Speaker 1: All right, folks, we are live on a Sunday night
once again on the Big Fight Weekend YouTube channel. Not
only that, but later in the evening overnight Sunday into Monday,
we're also in podcasts work two for the price of
one here on this edition of the Fight preak to
Night Recap coming off of the weekend. I am merely
the somewhat capable host TJ.
Speaker 2: Reeves.
Speaker 1: Hello to our insider, Big Dan Rayphiel. As we do
this live on a Sunday, this has kind of been look,
Keyshawn Davis ruined a lot of things for a lot
of people. He ruined what our plan was on Saturday
night to recap his main event on the top rank
boxing show that never came off. We're gonna talk about that.
We're gonna talk about the fights that did happen. Rayfael
can't wait to talk about Fabi Owardley and Tim Burr
with the Big Right Hand. That and the Sunday championship
fights in Japan and Australia. A ton to recap, some
news and a little more good to be with you,
live my friend on a Sunday on the US page
here this evening.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's all good. I mean, although I'm doing it
the same way we always do it. I see you
in the two box and we go through the show,
that there's a lot of people watching us as we're
doing it, that's a whole different bulgain. I am a
chipper because I'm glad I did not waste my time
of making the trip to Norfolk, which I considered. I
live about three and a half hours nor could have
taken the train, could have taken the drive, and I
decided against it because of all the fights that were
on Sunday. Also, and I'm glad that I didn't waste
my time because what an absolute disaster.
Speaker 1: All right, we'll get into that disaster coming up again.
For the podcast audience, we're doing this live, but you're
hearing us at the normal time. Thank you for finding us.
Make sure you're following and subscribing on podcasts. If you're
seeing us through Dan's social media promotion, through his different outlets,
et cetera. If you're seeing us for the first time,
where you been. But also there's a podcast, go find
it out all the podcast outlets.
Speaker 2: It's the Fight Freaks Unit recap that we're doing here.
Speaker 1: Applespreaker, Spotify, it's the Big Fight Weekend podcast feed. And
as I have here for the video audience, because I'll
keep making reference the video audience can see us blah
blah blah. Make sure to help us out on this channel.
Make sure to subscribe to this channel. Make sure to
hit the like button. Share this out, engage with us.
We're live tonight. We'll take some comments here. It a
little bit as we go through the roll call. So
that's different from the podcast when it's just you and me.
We can have audience interaction, live interaction tonight, so let's
do that as well. All right, So let's get into
what happened after you and I left the bet Us
Boxing show, which we do on their outlets and their platform.
At that point, we knew Keyshawn Davis had badly missed weight.
Our belief was they were going to try try being
the key word to work out keeping the main event
intact even though Davis was being stripped of his WBO
lightweight title. That blew up Friday afternoon and into Friday night.
Speaker 2: You did some reporting. Excellent job.
Speaker 1: I prop you for getting the parties involved, including Samson Lukowitz,
the promoter for Edwin Delos Santos to give you some
comments about what went on, so give the audience a
recap here of how and why this blew up. And frankly,
I will just say at the outset, I was surprised
they didn't pull the whole show. They kept the whole
show together. Go into why on that?
Speaker 3: So go ahead, I'm not surprised they didn't pull the show.
That's not Top Rank style. Everybody else was there. Everything
else was in place, and you don't penalize an entire
card worth of people that have done their jobs and
prepared diligently made the wait. There are still a lot
of people that bought tickets that did not return their tickets.
They had sold over ten thousand, they said on the broadcast.
I also heard from Top Rank only about two thousand
return their tickets. So you still go forward and you
work out the particulars later. You don't penalize and Abdulla
Mason and everybody else on that card because Kishon Davis
is a knucklehead. So I'm glad the show went on.
In terms of what happened, Samson Lukawitz, who was the
promoter of Edwin Delos Santos and Bob Aram, the promoter
of Kishon Davis. Neither one of them, you know, both
of them were supportive of the fight not happening. They
were fine with it. Aaron was ticked off. He says,
you know, if it was one or two pounds over,
I talked to Bob a few times during this whole situation,
one or two pounds, you know, we would have worked
it out. Four pounds plus. You know, he understood that
was ridiculous. And as he said to me, you know,
I lived through Castillo, and he's talking about Jose Luis
Castillo missing weight for a lightweight champion to fight twice
on fights that Bob promoted that were much bigger deals
than Keishaan Davis's first title defense. So he understood, and
Samson's perspective was they were not unwilling to make the deal,
which would have required a penalty in terms of money,
as well as a morning of the fight weight check
where he wouldn't have been able to have put on
more than ten pounds without additional penalties. But the way
he explained it was during the weigh in, before he
actually stepped on this scale, he was backstage and he
saw He said to me that he saw Keishan dave
this plane around and smiling and dancing and his perspective,
and he made the point, as a guy that's been
in this business over thirty years, if you're struggling to
make the weight and you're really hurting, you're not backstage
before you stand on the scale dancing and singing. And
then when he touched him on the back and he
felt that there was you know that there they just
could tell that that he hadn't really tried, because you know,
there was no Uh, he didn't feel the way you
would feel if you were really struggling to lose weight.
And UH, at that point, while they discussed this financial parameters,
he said, he and and Edwin de Loos's trainer, UH decided,
you know what, it's in our fighters' best interest in
the long term not to do this fight. And as
he made the point again, we're not going to risk
our fighters' health for money. And it's hard to blame them,
and it's unfortunate because his guy hadn't fought for you know,
almost two years. Uh. And you know, we'll see if
they work out a situation where they'll receive the person
because he did his job. Hopefully, they'll get that maybe
at least part of it. I think that's still as
Top Rank and Samson said, they're talking about it, but
it's it's such a bad reflection on Keishawan. Amen, terrible,
just absolutely so great job.
Speaker 1: Great job betting that that comment from Samson Lukewitz, and
I thought it really stood out that it almost seemed
to me that they knew this a couple of days before, obviously,
and they were trying to get one over here where
he was going to go ahead and fight at a
real advantage of not having weight cut and try to
even you know, get down close to one point thirty
seven or one is what.
Speaker 3: They could have done Keishawan one hundred percent. If you're
that much over and you've been in a boxing lifestyle
for so many years, you know at a certain point
you're not making the weight. So at the very least
he could have told Top Rank, they could have let
Samson know ahead of time, Hey, here's the situation, and
at that point, deal Santos doesn't have to continue to
deplete himself to get the thirty five, and even if
it turns out to be a non title fight, maybe
they still do the bout and instead of being one
thirty five. They do it at you know, one thirty
seven or one thirty eight, and it's non title and
everybody still puts on a show and gets paid blah
blah blah. And instead he kept it a secret. And
when he showed you look see the look on De
Los Santo's face when Kishan Davis got on the scale
and they shouted out the weight, he was like, what
the hell's going on here?
Speaker 1: I mean, is the look on your face when I
told you live on the bet Us Show? And I
even put the photo up a big dan with the
hand on the head of what are we doing here?
It's just five pounds off of plate? Okay, So I'm
just gonna pose one more thing. I'm not trying to
cause trouble. But isn't this a legitimate point here? Does
this call into question Keishaan Davis's future with top rank
in that that's not a knee jerk thing. He had
a positive marijuana test a couple of fights ago. They
have built him up. He is now stripped of the
title that he had with these antics in some way,
and you have a lot of insight jeopardize him with
top rank or is that too reactionary off the weekend,
including we didn't even cover the skirmish in the bowels
of the scope the arena in Norfolk gets involved in
like a non sanctioned bout in the hallway. Does this
call into question him with Top Rank No.
