Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time.
Speaker 2: This is Big Fight Weekend. Now here is your host?
DJ leaves all right, we get ready for a lighter weekend.
Hey it's August. There's not a ton going on, but
you know what, we're here. We're here on the Big
Fight Weekend preview IMB somewhat capable host TJ. Reeves, Hello
to our insider, Big Dan Rayfield. Fight Freaks Unite is
his substack on the website and the newsletter great insider information,
exclusive content on the substack. Always good to be with you.
We got a lot of news, not a lot of fights.
We do have something to preview. We got a lot
of news. How are you feeling as the summer rolls on?
Hot hot everywhere? What's going on?
Speaker 1: Everything good, Everything's good. Been busy, surprisingly not because of
the fights that are taking place, but because there's been
a lot of things taking place. The plan fights that
are coming on.
Speaker 2: Which like when your inbox suddenly says Jake Paul Tank Davis,
which we will get to and we will talk about.
Thank you for finding us. As we preview going into
the weekends. We typically recap coming off the weekends. It's summer,
we have less fights at the moment. It'll ramp up
more once we get out of Labor Day weekend, but
we usually preview going into the weekend, recap coming off
the weekend, Apple Spreaker, Spotify, rate us and review us people.
That helps us out. Also find the Big Fight Weekend
YouTube channel for original content. There your interview with Terrence Crawford,
which is pretty much right now one of the few
interviews with him out there right now prior to this
Canelo Alvarez fight. Go find Dan and Terrence Crawford on
the YouTube page and the other nostalgia content, etc. Stay
engaged with us there. We do a lot of live content,
different content on YouTube. With that. The most significant card,
at least in the United States is in Orlando, Florida.
It is the most valuable promotions card. It is a
double header. We have flyweights, we have junior middleweights. We
have Yankiel Rivera, we have Yolanis Tellez. They are both
in action in separate fights. So let's get underway right there.
Tell me more about Rivera. His opponent is Angelino Cordova.
It is dear God Rayfield. It's for the WBA Interim
flyweight title. Here we go with that again, tell me
more about this matchup in the preview lup.
Speaker 1: Well, it's more than a double header. There's other fights
on the show MVP has actually put together. I mean,
the main two fights are the ones that I'm going
to talk about with Rivera and Cordova and Tees against Beru,
but they also have the women's a lightweight one of
the champions, Stephanie Han is defending. He got the lightweight
eliminator with Lucas Body, who people know probably best from
the massive knockout of ashen Stove, but he's been winning
ever since then. Also Jamine Ortiz former title challenges on
the card. So they got a bunch of other fights.
And as a matter of fact, this is at that
caribroy Alan Orlando that I'm sure you're aware of, where
it has been hosting a lot of fights over the
last couple of years. Not only does MVP have this
main card that they're doing on Saturday, they have one
of their prospect cards on Friday night at the same location,
so it's like MVP Weekend. I guess you could say
the prospect card. The most interesting thing to me, just
in terms of that real quick is that is that's
the show on which the United States Olympian from twenty
twenty four, Jamal Harvey, who recently signed with MVP. He's
a junior LEGWA He's gonna make his pro debut, twenty
two year old kid from actually my neck of the woods.
He's from oxen Hill, Maryland, which is, you know, probably
less than half an hour from where I am, right
over the river into Maryland in any event, So that
that's taking place on the Friday night, but the main
fights on the Saturday. Look, we can bust chops all
we want about the fact that Rivera and Cordova is
for the vacant interim WBA Flyway title and that the
Tees Baru fight is Tyas defending his interim WBA Druamid
Away title. These belts are preposterous. They should not exist.
Speaker 2: But the madlaw I know, I keep saying that, but
go ahead.
Speaker 1: But the matchups themselves, which is really the reason why
they're happening. So on the one hand, it's shitty at
their interim belts, but on the other hand, these are
actually two pretty solid matchups. They probably would not happen
if it weren't for these belts being at stake. So
you can kind of look at the glass half empty
or look at the glass half fall whatever. But in
terms of Rivera, he was a Puerto Rican Olympic He
recently signed with MVP. He had been with Matchroom Boxing.
His contract expired they did not reach a new agreement.
He represented Puerto Rico in the twenty twenty Olympic Games.
And he's, you know, a good prospect and he's getting
an opportunity to fight an experienced fighter in Cordovo's a
Venezuelan fighter who was undefeated. He's nineteen oh to one,
probably best known. And this was a hell of a fight.
If you think back to when last year when Tim
Zu and Sebastian Fandora had their first fight, that wild
bloodbath that took place in March at the Timobil Arena.
On that undercard, he fought against Julio Caesar Martinez, who
was then the WBC Flyway title holder, and Cordova lost
a really close majority decision. This was an action pack,
slug fe tremendous fight he lost. Eventually, the fight was
turned over to a no contest because Martinez had failed
the drug test for a band dioretic. You know, I
think it was really more of a weight loss situation.
He's fought once since sant Cordova. He won the fight,
so now he's here to give Yank Keelle Rivera a
good test. I feel like, you know, from what I've
seen of Yank Killer Rivera, a little bit of a slicker,
more technical boxer with that amateur background. But Cordobo comes
to bring the heat and fight could be a fun fight.
So that's the main event. Again, it's not the biggest
fight in the world that are fighting for this interim
belt sobeit and then in the other fight, theez Jo Nstaas,
who I had on my prospect list at the end
of last year, who I've been a huge fan of
since I first saw him. He's ten and oh, he's
an outstanding young fighter. Again, should he have an interim
titled that's you know, we could debate that all day long.
