Speaker 1: Well off of a weekend that has seen the Monster
once again be the Monster and to defend.
Speaker 2: His undisputed titles.
Speaker 1: It has seen Diego Pacheco take another step forward against
an American.
Speaker 2: Veteran that gave him a bit of a hard time.
Speaker 1: It also saw Andy Kruz get another win in the
co feature of the Matchrooms own show. We're ready to
recap all of that. We've got news, We've got nostalgia,
and much more. It is the Fight Freaks U Nite
Recap podcast. I am the somewhat lucid host TJ Reeves.
He is our insider fight Freak to night is after
all his substack and his newsletter. You should be all
over it. I mean for the last three or four weeks.
There's all kinds of news info, all kinds of things
that are there on the newsletter that you get before
we can get to the.
Speaker 2: Pods on the weekend. We love it. From Dan Rayphield,
Hello there, welcome in.
Speaker 3: Hey.
Speaker 2: We have a bevy of fights to talk about.
Speaker 1: I don't know that we have had a show in
January with this much to talk about off of a weekend,
which is a good thing business has.
Speaker 3: How are you, yeah, listen.
Speaker 4: It's Stat's Tita's pretty much most years, and so now
we're back in the groove. In February is humongus. So
we're good to go.
Speaker 2: Uh. We love our audience.
Speaker 1: We preview going into the weekend, we recap coming off
the weekend, huge February coming up.
Speaker 2: You're gonna want to be right here.
Speaker 1: By the way, you already heard from David Benavitas on
the previous pod. Shall we tell them that as February
gets going, Benavitas and morel pay per view Keishawn Davis
is coming up in this month, you're going to hear
from him on the podcast feed. Then February twenty second,
I was talking to somebody about this today real quick
before we get the recaps, and he was talking to me.
Speaker 2: He said, what's with? He said, what's with?
Speaker 1: What's with this card in boxing in Saudi Arabia? And
I said, what do you mean what's with? I said,
there are am i correct, five world title fights in
addition to whatever else you have on it. I said,
it is a loaded card and they aren't paying me
to say this, So we'll have plenty around that as well.
Speaker 2: Coming up later on in the morning.
Speaker 4: That card I mean, I'm looking at my listing here, one, two, three, four,
five six. If you're counting interim title fights, all right,
it's a total of seven.
Speaker 2: Is that fight card gonna begin at seven a m.
U s Time?
Speaker 4: Just to get all over the Bole for the undispeted
light Evyway title versus Parker for the heavyweight title, Chakor
versus Schofield for the WBC lightweight title, Adamis versus Shiraz
WBC middleweight title, Virgil Ortiz bage More for the interim
WC Junior middleweight title. Five Jang Big Bang Jang against
Cabiel your boy the the WBC interim heavyweight title. Sure, six,
and then you got Joshua Batzi versus Calum Smiths of
the for Bwazi's WBO interim light heavyweight title.
Speaker 2: That would be seven. And again it could be breakfast
with the Saladi.
Speaker 4: And then and then besides that three sort of prospecte
type fights.
Speaker 1: I understand if there's ten fights on the card, they
may be starting at seven a m. Eastern time Saturday morning.
I may not be exaggerating now on that get your
chick all right, by the way, review us, we love it.
Let's get into what we have seen it.
Speaker 4: You forgot to say one thing you mentioned I'm gonna have.
We'll have our interview with Keishan Davis coming up. I
also we have an interview with Demetri Bibo coming oh,
that's right from his training camp in Turkey.
Speaker 1: And Bevo looking for revenge obviously, and so we got
a lot. We got a loft coming up. All right,
let's get into it. Since last you and I talked
here on this pod. The Monster did get the knockout
win over the South Korean late replacement opponent Naoya in
a way, looked every bit as good as we thought
he would. Took a little bit of time to warm up,
didn't do much in the first or the second round,
but the third and the fourth round the body shots started,
and then the big left kind of shook up Kim.
To Kim's credit, he did kind of the bravado thing.
Speaker 3: Dan.
Speaker 2: He kept waving it head away, not.
Speaker 3: A smart move.
Speaker 2: Come at me, come at.
Speaker 3: Me, Bro.
Speaker 2: And then he got a big right hand.
Speaker 1: He ate a big right hand, went down, didn't get up,
had the left eye swelling. That was it, all right,
give me some more on what you saw early morning
in Japan.
Speaker 4: Kind of perform. You know, it's sort of what we
expected from that performance. It was, you know, if we're
gonna start to penalize anyway, because it takes them a
couple of rounds or around to get into it. I mean,
you know, that tells you how great the guy is.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 4: Granted he was not fighting a well known or top
level opponent, but the reality was, I'm gonna forgive a
guy if he takes a round to maybe see what
he's got in front of him, a guy that he
wasn't in a training camp getting ready for who took
the fight on you know, well publicized eleven days notice
after the injury. The second injury to Sam Goodman caused
him to drop out because of an another cut, and
so it took, you know, all three and a half
minutes or so to get in the groove. This was
the Monster as usual, precise with his punches, accurate, hard punches,
you know, good movement, good speed, you know, but also
willing to step in and take a couple of gambles.
You know, he stepped in there and he took a
couple of right hands from Kim. Just didn't have the
kind of power that to do any real damage. And
I think he was slow enough with the shots that
in a way he saw them when he did get hit.
So for a completely one sided destruction, it was kind
of a fun fight. Great atmosphere, great ring, entrance, all that,
and you know.
Speaker 1: Those that did not see it, it was kind of reminiscent,
was it not a Prince nasim hmen on the magic carpet,
but in this case, he was on like the elevated
lift like you see.
Speaker 2: At a magic show, And I'm like, that was cool.
Speaker 1: Why do I get the feeling that the entrance and
the production for the entrance may be more entertaining than
the fight, But I just I digress.
Speaker 4: Go ahead, Yeah, I mean it was exting. I mean
again for one sided ass whoop, and it was entertaining.
And look, he he he wanted to not skip a rotation,
and it's not his fault that his opponent, Sam Goodman
got hurt, so I can't penalize him for that. The
place was sold out fifteen thousand or whatever it was
in the Ariaka Arena where he's fought many times in Tokyo,
and his fans are going to turn out whether he's fighting.
You me Kim or you know, anybody else that you know.
And then so he did what he's supposed to do,
and he made a spectacular I always say, if you're
going to be in a fight that the public and
the media perceive as a mismatch, at least if you
go in there and you do what you're supposed to do,
no one's gonna say boop. So he did exactly that.
He scored with a big shot, knocked the guy out
with one punch. You know, Kim, did you know he
hung in there for a couple of rounds. Pat his
biggest fight, didn't seem unnerved by the spotlight. So credit
to him for that. Maybe he can learn from that
and create a better career for himself going forward. But
this was the annoyed in a way show. And now
this was get this out of the way. Now it's
next stop Las Vegas, after that, Saudi Arabia. He's gonna fight,
you know, multiple more times this year. As we talk
about activity is king. You make your legacy, you make
your money, you make your fans, And that's what the
man is doing.
Speaker 1: And what does it look like? Because Bob Aerin was
in the ring ninety three years young.
Speaker 2: Saying he's comment to the United States.
Speaker 1: What does it look like for when and everybody's curious
about the opponent, So fill us in.
Speaker 4: Well, the opponent that top rank that the and the
team in a way people have been thinking about and
planning for and sort of figure is going to be
the opponent is is Picasso, the Mexican contender who has
now risen to I believe number one in the WBC's rankings,
although that does not necessarily mean he is the mandatory.
You're talking about Alan David Picasso, who's thirty one oh
to one with seventy knockouts, young fighter, twenty four years old.
