Speaker 1: Well, well, well it did not take long. Moses Etama
delivers and we're ready to talk about it on the
Fight Freaks United Recap pod. Hello, welcome back in on
the pod feed. I am merely the somewhat capable host TJ. Reeves.
Fight Freaks Unite is the substack of one Dan Rayfield,
our insider. Fight Freaks Unit is the newsletter as well.
It's also a podcast. Thank you for finding us as
we're ready to review off the weekend here anything prominent
that goes on right now. It's lean in August, but
at least we have this to talk about tonight. Thank
you for hanging out with us. However you found us
on Applespreaker, Spotify, any other podcast outlet, Big Dan. Since
you and I have talked, I have gone back and
forth to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I did visit Willie Stargel and
Roberto Clemente because you are my baseball nostalgia contemporary. I
visited their statues outside the downtown P and C Park
in Pittsburgh. You know who hit me up, Eric Raskin,
our mutual buddy who still writes for Boxing Scene and
did a bunch of different stuff for HBO etc. His
daughter is about to go to the University of Pittsburgh,
and he's like, when are you and Pittsburgh. We're coming
to Pittsburgh to take her to college. It turns out
I was leaving as he was getting there this weekend
to move her into the University of Pittsburgh. But he
listens to the pod. He heard us talking. He heard
me saying that we were gonna be there, and we
were waxing about heavyweight nostalgia with Larry Holmes and Ronaldo
Snipes and Jersey Joe Walcott and Ezra Charles and Pittsburgh.
And now I have been to Pittsburgh.
Speaker 2: And back me, said Texa with Raskin.
Speaker 1: There you go. He's got a college I believe incoming
freshman at Pittsburgh who knew? And I've been to Pittsburgh
and back. Good to be with you. I believe the
setup to this podcast took longer than what Moses E.
Tama did to Dillian White. How about that for the segue,
I gotta tell you, I'm in the press box at
the Steelers Stadium, Akroschure Stadium. What was heinz Field? I
have the fight up the the Desonne pay per view up.
I have it up in the press box. I got
four or five people watching. I now have to do
a live rayfield. I have to do a live radio
segment for the Buccaneer pregame show. I say to two
of my colleagues, this could be over in the first round.
I turn around, I'm doing the segment and one of
my radio buddies we're on video hook up, is waving
at me like this, and I turn and look and
he's going like this over. I'm making the gesture for
the pod audience. He's like waving under his road over over.
I'm like, it just started and it was over that quick.
I can't say that I am that surprised. I believed
he would get to him and get to him early.
Did I think, what's the official time? What one fifty something?
I didn't know it was fifty nine seconds, but he
mowed him down. Let's start right there with Etama and
the lore kind of build. We wondered, this is his
biggest name fighter, what would happen? We got an answer
in two minutes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, listen, you just don't know until the fight happens.
I mean, there was a lot of conjecture one way
or the other. I think most people, whatever you thought
that the time would be the winner. But there was
a lot of sentiment because Dylan White, to his credit,
came in in tremendous condition, the lightest he had been
by seventeen pounds compared to the fight he had back
in December, and I was looking down his box wreck.
It was the lightest he'd been, not just in the
last you know, like since December for a fight that
was not that long ago. This was the lightest this
man has been in many, many, many years. I mean,
if you go back, you know, and Dylan's always been
around the same weight. He's never been like super heavy
or you know, come in like a rail. But it
had been it had been seven or eight years since
he'd been around to forty for a fight. So that was.
Speaker 1: The point in time in the proceedings. And you love
me for this where I say stay tuned for the
postfight drug test on the weight loss ped I mean,
stay tuned.
Speaker 2: He was two hundred and forty pounds. This was the
lightest he had been since he weighed two forty, even
for a fight that took place in twenty twelve. So
there's that, okay, but more importantly, he was seventeen pounds
lighter than the tet To fight that happened to December.
So it seems clear to me based on that, based
on seeing the way that he had conducted himself in
the lead up to the fight, that he took the
fight seriously. But he's also thirty seven. He has won
three fights in a row going into this fight, but
not against the top top names. But he did have
the win over Tette and he survived the tough slug
fest he had to win over Jermaine Franklin, which is
not totally insignificant. You know, that was a pretty solid
victory form, But there's just something to be said when
you're fighting a man that's twenty years old and you're
thirty seven. You've been through the wars. And by the way,
this discussion of this fight will take way longer than
the fight itself, as you mentioned, besides just the introduction
to the segment. But this is really all about mosesy Tomma,
not so much about Dylan White. As far as Dylan
White goes, Look, he's had a good career from like
twenty sixteen. In twenty nineteen, he went on a really
outstanding run of about seven fights in a row where
he beat all kinds of good names and put on
good performances. You know, two wins against JESSOORI beat Derek,
he beat Joseph Parker, Lucas Brown, Robert Helenius, when it's
still sort of meant something. Oscar Reeves, who was very
good at that time. We all know about his ped
issues that cloud some of the situation, and even in
the losses they were against the very, very lead. So
now he's got four losses, all by knockout. But when
you think about the company that Moses Tama is in,
here are the men who have knocked out Dylan White,
and it took them longer. Yes, Dylan is older Anthony
Joshua ten years ago Alexander Pavetkin on a one shot
knockout in a fight that that Pavetkan was losing. And
then of course the World Championship fight where he got
ravaged by Tyson Fury in a much much anticipated, much
long awaited mandatory title fight. And now he comes back
and in his next loss it's a one rounder less
than two minutes against Moses the time. At the bottom
line is Moses the Tomas the future of the division.
Now the question, it's like his trainer Ben Davison was
speaking about after the fight, you know, all respect to
Dylan White, we're stilling out there trying to chase rounds
because now this man has had twenty six rounds as
a pro, and they're talking about putt him in with
Alexander Usig. Now we'll get to that in a minute.
But you can't say anything negative about Moses's performance. I mean, look,
I'm not sure how this happened. Moses was clearly the
A side of the promotion, but they had him walk
to the ring first, and they showed Dylan White their
respect to be last, and so Moses made his way
to the ring and then they made him. Dylan White
made him wait literally like six plus minutes in the
ring that I thought, I'm watching, like the uh, I'll
date myself. I think I'm watching, you know, Kevin Kelly
in the ring at Madison Square Garden waiting for Prince
Nasima mid to make his entrance for his American debut.
In any event, a lot of times you go, you're young,
you're twenty, it's your biggest moment. You're the main event, right,
you know, you're now standing there waiting and maybe the
you know, your mind wanders, you got some things you're
thinking about. Maybe you know, doubt creeps into your mind
while you're waiting, and you know, I'm sure that's part
of the reason that that White tried to do. That
was to sort of you know, freeze him, so to speak.
You know, you call the time out on the kicker
before the big kicking in a football game.
Speaker 1: The intent was as you're getting to the punchline. It
did not work.
Speaker 2: It didn't work, but I'm saying so that's the maturity
of a twenty year old and Moses Atoma. And then
he went out there and he did the business. He
took about you know, I don't know, forty five seconds
to sort of get the lay of the land, I guess,
which is reasonable. And then he just started to let
his hands go when when Dylan couldn't get a jab
going whatsoever. In the coffee box stats, they credited Dylan
White landing all of two punches, both to the body,
which means he did absolutely no damage and whatsoever and
anything in the you know, the minute and fifty nine
seconds at the fight that lasted. But the punch that
really did it was the first big shot that Moses
landed was a left hand and it really discombobulated him.
