Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big
Fight Weekend.
Speaker 2: Now here is your host, DJ leaves Well. We get
ready for a couple of very intriguing fight cards, one
in Germany of all places, and then a world title
fight card coming up from the Barclay Center in Brooklyn,
New York as well on Saturday night. We're in the
preview mode. It is the Big Fight Weekend preview podcast.
I am the somewhat competent host, TJ. Reeves. We've got
some fight news as well, and we say hello to
our insider from Fight Freak to Night, the substack and
the newsletter in the brand new year. Here he is
playing a little hurt. You do not sound I say
this because I know already before we hit the record
button you don't sound as bad as you portrayed that
you're gonna be. But you are playing hurt here a
little bit under the weather. It's always good to be
with Dan Rayphield. You have posted you are here, you
were not gonna I'm here, not be here to give
a little insight in advance of the weekend. Good to
be with you, even if it is a little bit,
you know, like maybe seventy percent Rayfield or sixty five
or sixty eight percent ray Field.
Speaker 1: Right now, I'm good enough to make it through the show.
I'm like I said to him, like an hour into
my most recent dosage of maybe they could sponsor the show.
Got Lot's cough drops next to.
Speaker 2: My they should be a sponsor.
Speaker 1: Oh here, uh, and so I'd be all right. I've
been I've been on my back for like three days
because my son gave me a call after he and.
Speaker 2: My wife Happy New Year, Happy New Year, from your show.
Speaker 1: My New Year's present from your son.
Speaker 2: Your son was in southern California with your wife, I know,
over the holidays, so all the travel everywhere, everybody's bringing
all you know on the south, we got we got
technical terms for this stuff.
Speaker 1: The gunchy exactly.
Speaker 2: Gunch is going around and everybody's bringing it everywhere from
all over the country back to where they live and
they bring think it was and yes, and then it
all the gunch goes.
Speaker 1: There's not a flu because I'm not no fever. But
they got home from the trip to visit my in
laws on the third. We had a nice New Year's
Eve together and then my son was feeling under the
weather from the trip, and then a couple days later
my wife gets it. She's good now, and then like
the day after that, I'm down with it for auch Oh.
Speaker 2: It's the gift that keeps on giving right now in
the Rayfield household. But we're all right to do the show.
Let's get that rolling. Thank you for finding us in
the new year. Apple Speaker Spotify on the podcast outlets
give us a five star review that will help with
the algorithms. Again, I say this because some people may
not have heard the show coming off of the weekend,
the most recent one. Thank you again in twenty twenty
five to all of the audience, by the tens of
thousands of you, week after week, month after month that
have stuck with us and enjoy the content. We're here
for you talking to Sweet Science. We do our best
to preview going into the weekend recap coming off the weekend,
and we got some intriguing stuff including, as you always
like to say, my boy Akabayel, Yes, the heavyweight, the
Turkish kurd well, the Kurdish German is in action to
night unbeat or in action on Saturday Night unbeaten. Top
WBC heavyweight at the moment could could maybe be in
the title picture down the road. We'll explain all that
in a few minutes, but anyway, thank you for finding us.
Also find the YouTube page the Big Fight Weekend YouTube page.
Some intriguing action in the first part of this year,
and we'll have some different content on the YouTube page also,
so go look it up Big Fight Weekend YouTube page
there as well. Some fight news in a little bit,
But why don't we go sequentially because the fight in
the United States will be in the daytime. The Queensberry
Cards Saturday night in Oberhausen, Germany, where Kaba Yell fights
Damian Naiba for the WBC Interim heavyweight title. Kaba Yell unbeaten,
hard punching. We've seen him on these read Season cards,
the Read Seasons Saudi Arabia cards, scores some knockouts over
the last year and a half or so. Now he
is headlining in Germany, right, so Dan, give me a
little more including a co feature fight that's an animal
lightweight title fight as well. Go ahead.
Speaker 1: Well, as you mentioned, Cabiel has sort of made his
name in his last three fights, all three of which
have taken place in Saudi Arabia. On those cards that
have been there on the big shows that have taken
place there, and he's won them. He came in if
you go back to the end of twenty twenty three
when he fought Arslan Beck Mackmandov, he was I think
the underdog in that fight, and or at the very
least it was considered like a fifty to fifty proposition
because at the time. Now Mackmadou has been quite exposed
in terms of having a bad chint since then, but
going into that fight, nobody really knew. And he knocked
him out in the fourth round and looked really good,
knocked him down three times and just absolutely destroyed him.
