Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time.
Speaker 2: This is Big Fight Weekend. Now here is your host,
DJ leaves.
Speaker 3: Well, we get ready for an interesting weekend nearing the
end of November. In that it is a preview pod,
but we don't have a whole lot to preview.
Speaker 2: We'll get into that. Rest assured.
Speaker 3: We got plenty of news, we got plenty of nostalgia,
we got plenty of reason to be here on the
Big Fight Weekend, a preview podcast. I am the somewhat
competent host, TJ Reeves, our insider Dan Raphael, Fight Freaks
You Night, the substack, the newsletter is back aboard. I
think we have sufficiently recovered from all the Jake Paul
Mike Tyson stuff, the Latino Night in Saudi Arabia for
Oscar de la Hoya's Golden Boy promotions. Now we kind
of cruise into this weekend and then into Thanksgiving coming up.
Big Dan, how you feeling here as we rock along
in November.
Speaker 1: I'm good and I'm actually uh, I gotta be honest,
I'm not that disappointed that for the first time in a while,
there's like literally nothing this weekend. Because every now and again,
especially after last week with the back to back shows.
I was super busy with the Latino Night as well
as the Tyson Jake Cole event. I'm good to have
a Saturday where there's nothing going on.
Speaker 3: It's nice and by the way, we want to be
here for you folks. So we are here even though
it's the preview pot and there is some things. There
are some things, but look, but look, we're just saying
this up front headed into the weekend.
Speaker 2: We're good you and I.
Speaker 3: But it's tough to do a recap podcast when there's
not a whole lot other than what is it, Harlan
u Bank's main event and maybe some club fight with
Brandon Adams in Atlanta. There's not a lot there. But yeah,
we'll have good stuff for Sunday, it just won't be
the traditional recap podcast.
Speaker 2: Stand By.
Speaker 3: We'll tell you at the end of the show what
we're gonna do for Sunday, and you're gonna like it.
And we don't just mean your parents taking medicine.
Speaker 2: You're gonna like it. You're gonna actually like this.
Speaker 3: You're gonna You're going to find our creativity and the
insight to be good.
Speaker 2: Okay. So Radus review.
Speaker 3: Us follow subscribe if you've been joining the enjoying all
the content on the feed by Tyson on the Feed
with Dan as well as Chris Bill of Smith recently
on and on down the list, follow subscribe because you
never know.
Speaker 2: These podcasts sometimes pop up.
Speaker 3: During the midweek Radus review us that helps Apple spreakers Spotify.
Speaker 2: We're all good on that front.
Speaker 3: So again, with the understanding there's not going to be
a bet us show either by the way that we
normally do Fridays at one Eastern time for this same
reason that there's not a big time fight card, let's
move on to the news that we have and short
of Dan Rayfield, I think almost everybody else in the
boxing profession save Oscar de la Hoya and I don't
know who else. Roy Jones didn't call him out after
the fights. Everybody wants a piece of Jake Paul and
wants a piece of the payday, wants a piece of
the golden ticket.
Speaker 2: Right about now, what are we up to? Like? Sixteen guys, I'm.
Speaker 1: Yeah, find it absolutely hilarious.
Speaker 3: Carl Froch, who Arthur Better, b F Daniel Dubois, Rocky Balboa?
Who else are way up to here? That wants Jake
Paul in the possible page listen.
Speaker 1: Jake is a novice boxer still and just because he
beat a nearly sixty year old Mike Tyson in a
mega event which by the way, officially now MVP and
has announced their at gate was eighteen point one million dollars,
which was already that's a little higher than they had
originally said, which they had originally said it was like
seventeen and changed, but eighteen point one million dollars in
ticket sales makes it the largest gate in the United
States history for a boxing event that didn't take place
in Las Vegas. That is remarkable. And when you think
about big time fights, it took place outside of Las Vegas.
Think about a mega fight a Vander Holyfield Lennox Lewis
won at Madison Square Garden in what nineteen ninety eight
for the undisputed heavyweight title. That was the draw, That
was the nonsense draw. That fight was as big as
a guest Gay was like thirteen point four million dollars. Now,
granted that's a number of years ago in flash and
I didn't do the figuring, but eighteen million plus for
a nearly a sixty year old long shot faded. Mike
Tyson still an icon, but nonetheless not necessarily in terms
of his skill level, and Jake Paul still what would
be considered like a prospect type fighter at this point
in terms of the ability that he has shown in
the fighters he had fought. But it just goes to
show you the star power when you take a generational
guy like Tyson from the eighties and on to a fighter,
a social media star like Jake Paul in today's day
and age with the younger audience, and you put them
together and it makes sure a gargantue and gargantuan event.
But in terms that's the I thought it was funny though,
that he beats a Tyson and not a particularly good
fight obviously. And Jake, even by his own admission, which
I kind of annoyed by, you know, said he basically
led up and went easy on Mike. That everybody's calling
him out. So the list that I have compiled looking at,
I mean, there may be others, So this is not
necessarily the end all be all. So Jake Paul reposted
I guess some direct messaging from him and Daniel Dubas,
who of course he's got the IBF heavyweight title. So
he's saying, I'll give you a title shot, and Jake
was mocking him. He's like, hey, dude, you've been you know,
you had over one hundred fights between your amateur and
pro career. Uh and you even fought on one of
my undercards. And he's right because which a couple of
years ago when Jake was fighting one of his you know,
MMA fights. I forget which battle was, but Daniel Duwa
made his American debut and fought on his undercard.
Speaker 3: It was Tyrone Woodley the first fighting Cleveland. Yeah exactly,
and Dubois got a first round knockout on that undercard.
Speaker 2: So it's a great comeback. So yeah, yeah, yeah that.
Speaker 1: He got andre Ward who's basically says I haven't been
in the gym or picked up the gloves in seven years.
He's been retired.
Speaker 3: And Carl Paul Fratch, by the way, he said eleven years.
He had andre Bat He said, I haven't done anything
for eleven years. I'm an old man, I'm great, I'm
out of shape, and I'd still whip you.
Speaker 1: So you got those two guys who are obviously Hall
of famers. You know, when we're great fighters in their
day and are not old men. It actually wouldn't have
been outrageous if neither of them had still been fighting,
but they decided to call it a day when they did,
and you know, congratulations to them. Yeah. Tony Bellu, former
cruiserweight champion, who's you never knows when to shut up.
He's always on his own yap. And I always enjoyed Tony.
I've known Tony for many years and he's a fun Well, you.
Speaker 3: Saw what he did at the final press conference where
they had the gimmick with the promotional guy in the
green robe, the old guy, and then he started yapping
and mentioning the sponsors and they're trying to yank the
mic away from him. And I'm going, if that, if
that's to try to I legitimately thought this, if that
is to try to get a fight with Jake Paul,
it's pretty pathetic.
Speaker 2: If that's what Bill You is actually up to you You.
Speaker 1: Got Arthur better BF calling him out. He's the undisputed
fight heavyweight champion and now you got uh And we'll
discuss it in a little bit later. But Oliver the McCall,
the former WBC heavyweight champion, like massive not upset of
Lennox Lewis a million years ago. He actually fought the
other night. He was calling him out, So well, let
me see if I got this straight. He got the
former two former super midleweight champions, and Andre Ward and
Carl Froch and Andre being of course for many people
with number one pound pound. He got former cruiserweight champion
and Tony Bellue for the current undisputed light heavyweight champion,
and Arthur Better BF. And then he got the IBF
heavyweight rating champion today, Daniel Dubois. So he got champions
from super middleweight to heavyweight, calling out what a eleven
and one cruiserweight?
Speaker 3: Yeah, now clarify one thing, because you're in these worlds
and you would know this answer.
Speaker 2: Let's cut right to it at a forty five degree angle.
Speaker 3: Hypothetically, if Daniel Dubois wanted to defend the IBF title
against Jake Paul, could he legitimately do that?
Speaker 2: And what would stand in the way? And the same
for better.
Speaker 3: Beef better bf's got three of the belts, Duwal only
has the IBF heavyweight title.
Speaker 2: Could they legitimately say I want to fight that guy?
Speaker 3: Paul says yes, and the And then here's the big
question with the sanctioning body.
Speaker 2: Go along with it. What is the key that's it's real.
Speaker 1: Jake is not rated in any sanctioning body. So that's
the first thing to overcome. But when when my good
buddy Gilberto Mendoza Junior from the WBA is out there
putting stuff on his social media saying he wants to
sanction a fight for a title between Jake Paul and Julio, says,
our child is they would sanction in your mom against
Jake Poul.
