Speaker 1: All right, off of a weekend that has seen a
welterweight women's world title win for Lauren Price that we're
ready to go over. That has also seen former world
title challenger Joett Gonzalez win a featherweight show down.
Speaker 2: We'll go over that as well.
Speaker 1: We've also got an outstanding prospect from the United States
that Dan Rayfield's talking to. We've got a lot to
go over, news, nostalgia, and much more. It is the
Fight Freaks Unit recap podcast. Hope you're doing well in
the merrimnth of March on the somewhat capable host TJ.
Speaker 2: Reeves.
Speaker 1: Hello to the insider. After all, Fight Freaks Unit is
his substack and his newsletter. Hello Dan Rayfield, who is
smiling even though you can't see him. After the Duke
Blue Devils once again drop kicked North Carolina, the arch
rival in college basketball.
Speaker 2: You're happy about that.
Speaker 1: Good to be back with you here off the weekend
as we head to another week.
Speaker 3: I'm very happy about that outright ACC championship in the
regular season, dominating victory once again as they cruise through
the ACC for the last little bit. But you know what,
it was good. They got a little pressed from the
tar heels for part of that game, so we can
see what they're made of and hopefully they can to
the acc.
Speaker 2: They look the real deal.
Speaker 1: And by the way, my Memphis Tigers have won their conference.
Could it be a Memphis Duke showdown somewhere down the road,
you and me jousting with plastic silverware. It might happen
in college basketball, all right. So there's a little bit
on that, and now we're ready to get into recapping
the fights. And as we mentioned, we also have a
special interview. Also, we have a couple of fights midweek
of interest. So even though this is the recap podcast
by the Rayfield, it also doubles as a preview here
a little bit for the midweek fights in Australia and Japan.
We'll explain a little more in a couple of moments.
Speaker 3: You tell our peeps who the interview is with.
Speaker 2: The Yeah, I did.
Speaker 1: At the beginning of the show. Thank you for paying
attention that Amari Jones is with us.
Speaker 3: I mentioned you you hadn't mentioned his name.
Speaker 2: I thought I said his name.
Speaker 1: The former olympian who's on this se prospect A prospect
all right, the former olympian, right and he's with the
matchroom stable of fighters and he's fighting this coming weekend,
so it's very much relevant.
Speaker 3: Bro Jan, you for the only Olympic medalists for the
United States in the Paris Olympic.
Speaker 1: You will hear from him post haste. Fourth with coming
up again.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Make sure you're following subscribing. We've got lots of podcast
audience that's been finding us. The Javonte Davis controversy had
something to do with that, but also the conclusion of
the re Odds season with the huge pay per view.
A lot of you have found us in the month
of February, in particular off the analytics. Keep keep following, subscribing,
sharing the show rating, reviewing, rates and reviews help us.
Five star ratings and reviews do help us keep that up.
All right, let's get into it, so we do have
a win for Lauren Price and the Women's World Welterweight
Unification showdown on Friday afternoon US time, Friday night, London time,
the boxer main event. I must confess to you and
all of the blur of my weekend, I have not
seen this.
Speaker 2: I saw a highlight of it. I know you have.
Speaker 1: You've been much more honed in on it, and Price
does get the win. Give me a thought or two
in the recap mode.
Speaker 3: Lauren Price is a really good fighter. I mean, this
was not a fight where she's gotten that vast professional experience.
It was only her ninth professional fight, but she was
an Olympic gold medalist in the two thousand delayed twenty
twenty Olympics. You know that took place in twenty twenty one,
and she has done nothing but fight almost flawlessly as
a professional. And now she takes a big step up
against Natasha Jonas, who was an Olympian herself many years
before Lauren Price was. In fact, in twenty twelve, Natasha
Jonas was the very first female Olympic boxer for Team
Great Britain. So she is somewhat of a trailblazer and
she had a hell of a career herself in terms
of her professional accomplishment. She's a two division world champion.
She came into this fight having two of the welterweight
world title belts, and she had defeated you know, good fighters.
She had defeated you know what, was a really outstanding fight,
matter of fact, which was one of the better women's
I mean, it wasn't maybe in the level of the
Katie Taylor Serrano type matchups in terms of the action.
But her fight that was against Mikhaela Mayer that took
place in twenty twenty four was a tremendous battle where
she won a split decision. But she's fought plenty of
the top names in the weight classes that she has
participated in. She's actually has done what a lot of
the women do that is different than the men, which
is when she won a world title, she did it
at one fifty four, and then she dropped down and
became a champion at one forty seven. Typically you go up,
especially in the men's side, but in the women's side
of boxing, it's a little bit more common. Serrano's a
perfect example. She's gone down as well as gone up
in terms of winning world titnels. But anyway, Jonas came
into this fight as a, you know, to unify these belts,
and my perspective going into the fight was they're both
tremendous fighters. But it's hard to look at a forty
year old Jonas going up against a very fresh and
prime and hungary Lauren Price, who was only thirty a
tenure age gap is dramatic, particularly when Jonas has been
talking about being, you know, retiring for the last bit
and kind of was convinced, I guess to keep going anyway.
She put up a good fight, but, as she said
in her post fight interview, because she just could not
deal with lourn Price's speed at all. And while she
was throwing one punch at a time and looking for
a big shot, Lauren Price was absolutely dazzling with her
skills and landing combinations and tight jab and doing all
the things you're supposed to do, and she totally dominated
the fight. She won, going away one hundred to ninety
on one scorecard to shut out and the two other
judges ninety eight, ninety two, ninety eight ninety three. This
was a one sided fight and Lauren Price, she won
the fight. She unified three of the belts. And what
I like about it is that Jonas gave her the
full credit afterwards. There was no bad feeling. She's like,
you know, gave the gave her the props, and from
Price's perspective, appreciative of the opportunity to fight a classy
fighter and a classy person like Natasa Jonas and calling
out the other. The other wants to fight the unification
with either Michaela may or Sandy Ryan, because Michaela has
the other belt, the WBO title. She fighting Sandy Ryan
into the month in the rematch of their first fight
that was so excellent, And I think there's a very
good chance that whoever wins is going to be an
opponent for Lauren Price. Maybe not the next fight, but
surely that maybe the fight after. I mean, there's one
of the one of the great things if you follow
women's boxing, there's not a lot of marinating, you know.
They get to the business, they don't, you know, because
the money in women's boxing is not as great as
in men's So if they want to make the biggest money,
they got to fight the other top other champions of
other women in their top contenders. So I don't think
they're gonna sit there and marinate Lauren Price against the
winner of the other fight, because either way, it's the
biggest fight that either of the two people in it
can have. There's no bigger fight than than the winner
for Lauren Price. And if you're Sandy Ryan or Mikhaela
mayor whoever emerges, by far, the biggest fight. If it's here,
If it's Lauren against Sandy, it's a you know, a
UK fight because you know, Lauren is from Wales and
Sandy is from England. If it's Mikaela, Michaela has got
a pretty good reputation, is well known in Britain where
she's fought several times and won some major fights and
then involved in some big events. So that is a
really good matchup, and Lauren showed that she belongs in
that kind of fight by the way that she absolutely
handled you know, a top opponent like Natasha Jonas, who
because of the the way that the Hall of Fame
operates and the fact that the women's side of the
sport is still in a sort of infancy and they
still put people on the ballot and they elect them.
I'm very confident then Tasha Jonas are going to make
the Hall of Fame someday. And Lauren Price the way
she's been fighting and even to those early in her career,
and people like Michaela Mayor like they may very well
be on their way also these you know, we're in
a really good age of women's boxer right now. We
were seeing the third fight between Katie Taylor and Amanda
Torano coming up. They just announced, you know, a few
days ago, and now I think there's a really good
chance we're gonna have another hell of a fight in
the welterweight division between Lauren Price and whoever is the
woman that wins that that rematch between Michaela and Sania Ryan.
So I'd really pumped up. I mean, you know me, TJ.
I'm not, like, like I've said a million time, not
the biggest women's boxing fan. But when you give me
fights like Serrano and Taylor, or you can give me
a price versus that winner those types of fights, I'm
definitely into it.
Speaker 2: And I agree with you.
Speaker 1: The compelling matchups happen with much more frequency. The fighters
stay active, so it's easy to keep track of and
there you go to a big win for Lauren Price.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: So, also off the weekend, Joett Gonzalez did win over
Arnold Kagui, the slight favorite, in a featherweight main event
on Probox TV out of Long Beach, California. Again, give
me more on this. The one thing that you led
me in with before we started rolling on this is
that this was a bit of a snooze fest. But
then it perked up and was a better fight.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no doubt about it. I mean this was this
was This was the pro box TV main event, and
they've done a lot of you know, good fights on
pro box TV, but this was one that was like
slightly more meaningful, I guess, slightly more name recognition than
some of the other main events they've done. But the
reality he was a fight between two guys. Joet Gonzalez,
who was a battle tested veteran who has fought for
the world title on three occasions, who's got four losses.
All the top guys in the three title fights, plus
in a fight against Isaac Dogday come up a little
bit short in those fights are in the case of
the fight, which of course Stevenson a lot short, but
he's still in a position where he wanted to see
what I've got left. He hadn't fought for a while,
and Ka Guy has you know, he's with top rank.
Joette used to be with top rank, but they put
him on this Probox card because of the way the
schedule had fallen, and Ka Guy had been in a
position as a number one contender and was sort of
risking the position he was you know, he'd been ordered
in an eliminator in the past and took a big
gamble in this fight, and he was, like you said,
he was the favorite, and for the first few rounds,
like the crowd was booing and it's like, oh boy,
we're seeing a terrible fight here, which was kind of
surprising because if you ever watched Joet Gonzalez fights, he
obviously has been in a tremendous amount of good fights.
