Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big
Fight Weekend. Now here is your host, DJ Leaves.
Speaker 2: All right, we get ready for well, let's just be honest,
another light weekend.
Speaker 1: What is going on here?
Speaker 2: I know what's going on actually, but it's really only
mainly one card with one name of note. We've already
talked about some Danny Garcia.
Speaker 1: He is back.
Speaker 2: He is fighting in his farewell to Brooklyn fight this weekend,
and we're ready to talk a little bit about that
from Swift Promotions and the Barclays Center. Oh, we have
the WBOS interim heavyweight champ Joseph Parker on the podcast
with Dan in a few stand by for that, lots
of other fight news. It is the Big Fight Weekend preview.
I am the somewhat competent host TJ Reeves, a not
so surly Dan Rayfield in a particularly good mood. Here
our insider fight freaks unite the substack and the newsletter.
Speaker 3: Ow dare you? I am in a good mood?
Speaker 2: I said, not so surly, you're sort of in a
good mood. Good to be back with you. They need
to be on the substack, they need to be on
the newsletter. They can be with us here on the pod.
Make sure that you rate us, review us, sign up, subscribe,
follow on Apple, Spreaker, Spotify. Also find the YouTube page
as well for other content. People are frequently contacting us saying, hey,
we miss you guys doing the weekly bet Us show.
I will tease we may be back in November doing
another handicapping show.
Speaker 1: We were on every Friday.
Speaker 2: If you don't know with them talking boxing, but it's
not as if Raphael were not on. On the YouTube page,
they can come watch us till their heart's content.
Speaker 1: Talking about nostalgic fights.
Speaker 2: I again plug and promote the Mark Krigel interview about
the new Mike Tyson book that he wrote Baddest Man.
We had a great long conversation with him, and as
the fights get bigger and more important, we'll probably do
some more live pre fight and post fight stuff on
the channel. Right now, now, it's lean, my friend. It's
like Sahara Desert.
Speaker 3: It is, it is. It's not good.
Speaker 2: We're working with what we have. All of that said
Joseph Parker. Coming up on deck, here's the Danny Swift
fight card that is this weekend Barclay Center in Brooklyn
against Daniel Gonzalez again. You interviewed him, We've played the
interview on the pod, we've had it on YouTube.
Speaker 1: Fight Weekend. He's here, so tell me a little more
about this.
Speaker 3: Well, it's like you said, it's a it's a pretty
light weekend because besides this, there's really there's no other
real fight of consequence on Saturday. There's a small sort
of prospect oriented card that Mattroom has on Friday. But
you know, Danny Garcia, he is. He is a big name.
As Danny and I spoke about on that interview that
you're referenced. He fancies himself as a as a Hall
of famer. I think he has a good argument. I
think he'll be on the ballot. I think he'll get
some support. I think his career, you know, was excellent.
He might get in the Hall of Fame. Two division
world champ, legit the man at one for a period
of time one a Walterway title, has a great resume,
has beaten some top guys, lost some close fights the
top guys, and was one of the things, to his credit,
never ducked anybody, fought everybody was wanting to fight. Whoever,
now he hasn't fought in a while. It's been since
September of last year. That was his ill fated attempt
to win a middleway title against Aris Londi Lara. He
moved up. He's been fighting over the last little bit,
or really just one fight before that at one fifty four.
This was a slightly over that limit into the technically
into the middleway division, but Lara was too much for him,
too much skill. He just didn't have it that night.
He got pummeled and knocked out in the ninth round,
and he decided, you know what, I want to make
the comeback. I want to give it another go. As
you mentioned, he's calling this the farewell to Brooklyn. We
talked about it on the interview. He said, it's the
farewell to Brooklyn because Brooklyn is where he made some
of his biggest fights. At Barclay Center, he opened the
building with the great knockout in the rematch against Eric Morales.
He had a number of his major fights in that building,
and he also had some of his biggest losses in
that building. Although tremendous battles and excellent fights against the
likes of Keith Thurman and Sean Porter, a lot of
people thought he won the fight with Keith Thurman. So
he said eighty five percent. I'm done, as he said
the fifteen percent. We'll see how it goes. If I
look good, if I feel good, if there's suddenly I'm
getting phone calls? What sure?
Speaker 2: Educated hunch on how he's going to Look? What do
you think?
Speaker 3: Well, look, you can only go by what he says.
He says, in better shape and better condition and better
frame of mind than the Laara fight. Well, you know,
taking that as word. He's always to me anyway've been
an honest fight. By the way, he's also the opponent
has a lot to do with it.
Speaker 2: True, and he said to you, and he's battled mental
health issues as well, and he's been very open about
that and talking about pushing through and being an inspiration
to others. We don't know about any of that around this,
but you make a good point on the opponent. It's
an opponent in a situation set up for if he
is in good shape and because he should look good,
but we don't.
Speaker 3: Know right this is this is I mean, no, I'm
not trying to knock Daniel Gonzalez, who is his New
York based opponent, but He's not on the same level
as Arislandi Lara and Errol Spence and Keith Thurman and
Sean Porter and Lucas Matisse and Amir Khan and Robert
Guerrero and and and Zab Judah and Pauly Mallinaji and
all the quality fighters that he has faced throughout his career.
I mean, Danny has fought a litany of top notch fighters.
So the way he looked against Arislani Laura, if on
that night he was facing Dangel Gonzalez, maybe we're talking
about a win. Obviously, not every single fight a guy
has is going to be against the number one guy.
It's certain, you know that you're obviously gonna have a
guy that's the big favorite. He's it's his promotion, you know,
he wanted to promote his own last fight. It's his company,
Swift Promotions, which has signed or working with some younger
fighters and that they're populating this, uh, this card. Although
not in fights that we would necessarily speak about, but
in Gonzales, his guy that Danny had sparred with years
ago and you know, gave him good work, I guess,
and you know is a guy that is durable He's
only been stopped once in four losses. He's twenty two
to four with a draw. This is not an old
shot guy. This is just a guy that never got
to a certain level. And he's moving up in weight
from welterweight into the junior midweight division. So obviously the
deck is sort of stacked against him. But the point
that Danny made, which I took to heart, was you
know what if I don't have it and he wins,
you know, this is a good guy. He gets to
make his name off my name, and you know, you know,
obviously Danny wants to win, but he wouldn't be The
most unhappy guy is if if in the process of losing,
it was able to boost the career of Daniel Gonzalez.
So the main thing is this, Look, it's not going
to do a huge crowd, it's not going to do
big pay per view numbers. It's not a streaming thing
called millions dot co. I'm not even sure, frankly, how
to find that or how much they're charging for it.
I'ven't investigated it just yet.
Speaker 2: You've said on more than one occasion, I'm hesitant to
maybe give my credit card to that.
Speaker 1: Yes see, we'll see how many people will.
Speaker 3: The point though, is for Danny's from Danny's perspective, because
of the career he's had, he deserves us to have
a few minutes to talk about what he is looking
at as a probable farewell fight. As we've discussed, he
has a young family, newborn daughter, other businesses he's involved in.
He's made tremendous money throughout his career, and he's always
been a good guy. So he's going in the ring.
He wants to, you know, walk away with his hand
raised like every fighter does. And if this is the
end of the line for Danny Garcia, you know, we'll
we'll have a chance to take into account his career,
hopefully a few years from now when he appears on
that Hall of Fame ballot. But in the meantime, he's
got an opportunity to potentially walk away with a victory
in front of whatever fans do show up in an
arena that he has called this second home. He is
seven and two in that arena. He's looking to go
eight and two, ten, ten main event fights in that building.
The loss is only to Sean Porter and Keith Thurman.
Outstanding fights that Derman fight super close, porter fight close.
Good luck to him.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: So again that is Saturday, and that fulfills what we
try to do every week with the preview. So let's
get to it, shall we, Because not this weekend, but
coming up October the twenty fifth, a week from Saturday,
at the Two Arena in London, it is Joseph Parker
and Fabio Wardley for the interim WBO Heavyweight title. A
real risk for Parker. You're going to talk to him
about that. Dan just recently spoke with him. Let's hear
that conversation right now.
Speaker 3: Well, it is my distinct pleasure to be joined today
by the WBO interim heavyweight Champion, Joseph Parker and Joe.
You have a very important fight coming up. You'll be
taking on Fabio Wardley. Really interesting match up, at least
to me anyway. It is October twenty fifth. You're headlining
the Queensberry Do his Own pay per view card take
place at the Two Arena in London, one of the
great arenas in boxing. Welcome to the show. Glad to
talk to you again. Hi, how's everything going? You just
told me before we started taping. You've been in Ireland
five and a half weeks getting ready with your trainer,
Andy Lee for this big.
Speaker 4: Fight on that Good to see you again. I've been
around in the training for five and a half weeks
to Andy, and we've been being able to put in
some good work to lead into this fight. I know
it's one of those fights where I never even saw coming.