Speaker 3: No. First of all, at the very least he could
have made the way active professional had a fight instead
of fighting in the bowels of the arena and defended
his world title and made a seven figure payday, instead
of doing the nonsense that we'll get to and getting
kicked out of the arena. Top Rank is not going
to release him at the worst case scenario, they'll sit
him down for a while. But he's still a valuable
a valuable commodity. He's still a quality fighter, despite the
emotion of what happened over the weekend, and they have
plenty of time left on their deal with him. They're
not gonna cut him. They're gonna they're gonna work it
out with him, and you know, talent wins out and
he can still fight. They'll give him another chance. They'll
have a stern talking to with him, I'm sure him
and his management and his team, and they'll move him
up as Bob Aaron said to me, we'll move him
up to one forty. But that's that's the The knee
jerk reaction that you're just gonna release the guy is
just stupidity. I just that's not even in the realm
of possibility. When he fights next, that's up in the
air and under what circumstances and for what money. Obviously
that's all gonna be discussed and negotiated. But you do
not take a supremely talented young man like that. Whatever
the issues are. He didn't he didn't kill somebody, he
didn't go to prison. He fucked up bad, but you
know he's gonna take some heat for it, obviously, but
you're not just gonna release him from the contract.
Speaker 1: And so pick up on the incident with now hear
Alexander the fighting the fighters.
Speaker 2: Hear Albright Allbright, I'm sorry to hear Albright. I believe
to hear.
Speaker 1: Alexander is a player for the Green Bay Packers, and
he made the show tonight. But in any event, they
hear Albright is the fighter that key Sean Davis defeated
uh and then had the positive marijuana test, and then
Albright beat one of Davis's brothers on the undercard and
then pick up what what was going on.
Speaker 2: We saw the video that ESPN showed.
Speaker 3: There's two incidents, TJ. You got to get it right
after Albright, who, as you mentioned, had had the close
fight with Keishawan, and then it became a win for
Kishon that became in the no contest because of the
positive marijuana test. Here Albright had not fought since that
baut which was at the end of twenty twenty three.
For this event, they matched him. They moved here. Albright
moved up from one thirty five to one, and he
fought Kishan's older brother Kelvin Davis, who was undefeated going
into the fight. And now Here Albright won the fight,
and as matter of fact, the judges called it a
majority decision. One of the judges had the audacity to
give uh a score of ninety five to ninety five,
which was ridiculous. That was an eight to two, seven
to three kind of fight. At worst. There's zero chance
that you can find five rounds in any universe to
give to Kelvin Davis in the fight. But be that
as it made. The other two judges properly scored the
fight in favor of Albright who didn't get fucked on
the hometown decision in Norfolk. And okay, so Calvin took
his loss. I mean, you know, he fought, you know,
he tried. It wasn't like it was a terrible fight
or anything. They both gave it their effort and one
guy wins, one guy loses. Okay, fine, So now the
fight's over and Albright is back in his dressing room
and he did an interview during part of the undercard
after that before the main event with Mark Kriegel from ESPN.
And if you notice, he's sitting there and he's got
an additional big, giant lump on his eye or head
that wasn't there when he was standing there getting the
scores ready. So he said to Kriegel that Keishawn Davis
and Keishaan's younger brother, he's the middle of the three.
The keyon Davis, who's a welterweight who won by a
second round knockout on you know, the further down portion
of the preliminaries. They came to his dressing room and
basically attacked him and got up in his face and
headbutted him and and you know, had to have the
teams break them up. Just complete nonsense. They you know,
they attacked the guy after he won a hard fought
fight with with their brother. I'm not sure what they
accomplished with that, And so that's a second negativity for
the Davis family and what has been a complete meltdown
of a weekend. And so there's no video of that incident.
I was told by others from top Rank who I
spoke to after the show that that absolutely what Albright
said is accurate, that that incident did happen. So he's
not making it up and he has the extra lump
on his head to show it. After that happened, Albright's
brother who was there and Kishan get into it in
the bowels of the arena and there was a giant
melee and the Norfolk Police Department was there to break
it up. That's what he has video of. Furthermore, you
got Kishan, who whose infant son was born during his
training camp for his previous fight, is sitting in stroller,
unattended while people are all over the place. Very dangerous
for a toddler, an infant. Stupid that just and then
and then the cops kicked him out of the arena.
Should have arrested the motherfucker.
Speaker 1: And so I'm just can I can I put it
up there one more time. I'm not trying to egg
you on.
Speaker 3: Hmmm, I don't know, all right, by stand by, I
know what you said, but there's no chance they released it,
had no chance.
Speaker 1: All right, So all of that happened. And is there
any chance that they hear Albright might file assault charges
because that has nothing to do with going into the ring.
I don't know what he said. I didn't see that
part about whether they're just going to let that part go.
Speaker 3: That's a good question. I mean, he obviously would have
some type of grounds for what he said, was i mean,
his his assault charge possibility. Notwithstanding, you know, he made
the point, I'd like a rematch with Keshan Davis. We
can settle like men in the ring, not like punks
in the back of a in a dressing room, you know,
in an arena. We'll settle in the ring in front
of all the fans. And the reality is now here.
Allbright all, he did not win against Kishon in that fight.
Granted a tampe, they became an o contest that was
probably not probably that was by far the most competitive
fight that Kishon Davis has had in his young professional career.
So I suppose that's a conceivable thing later down the road.
But for the meantime, you have Kishon Davis missing weight,
dramatically not telling anybody, blowing the fight, missing his payday,
his brother loses, they attack the winner of the fight,
and then him and the brother of the guy that
they attack get into it in the arena like it's
just a cascading kile of shit for the.
Speaker 2: Davis can't make this stuff up.
Speaker 1: Okay, So Abdullah Mason did score a TKO victory in
what turned out to be the elevated main event. Just
say something about him real quick, and does he factor
in summer? Theorizing that if there's a vacant WBO title
and Dello Santos is involved, that Abdullah Mason might be
the name that slides in. I have no idea about
any of that, but people are theorizing that what about
how Mason looks? Say something about that real quick. In
the recap mode, Well, Mason looked really good. I mean,
you know, he acted like a professional. He went in
there and he did his job. Whether he was in
the co feature as he originally was supposed to be
or he was, you know, in the elevated main event
that was made because of what happened with the other
fight being canceled. And he went in there and he
did his job, and he looked strong doing He took
apart Jeremiah Nakatia stopped him in the sixth round.
Speaker 3: The fight was stacked. It was stopped, but it was
it was in the fifth round, but it was one
second into the round because they had called the time
out to examine him in the dull ranks. So really
he worked him over through the four rounds and then
it got stopped one second in to number five. But
it was a dominating performance. You know, he had a
bad cut in. Akatia told the doctor when they had
called time out to check him out, that he couldn't
couldn't really see out of the eye. Anytime a fighter
says that, automatically, the fight's going to be stopped. The
doctor said, So referee stopped the fight and Mason moves on,
and you know, he's a good looking prospect. He continues
to rise the ranks. He's now in nineteen. To know
your point about fighting de los Santos of the vacant
title that won't happen. Abdulla Mason is number two in
the WBO rankings. UK named Sam Noakes, who was undefeated,
as number one. The WBO probably in the next few
days will order that mandatory fight, and when Abdullah Mason
was questioned about the possibility of that match being his
next fight, he said, absolutely, I'm interested. Mark Kriegel asked him,
you know, if it had to be the case, would
you go to England to fight him? He said, we know,
we'll do whatever it takes to make the fight. He
wants a title shot, I'm not sure he necessarily deserves
it at this point, or Noakes, because they haven't really
fought that level. But it's boxing today. You know, for
whatever it's worth, they are ranked in those organizations, and
you know, at least at least if it's Abdulla Mason
versus Noakes, there are two guys who are young, who
are around the same level of experience in terms of
their pro number of fights, and you know, bringing on it.