Speaker 1: Him kind of on the top of the head.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it again. It's sort of like temple, like you said, temple,
top of the head.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 2: A shot that sort of was the beginning of the end.
And obviously, you know, Dylan is a veteran. He's hung
in there for a little while longer, but that that
shot sent him into the ropes a little bit. And
a lot of times a guy like especially he doesn't
have that kind of experience against that level of an
opponent might sort of admire their work and be like, oh,
I just got him with a good shot here in
the first round. But Toma was very mature about the
way he went him at his business said he just
went right to him. You know, he landed some jabs.
I thought he did a great shot because he also
went to the body and he basically made White grab
onto the ropes to steady himself. And that's a bad sign.
Speaker 1: The biggest thing is Dyllian White did not throw a
single punch back after that left discombobulated Hi, because ive
watched a couple times, didn't take that long to watch.
He didn't throw a single punch, not one, and he
did not grab e Tom. He was not even he
had no legs, like you mentioned here, not able to
move out of the ways. Was target practice at the
very end.
Speaker 2: And he dressed so he's grabbed onto the ropes to
steady himself, and like you said, there was no ability
to grab it hold. I'm not sure it would have
work because he would have to take another shot try
to get into him. But he you know, a time
he went to the to the to the body with
the right hand. He as the south bus, so it
was you know, a cook to the body. Landed a
few more shots, and then came another big left that
was sort of a sweeping shot that once again really
hurt Dylan White had him sagging into the ropes and again,
and Toma didn't sit there and admire his work and say,
you know, I'm the man and I think I've got him.
He just continued to do what he was was was
trained to do, which is continued to throw punches, and
finally that right hook landed and it sent him just
crashing down to all four. He basically skittered sideways and
landed on all fours on the on the canvas. Now,
he got up relatively quickly. He was up by about
seven six or seven of the referees count and at
that point and I'm like, okay, I mean, the fight's
probably gonna be over soon. But he got up quick,
so maybe he'll be able to go on. But then
like that, in a quick second, he kind of staggered
backwards and like and fell into the ropes and and
he lose your balance when you rise, and that's an automaticy.
Speaker 1: And the eyes you could tell, and the ref's closer,
but you could tell on the replays.
Speaker 2: Even thing about the eyes, I just thought because he said.
Speaker 1: To me he did not look like he was there.
He got up, he stumbled back, he didn't look like
he was there. And the ref again his two feet
in front of him or a foot in front of him,
going that's it.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna go wait, look stops over. But the
you know why Dylan White, the way I described in
the piece I wrote on the on my sub stack
is that Dylan White offered a mild protest at the stoppage, which, uh,
I think that was more just his pride than than
the notion he could actually go on with the fight.
And so on the one hand, you're like, damn, that
was impressive, because even if he thought he was in
getting out of the early, I don't know if you're
betting two minutes. I mean, that seems a little bit
a little harsh on Dylan White. And on the other hand,
I kind of felt like a little disappointed because I
sort of figured Dylan would provide a little bit more resistance.
I would have liked to see a tom of get
into the second or third round of the fight, because
now they're back in the same position. So we'll get
to that in a minute. But as far as Dylan
White goes, look, he's had a heck of a career,
ups and downs. He would have fought for the title,
beloved fighter in Britain, had his problems with the peds,
et cetera. But he goes into this fight. This is
his last time in a top level fight. Now, whether
he fights again or not, who knows. I would hope
he'd retire. If he does continue to fight, it won't
be at this level. It won't be for that kind
of money or that kind of profile. Not sure what's
left for him. He's got, you know, a wife and kids.
You know, let him go live a happy life. And
I'm sure you could find something within boxing because he
does that popular and one thing, you'll never have to
buy a drink again, that's for sure. So you know
he brought he gets brushed aside to some degree, and
now you'll be really think about what's next for Etama.
Now there's a lot of ways that can go. My friend, uh,
Turkey Alchik wants from the fight Alexanderusik. That's very clear
because when you see the Ring Magazine put up that
the Ring Magazine has learned that Turkey would prefer that fight.
That's Turkey's publication.
Speaker 1: Rights, and that's coming from the man himself, of course.
Speaker 2: So and then, by the way, it's not even like
a secret because he had said in public comments leading
into the fight that if if he was the winner,
and this is post Usak having defeated Daniel Dubois, that
he would like to see that fight happen.
Speaker 1: And let's let's cut to the chase. I think we
need to see another fight to see if somebody else
puts some resistance and are there some rounds, and if
Atama destroys somebody of caliber let's put it that way.
Somebody like a Philip Pergovich who was on this card,
and we're gonna talk about a minute, then I think
that's enough for me to say at this moment, give
him a shot, give him a shot. I want to
see one more and not Usik next. What would you
say to that?
Speaker 2: I agree with that sentiment. I try and I said
this before Tama won this fight, and I'm gonna continue
to stand on my soapbox. I strongly believe and strongly
prefer to see Usik fight his mandatory defense, not because
it's mandatory, even though that's part of it, to keep
the title unified so it doesn't become a situation like
what happened with the IBF that forces a hand with
Dubi where he had to fight him again for the
undisputed title they already had won against Tyson Ferry. Fights
your mandatory against Joseph Parker. He deserves it, he's got
the resume, he's got the name recognition among boxing fans,
especially in the UK. That's the fight to make, and
it's the mandatory fight.
Speaker 1: Clarify, clarify one thing, because I think fans are interested
in this. Okay, Frank Warren was mentioning this, if Usik
is in fact hurt, like they've notified the WBO and
can't fight this fall, hypothetically, would Atama be a viable
option under the rules and the rankings to fight Parker
and maybe they go ahead and call it the full
WBO title or if in front of Etama, where that
cannot happen under the WBO rules, what do we know.
Speaker 2: If the w If Alexander Usik has an injury and
he submits the proper paperwork of the WBO and they
accept that, then they'll simply extend the length of time
he has to make the mandatory all right, and Joseph
Parker would be allowed to defend the interim title. Uh
but if you're Joseph Parker, why are you gonna fight
an Atama when you might get a chance to fight Usik.
So I'm not sure how that's gonna work out. But
Atama deserve it or not. Is ranked I believe number
one in the WBO, okay, whereas and Parker's the interim
and obviously okay surreal champion Azusik. So but but but
put all the politics of that aside, I agree that
Atama should have at least one more fight against a
reputable guy to get out of the maybe the first
or second round. You know, I kind of feel like
and I was there covering all this, so you know,
it was like I'm having flashbacks. Before Deontay Wilder fought
Burmain Severn for the WBC title, he had knocked out
everybody early and he hadn't even fought anybody as good
as Dylan White for that man, He just bought a
bunch of absolute nobodies for the most part. And so
I remember covering that fight in Las Vegas when he
was fighting for the heavyweight title, a mandatory, A lot
of people thought he didn't really deserve because he hadn't
fought anybody, And so the big talking point was can
he go rounds with a reputable because I mean, I
know Burmains Tavern is not going with the Hall of Fame,
but at that time he was a top you know,
three or four heavyweight in the division and uh and
was undefeated or no, I had one loss, but it
was years earlier. Anyway, The point was can he go rounds?
