December 11, 2025 • 32 mins
Andre Ward’s PBC Verdict: Cruz vs Roach QUESTIONABLE DRAW & Fulton’s Tough Night
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Whatever the sport Ward John Dream hanging out with my
man andre Ward. We threw Hall of Famers to bring
y'all a show called a Hall of Game, a show
where we discuss.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Boxing, sports, life and entertainment from RV.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
How much better Neck and you get?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Me and Roy don't always agree, but one thing you
will get is a Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
What a game?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome back to another episode of the Hall of Game.
I'm your host, andre Ward Man, where I'm yet again
without my co host Roy Jones Junior.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
I need you all to pull out an APB on
Roy Jones.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I know he's traveling, I know he's moving around taking
care of business, but I need him back on the
Hall of Game. Y'all have been asking for him to
be back on the Hall of Game, and I missed
my brother, but I'm gonna hold it down until he
gets back.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
We got a great show today.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
It's a recap of Saturday Nights card in San Antonio,
Texas at the Frost Bank Center.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
On the PBC pay per view card on Prime Video.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
We previewed this card going into the week and it's
a card that I was very excited about for a
lot of a lot of reasons. Haysus Ramos Junior and
Shane Moseley Junior fought for the WBC Interim middleway title.
Arizlondi Laura fought Johann Gonzalez, who stepped in for jeneback
Aleem Honolu because of a positive or adverse finding in
(01:24):
his VADA testing. Shaki Foster fought Stephen Fulton. Stephen Fulton
came in two pounds overweight and for whatever reason, the
WBC still sanctioned this fight as an interim lightweight title
and then in the main event, we had Isaac Pittbull
Cruise against Lamont Roach for the interim WBC super Lightweight title,
(01:45):
and that, my friends, was a good fight. The fight
with Haysus Ramos and Shane Moseley was a good fight
for two fighters in similar spaces. I had Shane Mosley Jr.
On the Contender Series in twenty eighteen. Shane Moseley is
a good fighter with good skills and believe it or not,
he has some of his father and him. You see
(02:06):
some of the fast, twitchy type of punches and foot movement.
He's a very tough fighter who can take a lot
of punishment. I don't know if that's a badge of honor,
but it's certainly something that you respect. He did take
a lot of punishment in the fight with Hayesus Ramos.
He never quit, he never stopped trying to win. But
when you're taking punishment like that at this stage in
your career, when you're trying to get to a championship level,
(02:26):
you gotta start taking some hard looks at your career
and see if this is something that you really want
to do. Because things are not gonna get easier for
Shane Mosley Jr. They're going to get harder. But the
future is bright for Hayesus Ramos. Just a good young
fighter who has a great family and a great background,
and he's a fighter that does a lot of great
things and I like what I've seen from him so far.
(02:47):
And the sky's the limit for Ramos moving forward, and
he's looking forward to fighting for the full championship WBC
title in the near future.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
The fight that we were looking for.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Arislondi Laura and Jenebec Aliem Honulu wasn't the fight that
we got. We said at the top of the show
that Jenebec had an adverse finding with his VADA testing
leading into the fight, Jennebec had to step aside as
he's waiting for his BE sample to come back. I'm
going to reserve my opinions until that sample comes back.
But that's not a good look for him and his team,
(03:24):
as this was the opportunity that he really wanted. Jennebec
was a guy who passed the eye test with flying colors,
and it seems.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Like nobody really wants to fight him. And what he's
missing is the name's sake or the type of.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Marquis victory to get him in position where guys can
no longer duck and they have to fight because there's
enough money on the table. This is a huge setback
for team Jennebec if the B sample comes back positive.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
He's got other issues that he has to deal with.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
But there's always a placement in the sport of box,
and there's always a fighter somewhere. He might be sitting
on the couch, or he might be in the gym
and he's just a phone call away. And that fighter
was Johan Gonzalez. Johan looked very, very strong and in shape,
and he was a tougher fighter than many thought that
(04:20):
he would be.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
For Arizlonadi, Laura.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Lara dropped Gonzalez in the first round and then ultimately
in the last round, but Lara sort of went back
to some of his older ways where there's excess movement,
not enough punches, and I don't know, you have to
give him a little bit of grace, Laura, because he
didn't have a lot of time to prepare.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
For Johan Gonzalez.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
This is Gonzalez's super Bowl and this is just another
fight for Lara. He was preparing for another fighter and
another type of fight and it's switched in the fourth quarter.