You know, I was thinking about fighting this person and
that person, but then this fight was offered to me.
I said yes straight away because I just wanted to fight.
Speaker 3: Well. The Joseph Parker that I have known and covered
for many years has never been a guy that's turned
fighters down, and which brings me to the first thing
I want to ask about, which is to just go
back to your most recent fight that took place in February.
You were, of course scheduled to fight Daniel Dubois challenge
him for the IBF heavyweight title. That was a pretty
big fight, and he pulled out the week of the fight,
said he was ill and instead and we spoke before
that fight. We did one of these interviews before that
and then it ended up changing the opponent right before
the fight. But anyway, you took on Martin Boccoli in
a fight that was arranged at about what two or
three days noticed, and he flew in at the last
minute from where he was in Africa, and I mean
that's difficult for both guys. You know, him coming in
on short notice, You're having to change your thoughts from
a Duoir fight to what the Martin McAuley fight. Totally
different kind of guys. Can you just give me a
little bit of insight into how you approached the change,
especially on such short notices, both physically, if anything, and mentally.
Speaker 4: You know, Dan like leading into that fight with Danie
Dubois and heading to the press conference, we found that
on social media that he was ill, and we found
out on our way to the press conference at the
fight with Daniel Daniel dubau wasn't going to ahead. So
the last minute change, obviously grateful to Martin Bacauley were
putting up his hand. And I mean as soon as
Danie Dubar pulled out, I saw tweets on Twitter saying
Martin is ready and Martin will take the fight. And
so we're just looking through the list of who I
wanted the Martin Bacauley because I knew how tough he was,
but I didn't know that what his preparation was, or
if he was training, or where he was in the world.
I just thought, you know what, I've had great spiring
of him and went back and forth and I just
love to fight him, and you know, he flew in
and my mindset at the time was I don't care
who I fight. I've been preparing for the champions with
Dan Dubois. I just need someone to be in front
of me so I can, you know, let my hands go.
So that was the mindset. I wasn't really worried about
who it was.
Speaker 3: Okay, so I get turned out maybe he wasn't an
ideal condition because it was on such short notice, he
wasn't in a full training camp. But I don't think
that can take anything away from you going in there
with such a big man and not just winning, but
doing so very emphatically. Is stopping him big knockout in
the second round. So some people will say, well, you know,
short notice, he wasn't ready, so of course Joseph was
able to beat him pretty easily. On the other hand, hey,
Mark mcoley's a tough dude. No matter whether he's in
training or not. He's a big man. He's got a
big punch. How do you assess your performance? And given
the circumstances, Given the circumstances, I was just.
Speaker 4: I was just I was thrilled to have an opponent
and thrilled to finish the fight how it did, and
just always listened that after the fight he was okay,
make sure that that he was you know, he went
back home to his family, but he was. He was
well paid, and you know, but it was one of
those things where I at the time, I just didn't
didn't really care who to fight because I was I
was preparing for the champions of the world, and I
was ready to go. Uh and so as I assisted
the performance, uh good, good to get the win, but onto.
Speaker 3: The knicks right, well, onto the next I mean you
were you know, you were challenging Duba for the IBF title,
but when the fight was changed, you then were defending
your WBO interim title, which puts you in position where
next up was supposed to be Alexander Usik, who was
allowed to face Daniel Dubi, who, by the way, got
sick and then suddenly finds himself in that fight. Some
people suggest that maybe belled on you so as not
to possibly blow the fight with Usak. But that's I
guess a conversation for another day. In any event, uh,
you know he he fought the rematch with Usik, and
Usik knocked him out very emphatically once again and again.
Joseph Parker supposed to be next up. He says he's
got some nagging injuries, a back injury put in for
an exception with the w BO to sort of put
off the mandatory leaves you in a position where you
can either sit and wait or you can go out
there and fight like you're gonna do on October twenty fifth.
You know to me anyway, Joe, and I don't think
I'm in the minority here that you clearly deserve a
heavyweight championship fight with the way that you've been fighting
over your last several bouts. Did you think about waiting
for him and like what was your mindset about? Like, Okay,
you know what, I'm not gonna get him right away.
He's gonna be out for a while, So I want
to just I want to fight. And you know, now
you've got a very tough looking opponent and wardly in
front of you.
Speaker 4: My mindset again off of the fight with Martin Bacaudi.
I went back to New Zealand with George Lockott and
we're training. I thought I'd be in the Jena for
two or three months, building await, building on on the
weights and the running and a little bit boxing here.
It did, but I never thought it was going to
be there until Agus, you know, so I thought, you know,
I thought I was gonna fight in July, then push
out to August, Tim and Elf Tava.
Speaker 3: So did you think it was gonna be Usik or
somebody else?
Speaker 4: I thought no. I instructed the team, please lock in
the five musick and when when? When the months are
going by, days and weeks and the months. I just
looked to myself, you know what stuff this? I just
want to fight, give me anyone and everyone.
Speaker 3: So once again you're you're waiting for Usik, but you
obviously have a very tough uh nutt in in front
of you in terms of Fabio Wardley. One thing I
really before you get to the wordly fight, when you
were looking to get to fight with Usik, I mean,
I follow you on social media. You do these amazing
videos where you called them out with the music and
really hilarious with your messages. I think the fans really
like the way that you do that. That's you don't
insult your opponents. There's no bad words. They're all in
good humor, great music, Hilaria. You've done them for other fights. Also,
I've seen your wife in some of your videos. I
think i've seen your kids in videos. How does how
did you come up with that sort of creative thing
to do that? Because I have to say, of all
the guys out there who are at the top level
of boxing, you have the most entertaining call outs of
anybody I've ever seen.
Speaker 4: You know, I would love to take credit for it,
but there's a guy named Kirie Russell on my team
and then started off when we had the lockdown. It
was COVID lockdown and it was in my bubble, and
what we wanted to do was just cheer on up.
And we just found found something that I love to do,
was re enact movies and do these dance clips and
video clips and singing, just thinking hilarious as a fighter.
As a fighter, like you're spending some of your family,
You're worried about the training, You're worried about getting stronger,
getting feather, getting sharp, but then having something else like this,
I was just like, you know what, this is fun.
Let's keep doing more and more. And it's just nice you.
Speaker 3: You seem to me anyway, as of all the fighters
I talked to and cover and interview and write about
and everything, that you approach everything. I know this is
serious business, a lot of money at stake, there's obviously
people's health at stake, But you seem to approach your events,
your fights, everything with a certain sense of joy that
I just don't see, frankly in a lot of other
fire Do you am I wrong? Do you really seem
to enjoy like the whole spectacle, the whole spectacle of
the whole thing.
Speaker 4: I enjoy earthing. I just say before that what I
can control is what I'm gonna you know, like things
about fighting using that I couldn't. I couldn't control that.
I know Usik was injured and there was a few
things happening behind the scenes, but I couldn't control that.
My approach was, you know what, I'm just gonna enjoy
everything that I can control, the training, the videos, the
preparing now now preparing for October twenty five februy. Wardly,
I think time is precious as times too show to
be in some sort of mood. You just gotta I
don't know. I have my family with me here in Eil,
and I'm just I'm happy, you know, I'm happy the
best of both worlds. I got my team here, I
got my family up the road, five six minutes up
the road. I can see them every day. I'm just
life is very good and very very beautiful.
Speaker 3: That's great because sometimes guys they go and they lock
themselves away and they're not with their family, their wife,
their kids and other people and there and yeah, yeah,
I've done that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I feel that this approaches a lot bitter
and a lot more because I'm not worried about them
back in New Zealand. I can see them every day
and i can see them grow, you know, And when
you're missing out eight weeks with ten weeks at a time,
it's just too long.
Speaker 3: I just feel like you are not that you're the
only one, but you got a real maturity about you
in terms of the way you handle things like you
should be as a grown as a grown man. You
should be able to handle your job, which is the train,
and be ready for your fights as well as see
your family. Just because you see your family, you shouldn't
make you not as focused or.
Speaker 4: I do know, like less than in the past. But
these she locked themselves away, flight to different countries and
and be and and and for some fighters it does
work for them. But I've done I've done both, and
I feel like being close to the family, have them
close to me. It's way bitter for me and my
mind and uh, and it's just not the time is
too short. Let's just enjoy every day together.
Speaker 3: So you are on an excellent run. You've been pretty
active relatively speaking. You've won six fights in a row,
your last three against you know, quality top names and Macauli.
We just talked about, uh, the decision with victories against
us and also against Deontay Wilder, and that's in your
last three fights. I'm not sure there's a heavyweight on
a better run in terms of their last three bouts
than that. Are you the most deserving heavyweight in the
world of a shot at Alexander Usik?