But he is ten and oh, he's a younger guy,
twenty five. He's a Cuban fighter that had good experience
he had. He lives in Stafford, Texas, right outside of Houston.
He'd been training for his career with Ronnie Shields, one
of the best trainers in boxing. You know, probable Hall
of Famers someday for whatever reason. And I don't know
the exact reason why, but he's not training with Ronnie
for this particular fight. They they split it. I don't
think even like let Ronnie know because and the reason
I know this is because when I knew this fight
was in the process of being made, I actually I
texted Ronnie. I said, Hey, Ronnie, what's the word? Is
this fight happening? And he goes, I don't know. I'm
not with you. I'm not with Teas anymore. Okay, he's
now with the trainer. Yeah, really, So I kind of
felt embarrassed about that, But Ronnie's a cool dude. He
wasn't offended by it or anything. It's not Ronnie's first
rodeo put it like that. So Tea is again excellent
young talent. He's training now with Edward Jackson.
Speaker 2: I saw him last October at this venue, scoring knockout
on the undercart of them martaz elaiev Ko of Tim
zuh October in Orlando last year. And you have been
high on him in trend Town. I guess the real
question is is this boss bahru is does he pose?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: Do we know much about him? As he posed much
of at here or should tas role that's the question.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, Borrow is a real guy. I mean,
just to go back, I mean, even though tay has
only has the ten fights as a professional, he's got
the seven knockouts. When he won this interim belt, a
vacant interim belt, at least, he did it against a
name guy, now, not a guy that was at the
top of his game anymore. But he did score a
very lopsided decision over Julian jay Rock Williams. So I
mean for a younger fighter like him, that's not a
bad win. You know again, Jay Rock may not be
what he was at his best, but he's still a
capable professional. So that that's you got to look positively
on his performance in that fight. In terms of Baru,
he is sixteen and one with nine knockouts. He fights
out of Germany, He's won like seven fights in a row.
Doesn't have maybe like the biggest resume of all time.
But you know, again, a competent professional, more pro fights
than Tayas has coming overseas to do it. I mean,
I know that Taya is from Cuba, but there'll be
probably a whatever the fans are there, I'm sure they'll
be cheering for the Cuban being at the fights in Florida. Yeah.
So again, I think that the matchups are fine. It's
just the title aspect irritates me. But as I mentioned,
they probably wouldn't be happening if it wasn't for the
belt because in terms of like Beret Baru, I think
he's like, it's like a mandatory type fight. So you know,
it is what it is. But you know, in a
light weekend, I'm watching the usk as any day of
the week, and you know what, the prospects card that
they have the night before has got a few guys
on it, this and that. But I'm I'm I'm interested
to see Jamal Harvey turn pro. I mean it's always
you know, interesting to watch them make their pro bow.
I don't expect it to be competitive or you know,
to him to be in much danger. He you know,
of interest. He is turning pro in a six round
fight as opposed to the typical four round fight, which
is you know, because of the fact that he's got
that that amateur experience, even though he's not an older fighter,
he's only twenty two. But it shows you the type
of confidence I have to put him into a six
right off the bat. So you know that that's your
you know, if you're into it, that's that's what there is.
Speaker 2: So a little lighter action for this weekend, and that
gives us more time to go over the news. All right,
here we go, Here we go, Jake Paul and whatever
this is gonna be with Jervonte Tank Davis. Now, when
last we were discussing Davis, he we did cover this.
He was under investigation, we'll put it that way, for
another domestic violence situation. Those charges have been dropped, so
now he's available to fight. And you had said to
us before when Jake Paul was trying to figure out
what the next fight would be and was dealing with
Canelo Alvarez that very much on the radar was a
possible do we say air quotes fight exhibition? What are
we calling this?
Speaker 1: This is an exhibition.
Speaker 2: It's an exhibition. And you said months ago, two or
three months ago, this was on the radar.
Speaker 1: Ja, it wasn't just on the radar, my friend, it
was it was a okay, So Jake Paul showed up
ringside up our play center on the night that Tank
had the fight with Lamont Roach that turned out to
be the draw. Now I reported this after the fact,
but I was the first to report it was that
fight was agreed to, maybe it wasn't signed, but they
had all everything. All the ducks were in a row,
as they say, had he emerged from that fight victorious,
that fight would have taken place like either like late
in the spot. I mean that fight was March first
when he fought against against Lamont Roach. So they were
looking at May to do the fight between Jake and
and Tank, and it was it was good to go.
So but when the draw happened, Tank's a proud guy.
I guess he invoked his right to the rematch and
everybody involved, both sides. I talked to both camps. They
were proceeding like this fight was going to happen. They
were trying to get the order you know, where and
when and all that was supposed to happen. But uh,
the the financial aspects were done. It was in the
original agreement. Lamont Roach's team was ready to go and
PBC was making plans and originally was going to be
There was a date in June or maybe it was July.
I guess June, then it got moved to August. So
at that point you're like, okay, what's going on. And
then you find out the tank's not in camp. And
then while all that's happening, and there's no official announcement,
but everybody's saying the fights agreed to and made and done,
and it was signed because he had to exercise the
contract rematch right, and they also had the deal that
had parameters set out in the original agreement for the
first fight. At the time it was all being put together,
and he gets arrested for the incident that occurred on
Father's Day. Now, as you mentioned that, that took a
few weeks for them to go through the legal process
or whatever. But when the woman who made the accusation
said she's not going to prosecute and not going to testify,
and there's no other witness, they have no case. So
the charges got dropped. So whether he did it or
he didn't do it, whatever, he ain't gonna pay any
price for it because it's now, you know, been adjudicated
to the point, not adjudicated in a courtroom. But they
can't go forward, so she drops the case. So now
he's free and clear and he's backfighting Jake Paul, who
who had Over the last few weeks, there's been a
lot of conversation. I don't know, you know, if it
was down to like we're doing the fight, but a
lot of discussion he's gonna fight Anthony Joshua. I find
it fucking hilarious by the way, that on the one
end of the spectrum you got Jake Paul talking about
fighting with two hundred and forty pound former two time
unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. Ah, you know what, I'm
gonna go fight one hundred and thirty now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, now, subtract one hundred pounds right now.
