Boxing with Chris Mannix - Can Anyone Touch Inoue?

Mannix and Keith Idec break down Naoya Inoue’s latest dominant performance, if there’s a competitive fight out there for him, the latest developments with Ryan Garcia, Top Rank’s Teofimo problem and more (6:03); later, George Kambosos joins to talk his fight with Lomachenko and if he will ever run it back with Teofimo Lopez (53:53). #Volume #Herd

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
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Speaker 4 (01:34):
This is boxing with.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Chris Manning or somebody punch him in the face. Empty
Joshua is a composed and ferocious finisher. Wat's this your wais?

Speaker 5 (01:43):
This is the Heavy Way Yeah, hosted by Sis Chris Mannix.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
That was my moments Now with interviews, analysis and everything
going on in the world of boxing. When you have talent,
you are given another chance.

Speaker 4 (01:56):
Here's Chris Mannix.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
And we are back Boxing with Chris Mannix, part of
the Volume Sports podcast Network. When welcome in, everybody, that's
listening on the podcast feed. If you are not a subscriber,
get over that Boxing with Chris mannix feed. Hit that
subscribe button. Make sure you get this pod in your
feed every single week. And it has been a busy
week already in boxing. We had a major fight over

(02:21):
in Japan earlier in the Weekoa In a Way He
successfully defends he's one hundred and twenty two pound titles
against Lewis Neary, knocking Neery out in the sixth round
of that fight. There was some drama early on in
a Way got knocked down. The first you started to
wonder was this going to be the fight that ends
the run of in a way? Not so much. Three

(02:42):
knockdowns later for in a Way, and he stops Luis
Neary in that fight, And now we wonder what is
that next big fight for NOA In a way? Is
it Sam Goodman? Probably not. Is it mj Akmadaliev eh
probably not either. Is there a big fight that will
generate worldwide interest in in a way? Is there a
big fight that can lure in a way back to

(03:04):
the United States to fight? Keith Idek, longtime boxing writer
currently working over at Boxing News, good friend of the podcast,
He joins me to discuss in a way's performance. We
get into the latest developments with Ryan Garcia. We talked
Taaffan Molpez, all that and more with Keith Ideck. A
little bit later, George Cambosis joins the show, and I

(03:26):
will always have something of a soft spot for George Campbosa.
I was ringside calling that tremendous performance a few years
ago where Cambosis dethroned Tayafi Malope. Is that a run
of bad luck? Since then lost two fights, Devin Haney
was kind of unimpressive against Maxi Hughes. On Saturday in

(03:46):
Australia Sunday morning in Australia, Saturday night here in the US,
Cambosis will face Maslilomchango for the vacant IBF title. This
is a huge fight for Cambosis because he has to
prove that he is still on a championship level in
order to continue to get these types of big fights.
If he wins or has a good show and gets

(04:07):
Mumba Changkok, We're still going to see Cambos's back in
big fights. If he gets blown out, might be the
end of the line for George campbos to stick around.
Good conversation with George a little bit later in the show.
As always, please subscribe, rate, review this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
wherever you download podcasts, and when we come back, my
conversation with Keith Idek. All Right, Keith Idek, longtime boxing

(04:38):
writer currently working over at Boxing News.

Speaker 5 (04:42):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
Busy week in the world of boxing, and I do
love when we get a good weekday show, which is
what we had earlier in the week over in Japan
when NOI in a way successfully defended his undisputed one
hundred and twenty two pound championship, knocking out Luis Neary
in the sixth round of that fight. There was a
bit of a moment, dear Keith in the first round

(05:05):
when Neari dropped in a way and you start to think, whoa,
we just saw NEII in a great fight against Asadhovensian.
Is Is this the moment that the monster gets dethroned?
Not so much. I think that kind of just focused
in a way locked him in a bit more, knocks
Neari down three times and successfully defends his belts. Let's
start there. What was your takeaway from in a Way

(05:27):
Neeri earlier in the week Christ.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
I think in some ways we learned more about in
a way in this fight more than any other fight
eight that you would want to see. Right, he couldn't
have come back from that any better than he did.
He composed himself, he got back into the fight, he
took complete control of the fight in the next round,
and he blew Luis neary out. A very commendable performance

(05:50):
by in a way, and I think maybe again we
learned more about him in this fight than any other
fight than when he beat don Air.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
Yeah, I mean it definitely made the fight more interesting
in a way. Go down in the first round, it
gets your heart racing a little bit, because every fight
up until that point has had very few, you know,
moments where you thought in a way was going to lose.
It was more of the question would the opponent get
to the final bell, and you know most of them
have not up until this point. So it definitely made

(06:20):
that fight a little bit more intriguing. But then you
go shot for shot, within a way you're gonna lose.
The guy is just too big a puncher, even at
one hundred and twenty two pounds, and that's what it
kind of boiled down to. With Neery. He just could
not win a physical fight with Noya in a way,
so good early moment, interesting early moment, and then afterwards

(06:41):
kind of went exactly how I thought it was going
to go. The question, though I have Keith, is like,
what is interesting right now for Noya in a way?
What is a good fight? We saw Sam Goodman get
into the ring afterwards, and taking nothing away from Goodman,
He's eighteen and oho, he's a credible title challenger. He's
earned the right to fight for a world championship at
twenty two, But like, does anybody out there really believe

(07:03):
Sam Goodman's gonna win that fight?

Speaker 1 (07:05):
Like?

Speaker 2 (07:06):
No, Like I feel the same way about Sam Goodman
as I felt about Marlon Topolas, as I felt about
Lewis Neary. Maybe he can have a moment or two
in a fight like that, but at some point he
is gonna fall, you know, fall victim to the biggest
puncher in these lower weight classes. So is there an
interesting fight out there for in a way in and
around these weight classes? What is the fight that gets

(07:27):
the public at large interested in an in a way fight?

Speaker 1 (07:32):
It's not the Sam Goodman fight, As you said, Chris,
He's a mandatory challenger, and Sam Goodman's a tough kid,
and you know, a good win against rays Alim, and
he's put himself in this position, so kudos to him,
and he'll get paid off of this and everything. He'll
go to Japan and get beat up. Frankly, he's not
a big enough puncher. He's not nearly good enough to
keep in a way off of him in any way,
shape or form. That's a relatively easy fight for in

(07:53):
a way, but in a way is at a point now, Chris,
where it almost doesn't matter who he fights in Japan.
He's going to do big business there no matter what.
So in that way, he can stay there and draw
big crowds and do good television and streaming ratings, and
that's what he'll continue to do. It's kind of unfortunate
for him, Chris, and that there's no natural big fight

(08:13):
for him in what would be considered a reasonable weight
class for him to move up to. Right, I mean,
one twenty six should be about as high as he goes.
I mean, there aren't many huge fights for him there
at one hundred and twenty six pounds. I don't think,
of course. People on the internet on Twitter and different
social media platforms of course, are asking for him to
fight Gervonte Davis. That's not a reasonable request. I mean,

