Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big
Fight Weekend. Now here is your host, Tjwaves.
Speaker 2: Well, we get ready for a weekend that has not
won but two very intriguing Maine event fights, one in
Las Vegas, one Albuquerque.
Speaker 1: New Mexico.
Speaker 2: We are ready to preview it as part of what
we do on the Big Fight Weekend preview podcast. I
am the somewhat competent host TJ Reeves. We have got
insider Dan Rayfield right here with us from Fight Freaks Unite,
his substack and Big Fight Weekend dot com plenty to
cover Canelo and Edgar Berlanga meeting with the media not once,
but twice this week. We'll talk about that, some nostalgia
and more Big Dan. How you feeling here as we
head in towards the weekend. Good to be back with you.
Speaker 3: I'm good. We'll tell people we were just watching the
Team USA and basketball game in that big comeback against Serbia.
I want to go out in to the yard and
start shooting hoops after watching that come.
Speaker 2: All I know is Rayfield and I are trying to
coordinate when we could do this. I said, can we
do it earlier than we typically do it? Late on
Thursday as we pulled the curtain back, and then I'm
texting you like, I'm invested in this US game with Serbia,
and I don't think it's Look, I realized we do boxing,
but we're hoop fans. I don't think it's an over exaggeration.
This would have been the biggest story of the Olympics
if Serbia had knocked them out and denied them the
gold medal opportunity. So what a great comeback. You'll see
all one of my lights for the next day or two.
Speaker 3: Wow, would have been the biggest story, maybe in terms
of in the United States. But they wouldn't have carried like.
Speaker 2: I don't but basketball is such a worldwide sport and
they hate us and they want to see us lose
in a lot of cases, and so they would have been.
Speaker 3: Like you, it's like the way they won that game.
It was the big dogs, Curry, Lebron, Duran embiid all
the same I.
Speaker 1: Feel with the basketball, the basketball break.
Speaker 2: Now, you even said to me, you win early nineties
reference on the Lebron big layup, because you said to
me that reminded you of.
Speaker 3: That was like the it wasn't quite eactly the same.
But it reminded me a little bit of when Jordan
switched hands in the in the finals, and you have
Marv Albert losing his mind over that. I mean, look,
I watched all those games in the nineties. It was
a huge and being at that time.
Speaker 1: All right, so we got the elem anymore.
Speaker 2: Look, look, we don't have any gold medal Olympic US
fighters to talk about for the boxing, so we got
to live vicariously through the track and the swimming and
the basketball and other sports.
Speaker 3: Team USA in the Olympics has been such an absolute disappointment.
I know we're getting off the track here, but just
in the state. First of all, we only qualified as
a country four men and four women, right, and in
terms of the men's competition, which is what I pay
a little more attention to, obviously, one bronze kind of week.
Speaker 2: Wait, I was gonna say, we have anybody fight even
for the gold medal.
Speaker 1: No, I don't think we have here.
Speaker 3: As the bottom line, that's it has now been TJ
twenty years since the United States had a man when
a gold medal in boxing, you have to go back
to Athens two thousand and four when Andre Ward collected
a gold medal in that Olympic Games. Now, he obviously
went on to have a great pro career as a
Hall of Famer. Right, We've had plenty of guys that
have won medals and gone on to have excellent professional careers.
But you know, the United States used to be synonymous
with the Olympic gold medal.
Speaker 1: Yes, very true, even in.
Speaker 3: Even in like okay, obviously eighty four, which was a
huge year for the United States, but also there was
no Russians or Cubans because of the boycotts. But even
even with full complements of competitors seventy six Olympics, even
if you look at times when they didn't win golds,
like take nineteen ninety six, where they got a bunch
of medals but no gold, you had guys like Mayweather
come out of that games and been Fernando Vargas and
lots of other guys.
Speaker 1: Harbor also Harbor, Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean, obviously Oscar won a gold medal in a
team that also included fighters like Vernon Forrest and Chris Byrd.
And but I don't I just don't see any of
that with the guys we have coming through these days.
Even the last Olympics. I mean, they got their share
of medals, but you know, it's just been the amateur
system in this country. As much as we think about
the issues that are in professional boxing, amateur boxing, at
least in the United States is absolutely broken. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And the proof of it is we used to have
repeated gold medalist. We can't win a gold medal right
now in men's boxing.
Speaker 1: So there you go.
Speaker 2: All right, so some takes on some Olympic boxing right
off the bat. Anyway, thank you for finding us, for
all the takes we preview going into the weekend. We
recap coming off the weekend twice a weekend. Double the ray, feel,
double the fun. I say, make sure you're following, subscribing
ratus and review us. Let's get some August ratings and
reviews going. I keep saying this when you search boxing
under Apple, under Spotify, we're right there because you folks
have been doing a good job.
Speaker 1: But keep it up.
Speaker 2: Give us a five star review, Take ten twenty seconds
and tell us. Tell everybody else that you enjoy the
pod and the hard work that we put in with
the interviews, etc. You heard from Virgil Ortiz on this
podcast feed earlier in the week, we're about to preview
his fight. If you enjoy the interviews in the conversation,
rate us and review us. With that said, Ortiz's main event,
the Golden Boys Show in Las Vegas, leads the show. Sir,
Hey Bolachuk is the interim WBC Junior Middleweight champ. Again,
you talk to Virgil recently and we played that interview.
Let's begin right there. How excited are we for his
return and a chance to win an interim air quotes
junior middleweight title thoughts here Dan to begin the show.
Speaker 3: Well, in terms of this fight, it's really not so
much about the belt, which is, you know, it's cool
if you're the fighter and they get a chance to
win it, you know, it will improve their situation in
terms of going forward to get an actual title shot.
In matter of fact, Virgil Ortiz even spoke about that
on the podcast interview that your reference where you know,
he's okay winning the interim belt, but he wants the
real belt and he knows this is a way to
sort of get in position to do that. But in
terms of the fight itself, Delta side, this is just
a really good match. Now I know, Sarry Bochek is
not the most known guy in the world, but he
is a tremendous fighter who was a good amateur, has
an excellent professional. He's twenty four and one twenty three knockouts.
Check this out, by the way, Virgil Artis is twenty
one and no with twenty one knockouts and Bochek is
twenty four and one with twenty three knockouts. They've seen
the final bell exactly once in their entire professional career combined,
so they've had a lot of knockouts. And as you
heard Virgil reference. Also if you listen to his interview
that I had with him, he and Bochick know each
other because they've sparred quite a bit in the past, right,
and Virgil was really blunted about He's like, it's gonna
be a freaking It's not gonna be a boxing MAT's
gonna be a real war, like a real fight, because
of the the memories that he has of being in
the ring with him. They're not looking to dance around
and box. I mean, don't. I don't think it's gonna
be a first or second round knockout necessarily, even though
these guys both are big punchers, but you know, it's
gonna be a rough fight. I think they both seem
to understand that listening and hearing what they've had to
say leading up to it. Boachuk's a great story, by
the way. I mean, here's a guy that was kind
of buried on an under card. He was gonna be
on the back, and you go back to March when
Fandora and Zoo fought, that card got kind of rejiggered
because of what happened with the main event having to
be switched up. So in came he got an opportunity
against Brian Mendoza to fight for the interim title on
the undercard, and that was in a very exciting fight,
but rather one sided in Balchuk's favor. So he comes
in on late notice and he gets that victory and
it sets him up now for this fight, which is
by far and away the biggest of his career, and
for Virginal Artis. You know, we've spent a lot of
time talking about him. Unfortunately, a lot of the conversation
about him has been why he isn't fighting because he's
had injuries and the medical issues with the blood disorder
and all that. But now look at Virginal artis he's
like one of the most active bigger names in terms
of the whole sport. Because this will be already here.
We are only in August. He will be in his
third fight so far, and if he wins and there's
no injuries, you can guarantee that he will be back
once again by the end of this year. So he
came back in January and in April, and he fought
you know, not big names, but lesser guys Frederick Lawson
and Thomas de Lorme.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say neither fight made it out of
the first round. It makes it yes in the ring
a third time when you didn't hear the second bell right, but.
Speaker 3: He didn't take any punishment. He got the you know
whatever the russ was. Remember before the loss in fight,
he had fought since August of twenty twenty two for
a variety of postponements and cancelations. So now it's like
Virgil's and the Groove, and he's got the two fights
under the belt. He got the KO one in both fights.
By the way, I predicted a KO one against the Lorme.
And now he's got Bocheck that ain't gonna be a
KO one. I'm very confident in that, but just a
very very good matchup between guys that made craft policing fight.