Kaguy is not a guy that I would say is
in great fights all the time, but certainly not fights
that people are booing in. But let me tell you
by about I don't know, maybe like the fourth round
really like a business was picking up, let's put it
like that, and these guys really went to it. You know,
there was some blood. There was a cut from you
know that Joette suffered. So it's a really close fight.
I mean, it was a split decision. Two of the
judges had it obviously in favor of Joe At Gonzalez
who won the fight, ninety six ninety three for him,
ninety seven ninety two on the other card that voted
for him, and then one judge had it ninety five
to ninety four, and you know, honestly watching the match,
it felt like, you know what, I thought that that
Joette probably pulled it out. I thought the ninety seven
to ninety two was maybe a little bit wide, but
you know, there was like did we talk the range
of acceptable score? Some of those early rounds were so
terrible they really could have gone either way. But anyway,
good battle and in a big win because Joette Gonzalez
can continue his career at least, you know, in a
main event type fighter against another contender or in an
eliminator and maybe might even be able to put himself
in position for a fourth shot at a title. And
for a guy, you know, it's a tough it's a
tough loss. They're not going to end his career and
anything like that, but you know, he takes a step back.
But you know, when I was watching this fight, and
I was and I knew that they made the match,
I kept thinking to myself, this is what in the
past generation, let's call it, when Friday night fights were
still on ESPN two, this is exactly the kind of
fight that they would feature in the main event where
you have two decent guys, two guys who are you know,
in positions to be in a contender type fight. Who
are looking at as they say, fight on Friday night
to get to Saturday night.
Speaker 2: You know exactly exactly, fight.
Speaker 3: Friday to get to Saturday for an HBO or a
showtime fight. That's what this was. So that's it was
a quality matchup and it turned out to be a
good fight after a couple of bad rounds on you
know what, Joet survives because his losses, as I said,
were only the good guys dog Day in a ten rounder,
but title fights against Chaquur Stevenson, Emanuel never Entate, which
is a War of Wars where he took a beating,
but it was just an unbelievably you know, the heart
that he showed. And then he also lost against Luis
saubert A Lopez in a world title fight. But you
know what, he he has a nice win now against
Arnolokuk guy and he moves on.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 1: Had some good recaps for this weekend and again it's
a little bit of a different quirk in the schedule
that we're actually now going into the preview mode where
in Australia coming up Wednesday morning US time Wednesday night
in Sydney, Australia. It is the return of Keith Thurman.
He will fight Australian Brock Jarvis. Thurman off of a
three year layoff, and I've got to confess to you again,
this is a guy that I'm very fond of. He's
from my area here in Clearwater, Florida. I didn't know
if Keith was gonna fight anymore when he was supposed
to have fought a year ago against Tim Zoo. He
suffered a bicep injury right before the fight. So now
Thurman is back at an advanced age. The former world
welterweight champ has not been active at all because of
injuries and other situations over the last six seven years.
Jarvis is more of kind of a journeyman I would
call him in Australia, but this fight has method to it,
especially if Thurman can win. So pick it up from
there for this main event bound in Australia that will
be coming up before we're back to do our preview
podcast later.
Speaker 2: In the week go ahead.
Speaker 3: I don't know if I would refer to Jarvis as
a journeyman. He's got only one defeat against Liam Paro. Yeah,
it was by a first round nine I don't know
if that makes Hi a journeyman. I mean, it was
obviously what.
Speaker 1: Would you call it? Would you call it fringe contender?
Is that a more politically correct way to put.
Speaker 3: It into politically correctness. I just don't think it's fair
to call him a journeyman when he's only had one
loss anyway. But the point is Keith Thurman, at least
from the point of view of us here in the
United States anyway, he's the story of the fight. It's
what has he got left if anything howers injuries and
can he get himself into another big fight because they
now he's ever said anything bad about Keith Thurman's ability,
or his talent, or his willingness to fight top guys,
or the accomplishments that he has had. His problem has
been injuries. He's been absolutely destroyed by injuries all kinds,
mostly to his arm, shoulder, elbow, whatever it's been you mentioned.
He had the biase of injury. He was preparing for
the Tim Zoo fight that was supposed to be the
pay per view debut on Prime Videos deal with PBC
that was last March. He dropped out less than two
weeks before the fight. If you remember where they put
Sebastian Fandor from the undercart in the fight. He ended
up having the big upset in the blood bath against
him Zu. So Thurman did go through the training camp
for the most part, but didn't actually get the fight.
So he hasn't had a real fight in the rink
since he beat Mario Barrios in a welterweight fight back
in February of twenty twenty two, so it's three years
and one month since his last match. And the thing
about it is it's not like he was super active
before that. He hadn't fought since twenty nineteen. He had
two fights in twenty nineteen against the loss against Manny Pacyao,
where I was in a welterweight title fight. That victory
allowed Pakyo to become the oldest welterweight champion in boxing history.
Before that, he defeated Josecido Lopez, but even before that
he had not fought since twenty seventeen. So his schedule
has been one fight in twenty sixteen, one fight in
twenty seventeen, no fights in twenty eighteen, the two fights
and mentioned in eighteen nineteen, nothing in twenty twenty one.
The Barrios fight in twenty two, nothing in twenty three,
and nothing in twenty four. So it's just been the
ups and downs are amazing. It's just crazy to me.
Speaker 1: I thought he would basically done yeah, and now he
is coming back and we understand he wants the chance
at Zoo. I know you've made mentioned that financially he's
looking to do this. I think maybe he misses the
limelight saw him as well all of the above.
Speaker 3: He listens.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know what we're getting on Wednesday.
Speaker 3: I really I don't think. I don't think anybody knows
what we're getting. Well, what we are getting is as
a Keith Theurmer who's willing to go to fight in
Australia on the other guy's home turf. We're getting a
Keith thurmerho's gonna be making his debut in the jerior
middleweight division, which was supposed to have been the fight
against Tim Zoo back in March of last year. And
who that knows, I assume because he got on the
plane and went that he is healthy enough to be
in a fight and we're gonna see and Brock Jarvis
is the Australian as I mentioned he's got the one loss,
which was a first round knockout to Liam Paro before
Para went on to win the IBF Junior walter whit title,
which he ultimately lost in his first defense against Richards
and Hitchens. And so you know, I give Keith credit
because he wasn't going to get a lucrative main event
in the United States at this point, or at least
not without waiting for a while or being on an
undercard maybe, but down in Australia it's a big deal.
Keep in mind also that when Parol fought and knocked
out Jarvis, that was one hundred and forty pound fight.
Now Jarvis gonna be fighting one hundred and fifty four.
So even though Thurman is moving up from welterweight, Jarvis
after the Parol fight, he had one fight at welterweight
or slightly you know, one forty four was as weight
as they look it up. And then his second fight
since the Paro loss, he fought as a middleweight one
fifty eight and three quarters. So you know, I guess
he's trying to settle into jermor middleweight. So I don't
know what we're getting from Brock Jarvis and I don't
know what heck we're getting from Keith Thurman, but I'm
interested because of it's Thurman coming back. I'm not that
much interested in Jarvis necessarily. But as I have written before,
and this is a fact, the idea here is you
have you have Keith coming back after the long layoff.
We know that Tim Zoo was coming back against you know,
coming back against Joey Spencer in Australia also, and if
both of them that's coming up also in a few weeks,
if both those guys are the winners. From what I
am told, and Tim is moob with PBC, as is Thurman,
that they've agreed to a summer fight if they both
come through successfully, so they'll put back together that fight
that got called off because of the injury to the biceps.
And the good thing for boxing fans again, they can
always change their mind. But what I was told is
that that's being contemplated, at least in the United States,
is not as a pay per view, but it would
be a regular prime video fight as opposed to you know,
the the the pay per view avenue that they were
going down for the first fight. So that's interesting and
it's not determine whether it's in Australia or the United States.
I would imagine it might be in Australia, given you
know there'll be a pay per view there. But anyway,
I have no idea what's gonna happen in this fight,
and that's one of the things that makes it interesting.
And again, you know, they haven't made the announcement yet,
but I've been told all along, even though it hasn't
been put out there, that while it's a pay per
view event at the normal time, meaning in the evening
time in Australia, which would be very early morning in
the United States, that they'll figure out a way to
make it available. I guess if they continue to do
what they said they would do on the PBC YouTube channel.
So we'll see if that comes to pass.
Speaker 1: All right, So that is Wins morning for the Australian card. Well,
then Thursday morning US time again before you and I
are back in the in the preview mode, we've got
the Kinshiro Taraji Unified flyweight title battle with Saigo Akui
his countrymen. This is the teak In Promotion's main event
in Tokyo Thursday nights, So it is Thursday morning again
in the United States, and Taraji is always in action fights,
so we are we are anxious to see. If you're
a boxing fan, yes, it's breakfast in the Japanese boxing,
I know, but we're anxious to see if Taraji can
become unified at flyweight as well.
Speaker 3: So when in a way fights in Japan, Rafael wakes
up when it's on, no questions asked. When Nakatani fights,
Rafael wakes up and watches, no questions asked. And the
only other Japanese fighter that Rafael wakes up for to
watch with no questions asked is kin Shiro Taraji, who
I absolutely love. Have been watching Taraji's entire career essentially
since he's been fighting in world title fights. This is
I believe he's gonna I think going into this fight
he's fifteen and one in world title fights. I've watched
a lot of not necessarily live because we didn't have
the ability to do that for a lot of those fights.