But you know there's gonna be pushed back from team Achmadaliev,
who is definitely the mandatory in position ahead of Picasso
at this point. One hundred percent. I mean, even if
you want to argue that Goodman was in front of him,
Goodman's out of the gonna be out because of the
plastic surgery and the healing from the cuts and everything.
That's going to be several months. So he's not back
for they were saying. His team was saying probably at
least six months. So one hundred percent Achmandaliev should be
the next up. Why they don't seem interested to fight him,
I don't quite get that. I mean, yeah, he's a
good fighter, but it's not like in a way he's
ducked other guys. He's beaten plenty of other good quality opponents,
so they'll be an argument there. So I think the
best case scenario for Achmadaiev, who appears as though he's
not got a chance what's over to get the fight
is that they can force the WBA's hand and perhaps
force them to strip in a way, which would be
a real sh I never like to see champion gets
shripped to the title for no reason. You know, all
he's got to do is fight the guys. So the
reality is, in a way, he's gonna fight in Las Vegas.
It's gonna be probably April May, and you know, it
seems like it'll be Picasso. Maybe there's an outside chance
they can get achmadalive in there, but the bottom line
is he's coming back to the United States. And as
they've talked about before the fight and again after the fight,
remember he did that that sponsorship deal with read season.
My understanding was it that deal did not did not obligate
him to fight in Saudi Arabia. But the amount of
money and attention that's on the table means that come
the end of the year, he probably will fight his
third fight this year in Saudi Arabia, so that that's
gonna make him a world traveler. He fought in Tokyo,
come and fight in Vegas, go to Saudi Arabia. That's
what a real world champion does, fight all over the place.
Speaker 2: I like it, and maybe that's Akhmadaia. If we don't know,
we're just we're just.
Speaker 3: Be stripped by that time.
Speaker 1: It seems to me, well depends if they make a
little side deal. You never know you right now, but
I'll fight you for a lot more money in Saudi Arabia.
Speaker 2: This is what makes the world goal round.
Speaker 4: And you know what, it's not not a completely ridiculous
thing because the connections of Akwandaliev, they share the manager.
He shares a manager with Bebo, who's obviously very involved
with Riad season. They've got a relationship over there, so
stranger things have happened. But the bottom line is no,
in a way is a phenomenal fighter, the best Japanese
fighter maybe ever in the history of the Japanese boxing culture.
I mean, here's a great statistic in terms of what
this guy has been doing. I mean, I'm not gonna
say it's because he beat some great opponent, but the
reality is, stat wise, he's now twenty four and oh
with twenty two knockouts in world title fights across four
weight classes, and I say nine twenty six overall.
Speaker 1: I say this to you all the time when we
quote those stats the last year or so that we've
done this. With the exception of Canelo Alvarez, is there
any other current champion that's had twenty plus world title fights?
I don't know, and you can even we looked before.
Terrence Crawford, I don't believe has had twenty.
Speaker 3: World title fights, not even close.
Speaker 2: So and to have twenty.
Speaker 1: Two knockouts, say what you want about the level of
competition the twenty four fights, that is staggering in the
present day.
Speaker 3: I mean, my, my, uh.
Speaker 4: I don't remember the exact total, but I believe the
all time record for most of the world title fight appearances,
whatever the weight division, Julio says Chava is and it's
somewhere in the thirties. So put that in some possibly
in range, don't look I mean, but still that's amazing.
Like Vladimir Klitschko is the all time record for heavyweights.
He appeared in more heavyweight title bouts than anybody else ever.
He appeared in twenty nine heavyweight title fights.
Speaker 1: And by the way, I could testify to the audience
because I could see you're not looking any at anything.
You know that already. I just know it's crazy that
he had that many heavyweight.
Speaker 4: World title fights across two title ranges.
Speaker 1: The monster certainly looks like he's gonna get six more
title fights in during his career to get to thirty,
to get to a magic number thirty. But still, again,
it's incredible that twenty have it as KOs.
Speaker 4: When when Chavez appeared in his final world title bout,
he was a faded older guy. When Vladimir Klitschko appeared
in his final title about as just using him as
an example, that was when he fought Anthony Joshua. He
was over forty years old at that point and then
he retired. You know it, those numbers.
Speaker 3: Cropped up, but it took a while to do it.
Speaker 4: In a way, Yeah, he started a bit younger, but
he's been active but he's only thirty one years old
and he's not taken a tremendous amount of damage either.
I mean, he's had one fight ever that you would
look at and say that was a really rough, tough fight,
and that was the first fight, yes against against Noni
no don Air, that was the fight of the year,
I believe, the twenty nineteen if I'm not mistaken, yes,
correct anyway, So at age thirty one, without the damage,
he seems like he can go for a number of
more years as long as he has the desire to do.
Speaker 2: So, let's keep going with the monster.
Speaker 3: His historic career is continuing to unfold.
Speaker 1: This whop yep, all right, let's move on to Saturday
night in Las Vegas where Diego Pacheco was the headliner
of the Matchroom card with the American Stephen Nelson, the
veteran undefeated. We wondered as we went into the weekend
with the preview with Nelson pro solid opposition. It ends
up being a twelve round fight. Pachecko looked good, but
he did not get the knockout, right, what are your thoughts?
He does get the win, Pachecko moves on looking for
world title shot down the road, But what did what
did you think of him Saturday night in Vegas?
Speaker 3: I thought he did a good job. I thought that
he did what he was supposed to do.
Speaker 4: Again, Yeah, it's what you what are the expectations relative
to what you know the the general thought is of
how the fights should play out, how it actually does
play out. So I thought when and this is nothing
against Steven Nel's a nice guy whatever. I've seen him
at fights plenty of times, been to some of his fights,
spot on a lot of the Cowford cards, part of
that team. Hard working guy came to fight big heart,
never gave up, I mean really really tried to win.
And I respect that because he was taking a tremendous
amount of shots yep in that fight. But I said,
from the moment the fight was signed, While yes, it
was a perfectly legitimate matchup for a young fighter like
Diego Pacheco, who's the you know, one of the guys
that's like the future of the weight class to most people,
I felt like it was I won't say a mismatch,
but I was like, definitely Diageo Pacheck was gonna win
this fight. Like I didn't really see a way that
he wasn't going to win the fight because he was
better in everything you could think of right than Stephen Nelson,
including bigger, stronger, younger, faster, whatever. So Stephen Nelson came
to do his job, and credit to him, and he'll
get he'll get fights off that performance, because even though
he lost, it was an entertaining fight.
Speaker 3: He had a great attitude about it.
Speaker 4: Didn't bitch and moan about it, you know, he he
fought like a like a true pro and just you know,
just wasn't good enough. And of course, you know, he
makes the point valid. I agree he was hampered very
much so by the cut that opened up over his eye.
I want to say in the fourth round. Uh and
at that point, diego Pacheco. Then you know, you could
tell in round five one hundred percent there was a
definite change in the momentum of that fight because at
that point the blood's coming into his eye and Pacheco
was Treateen traditionally like a slower kind of starter. So
the combination of cut, combined with him finally getting the
shit together, you know, was bad news for Steven Nelson.
Speaker 1: You and I both thought Pachecko would get the stoppage
with what you just set up there that that's in
the fifth round. Are we not slightly disappointed that he
didn't get him out of there over the next seven rounds?
Speaker 4: If we're grading this, I mean a little bit, But
I mean sometimes you have to give credit to the
other man. And Stephen and Nelson showed a good shit because,
let me tell you, he took some heavy duty shots,
he took some good body shots, he took some good
left hands, he took some very hard right hands. Even
the jab that when Pachecko landed was very very stiff,
and so he hung in there. And I have to
give him credit for this also, even though when he's
way way down on the cards, I think he doesn't
know that, but it seems pretty obvious right when he
goes back to the corner after the tenth round and
trainer Brian McIntyre is telling him the truth. You know,
you got you're falling behind, you got to get this.
