Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big
Fight Weekend.
Speaker 2: Now here is your host, DJ Leaves. All right, we
have reached the weekend. We're gonna flip the calendar to
February and we've got a light heavyweight showdown, very very
interesting in the BBC on Fine main event. David Benavita's
David Morrell, the Benavitas Interim WBC title, Morell's WBA regular
title on the line. Big stakes for the winner to
maybe get a world title shot with either better BV
or b BOL. We're ready to talk about all of that.
The fight card. We got fights there, we got fights
in England, we got Coloressa shields back, we got news,
we got nostalgia. You are part of the Big Fight
Weekend preview. I am the somewhat competent host, TJ. Reeves.
He is my colleague, our insider Dan Rayfield, all the
way out ol on location in Vegas. Good to be
with you here in the preview mode as you have
settled in for this weekend. We got a lot to
go over at the time that we are doing this.
You have been part of the press conference ramping up
on Thursday, headed to Friday for everything, How are things?
How are things in the desert? And we're getting ready
for this light heavyweight showdown Dan.
Speaker 1: I think the press conference became unhinged and a lot
of people have got excited because those guys want to
throw at each other right away. They haven't liked each
other throughout the promotion. I think we talked about it back,
you know, a month or so ago, and they had
the Miami event and David Merrell threw the belt at
David Benavide's and I made the point that I've been
to and seen many, many countless press conferences and seen
pretty much everything thrown, water bottles, other people, chairs, tables,
you know, you name it. Never had saw a belt
throw thrown at somebody else, which actually is kind of
surprising given that the belts are always in proximity. But
the point I'm making here is that these guys don't
like each other. It was on display at the press conference.
It's a fifty to fifty kind of matchup. I think
too many people, even if I think maybe those who
feel like there's a straw winner outcome will be maybe
leaning towards more towards Benavide's. Although I will say this though,
TJ in the in the predictions that the that the
find folks from the PR team gathered from media members, fighters, trainers,
there was quite a few people that were you know,
you know, some picking burrel somethick and then this is
what you want to see. So uh, I'm excited to
be out here for what I think is going to
be a really good, interesting, exciting fight and then being honest,
you know, an excellent undercard.
Speaker 2: And we'll get into the undercard in a couple of moments.
But I always ask you on these things. You've done
it long enough where you can kind of see through
and be a smell test detector. Do you think this
is genuine on the dislike or is some of it hype?
Is most of it hype? What do you read having
been at that press conference.
Speaker 1: To me, there's no doubt that it's both there. They
don't like each other, that's clear. But I also know
and David Benavidia said as much in the interview that
I had with it that's on the previous episode that
is also by the way, on it's a standalone where
you can just listen to that particular interview on the
most recent one on prior to them. Anyway, he said
that he understands, uh that that this is what people
want to see, animosity, you know, a little smack talk.
So they were cursing each other out a little Spanish,
little English at the press conference today. Uh, you know,
which was on Sesday, Thursday, Thursday afternoon in Vegas. I
lost track of time.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: They did the Undercar press conference first, and then they
took care of those guys, and then they brought in
David and David to do the main event. And uh, yeah,
I mean, I think they're both trying to fight, but
I also don't think there's any love lost. That said,
I'm very convinced that when it's over with they'll be sportsman. Know,
they'll they'll be good sports better. Whoever wins, they'll shake
hands and and move on. But a really good fight,
and you know, on paper anyway.
Speaker 2: I should make mention too, while we rock along here
on the on the preview pod, that our friends at
PPV dot com are sponsoring us. Uh. We we love
their involvement with us. We'll hear from Mark Boucardi, who
runs PPV dot com in a little bit about this fight.
But one of the things I will just say to
the audience. One of the things that appeals here, and
Mark's going to talk about this is the fact that
the winner of this fight is definite, as I said,
in position to get a much bigger showdown. These are
this is high stakes here for this just elaborate on
that part from your point of view. Here, it's a
large step at light heavyweight for whoever wins.
Speaker 1: Sorry Night, absolutely listen. Both of these guys have had
just one light heavyweight fight before, we've seen them in
action what they can do at super midaweight. Benavidez is
a much more established guy. He was a two time
WBC title holder, and he has beaten fighters like Caleb Plant,
Demitris Andre Back a little bit before that, Anthony Durrell.
You know, he's got, you know, a good track record
in the weight class. David Morrell as a as a
super midiweight, very big talent, obviously undefeated and a top
amateur and all the things that you want to see
in an up and coming fighter in the pros. But
he just doesn't have the level of the level of
opponent that David Benavidez has, hass So they both moved
up because Canelo wouldn't fight either one of them. More so,
Benavidez Morell was the mandatory in the WBA, but it
was never ordered and there was no movement there because
he just didn't have the experience that people thought were
the name recognition. But they both went to light heavyweight,
and in he saw David Benavidie's have a fight with
Alexander Vojakuza, former Lenny, former you know, legit champion in
the weight division. He had lost. The one loss he
suffered was to better be of any unification fight. And uh,
you know, he looked okay in that fight. He won,
you know, going away on the scorecards. Benavide's had some
struggles hardly because he had an injury going into the fight,
an injury in the fight. Not to make excuses, but
that simply the reality. And then you then you fast
forward to August and you saw David Morrell. He moved
up to light heavyweight. He fought hot Rod College Chick
on the Crawford Madromov card in Los Angeles, and also,
you know, he won going away, there was no real
question there. But also look, you know, kind of pedestrian
was talking to his trainer, Ronnie Shields. Earlier in the
media center, and I've I've been friendly with Ronnie for
my entire career. U a great trainer, hall of famer someday,
I believe, and you know, he has the same opinion
that I do of one of the reasons why Morell
look real pedestrian that fight was they were in the sunfield,
so to speak. That was outdoors in la It was
the hottest time of day and they were in there
the sun right in their eyes, and it just put
them off. I mean, I'm convinced that was unsettling to him,
whereas hot Rod was in the shade corner and it
was a lot better for him. And so yeah, he's
still won handling, but they were very difficult circumstances for
him to deal with that. So now, as Benavda said
an interview, he feels like this is a fight where
they can have the opportunity to really show what they're
all about in the way class top notch opponent, no excuses.
He says, this health is no problem in terms of morale.
There ain't gonna be a sunfield. It's indoors at the
Team Obil arena. He's fought there before. They've both fought
there before, so had all the makings for a very
exciting fan friendly fight. I mean, listen, DJ, I think
there's a lot of ways this can go. I mean,
we'll get into more specifics when we do our US
betting show one o'clock Eastern time on Friday. But that's
that for a pluck on their YouTube and other projects.
Speaker 2: You are so trained in doing that now you hit
it before I could hit it. But there are intriguing
elements to this. That's all handicap, right.
Speaker 1: So the thing I was gonna say to about the
fight itself is, and I've been talking to if people
in the media center, like other boxing folks, other writers,
you know, people that are trainers who aren't necessarily involved
with the main event. A lot of people can see
the fight going any which way. The one thing that
most people don't really see as a like a real
I mean a lesser it's still a possibility, but maybe
a lesser possibility is morale by a knockout. But I
can see it going any which way. But I've talked
to a lot of people and I'm starting to sort
of feel it based on the animosity that there's sort
of like this rippling like feeling among people. Maybe it's hope,
maybe it's real. I don't know, but that they're going
to just come out and say fuck it and go
for it like Hacklers and just bombs away and whoever
stand and wins the fight, and it's like a three,
four or five round type of shootout fight.
Speaker 2: Can I tell you amazing? We would want that? Can
I tell you? I kind of believe the same thing.
We may see it early, I don't know, in the
first minute. Certainly the Haggler Herne standard is the is
the stratosphere. But we may see fireworks and bombs in
the first round. Yeah for this, So I'm.
Speaker 1: Very well just the first few rounds.
Speaker 2: How first couple of rounds? Uh right, So I'm very
interested when we do that bet us show coming up
ten Pacific by the way, one a one pm Eastern
ten am Pacific on Friday. Which way you're gonna go?
And I don't I know that this is just your
you're contemplating what to do.
Speaker 1: With you You asked me about what about other big opportunities,
you know? With with the winner of the rematch between
Arthur Better BVM Dmitri Bible, they fight the rematch for
the undisputed title that Better has for the undisputed title
uh in Saudi Arabia. Now, first I must say one thing.
I love the matchup between Dnavides and Morrell, but I
got to keep it real. I can't stand the fact
that this is for these two quasi bullshit belts. Okay,
it's a great matchup between undefeated, top fighters in the
Way class who have been exciting and been involved in
you know, higher profile kinds of fights. But the fact
that there's a boxing match it's going to take place,
and that David Benavidez is defending the WBC Intern title
and morell Isfen the w Regular title. So it's a
fun internal and regular unification, which is complete, utter fucking
nonsense because there's only one real champion in the Way class,
and even the fighters acknowledge that that Arthur Better is
the undisputed champion of the world. He has all four
reel belts, he's got ring belt, he's the lineal champion,
like there isn't any other way that you can not
view him as the actual champion and the light class.
