Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big
Fight Weekend.
Speaker 2: Now here is your host, DJ Leaves. All right, we
get ready for a weekend that has a couple of
interesting California cards as well as some other action going
on all over the place. It is the Big Fight
Weekend preview podcast. We've got fight news as well to
get to and to go over. Full disclosure. By the way,
this is just for somebody who told you this off
the air, Dan Rayfield, right before we hit the record button.
You're joking around with me. I am the somewhat capable
host of the podcast. TJ. Reeves somewhat capable host. He
is big Dan Rayfield, our insider. Fight Freaks Unite is
the substack and the newsletter that you should be on
for all the breaking news, the memorabilia, the inside scoop
on whatever. We love him for that. We got fights
to preview, all right, full closure. We are doing this
in the afternoon a little earlier than what we normally
do on Thursday. It's normally Thursday night into Friday, because
I've got Thursday night football with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
and one of my other gigs, my fall gig, my
Radio gig in the Tampa Bay area with the Buccaneers
playing the Atlanta Falcons. The audience can't see the creamsicle
hat that I will be sporting tonight with Buckle Bruce,
and Rayfield says that should be the uniform every week
every year.
Speaker 1: For the p's like give me a headache. On the
video we're on here orange.
Speaker 2: The Orange will be on tonight, So check that out again.
If you're hearing us after the fact, you'll know whether
I had a good Thursday night or not, because I'm
in charge of the postgame show live and I'm in
charge of a recap podcast for the Buccaneers as well.
So let's just see how it goes tonight. But thank
you for finding us however and wherever and whenever you
have found us. As we preview going into the weekend,
follow subscribe on Apple, Spreaker, Spotify, find the Big Fight
Weekend YouTube page as well. Subscribe up there. The Baduo
Jack interview is up there right now. The video portion
of the interview. We have the audio here on the
pod feed. We got multiple ways to hear ray Field
and see Rayfield doing his work, So Badu Jack let
that segways perfectly go see him on the YouTube page
and you're gonna see him on pay per view. We
got to get into that for a little second. Two
after we talk about the fight on how they can
see the fight, Baduo Jack and Noel McLean are coming
up in a rematch on Friday night. You talked to
Badu Jack about this fight that is for the WBC
Cruiserweight Championship. Here we go, now fight wee can in
Lah tell me a little more about what you think,
what you think will happen. Very close decision in fight
one earlier this year in Saudi Arabia.
Speaker 1: Yeah, looks an It's an even ish type of matchup.
I mean, if you go back to the fight in
May in Saudi Arabia, was on the undercard when Cano
Alvarez had the very forgettable, miserable fight against William Skull,
And this was one of those undercard bouts at a
weird time, as we discussed before they fought in you know,
the hours of the morning, you know, four three, four
in the morning, very weird for any athlete to be
at their best at that moment, even though I know
they knew that was happening. So a lot of the
people that were on that show, were preparing in that
type of timeframe when they were doing their training and
that type of thing. But now we're in like normal time.
They're in Los Angeles, they are going to be on
a normal you know, in the evening, so that that
can't be an excuse for the performance. But in the end,
when they fought the first time, it was a very
close fight. In the end it was it was a
by due Jack retaining the title. The scores were one
fifteen to one thirteen on two score cards, one fourteen
to one fourteen on the third card. Some people thought
that McCallan should have been the rightful winner. To his credit,
he closed pretty strong in the fight and uh and
that I think led some people to believe that he
had done enough to win. It was my particular view
that Badu Jack had done enough, at least in the
first half of the fight to put enough rounds in
the bank that even if he was not as good
maybe in the last you know, two or three rounds
as he had been early on, that he had still
put enough away to eke it out probably like seven
to five type of fight. You know, he believes he
clearly won, that he's much better. You know what, fighter
doesn't say that off the close victory. So but mckelean
they were ticked off, and he went to the WBC
and asked for an immediate rematch and they gave it
to him. They ordered it at the convention, you know,
or they had ordered it and then it was you know,
it was at the recent convention. They knew that it
was happening, I should say, in any event, So that's
what's taking place. But as opposed to being for a
lot of money that they probably were paid because it
was on a Turkey card that was a big event
in Saudi Arabia because Canelo was the main event. This
was a fight where there wasn't like a ton of
promoter interest in the fight. But they had problems making
a deal between the dude Jack, who you know was
sort of on his own promotionally, even though he had
some backers, and then you have mckellyan who was with
Don King, who was really not a true factor in
promotion anymore. But it went to the per s bit
and as I talked about with Jack on on our
interview the Wildest Shit in the World, TJ, they they
tied at the perspect Yes, the exact amount of money
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and so the WBC
gave the vitterers like an extra fifteen minutes to fashion
another bid, and it was the Los Angeles promoter Steve
Bash who's worked with a ton of fighters along with
his partner, that has the money. They bid you know,
a touch more like I think they were over three
hundred thousand. They won the purspet. So they're doing this
fight but without having specific ties in the long term
with either of the boxers. They're just hoping to roll
the dice, make enough money to pay everybody to you know,
reap the reward of whatever they sell in tickets, whatever
they do on the pay per view. They have some sponsors,
that type of thing. You know, it's taking place in
a area, you know, where there's a lot of Armenians
that are from the region. Noel McKellen is Armenian. You know,
he lives in Florida, but he's Armenian. They put some
of the you know, the Glendale, California Armenian boxers on
the show and that type of thing, so, you know,
and it's not like a huge arena where they're doing
it we'll see if they can drum it up. But
as far as the fight itself goes, look, it's taken
on more significance than just being for the WBC World
title because we saw and we'll talk about the result
in terms of the injuries to the challenger. But with
Jiopataia scored his big knockout victory to retain the lineal
and the IBF title. This past Saturday, he has been saying,
not just after this fight, but after his last several fights,
he wants a unification fight. Well, he was hoping he
would get Zerdo Ramirez, but that's not going to happen
because Zerdo was obligated now has signed assuming he wins
what is supposed to be a tune up fight next
month for a big fight against David Dennavidez that will
take place in May. So if you want to be
another unification fight and Zerdo has two titles and you
have the WBC title, you need the other guy with
the belt. Well, the other guy with the belt is
the WBC title that is held presently by bid du
jackin will be held by whoever is the winner of
the fight. So Opataia is looking very seriously at the
winner of this fight to potentially make a matchup with
And if you listen to the interview with Bidoo Jack
that I did, and I can't imagine no one mckellian
doesn't feel the same way. They want to unify the
titles and Jaiopataia even even in Australia, which is not
a huge, huge market for boxing, but it's become a
place where the guys who are from there can make
some good money. Look, he drew seven thousand people basically
a sellout at that Brisbane Exhibition Center where he had
his fight last weekend. That's for a guy that no
one ever heard of. So the point I'm making is
if he's in a unification, if they brought it to Australia,
there'll be some money there. They have sponsorship and they've
got government backing. And the point is is it's going
to be a money fight for the winner of Saturday's
fight and a chance to win the lineal and theb
of belt.
