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