That's a lot to deal with, but you do expect
a fighter of Lara's caliber and with Lara's experience to
make those adjustments. And I think that Laura could have
(05:03):
gotten Gonzalez out of there. And he's shown that in
his older age, being over forty, I think Lara's forty two,
forty three years old, forty two years old, that he's
willing to stand there more, he's willing to stay in
the pocket. And he's surprised a lot of people because
Laura's always had respectable power, but he's shown that he's
got real power, the type of power that's knocking guys
(05:27):
down and then knocking him out. And he showed that
early with Gonzalez, and then he showed it late. If
you could carry your power late into a fight like that,
that tells me that Laura could have did more. He
didn't get a great response from the fans, and that's
tough because that could stop other opportunities for Lara. There's
not a lot of reasons why fighters want to face
(05:49):
a skilled, dangerous, experienced fighter like Laura who's forty two
years of age without some serious reason. And the reason
that he he's given these promoters and other fighters to
step up is the type of fights that he's been
putting on, these knockouts and these stoppages where he's old
enough where fighters will take a risk, like a Jena
(06:11):
Beec where Okay, if I beat Alara, I get this
on my resume. Man, I got a marquee name now,
and I can tell people that I have a marquee name.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
But if Lara.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Continues to fight those kind of fights at this stage
in his career, he may start hurting opportunities for himself
moving forward, because it's an easy way for fighters and
promoters to step aside and say, oh.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
He's gonna run it's gonna be a boring fight.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
So I think Laura could have stepped on the gas
and really stayed in the pocket. Was with Gonzalez in
the midway point in that fight, and I think he
really could have stepped He really could have got him
out of there. Because though Johan Gonzales would look strong
and in shape, he looked like he had been in
the gym when he got the call. I didn't see
(06:59):
anything from Gonza y'allez that concerned me for Laura.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
I didn't see punches or a.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Game plan that made me feel like, Laura, you need
to box and get out of here, get your check,
get the win, and move on.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
That's not what I got from Gonzalees.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
So I don't know why Laura went back to those ways,
but I'd like to see Laura stay in the pocket
like he was. Y'all know, I'm boxing first. That's what
I believe in, That's what I was raised on. So
I'm not a guy that is quick to caualifighter boring
because they didn't stand there and take a lot of punishment.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
But when you see that, you could do more.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
When you see that is there are opportunities you want
to take those opportunities, especially against a late minute replacement,
and especially when you're at this stage in your career
like Laura was, but winning covers a multitude of sins.
He will get another opportunity, and I'm excited to see
who Arislondi. Laura will get another opportunity against. I think
(07:55):
the fight that I was looking forward to the most
was the co main event, even though the main event
was exciting, and that was also a fight that I
was looking forward to. It's the Oshaki Foster Stephen Fulton fight,
which was scheduled for Oshaki Foster's one hundred and.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Thirty pounds WBC title. Stephen Fulton was.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Just coming up in weight from one twenty six to
one thirty. But fight week or the day before the fight,
he comes in two pounds over the limit. He comes
in at one thirty two for one hundred and thirty
pound limit. And when you look at Fulton's body, to me,
he didn't look like he had the cuts and the
grooves and the type of body that you want to
see from a fighter that's been in a long training
(08:37):
camp and that's been making all the sacrifices. I had
concerns with Fulton being two pounds over because you're moving
up in weight, you're moving four pounds north of where
you just previously were. Not to say that it still
wasn't hard for him to make weight, because the misconception
is that because a fighter is moving up in weight
that they're still not draining themselves to make that weight,
(08:58):
even though it's a higher way. Fulton gets pretty heavy
in between fights. We talked about it right here on
the Hall of Game. He said, I like my food.
I like to relax after my training camps. I don't
like to do much. And I don't know what happened
to Fulton in camp. There's a lot of rumors circulating
about personal issues or camp not going.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
The way that it was supposed to.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
I know he had issues making the one hundred and
thirty pounds limit, But the question is is why why
was Folton not able to dial in and make the
weight precisely the way he was supposed to as a fighter.