You know, Kishan didn't want to be champed anymore. But
what I found more disrespectful, by the way, when Keisha
made his comments was about how well I was going
to move up to one forty after this fight. Anyway, Well,
now you go down. You've won your title, fine, but
you never defended it and you acted like a punk
on the way out of lightweight.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And by the way, I need to say something too,
because I'm I'm big on this. I need to correct
the fact that we were live on the bet US
show and there was a lot going on in our
final ten minutes of that live show on Friday. So
during one part of you and I going back and
forth with the breaking news, I was trying my best
to listen to Keishawn Davis's off the cuff interview with
ESPN Plus's Christina Poncher on the Top Rank broadcast on
social media and on YouTube of the of the weigh in,
and what he said was I outgrew it. He said,
I outgrew it, meaning the weight one thirty five. I
thought he had said I blew it. To this moment,
I don't know that he's ever really apologized at all.
Speaker 2: And this goes back to what I was saying. And
then we're gonna wrap up and move on.
Speaker 1: I think they were he was trying to get one
over here on I'm not gonna cut the weight.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna go hard.
Speaker 1: They're gonna still do the fight because I'm the main
event drawing card and I just won't strain myself to
make one thirty five. So my attitude is he didn't
own it. Friday, I made a mistake of portraying that
he did own it to a degree, and so he
was admitting I outgrew the weight, which means they knew,
they knew notast weight.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he j that's not an admission, that's a lie
because he made the weight no problem, not even if
he had a little problem. He's still made it in
February well, as Timothy Bradley pointed out, he's looked his
best he's ever looked in his last few fights. And
you know you didn't want to make the weight and
when you're four listen, And I'm Timothy Bradley's an expert
on that because he made weight as a professional boxer, champion,
Hall of Famer for a long time. I've been around
weigh ins and boxing matches for twenty some years, and
I can if you are It's like Aaron said, if
you're a pound over it socks and it's unfortunate shit
like that happens. Four point three pounds is not I
outgrew the weight. Four point three pounds is I don't
give a fuck.
Speaker 2: I wasn't trying to make the weight, and there's a difference.
There's a distinction. All right, we gave that a bunch.
Speaker 1: We've got people commenting real quick, and again for the
podcast audience, I say again, we were doing this live
on Sunday night before it went out on pod, so
we're catering exclusively to the YouTube audience right now in
the live show. Pod audience is hearing it as normal
on Apple, Spreaker, Spotify, on the Big Fight Weekend podcast feed.
But the commenters get to get in here real quick,
and uh, let's see. Adam says, glad to see you
guys are back live on the show.
Speaker 2: I subscribe. Thank you, Adam, good stuff with that.
Speaker 1: Julio watching says thank you for being live, and then
later says, hey, Dan, after the altercation, do you think
to hear Albright and Keishaan Davis run it back with
a rematch?
Speaker 3: Well, that's what he wanted to do. I mean, whether
that happens or not, I mean who that knows, But
you know what if Keishan's gonna go to one forty
when he eventually does fight. I mean, it's a little
bit crazy, but boxing this is the way that fights
get made to create some enter you know, some interest
from the public. And I'm sure that for and otherwise
sort of like whatever fight because of what occurred. Yeah,
the some interest. So if he's not, he's not gonna
probably get a championship type fight in his first fight
at one forty. And meanwhile, nahre just moved up to
one forty and beat the brother, so you got revenge
of the brother. We've seen that angle, you know, with
the klitch goes for example, and we also have the
supposed altercation in the dressing room. So you know, it's
unfortunate that you reward Kishan for that, but Albright kind
of deserves a reward. He beat the brother and he
put up with the nonsense, So why.
Speaker 2: Not all right?
Speaker 1: By the way, our buddy Gail, the pr pro from
San Diego says, yes, catching the show live. She's West coast,
so it's like early late afternoon for her. She further said, Hey, TJ,
you aren't the only one with the impression. Kishawn never
intended to make the way and Dan, you were just
saying that, Yeah, I.
Speaker 3: Mean, that's what That's what Samson Lucawitz said, That's what
what it looks like. I mean, it's you don't gotta
be or you don't got to spend a lifetime in
boxing to know. Again, I'm gonna reiterate, if you're four
point three pounds over there, probably wasn't a concerted effort
when it was only a couple of months ago you
made the way and won the world zero.
Speaker 1: He missed it, as I like to say, three exits
back on the highway on the Interstate. By the way,
our buddy jin Rude Junior thirty three, who's in our
US live chat and commenting all the time, is watching
us tonight on YouTube. Thank you jin Rud Junior. He says,
I lost a crap ton of respect for Keyshawn Davis.
So did a lot of people.
Speaker 3: He blew up his reputation TJ like in.
Speaker 1: One weekend, in one weekend, terrible. All right, let's move on.
What a thrilling. In to the Queensbury his own main
event Saturday afternoon US time, Saturday night in Ipswich, England,
Justice Cooney was well on his way to making me
look like a genius Dan Rayphael and then we were
reminded why it's boxing, Why why Boom goes to Dynamite Baby,
Why there's a twenty one point touchdown pass that the
NFL doesn't have, There's an eight run home run that
boxing doesn't have, there's a nine point shot that basketball
doesn't have. That is a one punch ko And there
it was from Fabio Wardley wild ending to a fight
that he was being dominated in Hooney. The Australian was
dominating the fight. But boxing is just different. It is
just different.
Speaker 3: It was a It was an entertaining fight for sure,
and as we discussed in the pre fight, what did
you feel like was gonna be the reason for the
guy to win? Was at Fabia Wardley, with the tremendous
punching power, was knocking everybody out. Although he had no
amateur background, he had a handful of blue white collar
type fights and was you know, started from nothing basically
in terms of his boxing. Who had a few more
pro fights in Hohony. But Hooni, even though he had
fewer fights as a professional, was a stellar prodigy like amateur,
was fighting the absolute elites in the world that aid,
you know, as a late teenager into his early twenties,
and was very fast with his feet, great handspeed, not
as big of a puncher obviously as Wordly, but had
tremendous amateur pedigree. And the pedigree was showing and the
skills were showing in that hand speeded vantage and foot
speed advantage. Although that was showing because as you said,
he was dominating the fight. Now, if you look at
the score cards before Wordley came through with that massive
right hand to score the knockout, as I look at
the scores here, he was ahead eighty nine eighty two
on two score cards and eighty eight to eighty three
on the third, and it was he was cruising to
what was going to apparently be a decision victory. And
in the tenth round, as he said in the post fight,
as the commentator said, as anybody that's watched boxing where
there's a big, one punch kind of knockout like that,
you know, especially in a heavyweight division, but really in
any division, if you are not locked in every single
second of the round, it only takes one punch, and
heavyweights in particular, and he kind of led up a
little bit led his guard down. They were both throwing
right hands at the same time, and although Hooney is
the better fighter in terms of the hand speed, Wardley
had I guess a little bit the longer reach, and
his right hand hit the target before Honys a.
Speaker 1: Literal example of he beat him to the punch with
the right on the smoosh, right on the chin, the
jaw and the face.
Speaker 3: As my good pal and former longtime ESPN colleague Teddy
Teddy Alys would say, he had the delivery system. You know,
you can have all the power in the world, but
if you don't have a way to deliver it, it
doesn't matter. You have a missile sitting in your you know,
in your yard, you don't have a launcher, it doesn't different.
