Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time. This is big
fight weekend. Now here is your host, TJ. Leaves.
Speaker 2: Well, we get ready for what is a holiday weekend
in the United States, but you know what, in Scotland.
Speaker 1: And in Japan, they don't care about that.
Speaker 2: Where We've got fights to talk about, including a world
title fight in Japan coming on Saturday. We have got
fight news, including Manny paquiaw making it official, a little
taste of nostalgia, a little Caleb plant on this edition
of the pod as well. My goodness, something for everyone.
I am merely the somewhat competent host TJ.
Speaker 1: Reeves.
Speaker 2: Hello, Dan Rayphiel. Our insider Fight Freaks Unite is his
substack and newsletter.
Speaker 1: Good to be back with you.
Speaker 2: What time are we coming over for you to grill
out the hamburgers, the dogs and all the trimmings for
the Memorial Day weekend.
Speaker 1: I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2: We live in different states, in different regions country.
Speaker 1: How are you? How are things?
Speaker 3: I'm very good, TEJ. We do have a beautiful barbecue
on the back deck. Now you were in the neighborhood.
Speaker 2: Refer while we digress, you refer to it as a
barbecue in the South, we refer to it as a grill.
You're talking about your grill. My question to you is
are you a grill master? Are you a barbecue master?
At this stage I can't remember the answer to this.
Speaker 3: Well, you know what I mean, I can do it,
but you know what, my wife actually does it, and
she likes it, and so she's into it. So we
leave it to her myself.
Speaker 2: She's the MVP. She's the wives are the MVPs. Again,
thank you for finding us. Everybody be safe on the
holiday weekend, a lot of traveling. This is a dangerous
weekend on the roads because so many more people are traveling.
Do not drink and drive savages, peeps. We want you
healthy for our recap podcast as well as all of
our other antics coming up. We got a lot to
explain here in a moment or two. But again, everybody
enjoy the holiday. And I understand too that the holiday
is somewhat of a somber occasion because you remember those
that have died in the line of duty, military, first responders, police, etc.
But at the same time, I don't look at it
as such a downer. We want to remember people, finally,
and a lot of people do remember their loved ones
finally during this weekend, so we love all of that
anyway a lot to get to make sure you're following
or subscribing on this podcast feed first of all, that
helps us rate us and review us. That helps us
take thirty seconds and do that if you enjoy the
content and Manda, we have a lot of content coming.
Speaker 1: Do that.
Speaker 2: Also find our YouTube page for a couple of reasons
that'll be explained coming up. Big Fight Weekend YouTube page
as well. For example, you're gonna hear part of the
interview with Caleb Plant, who is in the ring. Not
this weekend, no, no, next weekend in Las Vegas, May
thirty one. On Saturday night, Plant will fight Armando Rezindez
in the main event of PBC on Prime. You're gonna
hear a smidge of that conversation on this pod, but
the full video Ray Feel and Living Color Baby with
Caleb Plant can be seen on the YouTube page. As
we release this pot it's already up Big Dan on
the YouTube page you and Caleb Plant, so we encourage
them to go find the YouTube page. That's the bottom line.
Help us out, help us out, hit like hit subscribe,
be on the YouTube page, and one more piece of
promotion Sunday night the Recamp pod. On this one World
Day weekend, we'll be live like Bill O'Reilly on that
comical meme, We're gonna do it live.
Speaker 1: I'm not even f bombing. We're gonna do it live.
I'll do it live. We'll do it live.
Speaker 2: Seven ish Eastern, depending on if Ray Fields done with
this potato salad.
Speaker 3: Seven thirty does not eat potato salad eat potato.
Speaker 2: I couldn't remember if you hated potato salad or baked
beans or both.
Speaker 1: You hate both, babyans, baked beans and potato salad you
gotta have if you.
Speaker 3: Having more of a macaroni and cosluy, Okay.
Speaker 2: Fair enough, But somewhere around seven ish eight ish Eastern,
be looking for the live show on the YouTube page.
It's the only place to watch it. Watch the live
show on the YouTube page where we're recapping these fights
from this weekend that we're about to talk about, and
we're talking the sixtieth anniversary of Ali. Listen to it
was a short fight, one punch. Many still believe sixty
years later, phantom knockout, especially with Sunny Liston re enacting
a beach whale flopping all over the ring after the
one punch. We'll discuss it all on Sunday night live
Eastern Time on the Big Fight Weekend YouTube page. So
we push you to the YouTube page. There, my god,
Am I done with all the promotional stuff?
Speaker 3: I sure hope?
Speaker 2: So I believe, I believe. Can we move on? Let's
do it. Let's go into the preview mode. And we've
got the former undisputed one and forty pound world champ,
Josh Taylor, headlining in Scotland Saturday afternoon US time Saturday
night on the Queensbury Dezonne main event.
Speaker 1: And this is a.
Speaker 2: Twelve round non title fight. And explain to me about
about what what's going on here because Taylor, we had
thought he was angling for a title shot at welter waite.
Is this more of a stay busy I don't know
a lot about the opponent. Well, tell me more about
what's going on.
Speaker 3: This is neither of those. I mean, he's not even
in the in the sniffing distance right now of a
title shot. All right, he's he's he's the former undisputed
junior welterweight champion, as you mentioned. Uh you know he
had the the the you know, the run at at
Junior WEL three where he scored some nice wins. He
obviously became undisputed against Jose Ramirez in twenty twenty one
and in a big, big win for him. A couple
of fights before that, he had won the tournament with
a with a great victory and a tremendous battle, a
very close fight against Regis Progra, and then he had
the Jack Catterall fight and obviously, you know that was
hugely controversial, where he got the win, he retained the
undisputed title, and then he got kind of bogged down.
You know they're gonna do a remaster. It was all
kinds of issues. You have to relitigate every single one
of them because there was too many postponements, cancelations, injury,
these logistical issues, TV situations, you name it. When he
finally came back in June of twenty twenty three, had
been offered over like almost a year and a half
because of all the issues, some of which was injuries.
He changed promoters anyway, there was all kinds of problems.