And how is he gonna do if he has to
go past five or six where he'd never been past
that length before in like you know, almost thirty fights.
Probably well, he ended up winning decision against Bermains Tavern
and he proved the point. People were like, well he
did that, and there were some that were like ragging
on me because he didn't get the knock him, Like he
can't have it both ways. We wanted to go to
dis and show some stamina.
Speaker 1: And if I'm not mistake, it broke his hand for
one of the many times he broke his hand broke
in the fight. He broke. He broke his hand in
the fight and still went twelve and won the fight.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying Atama is in a scenario that's similar.
You want to see him extended and tested. Uh and
then if he does get extended and tested, people are
going to be disappointed. So he needs another fight. You
mentioned that Hergovic's okay, that's the type.
Speaker 1: Let's go right to that.
Speaker 2: Oh no, I don't want to go right to that.
I want to get to the co feature second. But
as far as the heavyweight opponent he should fight, it
could be anybody like that. It could be a Hergovic,
And there's you know, I don't think cabs taking the fight.
Speaker 1: Hang on I'm producing the show. I'm producing the show
now on the fly. Why would we not talk about
Herkovic while we're talking about Hergovic maybe fighting IAmA. I
did not see the Hergovic fight. Did Hergovic look good?
Is that viable? Is that realistic? If IAmA has another
opponent lined up? Or what do you what do we
think on the basis of.
Speaker 2: Viable? And now whether the whether the Hergovic team will
take the fight or not, you're gonna have to the
problem also is anybody that's gonna be willing to get
in the ring with him now, is going to ask
for crazy money. They're gonna they're gonna go to Turkey
or whoever's putting on the fight, Frank Laarren, and they're
gonna be like, you know what, you want me to
fight that fucking beast, you better fuck and you know
and if you're Philip Herkovich or any other top level heavyweight,
you know you're gonna have to get paid.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I mean, does Herkovic have a looming huge payday?
Other than that, it seems to make sense here we
go with logic and boxing.
Speaker 2: Here's something to do with a looming payday? Philip Herkovic
is a is a highly ranked fighter in the various organizations.
But I mean he's got one loss. He can get
other fights.
Speaker 1: But he could demand a large sum of money to
fight ATAMA, and that's a compelling fight.
Speaker 2: It's my point. Anybody that's gonna fight at Tama is
gonna command a lot of money at this point. Now,
if you want to talk about the Hurgovich fight next, fine.
It was a tremendous battle, hell of a fight probably
that was not probably absolutely one hundred percent was the
fight of the night, all right. He won a ten
round decision against David Adelaie. These were two guys that
had one loss apiece. They fought their last fights were
on the same show together. Remember it was Hurgan that
she had defeated. He had gotten the victory over Joe Joyce.
Uh and uh, and there was Adelaid that was on
that undercart and it was uh. He thought that it
was sort of a controversial stoppage against TKV and the
British Boxing Board ordered to rematch. He's like, you know what,
fuck that, I'm taking the much higher profile, bigger, a
bigger profile, bigger money fight against my man Philip Herkovic
and these guys went to battle. You know, it looked
like hergitch might get him out of there kind of quick.
But Adelaid showed a lot of heart, a lot of chin,
a lot of a lot of ability to punch back.
And so even though scores run out very wide, it
was like, which I thought was reasonable, I thought I
have on my sparker. I had eight rounds to two.
But every round Adelaide was in the fight was giving
him a lot of trouble. I shouldn't say trouble, but
he was landing punches. The biggest thing about that particular fight, though,
was in the second round Adelie landed a clean, clean,
clean jab right on Philip Herkovic's eye, his right eye.
That was a similar place where he had been cut
in the fight against Daniel Dubois that ended up, you know,
getting stopped on cuts because he had multiples. So all
of a sudden, you're in the second round of this
ten round fight and the blood is just pouring out
of the cut, pouring down your face. There's now urgency
time out at the beginning around three to have the
doctor come and check the cut. You're like, okay, you know,
and it was clearly a punch and was not going
to be a no contest because of an accidental foul.
So you're wondering how long is this fight gonna last?
And you know what, he is trained by Abel Sanchez now,
who people may know from his years ago, he was
known as the trainer for the Hall of Famer Terry Norris.
In more recent times he had a high profile as
the longtime trainer for Gnati Glovkin. One thing about Abel Sanchez,
who I've known my entire career, one of the few
trainers these days, it acts as his own cutman also,
like when he does when he works with a fighter,
he is their trainer, but he's also the cutman. And
he did as all star job as you can possibly
do in the corner in that fight. He got that
blood under and it got to a point after about
four or five rounds where they'd go back to the
corner and there wasn't even any below to take care
of because he had done such a good job of
controlling it with the you know, the the materials that
they use on the swabs, and so the cut did
not become an issue. And so Herkovic is just pounding
away and he's winning the fight. And then they had
the eighth round. Now you see that, DJ, I.
Speaker 1: Have not seen the eighth round again, I've been in Pittsburgh,
but be in a fog. Tell me about the eighth.
Speaker 2: I mean, it was a fucking battle royal. It's probably
the you know, a top candidate for the round of
the year right now. Herkovic did score a knockdown in
that round, and you're like, okay, maybe he's going and
Adela was kind of hurt on the He got up quick,
but he was definitely hurt from the punch he went down.
And when he got up, You're like, Okay, Hrkovich is
now going to go in there and get to kill
and he's going to stop this guy. And he kind
of got a little I talked earlier about how Moses
tom and didn'admire his work, and he went right to
the guy. I think Philip Pergovic kind of got a
little lack of days ago and kind of was impressed
with himself with what he was doing to David Adelai,
and David Adelay was like, yeah, here you go, take
this right back. And he had him also, you know
a little bit later in the round, had had Hurgovic badly,
badly hurt. I was surprised that Phelap Pergovich did not
go down. He was beating the living shit out of
him in that round. It was like amazing that he
actually was able to get it out of the round.
At the very end of the round he finally came
back a little bit and scored a big punch against Adelaide.
But there was other than the knockdown. There was about
maybe like I don't know, thirty seconds or maybe even
a little longer where Adelaie is just you know, teeing
off on Hrgovic and they're You're like, this is wild stuff.
And in the end he you know, they both survived
and Hergovich rightfully won the decision. But really good, fun,
exciting heavyweight fight. I think David Adelai, even in the loss,
even though it was wide on the car, just because
the heart that he showed and the ability to hurt
Arkovic the way he did, his status rises to a degree. Hergovich,
you know, we all know what he's all about. He's
not gonna value with his technical skills, but he can
he can bomb, and he can take a shot and
you know, shows uh shows an entertainment, uh, to the
fans who watched. So I feel like that's exactly what
you want. So a good rumble. Yeah, both guys elevated,
whatever the results are.
Speaker 1: So with the Herkovic damage to the eye and having
a wild eighth round and a ten round fight, do
you believe what we know that that might delay him
possibly being the next Atama opponent. Not so much financially,
but because this was a pretty.
Speaker 2: Well Hurrioch is gonna be out I mean battle. Yeah,
he's gonna be out for a little while. I mean
I texted with his manager, Keith Connelly. Uh, he had
to have some plastic surgery on the cut. He's gonna
be out for a few months. This is not like
a nick and he's gonna be able to get back
in training to you know, to a top level degree
in the next you know, a few weeks. This is
a couple of months, so you never know, if you know,
come December November. I mean it's possible, I suppose, uh.
