Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time.
Speaker 2: This is Big Fight Weekend. Now here is your host, TJ. Leaves.
All right, we get ready for a weekend.
Speaker 3: He's Factor Bonte Davis headlining a pay per view in Brooklyn,
New York, prefending his lightweight title against regional rival Lamont Roach.
We are ready to discuss that and the other two
world title fights right before in the junior middleweight division.
In the preview mode, we also have an interesting speaking
of the junior welterweight division, we have an interesting Suprio
Mattias return in Puerto Rico, and much more, some.
Speaker 2: News including you bank and Ben and eggs.
Speaker 3: We're gonna talk about that and a lot more here
on the Big Fight Weekend Preview.
Speaker 2: I am the somewhat capable host, TJ. Reeves.
Speaker 3: He is our insider, Dan Rayfield, Fight Freaks Unit, the
Substack Newsletter.
Speaker 2: Love his insight.
Speaker 3: He helps us out all the time with the the
inside scoop on all things, including eggs. We've never discussed.
Do you prefer eggs over easy scrambled omelets? What do
you prefer?
Speaker 1: I don't like eggs very much. Once in a blue moon,
once in a blue moon, like maybe like an egg
like a breakfast sandwich like that might be like what
fried I guess or scrambled in it correct whatever, occasionally
like an egg white.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm a big over easy guy, not a
big guy with that. I'm an over easy guy as
much an omelets. But Ben and you Bank decided to
go raw with the eggs, and we'll describe there's more.
U Bank on the side of.
Speaker 4: That.
Speaker 1: He was thanking his excellency for putting it on the show.
Speaker 3: Connor ben Is that was on the receiving end of that.
All right, more on that in a little bit preview
mode coming up. First, we need to do our diligence.
Let me explain this that we had not really previewed
the Junto Nakatani title defense because we quite did know
how to fit it in with our podcast schedule where
we were coming off the weekend recapping and by the
time you the peeps that are listening heard the recap show,
the Knakatani fight would have been over on Monday morning,
Monday night in Japan, Monday morning in the United States.
Speaker 2: We're ready to talk about it now before we get into.
Speaker 3: Previewing, the Davis Roach PBC on Prime main event. So
Nakatani did ko David Quaar, the Mexican opponent to retain
the WBC bhantamway title. I did see this, you know,
not a ton of action until boom late in the
third round of this fight. All right, give us more
on what you saw and what it means for the
future for Knakatani off of Monday.
Speaker 1: Well, kna Katani just key's rolling along. I mean he's
running like a you know, a bull in a China
shop through the bantamweight division. Now that in Away has
moved up from bandamweight and vacated the undisputed title and
is now reigning as young disputed champ and one hundred
and twenty two pound division, Nakatani has now taken over.
How he hasn't unified titles yet, but he's been looking
very dominating in his in his victories. He defended the
title the WBC bell for the third time against David Kuahar,
who is you know, a young Mexican fighter who had
never fought in a twelve rounder, who had never fought
outside of Mexico so far, but looked like he had
some you know, some power and a good idea of
what he was doing had some size. He was, as
na Katani mentioned after the fight, he was the tallest
opponent he had fought as abandoned weight about five eight
and a half, which is just a little bit bigger
than Nakatani. And for the first two plus rounds, I mean,
he was losing the fight, but it wasn't like he
was out of his depths, let's say. But as soon
as Nakatani started to put it on him and lay
on some nice shots, you know, he went down to
the canvas and when he got back up, Knakatani like
immediately blasted him with some really good strong left hands,
and then he was on his rear end again. And
you know, some people say he quit. I just think
he just know what it hit him. I don't. I
don't know.
Speaker 2: I gotta say I thought he may have had a
busted nose.
Speaker 3: I mean, the nose was bleeding badly, and he had
the look in his eye it was like he got
smashed in the nose.
Speaker 1: Like I said, I just don't think he knew what
hit him. But the nose wasn't bleeding from the standpoint
usually think of bloody, no was like coming out of
the nostrils broken nose. His blood was coming from a
cut on the bridge of his notes. But either way,
I mean it was he got cracked with some good
left hands and kna Katani is an excellent puncher, so
he put him away in three rounds. He was winning
the fight, but without a lot of stuff happening, and
it was over like that. Not the one time that
Kwaar went forward and actually had Knakatani backing up. He
landed some shots and put him on the ropes, and
Knakatani came right off the ropes and put together some
shots on him after that, and that's what caused his
problems with the first knockdown and then the second knockdown.
Like I said, he just sat there and took the count,
looked a little bit discombobulated, like I said, somebody may
have quit I Like I said, I thought he just
got Clobberdon was sort of completely out of sorts and
had no idea what hit him. But nonetheless, na Katani
gets the victory, and it's an important victory because now
you know he's looking forward to a probable unification fight
with the IBF champion. So in the ring after the fight,
you had Arroya Suki Nishida, who is not a well
known fighter in the Way class, but as a new
a new title holder, let's say, you know, he's only
had it for a minute, but they were in the
ring together. It's pretty clear what they're going to do
is try to set that up when na Katani probably
comes back in the spring, perhaps in the early summer,
and it'll given them opportunity to unify belts. And the
interesting thing about the Way class is that all four
of the title holders in the bandamweight division are from Japan,
So putting those fights together there would probably be some
good interest in their country. I mean more so, let's say,
than if it was a fighter from somewhere else. So
we'll see if he can get two belts, you know,
perhaps following anyways footsteps and put together all four belts.
Easier said than done. All I know is this Nakatani
is now thirty to zero with twenty three knockouts, and
if you're doing a pound for pound list, I think
it's quite reasonable to have him somewhere in the bottom
top you know, bottom of the top ten.
Speaker 3: All right, also on this card, and I saw a
little of this fight the Japanese bantamweight Tenshin Nashikawa, who's
a former kickboxer, was finding Jason Maloney, the former WBO
bantamweight champ, and Nashikawa ends up getting the decision.
Speaker 2: Tell me more about that as well.
Speaker 1: Well, he's only six and oh now after that victory,
but he is a very popular figure in Japan from
his kickboxing gaze. It's why he was in the co
feature instead of the other title fight, which we'll talk
about a minute. You know, he looked good. This was
a distinct step up from the opponents that he had
been facing in Maloney. Maloney was coming off of losing
his bandamweight title in a tough fight, but still a
credible fighter, still a good contender in the weight class,
and this was an absolute step up in a test
against a real guy. I mean, say what you want,
maybe Maloney is not a powerful, pown guy, but he's
been in with a lot of talented fighters and he's
no joke. I mean, his brother Andrew's been a good
fighter for a long time. Also, he had fought Nakatani
and been knocked out, But so there's a dinercer in
fighting Nakatani in a world chamionship fight, then fighting a
Kickboxerho's now you know was five and ozer going into
the match. So anyway, he won the unimous unanimous decision.
Looked pretty good doing it, but it was a real fight,
got a good test. Maloney did have a moment in
the fight where he staggered uh nasakaw had him in
a little bit of trouble, which he admitted afterwards that
he had never been in that position before. But he
got through it and you know, he moves on now again.