But by the time he got into the ring in
his next fight, he had either vacated or been stripped
of three of the four sanctioning bottle titles. He was
still the WBO champion, he was still the lineal champion,
and he came to New York City and he fought
Tafimo Lopez, who in the combination of Josh Taylor looking
pretty bad, I frankly think pretty tight at the weight
and Tfimo Lopez fighting a really outstanding fight. He won
a very clear decision in that fight and became the champion,
and Josh Taylor is now coming off a loss, no
longer has the belts, and finally, even as a non
title fight. It was eleven months later he was out
of the ring again, but they finally did the Jack
Caterall rematch, which was not any longer for a title,
but it was still they had to clean that met
us up. And he went out there in Jack Catterall.
Not only did he win clearly, but he dominated for
the most part. So, I mean, I always thought in
the first fight it was much ado about a lot
of nothing in terms of like the crazy amount of
controversy that had caused, you know, it was could have
gone either way in my mind, but anyway, there was
there was no doubt that that Caterall was the winner
in the rematch. I mean the scores were pretty wide
and he clearly won the fight. So now he's lost
two fights in a row. He hasn't fought now in
one year, since May of twenty twenty four when that
fight happened. So he made the decision. I'm surprised he waited.
Maybe it was just to get the Catle rematch where
he did it at one forty. But now he's going
to welterweight for this fight against Eco Esimon, who was
you know, his British countryman, a one lost guy who's
never really fought anybody that you would recognize. He'st he's
you know. The funny thing about is when you look
at his record, he's got some wins in recent times
against undefeated fighters, but they were guys that were like
ten and oh eleven to zh not not in any
way where they like, you know, well known names. He
just has the one loss to a fighter named Harry Scarf,
who's like a decent British level fighter back in twenty
twenty three. So this is the fight, you know, it's
it's like what has he got left? I mean, he's
obviously the favorite in the fight. You know, Esman is
thirty six years old. He's got a good record twenty
one and one with eight knockouts, so he's not a
big puncher based on the knockcout percentage. And this is
like a do or die for Taylor. I mean, let's
just be honest about it. I'll never want to say,
oh my god, if he loses, he's got to retire,
blah blah blah. But if he loses this fight again,
I'm not saying he's got to retire, but it would
be three losses in a row, a poor debut in
a new weight class, which never is a good way
to get.
Speaker 1: Not getting any younger mid thirties.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's thirty four years old. I mean, he's had
a heck of a career. He's got some big wins
like we mentioned, and some some difficult losses. But now
is a matter of to find out does he have
anything left? Was it a matter of the weight? Is
his mind fresh? You know What's I have no idea
what is going on with Josh Taylor right now, because
for a short period of time he was the best
under forty in the world. He was a really superb fighter.
A lot of people were putting him on the lower
part of say their top ten pounds for poundless. You know,
the guy was an accomplished amateur as well. I mean,
he was a really good fighter, and you know these
things don't last forever. So now the onus is on
him to get some of that mojo back to I
mean again winning his paramount. That's the most important thing.
But it would be a big bonus and be very
helpful to his long term outlook if not only could
he win the fight, but do so in somewhat impressive fashion.
He's at home in Scotland for the fight. You know,
everything is built for him and well you know, Essaman
is gonna have his say about it. We'll see if
he can do anything. But like I said, his record
is not filled with anybody that you would you know,
think as in terms of a big name opponent. So
I mean, honestly, I don't know how this is going
to go at all because you just don't. It's more
not because of estimate. It's like you just don't know
what Josh has because he looks so bad against Lopez.
He looks so bad in the Caterall rematch, and I
know he's better than that. I'm not I'm not I'm
not anti Josh Taylor. He's you know, he's the heck
of a fighter. But it's I just don't know is he.
Speaker 1: Or is it over?
Speaker 2: Is it is what we're seeing that to me, it's
all of that's in the past. On how good he
looked in beating Jose Ramirez for the undisputed title, which
is now what four years ago exactly?
Speaker 3: So matter of facts, that is just this week. I mean,
we're uh. And the funny thing about not funny but
like not funny, aha, but just like kind of like
when you think about it, that was the biggest moment
for both of those fighters, and the winner and the
loser have never really been the same since.
Speaker 1: Very true. All right, let's in terms of in terms of.
Speaker 3: Josh Keller, just to put it in a nutshell, was
it a matter of weight, was it a matter of
his mind? Was there some kind of injury that was
that we weren't aware of? Or is he just you know,
got a lot of mileage on the tread and we
don't know and we're gonna find out. You'll know, I mean,
let me tell you something. I believe you'll know early on.
You know, if he's got something, because we'll see a
spring in this step or whatever, and you'll know like
he's still uh, maybe he can do something. And if
he can get a win, you know, it's a new
lease on life. I guess you could say.
Speaker 2: All right now, I'm also intrigued you are as well
that in the co feature, the rising heavyweight Moses Etama
will fight someone named Mike Bolligan, if I said it right,
in a ten round heavyweight bout. But Attama, this is
a guy.
Speaker 1: What do we know?
Speaker 2: But this is a guy that looks like he could
be going places. Fast hands, big puncher, great young prospect.
We're curious to see what he can do. Saturday afternoon
US time, Saurday night, Scotland time.
Speaker 3: Right absolutely. I mean I picked Atama as the prospect
of the year in December. I'm probably not the only
one that picked him as the prospect of the year.
I mean, he's shown pretty much everything you want to
see in a young heavyweight. As you mentioned, the quick hands,
you know, the good punching power, seems to be very
poised and mature when you consider he's only twenty years old.
I mean, you know, he's a south paw also to boot,
which is not going to make it so easy on
a lot of his opponents. You don't see a lot
of that talented heavyweights to wear south, but I mean
there are some. It's not the most common thing in
the world. He's coming off of, you know, his biggest win.
It's all relative, obviously, but he has a really impressive
first round knockout against Demse McKean, who was a pretty
good fighter. He gave you know, he's given some good, good,
good opponents, you know, tough nights. He fought a solid
fight and competed, even though he got stopped late against
Philip Perkovich in twenty twenty three, and Atama, you know,
took him out in less than two minutes. So Atama,
you want to see Kenny continue the progression, continue to impress.