He sprung out there like he was in the first round,
like he really found a second sort of gear, I guess,
and he really took it to him in the round
eleven and the round twelve and closed out very strong.
But he was too far behind in the end, listen,
it was one hundreds seventeen to one hundred eleven on
all three score cards. I thought that was perfect scoring.
That's that was very legit. That's nine rounds to three.
So the way I look at the fight, you pretty
much it was not unreasonable to have the fight two
to two after two rounds. He started off pretty well.
Maybe some people might have had three rounds to one.
After after four rounds, I thought it was two rounds
to two, and then Pachecko basically from round five to
like eleven one every round and maybe you could give
Stephen Nelson eleven and twelve, maybe eleven or twelve one,
or you know, he definitely won at least one of
the last two rounds. So in the end, he bookends
the fight. He starts off well, wins the first couple
of rounds or two of the first three rounds, and
book ends the end of the fight wins probably the
eleventh or the twelfth. Maybe both of you are gonna
be generous, but look Pachecko's twenty three. That was as
Eddie Hearn said, and I agree with his statement, that
was a kind of twelve round tough fight that he
needed because that's gonna make Diego Pacheco a better fighter.
You know, he has been the distance in other fights,
but I feel like that was the of the fights
he's gone the distance in. This was the best guy
he fought going the distance in recent times. He got
the stoppage against Sileski in the last fight in the
summer in August. That was a big featherniss cap because
Seleski's vastly experienced and it's fought several good opponents and
never been stopped. And now he goes to distance with
Steven Nelson, who gives him a good, solid fight, but
he he puts the rounds in and you know, at
that age and that experience, I though, you're going to learn.
And so now it's off to the races. He is
number one of the WBO. But it's not going to
be like a mandatory next you know, we all know
the Canelo rules the roost there. He's not getting ready
to fight Williams Skull anytime soon, and so they're talking
about doing some other fight. He was mentioning guys like
Caleb Plan and guys like Edgar Berlanga, who was in
the matchroom stable. He was mentioning like Amongia. You know,
Mongi is probably gonna have a rematch with with the
Serrasse maybe if he wins. They're talking about, you know,
a Charlo if he decides to come back into the business.
They're looking for that type of a name guy for
him to force, right, and that's that's the good game plan,
and then hopefully he can get one of those fights
made this year. I tell you one thing, DJ Edgar
berlang is coming back to fight in March and Puerto
Rico coming off his loss against Canelo Alvarez and Pacheco
just this win against Stephen Nelson. If Edgar Berlanga takes
care of the business and they're both with mattrom Boxing,
you can't tell me that the New York Puerto Rican
against the California Mexican American, two younger guys who still
have good futures in this sport.
Speaker 3: That is a hell of a fight.
Speaker 2: I do disagree.
Speaker 3: And Eddie Hern could make that if he really really
wants to, all.
Speaker 1: Right, and the fighters would be compelled because there could
be some money on the line for that co feature fight.
Andy Kruz victorious over Omar Salcedo, tell me more about
this decision. Now, you thought Cruz would get him out
of there full disclosure on the beat Us show, I
thought he might have a little more trouble with the veteran.
It is an easy decision win. What do you make
of it for the Cuban gold medalist and his trajectory,
his quick trajectory looking for title possibilities.
Speaker 4: I mean, look, he's not ready for the title yet
at this point, but that's a good solid win. Omar
Salcedo is not a journeyman bum fighter. He's a good
quality guy, has a good chin, coming off a good
win where he stopped Chris Klobert, and and I thought
Andy cruise by the third round. I think I tweeted
at some point like he's playing with him, which is
what he was doing. And unlike a lot of the
Cuban fighters that come uh uh, you know the defect
and turn pro in the United States. You know, it's
well known that they fight in a certain kind of
style that they're taught in the amateur program. Andy was
a very very experienced guy in their amateur program, so
he was very well schooled in that ability uh to box. Basically,
you're almost like a fencer with your arm but he's decided,
and I'm glad that he's done this, partly because of
where he decided to do his training in Philadelphia with Bozy,
andis that he's trying to have a pro style that's
more entertaining. So he does take a couple of risks
and he does step forward, and you know he's he's
getting the pro game under his belt. He's the only
thing that I have concerned about with Andy Kruz has
nothing to do with his talent, nothing to do with
his desire, nothing to do with his potential. Is just
the activity. I mean, he's only got five fight He
turned pro in July of twenty twenty three, So you
can't blame the pandemic. You can't blame he didn't have
a big injury or anything like that. The five fights
is just not enough activity he needs to Even if
you're gonna be fighting lesser guys, you gotta be a
little more active to really to drive the point home.
It seems to me because he's not getting a title
fight in the immediate future, so he only fought twice
in twenty twenty four. I don't have any idea why
that was the case, at least now in twenty five.
He's off to a decent start. Because you get a
first fight in January, that means there's no reason why
you can't have at least three. In today's business, Andy
Kruse should fight at least four times this year, whether
that's doable from a financial perspective or opponents are dates because.
Speaker 2: On the level of opponent, there's no.
Speaker 3: Reason he shouldn't be fighting for or.
Speaker 1: Did we not last Sunday talk about Oscar dey Lo
Hoolya fighting four prominent times before the end of September
in one year.
Speaker 2: It can be done.
Speaker 4: But in terms of Andy's performance though, look, he dominated.
He won eight rounds to two on one scorecard, nine
rounds to one on the other scorecard. I thought that
was perfectly fine. There was never a moment in the
fight where I thought he's in trouble. Yeah, he got
tagged a couple of times. There might have been one
moment where you're like, you know, he maybe you know,
got got you know, had to take a big step back,
but you know he routed him. I mean, and Salcedo,
like I said, he's a solid guy. I mean, you
also have to keep in mind when you're watching what
Andy Cruz is doing. He's fighting legitimate like top fifteen
ish type guys, top eighteen ish type guys in his
fifth fight, So this is not a guy a lot
of times, you know, they they take four round fights,
in six round fights, and by in eight round fights,
and then you walk my way up to ten round fights.
He turned prone to ten rounder so he's you know,
and he doesn't need to have a thousand fights before
that because he's twenty nine years old. And the guy
is one of the best amateurs in the history of
amateur boxing. Gold medals and every kind of term that
you could conceive of, you know, and as they've talked
about many times, you know, there is several victories over
Keishon Davis in the amateuranks. I think he's five and
oh against Kishan, including in the Olympics. So Cruise is
on the move. I mean, he's gonna be in He's
going to be a player in the lightweight division.
Speaker 3: It's just a matter.
Speaker 4: As we talked about in previous times, this is not
about his ability, it's about the opportunity. And so we'll
see what Mattriom can create for him. I would just
like to see him be a little more busy. But
he thought, beat a good opponent.
Speaker 1: And give me something one more name, and that was
Ernesto Tito Mercado, I mean, but he blasted out Jose Padraza.
This is more about Mercado and his future, and that
was on this same matchroom card. In the recap mode
final thoughts, well, look, this was.
Speaker 4: This was Mercado's first fight since he signed with Mattrim.
Before he signed with Mattrium, his father had gotten him
to sixteen and oh by basically putting on his own shows,
putting him on other fights on other promoters cards, and
there was a lot of people that were interested in him.
And it's very rare that you see a prospect get
that kind of publicity that he got without having a
major promoter. So that shows you that those of us
in the media and pay attention because some of those
fights were able to be seen on YouTube or streamed.