We talked about how Nakatani is setting up this unification
probably for his next fight. It looks like that when
I don't know if it's gonna be the next fight,
maybe two fights from now. But when Nasa Kawa comes back,
they were positioning him to fight a bandam weight title
fight against the WBO title er, which is a Yoshiki
Takai who was also in the ring with him after
the fight. So there's a lot of bandam weight action
going on in Japan as the bottom line.
Speaker 3: All right, So one more thing from the card again.
This was Monday morning US Monday night in Japan. Is
Seya Sasumi, who ends up being in a dramatic fight
against Higa. And tell me more about that battle as well.
I mean this was an action fight as well in
that card early morning hours US time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this was a really good fight. I mean the
Nakatani fight was not much a fight. The Nasakwa fight
was a good fight, but not going to be in
any conversations for the fight of the year. But Satsumi
against Higa two was a really good fight. This was
Sasumi the you know, they ended up in a draw,
but he defended his WBA bandam whit title. It was
all the three main fights were bandam white fights. They
had fought, you know, a few years ago in a
non title fight. This was in twenty twenty, before either
of them were champions. Uh Hega went you know, he
had been a WBC flyweight champion. This was just a
regular ten rounder at the Corkuen Hall where they have
boxing matches all the time in Tokyo. And it was
Sasumi who was taken on Higa, who assume he was
undefeated at the time, he had already had you know,
three losses. I had I think had a loss at
the time. Point though, is that they fought to it
on that fight also a majority draw. Here they come
back and now it's a world title fight for a
Sassume's title, and they fight to another draw. I mean,
go figure. Now, the way that this turned out to
be a draw is because Assumi was behind, and he
ended up winning all four the final rounds on all
three score cards to pull out to draw. Sow cours
mind not one fourteen, one fourteen on all three cards.
So all three judges had the same six rounds. I
don't know if they scored each individual round the same,
but in the end they all came up with six apiece.
So but he had been down seventy eight to seventy
four and all three score cards after the eighth round,
so he was able to preserve his title by having
that big comeback in the last part of the fight. Now,
the thing about it, though, is if you going to
watch this thing, besides being an excellent fight, round number
nine was you know, I mean, I know we're only
in the beginning of the year. It was still in February,
but I do believe that there's a good chance that
this will probably stand up as at least a candidate
among the conversations anyway of round of the year. Just
I mean, what you want to see in these types
of fights is you want to see good action. You know.
Unfortunately for its assuming he was caught over his right
eye because of a head butt that took place in
the fourth round and that was pretty bad. But in
the ninth round they both got knocked down and it
was a tremendous battle. I mean what you want to see,
and it was. I mean, if you walk up early,
you had a good good time watching it. Because this
opening fight of this triple header, I mean, it had
showed more fights on the ESPN, plus they showed a
couple of prospect fights also, but the uh, this flyway
title fight was worth it. The Nasa Kawa against Mologne
was a really good fight. And even though na Katani
wasn't so much a great fight, it was a short
fight so you could go back to sleep when it
was over.
Speaker 3: And nobody went to sleep in the fight that you're
talking about, despite both guys being down. And by the way,
a shout out because we always give out love. Shout
out to Christina Puncher and MICHAELA. Mayer on the call
because as you mentioned, they were up in the middle
of the night. Early morning Pacific time, way early, in fact,
probably up all night Pacific because.
Speaker 1: They were studio in Vegas.
Speaker 3: They were doing Vega in the Vegas studio, still Pacific time,
and I thought Mikaela Mayor gives great insight, by the way,
on several things. So shout out to them on the
call of that Japanese card. As we gave it a
little recap here to begin the preview podcast, because that
all came on Monday. All right, So we'll get into
the PBC on Prime Video and our friends at PPV
dot com or sponsoring, and we're gonna hear more about
that in a few minutes. Let's get to it. They
had the final press conference earlier today. Weigh in coming
on Friday, as we do this Thursday night into Friday.
Gervonte Davis is back with Lamont Roach. This took a
while longer. This was supposed to have been a December fight.
Then they couldn't find the date in the arena to matchup,
so we had to wait all the way till March. First,
it is now fight weekend in Brooklyn. What are your thoughts,
Dan Well?
Speaker 1: At number one, there's gonna be a big crowd there
no doubt about it. I mean, Tank Davis sells, He's
gonna have another sellout. It's probably gonna be the biggest
gate in the history of the Barclay Center for boxing.
He is a phenomenon and when it comes to selling tickets,
and it's not just in the home region. It's not
just that he sold out in Baltimore or he sold
out in Washington, DC, where he has sold out in
both locations. He has sold out in Los Angeles, he
has sold out in Las Vegas, he has sold out
in London, out in Atlanta. I mean, people love to
see Tank Davis. He has something about him that the
fans gravitate to. Whether it's just his his personality, it's
his obviously his punching power. You know, the kind of
way he looks, whether it's the tattoos or you know,
he does have like the smile, whatever it is, people
like to watch Tank Davis fight. And he's going in
with a with a quality opponent in Lamont Roach. I
know a lot of people have complained that it's not
a big name. It's not chakor it's not Loma, it's
not Tia Fimo or somebody on that level. But Lamont Roach.
Like Tank Davis, who had formerly been a title holder
in the junior lightweight division, Lamont Roach currently is a
title holder in the junior lightweight division. He's moving up
to take on this fight. They are regional rivals, as
you mentioned. One is from Washington, Lamont is from Baltimore.
I mean Lamont is from Washington and Tank is from Baltimore.
But both have popularity in Washington, d C. And they
fought two times as the the amateur ranks. Tank got
two close wins over him. Nobody really disputes that they
know each other. They've been around each other. They definitely
respect each other. If you notice there hasn't been any
wild trash talk. You know, they may have had their say,
but it's been respectful because they know each other. Matter
of fact, it was Lamont Roach Senior, who has been
his son's trainer throughout his career, who has also worked
with amateurs and was Tanks one of Tank's coaches when
he won a national Golden Glove. So the teams know
each other, and it's gonna match. It's gonna come down
to this, it's and this is the way this rompis
pretty much most of the Tank fights Ken Lamont Roach
avoid the massive bomb for twelve rounds. Most guys haven't
been able to do that. The one advantage that I
give to Roach is just from a pure boxing point
of view, from a pure skills point of view, he's
probably and I won't even see probably. I would say
he's definitely the best pure boxer that Tank will have
ever faced. And I say that with the caveat being
that when Tank fought Yur york Is Gimbo, who is
a brilliant boxer, but a wild man, you know, an
Olympic gold medals, an electrifying fighter, he was way past
his prime. Yes, Lamar Roach is in his prime. And
so I believe that Lamana is by far the best
pure boxer that Tank will ever fought. And Lamar Roach
has never been knocked down as a professional ori as
an amateur. And so the question is can he take
what Tank is going to dish out? And here's the
thing about Tank also, he doesn't throw a lot of punches.
He's actually throws very very few punches. But he's very
economical because he lands. If you look at like compy box,
he lands among the highest percentage of any you know,
top fighter in the sports, certainly among the champions. So
when he throws, you know, he generally you know, around
a little less than half the time he's gonna connect,
and so it's up the roach. Can he get out
of the way for twelve rounds? That's hard to do.
So I could certainly envision a fight where Tank is uh,
maybe not doing great, maybe even losing like we've seen
in the past, but eventually he finds, you know, the
boom goes the dynamite.