Speaker 2: For Wait a minute, that's legitimate.
Speaker 1: That's what he put out, no joke. So but here
here's the point I'm getting at. Currently, as the rules stand,
if you're not rated in the organization, you can't fight
for the title. But it's like which came first, the
chicken or the egg. They can put him in the ratings.
That happens all the time, guys move into the ratings.
Now I would say this, I actually believe that the
IBF would not allow that to happen because Jake has
had one fight atav youweight against an early sixty year
old guy in Tyson, has no never been rated by
them before, has never fought at ten rounder. Other than
the Tommy Theory fight, has never boxed for one of
their regional time idols, et cetera, et cetera. And so
the IBF, as we've discussed many times, generally follows their rules.
But in this particular case, I'd find it really difficult
to see them putting him in and allowing that to happen.
In terms of the other organizations, the better BM who's
got all four belts, you know, the WBA might do it.
It wouldn't shock me at all, but I don't think
that's happening. But the fact that we even would have.
Speaker 3: To way down and he'd have to move way down
and wait theoretically to make that happen.
Speaker 2: Obviously, he just thought what did he fight at? Officially?
The other night, I didn't even see the weight.
Speaker 1: It was like two twenty seven, So I mean to
think that his general his general weight for his fights
so far, other than the Mike Tyson fight, has generally
been in like you know, the one eighties and one nineties.
Speaker 3: But still to have been fighting at two twenty and
then try to come all the way down to one
seventy five, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't know about it.
Speaker 1: The whole thing is just all of it. I only
put this on the on the list because everybody seems
to be talking about it, and it's so preposterous that
you have these top elite, either current pound for pound guys,
raining TIT holders or former greats and Hall of famers
calling out a novice guy that's eleven and one because
he'd beat a six year old Mike Tyson.
Speaker 3: But I think partially too in the better be ever
Dubois case, they believe it's not only a golden ticket,
but I could smash this guy because I see opportunity.
He's he's not, I mean, his experienced at the world
class level, blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: So I'll say this, and this is not a knock
on Jake Paul. I'm on record a thousand times telling
you that I respect what he's been doing in boxing
and his efforts and his is hard working in the
gym and training and everything. Daniel Dubois, who I don't
consider it to be like a great heavyweight. He's obviously
a very solid good heavyweight in today's day. But Daniel
Dubois against Jake Paul, that's like a one or two
round fight for for Dango. I mean, that's not even
that's it's an absurdity. I mean it's a destruction of
the highest order. And that's again that's a that's a
Daniel Duoise. He seasoned veteran fighter at this point, and
he's got some losses. Fine, he's also got some big wins.
He I mean, he is a guy that just you know,
annihilated Anthony Joshua you know this, the guy that uh
you know annihilated Philip Hergovich. I mean those are real heavyweights.
I mean say whatever you want.
Speaker 2: Dudes too large dudes, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Pop amateurs, you know, top top guys. So anyway, that
that that's that's the sharpest part of the show.
Speaker 3: Non the nonsense begins the show. All Right, So, since
you and I were last on the pod, David Benavidez
and David Morrell kicked off the promotion for their February date. Uh,
they were in Los Angeles. What did you make of
the news conference? Benavetas has always got something to say,
always usually stirs it up. What about the news conference
that kicked off earlier this week?
Speaker 1: Well, I thought I thought it was a good news conference.
Now I watched a good portion of it, and there
was a lot of like seeming animosity between that. I'm
sort of like surprised by that because my knowing, my
having covered and dealt with David both David's for a
while is David Benavidez is definitely not a guy that's
gonna start talking shit unless the other guy starts first,
like a kalab plant for example. But when you see
him going into a fight like with Aldlexander Vozicker, doesn't
say anything. He's a perfect gentleman. So it's kind of
like the Canelo school of thought. You know, if you
mess around me, I'll get it right back, but if
you don't start with me, I'm gonna be cool. So okay,
David was going after him, and David Morrell, who has
always been a very respectful guy, also similarly not a
guy that starts in with his opponents. So what I
was told is that when they were shooting the commercial
part of like doing promo shoot behind the scenes, this
is before the press conference started, this on Tuesday in
Los Angeles, that whatever happened, they were gibber jabber and
back and forth in Spanish, and and something was said
that that Benavidez i guess didn't like her. Maybe it
was the other way around, but they kind of got,
you know, sideways with it, and it carried over into
the news conference, and so when they got to the
news conference, you know, Benaviez was basically saying that Morel
was trying to make it personal and he had a
great line sat So I'm personally gonna break his mouth,
is what benavite Haz said, and Morel was giving it
back to him, also predicting the knockout one hundred percent.
He's gonna you know that that can David Benavidez can
talk all he wants, and you know, he's all basically
all bark, no bite, and I'm gonna knock him out
and you know, puffing his chest out how much he's
waited for the opportunity. Listen, this is a fantastic matchup
and if they bring the heat with some of the
bullshit back and forteen, that makes it even a little
bit more exciting and interesting. I know that they are
very early in their days as light heavyweights. Each of
them have only had one fight in the division. In
their most recent bouts June four, Benavides when he fought
Vozik and August when David Merrell fought hot Rod Kalegic,
But neither one of them really set the world on
fire in those fights. But I think they're definitely be
up and amped up for this fight. And I'm looking
at it like, yeah, it's for a couple of like
lower tier light heavyweight belts and interim in a regular
But look, two guys stow in their twenties, two guys
are undefeated, two guys who've shown good power, two guys
who have shown a desired a willingness to fight the
top guys. Two guys who definitely come to fight similar size.
I mean, it really does have the hallmarks for a
very close fight, for a great fight, or possibly where
we'll be saying when it's over, maybe it was a
controversial decision, we want to see a rematch. Whatever, it's
that kind of fight. I'm very excited for this fight.
February first, it'll be the first pay per view of
the PBC calendar for next year. They are planning. It's
not done yet. They're probably gonna do like a show
box ish level card January tenth in Orlando, but this
will be the first championship level card that they do
on February first at the Team Mobile and they got
a heck of them in event. I hope that that box.
I mean, this is the kind of fight that in
years past would have been live, HBO, Live, Showtime, maybe ESPN, Fox, whatever,
when they were you know, those types of networks doing
the shows. I don't know if it rises to a
pay per view level in my mind yet, but I'm
definitely interested in this fight.
Speaker 3: I won't miss it, all right, good stuff on that, Okay.
As soon as I saw this, I knew we had
to talk about the announced exhibition with Ryan Garcia, who
remained suspended in the United States for his shenanigans around
the David the Devin Haney fight back this past April,
testing positive for osterine not once, but twice pre pre
fight and post fight.
Speaker 2: He's now gonna fight the Japanese.
Speaker 3: Kickboxer or U ryu Kaya Ryukaya a repo say it
correctly for me.
Speaker 1: He's a killing Rikia and Po and he is a japan.
Speaker 2: And Paul, I'm sorry, and Poe.
Speaker 1: He's a Japanese kickboxer who I had never heard of,
quite frankly, PJ other than when the first time ireed
of him which is because back however, many months ago,
he was the opponent in an exhibition in Japan against
Manny Pacam and that was at a time if you remember,
there was a there was a period where they were
trying to maybe make either either Manny against Connor. Den
was in the conversations they were trying to get Turkey
Ao Chi Caponi up for it. Then after that, more
more close to when he fought this exhibition, there was
a lot of conversation that PBC might do Pakyo versus
Mario Barrios for Barrios' WBC welterweight title, and then many
pack I went out there and thought this like, I
think it was a three round exhibition against an PO
and got his ass kicked and looked like looked like
Manny pack Yo, sounded like Manny pack Yo, but look
about one hundred years oldering. I mean, you think Mike
Tyson look a bit shotsky. I mean, that's that's what
we're talking about with Manny. That was a good fight.
He looked absolutely horrible, and this an PO, who not
a boxer by trade, he's a kickboxer, just was strafing
him with shots the whole fight, I mean, and It
made me think to myself, you know, even if you
thought maybe Manny could give it a go against a
you know, a good fighter but not a great fighter
and something like Brios, I had real second thoughts when
I saw this kickboxer basically kick his ass for three rounds.
So Ryan Garcia is going over there to do this
match there. Did the interesting thing about is they'll use
uh this This was not in the press release, but
what I was told by Golden Boy, who was still
his promoter even though they're not in promoting this event.