He's coming off the win close fine against people who
was clearly the other best guy, undefeated had the other belt.
So this is in my mind, you know, it's yeah, okay,
they've got their belts, fine, But the reality in the
world that's that's not fantasy sanctioning body nonsense. This is
in essence the eliminator to determine the people's mandatory to
be the winner to fight the winner of the undisputed fight,
because whoever emerges from that fight against the winner in
this fight obviously is a huge deal. Now I can't
speak for the Merle situation, but certainly in terms of
David dennevite Is, he is the winner. Turkey Alshik has
already stated publicly that he would love to match the
winner of that a rematch between the better Bible and
People fight against David Benavitez, who he likes and finds
exciting and I think they can do business together and
all that so, and maybe will be the same for
morel if he wins, maybe there'd be a rematch with
Benevidez if that happens. But the point is qumongous stakes
not only on Saturday for the two men who are
going to do battle, but for the winner it means
a whole lot more because the possibility that they'll get
that shot, and I believe that it's really strong, possibly
because it's not just Turkey waves as one and says
I want to make the match. They've already been announced.
The winner is the WBC mandatory, and by virtue of
having the WBA regular, that means that fighter is going
to be the mandatory in the WBA also, So that
is a no. And there's not some other mega fight
in the light heavyweight to division they go that would
make sense, the only one that could kind of get
in the way that maybe, and I'm not so sure
if they'll do it, but possibly, depending on what happens
February twenty second. If Bevill avenges the loss, now they're
one and one in a pair of good close fights,
maybe there'd be some kind of movement for a third
fight between them. I can't, you know, say for sure.
I actually hope there wouldn't be a third fight immediately.
I'd like to see. I'm all for a trilogy, fine
if that's what un folds, but let them go their
separate way for one fight, two fights, whatever, and then reconvene.
But the point is humongous steaks, great match up on paper,
lots of steak, lots of steak, you know, in the
future for the winner for a big fight that's sent
right there for the winner to grab.
Speaker 2: All right, And there's also an intriguing co feature fight.
Let's get into that right now here on the preview,
and that is Brandon Figueroa and Steven Fulton. And you
talk about not an immediate rematch. We've had to wait
basically three years two or halfish, yeah, more than three
years now at this point for this thing to get
scheduled and to happen. They fought a tremendous fight what
November of twenty twenty one. Now they're back in front
of each other at featherweight here for the WBC featherweight
title that Figaroa owns. You love this line. There's not
a lot of mystery here. You could do this in
a bathtub. You could do this in my kitchen, which
ain't that big. I mean there's I mean, Figaroa really
fights one way, Get up in the kitchen, get on you,
and let's see what you have. And Fulton edged him
out the last time. I'm I'm as intrigued by the
co feature, Dan, what are your thoughts you we're around
the fighters Thursday.
Speaker 1: They couldn't fight in my kitchen because we have a
pretty big kitchen in our house.
Speaker 2: But anyway, I notice I've never been invited for a meal,
so I can't testify. I'll take your word for it.
Speaker 1: Go oh, you've never been in the Northern Virginia area.
If you're up here, you can You're certainly come in.
Speaker 2: All right, you'll come into the kitchen. I'll come into
your kitchen.
Speaker 1: Go ahead. So yeah, that first fight, that was back
when they were one hundred and twenty two pound fighters,
and they both had belts and they fought up back
in the day on showtime. This is like you said,
about three and a half years ago, and it was
a super close fight. It was an outstanding fight. A
lot of people had it in their top few considerations
for fight of the Year of twenty twenty one. And
in the end it was Stephen Fulton who won a
majority decision and unified the two belts, the WBC and
the WBO at one twenty two. And you know that
though their careers have kind of been on a little
bit of a different track. Let's say they've first of all,
they've both been ridiculously inactive they've only had three fights
a piece since twenty twenty one, and that doesn't cut
it at as a top fighter unfortunately. So Fulton went on.
He defended the title against Danny Roman, who was obviously
a unified champion at one point in one of the
top guys in the division, and he won going away
a shutout. That was in June of twenty twenty two.
Now he's off for thirteen months and he takes the
belts and he goes to Japan to defend against the
monster Noill in a way, and he gets absolutely pummeled.
They knocked out in the eight round, loses the titles
and you know, didn't even compete. And that was, frankly
a fight where even though in a way was the favorite,
there was a lot of people that were like, you know,
Fulton's gonna give him in trouble. He's a alwa He's
never seen a good boxer and a guy with that
kind of IQ and that kind of you know, all
around game that the Fulton had displayed and in a
way absolutely ruined him, just destroyed him and pummeled him.
He took a long time off. He came back fourteen
months later and he fought and moved up the featherweight
and he fought a carl Castro, and he looked bad
in that fight, and he I think he'll admit that
he won barely, barely barely first of all, got knocked
down in the fifth round, barely won a split decision,
and off that fight in June, rather in September of
last year. He goes in this fight against Figueroa. Now,
if you take a look what Fiot has done, he
lost the majority decision to Fulton the first time round
super close, though could definitely argue he won in his
next fight. He came back in July of twenty two
and what would he do TJ He knocked out Carlos
Castro's common opponent in round number six, and then he
scored two pretty solid victories. He beat Mark Magsaia, who
had a period for a brief period was the WBC's
featherweight champion. That was their fight for the interim title,
and then he knocked out Jesse Magdaleno, also a former
title er, in one hundred I believe twenty two pound
way class and those are solid victories for him. Ray
Vargas had been the champion, but he ended up as
an in recess. He had injuries and this and that,
and he became the full title. So now he's the
champion going into the fight, but he's also the guy
looking for the revenge. They've been talking to good game,
they've been promising in the press conference. They're much more
good nature with each other than Benavide's and Mell, who
obviously don't care for one another. I think these guys
have a lot of respect for each other, even though
they're both very amped up to win the fight, and
both of them are confident, you know. I think this
is one of the better co features on these PBC
pay per views we've seen. I think they've done a
good job with their pay per views, but for co
feature perspective, while a lot of the fights have been excellent,
this is I think this is even better. In my mind,
this is about as good as you can ask for
from PBC in terms of a co feature. A lot
of stakes, good backstory, two excellent fighters too, kind of
different style fighters. Again, I think it's going to be
a really good fight.
Speaker 2: And in Figueroa's case, he's been chasing this literally three
years now. He wants that revenge. He believes he was
robbed of that decision, that majority decision loss back in
November of twenty twenty one. Let's see if he can
get that revenge come a Saturday night in a game.
We'll handicap this further on the at US show. This fight,
which is basically a fifty to fifty fight. Here, we
got Fulton out of Philadelphia and he still got something
to prove as well. I'm just saying this because the
Monster blasted him out in two fights ago, as you
made mention of, Figarola hasn't had a loss like that
since they last fought. So now let's see.
Speaker 1: I think Fulton's been talking a little bit about and
I don't know how much it will actually play into
the actual fight, but maybe for his own mentalities own
confidence is he now has among his normal training team
they brought in to help him out Bozannis, who was
the trainer for Jeron Enna. So he was talking quite
a bit about that and what he's meant to their
camp and how good it's been to have him along
with his other guys than game. So he feels good
about that. And look, you got these are two of
the better fighters you know around in the division. Whenever
you think about the last performance from Fulton, really good fight,
really good fight.
Speaker 2: Look forward to that all right, real quick. Two other
fights that are on the PBC on Prime pay per
view again, our friends at PPV dot com are offering
it up. We suggest you use them. Give me the
latest you were round but the undercard press conference. Give
me the latest on Isaac Pittbull Cruise is back as
well as Jesus Ramos is back as well. Tell me
more about those fights on the under card real quick.
Speaker 1: So Pitbull Cruise, you know, as you know, in his
most recent fight on August third, that was the same
card where Morel had his like heavyweight debut against Harod
he lost his world title at one hundred and forty
pounds by a split decision to Jose Vealezuela in a
big upset. You know, it was a close fight, but
you know he didn't get to win. And so this
is his return. Then he's fighting Angel Fierro, who may
not be at the level where you know hi from
world championship fights and that sort of thing, but he's
been on a number of TV fights, got a good record.
He's twenty three and two with two draws. Mostly by
knockout and he makes fun fights and so this is
like the all Mexican kind of clash. And while of
course Pitbull will be the favorite, I wouldn't be surprised
if Fierra wins. He's a solid quality guy and in
the ring with some good opponents. You know, he's won
a few. Like I said, he's low lost, you know,
to the two fights never been stopped before. And I'm
gonna tell you when they did the stand when they
did the face off after the New conference, uh, and
they got there, you know, back in front of each other.
