Speaker 1: Well off of a weekend that has seen yet another
favored fighter go down in a situation where it's pretty
well set up for going to do well, succeed and
move on. Didn't happen for Gallia Fi. We're ready to
recap that. Vito mil Nikki did take advantage of the
home crowd and things set up for him and won
his ESPN Plus Top rank main event. We're going to
recap all of that. We've got Canelo and Crawford meeting
with the media in advance of their huge showdown later
this year. That and a lot more on the Fight
Freak to Night Recap pod. I am merely the somewhat
competent host TJ. Reeves, Hello, Big Dan rayphel our Insider
Fight Preak, you Nit, the substack and the newsletter. Always
good to be with you, my friend for all occasions
and all reasons. Not exactly the most overwhelming weekend, but
we did have some action that we are going to
go over. How are things as we actually hit into
the final week of June here as we released this
coming up on the weekend, et cetera, the final weekend
of action really in the month of June. How are
you feeling PJ.
Speaker 2: I'm always feeling good when I'm talking to you, my man.
Speaker 1: I like that. We'll see if that holds for the
next ten minutes or twenty minutes, or however long it last.
Well for coming up, By the way, thank you for
finding us. A lot of you have continued to remain
loyal with us. Those of you that are new to
this through a social media link, et cetera, follow, subscribe
to the podcast feed on Apple's preaker Spotify. We come
your way. We do our best. Again it's summertime, vacations, etc.
We do our best to do previews going into the weekend,
recaps like this coming off the weekend. By the way,
I should also mention I will be heading out to Anaheim, California.
I will be there for two reasons, Big Dan. The
most important priority. Abby Hope Reeves Riley Faith Reeves turns
seventeen years of age, both on the same day because
they're identical twins. That will be on Saturday. Also on Saturday,
as we head out to Anaheim, California, Oh, it is
the Jake Paul Julio Sesar Chavez main event for the
pay per view card that also has Zerdo Ramirez and
Dordakos for the Cruiserweight Unified title as the co feature.
I will be out there and Big Dan. We will
go live. First mention of this. We will go live.
We'll do it live Thursday after the press conference at
the Honda Center in Anaheim. We will go live on
the YouTube page. Find us Live exclusively on YouTube nowhere else.
That will also serve as the preview podcast later. But
hear it and see it first. God willing with the
technology on YouTube. So I'm gonna get out there amongst
all of them. Mayhem in La La Land, not exactly Tinseltown,
Anaheim is east. But when Jay Paul's around, it's a circus.
I will be around the whole circus Thursday, So get
ready for all of that here coming up Thursday live.
We should mention too. Deontay Wilder will be fighting live
Friday night on PPV dot com with our friends at
PPV dot com. And you just recently interviewed him and
they need to go check that interview out on the
YouTube page and a lot of you have done that.
We put up content, different content on the YouTube page,
nice stuff with Deontay Wilder, and a lot of people
are engaging with that, and we encourage them to go
check it out, right with you and the bronze.
Speaker 2: Bomber, obviously we want them to check it out. Yeah,
here from the half, here from Wilder, who will hear.
Speaker 1: What he has to say? Is it gonna be any
different starting on Friday night? Can this guy Tyrrell Herndon
give him anything, threaten him in any way? We don't know,
but you could hear from the Ross Bombers.
Speaker 2: I think we do know. But okay, yeah, but if
you got knocked out in a couple of rounds by
h Richard Torres, right, Deontay Wilder, even at his stage
of his career, is still obviously way better than that.
And the point is this is not about Tyrel Hernan.
This is about for those of us who have followed
and enjoyed Deontay Wilder's boxing career. Because even after one
year off and obviously two difficult losses in a row
in different methods by the way, one with a big
night I got lost, one where he got completely outboxed
by Joe Parker, to see if there's anything left, and
if there is, they'll move forward and presumably set him up,
I think, and in Anthony Joshua fight if there is
no try to theory fight. So that's what this is about.
Speaker 1: We'll see all right, So go hear from Wilder in
his own words, is he finished? Is he shot? We're
gonna find out Friday what he looks like to whatever
extent we find that out. But here from him himself
with Dan on the YouTube page. So go go find
the YouTube stuff, the nostalgic content, some interviews. You recently
talked to Richardson Hitchens before his title defense went over,
George Camposis, you recently talked to Brian Norman before he
went to Japan and won. So we've got a lot
of great content video form on the YouTube page. Go
check that out with uh with respect to the YouTube
page and subscribe hit like all of that. That will
help us out if you enjoy the content. All the
promo stuff is done now, so let us shall we
talk about the weekend and the recap. That's what we
do on this year podcast and start with the match
room dez own Main and Rayfield. This is like the
fourth time or the fifth time that we've come in
on the recap and say how did the favored fighter
fighting in his homeland get beaten decisively. It happened again
to gallia Phi. He got whipped in this fight with
Francisco Rodriguez.
Speaker 2: Tell me more what happened he did, But I must say, TJ.
Not all upsets are created equal. Some of them are shocking. Obviously,
this one not a shock to me. I mean, I
thought you if I would win. I thought his freshness
as a professional will combine with his incredibly deep in
quality pedigree as an amateur, with the two Olympic appearances
and a gold medal, even though he's the same age
as Rodriguez, and the experienced level, certainly as a professional
was in the favor of Rodriguez, who had ample experience
been a unified champion in the straweight division. But you
got to go back, literally like eleven years ago when
he was a champion in the sharweight division, and every
time he had stepped up and fought a lot of
good fight spot Knakatani in a non title fight, fought Ioka,
fought Donni Ni Edis. I mean, there's a whole slew
of quality fighters he'd been in with, but he lost
to those guys, and so this was like the stepping
stone against a quality professional for Yafi to go from
having knocked out and looked really great against Sonny Edwards
in the previous fight where he knocked him out and
sent Sonny off into retirement, which you know, in that
fight he won this vacant interim WBC flyweight belt that
he was defending against Rodriguez. It didn't turn out that
way because Rodriguez, as Eddie Hearn said it perfectly afterwards,
he would not be denied. He had an engine that
could not stop. And he made the point in his
post fight comments that are translated from Spanish that the
game plan was to do exactly that because they felt
like that was the only way they could beat you Fi.