He's taken on Mike Dallaghan, an American. He's actually he's
forty one years old, but he's a former professional football
player who's come to boxing. He's got a good record,
he's twenty one and one with sixteen knockouts. But then
you take a look behind those numbers, I guess is
what you could say. Also a south pop by the way,
so it's lefty versus lefty. The one loss that Balagun
had is certainly a forgivable loss. But he did get
stopped in the second round in twenty twenty three by
Mara Gassia, who was the former unified cruiserweight champion who
had moved up to heavyweight. He did that overseas and
he took that l and so to me, it's a
matter of Kenny Tama sort of do what Ghassi I did. Gassi,
if is a well known fighter, even though he doesn't
have a ton of experience in the heavyweight division, had
been somewhaty active. But a Tama, if you look at
the guys in the rest of the division, I don't
think there's any doubt about it that at least what's
there he has to be considered the future of the
weight class. I mean there's no doubt. I mean the
type of maturity, power, speed, poise, You know, all the
things you look for, the one thing you don't know
yet and you hope you never find out. If you're
if you're involved with the guy's career, you're a fan
of the guy, especially in a heavyweight division, you don't know
if he has a chin, but hopefully he never gets
hopefully you never. I mean he used to hear all
the time like we don't want to know because that
means you're not getting hit clean. You know, it was
always said about Roy Jones, like you never knew if
he had a chin. I guess later when he got
older and his reflexes, he started get tagged and got
knocked out a bunch of times, so we don't know
what it would have happened, you know, ten years earlier,
but it didn't matter because he never got hit clean.
And that's the same thing with a tummy. He has
yet to be really clocked with a good shot. But
I'm not that confident that Mike Belligan is going to
be the one to deliver that punch where we're gonna
find some truth in what he's really got. So you know,
I would say with the Tama, enjoy the rye because
it's gonna be a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned.
Speaker 2: Those are again Saturday afternoon US time, Fights on his
Own the Queensbury Shows, Saturday night Primetime from Scotland from
Glasgow on Saturday night. Now we back up to earlier
in the morning US time.
Speaker 1: What is Saturday night. Keep all this crap straight, right,
if you'll keep me in line.
Speaker 2: Saturday night in Japan. But what is Saturday morning US time?
This is the IBF featherweight title and Angelo Lao taking
on Toma Kee Kameta for the IBF Featherweight Championship that
Lao won last year with a booming knockout of Luis
Alberto Lopez in his hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico, a
tenth round one punch booming ko. So he has not
fought now in what some nine months, first defense since
reacquiring a port of the title. He also had a
portion of the title or it was the junior featherway
title right that he had a portion of previously when
Steven Fulton beat him Leo.
Speaker 1: So, now Leo goes to Japan.
Speaker 2: Tell me more about the opponent this title defense, and
it's early Saturday for us in the United States.
Speaker 3: Well, as you mentioned, first of all, when he won
the IBF title against Louis Alberta Lopez, it was one
of the knockouts of the year in twenty twenty four,
spectacular knockout, and he did it in his own you know,
he was Lopez was defending the title in in Angelo
Leo's hometown. He's from Albuquerque, he's based out of Vegas,
but he hadn't fought Albercarez, where he was born and
raised and fought there for you know, for years and
years and years, and it was a really great performance.
So I'm not really sure why he's had the long layoff.
But the bottom line is this fight with Tomochi Camada,
who was a former champion in the Laura Way class,
is a mandatory defense. And so even though even though
Angelo Leo is co promoted by Probox and by Top Rank,
the Camada people have a good apparently a good streaming
deal over in Japan, and you know, his family's company,
Commandea from promotes a bunch of fights over there. For
those not that familiar to Mochi is one of the
three fighting Kamada brothers. The others are retired. There'skki Kmita
was one of the you know, he was the first
one who was a champion. Anyway, that's like a very
famous family in Japan. Uh and tomokis still doing his thing.
He's going along, he's you know, he's he's still trying
to make a go of it. He's uh, he's vastly experienced,
and you know, we'll see if he can overcome and
win another title. I mean, he has a really good record.
He's thirty three years old, he's forty two to four
with twenty three knockouts. He once held a title in
the Bandam weight division, so he's now obviously up a
couple of weight classes. He's become the mandatory and they're
bringing him over there. They're fighting in Osaka, Japan, which
is Camada's hometown. Angel Leo and some of the comments
when he when the fight was made, you know, seemed
to embrace then the idea of of going overseas didn't
really seem to be a problem for him. He was,
you know, I think kind of interested to do it.
See if he can bring the left hook. I don't
know if there's a terrifying bring him left hook to
Japan or not. But uh, this shapes up like a
very interesting fight because Leo, I feel like, must have
a lot of confidence by what he did to uh,
to Luis Alberta Lopez, but he has been off for
a little bit. He's fighting a fighter that's older, but
it's going to be at home and is uh, you know,
coming off his own pretty decent run. He did have
a draw in one of the fights where or I
take them back. He had a split decision loss where
he rematch with the South African to get this mandatory position.
He won the rematch, and to me, this is fight.
This this fight between Leo and Camada. Honestly, it could
I I couldn't tell you, like if you stuck a
gun to my head, I could see a thousand different
ways this thing could go. But I'm normally interested in,
like if the guy's the younger, confident champion, even if
he is traveling, you know, we'll see one thing. Uh.
I kind of think it's gonna be a pretty good
fight because Camda and uh and Leo, these are not
guys that there. They're there. They both have good skills,
but they're not like guys that run and hide either.
So it could be like a nice you know, uh
boxer puncher against each other in a nice fight where
you'll see sporadic action but also some good boxing. You know.
I'm happy that probox has the rights to it in
the United States, so it's going to be easily accessible
on their YouTube channel. So that's a good thing. And
you know made the best man win featherweight. It's a
good division right now, there's there's opportunity.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, yeah, there's a winner for
the winner for sure.
Speaker 2: And in the case of Leo, he had that loss
to Fulton, a decision loss, but since then has now
won five fights in a row and he actually fought
three times last year.
Speaker 1: Let's hear it again for activity, well he did right.