But there's a lot of guys, uh that they'll probably
offer the fight to, uh for for Moses Etoma, And
it's a matter of who are they gonna pick. I
don't I think at this point, you know, any of
the top heavyweights who are otherwise not already let's say already, uh,
you know, have a fight coming up, Like, I think
they'd probably be willing to fight just to that anybody.
I mean they he and and I appreciate this from
my time, and he was pretty cool about this. He
didn't act like, you know, all high and mighty. He's like, look,
I understand that Joseph Parker and Cabo, those two in particular,
because they're mandatories and Joseph is next, that they've sort
of earned their positions, right, And he understands that while
he hasn't done that. He also makes the point well said.
He said it after the fight as well as in
my interview that we played on our podcast previous to
the fight. You know, you don't get what you deserve,
you get what you negotiate, which is a fair point, right, right,
So he would say, he's like, I get that those
guys are ahead of me. It's sort of in the
in the hierarchy. But if I'm offered a fight, I'm
absolutely would take the fight and I will be world champion.
So if you take a look down the list of
the top or you know, the top heavyweights, okay, and
they're all vying to fight Oho Sick. But if they
can't get us like Gard, they're going to fight a
Tom Weill Caball as a guy that's in position. I'm
not sure about that. You know, put to Watt to
the side. He just got ruined by by Usik and
you know the fight a couple of weeks ago Parker,
we already discussed Fabio Wardley isn't a perfect situation. They're
not gonna do that. He's right there knocking on the
door of the mandatory Laurence so Coley is now with
Frank Lauren. He's a former Cruiserweight champion.
Speaker 1: Yah.
Speaker 2: Maybe I'm not sure Akoley would do that. We'll see
Anthony Joshua. That ain't happening for a thousand different reasons.
Tyson Fury, that's not happening for a thousand different reasons. Hergevich,
you know, is a possibility. I guess we got to
see what's up with the cut. How long he's gonna
be out for that? With that situation, you know, they
put him in with Martin Baccoley, I'd take that. You know,
Martin's doesn't have anything coming up. I mean, I know
he got knocked out by Parker, but there'd be a
way to That'd be a measuring stick kind of fight.
I don't want to see him just beat up and
pummel Derek Tasaura. That's a terrible fight for Tasaura. You know,
the much loved who's got even more British love than
Dylan White does.
Speaker 1: Was there on the broadcast. Of course you saw Arabia.
Speaker 2: You know you're gonna you're gonna put him in with
the slowest molasses Zanzelais. I mean he would that the
hand speed that Moses Atama has is so impressive, and
and zaying maybe the slowest heavyweight among the top heavyweights.
That would be a really serious problem in my opinion.
I mean, you've just gone down the list. I mean,
do you put him in with a Justice Hooney, who
I know lost but gave a good effort. They've got
about the same number of professional fights. I would I'd
be okay with something like that. You know, I'm making
point like you're gonna put him in with Joe Joyce
to like send him in.
Speaker 1: An fa A jagbas positioned right with the ib A
correct so fighting Joma and that's not happening. Okay, Well,
so those are the guys.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's not like rocket science. There's only the
small universe to discuss. But I know this, I need
and want to see a Tama in the ring at
least one more time against a reputable, legitimate heavyweight who's
not fifty years old, who's not in the last fight
of their career, somebody that's somewhere in that realm of
like still a quality active guy. If you got to
overpay him, you got to overpay him. And in the meantime,
let Parker get his opportunity, all right, and then you
move on.
Speaker 1: All right, stay tuned on how it sorts out with
the heavyweights. But certainly a Toma is exciting and the
and the Brits are going crazy that it is on
the trajectory like Mike Tyson. We're not saying that he's
Mike Tyson, but there's hype around him and this this
is a big deal in England in heavyweight boxing right
now that he got that first round knockout coming off
the weekend, all right, since I went out of the
batting order. Now we go to the co feature and
Nick Ball who won, But he had his hands full
at their times in this fight. Give me more on
the decision went over Sam Goodman.
Speaker 2: Well, he he had his hands full because Sam Goodman
showed that he was better than some people gave him
credit for. He was moving up in wait from junior
featherweight and uh, that was a great opportunity for me.
You know, you kind of had to feel bad for me.
He had gotten into a position where he was mandatory
at junior featherweight in two different organizations. Had the fight
set to challenge in a way. In December, he got
caught in sparring. They rescheduled the fight for January. When
he was able to spar again, they cut open again.
This time they were like, fu were taking a different fight.
So he got ast out of that position. He was like, well,
what am I gonna do? I'm not getting a shot
at the title at one twenty two for a while,
so I'm going to move up and wait. He did
his job. He took on a you know, a tune
up type of fighter, you know, get used to the
weight fight in Australia. He won that fight a couple
of months ago, and then he got the fight with
Nick Ball and he gave a great effort. Again similar
to what I said to you about David A della
adelaide in the fight with Herkovic. Even though Sam Goodman
is the loser of the fight, he elevated himself in
the loss because now you have to look at him
as a guy that could be, you know, at least
compete with any of the top featherweights in the world. Now,
nick Ball, he won this fight. I mean I saw
some people say, well, he was a robbery, he was
a gift decision. That is a ridiculous. Nick Ball a
thousand percent was the rightful winner of the fight. Now,
if you want to argue with me, or if you
want to argue that that the scores were not so perfect,
I agree with you fair enough. One judge had at
one fifteen, one to thirteen in favor of nick Ball,
perfectly clear, legitimate fine score and seven to five for Ball.
That seem reasonable for the record. I scored at eight
rounds to four in favor of Nickball. But then you
have the people that will take issue. One judge had
it one seventeen to one eleven, that's nine rounds to three.
One at at one to eighteen to one to ten.
That's ten rounds to two. That seemed to be a
little unfair against Nickball, but it was a competitive fight.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 2: It wasn't a great fight, but it was a good fight.
Nick Ball probably the reason why the judges scored as
wide as they did. I haven't spoken to those judges,
but having watched lots of boxing matches, nick Ball landed
way more punches overall and threw a lot of punches
compared to what Sam Goodman did, so that's gonna probably
swaye them. But Sam Goodman's got nothing to be ashamed of.
Nick Ball even said after the fight in his post
a bit interview, this was not my best performance. He
knows that he was in with a good opponent and
maybe he didn't have the best night, but he still
got job done and he'll be involved in some other,
you know, title defense down the road. What level fight
he can get, it's unclear, because you know, I don't
think he's gonna get in a way right now. That's
the fight I know that he wants and that Frank
Warren would love to make, but that doesn't seem plausible
at the moment unless he's gonna move up to twenty
six for the supposed December fight if he beats Akmadaliav.
But I don't know. Once you move up to twenty
two to twenty six, I'm not sure. Go him back
to twenty two, and that's obviously where the big fight
with Nakatani is situated for the time being. So you
know the other it's you know again, you can fight
the guys who are there, the other champions and the
featherweight there's at Steven Fulton, but he's supposedly fighting at
one thirty Rafael Espinoza. That'd be a fine fight we
discussed it.
Speaker 1: With as tall as Espinoza is a squad I keep
saying that his ball is but.