They're using the larger similarly size like big you know,
fourteen ounce gloves or twelve ounce gloves. They'll fight two
minute rounds, eight rounds, and the catchweight is one hundred
and fifty three pounds, which is by far the biggest
for Garcia because remember when he blew weight against Devin Hainey,
it was totally like one forty three or something like that.
And here is going to go in and the max
now is one fifty three against the bigger man in
the kickboxer right.
Speaker 3: So fundamentally is he jeopardizing This is the first thing
I thought, and I've been waiting for me. Is he
jeopardizing that the suspension will be longer because you're going
to go fight a modified boxing match, but a boxing match,
call it an exhibition or not.
Speaker 1: And it's a pay per view exhibition that will not
count on his record. So I was curious about that too.
I have made some calls to the folks that at
the New York Commission. I have not heard a response back,
but I did speak to Golden Boy and they told
me that they have talked to New York Commission about it,
and they have been told one hundred percent they are
not looking this as like a real boxing match. He
is not in violation of his of his suspension from
what they're saying, New York told them. So he's not
doing anything to jeopardize, you know, assuming he passes whatever
drug testing goes on between now and then anyway. But
by taking this match as an exhibition and going to Japan,
he's not in any way jeopardizing his ability to reapply
in New York in April, as opposed to had he
just gone to some other jurisdiction and gotten a real
license for a real fight, because that commission licensed him
just because then he would have been looking at big trouble,
and in New York would have looked down at it,
but because they checked with them first, and it's not
an official fight, I am told by Golden Boy from
what the New York Commission told them that this is
not in any way jeopardizing that situation. So their perspective
from Golden Boys side of things is, look, he'll get
in some shape, you know, he'll he'll shake off some
russ however long this goes. It's not a real fight,
but it's like a glorified sparring whatever, And you know
that's good for when they do bring him back, which
presumably if he's able to reapply for the license come
April sometime you know, in the not too distant future,
after that, they probably would have some kind of fight
set up for him. I would imagine if he gets
his license back in April, you know, we may see
him back in there, maybe maybe as soon as May,
but maybe more like the summertime. So this will be
that sort of in between you know, quasi activity if
you will. And also I am told also you know
Ryan has started to sing, and he put out a
song and then some like a storm EP record I guess,
so apparently he's doing a concert there as well as
doing the exhibitions.
Speaker 3: And it may be a tough debate on which is
more interesting him singing or the actual exhibition.
Speaker 2: How about or neither see neither a nor b.
Speaker 1: Oh? Are you excited for that? About the date for
those who care, December thirtieth in Tokyo. Forgive me, I
will December thirtieth year in the United States, but I
guess it'll be December thirty first.
Speaker 2: Forgive me, I will not market on my calendar.
Speaker 3: I'll rely on you to keep me straight on anything worthwhile,
his singing or otherwise. All right, let's get to something
that really matters, and that is hams as Hiraz. I
thought he was ticketed to be fighting Jana Beck for
unified Middleway titles. You've been talking about this though, that
they they called off the purse bid. Sharaz's team didn't
want to take place in the purse bid. And now
you've got more on Sharaz and the title fight. It
looks like with Carlos adamis materializing, including when and where
go ahead.
Speaker 1: So here's the thing. Sharaz is high up in the
rankings in the various organizations. He was ordered to fight
Janebek in what would have been a WBO mandatory fight.
But just because that was ordered doesn't mean that was
his only route to go to a title. But he's
also ranked number one in the WBC and he's highly
ranked I believe in the WBA as well. So they
pulled out of the a janeback fight because they know
they get their getting they would they wouldn't have pulled
out of the Janebeck mandatory if they didn't know they
were getting something else in that same spot. Frank Barr
and his promoter's been saying for weeks he's fighting for
a world title on February twenty second. That's when they're
doing a big read season card in Riad, And it
was just a matter of which champion they were going
to fight. So the Jannebek fight, they were either not
able to make the deal or they decided that was
not for their liking for whatever reason, and so they
withdrew from the pursepit. And they had to the sides.
By all accounts, because I talked to the Frank Warr
people as well as the top rank they had been
talking about trying to doing a deal. I guess it
never went too far, and they didn't do the deal.
And so instead of just you know, wasting everybody's time
and money because you got to put up a deposit,
some of it's non refundable, to go through and do
a purse bid, which they had postponed a couple of times,
they pulled out of the purse bid the day of
the purse bid. And so now that leaves who were
the two other champions, Well, they're both with PBC. What
is ARISLANEI Laara who's the WBA title holder, and one
is Carlos A Damas, And both of them have been
on the table and PBC has been talking to Queensberry
about either guy's availability. I am told by people on
both sides and that it's gonna be Carlos adamis they
that they liked that fight better. Maybe the business deal
was better, the money whatever it was. And that is again,
it wasn't done, it wasn't signed, but as it was
described to me as being finalized, we're getting everything or
getting our ducks in a row. But I believe both
sides have assurances that the fight is taking place and
they're good to go, and he'll fight apparently on February
twenty second, one of the fights on this riad season
card will be It's a good matchup too, by the way.
That's the thing about it, Sharras, just by the mere
fact that everybody was talking to him. He may not
have the title, but he's the money guy in the
division because everybody wanted to fight him, because he's got
the backing of Queensberry, which has the backing of Read Season,
which has the backing of Turkey. And he's a talented fighter.
He you know, was undefeated, been putting on spectacular performances
last few fights, had won the European title in his
last fight, which he vacated because he's now going to
be fighting for a world title, and so he had
his pick of the litter, so to speak. Janeddek's got
two belts, and we just mentioned Laura and Adam Adamas
had the other two.
Speaker 2: It ain't much of a litter on what else is
there to fight if you're a Damas or if you're.
Speaker 1: Shar But those are the top middleweights currently in in
the division with the belts, and all of them are
in a position where that timing for our February is
good for everybody. Jane Beek fought at the end of
the year. Lara also did around the same time. A
Damas fought a little bit earlier than that. He fought back,
you know, a couple of months earlier. The point is
they're all available, and that was the route that everybody
seems to be going. I mean, look, could ship Low
up at the last minute, he winds up fighting Laura.
I guess that's possible. But someone's going to be in
the ring across the across the ring from HM February
twenty second, with the world title belt at stake, and
it looks like it's going to be a Domison. I,
like I said, that's a good matchup because the Damas
is aggressive guy. He comes to fight, you know, he's
got pretty decent power. And Sharaz, you know, he's going
to be bigger and taller than everybody because he's a
much taller fighter than all these other midleweights that we
can mention. And so I look forward to that. At
least we know this. Whatever they put the rest of
that show, and there's still lots of fights being talked about,
that on paper is a very solid matchup and and frankly,
in a different time in boxing without the mass of
riad season cards. You can't tell me that Carlos the
Damas versus Hamasa Shiraz for the w GOE Await title
Quinn headline a stone card. Of course it could.
Speaker 3: And that's and I you know, Adamas had to wait
for two years for Jamal Charlo to finally give up
the full belt never fight him, so in some ways
he deserves to have a high profile title fight, and
this will be a much more high profile title fight
obviously in the UK, with Sharaz going for the belt,
and we'll see what happens. That's all the way into February.
You mentioned the name Oliver McCall earlier talking about Jake
Paul and he was legitimately in the ring earlier this
week and set some kind of record here because you
keep track of these kind of things. Is this correct
on my rundown. He's fifty nine, he's older than Tyson
by a year and was in the ring earlier this week.
Speaker 1: By the way, he enticon sparred a million rounds together
back in the day. One thing about Oliver McCall never
going to go down in the history as a great fighter,
but will go down in history as one of the
greatest all time chins. This is a guy who has
never been down as a professional in seventy four fights,
including in fourteen losses. The only stoppage loss officially a
TKO was the very very infamous rematch he had against
Lennix Lewis for them naking WBC title when he had
a emotional and mental breakdown in the ring and even
when he was crying and had his hands down to
Lenox was hitting him. He wasn't going anywhere. But he
had not fought since twenty nineteen, which was a knockout
win back then. So he comes out of that long
layoff retirement, whatever you want to call it. They fight.
There's a there's a regular club card called they do
these fights in Nashville, Tennessee. It's called Country Box. They
have boxing matches and they have like country music performances.
Speaker 2: And they showed them because it's Nashville, of course.