Speaker 3: Yes, two examples of that is the Roly Romero Ko
in this building splatt him. And the other one I
keep thinking of is that uppercut on Leo Santa Cruz,
which Santa Cruz was having success, was in the kitchen
and was having some success punching and counter punching until
as you just said, Boom goes to dynamite with one
of the knockouts.
Speaker 2: Listening of his career.
Speaker 1: In June, in Tank's last fight last June, Tank was
only up one point on all three cards against Frank Martin,
and that was a real fight. They were being, you know,
locked in a very competitive battle, and once again comes
the eighth round and Tanks ends up scoring an absolutely
spectacular knockout that makes everybody's lists, you know, of their
top knockouts of the ear. So that's that's sort of
the intrigue here is is how how does how does
Lamont survive twelve rounds? And if he does so, will
it be able to outbox a much more economical puncher.
Lamont probably will throw more shots than Tank Davis, but
he'll be taking a gamble because every time you throw
a punch, you'll leave yourself open to some degree. And
so I do again, I'm not saying it's a superstar
fight like it would have been with some of their names,
but I've always said from the first time this fight
was mentioned in me that while it may not be
what we desire most for a Tank opponent, I do
view this as, you know, a serious fight. He's not
fighting a shlub Well. Matt Roach is a talented boxer,
no doubt about it.
Speaker 3: Schlub makes the podcast as well might the first And
by the way, we segue again to the bet US
Boxing Show live at one Eastern time depending on when
you're hearing us on all their platforms will handicap this fight.
Rayfiel and now will make some predictions on this So
on the immediate undercard and the co feature, and in
the fight right before that, they're both junior welterweight title bouts,
with Jose Valezuela meeting Gary Anjuan Russell for the WBA
Junior welterweight title and Albert Poo returns to fight Sander
Martin for the WBC Junior welterweight title. So intrigue right
before the Davis fight and the junior welterweight division, and
we can't we don't have to think too far ahead
that the winners are probably fighting, and the winners may
be a candidate to fight who Javonte Davis somewhere down
the road maybe who knows, But ahead, start with Valenzuela
and Gary Antoine Russell and we go from that.
Speaker 1: I do think what you're saying is accurate that the
guys who were fighting on this undercard, in terms of
those other junior welterweight fights, they're basically auditioning to be
a future Tank opponent, and that's smart from the perspective
of the PBC people that put these events together. Vellan
Zuela would probably be the biggest one because he's got
the best name. I guess. But if it was Gary
Antoin Russell, it's another Washington d C versus Baltimore kind
of regional fight because Gary Antoine is is a Washington
d C fighter. Obviously, he is the brother of the
former featherweight titlder Gary Russell Junior, who was his trainer. Obviously,
they were both trained by their father, Gary Russell Senior,
who passed away not that long ago. That was a
you know, a big big deal in the in the
DC area for such a respected member of the boxing
community and Gary Singer. But anyway, Velanzuela, this is a
big opportunity for him. It's a big opportunity for Gary
Antoine Valezuela in I would consider like a mild upset,
not a massive upset, but an upset. Had moved up
from lightweight in August and he defeated Isaac Pittbull Cruise
on the big Riat card in Los Angeles that Terrence
Crawford Image AMV headline, and he won the WBA title
over Pittbull Cruise in a split decision, in a good
performance to get this belt. So he's making his first
defense and he's not taking on you know, a very
soft touch or anything like we see a lot of
guys do when they come out for their first defense. Now,
Gary Antoine Russell is super talented, undefeated seventeen year ol
all by knockout was the United States Olympian but like
his brother, maddenly maddeningly inactive, yes, and coming off of
his first loss, which was a split decision that was
in June against Albert Opeyo. They were fighting for the
interim WBC title and of course, when Payo won that
belt in that fight, it was soon after that Devin
Haney gave up that title and made himself in a
recess champion. So when that happened, Albert Opoyo was elevated
and inherited the Devon Handy mandatory which is sandorm So
that's why that fight is happening. But Vealezuela and Uh
and Gary Antoine is an interesting matchup. See if Gary
Antoine can bounce back from his first loss. He's got
big punching power obviously comes from a boxing family, smart
Olympian valans weel though he's you know, looked good his
last couple of fights with Robert Garcine now as his
head trainer. Starting with the pit bull fight, So a
lot of intrigue in this particular matchup, probably the best
fight of the undercard.
Speaker 3: I'm just looking back that Gary Antoine Russell fought in August.
Speaker 2: Of twenty twenty three.
Speaker 3: Who know, fight yep fought in June of twenty twenty four, who.
Speaker 1: Know fight s three fights in three years, So he.
Speaker 3: Fights in three years. I don't know what we're getting
here on Saturday Night.
Speaker 1: And valan Zuela has been more active obviously.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 3: And then and then as for Poyo, he is again
on the pay per view immediately before that with Sander Martin,
the veteran, So go ahead into the break.
Speaker 1: Weeo had had the WBA belt previously, but remember he
had a positive drug tast he got stripped to the title,
you know, before he was supposed to have a fight
and he was booted off show. He's you know, that
was you know, an unfortunate situation obviously, but he has
he has not lost in terms of in the ring.
And you know, I think that the santor Martin playoff fight,
they're both good fighters, and they're both were the top
ten type guys in their division. And find it's for
a title, but from an entertainment die, I hope I
am dead wrong about this, But you know, I've never
gotten the impression, frankly, that either one of them make
particularly entertaining fights. Certainly Santor Martin. You know, he's all about,
you know, driving you crazy and making you miss and
and running around and just trying to outslick you and
this and that. I mean, we saw how frustrated he
made t Fimo Lopez in a decision loss that was close,
that t Femo was so messed up from that fight
mentally that it's the only time I can ever think
of where the guy that won the fight, that didn't
have an injury, did not come to the press conference
because even though he won the fight, that was the
fight where he was questioning himself in the ring. Sander
Martin can drive you to drink, basically, is the bottom line.
He's a He's a maddening fighter to fight. It has
been very effective, what can I tell you? I mean,
hopefully they turn into better performance and I think, in
my mind is going to be the one thing Sander
Martin you can't take away from him, though he's got
you know, some people thought he'd beat t FMO that night.
He certainly had a legit victory against Mikey Garcia back
in twenty twenty one, cent Mikey into retirement. You know.
So he's definitely a talented boxer. It's how much talented
boxing can I take, you know, in one fight, because
he does not make good fights unfortunately.
Speaker 2: Okay, we'll see on that.
Speaker 3: Two world title fights at one and just before that,
Joanna's telez Or Tayez and Julian j Rock Williams will
fight for the vacant WBA Interim Junior middleweight title. Here
we go again with the WBA and all the secondary titles.
But anyway, Tayas is somebody that I saw last October.
There's high hopes for him. Jay Rock has been around,
has taken some recent losses. He is a former world champion.
Anything real quick on.
Speaker 1: That, Well, it's a great matchup in terms of like
you want to see the crossroads kind of fight. This
is what that is. TAAs to me is one of
the best problem pick some boxing. I've had him on
my prospect list the last couple of years. He's twenty
four years old. He's a Cuban fighter, but he does
not fight in the prototypical Cuban style, which is a
lot of touch and move. He is a much more
offensive minded fighter. He did not have a lot. He
fought in the Cuban amateur system, but he didn't have
years and years and hundreds and hundreds of fights to
become totally indoctrinated into that style of fighting, and with
a trainer like Ronnie Shields, who was an offensive minded
trainer who I have a tremendous amount of respect for
I have known for the better part of twenty five years.