But now that this is on ESPN plus, we have
that ability for this bout as well as several of
his previous spouts. So I'm very looking I'm very much
looking forward to this because I love watching myself a
little conciro Taraji, and it's an important fight because it
is a unification and if you go through the annals
of boxing history, you will not find more than a
handful or a few times where there's been two Japanese
champions who have fought each other in a unification fight,
so that so somewhat of a rarity. Taraji is a
terrific fighter. I've said many times that he could be
on your top ten pound for poundless, you know, towards
the bottom end of that, you know, you could actually
have a pound for poundless and I wouldn't laugh at
you if you had three of the top Japanese fighters
in it, which is obviously in a way and near
the top, and then you could have Nakatani and Taraji
in there. Also. Taji's one loss, by the way, he
got stopped in the tenth round in twenty twenty one
and lost the WBC Junior Flyway title to Masamichi Yabuki.
He knocked him out in the third round in the
immediate a remat that was like four or five months later,
and regained the title and has been defending ever since.
You know. He defeated Kayagucci in a unification fight. Anyway,
he's been doing a hell of a job being some
very good fighters along with Canazalas and Hecki Butler, et cetera.
And when he went up to Flyway in his last
fight that took place in October, you know you're worrying, Okay,
he's gonna carry the power up. Well, yeah, the answer
is yes, because he knocked Christopher Rozalez out in the
eleventh round to win the vacant WBC Flyway title, and
this is going to be his first defense. So he's
not wasting time with some you know, regular type of bonu.
He's fighting another champion. So Akui is not as well
known in Japan or anywhere frankly as Taraji is. He's
twenty two, twenty one and two with a draw. He's
been stopped in the two losses though, so that might
give you pause, I suppose. But it's been a little
bit of time since those knockouts happened. One one was
to a total journeyman, kind of scrub type fighter in
twenty eighteen, and if you go back to the to
the other one that was guess what, he got knocked
up by Jonto Knakatani This was before Knakatani had been
a champion, and he also, by the way, mentioned too
about how when Taraji regained the title because he had
lost the title to Yabuki, the guy that that in
between the two losses that Akui suffered, he scored a
first round knockout against you again, se Yabuki. Now that
was early in Yabuki's career, was only six and one
at the time. I'm just making the point that they
do have the commonality of the opponents. So who knows
if Akui is going to have something, you know, for
Taraji to be concerned about, but look important fight in
the way class and you know, I one of my
favorite things in boxing are these Japanese cars that have
the title fights on him that come over on ESPN plus.
When when he won the title against Artam Delakian in
Japan back in January of last year or January of yeah,
January of twenty twenty four, when he beat the Lackey
and Dalaki was undefeated. He held the title for quite
a while and De Lachi was kind of a tough
fighter to fight because of his style, and he did
a very good job, you know, won pretty clear almost
to shut out on one of the score cards in
that fight, So I say, bring it on. I'm looking
forward to.
Speaker 2: It, okay.
Speaker 1: So again that's Thursday morning for they'll.
Speaker 3: Probably like five in the morning thereabouts for the United
States timing of the main event on ESPN Plus roughly, all.
Speaker 1: Right, So look for that with taraji Akui as the
main event Thursday morning. Adjust your time zone accordingly in
the US Thursday night in Japan.
Speaker 3: So we've said, so there's two other world title fights
on the card if you get up even earlier, because
you got Anthony Oliskagua who's defending the WBO Flyway title
in the same weight class he's fighting Kayaguchi, so clearly
there may be setting up a further unification between the
taraji Akui winner against Olas Kagua, not to mention the
junior Flyway title of the WBO, which is Iwada against
Renee Santiago. So you got some good world title action
between some of the smaller weight classes, which are always
fun to watch, all right.
Speaker 1: So again we gave you something in the kind of
the preview mode as well, because that's Wednesday and Thursday,
the Japanese fight card again on Thursday morning, US time,
So let's get to the interview conversation again. Omari Jones,
US Olympian A medallist, is turning pro this weekend in Orlando, Florida,
on the undercart of the Ammo Williams of Volney main
event with Edgar Berlangols on this card. So let's hear
now from a guy that there are a lot of
people high on this guy in his debut. Dan spoke
with him here in the recent you'll hear that conversation
right now.
Speaker 3: Well, it is my great pleasure to be joined on
the podcast this week by junior midweight Amari Jones. He
may not be familiar to most of you folks, but
he probably will be soon. Omari was the two thousand
and twenty four United States Olympic bronze medalist. He's making
his professional debut on March fifteenth on his own. He
signed with Mattroom Boxing and he's on the card that
will take place in his hometown of Orlando, Florida at
the Crib Royal. The main event on that show is
going to be Austin m O Williams taking on Patrice Volney.
Also on the card, Edgar Berlanga in his return against
Jonathan Gonzalez Ortiz. But I think one of the star
attractions is going to be Amrio Jones because you're gonna
be fighting in your hometown. So welcome to the show.
Welcome to the pros kid.
Speaker 4: Yes, sir, thank you, great introduction.
Speaker 5: By the way, I truly appreciate that.
Speaker 3: My pleasure. Twenty two years old, big break, future in
your career ahead of you, we all hope, and so
I guess the first thing I'd like to ask you
about is just describe your feelings just about your excitement
level of going from the Olympic level of fighting amateur
boxing to now into the professional ranks, a whole different
ball game.
Speaker 5: Yes, I'll say I'm super excited.
Speaker 4: It's going to be a bit of a different experience.
Speaker 5: You know, It'll be my first time kind of dealing
with a press conference, going back and forth with the
person i'm fighting, the face off kind of stuff.
Speaker 4: It's kind of different to me and the wigs.
Speaker 5: You know, ways is usually closed in the amateur circuit
and you just show up to fight, so even little
tweaks like.
Speaker 4: That is something different. But I'm definitely looking forward to.
Speaker 5: It and excited to showcase my talent.
Speaker 4: In my hometown Ortlanto, Florida.
Speaker 3: And you also in professional boxing. Unlike a lot of
the tournaments that you are involved in as an amateur boxer,
you know your opponent well ahead of time. I mean
there can be changes, I mean if something happens, but
you know in the amateurs, you know know who, you know,
who the draws, whoever wins, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5: But I feel that that prepared me as well because
it's like every time out with these world tournaments, I
fought the best of the best.
Speaker 4: Day in and day outs.
Speaker 5: So I feel like something like this fight would be
a stepping stone for me to get to those big
fights that I want.
Speaker 3: So you're fighting in a sixth rounder in your pro debut.
From what I understand, which is a different lot of
guys turn pro and four rounders, your opponent is an
Italian fighter who's thirty years old named Alessio Mastra New
zeal fourteen and five with four knockouts. Do you know
anything about him because I share a secdon I know
a lot about a lot of guys, but not him.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I watched a couple films on them, and we did
the research and like that is record and you know,
we see that he's a veteran to somebody that knows
what he's doing, so he definitely.
Speaker 4: Comes to fight.
Speaker 5: And I'm excited to you know that he took the
fight in my hometown. That could be very dangerous, but
he took on a challenge and I'm happy he did. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's a great record to turn pro against.
And it's also, like I mentioned, a six rounder, not
a four rounder. My understanding is that you're going to
have this fight will technically be a junior middleweight fight,
But did you look maybe to be also in the
welterweight division as you make your way in your career,
what is the situation with the weight that you want
to fight at.
Speaker 5: Right now, I'm fighting out a catchweight at one two,
So it'll it'll kind of linger between there for a
while until I see where I'm comfortable with and if
a fight presents itself.
Speaker 3: Right, I guess you know, if you're if you're not
fighting world championship fights or for titles, like if you're
a little over by a couple of pounds really doesn't
make a difference. It's not like you have a just
got to make the contract limit, not necessarily for a
title fight, but I wasn't sure. If you're thinking welterweight,
junior middleweight, I'm thinking.
Speaker 5: Junior middleweight one fifty four around here. Just depends on
you know, my body's grown, so just depends on how I.
Speaker 3: Fill out understood. So, I mean, as I mentioned when
I introduced to you, you won the bronze medal in
the Paris Olympics. You're also a silver medal winner in
the twenty twenty one World Amateur Championships, which took place
in Belgrade, and obviously you had a tremendous run in
the Paris Olympics. You were the only American on the
team men or women, in terms of the boxing competition
to come home with a medal from Paris. Can you
just tell me a little bit about what was like
your What was your experience like in Paris? You know,
I've talked to different Olympians, like they have different enjoyment
of the games. Obviously there's the competition, there's maybe seeing
other events, the camaraderie with other folks on the team.
What was your time like over there and did it
kind of live up to the expectations because so many
of these amateurs they spend so many years trying to
fulfill the goal of making it the Olympics. You got
there and you also got a medal to come home with.
Speaker 5: Yes, my experience, I enjoyed it to the fullest. From
the opening ceremony, it was a moment that I you know,
I watched the Olympic Games on TV for so long
and I just pictured myself there for so many years.
So actually being there it was just like wow, surreal moment.
Speaker 4: There was Stephen.
Speaker 5: Curry's, some Owbiles, all all the great athletes you can
think of, and it's like you take the moment and
realize that you're amongst them as well. So yeah, just
taking the time also to enjoy it and embrace it
with my family. They were there, so they made that
trip ten times better seeing them in the crowd with
full support and love, and yeah, I was happy with
bringing back a bronze medal to my city and my country.