(08:37):
the guy's tiny, you know, he and yeah, people want
Tank to move up to you know, to fight big,
better fights at one hundred and forty pounds or take
the fights at one hundred and thirty five pounds that
people want to see. It's just not reasonable to ask
in a way to move up or to criticize him
for not moving up three more weight classes to fight
Gervonte Davis.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
He started one to weight, he started one hundred and eight, Like,
going up to one thirty five is crazy. And I
don't think by the way that Javonte is coming down
to one thirty I don't think he's making that weight anymore.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
And Christy, you know, people are saying, oh, well, Paquiao
started in the lower weights like that, and he came
up that the exception. That's a generational anomaly, you know,
and you're not going to see that again probably, and
it's not really fair to in a way to ask
him to do that. So unfortunately for him, there's not
this natural fight for him that people are going to

(09:27):
get really excited about, except in Japan, where again he
can fight whomever and it's going to do big business,
and I think that's what he'll continue to do. I
don't think we'll see him in the US unless there's
some opponent from the US, and there aren't many in
and around those weight classes that make a lot of
sense for him to cross the Pacific Pond to come

(09:47):
over here to fight. I mean, I don't think it's
that he doesn't want to fight here, but if you're
doing all this, like people from the United States sometimes
are so arrogant that they think, oh, well, he has
to fight, and he does he and why why does
he have to fight in the US. He's doing huge
numbers in Japan, making a lot of money. People are
waking up, as you saw the other day, Chris people
and many other times before, people are waking up on

(10:09):
the East Coast, and you know, well, not really that early.
It's the eight o'clock by the time the fight starts,
but you know in some places it's five am or whatever,
and people are waking up because they want to see
this guy fight live. He's that exciting, he's that intriguing,
and I think that's what he'll continue to do.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
He's doing fifty thousand plus fans in the Tokyo Dome.
He's making an excess, reportedly in excess of six million
dollars for these fights. He has no reason to go
anywhere but his home country. I mean, it's it's profitable,
it's successful. He's a major star over there, so you
know you're right, he doesn't have any reason to come
over to the US. So there's two fights out there

(10:46):
that I think are most fascinating. One is a domestic
showdown against Junto Nakatani, who has a belt at one
hundred and eighteen pounds. That's a big fight over in Japan.
Na Katani moves up to one twenty two, we can
challenge in a way that's a major your event in Japan.
I think that's a great fight because both those guys
are big punchers, and I think Wilm's gonna get knocked out,
probably not Katani, but I think it's a great fight

(11:08):
in Japan. The other more intriguing fight it's Bam Rodriguez
Keith and I've been saying this. I've been saying this
for over a year now since Bam won that belt
at one fifteen, defended it, against Teresa catsil Rung beside,
that's an interesting fight. Now Bam is going to fight
in June against Gayo Estrada. That's a major fight in
Phoenix end of the month. That is for Estrada's one

(11:30):
hundred and fifteen pound title, which he won after Bam
vacated that belt. After that, Bam might decide to unify.
I think there's a rematch clause in that fight. He
could fight Astrada again, but he could also move up
to one eighteen and look for a belt in that
weight class. And if Bam Rodriguez can get to one
eighteen either later this year or early next year, and

(11:53):
if in a way stays at one twenty two, which
is going to do for at least one or two
more fights some point the mid mid twenty and twenty
five teeth, we're going to be talking about in a
way versus Bam Rodriguez. And I think that is a
really really interesting fight.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
It is Chris, but again you're asking a guy, not
you specifically, but he would be required to move up
two more weight classes. And remember Bam was a guy
who said he was more comfortable fighting at one hundred
As he gets older of course and harder to make
these lower weights, but he was more comfortable fighting at
one hundred and twelve pounds than he was fighting at
one hundred and fifteen pounds. So now really talking about
maybe three weight classes. There's not much weight in between

(12:30):
those divisions, but you're technically asking him to move up
three weight classes above where he's most comfortable for this fight. Now,
will he do it because there's so much money involved,
Probably because we're you know, he's fighting at strata. That's
a huge fight for the lower weight classes. That's a
huge fight in the United States, and I think that
fight will be it'll do good business in the United States,

(12:52):
certainly nothing near what in a way's doing in Japan,
but people are excited about that fight. And if he
goes and performs well and beats the Strata, well you
might be building some momentum toward the fight you're talking about.
But he would go into that fight as a significant underdog.
Even if he eats Estrata convincingly and then goes and
wins the title at one hundred and eighteen pounds. Neither

(13:12):
of those things are foregone conclusions by any stretch. So
it's a big ask. But he's a young kid. He's
very talented. People have been, you know, had their eye
on him for several years becoming a star in the
lower weight classes. So I think there would be some
interest in it. But I almost look at in a
way at this point. The Nakatani fight is interesting, like
you said, because he's a big bantam weight and you

(13:34):
know he'd be coming up. He's a big puncher, and
in Japan that would be a great domestic fight. But
in some ways I almost look at in a way
right now where he is kind of like Claressa Shields
because there's no one. If she fights Samannah Marshall again,
there will be interest in that fight, but who is
she fighting. She'd have to move down too much? And
I know in a way is not moving down, but

(13:55):
you'd have to move down too much. You'd have to
move up too much. Who's she fighting?

Speaker 2 (14:01):
Yeah, I don't know, but the idea of rodrig of
Bam makes more sense to me because of what happened
is last fight against Sonny Edwards. He made one twelve
for that fight, but man, he had to kill himself
to get there. Like he's a growing guy, right Like
he's at one fifteen right now. I don't think it's
a stretch to see him get to one eighteen pretty quickly.

(14:22):
And once you're at one eighteen, you're only talking about
one weight class in between. I know it's a lot
of dot connecting there, but like, once you get to
that threshold, if in a way is still at one
twenty two and it doesn't sound like he's in any
rush to move up to one twenty six, I just
think it's a makeable fight that makes a lot of sense.
Putting aside the fact that Bam maybe not in the
healthiest of ways. It gets kind of big in between fights,

(14:44):
Like he's a big guy. Him and his brother both
put on some weight in between fights, and they have
to really work their way to get back down to
that one hundred and fifteen pound weight class. If he
can win a belt at one eighteen before let's say
the spring of twenty and twenty five, we're gonna be
talking about it. It's gonna be out there because that
is probably the biggest fight you can make in these

(15:07):
lower weight classes. Bam has started to establish himself as
not a star yet, but a known figure in US
boxing circus, and of course in a way is the
biggest star over in Asia, one of the biggest stars
in terms of talent in all of boxing. That's a
fight I think that that we're gonna be talking about
and could be a makeable fight at that point in
the middle of next year. And it's also Keith, I
think a fight where we could see see in a

(15:30):
way come over to the US, Like, is there enough
money in a Las Vegas casino or you know, an
MGM grand property to get in a way to come
over to fight Bam Rodriguez. Will Bam be big enough?
Now he hasn't sold a ton of tickets to this point,
but I do think they'll do well in Phoenix for
the astratafy. I think they can do ten thousand seats

(15:51):
in Footprint Center in Phoenix. Is Bam a big enough
star for a Vegas casino to say, you know what,
we'll put up whatever it is X million dollars to
get these two guys over here to fight in our venue.
That's a fight, Keith. I think we could see in
a way make his return to the US.

Speaker 1 (16:07):
Four And I don't think in general Chris that he's
opposed to fighting in the US. It just makes more
economic sense from the stagnfully meantime, because remember, right before
the pandemic, he was supposed to fight John Reel Casamario
at Mandalay Bay, and then of course the whole thing
got scrapped because of the pandemic, so he was going
to fight here, and that wasn't perceived as a huge fight.

