The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big Fight Weekend.
Now here is your host, DJ Leaves. All right, we have reached the weekend. We're gonna flip the calendar to February and we've got a light heavyweight showdown, very very interesting in the BBC on Fine main event. David Benavita's David Morrell, the Benavitas Interim WBC title, Morell's WBA regular title on the line. Big stakes for the winner to maybe get a world title shot with either better BV or b BOL. We're ready to talk about all of that.
The fight card. We got fights there, we got fights in England, we got Coloressa shields back, we got news, we got nostalgia. You are part of the Big Fight Weekend preview. I am the somewhat competent host, TJ. Reeves. He is my colleague, our insider Dan Rayfield, all the way out ol on location in Vegas. Good to be with you here in the preview mode as you have settled in for this weekend. We got a lot to go over at the time that we are doing this.
You have been part of the press conference ramping up on Thursday, headed to Friday for everything, How are things? How are things in the desert? And we're getting ready for this light heavyweight showdown Dan.
I think the press conference became unhinged and a lot of people have got excited because those guys want to throw at each other right away. They haven't liked each
other throughout the promotion. I think we talked about it back, you know, a month or so ago, and they had the Miami event and David Merrell threw the belt at David Benavide's and I made the point that I've been to and seen many, many countless press conferences and seen pretty much everything thrown, water bottles, other people, chairs, tables, you know, you name it. Never had saw a belt throw thrown at somebody else, which actually is kind of
surprising given that the belts are always in proximity. But the point I'm making here is that these guys don't like each other. It was on display at the press conference. It's a fifty to fifty kind of matchup. I think too many people, even if I think maybe those who feel like there's a straw winner outcome will be maybe
leaning towards more towards Benavide's. Although I will say this though, TJ in the in the predictions that the that the find folks from the PR team gathered from media members, fighters, trainers, there was quite a few people that were you know, you know, some picking burrel somethick and then this is what you want to see. So uh, I'm excited to be out here for what I think is going to be a really good, interesting, exciting fight and then being honest, you know, an excellent undercard.
And we'll get into the undercard in a couple of moments. But I always ask you on these things. You've done it long enough where you can kind of see through and be a smell test detector. Do you think this is genuine on the dislike or is some of it hype? Is most of it hype? What do you read having been at that press conference.
To me, there's no doubt that it's both there. They don't like each other, that's clear. But I also know and David Benavidia said as much in the interview that I had with it that's on the previous episode that is also by the way, on it's a standalone where you can just listen to that particular interview on the most recent one on prior to them. Anyway, he said that he understands, uh that that this is what people want to see, animosity, you know, a little smack talk.
So they were cursing each other out a little Spanish, little English at the press conference today. Uh, you know, which was on Sesday, Thursday, Thursday afternoon in Vegas. I lost track of time.
Uh.
They did the Undercar press conference first, and then they took care of those guys, and then they brought in David and David to do the main event. And uh, yeah, I mean, I think they're both trying to fight, but I also don't think there's any love lost. That said, I'm very convinced that when it's over with they'll be sportsman. Know, they'll they'll be good sports better. Whoever wins, they'll shake hands and and move on. But a really good fight, and you know, on paper anyway.
I should make mention too, while we rock along here on the on the preview pod, that our friends at PPV dot com are sponsoring us. Uh. We we love their involvement with us. We'll hear from Mark Boucardi, who runs PPV dot com in a little bit about this fight. But one of the things I will just say to the audience. One of the things that appeals here, and Mark's going to talk about this is the fact that the winner of this fight is definite, as I said,
in position to get a much bigger showdown. These are this is high stakes here for this just elaborate on that part from your point of view. Here, it's a large step at light heavyweight for whoever wins.
Sorry Night, absolutely listen. Both of these guys have had just one light heavyweight fight before, we've seen them in action what they can do at super midaweight. Benavidez is a much more established guy. He was a two time WBC title holder, and he has beaten fighters like Caleb Plant, Demitris Andre Back a little bit before that, Anthony Durrell. You know, he's got, you know, a good track record
in the weight class. David Morrell as a as a super midiweight, very big talent, obviously undefeated and a top amateur and all the things that you want to see in an up and coming fighter in the pros. But he just doesn't have the level of the level of opponent that David Benavidez has, hass So they both moved
up because Canelo wouldn't fight either one of them. More so, Benavidez Morell was the mandatory in the WBA, but it was never ordered and there was no movement there because he just didn't have the experience that people thought were the name recognition. But they both went to light heavyweight, and in he saw David Benavidie's have a fight with Alexander Vojakuza, former Lenny, former you know, legit champion in the weight division. He had lost. The one loss he
suffered was to better be of any unification fight. And uh, you know, he looked okay in that fight. He won, you know, going away on the scorecards. Benavide's had some struggles hardly because he had an injury going into the fight, an injury in the fight. Not to make excuses, but that simply the reality. And then you then you fast forward to August and you saw David Morrell. He moved
up to light heavyweight. He fought hot Rod College Chick on the Crawford Madromov card in Los Angeles, and also, you know, he won going away, there was no real question there. But also look, you know, kind of pedestrian was talking to his trainer, Ronnie Shields. Earlier in the media center, and I've I've been friendly with Ronnie for
my entire career. U a great trainer, hall of famer someday, I believe, and you know, he has the same opinion that I do of one of the reasons why Morell look real pedestrian that fight was they were in the sunfield, so to speak. That was outdoors in la It was the hottest time of day and they were in there the sun right in their eyes, and it just put them off. I mean, I'm convinced that was unsettling to him, whereas hot Rod was in the shade corner and it
was a lot better for him. And so yeah, he's still won handling, but they were very difficult circumstances for him to deal with that. So now, as Benavda said an interview, he feels like this is a fight where they can have the opportunity to really show what they're all about in the way class top notch opponent, no excuses. He says, this health is no problem in terms of morale. There ain't gonna be a sunfield. It's indoors at the
Team Obil arena. He's fought there before. They've both fought there before, so had all the makings for a very exciting fan friendly fight. I mean, listen, DJ, I think there's a lot of ways this can go. I mean, we'll get into more specifics when we do our US betting show one o'clock Eastern time on Friday. But that's that for a pluck on their YouTube and other projects.
You are so trained in doing that now you hit it before I could hit it. But there are intriguing elements to this. That's all handicap, right.
So the thing I was gonna say to about the fight itself is, and I've been talking to if people in the media center, like other boxing folks, other writers, you know, people that are trainers who aren't necessarily involved with the main event. A lot of people can see the fight going any which way. The one thing that most people don't really see as a like a real I mean a lesser it's still a possibility, but maybe a lesser possibility is morale by a knockout. But I
can see it going any which way. But I've talked to a lot of people and I'm starting to sort of feel it based on the animosity that there's sort of like this rippling like feeling among people. Maybe it's hope, maybe it's real. I don't know, but that they're going to just come out and say fuck it and go for it like Hacklers and just bombs away and whoever stand and wins the fight, and it's like a three, four or five round type of shootout fight.
Can I tell you amazing? We would want that? Can I tell you? I kind of believe the same thing. We may see it early, I don't know, in the first minute. Certainly the Haggler Herne standard is the is the stratosphere. But we may see fireworks and bombs in the first round. Yeah for this, So I'm.
Very well just the first few rounds.
How first couple of rounds? Uh right, So I'm very interested when we do that bet us show coming up ten Pacific by the way, one a one pm Eastern ten am Pacific on Friday. Which way you're gonna go? And I don't I know that this is just your you're contemplating what to do.
With you You asked me about what about other big opportunities, you know? With with the winner of the rematch between Arthur Better BVM Dmitri Bible, they fight the rematch for the undisputed title that Better has for the undisputed title uh in Saudi Arabia. Now, first I must say one thing. I love the matchup between Dnavides and Morrell, but I got to keep it real. I can't stand the fact
that this is for these two quasi bullshit belts. Okay, it's a great matchup between undefeated, top fighters in the Way class who have been exciting and been involved in you know, higher profile kinds of fights. But the fact that there's a boxing match it's going to take place, and that David Benavidez is defending the WBC Intern title
and morell Isfen the w Regular title. So it's a fun internal and regular unification, which is complete, utter fucking nonsense because there's only one real champion in the Way class, and even the fighters acknowledge that that Arthur Better is the undisputed champion of the world. He has all four reel belts, he's got ring belt, he's the lineal champion, like there isn't any other way that you can not view him as the actual champion and the light class.
