Speaker 1: Well off of a weekend that is seeing Bachram Martaza
Laev defend his IBF Junior Middleway championship with a devastating
knockout of Tim Zus. Surprise surprise, and I was there.
We're ready to talk about that. We're ready to talk
about Adam Azeem winning the Boxer Promotion's main event in England,
and much more. It is the Fight Freaks Unit Recap podcast.
Also Regis pro Gray will be on this podcast coming
up in advance of his battle with Jack Catterall later
this week. Wants to get to I cannot do this alone.
He is my colleague, my compatriot. Tries to keep me
in line. I try to keep him in line. More
on that in a moment. Hello, Dan Raypiel. Fight Freaking
Unit is a substack and the newsletter you need to
be subscribing. How are you off the weekend and the recap?
Speaker 2: Well, I'm doing good this weekend because New York Yankees
are going thro the World Series. I don't give a
fuck about anything else.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter about the fights. Although you don't want
to talk about the Giants ephthetic performance against the Eagles,
but the Yankees are in the World series. Oh wow,
So you're happy about that real And again thank you
for finding us on the podfeed. We preview going into
the weekend, We recap off the weekend. Follow, subscribe, Apple, Spreaker, Spotify,
RTUs and reviewers. If you enjoy the content, If you
enjoyed hearing the Bob Aarram interview, by the way, we
put that up in full as promised on Saturday. You
covered a ton with him. And again, if you're following
or subscribing, you got an automatic notification that that was
up as an extra as a bonus.
Speaker 3: All right, So wow.
Speaker 1: When you and I left the bet Us boxing show,
we were both fairly confident Friday afternoon that Tim Zuo
was going to win this. He was a six and
a half for seven to one favorite most places to win,
And a funny thing happened on the way to him
regaining a portion of the one hundred and fifty four
pound crown. It's called a left and a right, and
a left and a right from Bachrum And this is
about twenty four hours ago now that we're talking.
Speaker 3: I was in the building.
Speaker 1: I was in the carib Royal ballroom in the Casino resort,
and it was amazing to watch how he got blown
away and welcome to boxing, right, welcome to how a
big punch and a big puncher can change it all.
Speaker 2: Dan there, it was well, it was more like a
basketball game as much as he was bouncing him off
the canvas four times in less than three full rounds.
You know, when, as you mentioned when we spoke about
it on Friday, Yeah, of course we were picking timzuy
to win the fight. But and I think I might
have said this on the show, I'm not totally shocked
that Bakrram was the winner of the fight, not at all.
I'm just shocked that he did it the way he
did it, that he just absolutely annihilated to He didn't
just win, he just blew him away. He destroyed him.
He pummeled him. He knocked him down four times with
a bunch of clean shots. And I never viewed Bachrum
as this murderous puncher. Now, I know he has a
good record in terms of his win you know, he's
undefeated obviously, and he went into the fight and then
he comes out of the fight with another knockout on
that record, but he's now twenty three and oh with
seventeen knockouts, not a bad puncher, but you know, I've
seen him fight several times, probably more than the average person.
I'm not sure what that says about me, but it's
just a reality. And you know, he's a good puncher.
He's tall, he's got a long reach. Tim Zoo actually
even mentioned in the podcast interviewed that we had with
him that was on the previous show or two shows
back whenever.
Speaker 4: It was.
Speaker 2: Refreshing his memory when he saw Bachram. Remember when Tim
came to the United States and fought in on Showtime
against Arrell Geschet in his first main event here in
the United States on that undercard, while Bachram was involved
in the step aside deals he'd been doing with Jamel Charlow.
He was on that card and I asked him about
if he remembered him from that time, if he met
him and talked to him whatever, And the thing that
Tim said to me was he remembered how tall he
was and how skinny he was, that he was surprised
he could make the one hundred and fifty four pound weight.
So he was well aware of this fighter beforehand. And
he's a dangerous guy. I'd seen him fight a few times,
but again, not surprised he was the winner, But what
surprises me was the way he just dusted the guy.
Speaker 1: Well, let me take you inside of that ballroom when
he scored that first knockdown with the left and again
my vantage point was about twenty rows back in the
corner was the press row behind Bachraum's corner, but I
had a great view of that left hook and when
he connected the arena gasp. And it's fascinating because the
main event people, the Australian pay per view I guess
it was pay per view that were showing it their set,
their studio show was but right beside us, all of
their personnel.
Speaker 3: Gasp. When that happened, it was a gasp and some cheering.
Speaker 1: Again, you got a Russian fighting in Australia in Orlando,
so truth be told, there were a couple of the
undercard fighters that had more crowd, more involvement, more cheering.
Speaker 3: So it was a gasp.
Speaker 1: And then he got back up and was on rubbery
legs and got knocked down again. And now suddenly the
crowd is roaring, and I honestly thought in the arena,
he's not gonna make it out of the second round
because I could see the clock on the main event
monitor right by me, and it's had over a minute left.
Did you think watching it on the tube on the
Amazon Prime that Zoo was going to get out of
the second round at that point.
Speaker 2: No, I thought he was done for. I mean, he
had a decent get a decent portion of the first
round where he landed a couple of nice shots, and
even when he was in a bad shape in round two,
he still landed some shots. And even in round three
he landed some shots. But when he went down for
the second time in the second round, I was like,
this fight's gonna be over. To me, it was just
a matter of is he gonna get him in this
round or is are going to be in the next
round or two, Because it was very clear to me
not only did Tim not he was not able to
gauge the speed or the distance of the punch that
were coming because he was just getting hit clean. You know,
it's one thing that you get dropped. Some certain guys
are real heavy handed, and even if you had just
like Triple G for example, or Covid ed in his prime,
they would touch you. Even with a half fast shot.
You might get knocked down. He was not doing those
types of knockdowns with Tim Zuo. He was letting clean
flush right on the right on the button type shots. Yeah,
and they would have probably knocked down just about any
junior middleweight. So if you're getting knocked down like that repeatedly,
you can't adjust and get out of the way, you know,
you got really no prayer. And then after the second knockdown,
you know, his legs were just all over the place.
I mean, he was like doing the Gumby dance. He
reminded me of, you know, coincidentally, when his father made
zab Judah's legs turn to jelly like that, and the
wild thing about it was, and they made a big
thing about this on the broadcast. The only time that Costazu,
who is of course him's father, the Hall of Famer,
Hall of Famer, former undisputed welterweight champion. The only time
he had ever seen his son fight live was in
his professional debut in twenty sixteen. Until going to Florida
and being there for this fight, and then to be
there and witness your son get absolutely pulverized, that's got
to be just a rude of awakening. And it was
just just a matter of time because he just could
not take the shots. And it was very clear that
even when when Tim Zoo was able to land back
a solid punch, and Tim's a pretty good puncher, but
Tazelaya have just never really seemed to be too you know,
he might know as head might got snapped back of it,
but he never really seemed to be any kind of
real danger or heard or anything like that.
Speaker 1: So clearly there were a couple of interesting things, and
I love leaning on you as a resource. So the referee,
who's a competent Florida referee, he had refereed several world
title fights in the past, he called the doctor in
the ring to do a concussion test. That's exactly what
that was on Zoo with the light and checking the
eyes moving and the whole thing, because I guess he
was concerned enough that if the doctor says he's concussed,
I'm going to stop the fight there after the round.
So the doctor kind of nodded at him and went on,
I don't know what they were saying on the TV
broadcast that that was a highly unusual thing to me
to have the doctor in there doing the concussion test
with the light I don't recall that, but go ahead,
I don't.
Speaker 2: I didn't find that to be an anomaly. I've seen
that plenty of times. The new thing it used to be,
and this would happen a lot of times, is the
doctor would go to the corner between rounds and do
an assessment. And as a matter of fact, in California,
if they went to the corner, they would stop the clock.
So the corner, the amount of time between the rounds
might actually be more than a minute if the doctor
was in there. It seems to me that when they
do it now, they let the corner do their work.
They might look in and see and then if they
really want to do the true assessment, they'd let the
bell ring for the next round. The guy stands up,
they call a time out, they send the other fight
to the neutral corner, and they examine the fighter they
want to take a look at. So that was not
a surprise to me. It was only the second round,
or you know, going into the third round. So yeah,
he'd been knocked down you three times at that point,
but it's still early in the fight. He still clearly
wanted to fight, still was able to listen to the
instructions still had I think many of his faculties, let's say,
and you know.
Speaker 1: Get he said after the fight, I was not standing
there left, But he said after the fight, when he
was asked about what happened in the second round, he said,
I can't remember.
Speaker 3: I don't know. So clearly he was.
Speaker 1: Concussed after the second round. But he did have his
legs under him to an extent to land some punches.
But then again it was a big overhand left that
caught him coming in.
Speaker 3: Caught him roller.
Speaker 1: He was on roller skates after that. In the corner
through the twel in just a while there was to
be there.
Speaker 2: There was a shot in the in in one of
those onslaughts where where Matiza Lyve have landed a punch
that literally lifted Tim Zuo's leg off the canvas like
he picked it up. It was plain as day. I mean,
and that that is obviously a combination of the man's
power plus uh you know, the I guess the heart
because he wasn't able to actually stay up on that
shot where where he didn't get that was one of
the shots that he got hit cleaned with that he
didn't go down on the canvas. I mean, it was
just a nightmarish thing. I mean, forget about all the action.
The end result is you're down four times in less
than three rounds. Uh, you're the heavy favorite. Your father
is watching it for the first time in many years
in a live fight. I mean, he was embarrassed in
that fight. I mean, and I have nothing but respect
for tim Zu, for his his heart, the way he
fought through the cut with Fondora, for his uh, you know,
his desire to fight the best guys. I mean, remember
he took a fight with Virgil Ortiz. Obviously that got
canceled cause the cut wasn't healed. Then he took this
fight that even if you think this was like, you know,
a fight he was gonna win. I don't think anybody
that had any concept of Bakram thought it was an
easy fight. I said, I said, I don't think there's
an easy fight. I picked him to win by a decision.
I thought he'd be able to outbox a guy, but
he dragged him into the quick war, and you know
he was on the wrong end of those wing shots.
It's a great victory for Mertaza life.
Speaker 3: Who I know.
Speaker 2: We spent a lot of time talking on about the
tim Zuo angle because he's a big famous name in
this fight, but this day career making type of victory
for Martaze alive.
Speaker 1: Now I have done a poor job as the host,
and you always liked to smile and smirk at me.
Speaker 3: I should have mentioned that.
Speaker 1: When this was over, I talked with the former light
heavyweight champ, the Antonio Tarbor for a few moments. I
also talked with Sean Porter, who was on the Australian
call of the bout for main events, and you're gonna
hear them in a couple of moments and their comments.
But I asked them that very same question here about
what kind of a player does this make Bachram now
at one fifty four after seeing this, so I want
your take first before he's a.
Speaker 2: Lectric on that point, what do you think, Well, he
was a player even before that, because he has a
belt number one. Now he's got a tremendous victory on
that record. And here's the thing also, I know now
Timszuo officially has two losses in a row, but I
think most people, and it's not a disrespect to Sebastian Pandora,
they looked at the loss that he took in a
split decision where blood poured down his entire face and
body for the better part of ten plus rounds, and
chalk it up to like, you know, that was the
cut and it really was not what he's all about.