(16:28):
I mean, it's too a Filipino fighting a Japanese fighter,
So it could have really been anyone fighting in a
way in that spot. That would have been a fun
fight if it ever had happened. But because Casamaro is
a big puncher and everything, of course you would favor
in a way to beat him. But Casamaro really can crack,
and that would have been an interesting fight, I think.
But so I think he'll eventually come back to the
United States for a fight, whether it's Bam Rodriguez or

(16:49):
someone else. You know, Chris, It's interesting how it all
unfolded over the last four or five months, too, because
I think now we would be talking about if Robisi
Romerez didn't to Rafael Espinoca, we would be talking about
in a way moving up to one twenty six. I
don't know if it would have been a permanent move
or a temporary move, but we would be talking about
him moving up to featherweight and fighting Robesi Ramirez. Bob

(17:11):
aram had mentioned that to me and many other people
a year ago. That was the blueprint. They were going
to have him, you know, become a champion of hope
in their eyes, become a champion in another weight class.
And Ramirez had rebuilt his career to the point where
people were really high on him again, you know, his
win against Nova and then you know, winning the title
and everything the way that he did. So it was

(17:33):
a surprising loss to Rafael Esespinoza and that derailed that fight,
but I think we would be talking about in a
way making his featherweight debut in his next fight had
that not happened.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
Yeah, and now you look at one twenty six, and
what's the big fight there. I mean, Leewood is gone,
ray Ford's one fight away from being gone. Espinosa is
not a big name. Ray Vargus currently as a belt
at won twenty six, he could be gone as well,
Like there is nothing all that interesting at one twenty

(18:03):
six that would at least motivate in a way to
move up and take that type of fight. By the way,
did you see the video of John Real Cassamaro watching
the In a Way fight? It was on Twitter and
I saw it over the last couple of days where
he was celebrating, you know, excessively with his friends when
Neery knocked in a Way down, and then at the
end of the fight they show the closeup of them

(18:25):
and they're just dead, silence, no reaction whatsoever when in
a Way goes in and stops, stops nearing. That was
that was great? I'm sure you saw that.

Speaker 1 (18:33):
But maybe Casamaro has a DraftKings account or something and
he puts some coin on nearry or something.

Speaker 2 (18:38):
Who knows, you know, no, but I think it was
more like, you know, like he probably felt it was vindication, like, yeah,
I told you, wasn't that good? And maybe he is.
Maybe he really is that good. We got to talk
about Ryan Garcia and the latest developments with Ryan. I
try not to engage too much with all this, Keith
because there's so much misinformation being put out there, a

(18:59):
lot of it being put out there, quite frankly by
Ryan Garcia. But what we know at this point is
that Ryan Garcia has tested positive for austerine the other
substance that was detected in his system. Apparently that's not
enough to call it a positive test necessarily, But osterene
was in his system on the nineteenth, and it was
in his system on the twentieth. That is what he

(19:22):
has to deal with. Now. May twenty second is when
the B sample is going to be opened up and
it will be tested. But as you well know, ninety
nine times out of one hundred or whatever it is,
the B sample comes back the same as the A sample.
What happens after that, Keith, Like, what happens if the
B sample on May twenty second, or whenever it's officially tested,

(19:44):
comes back as positive for austre. What is Ryan Garcia's
next move? Then?

Speaker 1 (19:50):
Well, from a legal standpoint, I don't think he has
a recourse or anything, because, as you well know, Chris,
we've discussed this many times. Ultimately, you're responsible for what
you put in your body. I'm not saying I don't
know what his intent was, and I'm not going to
sit here and accuse him of this or that. I
tend not to give fighters the benefit of the doubt
for obvious reasons. There's a lot of money at stake,

(20:10):
and people have taken shortcuts for decades. So I don't
know what he did on purpose and what he didn't
do on purpose. What I do know is that he's
responsible for whatever is ingested into his system, so he
has to pay the penalty for that. I know you
and I did an emergency pod or whatever the day
after the fight, and we and when I when you

(20:32):
asked me about it that day, I said, well, maybe
they'll take some time in between and Devin Haney will
go get himself together in a tune up fight in
between or whatever, and then they'll fight again after that. Now,
I think it's almost imperative for Ryan Garcia to make
this rematch happen again, because he's still after what he
did April twentieth, now has a point to prove again
that he can do it on the up and up,

(20:53):
because again, no matter who was at fault, whether he
did it on purpose or whatever, he had this in
his system, it's a banned substance. It's now a tainted victory,
whether he likes it or not, and he really should
fight Devin Haney again. I think Devin Haney deserves that
based on what happened with obviously the PD testing him

(21:16):
coming in three plus pounds overweight. Devin Haney deserves to
be treated fairly in this case and get a second
shot at Ryan Garcia, hopefully immediately, no matter what happens
on the twenty second with the B sample. I hope
that happens. There's clearly a lot of intrigue in a
rematch now, right, maybe much more so than before we

(21:40):
found out about this test, right because at that point
it just seemed like Ryan Garcia beat down Devin Haney.
That's what it seemed like then, and now there are
obviously questions about his wins. So I think there's a
lot of intrigue related to the rematch now. Hopefully the
business will make sense and they'll do it again some
time later this year.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
Yeah, I want to see the rematch as well. Before then, though,
like I think, Ryan Garcia has two fights on his hand.
One fight is with the New york'sty Athletic Commission and
what they are going to decide when it comes to
this victory. Now, my guess, and I believe you'd probably
agree with me, is that the New York Commission, if

(22:19):
this B sample comes back positive, which it's more likely
than not to come back the exact same as the
a sample. The Yor Commission will overturn the result, they'll
declare it a no contest, and they will, you know,
slap some kind of suspension on Ryan Garcia, maybe six months,
maybe it's a year, but you know, six months to
a year is kind of the going rate for suspensions
in the US anyway, for first time type of offenses.

(22:43):
So he's got that battle in front of him. The
next battle he's got is in the court of public perception.
You know, Canelo Alvarez back in twenty eighteen, he tested
positive for clem butterol and he got hit with the
six month suspension. He paid a price for it from
the Nevada Commission. But I think Keith that Canelo kind
of skated on it in a way in the public

(23:04):
eye because he had a plausible story. Whether you believe
it or not, that's up to you. But there was
a plausible story out there about tainted meat. You know,
Mexican athletes had tested positive for it. It's in you know,
meet there again. Believe it, don't believe it, But he
had at least an explanation. Ryan Garcia needs an explanation.
He needs to show how this substance got into his system,

(23:28):
whether it is attached to a supplement or a medication
or something that he would have taken unknowingly to get
into his system. Because right now, blaming Victor Kanti ain't it.
I'm not a fan of Victor Conti. I don't think
Victor Conti or Memo already yet belong in the sport
of boxing. If you are part of you know, ped

(23:50):
distribution in a prior life, you should not be allowed
back into professional sports. That's my opinion on Victor Conti.
But saying that Victor Conti set him up and saying
that this is all someone big conspiracy, that's not going
to fly. So to me, it's important for Ryan Garcia
in terms of public perception, to at least come up
with something plausible, you know, whether it is tainted meats,

(24:13):
you know, tainted eggs. As we see with Conner Band again,
there's a wide section of people that aren't going to
believe him. You know, that's fine, But if you can
come up with a reason, a reason that people can believe,
some will believe you, some will be willing to say
he did it accidentally. If you don't and you continue
to stick to the conspiracy theory stuff. No one's going

(24:34):
to believe you, and I think it's going to follow
you around the rest of your career.