Speaker 2: Can I interject too, that we've already seen Turkey Alis
Shit get involved and maybe this is a subsequent I
don't know, read season or something that he gets involved
with as well with Jack and with open because he's
been involved with both fighters, so there's a lot on
the line. Now, what's interesting, I did not realize this
when you were talking to him. Badou Jack is listed
at forty two years old.
Speaker 1: Years old.
Speaker 2: I would have pegged him at thirty nine or forty.
So there's an I mean, automatically, there's an age concern
when you start getting to thirty eight, thirty nine, forty
forty two years old. It is a rematch here, McLean
listed at thirty five.
Speaker 1: I believe that.
Speaker 2: I believe all you guys, So he has an age
advantage in this. So what is your what is your
thought on? Are the skills? We don't know? Are the
skills going to still be the same for Badu Jack
here in this December rematch.
Speaker 1: One thing about Jack is for a guy who's forty two,
he's kept himself in great condition. He's been in a
couple of tough fights, but he hasn't taken like overt
punishment or anything like that where you be concerned, let's
say about his long term health. He's had layoffs where
he hasn't been getting beaten up or anything like that.
You know, he was an olympian, you know he's a
quality fighter. He was a champion in the super middleweight division.
He won a title in the light heavyweight division. He
has a title now in the cruiserweight division. And there
was a period of time where he became the in
recess champion because he was looking to do a fight
in the WBC's bridgerweight division, trying to think, okay, I
can win a title in the fourth weight class. Politics
got involved that. You know, he had ended up with
a two year layoff, but while he was in recess,
there was some back and forth and for a brief
period Mechallion had the title. He was in a beef
with Don King, like everybody else has been over the years.
And you know, anyway, now this is like the first fight.
It was, you know, the future. They're the pass champion
against the guy that had come back, which they had
given the bell back to Jack when he came out
of recess. It is confusing, obviously to get into the neutio,
but the bottom line is they had a close fight.
It was a decent fight, and now they have the rematch,
and I think both guys have something to prove because
they think they won the first fight. And then you
throw on top of it, the carrot where whoever is
the winner will be the champion of the WBC, but
has a legitimate chance to land a much bigger fight
for money and prestige with the other belts if they
can move on and fight the winner, not the winner,
but fight Opataia. So there that adds some ten.
Speaker 2: Sure it has an entry, all right, So go over
for the audience again, how you see it?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: Sure, sure, because they're not paying us to say this,
but if people are interested, it is available. It is
a pay per view, go ahead.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's I mean as pay perview. Go I mean,
it's not an eighty dollars pay per view or whatever.
But it's like twenty nine to ninety nine, and it's
on pretty much all your outfits. You can buy it
on your regular television. It's on PPV dot com, it's
on Triller Triller TV pay per view. It is on
Prime Video. You can buy it on Prime Video. Also.
It's pretty much all over the place, all right. And
that's the story. So you know, there's not a lot
of other stuff going on this weekend and people might
want to check it out. You know, it is what
it is.
Speaker 2: All right, Now, that is Saturday night in Los Angeles,
and obviously we'll recap whatever happens in the WBC Cruiserweight
title fight. Now up the road a few hours in Stockton, California,
there is a Matchroom de Zone show being headlined by
a guy that we both enjoy has a big future.
Apparently in Diego Pacheco. He's in the super middleweight main event.
I have to lean on my man, Rayphiel. I don't
know about Kevin Leiley Sajo, that's the opponent. Gabe Flores
is also on this card from Stockton, California, So tell
me more first of all about the main event, then
we'll go over with the undercard.
Speaker 1: Well, the main event, I find it to be very interesting,
and maybe it's because I'm one of the few people
that's actually watched a bunch of Kevin Ley Sadjo fights
in the past. You know, he's actually had a handful
of fights that have been on his own. You know,
there's videos of him on YouTube. And I looked at
him and I was like it just he reminded me
so much of a junior middleweight contender. But I had
covered years ago from h I was a French fighter also,
but it come from Cameroon in Africa named Uh. Well
he had He was Mamadou Tiam who had become the
mandatory challenger for Felix Tito Trinidad, which happened to be
the first Felix Trinidad fight I had covered in person.
And Uh, Mamadou had the reputation as a big puncher.
I don't know if Sajo has that reputation, but just
a sturdy, sturdy guy with a great build, you know,
a thick neck, you know. And Sajo, you know, he
hasn't I mean, not fought big names, but he is
twenty six and oh with twenty three knockouts. I definitely
view this as a step up for Diego Pacheco, who,
by the way, is twenty four and oh. So you
know you're taking these two guys there are combined. You know,
they're both undefeated at fifty and oh, and they're both
highly ranked in the WBC and in the WBO, I
believe as well. And so the winner of this fight
is maybe it's not an official elimination fight, if you will,
but it is. Uh. It is definitely a significant fight
from the standpoint of where you're going to be positioned
for a possible chance to fight for one of the titles.