When Ronnie tells me he's the real deal, and I
watch him with my own eyes, I believe what Ronnie says.
Taees got a bright future. But this is I'm not
saying he hasn't fought real guys so far, because he's
actually has stepped up and fought legit guys, which is
one of the reasons made him such an interesting prospect.
He's only nine to oh, but he's already got wins.
By a knockout against Sergio Garcia was like a second
tier level kind of contender. He has a nice win
in a knockout that took place in his last fight
in October, where he knocked out Johann Gonzalez. That was
a big win. Johann Anzas actually is also on the
same undercard on one of the free prelims against the
former champion, Jared Hurd. But Tayas has taken a step
up against Jay Rock Williams, who you know, granted, is
not what he once was and is not maybe showing
the greatest chin when he's been in a firefight. Haven't
been stopped in three of his four losses. But remember
also that when he lost the previous loss he suffered
in twenty twenty three, he got stopped by Carlos Sadamis.
That was at midleweight, and he's now back at Jinger
midaway where his other losses were a split decision to
Latimer Hernandez that was kind of like, you know, I
just don't think his mind was in that fight, and
Hernandez has pulled upset. So the other loss he had
was a knockout against Jason Rosario when Jason Rosario was
not completely shot and is a tremendous puncher. That was
the situation with that. So now he's taken on a
guy like Tayaz has a big step up for Taz.
Whatever you think about Jay Rock Williams, so I hope
they produce some fireworks. I'll sell you this though. The
more fireworks they produce, the probably worse off it is
for Jay Rock Williams. But this has the potential, I
think to be a pretty interesting fight and I'm a
huge TAAs guy, so I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 3: Jay Rock basically fights one way, stand right in front
of you and slug and it can be to his
own detriment, as we know, as you just laid out.
All right, so we laid out the full pay per view.
Let's talk a little more now about how you can
see it, and let's do that right now as the
preview does continue.
Speaker 2: Yes, he is back, and we have another.
Speaker 3: PBC on Prime pay per view to get to and
this one interesting, especially with the rivalry. I don't know
how he did between Jervonte Davis and Lamont Roach. They
say they get along, but they're gonna be throwing fists.
They're gonna be throwing patted fists at each other coming
Saturday night on pay per view.
Speaker 2: And Mark Bocarti is back with.
Speaker 3: Us from PPV dot com to talk to us more
about that. Good to be back with you are we
allowed to break news on the podcast with Rayphil and
me that you have been transcontinental since last you and
I talked? Are we allowed to break news and discuss
this on.
Speaker 4: The h I wouldn't want to break the news. I wouldn't.
I wouldn't want to break the news while I was gone,
just in case anyone wanted to on the inside of
my house. But now that I'm.
Speaker 3: Back right well, like all these big time athletes to
keep getting their stuff broken into and stole them, we
can't let them know that in advance, I totally get it.
Got wait am I am? I to understand Italiah? You
what you have been to Italy and back and you
are here and uh did you get anything to eat
or anything to drink and see anything good over in Italy?
Speaker 4: Also, not only did I get something to eat, I
had an exceptional meal TJ. As everyone who's been to
Italy knows, at every meal that we went to it was.
It was pretty incredible. And to cap off a great
ten day trip, I came back on the day of
Better we Have Beeble in time and was able to
watch and enjoy that fight on pp dot.
Speaker 3: Com no doubt, and we were promoting that last week,
did you agree that Beevil won the rematch?
Speaker 2: Did you agree with that?
Speaker 4: I did?
Speaker 1: I did.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I had him as a narrow winner, So I
don't think you can argue that decision.
Speaker 3: And by the way, you had something for everybody to
heavyweights where we had knockouts, you had Shakur Stevenson on that.
Speaker 2: You had a lot on that one. For sure.
Speaker 4: That's one of those cards that lives up to the
hype and no doubt. Starting at what ten thirty am
Eastern time, you know you.
Speaker 3: Need, we kept we kept joking Bacon and eggs and
the British light heavyweights or Virgil Ortiz, take your pick,
all across the United States. But this is the great thing.
Let's bring it back to this. This is the great thing
about PPV dot com. You buy what you want as
a one off, no long term subscription needed. And the
same applies here for the Jervonte Davis Lamont Roach showdown
Saturday night at the Berkleys Center. We want them to
purchase this through PPV dot com because this is gonna
be an entertaining fight and there's no long term obligation
pick it up on that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, no, indeed, we are excited to carry this event.
You're right, you buy this event, no subscription. That's the
key thing for us. We have some bells and whistles
I know that we'll get into in a second. That
always make it them, in our opinion, a more fun
view experience than any other platform. But yeah, this is
going to be a really fun fight. You mentioned the
long history these guys have between them. I'll ask you
this is there as big an underdog as you've seen recently,
who's been as confident as he is? Yeah, mon roach right.
The guy acts like he belongs.
Speaker 3: He well, and as he has said, he believes that
he got the better of Jervonte Davis in their amateur
days and he has been trying angling for this moment
for several years and finally now has gotten in front
of him as we come to the Barclays Center on
Saturday night. Now, as we both know, with this sport,
everybody's confident until they ding the bell, and then what
happens after that, especially if Davis catches him, that's the intrigue.
Speaker 2: That's what we're about to find out, right.
Speaker 4: So some of these parallels you could bring back to
Davis's last fight at Barkley's when he KOed Roley Romero, right,
and Roley's got a mouth and he wasn't give it
much of a chance going in, and he was, you know,
he was talking a big game. But Dravante is just
he's so crafty, right, He's got that killer instinct. He's
one of boxing biggest stars, which is great when you're
trying to, you know, sell the sport. So gonna be
a good night in a big event on Saturday.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Rollie had a big mouth and Dravonte shut it
with one big left hand.
Speaker 2: As it turns out.
Speaker 3: You mentioned, you guys do a fantastic job, and I
love this whenever we get a chance to interact with
the team that you have the fan interaction that is
available through PPV dot com with Jim Lampley, with Lance
Pugmar and our guys Dan Canobio and Chris al Jury.
They all do a great job with the content. But
the interactive part of that while the fights are going on,
I see that I sometimes even participate myself, believe it
or not, and join in what they're discussing as the
fights go on.
Speaker 2: That's another feature as part of what you're offering.
Speaker 4: Seved it right, Yeah, And I don't know if it's
my appearance on your podcast, DJ, but every event that
we've done over the last you know, twelve months, the
amount of interaction we have on the chat keeps increasing
event to event to event. So with this last event,
even the BiVO Betterbev, we didn't have as many buys
as we do for a fight that starts in primetime
on a Saturday night, but the amount of chat we
had was just incredible. So I think it's really caught
up now where people are buying on PPV dot com
just to be able to participate in that, and it's
it's showing in some really fun results with the interaction.
Speaker 3: Yes, indeed, all right, so one more time it is
the Battle of Baltimore and Washington.
Speaker 2: D C.
Speaker 3: Gravonte Davis, by the way, says I'm gonna fight three
times in twenty twenty five, all right, from his from
his lips to our viewing and an interest pleasure here
that we're gonna get this more than a couple of
times because activity has been a big thing throughout the sport,
lack of activity.