Was they gonna have to go out there and steamroll him,
otherwise they might be in some trouble. But it's easier
said than done. He was in phenomenal condition, He had
a great chin because he took some clicks also, and
he just never stopped. And look after like four rounds,
five rounds, it's probably like a three to two fight
in favor of Rodriguez, and you're you know, it's a
tight fight. Even though you Fi looked terrible in the
first two rounds. He did start to get a little
bit back into the fight. The problem was in the
ensuing rounds. Every time you thought, oh, he's turned the corner,
he's about to take over, he's going to get back
into this thing, he would hit a wall and Rodriguez
would come on and win the round and do some damage,
and he just could never really truly get going. And
Rodriguez just never stopped punching. You know, the punch stats
are ridiculous. I'll give you in context.
Speaker 1: YEP.
Speaker 2: We've discussed copybox many times. They've been tracking boxing matches
for forty years in the history of the flyweight fights
that they have tracked in forty years. Rodriguez landed five
hundred and seventy five punches TJ. That broke the record
for the most punches landed in a flyweight fight ever
in their history. And he didn't just do it by
like a couple of punches. He broke up by one
hundred freaking punches. YEP. The previous record was Giovanni Segura,
a former champion in the small weight classes, who landed
four hundred and seventy four punches in a title eliminator
against Hernon Marquez in twenty thirteen, which was out of
a fight anyway. Rodriguez again was not going to be denied,
and I think it got to a point for you,
FI where he just sort of like he just didn't
know how to deal with he had to deal with it.
From his his ability was fine, but he just that
the overwhelming tsunami of punches was too much.
Speaker 1: I thought eighth round, ninth round, he looked so worn down,
faded from the punishment. He couldn't get out of the way. Dan,
he could not react and get out of the way
whenever Rodriguez wanted to hit him. And those stats you're
looking at over and over again, he's getting out landed,
like thirty five to ten, thirty eight to twelve.
Speaker 2: About this TJ in the round late in the fight.
Seventh round was a seventh and eighth. As you mentioned,
we're two huge rounds for you five compybox wise, Uh,
Rodrigez landed in the seventh round fifty five punches he landed, Like,
I mean, there were more punches being landed than Canelo
landed in the entire fight against William Scup. I meant
that round and I mean it was ridiculous. In the
eighth round, you know, he was landing like, you know,
sixty three of one hundred and five punches.
Speaker 1: Fifty five and the seventh, sixty three in the eighth,
and like every round after that. It's not like it
was a it was a slug fast trade. It was
he's out landing him by twenty twenty five punches. But
down the stretch.
Speaker 2: When that was happening, yef I was landing. I give you,
if you were forget it, if you weren't watching what
Rodriguez was doing. Yef I was landing his share of punches.
It's just that he was walking through them, Rodriguez, because
he just kept firing and firing fire. Now, I will
say this, I did think when it got to the
later stages of the fight that if I his corner,
they did him a disservice because I feel like they
should have probably stopped the fight because he was taking
such a pounding his careers. Look, if you lose to
a former champion, a quality professional like Rodriguez, you know,
even if you're the favorite, is no shame in that.
He's a good fighter, He's a world class guy. He's
you know, he was the winner by decision back in
the day, in a unification fight against Kattinari Takei Yama.
I think that's who it was. That was the fight
of the year in twenty fourteen. Like he's been involved
in some big time type of fights, even if he's
not known to everybody, this is a good, solid guy
who has a shitload of experience as a professional. By
the way, he had a handful of losses. The only
time the dude ever got stopped was in two thousand
and in a non title fight in twenty thirteen by
Roman Chocolate Theo Gonzalz. He's one of the most supreme
punchers in the history of the smaller weight classes. So
that's the only guy that ever knocked him out. And
he's again, like I mentioned, he's been in with a
lot a lot of good well a lot of good.
Speaker 1: Guys, and we had a twelfth round knockdown and you
could hear even on the commentary Adam Smith on his
own said that the corner was standing there with the
tal ready to throw it in. Yeah, that's to stop
the fight.
Speaker 2: That was his trainer, Robert McCracken, who was probably best
known for having been the trainer for many years and
leading him to the heavyweight title an in the Joshua
Uh So I was I thought they could have done
him better by by stopping the fight, you know, and
not not allowing to take that kind of punishment, because
in the twelfth round when he got knocked down, you know,
he was just about done. Now to f I credit,
you got to tip the cap to him. Man. You
guys showed an amazing amount of heart and will to
be able to make it to the final bell. He
showed just amazing resolve and uh and like I said,
a good chin. I know he did get drop, but
he made it up and he took it all. But
that that's the kind of beating that who knows how
he comes back after that, you know. And then by
the way they both were cut, you know over their eye,
they both you know, there was blood flowing freely from
the cut, particularly from the cut that was suffered by Rodriguez, uh,
you know, down the side of his face and stuff
like that. You know, there was a great photograph I
used on my subject where you see the bandage they
put out after the fight and the blood is still
trickling down, you know, after he had been banded bandaged up.
So you know that was a put it like this,
It's not gonna win like the Fight of the Year award,
you know what I mean, But it's going to be
in that in that list of tremendous battles because despite
the fact that it was somewhat one sided in terms
of the scoring, the rounds were largely competitive other than
a few that we mentioned, and it was one hell
of an action fight. Uh. And again, as I mentioned,
Rodriguez is no stranger to action fights, because if you've
been in a Fight of the year the way he
was against Takayama in twenty fourteen, you know that he's
got that in. I mean, if you never saw that fight,
by the way, and you became a fan, let's say,
of Rodriguez from watching the fight that took place on Saturday,
you should go and look for the Takeyama. That was
a tremendous bat.
Speaker 1: Love your tips. And yet again we see a Mexican
fighter come over in a match room show. What is this?
Is this seven, twelve, twenty nine times? I mean this
in the last few years, over and over again that
there's a fight on fight.