Speaker 1 (24:37):
This stain is going to remain with Ryan Garcia for
the rest of his career. As you said, Chris, like
it or not for him, even if it were an
honest mistake, which I don't know, but this is going
to stick with him much like it is stuck with Canelo,
because I think we're almost playing with the definition of
plausible a little bit based on you know what can
you know? Because you and I have both been very

(24:58):
skeptical about it, and people still think that Canelo cheated,
intentionally cheated and it and it hasn't gone away. I
mean Oscar used that as a motivational tool as a
way to get under Canel last week, and I found
it hilarious when Oscar was saying, oh, I didn't really
mean to get to it. Wasn't my intention to get
into his head. That's exactly what you were doing. It's
the whole purpose of it, which is fine.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
I mean, you wrote the speech. You wrote the speech
or so.

Speaker 1 (25:22):
That's the art of you know, promotional antics and everything.
But yeah, I mean I don't no matter, I understand
if Ryan Garcia made an honest mistake. Let's just give
him the benefit of the doubt this for the sake
of this argument and say that he did make an
honest mistake. This is not going to go away because
there are going to be people who always think that

(25:43):
he intentionally cheated, and whether he did it on purpose
or not, he was dirty in this fight. That's it, period.
And blaming it on Victor CONTI what you know. I
had my own public thing with Victor a couple of
years ago, and I don't have anything personally whatever. I mean,
I don't think he should be than boxing either. But
blaming this on Victor Kanti is ridiculous. I mean, the

(26:05):
VI Kanti has nothing to do with with his testing,
that that because he knows Margaret Goodman or was involved
in Vado once upon a time. It's nonsense. I mean,
this has nothing to do with Victor Kanti or that look.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
And to be clear, key, just to just to put
in perspective, like these tests are not done in like
Victor Kanti's lab. They're all done in Saltlake City. All
these labs.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
Kanti have access to his test I mean you know,
so anyway, he's trying to excuse this away. That's the
bottom line, Chris. He's trying to excuse this the way
and he's not going to be able to do that,
like it or not. He's going to have to deal
with this head on the best way that he can
do that. And as you mentioned, it's a potential obstacle
toward them fighting sooner rather than later if he is

(26:50):
suspended for more than six months. If he gets suspended
for six months, they could fight late in the fall
or something like that and fight immediately without having fights
in between.

Speaker 2 (26:59):
Six months is even a suspension for fighters. Well, that's
a typical time in between fighters.

Speaker 1 (27:04):
But but if he gets suspended for a year, well,
Devin Haney is not going to wait around for a
year for that. He's gonna want to fight in between,
and I'm sure he'll get a fight that's reasonable for him.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
Sand Or Martin, Baby sand Or Martin.

Speaker 1 (27:18):
It's not a dangerous fight in the sense that Sandor
Martin is not a big puncher, but it's not an
easy fight because there are people who will tell you
that he beat Tafimo Lopez. He obviously beat Mikey Garcia,
that's a that's a tough fight. Like, you know, he
might have to do it because he's his mandatory and
all that.

Speaker 2 (27:33):
But I think Devin, though, would stink out the joint
more than Sando Martin would stink out the joint. I
think he'd win a stink fight, right. I don't think
it would be aesthetically pleasing at all, but I think
Devin would probably out box no One.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
Fighting sand Or Martine is in an aesthetically pleasing fight, right,
I mean, it's that happens when you fight him basically,
you know. So I don't see see an exciting fight
with him, but maybe that's what Hane winds up doing
if if Ryan Garcia gets suspended for a So we
all have to wait to see how this plays out,
but I would hope that ultimately they just fight again

(28:06):
in an immediate rematch later in the year.

Speaker 5 (28:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (28:11):
And the other name that Ryan has been throwing out
there this week is Erol Spence. They've been going back
and forth on it on social media. Obviously there's a
connection there. Errol Spence now in a very public dispute
with his now former trainer, Derek James. Ryan, of course
trained by Derek a lot of social media back and
forth there. Ryan went as far to make another poster.

(28:32):
Remember he made Garcia Romero a few months ago when
he thought that fight was going to happen. Now he's
making Garcia against spent Spence August tenth in Texas. That's
wishful thinking. I think you and I would both agree.
Does that fight make any sense to you? Is that
interesting to you at all? Ryan Garcia and Erol.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
Spence, Well, the storyline is incredible, there's no two ways
about that. But he's now going to move up two
weight classes to fight Errol Spence, who clearly has done
at one hundred and forty seven pounds and is fighting
out one four.

Speaker 2 (29:03):
It's gonna fight Fondora there right, Like, so my wine
at Errol Spence.

Speaker 1 (29:06):
I mean he almost he you know, he was close
to a junior middleweight for his fight against Devin Haiti
when he weighed in. I guess, so what's the difference really?
But uh, look it's a natural thing because of what's
going on with Derek James right now. But I don't
see that fight happening. And look, Errol's going to take uh,
He's going to test the waters out at one hundred
and fifty four against the junior middleweight. He's not going

(29:27):
to fight Ryan Garcia, and I think based on some
of Spence's responses, he was kind of just like okay,
you know, kind of showing him away a little bit
like he was it's not a realistic thing and he's
just being trolled. And yeah, it's unfortunate. What's with what's
going on between Earl Spence and Derek James because I
really looked at that partnership as one that would stand
the test of time, even in boxing. There was a

(29:50):
bond there and uh closeness there that seemed real to me.
And unfortunately, when money's involved, Chris, you know, oftentimes these
things happen. But that was one I didn't see coming though,
that they would break up over money. And I certainly
see where Derek's coming from. But it's one of those
unfortunate things.

Speaker 2 (30:12):
Yeah, it's it's tough because you're right, you rarely get
someone that trains you, you know, from the very beginning,
dating back to your amateur days, your pro debut, all
the way through your career. We just saw Canelo Alvrez
and the Renosso's Eddie Renosso Chepa Renoso. That is an
example of one that has worked. It is disappointing when

(30:33):
you know that kind of relationship ultimately breaks up. Look,
I just even if Ryan wanted to fight Ero Spence,
and even if Aero Spence wanted to fight Ryan, this,
this New York issue is not going to go away
in three months, right Like, if this comes back as
what it looks like right now, the Commission is going

(30:54):
to make that fight a no contest and they will
suspend Ryan Garcia for a period of time. So I
think we're talking about late fall before you know, we're
even discussing Ryan Garcia and back in the fight against anybody.
That's just my my educated guess on all this. I
want to talk for a minute about Taffima Lopez, who
right now it seems like, is still heading towards a

(31:15):
fight against Steve Clagett down in Miami June twenty ninth.
This is not something Keith that is getting Taffimo Lopez
out of bed right now, Like he is not all
that excited about the idea of fighting Clagett, who is
a fine fighter, but not a name and you know,
not someone that Taffimo envisioned himself fighting at this stage
of his career. And as I look across the one

(31:36):
hundred and forty pound division at potential options for Tafimo,
I just don't see a great one right now, not
at least before the end of this year. The other
title holders you're looking at Super Almatias, you know, I
don't think that's going to happen this year. You've got
Isak Cruz. I don't think that's gonna happen this year.
And of course Devin Haney, he's got his own stuff

(31:58):
to deal with before he even revisits the idea of
fighting ta Femo. I don't know, like you know, top rank.
You know, they've invested a lot of money, a lot
of time in this guy. Is there a fight that
they can make that you think will satisfy you know,
ta Femo's desire to be in a big fight.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
He's sort of in no man's land here, Chris a
little bit, because it looks like Ryan Garcia and Devin
Haney are going to be tied together for quite some
time here before they finish their business, right because those
were going into their fight, those were the two natural opponents,
or in whoever one would be a natural opponent and
a unification fight and moving forward with tia Fimo Lopez.