Speaker 2: So's with Davis, right, Yes.
Speaker 4: It's been nine months since he lasts correct what fourteen
months I think between that fight so correct. Yeah, I'll
believe it when I see it. In terms of three
fights in a year, I hope for it. You know,
we would love to help him be successful with three
fights in a year, but with the recent track record,
you know, I wouldn't bet on it, but I would
hope for it.
Speaker 2: Stay tuned, stay tuned on that.
Speaker 3: And the one thing about him again one more time,
is it doesn't matter if he has been in Las
Vegas where he's fought, or he's fought in Atlanta. He
has fought in Texas, he has fought at the Berkeley Centers,
the Berkeley Center before. He brings a crowd in an
electric atmosphere, and they're going to get to experience all
of this in four K or ten eighty I on
PPV dot Com with the Tank Roach pay per view
main event coming up.
Speaker 4: Davis fights are always a spectacle, whether you're in person,
whether you're watching it on PPV dot com, They're always
a spectacle. Like I said, he's one of boxing's biggest stars.
We love carrying his events. So it's going to be
a fun night and I encourage everyone to tune in
on PPV dot Com for it, no.
Speaker 3: Doubt, and in a couple of undercard World Championship fights
at one forty one division up. And it doesn't take
a genius to figure this out. For Jose Valezuela and
Albert Pueo, the champions, they could be fighting each other.
They do kind of plan these things out and size
it up. So a big night of boxing coming Saturday.
We want them to get in on PPV dot com.
No long term commitment needed, Participate for the interactive part
of this throughout the night. There's a lot of reasons,
and then and then settle in for the main event
one more time, right, Mark, great.
Speaker 4: Night of fights, watch it on PPV dot com. Simple
as that, TJ.
Speaker 2: We love that. Mark.
Speaker 3: Good luck with everything with this. We will be with
you down the road. We encourage people once more, if
you are doing this, if you're purchasing the PBC on
Prime pay per view, do it with PPB dot com.
Speaker 2: Mark, Thank you child DJ again we.
Speaker 3: Appreciate their sponsorship. Can't emphasize enough, Dan Rayfield that you
do not need the long term subscription with any other
streaming package. Just buy what you want with PPV dot com.
And I should also add they have wrestling pay per views,
they do concert events, other things on PPV dot com.
Speaker 2: Same deal.
Speaker 3: You don't have to have any kind of a long
term six month, one year subscription by what you want
with PPV dot com. So we appreciate the sponsorship that
they have with us here on the big fight, we
can preview.
Speaker 2: And podcast series. All right, but wait, there's more.
Speaker 3: Speaking of the junior welterweight division subrio, Mattias, former world
champ at one point forty, is back. He's fighting in
Puerto Rico. It's on De Zone as well on Saturday night.
Gabriel Valenzuela. Another Valenzuela preview. This a little more for
us here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is the main event on It's the Solida
Promotions card along with Fresh Promotions in Puerto Rico, which
is where Mattias is from. It will actually be his
third consecutive fight in Puerto Rico. If you remember back
last summer in June, he lost the world title in
an upset to Liam Paro that was taking place in
his hometown that was considered a major upside. He lost
the decision. It was a competitive fight, but he clearly
was the looser. He came back in November against a
lesser type opponent, scored a secon round knockout victory, and
now he goes into this fight, which is an IBF eliminator.
So if he wins this fight, it puts him in
position in the mandatory to challenge the title holder, which
is Richardson Hitchins, who beat Liam Paro for the belt
that Paro had taken off of Mattias. So it's an
important fight for both of these guys. Balnzuela big underdog
for obvious reasons, got a good record, but doesn't really
have much to look at in his record by all.
You know, look, this should be if Mattias has got anything,
and we know what a great puncher is, this should
be an easy fight for him. Like, I don't have
high hopes for this at all. He's got a loss
to Montana Love, who turned out to not be much
of anything. He does have a win by split decision,
so that tells you what sort of close against Stevie Spark,
who has been in with some good fighters. But this
is largely you know, I haven't looked at the odds,
but this is a wide fight, like whatever you want
to say about it, and you know, Bunswell is going
to Puerto Rico as the Mexican fighter to fight in
Mattias's home area. You know, he's obviously the quote unquote
opponent in this fight. He's got three losses, been stopped
just a one time. We'll see what happens, but I
have every expectation that if if Mattias is even close
to his game, that we're looking at a knockout victory
in favor of Sabrillo Mattias, and he'll go on, presumably
to challenge for the world title or a fight for
a vacant teller or something like that, but he will
be in that position to try to win back the
belt that he used to have. He's a very exciting fighter.
Matias winn or lose. You know, he's you never know.
He can throw one punch and knock a guy out.
That's the kind of pounching power. Yes, I mean he's
he's got the two losses, but in his twenty wins,
he's got twenty one knockdowns.
Speaker 3: True, and you would hope because he was so awful
and tentative against Paro. We still to this second have
never figured out why that was in his hometown maybe
it was a hometown related thing.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: With that, we'll see how Mattias looks. All right, some
news and some nostalgia, all right. You keep saying that
you've been doing this now twenty five years. This is
a quarter of a century. You ever been involved with
a press conference with one guy smacking the other guy
with a raw egg like we've had now with Chris
Eubank Junior and Connor Benn. That happened at their news
conference on Wednesday?
Speaker 2: What about egg? Egg on the face? Egg on the face?
Speaker 1: Literally it was on Tuesday. Wednesday was Wednesday was the
off day where they did some promotional stuff, commercial shoots
and things like that. Then they did the second press
corrents in London on Thursday. The first one was in Manchester.
And to answer the question is no, I've never seen
anybody use an egg and a press cards. I've seen
guys spit things, throw things, throw chairs, throw tables, throw punches,
you know, do all kinds of wacky shit, throw other people.
Speaker 3: Who was the you did say that point? Who was
it recently? That through the belt? Was that last week
or two weeks ago?
Speaker 1: That was David Morel throwing through the belt.
Speaker 3: At David Bevenavita through his belt at David Benavidaz.
Speaker 1: I listened. I was at a press corments once where
Bernard Hopkins and William Joppy were throwing chairs, Derek Tysaa
turning over a table, Derek Tasaura spitting the water, and
vitally Clitch goes face.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: I mean, we've seen plenty of all the scuffles. We
remember what happened with Canelo Alvarez and Caleb Plant. I mean,
I mean, there's been any kind of number of physical
confrontations and or throwing of objects at press covers. But
an egg was not only was it an egg that
he that he smacked in Connor Ben's face, but he
had to have obviously premeditated because he had a clumb
to the arena with a pocket full of eggs, so
he could be ready to pull.
Speaker 2: Is it confirmed that he had more than one egg?
Speaker 1: I saw a picture It looked like he had a pocket.
Speaker 3: Multiple multiple eggs, and he smashed one on the side
of Connor Ben's face, which I mean obviously and you
you pointed this out before we hit the record button.
This could have been a serious thing. If an eggshell,
shark or something scratches the eye of Connor Ben while
you're doing this.
Speaker 1: It's not even just that. And when Eddie Hearn gave
his comments to the Zone folks that were doing the show,
he said it sounded like glass breaking because so he
wasn't even sure was it actually saw the evidence of it.