Speaker 2: Two against about six feet. Angelo Leo is the IBF champion.
Speaker 1: Bruce Carringtons might be an interesting fight if they could
ever make that. Yeah, you know, and Nick Ball.
Speaker 2: Shoe Shoe Carrington has the WBC in three Delton. Then
we just had that card that we discussed a week
or so ago that took place in Libya where merco
Quao won the WBO WBA interim title, which actually makes
him nick Ball's mandatory. So I'm not sure if there's
any kind of interest to do that fight. That'd be
a tough fight for Nickball in my opinion, because Quao
is a real solid fighter with good power. We'll see
what he can get as far as a big fight goes.
But I'm sure Nick Bob will be back.
Speaker 1: He's in fun fights, he's in exciting fights, and he's got.
Speaker 2: He's been fighting the Saudi card, so he'll be okay.
Speaker 1: And he fight and he fights in front of rabid
fans in Liverpool. If he goes and has another title
defense there, you'd have an atmosphere in the whole bit.
All right, rest of the undercart, including a Raymond Ford
win and what else in Saudi Arabia go ahead.
Speaker 2: So the fight that preceded the nick Ball fight, and
a lot of people question why was this fight so
high up on the card, And the reason is because
we're talking about the junior lightweight Hayato Susumi, who was
a outstanding a Japanese prospect who is with the Saudis
and Turkey. They've been putting on his fights. He fought
on the card that was in Sauna you maybe I
mean in Times Square back in May. That was his
previous fight. The reason he was so high up the
cart ahead of a more established fighter like a Raymond
Ford and Abraham Noble, was because he has the distinction
or the the the title, if you will. He is
a ring magazine ambassador, so he gets some special privileges.
I guess he's one of Turkey's favorites and so as
the old saying goes, the membership has his privileges. So
he was the higher up on the cart. He took
on ashback from England, journeyman ish type fighter, and he
absolutely pubbled him. He scored a third round knock and
looks very impressive. You know, this guy is on the
fast track, without a doubt about it, and he is
a very impressive young fighter. Now he's now at this
after this victory, he's now eight and zero with five knockouts.
He is twenty six years old. He's right there at
that point where you're you know, you're you're trying to
distinguish yourself from prospect to contender. Still needs a little
more work. It seemed to me he fights in a
division where you can get you know, pretty decent guys.
Who was fighting slightly over the one hundred and thirty
pounds limit in this fight was one thirty two, and
I'd like to see him continue to develop. So that
was that was that particular fight. Then you go to
the fight that was before that. That was the Herkovic fight,
which we discussed, And before that was Raymond Ford, the
former featherweight title older he was supposed to you know
now he's fighting at one hundred and thirty pounds, was
supposed to have the match against Anthony Kasachi, but Kasachi
had the back injury, so that fight went by the wayside,
and so they brought in Abram Nova on a few
weeks notice. And you know, Novah was a solid veteran fighter.
He fought a lot of good fighters. He fought for
a title once he lost, but it was close. And
this was if you're Abram Nova, this was sort of
similar to what your issues were in other losses, where
you are competitive but you kind of just did enough
to lose. So I thought Raymond Ford looked pretty good.
This was a pretty good fight. You know, it was competitive,
but in the end it was clear that Ford was
the winner. And you know, I guess Nova can just
hang his hat and say, you know, I went the
distance in a good fight. I was competitive. I lost
to a guy that's a former world champion, and he'll
get he'll get another Paity out of it. But I
think his days where he's the A side, and that
was not the case for this fight. That that ship
has probably sailed. But Novah's gonna get anybody you put
him in with at thirty. Uh, He's gonna give him
a solid fight. You know, he's in boxing. Not everyone's
gonna be the pound for pound guy. Not everyone's gonna
be a world champion, but you need you need these
types of veterans that can be in good fights, that
can give competition, that can that can fit into the
the hierarchy, and so you know, you always are gonna
need opponents. That's what he is. He's a high level
opponent for the top guys in one hundred and thirty
pound way class. And it was a good fight, I thought.
And then the opening fight on the card was the
Saudi lightweight prospect Muhammad Alakal, who was another one of
I guess Turkey's guys and one of the fighters that
he likes, and he's been fighting on a lot of
these Saudi Arabian cards. He is undefeated, but he finally
I think he's now five and oh, he got his
first knockout of his career. He knocked out an Indian fighter,
Saptos sing in the first round. It was actually a
pretty impressive performance. He got out of there real quick.
And so now, as was the case before the fight happened,
now they'll go forward with it. I don't think he
got injured or anything. He'll now move on and he'll
be on the Terrence Crawford Canelo Alvarez undercard September thirteenth
in Las Vegas. So that was the rundown of all
of the six fights on this particular show. I mean,
for me, this was a very entertaining car top to bottom.
Main event had interest because of the way that the
Atama destroyed. Dylan White and Nick ballfight was a very
good fight in the co feature to assume you look
great in his performance. The heavyweight fight between Herkovic and
at Dela was the best fight of the night by far.
Contained a round of the year candidates, some drama, some blood,
a knockdown. Raymond Ford and Nova gave a good account
of themselves, made a good fight, and the young prospect
Alacal with a great knockout in the opening fight. I mean,
you know, wasn't the greatest card of all time? No,
but it was a hell I mean, first sad happened
in August. I'm good with that man.
Speaker 1: They had some meat on the bone, absolutely a little
bit of an expensive pay per view. And again, I
don't know how many people cared in the middle of
saurday afternoon in the United States. They certainly cared in
prime time in the UK and in Europe with some
of those names. But there you go. So we gave
you a thorough recap of that cart in Saudi Arabia.
Speaker 2: And that's that's the one thing though, TJ that I
still can't get past, like for the dorks, like I
dig it, you know, but it's it's kind of like
if you if the tree falls in the forest and
there's nobody there, does it make noise? So yeah, the
fifty dollars pay per view that took place in Saudi
Arabia at you know, mid afternoon in the dead of August,
like who and and it's and it's only available behind
you have to first have a subscription to the zone
and then you have to buy the pay per view
on top of it. So you're almost beyond a double
paywall where the first zone is not in a lot
of hole. It's not a lot of It's.
Speaker 1: Stupid that they had it as a pay per view,
much less that they were charging what they were charging
in the United States for the middle of the day,
especially on a night. I'm just telling you, Dan, everybody
everywhere in the post game aftermath of my preseason game
was interested in finding a device, a phone or an
iPad to see what was going on in the UFC
pay per view that was on the same day as
this pay per view. So you got to understand, and
maybe they don't care. Maybe they don't care. You know,
they offered it, and whoever bought it bought it in
the United States because again, this was a bigger deal
in the UK, a bigger deal in Europe. We get that, but.
Speaker 2: Holdout a second. The thing about it is, even in
the UK, it's not like in America. The zone is
in like, say, three hundred thousand ish homes, right, you know, subscribers.
I keep saying homes because I'm used to the cable vernacular, right,
but subscriptions among American devices. It can't be much more
in Britain because there's just so many more people in
the United States, you know, than compared to their and
the Zone has been available in the United States since
twenty eighteen. It only became available in the UK in
the last you know what, maybe three years or so.
