Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big
Fight Weekend. Now here is your host, DJ Leaves. All right,
we get ready for a very intriguing card, the most
prominent card worldwide will be in Rio, Saudi Arabia. Moses
Etama and Dillian White in the main event, a Nick
Ball feather Away title defense, and the co feature and
a lot more. We're ready to preview that, a whole
lot of news and much more. Welcome in. It is
the Big Fight Weekend Preview podcast. I am the somewhat
competent host TJ. Reeves. You are here for the man,
the myth legend, fight Freaktion Nit is a substack for
our insider, Big Dan Rayphiel. Good to be back with you,
and look, we don't have to oversell this. This is
intriguing what's about to happen this weekend, especially with Etama
rising as he has and facing his most prominent named
opponent today eight. We're ready to go over all of
that and a lot more. How are you as we
head towards the weekend.
Speaker 2: I'm good. I'm fascinated by this main event for a
lot of reasons. Some of the undercard fights as well.
Don't think it should be a fifty dollars pay per view,
but that's a different story altogether.
Speaker 1: Another argument. We're going to talk business and pay per
views a little later with Paramount Plus and the whole
situation with UFC and we're trying to do boxing. We'll
do that coming up. By the way, thank you for
finding us on the podfeed, Subscribe, follow, subscribe, Apple, Spreaker, Spotify. Again,
a bunch of you have found us by the tens
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Big Fight Weekend YouTube channel for those of you that
are wanting all the content, all the different stuff. You
can see Dan talking to Moses Atama in advance of
this fight on the video on the YouTube channel. We've
also played it here on the podcast feed. Great content
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Find us on the Big Fight Weekend platforms. All right,
let's get into it. This is the main event, which
will be Saturday afternoon US time of the read season
des own pay per view show The Etama, who we've
talked about a couple of times here in the build
up fighting former world title challenger. I don't really know
how much Dyllion White has left. As I said, it's
the biggest name Ittama has fought to date. They had
the press conferences on Thursday in Saudi Arabia. What are
your thoughts here leading into this now for Saturday night?
Speaker 2: In read this this is one of those fights where
they say the rubber beats the road. We're gonna find
out a lot about Moses Tama. We're gonna find out
about what Dylan White has left. You know, you made
the point you're not sure what he's got left. I
can tell you out. No matter what he's got left,
it's better than anything that Moses A. Tama has faced
so far. He's had only one fight that you can
even clause. I say it was like a decent, solid guy.
That was Demse McKean who had gone d into the
fight with Philip Perginvich and got stopped and Moses Atama
looked very impressive two fights ago and knocked him out
in the first round. That's all we really have to
go on. I mean, but Moses, he's got the look, obviously,
seems to have the disposition. I thought he came across
really well in terms of his groundedness when I spoke
to him, and I've seen some other interviews that he
has done this week and some other comments that he
has made. But the thing is, he just doesn't have
the experience. And sometimes you know, if you rush a
guy before he's ready, you pay that price. And Dylan
White is a perfect sort of you know, litmus test
if you will. This is a fighter in Dylan White,
who was vastly experienced, who's been at the highest levels
in the sport, fought a lot of top guys. The negative, though,
but positive of your team a TAMA is that when
he has stepped up to fight the best guys, he's lost,
and he's lost by knockout. You go back a decade ago,
he got stopped in a good fight, but somewhat one
sided against Anthony Joshua. This is before Joshua had won,
you know, any of the belts he had won as
as a world title holder. He got absolutely annihilated with
one punch by Alexander Poveki. He fight that he was
otherwise dominating. That was a hilatious knockout. He obviously we
know about his issues with the PDS and all that business.
When he finally got the long away the title shot
against Tyson Very in twenty twenty two, he was pretty
much outclassed and then knocked out in the sixth round.
Since then he has won three fights in a row,
and while they're not super elite, you know, super top
contender type wins. He beat Jermaine Franklin, who was undefeated
at the time, who had you know, had a fight
at some point where he did pretty well against Anthony Joshua.
He beat the you know, the journeyman Christian Hamer, who
has been in with everybody, but he stopped him in
the third round. And then had a really rough, tough
fight with Ebenezer Teta that took place in December that
frankly was a lot tougher and went a lot longer
than it probably should have based on Teta's previous results.
But in the end White Stolle scored the seventh round knockout.
So it comes into this fight off the layoff eight
months for Dylan White, not that big of a Deal's
almost months to the day, and he's taken on Atama
and he's got all that experience. He looks in tremendous condition.
I mean, I have to say I've seen him at
the workout, seeing him at the press conference, seeing him,
you know when he did the arrivals. Hearing from some
of my British media colleagues that have seen him and
talk to him, just really in a good spot. It
feels like for this fight. And Atama, by the way,
clearly excited for the fight, understands what it means. But
again I go back to the experience thing. You cannot
buy the experience. So Dylan White has nearly two hundred
professional boxing rounds, fought for the world title, all the
you know the name guys I've mentioned to you, and
even though he's lost, he's still got that experience and
he's got some good wins on his record also. But
then you look at Atama and you know, even with
the McKeen win, here's a kind that's twenty years old
TJ twenty twenty seventeen year age difference between him and
the thirty seven year old Dylan White. He's twelve and
zero with ten knockouts. The thing that that blows my mind.
I just mentioned Dylan White's got nearly two hundred round
I think it's a hundred night two rounds as a pro.
Speaker 1: Dylan White was out looking without looking. I don't know this.
Atomas had twelve fights. You said Dillion Whites had how
many rounds in his career?
Speaker 2: One hundred ninety two.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say Moses Atama has fewer than thirty rounds.
Speaker 2: You would be correct, he has. This is the crazy
stat though he has twenty five professional rounds. But here's
the thing. Though two of those fights, early on his
third professional fight and his fourth professional fight, each win
six round distance fights. OK. So if you take away
the two six rounders at the very beginning of his career.
Speaker 1: The other ten fights are thirteen total rounds.
Speaker 2: That is correct, including you know, mostly first shown knockouts.
I mean, in the last fight that he had against
Mike Balagan in May, he got into the second round
before he knocked him out. When he fought Marius Wak,
you know, the long faded but former title challenger, he
got into the second round. But he's had a ton
of first shown knockouts. So you just don't know. So
if you said to me, Mosy Tom is going to
walk in there and blitz Dylan White. I wouldn't be
shocked if you said to me, you know what, Dylan White,
he's got all that experience, he's got good power himself,
and as a young kid that has never fought anybody,
he's in over said he's gonna get wiped out, and
he knocked out one. Shocked. Mean, if you told me
they rumbled for ten rounds, I wouldn't be shocked either.
The one thing that is also significant is just the
mere fact that they made the match and that they're
going in to again. The experience is what it's all about.
But you got to look at the chin that White
has shown and getting knocked out. You got to look
at the age discrepancy. You got to look at the
speed advantage that Moses has. You got to look at
the fact that he's a Southpaw. I mean, he's got
a lot going for him, and you have to think
that his people did their homework. He's with Ben Davison,
who knows how to deal with heavyweights. He's got a
good team behind him. And you know, nothing against Dylan White,
But if you want to see a guy that can
emerge as a future of the heavyweight division. I'm not
anti Dylan White, but you should want Moses the Toma
to win this fight.
Speaker 1: By the way, it would shock me if it is
a very competitive slugfest type fight. That would shock me.
I think this is one of those that a Toama
more than likely comes in and overwhelms Dillian White. But
we'll see. He is the veteran. I like him. I
liken this too because we're both nostalgic to the rise
of Mike Tyson. Again, you and I have qualified at
numerous times. We're not saying he is Mike Tyson. He's
got buzz. But when Mike Tyson was fighting, the names
like Quick Tillis and you'll remember maybe the order better
than I do, or Jesse Ferguson, his rise was going on.
He was blitzing everybody. Those took a few rounds for
him to and if I'm not mistaken, Quick Tillis went
the distance with him, went the full one. But Jesse Ferguson,
he he ended up getting to him, brutalizing him with
an uppercut, breaking his nose. But it was like the
fifth or sixth round. This is not.
Speaker 2: A better grade.
Speaker 1: I understand, but this is not dissimilar in the analogy
that this is a large step up for a TAMA
and it might take a fourth round a sixth round
before we see him get to him. But I know what,
I had the full expectation he's gonna get to him
and knock him out. And if he doesn't, I don't know.
I don't know what that means.
Speaker 2: But you should have one of his career. You should
want Dylan white to get some rounds. I mean for
Tom to get some rounds in against Dylan Whitey if
he wins the Let's put like this the best case
scenario if you're a team Dylan team a Tama is
obviously he wins a fight, gets a knockout, and has
to go five to six rounds, show some metal and
get him out of there. That would be the perfect thing.