And he's been stopped since then. But that was sort
of a revolution type of victory for him, kind of
put him on the map, and they brought him back.
And then this was another fight where I think he
was the underdog against Frank Sanchez, who was undefeated. Slick
Cuban would also his pretty solid power that was in
another one of the reas and cards. This was in
May of twenty twenty four, and he dropped him twice
and knocked him out in the seventh round, and you're like, okay, now,
maybe we've got something here. So he's now won two
notable fights against two undefeated heavyweights, and now they match
him up with Zilly Zang, another fight where he's the
underdog probably in that fight, and they put again this
is now for the WBC Interim Heavyweight title. And again
at even if you thought that it was not he's
not a big underdog. Maybe it's a fifty to fifty
kind of proposition. And what happens. He gets knocked down
in the fight, He gets up and he takes Zang
out with the body shot, knocks him out in the
sixth round. So in his three biggest fights against two
undefeated guys who had some heat behind them, if you will,
at that point, combined with the fight against Zilly Zang,
who had already had a couple of losses but was
still considering a pretty formidable guy, he knocked all three
of them out the title. And so you know, now
this is sort of like this is the the gimme,
this is the let's go home and celebrate. Let's go
back to Germany, where he hasn't fought for several years,
you know, since twenty twenty three was the last time
he fought there, And this is you know when he
was European champion as opposed to on the world level.
Let's say, and Queensberry, who is this promoter now, who's
been looking to move into other territories. They obviously have
done events for sure, all through the UK. They've promoted
most of the events that have taken place in terms
of the ri ED season cards, they've been the official
promoter for most of those events. But they have aspirations
to expand they're gonna be doing this event in Germany.
It'll be the first of what will probably be a
few over the over the year. They have also plans
to come and do some events in the United States.
I think at some point in twenty twenty six we'll
probably see Moses a Tommy in America. Well, you know,
we'll have to wait and see how that works out.
But the point is they're taking him home to Germany
to fight Niba, Who's you know, it makes sense in
terms of from the regional point of view because Niba
is from Poland, so it's Poland versus Germany over there.
That's sort of like a big rivalry. It's maybe not
quite in the pantheon of boxing. It's not Mexico Puerto Rico. Right.
You know, it's still you know, a pretty good rivalry,
and you know, Niba frankly is sort of like, in
my mind, kind of the perfect deponent. He's undefeeded, he's
seventeen to o with eleven knockouts. He had been he
still is with top rank, and he's drawn some crowds
when they've had him fight in place like Newark where
they've got, uh, you know, a good Polish community. He's
not been very impressive to me. He's very slow, but
he is a big man, and you know, you just
never know. He's coming off of a bunch of knockouts
in a row, and anything can happen. You know, we've
seen what happened when when when Caveo was considered the
dog and he stepped up and he knocked the guy out.
So I don't think in a in a in America
or on the world stage, people aren't necessarily looking at
this as like an ultra competitive fight. But it's heavyweights.
It's heavyweight boxing because it is for the interim belt.
For whatever you think about it, it puts him instead
for the winner of being involved in a big, big,
big fight.
Speaker 2: That's where I was going next, there's a much bigger
fight for Caba Yell against somebody, and you could say,
I don't know that Usik would ever fight him. He
could be in line to fight Alexander Usik. Stay tuned,
but you gotta win first. You gotta win on this one,
and then tell me about the the co feature fight,
which is also an interim lightweight title fight with Yadier
Herrera and Riccardo Nunez that will be on undercard in Germany.
Speaker 1: I think Herrera is a really outstanding up and coming fighter.
He was unfortunately because of his some injuries and some
other issues and then waiting for this interim fight. He
only had one fight in twenty twenty five, which was
a big disappointment. He's a Cuban fighter who's you know.
He now lives in the UAE fights out of Dubai,
but he's he's undefeated. He's only twenty three years old.
At the end of twenty twenty five, I had him
very high on my top fifteen prospect list and I thought,
you know, and he was not a well known guy
at all. So they've landed in this fight and what's
interesting is okay, so he's fighting Ricardo Nunyez. If you remain,
we don't have to go back that long ago, TJ.