Speaker 2: We were discussing that with a few folks were chiming
in because I made a comment about that on Twitter
and our ex and people were writing back that were
like coming up with different example Mauricio Lara going over
there and Jose Felix against Gary Cully. This fight obviously
that just happened. It wasn't in the UK. But when
you know Andy Ruiz, a Mexican Mexican American defeated Anthony
Joshua on a Mattro McCard in New York, I mean,
there's there's so many it's kind of getting ridiculous at
this point.
Speaker 1: So a big, big night for Francisco Rodriguez and where
does your fi go from here after that beating and
we will find out, we'll see a fight.
Speaker 2: Let's discuss though, just real quick, the future for Rodriguez.
The reason why this was a significant fight. First of all,
he went overseas from Mexico to fight him in his
hometown in Birmingham, England, and that was because Matt from
Boxing won the purse bid for the fight. But the
reason why he decided to do that Number one, you're
getting a chance to fight for the interim belt. But
that's not the relevant part. The important part is now
he is the mandatory. Now I've discussed this with you
before in the WBC. Just because you're the interim title,
does not you have the interim title, does not mean
you are the mandatory. In this particular instance, he is
the mandatory because they said that at the convention, and
just to make sure, just a double check. When I
was writing my piece, I was messaging with Mauricio Suliman
after the fight. He was in Saudi Arabia for the
WBC's Grand pre Tournament with the Prospects, and he did
reiterate and conferm to me that indeed, the winner, which
in this case was Rodriguez, will be the next WBC challenger,
and that will be for the winner of the fight
between the unified WBC WBA champion ken Shiro Taraji, who
was scheduled to fight a optional defense against Ricardo Raphael
Sandoval that will take place on July thirty. Then if
you listened to Rodriguez's comments, he said, look, you know, Taraji,
give me a call when you're done with your fight
in July. Let's get it on. And so that will
be the next fight, assuming that Taraji does not vacate,
because Sandoval is the winner of that obligation inherited. So
it's that. Let me tell you right now, TJ. Taraji
Higgins Rodriguez will.
Speaker 1: Be getting your popcorn, get your popcorn.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that'll be. That'll be a fucking barn burner. I
guarantee that.
Speaker 1: Well we look for that, especially with the way that
he went to England and put it on you five.
Speaker 2: So there is you really did.
Speaker 1: That's the fight from earlier in the afternoon our time,
USA time on Saturday, so later Saturday night, in the
main event, the middleweight main event, Vito mil Niki defeats
Camille guard Zelek, the Polish fighter basically a shutout, knocked
him down. I have to confess I've seen the highlights,
I have not seen the full fight. Listen, anybody that
listened to you in the preview mode on this pod
or on the bet Us show, you didn't have a
whole lot good to say about mel Niki other than
being a nice guy. And he tries all right, so
he wins the main event. Did he impress you a
little bit? Is this just what we thought with the
Polish fighter who had never fought outside of Poland, didn't
give him very much? What is your assessment of the
mal Niki win again with the understanding he's only twenty
three years old. What about it?
Speaker 2: Yeah, in my assessment is nothing really changes. I mean
he's a hard working guy. I don't take that away
from he brought a nice crowd out to his hometown
or you know, not hometown, but in that he's a
New Jersey fighter. You know, as he said in his
post an interview, one of his dreams was the headline
at the Newark Prudential Center, where he'd seen, you know,
and been at fights involving Thomas Adamack, for example, who
was the light heavyweight and later cruiserweight champion, big you know,
Polish popular superstar fighter. You mentioned when you introduced a
segment about the fight that he basically shut out Guardzillik.
He didn't basically shut him out. He did shut him out.
It was one hundred to eighty nine on all three scorecards.
The extra point was because a guy like Melnicky that
we discussed in the preview does not blessed with a
lot of power. He discribed a knockdown in the third round.
He landed a couple of nice right hands and put
Guardzelick on his rear end. So that was the extra
point in that case, and again he was in with
a guy that had no particular accomplishment, that never faced anybody.
He was coming to fight in the United States for
the first time, and he lost every single round. And
it wasn't like they were even that competitive because Milnicky
just was a superior boxer and did flash a little
bit of the power. So maybe after that third round knockdown,
whatever issues Guardzelick was happening having, maybe he decided, you
know what, I felt those two shots and let me
play it a little safe. I don't want to get
touched with those punches. Again. It wasn't a particularly good fight.
And you know, for mil Nicky, you know, he got
paid a good amount whatever he made, probably very low
six figures for the fight. He'll move on to do
something else. I don't know what it's going to be, though,
because you know, he's in kind of no man's lane.
He's not really a contender. He can't really call him
a prospect, so I'm not sure what top rank does
with him. He's sort of like in that limbo where
he's probably not good enough to really fight for the title.
He could fight for, but you want to have a
guy with the oper If he's gonna get the opportunity,
you want to put him in a position where he
can actually win. I don't think anybo would give him
a shot whatsoever against a guy like Jannebec. So you look
at who you know the other middleweights at top rank
has they do have other middleweights Janneback being that, you know,
the unified champion. They do have Troy Eisley Olympian. You know,
he's making his way, He's still a prospect. He's certainly
got a big amateur background, certainly compared to what nol
Nicky has done as a professional. He's already got like
some decent wins. And the other guy, and we'll talk
about him in a minute, which is the undercard winner,
which was Jehi Tucker, who's also a middleweight that's in
that top rank stable of fighter. So and also we've
talked many times. Although I don't think it's happening anytime soon,
there was the prospect of maybe because they fought on
the same card together, that they would try to match
mil Ninky at some point with Xander Zias, but mail
Nikki elected to go to one hundred and sixty pounds.
You have Zias who was still in the one hundred
and fifty four pound weight least. He is fighting in
July for a world championship, so he's not moving up
anytime soon. So you gotta kind of look around and
see what's out there for him. But it'll probably be
another sort of similar kind of fight like this. I
would think something well.
Speaker 1: But as you just alluded to, maybe it is the
winner of the co feature fight Jehi Tucker. First of all,
I didn't say this at the outset, but I noticed
it because I saw a couple of rounds of the
Tucker Simpson co feature fight. Rayfield, What was up with
that ring size?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think I think that ring was smaller than my kitchen,
and my kitchen ain't that big. I don't live in
a mansion.