He's coming off the win close fine against people who was clearly the other best guy, undefeated had the other belt. So this is in my mind, you know, it's yeah, okay, they've got their belts, fine, But the reality in the world that's that's not fantasy sanctioning body nonsense. This is in essence the eliminator to determine the people's mandatory to be the winner to fight the winner of the undisputed fight, because whoever emerges from that fight against the winner in
this fight obviously is a huge deal. Now I can't speak for the Merle situation, but certainly in terms of David dennevite Is, he is the winner. Turkey Alshik has already stated publicly that he would love to match the winner of that a rematch between the better Bible and People fight against David Benavitez, who he likes and finds exciting and I think they can do business together and all that so, and maybe will be the same for morel if he wins, maybe there'd be a rematch with
Benevidez if that happens. But the point is qumongous stakes not only on Saturday for the two men who are going to do battle, but for the winner it means a whole lot more because the possibility that they'll get that shot, and I believe that it's really strong, possibly because it's not just Turkey waves as one and says I want to make the match. They've already been announced.
The winner is the WBC mandatory, and by virtue of having the WBA regular, that means that fighter is going to be the mandatory in the WBA also, So that is a no. And there's not some other mega fight in the light heavyweight to division they go that would make sense, the only one that could kind of get in the way that maybe, and I'm not so sure if they'll do it, but possibly, depending on what happens
February twenty second. If Bevill avenges the loss, now they're one and one in a pair of good close fights, maybe there'd be some kind of movement for a third fight between them. I can't, you know, say for sure. I actually hope there wouldn't be a third fight immediately. I'd like to see. I'm all for a trilogy, fine if that's what un folds, but let them go their separate way for one fight, two fights, whatever, and then reconvene.
But the point is humongous steaks, great match up on paper, lots of steak, lots of steak, you know, in the future for the winner for a big fight that's sent right there for the winner to grab.
All right, And there's also an intriguing co feature fight. Let's get into that right now here on the preview, and that is Brandon Figueroa and Steven Fulton. And you talk about not an immediate rematch. We've had to wait basically three years two or halfish, yeah, more than three years now at this point for this thing to get scheduled and to happen. They fought a tremendous fight what
November of twenty twenty one. Now they're back in front of each other at featherweight here for the WBC featherweight title that Figaroa owns. You love this line. There's not a lot of mystery here. You could do this in a bathtub. You could do this in my kitchen, which ain't that big. I mean there's I mean, Figaroa really fights one way, Get up in the kitchen, get on you, and let's see what you have. And Fulton edged him
out the last time. I'm I'm as intrigued by the co feature, Dan, what are your thoughts you we're around the fighters Thursday.
They couldn't fight in my kitchen because we have a pretty big kitchen in our house.
But anyway, I notice I've never been invited for a meal, so I can't testify. I'll take your word for it.
Go oh, you've never been in the Northern Virginia area. If you're up here, you can You're certainly come in.
All right, you'll come into the kitchen. I'll come into your kitchen.
Go ahead. So yeah, that first fight, that was back when they were one hundred and twenty two pound fighters, and they both had belts and they fought up back in the day on showtime. This is like you said, about three and a half years ago, and it was a super close fight. It was an outstanding fight. A lot of people had it in their top few considerations
for fight of the Year of twenty twenty one. And in the end it was Stephen Fulton who won a majority decision and unified the two belts, the WBC and the WBO at one twenty two. And you know that though their careers have kind of been on a little bit of a different track. Let's say they've first of all, they've both been ridiculously inactive they've only had three fights a piece since twenty twenty one, and that doesn't cut it at as a top fighter unfortunately. So Fulton went on.
He defended the title against Danny Roman, who was obviously a unified champion at one point in one of the top guys in the division, and he won going away a shutout. That was in June of twenty twenty two. Now he's off for thirteen months and he takes the belts and he goes to Japan to defend against the monster Noill in a way, and he gets absolutely pummeled. They knocked out in the eight round, loses the titles
and you know, didn't even compete. And that was, frankly a fight where even though in a way was the favorite, there was a lot of people that were like, you know, Fulton's gonna give him in trouble. He's a alwa He's never seen a good boxer and a guy with that kind of IQ and that kind of you know, all around game that the Fulton had displayed and in a way absolutely ruined him, just destroyed him and pummeled him.
He took a long time off. He came back fourteen months later and he fought and moved up the featherweight and he fought a carl Castro, and he looked bad in that fight, and he I think he'll admit that he won barely, barely barely first of all, got knocked down in the fifth round, barely won a split decision, and off that fight in June, rather in September of
last year. He goes in this fight against Figueroa. Now, if you take a look what Fiot has done, he lost the majority decision to Fulton the first time round super close, though could definitely argue he won in his next fight. He came back in July of twenty two and what would he do TJ He knocked out Carlos Castro's common opponent in round number six, and then he scored two pretty solid victories. He beat Mark Magsaia, who had a period for a brief period was the WBC's
featherweight champion. That was their fight for the interim title, and then he knocked out Jesse Magdaleno, also a former title er, in one hundred I believe twenty two pound way class and those are solid victories for him. Ray Vargas had been the champion, but he ended up as an in recess. He had injuries and this and that, and he became the full title. So now he's the champion going into the fight, but he's also the guy looking for the revenge. They've been talking to good game,
they've been promising in the press conference. They're much more good nature with each other than Benavide's and Mell, who obviously don't care for one another. I think these guys have a lot of respect for each other, even though they're both very amped up to win the fight, and both of them are confident, you know. I think this is one of the better co features on these PBC
pay per views we've seen. I think they've done a good job with their pay per views, but for co feature perspective, while a lot of the fights have been excellent, this is I think this is even better. In my mind, this is about as good as you can ask for from PBC in terms of a co feature. A lot of stakes, good backstory, two excellent fighters too, kind of different style fighters. Again, I think it's going to be a really good fight.
And in Figueroa's case, he's been chasing this literally three years now. He wants that revenge. He believes he was robbed of that decision, that majority decision loss back in November of twenty twenty one. Let's see if he can get that revenge come a Saturday night in a game. We'll handicap this further on the at US show. This fight, which is basically a fifty to fifty fight. Here, we got Fulton out of Philadelphia and he still got something
to prove as well. I'm just saying this because the Monster blasted him out in two fights ago, as you made mention of, Figarola hasn't had a loss like that since they last fought. So now let's see.
I think Fulton's been talking a little bit about and I don't know how much it will actually play into the actual fight, but maybe for his own mentalities own confidence is he now has among his normal training team they brought in to help him out Bozannis, who was the trainer for Jeron Enna. So he was talking quite a bit about that and what he's meant to their camp and how good it's been to have him along with his other guys than game. So he feels good
about that. And look, you got these are two of the better fighters you know around in the division. Whenever you think about the last performance from Fulton, really good fight, really good fight.
Look forward to that all right, real quick. Two other fights that are on the PBC on Prime pay per view again, our friends at PPV dot com are offering it up. We suggest you use them. Give me the latest you were round but the undercard press conference. Give me the latest on Isaac Pittbull Cruise is back as well as Jesus Ramos is back as well. Tell me more about those fights on the under card real quick.
So Pitbull Cruise, you know, as you know, in his most recent fight on August third, that was the same card where Morel had his like heavyweight debut against Harod he lost his world title at one hundred and forty pounds by a split decision to Jose Vealezuela in a big upset. You know, it was a close fight, but you know he didn't get to win. And so this
is his return. Then he's fighting Angel Fierro, who may not be at the level where you know hi from world championship fights and that sort of thing, but he's been on a number of TV fights, got a good record. He's twenty three and two with two draws. Mostly by knockout and he makes fun fights and so this is like the all Mexican kind of clash. And while of course Pitbull will be the favorite, I wouldn't be surprised if Fierra wins. He's a solid quality guy and in
the ring with some good opponents. You know, he's won a few. Like I said, he's low lost, you know, to the two fights never been stopped before. And I'm gonna tell you when they did the stand when they did the face off after the New conference, uh, and they got there, you know, back in front of each other.