We go back like about a month ago. Didn't O'shaki
Foster and Stephen Fulton fight for the interim lightweight belt,
the WC interim lightweight title. That is correct, Well, that
was done after this fight between Herrera and Nunia's had
been sanctioned, and at the last minute, as you recall,
the WBC, at the request of PBC, said okay, fine,
this is what Stephen Fulton didn't make weight, and so
instead of fighting for Oshaki Foster's one hundred and thirty
pound title, They're like, yeah, go ahead and fight for
the interim one hundred and thirty five pound title, which
at that moment did not have an occupant. And so
it's only based on kind of dumb luck. I guess
that the WBC didn't find themselves in a potential lawsuit
or some type of real jackpot because they already had
sanctioned Herrera versus Nunia's at their convention that took place
like literally like a week before they sanctioned Foster against Fulton,
and it was just good luck for them that O'shaki Foster.
You know within time frame elected to vacate the interim
title and return to the one hundred and thirty pound
division where he holds the full title, So that cleared
the way for her Era and Nunya to once again
be for the interim title for reasons that still don't
make a lot of sense, but whatever, And if you
are familiar with these guys, Nunyas he's got a bunch
of losses. His most famous loss is twenty nineteen where
he got absolutely decimated in the second round. This was
at one hundred and thirty pounds by Tank Davis in Baltimore,
a fight that headlines on Showtime and that's the same guy.
Then he went on a three fight losing streak. He
lost to Badr Ghaziev, who was the Olympic gold medal
winner in the last Olympics from Russia. He won a
ten round better guys I have won a ten round
decision against him. He lost to zaor Abdalaiyav by a decision,
and then he got knocked out by Rashiki over in Japan.
So he had lost three fights in a row. But
then he put together a three fight winning streak against
lesser guys and then he got he got disqualified by
John Fernandez, who is currently the European champion. This was
in Junia lasher and now he's getting this opportunity to
fight against Herrera for this interim title. So obviously, Herrera
as the guy on the upswing, as the twenty three
year old compared to this thirty two year old, is
the very clear and obvious favorite against a guy nest Let's.
Speaker 2: Be even more honest. Nunyas is there to be knocked out.
I mean he will be knocked out, but I mean
I remember that Tank Davis fight and I've seen him
get knocked out. I think in another fight, I mean,
we'll say, can can Herrera do that? Will this go
some rounds?
Speaker 1: Herrera's got a you know, if I wish he could
be a little more active, but he is a very
outstanding young fighter, and if he gets past Nunez, which
we expect he will, you can have a serious player
at the one hundred and thirty five pounds division. He
may not be famous and well known, but if you
ever spend five minutes and go back and look at
some of his highlights or watch some of the fights
which are readily available, that dude, is good, real good.
Speaker 2: I'll just add this, all of this is still the
same doubly BC gobbly goop debacle that you that you outlined,
where once again these organizations just do whatever they want.
They had the interim title fight set up only because
Stephen Fulton missed weight. What they should have said is
you can't win the junior lightweight title if you win
the fight. But the end result is the right thing
is happening here, which is what they already agreed to,
and we'll see if Herrera becomes a bigger player at one.
Speaker 1: When you say the right thing though, that's that's never
in boxing. What do you even agree that there should
be an interim title available in this particular.
Speaker 2: I don't disagree. I don't a different conversation. They that
it's a whole different We don't need to go fifteen
more minutes on that. But you and I agree that
a lot of that is silliness too. But because the
main reason, as you have explained, and as we know,
if there's some question because of injury for the champion,
or if the champion, let's say, wants to move up
and fight for a title in another weight division, those
are acceptable reasons, and the fight fans agree with us
the reasons.
Speaker 1: For instance, what they're doing by making this for the
interim title one hundred and thirty five. They know that
Shaqurse Stevenson, who is the actual WBC lightweight Champion, his
next fight, which is coming up at the end of
Janua Try, is going to be for the one hundred
and forty pounds WBO title in a different weight class.
So if Chha course Stevenson is the winner and he
decides to stay in that weight division, then the winner
of this fight on Saturday is going to become most
likely the WBC lightweight champion, because as we've discussed, it's
not automatic in the WBC that you're elevated. As case
in point, what's happening with Shushu Charrington who's on that undercard,
which of course Stevens, but the likelihood would be that
he would be elevated. So there are some stakes. But
here's the upshot. Forget all the gobleego. If you want
to watch the event on his own, you're watching it
because a g Caabio has emerged as a top level
quality heavyweight contender, and it's always good to watch youngest
heavyweights do their thing, and Jader Herrera is a tremendous
up and coming fighter again in with a good veteran.
He's supposed to win her era. But you see, if
he can get tested, that's the point of this. Forget
all the nonsense about interim titles.