So it's a worthy main event for his own Remember
TJ when they were constructing the card that we saw
last week with Terrence Crawford and Israel Majimov. Originally Virgil
Ortiz was supposed to fight Tim Zuo on that undercard
for one of the inn I think the WBA Intern Belt,
And because Tim Zoo was not permitted to go forward
with his training because his the cut on his scalp
from the March fight, his doctor Roldie was not ready
to go, so that fight was bounced off the card.
There was some overtures from Golden Boy and those involved
to replace tim Zuo with Serry Bochek, which seemed like
a very reasonable replacement to me, but for whatever the
reason was, the Saudi's and those involved in running that
event decided they didn't want that fight. Okay, fine, so
they made the fight anyway because Golden Boys got dates.
And if you ask me, as much as I like
a deep card, it does get to the point sometimes
where it's a little bit overkill. You're trying to cover
and watch all these fights in the same night and
it becomes like blur. So now we get Virgil Artist Bullsheck,
who get a chance to sort of have the limelight
to themselves for you know, for much of this week
and be the main event on their own card. So
that's a good thing. So ultimately the fight will happen,
and it's an important fight in a good way class
with a lot of action going on, and the winner
is going to be in a great position. And frankly,
if the loser loses in a manner that is crowd
pleasing and you know, and and competes in the fight.
I see zero reason why the loser is going to
have to take some massive backward step. Obviously, the loser
is always going to take a backwards step, but it's
not career killer or anything like that. These are two
younger fighters still you know, in the earlier days if
you will, of fighting at this level. I think this
is a tremendous matchup. This has a real chance to
be an outstanding fight in my opinion.
Speaker 2: All Right, and again we'll get more into the implications
with is Terrence Crawford going to now look to be
undisputed at one point fifty four. We'll get into that
a little later in the podcast, in the news part
of this, but certainly for the winner, and.
Speaker 1: We suspected sorties.
Speaker 2: Although Bulletchuck could give him a real test here, we
can honestly say this, he didn't get a test at
all Virgil in the previous two fights. So this is,
as you just illuminated, this is going to be a
test we think here in this main event, and then
what happens after that is a much bigger payday and
much more noteworthy fight for the winner. All Right, the
rest of the card, Charles coming, well, go ahead.
Speaker 3: Well, just real quick on Virgil. Even though the Saudis
did not put the fight on the card with Crawford
and Najamov, if you listen to what Turkey al Chik says,
who obviously runs the show with the Saudi money, all
they have every intention of working with Oscar going forward
to try to do something with Virgil Ortiz, which could
be a fight eventually with Terrence Crawford or some other
notable fight in that weight class. But certainly if Crawford's
going to stay at one hundred and fifty four, which
I think he will, and we'll get into that a minute.
Then the biggest fight probably in the weight class. If
Virgil Ortiz is the winner and looks solid doing so,
you gotta figure that's probably the most significant fight at
one hundred and fifty four pounds because they'll be coming
off this win. He's got the big punching power, and
if you take a look at the other fighters in
the weight class, you got Fondora, but he's on the
shelf for the time being. He's got some other things
going on. Martazlov who's got one of the titles. You know,
that Tim Zoo fight would be a big deal also,
but I still think that Virgil, because Tim is doing
some other stuff anyway, in terms of his title situation,
that it shapes up like the tremendous possibility.
Speaker 2: Romel Charlo could even resurface. Maybe it's gonna take another
calendar here, who knows. As I mentioned Charles Conwell, Hey,
he's resurfaced. He is going to be in the co
feature in the same junior middleway division. Tell me about
this co feature fight with Kahari Gray. Tell me a
little more about this.
Speaker 3: Well. Conwell is undefeated. He was an Olympian back you know,
you know a couple of cycles ago and has had
starts and stops in his career. He finally got his
promotional situation ironed out, you know, he was he was
a free agent, but he was having all kinds of
issues with promotion and management to all nine yards. I mean,
it's kind of part for the course in boxing, unfortunately.
So he had like a pretty lengthy layoff. He didn't fight,
you know, all of twenty twenty three and didn't get
back in the ring until April of this year, which
is first fight he had when he signed with Golden Boy.
He was on the undercard back when you had the
big fight between Ryan Garcia and Devin Hainey. So he
won that fight against a well traveled journeyman Nathaniel Gallimore
and Carrie Gray is sort of another kind of fight
like that, not a I mean, clearly Conwell should be
a huge favorite. Gray is eighteen and six and stopped twice,
you know, not at the world level like Conwell is.
In my mind, to me, it's not a matter of
if Charles Conwell wins the fight, it's how he wins
the fight. But he's certainly in position just below the
guys we were just talking about to be in a
title picture. He's very highly ranked by the WBC. He's
already won one elimination fight in that organization, and so
he is ready and ready to go. He's still only
twenty six years old, so he's still very much got
youth on his side in terms of where his pro
career is. So I would suspect if he wins this fight,
then sometime maybe later this year, certainly early next year,
that he'll be a more significant fight against one of
the bigger names in the division, be it possibly for
a title, maybe for an elimination, you know, a final eliminator.
But Charles Conwell is a quality guy in this weight
class and this is just this is more of a
showcase kind of fight, to be honest with you. But
the main event is obviously good enough, so you know,
this is the I'll call it the nominal co feature.
It's not that big of a deal, but he's got
to win. He's got to look decent in and move
on to the next fight. But he's in a good
position now, he's got a new promoter, they're on course,
they've got other action that weight class, so let's get
to it.
Speaker 2: And he's got a name and if he looks good.
As you said, it's a rich right now, what do
we know one hundred and fifty four pound division with
other matchups that could be out there for him. And
you've also mentioned the name Kenneth Simms a couple of
different times. He is a junior welterweight. He is on
this card as well. Give me a little more on
this for the Golden Boy Show Saturday night in Vegas.
Speaker 3: I'm a big fan of Kenne Sims. This is a
guy that can box, he can brawl. He's a very
very quality fighter. Had a big time amateur career. His
problem has just been in activity, like a lot of
fighters unfortunately. So he had been with PBC. You know,
he fought two times in twenty twenty two, but not
against big names. And in twenty twenty three he got
an opportunity in a WBA eliminator against Akmandoff and it
was it was a fight of the Year contender. It
was a tremendous battle, I mean, a really outstanding fight.
It kind of stole the show that night when that
was the main event that night was a fight between
Roly Romero and Ismael Barroso that we remember. Unfortunately for
all the wrong reasons. But Roly Romero, whatever happened to
that main event, it was Kenneth Sims and Achmandov that
stole the show. In the COO feature. They put on
a hell of a fight and Kenna Sims won a
majority decision, a well deserved in my opinion. And now
again he goes in active for the rest of the year.
He was with PBC, and you know, they didn't have
as many fights on their calendar as they would have liked,
I am sure. So when he became a free agent,
there was interest I think from different promoters, but he
ultimately signed earlier in the year with Golden Boy and
so this will be his first fight since he signed
with them. They got themselves a very quality fighter in
an excellent on hundred and forty pound way class. He
can fight for a title as soon as they can
line one up for him. He's not in with a
big name opponent similar to the Conwell fight. He's in
a fighter named higher Valtierra seventeen and three, Ben stopped
once a Mexican fighter. Kenna Sims should be and is
a massive favorite in this fight. This is sort of
like I've got to get some of this rushed off.
I haven't fought for a while. Let me get back
in the ring. Let me get in the ring with
a guy that I and you know, have a decent
scrap with. But I'm a heavy favorite. And then again,
like I said with Conwell, if he wins this fight Kennisims,
I believe he will move on to a much more
significant fight. One hundred and forty pounds is a very
good weight class. You know, Golden Boy is willing to
work with anybody. They'll make their fights for their guys.
Kennis Sims is a really good fighter. I like them
a lot, all right.
Speaker 2: So again that is coming Saturday night in Las Vegas,
and also on Saturday, while we're in the preview mode,
the top rank card is in Albuquerque, New Mexico on ESPN.
Why Albuquerque because Angelo Leo is from that area and
Luis Alberto Lopez has had no problem in the past
traveling and defending his IBF featherweight title in other places,
even as kind of the enemy fighter. Here he is
doing that again. Latest title defense for Lopez at one
hundred and twenty six for the IBF crown. Give me
some more on this. We know Leo from having lost
to Steven Fulton. You mentioned that name earlier, but he's
won some fights since then and built up another title
shot here.