It was one of the longer staredowns. Like Tom Brown,
who was the TGB Promotions promoter, was trying to like, okay, guys,
we're good and Pitbull and then and then one of
the pr folks asking them to turn and face the
you know, they were facing each other, asking the turn
to face the audience so the photographers could get a
picture of them facing against you know, towards the photo
photo guys and Pipple wouldn't break the stair either. With Farra,
pit Bull was looking right at him and it was
a long, long, long, long, long.
Speaker 2: Kind of like when Ray was at the front desk
at the hotel in Vegas, and they were trying to
tell you your room wasn't ready yet, and you just
keep standing and staring and giving that glare that I
get from time. I understand.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not like that. I'm pretty cool.
Speaker 2: We're having fun with you. I'm having fun.
Speaker 1: People to think I'm a dick when I travel on
my crops to my friends at the MGM, because Rifuel
rolled in the town, went right to the Gold Lounge
and got my room at likes. I know people you know,
but I know you know people.
Speaker 2: I so pitt Bull and Fierro and also Hazes good
fight Ramos as well in the middleweight division is on
this undercard a little more.
Speaker 1: Real quick So Ramos against Ramos against against Rosario is
like I think Fierro and Cruz has a chance to
be a really good, fun, exciting fight. Two Mexican guys
are going to bang it out. We already talked about
what we think about the uh the the two main
title bouts. You know, in the top two fights of
the car Ramos against Rosario, I feel like is a
little more of mismatching. And I say that, Okay, Look
when when Ramos lost. It was a very close fight
against Ericson Lubin. This was back in September of twenty
twenty three. I thought he got ripped off of that fight.
Speaker 2: I think most people did the boot I thought. I
still remember the booing in the arena when that decision
was announced.
Speaker 1: That was just not a good decision my opinion. Nothing
against Lubin. He's a good fighter also, but I just
felt like, you know, he got beat that night. Okay,
So he came back. He fought in May, he got
a ninth front knock against a very experienced fighter in
Johan Gonzalaz, and now he's coming back against Rozaria. He's
trying to rebuild himself a little bit. This is now
going to be a fight at middleweight, not at junior
middle where he has been his whole career. So he's
taking on Rosario now. Rosario is a guy who's got
excellent punching power and who's fought a lot of top guys,
and he's been a unified champion at one hundred and
fifty four and was retired for a bit for a
brief period of time, coming off actually a split decision
draw against Jared Hurd, who was a former champion at
junior Middlewaight also at a long time PC fighter. They
actually had that fight on a probox card. Anyway, Rosario
does not have a good chin, flat out, He's been
stopped all four of his losses. He just cannot take
the heat. So and he's also a bit older now.
He seems like he's renewed. He spoke well, he seemed enthusiastic.
You know, no bad body language that I could since.
But I just feel like a guy like that that's
already been in retirement, that's Scott, those types of losses,
that has never been able to take a shot against
a guy like Romos, who's quite a bit younger. You
know Rosaria enough that he's an old man, but he's
twenty nine, and you know, Ramos is still in his
early twenties to my recollection, and I just feel like
this fight is made to order for Ramos. You know what, Zero,
maybe we'll hang in, but in the end, I think Ramos,
you know you're going to see him show why now
he's a new guy to pay attention to at middleweight
that he's moving off because you know, by the opinion
of most people, they deserve the loss of germanillweight against limit.
So you know it'll maybe be fireworks, but I think
in the end it's very clear who's winning the fight,
you know on pap anyway, love.
Speaker 2: That and again that's coming in the PBC Prime PBC
on Prime undercard of the paper. Let's find out more
from our sponsor here about this card and how you
can see it. Let's do that right now as the
pod continues as promised, we're going to tell you more
about one of our sponsors. He's back. Has it really
been since last year? Well, it hasn't been that long
this year because we've only hit the first weekend in
February this weekend to talk about PPV dot Com and
this upcoming David Benavidez David Morrell light Heavyweight showdown that
headlines the PBC on Prime card. Hello mart Burcardi from
PPV dot Com. Good to have you back here on
the Big Fight weekend preview as okay, let's get it
rolling here with PBC on Prime in this pay per view.
Good to have you back.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you. It feels like it's been a while.
It's been too long. Regardless of how long it's been,
so good to be with you and yeah, this is
this is a great fight, right, and you know, I'll
start with this quick anecdote. We had a promoter come
into our offices a long time ago, but I think
this still carries through.
Speaker 1: It's about ten years ago.
Speaker 3: They did a big focus group research study of what
makes for the best pay per view events, best main
events in a big pay per view event, and the
number one reason that fans responded to them about why
they buy a pay per view event is grudge match.
And find me a fight recently that has had as
much of a grudge match as this one, so we
expect some fireworks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, these two genuine I think, don't like each other.
They're both undefeated, they're both hungry. Neither one of them,
Mark Benavitas or Morell could get their hands on Canelo Alvarez,
so they move up to light heavyweight and decide to
get their hands on each other, and in particular, Bena
Vitez has already headlined a couple of times against Caleb Plant,
Demetrius Andrede on pay per view with with with big wins,
So this has been interesting as it has built up
this week now headed into this weekend between these two guys,
and I don't think it's an exaggeration that we may
see fireworks immediately in this thing. Do you agree with that?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: No, I absolutely agree with it. And it's nice that
the unintended consequence of both of them not getting the
Canelo fight is they fight each other.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's correct, which is.
Speaker 3: What we're gonna get. So so yeah, no, I agree.
I do expect fireworks right away. It's a fifty to
fifty fight, right and I'm trying to think back, you know,
when the last time we've had a real fifty to
fifty fight head.
Speaker 1: Run of a interview.
Speaker 3: So yeah, no, I agree, fireworks from the get go.
Let's get it on well.
Speaker 2: And in the case of what a story Cuban born,
his adopted home is Minnesota. I've always said, if you're
going to relocate from the balmy weather of Cuba or Florida,
you might as well go to Minnesota in the Great
White North. So he's had some main event opportunities on
PBC shows in Minnesota. Obviously we know about him in
terms of the podcast audience here that's listening to us
or big time fight fans, but the casual sports fan
or the casual boxing fan. The big sports fan is
the casual box fan. They may not know a lot
about David Morell, but the guy could punch. He's got
a Cuban amateur background, and this is intriguing to see
what he can do on the biggest stage.
Speaker 1: Morell.
Speaker 3: Oh absolutely, and if you are a boxing fan, even
a casual boxing fan, this is a fight that you
want to see.
Speaker 1: It really is.
Speaker 3: I mean, like we said before, fifty to fifty stylistic matchup.
It's a great matchup.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: You've got this, this straightforward puncher against a guy who's
a little more finesse, and you know, it checks. It
really does. Can go down the list of what makes
a great fight. This one checks every box. So I
agree that the stories behind these guys make this an
even more compelling reason to tune in.
Speaker 2: And you've got two of the organizations at light heavyweight.
It's essentially the interim WBC title, and it is also
the regular WBA title, which means when the rematch happens
with the two Russians better BV and b Bowl, the
winner would look the way of the winner of this fight.
It kind of sets up in advance of those guys
rematching later on in this month, another added element here.
You got a big time, lucrative, worldwide interest showdown and
payday coming up. If you win, if you've been a
Vitasa morrel.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you hit on that last checkbox. I was talking
about this fight hitting every one of those my little
list of notes that I have here, that's the last one.
It's what the winner of this gets. And you're guaranteed
to have a winner who's going to get a big
fight next, which you don't always get, but in this
case you do.
Speaker 2: We like that and we love PPV dot Com Again
for the fans, they're going to get a great interactive experience.
I know the legendary Jim Lampley and Lance Pugmeyer are
there in Vegas as we speak, getting ready to be
part of this, and your guys Dankdobio and Chris Aljery
who we always love, always love the content. They're all
as part of Fight Weekend and the live pay per view,
going to be interacting with fans as part of your
specific service with PPV dot Com, elaborate a little more
about what they're doing and having them involved.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, we're going to have the full crew of guys
on the chat during the event, so they're going to
be ready to answer questions, give their commentary. Dan himself
is going to be hopping over to the main broadcast
where he's going to be doing a draft kings breakdown
on the main feed of the event, and then he's
going to pop back over to our chat, so he'll
be back and forth. So you know, we got guys
covering things from all different angles on the fight. So
if you are a boxing fan, you want to get this,
this is the place to buy it.
Speaker 2: I can't tell you I've seen this at least two
or three times where people in particular with Jim Lampley,
such a legendary part of the soundtrack of big time
fights really from the late eighties all the way into
the late twenty tens, where your fans are interacting, going,
this is really cool that I'm going back and forth
with Jim Lampley while the fight's going on. That's another
neat feature from PPV dot com. And here's the other
thing that we keep emphasizing that you do not need
a long term subscription here. It is a one off
purchase opportunity. You buy what you want right. Elaborate on
that with your service.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not a long term subscription. In fact, it's
not a subscription at all. It's buy what you want
and move on. So we've got we already know we're
going to have a couple big events this year, so
you know, we're open for business for this weekend, come back,
you know in a few weeks for the next big
event a few weeks after that, and we got a
bunch of things rolling out the next few months.