It was one of the longer staredowns. Like Tom Brown, who was the TGB Promotions promoter, was trying to like, okay, guys, we're good and Pitbull and then and then one of the pr folks asking them to turn and face the you know, they were facing each other, asking the turn to face the audience so the photographers could get a picture of them facing against you know, towards the photo
photo guys and Pipple wouldn't break the stair either. With Farra, pit Bull was looking right at him and it was a long, long, long, long, long.
Kind of like when Ray was at the front desk at the hotel in Vegas, and they were trying to tell you your room wasn't ready yet, and you just keep standing and staring and giving that glare that I get from time. I understand.
Yeah, I'm not like that. I'm pretty cool.
We're having fun with you. I'm having fun.
People to think I'm a dick when I travel on my crops to my friends at the MGM, because Rifuel rolled in the town, went right to the Gold Lounge and got my room at likes. I know people you know, but I know you know people.
I so pitt Bull and Fierro and also Hazes good fight Ramos as well in the middleweight division is on this undercard a little more.
Real quick So Ramos against Ramos against against Rosario is like I think Fierro and Cruz has a chance to be a really good, fun, exciting fight. Two Mexican guys are going to bang it out. We already talked about what we think about the uh the the two main title bouts. You know, in the top two fights of the car Ramos against Rosario, I feel like is a little more of mismatching. And I say that, Okay, Look when when Ramos lost. It was a very close fight
against Ericson Lubin. This was back in September of twenty twenty three. I thought he got ripped off of that fight.
I think most people did the boot I thought. I still remember the booing in the arena when that decision was announced.
That was just not a good decision my opinion. Nothing against Lubin. He's a good fighter also, but I just felt like, you know, he got beat that night. Okay, So he came back. He fought in May, he got a ninth front knock against a very experienced fighter in Johan Gonzalaz, and now he's coming back against Rozaria. He's trying to rebuild himself a little bit. This is now going to be a fight at middleweight, not at junior middle where he has been his whole career. So he's
taking on Rosario now. Rosario is a guy who's got excellent punching power and who's fought a lot of top guys, and he's been a unified champion at one hundred and fifty four and was retired for a bit for a brief period of time, coming off actually a split decision draw against Jared Hurd, who was a former champion at junior Middlewaight also at a long time PC fighter. They actually had that fight on a probox card. Anyway, Rosario does not have a good chin, flat out, He's been
stopped all four of his losses. He just cannot take the heat. So and he's also a bit older now. He seems like he's renewed. He spoke well, he seemed enthusiastic. You know, no bad body language that I could since. But I just feel like a guy like that that's already been in retirement, that's Scott, those types of losses, that has never been able to take a shot against
a guy like Romos, who's quite a bit younger. You know Rosaria enough that he's an old man, but he's twenty nine, and you know, Ramos is still in his early twenties to my recollection, and I just feel like
this fight is made to order for Ramos. You know what, Zero, maybe we'll hang in, but in the end, I think Ramos, you know you're going to see him show why now he's a new guy to pay attention to at middleweight that he's moving off because you know, by the opinion of most people, they deserve the loss of germanillweight against limit. So you know it'll maybe be fireworks, but I think in the end it's very clear who's winning the fight, you know on pap anyway, love.
That and again that's coming in the PBC Prime PBC on Prime undercard of the paper. Let's find out more from our sponsor here about this card and how you can see it. Let's do that right now as the pod continues as promised, we're going to tell you more about one of our sponsors. He's back. Has it really
been since last year? Well, it hasn't been that long this year because we've only hit the first weekend in February this weekend to talk about PPV dot Com and this upcoming David Benavidez David Morrell light Heavyweight showdown that headlines the PBC on Prime card. Hello mart Burcardi from PPV dot Com. Good to have you back here on the Big Fight weekend preview as okay, let's get it rolling here with PBC on Prime in this pay per view. Good to have you back.
Yeah, thank you. It feels like it's been a while. It's been too long. Regardless of how long it's been, so good to be with you and yeah, this is this is a great fight, right, and you know, I'll start with this quick anecdote. We had a promoter come into our offices a long time ago, but I think this still carries through.
It's about ten years ago.
They did a big focus group research study of what makes for the best pay per view events, best main events in a big pay per view event, and the number one reason that fans responded to them about why they buy a pay per view event is grudge match. And find me a fight recently that has had as much of a grudge match as this one, so we expect some fireworks.
Yeah, these two genuine I think, don't like each other.
They're both undefeated, they're both hungry. Neither one of them, Mark Benavitas or Morell could get their hands on Canelo Alvarez, so they move up to light heavyweight and decide to get their hands on each other, and in particular, Bena Vitez has already headlined a couple of times against Caleb Plant, Demetrius Andrede on pay per view with with with big wins, So this has been interesting as it has built up this week now headed into this weekend between these two guys,
and I don't think it's an exaggeration that we may see fireworks immediately in this thing. Do you agree with that?
Yeah?
No, I absolutely agree with it. And it's nice that the unintended consequence of both of them not getting the Canelo fight is they fight each other.
Yeah, that's correct, which is.
What we're gonna get. So so yeah, no, I agree. I do expect fireworks right away. It's a fifty to fifty fight, right and I'm trying to think back, you know, when the last time we've had a real fifty to fifty fight head.
Run of a interview.
So yeah, no, I agree, fireworks from the get go. Let's get it on well.
And in the case of what a story Cuban born, his adopted home is Minnesota. I've always said, if you're going to relocate from the balmy weather of Cuba or Florida, you might as well go to Minnesota in the Great White North. So he's had some main event opportunities on PBC shows in Minnesota. Obviously we know about him in terms of the podcast audience here that's listening to us or big time fight fans, but the casual sports fan or the casual boxing fan. The big sports fan is
the casual box fan. They may not know a lot about David Morell, but the guy could punch. He's got a Cuban amateur background, and this is intriguing to see what he can do on the biggest stage.
Morell.
Oh absolutely, and if you are a boxing fan, even a casual boxing fan, this is a fight that you want to see.
It really is.
I mean, like we said before, fifty to fifty stylistic matchup. It's a great matchup.
Right.
You've got this, this straightforward puncher against a guy who's a little more finesse, and you know, it checks. It really does. Can go down the list of what makes a great fight. This one checks every box. So I agree that the stories behind these guys make this an even more compelling reason to tune in.
And you've got two of the organizations at light heavyweight. It's essentially the interim WBC title, and it is also the regular WBA title, which means when the rematch happens with the two Russians better BV and b Bowl, the winner would look the way of the winner of this fight. It kind of sets up in advance of those guys rematching later on in this month, another added element here. You got a big time, lucrative, worldwide interest showdown and
payday coming up. If you win, if you've been a Vitasa morrel.
Yeah, you hit on that last checkbox. I was talking about this fight hitting every one of those my little list of notes that I have here, that's the last one. It's what the winner of this gets. And you're guaranteed to have a winner who's going to get a big fight next, which you don't always get, but in this case you do.
We like that and we love PPV dot Com Again for the fans, they're going to get a great interactive experience. I know the legendary Jim Lampley and Lance Pugmeyer are there in Vegas as we speak, getting ready to be part of this, and your guys Dankdobio and Chris Aljery
who we always love, always love the content. They're all as part of Fight Weekend and the live pay per view, going to be interacting with fans as part of your specific service with PPV dot Com, elaborate a little more about what they're doing and having them involved.
Yeah.
Absolutely, we're going to have the full crew of guys on the chat during the event, so they're going to be ready to answer questions, give their commentary. Dan himself is going to be hopping over to the main broadcast where he's going to be doing a draft kings breakdown on the main feed of the event, and then he's going to pop back over to our chat, so he'll be back and forth. So you know, we got guys
covering things from all different angles on the fight. So if you are a boxing fan, you want to get this, this is the place to buy it.
I can't tell you I've seen this at least two or three times where people in particular with Jim Lampley, such a legendary part of the soundtrack of big time fights really from the late eighties all the way into the late twenty tens, where your fans are interacting, going, this is really cool that I'm going back and forth with Jim Lampley while the fight's going on. That's another neat feature from PPV dot com. And here's the other thing that we keep emphasizing that you do not need
a long term subscription here. It is a one off purchase opportunity. You buy what you want right. Elaborate on that with your service.