Speaker 1: Dan.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So in terms of Lopez, Vernado as his nickname
is Venado, and so now all the press releases from
Top Rank, they've stopped calling him Luis Alberto Lopez. Now
they just call him Venado Lopez. So I'm still on
the fence of what I think I'm going to do
about that, and I think I'll still call him Louis
Alberto Lopez. Anyway, in twenty twenty two, you talk about
being the road warrior. He got the title shot as
a mandatory against Josh Warrington. He traveled to Leeds, England,
and he won the title. That's a hard place to fight.
He won, and you know that he really was the
worthy winner because he did win by a majority decision.
So usually in those close calls and the other guy's
hometown often will go the other way. So he clearly
was the winner of that fight. He won the title,
then they didn't give him any breaks, right, So this
is going to be by the way he won that
belt in that this will be his now fourth title defense.
For his first title defense, he didn't get a homecoming.
You didn't get a soft touch, you didn't get like
a showcase fight. Now you know what you fight in
Leeds and Josh Rington's hometown. We're gonna send your grass
back on the road. You know where you get to go.
You get to go to fight Michael Collin in Belfast,
Northern Ireland. So he went there and by the way,
he scored an absolutely spectacular knockout against Michael Colin to
retain the title. And then he finally got a chance
to come back and fight in the United State, fighting
not in Mexico, but at least he fought in front
of a very large Mexican Mexican American crowd in Corpus Christi, Texas.
But he was fighting another Mexican fighter, Mexican American fighter,
so he wasn't given any favors on that one. And
he did score a rather handilingly decision victory against Joet Gonzales,
who had fought for the title on a multiple occasions.
Then he had the big knockout earlier in the year.
This was back in March. He fought the Japanese mandatory
Raya Abbe that was up in Turning Stone in Verona,
New York on the undercart of that great fight between
Coolmatov when he fought for the which I forget the
opponent who he fight against the for the featherweight belt. Anyway,
So now after a couple of fights where he's at
least neutral turf, now he's going back. He's fight Angelo Leo,
like you mentioned, they're going back to the road. So
Angelo is he lives in Vegas, but he's from Albuquerque.
He's twenty four to one with eleven and is a
good matchup. This is a worthy fight if you were
doing like unbiased featherweight rankings. I know Lopez has a belt,
but he's arguably like depending on what your point of
view is, he could be maybe the number one featherweight
all the way to maybe down to like number three
or four. So he's at the upper echelon of the
featherweights and a guy like Angelo Leo at this point
in his career is probably like seventh, eighth something like that.
I think I saw him box Wreck he was eighth
in the weight class something like that. You mentioned the
Stephen Fulton fight that was in twenty twenty one. In
January of that year he lost his title. He was
the WBO title holder at one hundred and twenty two
pounds and he lost the unanimous decision. It was pretty
one sided as a matter of fact. But after that
he has since won four fights in a row, including
his last three at featherweight. He's been featured on some
of the probox cards and he's done a good job.
And they haven't been with like complete nobody's either. He's
fought pretty solid guys. Aaron Almeida was a solid opponent,
Nicholas Polanco solid opponent, Mike Plainey was a solid opponent,
and the last fight at Ward Obias, who gave him
then you'll never reet. They a tough fight and been
with a lot of good guys. He won a ten
round decision against him in April. So here's a guy
that's been active. He's already had two fights this year.
He's been fighting like reputable opposition, and now he's got
a hometown chance to fight for the world title. So
this is a good matchup. I think this again, it's
it may not be as explosive in my mind as
what we talked about with Virgil against Boachek, but I
think this has a very good chance also be a
good scrap man. This like it's it's it's neither one
of these fights are like huge fights. But if you're
a boxing fan, this is This is a weekend where
there's not a lot going on. It's a dead a summer.
Olympics are happening, and the undercards are nothing to speak
of overall in my opinion. But in terms of the
two main events that are being presented, one by Golden
Boy on his own one by Top Rank on ESPN,
the two main event fights are very worthwhile. Qual of
the fights, I expect them to be competitive, and I
expect them there to be some action in both of them.
Speaker 2: And in the case of the hometown fighter, we know this,
whatever he does, he'll get the crowd riled up. We'll
see if Leo could take advantage. And one more time,
you said this, Leo fighting for the third time already
this year. And by my math, I know I went
to public school. Since Luis Alberto Lopez won the belt
in December of twenty twenty two, this is now his
fifth fight in twenty months. Let's hear it for activity,
for guys keeping themselves relevant and active and you know,
not having ring rust.
Speaker 3: We like that. And by the way, this will be
Lopez's third fight, I'm sorry, second fight this year, and
either a guy who wins, there's a very good likelihood
that they could find themselves back in the ring again
at the end of the year or at the very
least at the very early part of next year. So
there won't be huge layoffs for these guys. It doesn't
seem to me so. Albuquerque, by the way, has been
a good fight town. Top Rank used to do fights
are on a regular basis, even when they weren't featuring
Albuquerque fighters. It's been something like fifteen years or so
since they've been in Albuquerque. For this fight, it's taking
place at the Tingley Coliseum. They did a lot of
Johnny Tappia fights and Daniel Romero fights when they promoted
those guys, and they did a lot of fights in
Albuquerque back in the day when they were doing weekly
shows on their Spanish language networks that they worked with,
whether it was Univision, TeleFutura later at Unamas. And it's
a great fight city, and it's good that they're getting,
you know, a good, good show. I think they'll have
probably a really good crowd there, you know, because it's
been a lack of fights, number one, and also because
the guy in the title fight in the main event
is a local guy.
Speaker 2: I'm looking here just through his list, and it looks
like the last time that Leo fought in Albuquerque. Because
you mentioned he is living and training in Las Vegas
and has been for years, it looks like, going back
on box records, what twenty fifteen, So it's been a
while since he has fought a fight, if I have
that right in Albuquerque. He's fought in a lot of
other places, Las Vegas, a bunch, fought in Atlanta on
an undercard, fought in the bubble at the in Connecticut.
But yeah, I think I do have that right. So
Albuquerque the last time he fought Leo, and Albuquerque's twenty fifteen,
So this is a bit of a homecoming. We'll see
what kind of fan support he gets and how big
a deal will be.
Speaker 1: Again.
Speaker 2: That's ESPN Saturday Night, Top Rank Main Event, IBF Featherweight Crown.
Speaker 1: Okay, to the news. When last you and I.
Speaker 2: Chatted, coming off the weekend, we had such high hopes
for Terrence Crawford and Canelo Alvarez and now, oh, hold.
Speaker 3: On, hold on, I didn't really care about that.
Speaker 2: I'm being facetious, sarcastic. Can't you tell it's dripping in
my tone? And lo and behold, Like three days later,
it's now apparently unraveled, everybody blaming everybody. Turkey's taken to
social media, Turkey Ala Sheikh and just basically blasting Canello,
saying I don't want this fight anymore, it doesn't interest
me anymore.
Speaker 1: I'll have Terrence Crawford fight other people.
Speaker 2: Canello, at one of the press conferences this week also
ripped back and said I'm not going to be dictated
to We've talked about that before, all right, So apparently
that's now not going to happen. While we start talking
Canelo and Berlanga. That's one of the overarching things right
now is that apparently, at least for now, there's not
going to be a Terrence Crawford Canelo fight, subject to change.
Speaker 3: The best fight of this week has been Canelo versus Turkey.
Much more interesting than anything that went on between Canelo.
Speaker 1: And Berlangas and the press conferences.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's like it's like King Congress is Godzilla.
Speaker 2: I mean, by the way Terrence Crawford was on social
media earlier Thursday. Did you see this. I did not
hear it in full. I just heard the clip. He said,
whatever we want to believe. He said, the offer is
one hundred and ten million dollars perce between he and Canelo,
and Canelo doesn't want to do the fight. I don't
know if you heard that. I heard that, but I
don't know where to believe on that one. And for
them to share or I think so, yes, one hundred
and ten million, that's a lot of bread, that's a
lot of dough, if that's to be believed.
Speaker 3: Just just to me to hear about it. Canelo's perspective
was the following. Now, remember on Monday, they launched a
press tour his fight with Berlanga. They went to New York,
they went to LA and so that fight is on
his mind. That fight is coming up on September fourteenth,
and so he said. And I saw some of the
comments from Canelo. I listened to some of the you know,
he was in the media scrum and he was asked
about it. Basically said that on Saturday, I don't know
if it was Turkey directly or you know, Turkey's lieutenants
or whoever it was texted Canelo or got in touch
with them and said they wanted to meet with him
in Los Angeles on Saturday, when I guess he was
going to be there to talk about doing a fight
with Crawford pending his victory against Madromov and do the
fight in February. That seemed to be what their plan was,
and Canelo's point of view is, look, I am training
and preparing for September fourteenth, so I don't care what
anybody thinks about Edgar Berlanga, but I'm focused on Edgar Berlanga.