(32:35):
Now you remove those two opponents from the pool, and
what are you looking at? Like you just said, I mean,
guys are with other promoters, they're high risk, like super
Real Matias is kind of like a high risk, relatively
low reward type of fight for tia Femo Lopez, and
it would require them to work with Desonne and or Matchroom,
however that would work out. There's a there's Esa Cruz.

(32:57):
The same principle applies. You'd have to work with PBC
and all that to make that fight happen. And I
don't know that that's necessarily a big fight either. What
I do know is I do not, under any circumstances
want to see tia Fimo Lopez fight Steve Claggett, who's
a fun fighter from Canada. I've seen his most recent fights,
like those last three or four fights on ESPN and

(33:18):
everything Steve Claggett comes to fight has no business being
in the ring with tia Fimo Lopez. Doesn't deserve a
title shot. This is silly and it's not a good,
in my opinion, not a good use of top ranks
budget for TFM Lopez's next fight. Now, they're in a
bad position because of what we've already discussed. There aren't
any natural opponents out there for tia Fima Lopez that

(33:40):
would make sense, Certainly, no one within the top rank
stable because Jose Ramirez left and Arnold Barbosa Junior left
and are now with Golden Boy. There's not much there
for them to choose from. I get that, But Steve Claggett,
how low on the list? With Steve Claggett, Now, you
have to pay tia Fimo Lopez a lot of money.
Understand that, And I'm sure Steve Claggett's getting a very

(34:02):
small percentage of what's available for that fight. And I
don't mean to I'm not trying to belittle Steve Claggant.
He's a tough guy, he's got some popularity in Canada
and everything, but he has zero chance whatsoever to be
ta Fimo Lopez. And it is a complete mismatch that
should not happen.

Speaker 2 (34:20):
Now, you sound like me with the uh what was
I What I said of zero Charlo against Canelo was
the one I had said at zero? Oh no, no.
Keith Thurman. Keith Thurman against.

Speaker 1 (34:31):
But at least Keith Herman, at least as you would admit, Yes,
he has an elite level fighter, Steve. No one's use
Steve Klaggett for being an elite level fighter.

Speaker 2 (34:40):
I mean, you know, I just don't know what you
do other than put the guy on the shelf. I
don't know what you do. Like you go down the
list of the guys at one forty, like do you
want to do a Jermaine Ortiz rematch? No, nobody wants
to see that. I don't see it, Like I look,
I've looked up and down the respective rankings, Like the
two guys that were most likelyer guys just left, you know,

(35:00):
in Barboza and Ramirez, so without them, I don't know
what you do, Like I mean, Sergei Lipinyat said a
fun fight. You want to see if he's ready to
go the end of June, like I don't. I don't
know what. I don't know what top rank does in
this situation. I think they're between a rock and a
hard place with you know, one of the biggest names
in their stable, and now they're in a similar position
at the moment with Shaquarr Stevenson. But at least of

(35:20):
Cors Stevens and you can look and say, hey, you
get through this fight in July, you re sign with
us or at least whatever short term deal, We'll give
you a loma. You know later on this year. You know,
we can do maybe a unification fight somewhere else next year.
Like I can see a pathway there. I don't know
what the pathway forward is with Top Rank and Tea Femo.
I think it's Claggett or it's what I mean, what

(35:42):
what is it? What is it out there?

Speaker 1 (35:43):
And in fairness to Top Rank, they did try to
make higher profile fights for Tia Femo Lopez. They offered
Jose Ramirez two million dollars to fight him, and Ramirez
opted to go sign with Golden Boy and turn down
the fight, so they didn't try to do that, and
then they put him in the ring with Jermaine or Tis.
Jermaine Ortiz is very good, you know, fought from the
South past Stancel virtually the entire fight, and there are

(36:04):
people who think that he beat Tafimo Lopez. I understand
what you're saying that there's not much public demand for
their rematch, in the sense that their fight was not entertaining,
but based on the outcome, you could argue that it
should happen again, but it would cost a lot of
money too, because Lopez gonna want more money to fight
him again, or Teez is gonna want more money based
on how the first fight went. Maybe that's too expensive

(36:27):
of a fight for them at this point to keep
on ESPN, to keep it on ESPN their waves or
on ESPN Plus. So they're in a tough position as
far as that goes, Chris, But you know, maybe what
you said about Shakor now, naturally Shaquur wins this fight
on July sixth and Lomachenko wins on Saturday night or
Sunday afternoon in Perth, Australia. That's the fight that makes

(36:51):
the most sense, and it's the fight that Cha Cour
Stevenson wanted next. He wanted it when he fought Edwin
del Santos. A totally smart fight to make makes perfect
sense and all that if for whatever reason, loma Chenko
does not want to fight Shakur. Stevenson has talked about
moving up as high as welter weight, and people think
that eventually he will develop into a welterweight and that's

(37:13):
where he'll settle in for a lot of his career.
Maybe Shakur would want to move up to one hundred
and forty pounds and fight Tia Femal Lopez if he
bro because right, and if Stevenson's the reason why Stevenson
wants to test the water is more than anything potentially
in free agency, is because he wants bigger fights. But

(37:33):
the Ta Femal Lopez fight, he's a big fight. So
maybe if if that's what top rank can promise him
to keep him in the fold, maybe that's what does it.
I mean, it's not you're not asking him to move
up two or three weight classes. It's five pounds and
he and he's a growing kid, and and Tia Fema
and him are practically the same size heightwise and everything
are practically the same size. So I don't think that's
too big of an ask. And that's a real fight,

(37:54):
you know, would it would?

Speaker 2 (37:55):
Do you think Loma? Do you think Loama wouldn't want
to fight him though? Because Loma wants all those but
they don't want I.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
Want to fight him last year?

Speaker 4 (38:02):
Yeah, So I don't know.

Speaker 1 (38:03):
I mean, there were there were there were people that
I spoke to that that communicate with Lomachenko. Obviously, Lomachenko
never told me this, AGAs Klemus never told me this,
But there were people who thought that Lomachenko might might
have retired after the Haini fight, because he, you know,
there's still a war going on in Ukraine. He was
very disenchanted by the outcome of the Hani fight, and

(38:24):
obviously he got over that after a while. He's being
paid very well to go over to Australia frankly to
be a guy who's Cambos is a tough guy, you know,
and made the most of his opportunity against Tiafi Ma Lopez.
But really, I mean he got dominated twice by Hani,
might have lost to Maxi Hughes. This is a fight

(38:45):
that Lomachenko should win handily.