I'm asking why was his body not in the type
(09:40):
of shape that he was supposed to be in. This
fight was a long time coming. There was multiple cancelations,
there was a.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Lot of back and forth.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
I don't think it was real bad blood, but it
was boxing bad blood. It's competitiveness. You want to face
fight me for my title? You think you're gonna come
up and wait and take what I have. Fulton's like,
don't take it personal, but yeah, I'm getting ready to
come get your belt. They had all of the makings
of a great matchup that night, but as the fight unfolded,
(10:11):
the fight started out like the script that everybody had
written thought was gonna get played out. Oshaki Foster, the bigger,
more established fighter at the way, not walking down but
putting subtle pressure on Stephen Fulton, and many believed that
Stephen Fulton had the box. He's the smaller fighter, he
(10:31):
doesn't punch as hard as Foster, so he better be smart.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
And that's what we saw in the first couple of rounds.
But that's not all I saw.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
I saw the script as it was written being played out.
But I also saw Fulton not being confident, and I
don't know if that's because of the weight issues, because
oftentimes as a fighter, you don't always feel great going
into a fight. The goal is for everything to peak
your sharpness mentally, your focus, your physical prowess, your physical
(11:05):
body as you made weight. You want to make weight
the right way. You want to put the weight back
on in the twenty four hour period or less that
you have to put the way back on. You want
everything to be clicking, but the reality is, even though
you have a fight day, things are not always clicking
the way that they're supposed to. It didn't look like
Fulton was right going into the fight, and he didn't
(11:27):
look right early on in the fight. And what I
saw was a fighter who had a lot on his mind,
who didn't have the best training camp. This is just
all speculation and what I'm seeing from my years in
the sport. But I also saw Stephen Fulton allowing Oshaki Foster.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Who did his part.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
He came in in tip top shape, he made the weight,
and he did what he was supposed to do, and
he actually showed more wrinkles in his game. He was
just supposed to be the puncher. Oshaki Foster was just
supposed to be the bruiser. But he also that I
can do multiple things, and I'm gonna get to that
in just a second. But for Fulton, I don't think
it was just the training camp. I don't think it
(12:06):
was just the way cut even though I know that
had a lot to do with it, it looked to
me that Folton was allowing Oshaki Foster to win a
lot of those rounds and ultimately the fight by his reputation.
What I mean by that is the script I told
you about, right, Foster being bigger, stronger, and even carrying
(12:27):
his power lay Foster has late late fight, late round
knockouts where he's getting knockouts in the eleventh and twelfth round.
I didn't see Fulton taking the chances that he was
supposed to take in order to try to get some
respect from Oshaki Foster. I didn't see Fulton stepped to
Foster in spots the way he.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Was supposed to, to take.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Some ground from Oshaki Foster that he was supposed to.
I didn't see that that Philly thing, that willingness to
risk getting knocked out or risk getting hurt, to put
your game plan down, to put your stake in the
ground and let the opponent, the fans, the judges and
everybody know that. Yeah, I know I'm supposed to be boxing,
(13:11):
but I'm gonna get mine too. I didn't see that
from Stephen Folton. I didn't I didn't feel that like
you can feel that type of energy and that type
of mindset when it's being displayed, like, oh, oh he
getting his respect right now, Oh he just drew a
line in the sand. You saw it with Terrence Crawford
and Canelo Alvarez. You see the normal script playing out,
Crawford boxing, Canelo Alvarez stalking. But then all of a sudden,
(13:34):
you saw certain rounds where Terrence Crawford went off script
and he drew a line in the sand. And as
a fighter, you know, oh, he's getting his respect. He's
sending a message to Canelo and to everybody watching that
is not gonna be the way that you think it's
gonna be. I didn't see that from Stephen Folton. I
didn't see that kind of fight from Stephen Foulton. And
(13:56):
it's sad because his corner was telling them all the
right stuff. In the first two or three rounds, you
could see that Folton was still trying to process and
figure out how to how to how to solve the
puzzle about Shaki Foster. But right around a fifth, sixth round,
seventh round, in between, in between the rounds, you started
(14:16):
seeing Fulton just kind of drift. You start seeing his
mind drift. You start seeing his mind drift. You gotta
you gotta stay focused in a fight, especially when things
aren't going your way. It's very easy to start to
give up mentally. You may not give up physically, you
may not stop throwing punches, but your mind starts to
drift and you start becoming a spectator to your own event.
(14:38):
So your coach is talking, you hear them, but you
really don't hear him. Your mind is on something else.