I got a job to do, and if I screw
that up, I mean, I'm this one. He's probably thinking like,
if I don't win, there's no proper fight anyway. So
that did not go over well apparently because they're used
to having everybody just, you know, drop everything, and when say,
you know, jump, ask how high. And that's not the
Canelo Alvarez. I know, he's a stubborn individual. That's one
of the things that makes him great because he just
does things his own way, and you know, it's a
it's a clash of personalities. I'm not suggesting that one
guy is right one guy is wrong, but I totally
understand from the perspective of Canelo, like, don't bother me
about another fight when I'm fighting September fourteenth, If you
will want to talk to me and my team afterwards,
you know, by all means, let's have the conversation. And
certainly if you're going to fight in February, there's plenty
of time between September and February to get a fight
deal done and work it out. So when that happened,
and and and Canelo pushed back and then spoke about
it publicly. You know, Turkey, as you mentioned, he did
his social media post and we're like, you know, I forget,
I don't want to fight. So that's kind of like
I looked at it, sort of like I quit. No,
you're fired, Like which is it? You know, like they
just they weren't going to agree to it.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: Canel most perspective was, you know, I respect him, but
if we're gonna do something, we're gonna do it my way,
not your way. I don't like how he talks to me.
Turkey is not used to apparently being pushed back on
because so far, everybody involved in boxing anyway, the fighters
have have a clamored to be around him and to
be on the cards and get that money and get
that credit and do all the things to go into
you know, making those events. And Canelo has made more
money than any of them basically, so he doesn't you know, Yeah,
maybe he can make a huge amount of money against Cowford,
but at the stage of Canelo's current the guy's made
literally pride. I mean, I'm not gonna count his money,
but I would say conservatively he's made five hundred million dollars.
Speaker 2: He's easily made three or four hundred million, no question.
What do we know, because I know from all the
reporting that you've done and others have done, basically on
this role that he's been on, he's been getting thirty
five forty million guaranteed over and over again. It's my understanding.
It's something similar here again in this in this PBC,
Like I remember those fights.
Speaker 3: So he's one of the few boxers that also has
significant income outside the boxing ring. A lot of fighters
and other athletes, uh, they make money on on other deals,
and Canelo has got different product endorsements and this and that.
So he's making millions of dollars haveing nothing to do
with throwing a punch just on his personality and his
notoriety and his name. So if they're and I'm not
saying that he doesn't want more I mean, who doesn't
want more money? But among the boxers that the Saudis
have worked with, he's made more than any of them
except maybe Anthony Joshua, So he doesn't his perspectives, I
don't need your money. I mean I wouldn't mind having
some of it, and we can do a deal, but
or not, I'm not gonna.
Speaker 2: He's not at the beginning of the of the take.
He's not going to be dictated to At this point.
He can go make thirty five or forty million fighting
somebody else. If and when he beats Berlanga, he'll fight
somebody else. They'll figure it out of it.
Speaker 3: And that attitude, that attitude probably came as a surprise
to Turkey because so far in the in the you know,
six or eight months or ten months that he's been
involved heavily in making these bigger fights, most of the
fighters have been nothing but appreciative and want to be
on the shows and get the bigger pay days and
and and be on these big events. And so it
comes as surprising you have somebody like Canelo pushing back
and being like, I don't, you know, talk to my people,
but I'm not doing it. You're right, we'll do it
by way. So you know, that's a clash of personalities,
a clash of styles. And I totally get Canelo's perspective
of I don't want to talk about my next fight
in terms of a business deal until I have the
fight that I've already signed for that I've got to
focus and concentrate on. You know, it's kind of like
a you know, you hear from like a football player
or a baseball player, like they don't want to talk
about a new contract, like when the season starts. You know,
you want to get the deal done before the season. Fine,
once the season starts. I got a concentrat on my season.
Speaker 2: Same in boxing, and we were big college basketball people.
Back to the basketball. You're in the NCAA tournament. You
don't want to talk about somebody that you're potentially going
to meet in the final four. I got to play
the team that's in front of me. I don't want
to worry about who's two levels away in the final four.
Speaker 3: But that made for that made for some very sort
of explosive rhetoric, if you will.
Speaker 2: That's direc better, however, than the Canelo Berlanga, although the
Beverly Hills press or Berlanga got a little more animated. Yeah,
tried to play a little more heel in that one,
I guess.
Speaker 3: So in terms of the press scurp like, I get
the fact that they have to play up the Puerto
Rico versus Mexico angle, because that's really the only thing
there is to play up in the fight, because we
know what Canelo has done and what his legacy is
and his accomplishments. And Edgar Berlanga has been a good
young fighter for the last few years, but has kind
of regressed to some people and has no big wins
that you can hang your hat on, has never won
a title, has never fought a top level guy, and
you know, fair or unfair, I think most people look
at the matchum and think that Edgar Berlang is gonna
get absolutely wiped out by Canelo oas even though Canelo
it's been quite a while frankly since he's had a knockout,
but if there ever was a time where you could
see him get a knockout for the first time in
a while. You know, you'd have to think Berlanga might
be that guy. But the point is they had to
go back and forth. So Berlanga started up with him
with the shirt off at the Beverly HOS press conference
and yap and and you know, the good thing about
Canelo is this Canelo is exactly the kind of guy
when he's promoting a fight. If you play nice with him,
he's not going to start up with you. He's gonna
be nice. Like remember with Mangia Mongi has never had
a bad word to say it about anybody that he's fought,
and so Canelo went along with that. It was like
a love fest. It was kind of boring in terms
of the promotion. Good fight turned out to be a
good fight in the ring, but a very sleep inducing,
very sleepy time, very yawny type of promotion. Uh. In
terms of Berlanga though, and anybody, if you start up
with Canelo, he'll give it right back. I mean, is
there anything more fun in boxing than Canelo cursing in English?
Speaker 2: I'm not sure that he hasn't learned that.
Speaker 1: He haying to figure all that out.
Speaker 3: So he's been giving it right back to uh to berlanga,
and that that's made it a little bit more interesting
and fun because, like I said, I they can only
hang on to the Mexico Puerto Rico thing for so long.
Number one. You know what, I'm big of a deal
if you're not Puerto Rican or Mexican first.
Speaker 2: Well, right, But you know what I'm laughing at is
our buddy Dan Canobio, and I love his work with
he and Chris Aljuri and they're they're with our friends at.
Speaker 1: PPV dot com.
Speaker 2: But Canobio was teaching Canelo a couple of swear words
on one of their interviews at one point, and he
also was going over slang like he was teaching Canelo
you're in his head, and Canello's looking at him like
what does that mean? And he's like, obside, what does
that mean? And he's like, no, you you are. You
are playing with him mentally, you're in his head. He goes, oh, yes,
in his head, in his head. So I love that that,
you know, we're kind of educating him and how to
how to trash talk. But nonetheless, they got to sell
this a little bit.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: The the biggest part of it is going to be
uh like you said, is Canelo going to come out
with a devastating type performance that makes people clamor for okay,
what's the next big thing? Will it be A Benavitez
doesn't look like it. Will it be Crawford doesn't look
like it at the moment, but it could change. But
what is the next biggest thing? If Canelo's swats Edgar Berlanga,
well we'll find a.
Speaker 3: Very good question. I mean, now, Canelo is at a
point right now if he's not fighting David Benovite's at
this point and he's not going to go back to
light heavyweight, which would mean no Benevide's, no, no better
be of against the a BBO rematch, not a David Morrel.
So if you're sticking at super middleweight, he's basically already
beaten most of the guys. I mean, you know, is
there a CHRISTIANBILLI I mean sure, but that's not a
big name at all. Right, so again, that would be
a just stylistically, by the way, freaking great fight. And
we got to see what happens between Mombilly and Devon Schenko.
They fight coming up next week. But the thing about
it is he's been around now at super middleweight for
a while, and he's unified all the belts that he's
kind of running out of guys to fight. And the
thing that's also on a problem if you're looking for
Canelo opponents is normally you can look to the way
class below and see, Okay, who's ready to come up
to challenge you. Well, we've talked about it a thousand times.