Speaker 2: All right, Then we have a full WBC Junior Welterweight
world title fight in New York. This one, obviously, we
will pay a little more attention to its primetime in
the United States, with Suprio Mattias of Puerto Rico and
Dalton Smith, unbeaten from England. Mattias when last we saw him,
captured this WBC Junior Welterweight title on that fight that
was in the US Tennis Center in Queens, New York,
that card that Turkey Alaschic put on. He defeated Albert Poyo.
So Mattias was previously the champion two and was beaten
by Liam Parrow in Puerto Rico in a horrific performance.
Speaker 1: Where he is a different belt.
Speaker 2: Different belt, yeah, different belt, but he has now bounced back,
won some fights, won the belt back, and Dalton Smith
is the challenger. There is some interest obviously in the
UK because it's a world title opportunity for Dalton Smith.
So give me some more on this one coming up
Saturday night at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn in the
US on the Fresh Production pay per view card.
Speaker 1: Go ahead, Well, Mattias, if you've watched him, you know
he's one of the heaviest hitters in boxing. He's twenty
three and two. Twenty two of his knockouts are by victory.
He's never been stopped in his two defeats. One of
those defeats was avenged, and as you mentioned, after he
fought and lost his title to Liam Paro, he then
won three fights in a row, two sort of lesser
ish kind of fights, but not not ridiculously terrible mismatches
against Roberto Ramirez and against Gabriel Golez. Valenzuela was always
given guys a tough fight, and then he got the
chance on the WBC to fight Peo for the title
back in July on that big card that they had
at the Louis Armstrong Stadium headlined if you recall, that
was headlined by the fight by Hamsa Shiraz against against
Edgar Berlanga and Surbril Matias and Peyo put on a
good fight and Mattias, you know, he won a very
competitive decision. It was a majority decision. It was a
draw on one card, and he won by seven to
five thirteen on the other two cards. He won the title.
And Dalton Smith, who is from England, as you said,
he is the mandatory challenger. He was in attendance and
they brought him into the ring after the fight and
they faced them off and took pictures and whole thing,
and Turkey Alshik was there and announced that we're going
to make this fight and it's going to be on
what turned out to be the David Benavite's card, the
Night of Champions that took place on November twenty second,
So all right, that's going to add to get another
excellent fight to that big show. And then they never
actually consummated the deal, and Juanarengo, who was the promoter
from Fresh Productions and Matt Troom Boxing who was the
promoter for Dalton Smith, could not make a deal or
did not make a deal, and they decided on the
Fresh Production side to not deal with Turkey for whatever
their reasons were, and he said I'm taking this fight.
They went to a purse bid they won for one
point nine million dollars, which seemed awfully heavy for this fight,
and he said, we're going to do this fight in
Puerto Rico and give him a teas the hometown. And
then they changed up a few weeks later and said, no,
we're going to go to Brooklyn, New York and do
it a Parklay Center, figuring, Okay, there's a big Puerto
Rican community, and forgetting about the fact that Mattias is
not a known fighter in that community compared to a
Fielix Trinidad when he was knocking everybody out or in
Miguel Cota was packing a minute Madison Square guard and
a bona fide superstar. You know, just because you're Puerto Rican,
you just can't show up, particularly in Brooklyn. Those other
fighters are drawing in Manhattan at the Garden, which even
though they're close, it's a different You might as well
be in a different universe. You ever watched Seinfelder They
talk about exactly. You know, if you're in below whatever Street,
it's not the same. You might as well be in
a different country. Yes, as my dear friend, the departed
promoter Gary Shaw once told me when Rock Nation was
still involved, in boxing, and they did a Miguel Coto
fight at Barclay Center, and Miguel was a superstar at
that time. They'd been packing Madison Square Guarden. He looked
at me and he laughed. He goes, they just don't
get it, the Puerto Ricans. They don't cross the bridge,
meaning they're not going to go to Brooklyn for Miguel's fight.
And as it turned out, it was a lighter crowd
than your typical Miguel Coto fight. So anyway, the point
here is that Mattias and Dulton Smith is a really
interesting matchup. It's a good fight if you're a boxing fan.
For sure. Dalton Smith is undefeated, he's got a you know,
a lot of people have thought highly of them for
a long time, has popularity in Sheffield, England, where he
is from. You know, he's done his job by beating
the guys he's got to beat and he gets his opportunity.
And the fact that they're doing this in Brooklyn, it's
a disaster because they've sold no tickets for this fight.
If you just look at the seat maps, I've seen
a few, it's it's negligible what there might be. Remember,
Barclay Center is where, like I said, National, Yes, it's
a big arena basketball in Brooklyn.