Speaker 3: You know when he lost the title at one twenty
two to Fulton, you know he had a little bit
of time off in there, which is not you know,
a shocker at all, but when he came back, you
know he'd have like long laugh it was me like
six months whatever it was. But the point is he
was willing to take some smaller fights. Obviously that probably
means smaller money. Stay active. He had, he moved up
in wait and by your time he was highly rated
by the IBF. He got the opportunity and you know what,
he took advantage of it. And so to me, that's
so critical is for a guy to be active, even
if you're not fighting like the elite guys, just to
go through the repetitions of the training camp of being
under the lights of walking up the steps, of getting
the hands wrapped, of just going through the process of
obviously it keeps you close to the to your fighting weight.
You know, there's there's as long as you're not injured
and you're everything else is okay. Like that's a good
thing to continue to to ply your trade. And it
pays off because not only did he get the title
shot he wanted. Now the only unfortunate thing is after
all that activity, he did have this nine month layoff
or so between his victory and the title fight and
now going into Canada. But you got to respect the
guy that willingly with no problems, as you know, raises
his hand and says, I'll go overseas not an issue.
Kind of the same scenario with like a Brian Norman.
It's not a mandatory fight, but he's going to Japan
to fight, you know, his welterweight title defense coming up.
So you know, I always have I respect all fighters,
but I have a little bit more respect for the
guys that are willing to do.
Speaker 1: That agreed payday or not. As if you're willing to
go there and do.
Speaker 3: That, all right, son, Just real quick though, if he wins,
you know he's got involvement with Top Rank, and as
we've talked about before, they're the promoter co promoter of
Raphael Espinoza. They also are involved with Oh you might
have heard of Noya in a way, who was at
some point probably gonna move up. He's fighting this fight
in the innaway's home country of Japan. You gotta figure
that's going to be raised in their media coverage of
this event. So there's lots of interesting things going on
with that.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned.
Speaker 2: So there are the fight previews, all right, So up next,
and everybody pay attention here we're gonna hear a portion
of Big Dan talking with Caleb Plant, the former IBF
super middleweight world champ. Plant is back on May thirty first,
not this Saturday, but next Saturday at the Mandela Bay
in Las Vegas, fighting for the WBA Oh my god,
interim super middleweight title I said it, against Armando Rezendez.
Speaker 1: All right, now again, audience, the.
Speaker 2: Full interview is right now on the Big Fight Weekend
YouTube page see the video. However, we love our podcast peaks,
do we not, Dan Rayphiel who.
Speaker 1: Want to take care of the sabage.
Speaker 2: So if you're with us here on the pod obviously,
we want to make sure that you get rewarded with
at least a Q and A. So here's a Q
and A t's of the full interview with Dan talking
to Caleb Plant.
Speaker 1: Let's hear that right now.
Speaker 3: You're taking on Resendas. We know he's in a coming hunger,
he wants to grab that bell from you and everything else.
But we also know that part of this event is
the fact that you have in the co feature Jamal
Charlow taken on Thomas Lamatta and PBC is not then shy.
When they announced the fight between you and Risendas and
Charlot against Lamaa, they made a point says, listen, you know,
if our main guys, meaning yourself and Charlo are the winners,
we're gonna make a fight between those two guys as
a big fight later this year. So how do you
sort of focus on your opponent but also know that
Charlo looms in the future.
Speaker 4: Just worry about right now, focus on right now. You know,
the world is always trying to get you to and
I'm not saying you personally because you just asking a question,
but the world is always like, well what about Charloe,
what about Charlo? And I feel like if you haven't
been a high level athlete, you may not understand. And
again I'm not talking to you. Well I'm not a
high level athlete, but but you've been around the sport.
There you you're a true I got the score of
the sport, So you understand that like the amount of
mental focus that takes regardless of who's across from you,
you know, And so it's just to block out all
the noise and focus on one flight at a time.
I'm sure you've been around boxing long enough. This ain't
the first card where they put one guy's the main event.
Guys that comain and the winner, you know, they get
to face each other.
Speaker 3: But we know that this fight with you and Charlo
has been festering for a while. You guys have both
called each other out. I mean you're going to be
around each other in the Mandolai Bay during the fight week. Uh,
you know how much? Again, I know you got to
take care of your business, but you're also a professional,
and I know that you're able to focus, so you're
capable of talking about two things at once. How much
do you want that fight though?
Speaker 1: Uh?
Speaker 3: You know down down the road this year? I mean,
I know you've wanted it for a while.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's I wanted enough that you know, I'm
looking for the biggest tests And Mangia was busy with Bruno,
Canelo was busy with skull Egar Berlanga is part of
the witness protection program. When it comes to me, I guess,
and you know, I've been begging, begging for that fight,
asking for that fight, and not much interested in it.
So this was like the fastest way for me to
get to a big fight that I want.
Speaker 1: Again.
Speaker 2: I make mention that he is back in action, not
this weekend, but next weekend May thirty, first Saturday night
in Las Vegas. Again for the audience, go watch the
whole interview. That ain't the whole interview, peeps, savages, go
watch the whole interview on the Big Fight Weekend YouTube page,
because you guys get into what he is ultimately up
to short term here including the name Jamal Charlow, who's
on this card. Pick it up from there, dan On
and what else is up? And they got to go
here Caleb plant his own words and watch him on
the YouTube pitch.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, look, number one, that's that's the storyline
of this particular fight, and no disrespect to Armando Rizendez,
But when PBC announced the card with Charlot fighting in
the co feature against Thomas Lamana and Caleb in the
main event, they said, you know, success by these two
fighters who have been wanting to fight each other for
a while, but they weren't going to jump right into
the fight against each other, not because of anything that
was up with Caleb Plant who had a nice win
and a knockout back in September against Trevor mccombee, but
because Charlot has been off for such a long time,
so they weren't going to just put him in. So basically,
you know, its like Caleb w know to give a
little What he said was, you know, if they're going
to give him the so called tune up to get prepared,
I might as well take one also. So that's how
this doubleheader sort of presented itself. So they're going to
both fight these opponents on this card on the thirty
first of May, and if they're both successful and win
and there's no injuries and all us good. PBC said
multiple times everybody involved on both sides that the intention
is to have them fight each other towards the end
of the year, probably sometime, you know, it could be
I guess as soon as September, maybe October, November, something
like that. But they're gonna fight each other later this year.
Now it'll be one of their pay per view cards.
But that's a very tasty main event. And if they
both look good or even halfway good, especially Charlotte, you know,
that will definitely peak interesting. You can bank on the
fact that when they get the fight WEEKDJ. Yes, they
gotta have conversations about the fights they have in front
of them. You have to take care of your business.