Speaker 3: So I know it's always huge to get the metal,
and that's always a big deal, but I always am
always interested that there is at least a small part
that might be slightly disappointing because you didn't get a
silver metal, or you didn't get the gold medal.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean at times that may that thought may.
Speaker 4: Linger, but it's like you know, it lingers of.
Speaker 5: Course, like I said, but it's like I'm happy with
what I could do and everything else was out of
my hands.
Speaker 3: So I've I've I've talked to different young fighters when
they've won Olympic medals in the past, Richard torrez Keishawn Davis,
you know, among others. One thing they all have in
common that I've found that I found, and I find
it quite endearing, is they get the medal and then
they wear it around for like the next month, two months,
a couple of weeks where they go make appearances or
just because they're so proud of it and they should be.
I want to know how long or are you still
wearing the medal now that you've you've got it in
your collection.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well I feel best died down a little bit.
Speaker 5: But you know, the medal comes out on very few occasions,
but when I make my appearances sometimes the medal definitely
does have to come out.
Speaker 3: Did you like wear it while you were sleeping the
first couple of nights home?
Speaker 5: I definitely I didn't wear but it was deaf real
close to me for sure.
Speaker 3: So you had your performance and obviously you got what
everybody wants when they go to the Olympics, which is
to get a medal. Unfortunately, the rest of the Team
USA did not come home with any medals. Like I said,
men or women. Really viewed by most people as a
pretty disappointing Olympic Games for the United States, and it
looked like things had been on the upspring because there
was a number of other medals from the previous Olympics.
Can you speak to just the overall situation, not your own,
but just in terms of the lack of metal success
of Team USA at this particular paras Olympics.
Speaker 4: Yeah, to me, honestly.
Speaker 5: You know, I spoke with the team afterwards, and I
did feel that it was disappointed for us. But we
all talked together, Vinnie together, and I pretty much just
you know, kept them motivated and I had to keep
myself motivated and grounded as I saw a lot of
my teammates fall out the tournament, and I was the
last and standing for Team USA. So I did.
Speaker 4: I put my best foot forward. I did what I could.
I didn't agree with a lot of.
Speaker 5: The judge's decisions, as well on a few.
Speaker 4: Of my teammates fighting.
Speaker 5: I'm not going to say all of them, but it
was a lot of close decisions even with my fight
as well. But I'm not here, you know, to live
in excusage. I'm going to continue to live in a
moment and put forward at my professional career.
Speaker 3: How old were you when it first came into your
mind and dawned on you and said, you know what,
I want to be an Olympic medalist? Like how long
did the dream go before you finally had the realization
and put it around your neck?
Speaker 5: Yeah, so I always it was always a dream at
a young age eighteen, but it really sunk in with
me when I turned fifteen and I was at the
Junior Olympics, and at the Junior Olympics, It's like wow,
like I'm on this podium right now. I want to
be on a podium at the actual Olympics. So from
that point on, at at fifteen years old, is when
I had my mind stuck and going to different tournaments
to see how I can what can I do to
qualify and get on team essay in order to get
to the Olympics.
Speaker 3: So, if you were seven years old or if you're
fifteen years old anyway, that's about a seven year time
to go from that moment to making the dream come true.
Because if I'm not mistaken, you are twenty two years
old at this point. So that's that's not exactly like
it happened overnight exactly. Sorry. Now you come into the
pro game, and uh, most people who are going to
see you on this The Zone Show, if they check
it out, they don't really know much value. They'll know
the bio that you're the Olympic medalist and have success
as an amateur. So if somebody's out there going to
watch Amari Jones fight for the first time, how would
you describe your style to them?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 3: What are they going to see? What are they going
to look for in the in the way that you
go about your business in the ring, I feel.
Speaker 5: That they're going to see a boxer puncher, fast hands,
fast feed, quickness, and I'm just gonna, you know, put
all my skills together that night and showcase while I
belong in the professional game.
Speaker 3: And show everybody that we're going to see. What's the
best punch that you possessed? You believe like your money
maker is it a hook? Is it a uppercut as
a jeb what is what's going to pay the bills?
Speaker 4: They just gotta wait. The market seem to see that.
Speaker 3: Now I'm intrigued. So I don't think there's anybody that
goes through the amateur ranks like yourself and and and
wins the Olympic medal and then becomes a professional fighter
that doesn't have boxing idols that they grew up watching
or aspiring to be Like, can you talk to me
a little about your your your introduction to professional boxing,
some of the guys that you may have aspired to
be like or that you that you look up to
in terms of your boxing.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: When I first started watching boxing, the first person.
Speaker 4: I watched was a Leave for like two three years straight.
Speaker 5: So my style was kind of mimic after him with
my speed and quickness and movement. And then I moved
on to watch guys like Ruyd Jones and Floyd and
so I feel like I'm a little bit of a
combination of those guys.
Speaker 4: And uh, I was actually have huh.
Speaker 3: Dould say that those three guys that's like, that's not
Rushmore right there.
Speaker 5: Basically exactly, and this I kind of went after their model.
Speaker 4: You know, all of them went to the Olympics, so
I was like, all the grace did that?
Speaker 5: Let me fall behind their footsteps and you know, go
through that as well.
Speaker 3: You were saying, though you met somebody, Oh.
Speaker 5: I met I met Rory Jones, I've been to his camp.
I met Terrence Croft. For Clarissa Shields have gave me
advice a lot on the Olympic Games.
Speaker 4: And showed a lot of love. So I'm appreciative for that.
Speaker 3: Well, she was a great one with two gold medals
to her collection. Exactly when you came out of the
Olympics and it was over and you started the process
of sort of figuring out what you want to do
in terms of your professional situation? Uh? Did was there
interest from a variety of promoters who contacted you in
your in your team to sort of figure out, you know,
if you were the right fit.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so there was a few that contacted me besides
Matt Room, But I felt that Mattroom was was the
best fit.
Speaker 4: Eddie Hearn. He had the plan that.
Speaker 5: We discussed, uh, to stay busy and get the right
fights and right opponents, and you know they're their interest
in me was shown a lot more than the other
promoters and what they could do and.
Speaker 4: Will do for me.
Speaker 5: So it felt more like a partnership instead of a
boxer promoter relationship.
Speaker 3: Can you speak to who the other ones are out
there trying to recruit you as well? Who else was
out there trying to get your services?
Speaker 5: I just I just prefer not to say it's it's fine.
Speaker 3: That's there. I mean, I asked the questions. You can
answer them however you want. You know what I mean,
I'll give you. That's that's my tip for you. Media
lesson number one for a young fighter, the reporters get
to ask the questions, but the but the subject can
answer them however they want. For sure, anyway, uh one
thing every young fighter that's gonna come into the pros,
obviously the goal is to become a world champion. So
I'm not going to say what's your goal in the pros?
I know it's to become a world champion. But other
than becoming a world champion, what other types of things
would you like to accomplish as a professional? Is it
multiple divisions? Is it achieve a certain amount of money,
a certain amount of resume in terms of legacy, Like
what are the other things that sort of float your boat.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I would like to have a great resume of
fighters to fight. I feel like my division is pretty stacked,
so it's gonna be and even from the amateurs, the
one fifty six Enlightenment aweight division, what's waight division has
been stacked in the best weight class of competition for
the longest So to do that, and you know, to
make sure that I'm fine financially of course, but.
Speaker 4: Also making sure my family is set. And just like
you said, you don't have to ask too many questions.
You know, the lands goes to become a world champion.
Speaker 3: Well, I wish you the best of luck in that
endeavor and the journey, and it is a it is
a marathon, not a sprint. The journey starts on March
fifteenth on the Zone in your first fight of your
professional career. I wish you the best of luck and
I'm anxious and excited to follow your career.
Speaker 4: Yes, sir, thank you.
Speaker 1: And again it's not going to take long for us
to see the man that you were just talking to,
that they just heard from, because he's in the ring
this weekend in Orlando.
Speaker 3: Listen, he had a heck of an amateur career silver
medal winner in the twenty twenty one World Amateur Championships
only twenty two years old, got a bronze medal in
the Olympics, the only American man or woman to get
a medal from tm USA in terms of boxing in Paris.
The rest of the team frankly was a huge disappointment,
but Jones came through with the medal, looked good and
I sort of found that he was a really good interview.
I mean, a lot of times you talk to the
young guys that you know, they haven't really got their
media legs under them, actually, and so I didn't know
what to expect. I'd never spoken to before. But he
couldn't have been more pleasant and it was a good interview.
I felt like he seemed like he was prepared and
understood how to deal with it. But the funny thing
when I asked him, like people heard in there, I
was talking about, like, you know, the guy, I was like,
there's always the young fighters in they turn pro. They
always had a fighter they looked up to where sort
of modeled their style after a guy they watched on
video over and over again. And he, you know, he
was talking about Mouhammad Ali, and then he mentioned then
I started watching Roy Jones and Floyd and I feel
like I have a style similar to them. I'm like, whoa,
it's like the Mount rushmoar. So he's confident, but it
didn't come off as cocky, if that makes sense. Came
off as very good new earnest, and I thought he
has a very pleasant personality, nice demeanor about him and fights.
You know, at one hundred, he's gonna fight between fifty
four and forty seven. But that's obviously those are great
weight classes traditionally, and they've got good talent in them presently.