Now obviously Karence Crawford at or this is in the
in the uh super Milia. Yeah, he's so sadjo let
me let me reiterate this. Sajo has been fighting as
a light heavyweight. He is fighting this fight as a
super middleweight right, which is the natural weight class of Pacheco.
But the winner, as I said, will be a highly
ranked fighter in position for one of the organization's belts. Now, obviously,
Terrence Crawford is the undisputed champion, or I guess he's
no longer the WBC champion because they stripped it away
from him. But the point is those titles, presumably with Crawford,
depending on what he decides to do, may fracture even more.
I'm only making the point that the guy that wins
is going to be very nicely positioned to fight in
one of those types of fights. Because let's be honest,
it's not like if Crawford does come back and defend,
he's not fighting one of these two guys. Not because
good fighters, they just don't have the name value. They're
still trying to work on their name value, and that
name value will probably be increased by whoever wins, particularly
if it's something interesting. Now, I must say Matt Troom
Boxing is obviously one of the top promoters in the sport,
and they do a heck of a job, but this fight,
they've barely done anything, so it's been very under the radar.
Maybe in stocked in it's like a big deal, which
is where Gay Flores is from, which.
Speaker 2: Is we'll talk about him in a minute right now,
which is.
Speaker 1: Why this is there because he's a draw, but it's
a very pivotal fight for these guys. Pachecko is right
at the point right now where he's had some fights
where he maybe hasn't impressed as much as you kind
of hoped, or guys have hung around. Like he'd come
off a fight where he went to distance with Trevor mccumbe,
who had been stopped by Caleb Plant and you're like, okay,
Pachecko should take care of this guy. And it went
to distance. I mean, it was a wide decision, but
it wasn't exactly a scintillating performance. He you know, he
had Steve Nelson go the distance with him in the
previous fight, so I'm not saying I'm not down on Pacheck.
I'm just saying you'd like to see a little bit
more spark than there's been maybe in the last couple
of fights. And for Sajo, look, he's getting a huge
opportunity to come into America taking on a hot shot
young fighter. Has nothing to lose. I mean, you know,
in a dozen a technical perspective of the fight, and
the and the perfect record, but no one's fighting him,
you know, at the top level without you know, some
kind of major inducement financially. So he's got a lot
to besides just a victory, so much he can build
off of if you were able to win this fight.
Speaker 2: I just calculated this. This is the sixth fight for
Pacheco since November twenty twenty three, so he's been very
active by a lot of standards, all right. The last
two fights, though, have been decision fights, as you mentioned,
went the route with McCombe and then in the previous
fight also a twelve round decision with Steve Nelson, the veteran.
He had had eighteen knockouts in twenty two fights before that.
So is the big punch gonna be back? Are we
finding out? As he steps up in competition. That the
the and this sometimes happens that the veterans know how
to take a punch, stay away, create angles. That's that's
a fascinating part of this fight for me.
Speaker 1: In the main event, he's also again I said, he's
taking on a supposed bigger guy. I mean, Sadjo's last
two fights had been north of one hundred and sixty
eight pounds. One was like a one to seventy one,
one seventy two. The other one was, you know, a
legit light heavyweight fight. So there's that aspect of it.
I find this fight to be pretty interesting. Like I
don't know if it's gonna be like a shootout type
of slam bang type of fight, but I feel like
both guys, it's not given.
Speaker 2: It's not a given that Pacheco dominates and destroys this guy.
So that what you're saying without saying.
Speaker 1: It, yeah, absolutely not, no no doubt about it in
my mind. I mean, I think this is a legitimate,
legitimate match, and I'm actually kind of surprised. I would
say I'm surprised because Matchroom gets to a point with
their guys where they're willing to put them in real fights.
But Pachecko's team is taking this kind of gamble against
a guy who I considered to be a dangerous opponent
who if you win, a lot of people are say, Okay,
wonderful you want because they don't they've never watched Soger,
they don't know anything about it. He's not perceived as
some boogieman or anything like that. But if you've paid
attention and you've actually watched him fight, you're like, man,
this is this is a this is a real fight
because it's a high risk, low reward kind of match,
you know what I mean. Like, if you win, you
did what you're supposed to do, what everybody expected you
to do. If you lose, you're like, how'd you lose
a guy I never heard of? So there is there
is that element of that from the from the Pachecko side,
As I said, from the from the Sajo side, it's like,
you know, we're coming to make a name for ourselves.
We have a great record, but we're unrecognizable to most
of the boxing public. If I beat a young guy
like Diego Pachec who's getting in around, I can really
build off of it. So that to me, their stakes
involved besides just the positioning that the winner will take
within the various sanctioning bodies a right.
Speaker 2: So that's the main event. As we mentioned, Gabe Flores
is in the co feature against Joe Cordina. Yes that
Joe Cordina fighting in the United States in California. If
he's primarily fought in the UK and in Saudi Arabia
and is a former world champ, a WBO lightweight eliminator,
I'm just going to say, on the face intriguing matchup
here with Flores, still has some question marks about whether
he can take the next steps.
Speaker 1: Obviously, Floras has a ton of question marks, but but
Cordina has has made himself have of some question marks
also because he had so much expectations from him as
a as an Olympian and a guy that had won
a world time you know, and had some you know,
good fights. His fight with Rockamov was an excellent matchup.
He won that fight, he became the IBF title holder
at one hundred and thirty pounds, he defended it, and
then he of course he had the big upset loss
where he got absolutely dominated and stopped in the eighth round.