But you know, as well as I do, a lot
of that conversations to be about them against each other.
And so someone's like they're starting the promotion already. They
just have to remember they got fights to win before
they get there.
Speaker 2: Understood, And I say again, the full conversation video is
on the YouTube page.
Speaker 1: Go see this right.
Speaker 3: There, Caleb Is. I've been interviewing Caleb Plant for many
years through his career. He's a pretty good interview. He
was always a great talk always good to talk to.
Speaker 2: So go watch it, go see it, Go help us out.
Hit the light button. Make sure you're subscribed on the
YouTube page. We get the feeling that most of you
are very loyal here on the podcast feed. You're already
subscribed up through Apple, Spreaker, Spotify, but go help us on.
Speaker 1: The YouTube page.
Speaker 2: We look forward to having more of you join us there,
including the live show that we're doing. And I'll mention
that one more time a little bit later on the
live show we're doing Sunday.
Speaker 1: All right, to the news.
Speaker 2: What did I see on social media earlier this week?
But Manny Pacquiao confirming that he will be back to
fight Mario Barrios.
Speaker 1: All things being.
Speaker 2: Equal, this fight is scheduled for July, much the same
way as Dan Rayfield does his sit ups and crunches.
I saw several dozen people, including media members, with cameras, still, photographs, etc.
Around him while he was doing some sit ups during training.
If that was a recent video, I assume it is.
So what else here now that this has been confirmed
at forty six years of age, he's coming back.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's the worst kept secret box, It's not
even a secret. I mean he posted that to a
social media that he's back and made the details of
public he's fighting. I mean things I've reported and everybody
else has reported also July, as you mentioned, it was
a July nineteenth nine going to take place at the
MGM Grand not at the T Mobile, but at the
MGM Grand Garden Arena. He will challenge the WBC welterweight
champion Mario Baris for his title. Should he win that
fight at age forty six, he would break his own record,
which he said at age forty for becoming the oldest
fighter in boxing history to win a welterweight title. He
did that back when he defeated Keith Thurman. And then
obviously he retired after the loss to or Dennis Ugas
in twenty twenty one. But even at the moment he retired,
we all kind of knew that this was like a
matter of time until he came back. The first retirement
announcement after the Yugas fight was all about he was
going to be running for Filipino president and he couldn't do,
you know, stay active as a fighter or even have
people think he was active as a fighter if he's
going to run for the presidency. He lost the president
race obviously, and he's been basically looking for a fight
ever since. I mean, there was if you remember a
year ago or so, they went him and people and
his team went to Saudi Arabia to pitch a fight
to Turkey Alo Chic about maybe him against Connor Ben
in Saudi Arabia at a time when Connor was not
allowed to fight still in the UK because of the
ped situation. So this is like the least surprising thing
of all time. He arrived in training a drived back
from the Philippines this past a weekend. He opened the
training camp on Monday at Freddie Roach's gym. I spoke
to Sean Gibbons, who was like his right hand man
and the president of MP Promotions, which is Manny's promotion
company that's put on a bunch of fights in the
Philippines and has a lot of fighters that they work with.
And you know the way Seawan described it, and I
wrote a piece about this on my subsack which anybody
can go read. He said, it was like, you know,
a lot of smiles and hugs. He said, I didn't
realize this, but I guess it makes sense. He and
Freddy hadn't seen each other in four years, pretty much
since the you Gots fight, so they had their their
little reunion, a lot of like hugs and smiles and
jokes and stuff, and then it was like, you know,
time to get to work. We got to fight to
prepare for you know, as I said to Shawn, it's
like you guys got the band back together. It's Freddie
back as the head trainer, got his old mate bou
Boy Fernandez as the one of the assistants, and Marvin's
and Moodio who works with Freddy as another assistant. They
got everybody's buddy, Fred Sternberg, the Hall of Fame publicists
back handling Manny's pr h And it's gonna be you know,
it'll be like old times. The question is when he
gets in the ring, is it gonna be like he
is old times? Or is he gonna be able to
maybe turn back to block. Now I'll say this, and
this is with all due respect to Mario Barris and
a very likable individual. I have a lot of respect
for Mario. I find him to be very interesting in
a hard worker. He's gotten a lot better than when
he first came along. But if you're in the wealthweight
division today and you're looking to fight for a title,
of the guys that hold the belts. I'm not saying
it's an easy fight. What I'm saying is he'd probably
be the guy that everybody would pick to go for first.
Speaker 2: Oh, just no doubt. Norman will probably be next. And
then in no way, shape or form should Manny Pacy,
I'll be fighting Jaron Nis.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my god, no, so.
Speaker 3: So he's gonna have. Look, all you can do is
ask we we can litigate whether he deserves the opportunity
or not. We can, we can, we can bitch and
moan because the BBC made him number five. We did
address out on a prew We've already talked about that. Right, Well,
here's the reality. If you like it or you don't
like it, the fight is happening. Nothing you and I
can do.
Speaker 2: It provided that we just the disclaimer, Provided that we
get to July nineteenth. Something does happen in training blah
blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 3: B any fight that's ever been made. I'm talking.
Speaker 2: Hold on, this is a forty six year old who
hasn't been training by his own admission for years, and
it's not the same as fighters that are regularly training
and are much younger. To just say, foregone conclusion, they're fighting,
he could get injured in.
Speaker 3: When I say realistically, when I say that, I'm saying
the deal is done and it's going to get announced.
And when you know, if something happens between now and Bell,
who the heck knows, but I can tell you this, Uh,
they will go through the process you mentioned and we
discussed calea Plant is going to fight in Mandalay Bay
on May thirty. First. Knowing the way that PBC operates,
having covered fights for a very long time, I would
be shocked if on the day of the fight, on
that morning or sometime like probably that Saturday morning, they'll
do some type of press activity where they'll be media
at the Kala Plant fight and they'll bring in Pacio
perhaps Barrios also to meet the press and talk about
the fight tw to kind of be in the hype.