But the thing about it is not just maybe you
get a shard in your eye and it has a
damaging impact because of that, but because it's you're kind
of taken by surprise, you know, you take a wrong step,
you hurt your ankle, you hurt your knee, you blow
out your acl you do something whatever, or you end
up in a scuffle. I mean, there could have definitely
been an injury. I mean I just mentioned at Kayla
Plant and Canelo, how lucky were they that when even
though the Canelo you know, opened a cut on Kayla
Plant that it didn't impact the fight.
Speaker 3: It could it easily, Yeah, because he's smacked him back
and smashed his sunglasses and it cut him under the cheek,
not over the eye. If he cuts him over the eye,
the fights maybe delayed.
Speaker 1: That's the point. So yeah, putting hands on people at
press conferences, I do not advocate that. I do not
support that. I think it's childish. It doesn't make sense.
You risk your money, you risk the event. You want
to call each other dirty names, you want to talk
about their mama, whatever. You know, have your set, but
keep your fucking hands to yourself. I have a you know,
I have a small I have a you know. My
son is like a kid. We taught him, don't keep
your hands to yourself. I mean, right, and the other
kids in his class in sixth grade. Keep your hands
to yourself.
Speaker 3: Do not put your hands on somebody else, much less
get a breakfast Entrey and try to do something with
a breakfast town tray.
Speaker 1: Obviously, the reason he chose an egg is not lost
on anybody who follows what's been happening, and they spoke
about it at the second day a press conference on Thursday.
He picked an egg because of the fact that Connor
Ben when he failed the drug test that made their
fight in two thousand and two and a half years
ago get canceled. He claimed it was contamination from having
an abundance of eggs in his diet. I mean, whatever
you want to say. So that was the reason for right,
but it was very childish, but other than that, it's
going to be a mega fight in the UK for sure.
They were talking about how they're holding this at the
Hotspur Stadium, Yes, sixty five thousand people or something like that,
where Tyson Fury has fought, where Anthony Joshua has fought.
That they had to get those tickets. A queue of
one hundred and thirty thousand people apparently trying to get
tickets for a fight that won't even be able to
accommodate about half of them, right, So that tells you
how big this fight is. And it's amazing because it's
not a world title fight. It's just a good old
fashioned all British grudge match to the backdrop of their
famous fathers who put on two of the most boxing
matches thirty some years ago that are still revered in
British boxing lore. Now. Nigel Ben has been present at
both press conferences. Chris U Bank Junior, I'm sorry, Chris
you Bank Senior was not at the first press conference.
I had read that he was supposed to be at
the second press cards, but I watched the second press
conference and I didn't see any evidence that he was
in the house. So I'm not sure what's going on
with that, but Nigel was there and Nigel by the way,
when they got into the scrum, Nigel grabbed christ You
Bank around the Christian Bank junior around the neck during
the during the scuffle, I mean it's going over and
you all.
Speaker 3: Got thirty We got thirty year bad blood with the
Bens and the U Banks.
Speaker 1: You also got Eddie Hearn who was the promoter for
Ben and Ben Shalom who is the promoter for U Bank,
who can't stand each other. They were almost into a
scuffle at the fight at the press coverge. So it's
all chaotic.
Speaker 3: And again this is two years delayed because of the
drug test. Two and a half years delayed because the
positive drug test for Connor Ben. He's got nobody to
blame but himself on that.
Speaker 1: So that we got the times blame the Eggs.
Speaker 2: We got what we.
Speaker 3: Got more time to hype it up because that's an
April battle coming at at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, all right.
So that's that's that sad news. Read this earlier in
the week on on two Fronts. Former three time world
champ Greg Hogan, who we just talked about in the
record breaking night of Julio Cesar, Chavez and Hogen fighting
in Mexico City in front of what did you tell me,
like one hundred.
Speaker 2: And thirty two thousand, was it?
Speaker 1: Or one hundred one hundred, two hundred and forty seven He.
Speaker 3: Coold Lord Techas Stadium and Greg Hogan unfortunately has been
recently battling cancer and passed away at the age of
sixty four. Say a little more because we said some stuff,
you know, about a week and a half ago on
the pod when that anniversary came up.
Speaker 1: But mister, I mean he was a scrappy fighter. He was.
He fought a lot of top guys, Like you said,
he won titles three times, was never really able to
hang on to them for any length of time, but
on certain nights he had big, big nights. I mean,
he's not a Hall of Fame kind of fighter, but
he was for a long time one of the top
contenders and title holders between lightweight and junior welterweight. He
finished with a record of thirty nine wins and losses
and one draw nineteen knockouts. His career ran from nineteen
eighty two to nineteen ninety nine, so really span virtually
the entirety of the eighties and nineties and found himself
in some major fights. Now, he's most remembered Hoggin for
fighting the fight that we talked about where the anniversary
was on February twenty at nineteen ninety three, where he
was the challenger when Julio Sesar Chavez was at his
peak as a as a reigning champion of the WBC
holding the one or forty pound title, and they drew,
like you said, to one hundred thirty two thoty seven
to s Techastadium, which is the biggest paid attendance in
the history of boxing, and he got his ass kick
for five lopsided rounds. He got beat up. Now the
famous thing that came from that, and we talked about
this when we were discussing the anniversary back a couple
episodes ago, which was when he was asked because remember
when Chavez fought him, Chavis was eighty four and zero,
and he was asked by some of the media like,
aren't you intimidated by their record? What do you think
about that great record? You know, those types of questions,
and his response was that all Chavis had done was
fight a bunch of Tijuana cab drivers, and so to
show you the good humor that Hagan had after that
was when he got his ass kicked and got knocked out.
He was asked, well, what do you think about that now,
and he said, you know, I think with like a
glint in his eye, so to speak. Those cab drivers
were tough. So he understood what it was. But the
thing about it is he shouldn't just be remembered for
getting beat up by Chavas and that big fight and
playing the villain role perfectly. You know, he did score
wins where he won titles. He beat Jimmy Paul for
the IBF lightweight title in nineteen eighty six. It was
a close fight in majority decision, but he lost it
in his first defense against Vinni pazi Ends who has
recently been elected to the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3: I remember watching that fight an afternoon fight on NBC
with Marv Albert and the fight doctor Ferdy Pacheco. I
remember watching that fight Pazzi and Za and Hoggin.
Speaker 1: He lost that fight that was eighty seven, but the
he regained the belt in their immediate rematch in nineteen
eighty eight, and then later on they fought a third
fight that Vinnie Paz also won, but he lost the title,
and you really can't blame this. After he'd regained it
from Vinny Pass. He fought Pearnel Whittaker in nineteen eighty
nine and lost the belt to Pearl. Whitiker is one
of the greatest lightweights in the history of boxing. You
could argue in the top three lightweights of all time.
And then then a few years later after that he
moved up to one hundred and forty pounds. Now, at
the time, this is nineteen ninety, the WBO was still fledgling.