And that's what I started to see from Stephen Folton
in the middle of this fight, and I think it
was a sixth or seventh round. He came out and
he started throwing like air punches like they weren't reaching Foster,
but he just started throwing air punches as if he
was like shadow boxing. And that just let me know
(15:00):
that this is not gonna be the night for Stephen Fulton.
I don't know what happened, man, I have a lot
of respect for Stephen Fulton. I've stayed at that on
this show and on this platform, and I continue to
I'm not a fighter who sees a fighter have that
kind of showing or a fighter that doesn't show up
the way he's supposed to and then I say, oh,
he's trash.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
He was never anything that's not me.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
I have a lot of respect for Fulton, but something
went wrong in its preparation, something was wrong the week
of the.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Fight, and.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Something wasn't right with him on fight night. But that
being said, some of what was and maybe most of
what was wrong with Fulton in that fight was Oshaki Foster.
We can't take away from the performance of Foster and
the professionalism and everything that he displayed.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
In that fight. He was sturdy, he looked very strong,
He looked sure of himself. But he was smart.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
And I love to see a guy who's known as
a bruiser and a puncher and the stronger fighter not
abuse what he has in his arsenal. Foster could have
easily not respected anything about Stephen Fulton and just tried
to walk through him, and maybe maybe he would have
maybe he would have got the stoppage, maybe he would
have done better. I don't know, but I like what
(16:15):
I saw from Foster. I saw a thinking man that night,
Saturday night against Stephen Fulton. I saw a man who
was thinking through his steps and processing his moves.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Foster was playing chess on fight night. He wasn't playing checkers.
He was thinking two three steps up ahead.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
And this fight is gonna elevate Oshaki Foster as a
fighter overall, because he's got the toughness, he's got all
the stuff. He showed that he got some flavor, he's
shown that he's got ranged to his game. Great fight
from Oshaki Foster, it's not a good fight for Stephen Fulton.
And he's got to go back and he's got to
retool and be honest with himself about.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
What went wrong.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
If anything went wrong in his personal life, in training camp, mentally,
if he just didn't believe that he can win. I
didn't see a confident Stephen Fulton. You cannot knock a
fighter who takes a chance to win and comes up short.
But it's tough, and I know that Stephen Fulton's feeling
this right now. He didn't put himself in the best
(17:16):
position to get that dug and I don't think he
really believed in himself once he got in that ring.
Foster was who he thought he was. He may have
been even better than he thought he was. And I
didn't see Stephen Fulton that one time told that line
and draw that line in the sand and left. Foster
know you're gonna have to earn this tonight. I wish
(17:36):
Fulton nothing but the best. Boxing is a sport of second, third, fourth,
fifth chances. I believe that he's gonna get back to
where he was. I'm hoping that he gets back to
where he was and that he's able to make adjustments
because everybody's story is different. Some fighters they don't lose.
Some fighters never have the bad night or the bad performance,
(17:58):
but it doesn't mean they haven't go on through things.
They had their own struggles in their own fight. Stephen
Fulton has had his struggles and has had his fights
in the boxing ring, but thus far he's always overcame
no struggles, and I'm hoping and believing that he'll do
it again and the future is.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Bright for Shaki Foster. Shaki Foster, he's got.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
History with Shakur Stevenson, and his quote after the fight
was I want Shakor Stevenson. He said, I've been saying
it for the longest, but it looks like he's gonna
be fighting at one forty, so I have to choose
either one thirty or one thirty five. I'll see what
happens and make a decision from there. Excited about the
future of Oshaki Foster. He's earned the right to be
in his position man and once again man. Big things
(18:39):
up ahead for Foster. The main event over delivered the
pit bull Cruise and Lamont Roach for one hundred and
forty pounds WBC Interim super Lightweight title. This fight ended
on a majority draw one fifteen, one eleven for Cruise
and you had one thirteen one thirteen two times for
(19:01):
a majority decision draw. I thought Lamont Roach had done
enough to win that fight, but not by a landslide,
maybe a point or two. The point that I always
make is when a fight is that close, you can't
scream robbery if it doesn't go your way, because there
are swing rounds that can go either way. There are
(19:22):
moments of the fight that judges look at in a
particular way. Lamar Roach may be our boxing Cruise for
most of the fight, but then all of a sudden,
Isaac Cruz has a moment with ten or fifteen seconds
before the bell rings, and then all of a sudden,
that's the last thought on the judge's mind and they
mark that round for Isaac Cruz. I don't think that's
(19:43):
the right way to judge around. I think the way
you're supposed to judge around is the totality of the
three minutes. But you have humans sitting across the ring
that are judges, and sometimes they like what they like,
or they see what they see, and it sways them
to give a round or two to a guy that
maybe you thought, or we thought as a viewing audience,