And then the week after, once the Kala Plant PBC
fight is off the deck for PBC, you got to
figure they'll go to Los Angeles and they'll do a
full blast press conference and you know, go through the
beginning of the promotion and have their photos together and
interviews and all that, and so they'll kick off the
promotion and then they'll do the fight. The only bad
thing about the scheduling of the event, putting aside whether
you like the match or not, is the unfortunate situation
that's taking place on the same day as a second
pay per view, granted earlier in the day, but still
another paper that's going to last many, many hours, and
that's the USA Duba fight, and then on top of
that later that's not a pay per view that'll be
on directly opposite of when the Paco pay per view
is a non pay per view event on his own,
which is Bam Rodriguez against CAFU in the unification fight.
So there's a lot of activity going on on that
particular weekend, so they're gonna definitely have all of them
have competition with each other. And it's unfortunate because for
different reasons, all of all three of those events have
certain merit that make them worthwhile. So it's never a
good thing if you have to if you pack everything
like that until one weekend. But it is what it is,
and that's what they're doing, so pack. Yeah. As he wrote,
I'm back, I felt like I was looking at the
headline and the remember the old the facts back in
the day. It wasn't a you know, Internet, There was
no Twitter when Michael Jordan's.
Speaker 2: Michael Jordan's yes, I remember that it was about this
time because it was right before the playoffs and he
was ready to come back and play for the Bulls
with the two words I'm back.
Speaker 3: I remember it extremely vividly because the night that that happened,
I happened to be the slot editor at the local
newspaper I worked at the night so when that came through,
I was the one that I handled that for our
newspaper in Saratoga Springs, New York, and.
Speaker 2: You got to type I'm back on Michael Jordan said,
period for the There you go.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: Moving on on the news, we have been talking about
this Sebastian Fundora tim Zuo rematch card that is coming
up in June here, but you've also learned of another
fight they are going to.
Speaker 1: Add to the pay per view, mean in July. In July,
my mistake.
Speaker 2: In July, you already talked to us about Pitbull and
Fierro the rematch, so.
Speaker 3: We're talking about you made it a little confusing there.
The Pacio Barrios a pay per view. The undercard we've
already discussed it.
Speaker 2: It's gonna okay, my mistake. This is all on that
same July nineteenth card. You've learned of another fight on
that card in addition to Zoo and Fondora, Pitbull and Fiero.
Now that I've set it up properly, what's the fight
that you've learned about?
Speaker 3: But those are the three top fights we mentioned Pao
main event in the other town and by the way,
Zoo against Fondora the first fight headline to pay per
view for this event. It's going to be the co feature,
so to me, like at least they're giving you some
meat on the bone. Fierro against Figueroa Uh was one
of the fights of the year, so I mean, I'm sorry.
Fierro against pitt Bull Cruz that took place in February
is already one of the candidates for fight of the
year this year. Then the other fight they're going to
add to the pay per view not official, but I
reported this and I have this from the people that
are involved with the fight. His Brandon Figaroa is gonna
come back, uh and he's gonna fight Joet Gonzalez. These
are two experienced fighters who fought lots of good fighters.
Figueroa has been a champion in two weight classes. He
is coming off of the loss in the rematch against
Stephen Fulton where frankly, he looked like, you know, he
looked terrible in that fight, and Joey Gonzalez, who has
lost for the most part when he stepped up in
class against fighters especially like Shaquorse Stevenson for example, and others.
But he's actually coming off of a bit of a
of a mild upset victory against Arnold Ka, guy who
was in a very good position to become a mandatory
and he lost. And you know what I think is
as a mild upset, but it doesn't change the fact
that joe Gonzalez is three and three in his last
six fights. But if Figaroa fights like we've seen him
fight many times in the past, and not the passive
way he fought against Fulton, we might see a fun
fight and as a as an opener type fight on
a pay per view, it seems like a pretty reasonable match.
Speaker 2: So add that to July nineteen with Brandon Figueroa, the
heartbreaker right as the Knicker got his.
Speaker 1: Heartbroken though by Fulton in the rematch.
Speaker 3: When I'm watching a fight though, TJ. I don't care
about no heartbreaker. I want to see the eyebreaker, the nosebreaker,
the facebreaker, whatever.
Speaker 2: All right, one more note and then we're going to
do nostalgia around the death of a boxing great. That
other note is Liam Parrow. He is going to be
back in a No Limit boxing card in late June
in Australia. Parro is the former one and forty pound
world champ, but Richardson Hitchins beat him for his belt
back in December. What have you learned about Liam Parro, opponent, etc.
Speaker 3: So now apparently he is. He had been with Mattroum Boxing,
but they have parted ways. He is now with No
Limit Boxing, which is probably the premier promoter in Australia
in recent years, and so they're going to do a
fight up in his part of the country where he
has has not he's fought. The last time he fought
in austral he was like twenty twenty one, but he
hasn't fought in his home region in a few years
longer than that. So he is coming back. Like you mentioned,
it's his first fight since he lost in December when
he lost the title to Richards and Hitchins, you know
in a fight that you know it wasn't like a
terrible performance, but I think he was disappointed in his
own performance. He did get out boxed by a very
good boxer in Hitchens, so that's his only loss. So
he's coming back. It's not like he's fighting a guy
that you're gonna like say, is some kind of big
time household name or anything like that. But the opportunity,
first of all, it's he's I guess he's moving up.
I don't know if this is for good, that he's
gonna now suddenly become a welterweight permanently, or it's a
matter of like lead your options open. But the fight,
from what I am told by the Nolandit people, has
contracted at one hundred and forty four pounds. He's fighting
a fighter named Jonathan Navara, who is an American fighter
from Los Angeles. He's coming off of his only loss
against gyro Valtieri's not again, not a big name, but
again they're not looking to put par Win to the
deep end. They want to see how he looks, get
him back in action fight a few pounds over the
one hundred and forty pound division. One thing about Liam Paroi,
he's a good talker. You know, he's talking about he
wants to fight all the top names. He'd like to fight,
t Femo Lopez, obviously he's the champion. He wants to
have a rematch and try to get revenge against Richardson Hitchins.
You know, he wants to fight. He said, well, you know,
if I have to go to welterweight, you know, GI,
give me Ryan Garcia, give me Roly Romero. We talked
about how him and Roly Romero have sparred a million
rounds together in Las Vegas and they're friendly with each other.
But again, it's business, so we'd be happy to fight him.
