for a while longer until
she achieves that fifty wins, you know, whether she can
get to the knockouts or not. She hasn't had a
knockout in quite a while, but fifty wins is a
nice round number, and I think that's what motivates her.
She's not motivated. I don't think she's already won all
the titles you can win. Like I said, seven weight classes.
She's the reigning champion that featherweight gave up on disputed
just on a technicality, not because she lost her anything.
And she has made as much money as any of
the female.
Speaker 1: Binds, which is good, so that's not an issue.
Speaker 2: She's made, you know good seven figures were the last
several fights, so financially, she's doing very well and happy
to see that. So you have to find and that's
just in boxing, but in your life, no matter what
you do, you have to find something to motivate you.
She's motivated by getting to that nice round number of
fifty victories. She's still very good and she can do that,
and there's still some fights out there that maybe she
could have. I mean, we'll see. I mean she is
now stable mates in terms of MVP. Remember she's the
twenty six pound champion, Bomb Gardner's the thirty pound champion.
That could be a fight we could see in the fish.
I mean, there's there's plenty of good women out there
that she can match up with, and you know she's
gonna be able to call the shots because she's basically
against anybody in boxing in terms of female fighting other
than a Katie Taylor. Let's say you know her in
and around her weight classes. She's the A side anyway,
So she can call the shots, and I'll look forward
to seeing her again because, like I said, I've never
been the hugest women's boxing fan, although it has grown
on me in recent years. But there's a handful of
the of the women that I definitely enjoy watching. She's
one of them. Katie Taylor is one of them. I
love watching Mikaela Mayer. I would love better to watch Claressa.
She had real opponents in front of her, but there's
lots of talented women out there and she's one of them.
Speaker 1: All right. So rest of the card lightweight Stephanie Hahn
victorious fighting Holly Holme. Holly Holm had been on the
previous MVP show I know in June in Anaheim. I
was there for that. She's obviously had a decorated MMA
career as well. Tell me a little bit about that fight.
And then there was another men's fight involving the Puerto
Rican fighter Bamba Gonzalez as well. So what else from
the undercard?
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, Stephanie Hahn was the She is the women's
WBA lightweight champion and she won a seven round technical
decision against Holly Holm. Now, Holly Holme, I think to
Most people that follow combat sports know her more for
being a star and a former champion in the UFC.
She had went to mixed martial arts. She hadn't boxed
since two thousand. She won This is back, you know,
a generation ago as far as women's boxing goes in
the in the twenty teens, she won world titles in
four weight classes in women's boxing. That was at a
time where it was not nearly as organized it as
it is now. The sanctioning bodies as we know them
didn't all necessarily have women's divisions. There were some other
sort of scattershot, you know, sanctioning bodies, and nobody really
considered like you're a world champion or not a world champion.
Nobody really knew if there was even world champions because
there was such a limited amount of competition. But nonetheless,
she had a heck of a career as a as
a boxer. She went to MMA, she found start and
made a lot of money, made a lot of big fights,
was a champion.
Speaker 1: We do know this. She has the all time moment
in terms of females in AMMA because she kicked Ronda
Rousing from a knockout. That is still a Meme like
years later direct with what she did with her feet,
but now she had to come back to the sweet
science and only use her padded fists.
Speaker 2: Right, So she hadn't fought as a boxer since twenty thirteen.
She signed with MVP. She's forty four years old, so
it's not like she's a young woman in combat sports anymore.
And she came back and had her first fight with
MVP earlier in the year, and now she's getting a
title shot against Stephanie Han, who is an MVP fighter also,
like I said, she has a lightweight title, and I
think a lot of people thought Home would be the winner.
Han is not most not the most experienced woman, hasn't
fought a lot of top opposition. She's thirty five. She's
not exactly, you know, a young fighter either. She was
undefeated now she's twelve to zero after the victory, only
three knockouts. But anyway, she outclassed Holly Hoolms. She like
she started off slowly, Holly, I don't know. I thought
she won maybe the firs or her second round, her
both and then from there on once once Hans sort
of got her her because she idolized Holly Holm you know,
I think she was kind of starstruck, to be honest
with you, those first couple of rounds. But once she
got her her her wits about her kind of settled
in a little bit. Uh, she looked really really good.
I mean, she has a very solid right hand. That
was her calling card. She relied on that. She kept
clipping home, uh with that good counter shots and and
basically out hustled her, out fodder, outpunched her, and Holly
even in the in the interview after the fight was like,
you know, I thought I would take her into the
deeper rounds. Keep in mind they were also fighting with
three minute rounds, uh, instead of the two minutes that
are the standard for women. And uh, she realized, you know,
you can't do that, and things happen, and they had
a head butt in the seventh round, and uh, it
was kind of in the forehead area. It wasn't like
on an eye, but the blood was just coming down
her face. And I mean, I'm no doctor, I'm not there.