Speaker 2: Nets Home Arena.
Speaker 1: Used to have you know, the NHL, you know college basketball,
major boxing events, I mean all kinds of stuff. It
all is eighteen thousand ish, nineteen thousand ish for boxing,
something like that. If they've sold two thousand tickets, I'm
probably overestimating number one and the worst thing of all,
and this I find to be fucking offensive. Now, I'm
never one to tell anybody how to make their money,
but I know a thing or two about the boxing business.
I've been doing this a long fucking time. I know
about pay per view. Also, you cannot take Surreal Matias
against Dalton Smith with an undercard of nobody's and put
it on pay per view and ask fifty five dollars
from the public.
Speaker 2: Well, you just won't have anybody buying.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, of course you can. When I tell you
then it would be a gift from the Lord above.
If this fight could even do and I'm overestimated if
they did ten thousand, they should run around naked in
the street and just pray to their Lord. Yeah, it
won't even come close to that. This fight is soda economically,
and I feel bad because the fighters are going to
go in there and put their lives on the line
and try to win win the fight, and you know,
for Dalton Smith to win a world title, for Mattias
defend the title, and they're gonna have no audience for
this fight. And it's unfortunate because in a different time
this would have been an excellent main event on a
showtime card or you know, in some type of HBO broadcast. Obviously,
if Matchroom Boxing, which came up a couple hundred thousand
short on the per spit, they did one point seven
to one million had they won, this would have been
a Either they would have ended up making a deal
with Turkey to put it on in the cart in
Saudry Arabia, or they absolutely could have done the event
in Sheffield and it would have been a great.
Speaker 2: Zone, had an atmosphere and it sells out the arena absolutely.
Speaker 1: So now, yeah, fight with nobody that's gonna be there
to watch it, and uh, it's a kind of fight
where I can definitely see Mattias winning the fight. I
can definitely see Dalton Smith winning the fight. But you know,
fifty five bucks on pay per view Yeah, that's a
big ass right now. Man, that is a big.
Speaker 2: Fight, especially when everybody else has been sticking things on
pay per view that nobody wants to watch and so
good luck.
Speaker 1: But again, it's not it's not even the pay per
view part TJ. That's a problem. Like when they take
like the recent fight between that dude Jack and mckellian
for example, mm hmm, and they made it like twenty
nine bucks or whatever it was. Like, again, it's not
a perfect situation, but I can justify that, you know
what I mean, Like, that's not horrendous horrendous fifty five?
Are you fucking kidding me? What world do we live in?
Speaker 2: It? I agree with you. What are we doing here?
As we say, all right, Mattias Dalton Smith is Saturday
night in New York. We will do our diligence.
Speaker 1: We don't even have an undercart fight that we would
even board the audience to discuss.
Speaker 2: Uh. There you go. All right, some news and I
do keep up with my Rayphiel substack in the New
Year fight Freaktion Night Substack. I read on my substack
earlier in the week that Dmitri Beebel is targeting a
return off of back surgery. You are breaking this story.
You had the quotes from his manager of adem Cornell off,
all right, tell me more about what this looks like.
And it revolves around the IBF mandatory challenger because again
I read you in the substack.
Speaker 1: You do uh and you know, let's be honest, I
do have you on my subscriber accomplice, so you get
the paid version, but.
Speaker 2: At least I got Yeah, you hooked me up. But
I read my info and I'm saying to the audience,
You're not finding this anywhere else. I'm propping you. You
got the you did the leg work, and I got
the intel.
Speaker 1: So we had the surgery in August. Remember, you know,
the going to try to do the better be a
third fight when things didn't work out and things went sideways,
end up giving up the title and the WBC. At
that point and when there was nothing specific going on,
he was like, you know what, he said, he had
this nagging back thing for like the last ten years
and it was getting progressively worse and it was time
to just deal with it. And so the decision was
made by the team that I'm going to have the surgery.
So he had the surgery in August and he was
gonna be out for a little while. And so now
he's feeling better, and as I spoke to that Dean,
his manager, he started to move around and starting to
do a little light training in the gym, just sort of,
you know, work out the kings limit, but certainly not
anything heavy duty. But they if everything progresses as they
feel it will, they hope that he's back in the
rain in April and as the return fight. Even though
they still would like if the if the circumstances were appropriate,
if the money was right, all the things that everybody
always says, they would certainly be open and willing to
do a third fight with better BF. But in the meantime,
he still has He gave up the WBC title, but
he still has the other belts and so the next
up and this has been long overdue, and frankly, the
IBF has been even though they gave him a medical exception,
they've been generous with their time, and so has the
patience of Michael Eifert, who is the mandatory. So that's
the fight they're planning to do come April.