The middleweight division is pretty weak, and so there's not
a guy sitting there in the middleweight division. They're like, oh,
you know, I really wish this guy would move up
to fight him. I mean, is anybody clamoring to see
Canelo again? I'm not even saying these are bad fights,
but there's no public appeal. Is anybody care if Canella foss, say,
Carlos and Damas, who's the WBC champion, whint Away or
Janeback for that matter, who's got two of the belts
at middleweight, Who's you know, probably moving up because of
the weight issues? Who that knows? He says he's staying
at one sixty ARIZONI Lara's got the WBA title, he
already fought in years ago and beat him. I don't
think there's much attraction in that rematch, to be honest
with you, and Laura is fighting Danny Garcia on Canelo's
undercard comes September, so there's not a big name at
middleweight to go up. So not that I'm worried about
Canello's business. He'll always have, you know, his fans and
don't want to watch him fight. But in terms of
the mega fight, I think the only chance for a
mega fight for Canelo is to go to one seventy five,
or if Benevidez decides that he can do it and
come back to one sixty, which I'm skeptical of so especially.
Speaker 2: Right especially when Benevide's vacated the one sixty eight interim
title and apparently wants to stay at light heavyweight. All right,
So along those lines, they did officially announce the undercard
here and give me a little more. You talked on
the previous podcast that the Caleb Plant fight was likely
landing there with Trevor mccumby's cut healing up where they
couldn't fight in August, couldn't fight this month, but they'll
be able to fight in September, and what else here
has been rolled out on the undercard.
Speaker 3: Well, you got the main event, and when they announced
the main event, they also announced the fight I just mentioned,
which is Laura defending his WBA Midaway delt against Danny Garcia.
So that's the co feature, and then the other fights
that they announced for the rest of the pay per
view the Plant Trevor McCombe fight, which was never formally
announced for August, but it was told me by numerous
people involved with PBC that that was supposed to headline
their August seventeenth non pay per view card, but because
like you mentioned, because of the cut, McCombe was not
available to go on that date. For whatever reason, they
didn't want to get into opponent, so they moved this
fight rescheduled for this undercard. For whatever you think it's
worth our care, just from the factual point of view,
it is for the WBA's interim Super Middleway title. Entirely unnecessary,
but it is what it is. Then they also have
in the opening paper you fight Rolando Romero against Manuel Jimes,
a fight that is absolutely worthless in my opinion. I
said to a person that I'm friendly with from PBC,
you know you should give me the seventy nine to
ninety nine to make me watch Roly Romero on a
pay per view card, right, I mean.
Speaker 2: Just last I checked, he was being pummeled. I got
a by Isa Cruz.
Speaker 3: I have no particular problem with kayleb planning against mcumbe.
I mean, whatever, is it the biggest fight ever? No,
McCombe has never fought anybody, but he's twenty eight, and
oh Caleb has always been a fighter. I've enjoyed watching
he's coming off of a layoff. I mean, I get
that it's not the co feature, but Romero against Himes
is just an I don't even get that. It's like,
why is the point? I mean, if you want to
make the fight fight, put it on the preliminaries, don't
put it on my pay per view and make it
part of my eighty dollars investment in your fight card.
So that to me, that's just a just a brutal mismatch.
I mean, I wouldn't say it's a mismatch because I
just don't think Romero's all that, and himis is unproven
and never really done anything. And the other fight that
they announced and this will be one of the free
fights on the preliminaries that they do on Prime Video
that will take place prior to the actual pay per
view portion of the card. This will be the return
of Stephen Fulton, who was also supposed to fight on
the August seventeenth card, but when that was canceled, they
moved it to this event. So if you have Stephen Fulton,
who has been out of the ring since he lost
his two titles at one two to Noia in a
way by knockout, he's moving up to featherweight and he's
fighting Carlos Castro. This is actually not a bad fight
in my mind, I actually would have rather seen this
on the pay per view, but their perspective is whatever
you think about the matchup, Roller Romira is the bigger
name and I can't even argue with that. Unfortunately, Roller
Romera is the bigger name, but frankly, for all the
wrong reasons. Nonetheless, that's a free fight. They'll add a
couple others over the next couple of weeks to the
preliminary part of the card. That'll be on the free
part on Prime and so there's your pay per view.
I mean, let's be honest about it. TJ and I've
lauded the other pay per views that PBC has done
on Prime since they've made this deal. Fondora against even
with the late replacements, was a hect of a card
on paper. The Mongia card with Canelo was a good card.
The Frank Martin Tank Davis car that also had ben
a Vidia's on the card and some other good fights,
that was a good card. So I'm not a hater.
Everybody knows. I'm not a hater of PBC. They've done
a hell of a job with these fights, even if
they're all pay per view. But this pay per view,
being honest, it leaves a little bit too well desired.
Speaker 2: All right, So let's go back to one other thing
and then we're gonna move on. We talked I even.
Speaker 3: Killing the main event. I mean, I get the reason
why he's fighting Berlinka. I'm okay with that.
Speaker 2: Okay, But we talked at length last winter on where
are they gonna land with an outlet? And you have
said repeatedly, and I've agreed with you, where are they
going to regularly have fight cards that aren't pay per
views so that their fighters can be involved? And so
now with this cancelation in August, it seems to me,
it seems to me that they were probably gonna have
Fulton maybe fight on the August situation had it been announced,
and instead they've now waited. Along with the Caleb Plant fight,
they're just trying to get guys dates because they don't
have their act together with the regular non pay per
view cars on Amazon Prime.
Speaker 1: It still hasn't happened yet.
Speaker 3: The August card was supposed to be as I mentioned,
it was planned against McCombe and it was going to
be Fulton originally was supposed to fight Ronnie Rios.
Speaker 2: That was the card, right, and so now they're having
to cram them in because they don't know when they
have another car.
Speaker 3: A couple of things about that. Originally, when they were
going to do the non pay per view cards, some
of the guys that fought on the on the Magmov
and Crawford card were PBC fighters. They did that Alan
Zuela against Pitt Bull Cruz, that's a PBC fight. Andy
Ruiz was their guy who fought Jarrell Miller. They also
had David Morrel against high Rod. So if they hadn't
gotten the good money that their guys got for those fights,
some of those guys would have wound up on non
pay per view cards. Now, remember also the non pay
per view element of the Amazon deal. It's not just
like PBC says, we don't want to do this. By
my understanding, they want to do those cards. But a
lot of that has to do with Amazon in their situation.
And when they're sort of getting their feet wet, if
you will, and doing these events again, they tell me
they are planning a slate of non pay per view cards. Yes,
they've been messed up. August didn't happen, They got pushed
back from the spring.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I haven't done yet. I'm not saying I'm not
saying you're saying that they have.
Speaker 3: They don't believe it when I see it. But by
all accounts, and I talked to some people just earlier
today about it, to be quite honest, is they are
still planning to do non pay per view fights come
probably September. I think we'll see the return of David Morrell,
for example, in a non pay per view fight. He
just fought on the Turkey cart of this past Saturday,
So that will happen eventually. And remember also when they
do the preliminary fights, those are on Prime that are
not pay per view so they are getting some of
their customers on Prime use to the fact that there
are not only the pay per view fights, but you
can watch the other preliminaries, and the preliminaries they have
done in large measure have been solid fights, like, for example,
the Boachek fight I mentioned to you against Brian Mendoza.
That was a hell of a fight to my recollection,
that was part of the preliminary car on March thirtieth,
that was not on the pay per view. So you know,
baby steps again, we'll see. Well, the proof's going to
be when they actually do it. So they can talk
till they're blue in the face, but they plan right.
Speaker 2: And by the way, we get along, I get along
with the PBC people, et cetera. But you got to
show me something on this that that you were going
to be just fine.
Speaker 1: That's what we kept hearing.
Speaker 2: They were going to be just fine with the television element,
the television partner, the non pay per view partner, with
all the different fighters that they have. All right, so
let's uh, let's move on. You keep mentioning, David Benavidez,
do you want to go ahead and cover the nugget
here that you are reporting on which he is going
to be back.
Speaker 3: Go ahead, Yeah, So, I mean when he fought the
fight in June on the undercart of the Tank Davis
and Frank Martin fight. That was his debut at light heavyweight,
where he fought Alexander Vodig, former champion, and he won
the vacant interim WBC title in that weight class. And
as you remember, he also held the interim belt that
one sixty eight and the WBC gave him a period
of time in which they had a where he had
to decide am I going to keep the belt in
whichever division and then notify the organization. Ultimately, to no surprise, frankly,
he elected to keep the belt at won seventy five
and that's where he plans to go. But remember also
when he fought the voting fight, he got some injuries
going on. He had a bum ligament in one hand,
he had another injury that he went into the fight
with in the other hand. He also suffered a cut
in the fight, so he was going to be unavailable
for a while. And all the people, and again I'm
certainly one of the people that was upset that Canelo
wasn't fighting Benavide's at any point, but the reality is
based on what happened in June. Even if Canello suddenly
snapped his fingers and decided I do want to fight
David Benavettez, he wasn't going to be available in September
because of the injuries. So now apparently, you know, the
hand injuries are being dealt with. He saw hand specialists.