Speaker 2: I got a big kitchen.
Speaker 1: I mean you could take like three these steps and
be almost diagonally across the ring.
Speaker 2: And what was it that ring it was? I don't
know what the exact dimensions were, but I have to
believe it was the smallest you could have within the
legal regulation.
Speaker 1: So is that typically like sixteen feet by sixteen feet?
Speaker 2: I would say more than that it's supposed to be.
I think eighteen by eighteen. That's inside the rope, So
you know, just put it in context. It may not
seem like a lot, but it is if you ever
look at them sort of side by side. In most places,
like if you're in Nevada, for example, the normal ring
size is twenty by twenty and there are variations that
can be a little less, little more depending on what
the regulations. And if you remember when Canello Albarees saw
Billy Joe Saunders, there was a lot of hubbub about
what's the ring size Billy Joe Wantegger I think it
was twenty two by twenty two was the max eighteen
by eighteen I think was the least. In the end,
it was a very small ring. It certainly did not
help in terms of the action for most of these
fights because it was a Lacklusser kind of card. But
in terms of Tucker, look he's he was a guy
that had a ton of hype, as did Lorenzo Simpson,
his opponent. Both of them did not necessarily live up
to it. They suffered losses, and it's okay if you lose,
but they lost in a manner which was sort of
like surprising because it wasn't like if they were both
undefeated and they lost to each other, they're like, oh,
they lost to another good quality prospect. But the losses
that they took were not to those types of fighters,
if that makes sense. Like when when they lost, they
were losing to like guys that were like, what are
you doing losing on that dude? You know, like when
when Tucker lost Nicholas Flas is a decent fighter and
he was ten and two. He was a big underdog
and he beat Tucker for example. It was a majority decision,
was close, but Tucker had no business losing that fight,
in my opinion. So they go in there, Look, they
had traded a lot of barbs on social media. They
try to bake it out like there was some kind
of tremendous bad blood. I never really bought that. Of course,
when the fight was over, they hugged it out and said,
you know, it was just business, and they were you know,
they respect each other and this and that. You know,
two guys not necessarily going anywhere, but trying to give
their effort. Maybe Talker can get a little momentum going
after a win like this. He did win a close fight.
He was ninety seven to ninety three on the two
score cards, ninety six to ninety four on the other, TJ.
I must confess to you, I did not watch this
one closely. I was kind of getting attle bored and
I had other stuff. I was still watch my story
about the about what occurred in thefi and Rodriguez fight. So,
you know, it is what it is. They're still younger
enough where maybe they can do something. And as far
as Lorenzo Simpson, who came out with a huge amount
of hype because of his association in the camp with
Tank Davis, he's been just a massive disappointment at the
end of the day, That's all there is to it.
Speaker 1: And he got beat. So maybe it is Tucker and
mel Nikkio. But of course, these things, you know, require logic.
Speaker 2: I'd I'd be surprised if that was the next fight,
to be honest.
Speaker 1: But what else is out there for either one of them?
Speaker 2: Why not have a right they could do another fight
like they just did where they bring in you know, one,
hundreds of thousands of dollars in gate money for Veto
to fight you or me or anybody else.
Speaker 1: I won't be fighting Veto.
Speaker 2: Yeah one, make one sixty either.
Speaker 1: H No, I don't think you. You haven't been one
sixty for a long time, and I'm trying to think
the last time that I was one sixty now that
I'm in my mid fifties, and it was it was
before Milnikki and Johee Tucker.
Speaker 2: Were born, so I should hope.
Speaker 1: So, okay, so there are the recaps of this weekend.
Let's get to some news. We had not just one,
but a couple of press conferences for Canelo and Crawford
kicking off the media tour, first in Saudi Arabia and
then on Sunday, as we do this Sunday night and
a Monday in New York. Okay, so give me your impressions.
I got a couple of things I want to add.
We still have like ninety days before they're fighting, but
give me.
Speaker 2: They're in the press start right now. So yeah, like
you said, they're doing a three a three city tour
kicked off on Friday in ri Ed. They moved on
to New York City to the to the fans, the
Fanatics fan Fest that was a huge thing with all
sports you know, collectibles and autographs and this and that
that Fanatics does at the Javit Center, and then they'll
take a few days and then they'll be during next
week they'll be out in UH. I forget what date is,
but it's next week in Las Vegas at the Team
Obile Arena. That is, I think in conjunction with a
UH there's say fi UFC type of event, okay, or
something like that. Anyway, So look, I thought the press
covers was pretty good. Here's the thing about it, though,
there's no real reason for them to be fighting each other.
We all know that, Okay, there was no natural rivalry.
They've never been in the same weight class. At the
same time, they don't have, you know, some third person
that that they have a rivalry with that they beat,
that they can make like the trio of fights like
a you know, George Foreman and a Muhammad Ali and
a Joe Fraser and they're completing the trilogy, so you know,
the round robin so to speak. There was no natural
reason other than Terrence Crawford decided I want to, you know,
get the opportunity to become undisputed in a third weight class. Obviously,
you can make the biggest payday by multiples that I've
ever made. It will be a big event. I am
fighting another all time great. Canello didn't want this fight,
come a long time to take it. Eventually, Turkey y'll
chic made him an off freequent't reviews as I like
to say. I keep thinking of like the you know,
your typical movie whatever it is, and they're doing the fight,
but there was no real, like brewing animosity between these fights.
But it's still tickled the fancy, let's say, of like
the fantasy boxing player, like where you're thinking about these
two greats matching up, but you might not see it
as a real thing because they're separated by so much weight.
But with Crawford moving up to the jingior middleweight division,
we're winning a title in a tough fight against Magemov
and then saying Okay, now I'm going to go to
super midleweight. He's sort of sort of like, okay, I'm
sort of interested. But now the question is can they
really sell it? Can they really get people the mainstream
under the tent, so to speak, to make it as
big as possible so Netflix will get its money's worth
because they're spending a fortune to put on this event
on a non pay review basis. So I felt like
they kind of liked the press conference in the Saudi
Arabia because they showed the proper difference to each other.