It didn't look I mean, I've seen a million cuts
in boxes. Didn't seem that bad. But obviously the doctor
and the reference then right there, they thought it was
enough to stop the fight. They went to the scorecards
and it was really no contest. It was sixty nine
sixty five, sixty nine sixty four and sixty eight to
sixty five. Home did not complain. Clearly a victory for Han.
This a coming out party victory for her, if you will.
Was on a somewhat of a higher profile card for women,
and it was her first sort of real name recognized opponent.
And I thought Hans thought a hell of a fight.
And you know, they talked about a rematch afterwards, because
the way it was cut short, you never want to
see a fight like that. Han was like, we can
do it in now Passo, which is where she from.
She said, we can do it in Alburquerque, which is
where Holly is from. And you know, I don't know
the answer to this, but I suspect MVP. I can't.
I would imagine I'll do the rematch. I mean, we're
also these there's no bigger fight for either of these
women at the moment, right and doing than having a
second fight with each other.
Speaker 1: And one is Home forty one, forty four.
Speaker 2: I said she's forty four.
Speaker 1: She's forty four. Yeah, So I mean the clock is
ticking and how many more fights is she actually going
to have. As a point, it's still in shape. But
as a forty four year old, Yeah, so I would
think that's logical.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you think that. You know, in the next fight,
they'll come back and do an immediate rematch. I can't
imagine they're gonna dick around and have some other you know,
nonsense in between. And you know what we talked about,
what could be for Serrano again, she's the featherweight champion,
she's fought at lightweight. Maybe there's a Han fight for
in the future. Maybe there's a Holly Own fight for
in the future. If Hollywood a winner in match. So,
you know, they all kind of fit together, especially when
you take a look at the lineup of the women
that MVP promotes. They are clearly it's not even the contest.
I mean, there's there's other good women that are with
other promoters, but MVP undoubtedly has got the number one
roster of female boxers in the world. They don't have
every top fighter. They don't have Katie Taylor anymore. She's
you know, as she retires, she's obviously still with Mattrium.
Claressa Shields has resigned with Salita Promotions and the Kayla
Mayer is with top rank, et cetera. But MVP is
loaded in the women's side of boxing. You know, this
card was was well, that was on display because the
four fights that are on the main card for his
own were female matches. Now the other one I wanted
to talk about, which I was kind of disappointed it
wasn't on the main car because that warranted it. But
you know, it was free on YouTube, so I watched
among the preliminaries. That was the match you mentioned between
Bamba Gonzalez and the Puerto Rican Olympian from two thousand
and twenty, that is yankiel At Rivera. Bamba Gonzalez was
a good champion at Junior Flyway, got beat and ended
up moving up and wait and was kind of considered
kind of a stepping stone in this position. He's thirty
four years old, hadn't fought for like, you know what,
fifteen months or something like that, and here you've got
Yankielle Rivera, the hot shot twenty twenty four, twenty twenty Olympian,
I should say, from Puerto Rico, and it's all about him.
He's you know, he's undefeated. He was coming off of
a real messy, sloppy draw in his last fight. That
was for the WBOS at WBA's interim Flyway title. He's
getting another shot at that against Gonzalez again. They're looking
at this as a stepping stone. And let me tell
you something, Bamba Gonzalez is like he's never been the
most exciting guy in the world, but he's got a
little swaggered to always kind of liked him. And he
went out there and he beat the brakes off. Yank
kill Rivera. I mean, the scores were was close on
one scorecard, but he basically kicked his assid you ask me,
I mean he won one seventeen, one ten, one, sixteen,
one eleven, one fourteen, one thirteen and scored a clear
cut knockdown in the second round. He put together a
nice flurry and finished it off with a left hand
and he knocked him down. Not a hard knockdown, but
a clear knockdown. And look to Rivera's credit, he got
up and he came back and he won some of
those a couple of those rounds in the middle of
the fight. But in the end, Bamba just more accurate,
looked like a better puncher. The slicker with his moves
and he just he taught the younger guy a lesson
in my mind, and he and he won the interim belt.
It puts him in good position to get a bigger fight.
And uh, you know, props to the old man because
they thought he was gonna lay down and that Rivera
was going to just walk all over him.
Speaker 1: And he was. He was.
Speaker 2: He was the house fighter. Now, Gonzales is close to
the Sroanto camp. He is, he trains with Amanda, So
I think that's one of the ways he probably got
this opportunity because he is, you know, he knows the
boss if you will. And but he went in there
and like I said, nothing against Rivera, but he kicked
Rivera's ass. In my mind it was it was he
fought a beautiful fight. Gonzales.
