Speaker 1: Three two. I yes, back aboard the Dazed dwindling down.
We're almost done with twenty twenty five, but we're not
done with the debating year. On the pod feed, it
is the Fight Freaks Unite podcast taking a look at
the Fight of the Year for twenty twenty five. I
am merely TJ Reeves. He is our insider fight Freak
to night. After all, is the substack name and the
newsletter be subscribing. Always good to be with Big Dan Rayphiel.
All right, So immediately preceding this pod on the feed,
we talked about the Fighter of the Year spoiler alert.
You and I agreed it was Terrence Quaffer for the
win over Canelo Alvarez. Magnitude of that event massive. I'm
curious if you even have it on the short list
here for Fight of the Year. But when we start
talking Fight of the Year for the podcast audience, give
me what your overall thought for the criteria is and
then give me some Fight of the Year nominees.
Speaker 2: My criteria has been the same as it's been since
I first started doing this, when I first picked awards
in two thousand, when I was the boxing reporter for
USA Today, and although Terrence Crawford and Canel avers was
the biggest event of the year, and it was a
good fight, entertaining, and I'm glad I went to see it.
In no way, shape or form doesn't qualify to me
as even a remote candidate for the Fight of the Year.
To me, the fight of the year has to have
action period action. Action. Action doesn't have to have like
crazy knockdowns or blood and all that. I gotta have
a fierce fight and all that other stuff helps. There's
got to be some drama, maybe perhaps a great atmosphere,
although that's not a prerequisite. And although Crawford and Canelo
check some of those boxes in terms of the magnetude
of the event and the atmosphere and all that, it
ain't to fight fight of the year. There's a lot
of great fights that took place in twenty twenty five,
and all of them that I look to and I
have not really made my I'm gonna do and they'll
have a piece on my pot on my news are
coming up in the next couple of days, next few
days that will go through and I will place them
in order. I'll probably do about ten or so and
they can take a look at that, but there were
some tremendous fights here. You want me to how do
you want to start this out?
Speaker 1: So let's go with we kind of did this on
the fighter of the year who deserves recognition and a
pat on the back. If not gonna be rising to
the level of let's say the top three to debate,
give me some honorable mentions if you will go ahead.
Speaker 2: And necessarily not, there's others besides the ones I'm gonna mention.
But a fight that I think exceeded, no, I want
to say exceeded, but kind of met the expectations of
this is gonna be a hell of a fight, and
maybe it slightly exceeded the expectations. Was just recently and
that was the outstanding battle for one of the vacant
lightweight titles between Abdulla Mason and Sam Noakes. Yes, the
two younger guys who are both you know, hungary, both
looking for their first world titles. They battled for the
vacant WBO belt that had been stripped from Keishaan Davis
earlier in the year from not making weight, and they
went to Saudi Arabia stepping up in competition, and they
put on a hell of a fight, and it was
Abdulla Mason who got the victory, but he certainly knows
he was in a fight. And Sam Noakes, even though
he lost, You're like, I want to see that dude again.
He can absolutely get back in the mix and be
in the picture.
Speaker 1: Like my metaphor, they could have fought it on a
bathroom rug exactly. It was toe to toe for probably
the last four rounds, maybe maybe five rounds, where they
just stood and bombed. And Noakes I thought, in particular,
because it looked for a while like Mason was maybe
getting the better of me. He showed a lot of
resiliency and was firing back, and I thought even in
one instance shook up Abdulla Mason late in the fight.
I love that as an honorable mention.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say they could have fought on the
in the phone booth. I don't think any of the
kids would have.
Speaker 1: Not They don't know what a phone booth is anymore.
Speaker 2: That's right, that that would have not been. I don't
know what is due to phone books even exist anymore.
Speaker 1: I don't think they do. Bathroom rugs exist and it's
not a lot of room put it that most people right,
So Mason Noakes gets a nod. What else gets a nod?
A fight or two.