Then you could say I went rounds with a quality heavyweight,
a guy that fought for the title, who's respected by all.
I did what I was supposed to do. I won
the fight, I got the knockout, and more importantly, I
put some very very much needed rounds in the bank
because I only have twenty five rounds and twelve fights
going into this fight. That is so so little professional experience,
and let's be honest, if you look at the beginning
of his career, I mean he's fighting just complete directs
right right, which is to be expected. I mean, you know,
he had about twenty amateur fights according to box track.
He was undefeated in that amateur campaign. But he didn't
fight at the ultra high level in terms of international
experience because he was so young, so he didn't go
to the Olympics or anything like that. He is such
a work in progress, but you can see the talent
pour out of him when you watch the way he
carries himself and the speed that he has in the
way he throws his punches and his poise. And this
is a big moment for the young man. And it's
the main event. I mean, it definitely is. You got
to look at it like that. The guy's never been
in a main event before, so that's another thing that's
different about this fight. So we'll say that's going to
be interesting.
Speaker 1: All right, stay tuned, and we're going to talk a
little more in a second about what else could be next,
because Philip Herkovich is obviously on the card too. But
Nick Ball defends the WBA featherweight title in the co
feature against Sam Goodman. Give me a little more on that.
In the preview mode here Ball and entertaining. I keep
referring to him as squat. I'm not. I'm not saying
that in a disparaging way. He's just not very tall.
He's thick for a featherweight like, for example, Rafael Espinoza
is long, lanky. He might be like eight inches taller
than Nick Ball.
Speaker 2: He's like the same six feet tall, yes.
Speaker 1: And nick nick Ball might be five six maybe not probably.
Speaker 2: Not stop stop Nick Bolls five foot two.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was gonna say depending I said.
Speaker 2: I've joked around about it. Like, imagine the featherweight unification
between Nick Ball and five to two and Raphael espino
was at like six to one or whatever. I mean,
it would be interesting. It was a fight. I'm gonna
date myself. There was a fight years ago when Diego Corrals.
I don't remember he was champion at the time, and
maybe he still had his one hundred and thirty pounds belt.
Diego Craalis was about five ten five eleven as one
hundred and thirty pounder, and he was fighting John Brown,
who was a long time sort of second tier contender,
who was like again like five foot two, five foot
three zero, really small guy, and they fought each other
and it was like, you know, you need to be
standing on a on a stool and a ladder in
the ring to get it to him.
Speaker 1: I mean, well, in the modern Sebastian Fundora has been
significantly taller than most of the junior middleweight fighters that
he's been fighting, making them look smaller, but still matter
what way, Yeah, five to two, five to two is
definitely not that big, all right. One kind of threat
is Sam Goodman, the Australian in this fight. In your mind,
what do you think?
Speaker 2: Goodman is undefeated? He's twenty and oh with eight knockouts.
He doesn't have a very uh uh recognizable group of
guys in his record. He does have a win by Thisson,
for example, against TJ. Dohaney, who was a featherweight title
holder or a junior featherweight title holder. So he's beaten
those types of guys, but there's not a lot to recognize.
But he was, as you recall, he was the mandatory
for in a way at one hundred and twenty two.
He got cut, the fight was postponed, the cut opened
again when he went to redo. When the fight was rescheduled,
when he was sparring once again, it got canceled. They
bypassed him. So he kind of got ast out of
the title shot, and so now he's moving up in
weight to have this fight. He since that situation, he
did come back and have one sort of you know,
warm up fight he fought in May. He won a
ten round decision, just fighting a slightly over the one
hundred and twenty two pounds limit. Now he's fighting as
a full fledged featherweight. He's obviously a clear underdog against
Nick Ball, who right now is looking good, undefeated and
been you know, not mowing guys down, but winning in
exciting fights and doing you know, he's been knocking guys out.
He also, you know, in his less defensive took place
earlier this year in March, he stopped Ohany in round ten.
Before that, he stopped the veteran Ronnie Rios in ten rounds.
He had the big split decision win over Raymond Ford
that won him this title. Before that, he fought to
the draft, challenging Ray Vargas for the WB seatbelt. He
fight that many people thought that Nick Ball was the
rightful winner. I thought, yeah, yeah, He's got the win
over Isaac Dogbay, which was a good win from that
was in a I believe that was a total eliminator.
I mean, so he's got some nice names on the record.
He's got the win over Isaac Low by knockout. So
Nick's been doing his work. I mean, I think right
now you'd have to say, based on the level of
activity and the opposition faced. With all due respect to
Rafael Espinoza, but Nick Ball probably would rank number one
in the featherweight division at the moment. So this is
a defense. You know, he's going to have a mandatory
to do. You know, it's unfortunate it's not already happening.
But nonetheless, Nick makes great fights that he's a very
exciting fighter. Pressure pressure, pressure pressure. Goodmane's gonna have to
be on his game because right now Nick looks looks
the part. I mean, he has the stamina. You know.
I feel like he's a guy that if there's fifteen
round fights, he'd be okay with that, even though we
live in the world of twelve round fights. And if
he wins against Goodman, it's another solid win on his
record against an undefeated guy, and if Goodman wins, it's
going to be a big upset, will be huge for
Australian boxing. And one of the things about this fight also,
and I don't know if Nick Ball knows it, feels
it or thinks about it, but for dorks like me,
you look at this and you think about the great
amount of champions and top fighters from the UK over
the million less hours where boxing was invented. He's the
only male world champion from the UK at the moment.
Speaker 1: How about that which he made some people on that
trivia question, who's the only current British world champion?
Speaker 2: Of the four major organizations, he is the only one.
So it reminds me of the recent anniversary that just happened.
That was the anniversary of the rematch between Oleg Maskiv
and Hassim Rockman. Hassim Rockman at the time was the
WBC heavyweight title and obviously Oleg Maskiv was from Kazakhstan
and at that time the other three so Rockman had
the WBC belt. The other three title holders were from
various former Soviet republics and back then, this is like
fifteen years ago, absolutely unheard of for any of the
belts to be not held by an American, much less
none of the belts held by an American. So they
named the They named the pay per view America's last
line of defense, And sure enough, Oleg Maskiv went in
the ring in a solid close fight. He knocked Rockman
out in the twelve round and won the title, and
that gave the former Soviet countries the clean sweeper with
Sergey Layakovich, Oleg Naskiv, Klitschko, and Nikolai Valuev and no
Americans held outs. And so nick Ball is facing that
scenario where the fact that there could be a moment
in time without a single British male world champion is
crazy now.
Speaker 1: And by the way, I share with the audience all
the time, you and I do this on video hookup.
They see social media clips of us sometimes put stuff
up on YouTube. Right Field just did all of that
off the top of his head without looking at anything.
You scare me, But.
Speaker 2: In my own defense, I should scare you. But I
the reason I remember that so vividly is because I
had posted a thing about on the anniversary on my
social media.
Speaker 1: But still you ran all the names off and I'm
saying to the audience, you weren't looking at that when
you added it all off, looking at me. And let's
hear it for Nick Ball being active. We talk about
activity all the time. This is, by my math, his
sixth fight, going back to May of twenty three, in
twenty six months. There's a lot of fighters that don't
fight four times.
Speaker 2: Actually, if you go from twenty sixth from me twenty
three when he had this was before he won the title.
But this will be actually a seventh fight.
Speaker 1: Seventh fight, excuse me, I even miscounted.
Speaker 2: It'll be a second of this year. He fought three
times in twenty twenty four and he had how.
Speaker 1: Many times has Charedce Crawford fought in the last twenty
six months? That would be two? Am I correct? Nick?
And I realized different great fighter right now, but seven.
Speaker 2: Times a lot of different money also, Nick.
Speaker 1: Right, but seven times is still active. Let's hear it
for activity, keeping his name out there totally and making
himself more relevant. Now, let's see if he delivers in
the fight with Goodman. All right, now, proceed down the undercard,
including Philip Hergovich is back. Hergovich, by the way, was
singing at the Did you see this singing on Thursday
at the press conference the hip hop Let's get down,
Let's get down to busy. He was quoting the lyrics
with the Eastern European accent.
Speaker 2: I'll just he say, broo, I say, stick to being
a heavyweight boxer, stick to here.
Speaker 1: I still like I still like it that he's ready
to get down to business to win this fight and
then maybe look ahead to fighting Ytama. All right, what
about David?
Speaker 2: Sure he's gonna I don't think they're going to make
the Atama fight, but maybe. But anyway, here's the thing
I mentioned you about Demsey McKean. The one sort of
pause I name that that he Tama has on his record.