should have went the other way.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
I don't think a draw is robbery.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
I do think Lamont did enough. And I'll say this
about Isaac Pittbull Cruise. I like Isaac Cruz. He's a short, stocky,
all muscle type of fighter. He's got underrated defense because
he is stout and he's short.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
To the ground. He knows how to tuck that chin.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
He gives you the top of the head because that
doesn't hurt as much or put him in as much
danger as getting clipped on the chin and maybe getting
clipped on the temple.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
I like his style. He makes everybody work.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
He pushes everybody to the limit, and I knew it
would be no different with Lamont Roach. But the issue
that I have at Cruise is Cruise started the fight strong,
like he typically does. Then he fades or he tries
to preserve energy, and then he tries to step it
up at the end. Isaac Cruiz does that not just
(20:56):
because of strategy. It's also because of how he carries
himself and lives outside the ring. I don't know his
personal life. I say live, meaning how he keeps his body.
Isaac Cruz is one hundred and forty pound fighter, and
I would guess he gets to one seventy maybe higher
(21:19):
in between fights. This is just off me looking at
his face, looking at his body, and sizing fighters up.
For almost most of my life, he gets really really
heavy in between fights. Some on the internet call that
way bullying. I call that a lack of discipline and
(21:41):
a lack of respect for the game. And what happens
is when the fight starts, everybody feels strong. Everybody strong
for the first four rounds. But five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
and then down the stretch.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
That's where you show your conditioning.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
That's where you show what type of life you're living
in between fights, how much or how little you actually
respect the sport.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Isaac Cruz has to.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Hold and preserve energy because everything that he did to
his body in training camp is catching up to him.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
You cannot strip off.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Twenty thirty forty pounds and expect to be in tip
top shape and fight for a duration of a twelve
round We all take rounds off, we all take moments
and to fight off.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
I'm saying you take four and.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Five rounds off where you're doing just enough to get
by or just enough to try to steal around. That's
what Isaac Cruise does oftentimes in his fights, and he
would be a lot better.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Maybe the fight wi Lamont Roach wouldn't even be.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Close if he took care of himself a little bit
better outside the ring. Cruise, you gotta live like a
fighter until you retire. Mean that you can't have moments
to enjoy whatever it is you like to enjoy. But
you have to stay within your fight range, your weight
and fight range, so you don't have to destroy your body.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
Completely in an eight week and twelve week and four.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Month training camp. And you see fighters who have weight
issues oftentimes they have long training camps. They have three
four or five month training camps. They need a pre
camp and they need a full camp, and it's fat
camp for most of the camp. It's getting weight off
it's always feeling lethargic and tired, and it's less about
(23:40):
game plan and strategy and it's more about your weight issue.
For a championship level fighter, the primary thing.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Should not be a weight issue. Should always check your way.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
You should be on a scale multiple times throughout the
day in training camp to track how your body is flowing.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Man I just ran.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
I just lost four pounds, so I know, man I
can lose four or five if I do a five
or six mile run. Man I just got done working
out of the gym. I haven't hydrated, hydrated yet. Man
I just lost six pounds. You start to understand your
body by staying on the scale. But you shouldn't have
to lose thirty and forty pounds in training camp because
(24:21):
it's gonna come back and it's going to hurt you.
And that's what I saw with eyes a cruise, see, y'all.
I don't just look at puncher's throne. I look at
the things that a lot of people don't see because
I've lived it. And those are the things that excite
me about fights or that interest me about fights. It's
the fight, it's the fighters, it's the matchup, it's the
(24:43):
style matchup is what game plans or both fighters gonna implement.
But then I've also tracked with the fighters leading up
to the fight, and he looks like he focused, and
he doesn't look like he's pump faking. He looks like
he's really focused.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Like I got that.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Sense from Devin Haney when he was on the show
with me and Rod, And it wasn't any Rod rather
that he was doing.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
It wasn't any one thing that he said.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
But there was a couple of questions that I asked
him about Turkey and about the monetary side of the game,
and everything that he said went back to the fight.