But Wardley had the delivery system and he landed the
shot right on the button, knocked him flat on his
rear end, you know, on his back, and he was
he was went to his knees. Someone suggested it was
a longer count if you time it out, it was
basically exactly ten seconds. Uh, and it's still it's still
a judgment call by the ref Summer a tick slower, summer,
a tick faster. There was nothing untwored about this. In
my opinion, Whooney did not complain. He did not beat
the count that John Latham, the referee issued, and he
was counted out and he was a class act. Afterwards,
he gave Wordy good credit. Uh you know, I'm sure
he's brutally disappointed because it was a huge opportunity. Wordly,
uh you know, gets a dramatic knockout in the in
front of a hometown crowd that was some twenty thousand
that they reported on the the zone.
Speaker 1: The hometown crowd that Hooney had silenced for about six
or seven rounds until boom.
Speaker 3: And for what it's worth, and it is worth something
because it will help him make bigger purses. He does
win the vacant WBA interim heavyweight title, puts him in
good position. As Frank Warren said Wardley, there's as Frank
and Wardley said, he has a child on the way
that's due to be born like in any day now.
So he'll sit back, He'll take a little break after
a tough fight. He'll watch how things play out in
terms of what's going to happen with Dubois and Usick
and maybe some other heavyweight fights before they reconvene for
what they will look for in the next bout. But
clearly he's in a great position right now. He's super exciting,
he's entertaining, He's got a very interesting and and I
like his personality. He's really well spoken and he makes
no bones about it. He goes I'm not a skill guy,
he said in his post interview. I'm not usick, I'm
not Hooney. I don't have those types of skills. But
I know how to win fights. And he's got the
power to do it. And he'll knock out any heavyweight
in boxing if he lands that right hand, apparently, and
that's the way it looks to me. And you know,
he's scored another good quality win. And uh, you know
what I'll tell you. I think you know Cooney's gonna,
you know, be dogged by the fact that people say
you don't have a great chin. He had a reputation
to maybe not have the best chin, even though he'd
never been stopped until that fight. But uh, if he
doesn't take the loss too hard, he can still come
back and be a good heavyweight. He's only twenty six
years old. He's got a loss that was one punch. Otherwise,
he's dominated a good fighter. He's got really really good
skills and you know, hopefully, you know, I actually think
despite the knockout, he may have elevated himself a little
bit in his defeat because he showed his skills in
the world.
Speaker 1: He looked great for a lot of that fight. Now
you can question punching power, but he landed. He had
almost a fifty accuracy on power punches through the first
nine rounds before getting hit with that big.
Speaker 3: Daniel Wardley is not going to ever be confused with
the Willie PEPs and Floyd mayweathers well right defensively.
Speaker 2: And you wonder at the highest levels if he even
has a chance because he was getting hit like latel
Richie all night long.
Speaker 1: Baby, But he landed a big punch that mattered. And
so there you go on that. By the way, again,
thank you for finding us.
Speaker 3: Dan.
Speaker 1: Go ahead and hit retweet, hit the repost on the
social media again for the audience to find us here tonight.
If you're just joining us live as Dan is promoting,
maybe you're watching the show back later on in the evening.
We did this live the Fight Freaks Unit Recap live
on YouTube. The podcast audience is hearing it as the
recap pod that it normally is Sunday night into Monday,
but we're doing this live on YouTube tonight and we
want many more people to join in. Some more people
are commenting. We're going to go through the other two
fight cards and we'll maybe get to a couple of
other comments. Dan will have thoughts on the International Boxing
Hall of Fame induction ceremony on this Sunday afternoon that
included Manny Pacquiao as well as others stand by for that.
So moving a long off of Saturday, we go to
Sunday morning US times. Sunday night in Tokyo. Junto Nakatani
does become the unified bantamweight champ by virtue of a
t KO.
Speaker 2: Over his opponent who had the gnarly right eye. Again.
In watching this, I actually watched it live.
Speaker 1: I was up Sunday, and they fought late enough on
Sunday morning Eastern time where I was watching live, and
he just battered the opponent, especially with the left hand
that I started to swell at the end of the
fourth round. It was swelling badly in the fifth round.
By the by the sixth round, he could no longer
see out of it. I was I was surprised at
the referee. Maybe they did call the doctor over once
to look at it as it was swelling. So it's
a t KO win and Nakatani has done his part
to set himself up for a mega matchup with the
Monster nay Oh. Yeah in Away down the Road, Dan,
give more thoughts on what you saw out of Knakatani's
Sunday win.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that fight would knock that fight between Knaka and
in a way, he reiterated in his post fight interview,
that's what he wants. He basically said in Japanese translate,
he says, I'm gonna be there soon and then go
it up to Junior Feeduy. You know, please wait for me,
is what he's saying to in a way. Look, they
they back in April, they were both attending at the
Japanese Boxing Commission's annual Awards gala and in a way
called him out and said we'll fight by the end
of twenty twenty six. It's been well reported even before
that that their teams have discussed that fight. You know,
Top Rank, which is the co promoter for Nakatani, they've
talked about doing that fight at the Tokyo don't. It's
a matter of time. They got to keep winning because
they're not going to fight each other next so it's
going to be a little bit of time, and you know,
tune up fights to have a way of disturbing things,
as we've seen in time. But right now, in a way,
he's booked for September fourteenth against Zach Madalia. That's a
mandatory that's long overdue. He's talked about at the end
of this year to go to Saudi Arabia and fight
for on a read season card. He's got a sponsorship
deal with Turkey Al Chic and that outfit. And meanwhile,
you gotta figure it's not like because here he fought
here in the in the early part of June, that
suddenly Knakatani's not going to fight for the rest of
the year. So I suspect in a way we'll go
through and have it. You know, he's got to win.
But he gets the two fights and takes care of
his business and Nakatani fights at least once more this year.
Then sometime, you know, in the early part of two
thousand and twenty six, you know they'll set that big
mega fight up and we will see that and whether
it's at junior featherweight, I hopefully will be. Maybe it'll
be at featherweight, but the point is that fight is
such a great matchup. Hopefully they'll get there. In terms
of the way Nakatani took care of the business against Nishida,
who was undefeated but did not have the kind of
resume or experience as a professional that nakatanias who's you know,
got way more professional fights. He's now thirty one and
ohero with twenty four knockouts. And if you're a person
out there that dabbles and pound for pound lists, you
better damn well have a place for Junto Nakatani somewhere
at the very least on a lower portion of that list.
He's a tremendous fight. He's got great speed, he's got
great power, he's got a good IQ. He's got a
great team behind him in terms of his promotion and
his management and his and his trainer Rudy Hernandez did
a tremendous shot and he he he he liked to engage.
He's a good boxer, but you can just watch the
way he fights. He enjoys the combat. He liked it
when he blew up the eye. He was pounding on that.
I yes, Nishida just who gave a great effort, showed
a lot of heart stuck in there, landed his own
good shots, a lot of good right hooks there both
South was.
Speaker 1: Still, by the way, was still trying to come forward
in the fifth round. In the sixth round with a
busted right eye that he couldn't really see out of.
Speaker 3: Went down to the body, you know, but really everything
once the eye started as swell, it felt like everything
in the fight changed because Nakatani continued to land heavy.
He's the bigger puncher in my estimation, if you just
look at the knockout percentages. You know, Nahita only had
two knockouts and ten wins coming into the fight. But
he looked pretty strong in the match, and once the
eye was closed, it was sort of inevitable. You mentioned
in the in the in the round before the fight ended,
or in that in that round before they stopped it.
In the in the corner he did the thereft did
call a timeout and take him to the doctor again
him about a five second eye test. Can you see
and let the fight go. There's only about twenty thirty
seconds left at that point, and look, that's what happens.
And it was not just the eye that was the
cause for the stoppage. Apparently he also had a dislocated shoulder.
It was also a part of the reason for the
fight to end. So he had all kinds of physical problems.