Speaker 1: All right, some good stuff off of Saturday. Now back
up actually to Wednesday, US time, and that was in
Japan in Tokyo with his kaz Ioka fight for the
WBA eliminator at at bantamweight. Ioka making his debut at
Banham waight. And yet he gets to fight in an
eliminator fight, which is interesting. All right, give me the
recap of what happened.
Speaker 2: There, I mean the fact that he moved up in
wait and fight an eliminator not a total shock. Given
his his stature in the sport. He's won titles in
four divisions. I have long considered him to be, you know,
with a very good chance to make the Hall of Fame.
He has won world titles at strawweight, junior, flyweight, flyweight,
junior banhamwaight. There is no male Japanese boxer ever to
win titles in five divisions. With him winning this eliminator,
he now is in position to fight for a title
in a fifth way class, so if he wins it,
that would be a Japanese record. There is a femail
boxer who has done that, I know in a way
for examples, one titles in four weight classes. But this
was the WBA eliminator. For the title fight, it was
a fighter named mikale or does Gotti and a guy
I frankly had never really heard of, but Ioka. You know,
he was coming off the back to back losses in
tremendous battles with Fernando Martinez that cost him his title.
He stepped up to the next weight class and as
we've talked about he's fighting on New Year's even Japan,
and I think this is one of the most awesome
stats in boxing. He has been a sevent sixteen year
career for Ioka. He has now fought on New Year's
Eve thirteen of those sixteen years. Like that's his date
the way, you know, the top Mexican boxer kind of
claims those dates on Cinco de Mayo and the Mexican
Independence Holiday or the big superstar Puerto Rican has for
the last you know, twenty years or so fought in
New York City on the Puerto Rican Parade Day weekend.
If you're a Japanese star, you know you're fighting on
New Year's Eve a lot of times. And Ioka has
made that date his own. But iokah, he's thirty six.
Obviously as he rises in wait, he's not getting any younger.
He's now thirty four thirty thirty two, four and one
with seventeen knockouts. And he looked good. I mean he
took he took this man out in the fourth round,
and he did the jay. He did the job. I mean,
he did what he was supposed to do. He puts himself.
This is what's interesting about it though, So by winning
the fight, he's now the mandatory for Seyas Tasumi, who
is the WBA's bandon White champion, who's coming off to
win a few weeks ago or two weeks ago against
Nonido Donair who is the INGRAM champion. So he's in
position to be the challenger for its assume's title. But
the fight that he really wants, and I think it's
the fight he's probably gonna get, is to fight the
WBC champion, which is Takuma in a way, Naoia in
a way's younger brother. He recently won that title of
the vacant title. A couple of weeks ago. He was
ringside and in Japan. Ioka against Takuma in a way, well,
I guess be a pretty big deal. So he's going
to get another title shot Aoka. It's just a matter
if they can make the fight with in a way
or if he does he go for the for the
mandatory against assuming in a way, of course, I think
would probably represent more money. But in terms of the
way he won this fight by knockout, he did score
two knockdowns. He knocked him down with a beautiful left
hand to the body, in the second round, and it
was another body attack that put him out, you know,
in the fourth round. So, you know, for Ioka coming
off those two losses, moving up and wait, getting the
job done, gets another title shot. And if there are
people out there who are not into Japanese boxing, or
they'd never really paid too close up attention, or maybe
they've only watched the inn a Way fights, you're really
doing yourself a disservice because you can spend you know,
a little time on YouTube, go and look up some
of these great Ioka fights, particularly the Martinez fights, but
even look, he's got a litany of great names he's
fought through the years. Go back and watch some of
those Taraji fights. I mean, there's there's there's a lot
of good exciting fighters, mostly in the smaller weight classes
that come out of Japan. But they're absolutely worth watching
and deserve some attention.
Speaker 1: And Ioka is mister New Year's Eve, There's no doubt
about that one. Fourteen times on that day, thirteen thirteen
times now on that day. Okay, So let's get to
something serious. Since you and I last talked, we learned
of the situation with Anthony Joshua on Monday fatal car crash.
He was in a luxury suv in Nigeria that had
several passengers, two of which were killed. Thankfully Joshua not
seriously injured. As it turns out, the driver of the
suv has now been charged essentially with the African version
of the Nigerian version of negligent homicide or vehicular homicide
for the death of the two individuals who are Joshua's friends,
teammates and his training etc. Part of his team. So
Dan pick it up from there as we now go
into this weekend a few days after this has happened.
Speaker 2: Just a terrible situation. I mean, if you go back
to just a couple of weeks ago, Anthony Joshua was
in Miami, Florida on a high profile event, scoring the
big knockout of against Jake Paul and looking forward to
back to be back in the ring probably sometime in
the earlier part of what is now this year, and
setting up a probable fight, a gigantic mega fight for
you know, in gargantuan amounts of money against Tyson Fury.