Yeah, it's not a long term subscription. In fact, it's not a subscription at all. It's buy what you want and move on. So we've got we already know we're going to have a couple big events this year, so you know, we're open for business for this weekend, come back, you know in a few weeks for the next big event a few weeks after that, and we got a bunch of things rolling out the next few months.
And that next event is the March first showdown with Tank Davis's return in twenty twenty five with Lamont Roach for lightweight unification. That's at the Barclay Center. That's on PPV dot com. That's March the first, and again is buy what you want if you want this Benavitas fight, but you're not interested in Tank and Roach. We hope you're interested in both. You don't have to have both. If you want the Tank and Roach fight again, we'd love to have you buy both. Don't hear me say
that don't buy both. I'm just saying they can buy what they want, including the upcoming Tank Davis fight in New York.
That's right, we'd love to have you buy both. But if you buy one, it doesn't mean you have to buy the other. So the option is yours on PPV dot com.
As always love that And you got a big DC Baltimore rivalry with Roach and Davis. More on that at a later date. One more time it is Benavitas and Morrell and by the way, an outstanding co feature with Brandon Figueroa and Stephan full Do I get a pick out of you on Figaroa Fulton. It was such a close fight the first go around about two and a half years ago, and I joke all the time they
could have fought the fight on a bathroom rug. They literally used up about three square feet and stood toe to toe and bomb each other for twelve rounds and Fulton got the nuro decision. That's going to be a very chaining co feature fight as part of this pay per view from PBC in Prime.
Yeah, So what I think we expect on this one is we're gonna have more people tuning in earlier just for that fight for that reason. You know, the last fight was so close, and you know, I've always been a figure out kind of guy, so uh huh, I'm gonna stick with him. But uh yeah, it's going to be a great lead up. I think to this main event no doubt.
And again it's figure rollas WBC Featherweight title that is on the line World Championship co feature than David Benavitez, the two David's and David Morrell in the main event PPV dot com. It is simple to sign up to make the purchase. It's a one off with no further obligation. Are you ready for the fights this weekend? Martin BOUCARDI are we good? Are we ready to go?
Let's do it. I'm ready to go. I could watch right now, so I can't wait till Saturday night.
We love it again, get with our friends at PPV dot com. Thank you Mark, you Bet, thank you TJ.
So there you go.
We've given you obviously a bunch on the PBC on Prime pay per view. But that is not all for this weekend. Let's talk about Saturday afternoon in the US, Saturday Night Primetime in the UK. The boxer card that will be on Peacock in the United States, Sky Sports over in England, adam Azeem junior welterweight contender and a veteran name that we know in Sergei Lippinets, So a little preview here of this because a Zeem obviously is
angling for a title shot. Lipinets has been in with world champions before your thoughts, Dan.
I mean, Adam is Zeem is an excellent young fighter. I don't think he's even close to ready yet for a world title fight. He has been briefly the European champion. He gave up that title. He's only twelve to zero. He's got nine knockouts, He's only twenty two years old. He's got plenty of still improving, not I mean, I want to say improving, but honing his skills. He needs reps. He's a baby in this game. He has had no
tough fights relatively speaking. He needs the more experience opponents. Lipinets, it was like the kind of guy that might be able to give him to a little bit. In his last fight, he scored what I would say was that question his biggest win. But do you consider O'Hara Davies that big of a win after he'd been iced in one round. So, you know, and they had work, they had spart together, they know each other, they were friendly, and he gave you know, O'Hara gave him like a
reasonable fight, but but Adam Asim he dominated. Now he's, like I said, he's a younger fighter, he's developing a fan base. He's got a little swagger to him. He's a good punching power, and he did take O'Hara Davies out in the eighth round. That was back in October. So now he's back here in just a few months later against Sergei Lipinez. Now Lipinets, you know, I think most people, and they're one hundred and forty pounders, most
people would say Lilypinetzs has probably seen better days. You know, he briefly held the IBF title. He's got the three losses, the one stoppers loss that sort of like sticks out like a sore thumb because he got pretty much annihilated by Boots Ennis in the sixth round, but he was dropped multiple times. That was back in twenty twenty one, and since then he won to fight against Omar Figure,
he put into retirement. Basically, he then lost to Michelle Rivera, you know, which is kind of a kind of an unfortunate loss for him, because that is not a good loss, if there's such a thing. He did come back and then he had a fight in May of last year where he defeated the British fighter Robie David Junior by a decision, which is that's an okay win. It's nothing to write home aback. But now now Lippinetz has taken
his show on the road. He's going to London, He's gonna fight at ZEEM in his home area and it's up to Adam ism to show that he not only that he belongs in the conversation as a future star and contender and potential champion, et cetera at one hundred and forty pounds, but based on where Lippenitz is in his career, it is my opinion that he needs to do the job on him. As they say, you can't let this be close. You can't let him hang around.
You can't or you know you can again, you can go the distance, but you gotta be dominating, like if he goes life and death or there's an issue, and it's going to make people really question a ZEEM because this is in terms of the name on a guy that's known in the world boxing, not just British boxing, who's been in the ring with quality fighters throughout his career, even if he's lost some of them. And again the names you know are familiar. And then chel Mar figure
out John Ennis. He also fought Lamon Peterson, he thought Mikey Garcia that was his first loss in a decision. That's back in twenty eighteen. So he's faced you know, pretty good guys, even like you know, go back even a few years before that Lenny Zappavingo, who was a good contender at the time he beat him. So this is the opportunity, in my opinion, that Adamazine can really shine against a more recognizable opponent than the fighters he
has been facing. And so that's what the task is twelve the No.
Twenty two year old and again that's a main event. Excuse me, Peacock app will have that on Saturday afternoon if you're in the United States, kind of as a warm up to what's going to go on on Saturday night with Adam Azine. Excuse me, in that main event. All right. Interesting that Claressa Shields is also back. While we're in the preview mode, Big Dan Claressa will defend her WBC title that heavyweight and then this is for three other belts that are currently vacant against Danielle Perkins.
You have talked before. This is on Sunday, it's in Flint, Michigan. It's Salita Promotions that's doing this. But you've talked before that, in particular in the women's heavyweight world, it is thin in terms of talent pool.
It's not even known.
And so I guess the boida and I'm gonna pose it. Claressa's heavily favored. How much are we legitimizing that she's potentially the undisputed heavyweight champion of women's boxing with what's going on here with this fighter Perkins.
Okay, I can tell you this. Anybody who has ever read what I have written or listened to what I've said knows I have nothing but the most respect for the ability and the talent and everything that Clarissa shows as accomplished. I'm a fan of hers. I have interviewed her many times, I have met her many times. I have been you know, I've known her manager for twenty five years, Mark Kaffi, from his days at HBO. Nothing but the massive respect heavyweight women's boxing is a joke.
It just this. She will, you know, be fighting in the heavyweight division because you can't find like top opponents in the smaller way class. She's fought all the way from one hundred and fifty four pounds and then a champion all the way up you know, super middleweight, and and the thing about women's boxing is that, yeah, they call it a heavyweight title fight, but the organizations call it different things that have different weight limits. It's not unlimited the way it is in some of the men's
weight classes. So this fight is actually a one hundred and eighty pound fight, so it's like a light heavyweight fight a little bit over the limit, or you could say it's a cruiserweight fight, but a sure isn't a
heavyweight fight as we know it. So just to make the technical you know detail there, if you take a look at the sanctioning bodies and you look and see in their what they're top weight classes, because like I said, they have different top levels in terms of the weight there are a mere handful of women in the whole world that are even ranked. Like there's some divisions like
I think, I forget which one. I don't want to say the wrong one, but one of the four organization doesn't even have they're basically creating the weight class for this fight. They don't have a ranking, there's nobody ranked in the division. They don't even listen on their website. So I understand what she's trying to do. I can't
I can't blame her. She's got opportunity to fight for titles, and you know, she can win a you know, you know, a fight, make money and put on, you know, a fight for her hometown fans and all that, but it's taking a back seat, let's say, this weekend, because the pay per view is obviously way bigger on Saturday, even in the UK and the rest of you know, Europe, with such the boxer card is a bigger deal, and this has sort of been kind of a forgotten show.