Speaker 4: For me, yes, I feel and I believe that I
deserve the shot Alexander Yusik. But then listen again, there's
also other people who feel like they deserve it. And
others who think someone else deserves Another person would be
ky Bayou, who's put on good performances as well, So
he's another fighter who deserves big fights. But I do
feel that with the fights that I've had and I
can only fight who's in front of me, I believe
that I should be given an opportunity to face someone
like Alexander Yusick, who is like a great and this
generation as a fighter.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, I'm not saying that that you're the
only one that deserves a shot, and I agree with
you about kaby Yo. I just think that Joe Parker
deserves it more than anybody else right now, given what
you've given to the sport. You've been a pass champion,
you are on a great run, You entertain the fans, Yeah,
all the things that go into HI.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I do believe that I should get the shot
of U Sick. And this fight with Fabian Warley, uh,
you know, the outcome will get me closer to that
fight Al Fusik.
Speaker 3: So Fabia Wardley. He's not on a pretty good run himself.
He's you know, he had a nice knockout that at
the time was sort of perceived as a fifty to
fifty fight against said Delia. That was a Saudi Arabia fight.
He had the it was a tremendous battle. It was
a draw. But against Frederi Clark, super entertaining fight of
the year. Came back in the rematch, drilled him in
the first round. Spectacular performance and that and then uh
some drama in his last fight, way behind on the
scorecards against Justice Hooney. I know you're awfully familiar with
coming from the same part of the world as as
both of you guys do. And he rallied for that
big one punch knockout, so he's he's done some things off.
So he picked up an interim title as well of
the WBA. How do you feel like you match up
with him? He's got big punch, He's a big man also, uh,
not as much pro experience as you at the high,
bighest level. So how do you look at this matchup? Yeah?
Speaker 4: I see him as a you know, another fighter who's
who's got a big right hand. I know, and I'm
not just going to look at his last fight and think,
you know what, he was down on the cars and
you just have to avoid his right hand when you
look at it like you said you named the David
Adelaide fight and you named the Phraser clerk. So each
fight presents a different sort of task and challenge, you know.
And I think with him, he's young, he's fresh, he's
got his own goals, he's determined, he carries a power
all the way through. So these are there's a different
challenge with someone like Jiang or Pacoli, Kim last Min.
And also, while I could have really land something, I
just have to be on my game and use my experience.
And I've been in the game longer than he is,
so I feel like the experience part is gonna uh yeah,
pay pay a lot of benefits.
Speaker 3: Well, when I look at the matchup, I see I
see a Joseph Parker that is more versatile than Fabia.
Worldly he's got obviously, as you mentioned, he's got a
tremendous right hand, can knock out anybody. He's one of all
of his fights by knockout except for one of his victories.
But do you see it that way that if you
can somehow negate or avoid or just you know, not
take the full brunt of the right hand, that that
puts you in a position where you could do a
lot of things, whether it's use your jab or out
box or use your movement.
Speaker 4: I do feel like I have a lot more whippons
in my and offer a lot more. You know, what's
the experience and all the whippons that I do have
and combinations and knowing went too far at time and
everything I do. If I can avoid his right hand
and land all the shots that I want, and it's
all about practicing it now, Andy Lee, you know, the
combinations on the pads, on the spying partners, I think
will be too much for him.
Speaker 3: So you're headed back for this fight. It's gonna be
at the O two arena, as I mentioned, has hosted
many many big fights through the years. You've this will
be your second fight there. Your your only other fight
that took place. There was a great fight against Dylan White,
but you came up short. You lost that decision. Very
close fight, tremendous battle. Any any hesitation about going back,
not not that that arena specifically, but just going back
and fighting on Worldy's turf. You know, you're the guy
coming from the other country to fight in his home,
home town, but his home his home fans.
Speaker 4: Basically, this is like a venue redemption fight for me, okay,
but then also, like you know what I'm for. Somebody
comes from New Zealand, five million people, come from samow
with you know, a few hundred thousand people, and then
the love that we've been getting in the UK and Ireland.
I do believe that even though it's Faber Walley's hometown.
But I've been sort of adopted in the in the
you know, in the UK boxing scene, and I will
have great support myself, So you know, the buzz is
going to be great, the ad this is gonna be get.
I feel like it's gonna be literric and I'm gonna
feed off there. I want to feed off the electric
crowd that's going to be on the ninth. Yeah, you
have a big game in the UK, no doubt. I mean,
obviously your fight with Anthony Joshua was a huge event.
Eighty thousand or whatever. They drew there and you have
fought their plenty of time. So I can see that
you have in some folks cheering for sure. What I
wonder though, is if all goes well for you and
you come out with the with the victory, how how
do you and your team go about pressing the situation
to get who sick in the ring with you. I
mean that's that's you are mandatory the WBO, I think
based on everything they have said, Uh for them anyway,
he's either got to fight you or he's not gonna
be WBO champion anymore. Yeah, So as soon as the
fight's done, the team knows what they have to do
to press for that fight. You know, Queensberry obviously winning
a fight in Queensberry day, I think it. Spencer Brown
Day know what they need to do to make this happen.
Otherwise Usik has to give up the belt. So I
think there's a there's a lot more you know, this fight,
Get this fight done and there's a lot more I
would say stricter for for for you sick and.
Speaker 3: When we get another video of you doing the call
out if you win.
Speaker 4: Yeah, those videos and know those videos are never gonna start.
They're fun to do, love to look back on it. Listen,
it's a good laugh too. There's a lot of bloopers
which will probably play play one day.
Speaker 3: That will be a lot of fun. All right, Well
bloopers aside, you got to get ready for the fight
before you can think of it was sick, so I
wish you nothing but the best against Fabio. Wordley once again,
October twenty fifth, found his own pay per view at
the O two Arena in London. Joseph, it's always a
pleasure to talk to you. I really appreciate it. Good luck,
thank you, good to see you.
Speaker 2: Then, so several times we've talked in and around about this,
and now it's about to be here. It's about to
be fight week next week. This is a risk, and
it's a legitimate risk because on the one hand, Wardly,
I mean, granted, if you're the world champion of one
of these organizations, you're gonna have to fight tough fighters
at some point, presumably allegedly, so you're gonna have to
tickets a David fight. But the USK possibility is potentially
in down here.
Speaker 1: He's taking a risk to fight.
Speaker 3: They're both taking a risk I mean, Wardly for what
it's I mean, look.
Speaker 1: We put it this way.
Speaker 2: Parker doesn't have to fight Wardly. He could wait for
USK if he wanted to.
Speaker 3: Wardley could also not fight Parker, and he's also in
line for USIC because USI's got all the belts in
Wardley's the interim champion of the WBA. Obviously their situation
is a little more clouded because of their regular title holder.
But the point is, these are two top ten heavyweights
that don't need to fight each other because they are
in line for something even more significant, but yet they've
opted to do so. Now it's gonna wind up being
only for the Parker in ourn belt because the WBA
belt will go away, which is not necessarily a bad thing,
but there's a lot of money to stay for both
of these guys in the winner is going to be
the mandatory for Usk in the next fight, not like
they have to wait through the rotation system because the
WBO is next. So Parker already owns that position. He
is gambling that wordly because of his title, would be
in that line, but he would, I guess move up
as a step closer because the WBO is supposed to
be next. So either Busik fights the winner of this fight,
or he vacates and or his strip of the WBO
world title. So from that standpoint, there's a lot of stake.
But style wise, forgetting about the politics, just if you're
a boxing fan, it's a good matchup. I mean, they
both have made a lot of good fights. Fabia Wardley
is a tremendous puncher. Joseph Parker is a very experienced fighter.
He's got pretty good power himself, got a great chin,
been in some dynamite fights throughout his career, and uh,
you know, we've discussed this a little bit when the
fight was announced. It's it's unfortunate they've made this a
pay per view. It is what it is, but putting
that element of a side element aside just in the ring.
Good matchup, and uh, you know, Joseph sounded ready and
he is a diligent trainer. I'm pretty sure if Fabio
ward they knowing the opportunity he asks here, particularly the
troubles that he had off the Hoony fight that you know,
he's prepared himself well for this too. So uh, it's
always good to talk to Joseph Parker. I've known him
for a very long time and he's always been a
great guy to deal.
Speaker 1: With and some huge wins for him to put himself
in this position.
Speaker 2: That's and he's been active. Hey, we like all those things,
so we'll talk more about that. Fight in the building has.
Speaker 3: Been active also, which is.
Speaker 2: Yes, we got hey, we got reason to care about
both of those. Okay, let's get to the news. Uh.
In my inbox before we recorded this Thursday into Friday,
I saw an update from Top Ranked Boxing.
Speaker 3: Oh they exist still they do, and it.
Speaker 2: Is what you were discussing. Raphael Spinoza is back. He
is fighting Arnold Kagui. It is November fifteenth. You were
talking about all of this in Mexico. All right, So
give me that you already you already laid out. Give
me who else is involved including this fight, and the
more important thing I think everybody wants an update of
some kind. Is this gonna be where we can see
it come November?