Speaker 1: Had he fought Anthony Joshua, I mean I suspect given
their size. Jake fought Tyson at two hundred and twenty
seven pounds, Anthony Joshua's two hundred and you know, forty
some pounds two fifty that would have been official fight,
wouldn't have been an exhibition. But in boxing, obviously, as
the old staying goes, weight classes were created for a reason.
They're separated by about sixty five pounds. Tank is a
thirty five pounder, has bought once at forty you know,
a few years ago when he had to fight against
Mario Barrios. J is you putting the Tyson situation aside?
He's a two hundred pound fighter. That's a significant amount
of weight. So they're going to do this as an
exhibition they and I hate when promoters get cute with
this shit. They didn't announce that in their in their announcement,
and nobody wanted to answer the question. I spoke to
people that are knowledgeable about their agreement and was told
one hundred percent at least at the moment. Anyway, and
maybe the Georgia Commission will have something to say about it.
But it's an exhibition match. It's scheduled for ten rounds.
What the weight situation, I'm not quite clear, but there
will be a day of the fight weight check to
make sure that Jake is not over a certain amount.
I believe it's two hundred, I can't say for sure. Nonetheless,
can I just intergecte this is happening? Can I interject
a word? This thing is farcical. I'm not going to
say what are we doing here? I get it.
Speaker 2: This thing is farcical because the guy has been fighting
at two hundred or plus pounds and the guy he's
going to get in the ring with has been fighting
at lightweight or maybe the one time at super lightweight,
junior welterweight. They are easily sixty pounds apart.
Speaker 1: That is conser more than just a sixty pounds. By
this way, Jake Paul's about six foot six y one
and tank, as I said to somebody, he's like five
to five standing on a phone book. Yeah, so you know,
so they're gonna be separated not only by a weight, but.
Speaker 2: He also again, I mean, what what are we going
to do for ten rounds here in an exhibition where
one fighter is easily gonna be sixty pounds heavier than
the other fighter. And I'm just saying on the front end,
I've been consistent about this. I went, I was at
the Julio Sesar Chavez main event in Anaheim. I was
there for that. But at the point in time that
we're doing farcical things, I'm out again. I'm out on this.
I don't this is not I.
Speaker 1: Mean, I take I take a little bit of a different.
I totally get it. I'm not I'm not mad about it.
I get it. I understand the constant buy a lot
of people. I'm nonplussed. I just I've been around a
long time.
Speaker 2: What is nonplussed is not.
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm just like whatever it is like slides
off my back like you know, water off a duck's back.
So I have opinions about it, but I'm gonna put
it like, how about opinion?
Speaker 2: How about this opinion? Should we not say directly that
if Jake Paul says take me seriously as a boxer,
we should laugh at him because he continues with things
like this to demonstrate it's not take me seriously as
a boxer. Don't take me seriously as a cruiserweight contender
or trying to be a cruiserweight world champion. I'm in
this for what it is, the oddity, the celebrity, and
make the most money as possible. It's not about being
a champion.
Speaker 1: It's not about argue that point. Yeah, so I think,
and I don't mean to put myself in Jake Paul's mind.
The way I read it is the following. He'd like
to fight actual fighters in and around his weight class.
If he could make the same kind of big event
in money.
Speaker 2: Which is never going he could win. We know that
never gonna happen, never gonna happen.
Speaker 1: But but but the point is, and he said this, if
you remember back, like, you know, a year and a
half ago or so, he fought those back to back
fights against actual boxers with sort of similar records who
were completely unknown, a couple of guys that maybe had
bull layoffs but had had amateur careers. And it was
supposed to be like, I'm gonna do these types of
fights to develop myself. He ended up getting you know,
very nice knockouts, but the fights didn't register in terms
of the story that he did against the UFC fighters
or other guys. But here's the point, though, how could
anybody get mad for a guy? And he said this,
I want to develop myself and get in position to
fight for a title. But if a other big event
comes along where I can fill an arena or do
a big event pay per viewer otherwise and sell a
ton of tickets and make you know, tens of millions
of dollars, how could you fault him?
Speaker 2: Okay, but those are two different things. I know, I
know you're not the defense attorney for the whole Pole situation.
You're not trying to be, but it is It's clear
they're in it for the money, for the publicity, and
that's fine. All I'm saying, and this was the preface
of what I said to you, stop saying this is
about being a legitimate fighter. I'm trying to be a
world champion.
Speaker 1: Here's the other way though, that I know it's at
I am not in any way irritated with the Jake
Paul side of this thing, because I get it, and
I you know, I've been steadfast. We've talked about all
of his fights over the course of we've been doing
this podcast for the last time. I've never been a
hater on Jake Paul. We've had him on the podcast.
I've enjoyed his events. You've gone to some of his events,
So this is not about him. I get what he's doing.