Speaker 2: And that next event is the March first showdown with
Tank Davis's return in twenty twenty five with Lamont Roach
for lightweight unification. That's at the Barclay Center. That's on
PPV dot com. That's March the first, and again is
buy what you want if you want this Benavitas fight,
but you're not interested in Tank and Roach. We hope
you're interested in both. You don't have to have both.
If you want the Tank and Roach fight again, we'd
love to have you buy both. Don't hear me say
that don't buy both. I'm just saying they can buy
what they want, including the upcoming Tank Davis fight in
New York.
Speaker 3: That's right, we'd love to have you buy both. But
if you buy one, it doesn't mean you have to
buy the other. So the option is yours on PPV
dot com.
Speaker 2: As always love that And you got a big DC
Baltimore rivalry with Roach and Davis. More on that at
a later date. One more time it is Benavitas and
Morrell and by the way, an outstanding co feature with
Brandon Figueroa and Stephan full Do I get a pick
out of you on Figaroa Fulton. It was such a
close fight the first go around about two and a
half years ago, and I joke all the time they
could have fought the fight on a bathroom rug. They
literally used up about three square feet and stood toe
to toe and bomb each other for twelve rounds and
Fulton got the nuro decision. That's going to be a
very chaining co feature fight as part of this pay
per view from PBC in Prime.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So what I think we expect on this one
is we're gonna have more people tuning in earlier just
for that fight for that reason. You know, the last
fight was so close, and you know, I've always been
a figure out kind of guy, so uh huh, I'm
gonna stick with him. But uh yeah, it's going to
be a great lead up. I think to this main
event no doubt.
Speaker 2: And again it's figure rollas WBC Featherweight title that is
on the line World Championship co feature than David Benavitez,
the two David's and David Morrell in the main event
PPV dot com. It is simple to sign up to
make the purchase. It's a one off with no further obligation.
Are you ready for the fights this weekend? Martin BOUCARDI
are we good? Are we ready to go?
Speaker 3: Let's do it. I'm ready to go. I could watch
right now, so I can't wait till Saturday night.
Speaker 2: We love it again, get with our friends at PPV
dot com. Thank you Mark, you Bet, thank you TJ.
Speaker 1: So there you go.
Speaker 2: We've given you obviously a bunch on the PBC on
Prime pay per view. But that is not all for
this weekend. Let's talk about Saturday afternoon in the US,
Saturday Night Primetime in the UK. The boxer card that
will be on Peacock in the United States, Sky Sports
over in England, adam Azeem junior welterweight contender and a
veteran name that we know in Sergei Lippinets, So a
little preview here of this because a Zeem obviously is
angling for a title shot. Lipinets has been in with
world champions before your thoughts, Dan.
Speaker 1: I mean, Adam is Zeem is an excellent young fighter.
I don't think he's even close to ready yet for
a world title fight. He has been briefly the European champion.
He gave up that title. He's only twelve to zero.
He's got nine knockouts, He's only twenty two years old.
He's got plenty of still improving, not I mean, I
want to say improving, but honing his skills. He needs reps.
He's a baby in this game. He has had no
tough fights relatively speaking. He needs the more experience opponents. Lipinets,
it was like the kind of guy that might be
able to give him to a little bit. In his
last fight, he scored what I would say was that
question his biggest win. But do you consider O'Hara Davies
that big of a win after he'd been iced in
one round. So, you know, and they had work, they
had spart together, they know each other, they were friendly,
and he gave you know, O'Hara gave him like a
reasonable fight, but but Adam Asim he dominated. Now he's,
like I said, he's a younger fighter, he's developing a
fan base. He's got a little swagger to him. He's
a good punching power, and he did take O'Hara Davies
out in the eighth round. That was back in October.
So now he's back here in just a few months
later against Sergei Lipinez. Now Lipinets, you know, I think
most people, and they're one hundred and forty pounders, most
people would say Lilypinetzs has probably seen better days. You know,
he briefly held the IBF title. He's got the three losses,
the one stoppers loss that sort of like sticks out
like a sore thumb because he got pretty much annihilated
by Boots Ennis in the sixth round, but he was
dropped multiple times. That was back in twenty twenty one,
and since then he won to fight against Omar Figure,
he put into retirement. Basically, he then lost to Michelle Rivera,
you know, which is kind of a kind of an
unfortunate loss for him, because that is not a good loss,
if there's such a thing. He did come back and
then he had a fight in May of last year
where he defeated the British fighter Robie David Junior by
a decision, which is that's an okay win. It's nothing
to write home aback. But now now Lippinetz has taken
his show on the road. He's going to London, He's
gonna fight at ZEEM in his home area and it's
up to Adam ism to show that he not only
that he belongs in the conversation as a future star
and contender and potential champion, et cetera at one hundred
and forty pounds, but based on where Lippenitz is in
his career, it is my opinion that he needs to
do the job on him. As they say, you can't
let this be close. You can't let him hang around.
You can't or you know you can again, you can
go the distance, but you gotta be dominating, like if
he goes life and death or there's an issue, and
it's going to make people really question a ZEEM because
this is in terms of the name on a guy
that's known in the world boxing, not just British boxing,
who's been in the ring with quality fighters throughout his career,
even if he's lost some of them. And again the
names you know are familiar. And then chel Mar figure
out John Ennis. He also fought Lamon Peterson, he thought
Mikey Garcia that was his first loss in a decision.
That's back in twenty eighteen. So he's faced you know,
pretty good guys, even like you know, go back even
a few years before that Lenny Zappavingo, who was a
good contender at the time he beat him. So this
is the opportunity, in my opinion, that Adamazine can really
shine against a more recognizable opponent than the fighters he
has been facing. And so that's what the task is
twelve the No.
Speaker 2: Twenty two year old and again that's a main event.
Excuse me, Peacock app will have that on Saturday afternoon
if you're in the United States, kind of as a
warm up to what's going to go on on Saturday
night with Adam Azine. Excuse me, in that main event.
All right. Interesting that Claressa Shields is also back. While
we're in the preview mode, Big Dan Claressa will defend
her WBC title that heavyweight and then this is for
three other belts that are currently vacant against Danielle Perkins.
You have talked before. This is on Sunday, it's in Flint, Michigan.
It's Salita Promotions that's doing this. But you've talked before that,
in particular in the women's heavyweight world, it is thin
in terms of talent pool.
Speaker 1: It's not even known.
Speaker 2: And so I guess the boida and I'm gonna pose it.
Claressa's heavily favored. How much are we legitimizing that she's
potentially the undisputed heavyweight champion of women's boxing with what's
going on here with this fighter Perkins.
Speaker 1: Okay, I can tell you this. Anybody who has ever
read what I have written or listened to what I've
said knows I have nothing but the most respect for
the ability and the talent and everything that Clarissa shows
as accomplished. I'm a fan of hers. I have interviewed
her many times, I have met her many times. I
have been you know, I've known her manager for twenty
five years, Mark Kaffi, from his days at HBO. Nothing
but the massive respect heavyweight women's boxing is a joke.
It just this. She will, you know, be fighting in
the heavyweight division because you can't find like top opponents
in the smaller way class. She's fought all the way
from one hundred and fifty four pounds and then a
champion all the way up you know, super middleweight, and
and the thing about women's boxing is that, yeah, they
call it a heavyweight title fight, but the organizations call
it different things that have different weight limits. It's not
unlimited the way it is in some of the men's
weight classes. So this fight is actually a one hundred
and eighty pound fight, so it's like a light heavyweight
fight a little bit over the limit, or you could
say it's a cruiserweight fight, but a sure isn't a
heavyweight fight as we know it. So just to make
the technical you know detail there, if you take a
look at the sanctioning bodies and you look and see
in their what they're top weight classes, because like I said,
they have different top levels in terms of the weight
there are a mere handful of women in the whole
world that are even ranked. Like there's some divisions like
I think, I forget which one. I don't want to
say the wrong one, but one of the four organization
doesn't even have they're basically creating the weight class for
this fight. They don't have a ranking, there's nobody ranked
in the division. They don't even listen on their website.
So I understand what she's trying to do. I can't
I can't blame her. She's got opportunity to fight for titles,
and you know, she can win a you know, you know,
a fight, make money and put on, you know, a
fight for her hometown fans and all that, but it's
taking a back seat, let's say, this weekend, because the
pay per view is obviously way bigger on Saturday, even
in the UK and the rest of you know, Europe,
with such the boxer card is a bigger deal, and
this has sort of been kind of a forgotten show.
And her opponent, Daniel Perkins, all due respect, she is
five and oh and not accomplished in any way, shaped
or form. She's got the fight because she happens to
have the proper physical dimensions to be a woman that's
around that weight class. So the fact that this is
for the undisputed title and they're gonna call it the
undisputed heavyweight title, to me, that's more promotional. By the way,
May I say that Daniel is forty two years old
and has been a professional.