Speaker 2: So here's another one. And this one was an absolutely
wild fight. It was again not the fight of the year,
but just raging battle, wild knockdowns and back and forth action.
And that was the WBCs one hundred and eight pound
world title fight that took place. I forget the month
that took place in, but it was just an amazing fight.
And this was for the WBC's Junior Flyway title. It
was a rematch between Carlos Canizales and the Thailand fighter
Panya product Bristbree. They had fought in Thailand the first
time around. Panya got a controversial decision victory in the
first fight. They did a rematch and the rematch was
everything you could have possibly wanted in a fight. It
was a fucking absolute shootout from the start. This time
instead of fighting it in Thailand like they did. The
first fight took place in December of twenty twenty four,
a good fight and Panya won the disputed majority decision,
and I just looked it up. The rematch was in
August of this year and they did it in Caracas, Venezuela.
Which is where Canazalas is from. And it was just
a wild fight. Cannazalis, even though he ended up winning
the fight by a fifth round knockout, he was knocked
down in the fourth round, so there was some drama
there because he got off the deck to do the damage.
But they just battled back and forth, and he thought
the fight could have been over like five different times
until he finally stopped him. Uh. And it was just
a great fight. I mean, if you liked the little guys.
It was televised in America, by the way, he was
on to my recollection. It was on ESPN Deportees. They've
been ever since the end of the Top Ranked deal.
They've picked up and simulcast the ESPN Knockout Series, which
is a series of fights that are generally televised throughout
Latin America and Mexico, but they've been picking them up
for the United States Spanish language audience. And I don't
care if you understand Spanish or not. I understand boxing.
And it was great to watch.
Speaker 1: We love that entertainment. All right, give me another one
for pat on the back, and then we'll get to
the debate about the two or three that we think
are the.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna get into like huge detail, but I'm
gonna throw a few different ones just to give him
the props. On the Undercardiff Canelo and Crawford was a
great battle between Christian and Billy and Lesser Martinez that
turned out to be a drug, a tremendous fight. You
had the very exciting fight punctuated by a knockdown with
literally the last punch of the fight. This was between
a boss Bureau who has now got the WBA's junior
middleweight title. He had a great battle with Joennespez that
was on a card that MVP put on. They did
that was a great fight. I'm also a big fan
of the fight between Pitt Bull Cruise and Angel Fierro,
who went to absolute fucking war. And what made that
so cool was they did so but they had honored
the family of Israel Vasquez, the late great former champion
who was known for being in great action fights. They
honored his family and they made like a special belt
to like honor like you know Mexican uh fights between
you know, all Mexican fights and UH and they put
on a fight that Israel Vasquez would have been proud
to say, I watch or he could have been in
uh they dead battle tooth and now tremendous battle. They
were supposed to have a rematch, unfortunately did not happen.
That was going to be on a card that took
place a few months ago, but Fierro had a problem
with the weight and it ended up dropping out of
the fight the day before and they put in a
replacement from the undercards. So we didn't see the rematch.
Maybe someday we'll see the rematch, but even if we don't,
we've got the memories of that first fight. That was
another outstanding fight, And I could go on, there's a
whole bunch I could mention. Callum Smith against Josh Wawatzi
didn't get the credit it deserve because it was on
one of the Monster Saudi cards that had about fifteen
fights on it, and it was like the opening fight
of the show basically as far as the main card,
and I don't think anybody was even really watching yet
except for dorks like me, And it was just an
amazing fight. Also, it was a good year in that sense.
Speaker 1: All right. So let's get to it. The debate here
on the fight of the year. What are we debating
which which two or maybe three are we debating go.
Speaker 2: I mean some people have said, I mean, I didn't
mention this one, but it could be on your little solves.
And that was in a way against Cardenas. A lot
of people love that fight, but for me.
Speaker 1: The down by Cardenas made it a dramatic situation, but
he didn't that.