This is in May of twenty twenty four in a
card on a card in Saudi Arabia. That was a
big surprise because Anthony Casace just whooped him. I mean
it was a real big shocker. He took a fourteen
month playoff after that. I don't know if it was
maybe if there was any injuries or just you know,
he was getting his mind together, whatever it was, but
he came back in July of this year. He moved
up to one hundred and thirty five pounds. He scored
a ten round decision in the UK. It was not
you know, it was pretty one side. It was like
one of the scorecards was like a was a shutout.
But it wasn't like an overly impressive performance. You know,
he just went through the fight and beat a guy
that was not very accomplished. I mean, so to get
back on track. But so now for him to come
from spending, you know, had having never fought in the
United States before, mostly fighting in the UK. Obviously he
had to fight in Saudi Arabia also, but to come
not only to the United States to fight, but to
do so in gave Flores's hometown. Now, Flores is a
guy that did turned professional as at the time he
had become as a teenager, the youngest fighter ever to
sign with Top Rank, which has you know, Bob Aram
been promoting fights since the nineteen sixties, so that was
sort of he got a tremendous amount of hype and
then you know, he lost a couple of fights. Turned
out to be like they matched him up with Luis
Alberta Lopez when he was sort of not that well known,
but I was like, really shocked they did that, and
obviously he got his ass kicked out, Yes he did.
Louis Alberta Lopez went on to have a nice reign
as a featherweight title holder and and be formidable opponent.
He lost to Giovanni Cabrera, who was undefeated at the time.
Cabrera has you know, tangled with some of the better
names also, and you know, post that, post that that fight,
and you know, he was sort of like, where am
I going? You know, could he make one hundred and thirty?
Is he gonna be one hundred and thirty five? They
finally settled, Finally he's going to be one hundred and
thirty five, which is where his last several fights had been.
Top Brank and uh, you know him parted ways. Uh,
he's been doing his own thing. And now after having
had a several fights since the Cabrera loss, but against
just regular type opponents, he now he's stepping up against
a real guy in Cordeena. So we're gonna I think
this is like this is one of those shit or
get off the pot kind of fights, or both Flores loses,
You're like, Okay, I don't think the guy's getting to
the next level. And Flora is still a relatively gun guy.
He's only twenty five years old, but he's been around
since he's a teenager, so it feels like he's been
around forever. But if he loses to Gardina in his hometown, yeah,
a guy that's uh, you know, looked a little shaky
in the last couple of fights, then what are you doing?
You know what I'm saying, like, where are you going?
Speaker 2: And crossroads fight for And.
Speaker 1: If Cordina, who you know, is a former world champion
and an Olympian and you know, at one point was
considered one of the tope hundred and thirty pounders out
there moves uh, you know, has gone up and wait
and now is going to the guy's hometown. But a
guy that clearly you are, have a high your reputation
and just because of what you've already accomplished in who you.
Speaker 2: Have faced, right and the former world champion, So you're.
Speaker 1: Supposed to beat this guy, even in the hometown and
move on to some other, you know, title type fights.
Like I don't know how good the fight's going to be, necessarily,
but I know that the result is gonna have a
dramatic impact on the career of the guy that loses
and who wins, particularly if you ask me the loser,
because to me, the loser, it's like where am I going?
Speaker 2: Yep, so and h and again for Flores, there are
real question marks. The last five fights of all, even
in victory, I've all gone the distance. I believe I
have that right, at least the last floor fights of
I mean, so let's see what happens.
Speaker 1: Or has never been a puncher. I mean, he's only
got eight knockouts and twenty seven victories, but he's also
he's got two losses. Both of them were decisions. Although
one of the Lopez fights should have been stopped. He
was absolutely getting destroyed, and the father let him just
take an absolute fucking beating. HM was really disappointed that
fight didn't get stopped just because he was so young.
Why let him take the extra punishment. But you know,
officially he does not have any knockout loss, so that's
that's on this card. Also, it was kind of a
weird fight to me. It kind of came out of nowhere.
I was kind of surprised of bringing Cordeina all the
way over to California, but you know, they may not
have the you know, the space on a show over
in the UK, and he wanted to fight. They're obviously
both ranked in the WBO, so there is that aspect
of it as well, all right.
Speaker 2: And then also on the undercard, Sky Nicholson, female star
former Australian Olympian, and Tito Mercado, a junior welterwid were
also on the card. What's up here with either one
or both of those? Worthwhile?
Speaker 1: Guy? Yes, Guy Nicholson. I mean she's just in a
regular kind of fight. I mean she seems like a
lovely woman. I just I find no entertainment value on
her fights. Frankly, I just don't. I mean, I'm just
being honest. She talks as nicely, but there's very rarely
a chance for a knockout. She's not fighting an opponent
that is any reputation as a well known fighter. So
I mean, I would expect that she would win, but
you just never know. I mean, and frankly, I don't care.
As far as Tito Mercado, he's one of the better
aspects in boxing. He's been with match Room now for
a little bit. He had an injury that he was coming,
you know, getting over. I can't say he's stepping up
in class. He's taken on the well traveled Antonio Moran.
But Antonio Moran is one of those guys that you
need in boxing. He's a journeyman kind of opponent. He's
willing to face anybody. He usually goes the distance. He's
been stopped twice. I may be slightly biased guys. On
the night that Devin Haney knocked him out, I was
sitting like five feet from the ring and I thought
he died that night. I picked it as a knock
out of the year. But other than that, Moran is
you know, he's going to give you a solid go.
He's been in with a lot of good fighters, but
he's lost, you know, like he lost to Jamaine Ortiz.
For example, who had moved up into the contender level.
He lost to Arnold Barbosa by a decision. So that's
what Marcado's trying to do. You're trying to take that
next step against a journeyman, yes, but a reputable guy
that that can handle himself, that can bring out the
truth if you know what I mean, Like, if you're
not prepared, Antonio Moran can spring an upset. So if
you really think that Tito Mercato was going to the
promised land of a world title, you know, it is
sort of mandatory that he not only win the fight
but look pretty decent. I'm not say he's got to
get a knockout, but you got to. You gotta take
care of this guy and do it with no questions.