And he's celebrating and so you know, like every fighter
they have a big win. He took up vacation with
the holidays, and his family is you know, his parents
are from Nigeria. He's obviously Nigerian by his heritage. He
has visited there many times. He has I guess some
family there has friends there. And for his holiday, he
went with some folks to Nigeria on a vacation and
as you said, they were in the car on the
highway in outside of Lagos, Nigeria, which is the capital,
the biggest city in the country, one of the biggest
cities in the entire continent of Africa, and the driver,
I guess was not being the most safe driver in
the world and ended up smashing into a stationary vehicle
and base. I looked at there were some graphics that
were put out by some of the news organizations over
there that covered it, sort of like the map of
where they were sitting in the car and the driver
and Joshua were driver's side, and then Joshua and the
back's in and the driver's side they lived and the
two other men on the passenger side in the front
and back died. Two of those men that died were
men that were close to Joshua that worked in his
camp as members of a training a strength and conditioning coach,
a man named Sina Gami and a man named Latif
who's known by everybody as lats who I know, I've
I had met those guys, I'm sure in New York
when you fought Andy Ruiz lats Ayoda Le and very
sadly they were killed. I mean, and there had been
some just like a couple of days I guess before
this happened. If you look on Joshua's Instagram, there was
a video of him. They were, you know, playing games
that there was some video of. I mean, just a
terrible situation to go from the high high of the
big victory over Jake Paul, to enjoy yourself on vacation
and suddenly in the blink of an eye, you're in
a terrible crash where you're injured. And by the way,
I also read this in uh one of the wire
service reports that now while Joshua lived and there was
a ton of people that kind of gathered around to
see what was going on, some people helping Joshua out.
He ended up having to go to the hospital and
it was admitted and spent uh you know, like two
days at the hospital. Uh. Nobody ever really disclosed what
his injuries were, so we're not i mean clearly not
life threatening and and and not serious enough to keep
him laid up in the hospital for more than a
couple of days. He has been released. Apparently somebody stole
his phone at the scene. I mean, just terrible. But
the morning that it happened, social on social media, there
was all kinds of film and videos and photos and stuff.
And unfortunately you can't see it like you got Joshua,
you know, win saying and trying to get out of
the car.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: And and there was a video where you just saw
that the two men there's a guy that were that
were dead on the street on the road.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right there. It looked like they had been ejected
from the vehicle.
Speaker 2: Ye.
Speaker 1: All right, So boxing we understand this is secondary, but
is it your understanding from whoever that you've talked to
he's not seriously hurt. So now there's gonna be some time,
you know, obviously grieving, mourning, whatever, and then we'll figure
out whenever he can re emerge. But as we know,
coming off the weekend, as far as we know, not
seriously injured in this accident, even though they evaluated him
for a couple of days in the hospital, right, it
certainly has.
Speaker 2: Some Listen, you don't you're not going to stay in
the hospital for more than, you know, just an observation period.
If you didn't have some type of injury. Now I
don't know what it is. I'm not going to speculate.
But while it was obviously not something that threatened his
life because two days later he was released from the hospital,
there must have been some type of injury to keep
you in the hospital for two days. Now, I have
no idea what it is, whether it's an injury that
would have any impact whatsoever if he decides to fight again.
I have no idea if it was something that perhaps
could affect this potential of an Xbox match. You know,
it could be anything, could be a knee at a shoulder,
you know, who the heck knows an ankle. I mean,
it's just you know, and you know.
Speaker 1: Big bigger is the mourning and mentally these are that's
the biggest thing. That's the bigger thing.
Speaker 2: And what you got if you got released in the hospital,
that means he's good. Whatever the injury is, he's going
to recover from it. But now you got to deal
with the mental aspect, which is, you know the guy.
First of all, it was two of his close friends.
Second of all, you gotta have thoughts to yourself about
your own mortality because just by apparently based on the imaging,
you know, the images of the charts of where the
men were sitting, basically you picked the seat in the car.
And the reason you're so alive is because of where
you sat, having nothing to do with anything other than
just you know, I guess, just you know.
Speaker 1: The randomness of sitting behind the driver's side is the
reason why you possibly lived.
Speaker 2: And then these two guys, by the way, who died.
You know, among the people that knew the team and
knew the team Joshua and have been around him, all
the folks at Matchroom Boxing and Anthony Joshua's team very
very well liked people, very high held the highest team.
I'll give a shout out to MVP, to Nikisa Badarian
and Jake Paul. You know, obviously they were they were
competitors when they fought each other, Jake Paul and Anthony Joshua.