Speaker 2: All right, get a good drink of that water, by
the way, because Dan again's playing a little bit under
the weather as well, so that I mean again this
we're looking at bigger things. Maybe could end up fighting
David Benavitez, although Benavetez is gonna move up to cruiserweight
to fight against Zerto Ramirez. But I know when you
and I talked, that may not necessarily be a permanent
move for Benavitez. And certainly I said to you before,
it is a big time, commercially lucrative fight if it's
an undisputed title fight with beevil who has beaten Canelo
in the United States fights. Listen to me playing amateur
matchmaker again here on the pod fights Benavidez in Las
Vegas on a pay per view. That's an intriguing fight
if it to ever come about. But certainly the first
step is he's got to address the IBF situation.
Speaker 1: That's right comes down, So most likely they'll make the
deal for Eiffert, and uh, you know, it's a it's
a reasonable fight for him to come back from. I mean,
he's fought top guys fight in and fight out over
the recent past, and you know, if the Benavida's fight
could happen down the road, obviously that would be great.
If they could do a third fight with Better b Off,
that be fine also, so he'll have options obviously, But
in the meantime, two things have to happen. One, you
got to make sure you're physically sound with your back. Obviously,
that's your you know your your back. If he if
your back is messed up, you can't fight.
Speaker 2: By the way, I've said this for all time, I
have a little bit of a bad back personally. I
know others that have. I know others that have had
back surgery. I know athletes that have had back surgery.
There is no such thing as minor back surgery. Once
you once you have had back surgery, your back is
always going to be some kind of an issue. We
don't know to what extent. Again, he's an elite athlete,
we get that, but there is no such thing as
my that's my or back surgery. And you're right, you
got to get a fight under your belt, especially before
you're going to fight somebody that is a let's say,
a world class fighter like what a Ben Avidius or
somebody bigger, or maybe the third fight with better Vida.
Speaker 1: What I mean, Eifford is not a known guy, but
he you know, he did defeat Jean Pascal for example,
to get the opportunity. A Pascal may not be what
he was at his best, but he's still you know,
a tough out for pretty much anybody. And so he
did his job. And so you know what, I have
no problem with that. Bring him back when take out
the cobwebs. Hopefully the back is okay. And if he wins,
like you said, if he can get a third fight
with better, be great. If he does a fight with
with with David Benavidez or or with uh you know again,
maybe people will moves up again because you're saying Denividea
is going to cruiserweight to take on zero. I know
he says he'd come back to super middleweight. It's easy
to say that now after you light heavyweight and then
you still got to then take off the weight. That's
you know, that's what you said Joe to do that.
Speaker 2: There might be some extra zeros in it though for him,
especially with Beebell being the more known commodity. Stay tuned,
stay tuned on that for Beebel coming back. All right,
we mentioned before that uh James Dick, is it James
or Jazza Dickens. I'm trying to remember because it says
on my rundown.
Speaker 1: It's James Dickens. Jazz is is nickname.
Speaker 2: Okay, I got him both right, then Jazza Dickens is
now going to be back in the ring, but it's
not immediate. He was supposed to be on this night
of the Samurai card. The Japanese fighter got sick.
Speaker 1: Got an orbital bone fracture.
Speaker 2: Oh love, worse than sick. Orbital bone fracture. Fill in
the details, because Dickens is going to fight somebody else
and win, and this is maybe a more intriguing fight
going on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, this is a fun fight. That's why I'm
bringing it up. So, like you said, he's supposed to
fight to sue me on the Night of Summer. On
the Night of the Summer I, which unfortunately had four
you know, notable fights, ended up losing two of them,
including the Dickens fight against Assumme.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: And so here he gets his fight canceled at the
last min He's put in a good camp and he
doesn't get paid, and it's obviously got to be depressing
and a real bummer if you're the fighter that's taking
the time and spent the money on a camp and
all that, and then sudden of your fight's gone, and
then it wasn't but a you know, a week or
two later, he's got another fight and this is gonna
be a fun one. I feel like this is gonna
be a fun fight. So Dickens is from England. He's
defending the WBA Junior lightweight title for the first time.