Virtually nobody considered it to be a legitimate title. I'm sorry,
I'm not doing revision his history. It was considered a
fringe title. Nobody really cared much about it. The network's
barely even mentioned it a lot of times when those
belts were on the line. But he did win that belt,
and it was more than just about that's who he
beat to get it. He beat the then thirty eight
and oh undefeated Hector Camacho, hall of famer, and he
took that fight in a split decision and then ultimately
lost it three months later in the rematch. But to
win and be the first man to knock off Hector
Camacho is still quite an impressive accomplishment. And then his
last big fight, so to speak, was you had the
great you know, the Hall of Famer Ray Boomba Mansini
who had been retired for three years, a former long
time lightweight champion. He had come out of retirement to
fight Greg Hougan and Hagan beat him up and stopped
him in the seventh round and send him back into
permanent retirement. But those are the big names and the
fights that he had, and that spanned a number of
years throughout that time period, so he was on the
networks on a regular basis. And you know, I think
viewed by most people in the business as just a
real scrappy you know, will fight anybody. You know, tough
as nails, good boxer, not a big puncher, but you know,
got his moment in the sun on more than one occasion.
Speaker 3: Rest in peace to him, And a quick shout out
too to the not only New York but national broadcaster
Al Troutwig, who died on Monday from cancer at age
sixty eight, just a couple of days shy of his
sixty ninth birthday, and I was texting with you, not
only about Hougen, But I said to you, what about
Al Troutwig? And you said what And Al Troutwig had
also died on Monday, Troutwig and you shared this with me.
I had to go back and relive it just for
a few minutes on YouTube. Troutwig very famously on the
call on ABC of which fight involving the real deal.
Speaker 1: One of the great fights of Evander Holyfields career. He
called the first fight between Evander and Dwight Muhammed Kahwei,
who's they're both in the Hall of Fame. That was
a classic fifteen round battle, one of the last great
fifteen rounders, where Evander won the what was called the
WBA Junior Heavyweight title, really the cruiserweight title. A brilliant
fight and a Troutwick was on the call. I knew
Trouig for all the years, you know, growing up in
the nineties basically, and when I was I was an
adult at that point, but in the eighties as a
big Yankee fan and watched a ton of MSG Network
and I was I'm a Nicks fan in the eight
yet FI and he was doing all those events. Not
to mention if you watch him on a national stage
doing tons of Olympics and all kinds of other assignments.
But you know, I knew him from the New York
Sports team, but also you know a little bit of
his time doing some boxing matches as.
Speaker 3: Well, and Al was like a member of the family
doing the Knicks, the Rangers, the Yankees, pregame and post game.
Speaker 2: One more boxing nugget, Ray Peel.
Speaker 3: On the very first series The Contender on NBC, Al
Troutwick is on the call of the live fight that
our buddy, the Latin Snake, Sergio Moro won when he
won the million dollar Contender fight. Al Troutwick's on the
play by play call of that live night on NBC.
Speaker 1: So I can't say. I can't say if you're wrong,
because I just don't remember that.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you he was.
Speaker 3: I've watched it before and they and I want to say,
they had like eight or ten million people watching live
kapper of The Contender with the Latin State, But that
was Al Troutwick on the call. Now some twenty years
ago of that. He had a long relationship with NBC
doing the Olympics, as you mentioned, so rest in peace
to him as well.
Speaker 2: One more news item.
Speaker 3: This has been talked about, and now it is announced
and set up. Tim Zu is returning after that October
KO loss to Martaz Elajev in the title fight in Orlando.
He will be back as part of a PBC on
Prime Video event in April. So Dan tell us more
about Zoo on the comeback trail.
Speaker 1: Well, he's on the comeback trail. Like you said, he
lost two fights in a row and so he's not
fighting King Kong. He lost the bloody split decision that
we all remember in the first ever PBC on Prime
pay per view when he lost the title to the
late replacement Sebastian Fandora, who moved up the car to
the main event when Keith Thurman fell out and he
got badly cut and Fondora suffare of badly broken nose
and they bled for twelve rounds. He lost the title.
And then when he came back in October for the
first ever non pay per view of the fights that
are done with PBC and Prime, he got the shitkicked
out of him in three rounds by Martaz Leev. I
mean that was a big upset. He got dropped three
times in the second round and get knocked down again
and knocked out in the third round. It was a bad,
bad night at the office for Tim Zuo. And so
he's going back to Australia kind of like tail between
his legs. I suppose he doesn't have that mentality, but
I think, you know, his promoters are looking to you know,
rebuild them to some degree, and so they're taking on,
in my opinion, the less than threatening Joey Spencer. You know,
it was nineteen to one with eleven knockouts, but it has
never really shown a whole lot. I mean, he got
so much hype from PBC unnecessarily they put him on
a lot of their network shows. He you know, he
never fought anybody all that good when he stepped up
the one time he got beat But he'll go I'll try,
That's all you can ask. And so the fight will
take place. It will be Prime Time in America on
April fifth, which is a Saturday night, and he'll be
on irregular Prime you know, as part of the regular subscription,
not part of a pay per view, and in in
Australia it'll be Sunday afternoon on the sixth and it's
part of the pay per view that will take place
in Australia, but looks this a must win fight for
Zoo is one thing. If you lose to Fandora on
a freakish type of thing on a short notice replacement,
to get run over like a guy like Martazeleev, who's
shown himself to be, you know, a lot better than
some people thought. He was a very physical fighter with
good power. That's another matter. If you lose against Joey Spencer,
who is really like in my opinion, like at best
a sea level fighter, you know you're gonna have to
reassess your career. I'm not saying you're done, but you're
really gonna have to think about it. He just say, like,
I'm you know me, TJ. I've been doing the show
a long time. I'm not one to like get too
crazy to say, oh it's I must win. This is
basically about a must win as you get for Tim
Zoo at this.
Speaker 3: Point, well, and they're trying to set up, you know,
becoming first the uh Keith Thurman fight that never happened,
Thurman fighting Brock Jarvis. We'll talk about that soon another Australian.
They're trying to set that fi up by having both
of them win later on in the year, but.
Speaker 1: Because because Thurman is going to Australia to fight Jarvis,
that fights on March twelfth, if he wins, and if
in April Tim Zoo comes through the fight with with
Joey Spencer. And again the plan it's not like it's
definitive with a date or a sight. But sometime this summer,
I am told as a non pay per view on
Prime Video, could be in America, could be in Australia.
But they're gonna that the two fighters, Thurman and Zoo
have already agreed to fight each other and sort of
put that fight back together again. And if that happens
and they're both coming off wins and their upcoming bouts,
you know, especially as a non paper, I'm definitely interested
to see that. But you know, first things first, these
these guys both have to take care of their business. Uh,
you know, I think Thurman is in somewhat of a
real fight because of his long, long, long, long layoff,
and Jarvis is not like that bad of a fighter.
Tim Zoo though, to me, it's not about Joey Spencer.
It's about what does Tim Zoo have in his mind?
How is he mentally? Can he can he deal with
trying to come back from a bad knockout loss and
overcome those demons. We'll see what happens, you know, in
a few weeks.
Speaker 3: Agreed, Agreed, all right, a piece of nostalgia and it
comes up from sixteen years ago. On Friday February twenty eighth,
two thousand and nine, as we released the podcast, and
Juan Manuel Marquez, a name that we have frequently talked about,
scored a knockout win to retain the lineal and win
the vacant WBO and WBA lightweight titles. Mister Rayfield was
there and this was the fight of the year in
two thousand and nine, only in February.