They were polite and respectful, coming on the hills of
their dinner they had the previous night with turkeylo sheep,
which I didn't care for seeing the photographic.
Speaker 1: I saw that, and as to God, when I saw it,
I thought it was photoshopped. Now I'm like, are they
really in the same room having dinner the night before
the press conference? I guess so.
Speaker 2: And they made the point during the press conference when
asked about that exact thing. They were asked about that
on the Sunday presser in New York and they're like, look,
we're professionals, but that has nothing to do with what
happens when the bell ring. We're there to win, basically,
it's what they were saying. But anyway, so at at
Friday's press conference, Canelo, you know, they were making their
bravado and their boats and this and that, but they
did in a respectful way where you know, Canelo basically
like kind of talked down to Crawford like you're no different.
I don't see anything different about you. Because he's obviously
got a track record of a mile long of a
top notch fighters. He's defeated and faced over all these years,
and Crawford's like, you know, very very very confident. He's like, well,
you never seen me. They kind of hit the right notes,
is the point I'm making. So okay, that was kind
of good. I kind of liked that. Then they went
to New York and now the New York one. In
Saudi Arabia, it was a much more sort of refined.
There wasn't like a big wild crowd. It was restricted
mainly to like the local folks there and a handful
of press. When they got to New York, it was
open to the public and they were doing it in
front of like a giant crowd that was attending the
fan fest that I mentioned, and there was a lot
more enthusiasm, let's say, a lot more Rockus. And on
top of that, you know Dana White, who was the
promoter of the event, you know, the face let's say,
in terms of the promotion, he was not at the
fight at the press carts that was in Saudi Arabia
because UFC had an event that he was like an
azer Bajan doing their fight night. But he made it
to New York and so he was sort of the
They did an opening part of it where Turkey took
some questions and then he basically turned everything over to
Dana and so to see Dana White, that was the
first ever like real boxing press carts he had ever overseen.
And as the point, I'm making my sort of promotional
debut at a boxing event with the biggest fight that
you can make in the sport. Okay, fair enough, And
you know what, Dana is an engaging guy. I mean,
I've watched some of his activities with his UFC stuff,
even though I don't really follow UFC closely. But the
dude can sell a fucking fight, that's the bottom line.
And he knows what he's doing when he got two
athletes who are going to get ready to bash each
other's faces in so he did his job. The fighters
were even a little bit more amped up than they
were at the Friday press conference. There was some pushing
and shoving.
Speaker 1: Yea on the stairs down.
Speaker 2: I don't really feel like that, Yeah, but he got
the fans excited, and at the end of the day,
that's what it's about. No one's gonna believe that they
hate each other or anything like that. But I also
can say this, and I can say this from personal experience, TJ.
Because I have covered the entire career of both fighters
since they've become anything known. I remember watching both guys
when they were prospects. I've been around both of them.
I've been at many of their fights. I've interviewed them
countless times. The one thing they have in common is
they have deep, deep, deep, deep belief in themselves and
their ability to win, and that they are winners at heart,
and they don't like to lose. And they are as
competitive as anybody like They would race you to see
whould get out the door first. You know. They remind
me no one will ever be like this. But they
have that Michael Jordan thing where they would compete with
you and check or whatever it is you pick, whatever
the you know, you name it.
Speaker 1: They would jail Earnhardt Sr. In Nascar, who would run
you over and or throw you out a window. So
that is whatever to try to win.
Speaker 2: That is the mentality that both of these men bring
to this fight. And so that's a good thing. But
to me, the biggest thing about the Sunday Press coverts
was and it was sort of alluded to it a
social media post that Turkey had done on Saturday night,
I think it was Saturday Night where he posted a
photograph of what was an old HBO PR photo of
Jim Lampley and Max Kellerman at ringside. Obviously they spend
many years as broadcast partners calling the HBO fights. Well,
we all know that Turkey hired Jim Lampley to come
back and be at ringside for the first time in
seven years, and he stuck on ringside to do the
Times squarecard and everybody was, you know, pretty much I
think happy to see Jim back in action, and he
did a hell of a job on that fight considering
he had to call the fight for seven years. But
Max has been nowhere to be seen.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I've been friends with Max twenty five years, and even
I have had limited contact with him over the last
couple years because ever since he was unceremoniously booted out
of the ESPN, he has had when I say, no
public profile, no public profile, no interviews, no appearances, no
socially had one social media post I checked, actually he
had since since the post, since since he posted about
Terrence Crawford defeating Errol Spence. In July of twenty twenty three,
he had one social media post incident was NBA related.
So he has been completely Now I have, you know,
communicated with him, but not like an interview situation. I'm
just making the point that he's been nowhere in the public.
Speaker 1: He got right now he's now going to be involved.
Speaker 2: Well, so here's the thing. So, so Dana White brought,
you know, introduced Max as that this is the introduction
of the first number of our broadcast team for this
fight on Netflix. Now, the assumption, of course, given Turkeys
having hired Lampley for the card in the Times Square,
the fact that he tweeted the photo of Max and
Jim working ringside together at an HBO fight that was
taken several years ago, and the fact that they've been
partners for a long time, you got to figure that
when he posted that photo, you know, he's sort of
getting the band back together. And so if that's the case,
that would be phenomenal to have Jim Calling not only
be back at ringside, but be doing so with Max,
who is obviously a very talented broadcaster in boxing is
his first love. Even though he's opined and discussed plenty
of other sports. So Max came out and it was
like he hadn't missed a day behind the mic in
the two years he's been off the grid, because he
came out and he gave what I thought was a
very very good sort of brief historical dissertation about why
this was a meaningful fight and why this meant so much.
They talked about how you know, in the history of boxing,
there might be thirty guys who could proclaim themselves or
that the public and the press had proclaimed as the
pound for pound king, and in his opinion, the current
pound for pound king is Terrence Crawford, and the previous
pound for pound king was Canelo Alvarez, and that rarely
in boxing history have you seen the current pound for
pound against the previous pound for pound fighting each other
in a high stakes kind of fight, especially given that's
for the undisputed status. I was like, that's a pretty
intelligent comment. And then he asked both fighters some questions
and I was like, Hey, Max is back. So I
had already seen Crawford and Canelo together on Friday, so
I was thrilled to see Kellerman back in action. He's
going to be calling the fight, and I'm super happy
about that. That was I thought a really a really
cool thing. It doesn't shock me. I'm glad they got
him to do the fight, and so it'll be good
to have him back at ringside.