I spoke to his promoter, Samson Lukawitz on what day to say,
today's Thursday. I spoke to Samson on Wednesday and we
were talking about the whole situation. Says, look, he's still
not clear to punch with the hand yet. That's going
to be about sixty days and I'll be cleared. He said,
so far, everything seems to be going just fine with
both of the injuries. The cut was not a big,
big situation. He'll be okay with the cut and he
will be back to fight again this year. In December,
they didn't have the opponents set yet, and he said
he would be on a PBC pay per view card.
He did not indicat or say, and I asked him
if it was the main event or an undercard fight.
You know, we'll see what they do there. But the
point is David Benevidtez, who's one of the more interesting
and entertaining fighters and boxing one of the best around,
will be back this year and that the injuries he
suffered in that June fight won't cause him to be out,
at at least at this point, to be out for
the rest of the year. So that's a good thing,
all right.
Speaker 2: So speaking of PBC, let's back up a step. When
we've talked a lot about Junior Middleway, Tim Zoo was
supposed to be somehow involved on the August third card. Again,
he had the bad gash on the scalp. That's healed
well enough. You have been reporting this. It's been announced
that the date that it's a September date. But now
we have more on what the fight might be, right,
go ahead.
Speaker 3: Okay, So originally Tim was going to come back and
fight in Australia September twenty second in Sydney, which is
his hometown, which would have been Saturday night, September twenty
first for viewer viewing. As a again, this is going
to be a non pay per view on Prime. They
were going to do that fight as one of their
non pay per views Sunday afternoon in Australia and they
were doing an eliminator. It had been ordered to fight
eric Sson Lubin. Now they still had to go through
the deal making process, but Ericson Lubin is also a
PBC fighter. Maybe they would have to go to a
pers bit if Lubin and them couldn't come to an agreement.
But it turned out not to matter because Lubin turned
out that he had a hand injury and was got
a doctor's you know, a note to the IVF said,
you know, he can't fight in that timeframe, and the
Zoo people were, obviously for a lot of reasons, we're
not willing to back it up. They're not going to
let his career be stalled by anybody, as we've seen
in previous situations. So that man Lubin was out of
the situation. Now. The way the IVF works is they
order eliminators, but if the timing on the calendar comes
and there hasn't been an eliminator fought, the guy that's
the number one, the highest rated guy now becomes the
mandatory and they don't end up going through an eliminator fight.
So that's what has happened. Now the timing has run out,
and so because Zoo is the highest rated fighter in
the IBF rankings at one to fifty four, there will
be no eliminator. So instead of doing that earlier this week,
the IBF ordered the mandatory fight. So they ordered Bakram Martazlev,
who won the IBF title that was vacated on the
day of the persemid by Charlow, and Bakram won that
fight in Germany by knockout against Josh Kolke, so this
will be his first defense. Ordered to fight Tim Zu.
They have, you know, a few weeks to make a
deal and if they don't then then the IBF will
order a purse bit. I believe it would be September
fifth as their deadline now. Bakram Martazelov's promoter, Main Events,
has worked closely with PBC because all those step asides
that Martazlov had while he was waiting for Charlow, they
put him Main Events did the deal. He fought on
several PBC cards, so they have a good relationship even
though PBC is not his promoter. So there's a very
good possibility that they'll be able to make a deal
and that the title defense between Bachraum and Tim Zoo
will take place in September. Now, I'm told that if
it does happen, there is an outside chance that it
could wind up coming to the United States for that
fight rather than Australia, because that could be part of
the you know, a deal, making a deal point in
terms of your bakram and not wanting to have to
go to Australia for the fight. But Tim Zoo is
in Las Vegas as we speak training. A matter of fact,
just Wednesday night, he was on a zoom call with
some media talking about this latest move by the IBF,
so he's excited to get a title shot. Kathy Duva
from Main Events has told me, you know, in no
uncertain terms, we absolutely want the fights that we can
get against the bigger names. There's no bigger name at
junior middleweight than Tim Zoo other than Terrence Crawford at
the moment. And so I think, given their relationship with PBC,
given the fact that it's a mandatory fight, that neither
guy is looking to back down from anybody. Again, It's
gonna take some time to go through the process and
play out like it is with any deal, but there's
a very likely chance that comes sometime in September, whether
it's here or in Australia, that there will be an
IBF title fight between Martazlav against him Zoo on Prime.
Speaker 2: And important it's the week after the Canelo pay per
view as well, that's the following week, so let's see
how they work through. Is it in the United States,
is it in Australia. And then obviously Zoo, if he's victorious,
now has a world title again for unification against Crawford
or or somebody else or the door of.
Speaker 3: The rematch with with correct and you might also Fandora
looms as a possibility for Crawford too, because not only
did Crawford win the WBA title against Magramov, it was
also for the vacant interim WBO title, which puts him
in a mandatory position against Fandora. So if Crawford wants
to win other belts in the division, which I think
he does, fighting Fandora, who's got two belts, would be
a quick not you know, it's a way to get
three belts together on the same fight because he owns
two of them. So there's a lot of ship going
on at at one hundred and fifty four, and frankly,
all the different permutations of the fights you can make
are all perfectly fine. But the main thing is in
terms of tim Zuo's career, he's going to get this
opportunity against Martazlov, who is very unknown. You know what's
crazy though, Bertazlov TJ So I watched when he won
the title against CLK. I watch it on YouTube, like
a couple hours after the fight was over. I already
knew the result, though. I'm like randomly, like I set
my my DVR for boxing stuff, and there's some of those,
like regional sports networks carry these tape shows that just
show up that Sometimes they are fights from ten years ago, right,
Sometimes they're from two months ago. So I don't know
what they are because if you look at the description
on the cable guy, that doesn't say what it is.
So I just have it set like to tape all
of them, record all of them, and I go and
I check when they record, and I look at it.
Something interesting, I'll check it out if I've seen it
or it's nothing interesting, I just delete it. Two weeks ago,
one of those shows recorded on my DVR. I pop
it on and what was it it was. They were
showing the replay of Martazlov against Jack caulkay So on
regional sports networks around the United States. Anybody that watches
those things actually got a chance to see that fight
right from April. Unfairly recent relative to some of the
other stuff that they show. But that's the only fight
of his anybody's ever known or seen. So he has
a chance not to step in against you, whichill be
a much bigger fight or force of promotion and attention
and obviously a big outlet. So we'll see what happens.
He's a fun fighter, by the way. You may not
know him, may not have ever seen him, but he's
a strong, sturdy, good puncher, you know, real physical fighter
him and Zoo. In my brief of watching him fight,
that shapes up as all could be absolutely two with
sixteen knockouts. And he's not an old.
Speaker 2: Guy, all right, Uh, stay tuned, nostalgia time, Okay. So
it was twenty seven years ago Wednesday, August seventh of
nineteen ninety seven, the rematch where Roy Jones avenged his
disqualification loss with Montel Griffin for a punch while Griffin
was down on a knee and Griffin couldn't get up
and Roy got decued. He regains he ain't his light
heavyweight title in less than a round.
Speaker 1: Spectacular knockout.
Speaker 2: All right, So give me more on the nostalgia about
that one from gosh a quarter of a century ago.
Speaker 1: I remember that ko.
Speaker 3: So the first fight that they had, this is the
first fight took place in March of nineteen ninety seven.
Montel Griffin was an undefeated olympian, a cutie south ball
from Chicago who you know, always was a painted in
the ass for all his opponents to fight. You know,
could box and was not the most crown pleasing guy,
but had a lot of skills, like I said, top
amateur olympian like Roy had been, you know, earlier in
his career. They fought a fight, and Roy had some
trouble with him early on and ultimately figured him out
and looked like he knocked him out in the seventh
or the ninth round rather, But he hit him while
he was down, you know. Montal gave a great acting performance. Yeah,
he was not nearly as hurt as he made it
out to be in my opinion, but nonetheless, when you
hit the man when he's down, it is technically a foul,
and the referee, Tony Prez disqualified ROYA Jones, which was
a shocking turn of events because Roy was pound for
pound number one and undefeat. That was like a massive, massive,
like earth shaking scenario that unfolded.
Speaker 1: Is that DQ exactly exactly?
Speaker 3: But he had he had knocked him down earlier in
the fight, and then when he was on a knee
in the ninth round, Roy hit him and ultimately was disqualified,
and that enraged Roy. He didn't have to disqualify me.
He certainly could have maybe taken two points in half
to deque the guy. In any event, they had an
immediate rematch. They did the rematch five months later, August
of August seventh, nineteen ninety seven, Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut.