He's been elevated from interim after a Lamont roach went
to one and is no longer the WBA champion. And
he's gonna take on the former IBF titled are Anthony Cassace,
who is Irish, and they're fighting in Dublin on Saint
Patrick's Day. We can out Kassachi's from Northern Ireland. He's
gonna fight in Dublin. It's you know, you're Irish or Irish,
regardless of if you're in Ireland or Northern Ireland. And uh,
that's gonna be a fun fight. Dickens Casachi should be
an amazing crowd and I'll try to defend the title.
And you know two guys that are our guys that
started without anybody ever having expectations that they would reach
this type of level. They have both done that. Congratulations
to them. They put on some fun fights. Dickens and
men batter guy A Zayev who was the Olympic gold
medalist who had defeated Nunez. He was a huge favorite
when he was fighting Dickens for the interim title, and
Dickens went and knocked him out, I mean stopped him easy.
It was very shocking. Knocked him down I think like
three times in like three or four rounds, and that
was a huge win for Dickens. Became the interim champion
then obviously got elevated, so he took out an undefeated
gold medals. He was brought to that fight to be
defeated big time, and he did his job in Kasachi
has also had his share of quality victories. Be Warrington
obviously had the big win to get the title. So
look they're gonna match up. That should be a fun fight.
Speaker 2: So that will be in March Saint Patrick's day time frame,
Saint Patrick's Day.
Speaker 1: Weekend March fourteenth.
Speaker 2: On March fourteenth, coming up for Dickens and Anthony Kasachi. Okay,
two other IBF notes before we were out of here,
because Rayfield's got to get some more cold medicine in him,
but you're holding up quite well. Not unexpectedly, Canelo Alvarez
is not really interested in this vacant IBF super middleweight title.
Speaker 1: Eliminator.
Speaker 2: Jimi Mongia is apparently not interested either.
Speaker 1: It's not the eliminated teacher, it's for the actual title.
Speaker 2: The vacant title. So Jimi Mongia is not interested either.
Speaker 1: Now it says on that one down exactly. So, uh,
Terrence Crawford retired, vacated all the titles I got stripped
to the WBC, but vacated the other three. And so
now we're going to process where the various organizations are
filling the belts, and the IBF title is supposed to
be filled by the number one contender, which is always Iglesius,
a Cuban SOUTHBA who is really good fourteen and zero
and a badass. Maybe people don't know, but watch him.
He can really fucking fight. And then they go down
the rankings to the next available guy to and they
basically send a note, you know, are you interested in
If they say yes, they'll don't order the fight, and
then they've got a certain period of time to negotiate.
So next up with Canelo. Canelo did it turned it
down because he's afraid to fight Iglacias. He just turned
it down because, as his trainer and manager, Eddie Renoso
had stated recently that he was still recovering from the
elbow surgery and he was just taking some time off
after the Crawford fight, and that while he was definitely
gonna fight again, it wouldn't be until probably the fall
time frame, figure septemberish, like he normally would fight. So
they pass on the fight. Next up in line was
Haimi Mungie and I was like, Okay, Hoimy Muggy might
take that fight. You know, he hasn't been a world
champion since he was fighting at one hundred and fifty
four pounds and now he's at one sixty eight. It's
a pretty good opportunity. And for whatever the reasons are
they turned it down.
Speaker 2: Now, Camill, why can I interject? Is it likely just
a financial reason? It's not enough money.
Speaker 1: For what they never got. They never discussed the money,
so I can't say that they've never had a com
They never had a conversation, I mean, to my knowledge anyway.
But I'll tell you why I know this because Camille
a Stefan who was the promoter from Ia the Tiger,
which is the promoter of Iglesias, said that they turned
it down. They it wasn't like they went to Camille
and turned it down. They respond to the IBF. The
IBF sends a letter and says, you have three days
or whatever to respond. If you're interested, let us know,
and you know, all over the fight Team Mongia. Sometimes
guys they just don't even respond and it just goes
and it just disappears. But apparently according to Camille, team Onngia,
which is he's with zan For in the top rank.
But Zanfer responded and said, we have other plans, and
so he turned it down. I don't know what those
other plans are. I've asked around. I have not heard
anything concrete. I made some calls on that. If they're
planning something, it's I'm not aware of what it is.
I hope it's something good, because you know, you don't
just get World championship fights and just dropping your lap
like that. So now they'll just continue down the ratings
until somebody accepts the fight. I mean, it's it's it's
it's normal course of the way the IBM does things.
But I was slightly surprised that Mangia turned it down,
not at all surprised that Canelo didn't take it, just
because of the of the recovery and the fact just
made you know, sixty million dollars and isn't necessarily in
the hurry to get back in the ring against a
guy that nobody's.