Speaker 1: No, I realized these guys are selling the fight. They're
doing what they can couple quick things because we just
keep it real, We have our own takes. We do
this independently. This fight would sell whether Dana White was
involved with it or not. So I don't buy into
all it's gonna be so much bigger of a fight
because he's promoting. You know, I'm not saying I'm not
saying that you're saying that. I'm just saying that, for
all the attention about him being involved, this fight would
sell itself. This fight would sell it if my twins
were promoting it. And I do think social media.
Speaker 2: I do that's what Dana's presence brings you and me. Yes,
the boxing cognizant right, Yes, doesn't matter to the person
who might watch one or two fights a year, or
only wants to watch the biggest events. They watched the
super Bowl, they watched the Olympics. They might watch the
National Championship in football or basketball. Maybe they'll watch if
there's like game seven of one of the big sports
something like that. And so if they don't know about
the fight, knowing that Dana White has ends on all
kinds of mainstream media and is loud and can sell
things and has that outgoing personality, that that attention will
maybe bring in additional people under the tent. And they're
they're selling the fight, but not really because it's on
pay per view. They want everybody to watch Netflix, of course,
and everybody, not everybody, about one hundred million people argue
that end.
Speaker 1: My second point is this stuff about the knockout bonus,
which they've had forever in UFCU. Sorry, these guys are
making the belief is they're going to be making fifty
million dollars each in that ballpark.
Speaker 2: Is the belief, Well, I I don't know what belief
you're talking about, but that's not I mean, nobody truly
knows what it is. But it's fuck loaded.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's the belief to be fifteen million dollars each.
Speaker 2: Because you're wrong about that, because they're not getting parity.
I guarantee you on anything you want to bet that.
Kenelabbs is making multiple Maybe he is.
Speaker 1: All right, so maybe he's maybe he's making sixty and
uh and Crawford's making fifty. Maybe he's making sixty five
and Crawford's making forty five. That it's ridiculous. It's ridiculous.
So a knockout bonus, no one cares.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's not going to be a twenty million
dollar knockout bonus. Which do you matter?
Speaker 2: You know what the bonus is, but we haven't heard
what they know.
Speaker 1: What I know what it's not. It's it's not going
to be twenty million dollars. It's not gonna be It's
not Worch money. It's Turkey's money. Turkey has got more money, okay,
but it's not gonna be a twenty million or ten
million dollar knockout bonus. This knockout bonus stuff.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna tell you one thing, and maybe maybe I'm
fighting a luna. They haven't said with the number. Is
if Turkey said, if there's a knockout, the winner gets
a ten million dollar bonus. I swear to God, I
wouldn't be shocked by that because he does things like that.
I mean, the money it comes from the government. They
have trillions and trillions of dollars at their disposal, So
if they want to make this the biggest thing, maybe
they will make some kind of huge matter. But anyway,
it's so interesting because it might provide a lead, like
if Canelo knew we could get another couple of million
dollars who loves.
Speaker 1: I don't think it matters to either one of them.
They just want to win the fight. They they have legacies,
they have Hall of Fame careers, They're being paid ridiculous
amounts of money. I don't think it matters. That's just
my take.
Speaker 2: I think it. I think it it it it is.
It can't hurt number one except for the guy who
gets knocked out.
Speaker 1: He should have given Canelo a five millillion dollar knockout
bonus for the Skull fight to see what would happen.
Is that would have been a test.
Speaker 2: But okay, listen, I could have done in the Mongia
fight instead of having them carry him to the final bill.
Speaker 1: Okay and uh. And the other thing with all of
this is we still have a lot of time. This
just started, all of it, and who knows, who knows
over the next ninety days and trying to get to September.
This is just the beginning, and it's only June. We
have the whole rest of the summer to get to this.
Speaker 2: And you see that that's happening. We're talking about the
press workers.
Speaker 1: They got another press they got another press conference later
this week, and it's going to be a lot of
the same stuff again.
Speaker 2: But it's starting to This is the whole purpose of
having a longer runway of a promotion. Get the fans
talking about you.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about it, back with it. Like you mentioned,
we're hardcore, We're gonna talk about it anyway.
Speaker 2: Here's the other thing, TJJ hold on. If they were
not doing press conferences on Friday and on Sunday, we
would probably not be talking about the fight.
Speaker 1: But if they only my point is if they only
did the one on Friday, we would still have talked
about it on this okay for us, for us, and
I totally get why they're doing it. I understand the
business of why they're doing it. But one thing that
I will also put in though, is that some of
this is needless in that when the press tours used
to take place all over the place, multiple cities. You've
talked about haglarn Hearns going to all those different cities,
and they got so sick of each other and so
sick of doing it. It's more of like an eighties, nineties,
pre internet, pre social media whatever. Almost anybody that cares
right now has seen the social media videos, has seen
the hype. And I don't know, this is just me
saying this. You don't have to do a second one
or a third one right now. You know what, I've
already seen that everybody.
Speaker 2: I see, I do disagree with that. And here's why. Yes,
obviously they're looking when they do the press conferences, whether
it's in read or New York or Las Vegas, they're
looking to get the clip that they can put up
a thirty second thing on whatever platform and have it
go viral. However, there's something to be said for the
people that pay attention daily to these things, watch the
supposed animosities. Maybe not between these two guys, but I'm
talking about just in general generically, watched the emotion simmer
over the course of a few days. And I am
convinced one thousand percent because even back when Canelo was
fighting like Floyd Mayweather, for example, there was still social
media back then there were still plenty of people watching
internet videos and this and that, but that was still this.
Speaker 1: Generation that years ago. It's not that it's not the
same as what it is.