But on Saturday night at the fight that Jake Paul,
people at MVP put on in Puerto Rico. You know,
they have a ton of sponsors and all this stuff
on the ring that, but they were thoughtful enough to
put a nice you know. I mean it's it's just
a nice gesture. You know, basically, I think it's you know, uh,
a memory thing that that put both of the men's
name of Gammy and Uh and lats on the on
the ring mat to just you know, show UH some
sensitivity and and basically like, hey, you know, Anthony, Joshua
and may be competitors, but I you know, we're all
people here. I got your back and show thoughts with you.
And they showed I mean, listen, there's a lot of
things I'm boxing and art classy. Okay, Uh, that was
a classy move. So props to the folks at MVP,
whoever's came up with the idea, who ever decided to
do it. And Uh, I thought it was well executed.
It wasn't over the top, It didn't come off as
like anything that was sort of kind of cringey. It
was just like a nice thing to do, like a
notion of solidarity with Joshua, who, by the way, I
must say like and I can't say I'm like Anthony
Joshua was best friend or anything. But I've met Anthony
Joshon on a number of occasions. I've been in his company,
I have interviewed him several times. To me, he's just
a class individual. He's a very humble, a nice guy
to deal with, uh, polite, uh not not a not
a guy that's gonna that that that says a lot
of doesn't really ever say bad stuff about his opponents.
I've always thought he was professional, the way he dealt
with media members.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: He's well liked, is the point. And so that's what
makes us even tougher. It's one, you know, not that
you root for anybody to have these terrible things happen,
but if a guy's an asshole, you know, you maybe
feel bad about it, but it's not doesn't doesn't kind
of continue in your mind for a day after day afterday.
I've been thinking about this for days because I know
what a good duty is and I feel so terrible,
uh for what happened.
Speaker 1: Awful thing.
Speaker 2: Hopefully you can get over it, you know, and see
what Hopefully.
Speaker 1: So we'll we'll wait in the days and weeks ahead
to fire out about that. All right, So now to
a lesser degree. You mentioned the name Tyson Fury, and
Tyson Fury's back at it again saying I'm not retired,
which we're not shocked by. But let me just pose it.
All right. Let's say, hypothetically speaking, the possibility of a
Joshua fight is off the table now for a few months.
Do you think that Tyson Fury is going to fight
somebody else? Speculate what do you think?
Speaker 2: Look, I first of all, it is my understanding that
if Joshua and Fury were going to fight, it wasn't
going to be until the second part of the year. Okay,
So again this is all dependent upon boxing is secondary obviously,
so we understand that. But we're a boxing podcast. We're
going to talk about boxing if and when Anthony Joshua
decides to return to the ring, presumably with a clean
bill of health after whatever his injuries may have been
in the car accident with with a heavy heart, but
a clear mind because of what happened to his friends,
and he's going to fight again. It was it wouldn't
be in probably until septemberish anyway, So the plan always
was assuming that that Fury was going to come out
every time, which everybody believed anyway, was that they were
going to have fights in the first part of the
year and then fight each other in the second part
of the year. Obviously, Anthony Joshua ain't fighting in February,
like was being discussed. That's definitely off the table. Is
it possible that he did, you know, he got into
six rounds against Jay Paul. I don't think it's out
of the question that if he does decide to fight again,
it'll just forego whatever the tune up supposedly would be
and to go right to September. I don't know that
for a fact.
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking after this, especially after this, if you
do want to fight on, why take the risk?
Speaker 2: Now? With Tyson Fury, he's been out of the ring
now since the second Usik fights, so he didn't fight
at all in twenty twenty five. The second Fury fight
was at the tail end of twenty twenty four, so
he'll have been out of the ring for you know,
year plus. So I do think that if he does
go forward and there is a fight with Joshua, he'll
definitely fight. And in terms of his h deciding to unretire,
we spent a lot of time discussing in the previous
weeks about what we thought about do we believe the
Terrence Crafter is retired? And I used the example of well,
this was not Tyson Fury getting off the couch and
making an Instagram video for thirty seconds. This was Crawford
and his people putting together a highly produced, slick video
for five plus minutes and narration and the whole nine yards.
The exact opposite with Tyson Fury announcing is on retirement.
He went and he did a He didn't even make
a video to my knowledge. It was just I saw
the text underneath a picture of him in the gym,
or maybe there's a video of him hitting them in
the bag in the gym. He's been putting up some
training videos on his Instagram and he wrote like the caption,
you know, twenty twenty six is the year the Return
of the mac. Been away for a while, but I'm
back now, thirty seven years old, still punching. Nothing better
to do than punch men in the face and get
paid for it. So Tyson Fury is out of retirement.
And by the way, it's it's it's less shocking than
the sun rising. And you know, so the fact that
he's out of retirement is not in any way surprise.