Speaker 3: What do we know? Go ahead, Well, in terms of
the card on the on November fifteen, it's taking place
in San Louis Potosi in Mexico. It technically will be
on a Zanfer Promotions card. In terms of the broadcast,
there'll be something you can count on that, whether it's
on ESPN Deportees or ESPN Plus as part of the
ESPN Knockout Series, or it winds up on Top Ranks
YouTube channel or their Facebook page the way they handle
the recent in a way fight, it'll be somewhere that
you can probably count On. They don't have that lined
up yet. They didn't announce that in the press release
when they sent that out that you referenced, but it
will be available somewhere. I'm that's like a ninety nine
percent type thing. So in terms of the fights, you
have Espinosa, who's promoted between top rank ann zanfer. He's
defending against a guy who's a like a fringe top
ten type contender. He suffered a tough loss, he came
back and got to win, but he's a he's a
credible featherweight and it's not like he's a bummer anything
like that. This is a legit professional guy. So that's
the main event. He's going to be fighting at home
in Mexico. He hasn't had a title defense there and
then ever, I don't think in terms of his defenses.
Obviously he fought there a lot of times, but since
he's won the title, his fights have taken place in
the United States, so it's something of a homecoming, if
you will. The co feature will be Lin Daffel Delgado,
a Mexican olympian who was undefeated in a in a
welter in a junior welterweight world title eliminator and the
IVF against Gabriel Golas Valezuela. That should be a hard
hitting kind of fight. I mean, Delgado, you know, is
a guy that always gives the value for money, as
the Brits like to say. And then they also have
added to this card a trio of top ranked young
you know, prospect types. Richard Torres Junior, the heavyweight. He's
going to take on a check fighter named tom As Sallek.
Not not a big name necessarily, but they're keeping him busy.
You have Emiliano Vargas, the son of Fernando Vargas, the
former world champion, who's probably been as good in recent
fights in terms of how he looks potential wise as
anybody not just on the top rank ross, but anybody
in boxing. He's looked absolutely sensational in recent fights as
they have modestly stepped up his competition. This will, for
what it's worth, this will be his first scheduled ten
round fight against a fighter named Jonathan Montrell. And then
they have their seventeen year old junior lightweight that they
that's like a Las Vegas fighter that is going to
be in a six rounder name Julian Montalvo. Don't think
he has an opponent just yet, so they'll be those
trio of prospects, the world title eliminator, and then of
course the Espinosa world title fight in the main event.
And Espinoza has been in some tremendous fights with that
big size of his tall the tall kind of guy
he is for the featherweight division, the long reach and
a guy you know, good chin and you know will
be there to fight him. So we'll just have to
wait and see where they decide to put it.
Speaker 2: We do have that coming, it is still a month
from now that we have to wait for that again
because the domestics shows have been few and far between.
Speaker 1: In September and October, we'll get a little more enough.
Speaker 2: It is pathetic, and and look, I said to you
that that I would give this until October on where
is Top Rank with a broadcast deal and a regular
fight series.
Speaker 1: Here we are in October and there's not any announcement.
Speaker 2: And I don't think it's out of line to say
they obviously don't have anything, and maybe they will have something.
Speaker 3: I don't think it's obvious they could be slogging through
the paperwork.
Speaker 2: If they had something. They would be announcing it by
now they've been off ESPY.
Speaker 3: Wouldn't be announcing if it wasn't done.
Speaker 2: No kidding, I'm saying on the premise, if they had something,
they would be announced.
Speaker 3: But that's not to say they're not involved in getting
everything done and squared away officially.
Speaker 1: You know, Jacob, you could take that point of view.
Speaker 2: I will, you know what, I will harken back to
you and I having this debate separately about and we
don't really have a debate. You were bringing it up
about Premiere Boxing Champions at the end of twenty twenty three,
and I know people that are there, and I know
people in around top rank, I know, I know all
kinds of people.
Speaker 1: You know many more.
Speaker 2: But the PBC people were telling you, just wait, we're
gonna be fine. Just wait, we're going to be fine
when you were talking to them at the end when
the showtime.
Speaker 1: Deal ran out or whatever.
Speaker 2: What we now know is they were never going to
be fine with a regular boxing series, or they would
be doing a regular boxing series.
Speaker 1: It's basically been almost two full years. They don't have one.
Speaker 2: They obviously don't have enough wherewithal to make it work.
Financially and otherwise to regularly have a fight series. So
I'm just referencing that from a couple of years ago,
and we're getting in the territory now of kind of
the same thing where if they were regular thing.
Speaker 3: I've been saying since the day that the Top Ranked
ESPN deal ended at the end of July, I have
no doubt that at some point in the not too
distant future, Top Rank, unlike PBC, will have an actual deal.
Speaker 1: A regular fight series where I.
Speaker 3: Can't it's gonna be once a week or once. You know,
I'm saying how often it's gonna be, or what the
price level is gonna be or whatever, but there will
be Top Rank boxing somewhere on your television set or
your screen. In terms of a streaming series. I'm very
confident that. I'm I'm virtually certain of that. I know
the people involved. I've been doing this a long time.
It's going to happen when I can't tell you, And
you know what, at the end of the day, if
it doesn't happen, guess what the fucking Sun's gonna come
up the next thing.
Speaker 2: No, I agree with you, but for right now, we're
suffering along because again, suffering I'm saying. I'm saying in America,
you're suffering along because PBC doesn't fight regularly. Top rank
hasn't been fighting regularly, and you and I sit here
and get creative with what else we're talking about on
domestic fights. Because of it, we would like to have
some more. All right, let's move on Moses. All right, interesting,
let's set this up because Atama was allegedly going to
fight Oh, I can't say with a straight voice, forty
four year old Kubratule Poolev except former world title challenger.
Except Poolev isn't fighting Atama. He's fighting Gasiev. Al Right,
so straighten out? Okay, what's been going on and why
they aren't fighting?
Speaker 3: So earlier this week, the WBA issued a ruling which
I actually agreed with for a change. I mean, you know,
I've pissed on the WBA gallons of piss in recent
times and years and years and years, so I don't
agree with them about anything.
Speaker 1: There's an image.
Speaker 3: But in this particular instance, they had the scenario where
they were supposed to be doing the pool Lev in
the mandatory of his second tier title against Michael Hunter.
The Hunter thing was disallowed for a thousand different reasons.
It was ridiculous that it was even ordered in the
first place. Nonetheless, he is for reasons that make perfect sense.
He's out as the mandatory in the WBA. We don't
I'm not going to even go he is not going
to be the mandatory.
Speaker 1: He's out of there.
Speaker 3: He's out of the picture and for for and rightfully.
So nothing against Michael. I actually I rather like Michael.
He's a nice guy. Actually had a chance to see
him and talk to him for a little bit when
I was out in Las Vegas at the Canelo fight.
He was there at one of the the shows that
took place, like the night or two nights before, had
a nice conversation with So never anything against Michael Hunter. Good,
you know, nice guy. I like the guy. But in
terms of the way this business of his career has
been handled has been an absolute fucking train wreck. And
so he has been rightfully removed as a mandatory. So
if you're the WBA, you go down the list the
number one contender, which you can agree with or disagree with.
He doesn't deserve to be in the position. But it's
still exciting that a young man like this is in
that kind of position. That's mosesy Toma. We talked about
him plenty uh and so Poolev was told apparently when
when the Hunter thing went to the you know, the
court of us what is it, the Court of Sports
Arbitration or whatever they call, part of that settlement was
that he could defend the title in optional defense against
somebody within their rankings, and so that had not yet happened.
So the WBA issues this ruling earlier in the week,
ordering the next fight that Poolev should begin negotiating with
the team of Moses Etama, which is a fight I
know that the Queensberry people would absolutely love. I mean
they they kind of were licking their chops at the
prospect of getting that fight. Bring Poolev over a forty
four year old guy that the young.
Speaker 1: Man you know, probably will mow down.
Speaker 3: Probably. I mean, I don't think it would be as
easy as the Dylan White fight. I actually think Poolev
would survive several rounds because he's a tough guy. Maybe
at forty four he's in still phenomenal condition. But nonetheless
you'd have to pick Moses in the fight. So then,
and I had posted this on Twitter, and I had
the resolution and the order and a post of the
photo of the letter and all and so, and then
it comes to my attention later that day when I
checked in with people I know related to Team Poolev
that it hadn't been announced yet, but they were going
to be fighting. They had a deal done and signed contract.
They're going to go fight on under the IBA cards.
That's going to take place in Dubai. That's supposed to
take place on December twelfth, and he would defend the
title against the former unified cruiserweight champion Marot Gassi if
who's had his last several fights in the heavyweight division
and he's raided in the WBA. I don't know, he's
like number twelve or number eleven or something like that.
So that's supposed to be what they say is their
next fight. And now so the WBA will see what
they do. Is it going to be Do they honor that?
Do they force the mandatory with a tama? Do they
if they if the pool off people don't cooperate, do
they shrip him?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 3: Look, and I know there's a lot of litigation that's possible.