Speaker 2: Since five fights and only recently. Wow, so ya.
Speaker 1: Listen, she's never even had a ten rounder. Wow.
Speaker 2: So let me let me interject, we keep it real.
This is clearly something from a marketing standpoint that they
want to call her undisputed in another weight division. But
is sham too strong of a word. Sham't call this
an undisputed crown for this. I think the whole heavyweight
concept right now is a sham. I'm not saying Cloressa
Shields is a sham. I'm saying it's a sham concept
that this is some great accomplishment right now with what
you just laid out, That's what I would say.
Speaker 1: I can't disagree that it's not a sham because from
a technical and factual perspective, she will have the four
belts in another weight class. She'll be able to say,
whether you agree with it or not, that she will
be the first person man or woman in the four
belt era undisputed champion in three different weight classes. But
the devil is in the details, and so when you
don't have any there's literally I'm not even like being
like facetious or like joking around or like trying to
make it funny. There's literally not anybody ranked in the
weight class in some of the organizations, so.
Speaker 2: They could get that's right. That says to me, it's
a sham title because you don't even have anybody rank.
You could name anybody as the champ running a certain
fight under that premise, two.
Speaker 1: Things can be true at the same time. We can
say this is ridiculous, and it's it's it's it's nonsense
that the three division un disputed champion from the perspective
of the opponents being fought. But the other thing thing
also be true is that Clarissa Shield is the best
female boxer in the world pound for pound. That that
I would I'll die on that hill. As they say,
the woman has bought two time gold medal winner uh
seventy seven and one or something like that out as
an amateur, the one loss to Savannah Marshall avenged as
a professional by the way, she was seventeen years old
when they had that fight. And in terms of her
professional record, as I mentioned, not only all the titles
she's won from fifty four to you know what's seventy five,
I guess now going for heavyweights. And the reality is,
if you take a look at her entire professional resume
at fifteen and oh and all those fights, you could
probably count on one hand the rounds that she's lost.
I mean, she doesn't love.
Speaker 2: She's been dominant, she's been domb But there is an argument,
and I'm just saying this as a counter she hasn't
been in with a lot of great competition overall, not
recently overall. And again this is tactical to do that.
The three the three time four belt undisputed.
Speaker 1: What I don't know about what else is she supposed
to do? Is the question she's avoiding somebody.
Speaker 2: Would be would there be anybody else realistically at one
sixty eight? And apparently there's not.
Speaker 1: Tell me she's beat them all, all right, So, I mean,
the fact of the matter is she she's fought all
the best women in and around her divisions when she
was there, whether it's Christina Hammer, or it's Evanna Habison,
or it's Emma Cozen or Savannah Marshall in the professional
rematch or Crenejo. And then she went up and waited
and she fought the Canadian woman you know the page,
and she iced her in the second round, which is
a rare thing because Claressa in as great as she is,
the one attribute that she has lacked is the punching.
Parrish only got three knockouts in fifteen fights. So you know,
I don't like this fight. I like Claressa. I wish
her luck. I got nothing against Perkins, but she's un established.
She's forty two, She's never fought anything behind scheduled eight round.
Speaker 2: And should not be in a fight for four belts
for a world championship, world championships.
Speaker 1: That's I am born on it, and it is what
it is, all right.
Speaker 2: So that is on Sunday again on Sunday Night on
Dezone and from Solida Promotions for Claressa Shields. All right,
we get to some news and then some nostalgia before
we are done, and I know you've got a heavy heart.
I did read on my Dan Rayfield substack about the
passing of legendary New York boxing writer and really national
boxing writer as well. Once the Internet came of age
Michael Katz, who passed away this week at the age
of eighty five. I loved the stories. The humor came
off the page at me because you know what, when
I'm reading what you were writing, there's a lot of
Dan Rayfield and what you were writing just what I
know about you, and now I begin to understand where
you got it from. So I'm making you smile, even
though this is a bit of a sad occasion for
you to talk about this.
Speaker 1: Michael Kastz was a giant of the sport period. I
mean I read Michael Katz's columns in the Daily News
before I ever met and got to know him. He
was a legendary journalist. He was obviously based in New York,
but he had a national profile. This is way before
the Internet. If Michael Katz wrote a column in many regards,
it's set the narrative for the sport. Like if he
liked a certain fighter, he didn't like a certain fighter,
he thought a fight was, you know, controversial or you
know whatever his perspective was that became in many ways
the talking point of the fans and the business. I mean,
that's just the fact because the New York sports writers
in those days had a lot of power in terms
of what they wrote, and Michael Katz stood above all
of them. And there was a lot of great writers
and guys who battled it out on the beat every
day in those newspapers New York Times, news Day, Daily News,
you know, New York Post. I mean there was plenty
of guys, you know, people like Walie Matthews and Phil
Berger and Michael Katz, and you know there's there's plenty
of those guys. But he he was not only did
he know the sport, and not only did he have
that kind of power for lack of a better word,
but he also was a absolutely brilliant writer. Put put
boxing aside. I've read all kinds of different writers, whether
sports or otherwise. He's just a brilliant wordsmith. Like I
think I'm pretty good, and I've done this for a
long time, but I'm not that egotistical to say that
when I read his columns or his pieces, I can't
do that. And I dare say there's not a single
colleague that I have at Ringside in today's day that
can hold a candle to the way that he would
write a story, period. And that's no, not because I
work Ringside with a lot of talented guys and gals,
but Michael Katz was above them. Now. When I first started,
and I told the story in my column that I
wrote for his obituary. I first met Michael. I think
I might have met him in two thousand when I
covered that for you. First fight I did in or
ninety eight Atlantic City at the NA see my med fight.
But when I first really met him was at the
first fight I covered as the national writer for USA
Today in April of two thousand, Lennox Lewis and Michael Grant.
But I didn't like really know him known, but you know,
he was friendly to me and all that. So now
he fast forward like a couple of weeks later, three
weeks later, a month later, I go for my second
USA Today assignment to Atlantic City to cover a heavyweight
doubleheader in the Bally's Ballroom and some good heavyweights on
the Hassim Rockman became a champion against the South African
Corey Sanders. He had Ole maskaiaf who became a heavyweight
champion against Derek Jefferson. Anyway, on the I saw Mike
at the at the event and we're in the hotel
and he says to me in the morning of the fight,
and you know, he he he didn't do this except
for people that he kind of liked. I guess he
called them kid. Now I was like a grown man.
I was in my late twenties. But he says, come on, kid,
I'm taking you to lunch and I'm going to teach
you how to do this. So we go to like
this deli in the Bally's based in Bally's Casino down
on the boardwalk level, and we're overlooking the boardwalk and
we had a lunch together, and he told stories and
he gave me tips, and he told me who was
who in the business, who could be trusted, who could
not be trusted, you know, scenarios I would encounter with
promoters and fighters and pr people and managers and other writers,
whatever it was. And keep in mind, I'm like two
months on the beat at this point. I started in
March of two thousand. We're now here in like May
of two thousands. So I'm still real wet behind the ears,
as they say. And so he couldn't have been nicer
to me. And I said in the piece, and I
feel like this is definitely the way it went down.
Is he basically he's like he must have. I knew
he he read some stuff I had written in USA. Today.
I was a new guy. I was still young, obviously,
and he took a liking to me, and I feel
like I joked around like you know that he adopted
me that weekend. I became like his like he was
gonna look out for me, and he did. He looked
out for me. And the thing about it also was
he had written as the national boxer writer for the
New York Times. He had written as an ask He
left the Times and he went to the New York
Daily News. And when I first started at USA Today,
he had just left the Daily News and went to
and he was trailblazing at the time, because nobody in
our business I was leaving print media to go to
the internet. But he did. He left the New York
Daily News and a real cushy job there as a columnist,
and he went to a place called the House of Boxing,
which was created back at that time, and they paid
him a lot of money. And for those who weren't
around at that time, the House of Boxing eventually evolved
into the website called Max Boxing. People like Dougie Fisher
and Steve kimm and guys like that Tom Gerbasi, they
were the younger guys that worked there. And but Mike
was the real draw to that, to that website. He
would writing all the time, and he was.
Speaker 2: Obviously we're now in the present. They were way ahead
of their time with what they were doing with this
House of Boxing idea and the internet.
Speaker 1: So in those early days, the writers from all over
the country, and every paper still had a writer basically,
So if there was a big fight in New York
or Vegas, you know, a lot of guys would travel
for the fight. But for the fights that weren't the
mega fights, there was really very few that traveled except
the three guys that did travel to a lot of
the really excellent fights, but not the mega fights or
meet Michael Casts from House of Boxing and Timothy tim
Smith from the New York Daily News. And so I
spent in those first three four years five years or so,
probably most of my USA today tenure a tremendous amount
of time with Michael and with tim traveling on the road,
going to fights. And the thing is I always think
about is Mike didn't drive because he lived in New
York City, so we never had a need for a car,
never got I don't think he had a driver's license.