Speaker 1: So they showed them on Triller TV Plus on you know,
as part of the subscription. So I don't I've watched
some of those shows from here and there, But Aliver McCall,
there was not a lot going on on Tuesday Night.
I was sort of mildly interested and because he was
fifty nine years old the promotion and I had known
this anyway, was making a little bit of a thing
about the fact that if he won, he'd be the
oldest former heavyweight champion to win another fight at age
fifty nine. Remember, he has to go all the way
back to like the early nineties when it was when
he knocked out Lennox Lewis to win that wbcav with title.
That was a huge upset, you know, big knockout punch
the mandatory fight hit him right on the chin in London,
caused a lot of havocant upset. Obviously, they ended up
rematching a few years later when it was the title
was vacant and Lennox won it back with the breakdown.
But that was a huge upset when Lenox got knocked
out by him, and then he did go on he
defended the title against Larry he Leaves against Larry Holmes
and then ultimately lost it to Frank Bruno when he
went back to England and Bruno finally you know, won
the belt and you know, it was a huge deal
in England and then later got to get a loss
against Lennox Lewis, But yeah, you know, look for a
fifty nine year old guy against a journeyman who was
named Stacy Fraser, who was his opponent, who was fifty
four years old, who came into the match with a
record of sixteen and twenty two that had been knocked
and now is sixteen and twenty three. I mean it
was like watching guys in slow motion. For fifty nine
year old guy, Oliver McCall didn't look half bad number one.
Speaker 2: In terms of against a fifty four year old with twenty.
Speaker 1: Two I yess, And I'm not making it out to
be anything more than is. But he scored two knockdowns
in the first round, not huge knockdowns, but he clearly
got him with one good shot on the temple pretty
much at the first knockdown, he got up and you know,
the guy was not looking. I don't think he was
looking to have at all out war and in the second.
Speaker 2: Because you watched this, Oliver McCall was always so cut
ripped physke did he have the dad bod going at
fifty nine or does he still have some semblance of
what we saw in the ninetees.
Speaker 1: I mean it's some semblance, but not entirely semblance, if
that makes sense. But look, I mean for a fifteene
year old guy, he didn't look half bad, like I said, But.
Speaker 3: What could he have possibly made for this fight? What's
the realistic Did he make ten grand? Did he make
one hundred grand? Don't takrand?
Speaker 1: I mean if he made front.
Speaker 3: Road tickets to Jason Aldaine, if you win the fight
in Nashville, you know, honestly, I.
Speaker 1: Think I think if you first of all, remember it
was only a four round schedule fight, so I bet
he made less than ten grand.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: But so you're doing this just to do it because
you missed there, you missed the competition number one.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure you know a lot of these
guys they did.
Speaker 2: Ever.
Speaker 1: You know, Oliver might have made decent money in his career,
but he didn't exactly live the lifestyle that's gonna I'm
pretty sure he doesn't have like an IRA or you know,
CDs or you know, investment portfolios or anything like that. Uh.
I will say this, for all the craziness of Oliver
McCall's career, I I was at a couple of his
fights because even though after he lost the title, he
would still show up sporadically in some Don King undercards,
and he was always, uh, you know, part of that crew.
Don always had these different heavyweights always around where he
would come to Don's fights. I actually hung out with
Oliver i'll call a couple of times at a few
different fights. Very pleasant, nice guy when he's not high
on drugs and all that, and a good sense of humor.
I mean, I hope he lives a good life.
Speaker 3: I mean, you are just like dead panning the comedy
about Oliver McCall and you don't even realize it. He's
really a great guy when he's not high on drugs.
Speaker 2: That's a tremendous life. I mean, put that on a
put that on a refrigerator.
Speaker 1: He was a likable guy. So anyway that that that
was their four rounder. But the funny, the hilarious part
about it was so he gets the knockout, he's happy,
he says he's going to continue. He's you know, he
said he wanted to drop another ten pounds when he
comes back and maybe look a little bit better than
you want me to.
Speaker 2: Say it, don't you What are we doing here? What
are we doing here?
Speaker 1: You're at what end to make a long story short,
when the fight was over, he called out Mike Tyson
and Jake Paul.
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course you try to make some more money,
all right.
Speaker 3: So we have that, we have a couple more news items,
and we got some killer nostalgia to wrap it up with.
We're doing pretty well when we don't have fights to
preview this weekend.
Speaker 2: I told you we had a lot of news.
Speaker 1: You got boxing to talk about.
Speaker 3: Ji opataia mandatory title defense upcoming for the Lineal IBF
Cruiserweight Championship.
Speaker 2: Give me the deats. What's going on?
Speaker 1: So this was not a shocker. He has a mandatory
due he's got to fight a fighter from Germany named
Hussein Sinkara who is twenty two and zero with eighteen knockouts.
But as a resume that, you know, that makes William
Skull look like, you know, he's manny Pacou.
Speaker 3: Here we go with the IBF again with what what
is this guy doing? He's one, right, he's number one.
Speaker 1: He's the mandatory I mean, it's it's a little ridiculous.
I mean, but the good thing for Jai is he
fought his h Well, remember he had the great fight
the first time around with myras greatest when he won
the title, the IBF Belt end of lineal title, he
got the broken jaw. He was off for a while
because of that, and when he came back and defended
it for the first time, he had signed a co
promotion with Mattroum. They did that fight on a card
in England and then his next three fights after that
were all in Saudi Arabia on the read season under cards.
So this was the good spot for them to go home,
back to that same place in the Gold Coast Convention
Center in Broadbeach, Australia for him to defend. And this
hasn't been officially officially announce yet. It'll be on his
own once they get all the details and it gets announced.
But the good thing about is that, so you know,
figure he you know, he should defeat the thirty nine
year old guy from Germany that never fought anybody, because
Opataia is just a you know, he's a dominating fighter
at this point, ten years younger, undefeated, lots of knockouts,
look good in recent fights. Anyway, he has the mandatory
to do against Sinkara coming up in January. Do you
go back to Latino Knight card from the previous week.
Yet Zerdo Ramirez defending his WBA title and also winning
the WBO title against Chris Bill and Smith, so he's
got two titles. Opataia has got the igh BF Millennial title.
But so there there's a lot of discussion. They'll fight
each other to further unify the titles. Turkey Yl she
loves doing the unification fights. Clearly wants those guys involved.
He's been putting those guys on because, as I mentioned,
Zerdo just fought in Riad. The previous three fights that
Opataia has had have been in Riad. So they're both
in positions where they got to do mandatory fights. So
Opataia is gonna fight the fight in January. Then you
have Ramirez is gonna have to deal with his mandatory
Young Mail Dordicos, who is the BBA mandatory which before
the fight with Jim Smith was approved. The two guys Bill,
Smith and Zero had to agree to get him to
step aside. He was paid a very good fee, but
also with the promise he'd get the next shot. So
what and I was told by Eric Gomazing, I'll just
diet a little tease here. We have an interview with Eric.
He is the vice he is the president of Golden
Boy Promotions. He's heavily and alved and everything that goes
on with that company. H And they'll hear that interview
coming up on Sunday and our Sunday Night show. But
one of the things that we talked about was the
prospect of doing that match. And you can hear the quote,
you know, hear the conversation when you listen to the interview,
but to paraphrase, he's like, yeah, we'll, we'll, we'll do
our mandatory. He's doing his mandatory and then you know,
we're definitely gonna That's that's the that's the plan, that's
the pathway that both sides are interested. Certainly Zerdo was interested.
He was calling Opatai out after the Latino Night victory,
and uh, you know, I think Turkey al Sheik's track
record speaks for itself when it comes to putting those
types of fights together that it would not in any
way surprise me if Opataia fights his fight in January,
figure Zerdo was ready to come back, you know sometime
you know, I don't know, markish something like that, and
then they can tell fight presumably they will fight each
other to give you and all of us the biggest
cruiserweight fight we can have in the weight class at
the current time, and to unify three of the titles.
And that's that's a great plan. And by the way,
I can't I can't tell you much about sin Car,
but you know Johnny deil Dorrikos is no no pushover.
He's a former title holder, big puncher, Cuban amateur career,
amateur pedigree and has has looked looked good in some
big time spots and made some really good fights.
Speaker 2: Very good. I one more nugget.
Speaker 3: We saw Mario Barrio struggle to a draw for the
WBC welterweight title defense on the undercard of Jake Paul
Mike Tyson. You've got news of Amitas Stanionis and the
wb A welterweight champion and his next fight. Tell us
a little more about what's going on here.