So it was a close fight. Maybe he could have
won the fight even with the blood. This is a
totally different situation. This is you got your absolute ass
handed to you. You know, you up mode down, you
got run over, uh you know, and there you weren't competitive,
you were not really competitive, but for part of the
first round, it was just a complete and utter destruction.
It's a completely different manner than what occurred in the
fight against Sebastian Mondora. But in terms of backroom or
tazalay of becoming a player in this weight class, anytime
you have an undefeated record and you have a good
amateur background and you have a you know, a a
title belt, you're gonna be a player in a division,
especially one fifty four right now, which is a pretty
hot division, which is home to uh, you know, Karence
Crawford recently moved up to that weight class. That's got
other uh you know, good fighters in there, some guys
with names if they're a little older, like a Laura.
You know, Adamis is not the most vergel Ortiz another one.
They have the two guys that lost to Ortiz and
to Crawford who are still top notch in the weight class,
a Boa Chuck and uh Uh and Nagamuv. We're going
to fight each other coming up at the end of
this year, So you know, there's there's a lot of
good action in that division. Then you know, if if
Aerol Spence comes back, that's where he seems to be
wanting to go. Obviously, Sebastian Mondora still has a couple
of the titles, So I mean there's there's definitely a
lot of action in this division. And then listen to
Tim Zoo. He may have suffered at a very rugged
and difficult and brutal one side of loss, but because
of his name and his reputation and the kind of
record he does have, it's not like, at least from
my advantage points, like you're going to say his career
is over.
Speaker 1: I got you on that, all right, because I was
there on location. Let's do this, so first of all,
you're going to be proud of me, Rayfield, I did.
Speaker 3: A veteran move.
Speaker 1: I waited for all that they did the media. It's
interesting they didn't do a formal press conference room with
a dais and microphones. They did a scrum, as we
like to call it, in front of the PBC banner.
I couldn't get anywhere near Bachram at the point in
which they're doing the scrum. But once it was all over,
and once he was standing there and they were getting
ready to walk out, I said hey to the to
the translator that was with me, I said, does he
mind if I asked him a couple of things of
American media?
Speaker 3: I dropped. I know, I said, I have to put
up with Dan Rayfield all the time. No I didn't.
Speaker 1: I said, do you mind if I walk and talk
with you? And they said, no, don't mind, You're gonna
so did a walking talk. I did a walk and
talk with Bakram. You're gonna hear that through the interpreter
here in a second. And then right after that you're
gonna hear me with Antonio Tarvor, who was there Tarbor
time and Sean Porter, who was again on the Australian
call lives there. Yeah, Tarboro Tarbor, Tampa. But he also
is originally from Orlando, and he you know, I four
back and forth.
Speaker 3: By the way, I haven't mentioned this as of yet,
that was.
Speaker 1: Four hours plus of combat driving two getting there Tampa,
going east Orlando, two getting back late night for less.
Speaker 3: Than three rounds of the main event. But that's okay.
I'm I'm fine with that.
Speaker 1: There was definitely more hours on the road than it
was rounds in the main event. But anyway, Yes, they
were first world problems. And you're texting me about the
Yankees winning the World Series, and I'm like, big, Dan,
I still got like an hour on the road here.
Speaker 2: I didn't text on winning the world I mean going to.
Speaker 3: The World Series. I'm like, I still got an hour
on the road here.
Speaker 1: But anyway, so you're gonna hear from Bakram, You're gonna
hear from Tarbor, You're gonna hear from Sean Porter. All
of these are quick. They are about five total minutes.
Here in the aftermath of this, and in particular, pay
attention to Tarvor and Porter's answers about what happened to
Zoo and whether maybe we overvalued or overrated Zoo. I
asked Sean Porter that here all that right now, when
you knocked him down, did you know you had him
or were you still concerned that he might CounterPunch you?
Speaker 4: Google?
Speaker 3: Because down he didn't think about anything.
Speaker 1: He just thought about to listen of the coaches to
the corners directions.
Speaker 2: And there was just a knockdown.
Speaker 3: Nothing was over.
Speaker 2: That was just a knockdown.
Speaker 1: When you got your hand raised, here, what's going through
your mind to pull off this upset and get this wins?
Speaker 3: First thing he was happy about.
Speaker 1: He thanked God and thank God and and and the
God give him this victory and these opportunities to be
in this position.
Speaker 3: Fun one.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have you wave a magic wand you can
fight anybody you want.
Speaker 3: Who do you want to fight?
Speaker 5: Yes? Uh Crawford E Spence, Crawford, Crawford.
Speaker 3: Whoever has the belts. It doesn't matter pretty much people
with belts.
Speaker 1: Congratulations, great night, Thank you all right, showtime you were
on the call for Australian TV.
Speaker 3: Wow, what what can we say? Shocker?
Speaker 6: You know, just not not what the Zoo corner expected.
I personally believe that Merchisalie came out a little different
than what they thought he would and Uh and Zoo
ended up walking into some things loose defense. This this
evening uh bad slow snow speed on his punches, never
got started, never got the engine going. And you know
for Merchizalie, that's that's that was a pitch of perfect
night for him. You know, you don't allow your opponent
to get going and you know two rounds you you
go home with a nice check.
Speaker 1: Is it unfair to maybe say that we overvalued Zoo.
I know he had the nasty gash against Fuondorra, so
maybe you write that off. But the way that he
got wiped out tonight, did we maybe overvalue him winning
a bunch of fights in Australia.
Speaker 2: I don't believe so.
Speaker 6: I believe that it's any given Sunday here, you know,
I think that this was just a situation where he
wasn't quite ready.
Speaker 4: For what was coming at him and ended up going
away that it win.
Speaker 1: And one more for Bachram. This makes him a player
at one four? How big a player?
Speaker 3: What do you think?
Speaker 6: He is a serious force at one fifty four and
the world better watch out at one fifty four. I'm
talking to every any and every fighter at one fifty four.
Maybe with the exception of Terrence Crawford.
Speaker 1: You know, I have a tough enough task trying to
make sure Rayfield behaves. The next time you're around, you're
in charge of making sure Dan behaves. All right, thank you, Sean.
Speaker 4: Yes that you got it.
Speaker 3: Tarbor time.
Speaker 1: How and why did Bakroom make such easy work of
Tim Zoo.
Speaker 7: Well, here's a guy coming in undefeated twenty and oh
seventeen knockouts. You know, sometime the one thing is harder
to go than that, Oh is that belt.
Speaker 3: Here's a world champion. I just think when you look
at fun Durham fight.
Speaker 7: Tim Zu may have needed a tune up fight just
to get the cobwebs out right, you feel me? In
this game, in the day's game, there's no such thing
as tune up fight.
Speaker 3: They either going for it all. It's all or.
Speaker 7: Nothing, it seems, and I think these guys just need
to pull back a little bit. I think it would
have been a good ten round fight for mid range
type of guy to get some rounds and get some
work then bringing back for all the marbles.
Speaker 1: When he got caught with that left hook, the look
on his face was I'm in trouble. And I guess
you know at times you've been in the ring. That's
where adversity reveals what you have.
Speaker 3: He just didn't have it tonight, Tim Zoo.
Speaker 7: Well, you know, he felt as if if he can
land his shot, he could turn it around. But there
was times where he almost cleared his head and then
he went offensively a little bit too soon, and he
was still reckless and he got clipped. I would have
wanted him to just focus on defense. Let this guy
spin himself a little bit, and then you come on
with your offense.
Speaker 3: And what about Bakrum.
Speaker 1: I mean, he now becomes a player at one fifty four,
Whether he fights Fondora, whether he maybe gets in front
of Terrence Crawford at some point, give him, give him
some credit tonight, right.
Speaker 7: Most definitely it's the way he won, the way he
shut Tim Zoo out and got him out of there.
That was very impressive. And I'm pretty sure now the
big players in the game are looking at that I
be a belt because they may think he's the weakest link.
But we that Hey, that is still to be revealed.
Speaker 3: Asked Tim Zoo about that.
Speaker 1: Good lord, right, hey, it's always a great day to
be Tarbor, right.
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, oh yeah, Tarvar's take on you too, the
most informative take in boxing.
Speaker 3: Just remember when you heard it first.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 1: So you heard Sean Porter's answer that he disagrees that
we did not overvalue or overrate Zoo on winning a
bunch of fights in Australia. I'm not taking a cheap
shot here. I'm just raising the question, what do you
say to that, do you believe maybe we had too
high of an opinion of him with the fights that
he had in Australia against the competition, and then come
to the United States he's now.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, I don't. I think that's complete nonsense, because
who gives a shit If they were in Australia, they
got competent fighters in Australia, they got good a good
boxing community, and a good scene in Australia. It's it's
got a great history of boxing olk. So he fired
at home. I mean every fighter fights at home, big deal.
And the guys that he fight in Ustralia, a lot
of them were good quality guys and Americans that went
to Australia to fight him, quality contender types that Tony Harrison,
a former world champ, Brian Mendoz a tough as nails,
and then He also had fights in the United States
against Gashet, against against Fandora. Obviously we already discussed. We
know how that situation went, and he comes back here.
For for Martazalaiev, I got no problem with that. I
do not think we overvalued him. You know, I don't
think everybody just because a guy loses in the manner
he lost that, We're not going to lose our minds
and go everybody hair on fire. A part of it
was maybe maybe he was a little bit thought of
as too high. Some people were saying he's number one
on the way class. I didn't necessarily agree with that,
but I also think that a lot of people undervalued
Martazeliv just because they never heard of him. Now and again,
I'll say this again, I've seen him fight several times
as matter of fact, on my cable system because they
do this, there's that syndicated Fight Sports where they put
on old shows on a regular basis, and they they
geared towards the current calendar. So if he went back
two weeks ago, they were showing old fights of early
fights from better Bv's career. Well, what was on just
a few days ago was when Martazalaiev was in Germany
and he defeated Jack Colke where the vacant belt that
he defended against Tim Zu. And I saw that fight
back in the time when I found it on YouTube.
But you know, do your homework before you make up
your right just because a guy's a big favorite, Like
I thought Tim Zoo was a favorite because that's what
I thought, not because I was not familiar with Martazalev.
I had seen him before several times.
Speaker 1: And Tarbor suggested that Zoom maybe should have fought a
tune up fight. We'll never know if that would have
made a difference or not. Everybody's got a different opinion
here on this.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: I mean, I've heard that. I can respect that opinion,
but you know, you can't have it both ways. We
as fans, it's like, oh, the guys fight a shitty
tune up fight. The guys fighting nobody, they just fight
a real guy, And now he fights a real guy
in a big time title fight, and now there are
people second guessing, oh, you should have taken a tune
up fight. Well, you can't fucking have it both ways.