And her opponent, Daniel Perkins, all due respect, she is five and oh and not accomplished in any way, shaped or form. She's got the fight because she happens to have the proper physical dimensions to be a woman that's around that weight class. So the fact that this is for the undisputed title and they're gonna call it the undisputed heavyweight title, to me, that's more promotional. By the way, May I say that Daniel is forty two years old and has been a professional.
Since five fights and only recently. Wow, so ya.
Listen, she's never even had a ten rounder. Wow.
So let me let me interject, we keep it real. This is clearly something from a marketing standpoint that they want to call her undisputed in another weight division. But is sham too strong of a word. Sham't call this an undisputed crown for this. I think the whole heavyweight concept right now is a sham. I'm not saying Cloressa Shields is a sham. I'm saying it's a sham concept that this is some great accomplishment right now with what you just laid out, That's what I would say.
I can't disagree that it's not a sham because from a technical and factual perspective, she will have the four belts in another weight class. She'll be able to say, whether you agree with it or not, that she will be the first person man or woman in the four belt era undisputed champion in three different weight classes. But the devil is in the details, and so when you don't have any there's literally I'm not even like being like facetious or like joking around or like trying to
make it funny. There's literally not anybody ranked in the weight class in some of the organizations, so.
They could get that's right. That says to me, it's a sham title because you don't even have anybody rank. You could name anybody as the champ running a certain fight under that premise, two.
Things can be true at the same time. We can say this is ridiculous, and it's it's it's it's nonsense that the three division un disputed champion from the perspective of the opponents being fought. But the other thing thing also be true is that Clarissa Shield is the best female boxer in the world pound for pound. That that
I would I'll die on that hill. As they say, the woman has bought two time gold medal winner uh seventy seven and one or something like that out as an amateur, the one loss to Savannah Marshall avenged as a professional by the way, she was seventeen years old when they had that fight. And in terms of her professional record, as I mentioned, not only all the titles she's won from fifty four to you know what's seventy five,
I guess now going for heavyweights. And the reality is, if you take a look at her entire professional resume at fifteen and oh and all those fights, you could probably count on one hand the rounds that she's lost. I mean, she doesn't love.
She's been dominant, she's been domb But there is an argument, and I'm just saying this as a counter she hasn't been in with a lot of great competition overall, not recently overall. And again this is tactical to do that. The three the three time four belt undisputed.
What I don't know about what else is she supposed to do? Is the question she's avoiding somebody.
Would be would there be anybody else realistically at one sixty eight? And apparently there's not.
Tell me she's beat them all, all right, So, I mean, the fact of the matter is she she's fought all the best women in and around her divisions when she was there, whether it's Christina Hammer, or it's Evanna Habison, or it's Emma Cozen or Savannah Marshall in the professional
rematch or Crenejo. And then she went up and waited and she fought the Canadian woman you know the page, and she iced her in the second round, which is a rare thing because Claressa in as great as she is, the one attribute that she has lacked is the punching. Parrish only got three knockouts in fifteen fights. So you know, I don't like this fight. I like Claressa. I wish her luck. I got nothing against Perkins, but she's un established.
She's forty two, She's never fought anything behind scheduled eight round.
And should not be in a fight for four belts for a world championship, world championships.
That's I am born on it, and it is what it is, all right.
So that is on Sunday again on Sunday Night on Dezone and from Solida Promotions for Claressa Shields. All right, we get to some news and then some nostalgia before we are done, and I know you've got a heavy heart. I did read on my Dan Rayfield substack about the passing of legendary New York boxing writer and really national boxing writer as well. Once the Internet came of age Michael Katz, who passed away this week at the age
of eighty five. I loved the stories. The humor came off the page at me because you know what, when I'm reading what you were writing, there's a lot of Dan Rayfield and what you were writing just what I know about you, and now I begin to understand where you got it from. So I'm making you smile, even though this is a bit of a sad occasion for you to talk about this.
Michael Kastz was a giant of the sport period. I mean I read Michael Katz's columns in the Daily News before I ever met and got to know him. He was a legendary journalist. He was obviously based in New York, but he had a national profile. This is way before the Internet. If Michael Katz wrote a column in many regards,
it's set the narrative for the sport. Like if he liked a certain fighter, he didn't like a certain fighter, he thought a fight was, you know, controversial or you know whatever his perspective was that became in many ways the talking point of the fans and the business. I mean, that's just the fact because the New York sports writers in those days had a lot of power in terms of what they wrote, and Michael Katz stood above all
of them. And there was a lot of great writers and guys who battled it out on the beat every day in those newspapers New York Times, news Day, Daily News, you know, New York Post. I mean there was plenty of guys, you know, people like Walie Matthews and Phil Berger and Michael Katz, and you know there's there's plenty of those guys. But he he was not only did he know the sport, and not only did he have that kind of power for lack of a better word,
but he also was a absolutely brilliant writer. Put put boxing aside. I've read all kinds of different writers, whether sports or otherwise. He's just a brilliant wordsmith. Like I think I'm pretty good, and I've done this for a long time, but I'm not that egotistical to say that when I read his columns or his pieces, I can't do that. And I dare say there's not a single colleague that I have at Ringside in today's day that can hold a candle to the way that he would
write a story, period. And that's no, not because I work Ringside with a lot of talented guys and gals, but Michael Katz was above them. Now. When I first started, and I told the story in my column that I wrote for his obituary. I first met Michael. I think I might have met him in two thousand when I covered that for you. First fight I did in or ninety eight Atlantic City at the NA see my med fight.
But when I first really met him was at the first fight I covered as the national writer for USA Today in April of two thousand, Lennox Lewis and Michael Grant. But I didn't like really know him known, but you know,
he was friendly to me and all that. So now he fast forward like a couple of weeks later, three weeks later, a month later, I go for my second USA Today assignment to Atlantic City to cover a heavyweight doubleheader in the Bally's Ballroom and some good heavyweights on the Hassim Rockman became a champion against the South African Corey Sanders. He had Ole maskaiaf who became a heavyweight
champion against Derek Jefferson. Anyway, on the I saw Mike at the at the event and we're in the hotel and he says to me in the morning of the fight, and you know, he he he didn't do this except for people that he kind of liked. I guess he called them kid. Now I was like a grown man. I was in my late twenties. But he says, come on, kid, I'm taking you to lunch and I'm going to teach
you how to do this. So we go to like this deli in the Bally's based in Bally's Casino down on the boardwalk level, and we're overlooking the boardwalk and we had a lunch together, and he told stories and he gave me tips, and he told me who was who in the business, who could be trusted, who could not be trusted, you know, scenarios I would encounter with promoters and fighters and pr people and managers and other writers, whatever it was. And keep in mind, I'm like two
months on the beat at this point. I started in March of two thousand. We're now here in like May of two thousands. So I'm still real wet behind the ears, as they say. And so he couldn't have been nicer to me. And I said in the piece, and I feel like this is definitely the way it went down. Is he basically he's like he must have. I knew he he read some stuff I had written in USA. Today.
I was a new guy. I was still young, obviously, and he took a liking to me, and I feel like I joked around like you know that he adopted me that weekend. I became like his like he was gonna look out for me, and he did. He looked out for me. And the thing about it also was he had written as the national boxer writer for the New York Times. He had written as an ask He left the Times and he went to the New York
Daily News. And when I first started at USA Today, he had just left the Daily News and went to and he was trailblazing at the time, because nobody in our business I was leaving print media to go to the internet. But he did. He left the New York Daily News and a real cushy job there as a columnist, and he went to a place called the House of Boxing, which was created back at that time, and they paid
him a lot of money. And for those who weren't around at that time, the House of Boxing eventually evolved into the website called Max Boxing. People like Dougie Fisher and Steve kimm and guys like that Tom Gerbasi, they were the younger guys that worked there. And but Mike was the real draw to that, to that website. He would writing all the time, and he was.
Obviously we're now in the present. They were way ahead of their time with what they were doing with this House of Boxing idea and the internet.