He took he got knocked out by Philip Parkovich, but
he took him into the twelfth round to do it.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: Then he had his first fight with the Saudis. He
scored the first round knockout against Mark Damurray in one
of the most I would say this, and I think
this is saying a lot, because the Saudis have put
on really outstanding cards for the most part of every
single boxing match of like the main card caliber fights
that they have done. Herkovic Damori was probably the biggest
worst mismatch of any fight they've done since they've been involved.
But after that fight, he fought for the interim title
and was a heavy favorite. This was June of last
year when he fought Daniel Dubac and it was a
tremendous battle and Duwa cut him up and the you know,
we ended up having bad cuts over both eyes and
the fight got stopped in the eighth round on a
TKO and so Danga Dua became the interim IBF title.
The ultimately he was elevated, and we know what's happened
since then. So that's the one loss that Hergivichad, who
was a top notch amateur. It was an Olympic medal winner.
You know, he was, you know, one of the best
amateurs for many many years. He came off of that
loss to Dua, he was off about ten months, came
back this past April, scored a unanimous decision in a
pretty good performance. He won pretty clearly wide on two
scorecards over Joe Joyce, who you know doesn't seem to
have a whole lot left and so now you know,
it's a matter of Okay, let's stay busy. And he
takes on David Adelie, who is also a guy with
just the one loss fourteen and one. And this is
a British fighter who has won two fights in a
row since on a read season card. Also, this is
back at the late part of twenty twenty three. This
was at the time, this was like a toss up fight.
Nobody really there was a lot of differing opinion like
that either a deliated win. He fought Fabio Wardly. This
was a British and Commonwealth title, so it was like
a big deal within the British boxing community. And in
the end Wardley stopped him in the seventh round and
so that was a pretty rough loss for him. He
has won two fights in a row since then. And
so as I said Herkievich has got the one win
over Joyce since his loss. This guy's won two in
a row since his loss. Both were stoppage losses, and so, uh,
these guys are fighting for position. It's you know, either
whoever wins this fight is gonna really take a nice
step forward and be in consideration, whether it's a tom
or it's a top contender, or it's somebody else. And
the loser is going to take a step to the
back of the line to some degree. So anytime you
can take two maybe not the top five heavyweight contenders
and I would say Philip Party, but you could still
argue should be ranked in the top ten. A Delier
probably falls a little bit outside of the top ten,
but not by a whole lot. And the making. They
just made a nice match, similar records and give this
card some depth.
Speaker 1: And also Raymond Ford, who you've been talking about here
in this preview, will fight your boy, Abraham super Nova,
my boy in a junior lightweight battle. Also, so I
mean you get to I mean it is a pay
per view, but least you're getting some meat on the
bone here because.
Speaker 2: This is good.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: Ford has looked good, you know, he was. He held
the featherweight belt. He had the loss, like we discussed,
a super close split decision loss in nick Ball. That
was back in June of last year. He has won
the two fights in a row since then since then
though heat in both of those fights, he had moved
up two one hundred and thirty pounds. He was really
straining to make one twenty six. He was talking about
going to one thirty. You know, win or lose. In
that fight against Nick Ball, he lost. He moved up,
like I said, one two fights a row will both
by decision. Look pretty damn good against Thomas Matiz. That
was the most recent fight that took place in April.
And so now he's in this fight with Abraham Nova.
Not a championship fight or anything like that, but Nova.
You know, he is my boy. I've always been a
fan of his just from the mere fact he's from
my hometown where I was born, Albany, New York. So
you know, I've followed him and I've gotten him a
little bit cool guy. You were with us actually then
he come up, yes, leaving the arena after Spence and Crawford.
Speaker 1: A couple of years ago, right right, Yeah, so.
Speaker 2: But but as much as I as I love Nova
a personality, cool guy, uh, fun fighter, for the most part,
he's this is like.
Speaker 1: At the end, at the end.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I don't. I don't want to say bad
about him, but here's the bottom line. Uh, he got
his big opportunity, got stopped in the fifth round by
Robesi Ramirez. That was in a title eliminated. This is
when he was still fighting that featherweight. After that fight,
he moved up to junior. Leighway won a couple of fights,
but not against big time names. Then he lost a close,
close fight in a split decision to O'shaki Foster. He
challenged him for the WBC title and even in the loss,
like he still looked pretty darn good. But then he
lost to Andres Cortes. He got a split draw against
a guy he should have run out of the ring
in Hermberto Gala Glindo. That was in November of last year.
He did win his last fight on a on a
small club card. Uh, they actually did the last fight
he was in the there was a local promoter in
the Boston area that they did a card like on
the concourse at Fenway Park, and he fought on that
show when he got a victory. And so now he
gets the opportunity now. He was not the original opponent
for Raimond. For it, Raymond was supposed to fight somebody
else and the name escapes me at the moment, but
they got uh, you know, and it's not like it
happened yesterday. He's had several weeks notice to fill in,
but he is now taking this opportunity. And while I'm
I'm loath to say, like you know, if he doesn't win,
his careers over, but it would behoove him to at
the very least perform well in this particular situation because
he's not then on the greatest streak in terms of wins. Uh,
he really needs at the very least, like I said,
he needs a good performance in this fight to sort
of keep things going, you know what I mean. It's
it's uh, it's been dicey for him, but uh, he's
a pretty good fighter. He's still going to give you, uh,
still going to give you a pretty good run for
your money. And by the way, just our dawned to me,
it was Ford who was originally scheduled to fight Anthony Kassachi,
who had pulled out because of a back injury.
Speaker 1: There you go, yes, And that was about they were
trying to have that fight as a payday because Kasachi
vacate vacated his belt right in the last couple of fights.
Speaker 2: So that was so he's had so that was about
a month ago, and the Abraham Nova was brought in,
you know, within a few days or so after that,
So he's had about a month to prepare for the fight.
And also the good thing about Nova, he's if you're
familiar with him, he typically is a guy that stays
in pretty good condition between fights. He doesn't go out
and run around and put on a thousand pounds or
anything like that, so he should be ready to go.
And Raymond Ford making the switch. Also, you know he's
got to face new opponent, so I feel like this
this could be somewhat competitive. But I'm a little worried
about my boy.
Speaker 1: I understand. And yeah, because you always do this, I'm
gonna put this up on a team. Lets you smack
it like Aaron Judge five hundred feet. Everybody bothers you
about when is the fight card starting, When is the
main event happening. It's now on a platter. Put it
out there for them before you get fifty seven social
media inquiries on Saturday.
Speaker 2: I will still get inquiries and I will post something
about it in the next day or so. Besides the
four main fights that we just spoke about, there's two
other bouts on the card. There's the Saudi prospect, undefeated
kid who's from Riad named Muhammad al Kyle, who's fought
on some of these cars before he's in a six
rounder that will open the show, and then for whatever reason,
they slotted this in the middle of the show, even
though it's not a big fight. There's the Japanese Prospect
that Turkey al Hika is very high on. In the
Folks Are Reat season, hayatos Satsumi, he is taking on
a British opponent a ten rounder that's sort of in
between in the middle of the show. So all those
six fights are on the show. Start time to his
own pay per view twelve forty five pm Eastern Time
on Saturday, main event. You know, do the math. One
thing that's interesting in terms of this pay per view,
while it may be a little earlier than sometimes we
expect because there's only one twelve rounder, the Saudi Prospect
fight is a six rounder. The nick Ball fight, obviously
as a world championship fight, is a twelve rounder. But
the other four bouts are scheduled ten rounders.
Speaker 1: All right, so be prepared what you're saying without saying it.
The main event might might come off as soon as
like five Eastern time, depending on how quick the other
fights are because they don't have that many long fights.
And the Atama White fight again is a schedule ten
round fight, so stay tuned and adjust your time zone accordingly,
and it'll be primetime in the UK. It'll be late
night in Riod for the especial.
Speaker 2: I got to say one other thing about that though,
And while I said we've said we liked the card,
I don't understand the especially now that they've said they're
not going to be doing these on pay perview anymore.
Like when they do that card November twenty second with
Benavetez against you know, when he does the fight in Saudiyraby,
he's going there to do the fight with Anthony Ard
and that loaded show with you know, a bunch of
other good fights, Devin Hainey against Brian Norman, et cetera.
How is this a pay per view? In what world
they're charging fifty dollars in the United States for this
fight TJ the zones in a couple hundred three hundred
thousand homes, you know, or apps or the subscriptions in
the United States, whatever you want to say. I don't
know if this fight card does five thousand buys, not
because it's a bad card, but it hasn't got it.
Speaker 1: The middle of Saturday afternoon it's still summertime, and these
are not household names in the United States.