And and Moran has been around long enough and face
a quality enough caliber of opponent, and if you're not
really ready, he can embarrass you or at least you
make you look bad, all.
Speaker 2: Right, So stay tuned for that. On the under card again,
this is a Dezonne show Saturday night, US time, Pacific
time zone here, and it's going to kind of compete
with the Badu Jack main event for the WBC cruiserweight
title that's also in Los Angeles, so stay on both
of those. Some fight news. They had the kickoff press
conference on Wednesday at Madison Square Garden for Teya, Fimo Lopez,
Shakur Stevenson. It eventually got a little saucy, but they
were for the most part behaved during this and saying
the right things for the January thirty first main event.
One of the first big fights of twenty twenty six
is going to be this fight. I'm saying that, all right,
a little more well.
Speaker 1: I think you're right. I mean they're going to fight
January thirty first at Madison Square Garden, which, other than
having hosted the third fight between Katie Taylor and Amanda
Serrano this past summer, there really has been very little
action in the main arena. They've had fights regularly at
the Madison Square Garden Theater, but the big arena has
been somewhat dormant for boxing. This is a great kind
of matchup to bring that back. I think they're going
to do a great crowd. Both guys will talk it up.
It's a worthy fight. You have the the legitimate junior
welterweight world champion and Tiafimo Lopez defending the title, the
lineal title in the WBO belt against Shakur, who is
the WBC lightweight champion. He has been a champion in
multiple divisions. He's moving up in weight to try to
you know, he's been a title holder at one twenty six,
at one thirty, at one thirty five, looking for a
title in a fourth waight class still as a pretty
young fighter. I mean, so there's a lot at stake. Obviously,
they know each other very well. They were with Top
rank together for many many years, and this fight's been
a long time coming. And it's sort of like Tiafimo
said at the press conference when asked about you know,
what do you think about fighting your your your your
former stablemate, you know, and he said what a lot
of fighters think, there's no friends in boxing. Maybe there's friendly,
but there's no true friends, because you know, you may
have to fight the guy at some point, and that's
what's going to happen.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: The press conference, ta Femo like usually I didn't understand
half the funck what he was saying. And he's just
always he.
Speaker 2: Was sitting and taking notes like on a notebook, and
then they asked him, what is he taking notes about?
Like he was at a lecture or something.
Speaker 1: But that's that's yeah, listen, I don't I don't need
to hear him talk and all this. I want to
see him box. Uh. In terms of the the back
and forth, it was really not a lot between Chakhor
and t Fema. Was really a lot of it was
between Shakor and Ti Femo's father. Yeah, sor so that
that's so, I mean that type of thing. I listen,
I'm interested in the fight obviously, it's a really interesting
match up to me. Uh, the press conference yesterday, I
was sort of like whatever, I couldn't really stomach to well.
Speaker 2: And but the other thing, and we've talked about this,
you got New York fighter with Ta Femo. You got
a New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey guy in Shakoor. This
should be I'm saying, this a New York fight that
people gravitate to, and you should have an atmosphere for
this in about a month.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned, definitely. I mean, I'm I'm probably gonna make
the trip up for that fight. They go, now they didn't,
I don't, I don't. Maybe I missed it, but they
didn't formally announce undercard fights like they said they were
going to, and then they have not yet from what so,
but there's a couple of fights that are in the
in the pipeline that are probably going to be on
this undercard. One of them is supposed to be a
title defense by the IBF on hundred and forty pound champion,
which is Richardson Hitchins, which makes a lot of sense
because he's a New Yorker, it's the same weight class.
There's been a lot of talk before the Shakur Lopez
fight was made that there was conversation that Tithemo would
have a unification fight against Hitchins. They are both managed
by Keith Connelly, who his opponent is going to be
on this undercard as not so much clear. There were
rumors about Jermaine Ortiz. I don't think that's the one
that's going to happen, but regardless, whole fine somebody for
him and Hitchins will will also talk it up and
put himself in position potentially for a fight with the winner.
The other fight that is again not signed, but is
definitely in the in the contract stages. If you will,
is they try to you know, get all the eyes
and all the dots and t's crossed in the right spots,
and that's a middleweight fight between your boy Carlo uh
Adamas Carlos Adamas, who has gotten an exception from the
WBC from the mandatory or maybe they paid they step
aside to the mandatory that was just ordered at the
convention last week. But supposedly he'll be on this card
against Austin m O Williams, the Mattroom fighter. Mattrom is
the official promoter of this fight. So Austin Williams getting
his opportunity probably to fight for one of the titles.
That's sort of an interesting fight. And so you know,
these are Turkey cards. They they have made a lot
of fans by putting on quality undercards for a big
time main events. So if the undercard winds up being
Hitchens against a good opponent, Adamas against Ammo, and that's
just two shows, two fights, you know they'll add, you know,
at least a couple more. That seems like a pret
good night at the fights if you ask me.
Speaker 2: All right, so that's coming in January. Okay, a positive update.
You did make reference to the Opataia brutal knockout, but
one punch knockout of a Hussien Sinkara, the fighter from Turkey. Uh.
He had been hospitalized all weekend, but Dan, there is
a positive update out of Australia.
Speaker 1: Go ahead. Yeah, he took an absolutely I think that's
I think it really. I mean, I'll think about it
and I'll go back and i'll review them, but that
that might be the knockout of the year, legit. I
mean he took a left hand that just banged off his.
Speaker 2: Chin all down the middle.
Speaker 1: Is I like that?
Speaker 2: I mean, awful?
Speaker 1: Absolutely out coal probably before he hit the deck. But
when he hit the deck, he first back of his
head bounced off the second rope from the bottom and
those ropes and they're not soft, they're they're in they
have padding around them, but they're basically metal wires that
are inside inside that uh that that sheath over it,
and he banged right off of there and then hit
the deck and was absolutely out. He was down for
a couple of minutes, getting medical attention. He was finally
able to get to his feet. He a little bit
after the fight, but then they took him to the hospital. UH.