He gave a great effort. But Nakatani. Look, ever since
he went to the bandonweight division. Remember he's now a
champion in three weight classes. He won his first title
as a flyweight, also as a junior bandon weight. Now
he's got two of the bandamwait titles. As he spoke
about in the lead up, he's, you know, happy to
have made his mark as a three division champion, but
he's always wanted to have a unification fight. He didn't
get that in the other two weight classes. But ever
since he got to Bandam weight, he's won all of
his fights in that weight class by knockout. He's won
all of them inside the sixth round. So he's not
taking prisoners, he's not waiting for anybody. He's taking care
of business real quick. He's now six and oh in
the or No. Five to Ozho in the weight class
all by knockout all inside six rounds. And it's not
like he's beaten bumps, you know what I mean. He's
beaten guys who have challenged for titles. He's beaten now
another world champion, he's been other He beat a Ragning,
he beat a you know, a good fighter that beating
Noniito Donair to win the title and other accomplished fighters.
So you know, to me, as as much as I
enjoy watching in a way fight, I think I like
watching Nakatani almost as much.
Speaker 1: And I believe that was what his fifth fight since
last March all title knockout wins.
Speaker 3: So let's just said this was his fifth fight since
he won the title against Santiago in February of twenty
twenty four, so less than a year and a half.
Speaker 2: Wow, how about that. Let's hear it for activity, all right?
Speaker 1: One more then we're going to get in live here
to a couple more comments and then get to the news.
That is ji Opataia as expected, the IBF Cruiserweight champion,
as I put up on the screen for the video audience.
Blitz is another easy opponent Claudio Squao, who nobody had
heard of from Italy.
Speaker 3: And no one will hear from him again.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I saw you joking that he looked like
somebody had taken an air pump to Canelo Alvarez, that
he facially kind of resembles Canelo, and they pumped him
up with an air pump like a balloon. He looked
like a blown up super middleweight.
Speaker 2: Or light heavyweight. He did not look like a full
blown cruiser weight.
Speaker 1: And he was getting schooled for a lot of this fight,
from about the second round on Opatia hitting him with
straight left hands and then Dan I did see this
live on Sunday, and a lot of people have now
seen it either live or watched it back on his
own where Opataiah caught him with a right right on
the left jaw, the left side of his face and
immediately Squao's on the ground pointing to his jaw and
looking at his corner like he broke my jaw.
Speaker 2: That's what I took that to mean. So fight over.
He's counted out your thoughts on Opataia.
Speaker 3: We didn't get like an official diagnosis, but I don't
think you have to be, you know, a medical doctor
to realize that that's probably the case. I mean a
fracture jaw is not out of the crushing ji. Opataia
is a six foot two, power punching southpaw with good volume,
a good chin of his own. Remember he fought through
a broken jaw when he won the title for the
first time against Myrs braid Us in that same venue
in broad Beach, Australia, And this time he comes. This
is a place where he's fought on a multiple of occasions,
including his most recent fight before this one. And again
they were keeping busy. I mean, no one was saying
Claudio Squeo is some dominating challenger that's going to be
a true threat. But you know, he's still got to
be in shape, you still got to be prepared because
anything can happening. We see that all the time. But
there's a difference when you're fighting a guy who's never
left his home country of Italy, who's fought every single
fight he's ever had has been against a complete nobody.
You've traveled. I give him credit for making the trip,
and then you look at them sized up physically. Opatai
is like cut from granite. As I said, six foot
two south pot with great punch and power and a
great chin and a good amateur background. On top of that,
he got Squay who's five to ten, looks like somebody
stuck an air hose up his ass and blew him.
Speaker 2: Up like you.
Speaker 3: And he's a shorter guy, doesn't pack a big punch. Obviously,
he hit Opatai clean with a few shots. Didn't seem
to bother me. He's now seventeen to one with nine knockouts.
Who those seventeen guys are? Who the heck knows? This
was a matter of Look, this is Opataiah. He's staying busy.
He wants the Zero Ramirez fight. That fight is a
fight that Golden Boy and the Opataiah camp have discussed.
That's a fight that Turkey al Chic wants to have.
Both of them. Zero as well as Opathiah boxed in
Saudi Arabia, and matter of fact, Opataiah has had three
of his last five fights in Riad. Zerdo Ramirez had
his most recent fight in Riad when he unified the
belts against Chris Bill Smith, and it was always all
I mean, I remember talking to Eric Gomez from Golden
Boy back, you know, after the Bill in the Smith fight,
maybe before the Bill in Smith fight. The whole idea
was we're gonna do the unification. To make the unification happen,
they promised to give the Unil Dordicos the next shot
as the mandatory, so he would step aside. He's a
two time champion, the KO doctor, tremendous punching power. That
fight is now made for the undercard, the co feature
when Jake Paul and child As Junior have their fight
later in June, and after that, you know you have
if Zerdo gets through that fight, which is not an
easy fight in my opinion, but if he gets through
the fight, you have you have Opatia safely through against Squeo. Uh,
there'll be an idea to try to make that probably
in like October time frame. If they decide to move
forward with that, that's the best fight you can make
in the division. It would be the unify three of
the belts. It would be for the lineal title that
that Opataia has now defended I believe six times. And uh,
it's a great matchup and it's a very exciting fight.
So I really kind of took offense by the way.
Not Opataia was totally cool about it, but his promoter,
Mick Francis, the co promoter from Tasman Fighters which put
on the cart and the commentator that was doing the
interviews in the ring whose name escapes me. At the moment,
we're trying to make it out like zerbraimierz A. Somehow
I've been running and ducking and dodging Opataia, which is
absolutely ridiculous. He fought a unification fight against Billim Smith
and to get that important fight that Turkey wanted to do,
had to give Dorda Coos the next fight as the
mandatory or.
Speaker 2: They're gonna the war out out of the unification that
he just did.
Speaker 3: And in the fight before that is when he won
the cruiserweight belt, the first one he had the WBA
title against Sugu Maarian. So there's no running involved here,
and Opatai is not running. It's just, you know, timing
is everything, and it feels like if he gets through
the door to coast fight then will be good timing.
We had season were back in effect in the fourth
quarter of this year and this will probably be one
of the bigger fights in terms of unifications we see
this calendar year. It's a great fight and.
Speaker 1: I don't believe I've shared this with you privately, but
I'll share it with the audience. We're gonna get to
some comments. I intend. We got everything ready to go
to be out on the West coast ian Anaheim, California
for the.
Speaker 3: Last ten times.
Speaker 2: Okay did I tell you this?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So you're taking the kids of Disneyland.
Speaker 1: I will be out there because my twins are turning
seventeen and they want to go to Disneyland. Even though
we live an hour ray field from disney World in
West central Florida and Tampa Bay, we got to go
three thousand miles to the left and go out to Disneyland.
But it's their birthday. We're gonna be out there, and
and all things being equal, I will be at the
Jake Pole, Julio Caesar Chavez Junior whatever. That main event
is a pay per view with the Zerdo Dorda coos
Co feature, and I will report that weekend and we
will see what happens and see if it sets up
this Opataia fight.
Speaker 2: Stay tuned.
Speaker 3: Well. One thing Opataiya and Mick Francis, the promoter said
is they're going to be there in attendance to call
him out or whatever, which is not really entirely necessary
if they follow through on the previous plans. But it's
still good for the photo op and to mingle and
to meet people and to talk to someone, get up on.
Speaker 1: The ring apron and start pointing pro wrestling style, the
whole bit.
Speaker 2: You know, a lot of that will be going on
that weekend. So good stuff.