I hated to rent cars I have terrible directions since
so I'm much more happy taken a cab. But Tim
always rented the car. Wherever we went, didn't matter he
in Vegas, he would rent the car. So for all
those trips we made, Miami, Chicago, pick a place, you know, Detroit,
whatever it was. Tim always had the car and we
always were with him in the car, like where we went.
So we ate meals together, and we went to press
conferences together, and we went to the airport together, and
we stayed in the same hotels and anyway. So I
learned a massive amount from Katz and and him to
some degree. But Michael was like he was like the
mentor to all of us. But he was one of
the kind because he could be the biggest dick in
the world because he had a temper and he would
rip people in the paper. I would say, and this
is a fact. You know, the fighters loved and respected
them for the most part, but the TV guys and
the promoters feared him when he went on the attack
because he could just shape rip them down into shreds
and make it like a thing. Right. And just as
one example of the respect that fighters had for Michael
Katz is he covered Mike Tyson's entire career as an entity.
And remember back in those days with the New York
tabloids battling out every day, and Tyson was front page News,
sports or otherwise. It was a big fucking deal. And
cats covered all that you know, from the you know,
all the way from the eighties through Buster Douglas, through prison,
you name it. And so Mike had probably reasoned to
maybe dislike Mike because then everything was kind that Mike
wrote about Michael about Mike Tyson. But they had a respect,
love and a respect for each other. So two quick
Tyson Cat stories, so this shows you the respect they had.
First one in two thousand and one, Ish, I forget
what it was. I was in Vegas covering Lennox, covering
Evander Holyfield against John Ruiz, the rematch for the WBA
heavyweight title, and they had taken myself and several other
writers to Mike's mansion off the strip to sit down
with Mike to talk about embargo after the fight, about
the prospect that Showtime would try to make him against
the Winter meeting, a fight with Ruiz or a third
fighter with Evander. And so we're sitting in the lot
in the big open living room, and Tyson is there
and Cats was there, and we were like not even
in existent because it became a Cats and Tyson thing.
And they spend time arguing about how to roll in marijuana,
join which was absolutely and cat. So that was one
great cat story that that Mike Tyson was like trying
to are you.
Speaker 2: Gonna tell me next? We're keeping it real on the pod.
Are you gonna tell me next? That they lit it
and smoked it. No, they just were arguing about how
to roll it.
Speaker 1: That was it.
Speaker 2: That's a tremendous story. That's not in the substack, by
the way. That's not the subs by the way.
Speaker 1: No, keep going, okay, And so the second one is
now fast forward. This is many years there, This is
like two years ago something like that. I'm at the
MGM Grand for a Canelo Alvarez way in and I've
I had known Mike since I first started. I've told
the stories. I don't have to rehash that. But I
interviewed Mike a million times, covered several of his team.
You know, we certainly knew each other, not like we're
best friends or anything like that. But I saw him
at the way in and I went over to him
and he recognized me, stood up, and he gave me
a hug, and we talked and we spent like a
little bit of time just kind of cashing up. But
the first thing that Mike ask me about, are you
still in touch with mister cats? Cat called him? And
that's because Mike cat ample respect for Michael Katz, like
I said, re wordsmith, but profane and cantankeros and air curmudgeon,
but with the people that he liked and respected, extremely generous.
I used to get it ribbed from him because he
would write Max's boxing columns and he would sometimes take
a little swipe in me. I never really took it
the bad way because I knew, based on my relationship
with Mike, that he was doing it as a way
to like be pointed with you know, you can do
better than that kind of like I referred to it
in the piece I wrote as tough love. So I
never had a problem with that. And now grant that
I had a lot of love for Mike, I hadn't
been in touch with him. He's been retired, he'd been
ill his unfortunately his wife had died many years before
I met him. His daughter passed away very tragically as
a young woman just a few years ago. But the
last time I had any real contact him, I kept
up with what he was doing because we had people
that we both knew that would occasionally check in with me.
When I won the Natt Fleischer Award from the Boxing
Writers Association for career excellence in Boxing journalism in twenty thirteen,
which is a very prestigious award because it's only voted
on my past winners. So I was obviously very honored
to win that. And uh, that was, like I said,
twenty thirteen. Michael Katz won that award in nineteen eighty one,
and wow, one of the and I got, you know,
several people in the business that called me or send
me emails or text to congratulate me. I think like
one of the first things I got was an email
from Mike Katz congratulating me. So he didn't say it
that he voted for me, but I'm pretty sure he
did based on the way the email was.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: Uh that that lunch from all those years earlier, where
I felt like he took me to that lunch because
he saw something that thought maybe someday I might be
halfway decent.
Speaker 2: And that was his response to Congression that we both
a mentor for me, and let me say this, I'm
not going to ruin it right now. I'm going to
push people to your substack. Get on Dan's substack. Get
on his newsletter. Read the story about him brawling with
another boxing writer at a press conference, and it involves
Bob Aram suddenly caught up in it. Read that. Read
about how he dealt with a photographer at the Madison
Square Garden Theater. It's hilarious, the photographers in Michael Katz's way.
Dan gives a great recounting of it. It's hilarious. How
am I doing? On on pumping your substack.
Speaker 1: You're going to go.
Speaker 2: Read the sub stack for these stories because it's worth it.
Speaker 1: Go the famous media room fight with the other journalist.
I was not present. It was I got the blow
by blow from a lot of the guys that were there,
But the one about the photographer, I was were right
aside from well.
Speaker 2: That was going on. So catch catch all of that
on the substack and rip to Michael Katz and listen.
Speaker 1: He covered every you know. The eighties were the golden
age of like the newspaper business into the nineties, so
we covered the Four Kings. He covered Holmes and George
Foreman and Mike Tyson, Andy Vander Holyfield and Oscar de
la Hoya and Roy Jones, all of them extensively on
the road traveling. I mean, and he wasn't just boxing.
He had spent years in Europe as the sports editor
for the New York Times International, and he'd covered all
kinds of other sports. He was a great connoisseur of wine.
I remember going to places to restaurants with him in
Vegas off the strip when we hear for big fights
where a fewest would go out, we wouldn't just stay
in the hotel. He knew all the restaurants in town.
And Mike. I'm not a big wine drinker, but Mike
always had the right bottle of wine that everybody else
seemed to enjoy because of his I guess his time
in Paris for all those years, he knew every kind
of wine there. Was so a smart but ultimate curmudgeon.
But I think, ultimately with a great.
Speaker 2: Heart, love it all right. I know you're I know
you got a heavy heart, but you did a great
tribute written and now verbally here on the pod. All right,
a couple of news items. Let's go. So on Thursday,
as we released this podcast, Top Rank made it official.
March twenty ninth will be the date of a card
they have in Las Vegas at the Fountain Blue Hotel
and Casino, Mikayla Mayer Sandy Ryan rematch, as well as
another world title fight with Brian Norman finally back from injury,
and a little more. Tell me more about what they
announced real quick.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they announced the MICHAELA Mayor Sandy Ryan rematch, which
I had written about and others had also. It was
not a surprise that they got it done, but now
it's official, like you mentioned in March twenty ninth in
Vegas for MICHAELA Mayor's WBO Women's Welter White title, which
she won when she knocked not knocked out, but went
to a majority decision with Sandy Ryan. Back in September.
Remember that was the first of all outstanding fight. They
battled it out at the Madison Square Guarden Theater. They
had a tremendous battle. That was the fight where Sandy
Ryan had that wild stuff happened as she's leaving the
hotel to go to the to the arena where somebody
jumped out of the car and threw, you know, a
big can of red paint all over her, and she
blamed Mikayla's team. Michaelee denied anything involved with that. That
kind of set in motion, you know, some of the background,
and of course they had had the whole thing about
how Sandy had worked with one of Mikhaela's assistant trainers
without McKellen knowing you that she ended up firing that training,
So there was sort of some animosity there anyway. So
now they're going to do the rematch and it should
be another heck of a fight. I mean, they put
on a tremendous battle the first time. And you mentioned
in terms of the co feature Brian Norman, who is
the WBO welterweight title holder, which he won you in
an upset, but he hasn't been able to defend it
yet because he had an injury that prevented him either
from possibly making the Boutennans fight, which fell a part
of her money, but also another defense that was supposed
to take place Againstquavis on a different card at the
end of last year. So he's going into this fight
with really a lot of sake. He looked great against
Giovanni Santio, who he stopped in San Diego, which was
Santition's hometown. That was back in May. So he's going
to be off of what ten month layoff. He's taken
on Quavis, who's a stolid guy but maybe not a
top top contender. Only got one lost Quaevis, and this
is the opportunity for Norman to gain a little bit
more exposure, gain a little bit more notoride. He put
a defense under his belt and say, okay, I'm ready.