Of course, Romiro has that secondary title that he won
when he fought and defeated Ryan Garcia. That was vacant
at the time. So anyway, this is basically Paro coming
off with loss but had kind of made a name
for himself. To see if you can get back in
the group, get back in the swing of things, and
add depth once again to a very good one hundred
and forty pound division, or perhaps the one hundred and
forty seven pound division, which frankly could use a little
bit more depth than it had at the moment.
Speaker 2: All right, now, a little nostalgia and sadness, although it
is a long life lived for the all time great
Nino ben Venuti, which the modern fans don't.
Speaker 1: Know this name, but I did.
Speaker 3: We're gonna school them right now.
Speaker 2: I dare say, Dan Rayfield, let me tee it up
for you here and let you just swat it out
of the park. You cannot write about the history of
the middleweight division without including this guy. And this guy
is essentially the preemptive before Carlos Monz, own before Marvin Hagler,
and obviously now in the modern day with anybody holding
all the middleweight titles like a Glovekin or a Canelo Alvarez,
ben Venuti was the truth at middleweight for a lot
of reason, junior middleweight and middleweight. So he passed away
at the age of eighty seven. An Italian legend. Pick
it up on the nostalgia, go ahead.
Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely Italian legend. First of all. I mean, I
don't think it's out of the realm to say he's
maybe the greatest fight in the history of Italy number one,
much like you would say Pakia was the greatest fighter
in the history of Philippines. Outside of that sort of thing,
he is arguably the greatest European fighter of all time.
Ben Venudi, he is. Think about this. He in the
nineteen sixty Olympics. It took place in a Rome, so
he was fighting in front of the home home crowd
because he's from Italy. He won. Not only did he
win the welterweight gold medal, but in the Olympics they
hand out what's called the val Barker Trophy, and that
is emblematic of the fighter that his names like being
the most outstanding player of the final four of the
you know, the MVP of the Super Bowl or of
the World Series. He was awarded the val Barker Trophy
for most outstanding boxer of that Olympic Olympic Games. By
the way, in nineteen sixty also you happened to might
have heard of the light heavyweight gold medalist. His name
was Cassius Clay.
Speaker 2: I believe so, and so Ben Venudi got the Fighter
of the Olympics over Cassius Clay. That's no slight to
Cash's play, but that tells you how beloved and how
good this guy was.
Speaker 3: So he was like a super started. And by the way,
if you ever see like the pictures of him back
in then, he was a good looking guy, like kind
of movie stars kind of quality to him. Really superb
boxing skills. I've gone back and watched video. You can
find them on YouTube. You know, a classical boxer, but
was involved in some really good fights over the years.
I mean he liked the box but he could bro
He really fits the style of fighter I like the best,
which is a guy that's got good skills, but he'll
be happy to stand and fight if you need him to.
And but so that was his So that was his
entree to the professionals coming off of the Olympic gold medal.
But he went on and he became the undisputed jingim
middlewaight champion. Of course, this is back when it was
two title belts, the WBA and the WBC, but there
was also a lot more competition frankly Atin those days.
He became the undisputed champion at junior middleweight. He lost
the title by a split decision by fighting over in Seoul,
South Korea. So he lost that fight and then he
moved up to middleweight. He eventually got a title shot
he became a two time undisputed middleweight champion.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: Those are some pretty serious accomplishments. He's he was enshrined
in the boxing Hall of Fame uh back in the
early nineties, and he is probably the you know, he
fought everybody in the middleweight division of this time. Uh.
You know, he finished his career with losses to Carlos Monzon,
who was of the new kid on the block. He
lost the title to monz Oon and what turned out
to be his final fight, he got stopped in that fight,
and he had two of his last He lost three
three fights in a row to end his career. The
two of those were against monz Oua the first one
and then had a rematch, you know, two fights later.
But he really became the most famous I think internationally.
And by the way, before I get to that, the
Monzone fights, at least the second one anyway, because I
watched it on YouTube and I knew this before they
were getting coverage in the United States. Those were taking
place in the evening time in Europe, and it was
perfect for a wide world of sports on ABC in
the United States. So you know Howard Cosell went to
Monico and did the Carlos Montalez. Yeah, and he showed
it on American television, so and there was back then
there was three channels, so a lots of people in
America watched Needo ben Venudi, you know, lose unfortunately for
him in the rematch against Carlos Monzone. But he's most
famous for the three fights he had against Emil Griffith,
who was an all time legendary Hall of Famer as well,
you know, also former champion. They put on some some
big time fights, I mean in Madison Square Garden for
two with him. The second fight they had at Shay Stadium.
I mean, these were big time, big time type events.
So in the first fight to that, this is you
got to go back to nineteen sixty seven. This is
when he won the Middleway championship or yeah, he had
lost the junior Middleway champion. This is one he bete
Griffith to win the Middleway title. It was picked by
the Ring magazine as the nineteen sixty seven fight of
the Year and it was in this fight where ben
Venuti won a fifteen round decision. He got up off
the deck. He also scored a knockdown and he was
a back and forth kind of fight. They had an
immediate rematch later in nineteen sixty seven. That was the
one I mentioned to you that was in Shaye Stadium,
you know, the old ballpark where the New York Mets played.
That fight he lost. He was also knocked down in
that fight in the fourteenth round. That was a fight
where he lost the majority decision. Then he had a
non title doubt. Then he had the trilogy fight against
Email Griffith, and in that fight he won the fifteen
round decision, and once again he was on the deck
in the ninth round of that fight. So he was
knocked down in all three of their fights, but he
won two of the three of what you know, it's
not maybe known like you would know Ali Fraser type
of trilogy or for the more modern fighters a bow
Holy Field, that type of thing. But in the annals
of boxing history, you say Ben Venudi against Emil Griffith,
that's one of the biggest trilogies in boxing. And he
was the victor in two of those three fights, and
both of them are all time greats in the Hall
of Fame, So you know that was a big deal.
When I mean not all Hall of famers are crety equal.
And I can't sit here and tell you he's like
that Mount Rushmore Hall of Famer, the Inner Circle Hall
of Famer. Let's say, you know what, the Alis and
Joe Lewis, but he's like maybe that next batch of guys.