You know, Frank Warren, who's a Thomas guy has been litigious.
John Wirt, who is the promoter for you know from
Epic Sports and Promotion, who's the longtime promoter of Pool Left.
He's a lawyer. He was Don King's lawyer for many years.
He can be litigious. I mean, you've got you've got
a lot of a lot of people that the w
BA has certainly been involved and they're in their various
kinds of litigation over the years. So we'll see how
that plays out. At the moment, supposedly Poolev is defending
that second tier title against Gasiev in December in Dubai
on this IBA card, But we'll see. The WBA has
yet to make a public statement about about their order
and whether they'll honor that or not. If you ask me,
if I was like the guy that could say, you know,
make the determination, you know what you'll let if Pool
in fact had to sign contract, you let him go
fight the defense. Maybe you can figure out a way
to work with them and put a TAMA on the card,
or let him have some other fight in January like
they were talking about anyway, or in December on the
same card potentially with Chesoora, and you'll let them do
their fights and then you know what, whoever wins between
Gasieve and Pool, have you make them fight a tom
if he's still okay.
Speaker 2: But how about again I'll go I got you. I mean,
you make too much sense. You're making logical sense again.
But I'll go a step further that why why I
would Moses Etama right now even need Poohlev if he
were to fight one more fight, whether they make him
a main event fighter. I understand they did a pay
per view with Dilan. When I get this, it would
be perfect and set up. And it's in the same
realm here that if Joseph Parker or Fabio Wardly wins
and they can't fight Usik, the next fight is Moses
Etama for the full WBO title if it comes to that.
Speaker 1: Not a crazy thing ifs so, if you're.
Speaker 2: A Tama, you don't really need forty four year old
Kubrat Poulev if that could be the ultimate carrot, and
again that's a queensberry.
Speaker 3: But here's the point inside that if he were to
beat Poolev or Ghasiev for that regular title, he's still
the mandatory for either Usik or Parker Wardly winner whoever
wins and would inherit the vacant title. They can still
make the fight. And the reality is I think that
Queensberry likes the idea of even know, look, we can
sit here and piss for ten years on the secondary title. Unfortunately,
it's a reality in the world we live in with
in boxing. They feel like that's meaningful that they can
make a big event around that title. That mosesy Toama
is fighting for a world title even if it's the
secondary bullshit, uh and and and you know, it is
what it is. So they're gonna, They're gonna they're gonna
make that effort.
Speaker 2: And in the meantime, it would be a much It
would be a much bigger deal for him to fight
for the full version obviously, and I know you're not
saying it, it would be a much bigger deal. And
that that's easily attainable if he goes and fights somebody.
Speaker 3: There's two fucking titles in the same organization. Is the
most ridiculous thing ever. I've been saying it for as
long as the It's just part of what is in
it and people say, well, you should just ignore it. Well,
you can't ignore it because it makes fights happen.
Speaker 2: They but the reason they keep doing it is because
people televise it, we talk about it and whatever we should.
I I'm kind of in the camp we should just
stop talking about this because like Jeron Edis was parading
around with the interim vacant w B a Junior middleweight
championship belt, like it means anything.
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean anything. It did don't mean anything the
other night.
Speaker 3: So I'm not arguing. But but the point is if
you get, if you we if the end result is
that an excellent young fighter like Moses Atama fights a credible, solid,
experienced veteran like Kubrat Puolev, who's been in the ring
with everybody, the reason why it's happening is because of
that belt, and so it does help facilitate some good fights.
Sometimes it helps facilitate trash. But you know, you know that,
and that's not just at the heavyweight division, and by
the way, it's not even just a WBA. The same
goes for any of the other organizations. If there's an
interims I don't like in the WBC or what have you,
but we'll say I'd like to see poole Ev fight,
get his chance to do is fight he wants to
do and then fight a toma after that. That seems
like a reasonable thing to me. There's no hurry for
a time of kids twenty years old or whatever. He
is twenty one years old, no rush.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move on. This is interesting.
Speaker 2: So the California Commission ruled on They voted six nothing.
They are going to back the TKO ZUFA based Muhammad
Ali American Boxing Revival Act. So let's talk about just
real quick what this means, because they are backing it,
and you know, the first question I have is this
is federal legislation, right, that has to be overturned, rewritten, whatever, so.
Speaker 3: To go the United States Congress.
Speaker 1: So so right, that's a congressional thing.
Speaker 2: So it's great that the California Commission gave a full
but there's bigger fish to fry.
Speaker 1: Go ahead.
Speaker 3: But the reason why it's important is because the California
State Athletic Commission, the Nevada State Athletic Commission, and perhaps
the New York State Upletic Commission are the most significant
commissions in the country. Yes, for various reasons. You know,
you could throw in maybe New Jersey or Texas. I
mean the big boxing states. And so when there are
people put their support behind it six to nothing, that
I think will become mean. If you're a House of
Representatives person, a congressman or a woman, or you're a
Senator and the people that are going to have to
ultimately vote on this legislation, and you're trying to make
your decisions, it may sway you that the respected California
State Athletic Commission not only has put their weight behind
this particular h this particular legislation, but done so in
emphatic six to nothing vote. That might be meaningful for
these these congressional people that aren't necessarily versed in combat
sports who live it and breathe it on a daily basis.
Speaker 4: Like you or I do.
Speaker 3: So that's important. And so there's there's that element of it.
And what strikes me is kind of weird about how
it went down is if you go back a few
weeks ago that had an open forum for anybody among
the public to discuss you like anything, you know, you
give your public comments, if you if you look at
like I get the agendas for the Nevada Commission meetings
every month, and every single Commission agenda has you know,
on it listed like you know, available for public comment,
et cetera, et cetera. Same thing in California, if of
these commissions, because they worked for the you know, the tribe.
Speaker 2: It was a state run situation, and so therefore the
public has a right because it's publicly funding and so you.
Speaker 3: People can call in or show up and you know. Right,
So when they did this one a few weeks ago,
our few I guess it was maybe like a month
or it was the September one, right, whatever it was,
you had literally forget the exact number. I want to
say it was something like seventy or seventy five people
decided to make public comment on the proposed legislation, which
in a state of California, which is millions and millions
of people, it's really not that many, obviously, but for
a state a letic commission, compared to what you normally
would see, that's a tremendous amount of your typical public comment.
And of the seventy five or whatever so people under
one hundred that offered an opinion or spoke, and it
was a mixture of fans and media and an other athletes,
some boxers, some amNY people, promoters, managers, people with stakes,
some that didn't have stakes. Every single person that made
a public comment was against the amendment. We should tell
you something. And just on the face of it, and
I'm not saying bad about anybody at Zoo or tik everything,
but just on the face of it, if the original
intent of the Muhammad Ali reformat was to protect boxers
from double dipping, from lack of transparency, for having your
manager who should have a fiduciary duty to you, but
could also be your promoter who doesn't have a fiduciary
duty to you, to have them in the same like
it was. Obviously, it was written in a way to
help try to protect the boxer. It hasn't always worked beautifully,
but I've always maintained it's better than nothing. So now,
if you have a promoter coming in that wants to
change that, they want to do it to help themselves.
They're not necessarily looking to help the fighter. Now, in
the long run, might it help the fighter in certain respects,
I guess it's possible, but I don't believe that's their intent.
Their intent is to make it better for their business.
Now they'll argue, and when I say they I'm talking
about people like a Dana White, a Nick con the
people that are involved in this new endeavor for ZUFA
slash PKO. They'll tell you about what an absolute disastrous
state American boxing is in, how no TV network really
wants it, blah blah blah. And they have a point there,
and if they could figure out a way to make
it work more smoothly, then that would be better for
the public and obviously for their company. And as I've
said before about this, if the fighters don't stand up
for themselves, why should we if they don't want to
help themselves. Well, so here's the point. Hold on, they
let me finish.
Speaker 2: Well, no, on that point, since you just made it
a lot of the fighters, a lot of the fighters
don't understand the ramification. Get somebody that understands incumbent on
those around them.
Speaker 3: They have lawyers that go over their contracts. They need
to have the same thing. So they had another meeting
yesterday this week where they did the vote, and obviously
before the vote they allowed public comment once again. This
time it was not even close to the same number
of people that participated. It was like, I don't know,
maybe twenty or something like that twenty five the thing
that was so striking. While there were some former MMA
fighters that spoke out against it, there was not a
single boxer to my understanding that that came to make
a comment.
Speaker 2: For clarify in the previous meeting in the In the
previous meeting, were there fighters, Yeah, in that seventy, in
that sixty seventy whatever, it was, Okay.