But Tino Mercado, now that he's got matching with him also,
he can make himself even a bigger deal because he
fits in very well with their types of fights that
they have. I mean, they you know, they promote. Of course,
Stevenson is a lightweight eventually he'll be a junior Walter Wad.
He was calling him out after the fight. They were
talking about, you know, Barboza type fights, you know, was
he was calling everybody out basically. But the thing I
like about Mercato was this, He's got a he's got
a nasty shriek in the ring. He really wants to
knock your block off, but he does it in a
poised manner. And poor Jose Padraza. Now, look, it was
a step up in terms of the name for Mercado
because he's only now seventeen to er. But but Jose Padraza,
who's such a nice guy. I covered him for many,
many years. I've interviewed him several times. I remember one
time going one when he was in a world title fight,
hanging out in his hotel room with him and his
team for an interview. I mean, the very nice, humble people.
It's time for Jose Padraza. Yeah, I would hope I
don't ever tele a fighter, you have to retire. But
you know what, he's got a beautiful family, He's had
a got of accomplishment in the sport I have. You know,
there's nothing left for him to do because it's just
going to get worse from here, lower paydays and more
pain and punishment. Because this was Mercado against the remnants
of Jose Padraza, who at one time was a really
outstanding fighter. I mean, he's still if you really want
to get down to it, you can still make an
argument that he's the best win of Tank Davis's career.
Speaker 1: You were saying this because the anniversary of that fight, yeah,
was what last week or recently?
Speaker 2: And that fight was eleven.
Speaker 3: Years ago ago. It's quite a while, like eleven years ago.
Speaker 4: So Padraza, Yeah, look, he won titles in lightweight division
and the junior lightweight division. Now he's fighting in one
hundred and forty pound division where he really shouldn't be.
This is him coming off of his last fight where
he got absolutely smoked and destroyed in a sixth round
knockout by Keishaan Davis. They brought him down to lightweight
where he end fought for a while. All I know
is this, Jose Padrazza is now four and one in
his last five fights, and he has not won a
fight since twenty twenty one. Now he's lost those fights
a good quality guys, But you know he's gonna get.
Speaker 3: Hurt, and I don't want to see what happen.
Speaker 4: Ricando gets the name on the record, and uh and
and Padraza takes another beating.
Speaker 3: And as we say in the business TJ.
Speaker 4: In boxing, they don't give you a gold watch when
you are when you're on your way out, they get
you a beating.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you don't want a worse one somewhere down
the road here in the near future for him, one
more fight card and that is the match room card
in Nottingham, England. Earlier in the day US time, as
Dalton Smith wiped out the French opponent in their junior
welterweight European title fight. Walid Owiza wiped him out late
in the first round. He landed a couple of significant punches,
but then a barrage of shots, including a big right hand,
put him down, got up and then in the final
seconds a big left hook right after the knockdown finish
the fight.
Speaker 2: The referee stops the fight.
Speaker 1: Well, we'll be will be kind very little resistance here,
but I mean, like to Dalton the selfish TJ. Knew
I had lost on the on the over with with
Naoya in a way if in a way had fought
the first round like Dalton Smith fought the first round,
I might have gotten the first round knockout Friday morning,
Ray Fiel, Dalton Smith stepped on the gas and got
the guy out of there.
Speaker 4: Well, it's actually officially it was the corner thrown in
the towel, but which you really don't see a lot.
I mean, corner's throwing at towels is fine. Very rarely
do you see a corner throw a towel in the
first round, right, That's how little they thought of their guy, apparently.
But Waliza was a horrible opponent. I had just saw
a couple of clips of him. I couldn't believe how
bad he was. Now, and I'm not knocking Dalton Smith.
He went out there and he did what again, You
do what you're supposed to do. So he wins the
European title. Dalton Smith has been a guy that has
had a lot of people in Britain excited for him
for the last few years. He's twenty seven, he's coming
into his own, he is undefeated. He's a tremendous up
and coming fighters seventeen and zero. Now he's got a
fan base, got a good personality, and look, he's moving
on the bigger and better things. He's calling out. What
he really wants to do is fight the winner of
Alberto Playo against Sander Martin. Who are gonna fight, you know,
for Playo's WBC welter Junior welterweight title. That's going to
be on the upcoming Tank Davis under card against Lamont
Roach on March first, and he's gonna He's ranked i
think in the WBC, So that's not out of the
realm of possibility of becoming like a mandatory fight at
some point, or even just you know, because of his
growing popularity, they might be able to make the match
just to lure him over.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 4: You know PBC. Uh, it's not a secret. They don't
have as many dates as they once did. They need
they need slots for some of their guys, So you know,
it wouldn't be ridiculous to think that a guy like uh,
if Payo is the winner, would go over there. Santa
Martin is with top rank, that's a different story. We'll
see what they do. All I'm saying is that he's
gonna be in a position probably to fight for a title,
uh in the next couple of fights, but he looked
very good against an opponent who's stunk.
Speaker 1: And they got him out of there, and let's be nice.
Looked nice, let's look be active. Let's see him fight again.
I mean, he didn't have to do anything. Let's see
him for this is me saying this, Let's see him
again in the next ninety days something like that, Stay active,
keep your name relevant.
Speaker 4: And also about to say this also, he really should
get back in there as quickly as possible because coming
off of his last fight was in March of last year,
so he's been he'd been out of the ring like
ten months.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, not injury. They were talking about that in
the build up to the fight. But yeah, there's no
reason after that. I mean, that was a nothing. You
can be back in there. I'm saying this April may
be back. Okay, news, let's get to it. Turkey Ala
chic and Riad season. If now announced what the undercard
will be on the Chris Ubank Junior Connor Bin slate.
You've been talking a little bit about this, but what's
the what's the official rundown?
Speaker 3: Real quick?
Speaker 4: Well, I do, first of all, I think they're going
to probably add at least another couple of fights to
the card so that those are not necessarily said. First
things first, they did make it official. This was sort
of what most people expected that it will take place,
and we all knew it was going to be in London,
but it's going to take place at the Tottenham Tottenham
Hotspur Arena, which is going to have like a crab
around seventy.
Speaker 2: Thousand stadium the stadium, yes.
Speaker 4: Stadium, yes, yes, that's where Anthony Joshua and Alexander Russak
had their first fight.
Speaker 3: Correct, If I'm not.
Speaker 4: Mistake in Tyson Fury if one of his fights here
Eric exactly, So so that that tells you're gonna be
a big crowd there obviously for this fight. I mean,
the whole country is going to stand still at the time.
It's going to be one of those sort of you know,
there won't be a lot of crime in Britain when.
Speaker 3: That fight's going on. That's how big of a deal.
Speaker 4: Well, I remember when Nanny Pakia was at his peak,
there would be stories from the from the Filipino media
that would come out about how, you know, the gangs
would stop fighting when he was in the ring. Everybody
Ryan Bray went down when he was in the ring.
You know that there like when.
Speaker 1: The Packers play in Green Bay and Milwaukee, everything shuts
down exactly.
Speaker 2: They're going to watch the game. Yeah, I saw.
Speaker 4: I saw a clip of there was conversation in the
in a session of Parliament where one of the people
that you know as a politician there was talking about,
you know, making like a a you know, let's wish
these guys good luck, a big fight, a declaration, yeah, something.
Speaker 1: Like they don't have enough going on in the House
of Commons right now. They gotta worry about you Bank
Junior and Ben.
Speaker 4: And it was just they don't really see I mean,
they don't see them talking about, you know, big fights
in the United States.
Speaker 2: Sidebar, sidebar.
Speaker 1: If you need some entertainment, go on YouTube, because they
used to have this and watch them argue and fight
in the House of Comments. Even if you have no
idea what they're what their politicians are arguing fighting about,
because they start they start arguing with each other and
people are booing and sometimes there's like papers being thrown
and whatever, and I have no idea what they're arguing over.