And Tim Zu, to his credit, was like, I don't
want tune up fights. I want real fights. He's a
real fighter and that's what motivates him. He's not motivated
by fighting just a regular guy. The money was in
this fight, that's what the broadcast was for Australian pay
per view, you know, PBC was doing a non pay
per view fight, but their first one on Prime, you know.
And so I don't I don't accept the should have
you know, you make your decisions, you live with it.
And there was a lot of reasons that he did
do this fight, and if and if he had blown
him away or won a clear decision or something like that,
no one would have said do about it.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 1: Wait now, the only thing I'm gonna slide back on
to the point is he not only didn't blow him away,
he didn't even win and.
Speaker 3: He got destroyed.
Speaker 2: So it happened.
Speaker 1: Though it does happen. But I think there is not
a compelling argument. But there's definitely an argument that he
maybe should have taken another fight. But we'll never know.
We'll never know if it would have made a difference.
And to your point, whether they fought in Australia or Orlando,
or Las Vegas or on Pluto, I'm not so sure
the same thing wouldn't have happened in the same circumstance
here Backram caught him, and once he caught him, that
look on Zoo's face when he was on the ground
after the first knockdown was a vacant look and it
ultimately was a knockout.
Speaker 3: There you go.
Speaker 2: It is professional boxing. Anything can happen when you have.
Speaker 3: And what's why we love it.
Speaker 1: We're not guaranteed nine innings to your Yankees in baseball,
or the Mets and Dodgers who are playing Sun night,
or it's not four quarters of football or basketball. You're
not guaranteed anything beyond around, not.
Speaker 2: Even guaranteed one around. When the bell rings, the fight
can end at any moment. And the thing I love
about boxing in part and the same goes I guess
for any other like coat sport, the only sports where
you can lose every single second of your competition and
still win with one shot. And I've said this before.
You cannot hit a five run home run in baseball.
You cannot hit you know, a five pointer or you know,
you get a four point.
Speaker 1: Twenty eight point touchdown, doesn't happen.
Speaker 2: You just can't do that. But in boxing, and we've
seen it, I've seen fights where guys are losing pretty
much every round and they've scored a miracle victories and
that's a part of the drama and the spectacle of
the great sport that boxing is. So I'm not going
to second guess the Tim zuo a decision to take
this fight. Everybody thought he was gonna win handily against
a competent quality opponent, get another world title, And I'm
not sure what else you should have done. There wasn't
going to be that kind of money or attention if
he's fighting nobody. You know, when he lost the fight
to Fandora. Other than the cut, which was a pretty
bad cut, but he didn't get beat up in that fight.
It wasn't like he was you know, massively damage or
knocked down or you know, battered. I mean, the cut
looked obviously horrible, and it was, but that's a superficial
kind of injury. It's not like, uh, you know, he
had a broken leg or you know, a broken shoulder,
a broken jaw, broken jaw or something. I mean, as
matter of fact, it was Fundora the one that had
the broken nose early in the fight. So, uh, a
lot of Monday morning quarterback.
Speaker 1: We'll see, we'll see if and when and where Zoo
comes back and how he looks, because again he's got
to answer some questions after that.
Speaker 3: But that's why I say this.
Speaker 2: I'm I'm quite confident that when he does come back
that the next fight probably will be in Australia.
Speaker 1: That's a safe thing. And let's see, let's see what
he looks like. All right, let's go through the undercard here.
I want to get to the atam A zeem Ko victory,
which I've seen the highlights of. I have to confess
you're going to make me talk about Skull and Chishkin.
Speaker 3: Skull is the new champ.
Speaker 1: Rayfiel's got it with exclamation points next to it, just
agitating me. And then we're going to get to Regis program.
All right, of the undercard. Sure, I'm in the I'm
in the building again, and it was alive. Talez gets
thees however you want to say it, gets the junior
middleweight co feature win with a t KO over Johan Gonzalez,
and then the controversial draw which was a tremendous opening
fight between Tapia and Savedra. The middleweights and I did
not realize this, but I mean Tapia is full full
blood Australian now because he's even got the Australian accent.
Speaker 3: The good day mate.
Speaker 2: He's Mexican.
Speaker 3: Know he's Mexican, but.
Speaker 1: He's got full blown Australian accent, lives there, trains there.
Speaker 2: I think that was great. You got a Mexican that's
from now Australian with an Australian accent and Injury Savedra,
who is the opponent, is a Venezuelan who lives in Mexican.
Speaker 3: Fighting out of Mexico.
Speaker 1: And then the crowd was on its feet with both
guys down on it to the thes first the co
feature he gets the knockout.
Speaker 3: What kind of prospect is this guy?
Speaker 2: I think is a fantastic prospect. At the end of
twenty twenty three, I included on my top fifteen prospect list.
If you go on and you read my story about
the card, you know there's a hyperlink that will take
you to the story of the top fifteen prospects. And
to put it in perspective, when last year ended, I
selected Diego Pacheco as the prospect of the year and
ranked my top fifteen. I forget what number I had
tayas At, but he was in that top fifteen. He's
a tremendous prospect. He's obviously is from Cuba. He defected
at the United States. He's now lives and trains out
of Stafford, Texas, which is right outside of Houston. He's
with the great trainer, Ronnie Shields, who's been with him
now for a while. Ronnie's got an outstanding gym. He
also trains, you know, his countryman, David Morrell, you know.
And they've got they've got a good group over there.
And Taaz is a you know, I don't know if
he's necessarily pound for pound material down the road, but
he's only twenty four years old, so he's not a guy.
They came from the Cuban system that spent forever and
ever and ever in the amateur sometimes the great Cuban fighters.
By the time they got to the United States to
go to the professional level, they were so ingrained in
that Cuban style, that Cuban system, that it's hard to
get out of it. That you you, you know, it's
kind of you can't teach the old dog new tricks.
But TAAs was young enough where when he left c
But even though he had some of that background. He
was still kind of a work in progress, let's call him.
So Ronnie can can teach him or hone him in
more of a professional style, and he showed that he's
you know, he's got a good, good punch. He's now
nine and oh with seven knockouts, and Johan Gonzalez, in
my opinion, while not a top level fighter, was certainly
a step up in the opposition compared to the other
types of guys that that Teaz has faced in the
in the first handful of fights of his career, you know,
only the second time he had ever been stopped. And
the other guy that optened was Hazos Ramos, who was
a good young contender. That was a couple that was
actually in May of this year. So he's now lost
too out of his last three. But that was a
nice test for him. I thought, I mean, there's nothing
wrong with that. And there's only other loss, by the way,
was against Magna mid Kurbanov, who fought for the title
against Madromov. That was a decision like two years ago.
So uh, you know, I thought, for where Tayas is
in his career, this was the perfect kind of opponent
and you know, he got some rounds in. It went
seven and he looked good and he won the fight
pretty headily. He scored some knockdowns, scored him actually, what
is it three knockdowns? I believe it was. He scored
a knockdown in round number six, more in the seventh,
which is when the fight was stopped. And so if
you are team Taez, you're like, you know what, we
got some good exposure on this undercard, and we performed
against the best opponent of his career, and we got
to win. We didn't get injured, we got a couple
of knockdowns. I mean, there's really nothing bad to say.
I think Gris is exciting and I look forward to
seeing him. Are my only warrel And this is you
could say this about, you know, a million fighters in boxing,
is you just would love to see the guy be
a little bit more active and be in the ring.
Because he's only had now two fights this year and
it's already October. He's certainly not going to fight again
the rest of this year when you're nine in all,
and how you know, it's really it's not enough to
only have two fights in the year. That's the only
unfortunate part, and to put it in perspective, in twenty
twenty three he had four fights. Part of that, I
am sure is because there's just not the inventory of
dates and available slots because PBC is not just not
doing that many shows and that's who he's with. So
but that aside the talent wise and the potential, I
love him. He's one of my favorite prospects in boxing.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 1: And then again the opening fight. I'm not gonna say
this should be on the top of the list for
fight of the year. I don't even know that it
should even be in the top ten. But we got
to give a tip of the hat because Tapia, Yeah,
you're tipping your hat while we're doing the show. Tip
Tapia and Savedra again. Let me just set the scene.
I'm sitting near the Australian set. I've got Australian media
members sitting in front of me, writers a couple of them,
and Fox Sports Australia's media person was in front of me.
And when Savedra dropped Tapia, the gasps from those people
because this is a guy fighting out of Australia that
was supposed to win and he got dropped twice, and
I didn't know if he was going to get out
of that round. It was what the second round. I
didn't know if he was going to get out of
the second round, but he did. He later scored the
knockdown of Savedra, and then Savedra scored another knockdown late
in the fight with Tappy as eye grotesque, dam scrolling shut.
And by the way I saw that that I about
an hour after the fight. I'm sure they went and
had him checked out. That eye was swollen, completely shut, huge, purple, red, puffed,
swollen shot eye.
Speaker 3: Nasty. And yet the fight is a draw.
Speaker 1: I said to Sean Porter, who came over to do
the studio thing. Have you do you remember a fighter
scoring three knockdowns in a ten round fight and not
even getting one score card? He goes, that is rough,
He goes, that is rough to not even get a card,
and it's rule to draw. All right, your thought on
that real quick and we'll move on.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, in terms of the three knockdowns, I
use the example that's the good, perfect example is the
fight between Batalic of Vladimir klitchkow Rather and Samuel Peter.
The first fight that they fought with each other. Samuel
Peter scored three knockdowns and lost every other round of
the fight. So and clitch Goo ended up winning. You know,
pretty clear on the parts, but so it's possible. But
of course Saveja also got knocked down also in the
fifth round. It listen if you go back, and I
think it was on this on our podcast, maybe it
was on the US show, but anyway, spoke about when
the undercard was put together. When we were talking about it,
I said, look, Caesar Matteo Tapia and Andrey Savedra are
not well known names, but my knowledge of the two
guys and seeing the way the match, you know, seeing
where they were in their careers, I'm like, this is
probably gonna be a good fight. And it turned I mean,
it turned out to be. Like you said, it was
not gonna be fight of the year, but a highly
entertaining fight. It will have the uh, the the historical
footnote if you will. It's the first ever fight on
Prime Video that wasn't a preliminary on a paper that
it was his own standalone show. This was like the
first one that was part of the Prime series. And
it's a worthy opener. I mean it was a really
good fight between two guys who are young, not young,
but hungry. Let's say, you know, Mateo was undefeated, Mateo
Tappa undefeated going into the fight. Savedra just had the
one loss. And what do you want if it's not
world chap Samianship level, if it's not like pound for
pound implications, if it's not an elimination and you're just
making the match, do you want to see an entertaining fight?
And damn, that was a damn entertaining fight, and that
could have probably gone either way. I kind of felt
like maybe Happier, just by a little bit, may have
won the fight, even though.
Speaker 1: He certainly won the tenth round, and he won it
on all three cards, and that was the key, because
that clinched one card for him and it clinched the
draw on the other two cards.