Speaker 3: So the meeting this time, conveniently they had. This tells
you how important it is. By the way that Nick Cohn,
who was the president of ww but also a TKO
board member and very very involved in this launch of
this new ZUFA boxing league. And as I've said before,
Nick was my agent for fifteen years. I know what
a diehard boxing fan he is. That is a fact,
you know, not a secret. He was the one that
got to speak first and lay out their perspective. They
claim that this will help fighters in terms of regular pay,
of health and safety benefits, medical coverage, things along those lines,
which all sound really good, I guess, But what it
does lack. It will lack transparency. And the biggest thing
about the ALI Act is if you're a fighter, and
again it doesn't always work perfectly, but if you are
let's say I'm going to go back to the HBO days.
You're HBO and you're paying top rank or whatever promoter,
you know, three million dollars for the rights to this event.
The promoter has to disclose that to the fighter, so
they have an idea of what the money is. So
when they go to negotiate their purse, they don't take
a purse for one hundred grand on an event that's
three million dollars, right, and they have an ability to
with their representative, with their manager to get a better
cut of the action. Now people talk about, well, you know,
it's the same thing as like the NFL and the
and the NBA, where they have the league and they
get protections from you know, whether it's medical coverage or
this and that. But it's really not the same because
the NHL and the NBA and Major League Baseball are
collectively bargained, that's union, and they have to get a
certain amount of the revenue.
Speaker 2: That's right, percent, and all of it has to be
disclosed on how much the league makes exact revenues coming in,
so orfore there's an agreement on what the players can make.
Speaker 3: Okay, So if TKO and ZUFA make a so called
league there, and they make this change to the amendment
the Congress does ZUFA boxing is under no obligation to
disclose what their finances are. In other words, you may
be a boxer and you signed the fight on one
of their cards, or you signed with them as a promoter,
and now you're gonna fight regular and your contract guarantees you.
Let's say I think it's something like four fights a year.
You know, at the low end, might you make twenty
five grand a fight or maybe thirty grand to fight whatever.
By the way, you have no idea what paramount just
spent to buy their rights. You don't know if they
spent a million dollars. You don't know if they spend
ten million dollars or they spend one hundred million dollars.
So again, if there was a union, that could be
collectively bargained, but in boxing everything is like a one
off transaction. Now they're trying to change that in terms
of the league format, but it doesn't address charge the disclosure.
Speaker 1: So let's cut to the chase on a couple of things.
Speaker 2: The first thing is, this is exactly why the ALI
Act was put into place, because again it is a
huge conflict if the promoter is also in charge of
managing both fighters and has all the options on what
those fighters can or can't do, win or lose afterwards.
Speaker 3: That that is about the titles and the you know,
the they control the rankings.
Speaker 1: That's that's true too.
Speaker 2: And the other thing is it's the destruction of the
free market when you're allowing that to go on. In
that world, they they aren't being paid what they're actually worth.
They're being paid what they agreed to and or unlimited
information what's supposedly available to pet you.
Speaker 3: Also, you also kind of a fighters who are in
a silo. So if you're fighting under the ZUFA banner,
it is not you're not allowed to go outside that.
Speaker 1: That's exactly right.
Speaker 2: That's because they have option they have options on your fights,
and you're only fighting for them.
Speaker 1: That's exactly right if you're going to go.
Speaker 3: But the public is going to have lot to say
about this because you know, I hope they're successful, and
I want to see the fighters do well in terms
of their money, and I'd like to see the company
do well as far as their profits. I mean, that's
that's the end goal here for everybody to make money.
But the problem is, and and maybe I'll be proven wrong.
And again, I'm not hating on anybody. I'm not wishing
bad on anybody. I don't believe that boxing fans who
I interact with on a daily basis and have, you know,
feel like I have a pretty decent grasp of the
temperature of the boxing fan. I just don't believe that
they're willing to accept the level of fighters that they're
trying to sign, which may turn out to be fun fights,
but they're not necessarily the world class fighters who the
pound for pound counter we've talked about, or better or
for worse. The sanctioning bodies exist and they are important.
Now do I need to see some reform at some degree? Yes.
Do I want to piss all over the WBA secondary title, Absolutely,
But I have spent twenty five years covering boxing and
I have heard countless fight men and women who tell
me to my face, my dream is to be the
WBC champion. My dream is to be the WBA champion.
My dream is to be the IBF champion. My dream
is to be the WBO champion. That is a fact.
You're not going to take that out of it. Do
you think that that those young fighters who looked up
to Muhammad Ali or Oscar de Loy or Canelo Alvarez
or Floyd Mayweather or many Pacou or whoever great champion
you want to pick, they want to say, my dream
is to win a ZUFA boxing belt, Right, The answer
is definitely no. Of course, it's possible that it could
evolve over the years.
Speaker 1: I suppose it's going to take a long time, but
it's going to take.
Speaker 3: A long time. So they may have so financial backing,
but I just don't think the public's willing to accept
those types of fights at the level of boxing.
Speaker 1: Here's the other thing.
Speaker 2: The free market exists everywhere else worldwide, where fighters that
can make the most money will go make the most
money if they're able to, and there will be a
lot a lot of negative Don't go with them because
you're going to end up with a bad contract for
you that you can't get out of, and then here
come the lawyers and here come the lawsuits when you
could make five, ten, fifteen times the money to go
fight for a world title somewhere else in the free market.
Speaker 3: So that's why for the for the fighters at the
lower end, it might be a good thing because they'll
be guaranteed activity, they'll be pretty decent purses. It's for
the guys at the top it may not work for
so I'm I'm of the opinion that I, whatever I
think about their way that they do their business practice,
I can't get more upset about it. If the fighter
himself doesn't get upset about it for herself, doesn't get
upset about it, you have to. If you're a fighter,
all I can say is understand what you're getting into.
Speaker 2: Have a good manager, have a On the one hand,
you're gonna have stability, frequent fights at low money, and
you're gonna be able to be active and make something
and have some kind of protection with healthcare and whatever,
and so there.
Speaker 1: I'm also understanding this.
Speaker 3: It's not like it's all bad.
Speaker 2: And then also understand that you could be making a
lot more if you're a really good fighter on the
open market and this ain't the open market.
Speaker 3: This is the other thing about it, is this TJ.
If you are fighting for a one of the more
bigger promoters, let's say, if you're fighting for matrom Boxing,
or you're fighting for top rank or you're fighting for
Queens Berry or Golden Boy or whoever, even even other
promoters that that are maybe not at that level, but
always have they stay sometimes have you know, good quality
fighters also, you know, if you're fighting for Solita Promotions, right,
if you're fighting for you know, pick pick another promoter.
If you're fighting for mister Honda and Teak in boxing,
they're not. There's no problem. If the fight makes sense
for everybody, they're willing to do fights with each other.
I mean no, I know there's lots of fights we
go through that didn't happen for promotional reasons. But usually
if the fight's that big, it does happen. And even
sometimes if it's not that big, if it makes sense
for everybody, it gets made. That's why Top Rank has
worked with PBC in recent times. That's why you sit
on a bunch of you know, mainly related frankly to
Turkey and Saudi Arabian business. And obviously they're involved in
this Dazufa boxing, but you've seen a bunch of crossover
Fightstreeen Mattrooms.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because the endless parade of fighters that are willing
to go take the money because it's the free market,
and you've got someone ridiculously and this is true overspending
on paying them compared to what these shows aren't making.
Speaker 3: All you have to do it.
Speaker 1: So there's the free market, there's.
Speaker 3: There's looking November twenty second for exist that's a great card.
In Saudi Aga, you have David Benavitte, is a PBC
fighter fighting Anthony Yard who's a guess a Queensberry fighter.
Maybe he's yet, but he's not. He's one of the
other promoters. You have Brian Norman, who was a top
ranked fighter defending his title against Devin Haney, who was actually,
I guess a free agent. He's just got to deal
with the Saudi's at the moment. You got Bam Rodriguez
who's a match room fighting Fernando Martinez who is with
a promoter overseas. I think he might be with with
mister Honda. Not really sure his in Japan right, but
he might be with maybe he's with whatever. The point is,
he's not with the same promoter.
Speaker 4: Ye.
Speaker 3: You have Abdullah ma who was with top rank fighting
Sam Noakes's with Queensberry. They're fighting for a time. In
other words, every single match in the in the card
is a crossover fight between one promoter and somebody else.
There's no in house fights.
Speaker 2: It's the free market, and somebody's got big money, and
everybody wanted to make these fights.
Speaker 1: All of them came together, and we see why.
Speaker 3: So the jury is out on this, I mean, and
in the end of the day, we're going to find
out pretty soon because ZUFA is supposed to kick off
their monthly schedule of fights on Paramount Plus starting in January,
and so they claim that whatever happens, I mean, I'm
not sure if the legislation is going to get either
passed or not passed between now in January.
Speaker 1: First of all, we're going to have the old the
government opened by jos M.
Speaker 3: Congress hasn't even in session right now, I mean, and
I don't.
Speaker 2: Have a few other priorities besides. But this is not
this is not close to the last step. Just because
the California Commission said, hey, we would be in favor
of this six to nothing if it's now legal.
Speaker 1: It's an important distinction. Again here on the podcast, the
ALI Act is still in effect. It has not been changed.