Speaker 1: So Stanionis has been ordered a while back to fight
his management, which is Chackrum Giasov. So Stanionis of course
is with PBC, Giasov is with Mattrium. In terms of Giuso, well,
we saw Stanionis just have his recent title defense. Giasov
was number one and maintained the position. If you remember,
AJ back in August, a couple of nights before they
did the big card with Crawford Imaginum of the Rian
season card in Los Angeles, they had like a little
mini three fight card that took place on the Santa
Monica Pier that were originally fights already have that undercard,
but they did him separate and brought it come up
to the pier. I was there amazing setting an atmosphere
for those fights. Anyway, the i FGE, I don't think
it was the main event. No, Mark Castro was the
main event, but the fight before that they had Giasov
winning his fight to sort of keep his position, so
they both had recent fights. Anyway, that's the mandatory fight,
and so the first it had been postponed a couple
of times. They were getting close to a deal. Now
the WBA has announced that they have come to an
agreement and that in the next few days they will
have to tell them the venue and the date it be.
It'll be promoted by the PBC side of things, TGB Promotions,
and it will take place probably in the next couple
of months. Now I don't know the exact date, but
knowing the calendar that PBC has in front of it,
and they've already announced the undercard for February first, which
is the card we were just talking about with Benavide's
against David Morrell. I don't think I think this is
too significant of a fight to add to, like the
preliminary part of it, like the non paper view. I
guess it's possible, and I would certainly not be opposed
to that to get, you know, a nice solid title
fight like that for a free But my intuition, let's say,
tells me that this sounds like the type of fight
that could find its way on to March first, which
is the date that is now supposed to be when
you rescheduled Tank Davis against Lamont Roach. That will not
be in Houston because the Rockets are playing that night
in the Arena. It probably won't be at the Capitol
Want to Rena in Washington, DC, because, as I understand,
the Washington Wizards are playing that night, so they're going
to go somewhere else. One of the rumors is the
Barkley Center in Brooklyn. I guess the Nets are not
playing that night. But regardless of where that show lands,
just you know, fouling the bread crumbs. If they've got
a deal and they're doing the fight and they don't
have that many dates, seems like March first makes perfect
sense for that matchup.
Speaker 2: Interesting.
Speaker 3: I love how Rayphiel stays on the trail, no off days,
no off weeks for you. Love that part of it,
and that leads us to the nostalgia. To wrap it
up here, heading into the weekend, it was twenty two
years ago on Saturday. Let's begin with the rematch of
Arturo Goddie and Mickey Ward. You were there for the
second of the three epic fights. What do we remember
about the rematch while we look back.
Speaker 1: Well, first of all, this is one of the greatest
trilogies of all time. But if you're going to have
a trilogy, something is going to be the best, something's
going to be in the middle, something's gonna be the least.
So I think that even though most people would look
at the trilogy between Gaddy and Word, and they would
look at the first fight, which is the all time
classic fight of the air type fight, look at the
third fight, all time classic fight of the air tipe fight.
A lot of people picked number three is fight the
year a lot of people. Most people picked the first
fight as fight of the year. The second fight was
the week was the weak link, if you will, of
the three. But I've always said, if you never saw
the first fight and you never saw the third fight,
you'd watch the second fight say, damn, that was a
good fight. Now, maybe it wasn't fight at the year level,
but when you're comparing it to the epicness of the
first fight, which was unforgettable, and then you see down,
you know, after that, the third fight, which is another
mind blowing kind of fight, you know, it's hard not
to look at the second uh installment, let's say and
call you know, call out the weakest of the three. Uh.
There's usually that one fight among trilogies, not all of them.
We've talked about, say Bo Holyfield, they had three fights.
All three of them are absolutely sensational. But they're not
always like that. But Gaddy wore too. What made it
special at the boardwalk call in Atlantic City. Now, they
had fought the first fight in Connecticut at the Mohegan
Sun Casino. It came to Atlantic City where Gaddy, you know,
being a Jersey even though he's from Canada, he was
adopted by Jersey City, where he lived for many years
and made Atlantic City, you know, like the place where
he was like the franchise there in terms of boxing,
and this second fight between him and Mickey really was
what kicked that off. He had fought other fights in
Atlantic State through the years, but this was like the first,
like you know, fight that was highly anticipated, main main
event level kind of fight. And so the crowd, knowing
what had happened, this fight's in November of twenty twenty two,
they had had their first fight a few months earlier,
earlier in twenty twenty two. So the crowd that turned
out were there not only to see hopefully another great
fight between these two you know, just tremendous warriors, but
to pay homage and give them the cheers and the
applause and the flowers and the plaudits and showed them
the love for what they gave to the boxing roll
from the amazing first fight. So the walk ins for
the rematch were off the charts. Like when we're talking
about I can still like see it and feel it.
I get like the hairs of my next stand up
of that, because that's the kind of situation that it
was but the thing about it was Mickey and you
know who knew no other way. But Gaddy had it
in him to box if he wanted to. He just
didn't always want to. He had to be reminded of it,
and he liked to get in there and just swing
away and trade leather. But he employed a lot more
of boxing in the second fight, and it obviously worked
for him because he was able to win the fight. Memember,
he lost the first fight by this limits of margins.
If he got the decision what he could have gotten,
who knows that thereagan would have been a rematch, But
the second fight became necessary because that had done such
a you know, it becomes such a mainstream thing. They
did the rematch and Arturro won that fight. He scored
a knockdown in the third round against Mickey Ward and
went on to win a fight that I guess it's
fair to say was not like a classic. But still
I was felt like the scores, like Mickey, you know,
was they made it seem like in the scores like
he wasn't even in the fight. Because Mickey lost ninety
eight ninety one on two score cards in ninety eight
to ninety on the third score card. I always thought
it was a little bit closer than that, but not
like Mickey was the winner of the fight. This was
a really actually, really good boxing performance from Artaro Gotti
in this fight, particularly to the backdrop of having in
May of that year been in this absolute you know,
life and death struggled battle, you know, Royale all time
classic against Mickey Warred the first time round. So this
was a very good performance from Arto Gotti. And obviously
now that they were won and one with an all
time epic fight in the first one, a really good
fight in the second one, it set the stage for
them to fight the third fight. So they ended up
having these three fights all within the span of eleven months.
The first fight is in May of twenty two, second
fight November of two thousand and two. Third fight in
June of two thousand and three. So what No, that's
thirteen months for the entire trilogy to take place. But
the second fight not as memorable, but a really joyous
type of thing to cover because everybody just wanted Tom
like embrace these guys because of everything they had given
in that first fight. And then of course they went
out and they did the third fight was the fight
of the year for two thousand and three and just
another epic classic.
Speaker 2: And I just thought of this while you were saying it.
Speaker 3: Canelo and Glovekin fought and then fought a year later
in the rematch, too, tremendous fights. And then it took
what five years for the third fight for various reasons
COVID nineteen crazy year of twenty twenty, the business of boxing.
Could they get together? It took it took like five years,
right for the third fight to happen. Here all three
of these fights in thirteen months, that's.
Speaker 1: Right, Vasquez and Marquez. I mean they ended up fighting
four times. We don't talk about the fourth fight, but
the first three we're back to back to back, and
they were all within I forget the exact number of months,
but within a year or so. Holyfield and Bow they had,
I guess a couple years, but they fought, you know,
in fairly shorter There was other fights in between, I guess,
but they weren't It wasn't stretched out over you know,
many many years. Manny Pacowen and uh and one Manuel
Marquez who fought four times. They were pretty much a
couple of years between the fights. Morales and Marera where
I had two years between each fight, So you know,
I never really had a problem with that. I mean,
you don't want to kill the guys. But Gaddi and Ward,
these were not world championship fights. They were fights that
fans wanted. They were fans that that our fights, rather
that the network wanted, which was HBO, who paid a
lot of money. By the time, remember when they started
off the first fights boxing after dark, and it became
elevated in terms of the money and uh and and
the amount of publicity and attention and marketing they gave
to it. Uh and it's one of the all time
great trilogies. And as I've said many times before, it
was a It was a great privilege to be ringside
for the second and third fight, And it was very
unfortunate that I laid in dead with a fever and
an ice pack on my head watching the first fight
and the guests from my old apartment, my old townhouse,
sick as a dog, having a cance on my trip
about two days before I was supposed to go to
Connecticut to cover the first.