Speaker 2: I would say this, you know, I don't even think
it has to be the next fight, but at some point,
you know, in the next couple of fights for these guys,
you know, let them get their stuff together, you know,
down the road a little bit, you know, in a year,
year and a half from now, let's see these guys
do a remass. I think that would be appropriate. Maybe
at that point it could be for a little higher stakes,
but like get a regional belt involved. Maybe you know,
they had an IBF International belt. Maybe it could be
some kind of eliminator or something like that. Whatever, But
the point is very entertaining fight. And of course because
the Mexican Ausha and that was the reason he's on
the card is because remember the bulk of the revenue
it was being derived from this event was from Australian
pay per view, so besides having Tim Zoo, they needed
some other Australian hook to it, let's say, and by
putting him on the card, that made a lot of sense.
And tas the was the you know, the the prospect
based in the United States that was on the show.
Speaker 3: All good stuff there, and honest.
Speaker 2: Let's just discuss that for the first part of it
being the first Prime video because it wasn't a pay
per view. Look, it turned out to be a good
entertaining card. I don't think that Prime Video did did
a damn thing to help actually promote it, unfortunately. Uh,
and that was that was disappointing because if you're gonna
put any kind of resources towards your product, you know,
I got people on social media who couldn't find it
on the website, didn't know where it was, thought maybe
is this a pay per view? Like it was so
unclear to a lot of people, like had to even
find it. You know, we as boxing fans, you have
to learn the fine art of hunting and pecking to
find what you want to watch. I mean, it's just ridiculous.
But that aside, I thought they definitely did a stripped down,
cheaper production if you watch the actual broadcast, there's no
doubt about that compared to what they spend when they
were doing the pay per views, or what they spend
when Showtime was doing the fights. You know, less people
calling the fights the B team, let's say, or not
I shouldn't say, be tea because they're all talented broadcasters,
but not as expensive if you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Well, but the other thing is they moved it along,
get a ten round opener, you got right to the
second fight, which was seven rounds and Rayfield, my god.
The main event was in the ring at ten pm
and Eastern time, it was over with at ten oh
eight pm.
Speaker 2: Because they didn't spend a ton of time between the fights. Yes,
they did in my opinion, this is a positive check
mark and everybody's corner. When it came to the broadcast,
the broadcast started Brian Custer, who was the blow by blow,
but also you know the traffic cops so to speak,
did an excellent job. They took a couple of minutes
with him and my old colleague from ESPN, Brian Campbell
was one of the analysts with Keith Thurman who was
the expert, and the three of them they did a
short setup of the story, of the storylines and of
the fight, and they got right to the first fight.
So I'm okay with that. Take your five minutes set
up the show good, but you don't need Sometimes you
see fifteen twenty minutes as nonsense. And they got right
to the action. So I appreciate that you mentioned eight o'clock.
They're in the ring, and by eight I mean probably
was what maybe eight fifteen at the latest eight ten
of the punch they are being thrown in the first fight, So,
you know, good job on the pacing. There are some
other entities that do boxing they could certainly learn a lesson.
Speaker 1: Agreed, all right, we spent a ton of time on
that again. Regis Program coming up, give me the boxer
earlier in the day US Times Saturday Night in London recap.
I've seen the highlights of Adam Azim's knockout of Ohara Davies.
Your thought on that and anything else off the under
card since this's the recap pot go well.
Speaker 2: I thought that Adam Azem, who I have said many
times is one of my favorite prospects, and Mantanta's actually
for the Rayfield prospect list, like they are two of
my favorite prospects, and they both look really good. Adam
Zein looked spectacular. I know we was finding Ohiara Davies
was coming off the first round knockout lost to Broso,
but he was in good shape for that fight. He
was there to fight, you know. He spoke about that
aspect of things after the fight. This was the best
performance that Adam Azem has had in his young careers.
Now twelve to zero, he now has nine knockouts. It
was the best opponent he has faced. And he looked fast,
He looked sharp, He looked like he was on point,
like he was dialed in. He was in good condition.
There was nothing to criticize in this performance. He scored
a knockdown in the fifth round, clean as day. Then
he stopped him and with a nice shot in the
eighth round and O'Hara Davis got counted out and Davis
gave him a lot of credits, says, look, you know,
he talked about like maybe that's going to be his
last fight, that maybe he'll retire. They are friendly from
before this fight. He was like, look, this is my
last fight. I'm glad it was to a young man
like Adamazein because he's going places in boxing. The only
thing that stands between Adam Azem and stardom, true stardom.
He just needs some more experience and more reps against
this type of opponent. Maybe another step up in the
next next fight. But he's going places and he's he's
probably gonna be, you know, one of the significant fighters
over the course of the next few years in terms of
British Boxing's he's got some swagger, he's got some charisma,
he's got power, he's got speed. This was a great
performance for where he is in his career. I'm not
comparing it to like, you know, what a Crawford did
against Aarol Spencer or something like that. I'm saying for
where he is, this was exactly the right fight and
it was exactly the type of performance that he can
build on. It was just a tremendous There was no
I mean, I know his trainers and the people that
do his career. You know, they'll nitpick and they may find,
you know, little things that they need to work on.
But from my eyes as a viewer, I thought, there's
there's nothing that you wanted to nitpick at. I thought
he looked brilliant. Now as far as the rest of
the card, not Now that was funny. That was the
main event. That was advertising the main event, but they
brought out the Dan Aziz fight after the fight that
was him against Lewis Edmondson for the vacant titles of
the British light heavyweight and the Commonwealth light heavyweight titles.
Disease has been a good contender for the last several years.
I mean, he had, you know, an excellent fight with Biwatsie,
who was his pose friend. He lost that eliminator by
a unanimous decision, but he was, you know, being he
was highly considered. He had some other solid wins and
he was a favorite in this fight against a very
relatively inexperienced professional. Lewis Edmondson was nine to oh but
had never fought anybody close to the kind of guys
that Aziz fought, and he ended up winning a majority
decision get the upset against disease. Unfortunately, it was a
terrible fight in my opinion, just a dreadfully blackluster, slow paced,
kind of boring, this kind of fight that said, you know,
it's a work of art if you're Lewis Edmonson, because
you get your biggest win and you get your hands on,
you know, two very traditional titles that every young British
fighter would love to have, which is, you know, the
Great lons Dell Belt, the British title and the Commonwealth titles.
So you know, I don't know where AZ's goes from
here after a loss like that, not like he got
beat up, but now unfortunately for him that he's now
zero two and one in his last three fights. He
lost the fight to Bwatsie, he lost his fight to Edmondson,
and then sque in between Back and Juni. He had
a draw in an eight rounder that was sort of
an unforgivable kind of draw against like a relatively low
level opponent so im not sure where Dan Goshmi here,
but said, you know, he'll get his opportunity to go
along with his British and Commonweal title. Nazim, like I said,
he looked absolutely terrific in that fight, and you know
those were the main bouts. I mean, not that it's
a big deal in my mind, but he did have
some name recognition. Michael mckinson, who was a popular fighter
from UK actually lost in an upset to Toulani and Benja.
That was a kind of a shock.
Speaker 1: Anthony Yard also won thirty seconds on that as.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, while yeah, Anthony Yard, you know, he had
been in a contract dispute with Frank Warren, who I
think still thinks he has him under contract. So I'm
not sure where that's going. But in the end, Anthony
Yard did fight on this card and he ended up
winning a unanimous decision, pretty clear cut. I think what
happened was in the first like the first punch of
the fight, like a shot dropped his opponent Ralphvilkens in
the first round, like you talk, in ten to fifteen
seconds into the fight, and everybody, I think, including Anthony
Yard himself, is sort of like okay, I'm gonna just
land one more shot like that, I'm and get rid
of this dude. Because Anthony Yard is a great puncher.
Speaker 1: I've always said while Wilkins comes to fight though rightfield,
Hey listen, I'm joking.
Speaker 2: So in the end, like he couldn't get him out
of there, and he did get you know, the the
ten rounds, in which I guess is not a bad
thing if you're if you're if you're Anthony Yard.
Speaker 1: Who's falcons out of a police lineup. But Yard gets
to win, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Is the third win in a row. It's a low
level opponent since he had that great fight where he
got stopped against Arthur better Be than jangu Arey of
last year. So he's now at least still back on
the winning trail. You got to figure he's gonna find
himself in a bigger fight. I think they were actually
on the broadcast on if you're watching on Peacock, which
is the simulcast of the Sky broadcast from the UK.
They were they were talking about the prospect of him
against Joshua Blasse, which would be a big deal, all
British light heavyweight fight between two good contenders. So that
might be a thing, because look, BASSI is a mandatory,
but it's unlikely getting a title shot anytime in the
immediate future. If you see the reality before you that
it's probably going to be a rematch between Art theer
better beving to meet your bibel.
Speaker 1: All right, here it is, and I promise Regi's prograce
coming up shortly, William Skull O your voice, Vladimir Shishkin
for the vacant IBF one hundred and sixty eight pound crown.
Not only did I not see this, I don't have
any desire to even go back and relive whatever highlights
might be because you're telling me the fight stunk, but
Skull gets the win, So give this like the cursory
sixty seconds or less go.
Speaker 2: It was a terrible fight. I didn't think it was
a particularly good decision. They gave the fight to Skull
one sixteen, one thirteen, one fifteen to one thirteen and
one sixteen to one twelve. I thought that I have
to be honest. I didn't score on paper every round,
and I know that if I'm going to talk about scoring,
I should do that. I do that with most fights,
but this fight was too stinky for me to do
that I didn't. I didn't have the patience to score
all twelve rounds, But I did feel like that that
that Shishkin would kind of got jobbed a little bit
in the fight. Just my feeling. If I if I
was forced to go back and score all twelve rounds,
maybe I would think differently. But in my viewing of
the fight, which was on his own, uh picked up
at the last moment, not pay per view, by the way,
like the no undercards on pay per view either. You know, look,
it was it was a bad fight, and Skull is
the beneficiary of having never really fought anybody in his
entire career until this fight. Shishkin's with. You know, Shishkin
was a pretty decent opponent, and he gets the uh,
he gets the the IBF Super middle I title. Where
it takes him. You know, it's not like it's gonna
suddenly get him a Canelo fight, because they could have
done that before. So he'll stay home in Germany probably
and they'll find somebody from the fight and that'll be that.
But it was not a good fight, and uh, you know,
Canelos still the champ.
Speaker 1: In my mind, you gave it the cursory forty five
or fifty seconds.
Speaker 3: There you go.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get to Regi's prograe who you talked
to recently. He's fighting Jack Catterall coming up this Saturday
in Manchester. This is a twelve round non title fight. Still,
somebody's going to be very relevant at junior welterweight program
needs this fight. So let's go back to to Dan's
conversation just recently with the former champ in this division,
Regis Program.
Speaker 2: Well, it's my great pleasure to welcome back to our
podcast for another appearance getting ready for another important fights
none other than the former two time junior welterweight world
champ Regis Program. Regis, thank you so much for joining me.
We're here to talk about you have a very significant
fight coming up. It's against Jack Catterall in at the
New co Op Live in Manchester, England. Will headline the
Mattroom Boxing cart on October twenty sixth on his own Welcome.
I know you're in training camp getting ready for the fight.
First of all, just tell me just your your general
thoughts about you know, preparing yet again for another you know,
highly significant fight in the junior welterweight division.