Maybe they're gonna argue over Chris you bank Junior and
and Connor Ben Nigel's son because of the old rivalry.
Speaker 2: We'll see undercar Okay.
Speaker 4: So yeah, so they got the stadium set. So there's
some good names and some very solid fights. I mean again,
it's a Turkey Yashik is involved there. They don't make
crappy shows. So you have the return of Anthony Yard,
you know the light heavyweight contenders. Oh, he's in good
fights and he's taken on that just nobody's taken on
Linden Arthur, who's a pretty good British delight have youweight,
only has the two losses, so that's a nice little matchup.
They added Liam Smith, you know, as it was announced
last week. Liam Smith, who's been you know, at one
time or another with most of the He's been with Queensberry.
He'd been with Matcham he'd win to the boxer. He's
now back with Queensberry. Right, No, no, with not with Queensberry.
He's back with Mattrum. He re signed with Mattrium and
so he's gonna go on this card and he's gonna
take on the American Brandon Glanton. So that's gonna be
his first fight at middleweight. And Liam Smith book. I
mean he's coming off. You know, he had the back
to back fights against you Bank. He won the first
one by upset, he got knocked out in the second fight.
He's coming back after a bit of a layoff and
this will get him back in the groove. But there's
some many fights for him because he fights in a
in a weight class in Britain anyway where there's good guys,
maybe not the big big names, although if Shiraz wins
the world title that would be a possibility anyway, So
he's on the card. They also will have the the
return of of Chris billm Smith coming off the loss
of his world title to Zerto Ramirez. But he showed it,
you know, I made a great fight in that fight,
trow to tremendous men of heart. So they've got him.
I take that back. He's the one that's fighting Brandon Glenn.
William Smith is going to fight the undefeated Irish fighter
Aaron McKenna, which actually is not a bad matchup and
Chris Bill and Smith, whoever you put him in with,
he is going to be entertaining. So that's on the show,
and then the British Cruiser weight to the dall Riley,
who's got an element of popularity, a good record twelve
and now he's fighting chev Clark, who had fought and
lost on the on the Matchroom card that was in
Monte Carlo not that long ago, and I like a
mild upset, So that's that's a pretty good matchup. They
both have similar number of pro fights. I mean, it's
definitely a very heavy obviously British car but it's.
Speaker 1: A good British Again, We're sitting here in the United
States and everybody's probably listening to this going okay, yeah him,
I've seen him, whatever. But in England, in Britain, they
care about those names that you're mentioning, and they're all
on one show here.
Speaker 2: So that's smart, that's good strategy.
Speaker 3: And the matchups themselves are not bad.
Speaker 4: And I'll say this also about the fact that here
we are in America, not in Britain. I don't they
haven't made this announce me yet, but I'd be really
kind of I mean, I'm never really shocked, but I'd
be massively disappointed and basically kind of. It would be
ridiculous if they made Ben and you Bank a pay
per view in America. So I feel like it's gonna
be like certain other fights. I take, for example, when
Devin Hainey fought Regis program that was a pay per
view in the United States, but everywhere around the rest
of the world on his own it was just part
of a regular subscription. So I think, my, my, I
think that this is going to be the case that
in Britain with definitely they're gonna have you bank and.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna put I'm gonna put one on a tee.
Though right here, these are the same people that suddenly
slid in that the fight card underneath the undisputed would
better b V and b BOL was suddenly now a
pay per view on like the day of the event,
But that was I'm not asking them to do something
for the fans.
Speaker 3: Now, I'm not excusing that nonsense.
Speaker 1: No, I want to say, I'm not saying that you
have to excuse the nonsense. I'm saying now in this case,
you're asking them to not pay the pay per view worldwide.
Speaker 2: I'm being facetious, You're kind.
Speaker 4: Of But the reason is in certain territories where it's
a clear pay per view fight, most of the rest
of the world doesn't give it damn. So that would
be that would be value for your subscription price here
in America to have that part, and in Britain it
will do good numbers on his own on it.
Speaker 3: It should.
Speaker 2: All right, let's talk some lightweights.
Speaker 1: You did speak to us recently about the Vasilli Lomachenko
back injury and about how an IBF interim title fight
with Abdolaijev and Raymond Murrataya, who you're very high on
and a lot of people very high on, he's in
the works. All right, what's the update on when this
might happen, on what's going on here?
Speaker 4: Well, when Lomachenko got the medical exemption from the IBF
to not have to be stripped or give up his title.
The one time in boxing where I'm okay with an
organization doing interim title fight is when the champion has
got a legitimate injury. So Lomachenko gave them the medical
paperwork that they asked for. He's got a back injury.
He's going to be out for us several months and
they're not going to hold up those division. So Abdliev,
who maybe does not a well known guy, he did.
His only loss was a loss to Devin Hany in
a fight you know several years ago that was an
interim title fight back in like twenty nineteen. Anyway, he
is at the top of their ratings and he's won
a whole bunch of fights in a row. And Moretaia,
who's undefeated, he's also high up in their rankings. They
were ordered to fight and it will be for the
interim title. So the negotiation period, you know, extended to
a certain amount of time. But in the IBF, if
you can't make a deal or you don't want to
make a deal, you can ask the organization just order
a purse bit and you don't have to even bother
to negotiate. So Top Rank has asked the IBF to
order the perspit, which they did, and that means it
will take place like February fourth. I want to say now,
the reason why they're trying to speed up the timeframe
is because they have a date that they've requested on
the most recent agenda for the Nevada State Athletic Commission
where they have an event that they're going to do
on April fifth, So they want to get this fight
situated as soon as possible. So if they actually either
make a deal and they promote or win a pursepit
and they promote, then the fight would probably not Probably
you would headline is April fifth fight card that they're
planning to do in Las Vegas, which to my understanding,
that card will be ESPN Plus only, not a network fight,
and and the winner, of course will have the interim
title and either will be elevated to the full title
if Lomachenko retires or gives it up, or Lomo will
be obligated to fight the winner when he comes back
after the injury.
Speaker 1: Now, this is why you have me here and a
compelling thing about that date that night, because I'm already
looking at this with my travel. That night is the
night of the college basketball March Madness Final four for
the Men in San Antonio, Texas April fifth, So that's
why ESPN might not care as much, or maybe ESPN
would want to fight on a Friday night, not on
the night of the final four. So stay tuned. But
that's the tentative date that you're hearing for that one.
Speaker 4: April fifth. April fifth, Yes, that's when they're planning to
do it. And by the way, the site would be
the Palms Casino, which is the that's the location that
they requested with the commission. So as a matchup, I
mean it's listen, it ain't the biggest matchup in the world,
but competitively in the ring, ab Delive against Martaya. Yeah,
I mean, we're kind of getting a little esoteric here,
but that is not a bad matchup, and there are
stakes and the winner either gets Loma Chenk or gets
to be the IBF titleholder if he doesn't come back.
Speaker 2: All right, so let's stick with the lightweights.
Speaker 1: The man that Loma beat, George Cambosis, also beaten twice
by Devin Haney as well as the undisputed champion, is
now going to come back. He has a new deal
himself for promotion and we're looking at another fight date
for him even sooner in March. All right, So give
me the latest about Cambosis and when he's back and
what's going on.
Speaker 4: So he's been promoted by Lou de Bella for the
last while. They this is nothing new. This was like,
you know, a month or two ago whenever it was
that they had done a deal where he would be
now co promoted along with you know, staying with Lou,
but also now co promoted by by match from boxing
which is done shows in Australia and has other fighters
from Australia. And so the first fight of this now
new co promotion with Cambosis, who was moving up to
junior welterweight and he's gonna fight in Sydney, Australia, obviously
you know, his home country, and the fight will take
place March twenty second, And so they announced the date.