Speaker 3: But wow, I do know that you've told us that before,
but still again for the ones that think that boxing
began in two thousand and seven, all the gin zeers
go back and watch this trilogy. And again, we're on
the anniversary of the second fight, all right, so we're
gonna get Look. I know what's coming in the nostalgia,
and I know we could be here for a month
with what we're gonna talk about at the end, so
I want to get there. We spent a lot of
time on Mike Tyson. We've talked a lot about Tyson's
historical career, and the anniversary of him winning the heavyweight
title for the first time should get mentioned and recognition
here on this pod. When we talked nostalgia, it was
thirty eight years ago, Friday, November twenty second of nineteen
eighty six. Thirty eight years ago, kids, Mike Tyson became
heavyweight champ, and he just fought a Kaid last week.
Speaker 1: I was just gonna say that, like the fact that
we could be sitting here talking about, Yeah, the recollections
of when Iron Mike Tyson became an age twenty, the
youngest heavyweight champion.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, Hey, I told of guys that when
they showed the clip of him knocking Burbick down leading
up to the Tyson Paul fight. On the broadcast, I
said to the guys that were around us, that's nineteen
eighty six, Yeah, eighty six, that that happened thirty eight
years ago, and you were echo, Yeah.
Speaker 1: We're a few days removed from him having just fought again,
I know, fifteen years old, and so that means, like,
you know, when he fought the title against bourbk, he
had been approp for what about two years, So the
span of his career is like forty years between the
debut and the FRIS kind of crazy because he was,
you know, eighteen nineteeny pro and he's fifty eight years old.
So the fact that it was almost to the day
when he won the title. But listen, when he won
the title, man, I don't care. You know, if you're
guy a guy gall that never watched boxing back then,
you have to have seen the highlight. The knockout is
one of the most spectacular knockouts in boxing history. He
is certainly the most memorable. Started basically what was a
new era in boxing because it wiped away the remnants
of the of what had been the previous like post
Larry Holmes domination of the heavyweight division where you know,
he was still hanging around, but the way the belts
straighted hands with the Greg Page and the Tony Tubbs
and the Tony Tucker and the and this guy had
the belton and Burbick had the belt, and you know,
there was.
Speaker 2: Who was going to be the next grade heavyweight but
this was here you go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And so this was part of what was that
HBO tournament to crown the undisputed champion and and when
Tyson won the fight, you pretty much and it was
kind of a tournament created for Tyson basically because he
was getting so much attention from HBO, and you know,
it was very fast becoming a fan favorite and a
big time mainstream boxing star. But the knock out of Burbick,
who was making his first defense, uh, in this fight,
and there was a few people at the time maybe
he might be able to confuse Tyson, going to give
him some boxing. You know, I kind of had a
good reach and showed some toughness in this fighter that fight,
Not that it mattered for that much, but in terms
of the name recognition, he of course retired Mohamad Ali finally,
so it's really the bridge. You know, he's the guy
that was the last in the ring against Ali, but
then he lost the title of the Tyson. So he
fought the two most iconic fighters in the history of
the sport, and you know, unfortunately was murdered many many
years later in a pretty horrible situation with a machete death.
Just not a good situation at all. But on this
night he was as we discussed often TJ, he was
the bug to Mike Tyson's windshield because that that you know,
as we joke, it was one hook that knocked him
out three times because he got up, he fell down,
he got up, he fell down, he got up, he
fell down, and he was like a fish out of
water though he was plopping around the.
Speaker 3: Ring and it did not look like that violent of
a punch, but it was waters short right on the
temple and that and then line from Barry Tompkins just
like what you have on the rundown on the HBO
call for all Time is and we have a new
era in box.
Speaker 1: And Mary Tompkins was right, absolutely.
Speaker 3: Yeah for Tyson for the next really three and a
half years until Buster Douglass got in front of him
in Totio was such a menacing force.
Speaker 1: He broke the record as the youngest champion set by
Floyd Patterson, who was twenty one years almost twenty two
years old. He was twenty one years and eleven months
when Patterson won the title. Tyson obviously was twenty in change.
And the thing of that it was, you know, cust
To Motto, who was Mike's trainer and mentor and adoptive father,
you know, would basically rescue him out of the boys home.
And you know, we all know the story of how
that came to me, took him to Catskill. He had
the prophecy that this was going to be the youngest
heavyweight champion in boxing. Obviously, you know, he didn't live
long enough to see it. He died about a year
or so before of pneumonia before Tyson won the title.
But you know, the old man's prophecy came true. And
if you remember when I did the podcast with Mike
before he went in the ring against Jake Paul, I
asked him, I said, you know, what would what would
Cussin thought to see here you are coming out of
retirement twenty years later to have another fight. And he
said that cuss would have loved it because his opinion
was always it was more mental than physical for fighters,
and if you had the right mentality you could still
fight at a high level. I mean, it didn't come
the past in terms of the way Mike performed against
Jake Paul, But I don't know. I feel like the
fact that we could go from a few days ago
talking about Tyson age fifty eight, you know, looking the
way he did against a novice like Jake Paul, and
here we are now discussing the nostalgia and the anniversary
of thirty eight years ago when he became the youngest
heavyweight champion. That he's still around in our minds and
a part of the boxing current situation is mind boggling
to me.
Speaker 3: And again I say this like every time we bring
these anniversaries up and talk about the late eighties unless
you lived it like Ray Phil and I did. And
we're not being get off my lawn guy talking about
the modern guys and the differences or whatever. But say
whatever you want about Deontay Wilder's knockout power, his level
of competition, about Anthony Josh should win all of his wins,
Tyson Fury his wins, Alexander usik now and his wins,
Tyson looked invincible, indestructible, and almost every one of his
opponents up until Buster Douglass looked so intimidated.
Speaker 2: It was a matter of when are they going to
get knocked out?
Speaker 3: It seemed like you can't convey enough, Dan just one
more time.
Speaker 2: He looked indestructible.
Speaker 3: Eighty six, eighty seven, eighty eight, that's what Mike Tyson looked.
Speaker 1: Yeah, listen when he yeah, yeah, when he Now, this
is not the anniversary we're talking about. But a while
after he'd beat Berbick several fights later, the end game,
if you will, of this HBO tournament was for him
to fight Michael Spinx. Michael, you know, there was a
detour there. He had kind of gone out of the tournament,
fought Jerry Cooney instead. Anyway, without getting all into all
the menu shove what happened Finally and eventually they met,
and everybody knows that Mike knocked him out in ninety
one seconds with a massive shot, and that was the
end of the story. And he became not only he
already was undisputed because he had the belts, but he
also began to lineal be the Spinx had been strip
of the no surprise by the IBF in any event
for him to have done what he did against Spinks.
After that fight, I remember if you go back, you
can find that on YouTube. HBO showed the rebroadcast, you know,
the replay, and since the fight was only ninety one seconds,
it didn't really take a long time to show the fight.
But when the fight was over, they had a panel
of like top boxing journalists along with Larry Merchant from HBO,
and they were having a serious conversation among people like
Michael Katz and Phil Berger and like you know the
top boxing guys of that day that.
Speaker 2: Wallie Matthews was on that panel too.
Speaker 1: In the daily newspapers. Yeah, right, So these were serious
minded journalists and they're having like a real discussion. Is
Mike Tyson the greatest heavyweight of all time? And they
were talking about him in the same conversation as Muhammad
Ali and Joe Lewis, obviously, Jacan Marsando, Jack Johnson, whoever
you want to talk about Jack Dempsey obviously on that
night and the nights lad he had against Bourbiic and
others along the way through the course of.
Speaker 2: Those nin right, Petelon Thomas, who he destroyed.
Speaker 1: He was a phenomenal destroyer. It just did the you know,
it was more like a comet than it was like
a long lasting situation. But on the ninety knockout Trevor Burbick, Uh,
he was exciting and as you said, ushered in a
new era and he went on a destructive run for
the next couple of years where he was fighting on
a frequent basis and drawing gigantic ratings for HBO and
bringing an enormous amounts of money. And he was the
biggest thing in sports period. I mean, you could go
anywhere in the world and people would recognize him.
Speaker 3: It was like ali yep, all right, one more quick piece,
Julio saysar Chavez nostalgia.
Speaker 2: This is also in the same timeframe.