Speaker 4: I mean I'm excited about it.
Speaker 5: You know, I'm definitely excited something I'm really it's something
I can kind of look forward to.
Speaker 4: It's something i'm excited about.
Speaker 5: It's something that It's a fight that I've been one
for a little while, and you know, it happened. I
think me and Jack we were supposed to fight maybe
like two or three years ago, and maybe like two
years ago, and it just kind of just never happened.
Speaker 4: And you know, now is you know, I guess now
is a good time.
Speaker 5: And I think this is the biggest fight you can
make at one forty besides, you know, people with the belts.
So I think it's you know, it's a great fight.
It's a good fight, and I'm just excited about it.
Speaker 2: Well, you mentioned about how maybe there was a conversation
about maybe two guys would have hooked up in a
fight a couple of years ago. You were supposed to
fight each other on August twenty fourth, just a few
months ago. He had to postpone the fight because he
suffered a rib injury and it was only like less
than a month or so, or just about a month
or so before the fight. So both of you guys
are already in training camp, You're already doing your sparring,
You're deep in, You're spending money on the camp and
the whole thing, and everybody's preparing for the event, and
then unfortunately, you know, it's not your first rodeo, it
got postponed. Can you just sort of think back then,
just give me your emotions and your thoughts about when
you heard, oh damn, you know this fight was postponed,
and just you know, just having to kind of get
back in the mentality of starting camp over again at
some point, right.
Speaker 5: I mean, I was pissed. I was really pissed. I
mean the main thing because because I went to Vegas.
I went out there, I was in Vegas training, I
was running, I was doing everything I was supposed to do, sparring.
I mean, I had a real, real tight just just
my my schedule was.
Speaker 4: Just super tight. It was just literally like boxing all
day long. And and then you know, coming out of pocket.
Speaker 5: You know, nobody, you know, Matt Trim never gave me
no type of camp money and nothing like that.
Speaker 4: I came out of my own pocket.
Speaker 5: I went out to Vegas and I was training, and
then they told me the fight was postponed, so it
really you know, it.
Speaker 4: Bothered me a lot, but it bothered me more. It
bothered me about.
Speaker 5: You know that I was training, because you know, it's
you know, when I was out.
Speaker 4: There training, it was good. It was good sparring, it
was good work. It was it was just a whole.
Speaker 5: It was a good vibe all around. But the thing
that bothered me is just like, you know, I did
all this and I paid all this out.
Speaker 4: Of pocket, and you know, it's like basically it's for nothing.
So that was the main thing.
Speaker 2: Let me ask me that. Then you mentioned about the
financial there. I mean what people with fans, I don't things
sometimes realizes that a fighters, they don't get paid until
the fight happens number one and number two. While there
are certain fights, the biggest fights, fighters get advances or
get consideration for training expenses. You just mentioned it, didn't
I just if you don't mind how much how much
out of pocket you come to us to do that
bunch of weeks of camp where you're not getting paid
and now you got to start up the camp again, right.
Speaker 5: I was up there for about a month. I mean,
it wasn't that bad. Maybe like ten or fifteen thousand.
Speaker 4: I came out of pocket. You know, it's I mean,
it's it's it's not it's.
Speaker 5: Not that much, but at the same time, it's still something.
It's still something that I have to come out of
pocket with. Nobody gave me no type of money. It
wasn't you know, it was all me coming out. You know,
I had to I had to fly my trainers out
there and fly with one of my trainers out there.
I had to ship my car out there. I had
to pay for lodging for my trainer. Luckily I have
honestly live out there, so I did that.
Speaker 4: You still have to pay.
Speaker 5: I had to pay my shelf, I had to pay
up for all my food, all that type of stuff.
Speaker 4: So you know, that was like the bad thing about it.
Speaker 2: But and your sparting partners also you pay.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so you know you have to do all that
type of stuff. And but listen, it it happens.
Speaker 5: You know, I understand it happens, and it is what
it is, and I wasn't. I'm glad that you know,
they they postponed. It wasn't just canceled all the way
and it was postponed.
Speaker 2: So when you hear that he has a rib injury.
And you know that they didn't. They didn't say it's
an elbow or a hand, it's a rib injury. Do
you make that a point in the back of your
mind and say, you know what, I'm gonna make sure
I target his ribcage when it comes time for the fight.
Speaker 4: Oh, of course.
Speaker 5: I mean I don't know if it's true or not,
but yeah, of course, I mean, look, you have an injury.
Of course I'm I'm gonna go target that, you know,
no matter what, that's what I'm gonna target.
Speaker 4: So, you know, and I.
Speaker 5: Don't know if it's real. I don't know if it's stayed.
That's what I heard, you know, but you know, we can.
Speaker 4: Hear all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 5: So yeah, that's that'll that'll be, you know, one of
the places I'll target.
Speaker 2: Now, you're essentially gonna be fighting in his hometown. He
lives about I looked up on Google Maps. It's about
forty five fifty minutes between his hometown of Chorley and
and the arena where you're fighting in Manchion. Obviously it's
a hometown fight for him. Did you have any qualms
about taking your show on the road to go there.
You're on the short end of a very close, excellent
fight against Josh Taylor a few years ago in your
twenty nineteen unification also in the UK, which I guess
hasn't been the kindest to read this program. What's your
mentality about going into the lines done again.
Speaker 4: I'm not really tripping about it. You know. It's like
something I don't really think about, but I'm not really
tripping about it. At the same time, I want to
be a you know, I want to be a world champion.
Speaker 5: Again, and whatever it takes to get to that world
championship status again, I'll just do it.
Speaker 4: I just I know that Jack is not on my level.
Speaker 5: I know I'm a way better fighter, so it really
doesn't It doesn't matter whether.
Speaker 4: Fight's gonna take place.
Speaker 5: I just I know that I'm way better, you know,
with you Like I said I said earlier. You know,
it's a different interviews. Like, man, you can check my resume,
check what I did, you know. I mean, yeah, I
had two bad performances. But listen, I just know that
Jack is just he's not on my levels, know where
close to being on my level, So it doesn't matter.
Speaker 4: Yet they have the you know, the hometown stuff going on.
Speaker 5: But for me, listen, I think that makes me hungry,
and I know that people kind of write me up.
But it's a good thing for me, you know, because
I'm a shock everybody.
Speaker 2: All Right. So he beat Josh Taylor by a very
clear decision in his last fight that took place in May.
A lot most people think he won the first fight,
so it should have two wins against and that was
the split decision that he suffered. The loss in the
undisputed title fight back in twenty twenty two. You lost
a really close, outstanding fight to Josh Taylor in a
two thing, like I said in the twenty nineteen unification.
So I always wonder like how fighters sort of view
this does the fact that he beat Taylor most people
think twice you lost to him, all be it very close?
Now you're fighting him, Does that mean anything? The fact
that he beat that guy and he.
Speaker 5: Didn't absolutely no. Styles makes fights. You know, styles may fights.
Speaker 4: You know, Dan, you've been in boxing for a long time.
Speaker 5: That doesn't That absolutely means absolutely nothing at all.
Speaker 4: Styles make fights. That doesn't matter. He might just have
Taylor's number, that's all, you know, That's all.
Speaker 5: But he's he's not gonna have my number. So now
it's just it's a styles make fights type of thing.
That's just how that's how it goes.
Speaker 2: So did you ever watch the fight, well, I guess
the last fight that he had in May, but you
did you watch that fight and did you think did
you watch the first fight that was the one that
caused so much controversy and if something?
Speaker 5: I think I thought that first fight, the first fight,
I thought he won that fight.
Speaker 4: The second fight it was closer. You know, I'm not
gonna say he won of those.
Speaker 5: He obviously won to fight, but it was a it
was a it was a I felt like it was
a closer.
Speaker 4: Fight for the second fight.
Speaker 5: But it's just like you kind of you kind of old.
He was like, you kind of have to give it
to him, But I mean it was it was a
close fight.
Speaker 4: I think Taylor first the action more. I go. Bob
was pissed, you know, he got the ring.
Speaker 5: He said that, you know, they Taylor really wont to fight,
and it was it was a it was a way
closer fight than the first fight. Now, but I do
think that he deserved that win because.
Speaker 4: He won the first one.
Speaker 2: Now, I know, you got the fight obviously that you
got to deal with Caterroll and in front of you,
and we're talking a little bit about his performance against Taylor.
You had your fight against Taylor, and down the road,
whatever happens in this fight, win, loser, draw, Do you
have it in your back of your mind that someday
you'd like to do it again with Josh Hail There
was such a great fight the first time. It was
so competitive, big stakes unification fight. It seems to me
that at some point for both of you guys, it
might make sense.
Speaker 5: Man, it depends, you know, it depends on you know,
what happens, what goes on.
Speaker 4: Like for me, my goal is to be a champion again.
That's it.
Speaker 5: So if Josh Taylor happens to become a champion, of
course I welcome that. I definitely all If they tell
me after this, listen, you fight Jos Tailor, then you
then you fight for the belt, then yeah, it's cool,
we'll fight Joss Taylor again.
Speaker 4: But for me, it's it's not even an it's not
no more names.
Speaker 5: It's just like I want I want to be a
three time champion. That's something one of my I was
dal behind that lead who was a three time champion, and.
Speaker 4: That's something I want to do. I want to become
a three time.
Speaker 5: Champion and after that then I'll figure out what's going on.
Speaker 4: So whatever leads me and that in that direction, that's
the direction I go in.
Speaker 2: So a lot of times when we have these fights
that come up, a lot of discussion turns toward if
one guy is a right handed fighter, one guy's at
south paw, it's not usually the most comfortable or normal thing,
let's say, for the righty to be facing the lefty.
In this particular case, you and Jacker Bo South both
left handed fighters, and most of your fights are against
right handed fighters. So I always wonder when I'm talking
to the lefty, how is it to go in with
another lefty? Does it? Does? Its?
Speaker 4: Not me?
Speaker 5: If you look at most of my fight they've been
most of my fights been a lot of my fights
been left handed fighters. You know, you starting, you know,
if you look at people just at the time of hey,
you look at like Aango Ivan rid Cash, Jose paid the.
Speaker 4: Town of McKenna. We both sharding ring with him.
Speaker 5: Josh here, you know I named five people just now
that's all left handed fighters, you know, so nah, it's yeah,
I mean no, I don't feel untucked at all. All right.
Speaker 2: Well, you mentioned before, by the way, that you said,
you know, you had a couple of tough fights. Uh
in the most recent past. Uh. Yeah, the split decision
where you won the fight at home in New Orleans
against den Alito's area. But even you know that was
in defense of your title back in June of twenty
twenty three. But even you admitted that was not a
good performance. I mean, you know that everybody that watch
it knows that you did get the victory. Uh. And
then the next fight that was the loss to Devin
Haney where you lost the belt in December. You know
you got shut out, you got knocked down. How how
I mean those are those are a lot of guys.
It's hard to recover from those types of performances in
a row. But how big of it is not only
for you to go in there and do your thing
against Catterroll, but to do it in at least somewhat
impressive manager show. Hey, listen, you know what, I went
through my rough patch, but I'm still one of the
top fighters at one hundred and forty pounds.