Speaker 2: They add that all together bad time location. I'm not
saying Saudi Arabia is a bad place, but from from
the point of view of an American view where it's
not conducive. Like you said, not a lot of big names,
none of these main fights on this other than Forward
and Is and the Nova American, but not big name America.
I just don't I don't understand what this should be
part of your dessowne subscription that would give that heft.
Why you pay two hundred and fifty dollars for the year,
so I'm at a loss.
Speaker 1: I agree, And Britain it's.
Speaker 2: A twenty pounds on pay per view at least the
main event is you know, you know a big British.
Speaker 1: Have you wait tould lead? I mean we we agree,
we're in lockstep. What would lead them to believe that
you should charge twice as much to the American audience
when it's earlier in the day. I just that's it's
a broken it's a broken part of the television or
broadcast system. What what pay per view and pay per
view pricing is. I'm going to get into that a
little more here, and just.
Speaker 2: To say this though, but the fact that they've alread
announced they're going to end their pay per view stuff,
I don't know why they're waiting until November. So that
was my perspective on it. The other thing is especially.
Speaker 1: But especially paying double what you're paying in the UK.
Speaker 2: We've always do there.
Speaker 1: This was a nineteen ninety five pay per view, it
might be a little more enticing. Maybe not. Maybe a
lot of the American consumers wouldn't pay four ninety five
for it.
Speaker 2: I don't know, but pricing has been all over the place.
Some of them were twenty, some were thirty, some were forty.
I'm not sure what rises this went to the level
of fifty. Look, I've never had a problem with pay
per view. I think your normal boxing fan and or
sports consumer understands and is not aggravated when the biggest
fights possible are on pay per view. And I know
that it's not on pay perviwhen we're all happy, it's
not when Canelo and Crawford fight. It's on live, regular
subscription Netflix. But if this was the older days and
that was a normal like sixty dollars pay per view
or seventy dollars pay per view or whatever. People be like, yeah,
I get it, and then people would have parties and
it would be a big deal, right ordering their food,
and nobody would be upset.
Speaker 1: About if they have. So I get what you're saying.
They've so oversaturated, they've so overcharged show, they've overcharged, They've oversaturated.
It's stupid, all right, So that's going to segue us
into the news. All right, So, speaking of the Canelo
Crawford fight and the main event, the undercard has now
been officially announced. Let's cover that and then we'll get
into the new deal that Paramount has done for UFC
and how allegedly they are now saying the Ultimate Fighting
Championships they're not going to have pay per views anymore.
Stay tuned, though, We're going to debate that and discuss
that a couple of moments. But Canello Crawford undercard, since
you brought that up, they have announced the two primary
fights beneath it go ahead.
Speaker 2: Well that the non primary fight, and that's is predicated
on what happens tomorrow on Saturday. If the Saudi prospect
Muhammad Alaca wins, supposedly he's going to be on this
undercard in another fight you know, a month after his
fight that will take place this weekend. But the two
main fights that would be of interest you have the
co feature, which is the prospect in the germiddweight division,
undefeated Kallum Wallsh So we've talked about we had on
the podcast one time. Who is primarily had all of
his fights for the last since you got to be
at least a seven or eight of his fights have
been on UFC Fight Pass. He's promoted by Tom Loffler.
Dana White from UFC and now ZUFA Boxing is a
big Calum Walsh fan. He's got a friendship with Tom
Loffler and so is. I expected this when they first
announced that Dana would be promoting this event, I knew
right off the bat. I said, guarantee, unless there's an injury,
you'll see Callum Walsh on this card. I didn't necessarily
think he'd be in the co future, but at least
they've made a reasonable match for him. They've matched him
up with Fernando Vargas Junior, who is the older brother
of Emiliano Vargas and their other brother that also fights.
So he's the oldest of the three fighting Vargas brothers,
so he's in an opportunity. They're both undefeated. Callumus fourteen
and oh, Fernando Junior is seventeen and oh, and I
mean to me, that's an interesting match. I'm not sure
it's co future worthy, but obviously Callum's Callum Walsh has
the connections. But Fernando Vargas he's a little older. He's
twenty eight years old in a southpaw. Callum is quite
a bit younger, not his experience, He's only twenty four
years old, also a southpaw, so they're not going to
be having the heads clanking together like often happens. So
that's the co feature. And then the other fight they
made this is actually I think this is dynamite matchmaking.
Not huge name recknish, but I think this is a
pretty damn good fight. Christian Manbilly who hopes to be
a future Canelo Alvarez opponent. He is going to defend
the WBC Interim Super Middlewhite title against Lester Martinez, who
was undefeated, who is a very entertaining fighter who's been
on a lot of the recent A lot of his
recent fights have been on pro box cards. He's with
Probox and so this is that next fight down the show,
and I think this is going to be a good
action fight. These guys are both guys that come to fight,
both guys that can knock you out. Lester Martinez had
a little bit of some issues. He had to pull
out of a recent fight because of my grains. He's
had some other injury issues that have caused him to
be out of other fights. But he is coming off
a fight in March where he looked good corn a knockout,
and we all know what Mobilly's doing.
Speaker 1: He's we're high on Mobilly and this is a big
opportunity for him because there's some speculation that he could
be a guy if if if Canelo is fighting in
Saudi Arabia next year, he could.
Speaker 2: Not not even if he's fighting wherever he's fighting. But
the main thing though is Mabilly. You know he two
fights go, he got, he went the distance and he
just beat up on Sergei devron Chenko uh in his
most recent fight, he was very impressed when he knocked
out Celeski in the first round. Celeski only even stopped
one time by Diego Pacheco. A little bit further in
the fight and was stopped, uh for the first time
in that doubt, and he just walked right through him.
And uh so this is all right again, this is
going to have a lot of eyeballs on it too.
So I think what they were trying to do is
let's make a somewhat meaningful fight. Let's have it so
it means something. You know, if the guy that's the
winner is in the same weight class as our main
event with Crawford and Canelo, and by the way, uh,
based on the way Mobilly fights and the way Lesser
Martinez fights in the ring, it should go be an
interesting fight. And obviously it got this spot because if
you go and you look at the various comments at Turkey,
Alshka has made, you know, he mentioned this fight specifically,
and he mentioned Christian Mobiliy is a guy he wanted
to have on the card. So there's a lot riding
on a good performance by both of these guys.
Speaker 1: All right. So again that is for September and the
Canelo Crawford fight card on Netflix are a paramount plus
in the news this week as they have landed the
Ultimate Fighting UFC, ripping it away from ESPN and doing
so with a do not chuckle at this seven point
seven billion dollar deal. To put that in context, that
is ridiculously more money than the rights fee for the
World Series and Baseball on Fox right now. It is
ridiculously more money, lower rated than the Stanley Cup Playoffs
get from all of their broadcast partners. Ultimate Fighting has
cashed in Kids In and this deal with Skydant Slash Paramount.
Speaker 2: I want to put this in perspective. They're getting. It's
a seven year deal for seven point seven billions. So
the average I don't know if it's going to be
exactly the same rights every year. It's going to fluctuate,
but the average value is one point one billion perio.
I can do basic math. So that's for all UFC content,
the whole thing. The numbered events, which are the pay
per views, which they say are not going to be
on pay per view anymore, they'll also be on Paramount Plus,
They'll they'll simulcast them on CBS. DAINA White did leave
a little caveat and for in a certain instance of
a quote unquote special event, they still might do a
pay per view, which, by the way, I think that's fine,
but by and large it's not going to be the
monthly pay per views anymore. And there are other you know,
they're fight night shows, their shoulder programs, their you know,
contender series, all that business, everything on Paramount Plus and
you know cast on CBS. But but I want to
put in perspective as we're a boxing show, not a
UFC show, But to just explain what's so massive about this.
First of all, I think the seven point seven billion
is more than Paramount was bought for when they were
purchased in the first place, or I sky Da. Yeah,
so that's one thing. But but put it in context
to boxing. When Top Ranks Top Rank ESPN deal was
going on, they were getting from ESPN annually around eighty
to ninety million dollars a year. They're getting one point
one billion dollars per year. You could do ten years
of top rank contsting for not a year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, basically not equal to one year on this deal.
Speaker 2: And I mean, look, i mean I'm a I'm a
boxing guy, so and I'm not here to insult the
UFC by any stretch of the imagination. But I'm just
making the point though that it's not like the numbers
were being generated by the pay per views that USC
was doing with ESPN or their rocket shows were ten
x of what Top Rank was doing, but they were
their rights went for ten compared to what Top Rank was. Yeah,
so so to me, Top Break is like a bargain.
Speaker 1: Right now, we corect and let's let's see what they
end up doing. But to that point and then we're
going to move it to boxing here with the same
thing with Dana White and Zepha boxing like you're talking about.