Speaker 1: We're going to get to some news again here on
the live show. A lot of you have joined us
live as we're going along. We decided to do this
live on Sunday night. We had fully intended I'm explaining
again that we were looking to do a live segment
to recap the Keishan Davis main event, the top ranked
main event on ESPN that everybody was going to be
able to see in the United States. A funny thing
happened though, Keishaan, it was about eighteen, Big Max over
one thirty five did not make the lightweight weight. They
did not have that fight, so we delayed this. Then
we Dan and I decided, you know what, let's go
live on Sunday night. And again the pod audience, it's
the same for you, I get it, but you're watching
us live on YouTube and maybe Dan, they're watching us
on demand Sunday night and Monday night, Monday Monday Night
on YouTube.
Speaker 3: I think they've got it by this point that.
Speaker 1: There's a lot, but understand there's a lot of audience
that's joined us in like the last twenty or thirty minutes,
going what the hey, no thing's going on here? We
are here, we are to that end. We have people
weighing in with more comments. Mister Adore says, good stuff.
He likes the fact that we're live. Francisco says the
heavyweight division is good right now? When will jolla Off
get a high profile fight? He got something on the
It's Uzbek, right, the big Uzbekistan.
Speaker 3: OHV is a very frustrating figure because he he's very
tantalizing and he's looked good in his profiles. He's won
everything pretty much by I think everything I knockout and uh,
he's got the two Olympic gold medals. He made a
lot of money staying amateur though, because he was getting
paid by the usbag government. So he's with top rank
and uh, you know he's.
Speaker 1: What has he had off the top of your head
a half dozen fights as he had.
Speaker 3: Yet he's got about fifteen fights about fifteen.
Speaker 2: Okay, so they're bringing along.
Speaker 3: But it's it's he's not. He doesn't need to be
brought along. He's ready to fight. I mean, this is
is that season an amateur heavyweight that has ever existed
in the history of boxing, and he's won the two
gold medals and he's been knocking everybody out. He's big
and strong, he's a south paw. One of his amateur
wins in a very significant tournament to go towards the
Olympics was a victory against Justice Soony among many other
name heavyweights. If you look down his amateur record that
he's beaten. Uh, but there's nothing on the schedule as
best as I know now. He did just fight not
that long ago. Remember when when your boy Jannebec had
the defense in Kazakhstan. He fought on that undercart and
got an.
Speaker 2: All right, my boy.
Speaker 1: Uh, several more of you are away in Connor, no cannon.
Cannon says, Whooney switches off last fight as well, but one.
In other words, maybe got a little lax, got a
little tired, got a little lax, and then got knocked
out in this one. Who else is new to comments?
Sid watching?
Speaker 2: Thank you? Sid says great show. Gentlemen, love it.
Speaker 1: Jen Rue Junior says, cannot wait to see Opatai and Zerto.
Speaker 2: We agree.
Speaker 1: Gail says, I didn't know you were coming out to
the OC. I will see you there, all right, Gale,
not if I see you first.
Speaker 2: Just kidding.
Speaker 1: I love the pr pro from San Diego. Anything else
new were? I think we're good on the comments. Let's
get to some news and on this Sunday night, the
International Boxing Hall of Fame Induction weekend is concluding. You
watched the induction ceremony. We tease this for the podcast audience.
We teased it on the bet US Live Boxing Show Friday.
Manny pacqui Ow heading the class here, even though he's
going to fight coming up next month in a return
after a four year absence. What were your overall thoughts
on the induction? Spend a couple of minutes here and
tell us what you thought in Upstate New York for
the International Boxing Hall of Fame inductions on this Sunday.
Speaker 3: Well, one thing, Manny did not promote his pay per
view during the course of his speech, so I appreciated
the fact that he led business rest for a minute
while he reflected on his amazing career and the life
that boxing has brought him. I will say this, there
was a look that's it's a big weekend for all
the inductees. It's a it's a career and life highlight.
But they got to do something about how long these
people speak? Because Pacow hit all the right notes, spoke
probably you know, five, six minutes, you know seven something
like that was really good. It was not too long.
But there were some other people that were just just
on and on and on. Some of them though they
gave some great comments. I really enjoyed Again, he kept
it tight. I enjoyed the comments from Ross Greenberg, who
was the inducted into the observer category as a long
time executive producer of HBO Sports and also the former
president of HBO Sports, who was highly involved for you know, years,
decades in terms of the way their production looked. And
you know, he's the guy that brought you the unofficial Judge,
Harold Letterman. He's the one that helped put together the
legendary broadcast team of Jim Lampley, Larry Merchant, and George
Foreman and later Emmanuel Stewart and others that you know
brought the sound to HBO did the look and created
twenty four to seven and other things. Anyway, he gave
a really great speech about some of the people that
he worked with and the things that they had did
and made the point that ever since the end of
HBO and Eden say show with time. But I know
what he meant that boxing has kind of got away
in their broadcast from sometimes telling the stories of the
fighters to make you want to watch, and it's it's
not quite what it once was. And the outlets that
still do it, while they still show plenty of boxing matches,
they've kind of trade from that part of the of
the of the story, if you will, And he made
a plea to get back to that in terms of
what is shown to the audience to help develop an
interest in these fighters. So I thought that was some
good remarks. Somebody can maybe drop me a note and
let me know what the heck Vinnie Paz was talking about.
I'm still not clear what he was saying. He's very excited,
and you know, the fans loved him, but I'm still
not sure what he was saying. But they saved pak
Yo for the end. Oh, Kenny Bayless gave some great
uh some great comments about his life as a referee
and getting involved in it. It's you can find it
on YouTube. It's worth watching and you can skip around
and go back to it. But look, they saved it
for last. The headliner of this event. The other the
other besides Paco, the two other men in the modern category,
which is the marquee category were Vinnie Paz and also
Michael Nunn, the former middleweight and super middleweight champion. He
made some good comments too, reflected on some great mistakes
he made in his life that cost him sixteen years
in prison.
Speaker 2: Unbelievab them.
Speaker 3: He's come out at the other end, and I guess
as a solid citizen now and.
Speaker 1: I realized it was sixteen years. I mean, what a
what a redemption moment for him to be standing at
the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3: There for drug dealing, conspiracy, basic.
Speaker 1: Mandatory minimums too, being what they were in the eighties
and the nineties, you were going away for a long time.
Speaker 3: Wow, he did his time, and he's come out and
come out the other end, as they say, and no
for a period of time in the in the in
the like I guess the late eighties post Ray Leonards
prime in that they were building him up to be
like the next sort of sugar Ray Leonard. He had
a great amateur background. He obviously had won world titles
at middleweight and super middleweight, had fought a lot of
top names and it just never quite quite panned out
that way. But good to see him get his life
back on track. And you know, and he's he's belongs
in the All Fame. He just hadn't been on the
ballot for a while. I voted for him. I thought
it was a perfectly you know, he isn't gonna take
a look at that resume. It's prett damn good. But
they say pack yel for last. After a long long
session of speeches in pac Yo, you know, he he
talked about, you know, being the underdog and the miracle
of a kid that didn't have a place to sleep
but on the street as a kid roam in the
streets of Manila looking for food, that he could go
from that status to h world icon and you know,
make hundreds of millions of dollars. Uh, And that if
that the point. He wasn't bragging about it. He was
just making the point that if I, if that can
happen to me, anybody out there should never give up
on what we're shriving for and that there's always a
hope and a way out and uh. And for him,
he's still amazed as I am having covered it, and
I'm sure lots of others, uh that a fighter like
that that was just you know, had nothing working for
him in his life, had no amateur career of any
kind to speak of, would go on and become the
biggest star in boxing, the highest money maker in boxing
for a period of time, being involved in the hugest fights,
win world championships in eight different way classes, be it
recognized title belts or lineage, to be a champion in
four decades, to be at age forty when he defeated
Keith Thurman, the oldest welterweight champion for the oldest fighter
to win a welterweight title, a record that he can
break if he should win his upcoming fight against Marios,
which he did not mention. And it was really it
was really great to see pack out take the bows
and to give credit to the people that helped him
get there. He gave special shout outs to Bob Aram
who was his longtime promoter that put him in some
of the biggest fights during his heyday. Also to Al Hayman,
who has been putting on his fights in the later
stages of his career for the last few years. And
they've done a great job with him. And you know,
Freddie Roach and the team was there. I mean, he
was very thankful for everything, as everybody was about about
the people that helped him get to you know, nobody's
going to get to the boxing all fame without some
help from somebody, whether you know, and it doesn't matter
you've met a fighter, you've got your promoter, your manager,
your trainer, your support system. It could be a media
person that gets inducted. They've got family members or other people.