They put up their social media posts with a big
picture of George, and they announced some of the folks
on the undercart including the WBC Women's featherweight champions Sky Nicholson.
You also have the former IBF Junior featherweight women's title
holder Ernikah Johnson, also Australian, as well as the twenty
twenty four Olympian super heavyweight Tarramona Tarramona, so big Australian card.
They didn't announce the opponents. My reporting tells me that
the likely candidate to be the opponent for Big George Cambosis.
You know, remember George has not done so well in
recent fights. He needs a little bit of a rehabb
He's one in three in his last four fights, including
being you know, stopped and beaten up by Loma in
the last fight, and the absolutely one sided losses to
Devin Hiney, and the one win he had by the
way against Max and Hughes by decision was a fight
that many any people thought that MAXI got robbed in
and should have had his hand raised that ad. So anyway,
the likely opponent for him is going to be a
Indonesian fighter named Dowd You're Dan who was forty three
and four, And honestly, when I heard that, I was like, Dowd,
You're Dan. I covered a fight of Dowd Your Dan's
TJ gotta be fourteen fifteen years ago he fought in Sunrise,
Florida on an HBO undercard against Celestino Cabalero, weighing one
hundred and twenty two pound champion.
Speaker 1: You're not you're looking right at me. You're not looking
at anything. Did you look that up before? Or you're
coming up with that name off the top of your head?
And who he fought in Sunrise, Florida. When I wrote
about ten years ago, I don't.
Speaker 2: Remember what I had for breakfast yesterday.
Speaker 3: I can't listen.
Speaker 4: I looked it up when I was writing about him
being the postponent stone on my mind. But the point
I was making is when I was writing about this
and I heard about him as the likely opponent, I
was like, Dowd, you're Dan?
Speaker 2: Is this?
Speaker 3: I saw?
Speaker 2: Where's a brother? Is this his cousin?
Speaker 4: No, it's to hit it, I swear to God. My
initial thought was does he have a son that's boxing?
But no, it's him. And by the way, he's not
like he's thirty seven years old, but he's a guy
that turned pro, like you're really young. But he's been
a professional. Literally, I think he's now twenty plus years
into his career and he actually, for a period of
time was like a good contender, you know, at one,
twenty two, one twenty six. But I had no idea
that he was still fighting. Uh you know, like I say,
he's got a good record. He has kind of been
a little inactive, but anyway, you know, he's probably gonna
be the guy that Cambosa's fights. And listen, George, if
anybody deserves a little bit of a I might even
say he's a soft touch. He's a little a legit,
solid pro for a long time, but not a big name.
So you know, it's like the it's the Get Well
Fight for George, or it's supposed to be put it
like that.
Speaker 1: So that's coming coming in March. Standby for that in Sydney.
All Right, one more name while we're talking about next
fights up. The name Michael Conlin makes the rundown. Looks
like he's going to be back. There have been a
lot of questions because he took a couple of bad knockouts,
some brutal ones. Is that he is going to be back?
What are we hearing on when this is?
Speaker 3: So he's signed.
Speaker 4: So what was announced in the last several days was
he signed with Wasserman Boxing, which is based in Britain,
run by Calli and n C. Sourland, who people will
know as a long time promoters from Sourland event in Germany.
But they're now doing this Wasserman Boxing and they have
been promoting shows regularly and if you are in Britain,
you know that a lot of those shows are televised
on Channel five in the UK, which is terrestrial television.
A lot of the shows wind up on their own
in the United States and they have a card that's
coming up on March seventh where they're gonna so they
announced they had signed Conlin and he's gonna fight on
the undercard in an eight rounder, just to sort of
get better and see how he does and see how
he feels. I mean, he's taken. Like you mentioned, first
of all, Michael is a very popular fighter, a fighter
that if you meet him, a very likable guy. I
don't know anybody in boxing doesn't like Michael Conlin. But
he's coming off some brutal knockouts. I mean, go back
to two thousand, well, if you go back to twenty
twenty two, he was on the receiving end of the
knock out of the Ear. That was when he fought
Lee Would in a WBA featherweight title fight, and if
you remember, in the twelfth round, he got not only
knocked out, he got knocked out of the ring and
with a big right hand into Carl Murretti's lap basically
at ringside, because that was when he was with top
rank and that was the knockout of the ear in
twenty twenty two.
Speaker 3: So he came back after that.
Speaker 4: He won a couple of fights against you know, a
lesser kind of guys, but you know, took care of business.
Then he got a chance to fight Luis Alberta Lopez
for the IBF featherweight title in his hometown of Belfast,
and he got pummeled in the fifth round. It was
another bad knockout, I mean a bad knockout. And then
he came back at the end of twenty twenty three
and he fought Jordan Gill, a fight that Conlin was
probably supposed to win, and Jordan Gill knocked himut in
the seventh round.
Speaker 3: Yepes.
Speaker 4: Now you've got three bad knockout losses in five fights.
You've got back to backbrough knockouts. This the last fight
was December of twenty twenty three. He did not fight
at all in twenty twenty four, trying to guess figure
out what he wanted to do, and he decided he
wants to give it another go for your see the
comments he made in the announcement of his fight. You know,
his dream was to be a world champion. He's trying
to get a third title shot, and you know, good
luck to him. I mean I'm not sure. I mean,
I get the motivation, and you know he's been boxing
his whole life. I mean, it's hard to give it up.
He was a great amateur fighter. You know, has made
good for a guy that never won a world title. Uh,
he's made good money as a professional. He did have
an interim title for our five Minutes, right.
Speaker 1: Fans will remember the top rank kept pushing him, bringing
him to the United States for Saint Patrick's Day weekend
in New York a couple of times.
Speaker 3: He spent a lot of time training and living in
the United States.
Speaker 2: I mean he got knocked out.
Speaker 1: He got knocked out repeatedly over a couple of years,
a year and a half. And so now he'll be
back in March, and this is what on the undercart
of the Harlem You Bank uh.
Speaker 2: Card right in March.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I mean that main event.
Speaker 4: I mean, if you're if you're into into you know,
those are not big names in America, but in Britain,
that's actually like a pretty interesting matchup. I mean and
Harlem You Bank. If the names sons formula. He is
the nephew of Chris HU Banks Senior, the first cousin
of Chris U.
Speaker 3: Bank Junior.
Speaker 2: Interesting, Chris U.
Speaker 4: Banks Senior is very involved in his career, helping guide
him and manage him, et cetera. So he's trying to
make his way. He's a undefeated, undefeated fighter, and you know,
stepping up the fight McKenna, who's been in the ring
with some good guys, even though he's got a few losses. Anyway,
Michael will be in an eight rounder on that undercard.
Speaker 1: All right, nostalgia time before we depart off the weekend here.
It was twenty two years ago on Saturday yesterday, as
we do the pod, January twenty fifth, two thousand and three,
that Vernon Forrest knocked off Sugar Shane Moseley to win
the WBC's welterweight title in a significant upset.
Speaker 2: Again, this was a.
Speaker 1: Huge quite the rivalry and quite a win for Vernon,
for the late Vernon Forest. So tell me more about
that night in January now almost a quarter of a century.
Speaker 3: Ago, TJ.