Speaker 2: What I'm saying it is just everywhere they they gave
the fans in those cities a chance to go and
see them for free and see the show, and they
turned out and every single place they went, they filled
up whatever venue they were at. And the thing about it,
it was so much fun that those people. If you're
sitting watching it on your screen, you're not necessarily gonna
go tell your buddy, you're not gonna necessarily talk about
it at work. But the people that turned out to
these press conferences, like I went to the one in Washington,
I saw how excited everybody was. Every single one of
those people probably went home and said something to their buddy,
to their for their friend, to their brother.
Speaker 1: In you're living in ten years ago. In the present,
everybody sins you're missing No, no, I got your point,
I disagree with you. In the present, everybody sends everybody
the video clip on their phone immediately. This ain't twenty fourteen,
much less twenty oh four or two thousand is not
the same. It's not even really close to the same.
Social media has completely overwhelmed all other form of media.
It's instantaneous there, it's.
Speaker 2: Everyone, and you gain the emotion and you feel it
again to talk to your people about.
Speaker 1: But that's for a limited number of people. Whoever was
at that Fanatics thing is not near the people that
saw it on social media and shared it, not even close.
It's a fraction of who saw it. We're in an
instantaneous world where everybody sees everything instantaneously.
Speaker 2: It's still good to go do those activities.
Speaker 1: But it's not as important, and it's not as important
to do it a second time or a third time
ninety days out of the FIR.
Speaker 2: The reason why it is is because although the press
conference on Friday was certainly interesting, there was no viral
moment from that press covers, but there was from the
one on Sunday, having them bring out Dana, having them
bring out Kellerman, having them get into whatever contrived scuffle
there was. Whatever you want to say, that was different
than what we saw on Friday, and we'll want.
Speaker 1: My counter is then have one press conference and bring
out Dana, bring out Kellerman, and have them scuffle at
the one.
Speaker 2: Well, they weren't in Saudi Arabia. I mean, why why
do you care how many press covers they do.
Speaker 1: I'm just pointing out that it's needless. I did it,
and I think I did a pretty good job of
pointing out why it's needless. It's certainly needless for a
third one already. And it's still ninety days before the fight.
It's not nineteen ninety four. We have the Internet, social
media is everywhere.
Speaker 2: I mean, there's still something to the example.
Speaker 1: Perfect example. We're doing this live right now today on
Sunday night, while Game seven of the NBA Finals is
going on all right Oklahoma City and Indiana. For basketball fans,
Indiana's best player, Tyrese Halliburton, blew his achilles out, most
likely in the first quarter of the game, instantaneously, Ray Peel.
That was everywhere with millions and millions and millions of shares, impressions, whatever,
when he did that everywhere the postgame press conference telling
us that he blew his achilles out doesn't really matter.
We all already know exact example I'm talking about. This
is the age that we now live in.
Speaker 2: Well, this is there's something different when you're when you're.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying that in the moment when you're looking
for the the this moment, they got it. They got
it on social media.
Speaker 2: It's not But you know what, at the postfight press cards,
Dell have known he may have suffered an injury, but
they're going to know how he feels. What's the update,
what's the what's the that's.
Speaker 1: That's different that term. But in terms of what happened
and what everybody's reaction, they've.
Speaker 2: Already to tell you what TJ. Then you know when
they do the press, Corrents and Timo, you don't have
to watch it? How about that?
Speaker 1: And guess what. I didn't watch the first two and
I won't watch the third. Okay, I'll just listen to
you talk about how wonderful they are because you will.
Speaker 2: By the way, if the Press Coverents stunk, i'd say
so because trust me, brother, I've been to a lot
of shit.
Speaker 1: I know you have, and you've had to deal with them.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of terrible ones I've been.
Speaker 1: Especially if the food is bad, shall we move on?
Speaker 2: I don't care about that at the press converence. The
food's never good at a press.
Speaker 1: I want the food to be good at the Jake
Paulman that I'm coming up to because I might be hungry.
But then again they may not even feed us. I
don't know. We'll find out in Anaheim later in a week.
All right, One more news item here, and that is
the IBF, as you like to say, doing IBF things.
They now have a final heavyweight eliminator. It says on
my rundown for FAA Jagma and now Frank Sanchez, the
number three and four fighters in their rankings. What is why?
What what are we doing here? What are we doing here?
What is this? What does this matter? Why does this matter?
At the moment? Go?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean because number one, the IBF sent out
the notes the letters to the two camps and said,
you know, tell us if you're going to be involved,
otherwise we're going to move on to the next rank guys,
THEA camp, the Ajagua camp, which is top rank, and
the Frank Sanchez camp, which is Mike Boreo his manager
doesn't and uh, you know, they sent back they would participate.
And so the winner of this fight presumably that now
they've accepted, they have to go through the process of
negotiating and perhaps they'll be a purspit, but that means
that if the fight takes place, that the winner will
become the IBF heavyweight mandatory. It's not due next or
anything like that. Obviously, we've got the duboat In and
U and Whosik rematch for the unisputed title coming up,
but that's going to be a great position for the
winner of the fight. You mentioned the rankings that each have. Now,
anybody that knows anything about the IVF knows most of
the time they leave number one vacant to allow for
an eliminator to have the winner become number one. In
this case, Derek Tasor is number two. He is apparently
doing something else and was not going to be involved
in the in the in the box off, So they
went to the next leading guys and that was a
jagua in Sanchez, and so they're two good heavyweights. Obviously
they both have you know, had ups and downs. Sanchez
had the loss, you know, in a fight where he
hurt his knee. He got to win since then a
job but had to draw, you know, in a fight
that could have a lot of people thought he won
against Bocoli. But the bottom line is not only are
they fighting for high stakes of a guaranteed heavyweight championship fight,
but it's a rematch. They fought each other in twenty
twenty one. They fought on one of the undercards when
I believe it was the rematch when Tyson Fury fought
against Deontay Wilder. I guess it was the rematch anyway,
Sanchez won a decision that fight, and they're gonna do
it again. And so you say, what's the big deal.
It's because it's for the opportunity to fight for a
heavyweight championship, That's why. And they're they're these are not bums.
These are good quality heavyweys in today's day and age.
Speaker 1: So we will see if they agree, and if not,
then they'll find somebody else. And it's IBF doing IBF things.