I have no problem with I've said it a thousand
times boxing. There's a big enough tent to have this
type of event as well as you know, the serious,
you know, legitimate top level pound for pound caliber, championship
level fights, you know, Tyson Furry, Alexander Usk, those types
of events. Whatever. But I'm more irritated on the Tank
Davis part of it. Now, Again, I don't fault him
for making the money. I get it, That's that's what
this is all about. I totally understand that it's going
to be a big event. And by the way, the
good thing for the for the boxing fans of the
world are the casual sports fans that may be caught
up in the hoopla. The good part of this is
that it's on Netflix, similar to like Canelo and Crawford.
So if you watch and it turns out to be
a complete disaster and a trade, right, you're all You're
out is your time.
Speaker 2: You didn't.
Speaker 1: Addition, you haven't bought a pay per view and spent
extra money, so there's no financial impact in that sense.
So I'm happy that at least if this is happening,
it's on a platform where it doesn't cost extra other
than your normal subscription where you're watching movies and shows anywhere.
Speaker 2: And I'm not saying that they aren't going to draw
a tremendous attention in this. I'm not saying it won't
be a sold out arena. Notice they're going to Atlanta.
When we were talking with Todd Grisham, I said to you,
Atlanta underrated place. Davis has sold out, that Arena before
they're going to be in the State Farm Arena where
the Hawks play basketball.
Speaker 1: November fourteenth, by the way.
Speaker 2: Friday nineteenth, on a Friday night.
Speaker 1: By the way, in the boxing world, that's the night
before Connor Ben and Chris Ubank Junior have their So
you know, in America it will get a lot of attention. Overseas,
it will get far less because that of course in
the UK, and then you know, in that part of
the world it's a much bigger deal with.
Speaker 2: And for Jane Davis, it's obviously a payday, but it's
particle for him too, don't That's.
Speaker 1: The disappointing part. So that's what I was getting to.
So this is not about disappointment with Jake because we've
been down this road. This is what Jake's been doing
pretty much his entire career. So I'm not mad about that.
This is part for the course. Why would you be
upset in terms of Tank though he has a mess
to clean up with roach, right, I mean, he had
that terrible I would say a terrible performance, but the
terrible way that it was officiated and the way that
the commission dealt with it. We all know that he
escaped by the grace of the man upstairs, with a
draw in that fight, because two things either A he
should have lost a decision or b he could have
easily been disqualified for the nonsense that happened when the
referee screwed up and did not call the knockdown and
all this stuff that went on around that run into
the corner and getting wiped off and taking a knee
in the whole nine yards. So that was such a disaster.
But regardless, after the fight was over, Tank was like,
all right, you know what, it was a tough night.
I'm taking my rematch. He had the contractual right to
do so he exercised that rematch. I talked to both sides.
Everybody was on board, as I mentioned before. And then
he's the one that's now left Tank. Tank has now
left Lamont roach twisted and the win for the last
couple of months.
Speaker 2: For the money, and he was working on this, obviously,
they were working on this, and they.
Speaker 1: That's the disappointing part because Gravante is a popular fighter.
He's obviously a very good fighter. I mean, I don't
think he's necessarily the number one pound for pounds. Some
people want to put him on the pound for pound list.
I don't know if I'm even there yet, But he
still hasn't fought the very best of his own divisions.
Sure he hasn't fought the top lightweight. Sure he didn't
fight the top junior Weald rates. He hasn't ever moved up.
He's never unified. Now, does he have some nice wins? Yeah,
I mean Frank Martin's a good win.
Speaker 2: And wins probably the most noteworthy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, even like the Hector Luis Garcia, he
was a champ at one thirty, moved off. He scored
a knights knockout who, by the way, unrelated to this.
Hector Lauris Garcia just this week announced on his social
media he's retiring from boxing, So good luck to him.
He's got to win over Roly Romero. He beat Isaac
Pitt Bull Cruz in a close fight. But those these
are not the top fighters in that weight class at
the time that he fought in he fought like a
very very much.
Speaker 2: Let's lay it out there. If he if he fights
Roach and beats Roach and things progress and Shaquure Stevenson,
Let's say fights Floyd Schofield and wins, that is a
massive opportunity to have a unified lightweight title with Davis
and with Shaqueur Stevenson, and obviously all of that's out
the window because it's a cash grab. This is go
do this farcacle thing with a guy that's sixty or
seventy pounds heavier than you. Whatever this is going to
be in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: My hope is that whatever happens, because it's an exhibition,
that he will in fact still fight Lamont Roach after this.
But what I'm what I'm I guess concerned is not
the right word. You always wonder when you have this
type of exhibition. Are we going to see what happens,
say with Jake Paul against Tyson, which was an actual
fight even though it was essentially an exhibition, are they
going to try to win? In other words, in boxing?
What what don't they know that the guys standing across
the ring from each other are trying to knock each
other out?
Speaker 2: What do we know about actual judging, because like in
the Texas case, they didn't have actual judging. They went
out of their way to say.
Speaker 1: Well, no, no, no, they are judges for what we're talking about.
But I mean, I thought they're thinking of Tyson Androy Jones.
Speaker 2: Tyson roy Jones. But I thought I thought there was
something with the Tyson thing that it wasn't going to
actually count with the judges. But it was an actual fight.
Speaker 1: So what what are I do? Jake Paul against Tyson
was an official judge fight. Who counts on their record,
but in this Tyson against Roy Jones did not.
Speaker 2: In this case, it can't count against their records. It
will not against the So are we going to have judging?
Speaker 1: I am to judges. I'm told the judges we'll see.
But the fact that we even have to discuss this.
When they announced the fight, they do such a piss
poor job of announcing the details. I know the headlines
are Jake calls fighting Jervon to Davis, And that's what
most people want to know about whatever or they want
to be a journalist, teach, I've been a journalist over
thirty years. My first inclination is I want the details.