So in those early days, the writers from all over the country, and every paper still had a writer basically, So if there was a big fight in New York or Vegas, you know, a lot of guys would travel for the fight. But for the fights that weren't the mega fights, there was really very few that traveled except the three guys that did travel to a lot of the really excellent fights, but not the mega fights or meet Michael Casts from House of Boxing and Timothy tim
Smith from the New York Daily News. And so I spent in those first three four years five years or so, probably most of my USA today tenure a tremendous amount of time with Michael and with tim traveling on the road, going to fights. And the thing is I always think about is Mike didn't drive because he lived in New York City, so we never had a need for a car, never got I don't think he had a driver's license. I hated to rent cars I have terrible directions since
so I'm much more happy taken a cab. But Tim always rented the car. Wherever we went, didn't matter he in Vegas, he would rent the car. So for all those trips we made, Miami, Chicago, pick a place, you know, Detroit, whatever it was. Tim always had the car and we always were with him in the car, like where we went. So we ate meals together, and we went to press conferences together, and we went to the airport together, and
we stayed in the same hotels and anyway. So I learned a massive amount from Katz and and him to some degree. But Michael was like he was like the mentor to all of us. But he was one of the kind because he could be the biggest dick in the world because he had a temper and he would rip people in the paper. I would say, and this
is a fact. You know, the fighters loved and respected them for the most part, but the TV guys and the promoters feared him when he went on the attack because he could just shape rip them down into shreds and make it like a thing. Right. And just as one example of the respect that fighters had for Michael Katz is he covered Mike Tyson's entire career as an entity. And remember back in those days with the New York tabloids battling out every day, and Tyson was front page News,
sports or otherwise. It was a big fucking deal. And cats covered all that you know, from the you know, all the way from the eighties through Buster Douglas, through prison, you name it. And so Mike had probably reasoned to maybe dislike Mike because then everything was kind that Mike wrote about Michael about Mike Tyson. But they had a respect, love and a respect for each other. So two quick Tyson Cat stories, so this shows you the respect they had.
First one in two thousand and one, Ish, I forget what it was. I was in Vegas covering Lennox, covering Evander Holyfield against John Ruiz, the rematch for the WBA heavyweight title, and they had taken myself and several other writers to Mike's mansion off the strip to sit down with Mike to talk about embargo after the fight, about the prospect that Showtime would try to make him against the Winter meeting, a fight with Ruiz or a third
fighter with Evander. And so we're sitting in the lot in the big open living room, and Tyson is there and Cats was there, and we were like not even in existent because it became a Cats and Tyson thing. And they spend time arguing about how to roll in marijuana, join which was absolutely and cat. So that was one great cat story that that Mike Tyson was like trying to are you.
Gonna tell me next? We're keeping it real on the pod. Are you gonna tell me next? That they lit it and smoked it. No, they just were arguing about how to roll it.
That was it.
That's a tremendous story. That's not in the substack, by the way. That's not the subs by the way.
No, keep going, okay, And so the second one is now fast forward. This is many years there, This is like two years ago something like that. I'm at the MGM Grand for a Canelo Alvarez way in and I've I had known Mike since I first started. I've told the stories. I don't have to rehash that. But I interviewed Mike a million times, covered several of his team. You know, we certainly knew each other, not like we're
best friends or anything like that. But I saw him at the way in and I went over to him and he recognized me, stood up, and he gave me a hug, and we talked and we spent like a little bit of time just kind of cashing up. But the first thing that Mike ask me about, are you
still in touch with mister cats? Cat called him? And that's because Mike cat ample respect for Michael Katz, like I said, re wordsmith, but profane and cantankeros and air curmudgeon, but with the people that he liked and respected, extremely generous. I used to get it ribbed from him because he would write Max's boxing columns and he would sometimes take
a little swipe in me. I never really took it the bad way because I knew, based on my relationship with Mike, that he was doing it as a way to like be pointed with you know, you can do better than that kind of like I referred to it in the piece I wrote as tough love. So I never had a problem with that. And now grant that I had a lot of love for Mike, I hadn't been in touch with him. He's been retired, he'd been ill his unfortunately his wife had died many years before
I met him. His daughter passed away very tragically as a young woman just a few years ago. But the last time I had any real contact him, I kept up with what he was doing because we had people that we both knew that would occasionally check in with me. When I won the Natt Fleischer Award from the Boxing Writers Association for career excellence in Boxing journalism in twenty thirteen, which is a very prestigious award because it's only voted on my past winners. So I was obviously very honored
to win that. And uh, that was, like I said, twenty thirteen. Michael Katz won that award in nineteen eighty one, and wow, one of the and I got, you know, several people in the business that called me or send me emails or text to congratulate me. I think like one of the first things I got was an email from Mike Katz congratulating me. So he didn't say it that he voted for me, but I'm pretty sure he did based on the way the email was.
Uh.
Uh that that lunch from all those years earlier, where I felt like he took me to that lunch because he saw something that thought maybe someday I might be halfway decent.
And that was his response to Congression that we both a mentor for me, and let me say this, I'm not going to ruin it right now. I'm going to push people to your substack. Get on Dan's substack. Get on his newsletter. Read the story about him brawling with another boxing writer at a press conference, and it involves Bob Aram suddenly caught up in it. Read that. Read about how he dealt with a photographer at the Madison
Square Garden Theater. It's hilarious, the photographers in Michael Katz's way. Dan gives a great recounting of it. It's hilarious. How am I doing? On on pumping your substack.
You're going to go.
Read the sub stack for these stories because it's worth it.
Go the famous media room fight with the other journalist. I was not present. It was I got the blow by blow from a lot of the guys that were there, But the one about the photographer, I was were right aside from well.
That was going on. So catch catch all of that on the substack and rip to Michael Katz and listen.
He covered every you know. The eighties were the golden age of like the newspaper business into the nineties, so we covered the Four Kings. He covered Holmes and George Foreman and Mike Tyson, Andy Vander Holyfield and Oscar de la Hoya and Roy Jones, all of them extensively on the road traveling. I mean, and he wasn't just boxing. He had spent years in Europe as the sports editor for the New York Times International, and he'd covered all kinds of other sports. He was a great connoisseur of wine.
I remember going to places to restaurants with him in Vegas off the strip when we hear for big fights where a fewest would go out, we wouldn't just stay in the hotel. He knew all the restaurants in town. And Mike. I'm not a big wine drinker, but Mike always had the right bottle of wine that everybody else seemed to enjoy because of his I guess his time in Paris for all those years, he knew every kind of wine there. Was so a smart but ultimate curmudgeon. But I think, ultimately with a great.
Heart, love it all right. I know you're I know you got a heavy heart, but you did a great tribute written and now verbally here on the pod. All right, a couple of news items. Let's go. So on Thursday, as we released this podcast, Top Rank made it official. March twenty ninth will be the date of a card they have in Las Vegas at the Fountain Blue Hotel and Casino, Mikayla Mayer Sandy Ryan rematch, as well as another world title fight with Brian Norman finally back from injury,
and a little more. Tell me more about what they announced real quick.
Yeah, they announced the MICHAELA Mayor Sandy Ryan rematch, which I had written about and others had also. It was not a surprise that they got it done, but now it's official, like you mentioned in March twenty ninth in Vegas for MICHAELA Mayor's WBO Women's Welter White title, which she won when she knocked not knocked out, but went to a majority decision with Sandy Ryan. Back in September. Remember that was the first of all outstanding fight. They
battled it out at the Madison Square Guarden Theater. They had a tremendous battle. That was the fight where Sandy Ryan had that wild stuff happened as she's leaving the hotel to go to the to the arena where somebody jumped out of the car and threw, you know, a big can of red paint all over her, and she
blamed Mikayla's team. Michaelee denied anything involved with that. That kind of set in motion, you know, some of the background, and of course they had had the whole thing about how Sandy had worked with one of Mikhaela's assistant trainers without McKellen knowing you that she ended up firing that training, So there was sort of some animosity there anyway. So now they're going to do the rematch and it should be another heck of a fight. I mean, they put
on a tremendous battle the first time. And you mentioned in terms of the co feature Brian Norman, who is the WBO welterweight title holder, which he won you in an upset, but he hasn't been able to defend it yet because he had an injury that prevented him either from possibly making the Boutennans fight, which fell a part of her money, but also another defense that was supposed to take place Againstquavis on a different card at the end of last year. So he's going into this fight
with really a lot of sake. He looked great against Giovanni Santio, who he stopped in San Diego, which was Santition's hometown. That was back in May. So he's going to be off of what ten month layoff. He's taken on Quavis, who's a stolid guy but maybe not a top top contender. Only got one lost Quaevis, and this is the opportunity for Norman to gain a little bit more exposure, gain a little bit more notoride. He put a defense under his belt and say, okay, I'm ready.