And this was a fight where Roy just absolutely came
out intentionally like with the bad intentions. I'm getting him
out of there in one round. I'm not fucking around
fuck this guy, what happened last time? I'm icing him,
Which is funny because Montel Griffin's nickname was Ice. I
just thought I was I wasn't even.
Speaker 1: Trying to make ice on Ice that night, So it came.
Speaker 3: Out just the pay per view HBO pay per view
fight on a weeknight, as my recollection goes, I think
it was a Thursday night or some crazy shit like that. Anyway,
the bottom line is Roy Jones, and I think and
all the all the wins and all the you know,
spectacular performances that Roy Jones had throughout his career, this
might be number one just in terms of sheer violence,
you know, sheer I'm gonna destroy you type of Roy
like Roy Jones with a purpose and came out there
against a very solid, tough opponent who was undefeated and
had some confidence rending beaten Roy, even if it was
under somewhat sketchy circumstances, and Roy Jones hit him and
knocked him out with a leaping left hook. That is
something spectacular you'll never see. Roy Jones was the kind
of fighter when you watch him while I particularly when
he was in his prime, even season hardened boxing, people
would come away from his fights seeing shit they never
saw before, and that leaping left hook was one of
those kind of punches. He absolutely destroyed my Tell Griffin
in the first round knockout and got the title back
and you know reclaimed, you know not that he ever
really lost it, but still maintained his position as the
pound for pound number one, and then you know, was
off for a little while after that, unfortunately, but then
came back after that had another one of his best
wins with another spectacular knockout when he knocked out Virgil
Hill with the body shot that broke his ribs. I
remember George Foreman describing that once as like hearing a
shotgun the way he knocked out Virgil. But this knockout
might even be more impressive because of the stakes when
he thought Virgil was a non title fight for weird reasons,
but to reclaim the title, Avenger only lost, which was
sketchy to begin with, and do so in such absolutely
devastating fashion, absolutely obliterating Montel who was laid out on
the campus like you could see his body shaking. That's
the and by the way, you could check it out
on YouTube. I'll take you about twelve seconds because the
whole fight didn't even last one round. I mean, it
was just I always tell people like of my time
covering boxing, and it's with all due respect to great
fighters like Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacow and Bernard Hopkins,
and others that the greatest fighter I've ever seen in
person live in his prime was Roy Jones. That I
covered those fights. This fight with Montel was a little
bit before my time on the Boxing Beat, but I
watched it. But this is why when people talk about
Roy Jones with the reverence that they do, that's the
type of performance that they remember. It's this type of
fight against a quality opponent that he destroyed. You know,
he had destroyed Montel Griffin. If you go back before that,
he had easily beaten Bernard Hopkins, he had easily beaten
James Tony. These are top, top elite guys, Hall of famers,
I mean, and he then knocked out Virgil Hill like
he did was also in the Hall of Fame. Not
to say Montel is going to be in the Hall
of Fame, but to do it under that pressure to
get that title back. Man, this is Roy being Roy
at the best. I mean, you can't get a better performance.
Speaker 2: Roy, by the way, toyed with Mike McCallum, and that's
the that's the fight I always talk about with you.
That was but Mike was I understand, But Roy, you know,
whether he carried him or not, like you've said before
he toyed with him, and I was in the house
that night in Tampa back that winter of ninety six,
before the Montel Griffin DQ and before this first round KO.
So yeah, he was. He was spectacular to see in person.
There's no doubt. I just don't want to accept that
that was twenty seven years ago, that revenge knockout.
Speaker 1: But it was all right.
Speaker 2: So move forward seven years on the same date, August
seventh of two thousand and four. That night, Rayphael was
in the house for I heard the Chico Corrales Popo
Fritas WBO lightweight title fight that was going so well
for Popo until it wasn't. And this is why we
love boxing. And Chico Corrales got his knockout. This is
before the awesome fight with Castile that we've always talked about.
This is August of two thousand and four, twenty years ago.
Now earlier this week, tell me more about being ringside
real quick.
Speaker 3: So showtime main event. This is uh diego, Chico Corrales,
who had been a champion in the lightweight division. I'm
sorry in this in the junior lightweight division. He had
defeated a Joel Casameer in their rematch. He was now
he had in that fight, he had won the WBO
vacant title at one thirty, and now he's moving up
in weight to challenge Essleno Popo Freydas, who at the
time was thirty five and zero and knocking everybody out.
Bill Really kind of they kind of sleep on Fredas.
They forget how devastating, how dominating he was in the
kind of spectacular knockouts that he had put together against him,
some some not all of them, obviously, but against some
good fighters, some good opponents he had. He had beaten
Joel Casmyor when Joe was at his absolute best in
a unification fight, but he had then moved up to
the lightweight division. So this I was really excited for
this fight. This was, like I mean, even though I
can you know, we always talk about like Daddy's my
favorite fighter of all time. My second favorite fight of
all time is Popo Fredas. Like I had my cat
inning Popo, like I love. I've met him many times
and hung out with him. He's he's just a BEAUTI
for guy. So I was totally pumped up for this
fight because also was a big Chico Corrales fan. Also
was a very if you met him in person, just
an instant instant you know, charisma, personality, outgoing, just love
to talk boxing. Cool guy. I've told the story before
how after the great fight with Castillo, I the next
week I spent the day at his house doing some
stuff for ESPN. We were doing some taping and we're
he was doing a thing on the show. I was
doing a separate report. But they needed to meet to
be in and he need us both to be in
one spot. So I went to the house. So I
got to know these guys. But this fight obviously in
my heart, I mean, I'll root for that ringside, but
in my heart, and be honest, I want to win
the fight. I'm not gonna lie about that. He is
my guy. And he was kicking He was kicking Chico
Krows's ass, not in a physical sense, but just out
boxing him, completely shutting him down, giving him angles and
playing what he was playing with him is the best
way to put it. And like you said, until he
wasn't so through seven rounds. Through seven rounds, this was
my recollection. This was like seven to nothing through seven rounds,
maybe six to one, but a totally one sided whitewash
where he was untouched. And then Corrals, who had huge
power and was never gonna give up, dropped him in
the eighth round, like, okay, he can survive that, we'll
see what happens. Then in the ninth round he put
him down really really hard, and I thought the fight
was over. I thought the ref could have stopped the fight.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm.
Speaker 3: Popo showed a huge heart, got off the deck. Now
he's obviously in a hole because the two knockdowns, you know,
and he's been hurt. I thought that fight absolutely could
have ended there. The referee was Mike Ortega, who was
a well known referee for a long long time, and
you know, didn't stop the fight. Okay, now comes out
for the tenth round and he drops him again again
and again. Popo gets up and he survived. So he
shows the heart to get up from three knockdowns, including
the second knockdown, which was a devastating knockdown. Or I
thought the fight could be stopped. And after the one
in the tenth round, he turned his back and he
waved the way flag and he retired. He quit the fight,
and so I always was disappointed, not that he lost
the fight, but because he'll go down, because he also
quit for lack of a better word, against Wan Diaz
in another fight. You know, the two knockout losses that
he'd suffered, but that he gets no credit for the
balls and to survive that, the survival that he did
for the three knockdowns, that he'll be remembered in this
fight because he quit after a.
Speaker 2: What you're saying is if he down, and what you're
saying is if he stays down and gets counted out
in the ninth round, he doesn't get disrespected nearly as much.
Speaker 3: Correct, So that was like a hugely disappointing thing. But
for corrals, if you take now Carrals is a recent
inductee into the box of posthumously anyway, but inductee into
the Hall of fame. If you take a look at
the record that Dievil carlis fashion to put him into
the Hall of fame. His biggest wins, and this is
not even like a for argument, is the victories against
the first fight against Castillo, obviously to unify the lightweight titles,
which is, as we all discuss, maybe the greatest fight
of all time. He had three fights against Joe al Kassamayor,
but he lost two of them, but he did win
one of them. The fight before this Popa fight, that's
a big win for him. And this Popa fight to
gain the lightweight belt and to knock out the undefeated
knockout specialists Popo frighters, who at that time was like
a borderline pound for pound guy. So this was a
highly significant fight in the careers of both of these fighters. Uh,
And it was one of those deals where you're like,
your guy's absolutely kicking ass and winning easily, and like
you said, until he's not. And it was a was
a really harsh loss form. I'm not sure if Freda's
ever really recovered in terms of his career after that, because, uh,
you know, it was it was, it was a rough
one and then it was only you know, then he
fought a couple like easier fights. He he won another belt,
and then he had the fight against Wanda As a
couple of years later, and that fight he quit and
also and that was pretty much all she wrote, and
then he retired for like five years before he had
a couple of comeback fights. But uh, if you'll indulge me,
I'll tell a quick story about what happened after this fight.