Give me the lie. I'm the guy that reads the
fucking box of the board game to know the rules.
You know what, I need the details.
Speaker 2: My first inclination was this is a farce and I'm out.
I said that I'm gonna remain considered.
Speaker 1: So you're gonna watch it, and we're gonna talk about it.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know how much I'm gonna care.
It's a football weekend. We'll see it is what it is.
When people are asking me about this coming down the road,
I'm gonna say to them, farcical, this is silly. If
it was closer in wait, it would make more sense,
like if he was doing it with Terrence Crawford, that
might be a little more believable. But even that's not
that's still farcical as far as I'm concerned. All right,
So we gave that plenty of its time for now
because it's gonna have.
Speaker 1: Well, who do you like, who's gonna win?
Speaker 2: I just told you farcical, stop messing with me, all right?
So we have that coming for November. And remember November
is a long way away for a lot of things
to happen between now and then too, in particular with
Tank Davis and the law and again correct and what
happens if you know, we suddenly decide there's a bigger,
better fight somewhere else for one of them. Who does
I mean? And again I understand they're trying to make
the maximum money that's understood by the same token. Don't
don't come back to me with this stuff about legitimacy
and I want to be a world champion and all that.
Stop it, stop it, stop it. Nobody believes you. Nobody
believes you. All Right, we move on. You did talk
on the previous podcast about one hundred and fifty four
pound division. I do read my Dan Rayphael Substack, you
wrote more about it. Do we have anything new.
Speaker 1: We do on thee The Virgil Orts fight against ericson
Lubin is is now official. Was announced on Thursday afternoon.
That is a done deal. In the interest of full disclosure,
that press announcement has come while we're taping the podcast
over that email, So that will happen. Yeah, that is
going to take place on November eighth. It'll be live
on the zonne. It is going to be at the
Dickey's Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, which means it's a
home game for Virgil because he is from the Dallas area,
Dallas Forworth are He's from Grand Prairie. So Eric sin
Lubin will fight him for his WBC interim belt at
one hundred and fifty four pounds, and as we've discussed before,
Ericson Lubin had been negotiating with the team of his
team had been negotiating with Baker Martazaliev, who is the
IBF champion. That was a mandatory fight, and they notified
the IBF on Tuesday, which was supposed to be the
day of the purse bit for that fight, that they
were withdrawing because he had signed a contract to fight
the fight against Ortiz. I guess Golden Boy and Ortiz
and his management they were finishing up their side of things,
but Lubin had signed the contract a couple of days ago,
which is one of the things I wrote in that
article you reference on my substack that was published last
night Wednesday night. At any event, so that's gonna happen.
That's a look, that's a good matchup. But it's a
good name for Virgil, it's a good name for Lubin.
And what I actually was thinking about, I mean, it
maybe means something to me nobody else, but I don't
care because I thought it was cool. These are this
is this is has happened before, but infrequently. I've been
picking a Prospect of the Year every year for many,
many years, twenty five years, I have had Virgil Ortiz
and ericson Lubin as my past prospects of the year.
So this will be a matchup of two guys who
I picked as past prospects of the year, which is
I like that because at least it tells you that
the two guys at least gotten somewhere in their career.
So this is a good matchup in a weight class
that's now red hot because this fight is now done
and official and announced. It's not done official, announced, but
probably gonna get done for late October. October twenty fifth,
I believe, is the day for Fondora against Keith Thurman,
which will be a good fight in the ring. I
know people are kind of maybe who's spoken on it
are perhaps slightly irritated about Thurman, but he was injured
and he at least he came back and he won.
And yeah, he hasn't had a lot of activity, but
he looked good in the fight in Australia. He was healthy.
I saw him in Las Vegas when I was out
there a few weeks ago, and he was healthy and
in good spirits and looking for a fight. You know,
his injuries were not an issue.
Speaker 2: So in the timeline, Fondora and Thurman will fight what
two weeks before this Ortiz fight with Lubin, So.
Speaker 1: You got Fandora Thurminaz penciled in for October twenty fifth.
MGM Grand be a PBC pay per view. Then you've
got on the de Zone show with Golden Boy will
be Ortiz Lubin. That would be, like I said, the
Dickey's Arena on November the eighth, and then the Domino's
fall when Lubin drops out of the IBF Fight in
Science to fight Virgil Ortiz, leaving Martez leav with nobody
to negotiate with at that moment. Now you go down
the list because his mandatory is due. So the IBF
looks at the ratings and the next guy up is
the former olympian from the UK, Josh Kelly, who's seventeen
one and one with nine knockouts, who has got a
tremendous amount of hype. Was a great amateur to me anyway,
been a little disappointing in the pros, but maybe he'll
be really amped up for this fight if they get
their deal done. So that's the fight. It's being negotiated,
and the people that represent Bakrum which is Main Events,
and the folks that represent Kelly, which is Wasserman Boxing,
they kind of knew that Lubin was going this direction
and so they actually knew that that would be the
order because if you look down the IBF ratings, that
was the next leading guy. So their teams already had
started to discuss the fight even before the IBF formerly
sent out the letter on Wednesday, I guess it was.