Speaker 5: Right, that's and that's exactly what I'm coming prove. You know,
I want to I want to just like erase it,
and I know I can. I know I am, you know,
like I'm back in the gym and I'm.
Speaker 4: Just being me again. That's the thing. You know, I
was boil in the gym to day.
Speaker 5: And I mean my train was like, man, that's the
old regions. You're looking like the old regions, and that's
how I want to come. And I feel like, yeah,
I had a lot of stuff going on, you know,
management issues and all kinds of stuff like that. Just
it was just too much going on on my plate
that I had to think about. Now it's just like
it's all I think about.
Speaker 4: Is back to boxing. I actually changed some things up
in my team as far as like management wise, and
they're take care of that.
Speaker 5: But at that time, you know, I don't know if
we spoke back in the day a few like a
year ago or.
Speaker 4: Something like that, but I was I was mad. I
was self managing myself. I was doing everything myself.
Speaker 5: And you know, at that time, I remember doing interviews
with people and like you you manage yourself, and and
I thought that, yeah, I could do this, and I
didn't need a manager, but I feel like, yeah, now
I know that I do need to measure that is
an important job because they take everything off. They take
everything off your plate. So now all I do is
focus on fighting.
Speaker 4: I don't have to.
Speaker 5: Focus on nothing else. And now I just focus on boxing.
So yeah, I think for me it was like a
mental thing. Physically, I can still do all the stuff.
I still that's the thing. Boxing is more mental than physically,
and physically I.
Speaker 4: Still do all the stuff.
Speaker 5: I mean, it's a it's a pointing time where you
have to be with yourself and can you still do this?
Speaker 4: Can you still do it?
Speaker 5: And in a gym, I mean I'm looking I know,
I'm looking real good.
Speaker 4: I mean I can't leak my.
Speaker 5: Spartan stuff like that, but I'm looking super good. I'm like,
I'm real fast, I'm strong, I can still hear all
everything is still So it's all so I know it
was all a mental Thingking and my coaches they'll be honest,
and all my people around me they'll be honest with
They're like, goddamn, like.
Speaker 4: You looking, man, You're looking so good.
Speaker 5: Like I've been looking like real real sweet in the
gym right now, So I know all that stuff was
a mental tank.
Speaker 4: About a mental thing.
Speaker 5: So like now it's just like, you know, getting back
to being that's the main thing. Get back to being
Regions program, that's.
Speaker 4: What I need to do.
Speaker 2: So when you lose the way you did against Devin Haney,
I mean you'd have to wonder. I understand a guy loses,
You got stuff going on outside during like you mentioned,
maybe some of it's mental, and you were busy trying
to be a manager and a fighter and all that together.
But when you don't win around it would cause one
to maybe questions say, hey, you know, you know, I
need to assess that performance. You talk about being you know,
you know, in your top level in the gym, getting
ready for this fight, But what the heck happened against Hani?
It's one thing, It's one thing to lose the fight regis,
you know, but to frankly not compete to kind of
a different mix.
Speaker 4: Would I know, I wasn't me. I just wasn't meet
at night. What happens, I don't know, and I can't.
I still can't tell people what happened.
Speaker 5: I just I feel like I definitely felt like I
wasn't meet. I'm not I wasn't reaching program. I didn't
do it, and I didn't do the things even in
campus stuff like that lead up to the fight.
Speaker 4: I let a lot of hype get to my head,
and I just the main thing, you know, long story short,
I just wasn't mean.
Speaker 5: I can I can go on about what happened in
camp and what happened out of camp, but you know,
we don't have time for that.
Speaker 2: I just was Have you ever gone back and watched
that fight? Nope, okay watching, Yeah.
Speaker 5: Didn't watch it because I know that that person that
was fighting it wasn't me.
Speaker 4: Even in a ring that night. I didn't feel like.
I just felt like I wasn't me at all. So
it's like, why would I watch something that's not me?
You know, it doesn't It really doesn't make sense at all.
Speaker 2: So I asked that because I'll go back a little ways.
I remember having an interview many years ago with the
great heavyweight cham Vladimir Klitchko, who, on the worst night
of his life, got absolutely uh embarrassed by Layman Brewster
in an a vacant heavyweight championship fight, and he was
telling me he's watching all these films getting ready for fights.
I asked him what he's watching. I thought he's watching like,
you know, Joe Lewis fights or Muhammad Ali fights or
this that He's like, No, I'm watching myself get beat
by Limn Brewster. Because you never wanted to forget what happened.
So that's why I asked that about going back to
watch a loss. Yeah, did you ever think about that
as aspect of it to maybe like I'm thinking about.
Speaker 5: It now, Hey, I might go watch it. Wait the
way you say it, so I might take a page
of that book.
Speaker 4: I might, I might go through I might go watch it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he said, you listen, I don't ever want to
forget how I tell that night. So I'm going to
keep watching that, and you know it'll motivate me when
I go into my next fight. So I don't perform
like that again. And frankly, he never did perform again
like that. All right, Well, so I just want to
wrap up with this. Then. You know, I'm not big
into like boxing cliches. I'm sure you've heard them all,
but coming off of that type of defeat and now
being back in a big spot like you mentioned, this
is probably on paper, one of the best fights you
can make in the weight class that's not in one
of the championship fights. And so for you to go
into this fight off of that, like again, not to
be into the cliches, but how much do you view
it as a quote unquote must win in terms of,
you know, advancing your career to get back to that
level where you want to be a champigain.
Speaker 4: For me, I just know I'm gonna win. It's not
even like I don't want to put the pressure on
myself to be like, oh, it's a must win and
this and that, and.
Speaker 5: Like I said, it's the same, you know, if I
want to get to that pressure. It's the same thing
with like with the Haney stuff, like oh I have
to do this, I have to do this, and then.
Speaker 4: Like I compete it terribly because I let all that
pressure get through my head. I box just because I
love it. You know, you have to.
Speaker 5: You have to just enjoy the sport. You have to
That's that's and that's what I'm doing. I'm getting back
to just enjoying. I get back to I remember last camp,
you know where Haiti I was going as farn and
I you know, I just get I put so much
pressure on myself to do this and do this and
do this, and now like I'm just in the gym
just having fun, and that's what I do for I
do it.
Speaker 4: I literally just box because I just enjoy it.
Speaker 5: I really have fun boxing and that's it, and that's
what I you know, that's the.
Speaker 4: Main thing I want to do.
Speaker 5: Go out there, enjoy myself and like the thing is
like live be in the moment, Be present in that moment.
Speaker 4: Don't think about you know, the past, don't think about
the future.
Speaker 5: Just be present right in that moment. And that's kind
of what I want to do. And that's kind of
what I've been doing, you know, like I said, just
trained spar and all that, just having fun.
Speaker 4: In being back to Viet Me.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm going to look forward to watching you back
to be and you come October twenty six against Jack Catterall. Regis,
thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it
and I certainly wish you the best luck in the fight.
Speaker 4: Thank you Mann.
Speaker 1: Thank you all right again, that is a main event
coming this Saturday. I always ask you about your thoughts
wrapping it up here. You were getting the chance to
see him, et cetera.
Speaker 2: What about it, Listen, Regis understands that this is a
must win type of fight, has no fear about going
back to the UK to do this fight. He's fighting
in Manchester, England, which is Jack Catterall's home era. You know,
he's from probably a town about thirty minutes from there.
The last time that, you know, the one of the
other losses, the only well he's coming off the loss
against Devin Hainey. That was a miserable performance. He acknowledges
how bad that was. He lost every single second, every
single round. But the only other loss that he took
was in twenty nineteen, a majority decision that a lot
of people thought he won in a really outstanding fight.
That was the unified belts in this Way class. That
was in London. Now Josh of course is not from England,
He's from Scotland. But still it's the UK and it's
the whole British scene, and you know, it was a
home It wasn't away game for him, let's put it
like that. So but fearless to go back, So I
respect reagis a lot for that. He's a you know,
people can hear him talk. He's always been one of
my favorite guys to interview. Just gives you, I believe,
honest answers, h doesn't doesn't make you know, excuses about stuff,
and just keeps it real. So, you know, good luck
to him. This should be a pretty interesting fight. You
made the point that it's not it's a non title fight, yes,
but you know, I call it a de facto eliminator.
You know, it's not that the winner is going to
be automatically mandatory for a title fight, but the guy
who wins is going to have put together a solid
victory on their record, And especially if you're Jack Catterau,
you're coming off of now what would be too significant
wins in a row. You have beating Regis h next Saturday,
and you'll have also had your vengeance against Josh Taylor
in that controversy. And for Regis, it's a way to
get back at an action. So you know, he's confident
and I'm looking forward to watching the fight.
Speaker 3: Very good.
Speaker 1: Let's move on to some news and some nostalgia before
we are done. Jarrell Miller, your boy has a very
interesting possible opponent here.
Speaker 3: What are you hearing you you're working your sources in
your network.
Speaker 1: What are we hearing about Jirell Big Baby Miller and
his next fight.
Speaker 2: Well, there's a very good chance it's probably gonna happen.
They're in the in the I can't say they're putting
pens to paper, but they're getting all the particulars worked out.
And I have been told that by multiple people that
can against Yeah, sorry, directly involved with this fight would
be Miller against the Sora. It would be a Queensberry card.
It would take place probably in Manchester, England. They're looking
at either the last Saturday of January or early part
of February.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 2: And in terms of the heavyweight division, look, all these
heavyweights are fighting each other and everybody's got to kind
of stay active. In terms of Big Baby Miller, you
know he is coming off of the raw split Raw
against Andy Ruiz and what was a good fight that
took place on the RIAT season card in Los Angeles
that was in August. You have Chasa who's kind of
been I can't say he's reborn, but for a guy
that people were saying should retire even though he's forty
years old, and it has been a lot of wars,
here's the thing, he's actually won two decisions in a
row against like pretty decent, like hype opponents. I mean,
he beat Gerald Washington, not a great fighter, but a
guy that had fought for the heavyweight title against Deontay Wilder,
and he has to win. In his last fight that
took place this past summer, he upset Joe Joyce. So
he got one guy who did what he did with
Andy Ruiz and had given a very competent performance even
though he lost in the stoppage against dubois In Miller.
He got the fan favorite Chessaura coming off the two
wins I just mentioned, and they're gonna put him together.
And you know, listen, the guy that wins that fight
is going to probably find himself as the b side
of some other good heavyweight fight in and among all
these different heavyweights that we've seen on these reat season
cards over the past year. So, uh, you know, that
will be a fight that doesn't have huge stakes in
the title hunt, but the winner is going to get
another significant fight out of it. And more importantly, you
know what, it's going to be a fun fight. Let's
be honest, you know that's gonna be.
Speaker 3: A fun A lot of mystery. Those two are gonna
probably and.
Speaker 2: They're gonna talk shit. I means and Miller they can
chat and chatter like any of any like that with
the best of them.
Speaker 3: Fair enough, all right.
Speaker 1: Update on ji Opataiah who was just in the ring
recently and now a mandatory defense has been ordered for him.