The only thing they did was say we would approve
this if it is changed down the road.
Speaker 3: So and and like I said, it's it doesn't carry
any weight in terms of the actual law. It does
get change, but it's a matter of we are the
California Commission, we are meaningful, and we throw our support
behind it. It's like one of the greatest endorsements that
this legislation could get. Kind of like if you were
running for president and you're the nominee of whatever party
and the previous president of that party, you know, gives
you an endorsement. It's good for your campaign.
Speaker 2: All right, a couple of other news items and then
we'll get out of here. Announced that Amanda Serrano is
going to be back. She's going to fight in January.
Tell me about the fight, the rematch and where. Because
this is significant, go ahead, give me the details.
Speaker 3: So Amanda Serrano, who was one of the great female
boxes of all time, has taken some tough times because
she lost all three fights to Katie Taylor as close
as you know, at least two of them were. But
those were also fights were well above her normal weight class.
Even though she won a title at one hundred and
forty pounds many years ago, was not at the same
level of opponent and she's primarily for the last however
many years, it's been fighting as a featherweight YEP, where
she was the undisputed champion. Ultimately, some of the belts
went away for mandatory reasons, and also the WBC because
they did not want to sanctioned fights for women that
were three minute rounds. So anyway, she still has the
WBO and the WBA titles at featherweight, even though she's
coming off the loss to in the third fight against
Katie Taylor that was a couple of months ago, So
she's going back to featherweight. She's going to defend the
WBO and the WBA titles against the Mexican contender, Erica Cruz,
who is a former featherweight champion if you're and the
reason why this is significant is because when they fought
the first time, it was an absolutely fucking hllacious battle,
one of the greatest, bloodiest, most amazing women's fights. If
you grease away Serrano Taylor one and two and take
away Taylor versus Chantell Cameron one and two, this is
probably like the next most craziest women's fight.
Speaker 1: That I can think of in recent history.
Speaker 3: Yes, so that first fight that they fought between a
Serrano and Cruz took place in February of twenty twenty three.
It was at the Theater at Madison Square Garden. It
was on a Mattroom boxing card, and they put on
an unbelievably hillacious battle. Serrano won a wide decision ninety
eight to ninety two on two score cards, ninety seven
to ninety three on the third. Those scorers did not
in any way indicate how close the fight was, because
even though she won by wide scores, every single round
was competitive and it was a tremendous battle, was super
thrilling and super exciting, an absolute female boxing Fight of
the Year contender in twenty twenty three. So they're gonna
run it back. She's going back to featherweight. They're gonna
fight on the main event of an MVP cardinal take
place January third, on de Own at the Roberto Clemente
Coliseum in San Juan. And for Amanda it's a big
deal because Erica Cruz is agreed to do this fight
for three minute rounds and the WBO and the WBA
are okay with that if the two boxers are okay
with it, Whereas the WBC would not do that, so
they're fighting under men's rules, although it's still a ten
round fight for a championship as opposed to twelve rounds,
but they're doing the length of round at three minutes.
And if you remember, if you go back, it wasn't
that long ago where Amanda was supposed to be the
headliner in San Juan, on the same card where Jake Paul,
her promoter and friend, was the co feature. And remember
that crazy shit.
Speaker 1: That happened a year and a half ago. It was
March of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3: It was a year and after she got she got
the stuff in her eye and she ended up having
a Now.
Speaker 2: You covered a lot of bizarre stuff. You were not
covering this, but we did talk about it and report
on it. She had hair chemicals for her hairdo that
got in her eye and also burned her hand while
jogging a day or two before the fight. The sweat
and the hair chemicals caused all of this. So she
was unable with the Puerto Rican Commission to be saying
they wo, They did a vision test and the whole thing,
and they said you can't fight, and they promised she
would be back. It's taken a little bit it's still
until January, but she has now presumed to be back
in headline in Puerto Rico, which is something she's talked
openly that she has wanted to have a headlining main
event back in Puerto Rico.
Speaker 3: And now she said, as she said in her comments
when MVP announced this fight, that after what occurred in
that March event, that she promised that she would come
back and fight in Puerto Rico, which is obviously you
know her people, and so this is her way, she says,
of fulfilling the promise, and she's fulfilling the promise in
a real fight. I mean, he has not just taken
a showcase. She's taken on a woman that gave her
other than Kate.
Speaker 2: And look, we're not trying to be a fight, we're
not trying to be morbid. But with three minute rounds
there is a greater chance of knockout ko whatever, which
fight fans always get riled up by. And she has
welcomed that, and Erica Cruz has now welcomed that as
the challenger here.
Speaker 3: So this is one thing that's interesting about this. So
while Amanda has had some of her fights where they've
gone the three minute distance in the each round. I
don't believe Eric Cruz has ever had a three minute
round fight, So that puts her a little bit at
a this at a at a at a negative I
guess in preparation. So she's gonna have to obviously simulate
that in her sparring and her preparation for it. But
she's never actually done a fight at three minutes where
Serrano has, so I guess she'd have to consider her
being at least at a little bit of a disadvantage.
But you know, I can appreciate Amanda's desire for you know,
what she claims is equality and Cruise. You know, obviously
Cruised wouldn't agree to it. She wouldn't have got the fight,
but it is, you know, that's what they're doing. So
that's the return of Serrano. I don't know what set
up has left, that's true. Seven. We'll see what she
can do going back down and wait.
Speaker 2: So that is set up for the game the new year,
January third, in Puerto Rico. A couple of other things
real quick here before we're done, because before we're done,
because we've been here for a bit.
Speaker 1: So back to the WBA and Roley Romero.
Speaker 2: Who when When last we saw him, he was on
that fatal Fury card right in Times Square.
Speaker 3: He won the UH he got the decision over of Ryan.
Speaker 2: Don't say what he won, he won, but the story
that we're doing, all right, So Roly's gonna fight for
the WU. He has the WBA what is it? Is
it the interim title.
Speaker 3: Here and let me say the words. I'll tell you
what please. When he defeated Ryan Garcia, he won the
WBA vacant regular title because Juran Boutsennis was still the
unified champion. But when boutsen Is elected to vacate the
titles and move up from one hundred and forty seven
to one hundred and fifty four, that left Roly as
the only WBA title er in the division. So now
he is their regular or only champion if you will,
in the way class. So as that position, he has
been ordered to make a mandatory defense against uh. His
the mandatory that was had been the mandatory but stepped
aside to allow Ennis to have the unification against Danionis.
That's Chakrum Giasov, the Olympian who's with Matt from boxing.
So he's been waiting who whoever the champion was whether
it was Boots or it's Roly Romero or whoever. So
the WBA has ordered that fight. They've given them thirty
days to negotiate. They haven't tell November twelfth if they
don't make a deal to be a person. The reason
why this is more no, we will probably wouldn't talk
about this if not for what I'm about to say.
So he's got that situation. He's gonna I gotta make
this mandatory and we gotta do this deal. But by
the way, PBC is way far down the road and
making a fight between Manny Pacoo and Roly Romero rolling
that was gonna be the that supposedly gonna be the
main event in January. And as I said to you before,
when the Fandora and Thurman fight was postponed, there's been
discussion within PBC about doubling it up and putting Fandora
Thurman on the same card with Pacio Romero. Now you
got yourself a real solid card. Obviously those two fights,
we'll see if that actually comes to pass. I you know,
part of it probably had to do with the fact
that as a main event, Fondora against Herman might not
have been the strongest selling fight. But whatever, If I'm
a boxing fan, I'd much rather spend that, you know,
the seventy five bucks or whatever on a pay per
view with Pakia, Romero and Fondora against urmant and if
it was just one fight and then whatever else, that
right right on the undercard. So we'll have to see
if they can get Giusov the step beside, if the
WBA will give an exception, whatever, but that's the situation.
The WBA would always gets themselves in a fucking gyer.
Speaker 2: I understand, but on this would paq Paquiao is only
interested in a Romero fight because it's a version of
the title, So if Romero doesn't have that title. Here
we go with logic and common sense again, how much
is Pacquiao interested in fighting Romero without an interim viman
WBA a.
Speaker 3: Lot of interim vacant. It's the title, w SECONDARY, it's
it's not the second.
Speaker 1: So have they already officially elevated him?
Speaker 3: If there's only one guy in the division with the title,
you're the only guy, okay, But you only become a
regular if there's a super and there's no super.
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, but you're confusing. You're confusing me in the
audience even further.
Speaker 3: But I'm not confusing the audience. They're a lot smarter
than no.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 2: Boots in US had the title, and Roly Romero hasn't
won a world title fight as of yet.
Speaker 1: So my question was, did they go ahead and elevate him?
Did they go ahead and say he is the guy.
Speaker 3: You're characterizing it incorrectly. He won when Boots was the
unified champion, he was the WBA Super Champion and the
IBF champion when he defeated Stanios Anyone the Ring magazine
title at that point in that was in April. In May,
they allowed Garcia and and Romero to fight for the
vacant regular title, which Roley.