So they're already in the conversation prospect. They've got thirty
days to make a deal or the IBF will call
a purse bid. I'd like to think they'll get the
deal done. It's not like, you know, martaz Leev is
sort of nowhere to go at the moment. Josh Kelly
has been looking for an opportunity. This is the chance
of a lifetime to fight for the title. So if
they make a solid matchup, although martaz Lea will certainly
be the favorite, even if the winds up taking place
in the UK, where I suspect it would go. So
there's that, and then if you go further into this
loaded fifty four pound way class, he had a really
good fight Dana White, now wearing the hat of ZUFA
boxing promoter, did a Instagram live on Wednesday where he
announced the preliminary fights that will be on the Canelo
Crawford card. They'd already announced the main card fights and
so among those preliminaries, but the main preliminary, if you will,
the fight before the main card, is another excellent matchup
in this division. It's the former interim title holder of
the WBC, the current WBC mandatory challenger, Serge Boatchuk against
Brandon Adams in a rematch. If you remember now, Boachu's
got the two losses, had the great fight with virginl
Artis where he dropped him twice and lost a majority decision.
A lot of people thought he should have won. But
his only other loss before that was a fight in
twenty twenty one in Puerto Rico where he was winning
the fight against Brandon Adams and he got clobbered with
a left hand and he got dropped and when he
got up he was a little shaky.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we were talking about this on the on the
recap pod. The rematch angle is good here and Boatchuk
once another shot at Ortiz too in the hole or
anybody or anybody, but certainly the Ortiz. There's been some
bad blood back and forth between those two.
Speaker 1: And whoever he gets. I mean, the main thing is
he he is the He was conferred by the BC
as their fifty four pound mandatory challenger, so he's risking
that status. He's taken on Adams, who did defeat him. Now,
Brandon is a good fighter, but he had been very
into active. The crazy thing was he knocked out Boatchuk.
It was a great win for him, and then he
didn't fight for three years. I don't know if it
was an injury or promotional issues or management issues or whatever.
It was a lot of problems, but he didn't fight
for three years. He has come back, he has had
three fights, but he's coming off of a he lost
the unanimous decision to Michael Fox. And may I take
that back. That was Boatchuk who won a fight against
Michael Fox. But but Adams had lost in November. I
forget the opponent's name, but he lost a fight in
his most recent bouts. So he's got some proving to do.
But now he's in with the guy that he beat. Now.
The only thing that about this this is not a
championship fight. This is not a official eliminated or anything
like that. It is a ten rounder and it's contracted
one hundred and fifty six pounds, very slightly over the
fifty four pound limit. But with the idea that these
guys are fifty four pounds.
Speaker 2: Do we have a date or what's the timeline on
this one? In the late October November?
Speaker 1: Right? No, this, as I said to you, this is
a preliminary on the Canelo.
Speaker 2: Car on the Canelical on my bat on the Canal
September thirteenth, right, all right, So when Dana, I gotta
keep on my junior middleweight straight. That's why I have
you here.
Speaker 1: So the good thing though is again this is okay.
The whole Canlo card is part of your subscription to Netflix.
The various preliminaries, they'll show them for free on their
YouTube channel. So this will be the final bout of
that YouTube batch of fights and then we'll go into
the main card. But that's a lot of action between
you know, September October November. You got major fights in
this weight class that is loaded, and there's other guys.
I mean, we already had the announcement of the Boots
Innis fight. We don't have to, but you were gonna.
Speaker 2: I thought you were gonna avoid bringing that up, and
I was gonna compliment you that we weren't even gonna
acknowledge his ridiculous move up to one fifty four to
fight a ridiculous fight.
Speaker 1: But the point is he's a bigger name. He may
not be fighting a big time fight.
Speaker 2: It's a bigger name that should be fighting a bigger opponent,
right or he should have fought Brian Norman this fall,
who we're going to talk about in a couple of Regardless.
Speaker 1: Of the combination of having Boots making his entray into
the division, whoever the opponent is, that's still quasi interesting
Thurman Fondora, or he's lubin Uh, possibly Martaza and Kelly
and Boatchuck Adams, which is official.
Speaker 2: That I'll tell you. Might be that Martaz Lam might
be the most dangerous guy this whole group that we're
talking about, and he just hasn't been active.
Speaker 1: So the point is, once we get to like the
end of October, the whole division may have a whole
different look to the top level. All those fights are
going to probably take place before.
Speaker 2: Then, fair enough. Speaking of Brian Norman, I just mentioned
him a contract announcement for him earlier this week. We
already know that he's fighting Devin Haney, but he has
decided to remain with Top Rank. As we have to
say this as one of their premier fighters right now.
Is the WBO Walter whit champion.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Brian Norman and his team have done a contract
extension with Top Rank. He's one of their top young fighters.
He's got a world title. He's looked really good since
he's won that title. It's coming off that big win
in Japan by knockout against Asaki, and now we, like
you said, he is going to Saudi Arabia for November
twenty second to defend the title against Devin Haney, which
is a very dangerous fight on a great card, not
a Top rank card. But Top Rank is still as
promoter and they've decided to reup him. I had some
people questioning, like why he would resign with Top Rank,
you know, complaining, well, they don't have a TV deal,
they don't have a streaming deal. They've got this, they've
got that. Think everybody just slow down. I don't know,
I don't have insider information. On this one. But I
am I am sure the Top Rank is gonna have something,
and they're a company that's been around for a long time.
This is not the first time they've had this type
of issue before. They've come through it with Flying Colors.