All right, we just need to know, now, what's the
planner you're gonna fight, you know sometime over the next
few months, are you are you coming back because you're
actually gonna sign up to fight Joshua? Should Joshua return
to action. But even if he doesn't fight Anthony Joshua,
let's say having Tyson fury back is an active heavyweight
to me is good for boxing. He brings a lot
of attention, love or hate him. He gets eyeballs and
he's been entertaining fighter to watch. You know. He gets
knocked down, he scores knockouts. He has a lot of
you know, craziness around him. So he does make a
big event. And by the way, there's other heavyweights out
there that if he wants to fight somebody other than
Anthony Joshua could make an interesting matchup with.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned on that. A couple more news items. Mattroom
has announced a signing and it relates to an upcoming
fight the first week in February. Tell me more about
Christian Medina and that fight and the Matchroom deal with Medina.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Medina a Mexican fighter. He had won the title
by a fourth round knockout. I remember he went he
was on This was when not Noia in a way
fought AKMADALIAV. This is back September fourteenth, the day after
Canelo versus Crawford in Japan, and he won his fifth
fight in a row. He won the title. He scored
a fourth round knockout against.
Speaker 1: Will Clarify the WBO banham Waite.
Speaker 2: The w b O Bandonmoit title. He won that belt
by a fourth rond knockout against Yoshiki Takai. Look good
in that fight. And now is signed with Mattroom Boxing
and they within like a few I mean, I consider
it like the same announcement. They put up two separate
UH posts on their social media handles that a that
medina you know, welcome to the team. You're you know
you've signed with Mattrium. I think it's co promotion with
box Stars, which Mattroom works a lot with when they
do UH their events in Mexico. But the other part
of it was that not only did he sign with Mattrum,
but he's gonna have the first title defense in his
hometown of Guadalajara. Mexico, same hometown as Canelo. February sixth
will be one of the Mexican shows that Mattrium does
on his own and he's going to take on the
former IVF Junior Flyway Titlelder obviously has moved up a
little bit in wait, that's Adrian Curiel. Uh, and that
will be his first defense. And that was that was there.
They're signing their news of the weekend that took place.
Speaker 1: All right. Uh. There's also a situation with Liam Harrow
who is supposed to be fighting for the IBF in
the IBF for the welterweight eliminator fight in a couple
of weeks, but his opponent, Patty Donovan, is now out.
So what is going on with Donovan and can they
find a replacement and save the fight for Parro because
you still have a couple of weeks to.
Speaker 2: Go, right, Well, that was that was the thing. I mean,
they were supposed to fight January sixteenth on a no
limit boxing card. It was the co feature on a
show they're doing in Brisbane, which is Paro's hometown, and
this was to determine the mandatory challenger, you know for
the IBF Junior welterweight title, which that title presently is
held by Richardson Hitchins. But Patty Donovan at back that
it pulled out of the fight. I take that back.
That's Hitchins is the junior welter right Jaman. This was
the IBF welterweight too welter bat Anyway, Patty Donovan had
had the opportunity to fight for that title. Remember he
lost in the rematch against Lewis Crocker, who won the
vacant belt. So this was a fight that would have
determined the mandatory for Crocker, either another fight with Patty
Donovan or the opportunity for Paro, who had been the
IBF title holder in the lower weight class, to now
challenge for the title in the welterweight division. In any event,
not a total shocking thing in boxing that a guy
got sick and had to pull out of a fight.
Paro said, he he he he. He felt that Donovan was,
you know, full of it, that he never really wanted
to smoke, so to speak, and didn't want to do
the fight.
Speaker 1: Obviously, it is interesting when you're saying I'm sick two
and a half weeks before a fight. There These are
common the week of the fight. A couple of days
before the fight. I'm sick. I can't fight two and
a half weeks before just strikes me. I'm just talking
about in general as suspicious. Well reason for suspicious.
Speaker 2: I mean, if you if you read the statement that
came out from the Donovan team, Donovan's perspective was that
a He's very disappointed to withdraw from the fight, big
opportunity to get another title shot, and that he was
h you know, he had missed three weeks of training
due to illness, and that Andy Lee, who was his trainer, said,
you know what, we're not fighting, so sometimes it gets
taken out of the fighter's hands. I mean, I guess
if he said I'm really gonna do this, you know,
you can go against the trainer who doesn't have the
final say. But you're the reason why.
Speaker 1: You have to keep hearing everywhere. And I've stayed away
from the bug. Supposedly the super flu is going around
the holiday time. Yeah, but man, if you're sick for
like three weeks, that's like the super duper flu or
the super He was.
Speaker 2: On his deathbed, but you might not have felt well,
you have trouble now, you know, can't can't. I could
if we were feeling that we can do a podcast,
but we wouldn't be in the gym or.
Speaker 1: Trying to punch or get punched. I agree with you, so.