So I love when the guys turn pro. It's it's
it's like an injection of new It's kind of like
when you have the draft in basketball or football and
you see all these great young athletes come into the sport. Well,
when boxing, when the Olympians start to turn pro, I
sort of get that same feeling. So he's a guy
that I think we're gonna hear from. Broom obviously signed
him because they believe he's got a good chance to
do something special. Orlando is his hometown, so I'll have
the hometown crowdroom for him. So I said good luck
to the kid.
Speaker 1: All right, So again that is this weekend on the
map Troom, de Owne prospect and and he is a
prospect on that show that's coming up from Orlando this weekend. Okay,
to the news, and we can't say this is unexpected.
When we left the pod on Thursday night, you were
telling us about the appeal in progress lamont Roach, his attorney,
his team wanting the Tank Davis draw overturned in his
favor for the reasons that they gave for the for
the knockdown that looked like it was a knockdown to
obviously illegally Tank Davis sticking his head through the ropes
and getting his face wiped off in the middle of
a round, and that was allowed to go on.
Speaker 3: Well the zone there's no timeouts in boxing, is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's not.
Speaker 1: There's not supposed to be, but there was that night
at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn.
Speaker 3: All Right.
Speaker 1: The New York State Athletic Commission has now declined to
overturn the draw, and in saying basically that you know,
while it should have been called the knockdown, we're not
gonna mess with the outcome of the fight. That's the
gist of what they said. All right, what's your reaction
now that they say it is shut down? And I
guess we point towards a rematch, that's the inevitable thing
we're pointing towards. But what about the New York State
Athletic Commission not going along with overturn the outcome?
Speaker 3: Well, I can't say I'm shocked. What I said in
the in the in the before they had put out
their response was that if ever there was a protest
that I felt had a chance, because most of the
time the protests are dead in the water, they have
no shot. And I just that's just a matter of it.
Just the way this, I mean, the only time the
results get changed are drug tests mostly. I did mention
the one example of the injury to Bernard Hopkins thrown down,
but that wasn't changed too. That was changed from a
fraudulent win for Chad Dawson to a no contest because
Bernard could not go on with the injury, and ultimately
they had the rematch. This is different. This is overturning
a victor draw to a win for the other guy
based on you know, the knockdown, plus the other things.
They brought up, like you mentioned, the illegality of getting
your face, you know, wiped off, and the corner man
coming up on the ring apron, and you know, things
that are all grounds not only for a point deduction,
but also potentially for a disqualification. So I felt like
if there were ever going to be a time where
a Commission might overturn it, it might be this one,
because it wasn't just one thing they're pointing to. And
they also made a point in the in their protests
about the supposed irritant that that tank had on him,
because he said that he had stuff in his hair
that caused the burning sensation in his eyes. So they
had all these different things that they were litigating, and
I figured it was with all that tonnage, maybe the
Commission might end up doing that. In the end, they didn't,
and in terms of the knockdown, you know, it turned
according to what the And I got a copy of
the letter that the Commission executive director, Matt de Laglo,
sent off and copied to Tank's attorney and also to
alamont Roach's attorney and Andy they said, this is like
the money line in the in the entirety of that
four page letter that they sent out on Friday to
those teams without making a finding a fact. The Commission
will assume as true that the referee aired in ruling
that mister Davis sustained a knockdown in the ninth round. However,
since the bout continued for more than three full rounds
after the referees no knockdown call, and because the boxers
necessarily adjusted to the referees ruling, the referees call was
not outcome determinative. So the gist of that means the following, Yeah,
the referee fucked up, and yeah he should have called
the knockdown, and that's true, But because the fight went
three more rounds, we can't be sure that the fighters
didn't change their style or their god in or they're
a way that they went about their business to know
that even though those other three rounds were scored, that
had they called the knockdown, they might not have fought
in a different manner. And that is true. So I understand.
Speaker 1: I agree with that, just on the premise to a
degree that if Davis knows they've called that a knockdown,
which means I've lost the round, he potentially differently in
the last three rounds.
Speaker 2: I agree with that prayer, But what did you say
at the beginning?
Speaker 1: What was that word salad at the beginning about it
being determinant of it being a knockdown?
Speaker 2: Whatever that was.
Speaker 3: There saying that the referece call was me and not
determine the outcome.
Speaker 1: It was I don't know the first sentence, while something
about the knockdown that's in the that's in the actual letter.
Speaker 3: Without making a finding a fact, the commission will assume
as true.
Speaker 2: We assume as true.
Speaker 3: You know, they're saying that we fucked up and it
was a knockown. It shouldn't call the knockdown. That's how
you translated from there.
Speaker 2: I would much rather him them say that what.
Speaker 3: They should have done is have me write the letter exactly.
But the bottom line is.
Speaker 1: You line sincerely the New York State flection. We're not
changing the outcome.
Speaker 3: That's the pers Here's your thing about though. You made
mentioned that maybe Tank would have changed his style because
you knew he lost around. And I would also say,
in addition to that, which I agree with you, that
maybe Lamar Roach goes after more because he thinks he's
got him, you know, on the go and he thinks
he's got him hurdor he's got him in a position,
or maybe he can get another knockdown or get another
or maybe he didn't get the knocked out. They didn't.
And then the other thing about it, when when they
brought up all the other factors in that round, about
that cornerman coming up and about the fights being wiped
off and all that, Uh, they made the point that
that was the judgment call of the referee, that that
he was not he was. He didn't have to call
that a penalty, he didn't have to take a point,
that that was his judgment call, and that ultimately those
decisions are made by the referee. But you could tell
by the way it was written. And if you want to,
people can go on my sub stack. I published the
entire four page letter with the story, and and it
was pretty clear to me that they believed that he
should have done something because I made the point j
all long, if Willis, Steve Willis, the referee takes a
point for the knockdown, or a point for the cornerman,
or a point for wiping off your face, or a
point for tank running away, you know, turning on his
back and going to the corner for any of those
things that he takes even a one point roach based
on the fight playing out the remainder of the way
he wins the fight. But the mission is making the
point that, yeah, but we don't know how those rounds
would have played out had the point been deducted. I
get it. It sucks. It's unfair because they also addressed
the replay situation, and this is one thing I didn't
know about. I have been telling you all along that
my reporting was that the commission, or rather that the
replay official Ricky Gonzalez at ringside, had asked for the
replay within seconds of Tank's knee touching the canvas, And
also told you from the perspective of people I spoke
to who are in the production truck, that they sent
the replay as soon as it was requested, and that
the replay people at ringside the official was not able
to get it, as the commission described it as a
technical issue. So the commission was, you know, and the
production apparently fucked up not being able to get them
the replay, because if they get them the replay, it
does get called a knockdout.
Speaker 4: No way.
Speaker 1: Their their answer, their answer that night, was we didn't
get a clean look at it in time.
Speaker 3: Correct.
Speaker 1: Are they now saying we didn't get a clean look
at it at all?
Speaker 3: Well after the fact, obviously, yes, But the point is
in the process where they had to look at it
in the timing, they didn't see it. The other the
one thing that I didn't know about, which I learned
from what was written in this letter from the director
to the lawyers, was that in addition to the replay
official asking for within seconds of the quote unquote knockdown
but not getting it in a manner where he could
see it, is that after the round ended between nine
and ten, Steve Willis asked for the replay. So the
replay official already was going to look at it, but
Willis realized that there was an issue and he wanted
to see the replay also, and he couldn't see it either.
Speaker 2: So can I go back? Okay, all I can I
go back?
Speaker 1: Go back to what I have said twice? Now, Where
is the executive director standing up on the ring apron
and saying, hold on, we're gonna look at the replay
in between rounds and it'll take thirty seconds to look
Was it a knockdown and then we'll resume.
Speaker 3: The NA didn't have acts to the replay. Having the
director stand on the ring apron a is not part
of the protocol, so it is not relevant to that
because it wasn't part of what he could do. So
is in charge of THEE.
Speaker 1: If we have a technical issue and we're in a
World Championship main event and we're in between rounds, I'm
no longer sitting back, especially with that explanation right there
and saying that a delay of another thirty seconds to
look at the replay, especially when the referee is saying
I want to see the replay so that we can
overrule it. That I mean, they bend rules for every reason,
over and over and over again.
Speaker 3: I'm simply telling you what occurred. They were not in
a position to do that.
Speaker 1: And I'm disagreeing with the phrase they're not in a
position to do it. You're the executive director, you have
a circumstance where you can't get the replay. You can
certainly in between rounds. I'm not saying during the round.
In between rounds, say hold on.
Speaker 3: Well the top you're missing the point. They look at.
The referee is busy referring the fight correct. The replay
officials job is to just look at replay. He doesn't
have to worry about what's unfolding in the still had
two minutes and fifteen seconds to left in the round
to look at the replay. They couldn't get the replay. Well,
I don't know what else I can say.
Speaker 1: Again, you've got another sixty seconds plus thirty more like
you've used that.
Speaker 3: Well, I don't didn't use.
Speaker 2: The thirty replay.
Speaker 3: I mean.
Speaker 1: To me, I don't buy that all of these things
can be correct. They can't all be a.
Speaker 3: Very important factory here. Some people would tell you that
the commission's full of shit, and they don't believe that
they didn't get the replay because the people in the
truck say that they asked about it. And that's what
I'm saying. Let me finish. The response from the replay
official was the following no knockdown or no punch, no knockdown,
We're good, something to that effect. And then when round
ten started, the person in the truck went back to
the replay official just to make sure was given the
same answer yet again. And when they gave them the
answer for the second time, the people in the truck
then took that information no punch, no knockdown, transmitted that
in real time to Marrow Ronaldo in his ear, who
was calling the fight, so he could update the audience
that was watching. Hey, guys, remember what just happened in
the end of the ninth round or early in the
ninth round. This is this what they said. They didn't
review the play. Now, if people want to talk about
there being some kind of fucking conspiracy, that's fine. I
am not of the belief that production people with no
dog in the fight are in there doing their jobs
producing a fight in real time as it's happening, and
the producer is telling mar Ronalo false information to relay
through that, and so I.