Speaker 2: Yes, now, for a long time podcast people that listen
to us religiously, you have told this before, but you're
gonna tell it again here for the audience that a
lot of the audience is knew. Tell him about the
post fight aftermath and how it relates to your cat.
Because I know what's coming here go.
Speaker 3: So the press conference wraps up, I write my story.
I go back to my room and I'm packing my
stuff and down the hall I hear like the noise
and there's like a big commotion in the hallway, and
I open up my door of the hotel room at
Foxwoods and it's Popo Fretis and his whole team coming
down the hall. Artie Polulo was his promoter from Banner Promotions.
What I've known for many, many years. So I actually
had a chance to hang out with and have dinner
with when I was in La last week for the
Crawford Magro mov guard already has always been a good
friend of mine. Anyway, I see them all traps down
the hallway when I didn't realize this. So I'm in
my normal room and at the end of the hallway
like five six doors away, the big suite at the
end of the hall. Turns out that's popo suite, which
I did not realize, so already sees me. He's like,
you know, come on in, come, come, come and say hello.
So all right, so I wrap up what I'm doing
and I'll go over to the to the suite. And
it's like a part you know that he lost the fight,
but there's a commotion. The whole team is there, the family,
the lawyer of the account, and the wife, the mom.
The mom is cooking though it's it's just utter chaos.
The trainer. I'm talking to the trainer anyway. So I'm
making this. I'm doing the thing there and I'm in
there in the in the main room. And after a
few minutes, Uh, the late Oscar Suarez, who was Popo's
trainer for that fight, who passed away a number of
years ago, comes out of the bedroom where Popa was
and he says, because Popo saw me when I came
into the room with them, Uh, his Popa would like
to talk to you. Okay, So they bring me into
the bedroom. Now again, I told the story before, but
I's so in dell in my mind, I can't ever forget.
Speaker 2: Wait, wait for the audience. I know what it's. I
know what's coming. And I see Raphael blushing on camera
because I go it's just hilarious.
Speaker 3: So in the room, it's Asleno Fradus is on the
bed and this is the detail I remember. He's he's
laying on the bed like it's like last rights, and
he's wearing a brown Bomber Joe Louis sweatshirt and he's
laying on the bed. His face is all busted up.
He's like looks like he'd maybe been crying a little bit.
And Suarez is there and the lights you're dim and
like you're like visiting somebody in the hospital. And over
on the other side of the room is his wife, Iliana,
and she's packing because they're leaving to go home to
Brazil the following day. But she's basically naked while she's packing.
And she's a beautiful woman, so forgive me, but it's.
Speaker 1: Hard not totally clad wife of Polpo.
Speaker 3: Yes, it's just ridiculous. The scene that I'm seeing. It's
like the juxtaposition of the man apparently on the deathbed
with Rayfael and Suarez, you know, and and six eight
feet away the half naked wife, like, you know, packing
bags of I mean just I mean, just fucking crazy.
So now Popo wants to talk to me, so I
go to the bedside. It's like again, you're visiting like
somebody in the hospital bed and Suarez who spoke Spanish,
and Popo Portuguese. But they're close enough. I guess where
Oscar could, you know, communicate with him, and he starts
to talk in Portuguese and I didn't really understand what
he was saying. They tell these you know, spends however
long he says what he says, an Oscar goes to translate.
Now to back up, Popo knew at this time that
my wife and I had a black cat named Popo
in honor of him. That was the name of the cat.
And earlier before this, I had given art Polulo, the promoter,
a picture of the cat as like a joke actually,
and he goes on a business trip to Brazil to
visit with Popo and the lawyer and the team to
do whatever deal they were doing. He brings the picture
of the cat to Brazil and visits with Popo and
he comes back and tells me that Popo and the
wife have taken the picture of the cat. They've hung
it somewhere, and I can't think they hung it like
on the refrigerator in their kitchen. Whatever was Now the
picture of my black cat named Popo is on the
wall somewhere in Popo's house. So he knows that Raphael,
you know, an American reporter who he's known now for
a few years, was covered a lot of his fights,
who knows that, like I'm a big fan of his,
has a picture of the Rafael cat in the house
in Brazil. So he's aware of the cat. And now
we just got knocked the fuck out and he lost
the title, and he's on the death bet, it seems like.
And I'm in the suite and they're getting ready to leave,
and the mom is there and everybody's doing their thing,
and he invites Raphael into the room because he's got
a big concern and he tells it to Suarez, and
Suarez translates in Portuguese and he says, now to me
in English, the trainer paraphrasing Popo says he knows he lost,
and he's sorry, but he hopes you won't change the
cat's name. And that's the story and of course I said, no,
of course, I'm not changing my cat's name. But that
to me blew my fucking mind. That he's just lost,
like a really harsh fight, a big fight for him
in his career, and he's worried if the reporter is
going to change the damn cat's name.
Speaker 2: He's at least got a little concern or at least
a little.
Speaker 3: Six And meanwhile the wife is still half naked and
stuff in in the suitcase on the other side of
the room.
Speaker 2: These are the phenomenal stories that you get out here
on the pod and why we love you so with
the nostalgia. And that was now twenty years ago. But
that for that fight with Corrals, I got a YouTube
that went out for the Corraals comeback there in the
last couple of roles.
Speaker 3: Watched the first seven rounds and you'll see Asileno Popo
frets at his absolutely brilliant best, absolutely taking him to school,
and as good of the win as he had against
Shoe to unify the titles earlier in his career. You know,
this was like, this was a huge fight on Showtime
when he unified against against Casalmyra. Remember he was a
Showtime contract guy. So you know he had the fights,
you know, against against Corrals, against Casalmor these were these
were big deals. So that fight against Cassa Major was
in two thousand and two, a brilliant performance, close fight,
but Popo clearly won against freight against against a fighter
in Kasimir who at that time was undefeated and a
tremendous fighter. Olympic gold medalist was you know, moving up
people's pound for penalists. That was a big deal. And
now it was a couple of years later where he
lost the fight against Corrals. But those days early two
thousands between Castillo, Popo, Juan Diez, you know, Freight us Corrales,
just a lot of mix and matching of just tremendous
fight between these guys. That was a good lightweight era
where they all fought each other too, and a lot
of them were classes to kind of fights.
Speaker 2: Love the nostalgia we've given you plenty here. By the way,
we have not mentioned this as of yet. We will
be doing this with the handicapping for the Virgil Ortiz
fight and the Luis Alberto Lopez title fight on the
US Boxing Show at one Eastern time on Friday.
Speaker 1: You can find us. There is we'll predict those fights
a little more. We gave you a.
Speaker 2: Preview tonight, some news, some nostalgia. Other than that great
way to close the show there about don't rename the
cat while the scantily clad wife is packing the bags,
anything else, mister ray Field and closing before we head
of the weekend.
Speaker 3: I think we're good. I'm actually, like I said earlier
in the beginning of the show, I know it's kind
of a low key weekend in terms of the fights,
certainly not in terms of the hype and the magnitude
that we saw with that big cart in La last week.
But I'm actually very much looking forward to both main events,
and I have to figure out my timing to see
which one I can watch drive or what the order
is going to because I'm just not sure which one
I want to watch. Probably look at them.
Speaker 1: They might stagger it a little bit.
Speaker 2: Maybe we'll get thee because the top rank fight is
in Albuquerque and the other one's in Las Vegas.
Speaker 1: Maybe they stagger.
Speaker 3: We'll see, I suppose if they're on at the same time,
I'll probably well, normally what I do is what everyone
starts first is the one I'll stick with, so if
they're about the same, I probably willing. I'll probably look
at the Virgil and Bolicheck fight first, even though I
like the other fight also, but we'll say get.
Speaker 2: It in the ring, get the Unlike last week, By
the way, I did go back and time it as
we depart here. From the end of the post fight
interview with Jose Valezuela and Pitt Bull cruise until the
first bell of the Terrence Crawford main event was one
hour and eleven minutes with an M and M concert
in the middle. Just in case you were scoring at home.
That's a long time in any event. Good stuff, Dan Rayfield,
We'll talk to you on the bet Us show Coming
Fighting at one each time. Whatever happens, we'll recap it
on the Fight Preach to Night, recap Pott Coming off
the Weekend. Thank you, sir, you bet there's Dan ray Phil.
I'm merely TJ. Reeves follower. Subscribe on this podcast beat Apple, Spreeker, Spotify.
We preview going into the weekend. We recap coming off
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