Speaker 2: Listen, I mean the fight got the fight is often
the no limit.
Speaker 1: May find somebody for Parow or if they scraped the
whole thing.
Speaker 2: No, they said he'll stay on the card if they
can find a suitable replacement. The problem is if he
stays on the cart, it's not going to be an
IBF eliminator because they'd have to get somebody that was
next in line in the ratings. So Paro probably doesn't
want to waste the probably the month two months that
he's put in to his training. We'll see what happens.
But that was a nice match up between you know,
two lower lower top ten is type welterweights.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: And life will go on, but you know it's a bummer.
We want to talk about my boy, your Jake Paul
note on there, besides what happened with Josh.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Well we're going to talk about some WBA news,
So why don't we get to this. So Jake Paul
is no longer ranked by the WBA in the cruiserweight division. Correct,
So he's been dropped completely out of the rankings.
Speaker 2: Right, Yes, and that was good because they put their
new rankings out when the you know, around New Year's
and it just they This is the the ridiculousness of
the WBA, more so than just about any organization out there,
even though we can find warts with all of them
about this and that, whatever you want to talk about,
the fact that they even put Jake Paul into the
rankings at number fifteen in the Cruiser redivision in the
first place, was an abomination against humanity, Yes, because he does.
I mean that's not enough.
Speaker 1: Abomination against humanity is a little strong abomination against the
ranking system of boxing, which is corrupt anything.
Speaker 2: By my thing of abomination against humanity, he did not
long in anybody's rankings. Jake Paul. Again, I have respect
for what he's done. I give him props for the
braver he showed to get in the ring and even
even be willing to fight against Anthony Joshua. But the
reality is to be a ranked fighter, you have to
beat somebody, even it doesn't even have to be a
star or a big name, somebody with some level of
competence and he hasn't been anybody. You know, He's beaten
two unknown inactive boxers above their best weight easily. And
that's what's a few fights ago. And the other fights
that he fought against Mike Tyson was in the heavyweight division,
right the fight against Anthony Joshua, which obviously caused the
drop because he got knocked out, and it was also
in the heavyweight division. And then I don't you know,
the victor against Julio Caesar Chavez. You know you're not
going to get ranked off that nonsense. So on the
one hand, they should never have put him in the
rankings in the first place, and then on the other hand,
obviously they had to drop out of the rankings after
what happened against Anthony Joshua.
Speaker 1: All Right, So speaking of the WBA, that was one
belt that Terrence Crawford had not vacated in his announced retirement.
He's now done that, correct, He's notified them.
Speaker 2: According to the new WBA rankings, the WBA welterweight title
or super middleweight title, rather than Terrence Caarvert held was vacated.
I know they had been in communication with his team. Gilberta.
Mendoza had said that to me, whether he sent an
official letter or not. Reality is he retired. He'd already
been stripped by the WBC, he had vacated the WO
and the IBF, and now he was the only one
that he still had that he hadn't gotten around to.
I guess to make it official, was a WBA that
was vacated. And as soon as he vacated the title,
the WBA then elevated the interim title holder, Armando Rizendez, who,
if you remember, scored that because he won that interim
belt because of the massive upset that he scored by
winning against Kayleb Plant earlier in twenty twenty five. So
the upshot here is new WBA super middleweight champion, the
derice of dick heads and boxing community. We'll say he's
an email champion. And Terrence S. Crawford has now not
only announced his retirement, but he has vacated all of
his titles and he's now comfortably in retirement. And so
now it's a matter of how all these organizations fill
the title. So, like I said, the WBA has elevated
Rezenda's presumably as they always like to do, and drives
me absolutely fucking crazy, is they'll probably have an interim
title fight somewhere along the line to make a new
fake title and in the IBF which was vacated by
Terrence Crawford. Also, they didn't order the fight. The way
they went about it, and this is not unusual is
they go down the ratings to see if the two
boxers that they contact are willing to fight each other,
and if so, then they ordered the fight and then
they have a period of time to make a deal
and if they don't, lolad our purse. But so the
invitation to participate went out, a lot of outlets reported
it as though the fight was ordered. That was not correct.
Like I said, they sent out a notification.
Speaker 1: This was more like the Bachelor, Will you accept this?
Speaker 2: Ruw Exactly here's what you're sing The IBF number one
contender is the very dangerous Ostley's Iglesias, who's a badass.
He's been fighting out of Canada on the eye of
the Tiger cards. And the next guy who was available
in the rankings was Canelo Alvarez. So they sent an
invitation to both camps, are you willing to participate in
negotiations to fight for the vacant IBF title. The Iglesias
team was immediately. They don't care who they're fighting. Could
be Canelo alvas could be King Kong, whoever, they'll take
the fight. Canelo Alvarez they declined it on his camp,
not because he's afraid to fight somebody, but because he's
not going to fight according to Eddie Renoso, his trainer
and his manager until the latter part of the year,
because he's still recovering from the elbow surgery, that he
wouldn't be ready to go into the ring in the
next couple of months anyway. So now they'll go down.