Speaker 2: Tell me more about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this was the consensus fight of the year. This
was picked by the Boxing Writers Association of America. I
picked it as the fight of the Year for ESPN,
it was picked as the Ring magazine Fight of the yearning.
Basically everybody that was picking fights of the year picked
this fight. It was a spectacular shootout. Both guys had support.
Wan Diez is from Houston who had the hometown behind him,
but of course Marquez was a very popular fighter from
Mexico and obviously it's a large Mexican and Mexican American
community in Houston, so they both had their their fans
that were rooting for him, and it was sensational. This
was live on HBO. It was a ninth round knocked out,
but getting to the point where Marquez put Wanda's out
pretty convincingly. It had been a complete battle, back and forth,
back and forth, back and forth. They started off with
an undercart fight which was the hometown fighter, Rocky Warres,
who was a long time featherweight contender, bought to a
draw challenging for the WBA featherweight title against the Indonesian
superstar Chris John, a fight that a lot of people
thought that Rocky should have won. He had a number
of title shots and he couldn't get over the hump.
But that sort of started off the night where the
hometown fighter, you know, in essence loss even though he
got the draw because he didn't get the title. And
now you have wandas the hometown fighter comingto the ring
and he gets you know, basically knocked out cold to
end you know what had been an absolutely sensational fight.
I mean marquees, you know, it was just you know,
This is Marquez essentially at his at his best, you know.
You know, in his prime, prime years, fighting lots of
good opponents. They were ranked one and two by everybody
at one hundred and thirty five pounds. You know, Marquez
was considered the lineal champion, he had the Ring magazine title.
It was just just a bad ass kind of fight.
But he put Diaz down two times in the ninth round. Obviously,
the second one was what ended the fight. And it
doesn't get more exciting. I mean, it was a totally
enthralling battle. It's on YouTube, you can find it. Unfortunately,
when they fought in the rematch, because when you have
a great fight like that, it only made sense for
them to do a second fight. It didn't come closed now,
there was there was space in time between when they
did the fights because after Juan non will Marquez beat
Jan Diaz. The next fight he got later in two
thousand and nine, he got picked by Floyd Mayweather when
Mayweather was coming back after a long not long, but
he was out out of the ring for a couple
of years in a retirement, and he picked on on
Marquez and Mayweather, you know, beat Juan very easily. That
night shot him out, knocked him down. But after that
Wanda Jan Diaz became his next opponents. So he went
from knocking out Wan Diez to uh, you know, win
the fight of the year, retained the lightweight title, win
some of the other belts, going up to welterweight, getting
smoked in terms of a decision by Floyd, and then
drop him back down to lightweight to defend the world
title against Wanda's in the rematch. And even though he
wanted decision, the fight paled in comparison to the greatness
of their first fight. But that first fight was a special,
special night. Houston was in the house, great great matchup.
And I have a great memory of going the night
before that fight to the Toyota Center, which is what
hosted the fight, the home arena of the Houston Rockets,
and I guess they gave the Golden Boy people that
were promoting the fight a bunch of tickets, and so
I sat with Bernard Hopkins and Shane Moseley and a
bunch of the people involved with the promotion and some
of the other reporters, and we watched from one of
the beautiful sweets. We watched Lebron James's Cleveland Calves against
Yao Ming's Houston Rockets.
Speaker 3: Send to you. You've told that story before. That's how
you roll. If you're gonna go to an NBA, you know,
elite matchup, you're gonna roll in a suite with Sugar
Shane Mosley and Oscar dal la Hoya to watch Lebron
and Bernard helping. And now, what's interesting, you said the
night before, so they they had to ready the arena
very quickly for the ne next night for the championship.
Speaker 1: Maybe I don't off the top, man, I thought it
was the night before. I thought it was the Frind night.
If I went back and look, maybe it was on
the Thursday night. I probably got to town for the
fight on Wednesday, maybe not early on Thursday. So now
now you got me thinking maybe it was the maybe
was still. But either way it was a blast.
Speaker 3: This is how you were rolling with a younger Lebron
and with Yao Ming, a huge deal globally and in Houston,
and then that fight, which was the fight of the year.
Speaker 2: Go dial that up on YouTube. Kids.
Speaker 3: Really, jan Manuel Marquez and his KO of Jan Diaz,
all right with that, we have been here for a second,
and we've given you a bunch.
Speaker 2: We gave you a little recap of the Japanese fight card.
Speaker 3: We previewed Jervonte, Davis, Lamont Roach and the other fights
on the PBC on Prime pay per view. Again, utilize
our friends at PPV dot com for the one off purchase.
Again the interaction with Jim Lampley, Lance Pugmeyer, Dan Canobio,
Chris al Jury, our buds. That is a great feature
on this Utilize it. Watch it in four eighty four
K ten eighty I crystal clear quality. We love that
with PPV dot Com as one of our sponsors here.
Speaker 1: But I also realized, HEJ yeah, if you if you do,
if you do buy the pay per view on PPV
dot com, you get replays also for like what you do.
I think it's like thirty days or yes or something
like that.
Speaker 3: Let me give you a perfect example of what you
just described, because after we were talking about the controversy
and it's pretty well died down of Turkey Alas sheet,
going over and looking at the scorecards and coming to
tell hams of Shiraz and the WBC Middleway title fight,
I went back on PPV dot com and went back
in the archive of that it was like a seven
hour broadcast.
Speaker 1: It was actually almost.
Speaker 3: Nine hours, but the actual brought yeah, the actual fight
to fight, you know, seven and a half, eight hours
whatever it was, I found it and with thirty seconds
to go in the tenth round is where Turkey Alashet
gets up out of his chair in the front and
goes around to look at the scorecard and then you know,
or to that point the scorecards to then come to
Shiraz and tell him what was going on. I'm just
making the point that I went back and looked on
the archive on PPV dot com to be able to
find us. You can go back and rewatch it at
a later date, all right, So we will handicap the
Davis Roach fight and the two undercard junior welterweight world
title fights on the bet Us show that's coming Friday
at one Eastern time. A reminder, whatever happens, be on
this podcast feed for the recap pod that comes your.
Speaker 2: Way Sunday night into Monday.
Speaker 3: That includes the Mattias fight coming in Puerto Rico and
everything else going on this weekend other than that, Are
we good?
Speaker 2: Are we good? And ready for the weekend? And ready
for the return of Tank Davis.
Speaker 1: Mister, I'm ready.
Speaker 2: All right, there you go. There's big Dan Rayfield.
Speaker 3: Follow and subscribe on the substack, Fight Freaks your Night
substack and the newsletter for all the info. By the way,
just as a tease, what's the nostalgia that you have
from the one Manuel Marquez one DS fight? What did
you put up on the substack. I'm just curious in
your social media do you have something there?
Speaker 1: The anniversary is going to be on Friday.
Speaker 3: On Friday, so you'll have something up Fridday. There's a
t Subscribe to the soundstick.
Speaker 1: I have a beautiful site poster, thin cardboard site poster
from the.
Speaker 2: Check it out.
Speaker 3: If you are on the substack. If you're on the newsletter,
you'll probably see that. So subscribe away for now though
we're good again. We'll catch you on the bet Us
Boxing show at one East your time. Followers, subscribe on
this podfeed Ratus and review us as always for Dan
Rafael on TJ reefs. You've been part of the Big
Fight Weekend preview