I suspect they will again. And even whatever, Brian has
assurances in that agreement that he's done. He's got a
good management team behind him with Joelene Mazzone and Adrian
Clark and his dad doing stuff. And he's a loyal
guy and he made the point Top Rank has, you know,
done their job. You know, I'm a loyal guy, and
I'm sticking with the home team. They signed him in
late twenty twenty two, they've had eight fights together, they
brought him to a world title, They've got him paid
pretty well to go overseas. They got they got a
good deal for him, I guess from Turkey to do
this fight against against Hany that's coming up, and so
you know, why, why why fix what ain't broke? Is
the way I look at it. And so by the
time that November fight is over, I'm pretty sure that
Top Rank will have whatever it's going to be doing
in terms of a broadcast platform will be in place,
and we'll see Brian Norman being one of those foundational
young champions that they have, you know, over the next
few years. You know, obviously got to get past any.
But even if he doesn't get past any, doesn't mean
he's no good, doesn't mean you can't you know, still
find fights for him. He's an entertaining fighter, got a
good personality, and you know, it made sense. He had
a couple of fights left on the deal and they
decided to do a new one and that's what happened.
Speaker 2: He's gotten rewarded. He's remaining loyal. It's here it for
loyalty and people sticking my people in boxing and that
HAINI fights a compelling fight for later this year. All right,
speaking of loyalty, I'll make a segue here. I guess
Daniel Dubois doesn't want to remain loyal to his recent trainer,
Don Charles, who had helped his resurgence, because Dubois announced
earlier this week on social media. I saw the announcement
that he's now got a new trainer in Mark Tibbs.
What's going on here? Is he like trying to scapegoat
Charles for the reason why he couldn't get out of
the way of US six left and.
Speaker 1: Well that seems like he did not announce the Mark
Tibbs aspect of it. He announced that he was part
ways with Don and you know, he said all the
nice things about him. Appreciate solid that. But he did
all the time and effort he put into him, Like
Daniel didn't go about it like in a nasty way
or anything like that. But it's boxing, and you know,
when guys lose big fights like that, a lot of
times they looked to to escapegoat somebody. He also signed
with a different you know, with a new advisor. You know,
one of the other guys that worked in his corner
also had decided to I don't know if he got
fired or he just decided on his own to leave.
That was Kieran Farrell. He signed with the advisor Sam Jones,
who has worked a lot of guys in the UK,
notably most recently Jack Catterrell. But anyway, Don Charles and
him been together five fights. He took over the training
before the first USIK fight where he got knocked out
and quit in that fight. But then they put it
all together. Don was the guy that was very pivotal
in helping him regenerate himself, and was there in the
corner when he knocked out Jeral Miller, when he knocked
out Argovich for the interim IBF belt, was there when
he scored the sensational knockout in his first defense, when
he was elevated against Anthony Joshua, And again he didn't
show up to fight Husick in the remat. So I
don't know if he's blaming Don Charles or whatever, but
they went three and two together with the two ko
losses to Usik. And the thing that gives me pause
about Duba, it's not so much about deciding to leave
Don and go to to Tibbs and all that this
is gonna be like ding a Dubis. I want to say,
like his like fourth trainer in like you know, like
an eight year career or something like that. I mean, right,
that seems like a kind of a bit much. I
mean that shows you that there's not a lot of
continuity there, that it takes time to build a rapport
and to and to get everything right with that guy.
So he's uh, I guess what's the old saying? You know,
the U two people Dono and everybody. He still hasn't
found what he's looking for.
Speaker 2: Oh, you're quoting you two here, I can tell you.
I can tell you this before Dubois. He's he's gonna
have a tough road ahead because that was another tough
knockout that he took after he had his resurgence. And
stay tuned if he gets back into relevance, no matter
if Don Charles is his trainer, or Mark Tibbs is
his trainer or tj Or Rayfield's his trainer. Uh, stay
tuned on that. What else do we have, oh from
the update of the police blodder, the Department of Homeland
Security and whatnot. Speaking of Jake, Paul Julio Cesar Chavez
Junior deported to Mexico. Where new Mexican or I'm sorry
where Mexican authorities as I try to get my comedic
line off. Mexican authorities did the monopoly on him. Do
not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars, Go
to jail, Go directly to jail. They took him. They
took him to jail in Mexico. Is the news account
that I wrote or that I read? I believe you
wrote something about it.
Speaker 1: As well on sol wasn't this was not just about
being deported because he had overstayed his or he had
he had U he had uh overstayed his visa and
also had lied by a decade.
Speaker 2: By a decade by the way.
Speaker 1: So a lot of times if you're I mean, I'm
no expert on deportations, but Minders saying, if you are
a law abiding person other than your issue of overseeing
your visa and lying on a green card application, when
they send you back to your home country, you just
go back to your own country. The problem that Shaga's
face is not only did he have the issues to
get him the porter from the United States, but he
was also wanted on arrest warrants in Mexico for serious
things related to suppose it alleged involvement with the drug
cartels and you know other things that are not good weapons,
high profile type.
Speaker 2: Of thing, weapons and ammunition charges for the cartel and
him being part of the cartel.
Speaker 1: That does surprise. I don't know how much that rings true.
I feel like some of that might be might be
a little trumped up, But regardless, what was interesting to
me is, you know, he fought the fight against Jake
Paul back on July third with my Man TJ at Ringside.
He loses in a fight where he doesn't even show
up until like the last round or so of the fight,
does absolutely nothing, sleepwalks, and loses every round except maybe
that last round, and then a couple of days later
he gets the only good norms.
Speaker 2: The only good news is ICE didn't come get him
in the post fight lack of room at the Honda Center.
They waited a couple of days.