Speaker 3: It's the following year, November twenty first, which is Thursday
as we're doing this. Nineteen eighty seven, thirty seven years ago,
Julio saysar Chavez moved up to lightweight and put it
on El Chopo Edward Rozari, stopping him in the eleventh round,
winning the WBA lightweight title. Here we go with the
whole Mexico Puerto Rico thing again that we always talk about,
and Rayfaeld believes this might be Chavez's most complete and
finest performance that night. What else do you have to
say about that from nineteen eighty seven.
Speaker 1: I think that's a very good, reasonable discussion to have, because, okay,
he had been that the WBC champion at one hundred
and thirty pounds. His time was done in that weight class.
He was moving up to one thirty five. Rosario was
a really good champion at that time. It was a
big Mexico Puerto Rico was you know, Mexico versus pert
Rico wasn't as big then as it became, but it
was still sort of a big deal. They're fighting at
the outdoor arena at the at the Las Vegas Hilton
back in the day, big time HBO main event, don
King show. You know, he had all the names. Richard
Steele's doing the referee job. I mean it was a
pretty significant, big time fight. Rosario was making a second
title defense and Chavez just went in there and put
it on him. I mean put it on him, beat
him down, bloodied him, just battered him. I mean, this
was an offensive minded fighter in in Rosaria, who landed
some good shots also, but just couldn't you know, chav
Has just walked him down and banged him around for
the whole fight, just right on the money, just like
a machine. It is so amazing to watch, and I
do think that if you look at the at the
long resume of julioseser Chabz, obviously you can he fought
a lot of bums and the Tijana taxi cab drivers,
as Greg Hogan used to joke around about, but he
can really take a look at the at the big
time meaningful fights where he was winning titles, or the
big names he was defending against, or you know, the
miracle fight against Meldrick Taylor, which was a massive win,
but maybe not his greatest performance because he was getting
his ass kick from most.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was being dominated for the first eight nine
rounds of that fight.
Speaker 1: But if you take a look at what he did
against Rosario, who was a really really good fighter, now
Chabas at this time, it's like fifty six and a
zero or something like that going into the fight, and
it was a beautiful performance if you're a job as
a person, because this was as complete as a guess
I'm not sure what else he could have done. He boxed,
he punched, he just walked him down. He destroyed him,
he battered him, he banged him around. Verzeo showed a
good heart, but at the end of the day, he
just took way too much. And then finally in round eleven,
the corner had seen enough and threw in the towel.
And this was his first win at lightweight, as you know,
getting a world title thenweight division, and went on to
defend that title and obviously moved up into the one
hundred and forty pound weight class, where he won another
title and had a huge amount of success or also,
this was like, I think the fight where you kind
of got the idea that you could see job as
being number one pound per pound, And I know that
when you know, people watched the Rosario fight, they were
a lot of boxing people. And I've not that I
know this because I didn't cover this obviously, but I've
talked to a lot of people through the years about
it because I've always been sort of interested in the
evolution of chav is going from being sort of like
a well kept secret a lot of people that know
to start getting the exposure on HBO and now fighting
in front of American audiences in the United States as
well as on American television. But this was the fight
in the minds of a lot of people that really
changed him from being like, you know, let's call him
a regional Mexican fighter with the occasional appearance in the
American market, because he had not really fought. He'd fought
some good names before that, like he fought Rocky Lockridge,
maybe in Juan Laporte, like guys that had good names
and all that, and then defended the one hundred and
thirty pound title against but was really not that well
known to the US audience. Now suddenly he goes in
against Rosario, moving up in the next weight class, and
has this spectacular performance and does the job. And from
then on out, I think people really took quite seriously
this is a force to be reckoned with. And we saw,
you know, what he did down the road where he'd
beat guys like Roger Mayweather. Obviously he had the miracle
against Meldred Taylor, and you know, so on and so
forth as he moved up and beat a lot of
good guys along the way, top contenders, and you know, Ultimately.
Speaker 2: He is regarded as the greatest Mexican champion.
Speaker 1: These major pay per views against people a Camacho, Yeah,
I mean, he thought that Kamacho fight was a mega fight.
He had to fight in Mexico. He went home and
defend this is at one forty against Hagan and drew
the biggest crowd in the history of boxing, one hundred
and thirty two thousand plus at the state the Estadios
Teca in in Mexico City. I mean. And then of
course the Pernel Whitaker fight. You know, at that point
he's way deep into his career at that point to
draw highly controversial, but on the night he defeated and
destroyed by eleventh round knockout Edwin Rosario. I don't know
if he was ever better than he was on that night.
Speaker 2: I am with him.
Speaker 1: It's always fun to go back when you see a
great fighter. And I've done this with other fighters. I
think about it with like guys I've covered Klitchko, pac Yeo, Hopkins, Floyd,
et cetera. And you look down there when their career
is over with, you can sort of figure out where
was this guy at his absolute peak, Because it's hard
to say when it's happening. But when you look at Chavaz,
I think that you can say that he was never
better than against Rosaria. The same way when I think
of guys I covered, like I always think of Pacio,
I don't know if he was ever better than on
the night he beat either Miguel cod Or or Antonio Margarito,
Like there was never going to be a better night.
And you can look down in the list of plenty
of fighters that were in that same in that same
era and figure that out too, And so I find
that to be very interesting, and I sort of think
about that stuff all the time. Unfortunately, that's how I'm wired.
Speaker 2: I understand.
Speaker 3: But he was amazing Chavez at the mid eighties, late
eighties and even into the early nineties.
Speaker 1: And you'll know mej I did post on my social
media the picture of my beautiful and quite scarce site
poster from that fight today.
Speaker 3: Look at that on the thirty seventh anniversary, which is today,
November twenty first, Also November twenty first, nineteen seventy six.
And look, we've been here a while again. We could
go on until Thanksgiving. About Rocky the original right being
released in theaters now forty eight years ago, nineteen seventy six,
November twenty one of nineteen seventy six. And let's just
say this it obviously it was, I mean, Sylvester Stallone
was an unknown period, he was an unknown. But it
did not take long in the couple of weeks around
this movie for it to catch hold of what kind
of story it was with Stallone as kind of the
everyman underdog fighting the Muhammad Ali sque character of Apollo
Creed played by the late Carl weathers Now. But this,
I mean, by the time Thanksgiving became Christmas, this movie
had electrified Hollywood and the country and eventually won the
Academy Award for Best Picture, and it launched, obviously the
franchise of the Rocky movies. It made Stallone into the
megastar that he became in a few years in and
around this and continued for decades now. So wow, wow
that we go back to nineteen seventy six, Dan Rayphield
and the debut of Rocky.
Speaker 1: Between the music and the story which Stallonis talked about
was sort of based on having watched Chuck Webner go
the Distance with Muhammad Ali was about going that it
was like there was an uplifting element that even though
the character that was the main character didn't win, he
won for losing, if that makes sense, because he went
the distance, you know, as a guy that was given
no chance, which was the story of Rocky Balbo against
Apollo Creed the Champion. The in the fight obviously they
had you know, you'd think, you know, if you're going
to create the ending, you know the guy's going to
win the fight. But that's what was so cool in
retrospect about the way they did the Rocky movie is
that he didn't win, but it's still set up obviously
the rematch that took place in the second fight where
we all know he won the fight. Not to do
any spoilers for a movie that's so almost fifty years old, right,
but you know, a really simple story when you think
about it, but somebody had to do it, and they
did a brilliant job at it, and like you said,
it won the Academy Award for Best Picture one I
think other awards as well. Stallone not only was a star,
but he also wrote it and and obviously yeah started
it made you know, didn't didn't give up his rights
to it, so he made not just a fee maybe
for uh, you know, doing the acting and the writing,
but you know, owned a good portion of the franchise
and became, you know, a huge wealthy Hollywood actor, and
you know, and obviously he was in lots of other
big time film series, Rambo and and other movies that
he started, but Rocky really started. I mean, just an
awesome movie. Now, you and I and I and others
have all the time discussed how although I love the movie,
for me, it's not the best one of the series.
I am partial, and I've said it thousands of times.
To me, Number one is Rocky three. That's my It's
my jam, as they say. But Rocky one is a
great fucking film also, and.
Speaker 2: I always have to correct you. It's not Rocky one.
It's just Rocky.
Speaker 1: I know that, but I'm saying that for the purpose.
Speaker 3: So you go Rocky, you go Rocky two, Rocky three.
It's not known as Rocky one.
Speaker 2: I will tell you. I think I've shared this before.
I even remember. I am a six year old TJ.