But it's interesting when you're talking about how much you're
willing to pay for example, crossover sports. NBC, all right
is paying six billion with a B dollars in the
new NBA deal and they didn't get everything. They didn't
even get the NBA Finals, they got the All Star Game,
they got playoff games, they got whatever, and the ratings
don't really demonstrate they should be NBC paying that much,
But it is what are you willing to pay because
you want the content, and Paramount obviously is willing to
pay this with UFC and with Dana Whites' organization because
they want the content and plus they're keeping it away
from their competitors.
Speaker 2: Well, here's here's your thing about it. The longer they
lock them in. For if you were a Paramount plus
two things, or any streaming service for that matter, a
you have you know what your budget is, like the
cost is locked in. You know here in twenty twenty
five that in two thousand and thirty one, what's your
cost for this asset is going to be number one
and number two. What is very important for any streaming
service is the folks that are the fan of whatever
it is. It's a widget, if it's a boxing show,
if it's a UFC show, if it's a movie, a series,
a documentary series, whatever the case may be. You want
people to know they're going to have that content. So
if you lock in a product like UFC, you know
that every single month you're going to have something and
theoretically something pretty big for your viewers, and it's going
to mean less reason to cancel. It's the same exact
concept when pay cable became a thing and HBO and
Showtime were doing boxing. It was Okay, we have this
fight on a Saturday night, and they would promote the
next fight on Saturday night and they're like, oh, that's
a good fight. So nobody was going to cancel because
I knew that you know three or four later they're getting
another significant fight. And so if you're streaming service, Paramount
Plus or anybody else, you know that for the period
of seven years, you can count on the fact that
those fans are gonna be with you because there's not
going to be necessarily a reason to cancel, and they're
gonna have that money coming in, and they're going to
know their costs are already built in. They know when
they do their budget, like I said, it's five, six,
seven years from now what this product costs. And by
the way, it's not out of the realm of possibility
that some huge star could be created and could make
that actually worthwhile in the long run. Right now, and
I'm no expert on this, but I've been reading a
lot of the takes on it and watching and listening.
Most people think they dramatically overvalued it because ESPN was
paying them, you know, probably around I think around eight
hundred million a year or something like that. That's a
pretty substantial raise over the course of a long period.
Speaker 1: And one other thing, this is another thing that I know,
you know, and you better get ready for it. Your
Paramount Plus subscription is about to go up significantly. Stay
tuned because it is an arms race right now for
all of these streamers, and they're all going to start
charging more money.
Speaker 2: I mean, you would so funny, J because everybody wanted like,
let's break, let's be able to do our ala card
cable channels. Well, now you end up with all these
ala car at streaming services, and you're probably paying more
than if you had a cable run.
Speaker 1: And in this case, the the notion I keep saying
this on other interviews and other stuff, the notion that
it's not pay perview. Yeah, it is pay perview because
you're having to pay for that service and the money
is coming up. Now. It's not in the individual event
pay perview business, but you are paying to watch this.
You're paying significantly to watch this. And unless you're going
back to the tinfoil digital land, I.
Speaker 2: Mean no, I don't know when, when or if for
how much you're going to raise the price, but paramount
is pretty reasonably.
Speaker 1: Currently thirteen ninety nine a month, depending on if you
were locked in for like a year or whatever. But
you can also monthly. I don't know what the monthly
sign up is.
Speaker 2: I think I was listening to Mark Shapiro who was
the CEO or COO or some high executive with TKO
that made this deal with paramout, saying that for the
ad supported version of Paramount, you can get a monthly
subscription for like eight dollars. And by the way, it's
you're not necessarily just buying it for UFC.
Speaker 1: Now some people just all programming.
Speaker 2: It's always you get out of the other stuff on it,
whether it's don't know, fucking Star Trek or I can.
Speaker 1: I can assure you it's going to be like nineteen
ninety five by January.
Speaker 2: Stay tuned, so you're probably right rates win the zone started,
it was ten dollars a month, that's.
Speaker 1: Right, And now what is it? What is it now
up to? If you're trying to buy them monthly, it's
like twenty five, right.
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's twenty five and it's twenty,
but the point is it's it's increased multiple times over
the last couple of years, quite dramatically in terms of percentage,
And uh, that's just the way it is. I mean,
but I don't look at it as pay per view
because I buy ESPN Plus. I obviously had it primarily
for boxing, but I watched basketball and Baseball, and you
know NFL Primetime and you know all kinds of other
program the same way if you subscribed to HBO, did
I buy it for boxing? Yeah of course. But did
I watch comedy shows or curb your enthusiasm or you know,
pick a show at documentary, Yeah of course I did.
So you're just paying for that service and you get
all the things, even though you don't necessarily want to
have anything else understood.
Speaker 1: All right, So, now as you made mention of, they
are also the front runner. Apparently what a surprise for
Paramount Plus to be with Dana White's new endeavor here
the Zufa boxing which also involves Turkey al chic that
this would potentially be the outlet fun Office Sports is
reporting that. Of course you dig also and look into things,
so what do we know and how soon might they
have a regular boxing series also on Paramount Plus.
Speaker 2: If you go back to March when the deal between
TKO and the Saudi's and Sella was announced, and it's
in Mark Shapiro, who has been on a lot of
the financial shows and in interviews, and it was on
an earnings call about a week or so ago talking
about all stuff. The way that their deal is structured
according to what everybody has said was in their press release,
is that the Saudis are paying TKO ten million dollars
to be basically the managing organization to handle all the
boxing stuff, just to manage the day to day operations
and to promote the events. And they're not at any
particular TKO anyway, It's not at any particular financial risk,
and if it turns out to be a big hit
and they generate money once it gets to a certain level,
they'll obviously be cut in for a percentage of that
whatever the profits are. So for them, it's a great
opportunity to see what they can do in boxing and
not have to gamble their own assets or money in
terms of trying to build it up. But as soon
as the thing was announced, we all speculated that they
would certainly be the promoter of Terrence Crawford against Kennelabers.
That is the case, this will be their first event,
but that the full blast series of regular shows was
not going to begin until sometime in twenty twenty six.
That is still the plan. They are definitely out there
trying to sign fighters right now. There's been a lot
of discuss within the business about them looking for talent,
whether it's unsigned fighters who are established, or some prospects,
or perhaps some of the top amateurs that are looking
to turn professional, and they're going to try to build
them up and do their thing. You know, there's been
their movement to try to change the ALI Act in
a manner that would allow them to have their own titles,
which is currently against federal law. So there's a lot
of stuff happening in that respect. So they're going to
have their dry run, if you will, with this event
with Canelo and Crawford, but the real stuff won't start
in terms of their regularity until next year. Even though
those early shows certainly well come, we'll be they'll pale
in comparison to the magnitude of what we're having with
Canelo against Crawford. But if they whatever they do, and
Dana White said this to me when I interviewed them,
it was on our podcast back when they were announcing
the deal, is we will structure the number of events
that we do, how often we run that type of
thing around the needs of our broadcast partner. So if
paramount plus, which is what Front Office Sports reported, was
the quote unquote front runner to get a deal with them.
If they want a monthly show, then presumably ZUFA Boxing
will provide them with a monthly show. If they want fewer,
they'll get fewer. If they want more, they'll get more.
But that is uh, that is apparently what's gonna happen now.
It doesn't mean there couldn't be a change up at
the end and they go somewhere else. But what it
tells you is that Paramount and Now is going to
have UFC. They're gonna have ZUFA, which they're not established
yet because they don't have any fighters there, at least
nobody that's name fighters, but the people that are involved
in running it, whether it's Turkey Alschik, or it's the
Dana White or Nick con who was also involved, who
was the president of WWE. Like all the all the
combat dominoes are falling, ZUFA is about to sign a
deal probably with Paramount. Paramount just did the deal with UFC.
ESPN just did the deal with ww but only for
their what they call the premium lot of events, which
we used to know is the pay per views. They
paid you know what, one point six billion, right, and
only for those events, not even for like Raw and SmackDown.
So the money is getting eaten up and going in
different places. So now the question is where the hell's
Top rank gonna wind up. That's right, when the dust settles,
I'm pretty sure they're gonna have something better. Know what
they can go and say, Look, they sign UFC for
seven years for almost you know what, seven point seven billion,
we're a cheap compared to that, and they can still
make you know, pretty good money. And listen and all
the people that want to rag about them. I don't,
I don't, I don't buy it. Top rank still has
a superb stable of fighters, they've got a quality number
of champions, they've got excellent matchmaking, they've got top prospects
in all various weight classes, and they know what they're doing.
So to me, right now, based on what the market
is bearing, Top rank I believe is a bargain for
somebody out there.