Give me Stanionis or Ennis whoever comes out of that, or you know, maybe I can get the Barrios fight, or give me some other name in the welterweight division, maybe a t female Lopez will move up. At some point where they talked about making Ta Femo against against against Brian Norman at the end of last year. It didn't end up happening, so important fight for him. And then you mentioned the third fight. This is not on
the ESPN main card. This will be I guess the top fight of the plot AESPN plus only you have the the exciting featherweight up and comer Bruce Shueshue Carrington. He is a title eliminator in the featherweight division against Enrique Vivas. So that is that is what the card looks like. They haven't announced the rest of the card.
I'm sure they'll put on some other other top prospects, but the women's fight should be excellent, and I'll be very happy to see Brian Norman, who is one of the young the youngest maybe the second youngest active world title holder in the sport today, at least among the men, like what twenty three years old, and you know, get it, get a defense under his belt, or you know, maybe maybe uh maybe Quavis pulls off the upside.
And again that card for late March, and I did see where Bruce Shueshu Carrington, I guess is around right now because the WBC eliminator, potentially at featherweight is for the winner of the Figarola Stephen Flton fight that's coming Saturday night, and Carrington might be involved with one of those guys down the road, So keep an eye on
that all right. Moving along, you talked to us before about Taya Fimo Lopez, who's he fighting again, and about how Jack Caterall and Arnold Barbosa are already fighting an interim title. About all right, what is the WBA announced this week as it regards this whole situation, So you mean the WBO number one WBO, I misspoke, I'm sorry, WBO. What did they announce?
Well, you know, back whenever it was a month or two, whatever it was, they allowed the fight. Originally, well, caterall Is fighting Arnold Barboza Junior originally was a title eliminator and that was done Delta mattrom Car taking place in Manchester his own February fifteenth. You know, a good solid fight between two of the better guys in the weight class.
But because t Femo at that moment was in a big beef with top rank turning down fights, turning down dates, don't want to do the money, No, not enough money, this or that, and it was very frustrating to everybody. Top rank was sort of exacerbated by it. The WBO was upset because he hadn't fought for not a long
layoff by normal standards, but nothing in the plans. They described it as, you know, his career kind of in Limbo hadn't made a mandatory defense, even though they're usually do once a year, so it'd already been like well over a year since there had been a mandatory made
in the weight class. So they were like, okay, we're going to allow Catterall and Barbosa to be for the interim title, and the winner will have to be the first defense when Ta Femo comes back, so today or the day or not today, but within the last couple of days this week, they said, they put out an official resolution that said specifically, and then you know, it's one thing for people to tweet it or say it,
but they got to put it in the paperwork. So the WBA did what it's supposed to do in terms of making an official They said, one hundred percent, the winner of Barbosa and Catterall when t Fimo comes back, must be his first opponent, and they put a time frame on it, which is one hundred and eighty days,
so they have to get that jump. Now. The reason why this is more than just your normal mandatory order, because that would be that big of a deal to say the you got to fight the interim champion, is that when this order was made, it comes at a time where t Fimo Lopez with his new management team that we spoke about with the Okay from Top Rank
his promoter. They are engaged in a conversation and negotiation with Turkey Alshi can do a three fight deal with tia Fimo, and the deal there is to do fights like perhaps the winner of Caterall and Barbosa. But what they are hoping for is that it will ultimately end with t Fimo Lopez fighting the winner of whoever merges from the Devin Haney versus Ryan Garciri match, which is scheduled you know, in October, as long as they win
their interm fight. So looking longer range, the point is they're not going to necessarily be able to go forward and do like the first fight they were thinking about was to do tia Fimo in a unification with the IBF champion Richards and Nichins. So if he has to fight the winner of Barbosa and Catterall next, that may put that off. Now, maybe they can reassess it. Maybe they'll allow him to do a unification fight and have
to have the the the interim fight after that. The point is, though there's a lot going on with what's up with Tifimo right now, and so it's not one hundred percent clear but it feels like what the WBOLE said, Hey, whatever your plans are, you gotta fight the winner of this fight within one hundred eighty days.
And the other thing is he could vacate if you wanted to. I mean, apparently he could vacate, and then they're gonna name Catererall Barbosa winner as the champ. That's the whole purpose of the interim title. We'll see, I.
Wish, and again I think that the WBO generally does a good job with these things. It would have been my preference to before you get an itchy trigger, don't make it for the interim title, just leave it be. I know Ti Fimo was jammed up with his promotion, he was in the process of changing the management, but I felt like it was a little premature to declared that the interim title. But that's just my opinion.
Then again, I'm just giving the counterpoint. I'm not saying you're arguing this. He's been a knucklehead and won't fight anybody, so they're trying to light the fire under him. Fight somebody, fight who we want you to fight, or give the belt up. Stay tuned, it's boxing. A couple more you have talked before about Kinshiro Taraji and now he is going to be back action coming in March. Tell me
more about the WBC's flyweight champion. Tell me more about the card in Japan, because we can't get enough of a little early morning Japanese breakfast and Japanese boxing. Give me a little more.
Well, this is a tremendous matchup. I mean, Taraji is, in my opinion, one of the most exciting fighters in boxing. He's a guy that I think you can you know, maybe not if you wanted to make the argument you could find a place for him at the bottom of the top ten or pound for pund lists. I don't know if I could argue too strangle to see against that. He's on the cusp with that. At the very least,
he's a really excellent fighter. He just moved up to the flyweight division and won the title, and now he's not messing around. In his first defense of the WBT title, He's taken on Serge Akui, who is only going to be in a second defense. They're going to unify the titles. And what makes it kind of even more interesting is that have it all Japanese title unification fight is very rare,
very rare. It's happened only like a few times in the history of you know, the multi belt, whether it's two belts, three belts, four belts, it just does not happen very often. And so this is an interesting part of that card. And these are two of the best fly weights in the world, and Taraji may not be super well known, but he's definitely a musty kind of guy. Now,
it's interesting. This is not definitely gonna be on ESPN Plus yet like the other Japanese big title cards we've seen with teaking promotions, because those are fight cards that have been on Amazon Prime in Japan and Top Rank is taken in those. This is on a different streaming service in Japan, so it still remains to be seen if Top Rank isn't gonna end up doing it. But I'm sure if you're a savvy boxing person, you'll be able to find it somewhere, whether it's YouTube right after
the factor perhaps live somewhere. In any event, though, so that's the main event of that card. They got a couple they got some other title fights on the show as well, but the main attraction, of course is Taraji against a Koui which is a first class matchup. Again, you know, not everything is at the heavyweight division or superstar names, but if you like boxing, this is an excellent, excellent matchup. And both guys they're not messing around going
you know, not being champions for very long. They're just going right into like literally the toughest fight they can have.
That coming in about six weeks in March. And also we got more good news about what's apparently coming maybe in March, and this is a rematch with William Zapaieda and Tevin Farmer for the NUMWBC lightweight title. Zapeida got the split decision controversial. Farmer had a case that he maybe won that fight. What's the latest They just fought in November. What's the latest here on the rematch.
Yeah, so it's not done yet, but I was talking to Golden Boy and they're making plans to try to get the fight done. They want to do the rematch. You know, Zepaida's mandatory for cha cour Stevenson, but he's fighting February twenty second. They didn't fight in the first place because of the injuries that had been going on with both guys, so it kind of got put off. And so he fought Farmer instead on that Latino Night card in November. As you mentioned, they had a tremendous battle,
really good fight, and Zapeida won the close decision. Farmer, you know, kind of complained the battle a bit, and without a lot of other stuff going on and something nothing else that really was a big dealer, made a lot of sense. They figured, let's give Farmer the rematch. So they're trying to put the fight together from March twenty ninth. It'll be a de Zone fight, obviously being that as Golden Boy, and they're looking to do it in Cancun, Mexico, which is a paida is from Mexico,
so Farmer, you know, have to travel. But you know, while you're waiting for the she Court fight, this is still a pretty good fight. Farmer, you know, he feels aggrieved because he feels he beat far he beat Sapaida. He believes he believes he kind of got a raw deal against Raymond Moretaya in the previously I which I don't agree with that for Attia definitely won that, but it was certainly competitive at least, and so for a guy that's lost a couple of fights in recent times
in a row. Kevin Farmer is still a pretty damn good fighter, and we'll see if he gives a paid another run for his money if they get the deal done.