Speaker 4: I have so many vivid memories of that night, and
you were joking on how you can't remember like what
you had for breakfast, Like I still remember so much
about that night again as long as many years ago
as it was. First of all, it was a fight
that a lot of people wanted to see. It was
the fight to make in that weight class, one of
the if you put it like this, if you were
making back then, you know, in late twenty twenty two,
here's my list of my top ten fights I wanted
to see in two thousand. Rather in whatever two thousand three,
two thousand and three, you would have had Vernon Forrest
and Shane Moseley on your list somewhere without a question. Now,
Vernon had won the IBF title, he had been an Olympian,
and Shane had obviously been Oscar del Loya, he had
won the welterweight WBC title, had been the lightweight champion
and made you know, eight defenses by knockout. And this
was a hot fight. It was a rivalry too, as
you mentioned. And the reason was because Shane Moseley was
heavily favored to be a United States Olympian in nineteen
ninety two in Barcelona, and it was Vernon Forrest who
kept him from making the Olympic team by upsetting him
in the Olympic trials. And so that was an obvious
fight that should happen in the in the pros. Vernon
had the title, it should have been a unification fight.
But even twenty two years ago, TJ the IBF was
doing IBF thing they he wanted to force him to
have a mandatory a defense. If I'm not mistaken, I
believe it was the Italian Michelle Piecillo, and that would
have paid him like five cents. Instead, he made seven
figures to fight Sugar Shane Mosley in a major HBO
main event. They held the fight at the Madison Square
Garden Theater. I was ringside for the fight, very hyped
up fight, and it was all about can Mosley avenge
his amateur loss. That was a huge talking point leading
up to the fight, or is Vernon gonna have his
number and win again? And Vernon forrest who was the
heavy underdog. Remember at this point, Shane Moley is pretty
much by most people number one pound for pound. I
know Prime Roy Jones is still lurking around, but Roy
was kind of inactive a little bit at that point,
hadn't been fighting the best guys at that point, and
Shane had beaten Oscar, had looked spectacular in a couple
of fights after Oscar. Now he's fighting Vernon Force. Most
people had Sugar Shane as number one, So not only
is the title at stake, both of the guys were undefeated,
and you have the aspect of the pound for pound
situation and the whole you know, amateur rivalry. And so
it was a big night and at the time, it
set the record for the biggest gate at the Madison
Square Garden Theater. And Vernon Forrest basically put a beating
on Shane Mosley like we had never seen Shane, even
against guys like Oscar forget about hurt or you know,
knocked out or beaten, never even seen him hurt. Vernon
Forrest cracked him with some shots in the second round,
dropped him twice. Shane had never even been wobbled in
his career at that point, and he put him on
his ass two times. And I've told this story before
and I can still remember this. I hear it in
my mind anytime this fight comes up. When he knocked
him down the first time he hit him with I
believe it was like some kind of straight right hand,
and he knocked him into the corner post and he
went down on the canvas. And when I tell you
that five thousand plus people that were there at the
Madison Square Garden Theater at the exact same time, including
all of us at ringside at the same moment, went yeah,
like it was a shocking you can't. The electricity of
that moment is rivaled by things alike when Sergio Martinez,
you know, got knocked down by Julio szar chov Is
in around twelve of their middleweight title fight in many
years ago. Also, this the the shock of what was occurring.
This is the second round, I mean, this is not
deep into the fight, right, and Shane, to his credit,
he was able to hang on and make it the distance,
but he you know, basically took a bit of a
beating in the fight. He lost, you know, very clearly
in the fight in terms of a decision, and you know,
it was a big shocker, and Shane had had had
his undefeated record taken away. The scores, I'm looking at
the scores one seventeen, one eleven, one sixteen, one to
twelve and a very overly generous one. I take that
back one eight. I'm looking at the rematch one eighteen
one O eight, one seventeen one O eight and one
fifteen one ten, And h our boy Steve Smoger was
the referee, did a great job not stopping the fight
at that point. I remember also very specifically from my
vantage point where I was seated on press row at
one point in the fight when he started to take
more of a beating from Vernon. You had Jack Moseley,
who was his father and trainer, who basically was like
a deer in headlights that night because he was so
discombobulated by what's happening to his son. You will not
see this on the broadcast if you go back and
watch HBO, But I distinctly remember looking to my left
from my ringside seat and seeing Jack Mosey go up
the steps with a towel in his hand, ready to
throw it in. Now, there was a man named Cassiu's Green.
You might recognize him by the white sailor hat that
he always wore. He would sugar Shane's cutman. And when
I tell you that cash is Green jerked Jack back
off the steps by grabbing the back of his shirt.
I mean he grabbed him and pulled him physically down.
Speaker 2: To keep him throwing the towel in.
Speaker 4: Potentially, that is correct, and he did not throw the
towel in, And obviously Shane went on and you know,
he hung in there and he lost the fight. And
then ps Shane had a rematch clause. He exercised that
and six months later they met in Indianapolis, another fight
that I was ringside for, and Vernon beat him again
in the rematch. And what's also interesting about this Sugar
Shane Vernon Force number one fight is that that Vernon
at this point this is the first boxing client of
Al Haman's. He helped negotiate that fight and then the rematch,
and then after that they negotiated a big HBO contract
with it you know, Al Hayman and HBO for Vernon.
But that was really this was Al's entry into boxing,
was working these these very high profile bouts with Vernon Forrest.
So that's where that started twenty some years ago. This
was a humongous upset and a very very memorable fight
in my time of covering boxing, how about that.
Speaker 1: So that's twenty two years ago, all right. So back
up two years earlier to January twenty seventh of two
thousand and one, which is twenty four years ago. Monday
and the Sydney Olympic United States fighters all turn pro.
This was something that we had seen after the eighty
four and after the eighty eight Games where they all
turned pro like in one big event. So this is
January of one and the US Olympians were all turning
pro in that very same venue you just talked about
in the Madison Square Garden theater.
Speaker 4: It wasn't it wasn't all of them, TJ. It was
there was like the five of them, right, So this
was a time. This was like the maybe the height
of like the HBO Showtime, you know, arms build up
if you will. Basically HBO through Loud de Bella and
Madison Square Garden were affiliated with the five that you
you know that we're going to talk about and the
other guys Rocky Warrez for example, there was others that
Jeff Lacy was another. They were all with Shelley Finkel
as his as their manager and Main Events as a promoter.
And they signed with Showtime. So it was the you know,
the two who was going to get the better guys?
There was a big bidding war. I remember going to
New York for the news conference to announce the signings
of these fighters. One thing, by the way, this is
quick aside. It wasn't related to the fight itself, but
going to the kickoff press conference, the Dave Matthews band
was playing Madison Square Garden like later that night, and
I got lost, like finding my way around. I wound
up in the main arena and I had like, I
was like a one man audience for the Dave matthew soundcheck.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, did you get did you
and counter Dave Matthews's security, or did you may hang
out before the show because you're lost after the press conference.
Speaker 4: But I hung out there for like fifteen minutes and
listen to their sound check. It was pretty cool anyway.
So now fast forward to they have the actual show.
Now the thing is, you know, this was a big up,
hype up thing. You have all these young guys turning pro,
a lot of high hopes for their pro pro records,
pro careers, and you know what, are they going to
become superstars? And every one of them had like, you know,
stuff behind him that made it think like, Okay, these
guys are gonna be the real deal, or hopefully they
be the real deal and I'll just run through them.
You had the heavyweight Michael Bennett, who had given a
very good fight in the Olympics to the great Cuban
Felix Savone. You had Ricardo Williams Junior, who was considered
the best prospect on the team as a pro lightning
fast come out of that Cincinnati area, you know, being
compared to some of the you know, some of the
past Cincinnati greats, like the like the Aaron Pryors. He
shared his manager had been involved with Aaron Pryor back
in the day. So there was that was a big storyline.
You had Jermaine Taylor, who was the middleweight, who was
you know, the fighter that was I think not as
well known, but impressed in the Olympics and started to
gain some notoriety. It's you know, I had looked good
and had claimed the medal. Clarence Vincent who was also
had won a medal. He was known as a very
good boxer, but he really was his claim to fame
and why he got some attention was because his uncle
is the great Hall of Famer Mark too Sharp Johnson
out of Washington, DC.