Speaker 1: Believe it's reasonable. Anybody that's reasonable wouldn't believe that.
Speaker 3: So when Maro Ronaldo comes on his microphone and says
to the worldwide audience, we were told this is what happened,
I believe them. I don't necessarily believe the commission. That's
all I'm gonna say now.
Speaker 2: And now I have my answer.
Speaker 1: The reason why you're not up on the ring, apron
going on and on is because of what you just
explained right there. Which is at some point they looked
at it, they didn't deem it an down, and they
said move on. So now if they're trying to retroactively
change what happened, then I call BS on that, right,
you're real on the podcast, I call BS because again
I say, not everything can be true. I know we've
bogged down at this point of the pod, but you
and I go back and forth all the time. They
can't have every avenue here of we didn't get the
replay in time, but we also didn't stop to look
at the replay. And then when it comes out that
you did acknowledge that you got the replay and didn't
think it was a knockdown, you can't have that too.
You can't have them all. It's not basket Robins, it's
not thirty one Flavors.
Speaker 3: You don't know. A thing I'm glad about is that
they didn't change it to an old contest, because that
would have robbed Roach of hanging the draw on Tank
Davis's record that they the team of Lamont. They never
wanted it to be called an O contest. They wanted
and if they're not going to get the win, they
want to be the guy that hung up on the
perfect record.
Speaker 1: So yes, it also gives the impetus for the rematch
and the whole bit, which we think is coming for
later this summer.
Speaker 3: Yeah, i'd be to me, there's zero. I mean, you
never know, but I would. I'm pretty sure that as
as sure as things can be in boxing, there's going
to be a re There's going to be a rematch
in the next fight for these two guys.
Speaker 1: All right, a couple more news items. Canelo Alvarez, Dear
God and William Skull did meet the media on Thursday night,
in which there were a lot of media members that
probably had to be helped on. Who is WILLIAMS Skull?
Wait a minute, No, he's right over here. He's this guy.
This is now for the main event on the on
the Saudi card that is coming on May the third.
Speaker 2: They met in New York. What else do we want
to say about?
Speaker 1: We noticed this is this is to get him the
IBF belt back to be undisputed when he fights Terrence Crawford.
Speaker 2: We know what this is. Go ahead.
Speaker 3: All I can tell you is this, there's nothing like
doing a fight on single to my weekend against a
Cuban in Dubai. I mean in Saudi Arabia rather right, correct,
which is what this is.
Speaker 2: This is what it's all about.
Speaker 1: When you think, when you think of benchmarks in boxing
that have to be hit, this is one of those.
Speaker 3: I agree with you. So I can tell you this
that the line of questioning that went with Canelo from
some of the media folks before and after the press
comments was more related to the Terrence Crawford fight than
I was Williams Skull fight, because obviously Crawford is supposed
to be next. But look, there's some going to be
said for the underdog story about Skull and this and that.
But the press conference was you know, it wasn't okay
press conference. Nothing spectaculally did it. I mean, they had
it in a cool place. I mean, as far as
the venues go. They did it in Radio City Music Hall,
which is obviously a very famous and uh you know,
big time landmark. I actually covered a boxing match there
once years ago when no Nato Donair fought Riggando and lost,
you know, in his junior featherweight world title fight. But
they did the press commence there that was open to
the public, so they were happy to get in there
and see you you know, get an opportunity to see Canelo.
There was you know, lots of Mexican and Mexican Americans
there because Todd Grishaman was hosting it, you know it
say hey, do I have some uh, you know, do
we have the Mexican fans here? And they all cheered,
so they had come to turn out for canelou What
I actually was struck by is that when they do
this match in Saudi Arabia, it's not taking place at
the big arena where they did the Usk and Fury
fights and some of the other events. It's taking place
at the smaller arena, which is the one where they
did the rematch between Better BV and Bovo. So instead
of like the twenty thousand ish arena that they can
you know, perhaps cut down some seats and make it smaller,
you know whatever, they're doing this one at a like
a six or seven thousand seed called the A and
B Arena, So they're not expecting a huge crowd, even
though Canelo was the face of the sport.
Speaker 2: Because we know what this is.
Speaker 1: This is Canelo returning and what is nothing more than
an over glorified, stay busy fight to get his IBF
belt back if they should have never taken from him
in the first place.
Speaker 3: So I mean, we'll see what sull. Skull sounded confident
and that's cool, and I'm just saying we'll see what
he can do. You know, he's happy to be here
and he's getting paid a career amount of money to
do the fight. Put his belt up in his first
defense and he his comment was you know which which
trans from Spanish because he speaks Spanish, lives in Germany
from Cuba. You know, I'm going to be the best
I can be in order to pull off the upset,
and I'm going to shut everybody up.
Speaker 1: Yes see right, we'll see what happens now. Okay, So
there's that with the press conference. By the way, speaking
of the final, the last crescendo, the end of the
riad season.
Speaker 2: Promotion.
Speaker 1: That night, Martin Bucoli had flown all across Africa, Europe
into the Middle East to go get knocked out very
quickly by Joseph Parker. And we wondered, because he was
supposed to be fighting fa a jagba and an eliminator,
an IBF eliminator, all right, we wondered, is that fight off?
Now we've learned that fight is not off. It's not
the IBF eliminator, but they are actually going to go
ahead and fight. But where are they going to fight?
Give us the particulars now that the fight is going
to go ahead and take place.
Speaker 3: So originally, when Turkey Alchic announced the Times Square card
on his social media, going back a few weeks ago
before they had the press conference and did all the
dolls and whistles the three fights that they announced. Obviously
we're Ryan Garcia against Roly Romero in the main event
they announce, you know, he announced also the co feature
Devin Haney against Josey Ramirez as they're looking to set
up the remastering Hane and Garcia presuming that they if
they're the winners of their fights. And the third fight
on this card in Tom Square was supposed to be
this IBF heavyweighted eliminator between a Jagua and Martin Bacolei.
And as you mentioned, Bacoley got knocked out by Parker
in the February twenty second card that was headlined by
better Bevndval in the rematch, and so the IBF properly
so when I asked them, said no, we're not sanctioned
this as a as a as a title liminator. You
took yourself out of that position by getting knocked out,
particularly because he did it in a WBO interim title fight,
so that dropped him in the rankings, and that would
not be an eliminator. But they're still making a fight
because they're just gonna fight. It just won't be for
the eliminator. So a Jagua and Bacoli will fight, but
instead of being on May two in Times Square, they're
gonna fight May third, and it'll be one of the
featured undercard fights when Canelo and Williams Call have their fight.
So it's still a good interesting heavyweight matchup obviously, but
it's not going to be for a title eliminator. So
I was sort of interested in that. I was like, Wow,
so a job was giving up his position in the
IBF to be in the position to fight for the
title if he wins an eliminator, and you know he
must be getting a huge amount of money to do that,
and I was told that no, I mean, I can't
speak for what Pocoli is getting, but a Jagua I
am told his number is the same as what he
was getting even if he was fighting in the eliminator
on the second out, he'll make more money technically because
he won't have to pay a sanction fee to the IBF,
but he also won't have the benefit of being next
in line for the title that is held by Daniel Dubas.
So he's taken that gamble against Bacoli and if he wins,
he doesn't really have a big reward as being a
mandatory challenger, but it's still a good matchup in the
heavyweight division, all.
Speaker 1: Right, So that will be on that That weekend is
going to be crazy with that fatal Fury times square,
then the Canelo whatever that is with William Skull, and
then in a ways fight in the Force is on
the Sunday on the next day.
Speaker 2: Yep, we going to be busy.
Speaker 1: This is picking up that weekend in May, all right,
nostalgia and then we are done.
Speaker 2: Raphael.
Speaker 1: It was my birthday on Saturday, March the eighth, and
if you go, but thank you, if you go back
to March the eighth, nineteen seventy one, fifty four years ago,
which was your first my first birthday, true story. There
is home video evidence of this. My mother went to
the grocery store in Memphis, Tennessee, where we lived, and
got a birthday cake for me and for a couple
of little friends to come over and they roll in
the old home movie camera, the old sixteen millimeter.
Speaker 3: Yes, age one friends, did you have at age one?
Speaker 1: Like other little toddler or other little friends to come
over and be part of the birthday cake. Birthday cake said,
happy one birthday, one thh Happy oneth birthday.
Speaker 2: It's on my one year old birthday cake.
Speaker 1: Nonetheless, that night was March the eighth, nineteen seventy one
at Madison Square Garden when two legends by the name
of Muhammad Ali and Joe Fraser fought. After several years
of trying to make it happen that included Ali being
forbidden from fighting because his refusal to enter the United
States Army and the draft to go fight in the
Vietnam War, he couldn't get a boxing license. They finally,
after years in a Supreme Court win made this fight
happen in March of seventy one and at the time
jobbed the fight of the century, the biggest heavyweight fight
arguably to that moment. We'll have another discussion about what's
happened since then. But let's go back in the nostalgia
machine fifty four years ago and Fraser put the loss
on Ali.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I was the one. I was not
even one year old, because you're a two months older
than I am, so I don't remember this, but I've
certainly watched this fight numerous times. A matter of fact,
when they celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of this fight a
few years ago, they did like a restoration of it
and they put on ABC and the Colors, and that
was just so brilliant, how great it looked and sounded that.