Are people in the business that have helped them alone.
Speaker 2: But they had to hire you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so yeah, I always enjoy watching those things. To me,
it's sort of like it brings everybody full circle. Except
the Manu's case. He's heading back to California, back to
training camp to prepare for the Barrios fight.
Speaker 1: All right, So good recap on that. We'll be here
for a few more moments. A little more news and
one nostalgia item. All right, So on that news, Dana
White confirmed on Saturday night after the UFC pay per
view in New Jersey that yes, he was asked about this, Yes,
I am TKO and I am promoting the Canelo Crawford fight.
Speaker 2: Turkey alis Chic then.
Speaker 1: Released a social media post saying the same thing, This
is not that big of a surprise. There had been
some uncertainty, I guess, but it's not that big a surprise, right,
pick it up.
Speaker 3: No, I mean, it's not a surprise to me. But
there was a moment there where he said that Dana
would promote the fight and it was being planned, and
then there was a moment where he backtracked and put
out another social media post did not mention Dana, which
by omission meant he wasn't involved, and said that Sella,
which is the Saudi agency that was going to be
handling the fight. Now that's interesting casella. I guess they
could get a license, but they're not licensed presently in
the United States. They probably have to hire a local
promoter that has a license to put on the event.
But as you said, Dana confirmed the fight, he will
be promoting it. Which you need a face. You need
somebody to get out there and bark and make the
you know, get the word out. I mean, we can
all sit here and talk about how big Canelo Crawford
is within boxing, but I'm here to tell you in
the mainstream, it's still a notable fight. But it's not
Mayweather Pakia, it's not Lewis Tyson, it's not some of
the big De la Joya fights. It's just it's a
good it's a great, you know, fascinating match for a
lot of reasons. But the public needs to be made
aware of it, and Dana White will be pounding that
drum and getting out there in mainstream to let folks
know about it. So it's a good move on therebyf
And because the fight's now gonna be on the thirteenth,
I even before Turkey made that announcement, and even before
Dana confirmed it in terms of his public comments at
the at the press Carrts related to the UFC event,
I've been told over the last several days that it
will be at the Allegiance Stadium in Las Vegas, and
that probably will be back on Netflix. And so now
that I hear the data is involved, it makes me
think that the Netflix part of this has even got
more possibility because the conduit is the fact that TKO,
through their wrestling deal, has relationships with TKO and Netflix.
Together they do the w W shows Monday Night Raw.
They've got a billion dollar deal there. So while I
guess they could technically still wind up as a pay
per view, I'm tolding from somebody that's involved that it's
trending towards Netflix still going to do the fight and
now will probably be on the thirteenth and at Allegiance
Stadium in Las Vegas. So you know, after all wind
up the same way we all expect it.
Speaker 2: Well, let's clarify something.
Speaker 1: So Friday night the twelveth is what they were looking
at for Allegiant Stadium. The thirteenth has a UNLV football game.
Speaker 3: But no, they won't have you a football game. They
will buy then out and move them.
Speaker 1: Interesting that they that would be interesting on how and
where they make that happen. And the UNLV game is
a nondescript game, right, so that would be interesting.
Speaker 3: Come with some money and they pay the school. Do
you think UNLV, which is not a gargantuan revenue course,
and they say, here's whatever a million.
Speaker 1: Play on Friday night exactly, or but then you got
to play on Thursday night or something like that, depending.
Speaker 2: I don't know. Well, we'll see.
Speaker 1: That's a component though, just I just wanted you to
clarify that because the original intent was to play Friday
night the fight, the pay per view or the Netflix
was to be Friday night and play the game Saturday
for the un l V.
Speaker 2: We'll see.
Speaker 3: Who knows anything about boxing business knows that doing Canelo
Crawford on Friday night is a disaster. It's a disaster
if there is a pay per view, and it's a
disaster for the gate period. That's just I mean, there's
no way around.
Speaker 1: It unless, man, unless the Saudi's I'm just I'm just
giving you a devil's advocate. Unless the Saudis believe we're
gonna pack that stadium, We're gonna have it on Netflix
where so many more people see it and we don't
care how much money we lose, which.
Speaker 3: I'm telling you, they can't pack the stadium on a
Friday night because the fans that are going to gravitate
to the fight, many of them Canelos fans, are people
used to coming to Vegas, coming in on Friday, driving
from California or your Arizona on Friday and attending the
fight on Saturday, so they don't have to like take
a day off from work on Friday. They leave after work,
they get in, they party Friday night, they go to
the fight on Saturday, they stay over, they hang out
on Sunday and they drive home. And to do that
on Friday. And then you're not talking about team Mobile
which holds maybe twenty thousand. You're talking about a football
stadium that holds you know, multiples of that. So it
needs to be on a Saturday, but it's gonna be
in the stadium.
Speaker 2: Good stuff with that.
Speaker 1: By the way, Also Turkey Al Chic and the and
the Saudi Entertainment Authority say that August sixty will be
the date of a card in Saudi Arabia with Moses
Atama Dillian White headlining.
Speaker 2: Fill in a little more about that. Not a surprise
way up ahead.
Speaker 3: I mean, look, August sixteenth, for whatever the reason, has
been a popular date that was supposed to be when
they were looking to do the fight between t Femo
Lopez against Devin Haney once Hainey Garcia wasn't going to happen.
And obviously we discussed that at length. We know that's off,
that ain't happening, but they're still planning to do a
show on that day. So Dylan White was not originally
scheduled to be on the Queensberry card with Fabio Wardley
against Honey, and then he was a late addition to
that card, but they didn't have an opponent for him,
and then he was knocked off the card a few
days before, and I talked to some folks at Queensberry
and it was said to me, well, we've got big
plans for him for something else. Okay, this is what
that is. Mossese Tama is taking a huge step up
in class against a reputable, known heavyweight contender type who's
fought for the title, who's fought against top guys a
number of occasions, and Moses Etama is the number one
heavyweight prospect in boxing, a rising contender age twenty years old,
my prospect of the Year for twenty twenty four, and
pretty much everybody else's prospect year who also picks such awards,
And so they'll be on this card in reat it's
a true test for a Tama. It's it's a chance
to if Dylan White can bounce back and put himself
in a position for something big once again. And then
they've also added two other fights of this show also.
One is a title fight between the WBA featherweight title
holder Nick Ball, who will defend against Sam Goodman, who
was moving off from one hundred and twenty two thousand.
Remember he was supposed to be the mandatory and fight
against in a way, and twice he suffered cuts in
training camp. The first time they postponed that fight from
last Christmas Eve. The second time they said year out
of luck and they ended up doing a different fight,
and Goodman had come back a few weeks ago got
to win, and now he's getting this title opportunity. He's
going to move up and fight Nick Ball on this show.
And then the other fight that Turkey put out there
is going to be Anthony Kassachi against Raymond Ford in
a non title fight at one hundred and thirty pounds,
or maybe Kasachi will defend his fringe title whose initials
I won't even mention, but again, those are two of
the better for thirty pounders in boxing. That seems to
be a good matchup in my book, and I'm sure
if Turkey follows through and does the things that Turkey does.