Speaker 3: And then you add from.
Speaker 4: The West coast Jose Navarro, who was like as a
professionally thought mostly as a junior bandon Wait who was
a very skillful fighter and in as a pro we
fought for a world title. Kind of got robbed actually
in one of his chances in Japan, but never really
got over the hump. The point is, all these guys
had huge hopes and the only one that ever really
accomplished anything as a professional was Jermaine Taylor. Became the
undisputed Middleway champion, made huge amounts of money and was
involved in some very big fights twice with Bernard Hopkins,
Kelly Pavlick and other fights as well. And the other
guys one by one, they just were not able to
do the accomplishment. So but on the night that they
turned pro, obviously they all one. HBO blew it out.
It was a big boxing after dark where, you know,
highly unusual for HBO to put on that type of
card where you got guys in like four rounders as
opposed to a world championship fighter some sort of meaningful fight.
But it was. It was a pretty big deal. And
on top of that, the ones, the fights that were
not even on the on television. They had another American
Olympian who was just put on the card, Dante Craig
turned pro as well as the Again he was an Olympian,
but not from the United States, Jerson Ravello, who lived
in the US. But I had represented i want to say,
the Dominican Republic maybe, So you had the five guys
that we talked about, plus another sixth American, plus a
revel oh and also the Italian heavyweight who was looking
to make up a big splash, Paalo Vidos, who had
gotten a medal. So this was just like a huge
card of metal winners.
Speaker 1: I do have to interject, out of all of those names,
the only name that most fight fans no recognize that
did anything really significant as a professional and one world
title is Jermaine Taylor's right.
Speaker 2: But we don't know, we don't know, we don't know
what's going to happen After.
Speaker 4: That night when it happened, there was so much hype
about this was going on that you thought, you know,
maybe you'd see what you saw in eighty four when
you had you know, Evander Holyfield and Melgach Taylor and
and Penel Whitaker all turning pro on the same car
together and going on to become Hall of famers. And
by the way, you just mentioned Pearnol you just jogged
my memory again. It was on this night, earlier in
the day, when I was at the garden before the
cards started, where I met for the first time in
person Pearnel Whitaker. Now I'll tell a story about that
if you haven't wait wait wait.
Speaker 1: Is this the same day that you hung out with
the Dave Matthews band.
Speaker 2: Is the same day?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 4: No, the Dave Matthews band. That was that the pre
fight press conversation that was like a month or two
before that.
Speaker 2: I understand, all right, So Pernell that day, what do
you remember?
Speaker 4: So the reason why Pearnol was there is because Dante Craig,
the welterweight from the Olympic team. He was promoted by
Dino Duva, who's had he had been associated with main events,
but they had broken apart. There was like a family
squabble and now he had his company, Duva Boxing. His father,
Lou Duva was there and they were working promoting and
Lou was training Dante Craig, so they put him on
this cart. And Parnell was still very close to the
to Lou Duva, who had been his trainer, and you know,
their family promoted most of his career. So Parnell was
like their guest and he was at the show. So
when I got there, I was introd. I was friendly
with Dino, and I had a nice relationship with Lou,
and I was introduced to Parnel Whitaker, who was a
great fighter. I had never gotten a chance to cover
him when he was active, except one fight, but I
didn't go to what I just wrote about it anyway,
So I got was a thrilling opportunity to sit down
and like shoot the shit with the great Pernel Whitiker
for like fifteen minutes, you know, and just just hang out.
Speaker 3: It was great. I was like, amazing.
Speaker 4: Now, then the fights happened, fast forward, everything is over with.
I go back to my room at the hotel Fight
Hotel across the tree from the garden, and I'm getting
up super early to make my train back to Washington.
It's probably about, you know, seven in the morning, and
I'm going to get like my eight o'clock train across
the street. And as I'm coming out of the elevator
in like the empty hallway there to go out the
front door because it was super on a Sunday morning
in New York City, Who's coming in in the same
close as the night before, completely eradicated and fucked up.
Perna Whittaker had been out and who knows what went
on in the last several hours. Yes, And I literally walked.
I didn't realize that until I got up close to
him that how fucked up he was. And look, he
had his drug and alcohol problems during his career, not
a secret, the blank expression, had no recollection, didn't know
who I was. Remember, I had sat with the man
for like fifteen minutes and had and was introduced to
him by his d had a beautiful boxing conversation with him,
and now we're talking.
Speaker 1: But it's a hard night and it's a hard overnight,
and he doesn't remember.
Speaker 3: Takes like ten hours later.
Speaker 4: There's no recollection, and I was like, I just kind
of felt bad, and I kept walking to go out
the door, and I turned around. I swear to god,
I saw him stumble into the elevator. It was I
broke my heart actually in some ways. But that that
that Unfortunately, that's my meeting for the first time.
Speaker 2: There you go, nice.
Speaker 3: I did have I did have.
Speaker 4: Other meetings with him in yeah, and where there was
everything was good, interviewed him, et cetera.
Speaker 2: There you go, h And that was the night with
the Olympian.
Speaker 3: I forgot about that.
Speaker 1: We got nostalgia on top of the nostalgia that sometimes happens,
and the peeps love that from back in two thousand.
Speaker 3: And I wish I knew what he did that night.
Speaker 2: Man, Well, obviously you have some idea what he had.
Speaker 4: Been, I mean specifically where and how and who and
exactly what.
Speaker 2: You know what, the answer is, whatever sweet pe wanted.
Speaker 1: Apparently that's what he did that night, all right, So
good stuff gave you a lot on the recaps with
the the Monster nooa in a way, KO, but Checko's
decision winn in the match Room main event in Vegas,
Dalton Smith's KO, we gave you some news and now
we are ready for you to.
Speaker 2: Head west for Better bv Or.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry for Morrell and ben a vetas you just
heard from David ben Vedas on the previous pot. It's
now fight week for those guys, and the winner could
I mean, this is not an exaggeration.
Speaker 2: Just one more time.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about it later in a week, but
this is one of the story lines. The winner could
be in line for the winner of this Better Be
bev Ol fight. So we got a compelling pay per.
Speaker 3: View, yeah, no question.
Speaker 4: I mean, the fight itself is a great matchup, but
like you said, on top of that is the fact
that yeah, the winner of the fight is going to
be the is the mandatory in the WBA and the
WBC and Turkey. Alshikaz mentioned about how he you know,
he didn't really mention morel specifically, but at Benavidez at
least he mentioned about how he wants to get him
involved in that, in that in that group of guys,
and so yeah, it would not be out of the
realm of possibility at all for later in the year
to see the winner to take on whoever emerges with
the undisputed title.
Speaker 3: All right, so.
Speaker 1: Again here more from David Benavitez with Dan in the
build up to the fight. Be safe getting out to Vegas.
We'll check in with you later on this week. Rayfaiel
on the road back in Clark County without me. You
gotta behave don't do any prone Whittaker overnight binges, not
much while we're going, and will reconvene later this week.
Speaker 2: For the upcoming show. We're done with January.
Speaker 1: This will be the first compelling fight card of what
will be a busy February coming up. For now, though,
we're good here on the Fight Preak to Night Recap
podcast by the Rayfield.
Speaker 2: Have a good week. Travel safe to Vegas.
Speaker 3: Thank you, sir.
Speaker 1: There you go, there's Dan Rayfield. Get on the Fight
Preak to Night, substack and newsletters. Subscribe and follow on
this podfeed. I'm merely TJ.
Speaker 2: Reeves.
Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us on the Fight Freaks
Unit Recap podcast