Speaker 1: Won, which is which is garbage.
Speaker 3: Agreed when that fight was over, you had Stanny Onis
and I mean Boots has the WBA champion, super champion.
You had Romero as the regular champion. When Boots gave
up the titles and went to fifty four, it automatically
made Romero as the only champion.
Speaker 1: I just asked you ninety seconds ago, there's no elevant.
Speaker 3: Champion, and there's no elev didn't elevate him it just
made him the guy. He's the only one. There was
nothing to elevate to the created.
Speaker 1: Oh god, this is where we spend so much time
and oxygen.
Speaker 3: You just don't understand.
Speaker 1: I do understand.
Speaker 2: The w b A had a world champion Boots in
US and he vacated the belt. So this whole thing
of we created a regular interim whatever waiting to.
Speaker 1: See what he would do.
Speaker 3: No, I wasn't created for that reason. It was not
created for that reason. It was just created because they
do what they do. That's what I mean, Yes, exactly,
And so you know, here's the bottom line, whether you
like it or you don't like it. And we can
again for the fifteenth time in this podcast, we can
piss all over the w BA. Rollie Romero is the
WBA welterweight champion, end of story.
Speaker 2: But he could not be coming up here if he's
not willing to fight. I'm sorry, the other w B
a fight. If if Gisov and Romero can't agree, then
the w BA is gonna take this whatever title that's.
Speaker 3: Not go carry it away because they know the money
is in a fight.
Speaker 2: And here's the corruption, and here's all the problems and
why Dana White and his guys are all trying to
not not.
Speaker 3: That's not a ridiculous thing. And by the way, they
didn't work out a step aside deal or whatever will
happen will happen a right.
Speaker 2: And by the way, the WBA has also ordered Nick
Ball to fight his mandatory detail real quick and then
we've got to get out.
Speaker 3: Of here, right. So Ball is the WBA featherweight champion.
We all love him. He makes great fights. And Brandon
Figueroa is the mandatory, the former featherweight and junior featherweight
title holder. That is a fight that we knew he
was the mandatory because when he won his fight and
his last bout he became was an elimination fight. He
got kind of a generous decision against Joe At Gonzales.
That was back in July on the Pacquiao Mario Barrios undercard,
but none the less, Figure.
Speaker 2: Wasn't everybody in the ar You were there, everybody in
the arena was booing that decision and thought it was
horrible and thought that Gonzales had won not at not
a great Smith's gift for Figureoa. That puts him in
position maybe right here to fight Ball, but.
Speaker 3: Well not maybe he's in position, he's the mandatory. So
they gave them, similar to what they did with Roly
and uh and with Gisov, they gave them thirty days
to make a deal, and if they don't.
Speaker 2: It would be an entertaining fight if it would happen.
What does the ray field radar meter say?
Speaker 1: Is this?
Speaker 3: You know, I think that fight has a reasonable chance
to happen. I mean, I'm not sure why it wouldn't happen.
You have PBC that has you know, they have some
pay per views coming up. They have Nick Ball, who's
with Queensberry. They obviously do regular shows. You know, maybe
they can make a deal. I mean, we'll see if
it happens with Ball. Maybe it happened in Saudi Arabia,
maybe it happens, you know, in the UK. You know,
could PBC potentially bring Nick Ball to the United States
and have him, you know, do the fight here, like
in a Las Vegas type of show or something like that.
Not out of the realm of possibility. One thing, I know,
whatever you think about the decision in the in the
in the figaroa Joe at Gonzalez to fight, which I
agree was not a very good decision. But figure O
and Nick Ball probably would be a very exciting fight
in my mind, because they're gonna come at each other,
there's nothing fancy, and then either one of those guys,
they're gonna just go in there and do their business.
That's a good mesh, all right.
Speaker 2: One final thing, December thirteenth has the possibility to be
busy here. You were talking to us previously about Diego
Pacheco on the last podcast that apparently he is going
to be back, and that's now been announced December thirteenth,
and then there's another fight apparently in California, also for
a world title on the on the thirteenth, So we'll
elaborate on that PSISI.
Speaker 3: So when they did the Bootsennis mismatch against Lima that
took place this past Saturday, during that broadcast, de Zone
and Mattrium announced that Pacheco would fight Kevin Leiley Sadjoe From,
a fighter from Cameroon who lives in France, that that
was going to be the main event of a card
December thirteenth that would take place in Stockton, California, which
is obviously further north than the Los Angeles, and then
they would they were having, like Tito Mercado was going
to be on that card, and Gabriel Flores Junior, who
is from from there, from there, so he's going to
be on that card. A lot of discussion that Flores
might fight Joe Cordina. He claims that they had agreed,
but he's dragging his feet on signing the contract. But anyway,
so that's the matchroom card that will happen on December thirteenth.
And then the other fight you reference, and this is
going to be in Los Angeles. The venue still being
ironed out is but Dude Jack, who's the WBC's Cruiserweight Champion,
is post of a rematch with the former title holder,
Noel McCallion. If you go back to May of this year,
on the undercard of the Canelo Alvarez Williams Skull event,
they had this fight at the first one and it
was a very very close fight. A lot of people
thought that McCallion was the rightful winner. In the end,
it was Badujack who got a majority decision one fifteen,
one thirteen on two cards, one fourteen, one fourteen on
the third and McCallan went to the WBC and appealed
and in the end the WBC ordered an immediate rematch,
and so it has gone through the process. And so
if you remember, it was not that long ago, a
few weeks ago, there was a purse bit. We discussed
how for the first time ever that we could think
of in the history of the world, that there was
a tie person, right, And they gave the two promoters
that were bidding, which was Steve Bash from Bass Promotions
and Don King, who was the promoter for McCallan. And
Bash doesn't promote either guy. I guess he just wanted
to bid on the fight. He ultimately beat King by
you know, like one hundred grand or whatever when they
redid it, and that he's putting the I talked to
him the other night. He's doing the fight on December thirteenth.
He figures that in that in southern California, in the
Los Angeles area, there's a very large Armenian community, particularly
in Glendale, California. Noel mccallian is from Armenia. He has
a bunch of young Armenian prospects and fighters that he
works with. They'll populate the undercart. So he feels like
between whatever broadcast we can do and whatever sponsors we
can drum up in the ticket sales for these guys,
I can you know, do a profitable event. And Jack
who will defend the title against McCallan in the rematch.
Speaker 2: All right, so we get a couple of dates there
in December. We got to wait till December for those,
We've given you a bunch, including the WBO interim heavyweight
title holder Joseph Parker, who again will fight on the
twenty fifth, not this weekend, but the next weekend.
Speaker 1: Who was on with us with Dan.
Speaker 2: We've got the Danny Swift Garcia main event for this weekend.
We really don't have a ton and I'm on my
way to Detroit with my Tampa Bay Buccaneers, one of
my fall gigs with the Buccaneer Radio broadcast. We play
the Monday night game with the Detroit Lions coming on
Monday night. So we won't have a podcast off the
weekend because there's not enough to recap here.
Speaker 1: But gave us.
Speaker 2: You gave us plenty with the news back and forth.
We got a good we got a good fix there
on everything I gave you.
Speaker 3: I get another lesson on the WBA politics.
Speaker 2: Yeah, which is will make up whatever at all times,
every which direction, and just yeah, so we gave you
all of that again. The Parker fight with Wardley is
next week, so why don't we reconvene next week in
the preview mode. Also engage on the Big Fight Weekend
YouTube page. Because I will tell you this on the podcast,
audience will put the video up of you talking to
Joseph Parker on the YouTube page. Go find it, subscribe,
like help us out there. We will be doing more
content on that page. We got a lot of nostalgic
content there. The video of Tyson Fury Deontay Wilder. The
anniversary of their third fight was recently. Also the Corrals
Castillo twentieth anniversary of their second fight. We get some
this stalgia videos. Those are up there on the site.
Go back and watch those if you love the nostalgia.
So all good stuff on YouTube.
Speaker 1: With that, have a good weekend.
Speaker 2: I'll check with you next week when I'm back from
the Motor City. I'll go say hello to the right
arm of Joe Lewis there in downtown in Detroit, the Big,
the Big monumental Right, you go check.
Speaker 3: Out the you go check out the new location of
the Krong gym that has opened up in the in
the old gym where where Joe Lewis used to train.
Speaker 1: You have to i'm mna have to go find that
as well.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: And so we look forward to uh to being in
Detroit and then I'll be back from that. All right, Dan,
have a good weekend, good stuff with Joseph Parker.
Speaker 2: Thank you for the time here, all right, TJ. Good
to talk to you, Dan Rayfield. Find him on the Substack.
Dan Rayfield Substack is the Fight Freaks Unite Substack. Search
it up, get on the newsletter, et cetera for much
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For now, we are good on the Big Fight Weekend
Preview pod.