Speaker 1: Well, it's like I joked around, I wish they would
have arrested him before the fight. He saved us the
misery of watching that shit show. But anyway, they had
all these people from ICE, you know, the US Immigration
and Customs enforcement folks, showed up and arrested them and
talked about how we'd be deported. I mean, I wrote
about it all the boxing outlets wrote about it, and
I thought, Okay, they're gonna deport him. I didn't realize
he was gonna be in jail in America for the
next like several weeks before he actually was deported, So
the news that happened was earlier this week. They actually
physically sent him from the facility. He was in in
California and returned him to a prison or a jail
in from Seo Mexico to face the charges he is
facing there, and obviously it's a serious situation for him.
Speaker 2: Stay tuned. We'll see if we find out more information
on that at a later date, but he won't be
fighting again anytime soon if ever. And one final note
before we are gone here and headed into the weekend.
Speaking of the WBO, as we've mentioned them a couple
of different times, they have ordered an interim cruiserweight title
fight and this is due to the injury. Speaking of
that June twenty eighth, on I think you said July third,
it was my twins birthday, June twenty eighth, the night
of their birthday, we were out.
Speaker 1: There going to be July third was actually the day
he was arrested.
Speaker 2: The rest right June twenty eighth, we were out there
for their birthday and on that card, Zerdo Ramirez defeated Dordakos,
and it turns out was fighting with a bum shoulder,
so he's had shoulder surgery and the WBO says we
want to have an interim title fight go ahead with
the deats, so we.
Speaker 1: Rip on the interim titles all the time. But the
one time where an interim title does make sense and
I have no particular problem with it, is when the
champion is bonified, injured out for an extended period of time.
You want to keep the activity going, you want to
give the other contenders an opportunity, and that's exactly what's
happening in this case. So the injury Deserto is going
to keep him out for the rest of this year.
The prognosis that I was explained to me that he
is idle before he can even really train's gonna be
about four to six months. So even if it was
on the short end of that, he's not back in
the ring right away because he's gonna have to go
through a training camp anyway. Who knows about what the
dates are. Bottom line, he's not gonna fight the rest
of this year. We're already here, you know, into until
late August, so you're talking about in the probably at
the earliest the first quarter of next year. And so
therefore the WBO did what I feel like is an
appropriate move to order in an term title. So they've
ordered Chris billim Smith, who was their former champion, who
has won one fight since he lost in the unification
fight against Sertormeres that took place in November on that
Latin h Latino night that took place in Riad. So
Bill and Smith is certainly a bona fide contender, and
they matched him up with the next guy in their ratings,
which is a fighter from Germany named Roman Fress who's
twenty three and one, who doesn't have a big resume.
I've actually watched a couple of videos and he's not bad.
He's got some good skills and you know, he's just
not a well known guy. But as a vacant title
fight goes like I've seen way worse. I'll put a
to you like that. So they've ordered them to do
the fight. They've got to go through their process if
they can negotiate a deal or it'll go to the
purse bid. They both are with you know promoters that
have put on you know, significant fights. Bill and Smith
is with boxer from the UK and Sees run by
Olf Stanforth who's done a ton of fights in Germany
with names is the promoter for Fres And we'll see
if they can make a deal and they'll do that fight.
And then because the WBO will follow their rules. I've
had a lot of conversations with the Gustavo Oliveri, who
is the new president. They will when the time is appropriate,
when when Zerto is back, they will order the winner
of this fight, assuming it happens to fight Zerto in
his first fight out of the injury. So it may
be a rematch with Bill and Smith. I don't know
if that's the greatest thing because he handled them pretty easily,
or I'll be Roman Frez against Zero, But either way,
that's what's going on. The only thing I look at
in a negative about that is we still hope and
pray all that rain dance, whatever you want to say,
that we see Zero at some point in the not
too distant future fight ji Opataia in the three belt unification.
And while this interim fight is happening, they also unrelated
to the WBO. The IBF has re ordered his mandatory
against him Car. Remember he pulled out because of an
ankle injury and they both had in they took interim fights,
he fought another defense and the injured fighters came back
to Car and fought anyway. So that's been reordered also,
so there's a lot of stuff going on where that
fight is sort of just caught up because on the
one hand, Zerto is out for six months probably and
we'll have to fight the winner of this fight if
he wants to keep the belt upon his return. And
meantime he got Opataia, who's going to be dealing with
an IBF mandatory. You just hope at some point, like
in the first half of next year, that they can
figure out a way to fight each other and with
all the belts on the line, because at some point
they're both going to go up to heavyweight anyway. But
I'd rather see them fight at cruiserweight than thinking about
the fighting down the road.
Speaker 2: That things in the cruiserweight divisi And can we have
good things?
Speaker 1: Well, we've gotten some good things. We just need a
few better things.
Speaker 2: We need a few better things, all right, So we
get ready for this weekend again, lighter weekend. Got the
MVP show on Saturday, and you and I will come
off the weekend and recap that and see what else
is there again. Slower time here at the end of
August and headed in the United States to Labor Day
weekend the following weekend, with not much there either. It
will pisit. Bunness will pick up. Bunness will pick up
coming in September. Stay tuned, peep so TJ.
Speaker 1: Off of that business is slow or businesses robust, We'll
still entertain our people.
Speaker 2: We do our best. Are you gonna sing next? Because
if you are, I'm stopping the record button in any event.
Speaker 1: Hey, I didn't sing. I didn't sing the U two song.
Speaker 2: I just maded I still haven't found what I'm looking for,
But you did hist I said I would stop recording, uh,
because that's my guys. I love that band. All right,
So let us reconvene on the weekend. For now, we
are good here with that MB show coming and all
the news again. Follow, subscribe, Apple, Spreaker, Spotify as we
rock on here through the summer. Big Dan, have a
good weekend. We'll catch up. I am merely TJ. Reeves,
thank you for being with us on the Big Fight
Weekend preview pot