It was just glorious to watch that. I've watched this
fight numerous times. There's rare times in life, forget about boxing,
where an event is so massively hyped and yet it
actually lives up our exceeds, and that was this fight
between Ali and Fraser. You have to understand what was
going on, and I know that you do, but I'm
not sure necessarily everybody in the audience does.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 3: You mentioned about Ali being a sidelined because he wouldn't
go into the army and be drafted at Vietnam. He
did that obviously under because of his religious beliefs, he
wouldn't fight in the army anyway, so he therefore didn't
have a license, and he missed three years of his
prime basically, so when he came back after having been
a dominating heavyweight champion and got suspended and not having
a license, when he finally came back after all those
you know, those years out of the rings, so from
he fought his last fight as champion before this situation
in March of sixty seven. He comes back after the
suspension in October of nineteen seventy, so well over three
years he's out of the ring. He fights Jerry Quarry.
Then he takes another fight a couple of months later
against Oscar Banavena. He wins a fifteen round decision. So
now he's had two wins against Bonavena and Quarry were
top contenders. He beat them and they made this match
with Fraser. Now Fraser, between the time Ali was suspended
had won the tournament that the WBA had put together
and won that title and you know, becing he was undefeated.
So you know, we've talked about this other points in
boxing history. Ali was still recognized by many people as
the champion because he had never lost in the ring,
so he's the lineal champion. But Fraser had won belts
or had won the belt anyway. You know, before he
fought Ali in that first fight, he had won the
WBC title, and he had beaten Jimmy Ellis. I guess
it was a WBC tournament WB turnam I forget which
it was many than both. Actually in any event, he
was staying busy. He had beaten Quarry, he had beaten
Jimmy Ellis, He'd beaten Bob Foster, who was the light
heavyweight champion. He blitzed him in two rounds. Because every
time Foster, who was a great fighter, tried to fight
in the in the heavyweight division, he just not did
not have that kind of success. So so Fraser's on
a right now. I mean, he's knocking everybody out. He's looking.
He also had beaten Bonavena. You know, those are the
two opponents how he had come back against, and they
finally make this fight TJ and it was like the
biggest thing in the world. I mean, the entire focus
of the society was on Madisonsburg Garden.
Speaker 1: Because again we have to explain this that the lineage
of the heavyweight champion of the world in boxing meant
everything to.
Speaker 2: The American sports fan.
Speaker 1: I mean, from Joe Lewis to Rocky Marciano and eventually
to Cash's clay slash Muhammad Ali. In the sixties, after Marciano,
this was the biggest of big deals. Only behind this
is the truth, only behind baseball, Major League Baseball, the
American pastime was the biggest deal, and heavyweight boxing was
basically the second biggest deal in American sports, Bigger than
pro football, bigger than the basketball, bigger than anything else
that was really going on at that time. And you
talk about marinating all the time. He used that word earlier.
This thing not only marinated. This thing was probably overcooked.
This this thing was off the stove. Maybe we had
to start up a new recipe. It had been years
in the making, and they fired.
Speaker 3: But they were still they were still relatively young fighters
at that But it wasn't It had been.
Speaker 1: A fight that probably should have happened in the late sixties.
I'm just nineteen seventy one when this.
Speaker 3: Wasn't pac Yo Mayweather. Okay, this was even Arrow spencing Crawford.
Speaker 1: But it's not like it's not like the normal timelines
in the sixties in particular, where if there was a
big fight, it was gonna probably happen within a few months.
Speaker 3: There was There was a lot of stuff besides that.
This was this was two undefeated guys, both with the
claim to the championship. And by the way, as I
looked this up, it was actually Fraser did have the
WBA and the WBC title, which was the only two
organizations at that time that mattered, and so he was
defending both of those titles for the second time. Ali
of course, had been the lineal champion dating back to
when he defeated Sonny Liston. So this was huge. I mean,
you know, the stories are Frank Sinatra was ringside. You know,
Norman Naylor was there. Sinatra had a you know, was
taking pictures for Life magazine, and this is this is hilarious.
I actually looked this up because I knew we were
going to talk about this, because I love this kind
of shit. Now, obviously inflation changes things. That the the
purses that Muhammad Ali and Joe Fraser were guaranteed was
at the time they were each guaranteed two and a
half million dollars apiece at the time in nineteen seventy one,
the largest single amount of money guaranteed for any entertainer
athlete for one's ever in the history of the world.
Number one. And now that's like chump change for these
big events. That the cost of the tickets to go
to Madison Square Garden for the fight twenty dollars in
the balcony, one hundred and fifty for ringside. Now the
biggest fight, you can't even get in for less than
like two three hundred dollars, much less the ringside where
it's thousands of dollars. So but the interest was intense,
that publicity was monstrous. They you know, Ali abused Fraser verbally,
and Fraser was a great fighter, but not as good
as a talker, and so Ali was a winner on
that count. But when the fight started and the fight happened,
it was a tremendous back back and forth battle and
uh and Fraser ultimately won the fight, but he punctuated
the fight with that massive knockdown of Ali in the
fifteenth round of a really outstanding fight. I mean, I
actually can't imagine there's any true boxing fans who are
listening to the show who've never actually watched the fight
if you haven't.
Speaker 1: Actually, younger crowd though, I mean we're getting older, no crowd,
I'm with you at the A lot of the younger
crowd just doesn't know, and we need to keep educating them.
Speaker 2: But go back and watch.
Speaker 3: Famous the most famous rivalry maybe in the history of sports,
not just in boxing, Ali Fraser.
Speaker 2: I don't know that.
Speaker 1: I don't know I go that far, but certainly it's
up there. It's certainly in boxing. The Duke North Carolina bas.
Speaker 3: Is bigger than Duke North Carolina is a regional.
Speaker 1: Again, again, it just depends on what your cup of
tea is. Some would say it's the Dallas Cowboys playing
either the Washington Redskins or the Philadelphia Eagles. It depends
on what you consider your biggest your biggest rivalry.
Speaker 2: We're boxing people.
Speaker 3: I'm talking about in the scheme of world. Yeah, this
is bigger than Duke North Carolina and I'm a giant
Duke fan. This is bigger than Lakers Celtics. This is
bigger than Yankees, Dodgers, or whoever you want to put up there.
This was a worldwide, global event. Ninety nine percent of
the world doesn't give a rass ass about the Celtics
or the Lakers, doesn't care about Duke in North Carolina
and couldn't give a shit about the Yankees or the
Dallas Cowboys.
Speaker 1: I'm being more provincial in talking about the American audience.
You're right worldwide because Ali had fought all over the world.
Speaker 3: My basic point was, if you're a listener to our show,
you're a boxing fan. And if you're a boxing and
you haven't watched this fight, it's one of the single
most important and significant and biggest fights in the history
of the sport. It is readily available for free everywhere,
especially on YouTube. Not a problem. They show it on
freaking ESPN, you know when they show replays on a
regular So go watch it because it's.
Speaker 1: A great fan and it's set the stage for the
trilogy and for massive, massive heavyweight title fights for massive
money for many years to come. That still basically stays
intact today. This this fight was the massive money fight
that really rolled. I'm saying this that really rolled into
the rest of the nineteen seventies and the the subsequent
rematches with Fraser and the George Foreman fight as well.
Speaker 3: I mean humongous, but this is this was bigger than like,
in my opinion, the Thriller in Manila as a just
a as a as a fight that's a more enthralling, dramatic,
you know, grinding, physical, brutal fight in the first fight.
First fight's also a great fight, But the more significant fight,
the bigger deal historically, for a lot of different reasons,
is the first fight. The third fight obviously was still
for the heavyweight championship. The second fight Raley and and
Fraser was actually just for It was a twelve rounder
for a for the NABF title.
Speaker 1: Non world title fight. You get a lot of people
on that trivia question. The second fight was a non
world title.
Speaker 3: Fight, and it also was, like you know, the first fights,
a legendary fight. The third fight is one of the
maybe the greatest heavyweight fight in the history of heavyweight boxing.
The second fight wouldn't make any of those lists just
it was just another fight in terms of the action.
Was very you know, it was okay, but it wasn't
like the first and third. But this first fight, you know,
the entire global world is focused on this little ring
in Madison Square Garden for that for that hour or
so of that fight was just a remarkable event. And
I've gone back and read the real time accounts. One
of the things I love a back going. You can
go and find it on the computer. I used to
go when I was a kid and read like the
microfilm in the in the in the library.
Speaker 2: And I would look old school, yep, but.
Speaker 3: I would go like, I'd be like in the it's
the winter time where I grew up, and you can't
be running around outside, so you know, i'd be with
my mother and my sister were at the like the
local library in our town, and they're off looking at
whatever looking at and I'm over in the microfilm and
I'm busting out, like you know, the New York Times
clips from nineteen seventy one, and I'm reading about Ali
and h and Joe Frasier and I'm and I'm also
doing the same thing, and I'm going back and I'm
reading about you know, you know then the great nineteen
fifties and sixties New York Yankees teams. But I would
always look up baseball stuff, boxing stuff, you know, political things.
But I read tons of boxing microfilm, and I remember
reading about these fights in real time from the columnists,
you know, in the in the papers that were available
in the library, particularly the New York Times, and you
can read tons about that fight.