So even if you took the worldwide audience of the show,
it can't be that much, especially as a pay per view,
So I don't get like. On the one hand, I
appreciate that they went to the effort to make what
I considered a very quality card that me as a fan, granted,
a diehard, dorky fan, was really interested in. I was
really excited to see it, Tom, and.
Speaker 1: I would say this, this is total speculation. I would
be surprised, even with what you're talking about, with the
number of accounts that the Zone has, I would be
surprised if in the UK this didn't have fifty thousand
buys for that price because of the fight fans. Maybe
it'll be right, maybe it didn't.
Speaker 2: Now it was less money in Britain it was twenty pounds,
deficantly less money, so many hounds there. But I would be.
Speaker 1: Surprised if it wasn't at least that much because of
the Rabbit fan base and the heavyweights and Dillian White
having a name and a time. I'm having the buzz,
but it's not like the to your point, it's not
like they had three hundred thousand buys listen.
Speaker 2: It wasn't like it was a Ricky Hatton fight on Skyboxer,
New Anthony Joshua fight on Skybox Office. The one good
thing though in Britain though, if it was going to
attract the interesting, this is one of the reasons that
they have to figure out the timing. This was a
British theme card. So for the Brits, it was on
at a time we're conduced to them used to being
used to watching boxing wears. For the Americans, you know,
the card started at twelve forty five PM. Main event
was on around five thirty, which is just a weird time.
I mean even when you were even when we were
kids watching on the networks, boxing wasn't on at five o'clock.
You watched a fight on a Saturday or a Sunday,
it was on at like two o'clock and they just
went right to the main event. Never were watching boxing
at five or five thirty. That was just a weird right,
No matter what that was, that was that was not
of But there you go.
Speaker 1: You got a thorough recap of that card. All right.
Some fight news here, and things are cooking in the
one and fifty four pounds junior middleweight division sans Boots inn'ce,
which we talked about last week. There's some there's still
some other interesting fights that are being kicked around. All right,
so give me the updates on what we have going
on at junior middleweight.
Speaker 2: Well, as you know or anybody that follows this show
and is a big enough boxing fans should understand, is
that the one hundred and fifty four pound weight class
right now is one of the best weight classes, if
not the best weight class in boxing, not necessarily because
it's got the biggest stars, but because it has a
lot of quality guys that have been coming up in wait,
guys that are there, guys that have established themselves. The
title picture is sort of now wide open because of
the fact that you know, it had at one point
been an undisputed champion, you know, a couple of years
ago with Charlote that's long gone, and so the title splintered,
and you know, we've seen good matchups and so now
we're at a point where if you ask me, there's
a lot of good matches that are happening, they're about
to happen. This would be the perfect kind of division
where if somebody wanted to put the money behind like
Turkey for example, to make a tournament and like just
make the matches and let's put it exactly. But short
of that, you've got some fights that are in the works. Now,
none of these fights, to what my reporting tells me,
are signed, are done, but they're in varying degrees of
getting finalized and the expectations that they will happen. Obviously,
anything can you know, mess those things up. But anyway,
Sebastian Fandora is in the process of working out a
deal or they're not. I shouldn't say them working on
a deal. His side is done from what I am told,
he may fight Keith Thurman. Thurman, I guess is tiding
things up with PBC, who they all work with. And
if that does get done, this would headline in October
twenty fifth PBC Pay per View one Prime would take
place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Lessing, and
that is of the fights that Sebastian could fight. There's
nothing wrong with that now, I know, he didn't fight Zias.
For example, he ended up you know, having the rematch
with Tim ZOOI looked really good in that fight, got
to win. And now Thurman. You know, it's funny because
Thurman and Zoo, we're supposed to fight each other. The
way that Sofendora got his big opportunity was when when
Thurman was out because of the injury and he beat
Zoo in the first fight. And now he's coming back
perhaps to get the guy that ended up dropping out
to give him that opportunity in the first place. So look,
Thurman is obviously not what he once was. He's a
little older now, he's not coming off a huge lay
off because he did just fight recently in Australia, so
you know that's there's nothing wrong with that matchup. But
again it's a young man's game and we'll see. But
Thurman looked okay in his last fight eating get injured,
so good for him. He's you know, he'll bring some
pizazz and some sort.
Speaker 1: Of he's got some name.
Speaker 2: He'll bring some spice to the promotion as far as
if they're trying to a pay per view, So there, yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, but again we keep going over this, and
we're not gonna spend five more minutes on it. I
don't see this as a headlining pay per view fight.
It doesn't have the same intrigue even as the Zoo fight.
And if they're gonna charge seventy nine ninety five or
any nine ninety five, I get it. What are we
doing here? But anyway, so would you say that we're
are fairly close to hearing an announcement about that because
you already have the date, you already have the place
where I am.
Speaker 2: I am told that PBC, if they can get it
wrapped up, they'd like to put the tickets on sale
next week.
Speaker 1: How about that? Fans?
Speaker 2: There you go, We'll we'll see if they well, we'll
see if they get it done.
Speaker 1: That is late October, right before Halloween.
Speaker 2: Right, So now for that if this does in fact
happen on October twenty fifth, one week before that, again,
again it's not done. But as we discussed a while ago,
we had the IBF had ordered u Bakram Martazeleev to
make his mandatory defense against ericson Lubin. Erics and Lubin
had won an eliminator against Holmes, and the two sides
were negotiating the fight, but now apparently Lubin is not
going to take the title fight against Bachram. Instead, they're
in the process of trying to get a fight finalized
between him to challenge Virgil Artis, who holds the WBC's
interim delt. Virgil Ortiz has been looking for a big
name opponent. Now that fight was there, but before the
Virgil Artis and Golden Boyant de zone everybody would sign
off on it. They had made an offer to Xander
Zias and Top Rank for Virgil Ortiz to fight Zis.
Zius was offered that fight. Now, usually it's the champion
that makes the offer, but in this case it was
the Ortiz team that did so they're the ones that
have the TV contract right now. Top Rank does not
have any particular deal, so I'm not sure they had
an ability to fund that fight, and they gave Zius
and his team I believe it was till five o'clock
on Friday to agree to the deal. It was going
to be fifty to fifty. Virgil Ortis put out a
picture of the of the memo between Eric Gomez and
somebody from from Top Rank or for his team about
it in any event, that was not accepted, and so
Plan B for Virgil because they're looking to get him
a big fight for you know, October November, but it
will be October eighteenth if they get it wrapped up
to go with ericson Lubin. So he's not going to
take the Backrum fight apparently, I'm you know, I'm okay
with you.
Speaker 1: Is there just not money to make a Bachrum world
title fight with Lubin and this is better money? Let me,
I mean that's that seems to me to connect the
dots here, it's more money's.
Speaker 2: Gonna there's a combination of things. One Bakraum is a
dangerous fight you don't get you can get a title
out of it, yes, but he doesn't have name recognition,
he's not that well known and he doesn't bring a
big fan base. But more particular to that, his promoter
main events is in the wilderness. They've got they have
no ability to offer the money. They've got nothing going
right now. They they work essentially with pbc UH and
so they don't have the ability to make a bona
fide offer to do the fight on their own, and
they've got the champions. So again It's nothing against main event.
They've been one of the top promoters for decades.
Speaker 1: It just something against them that they can't get a
deal for their guy to fight anybody after that great
victory that I witnessed in person against Zoo, which was
last October, and he hasn't had a fight since then.