Speaker 1: Of course, yeah, financially, it obviously is, and I again repeat,
it would surprise me. I would be shocked if they
don't have something by October that they're announcing and talking about,
because they have known since earlier this year the ESPN
deal is over.
Speaker 2: So you got to get somebody to offer, you got
to get.
Speaker 1: A dance partner, one other thing. And we don't have
to go for ten more minutes on this because we
got two or three other things that are coming. The
whole notion of amending the Muhammad Ali Act is a bad,
bad thing for boxers and for fighters. They are making
so much more on the pay me what I'm worth,
and speaking of the market will bear versus being under
an umbrella and a thumb that says, if you're with us,
we're the promoter, We're in charge of your fights, We're
in charge of your career. You make what we tell
you you're making. That's and the whole reason that you
want the open and free market. And this is the
reason why Dana White's UFC fighters were all running to
fight Jake Paul and fight Anthony Joshua or Tyson Fury
or whoever, because they're making six, eight, ten times what
they were making in UFC.
Speaker 2: There's two weeks for layman who just want to put
on the TV or the stream or the screen and
watch whatever they want to watch. They don't care what
the fighters are making. They just want to be entertained.
And so from the if you're a fan, I wouldn't
really sweat it, but it is. It is problematic in
many respects because you want people to be paid fairly.
I look at it like this. I'm not against promoters
making money. I've always advocated promoters should make a ton
of money, but they should make more money than the fighters.
So it's not about who's making money who's not making money.
It's what is the equitable distribution of the dramatic amounts
of money that are available. That's the way I look
at it. And because there is no union among fighters
the way there is in the NFL or the NBA
or Major League Baseball or even you know, individual sports,
so they have some type of you know, collective ability
to do at least rules, if not contracts, every man
for themselves.
Speaker 1: And that's but this was to help curtail that and
get some regulation. This was put in place primarily, I'm
gonna say today, because Don King lorded over all the fighters,
all the fights with long term contracts. You had to
use his management, you had to agree to his matchmaking,
you had to fight when he said for what he said.
That's a big reason why he was a big reason.
Speaker 2: Why it was a fight for the money. They are
allowed to negotiate and you didn't have to go with
his management. That's not true. It usually it worked out
that way, but that was true.
Speaker 1: Most of the time in the eighties. He controlled the
most prominent fighters, the biggest fights in Moss And that's
the impetus for why this was put in.
Speaker 2: We can disagree with that.
Speaker 1: We don't have to disagree on that. I'm telling you
what the truth is. The reason it was put in
was that the promoter cannot be in management. Not only
would just one of the fighters, but both of the fighters.
That's why it was put in, because it's not good
for the free market and for the fighters. That that is.
Speaker 2: In the nineteen eighties, top rank was every bit as
big as Don King, as was main Events number one.
But the real deal there was the Mom and Aliact
didn't happen until I believe till like around the nineties.
I don't think it was actually put into effect until
about two thousand. In two thousand and one, because I
can still remember Bernard Hopkins going and by the way
he talked, we took the fighters. If the fighters feel
they're being screwed, it's in some manner their own fault,
because the only boxer that actually went and testified in
front of the Congress at the hearings that were overseen
by the late John McCain, a big boxing supporter, was
Bernard Hopkins. And I've told the story and it's very simple.
He fought a fight on HBO. He found out that
are against Roy Jones in their first fight, and when
was that nineteen ninety eight something like that, whenever the
heck it was nineteen ninety seven, whenever the year it was.
He found out after the fact that HBO had paid
his promoter, Butch Lewis, six hundred thousand dollars for their
side of the equation. And butch Lewis made a deal
and paid Bernard Hopkins sixty thousand dollars. He got ten
percent of the money and flipped out. And that is
egregious and that is not right. What the real number
should be. I can't say exactly, but I can damn
well say, if your promoter's getting six hundred thousand and
you don't owe him a ton of money, you getting
sixty grand is absolutely criminal.
Speaker 1: Correct, So notifying them of what the actual purse is,
and that's that's an important part. All right, So we
covered we covered that, and we will stay tuned on
what comes of the ALI Act and this Zuffa boxing thing.
I mean, there is there is no question they are
trying to get it amended and changed at the legislative level.
There's lobbying going on that's out there. So stay tuned,
stay tuned on that. All right, More news here. The
Gervante Davis latest arrest you like how I put that.
Rayphiel has has resulted now in the charges earlier this
week once again being dropped according to the Miami Dade
County Court. This is the mother of his children, who
I believe has had one previous domestic incident with him.
Speaker 2: She is not one I remember. Actually I've reported about
these incidents and I'm not and I've written it is
unclear if the woman that made the accusation in this
particular case that stems to an incident on Father's Day
is the same woman that had happened with the previous
time where there was the nine to one one call
where she was yelling, He's going to kill me. It's
not clear if it's the same woman. He does have.
I believe three children, might be two with the one woman,
one with the other whatever it okay, regardless of who
it is, the woman involved with this particular incident has
now dropped the case or refuses to prosecute or isn't
going to testify, And if that happens, there's no way
to go forward. So I was there, I know enough
about it. They didn't see the activity that was happening.
It was you know, if they if there, if the
if the officer had witnessed it, then there's another correct
another matter.
Speaker 1: And here's another thing in Florida and a lot of
states have this now where if there is evidence, if
there's eyewitnesses like what you're talking about, they will proceed
without the accuser of the alleged victims cooperation if they
believe they have a case. Obviously, in this situation, they
don't believe that they can improve it. They don't have
a witness, they don't have the evidence, and without her cooperation.
It's so my question still remains out there on what
what is his status just for the arrest in Maryland
while he's on probation. I've never seen anything about that,
and I actually looked when all this came up. Yeah,
I mean, is there anything about that with with him.
Speaker 2: Being on if there's no there now there's no case,
right so he's there's nothing on his record. He's not
going to be punished for any reason really to this.
So I don't think the court in Maryland has anything
to talk about because he's not in any trouble right now.
Uh they you know, it took a couple of weeks
to figure it out. But whether you believe nothing happened
or whatever, she dropped the case. She's not prosecuting, so
there's no case. So I guess the probation in Maryland
from the hit and run accident stands, and he just
goes forward and continues to be on probation. And now
the question becomes what becomes of with boxing because we
all know that even before this case came up, there
was a lot of questions about whether that roach rematch,
will not roach rematch? What happen? They had its schedule
at one point, although not announced for June, then it
got delayed until August sixteenth. Clearly that's not happening, and
so now and then there's been a lot of conversations
since that that that's not gonna happen at all in
terms of the Road rematch, if I'm Tank Davis and
I'm now free and clear to resume my career, and
there's been a lot of conversation like, oh, maybe he's
gonna retire because he's tired of it. You know, I'm
going to go on the the normal thing that guys
talk about retirement. But when you're an undefeated fighter still
able to make millions of dollars a couple times a year,
you're probably not retiring. You're still really good at what
you do. There are still opponents out there for you
to fight. You know, you do enjoy the spotlight to
some degree and certainly the money. That my assumption is
that whatever he says here and there, Tank Davis is
not retiring at this point, just quite yet. And he's
only thirty years old, hasn't taken a tremendous amount of
punishment by any stretch anyway, If he's not going to
do the road rematch, which I wish that he would,
because you know, he needs to kind of clean up
that mess. To me, the biggest fight out there for
me is to go and do December against Manny pac Yah.
That's the fight that will make a huguge amount of money.
Huge amount of attention. Everybody will watch that fight. That's
a fight that absolutely could be a pay per view
in a moment in time in boxing where pay per
view is not a thing for the most part anymore.
With what's happening with Canelo Crawford, what's supposed to happen
on his own post this weekend's fight with a Tama
and Dylan White. But that's still a fight that could
generate substantial amount of viewership and a lot of money.
Speaker 1: Oh, there's no doubt. And there's a weight disparity too,
so they'd have to figure that out, but it's not
I don't.
Speaker 2: Think it's that big of a disparity. I see. The
reason why is because number one, Manny Packyow was a
small walter rate and has always maintained for you know
years wait before he retired for four years one hundred
percent could make a lower weight than one forty seven
if he wanted to. And in terms of Tank Davis,
he does have a fight against Mario Barrios, who was
the previous pack the opponent, and he knocked him out
at one forty And there's zero reason why for that
level of the magnitude of a fight against an old
man like Manny Packet. Although he did look good coming
back against Barrios in a draw that I felt like
he'd certainly was the winner of. There's zero reason why
they couldn't come up with something and have that fight
one hundred forty two, one hundred and forty three hundred
and forty four whatever and make that match.
Speaker 1: All right, stay tuned on Jervonte Davis and what might
or might not be next. Oh my goodness, this is
on my rundown, all right, Jeron boots Ennis.