Give me Stanionis or Ennis whoever comes out of that,
or you know, maybe I can get the Barrios fight,
or give me some other name in the welterweight division,
maybe a t female Lopez will move up. At some
point where they talked about making Ta Femo against against
against Brian Norman at the end of last year. It
didn't end up happening, so important fight for him. And
then you mentioned the third fight. This is not on
the ESPN main card. This will be I guess the
top fight of the plot AESPN plus only you have
the the exciting featherweight up and comer Bruce Shueshue Carrington.
He is a title eliminator in the featherweight division against
Enrique Vivas. So that is that is what the card
looks like. They haven't announced the rest of the card.
I'm sure they'll put on some other other top prospects,
but the women's fight should be excellent, and I'll be
very happy to see Brian Norman, who is one of
the young the youngest maybe the second youngest active world
title holder in the sport today, at least among the men,
like what twenty three years old, and you know, get it,
get a defense under his belt, or you know, maybe
maybe uh maybe Quavis pulls off the upside.
Speaker 2: And again that card for late March, and I did
see where Bruce Shueshu Carrington, I guess is around right
now because the WBC eliminator, potentially at featherweight is for
the winner of the Figarola Stephen Flton fight that's coming
Saturday night, and Carrington might be involved with one of
those guys down the road, So keep an eye on
that all right. Moving along, you talked to us before
about Taya Fimo Lopez, who's he fighting again, and about
how Jack Caterall and Arnold Barbosa are already fighting an
interim title. About all right, what is the WBA announced
this week as it regards this whole situation, So you
mean the WBO number one WBO, I misspoke, I'm sorry, WBO.
What did they announce?
Speaker 1: Well, you know, back whenever it was a month or two,
whatever it was, they allowed the fight. Originally, well, caterall
Is fighting Arnold Barboza Junior originally was a title eliminator
and that was done Delta mattrom Car taking place in
Manchester his own February fifteenth. You know, a good solid
fight between two of the better guys in the weight class.
But because t Femo at that moment was in a
big beef with top rank turning down fights, turning down dates,
don't want to do the money, No, not enough money,
this or that, and it was very frustrating to everybody.
Top rank was sort of exacerbated by it. The WBO
was upset because he hadn't fought for not a long
layoff by normal standards, but nothing in the plans. They
described it as, you know, his career kind of in
Limbo hadn't made a mandatory defense, even though they're usually
do once a year, so it'd already been like well
over a year since there had been a mandatory made
in the weight class. So they were like, okay, we're
going to allow Catterall and Barbosa to be for the
interim title, and the winner will have to be the
first defense when Ta Femo comes back, so today or
the day or not today, but within the last couple
of days this week, they said, they put out an
official resolution that said specifically, and then you know, it's
one thing for people to tweet it or say it,
but they got to put it in the paperwork. So
the WBA did what it's supposed to do in terms
of making an official They said, one hundred percent, the
winner of Barbosa and Catterall when t Fimo comes back,
must be his first opponent, and they put a time
frame on it, which is one hundred and eighty days,
so they have to get that jump. Now. The reason
why this is more than just your normal mandatory order,
because that would be that big of a deal to
say the you got to fight the interim champion, is
that when this order was made, it comes at a
time where t Fimo Lopez with his new management team
that we spoke about with the Okay from Top Rank
his promoter. They are engaged in a conversation and negotiation
with Turkey Alshi can do a three fight deal with
tia Fimo, and the deal there is to do fights
like perhaps the winner of Caterall and Barbosa. But what
they are hoping for is that it will ultimately end
with t Fimo Lopez fighting the winner of whoever merges
from the Devin Haney versus Ryan Garciri match, which is
scheduled you know, in October, as long as they win
their interm fight. So looking longer range, the point is
they're not going to necessarily be able to go forward
and do like the first fight they were thinking about
was to do tia Fimo in a unification with the
IBF champion Richards and Nichins. So if he has to
fight the winner of Barbosa and Catterall next, that may
put that off. Now, maybe they can reassess it. Maybe
they'll allow him to do a unification fight and have
to have the the the interim fight after that. The
point is, though there's a lot going on with what's
up with Tifimo right now, and so it's not one
hundred percent clear but it feels like what the WBOLE said, Hey,
whatever your plans are, you gotta fight the winner of
this fight within one hundred eighty days.
Speaker 2: And the other thing is he could vacate if you
wanted to. I mean, apparently he could vacate, and then
they're gonna name Catererall Barbosa winner as the champ. That's
the whole purpose of the interim title. We'll see, I.
Speaker 1: Wish, and again I think that the WBO generally does
a good job with these things. It would have been
my preference to before you get an itchy trigger, don't
make it for the interim title, just leave it be.
I know Ti Fimo was jammed up with his promotion,
he was in the process of changing the management, but
I felt like it was a little premature to declared
that the interim title. But that's just my opinion.
Speaker 2: Then again, I'm just giving the counterpoint. I'm not saying
you're arguing this. He's been a knucklehead and won't fight anybody,
so they're trying to light the fire under him. Fight somebody,
fight who we want you to fight, or give the
belt up. Stay tuned, it's boxing. A couple more you
have talked before about Kinshiro Taraji and now he is
going to be back action coming in March. Tell me
more about the WBC's flyweight champion. Tell me more about
the card in Japan, because we can't get enough of
a little early morning Japanese breakfast and Japanese boxing. Give
me a little more.
Speaker 1: Well, this is a tremendous matchup. I mean, Taraji is,
in my opinion, one of the most exciting fighters in boxing.
He's a guy that I think you can you know,
maybe not if you wanted to make the argument you
could find a place for him at the bottom of
the top ten or pound for pund lists. I don't
know if I could argue too strangle to see against that.
He's on the cusp with that. At the very least,
he's a really excellent fighter. He just moved up to
the flyweight division and won the title, and now he's
not messing around. In his first defense of the WBT title,
He's taken on Serge Akui, who is only going to
be in a second defense. They're going to unify the titles.
And what makes it kind of even more interesting is
that have it all Japanese title unification fight is very rare,
very rare. It's happened only like a few times in
the history of you know, the multi belt, whether it's
two belts, three belts, four belts, it just does not
happen very often. And so this is an interesting part
of that card. And these are two of the best
fly weights in the world, and Taraji may not be
super well known, but he's definitely a musty kind of guy. Now,
it's interesting. This is not definitely gonna be on ESPN
Plus yet like the other Japanese big title cards we've
seen with teaking promotions, because those are fight cards that
have been on Amazon Prime in Japan and Top Rank
is taken in those. This is on a different streaming
service in Japan, so it still remains to be seen
if Top Rank isn't gonna end up doing it. But
I'm sure if you're a savvy boxing person, you'll be
able to find it somewhere, whether it's YouTube right after
the factor perhaps live somewhere. In any event, though, so
that's the main event of that card. They got a
couple they got some other title fights on the show
as well, but the main attraction, of course is Taraji
against a Koui which is a first class matchup. Again,
you know, not everything is at the heavyweight division or
superstar names, but if you like boxing, this is an excellent,
excellent matchup. And both guys they're not messing around going
you know, not being champions for very long. They're just
going right into like literally the toughest fight they can have.
Speaker 2: That coming in about six weeks in March. And also
we got more good news about what's apparently coming maybe
in March, and this is a rematch with William Zapaieda
and Tevin Farmer for the NUMWBC lightweight title. Zapeida got
the split decision controversial. Farmer had a case that he
maybe won that fight. What's the latest They just fought
in November. What's the latest here on the rematch.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's not done yet, but I was talking
to Golden Boy and they're making plans to try to
get the fight done. They want to do the rematch.
You know, Zepaida's mandatory for cha cour Stevenson, but he's
fighting February twenty second. They didn't fight in the first
place because of the injuries that had been going on
with both guys, so it kind of got put off.
And so he fought Farmer instead on that Latino Night
card in November. As you mentioned, they had a tremendous battle,
really good fight, and Zapeida won the close decision. Farmer,
you know, kind of complained the battle a bit, and
without a lot of other stuff going on and something
nothing else that really was a big dealer, made a
lot of sense. They figured, let's give Farmer the rematch.
So they're trying to put the fight together from March
twenty ninth. It'll be a de Zone fight, obviously being
that as Golden Boy, and they're looking to do it
in Cancun, Mexico, which is a paida is from Mexico,
so Farmer, you know, have to travel. But you know,
while you're waiting for the she Court fight, this is
still a pretty good fight. Farmer, you know, he feels
aggrieved because he feels he beat far he beat Sapaida.
He believes he believes he kind of got a raw
deal against Raymond Moretaya in the previously I which I
don't agree with that for Attia definitely won that, but
it was certainly competitive at least, and so for a
guy that's lost a couple of fights in recent times
in a row. Kevin Farmer is still a pretty damn
good fighter, and we'll see if he gives a paid
another run for his money if they get the deal done.