They'll add on some other interesting and good fights to
give it a more depth to the show.
Speaker 1: Good enough on that, and so we do nostalgia also
on the pod usually and on the live show, depending
on what the situation is. We have already done a
nostalgia segment that is on this YouTube page. Go into
the videos and see it. And that is for the
anniversary of Lennox Lewis. Mike Tyson, Dan has the hat
on Lewis tyson Is on was the promotion for two
thousand and two Memphis, Tennessee. So we don't want to
give away and tip off a lot of what you
say on that segment. Suffice to say it was an
unusual place my hometown, Memphis, Tennessee. You explain why the
fight was there. They need to go watch the YouTube
video that's right here on this channel.
Speaker 3: What memorable week. That was one of the most memorable.
I mean I have covered TJ literally hundreds of fight
weeks in my day. That's sinking that, you know, that's
high on the list of the all time fight Week's
just a remarkable, remarkable fight week.
Speaker 1: So relive Lennox Lewis arguably the signature culminating win of
his career, knocking out Mike Tyson on this YouTube channel
under the videos, it's right there with the June eighth
anniversary from today, June the eighth of two thousand and two.
You also want to share about one other bit of nostalgia,
and this fight is celebrating a fifteenth or actually an
eleventh anniversary June seven, twenty fourteen, which was Saturday Miguel
Coto's TKO of Sergio Martinez and that came.
Speaker 2: In what Madison Square Garden.
Speaker 1: You were right there for that for Codo that night
and a significant moment for him in terms of number
of multi division championships.
Speaker 3: Go ahead, Yeah, June seventh, twenty fourteen, eleven years ago
on Saturday, you know, yesterday as we take this or
do this live. Lookkoto was a fan favorite. We're always
packing Madison Square Garden for his fights rock in the house,
and this was no different. He had won titles already
in three weight classes at junior welterweight, welterweight and junior
middleweight and had some big wins and fought a lot
of good fighters and when he lost it was usually
only to the It was only to the very best guys,
and this was an opportunity for him to fight Sergio Martinez,
who was the bonafid middleweight champ, he was the lineal champion,
he was the WBC champion, and Miguel moved up in
wait to do this, and it was a matter of
him trying to become the first ever Puerto Rican boxer
to win a world title in four weight classes. It
was a big deal. Puerto Rico has produced so many
greats through the years and has such a rich history
and legacy and tradition in the sport, so for him
to be able to be the first to do that
was a big deal. And look, Martinez obviously was compromised.
He had a bum knee that was probably a little
bit messed up going into the fight, but it did
not really, it wasn't the reason why he got knocked
down three times in the first round and Codo otherwise
went on to dominate and ultimately stop him. Crowd I
do remember this. I mean, we talk about the rocking
crowds that I've been in, and I always talk about
the William Joppy fight against Felix Trinidad. I think about
the Felix Trinidad fight against Majorga, and I always think
about the Codo fight against Margarito when they met in
the rematch, So those for me are those are sort
of the ones that stand out to me for Madison
Square Garden, as well as Anthony Joshua against Andy Ruiz.
But this fight with Martinez and Codo, it was also
a high level, massive, ridiculous atmosphere. I think of Codo
against ab Judah another one like that, but twenty one
thousand going absolutely wild for Miguel Coto and a very
vocal Argentine crowd. They're cheering on Martinez, but in the end,
the knee just was too bad. His Sergio's quarter ultimately
stopped that fight a few seconds into the tenth round,
and it was like one big celebration with Miguel becoming
a four division champion. Really, I mean, I feel like
he was probably a Hall of Famer even before that,
but that really was like a way to cement give
him a line item on that resume that had never
been done by all the greats. Had a come from
Puerto Rico to say I got that fourth title belt,
and it was just another great night for Coto at
the Garden, which was his home where he packed the
place time and time and time again. For me an
incredible privilege in my career to have covered every single
one of Miguel's fights at the Guard other than two
that I missed because that was at bigger fights on
the same night.
Speaker 1: And also Codo just recently had the anniversary of the
Codo win over Solido over Solido, which.
Speaker 2: Was at Yankee Stadium. If I'm not mistaken, and just
we can't, I don't know.
Speaker 3: What you're telling you not. You're getting the name RU
against your reformant.
Speaker 2: Your reforman. My bad on that you just.
Speaker 3: Get all your Jewish fighters mixed up.
Speaker 1: Well, no, I'm trying to remember. Was it didn't he
fight or Orlando Soledo as well? No, I thought, But
maybe I have that part wrong, but it's there. Codo
such a monstrous star, not only in Puerto Rico but
in New York. You can't convey that enough during the
during the twenty tens, and that's what you're saying.
Speaker 3: No, he did the biggest crowds. I mean, he had
thirty plus thousand for that Uriforman fight at Yankee Stadium
where he won the Junior Middleway title. That was another
amazing night. As a as a lifelong Yankee fan, it
meant even more to me to be there. That was
that was just a you know, it wasn't the greatest
fight in the world because he dominated so but it
was the the atmosphere. But there's no I mean, all
due respect to my boys at Yankee Stadium, there's nothing
like a Miguel Cota fight at Madison Square and to
be able to have gone there time and again to
witness what those fans brought to the table. I mean
even when he fought fights that weren't as big like
I went to the Garden. When Miguel Cota fought Michael Jennings,
that was a very small fight relative to the bigger fights.
Miguel at Funt he was coming off I believe. I
don't have it in front of me, but I believe
he was coming off with the loss to Manny Pack
Now when he took that fight, and he still brought
in a ton of people and made it a great night,
even though it was a complete one sided ask kicking.
I mean Coto, you know, he he he was the
biggest ticket seller in New York at that time. Right now,
boxing does not have that type of New York ticket seller.
They've they've tried to develop some people like that and
maybe somebody will become that. And uh, you know we've seen,
you know, still see fights in New York City. But
since the Garden would love to find another Miguel Coto
to take up that of the guy that brings in
all those people all the time.
Speaker 2: And again, it was eleven years ago on the Martinez
knockout about that.
Speaker 1: Listen. Thank you for all of the inside. Thank you
to all of you that have been watching us live
on YouTube. Again for the pod audience, it all got
delivered the same way for the video audience. If you
didn't realize, we have a podcast feed Apple, Spreaker, Spotify,
go check that out. But for the video audience, help
us out as you've been seeing on the screen, make
sure to hit subscribe if you are not, hit the
like button. Make some comments below the video that will
help in the algorithms with the video. I know a
lot of you have been commenting in the live chat,
but if you enjoyed the show, etc. Make a comment
or two below the video in the comments section that
helps us out as well. Anything else. In closing, are
we good? Big Dan for a Sunday night.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're good. I mean, there was action all through
the weekend. It was a pretty good weekend of fights
other than the Keishon Davis disaster. But we'll reconvene for
the next one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we've got Richardson Hitchins, George Cambosis among others
coming for later this week again. Follower subscribe on all
the podcast feeds, Applespreaker, Spotify, on the podcast. Thank you
for finding us on the YouTube page. Go check out
the videos for the nostalgia segments. More and more reviewer
finding those and liking those and sharing those as well.
Speaker 2: And we love doing those.
Speaker 3: Again.
Speaker 1: Big Dan has been in so many of these fights
throughout this century. It's great to get his insight on that. Dan,
we have a great rest of the weekend. Let's have
a good week. We appreciate it as always.
Speaker 3: You bet TJ.
Speaker 2: There is Big Dan, Rayphiel.
Speaker 1: I'm merely TJ Reeves And you've been with us live
here on YouTube and on the podcast feed.
Speaker 2: On the Fight Freaks Unite recap. Good night,