Speaker 2: The action was just very very outstanding. To me, there
are really only and everybody has their opinions, and that's
what makes this fun to do. For me, There's only
two fights that could actually be the winner to me,
and that's the fight that took place in March was
the fight between Kinchiro Taraji. This place. This took place
in Tokyo, Tenhiro Taraji and a unification fight against segu Akui.
They were battling. It was a WBCWBA flyway unification fight,
a very rare, by the way, all Japanese unification fight.
And this was dramatic from the get go until the
very end, when it had one of the more dramatic
endings you'll see with Taraji coming from behind on the
scorecards to score a twelve round knockout, making some element
of history because the you know the number of times
in the history of boxing that a fighter has gone
and stopped the opponent in the final round, whether it
was scheduled for fifteen rounds or twelve rounds or whatever,
to score the comeback knockout in a world title fight,
a fight.
Speaker 1: That they were put actually going to lose a decision
the cards if they had not gotten the stoppage.
Speaker 2: And I not remember in the final round.
Speaker 1: In the final round, right am I not remembering correctly?
Taraji had been hurt in the fight, swollen face, yes, sir,
not looking good, but pulled it out and got the stoppage.
Is the point for the drama in a unification fight, no.
Speaker 2: Question about it. I mean it was. It was a
fight where they both took a tremendous amount of punishment.
And again, there's only been in the history of boxing
like fifteen or sixteen times. Think about the thousands of
world title fights that have happened in the history of
the sport, like fifteen sixteen times that a guy has
come from behind in the last round. It squart Of
knocked out to win the fight. And not only did
he win the fight, but it was a unification fight.
And besides the twelfth round in the comeback. The rest
of the fight was just completely action packed. That is
a blazing, blazing, blazing fight. You never saw it. Watch it.
It was on ESPN Plus in America as part of
the Top Rank thing. You can probably find it on YouTube,
I'm sure. Just an amazing fight. I've watched it back
a few times through the year, just loved it.
Speaker 1: And again at the end of twenty twenty five, we
were supposed to get Taraji fighting on this night of
the Samurai card that the Turkey Ala Chic and the
Read season were gonna have, but he didn't get to fight.
Still though, this is it's worth it. It's worth the remwatch,
go back and relive it. I'm in agreement with you.
It should be considered. Now give me another one, Give
me another one that I think everybody's been waiting for.
Speaker 2: Go ahead. Yeah, it's the first fight between Connor Ben
and Chris Yubang Junior. Not a world title fight, but
all the trappings of a mega event, huge stadium fight,
massive crowd, incredible atmosphere, you know, just just from my
point of view just watching on the screen, much less actually,
I having been there. I actually have spoken to some
folks that were there, you know, talking about the type
of atmosphere it was and what makes it so incredible,
besides just the twelve round battle that they had, which
was completely action packed. But you can't look at that
fight without understanding the reason why it was such a
big deal, even though it wasn't for a title. That's
because of the rivalry between their fathers, Chris Hubank Senior
and Nigel Ben, who of course, if you don't know,
I don't know. I'm surprised. I'm surprised. If you're listening
to this.
Speaker 1: If you're listening to this podcast, you have to know,
because they've had a rematch since then. You have to know,
because we've been talking about it NonStop.
Speaker 2: But if you don't, you know. The fathers had two
of the most exceptional fights of the nineteen nineties that
became legendary fights in terms of British boxing lore, where
you had them fighting in a one and middleweight title
fight that a super middleweight unification fight, and you had
Nigel Ben getting knocked out in the first fight, them
fighting another great fight in the second fight to a draw,
and the bitterness between the families and the raging sort
of rivalry between them, and it's passed down to the
next generation, to the sons, who in their own right
had become, you know, professionals with with certain popularity. You
Bank had, you know, was more accomplished than then. But then,
of course had all the controversy of the drug tests
that he failed that forced this fight to be canceled.
And finally, you know what, two years later or whatever
it was, they finally were able to do the fight
that had been sorted out, and then you have the
reunion between Chris Junior and Chris Senior who had been estranged,
and they get together and they come to the stadium together.