Speaker 2 (38:49):
Yeah, look, I agree, And that was kind of what
I was going to get to next, this Cambosa's Lomachenko
fight Saturday night here in the US Sunday morning over
in Australia. I just a guy like George two. What
he did that night in New York City was remarkable
because no one believed he was gonna win that fight.
People on his own team didn't believe he was gonna

(39:10):
win that fight, and he go insto hostile territory and
out boxes Tayofi Malopez. But what I've seen since then
gives me no reason to believe he's gonna have much
of a chance against the fire of the caliber of Lomachenko.
The Hainy fights were not competitive. The Max and Hughes
fight has actually aged even worse, given how bad Max
Hughes looked against Williams of PAYDA, who's obviously the real deal.

(39:31):
But MAXI just got steamrolled by Zapeida. Look to me,
you know, success for George camboss might be making it
to the final bell, like just getting out of that
fight in twelve rounds given credit. I mean, I don't
think there's anybody in recent boxing history that has made
more money out of one win than George Cambos's has.

(39:51):
He got two huge paydays to fight Devin Haney, got
another pay day to fight Max and Hughes, and now
is back in Australia, presumably getting another big payday to
fight Lomachenko. And even if he loses, there's probably still
some money in a fight against Tafimo in a rematch,
which is another fight that could potentially be for Tafimo
down the line. So I think he's done a masterful

(40:11):
job of maximizing his earnings. But I look at this
matchup and Keith, unless Lomachenko is shot, unless he's got
nothing left after the Haini fight, this is a fight
that I think Lomachenko should dominate.

Speaker 1 (40:23):
I agree with you, Chris. Let's just say that the
unlikely happens, that very unlikely happens, and Cambosis wins to
tie it all together, well, then you got a big
fight for tia Fima Lopez. Cambosis would have beaten Lomachenko,
moves up to one hundred and forty pounds to fight
tia Fimo Lopez, then you gotta fight, you know, Like

(40:45):
I guess that that just when we think we all
have it figured out, Chris, I mean we've learned this
lesson countless times. The unexpected happens sometimes, So maybe he
pulls off an upset and then he fight winds up fighting.
I think you're right that the that the Lopez rematch
is kind of always there for him because tia Fimo
will always want it. But it would be hard to

(41:06):
sell that coming off of back to back three last
four performances against Devin Haney, non competitive performances against Devin Haney,
a questionable win against Max T. Hughes, and then a
probable loss to Lomachenko. That's that's hard, that's a hard sell.

Speaker 4 (41:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
Look, if Cambosis is able to pull off another upset,
I agree with you. I think he's far more likely
to move up and wait and fight Tea Fimo than
fight scher Corse Stevenson, because that's a fight that would
not go well for George Cambosis. I think a Ta
Fimo fight he probably also be an underdog in, but
at least he knows the guy, he knows how to
fight him as best he can. Going up against Kop

(41:43):
I think would would be a bad result for Cambos's.
Last thing for you here, Keith, you know we saw
the Canalo fight this past weekend. Pretty good fight, entertaining
fight against Himian McGee. Canelo ultimately, you know, winds up
winning a decision. Now the conversation shifts to what is next,
and you and I both agree it's not gonna be
David Benavitez. Canelo came out recently and at one point

(42:05):
it was one hundred and fifty million dollars he wanted
to fight Benavidez. Now it's two hundred million that he
wants to fight Benavidez. So that's off the table at
least for now. Which leaves you, or left us earlier
in the week with two potential options. That one would
be Jamal Charlo, who was a champion at one sixty,
the other being Edgar Berlanga, who was in Las Vegas
telling everyone with a microphone that he was getting the

(42:26):
Canelo fight next. The Charlo news this week was a
bad you know, dwi, you know, effectively evading cops. You know,
a lot of bad stuff going on with Jamal Charlo.
Now he officially has been stripped of his title by
the WBC. Carlos Damas is now the full title holder.
That makes me believe Keith that it is Edgar Berlanga

(42:47):
or bust Edgar Berlanga, of course, has the relationship working
with Mattroom. Canelo has worked with Mattroom in the past. Berlanga,
for whatever it's worth, nominally the number one contender for
the one of the belts that Canelo holds. Is that
how you see it or is there a dark horse
in all this that could make his way into the
Canelo sweepstakes.

Speaker 1 (43:07):
No, I see him fighting Berlanga. Chris, and after the
fight when he said in the ring something to the
effect that I can do whatever his exact words, or
I can do whatever I want, that was an effect
saying let me know when the Berlanga press conferences and
I'll be there. Because that's what he's saying, right, I'm
not He in effect said, I Am not fighting Benavidez.

(43:27):
Stop asking me about this. We have to ask the questions.
Of course, it's our job. We're going to continue to
press him on fighting Benavitez because that's the fight that
should happen. It's not happening anytime soon. No one's paying
him one hundred and fifty million dollars to fight anyone.
So unfortunately, as much as no one is going to

(43:48):
want to see it, he's going to fight Edgar Berlanga. Next.
I heard Berlanga on your podcast, I believe it was
last week, and Berlanga talked about a lot of things
about what his entrance music is going to be, all
the celebrities that he knows. One thing he didn't say
was how is he going to beat Canelo Alvarez, and

(44:11):
I don't mean give away his exact game plan, but
why should anyone believe that Edgar Berlanga is capable of
beating Canelo Alvarez. There is nothing that he has done
thus far in his career that would indicate that he's
capable of doing so. Berlanga is a nice guy. I
like Berlanga. I nothing, He's a tough kid. You know,
he had this knockout streak that put him on everyone's radar.

(44:34):
He's done a good job of putting himself into this position.
He's been guided by Keith Connolly to get into this position.
They've made some masterful moves that have gotten him here.
Kudos to them for that, But he he does not.
What he has accomplished does not warrant a shot at
all four titles. Now that happens all the time. I mean, guys,
get you know, there's Yielderin didn't deserve to fight Canelo either,

(44:58):
but he did so. I'm not saying it's not going
to happen. It's going to happen whether we like it
or not. But what are the fans getting out of that?
I get it, you know, Puerto Rico, you got the
Puerto Rico Mexico rivalry. They'll be all kinds of celebrities involved,
and that's all positive for boxing that people who are
extremely popular outside of the boxing space are interested in

(45:20):
this fight because they're supporting Edgar Berlanga and you have,
you know, Mexican celebrities that support Canelo. That's all fine,
but you're gonna what are you gonna charge eighty ninety
dollars to watch Canelo win a fight in which he
enters the ring as what a twenty to one favorite?
I don't know. I mean he would have to be right.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
Yeah, I would be a big favorite. And you're right,
you know, Berlanga's arguments, if I remember correctly, for how
he can beat Canello, is effectively, don't worry my ring
IQ and my performances go up based on the competition.
And that's that's a hard argument to believe when the
best win of Edgar Berlanga's career was probably a guy

(46:03):
like Padra McCrory, who is an unknown in most boxing circles,
it's tough to It's tough to make the argument that
Berlanga would be anything but a punching bag for Canela.
He's got some pop and I'm sure Canelo will respect
it early on. But if Jimi Mongia can't put a
dent in Canelo Alvarez, I don't know how Edgar Berlanga