Speaker 2: Oh, I thought so before you go, before you get there,
when you when you made that sound, I thought you
were looking at my last item.
Speaker 1: Oh, I know what the last item is. But on
this item with boots Nis, he has given up to
the unified two belt welterweight titles to move up to
junior middleweight. We presumed, but then again, it's boxing. We
presumed that this was to fight a significant fight at
one hundred and fifty four pounds. Raphael, what is this
that we're getting instead of that for October? And I'm
just gonna I'm just gonna put it out there. This
guy's been talking out of all sides of his mouth
and now he's moving up to one fifty four and
who is this against? What is this?
Speaker 2: This is is what it is. And I say that
his opponent for this fight, it's gonna be October eleventh.
Match from Boxing announced that there were some other fights
that were announced. He's going back to the Wells Fargo
Center in his hometown of Philadelphia, where he has fought
two previous times against increasingly lesser opponents David Evanessian, followed
by the Karen Chakazi in rematch, and now he's fighting
the one and only Uzma Alima, who, for those who care,
is the IBO champ of the world. Whatever. He's fourteen
and one, and I say this, and it's not a
This has nothing to do with Lima. He may turn
out to be a great fighter for all I know,
but he hasn't done it yet and no one knows
who he is, so there's not going to be a
lot of tremendous public interests. He doesn't bring anything to
the table in terms of a story for why the
fight's happening. This is supposed to be a so called
tune up fight or whatever. I feel like John Ennis's
entire career has been a tune up fight other than
the Stanionas fight, and that's borderline. They made this a
WBA eliminator, which just is another mark on why the
w is ridiculous. And so they're gonna do the fight. Now.
The WBA can do whatever they want, but the terms
of the match making for Ennis one hundred and fifty
four is a tremendous division. And so you hear him
talk about this guy didn't want to fight, or this
guy was obligated to some other botter, or this guy
was scheduled for somebody else. You know what, Go find
somebody that the public might have heard of. And the
funny thing is supposedly he was saying this on some interviews.
They supposedly made an offer to Ramos, presumably that would
be Jesus Ramos Jinger and that's a good fight. That's
a guy that's a bona fide contender, really good fighter
in the weight division. It turned out that the message
and then go to Jaesus Ramos, It went to the
man's uncle, Abbo Ramos, who's a fucking wealtherweight. So they're
not looking to fight real guys right now. He wants
his tune ups. And I made the point elsewhere, if
you're fighting twice a year, there's no such thing as
tune ups. That means your entire fucking career as a
tune up. Right, If you're gonna fight five times a
year or four times a year, and you want to
slide this kind of fight in, by all means, do it,
but your time is precious. I said, it's twenty eight
years old, I coming off his biggest win. What are
we doing here?
Speaker 1: What are we doing here? I said it in the
lead in. He has been talking out of all sides
of his mouth for a year that the reason he
wasn't going to have the Ortiz fight was because how
important it was to have unified, if not undisputed welterweight belts.
And then he promptly fights a garbage fight that the
IBF makes him fight against the guy he's already beaten.
He fights Stanionis and gets the unified belt, and the
first chance he gets now to move back up, he's
moving back up. So you can't. You can't have all sides,
you can't have all lanes in the argument, he could
have been fighting Brian Norman this fall in October for
a three belt welter White fight that we would all
care about Big Dan. We would care about that fight
much more than this.
Speaker 2: He basically announced his intentions to go to fifty four,
like I think it was basically on the day before
or the day after Brian Norman won the fight in Japan,
and Norman came out smelling like a row because he
looked great in the Japanese And he's now taken on
Devin Haney, who.
Speaker 1: And Norman and Norman by and Norman, by the way,
is gonna end up fighting Devin Haney and that's gonna
be an interesting, intriguing fight that we're gonna care about.
This fight no one cares about relatively.
Speaker 2: So the thing is, if they they're still supposedly going
to try to make the Virgil Artist fight for early
next year, I say, if that was the case, you
got to announce the Lima fight and say we have
a deal. If if our guy wins, and if Virgil,
who's gonna fight in October or November, if he wins,
they're gonna fight each other. Now, Virgil is a different
story because they were trying to make a match between
him and Keith Thurman, and they were all very far
along down the road. It was going to be a
unified broadcast on Prime Video as well as on his
own because obviously one guy's with PBC, one guys with
Golden Boys that they are on different platforms, but they
were willing to work together, and they kept stringing Virgil
along and then finally it's not signed or done yet.
Now it's gonna be Keith Thurman is gonna take the opportunity,
probably make more money. He's in a challenge against Fondora
for his WBC title, which is fine. I got a
problem with that fight. They'll make out a pay per
view for PBC, but Virgil is kind of left out
in the cold because n it's never at any I
never had even the notion to fight him in the
first fight at one fifty four, and I don't even
think anybody begrudges him taking a fight at one fifty four.
But there's a happy meeting between fighting a Fondora or
a Virgil Artis or somebody of that caliber in your
first fight in the way class. Somewhere in between, there's
a better matchup than than Lima. I mean, give me
a fucking break.
Speaker 1: And that is in October, and then we wrap with
this which is the increasing chatter. Shall I use that
word on a Thursday night into Friday.
Speaker 2: On the planet even chatter, it's the promoter.
Speaker 1: The promoter's been chattering about this. Jake Paul was chattering
about this because he was over in England for the
USIK title defense against Daniel Dubois, that Jake Paul wants
to fight Anthony Joshua. Now, as I joked earlier, I
was there at the Honda Center in late June in Anaheim, California,
and Jake Paul's list of who he wants to fight
was longer than Santa's list. He included Santa Claus and
the Easter Bunny and Aaron Judge and Patrick Mahomes and
a few other fighter fighters. But now the chatter is
continuing that it would potentially be Anthony Joshua for an
upcoming opponent. You want me to say it to lead off,
but I think you want to say it. What are
we doing here? Is this legit? Is this legit in
your mind?
Speaker 2: I think it is because in boxing you only have
to always think about one thing, money and you can
hate the fight. I mean, it's not like like when
we rip on Ennis against Lima it's not even like
a money fight. It's just they have a budget from
the z own. He's gonna make the fight whatever. But
a fight between Joshua and Jake Paul, now you're talking
worldwide event, I mean farcical perhaps, but to Ching Chi
Ching Chi ching, to cha course, I mean it's gonna
cross over. Joshua was one of the biggest superstars in boxing.
Whatever you think of his recent performance and getting destroyed
by Daniel Dubois, Jake call is a whole different level. Also,
you know, this is a guy that's you know, did
sixty seventy million viewers on Netflix with Mike Tyson. Obviously
Tyson was a huge part of that, but he's got
such a huge fan base all around the world. You know,
younger people, boxing fans who tune in because they want
to watch him lose whatever it is. People gravitate toward
his events, and same with Anthony Joshua. So, you know,
he's a much smaller guy, both in terms of his
height and weight. Obviously, you know, he fought over two
hundred pounds against Tyson, but he's primarily been one ninety something.
Speaker 1: He caught it like to twenty right against Tyson, and
then he had to get all the way back down
around one ninety for this fite, which the point.
Speaker 2: Is even at two twenty against Tyson Joshua regularly and
in shape. Joshua is always in great shape, two hundred
and fifty plus pounds, some much bigger guy. And also,
by the way, Anthony Joshua is like six foot six.
So even even if you view Anthony Joshua as a
diminished fighter, which is fair, I mean, he's been on
the downside for a little while. He looked obviously tremendous,
but he wiped out Francis Naganu, who is not a boxer,
took him all of you know, two and a half
minutes and one gigantic punch put him out. And now
after that he gets wiped out by Dua in a
spectacular knockout loss. So a lot of people think Joshua
has done But I would submit to you that even
Anthony Joshua in the diminished state, coming off a knockout
loss against Danga Dua, you know.
Speaker 1: Much more experienced, much more skilled, much waigger, bigger.
Speaker 2: All right, he knocks out Jake Paul. When he decides
to knock.
Speaker 1: Out Joe Okay, so I'm this is obvious. All right. Uh,
this has been going on now for about five years.
He Jake Paul, he has made tremendous money. We've talked
about it frequently. You've interviewed him, I've been to the fights.
I've been to three of his fights. Now. As a
matter of fact, there's always an in game. The in
game was not. Maybe you could make the argument the
end game was the Tyson fight. Cash in on that fight.
He made mega, mega money on that fight. Is this
the in game fight here? Because if any Joshua, here's why. No,
I'm just saying, if Joshua does what you and I
and most believe is going to happen, I think that
completely just ruins whatever's left of the charade that he's
actually in this for the fighting, the boxing, and to
win world titles. So is this the end game? Is
this to make thirty forty fifty million dollars and probably
get freight trained in the fight, And this is the
end game?