Speaker 2: Got to be. I'm just putting it together. Whether you
and I have done this long enough, I've been around
long enough and around post sports long enough, it's got
to be that the money they don't believe is going
to be right and or they're not interested for that.
They don't believe that's not.
Speaker 1: Going to be planned, and they just haven't made that.
They haven't made that particular whatever that plan is. So
you're aware when it now that now the Canelo and
Uhge have turned it down. So next in line on
the IBF ratings coms Shiraz But he's probably not going
to be involved in the fight either because he's involved
in the you know, he's been ordered in a WBC
fight Troy Williamson. Uh it just lost. So these are
these are the rankings from last month, so they'll be updated.
And now you get down to the Russian fighter Pavel Siliyagin,
who I guess might take the fight. And next is
Diego Pacheco who's been ordered to fight Sharraz. So now
you're down number seven. Then you're getting into like Simon
zach and Gruber from Germany, who I frankly have did
have heard of, And then your boy number ten, Williams Skull.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, oh my god. No.
Speaker 1: If you think I'm sick, now, just imagine I Williams
Skull getting.
Speaker 2: That is the Nike will talking right there, cold medication,
all right, So so Iglesias will probably have somebody, hopefully
not Skull before we get to Skull, and you'll keep
us up today. Listen who that is at super Miniwaight? Now,
the IBF also has an eliminator at heavyweight. You've been
talking about this fight. We finally found a dance partner
for Frank Sanchez and Richard Torres. And apparently, unlike the
IBF the super midiway situation where they can't come to
an agreement, apparently here we are close to an agreement
for Torres in a meaningful fight with Frank Sanchez here
at heavyweight.
Speaker 1: Right, and the winner would become the mandatory for the
IVF heavyweight title, which is obviously currently held by Alexander Usig,
who is you know, doing other things right now. He
doesn't have to make this mandatory just yet. He's probably
gonna want I think he's probably end up making a
deal to do the Deontay Wilder fight. But in the
meantime they'll line up the situation for the mandatory and
Sanchez and Torres. From what I was told by both
sides and also by the iv they were supposed to
have a pursepid earlier in the week. They asked for
a delay. They were granted the delay because they claim
they are close to a deal and although it's not
officially signed and all done, and they saw a little
more time where they could have it fall apart and
then would go to a perspit. But the point is,
if it does get done, and both sides expect it
will get done, probably it's gonna happen, perhaps as soon
as February on the PBC card, if they are able
to get finalize and get everything announced for what's supposed
to be Mario Barrios against Ryan Garcia. If not that
particular PBC card would probably push into the March timeframe
where again not announced yet where, but PBC is making
plans to reschedule the fight between Sebastian Fandora and Keith Thurman.
So if you can take a heavyweight fight like Sanchez Torres,
which has meaning, is a huge step up for Torres,
and you put it as one of the supporting fights
on what would be a four or fight pay per
view card, at least you've got like a decent fight
for that show and it has some meaning. We'll see
it on one of those two events, assuming they get
everything hammered.
Speaker 2: Down, all right, So there we gave you some news. Again.
We've got these fights. The fight in Germany. Again, they're
six hours ahead, so that'll be middle of the afternoon
US time. Yes, my boy a ge Kaba yell on
his own in the Queensberry card. And then again, good
luck if you choose to spend the money on the
Fresh Productions pay per view at the Barclay Center, where
it could be an intimate gathering apparently Suprio Matia, Idoltic
Smith or Title.
Speaker 1: If you're in the New York area, you could probably
get a ticket for free or for super mega cheap.
Would probably cost you less than the fucking pay per
view on it.
Speaker 2: I would I would think so from what it sounds
like when looking at it. But anyway, Mattias and Smith
in the ring for the WUBC Championship. We'll be here
to recap all of it off the weekend. Feel better.
Back to the drugs, the vitamin C and chicken soup
and everything else for you.
Speaker 1: By the way, for the record, I did have chicken
soup earlier and a Luden's cough drop.
Speaker 2: That's the post podcast treat there for you.
Speaker 1: We need a lot in subscription.
Speaker 2: We need to do hit them up again. For the
pod audience, we preview going into the weekend. We recap
coming off the weekend, so make sure you're following, make
sure you're subscribing. Read Big Dan in the Fight Freaks
Unite substack for all the intel. Let's see what happens
for these fights. We're back coming off the weekend with
the Fight Freaks Unite recap pod. You've been with us
on the Big Fight Weekend preview