So it can't make a deal happen for Backram.
Speaker 2: But it's not they can't make a deal. Who is
going to pay for it?
Speaker 1: Well, that's what I mean.
Speaker 2: Though.
Speaker 1: They can't get a deal with a broadcaster for the
money they want, with the opponent they want, And obviously.
Speaker 2: There's no broadcaster out there that I'm aware of right now.
You can correct me if I'm wrong. That's putting out
a license fee for somebody to bring them a fight,
with the exception if you bring them a mega event Netflix.
Who else is out there buying one off fights, right Nobody?
Speaker 1: So they have got to be aligned with somebody, exactly.
It's obvious the Lubin camp, you can say what you
want about maybe not as dangerous, but Ortiz is a
dangerous puncher. They must be getting as much or or
maybe even better money to fight Virgil Ortiz, And that's
why they're doing it.
Speaker 2: I don't know what the numbers are, but they're probably
getting something. Obviously they wouldn't be they're not doing it
for charity, so anyway, but the point is you've got
in the works hopefully gets done. I guess Virgil Ortiz
against Lubin for October eighteenth, one week later would be
the pay per view with Fondora and Keith Thurman. Xanders
Ias and his people apparently have turned that down. No surprise.
Top ranks plan, whatever their platform is, even if they
don't have a platform, they're going to have this young
man defend the title for the first time in Puerto Rico,
and you know, nobody's gonna they don't care what we think.
They're gonna find an opponent and they're gonna make them
a superstar in Puerto Rico and they'll do their job
with that. Besides that, back up to the Canelo Crawford
undercard on September thirteenth. Another junior middleweight fight of note
also that seems to be on the verge of being finalized,
and that is Serrey Boachuk against Brandon Adams. There's some
intrigue in that to be on this undercard. Because while
Boachuk has a couple of losses, the first loss he
suffered was by a TKO against Adams in their first
fight in twenty twenty one. So this would be a
rematch with him having the opportunity to sort of, you know,
get all even if he can. You know, Adams has
been a guy that has been very inactive, but he's
been a good fighter, he was on the contender, engaging personality,
just for whatever reason, hasn't been able to get any
steady work. And so for him to go and have
this rematch, that'll be interesting and that'll add some depth
to the Canelo undercard with Crawford that while it's good,
I don't think it's all start undercard, but this adds
like another pretty intriguing fight because of the position that
Boachuk has gained since that loss, and because it's also
another good matchup in a very hot division. I like said,
I think the division one to fifty four is one
of the best divisions in boxing, if not the best
in boxing, and that's you know, it's a depth fight,
if that makes sense. Even if Boachuk, you know, he
lost recently, there's no no harm in that, so what
and so.
Speaker 1: That adds to the Canilo undercard. So we've got September
and then potentially two of them in October. That mattered.
They're at one hundred and fifty four pounds and.
Speaker 2: At some point I'm sure that Xander's Eyes will fight
before the end of this year.
Speaker 1: And when do we get Bakram back in the ring, well.
Speaker 2: They'll Here's the thing about Bachram, if well back back
to Boichuk. First of all, he has won two fights
th row since his loss. He gave Virgil of Artis
a very close fight in that majority decision, and he
had Virgil Ortiz down twice in the fight. So you know,
draw your own comparisons when all these guys are are
fighting with each other. Right as far as Bachram goes,
if Lubin in fact does pull out of the mandatory
and he does go forward and make the match elsewhere
and decides to go with the virgual Artise fight, the
DIBF will go down what I consider terrible ratings in
the IBF, and the next available guy that they would
probably order to do the fight is Josh Kelly from
the UK. I mean Josh Kelly, and no offense to me,
Josh Kelly and Botham. That's like, what did you call it?
What'd you what was the Yeah, the.
Speaker 1: Freight train is coming, get off the tracks.
Speaker 2: You're saying, that's that freight train fight. That's a freight
train fight. I don't even know Josh Kelly and his team.
He's with Washerman Boxing in the UK. He fights his
fights on Channel five over there. I don't know if
they're going to take that gamble.
Speaker 1: Uh. Moving on news about Liam Parro and his return
also in September. What what is the latest?
Speaker 2: So the latest with Paro He is a couple of
fights removed from when he lost the Junior Wealthy Right
belt that he had UH by a split decision to
Richardson Hitchins. That was last was at December of twenty
twenty four. After that he moved up but a little
bit over the weight, not to the full fledged welterweight division,
but he fought at one hundred and forty three or
one hundred and forty four pounds. This was back in June.
He's signed with No Limit, which is one of the
top promoters, if not the top promoter in Australia these days.
He got a win a couple months ago then they
announced that he had signed with the company and so
his next fight will be in IBF welterweight eliminator, so
he's going to fight the full fledged welterweight. This is
for the mandatory, so this will be to earn a
title shot. He'll fight the undefeated David pop Pote who
was from France, who thirty zero and one and Paro
just has the one loss against Hitchins. He's twenty six
and one with sixteen knockouts. So they're going to do
this fight. It'll take place September eighteenth in Brisbane, Australia
or in that in that area of Australia, and it's
going to be it's a great opportunity for Parro to
put himself in or Popot if he's the winner, to
fight for the title. The IBI is that organization that will,
you know, follow those rules if you will. The title
at welterweight currently is vacant. It will soon be filled
and we'll see, you know, if Paro can put himself
in that position or you know, I mean, obviously the
fight's being built around Paro because it's in his home country.
It's his you know, it's his crowd it's his promoter,
so no offense to the opponent, but it's obviously built around.
Speaker 1: It's it's set for him to have a big night
and and then be relevant in the welterweight division.
Speaker 2: So again, the winner of that fight would become the mandatory.
Then they have the welterweight vacant title which is being
contested between Lewis Crocker and Patty Donovan the week before that,
So that fight's on the thirteenth, So when Powow has
his fight in Australia, those guys will already know who
the new champion is. That the winner will then become
the mandatory for that makes sense understood.
Speaker 1: And then one more note on a mantus Stanionis and
his return, and that's also in Septom. What do we
know about this?
Speaker 2: So Stanionis, you know, he's been in the news a
bit because of the conversations about how terrible the Boots
mandatory of the Boots Ennis return fight is as he
moves up to one fifty four, because every time that's
mentioned like he's coming off of his biggest win that
was the April fight against Stanionis where he knocked him
out to unify the belts, and Stanionis hasn't fought since
then either. As it turns out, because Ennis's fight is
not until in October, it actually means that the guy
that lost to fight in Stanionis will be back in
the ring first a couple of weeks at a time.
So Stanionis is gonna fight at one hundred fifty pounds.
He announced this his team on their social media in
the last couple of days. He's gonna fight at one
to fifty. I don't know if that means he's going
to ultimately go to fifty four or just because not
a title fight, he's still looking to maybe try to
win a title back at welterweight. In any event, he's
fighting a fighter from South Africa. McKenzie. I can't say
I've heard him a sixteen and two record with eight knockouts.
But the thing that's interesting to me is, you know,
Stanionis is like a national hero in Lithuania, his home country.
He was an Olympian for that country in boxing in
twenty sixteen, and even though he's had sixteen professional fights,
he's never fought in his home country. So the carrot
for this fight is it's gonna be his first ever
fight in Lithuania. So Ever, no, every fighter would like
to fight in front of their home fans. You know,
He's fought all of his professional fights in the United
States and now he gets a chance to go home
and you know, try to rebuild himself after a very
harsh loss to Boots Tennis.