All right, And that leads us now to nostalgia and uh, you know, we talked about some of the greats. Julio Cesar Chavez put his unbeaten record on the line, going back to Wednesday. Now as we released the podcast Thursday Night into Friday, January twenty ninth of nineteen ninety four, This is now thirty one years ago from Wednesday. That more, Morristown,
Tennessee's Frankie Randall, the surgeon Frankie Randall. He is the all time answer to the trivia question who's the first guy to not only defeat Julio Caesar Chavez, but knocked him down in the fight and then eventually won What Chavez is can't believes is a cot and fans a
controversial split decision in their first fight. The late Frankie Randall won that and as Dan points out, it's the first fight card ever correct at the MGM Grand Where you are right now, Nostalgia on top of nostalgia, Dan Rayphiel for this I.
Realized that when I was in I can't. I got to Las Vegas on a Wednesday, which was the anniversary off this fight, So here I am. Now the MGM is not where the David Morrel and Benavidez are fighting in the Timo Bellerina, which is, you know, just a couple of blocks up the street, but the host hotel for all of the fights that take place at Timoblerina has been or most of them anywhether there might be one or two that weren't, but it's been the MGM grant.
So here I am checking into the MGM Grand for a fight week on the day that is the anniversary of the first boxing event they ever did there, the Grand Slam of Boxing, one of the big don King
shows back in the day. When people talk about stack cards, I always say, well, go look at the Don King cards that took place, you know in the early and mid nineties that that sort of was the beginning of that, you know, rush of big time pay per view events, and certainly this qualifies as their first event ever in the MGM Grand history, which is done now you know, zillions of fights. We just had the big anniversary where there was a big celebration of their one hundred championship night.
They were a little off on their counting, but do you understand the point. But this was a huge upset. Like you said, Chobb, is this eighty nine oh to one incredible going into this fight. He's made twelve defenses of the WBC Junior Walter Weitel. He's a fifteen to one favorite in the fight. And Frankie Raynal gets two point deductions against jabs from Richard Steel, the referee who
took points from Chabez. You know, for I believe one was hitting on the brake, yes, and there was I forget what the low blows I believe was the other one. Any event, uh so he's already in the hole with the with the point deduction. Then in round eleven with just In stand in the middle of the ring and Randall lands is like a straight clean shot and boom, Chobbs is on his rear end, first bow ever in
his career. Yeah, and it was not enough for him to overcome, and Randall ended up winning a split decision where based on the way the scores went based on the knockdown in the and the point deductions, you know, they were kind of looking for a way to take it away from Chovas, but he still did enough Randall to get the decision. Uh. They ultimately fought two more times, chobb Is with the controversial technical decision to win in
the second fight, and then by the third fight. You know, so a few years after that, Randall was a mere shell of himself and he just got pummeled. But it was a big card, the big undercard fight. You know, there were some lot of good fights on the card, but the main card, uh feature on besides the main event was you know, the the great Felix Trinidad defending the welterweight title against Hector Camato. That's some big time
game feature. So that was a big win for Trinidad in the earlier stages of.
Yeah, I was gonna say Trinidad on the rise at that time with Camacho.
And unfortunately, there was supposed to be a fight, another world title fight between the great Hall of Famer at zum And Nelson and his great rival James Leja. That fight on the unfortunately got canceled off the car. Uh it's on the The reason I say it because I posted a picture of the program and the and their their pictures are on the program, but it was a late scratch from the show.
But it also has the car Simon, Simon Brown, Tommy hit Van Heerds fighting as a cruiserweight, believe it or not, on that card. All of that one years ago.
How many fights have taken place in this great arena, this hallowed building since then. But that was the beginning and they got it off with a bang, with one of the biggest upsets of that decade. Yeah, tremendous.
And again, Frankie Randall passed away a couple of years ago, had been in a nursing home in Tennessee, had been in had been in bad health. Drugs alcohol had had really robbed him of his latter years. But again the answer to the trivia question, it's not. It's not any of the other all time greats that you might think. It is Frankie Randall who the who got the win now thirty one years ago Wednesday, the first ever loss.
Is it fair? I think it's fair to say that in terms of big time world champions, I hate you love it when I do this. I hate the word never. You gotta be careful of words like never. You gotta be careful of words like forever. You gotta be careful of the phrase I love you. You better be very careful before you're saying the phrase I love you. I'm just giving some advice, dating advice, metal advice.
Will you marry me?
That's another phrase be careful of. But is it fair to say we are highly unlikely to ever see anybody get to eighty nine and oh in major world championship boxing 're in this case now eighty nine to oh to one with the draw against Parnell Whitaker, which came the year before in ninety three for Chavez, eighty nine.
They just don't fight that much.
No, eighty nine oh and one? Are you kidding me? Before he lost a fight, it's crazy.
Forget about getting to eighty nine to zhe one the best fighters, they're probably not gonna get. Forget about ninety fights, you know, Canelo Albers being an exception who's got over sixty fights now, right, Even to get to that level of fifty and sixty fights is highly unusual at this stage of boxing. I mean, there's a lot you know who have done that in recent times, got into the
fifties and that sort of stuff. But and Chavez didn't stop there because after he lost the fight to Frankie Randall, he will, like he said, he got the revenge and the rematch on the one of the great pay per view cards of all time, Revenge of the Rematches. But then he went on the street where he continued to defend the title. He beat Meldrick Taylor in the rematch. Granton Meldric was way gone at that point. Tony Lopez Pei.
Ultimately he ended up moving you know, into the into the huge, huge attraction fight where he fought Oscar de la Hoya for the first time. He lost, at which point that was sort of like now Chabz is considered like an older kind of shot, kind of playing out the string. But he still went one another title and still you know, did some other things and fought in other title fights for a Peter up about eighty nine oh to one. He finished one hundred and seven six
and two with eighty five knockouts. The man has more knockouts and virtually everybody has fights. So that was a huge upset. I mean, you could say it's probably one of the biggest upsets. I mean, I don't know if it's it's not gonna trump you know Tyson and and Buster Duggas anything like that. But you know, at fifteen to one, and with what Chavis had accomplished, that was like a pretty big shocker that that occurred. I mean, I don't know, like you said, nobody's ever getting to
that level again. And I think, actually now that I mention it, he did not win once he lost that title to Oscar. He never won another world title. He fought still after that, but.
Never untill he fought on and won what did you say, one hundred and seventy and fell on and won eighteen more fights after this, after this loss to Frankie Randall.
So you know, grant that some of them are not against the top names. See, he got it. He fought in another title fight when he when he lost in the rematch with Oscar, as well as the Costazu fight that we've talked about in the past. But the eighty nine one is the remarkable sort.
Of stretch career staggering.
So when people want to make a big deal about you know, Floyd was fifty and oh, okay, that's a great he wasn't eight nine.
One, na, oh yeah. In a way right now, that has the twenty what is it twenty three or twenty four world title wins. Let's see him get Let's see him fight fifty more times, sixty more times. That ain't happening exactly? All right with that, it has been a busy program. What's say you and I reconvene on the bet Us TV Boxing Show on their platforms, their YouTube, their social media one Eastern ten a m. Pacific. Big Dan will be out where he is in Las Vegas
for that. When it is all over for this weekend, we'll come back in with a recap podcast on the Benavidez Morell main event, the co feature as well with Stephen Fulton and Brandon Figuerola. That big rematch. I'm intrigued by that one. I think a lot of people are. Let's do all of that this weekend for now. Enjoy yourself here over the next couple of days and we look to a reconvene on bet Us on the recap pod. Thank you Dan, Raphael, all.
Right, TJ joined the fight. There you go.
There is the one and only go to that fight. Freak to night, Substack for all the news. He's got some great insight on the press conferences, et cetera, more of the stories on Michael Katz, some other news items in his notebook. Etca go check that out on the Fight Preach Unite substack. Again, we're back on the bet Us show as you hear this Friday at one Eastern time. We'll recap off the weekend on the Fight Freaks Unite Recap podcast on this very feat, So follow or subscribe
on apples Freaker, Spotify. For Dan, I'm TJ. Thank you for being with us on the Big Fight Weekend preview