And we're now done, and.
Speaker 2: We're not actually qualified this as the IDF doing IBF
things because when you looked at the top heavyweights and
who's available and what the other guys are doing, this
is I'm not saying this is like the greatest matchup
of all time, but this is a reputable type of
eliminator fight. I don't know, this is.
Speaker 1: Further complicated because when a Jagua and Martin Bucoli were
to have fought, originally that was going to be the eliminator, right,
and then a Jagua suddenly took the short notice fight
with Joseph Parker Bacoli. I'm sorry, I took the short
notice fight and got knocked out in it. And so
now that messed up the Jagua fight with Bacoli for
the eliminator spot.
Speaker 2: So this is taking that place.
Speaker 1: And so now they fought anyway, and a Jagua beat him.
Speaker 2: So well, no, what do you mean a Joga beat
who Pecoli?
Speaker 1: Right, because they fought anyway.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a non eliminator because Baccoley had gotten
his clock cleaned by Parker. Again, the IBF is they're
doing actually the right thing. Had they made that the
eliminator with Bacoli coming off a lost to Parker that
had been far worse in my opinion. So again, you know,
we're I don't know what the problem is with this.
They're taking two quality heavyweights or maybe you know, maybe
not number one, two or three in real ratings, not
the IBF ratings, and they've matched them in and eliminator.
Both sides have agreed to do the fight. It's our
rematch of a fight. They're two good fighters. One guy's
great punching power in a Jaba, one guy is more
of a boxer in Sanchez. And we'll see if they
can make them hey and put on a solid fight,
and they'll get the opportunity. I don't have a problem with.
Speaker 1: That, all right. Two bits of nostalgia. Speaking of heavyweights,
this weekend is the anniversary and you were ringside of
Lennox Lewis and Vitali Klitchko in June June twenty first, right,
two thousand and three. You were ringside for that one
it turns out to be Lennox Lewis's final fight, and
also another anniversary the previous year, twenty three years ago
is the rematch of Marco Antonio Berrera Eric Morales two,
the second of their three fights. You were also ringside
there for both. And so we say to the audience,
you want to go find the Big Fight Weekend YouTube page,
because you and I go over those two fights on
video in the nostalgia, give him a little give him
a little tease being ringside for both of those. Lennox
Lewis's fast last fight, and you actually you do explain
this in the video. You were not at the Barrera
Morales first fight, but you were there for the next
two and many of their other fights after that.
Speaker 2: Well, just briefly good. Yeah. As far as Lewis and Klitchko,
I mean, I've detailed this before about how this was
a fight made on short notice, was supposed to be
them fighting separate opponents on a pay per view, and
one of those opponents got injured, and instead of building
up to the fight to do in the fall of
that year, everybody sort of agreed and HBO went and
got a huge amount of money from the bosses to
put this fight on live HBO, not on a pay
per view basis, and they basically made this heavyweight championship
fight that was a big deal in like a couple
three weeks notice. I want to say both guys were
training for other opponents. Lenox maybe not as well as
he should have been because he came in out of
shape against Clitchcob but still got to win. But it
was the rollicking, you know, incredibly action packed fight. I've
ranked it, you know, for me, at the moment, I
would say it's the one of the handful of best
heavyweight championsh fight I evercovered for the long time, that
was the number one. Then it became uh the fight
between uh well, the.
Speaker 1: One Wilder Pury Wilder.
Speaker 2: Well, I was saying first it was first it was
Lewis Klitschkow. Then it became Vladimir Clitchco against Anthony Joshua,
which I was ringside for in Wembley Stadium in twenty seventeen.
That was the fight of the year. And now I
ranked the Wilder because it's come after that Wilder against
Fear in the Trilogy fight, which was just ridiculous. But anyway,
but the point is this is a historically great heavyweight
championship fight, was a you know, incredibly memorable fight. Being
as stable center for that fight. And then as you
mentioned the rematch between Barrera and Morales, the second of
the two fights, as I'll talk about in the video
you you mentioned, uh not at the same level of
ferocity and intensity of fight number one and fight number three.
A lot of trilogies have the one that's it was
still a great fight, don't get me wrong, but it
wasn't didn't rise to the fight at the year level,
but still House standing fighting. Obviously, it allowed the rivalry
to become one and one, so they were able to
then later on do a third fight. But this this
was for featherweight supremacy, and that's why this was an
important fight, not only become because it was a rematchup
of a all time great first one.
Speaker 1: And again, if you go to our YouTube page and
check out the nostalgia part on the videos, you'll love it.
There's some great stuff there. A Dan's interview with Deontay Wilder.
Speaking of Deontay Wilder, we want you to see Wilder's
return on Friday night on PPV dot Com with our
friends at PPV dot com. No long term subscription necessary,
just make the one off pay per view purchase to
watch it with them. They are sponsors of what we
do here on the pod and the video feed and
our Big Fight Weekend website, Big Fight Weekend dot Com
website as well. All Right, I think we're good. We're
good on fight recaps, on the news. They can go
see the nostalgia on the YouTube page. When I talk
to you next, I'm gonna go so Cal, I'm gonna
go Left Coast and we're gonna do everything we can
to be live after the Jake Poul Julio says Oar
Chavez pay perview press conference on Thursday afternoon Pacific and
Eastern time. Look for us to be live on YouTube first.
You'll be able to see it and we'll talk to
you on YouTube first. And then for the podcast audience,
which we have right here, you'll be able to hear
it later on the night Thursday night into Friday. But
see it first and watch you all of our coverage first,
as I'm out there for that pay per view this
weekend at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, for whatever
happens again, Zerdo Ramirez in the co feature, cruiserweight unification,
Floyd Schofield on the undercard, etc. So we'll be out
there for all of that. Other than that, I think
we're good, my friend. Are we good? Are we ready
to have one good final week here of June. June's
basically over after next weekend, Yes, sir, love it. There's
Dan Rayfield. Follow and subscribe to this pod feed Apples, Creaker, Spotify,
go to his substack. Make sure you're subscribing on the
newsletter The Fight Preach to Night's substack as well. For now,
we are good. It is the fight Freaks Your Night
Recap podcast