And this is right around Christmas time, probably a month
in to the movie being out. My family went to
the drive in movie theater and Rayphael I don't know
if you remember going to the drive in any part. Sure,
I'm little, my sister is little, and my father says,
you're probably gonna go to sleep, but you're gonna see
and hear some things that we don't necessarily want you
to see and hear. Because you're in the car while
we're going and doing this, they're gonna say words we
don't want you to say. And I vividly remember him
telling me that. But I remember being wide eyed watching
the training scenes and then the fight with.
Speaker 1: You know you wanted to go a you wanted to
crack egg and drink them? He did you know you
wanted to go down to your local butcher shopping and
and punch the side of beef with.
Speaker 3: A great line from Tony Burton, the actor that plays
Duke when he's watching the Black and White TV and
that is a real reporter from a real Philadelphia TV
station that they got to come. I believe Philadelphia, but
it may have been LA. They were pretending that it
was Philadelphia because the sportscaster is Jim Hill of the
Los Angeles famous sportscaster. But she's in the meat locker
with him hitting the meat, and she eventually just says
Rocky Balboa, heavyweight contender in the meat locker, and Tony
Burton the actor. It's a great line from Stallone says Champ.
You better get in here and look at the guy
you're fighting because he sees him hitting the frozen meat
hanging the meat locker and thanks, I mean, is not.
Speaker 2: Going to Joe.
Speaker 1: Besides Rocky, the rest of the crew in the in
the film are so well defined. A you mentioned Pauli,
the you.
Speaker 2: Know, the brother of in law, a benchal brother in law.
Speaker 1: Apollo, and Tony, and obviously Mickey the trainer, the old
you know, curmudgeon, cliche trainer with the with the with
the hearing aid and the whole thing. Here, here's just
shows you the popularity of the movie. The budget. I
looked this up because I knew we were going to
talk about this, so I went on like the Wikipedia,
and I checked this out. The budget to make the
movie in the first place, to make Rocky, not Rocky one,
but Rocky thank you. One point one.
Speaker 2: Million dollars one point one one point one Now, which
if you went modern day inflation and you multiplied that
times for my public school education tells me that's a
four million dollar movie.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing. So in nineteen seventy six they
spent a little over a million dollars to make the film,
but the box office gross for the film was two
hundred and twenty five million. I mean, do you think
they got their money?
Speaker 3: That's the reason why the executives it was universal writer MGM.
I can't remember which They came to stallone that holiday
season and said, now go right the second one because
they saw what they had to go do this again
and again and eventually again, and it became a fifth
one and a sixth one, and now is even morphed into.
Speaker 1: The crease it would And I'm I don't I'm convinced
of this fact. The franchise never would have been what
it was, as great as the film wasn't as awesome
as the story was. And and just the way that
they did the whole thing, the that iconic move, the
music that that that gol Conti Road, which became like
a big top you know, it was a top forty
hit on the Yes, on the on the music.
Speaker 2: On the fly now the theme, the theme song, and
on the LP. I had it on a record player
playing it in my house to the point that my
mother would say, would you shut that thing off? After
the time I played the movie.
Speaker 1: The company that did it was none of the ones
you said it was United Artists.
Speaker 3: United Artists no longer exists, right, But they're the ones
that came back to him and said, now go write
the second one, Go have go have another Go.
Speaker 2: Rocky is now forty.
Speaker 1: I think also by the way, it was appealing to
the guys because it had the boxing stuff and the
sports part in the macho stuff. Sure, but I think
it was also appealing to a lot of women because
I had the love story of him fall of course
with Adrien and the whole court and everything.
Speaker 3: And he understood that that this is what's gonna hook
everybody in. I mean, when he's courting Adrian, she loved
to ice skate, and he's paying the ice skate guy
to leave the ice skate rink open, and he's going
around on his flat feet while she's skating around. He's going,
you see this nose, his no never been broken. And
then the end of the first round he says, he
broke my nose. I mean, it's perfect.
Speaker 1: Oh, I know, is that you can hold a movie
for a million one and generate.
Speaker 2: In the world.
Speaker 1: That's amazing.
Speaker 2: That's known as return on investment.
Speaker 3: My first Sir rocky forty eight years ago as of Thursday,
released in the theaters. I might have to go watch
it again. The tar pop quiz the turtles names the
turtles that he has in his in his apartment.
Speaker 2: I can't because and link. Yeah, the turtles were cuffing Link.
Speaker 1: The dog, Dog, the dog, the dog but by the way.
Speaker 2: His real his real dog.
Speaker 1: But CAUs to sell the dog to have like like
to have a to pay to have a place to stay.
But he kept the dog he had. That's how broke
stallone was at that.
Speaker 2: Yes, he wasn't broke.
Speaker 3: A few weeks later, after all of the money started
coming in. Great stuff, all right, So we didn't have
a fight to go over this weekend. But we gave
you news, we gave you nostalgia, and now tee it
up on Sunday because we don't have fights to really recap.
We got creative and you scored an interview that you
alluded to repeated again here he.
Speaker 1: Was not getting creative. I was going to do this anyway.
Is that I just felt like it was the perfect
time to talk to Eric Gomez, the president of Golden Boy.
They had just come off the fantastic show uh Latino
Knight in Saudi Arabia when a lot of their fighters
had important victories Or Ramirez, Oscar colaso uh Arnold Barbosa
and others, you know, Oscar d Wart. Anyway, we went
through the fights. Williams the paid of course, so we
went through those bouts on the show. We discussed his
thoughts on just doing an event in Saudi Arabia the
first time they'd done that. We discussed the fights, a
lot of details on what is the plans, what are
the plans rather for the guy's next winners and some
of the losers, some other things related to Golden Boy,
some thoughts on the sale of the Ring magazine obviously,
which was part of their portfolio that was sold to
Turkey al Sheik just around the time that that Latino
Night card was happening. So plenty of good media stuff
in that interview that we'll play on Sunday Night.
Speaker 2: We have that for you.
Speaker 3: I also talked with our colleague David Payne, the boxing
writer in England. Did this Jake Paul card resonate in
England and he's got a.
Speaker 2: Little more on Daniel Dubois, etc.
Speaker 3: And also looking ahead to Sonny Edwards, which you and
I will be talking about as next week unfolds and
it's Thanksgiving and we're nearing the end of the year.
We still got you Sick Fury coming up and some
other interesting fights before we're done. Listen, my friend, have
a great weekend again for the audience. No bet Us
show because we don't really have important enough fights to handicap.
We'll take a week off from that on the bet
Us platforms. We'll be back with that after Thanksgiving. Damn Rayfield,
have a good week and we'll enjoy hearing your interview
with Eric Gomez on the pod feed along with my
interview with David Payne off the weekend.
Speaker 2: I'll catch up with you more next week.
Speaker 3: And by the way, I am headed to New Jersey
East Ruther for New Jersey to be specific, my Tampa
Bay Buccaneers, you're New York Giants in the stupor Stupo
are the stuper Bowl. I think for this weekend, somebody's
gonna feel better now if my team loses to Tommy Cutlets,
the backup quarterback that's now in Tommy DeVito, that's now
in again here. I may have Rayfael come in in
an emergency and do the postgame show after that on Sunday.
Speaker 1: Since we're looking at tank. We're looking at Tank every
game the rest of the season. We want the Hive
draft pick. We don't need to win.
Speaker 3: Let's send the Bucks have a faint hope at the playoffs,
but they got to start winning.
Speaker 2: So you and.
Speaker 3: I will anguish together on Sunday afternoon.
Speaker 2: I'll do it live, you'll do it watching.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna anguish because I don't care at this.
Speaker 3: I understand well, I'll just go ahead and lay down
from my Buccaneers then to get back in the playoff picture.
In any event, good stuff here as always. Thank you,
my friend, and we look forward to hearing you with
Eric Gomez on the weekend coming offul weekend here on
Sunday night.
Speaker 2: I have a good rest of your weekend.
Speaker 1: Dan Ra Phil, thank you you too. Tjay.
Speaker 3: There you go plenty on this pod. Subscribe Apple, Spreaker, Spotify,
give us a five star.
Speaker 2: Review if you enjoy it.
Speaker 3: Even though we didn't have action that we necessarily previewed,
you got a lot on this podcast.
Speaker 2: You get the idea.
Speaker 3: It is the Big Fight weekend preview podcast feed again.
Speaker 2: We're back on Sunday Night.
Speaker 3: We're still here on Sunday Night, with content starting off
Thanksgiving week.
Speaker 2: We'll talk to you then bye.