And it turned out that he not only had multiple injuries.
He had a small brain bleed, which is massively serious.
If it's big enough, that's what puts guys in comas
and makes them die.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: Fortunately it was not, you know, supposedly according to their side,
very small, so that's good.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: He had a contusion of his brain. That can't be good.
You know, that's not good. And he also when he
hit the I'm sure this is how this happened. When
his neck hit the rope, he fractured his c one vertebrate.
The see one vertebrate is the first your first bone
in your spine that's at the base of the skull. Yeah,
so that was a very very harsh knockout with a
lot of injuries that took place because of it. So
but fortunately the update was from from his team that
he was released from the hospital on Tuesday and he's
been resting, and that the brain bleed was under controlling,
very small, and that that the the the fracture in
the vertebrae was just a crack, so it wasn't as
serious as maybe as it otherwise could have been. The
contusion is essentially like a bad bruise that I guess
will heal with time. But the damage that ji Opataiah
did to this man, it's one punch, yep, absolutely just amazing.
And the thing you should know also, ji Opataia is
a bad man. This is now. I was talking to
one of one of the guys from his promotion at
Tasman Fighters just to make sure I was clear about this.
He has been not even when he hasn't knocked guys out,
guys have ended up going to the hospital because he
beats up on them so bad. Uh Hussin Sinkara was
of his last seven opponents, he was the sixth one
that had to go to the hospital for medical attention
after the fight with Obataia. He's a bad motherfucker.
Speaker 2: Now, it should be mentioned Opataia has had to go
to the hospital as well because he had the badly
broken jaw against Bratas in the fight that he won
when he won the IBF title the first time on
the first goal around.
Speaker 1: So I'd rather be than Opata's opponents. Yeah, he is good.
That Sinkara is Okay, you never want to get injured.
Speaker 2: But yeah, because as much as we talk about the
brutality of the sport, we don't want to see anybody
seriously injured or worse.
Speaker 1: So that is as obscuresting Car was and as completely
I known. He did have that one moment in round
two that at least you'll remember that if you watch
the fight where he really rocked Opatia cut him under
the eye. That was a quick moment though, and then
otherwise Opataia came back and beat him up. And but
that knocked out that you find the knockout on you know,
you can find the clip of it on social media
or on YouTube, and just the devastating knockout. All right.
Speaker 2: Moving on TKO, the parent company of UFC and several
other outlets, and they are also the people that are
behind ZUFA Boxing. They had an earnings call. Rayphield keeps
up with his stock market and his earnings calls when
he needs to. They had an earnings call where they're
updating investors because it's a public trading company, and they
revealed something about the timeline of the new ZUFA Boxing
series and win It debuts go ahead.
Speaker 1: Right, not a surprise. So their first event on Paramount
Plus will take place on January twenty third. That was
what was said on the on the earnings call. That
you mentioned, so that with the earnings call is led
by t KO President Mark Shapiro, who obviously is one
of the top executives and has his hands in, you know,
all the different aspects of the company and he's usually
the guy that handles those calls. And so they did
discuss that. They didn't talk about what the main event is.
They didn't talk about where it's going to take place
or anything like that. Just the date was that and
the interesting aspect of that, and I'm sure you'll hear
this word synergy at some point, is that it's taking
place the night before they have a UFC event. And
now that ZUFA has got to deal with the Paramount
Plus and UFC is going to also be on Paramount
plus last CBS, I'm sure there'll be some cross promotion.
And so that was what was announced. And so they'll
have to operate this first show under the current rules
of the Muhammad Ali AC because if there's going to
be a change in terms of the lobbying efforts that
have been going on to amend the Ali Act, that
hasn't become law yet and it's still unclear if it
will you know, be be passed into law. There were
some hearings earlier in the week on Capitol Hill where
they were discussing this in one of the committees. But
you know, Congress sometimes can move at galatial.
Speaker 2: Sometimes most of the time it means to be, except
if they're voting on their own pay raises in vacation.
So yeah, that might take a while.
Speaker 1: But the thing about it is when you think about
where we are now on the calendar here in mid December,
we're approaching mid December until when the event happens on
January twenty third. It's not like they can just pass
this the day before and suddenly it's going to go
into law and then they can right away do it.
They're signing contracts with fighters now, probably to be on
this show. There's probably I don't. I'm not. I may
check in on what goes on on a TK earnings call,
but I don't keep up with the legislative calendar. I don't.
There can't be that many days left legislating between now
and jeruy and twenty third, because Congress is going to
go home correct the Christmas break slash holiday break. They'll
have New Year's and then you know, and they still
have other things obviously that are presented to the Congress.
That seem to be a heck of a lot more
important to the United States of America than a revision
of the Muhammad Ali reformat. So, at least to start,
it seems like they'll operate under the existing rules. Obviously
that could change going forward. But more importantly, we're gonna
have zoof of boxing on January twenty third, and I
for one, am extremely interested to check it out to
see how they present it, who they have as their commentators,
what it looks like, what it sounds like obviously, what
the matchups are going to be, what types of fighters
they have signed, and how they're going to position the
entire Did.
Speaker 2: They not say they're going to fight monthly or at
least every other month? How well, what do we remember.
Speaker 1: It's supposed to be a monthly, monthly series.
Speaker 2: Okay, And so January twenty third will be fighting. And
I didn't catch it if you said it where. We
don't know the where yet, don't know where they'll reveal
the where.
Speaker 1: But that's just we do know what's going to be
the night before they hold a UFC event, all right.
Speaker 2: So we'll stay tuned, Okay, Women's Boxing News, Claressa Shields
will be back Rayfield. Do I have to say undisputed
women's heavyweight champion? I mean, yeah, it's so bereft of
anybody being in the heavyweight division.