Speaker 2: All right, And that leads us now to nostalgia and uh,
you know, we talked about some of the greats. Julio
Cesar Chavez put his unbeaten record on the line, going
back to Wednesday. Now as we released the podcast Thursday
Night into Friday, January twenty ninth of nineteen ninety four,
This is now thirty one years ago from Wednesday. That more, Morristown,
Tennessee's Frankie Randall, the surgeon Frankie Randall. He is the
all time answer to the trivia question who's the first
guy to not only defeat Julio Caesar Chavez, but knocked
him down in the fight and then eventually won What
Chavez is can't believes is a cot and fans a
controversial split decision in their first fight. The late Frankie
Randall won that and as Dan points out, it's the
first fight card ever correct at the MGM Grand Where
you are right now, Nostalgia on top of nostalgia, Dan
Rayphiel for this I.
Speaker 1: Realized that when I was in I can't. I got
to Las Vegas on a Wednesday, which was the anniversary
off this fight, So here I am. Now the MGM
is not where the David Morrel and Benavidez are fighting
in the Timo Bellerina, which is, you know, just a
couple of blocks up the street, but the host hotel
for all of the fights that take place at Timoblerina
has been or most of them anywhether there might be
one or two that weren't, but it's been the MGM grant.
So here I am checking into the MGM Grand for
a fight week on the day that is the anniversary
of the first boxing event they ever did there, the
Grand Slam of Boxing, one of the big don King
shows back in the day. When people talk about stack cards,
I always say, well, go look at the Don King
cards that took place, you know in the early and
mid nineties that that sort of was the beginning of that,
you know, rush of big time pay per view events,
and certainly this qualifies as their first event ever in
the MGM Grand history, which is done now you know,
zillions of fights. We just had the big anniversary where
there was a big celebration of their one hundred championship night.
They were a little off on their counting, but do
you understand the point. But this was a huge upset.
Like you said, Chobb, is this eighty nine oh to
one incredible going into this fight. He's made twelve defenses
of the WBC Junior Walter Weitel. He's a fifteen to
one favorite in the fight. And Frankie Raynal gets two
point deductions against jabs from Richard Steel, the referee who
took points from Chabez. You know, for I believe one
was hitting on the brake, yes, and there was I
forget what the low blows I believe was the other one.
Any event, uh so he's already in the hole with
the with the point deduction. Then in round eleven with
just In stand in the middle of the ring and
Randall lands is like a straight clean shot and boom,
Chobbs is on his rear end, first bow ever in
his career. Yeah, and it was not enough for him
to overcome, and Randall ended up winning a split decision
where based on the way the scores went based on
the knockdown in the and the point deductions, you know,
they were kind of looking for a way to take
it away from Chovas, but he still did enough Randall
to get the decision. Uh. They ultimately fought two more times,
chobb Is with the controversial technical decision to win in
the second fight, and then by the third fight. You know,
so a few years after that, Randall was a mere
shell of himself and he just got pummeled. But it
was a big card, the big undercard fight. You know,
there were some lot of good fights on the card,
but the main card, uh feature on besides the main
event was you know, the the great Felix Trinidad defending
the welterweight title against Hector Camato. That's some big time
game feature. So that was a big win for Trinidad
in the earlier stages of.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was gonna say Trinidad on the rise at
that time with Camacho.
Speaker 1: And unfortunately, there was supposed to be a fight, another
world title fight between the great Hall of Famer at
zum And Nelson and his great rival James Leja. That
fight on the unfortunately got canceled off the car. Uh
it's on the The reason I say it because I
posted a picture of the program and the and their
their pictures are on the program, but it was a
late scratch from the show.
Speaker 2: But it also has the car Simon, Simon Brown, Tommy
hit Van Heerds fighting as a cruiserweight, believe it or not,
on that card. All of that one years ago.
Speaker 1: How many fights have taken place in this great arena,
this hallowed building since then. But that was the beginning
and they got it off with a bang, with one
of the biggest upsets of that decade. Yeah, tremendous.
Speaker 2: And again, Frankie Randall passed away a couple of years ago,
had been in a nursing home in Tennessee, had been
in had been in bad health. Drugs alcohol had had
really robbed him of his latter years. But again the
answer to the trivia question, it's not. It's not any
of the other all time greats that you might think.
It is Frankie Randall who the who got the win
now thirty one years ago Wednesday, the first ever loss.
Is it fair? I think it's fair to say that
in terms of big time world champions, I hate you
love it when I do this. I hate the word never.
You gotta be careful of words like never. You gotta
be careful of words like forever. You gotta be careful
of the phrase I love you. You better be very
careful before you're saying the phrase I love you. I'm
just giving some advice, dating advice, metal advice.
Speaker 1: Will you marry me?
Speaker 2: That's another phrase be careful of. But is it fair
to say we are highly unlikely to ever see anybody
get to eighty nine and oh in major world championship
boxing 're in this case now eighty nine to oh
to one with the draw against Parnell Whitaker, which came
the year before in ninety three for Chavez, eighty nine.
Speaker 1: They just don't fight that much.
Speaker 2: No, eighty nine oh and one? Are you kidding me?
Before he lost a fight, it's crazy.
Speaker 1: Forget about getting to eighty nine to zhe one the
best fighters, they're probably not gonna get. Forget about ninety fights,
you know, Canelo Albers being an exception who's got over
sixty fights now, right, Even to get to that level
of fifty and sixty fights is highly unusual at this
stage of boxing. I mean, there's a lot you know
who have done that in recent times, got into the
fifties and that sort of stuff. But and Chavez didn't
stop there because after he lost the fight to Frankie Randall,
he will, like he said, he got the revenge and
the rematch on the one of the great pay per
view cards of all time, Revenge of the Rematches. But
then he went on the street where he continued to
defend the title. He beat Meldrick Taylor in the rematch.
Granton Meldric was way gone at that point. Tony Lopez Pei.
Ultimately he ended up moving you know, into the into
the huge, huge attraction fight where he fought Oscar de
la Hoya for the first time. He lost, at which
point that was sort of like now Chabz is considered
like an older kind of shot, kind of playing out
the string. But he still went one another title and
still you know, did some other things and fought in
other title fights for a Peter up about eighty nine
oh to one. He finished one hundred and seven six
and two with eighty five knockouts. The man has more
knockouts and virtually everybody has fights. So that was a
huge upset. I mean, you could say it's probably one
of the biggest upsets. I mean, I don't know if
it's it's not gonna trump you know Tyson and and
Buster Duggas anything like that. But you know, at fifteen
to one, and with what Chavis had accomplished, that was
like a pretty big shocker that that occurred. I mean,
I don't know, like you said, nobody's ever getting to
that level again. And I think, actually now that I
mention it, he did not win once he lost that
title to Oscar. He never won another world title. He
fought still after that, but.
Speaker 2: Never untill he fought on and won what did you say,
one hundred and seventy and fell on and won eighteen
more fights after this, after this loss to Frankie Randall.
Speaker 1: So you know, grant that some of them are not
against the top names. See, he got it. He fought
in another title fight when he when he lost in
the rematch with Oscar, as well as the Costazu fight
that we've talked about in the past. But the eighty
nine one is the remarkable sort.
Speaker 2: Of stretch career staggering.
Speaker 1: So when people want to make a big deal about
you know, Floyd was fifty and oh, okay, that's a
great he wasn't eight nine.
Speaker 2: One, na, oh yeah. In a way right now, that
has the twenty what is it twenty three or twenty
four world title wins. Let's see him get Let's see
him fight fifty more times, sixty more times. That ain't
happening exactly? All right with that, it has been a
busy program. What's say you and I reconvene on the
bet Us TV Boxing Show on their platforms, their YouTube,
their social media one Eastern ten a m. Pacific. Big
Dan will be out where he is in Las Vegas
for that. When it is all over for this weekend,
we'll come back in with a recap podcast on the
Benavidez Morell main event, the co feature as well with
Stephen Fulton and Brandon Figuerola. That big rematch. I'm intrigued
by that one. I think a lot of people are.
Let's do all of that this weekend for now. Enjoy
yourself here over the next couple of days and we
look to a reconvene on bet Us on the recap pod.
Thank you Dan, Raphael, all.
Speaker 1: Right, TJ joined the fight. There you go.
Speaker 2: There is the one and only go to that fight.
Freak to night, Substack for all the news. He's got
some great insight on the press conferences, et cetera, more
of the stories on Michael Katz, some other news items
in his notebook. Etca go check that out on the
Fight Preach Unite substack. Again, we're back on the bet
Us show as you hear this Friday at one Eastern time.
We'll recap off the weekend on the Fight Freaks Unite
Recap podcast on this very feat, So follow or subscribe
on apples Freaker, Spotify. For Dan, I'm TJ. Thank you
for being with us on the Big Fight Weekend preview