(46:24):
is going to do it. And Canelo showed against Mungia
that fourth round he still has real pop behind his punches.
He can hit you with shots that you don't expect,
that you don't see, and that's still a weapon in
his in his arsenal. So I do think that it
is though going to be Berlanga that most likely to
fight for September. I think the question is what does

(46:45):
he do after that? And look, we've got that big
fight August third, with Terrence Crawford moving up to one
fifty four to fight Israel Madramof. We have read the
comments from Turkey Ala chic over in Saudi Arabia saying
he wants to make Canelo against Crawford. I gotta believe
Keith that if Crawford wins a belt at one fifty four,

(47:05):
that opens the door a little further for a fight
against Canalo. Up until that point, Canelo was saying, now,
I don't want to fight a welter way there's now
upside in it for me. If Crawford all of a
sudden has a belt at one fifty four, well, it
still is a big size gap, no question about it,
but at least in the mind of Canelo, would probably
justifies a little more. Plus, if the Saudis want it,

(47:27):
then there's going to be real money on the table
to do it. So I think that's the fight that
I could see happening, maybe before the end of the year.
Maybe we could be talking about December. Canelo has done
that before, He's fought in September and fought again in December.
If he gets through a Berlanga fight relatively easily and
the money is right, I could see Canelo against Crawford
in December of this year. How about you?

Speaker 1 (47:49):
Yeah, I would. I don't know about the December Park
Christian maybe that would that would be true. And they
obviously the Saudis wanted a fight in December this past year.
They were hell bent on doing it and they and
they did do it on December twenty third, So that
makes a lot of sense. But I think if you're Canelo,
let's just say he goes and beats Berlanga and it's
imperative that Crawford is impressive against madrim Off, like he

(48:11):
wins that fight convincingly. Right, If he does do that
and Canelo goes and beats Berlanga in September, then I
could see the momentum, as you said, building toward Canelo
and Crawford. Because he doesn't want to fight David Benavidez.
I'm not saying he's you know, the guy's done more
than enough in his career and he fought glove Can
three times and all that, and people said he would

(48:33):
never fight glove Can, So I'm not going to say
he's afraid or anything like that, but he clearly does
not want to fight David Benavidez because all of the
things that he has said about fighting David Benavidez don't
measure up to someone who thinks that that's a fight
that he can win for whatever reason. And I'm not
saying he couldn't beat David Benavitez, but there's there's a
reason why he is avoiding this fight, and that's what

(48:55):
he's doing at this point. He's not he's making all kinds,
you know, he's playing with war words and everything, but
he's avoiding David Benevetez and now.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
But no I was saying, Canelo needs to make some
decisions though, Keith, because I got to the arena early
this past Saturday, and I watched my man William Skull
win on the undergard and my man William Skull fighting
in front of quite literally nobody but the people that
worked there, picked up a decision win on the Canelo undercard.

(49:26):
He is the IBF number one contender. If Canelo's not careful,
William Skull is coming for all those belts.

Speaker 1 (49:34):
Well, let me tell you that if Canelo wants to
make six figures for his next fight, he can fight
William Skull. How about that?

Speaker 2 (49:41):
At some point we have to have a conversation about
the IBF making a fighter the mandatory who has no
significant wins and in his most recent fight fights an
eight rounder. That was an eight round fight. He thought
that last time. This is something wrong.

Speaker 1 (49:57):
I'd love to hear the justification for William Skull being
the number one contender in their rankings. I doubt we'll
get it.

Speaker 2 (50:03):
Could William Skull last longer than Ovdi Julderum? That would
probably be the only question I'd have coming into that fight.

Speaker 1 (50:12):
I hope we never find out.

Speaker 2 (50:14):
I hope we never fight out either. Keith Aidek. Follow
him on social media at ideck Boxing, check him out
in Boxing News. Good friend of the podcast. Keith always
good to catch up man. I always appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (50:24):
Thanks, Chris, appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (50:25):
And when we come back. My conversation with George Cambosis.
All right. George Campbosis is the former Unified one hundred
and thirty five pound champion. On Sunday morning in Australia
Saturday night in the US, he will take on Vasil

(50:47):
Lamachenko for the vacant one hundred and thirty five pound title.
Is the third time in the last four fights that
George will fight on his home soil and he joins
me from Australia now on the show. So, George, you
have been eager two face Facillly Lomachenko for a pretty
long time now. You guys were penciled in to fight
each other back in twenty twenty two. We had to

(51:09):
return to the Ukraine when the war broke out there.
But you've been looking for this fight for a while.
Why has this been something that you've wanted even when
you were a champion.

Speaker 5 (51:19):
Look, Lemonchenko is a legend of a sport, you know,
so we know what he brings to the table. We
know he style, and it's a guy that I've always
watched from from young So why would you not want
to fight a guy like him.

Speaker 4 (51:32):
I got who brings so much to the title.

Speaker 5 (51:34):
But again, stars Mike thoughts on what I bring to
the tabe and I know that both of our stalls,
the action, the punches, the shots, it makes for in
our fan friendly fight. What opened to the table with
Matillery wins his fights.

Speaker 2 (51:50):
So on the subject of styles, when you were watching
you know, old Lomachenko fights, So watching him as you
were kind of coming up, what was there something that
you saw that made you believe I've got the right
style to beat him.

Speaker 4 (52:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (52:04):
I like the way he moves, the way he comes
forward is war and he lost the place. He shots,
that European style, that that Ukrainian stall that he has,
and it presents, you.

Speaker 4 (52:13):
Know, great opportunities from war stall. I'm very explosive, very sharp,
and very fast. So everything I'll.

Speaker 5 (52:19):
Bring to the table, you know, we'll be able to
work against a guy like Womachenko.

Speaker 2 (52:23):
You know, I've been watching some of the build up
to this fight, and it's very polite. It's very professional
between you two. Not a lot of the femo stuff,
not a lot of the Devin Haney stuff. How do
you feel when you have an opponent kind of in
front of you that that maybe you don't dislike in
ways you've disliked other opponents.

Speaker 4 (52:42):
Yeah, look, I've continue started.

Speaker 5 (52:44):
I respect Lomachenko, I don't dislike Lumban Chenkow, and I'm
sure he's the same.

Speaker 4 (52:48):
We are both the same fight.

Speaker 5 (52:50):
We are very similar, you know, people when we are
two warriors, we are two guys that love to fight
and love to take the biggest test possible. But again,
that respect comes Sunday is all out the window. He's
trying to do what he's trying to do, and I'm
trying to do what I'm trying to do. So, yes,
this is not Cambosis lowpeest, cambosus Hainy one making cambos
Haiti two.

Speaker 4 (53:10):
This is not bad blood.

Speaker 5 (53:11):
This is not calling people all types of things and
and other people getting in headlocks and you know, big
commotions happened like we saw in New York. You know,
this is a two respectful guys, two guys that love
to fight, and some Sunday it all goes out the window.
The respect goes out the window, and I'm coming to
do a job on him.

Speaker 2 (53:30):
You have said that you think that Lomachenk, who has
caught lost that dog that was inside him. Why do
you believe that?

Speaker 4 (53:38):
You can see it.

Speaker 5 (53:38):
I can see the way he's come to Perth, and
he's having a good time. And I can see obviously,
you know, after the effects of the Haini fight, I
know that looms so much still in his head.