Speaker 3: What are you hearing about? Who that is and where
that is?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So we had the fight on the on the
recent uh read card on the Better BF under card
when he defeated Dimitri b Ball and he had to
win against Jack Massey and now he's do the IBF
is ordered the mandatory defense. They just like they ordered
the Better BEF mandatory this past Thursday to fight Michael Eiffer.
But with the possibility that he can get the exception
if he's so asked for it to do the b
BO rematch. You have ji Opataiah who has been asked
in order to fight his mandatory challenge. A fighter from
Germany named Hussein Sinkara, an undefeated fighter twenty two and
zero with eighteen knockouts. Not a lot I Loo looked
at the record of the guy. Not a lot of
notable guys on the record. I'm not that familiar with him,
you know, as really a record that's kind of devoid
of like anybody you probably had heard of. But what
I was told by some people that would be involved
in this event is that you know, as opposed the
last time when they had all that back and forth
with the IBF and he ended up being stripped because
he was fighting somebody when Marius Bradest was the mandatory
but unavailable because of an injury, and it was just
one of the stupidest things in the history of the world.
And when they ended up fighting, he was just fighting
for the vacant belt that it should have just been
his to defend. In this case, they're not giving up
the title, he's not getting stripped. They're probably going to
go through with this mandatory and it will serve as
an opportunity for them to take Ji back home to Australia,
where he has had four consecutive fights away from Australia.
Has not boxed in Australia since the summer of twenty
twenty two, which is, by the way, when he won
the title in the first place in that awesome slugfest
in the first fight against Marius Braidest. So mandatory fight
that you have to do, combine with a lack of
having fought at home for a while, seems like the
perfect setup for you to be in front of your
home fans, make a defense and then move on, because remember,
he's gonna be paying awfully close attention to what happens
in November when Chris Billum Smith and Zerdo Ramirez fight
each other. Turkey Alshiet from Saudi Arabia stated on equivocally
he would like to see the winner of that fight
fight Jai Opataia, but because that's not going to be
right away available in terms of their schedules, probably in
the early part of next year, they'll see O Pataya
do this mandatory and then come when you know, the
next fight in Riad, you hopefully see Jai in the
in the in the unification against the winner of them
Smith against Zeriramera. So you know, when you're active, the
way he's been having this type of fight in there
against an undefeated opponent and he's not very accomplished, you know,
is not a terrible thing. You're staying active, You're you're
putting on a show for your probably your hometown home
country fans, and you know, trying to move on to
the bigger fight.
Speaker 1: All right, Moving on here, we have an update on
William Zappaida, who's now going to be part of this
Latino Night Read season card on November sixteenth. What's the
latest and by mine o way, there's a there's a quirk,
there's a quirk with this as well go ahead, but.
Speaker 2: They had they announced that, you know, remember if you
just back up for a minute. Of course, Stevenson was
supposed to fight against Joe Cordina on the Better BF
card and and then Zapeida was supposed to fight this
fight against Tevin Farmer, and if they both won, they
were fighting the mandatory fight in Saudi Arabia next year.
Because of course Stevens had got injured and was off
the show. Uh, you know, he's not going to be
fighting this the tune up fight so to speak, although
I would be you know, I don't know if I
would call it Joe Cordina a tune up fight, but nonetheless,
but but they're not going to make Zeepeida inactive. So
we was still going to go through and do the
fight with Tevin Farmer. So that fight was already signed. Uh,
it was set for a ten rounder at one hundred
and thirty six pounds, and the money was the money.
The budget was the budget because even though the Saudi's
can what they want, they actually when it comes to
certain undercards, they have a strict budget they abide by.
Now they can go over if they'd so desire, but
they haven't shown a desire other than like the biggest fights,
like the you know, undisputed Heavyweight Championship, where they're you know,
spending huge amounts of money. So anyway, the fight was made,
and my understanding is that the WBC went to the
teams and said, hey, listen, because of where Zipaida is
in the rankings, because Chakor is out with an injury,
that it was actually, you know, I hate the interim titles,
but in this particular case, it was logical because of
the amount of time that Chakor is gonna probably be
sidelined with the injury. Is the paida is the number
one contender. He's been waiting for the title shot. So
they were like, we'll make the interim title available. So
I was like, all right, we would do that. Now
they already had a contract sign to ten rounds. I
am told that the teven Farmer team was okay with
switching to weight from thirty six max to thirty five,
which is on the division limit, but they were not
willing to go from twelve from ten rounds which was
scheduled for to twelve rounds if he wasn't going to
get more money to do so.
Speaker 3: So hey, makes sense, makes sense.
Speaker 2: So now in one of the things that to me
is one of the craziest, most weird, bizarre things. And
I don't agree with this decision at all. I am
told that. And actually it's not even that. I'm told
the WBC announced this on their website and they sounded
like a daily email blast. They are making this fight,
and they didn't say it in there announcement, but I'm
told by the promoter it's a ten round fight. So
Tevin Farmer, who's coming off a loss, I might add
to Raymond Morettaya and Williams is the paida who is
a legitimate top lightweight contender. They're going to fight for
an interim world title in a ten rounder, which is
absolutely ridiculous.
Speaker 1: What do I keep saying to you? These organizations make
it up as they go.
Speaker 2: It's not that they make it up. If you read
the actual rules there is a rule at the bottom,
like literally, and I don't know the exact language. They
don't have the rules in front of me. It literally
will say something to the effect of note any of
these rules can be changed to, you know, according to
thank you.
Speaker 3: We will make it up as we go along. If
we see fit.
Speaker 2: I just think that's an't There's a.
Speaker 1: Lot of things anim title fight, Yeah, plays, it should
be twelve rounds, listen.
Speaker 2: There's a ton of things that I that I love
about the WBC that they do very well with. I
appreciate their efforts towards drug testing, even though it's not
perfect there. They have lots of great history, they have
great champions. Again, I have a lot of respect for
the people the WBC, and there's definitely things that I
don't agree with. And you know, even though I have
a very good relationship with Mariso Suliman and we talk
all the time, and you know, he's actually a great guy,
a lot of people in boxing they don't know him
the way I know him. But we also disagree about
a lot of things. Him and I had our battles
over the franchise Championship, for example, and I could cite
other things going down the slippery slope of making an
interim world title fight a ten rounder. I just can't
agree with that, but it is what it is, So
that's I'm just.
Speaker 3: One of the chances and we'll move on.
Speaker 1: What are the chances that they tell Tevin Farmer this
is a twelve round fight, or perhaps the fights and
jeopardy and Zipaida will fight somebody else on nobody.
Speaker 2: You can't do that because they are. It would be
a different matter if they didn't have a signed contract.
Speaker 1: But what what I mean the contract probably hasn't out somehow,
some way. What if that's I don't know if that's
what if that I'm just saying hypothetically, what if that's
the leverage point he will eject from the contract, We
will find somebody else and that will be the interim
title fight.
Speaker 3: Do you want to fight twelve rounds?
Speaker 4: Now?
Speaker 2: Just saying number one, I'm not sure. I'm not sure
if the WBC would allow that because they've already said
he's the guy. They have to come down the rankings,
you have a first bid situation or negotiation. All that
this was a fight. The reason why it's so quirky
is because the fight itself was made and signed in
the debt aspect that it came in after the fact,
and you can't have if it's not the fighter is
not willing to do so you can't make him change
the parameters what he already agreed to. I don't just
if they don't want to give him more money, and
I'm not sure how much more money he wanted. But
you know, it's just a very way that the upshot
is this, whatever the circumstances are. When you suddenly now
take a title file and schedule for ten rounds, it's
a slippery slope. What's next? Eight rounds? Six rounds? Give
me fucking break.
Speaker 1: I'm reminded of the line of Jay Leno, and it's
now become so long ago that it's lost its impact.
But when Leno and David Letterman were battling for the
Tonight Show and and Leno actually had it, then they
took it from him, and then they brought him back.
He actually at the media press conference when he got
the Tonight Show back, said it's great to be back
with NBC, which of course means never believe their contract.
Speaker 3: So they go.
Speaker 1: It's kind of the same thing with what we're talking
about here with contract law. I never believe the contract.
All right, anything else, we got one more item. Are
you going to go off again here? Or are you
gonna applaud the Japanese boxing Commission which applaud them? Applaud
them for what reason? As it relates to John Reel Casamaro.
Speaker 2: Okay, So, John Real Cassamaro has been a champion on
three different divisions, one of the better Philippine fighters over
the course of the last number of years. Although he's been,
you know, in some dreadful fights and been a dirty fighter,
and this and that, and you can look those things
up if you care to. But here's the point though.
On October thirteen, he was on a card that was
on an undercart in Yokohama, Japan. Maybe he was the
main event. I think he was the undercard. Anyway. He
fought a fighter named Sawel Sanchez. He knocked on the
first round. It was one hundred and twenty two pounds,
you know, junior featherweight fight. He did not make the
weight for that fight. He came in at one hundred
and twenty three point five pounds, And as happens in boxing, oftentimes,
the two sides made a deal and the fight went
forward and he ended up scoring a first round knock count,
and nothing unusual about that happens. Unfortunately all the time
fighters are a little bit overweight, they make a deal,
blah blah blah, fight goes on it. But they don't
fuck with that in Japan. You miss weight in Japan,
it's like, you know, you called someone's mom a bad name.
You know, you try to like, you know, you know,
kiss your buddy's girlfriend. I mean, you just don't do
stuff like that. They take making weight in Japan way
more seriously than anywhere else that I'm aware of. And frankly,
the United States commissions could take a cold, could take
a cue from them. So for his inh for his
his his issue of having missed weeight by one point
two five pounds. The Japanese Boxing Commission, and this is
not unpressent. They did it to Luis sneeryback a few
years ago. They suspended him for one year. He cannot
fight in Japan for one year. And I mean, he's
not like he's a Japanese fighter, but that sends a
message because it's I don't know this to be true,
but if he tries to fight in the Philippines. Perhaps
they'll uphold that suspension. I don't know. I would hope
that if he tried to fight in the United States
that they would reciprocate and not allow him to fight
the same way, at least in under the ABC rules
in the United States, if you're suspended in New York,
you can't fight in Nevada, you can't fight in Florida,
et cetera, et cetera. But I think this is a
great thing to take this seriously. You know, these guys
are if you're not going to fight at the weight
that you contract for and fight in a different weight class,
and if you don't make the weight, you should be punished.
And in this situation, I think a one year suspension
is actually a pretty significant suspension when you compare it
to a guy that gets caught using peds and he
might get a six month slap on the wrist. So
I do applaud there's me. Should I do my after
Deloya clap back Thursday?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you clapped it back like it all right?
Speaker 2: So anyway, I wanted to give them a shout out
because I thought this was a great move.
Speaker 1: Then, by the way, he's been as you mentioned, he's
been an habitual guy with missing weight, not showing up
for way in canceling fights and whatever, and so they
lowered the boom on him bravo, as.