But he was a really outstanding fighter. And here's our
crazy stat for you, TJ. We always talked about activity, right, Yeah,
he turned professional after the Olympics, So he turned pro
at the very beginning of nineteen sixty one January of
nineteen sixty one. He had his last fight against Monzona
in their rematch in May of nineteen seventy one. So
he fought just a little over ten full years, like
ten years in a few months. In that ten year
period of time, TJ. His record, he finished eighty two wins,
devin losses, one draw, thirty five knockouts. He fought seven
hundred and seven professional rounds in ten years. That's a
lot of fucking rounds.
Speaker 2: And he essentially fought ninety fights in ten years. Yeah,
and I'm not even a math major, but that's about
ninety year.
Speaker 3: So he was a great fighter.
Speaker 2: And again, condolences, but still you cannot I say again,
you cannot write the history of the middleweight division without
incorporating this guy who was an Italian legends.
Speaker 3: I must mention one more thing because the kids today
would lose their fucking minds if something happened like this
what I'm about to tell you. Pick any name of
any top champion in boxing today and transpose them into
the scenario I'm about to lay out for you.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: So, when he defeats Emil Griffith in you know, to
regain the title in their third fight, he then goes
and he remember he's still midleweight champion. He's going to
defend the title. Other times, he had a series of
non title fights because that's what kids did back then.
They fought non title fights on a regular basis. So
in the course of fighting non title fights were slightly
over the weight. But he's still middleweight champion. He had
a draw in one fight. He had a loss to
Dick Tiger, who was a also a legendary Hall of
famer uh and he he had lost multiple He lost,
you know, to a fighter named Tom Bethea in a
non title fight. He suffered two losses and a draw,
plus he won other non title fights before he went
back and then defended the title in a rematch against Bethea. Now,
imagine if pick your champion, if it was Canelo Alvarez,
if it was tam Lopez, if it was anybody pick champion,
if it was well, it wouldn't be sick because a
heavyweight you can't really do.
Speaker 1: That, can't move up right.
Speaker 3: But in a way, imagine if in a way decide
I'm gonna go to featherweight, I'm gonna fight and I'm
gonna lose, you know, a non title fight, fights and
score a draw against you know, regular guys, but I'm
still gonna be the undisputed champion at junior featherweight, and
I'm gonna fight, like, you know, six times in the year.
Like people would lose their fucking minds. If he lost,
he's you know, he's this, He's time. But the losses
or not, it's still one of the all time greats.
And those and those uh, those fights, and buddy, he
took a non title fight against Dick Tiger. Dick fucking Tiger,
are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: It was a big time.
Speaker 3: I'm one of the greatest fighters of all times. You
can argue with Dick Tiger that other than maybe Azuma Nelson,
the greatest African fighter.
Speaker 2: In history, US Payday probably two on those all right, good,
a good nostalgia for the younger crowd on that name.
On Nino bin Venudi, the Italian star. All right, as
I mentioned, go find the YouTube page yet again, because
we've got nostalgia that's there right now, including Roy Jones
winning his first ever world title in a battle with
future fellow Hall of Famer Bernard Hopkins.
Speaker 3: I would hardly call it a battle.
Speaker 1: Well, it's a one sided win.
Speaker 3: It was a terrible, terrible fucking fight.
Speaker 2: But Roy Jones got it done, and Dan tells you
all about it. This is from May twenty second of
nineteen ninety three, as we're on the anniversary as we
do this pod, and also on May twenty second, twenty
ten to fifteen years ago. The final fight a one
sided fight of the four fight series of Marquees Vasquez.
Rafael Marquez Israel Vasquez. So the the final fight was
obviously a demolition by Marquez, but you recap the full
depth and breadth of the four fights series on the
YouTube page.
Speaker 3: Oh, we sort of disavowed the fourth fight even though
that's yeah, it was a really unfortunately.
Speaker 2: Well you're talking about both though on that nostalgia conversation
about how good their first three fights were, two of
them as Fights of the year, and then obviously this
was the fourth fight.
Speaker 1: So reminisce about marcuz.
Speaker 3: I love this one thing. By the way, two of
their four fights were Fight of the year. But the
reality is three of them would have been the fight
of the year, except the first two took place in
the same calendar year. So everybody picked one of the
first two as the fight of the year, and whichever
one they picked as the fight of the year, everybody
picked the other one as there.
Speaker 1: They snubbed the other one right the runner up.
Speaker 3: So if it happened just you know, a few months earlier,
would have been three in a row for Fights of
the year.
Speaker 2: And so again, relive that rivalry on the YouTube page.
Speaker 1: Help us out.
Speaker 2: Go there, peeps, Go there, subscribe, hit the like button,
and watch the videos of us going over the nostalgia.
And don't forget Sunday night of this Memorial Day weekend, we're.
Speaker 1: Doing it live. We're gonna have a live recap.
Speaker 2: The Fight Freaks Unit recap will be live on the
YouTube page, recapping the Josh Taylor Scotland main event, recapping
Lao and Cameda in the Saturday morning US time Japanese
IBF featherweight title fight, and we're talking Ali, speaking of Cashes.
Speaker 1: Play al al.
Speaker 2: And the most controversial one round fight in boxing history
with that fight with Sonny Liston that's now sixty years
old as of Sunday. We'll reminisce and do some nostalgia
on that with that, Thank you, my friend, excellent job
on the preview. Why don't you and I reconvene on
the bet Us Boxing Show at one Eastern time on Friday?
Have I given them enough to remember? Bet Us Boxing
Show Live one Eastern time. We'll talk more about Taylor's
main event with usman and also the Leo Kameita IBF.
Speaker 1: The Railway title fight in.
Speaker 2: Japan on the bet US Show on their platforms, on
their YouTube, on their social media. Let's do that live
as well at one Eastern time. I will see you then,
my friend for that all good, Dan.
Speaker 1: Yfield, we always we're good. Love it. I'm merely TJ Reeves. Again.
Speaker 2: This is the podcast Beat obviously, so follow, subscribe, rates
and review us here. We're back for the bet Us
Show Friday, we're live on the YouTube page. Sunday Night
live on the YouTube page Sunday Night. We'll talk to
you both of those places. Then have a safe Memorial
Day weekend. Thank you for being with us here on
The Big Fight Weekend Podcast