Speaker 2: That's what The reason the reason why I say, the
reason why I say it's not is because you could
look at the if the result is what we think
if I mean, if he wins, obviously it's not the
end game, and that would be a huge upset. But
if he gets freight trained, as you suggest, I like
that terminology. You never heard that before. I'm gonna have
to use that. He gets freight trained. I like that
he gets. If he gets freight trained, people will look
and say, look, you know what, he took the opportunity.
He's still an inexperienced novices type fighter. He's never fought
anybody like a Joshua, even a diminished Joshua. You know,
we're not you know, this is still a guy on
a thousand times better at this state of their career
than a twenty years in retirement Mike Tyson or Julio
Sazar chav Is forty pounds over his best weight inactive
you know, all kinds of outside the rank problems, et cetera,
older even than Joshua is. You know, this would be
against a you know, whatever you think about the state
of Anthony Joshua. He's a real guy. He's a former
two time unified heavyweight champion. And yeah he got knocked out,
he got freight trained in his last fight, but he's
he's done well for himself. This is a totally different bulgame.
So if Joshua were to fight Paul and Jake were
to get destroyed by him, as we would suspect, he
can say, look, I took the chance. I fought a
great fighter, a guy that was a two time heavyweight champ,
a guy that might.
Speaker 1: Be understand what I'm saying. At that point, you can't
really be taken seriously about winning titles and doing it seriously.
But no, No.
Speaker 2: The reason I say no is, first of all, if
he doesn't get destroyed, and even he loses, but he
has a halfway, he's in performance. He'd mean, Look, I
was finding guy tw hundred fifty pounds, I'm really a
cruiserweight and his goal is still to be a cruiserweight
world champion, and he's gonna pocket that.
Speaker 1: I don't think he's not going to fight contenders at
cruiserweight he wants and all all shot.
Speaker 2: But the organizations have already at least one organization's already
put him in the ratings. Jake Paul, for what he
brings financially, he can get a title shot even if
he doesn't fight a contender. And I'm not saying I
agree with that, I'm just being real on what's going
to happen.
Speaker 1: But the way this operates all right, so state but
I mean, I mean with the organizations drop him.
Speaker 2: If he ask yourself, if you're a boxing fan or
even just a sports fan, would you watch it?
Speaker 1: Yes, we would all watch it. There you go, we
would all watch it.
Speaker 2: And I suspect, because of the way that the business
has been running lately, maybe that winds up on a Netflix.
Speaker 1: So what on the Rayfield meter? Is it a five?
Is it a that this could actually happen? What would
you gauge it? In August of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: Joshua Joshua seems open to it. Jake Call is definitely
open to and his team are open to it. They
want to do it. Eddie Hearn, who was the promoter
for Joshua for his entire career, was on mainstream Sky
Sports News talking about it as a real possibility. And
Eddie doesn't usually do that for Joshua's stuff if it's
not real Joshua.
Speaker 1: He talks about Joshua fighting everybody besides Godzilla and who
like you.
Speaker 2: Know, I'm telling you, I've known Eddie a long time
and I sense the difference in the way he was
speaking about this, there was something different in the way
he It's one thing to get asked the question about
theory or this or that and him answer it. It's
a different ballgame when he voluntarily, Hey, what let me
answer the question.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: But one other variable that I forgot to put in
the premise. Joshua's been hurt, He's had elbow surgery, he's
been hurt. What's his availability to in the equation of
what's the likelihood go.
Speaker 2: Well, suppose he's going to be available before the end
of the year. Now that might happen. Maybe they'll put
this off till the early part of next year. But
the point I'm saying is this, you ask, what's the
chances of it happening. I'm not going to give it
a number, but I think it's got a really good
chance because, look, Jake wants it. He wants to make
big events in big money. Anthony Joshua was not a
post to make another guardantru and pay Day. By the way,
in a fight that he should be a humongous favorite
against Jake Paul even though he's coming off a horrendous
knockout loss tod Wa and it's not like he's getting younger.
Joshua is already thirty five years old. There's only two
fights that exist for him that matter right now, putting
us anything with Jake Paul side, and that would be
still the Tyson Fury fight, and to a lesser degree,
I guess there's a lot of people would still be
happy to see him fight Deontay Wilder, which the Wilder
camp would still want. I'm less interested in that, I guess,
but I would still like to see the Tyson Fury fight.
And so when you look around the landscape, he's not
fighting a third fight against It was sick. That's not happening.
I mean, he's already beaten a lot of other good fighters.
Speaker 1: Fighting Fury, which is a massive, massive fight in the UK,
this would be the next biggest.
Speaker 2: Fight, a rematch with Joseph Parker. Yeah, and it would
be big fighting Agi Cabiel, your boy, I mean.
Speaker 1: Have one with you. I like that. It would be
bigger than I'm gonna say. It would be bigger than
the Deontay wilderfight for Anthony Joshua just from the attention,
social media attention, et cetera.
Speaker 2: Because Anthony Joshua against Wilder five years ago would have
been the biggest fight in boxing. But Anthony Joshua against
Dedanty Wilder. Uh and it's not the same Wilder as
is well passed it. Joshua was well pasted it, but
he still got enough to be a guy like Jake
Paul in my mind. All right, it's amazing him. Like
my boy TJ says, I.
Speaker 1: Can't believe you've never heard me. I've used that a
few times. I thought on this pod, you like that,
borrow it as your own. The greatest compliments in our
business is when people steal your stuff. Uh okay. So
we get ready for this read season card. What do
we got with Moses e Tama? How much does Dillion
White present? A challenge? Nick Ball w B a featherweight
title fight on the undercard. We look forward to all
of that happening Saturday. What say you and I reconvene
off the weekend Sunday night and the Monday. Between now
and then, I have to go to Pittsburgh for the
Buccaneers and the Pittsburgh Steelers. My fall job is cranking
up with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers radio broadcast. They played
the Stillers, that's what they call them in Pittsburgh. Not Steel,
but still the Stellers. Did you ever cover a big
time fight in Pittsburgh? While I just throw this out
there as we say goodbye, did you ever have a
big time car that you covered for USA Today or
ESPN in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 2: I've been I've covered many fights in Pennsylvania, but not
in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1: How about that?
Speaker 2: I was ready about Paul spat of four back in
the day when he was lateweight champion, but never covered
a fight of his in Pittsburgh. Covered fight Hiladelphy.
Speaker 1: I just thought of something. I'm doing my Rayfield off
the top of my head. I believe Larry Holmes fought
Ronaldo Snipes in Pittsburgh, or Ronaldo Snipes was from Pittsburgh,
one of the two. And if I'm not mistaken, there
were a couple of prominent like Jersey Joe Walcott heavyweight
title defenses or something in peace.
Speaker 2: The way the Ronaldo Snipes fight between Homes and Snipes
for the WBC title in nineteen eighty one was at
the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1: Now, am I a silvot? Was I looking at anything?
Was I looking?
Speaker 2: He's not? But Ronaldo Snipes is not from Pittsburgh. Did
I say on the PREMI and all those snipes is
born in Houston, and I guess lived in Yonkers, New York.
Speaker 1: Okay, but on the premise I said, either the fight
was in Pittsburgh. I he's from Pittsburgh, and that was
off the top of my head. That was a long
time ago.
Speaker 2: Listen, back in the early days of like, uh, that's
in the early days, but like in nineteen fifties, let's say,
like there was Pittsburgh was a was a place. You know.
Speaker 1: It was not you anymore, not really, but they got
the stillers and they got.
Speaker 2: In the early fifties was when when Jersey Joe Walcott,
who was from Camden, New Jersey, fought Ezra Charles in
Pittsburgh and heavyweight championship fight there. That's the old baseball
stadium play.
Speaker 1: There's a little nostalgia to end the show as well,
I'll head to Pittsburgh. I'll be back and we'll recap
this read card and see what happens with a time.
Speaker 2: And I'm not sure why that was in Pittsburgh either,
because Zra Charles was from Cincinnati, and as I mentioned,
you had Walcott from Camden Pole where.
Speaker 1: The month is and the promoters are right go where
the monkeys? All right, let's uh, let's reconvene off of
this card. In read the read season card with a
Tama in the main event, Dan have a good weekend.
They duel him on the substack and the newsletter. We
look forward to everything that's going to happen here be
with us on the Big Fight Weekend podcast feed. Go
find the YouTube channel as well, subscribe and like us,
there are plenty of more content coming there. Go watch
Moses Atama with Dan on that channel. Go watch Terrence
Quawford with Dan on that channel as well in one
on one interviews. For now, we are good on the
Big Fight Weekend preview pot. Bye