Speaker 2: They should have. And even if it was even if
you had never had the offense in the first place,
they still would have done this. And I'm happy to
hear that. And like I said, I hope other commissions
look to the Japanese Boxing Commission, which has a good
reputation worldwide. They know how to do their events, and
this should be something more than norm than something that's
not normal.
Speaker 1: All Right, nostalgia time, because we have been here a bit.
Let's go back five years ago from this past Friday,
October eighteenth, twenty nineteen. You were in Philadelphia as Artur
better Bev became the unified light heavyweight champion as he
fought a fellow unbeaten in Alexander Vodzik. What do you
remember about that night, because it's led to bigger and
better things for better Beev, including now being undisputed champion
five years later in the same.
Speaker 2: Well, that's one of the things that's why I picked
this when when I was trying to figure out what
we're going to talk about this week because it shows
you that it's you know, slow and steady wins the race.
That that the trek undisputed is not easy. You know,
he had to win a title, a vacant title granted
against Enrico Coaling, And it wasn't until he fought this
fight with Vodzick that he not only became the you know,
he already was the IBF title holder, he won the
WBC belt. He won the lineal title because Vodzic had
beaten the man who beat the man who beat the man,
which is when he knocked out Donna Stevenson. And this
was like a big deal fight when Top rank put
it together. Remember they were both undefeated, they both had
major belts. They were they were in a situation where
and in the light heavyweight division there had never been
a unification fight ever. I mean in the you know,
back in the old days, there's only one title. But
since the advent, let's say, of the two belt the
era we go back into the nineteen sixties, there had
never been a unification either for two belts three belts
until we got to the four belts. This is the
only other one. But prior to Vodzick against better Be.
There had never been a unification where both guys were undefeated,
and that was the case with these two guys. They
put on a heck of a fight. This was when
Vodzick was being trained by Teddy Atlis. They put on
a real slug fast, a real excellent fight, and in
the end, it was just the overwhelming punching power of
Arthur better Biev that got to Bodzik. He ended up
dropping him three times, knocked him down, and knocked him
out in the tenth round. A real rough way to go.
He dropped him three times in that tenth round. And
I do have vivid memories of when I was leaving
the arena myself, and it was at the Leah Chorus Center,
which is an arena that's on the campus of Temple
University and I've covered I've covered a handful of fights
there through the years. You know, we were walking like
up you know, if you were to come into the arena,
go down the into the underneath, drive down the ramp.
We were walking up the ramp to go up to
the street to you know, get a uber car to
go back to our hotel. And as we're walking up.
We were passing the exit where the dressing rooms were
and where the guys were leaving. This is where outside basically,
and we saw Vodzik and Teddy walk out and votes
of got in the ambulance. They took him to the hospital.
As he ended up like two or three nights in
the hospital after that fight, and as you know, he
then retired and didn't fight for a few years. He
has come back since and put together a few wins
and then had the tough loss, you know, in a
decision against David Benavidez that took place this past summer.
But that was a rough night and it just shows
you better. BF was a puncher from birth, a puncher
in his earlier fights, a puncher in this fight, a
puncher and other unifications and you know the only time
anybody ever went the distance with him was when he
won the fight against the Metri Bble. But it just
says to me, five years it's taken to get this
division together, and he did it the hard way. He
didn't get to go in there and just win all
the belts in one night. He won the IBF title,
like I mentioned, then he had this unification against against Vojic.
Then it was not until he thought Joe Smith to
pick up the WBO belt where he stopped him, and
then finally he was able to have the fight with
Dimitrivival to acquire the WBA title as well. But this
was a big deal fight at the time that happened.
I'm really happy that I was able to attend this
fight and see Arthur better be of you know, do
his thing. And as a matter of fact, that you
know he fought in all the fights where he's won
belst He's had four of those fights. I've been very fortunate.
I was at three of them. I wasn't at the
Beeble fight obviously, but I was there for Colling, I
was there for this Vojig fight, and I was there
in Madison Square Gardens Theater when he knocked out Joe Smith.
But to me, the most impressive win of those three
not the Beable fight, but was definitely the Vogg fight,
because he was the best of those fighters that he faced.
He was an Olympian part of that crew that also
included Lomachenko and Barentschik and obviously Alexander Usik. This was
a tremendous victory when you look at the better beav record.
Speaker 3: Love all of that. All right, one more bit of nostalgia.
Speaker 1: Let's wish Evander Holyfield a happy sixty second birthday. He
turned sixty two on Saturday on the on the nineteenth
of October. And what a career, A Hall of famer.
We know him for a lot of different reasons, a
lot of different fights and multiple division world champ. What
else do you want to say about Evander besides happy birthday?
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, happy birthday. I think we we wish the
happy birthday, and we take a minute to reflect on
the great man's career. I mean, he is one of
the one of the most legendary heavyweights, one of the
most exciting heavyweights that you could ever ask for. Fund
everybody never ducked the fight. I mean, first of all,
great amateur jobs in the Olympics. Ended up with the brons,
but clearly should have gotten beyond that round because he
was disqualified because of the referees not hearing the bell
or hearing with the bell, I guess, and nobody hearing
the bell, and he landed a shot after the bell
and was disqualified against Kevin Barry. By the way, he
went on to become a top trainer.
Speaker 3: Well a minute, I have to I have to clean
up your nostalgia.
Speaker 1: In those fights, they had two rings in the area.
And this came up in the Los Angeles Olympics more
than once, where the bell rang in the other.
Speaker 3: And when it.
Speaker 1: Did, the referee said stop. And as he was saying stop,
Evander was hitting Kevin Barry. It should have been a
legitimate punch, that's what. But then Barry couldn't get up.
But who in the world, with the Los Angeles organizing
ever came up with two rings at the same time
with the bell going off in another ring. You were
asking for trouble. And holy Field got penalized forever because
of that trouble and got a bronze medal.
Speaker 2: But the point I was making is that he was
an a top notch amateur. Part of that a nineteen
eighty four Olympic team that produced the likes of Andander
and Colonel Whitaker and Meldrich Taylor and Virgil Hill and others,
just a tremendous group of fighters. And then as a
professional became the undisputed cruiserweight champion, the first to ever
do that, and had some classic battles. His fight against
White Mohammed Khaween in their fifteen rounder, the first time
they fought, when he won what at the time was
the WBA Junior heavyweight title, is one of the most
spectacular slugfests you'll ever see. And the joke was always
that Vander put out so much effort in that fight
and he lost so much weight from being so hydrated
from the grueling nature of that battle, that he was
a light heavyweight when the fight was over. And then
of course he went to the heavyweight division, and you know,
overcame all the people that said he was too small
to compete as a heavyweight, and you know, he was
a great cruiserweight in this and that, but he was
never going to be a top heavyweight. Well, guess what,
he became a top heavyweight because he had huge accomplishments
and had very memorable battles with Riddick both three times.
Had the great fight with the older version of George Foreman,
who was still formidable. Had the two fights with Michael
Moore first won the close loss, second one where he
absolutely obliterated him. Had other fight, I mean, imagine at
this time fighting you're fighting Ray Mercer, and it's not
even a title fight. That's exactly what he did. He
comes off a loss against Michael Moore where they said
he was in heart failure and it turned out that
that was you know, he was actually okay, and he
came back a year a plus later, and he didn't
take a soft touch. He did at Tim Zoo if
you will, or Tim Zoo did at Vander Holyfield, bought
great freaking Mercer in the first in a real tough fight,
and then by the way, went into the third fight
against Riddick bow right out to that has obviously, you know,
the most famous wins you can think about in heavyweight
boxing of modern times. The two back to back victory
is a disqualification against Mike Tyson in the first fight,
the knockout as a heavy underdog. Uh, I mean, just
such such a the epitome of the nineties great era
of heavyweight boxing. It was a truly great era, and
he is the leader, along with Lennox Lewis of that group.
Obviously they fought twice him and Lewis. Once was a
draw that nobody agreed with. That Lenox got robbed in
and then he lost. But by that time, you know,
it's clear looking back that Lennox was a little bit
past that. Rather Holyfield was a little bit past his
best days. And then even you know, even after that,
he's still being done. At that point, he still scored
that a big victory against Hassim Rockman in two thousand
and two, a fight I actually was at, and then
it moved him into a title fight against against Chris Purty.
Even in the waning days of his career, when he
fought uh In uh In against Nikolai Valuev, I think
it was for the WBA belt. He lost the majority
decision in Switzerland, and a lot of people thought he
got robbed in that fight. He should have probably had
another heavywe white title belt. Matter of fact, I mean,
there isn't anybody he didn't fight. He gave entertainment all
all along, for years and years and years. And if
you don't like Evander Holyfield to watch his fights, and
I don't know how you can consider your stubble boxing fan,
what else could you say?
Speaker 1: I agree with you, what a phenomenal personality. And still
some of the most bizarre things the fan man fight,
in the rematch with Bo, the disqualification with Tyson, and
the craziness of that night, Memorable fight after memorable fight,
Happy Birthday to the real Deal Holy Field. With that
busy show, we covered a ton. I had a blast
to and from Orlando for the upset by back room
of tim Zoo. We'll see what happens with that. And
I hope you enjoyed the impromptu interviews. Hope you enjoyed
Regi's progra as well. Anything else here And closing, We're ready.
We're ready to almost put to wrap on October coming
up here. I think we're good off the weekend. Are
we not in the recap mode?
Speaker 2: We're good now. It's all about I figured out what
is going on with my son's Halloween costume.
Speaker 3: What do we have?
Speaker 2: Like early, there's a lot. I think there's a bunch
of stuff that's.
Speaker 1: Going the monster route. Are we going the superhero route?
Are we going like something else old school?
Speaker 2: No, I think it might be like it might be
a superhero potentially. I don't know.
Speaker 3: I don't want to.
Speaker 2: I don't want to say that.
Speaker 1: There's trouble in my neighborhood. But one of the neighbors
put up a life size Frankenstein that has a motion
sensor on it.
Speaker 3: And it scared the crap out of me. I kid
you not.
Speaker 1: I got back at O dark thirty from Orlando, and
I thought somebody was robbing the neighbor's house in the
dark because he had a motion sensor. Frankenstein, that's already up.
I'm just saying people go with the top with Halloween,
just saying.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you know, it's a kids it's a
kid's holiday. And so we're we have a we have
a daily discussion about the costume.
Speaker 1: Sua ongoing updates on that. I'm glad he's feeling better.
I'm glad that we're both good, well a lot better
than Tim Zuo. We'll see what happens with him. Dan Rayfield,
have a great week. Thank you, my friend. Are you too,
digit I am merely TJ Reeves.
Speaker 3: Thank you for fighting us on this podcast.
Speaker 1: Feed, Rate us and review us if you enjoy both
the Big Fight weekend preview and or this pod. A
fight Freak Unit recap, go here Bob aerm By the way,
just before this podcast, a full interview covering a ton
of subjects from the Better BV Undisputed Win.
Speaker 3: When isnae Olja in a way fighting?
Speaker 1: Next? Usik Fury too. He covers a lot of stuff
with Dan. Go listen to that as well on the Feed.
For now, we're good though.
Speaker 3: On the Fight Freak Unit Recap pod by