Speaker 4 (53:48):
I'm just a man possessed.

Speaker 5 (53:49):
I'm a man will do whatever it takes in front
of my home nation, in front of my people, in
front of my family.

Speaker 4 (53:54):
And just as we had that face.

Speaker 5 (53:56):
Off, that three four minute face off, well we both
didn't want to look the way up.

Speaker 4 (53:59):
It's sleep in his eyes. I'm sure he saw it.
In my head.

Speaker 5 (54:03):
I'm going to do whatever it takes to win. He's fighting.
We'll find out Sunday. I know I've got the dog
in me. I'll have to find out if he still
has it.

Speaker 2 (54:12):
You mentioned that Hany fight and you both have losses.
The Devin Haney on your resume. Why do you think
the loss to Hani has affected him in a way
that you don't think it affected you.

Speaker 5 (54:22):
Well, yeah, look, we always look back at the Hani fighters,
but again we forget about the Lopez fight as well.

Speaker 4 (54:27):
He couldn't do what I did against Lopez.

Speaker 5 (54:29):
Now, politics will always get involved and obviously what they say,
but I had the four bells.

Speaker 4 (54:35):
I was able to do something that he was not
able to do.

Speaker 5 (54:37):
You know, for me, it softens a blow against the
Hainy losses. You know, I knew what was coming up against.
But for him, he was trying so much, put everything
into it, his whole body into becoming undisputed.

Speaker 4 (54:49):
That was his goal.

Speaker 5 (54:50):
That's when his goal for his whole whole life. But
that gone, that's gone, that opportunity is gone. He will
not be undisputed ever. That's finished. So I'm happy to
have that accolade. As much as people say yes, no, no, yes,
whatever it is, it softens a blow from white Hani fights.

Speaker 4 (55:07):
So I think it took a lot more of a toll.

Speaker 5 (55:08):
When you give everything to achieve something and you come
up short, especially that round twelve, I'm sure haunts him
and haunt him for the rest of his life and
it's a difficult task to get back up again.

Speaker 4 (55:19):
But I'm up with this one.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
You're an underdog in this fight. Do you think you
should be?

Speaker 4 (55:25):
Yes? I love to be the underdog. You've sent a
first hand what an under underdog can by Sustenzo.

Speaker 5 (55:30):
I still get chills from your commentary and I commentating
that fight where it's, you know, such a historic fight
man Lopez, that that's boxing, and I'm sure again we're
going to have very similar drama in the sight on Sunday.
Say yes, I'm on the underdog. I love it, Beautiful,
I've got the big odds. Everyone thinks that you know

(55:52):
Lomachenko is you're going to do a number on me, beautiful.

Speaker 4 (55:54):
I love it. I and I soaked that underdog role.

Speaker 2 (55:59):
You know you your last fight was against Maxi Hughes
and you won that fight. You got the IBO belt
that you currently have. Do you think you need to
be better though? Because I think you'd probably agree that
wasn't your finest performance against Maxi Hughes. Do you think
you need to be better to beat Lomachenko?

Speaker 4 (56:14):
Oh, definitely.

Speaker 5 (56:15):
Look that fight was the worst camp Boss in a
fight where he was a lot too motivated coming up
against the Galla Maxi Hughes was more thinking about going
to Disneyland with his family before the fight and Dagana.
Why so I'm extremely motivated, and you've seen it again
when I motivated. Cambosa is a fully focused Cambos with
the preparation that I have had, you know, fighting and
gollup for Suliman Chenka and how do you not get

(56:37):
motivated for Gala Lomachenka. Square's a legend and by taking
out a legend, what it does for me cements me.
So bring on Sunday. I'm very excited and I'll be
at my best.

Speaker 2 (56:48):
Third time in the last four fights that you have
brought a big championship fight to Australia. We don't often
see fights on this level in Australia really in many
parts of the world outside of the un US in
the UK nowadays. What kind of boost do you get
fighting in front of that home crowd.

Speaker 4 (57:07):
It's beautiful, you know.

Speaker 5 (57:08):
After the Hainy fights, when we did such big mega events,
I always prayed and I said, giving me one more
opportunity to do this again, do it right, do with
the right team and have that full focus against the
goallet Lomachenka. That was always something I prayed and I
knew that a manifest. I knew that it would happen,
it would come. So here we are but being able

(57:28):
to bring these mega Foster Australia, and Boss keeps doing it.
He keeps bringing these fights. He keeps doing it, and he
keeps showing that we're sold out. There's about one hundred
tickets left. We're sold out here and in a beautiful sixteen
thousand said RSA arena. We're going to beat the record
of the UFC. So go boxing, man. Look, it's motivating,
it's inspiring, and I can't wait step inside the ring

(57:51):
on a Sunday, in front of my fans, in front
of my family, in front of my people, and beat
the legend Lomachenka.

Speaker 2 (57:57):
Your best win today came in hostile territory. You went
into New York City and beat f Malopez in front
of what was originally his group of fans. Is there
any extra pressure for you fighting at home?

Speaker 4 (58:10):
No, no pressure. I'm an underdog. You know a lot
of people. You know I'm not expecting me to win
this fight, so there's no pressure. I made. The pressure
is on him. His career is really on the line.
I lost to a dollar camp Boas. That's really Rix's
hall of fame, you know, future hall of fame. You
know all that. Ever, I was saying, well, you know
what it puts me. I believe into the hall of fame.

Speaker 5 (58:29):
Lopez, lomachenk Devin Haney fights Selby Bay.

Speaker 4 (58:34):
That's that's a great you know, in achievement. So look
at the all the pressure is on him, pressure is
on him. Of course there'll be small pressure, but nothing new.
This is not my first radio.

Speaker 5 (58:47):
We've done the big fights, and you know I thrive
on many underdoge all right.

Speaker 2 (58:52):
Before I let you go, you're obviously on a path
to get your belts back at one thirty five and
you've got your eye on Shakur Stevenson, maybe tag David
other guys at one thirty five after Lomachenko. But you
got Taffy Malopez out there as a title holder at
one forty. Do you think before your career ends you
will fight Taffy Molopez again?

Speaker 5 (59:12):
You know we have to white and say mar focus
Isman Chenka. I have not looked at anybody. I cannot
look at uh baiting life is again. I cannot look
at uh you know, Javonta Diavas Chick, Paul and I
even that that at liszt drug shape. And I'll tell
by looking at any of these guys, you know, I'm
focused on Vassil Lomachenka. That's the only guy that's playing
on my mind for for months, you know. That's that's

(59:33):
the any I'm focused on. Weft of episodes.

Speaker 2 (59:38):
Well we've but we've learned long and long ago, George,
not to count you out of any fight as you
you tend to surprise in those moments. So good luck
to you man on Sunday. Be a great fight and
now looking forward to seeing it.

Speaker 4 (59:49):
Thanks Chris Spret shouting Mike with the chat.

Speaker 2 (59:52):
That's it for this week's episode. My thanks to Keith
Idak and George camp Boss for joining the show. As always, subscribe,
rate review this podcast on Apple, podcast, Spotify, wherever you
download podcasts, and I will see you next week. Mannick.

Speaker 5 (01:00:08):
I'm a man on the run and I'm not doing
your fucking podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:00:11):
We're not doing it, bro, I'm a man on the run,
on the run,