Speaker 1: But well that I agree with what the facts are.
That's what she is.
Speaker 2: They gave her the other belts when she wore one
of the belts, and now she's fighting Franchon Cruz Desern
and that is going to come on February twenty second, correct,
So tell me more. They've announced this go ahead.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so don't get cut up in which titles that are.
That's the main thing is that Franchion Cruise Desern is
for the first time in the last several fights, at
least for my way of looking at is that Claressa
Shields is in with a real legitimate opponent who, even
though I still make Franchion Cruise a heavy underdog in
the fight, at least she's a known commodity. She has
history with Claressa. I was actually at their professional debut.
They fought each other in their professional debuts in twenty sixteen.
Women's boxing has come a long way since twenty sixteen.
It was very surprising that both these two women took
each other on in their pro debuts because Claressa was
taken on a real opponent in her pro debut, and
even though a Cruz Desern did not win like an
Olympic gold medal or two of them the way Claressa did,
she had a good amateur background. She was a known
commodity within women's boxing, and they turned probe mainly because
there was nobody else for them to fight. But it
turned out to be a tremendous battle. I know if
you look at the scorecards, so like whatever she won,
Claressa did forty to thirty six, and all three scorecards, well, yeah,
fair enough, but a I thought that Cruise desern won
at least one round. If you go back and you
watch the fight, it was a fucking balls from the
wall kind of battle. It was on the undercard of
the first fight between andre Ward and Sergey Cobal, and
other than the main event, it kind of told the show.
It was a really good fight. It's taken a long
time for them to come back around to each other.
Cruise deserned had become the undisputed women's super middleweight champion
after Claressa had left the division and given up that status,
so she has some accomplishment. They're going to fight a rematch.
It's like I said, a long time coming. It's the
first fight of Claressa's on her new announced promotion contract.
That is with where she stayed with Salida Promotions, brought
on Win Records, which apparently has guaranteed her over the
course of a few fights eight million dollars two million
dollars a fight over four fights. I don't know how
they're going to make that back, I mean, but that
ain't my problem. But anyway, so yeah, this is the
first fight of that of that contract. That's going to
be a regular dezone fight. They're going to do it
at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, where Claressa has
proven to be a very good draw. She's from Flint, Michigan,
so you know, the people from Michigan who support her
turn out, whether it's from Detroit or from Flint, and
they'll put on a nice event and we'll see what
Salita lines up for the undercard. But as I said,
you on recent Claressa fights, though I have a lot
of respect for everything Claressa has accomplished. She's a great
athlete and she's a heck of a fighter. I think
she's clearly in terms of women's boxing number one pound
per pound right now and has been for quite a while.
Her fights have left no interest for me because she
has fought nobody, because there's nobody in those weight classes
at least. Cruise Desern is a known commodity who's been
in the ring with other good competition. She has accomplishment
of her own, and there's also the fact that they
fought a really outstanding fight in their pro debuts. Like
I said, the rematch is a long time coming.
Speaker 2: So there's that February in Detroit. As we turned the
calendar to twenty twenty six. Okay, Caroline Duwah is not
gonna wait for twenty twenty six. She is back in
the news and she's on the Jake Paul Anthony Joshua
undercart On the bill, as they say in the UK,
all right, give us the details.
Speaker 1: So she was a fighter that had been a cornerstone
for the Boxer Company in the UK. They were doing
these fights regularly on Sky Sports, and it was her,
it was Ben Whittaker, it was Adam Azine. It was
a few of the folks that were the up and
comers that were with Boxer. When Sky Sports did not
renew their contract last summer and the contract ended, it
left the boxer to court as scramble around. They ended
up making a deal with BBC far less money, far
less maybe maybe more exposure because BBC is such a
big deal. But they're not on BBC one, They're on
BBC two, which I guess my understanding is there is
a pretty big difference. Nonetheless, a lot of the contracts
that Boxer had with fighters were tied to their broadcast
deal also, so once that ended, they were allowed to
go their own way. Now, Adam Azine decided to stay
with Boxer. He's an excellent young talent within one hundred
and forty pound division. He stayed with them, but Caroline
Dubois and also Ben Whittaker have moved on. Ben Whittaker
signed recently with Mattrim had his debut for the company
a couple of weeks ago, scored the first round knockout
Caroline Dubois. She's in Lebron. James Parlance taken her talents
to MVP, which had has become.
Speaker 2: Very close by the way, nice reference, very close to
South Beach where they're fighting in Miami.
Speaker 1: Very nice. That's why I said that. So she comes
to MVP, which I think has clearly established itself over
all last you know, a year or two as the
pre eminent promotion for female boxing. Salita Promotions does a
good job with their women's boxing promotions also obviously as
the promoter for Clarissa Shields as their number one female.
But MVP has done, you know, they have become a
huge outlet for women's boxing, and she becomes like they've
not only are they doing deals with some of the
top women's boxers from the United States and other places also,
but they are particularly now strong in terms of the
UK marketplace because not only do they now have Carolyn
Dubois was one of the best young British women boxers
that there is, and not just not just British but
in the whole sport. She is eleven and zero with
a draw which was a technical draw. She was an Olympian.
She's the younger sister of Daniel Dubois. But MVP also
has now Elie Scottney, they have Chantal Cameron, they have
Terry Harper, they have Savannah Marshall. I mean, they're really
that's just the British female boxers that they have not
to mention obviously Amanda Serrano and Alicia Baumgardner and plenty
of other ones. Anyway, so as you mentioned, she signed
with them and they are going to have her make
her debut on the undercard of the Jake Paul and
Anthony Joshua card. Her fight, by the way, is part
of the preliminary card, so it's actually if you're one
of the people that doesn't even have Netflix, which I
don't know too many people that don't, the preliminary card
is actually for free on the Netflix Sports YouTube channel
and the MVP YouTube channel, so you can watch Caroline
as well as some of the other women. She is
fighting a Italian boxer in this title defense, and you know,
we'll see what she can do. The Italian boxer I'm
not that familiar with, to be quite honestly, if you're.