That's all the backdrop of what then turned out to
be twelve pulsating rounds of action that you couldn't date
your eyes off of all the way to the final round,
which was one of the best rounds of the year,
and in the end it was Ubank who gets the decision.
But what a fucking fight, I mean, tremendous and you
can't really go wrong if you picked that fight or
you pick Taraji NAKUI can't really argue, I.
Speaker 1: Said then when we were recapping it. I've said it
since they had the rematch, which did not live up
to the first fight, even though Connor Ben finally got
a win. In the column for the Ben camp, for
the Ben side of the families, the first fight was perfect,
and you can rarely say this in sports, much less
in boxing, in that you had the build up, you
had the backstory of the dads, You had a phenomenal fight,
and then they both handled it with genuine class, congratulating
the other. You saw the raw motion from Connor Ben
in tears because he felt like he had let his
father down and not won it. You had everything that
you would have won it. Nobody ruined it. The men
it was over. Nobody ruined it.
Speaker 2: Not to mention the anticipation because of the cancelation the
first time and all the crazy shit in the promotion
like when I don't I don't approve of this, but
it's certainly added to the to the level of interest,
I guess. And that's when when you Bank cracked the
egg across connor Ben's face in the press conference and
then again, but again, the most important thing is when
the bell rang, they let it all hang out like
true pros.
Speaker 1: And then twelveth round too, with the crowd roaring crowd, stadium,
crowd on their feet, great twelfth round, just to punctuate
it one more time. The first fight, fight number one, Yes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean fight number two was more of a
of a boxing lesson from Ben against u Bank, who
just wasn't wasn't even close to the same. But that
was a worthy successor the first fight to the great
battles that their fathers put on. And it may be
blasphemous to some, but I think I think their first
fight just in terms of action, not the stakes, because
the dads in the rematch that was the draw that
was to unify two of the titles. I think that
the second fight that they had was a good was
an excellent fight, But I think that the kids fight,
their first fight, was maybe better than the dad's rematch.
Speaker 1: The blasphemus you can love them both, you can love
them both.
Speaker 2: I mean, the classic fight, of course has been you
Bank one of the fathers. That's going to be that's unsurpassed.
But this the fight between the kids, I think you're
not out of the realm if you say you like
that better than the second fight between the dads. But
either way, it was a worthy successor to be part
of that family rivalry, and I think there will be
a lot of people that will pick it as the
fight of the year. Certainly it's going to be the
British Fight of the year, which is a thing that
the brit British press and fans do. I see like
in some of the like Boxing News already said it
was their their their fight of the year for Britain.
It might have even been their international Fight of the
Year as well. But just just a really outstanding fight.
And you know, we're fortunate that we have even though
box has got its issues, what counts as when the
Dell rings, and we've seen a lot of great fights
this year, well said.
Speaker 1: On that again, read more of Dan's candidates, his writings.
You've here, you've heard him here on the Fight Faction Nights,
substack and the newsletter when he subsequently pins the Fight
of the Year, and you can read more obviously about that. Listen,
We've got a whole new year about to begin. I've
enjoyed sitting here with you again. One more plug if
for a social media link reason or some other reason
that you've happened upon the Fight of the Year pod,
just go back one podcast on this feed and hear
us talking fight Fighter of the Year as well as
we had that debate. We covered both here right at
the end of twenty twenty five. You've been listening here
to do the Fighter or there anything else in closing
here as we wrap it up on Fight of the
Year Abdi.
Speaker 2: So we get help, we get another great's candy and.
Speaker 1: Four hope, so let's hope. So is it also Wort's
up again. Thank you for finding us on Apples, Freaker, Spotify.
Make sure you're subscribe to get on Dan's newsletter, the
Fight Freaks Unite, substack and the newsletter. You've been listening
to our discussion here on the pod about the Fight
of the Year