Speaker 1: Yep, it was that big of a deal, and it
was nearly fifty five years ago. I am fifty five
years old and it was my Oneth birthday in nineteen
seventy one for Ali Fraser. For that night, I won
more piece of nostalgya. It's kind of a come down
after we've talked about all that. We're going to talk
about a Hall of famer in Bernard Hopkins. But he
accomplished something which hasn't been touched, Am I correct to
that point? He accomplished something that hasn't been touched right
that night when he won the IBF light heavyweight title
on March the ninth. As we're releasing this podcast at
his Sunday night March the ninth, March the ninth, twenty thirteen,
twelve years ago, tell him more about the historic light
heavyweight title night for Bernard Hopkins.
Speaker 3: Well, it was a night of history. I mean, for
a long time. Everybody knows it was very famous when
George Foreman knocked out Michael Moore. Not only did he
win the heavyweight championship in that legendary moment with the
great call by our pal Jim Lampley. You know, it happened.
It happened there at the MGM Grand and George wins
the title on kneels down to pray in the corner
after accomplishing his feat and you know is winning the
world title. You know, it was incomprehensible that a man
in his forties, you know, would become the heavyweight champion
against a young guy, especially like Michael Moore was. But
Bernard Hopkins would go on to break that record at
age forty six when he defeated Jean Pascal in their rematch.
They had had a draw in their first fight back
in twenty ten. That was at the end of twenty ten.
They fought an immediate rematch in May of twenty eleven
at the Bell Center in Montreal. I was ringside for
that fight, and that was the fight that very memorably
Bernard Hopkins to show that he was still a young
man in terms of his abilities. When Pascal was seemingly
tired out and breathing head being on the stool, Bernard
Hopkins dropped down and started doing push ups in the
ring between the rounds late in that fight and he
went on to win the unanimous decision and became the
light heavyweight champion in age forty six and broke the record,
and a lot of people, I think still think that
is the record because the fight that he had against
Tavories Cloud, well, hey, the Pascal fight was for the
actual that was for not only was it for the
WBC belt, but it was also for the lineal title,
so had a little more significance from that standpoint. But
when Tavoris Cloud had become the IBF champion and Bernard
fought him on March ninth, twenty thirteen at Barclay Center,
which I was also ringside for, he was able to win,
you know, a very clear decision eight to four on
two cards, nine to three on the third card, and
defeat Tavoris Cloud to become the IBF Flight Heavyweight champ. So,
two years after he had broken the record at forty
six to become oldest to win a world title, he
breaks his own record at age forty eight to become
a world champion once again. Now, it was not the
most memorable fight in the world. It was you know,
most Bernard Hopkins fights, frankly, were not that memorable. Maybe
the results were, but the actual action was not. This
was sort of in that vein, but this was like
a live HBO fight and there was a lot of
hype around it, and Tavoris Pad was very good strong,
you know, good puncher. He obviously had the title at
that time this so I don't think people considered this
a walkover. Bernard was the underdog in this fight, and listen,
he did the job. He's an old man, forty eight
years old. He was still fighting effectively even as he
got to fifty, because after this he was sitting all
kinds of age related records. Not only was it about
becoming the oldest man to regain a title, to win
a title. In his next defense against Carl Murrat, he
was the oldest fighter to defend the world title. I mean,
he was just taking care of business. He beat Schumanov.
I mean, he actually went on a pretty good run
after that before he finally ran into Covilev and lost
by a one sided route. But this was a very
historic night for Bernard Hopkins, and he goes down as
one of the great middleweights and light heavyweights in boxing historia.
Hall of Famer obviously, and you know, I'm proud to
say I covered I don't know, twenty six Bernard Hopkins
fight or something like that at ringside. I've gonne to
no Bernard quite well. Matter of fact, of all the
boxers I had ever covered, there's a couple of guys
I still talk to and keep in touch with that
we have maybe it's a little more than just a
business relationship at this point, and I think Bernard Hopkins
is probably one of those guys for me.
Speaker 2: And again that night.
Speaker 1: Back twelve years ago, forty eight years of age to
win a world time, I'm asking off the top of
my head, because you would know this, has anybody come
close since then as a forty year old, even a
forty two year old. Wasn't there a fighter that we
were talking about that had a WBA title at the
very bottom of the of the weight classes that was
like near a forty year old. Nobody's no, I mean
right now, nobody's going to touch a forty eight year
old winning a world time.
Speaker 3: And the one I can think of off the top
of ahead, but he wasn't even close to forty eight
is many Pakow when he beat Thurman to become the
oldest welterweight champion he was forty.
Speaker 2: He was forty, right, and that was you know, that
was still a prison Paki paqui.
Speaker 1: How was bidding two years later, right in twenty twenty one,
as a forty two year old old to get it
back from Ordinis Ugas and didn't win. Forty eight is
six years seven years older than that, six seven years older.
Speaker 3: And the thing about when he fought the fight and
won it, you know a lot of guys would say
it's like the Swan song and this and that. Like
I said, Bernard went on and made two successful defenses
against fighters that were pretty good guy, pretty good fighters.
I mean, when he beat Schumanov, he unified two of
the titles. He became the oldest. He'd already become the
oldest to win the title twice. He already become the
oldest to defend the title when he beat Marot. Now
he fights Schumanov in an IBF IBF WBA unification, he
becomes the oldest to unify titles that I was at
that fight. I was at Kerra Murat and Schumanov. Actually
the Schumannov fight was here in the DC area, right
in my backyard, and he did a tremendous Shop in
those fights. So he was still fighting at a very
high level, which is why when they made the covid
Left fight at the end of twenty fourteen, and he's
coming off to win against Chumanov earlier in twenty fourteen.
You know, in retrospect is easier to say, well, he
had no shot. He was, you know, you know, almost
fifty years old at this point, and he lost every
single round to covid Left. Well, if you go back
in the real time when it was happening, yeah, fine,
covid Lev was the favorite, but a lot of people
thought Bernard Hopkins had a good chance to maybe out
box covial Lev and to kind of stink him out
a little bit. And obviously he lost not only every round,
but covi Lev also scored a knockdown against Bernard in
the first round. But you know, he was he was
one of the rare fighters. There's a few in history.
Archie Moore is one that comes to mind who had
a lot of success when they got to be into
their into their you know, late forties. Even Bernard is
a freak of nature who scored lots of big wins
and is and I've said this numerous times Once I
get past Floyd Mayweather and Roy Jones in terms of
the best fighters I ever personally covered and saw live,
it becomes a question of who's number three? Is it
pac Yaw, you know, or is it Hopkins. I mean,
those two guys are in the conversation. That's how good
Bernard was. Technically wasn't the most exciting guy in the world,
but the fucker could win fights.
Speaker 1: I'm just looking at this in terms of the legendary fighters.
We did make mention that Evander Holyfield fought John Ruiz.
You talked about that in the last couple of months
in the Nostalgia and he was forty six years old.
That's in the neighborhood of being forty eight.
Speaker 3: Well, he did, he didn't win that fight.
Speaker 1: He did not win that fight, and he didn't win it.
And that's not forty eight years old. That's incredible, that's
incredible for Bernard Hopkins.
Speaker 2: With that, it has been a busy show.
Speaker 1: We've recapped, We've heard from the upcoming prospect a Mauri
Jones fighting this weekend, nice one on one interview. With that,
we've given you some news from Nostalgia. Let's see what
happens in the Wednesday Keith Thurman Brock Jarvis fight Wednesday
morning in the US, Wednesday night in Australia.
Speaker 2: The Japanese flyweight.
Speaker 1: Unification fight is Thursday morning between Taraji and Akui, again
on ESPN Plus in the United States Thursday morning, Thursday
night in Japan. Let's see what happens in those fights.
I Am going to be a busy guy this week,
traveling and doing college basketball. We'll wedge in a preview
pod headed to the weekend. But I'm headed off to
Indianapolis first Raypiel to do college basketball for Championship week
for the NCAA tournament coming up these smaller conferences.
Speaker 2: I'm going to come back for a day to Florida.
Speaker 1: And then go to Atlantic City You're old stomping Grant
and do another college basketball tournament Saturday night. But we'll
wedge in the recap of these midweek fights and a
preview in and around there.
Speaker 2: We're going to service the peeps. The peeps will not
do without later on this week.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 3: And the good thing is from that standpoint of your schedule,
the the you know, we know what we're going to
recap with the fights that are happening on the weekend,
it's it's not a busy schedule. There's the card you
mentioned with Ma Williams against Valney that includes Berlanga and
Omari Jones's professional debut. And the only other real action
of the weekend is is Uh at least in America
on his owne and TNT in the UK. It's one
of the final Frank Warren and Queensberry cards before they
switch over to the Zone in the month of April.
And that's Nick Ball, very exciting fighter defending his By
the way, TJ. Dohaney, I'm not your notr namesake, but
not so yeah. So we'll get it all bug all right, so.
Speaker 2: We've got a lot to cover.
Speaker 1: Nice job here on the on the Recap pod and
have a good week, my friend.
Speaker 2: I'll be back in touch. I love it as always
good stuffy sir. There you go, there's Dan Rayfield. I'm
merely TJ.
Speaker 3: Reese.
Speaker 1: Follow Subscribe on this podcast, feed on Apple Spreakers, Spotify,
rate us, and review us. If you enjoy the content,
go back and hear that interview with Dana White as
well on the new boxing promotion If He's got with
Turkey Ala Chic and the Saudi's and all that upcoming
great great get by Dan if you hear that on
the pod feat. For now you've been listening to the
Fight Freaks You Night Recap Podcast