Speaker 2: Not familiar with Camellia Panada, I'm not yeating.
Speaker 1: Well it actually is, so I'm not I'm not knocking
Camellia Panetta. She's an Italian fighter. She fights out of
West Palm Beach, Florida. She has fought mostly in Italy
and Mexico, but she's coming to have her first fight
here in the United States. She also, like Caroline Dea,
is a southball for what it's worth, and I'm interested
in seeing car and a really good fighter.
Speaker 2: She scored some knockouts too for women's boxing, which isn't
all that common.
Speaker 1: So she's only got five knockouts and eleven fights, but
some of the knockouts have been quite memorable, all right,
So she is.
Speaker 2: That's now as we release this pod next Friday, yes
or nineteenth, that they're having that fight, all right. One
final note before we get out of here, and that
is a trainer swap, a trainer change for Mario Barrios,
who we still believe is going to be fighting Ryan
Garcia coming up, speaking of February, although that's not been
officially announced yet, right, but it's all but done, but
there is a Barrios has gone now with a new
trainer go ahead.
Speaker 1: As far as the fight goes, It's not officially like
sign Stield delivered one hundred percent done, but I think
it's done enough where if you watch the Pitbull Cruise
Lamont Roach pay per view that PBC put on this
past Saturday. On the broadcast between fights, they had the
fight the Car took place in San Antonio, that is
Mario Barrios's hometown. Mario was there and they brought him
up on to the set and they did an interview
with him. Brian Custer, the host of the show, had
him along with Joe Goosen, who is his other guy
that sits there and analyzes fights on the desk with him.
And it turns out as they interviewed Mario Barrios, he
announceaid he is going to now train with Joe gooson. Obviously,
Joe does a good job in terms of broadcasting, but
he's obviously best known as a top level trainer. He's
trained with tons of top guys over the years, so
they're working together. So he had been trained by Bob Santos,
who was a great trainer in his own right for
the last few fights, including the draw that a lot
of people thought Mario lost against Manny Pacya that took
place in July. And though after that, you know, Mario
made the decision that he wanted to change things up,
and he feels like Joe Goosen gives him a great
opportunity to do that. They've known each other for many years.
He made the point that when he was a younger
fighter coming up on the PBC broadcast, Joe Goosen commentated
on a lot of his fights, knows him and wanted
to give it a try. Joe's got a great reputation
is he should be an eventual Hall of Famer. His
record as a trainer as a mile along and we'll
see what he give.
Speaker 2: Another interesting aspect, He's worked with Ryan Garcia a couple
of times, including for the Javonte Davison Rayfield. I pay
attention to all this.
Speaker 1: I believe that you believe that was their only fight
together was the tank day.
Speaker 2: He had Ryan Garcia. He told you on the pod
he had Ryan Garcia as amate gym, as an amateur
and was trying to sign him in the whole bit.
And then he did work with him for the one
fight with Gavonte Davis that didn't work out long term.
So brio, that's another intriguing angle to this.
Speaker 1: Joe knows Ryan Garcia very very well. Uh And by
the way, here's how much this fight is again maybe
not done, but both Ryan Garcia and Mario Barrios, from
what I am told, are now officially enrolled in Vada
for the fight. Now that's not a surprise, but obviously
it's a bigger deal when it's Ryan Garcia because of
his problems two fights ago with the drug test against
Devin Haney. So Mario Barrios has been using Vada testing
for a number of his fights. He's been tested a
thousand times, had a problem in terms of his testing,
So they're going to be tested in a big way
for this fight. But the point that Mario made was like,
I guess it doesn't hurt that he knows Dryan Garcia
very well as far as to do a game plan,
but that was not the reason why he decided to
go and train with Joe. He just wanted to.
Speaker 2: And by the way we've talked about this before, there's
only so much that Joe can do and can tell
Mario Barrios, because he's gonna have to go out and
do it and he's gonna have to potentially get hit
by Ryan Garcia.
Speaker 1: So I would say not to give my good buddy
Joe Goosen any I don't need to tell him what
to do. But if I was Joe Goosen, my first
point of reference. Bak. You know Marian do okate with
the left huck too much.
Speaker 2: Yeah's stay stay away from the left. All right, We
are ready now for the weekend again. Daniel Dubois and mchalean.
I'm sorry, excuse me not, David Dubla, Badu Jack and
mcalean is the main event WBC Cruiserweight title fight again.
It's a pay per view fight. Look forward on PPV,
dot Com and the other outlets Triller, et cetera. It'll
be available on Saturday night. Also the Matchroom de Zone
Show Stockton, California, not a pay review with Diego Pacheco headlining,
Gabe Flores Jo Cordina on the co feature. Why don't
we reconvene and we'll recap the entire weekend again as
we release this on Thursday night into Friday. You'll know
what kind of mood I'm in come Friday if my
Buccaneers have gotten it done against the Falcons on Thursday
Night football, thus keeping the playoff hopes freshly in the
picture here or not, Stay tuned to find out what
kind of mood I'm in for this weekend. For now,
Big Dan, good stuff here, they need to read your
Fight Freaks Unit, substack your newsletter. For much more, go
find Badu Jack on the Big Fight Weekend YouTube paget.
There's a great deal of nostalgic content there as well.
Other than that'll be good for the weekend.
Speaker 1: We are good.
Speaker 2: I believe that we are there, goes Dan Rayfield. I'm
merely TJ. Reeves. Thank you for being with us. Make
sure you're following, subscribing, rating and reviewing us. A rating
and review will help us here in this holiday season.
If you like what we're doing on apples Freak or Spotify,
you've been with us on The Big Fight Weekend Preview
podcast