So now Canelo has told them no apparently, and they'll
go to the next guy on the IBF rankings, which
happens to be I'mian Mungia. So we'll see. Mongie will
have a few days or whatever to notify once he
gets the official letter from them, whether he's interested to
participate in the negotiations. If he is, they'll go through
the process. If they can't make a deal, there'll be
a purse bit. If he says no, they'll move on
to the next person in the ratings. Uh. And that's
how uh that IBF title we feel. But you can
bet your bottom dollar that one half of that vacant
title fight will be Oslius Iglesias, a badass.
Speaker 1: Where just real quick, before we go, where does Christian
Mobilly fit in in the IBF rankings. I'd love to
see him get a title shot for one of these.
Is Crawford vacated? All them go ahead.
Speaker 2: Mcbilly is not in the rankings because he is the
holder of the WBC's interim title.
Speaker 1: But he had the draw correct in the fight on
the Cala winder card, so he's the likelihood that he
would rematch the fighter that he had the draw with
that was one of the fight of the year.
Speaker 2: Canis that was already I think they already determined they're
not doing it. They're not going to mcbilly has the uh.
Speaker 1: He has the interim WBC belt, so they'll find him
another fighter in the WBC rankings. Do I have that
somewhat straight?
Speaker 2: Right? Although imagine he's in an optional period right now
because he just fought in September and Amanda uh in
that fight.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but he fought an interim fight that nobody won.
Speaker 2: Right, but he's but he retained the title.
Speaker 1: Oh he was the interim champion. Yeah, Okay, all right,
I got you, so you keep me straight on all
of this. What we do is the w the one
hundred and sixty eight pound belts are scattered, and now
they got to figure out who's going to be the champs.
Speaker 2: If you look at my chart where I keep a
list of like all the I mean, I haven't published
a new one, but in my own if you came
into my office and looked in my spreadsheet I have
the WBC, would all of us.
Speaker 1: Come into your office and see your spreadsheet? If you
have it on the substack, we would see it. If
you know, how would any of us come into your
office and see your chart.
Speaker 2: What I'm trying to say to you is every so
often I send out I update that and I send
out a champions list. Yes, of all the title. I
haven't done it in the last you know, several weeks.
I know, but I'm looking at my chart that I
keep so when I produce it it's up to date.
So I'm looking at my spreadsheet. WBC, WBO, IBF Super
Middlewight titles are vacant. Armando Rizendez has been elevated. He's
now the WBA champion, and Christian and Billy gets the
asterisk as the WBC's interim super middleweight champion because use
when Crawford was stripped. I had this discussion with Mercier
sue much. They opted not to simply elevate the ability
to the full champion. They're going to order a fight
for him to fight where he would have to defend
it and become the champion. It just hasn't happened.
Speaker 1: For whatever.
Speaker 2: They're doing it a little bit differently.
Speaker 1: And we'll see what the IBF does and we and
we wait for all of that. All right, busy show,
well done on all of this. We've got the recap
there of of the Serranto fight. We're often rolling again.
They need to follow and subscribe your substack to get
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you're following and subscribing for us on the podcast feed.
We always love that we've gotten twenty twenty six off
to a new start, my friend, another year for you
and me getting this underway talking the sweet science, and
I think people have grown accustomed to it. I know
we did not have a preview pod because it was
New Year's Day, New Year's night and the aftermath of it.
So maybe some people thought they were Jones and they
needed a fix. But now we're back. We're back on
the pod feed with the recap pod and we we
just wanted to tell that to the audience there.
Speaker 2: We got by the way, just so you know, just
to back up a quick second, because I just said,
slip my mind. My Billy was ordered at the convention
of the WBC to enter negotiation with Hamsa Sharraz for.
Speaker 1: Yes, we talked about that again, and sign me up.
If that's the fight. If that's what happens.
Speaker 2: Now, who knows that that would be a very good fight, obviously,
but who knows.
Speaker 1: If that's gonna happen, then we have good things. Stay tuned,
Stay tuned on Mobilly and what happens with him. He's
an action fighter and defeated, and Shara's off that big
knockout of Drew Berlanga. Stay tuned. Other than that, I
think we're good, my friend, have a good week. I
appreciate it. As always in the New Year, there's big
Dan Rayfield on the fight. Preach Unite, Substack, I am
TJ Reeves again, Fotto subscribe, Apple Spreaker Spotify. You've been
on with us on the Fight Preaks Unit Recap podcast