Speaker 1: All right, so a lot of news there, one bit
of nostalgia. You did recently talk with Terrence Crawford, and
we're now within a month here of the meeting with
Canelo Alvarez, and we do have a little nostalgia coming
on Tuesday. It was eight years ago, August nineteenth of
twenty seventeen that Crawford ended up unifying the junior well
toweight titles and became undisputed. You were at ringside for
his fight with Julius Indango, and much like Moses at
tom I took a little longer, but it did not
take long that night, My friend, what do you recollect
in Nebraska?
Speaker 2: This was a sensational atmosphere. Okay, So he's from Omaha, Nebraska,
and he had fought Omah to great crowds, and I've
been to Omah for one of you know, and seeing
the great crowds that have turned out for his fights,
but this particular fight, well, all the activities took place
in Omaha Way in press conference workouts where the media
media Hotel was were all the fight hotel people were,
all the undercard people stayed there. The fight itself. Everybody
bust out about an hour away, forty five minutes away
to Lincoln, Nebraska, just down the highway to play to
go to this fight, which is in the arena, the
Pinnacle Arena, which is where the Nebraska College basketball had
as their home arena for the I guess the men
and the women, and so they had a huge crowd there.
Not that big of a building, but it was I
think it was sold out. If it didn't if it
wasn't sold that it sounded, you know, if there was
twelve or fifteen thousand, it sounded like there was fifty thousand.
Speaker 1: I've been in that building. It's probably a out of
ten twelve. Yeah, ceied arena.
Speaker 2: Spectacular, spectacular atmosphere. I mean, they really turned out. And
and Dongo was not exactly a household name, but Terrence
Crawford in that in that region is you know, was
a huge star. It was like the franchise and he
went in there. He had two of the belts and
Dongo had two of the belts, and they put on
this unification fight and he absolutely destroyed Julius and Dongo
third round knockout with one of the best left hands
to the body that you'll ever see. It also knocked
him down in the second round, and he just use
your frizzy and he freight trained him. I mean, that's
what this was. He ran him over like you know,
it was a mac truck going down the going down
the road.
Speaker 1: I mean, it is easy to say now, but watching
him that night, did you sense this is pound for
pound greatness? Because you were right there soaking it all in,
and you'd seen a bunch of big time welter weight
junior welterweight fighters before that. What do you remember thinking
watching him destroying dong No?
Speaker 2: At that point you're like, Yeah, he's a pound for
pound level guy, no doubt about it. I mean, at
that point when he won that fight, he became thirty
two to zero with twenty three knockouts. Now, he'd already
been a champion in the lightweight division. He didn't have
the undisputed title, but he was considered a lineal champion.
He had beaten the top of contenders, He had had
some big wins at one hundred and forty pounds, you know,
and Dongo only had one loss going into the fight,
or you know he had that was he was undefeated
going to fight. That was his first loss. But there
was not the sentiment that in Dongo was anything spectacular,
that he was sort of right place, right time. He
had won the belts, not necessarily against the most formidable opposition.
But again credit to him for traveling to the other
guy's hometown for the fight. And I think my recollections
that most people thought that Terrence Crawford is going to
win this fight rather handily, but in the devastating manner,
and as early as he did, I think that was
something that was perhaps a little bit of surprise. But
I have to tell you when he knocked him out,
like the sound that the arena made, like I always
talk about when people ask him out, the great atmospheres
I always think about, you know, I've talked to many
time is about Tito Trinidad against William Joppy, about some
of the Ricky Hatton fights I've been to, and those
level fights Canelo and Mayweather. Uh, this was every bit
as good as those types of fights. You don't have
to be in New York City or Las Vegas or
some mecca of boxing to have a massive, you know,
crazy atmosphere when there's a historic fight and the hometown
guy not only wins but does so in nassively impressive style. Uh.
You know, they were about to blow the roof off
that place. That was how hot that was. So that
was it was a big fight week. The whole city
was excited. You know, you could not go anywhere in Omah,
didn't matter if you were at the local restaurant or
walking down the street or you know, uh, you know,
in the airport. I remember seeing stuff in the airport,
like advertisements, you know, for tickets and things like everybody
was hot for the fight. He was on the My
recollection is like the day of the fight on the
not just on the sports section, but on the front
page of the local paper. You know, you get the
paper like down to the lobby of the hotel. Like
big deal.
Speaker 1: I mean back when they had actual news papers in
twenty seventeen exactly.
Speaker 2: So it was, it was it was a pretty big deal. Uh.
And this was also what was cool about it was,
you know, this was this was like a big deal fight.
This was on ESPN. This was when ESPN was still
relatively new to the Top Ranked deal, so they really
treated it the right way. I mean, we were doing
like ESPN UH plus shoulder programming, taping things at the hotel.
I remember doing like a round table with me, myself
and and uh and and Mark Kriegel and a couple
other guys talking about the fight of you know, setting
up for the show I was doing on ESPN Plus
at the time, the boxing beat, sitting and doing a
thing with Bob Aram Like they really ESPN really treated
this like a big event. Obviously, those times had changed,
you know now, you know, fast forward to twenty twenty
five mid year and and Top Rank is off the network.
But those were good times back then. And by the
way that these were the types of fights that ESPN
wanted Top Rank to put on, big significant, important fights
Aarence Crawford and Undefeed It's star going home in front
of a huge crowd thanding for the undisputed Championship. That
was a pretty big fucking deal.
Speaker 1: And of course he later would go on to be
undisputed at welterweight, and then we'll eventually make the Canelo
challenge coming up trying to be undisputed it's super middleweight
later this year. Good nostalgia, good recap of the read
season card, and the Moses Etama blitzing of Dillian White.
My friend, it's gonna be lean. We just gotta tell
the audience it's gonna be lean. The next couple of weeks.
We'll try to be creative with the preview mode, the
recap mode, et cetera, with whatever's out.
Speaker 2: You always say that we always have stuff to talk.
Speaker 1: Well find Yeah, we'll find some things to talk about
for sure. We also want to say to the audience,
go find our YouTube page for all the video content
that we have there. Help us out, subscribe, be engaged
on the YouTube page as well, Big Fight Weekend YouTube page.
With that, have a good week. My friend here, I
know it's back to school for young Raphael. We've already
been back in school for a week in Florida. About
time you catch up.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna have a Virginia. I have a middle schooler
now starting to.
Speaker 1: I have I have high school seniors that are driving
themselves to school to park in the parking spore.
Speaker 2: We're not Derek quite yet. I just know we're going
in the seventh grade on this.
Speaker 1: Slow the roll. But yes, he's now a big bad
middle schooler coming up. Uh listening.
Speaker 2: By the way, week, big bag middle schooler was very
pissed that dad for making them get his haircut the
day before school.
Speaker 1: Hey, you got to look good on the first day
for the teachers and maybe the ladies, and get ready
to deal with that. By the way too, Big Dan,
have a good week.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: There is Dan Rayfield. Fight Freaks You Night is his
substacking newsletter. Get subscribed up get informed with all of
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Freaker and Spotify. Coming off a weekend for Dan Rayfield,
I'm tj of Reeves. Have a good week.