I said, Oh, he's locked in. He's locked in. He
wasn't too high, he wasn't too low. These are the
things that I focus on, and this is what I
focused and saw with Cruise that when the initial press
conference got kicked off.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
I said, man, Isaac Cruz got a lot of way
to lose.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
He's gonna drain himself in training camp and he's gonna
make this fight with Lamar Roach a lot tougher than
it needs to be. But I like the type of
shape that Lamar Roach was in, though I don't like
the game plan that he implemented. When you face a
fighter like Cruise, you don't want to bang and fight
(25:52):
with him early on in the fight. That's exactly what
he wants. Isaac Kruz is the strongest that he's ever
gonna be in a fight in the first four rounds.
That's when you.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Use your jab.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
You make Isaac Cruz think more than he wants to think.
He's going to be aggressive. He's going to throw big shots.
That's who he is and that's what he does. But
you don't have to oblige, at least early on. See
people think that when you face an aggressive fighter, when
you face a fighter that can punch, that you're supposed
to just run from this fighter for twelve rounds, and
(26:27):
they employ the mindset that you can't hit what you
can't see. That's not really how it's done. You can't
avoid a big punch from a real puncher, one that
knows how to cut a ring, one that has experience,
and one that knows his way around that ring. He's
going to land at some point, So it's best that
you just make your mind up that I'm gonna get hit,
(26:49):
but it's not gonna be enough.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
I'm gonna be able to take the shot.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
You can't give in to what Cruise wants for the
first four rounds Lamont Roach could have and should have
early on, and you saw him trying to box in
the first round or not trying, but you saw him
boxing in the first round. But then something shifted round two, three, four,
where he's standing there early and he's trading punches with
(27:14):
Isaac Cruz at his strongest. That's the point in the
fight where the rhythm for Lamont got out. He got
out of rhythm at that point because you start to
fight a certain way, and if you're Lamar Roach, it's
hard to go back to doing the boxing. If you
start fighting, it's hard to go back to doing the boxing.
But if the game plan is to box first, get
(27:37):
your respect in spots, meaning, oh you want to rumble,
I'll rumble for ten seconds.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Then I'm gonna go back to boxing.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
I'm gonna do it your way because I have an
advantage because I have you all balanced. I'm gonna attack
you and I'm gonna let you know that I will
hit you and I'm not afraid.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
But then I'm gonna go back to boxing. It's hard
to go to that rhythm.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
When you've gotten into a fighting rhythm, the crowd is involved,
you have to weigh that they're ooing and aweing. Now
you get hit with a big shot. If you're a
real fighter and you got that kind of dog in you,
what you think.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
You're gonna want to do next?
Speaker 2 (28:10):
You're gonna want to get that shot back right away,
sway the judges, sway the crowd and the viewing audience
at home. That's where Lamont Roach got off. He started
to fight Isaac Cruz early.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
And too often.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
And now this goes from you boxing to now fighting.
And I could see the look on Isaac Cruse's face.
He loved every bit of it. He loved every bit
of it. But what I did love about Lamont Roach,
even though I think he employed the wrong game plan,
was the hearty show, the type of conditioning that he showed.
(28:44):
You have to realize giving the whole Javonte Davis Debaco
and the fight being on, the fight being off, and
him trying to find an opponent.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
He's pretty much been in the gym this whole year.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Most of what Lamont Roach posts and talks about, it's
trained or who the next fight is going to be.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
You don't see Lamont Roach sway on a lot.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Of different things, so you kind of get where he's
at and what his mind is focused on. And for him,
most of this year has been about training, it's been
about fighting, and a lot of people Isaac Cruz is
not an easy fight. He's a fighter that when you
sign a fight him, you know it's gonna be a
long night or a short night if you don't do.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
What you're supposed to do.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
And I never saw Lamont Roach really have an issue
with the Cruise match up. In fact, I saw him
excited about it, and I think that both fighters put
on a great fight.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
I think Isaac.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Cruz, like I said before, could have done himself a
service and he would have put himself in position to
win this fight by living like a fighter in between
fights so he can be the fighter he needs to
be in the fight on the night when the lights
are bright and everything is on the line. And Lamont
Roach no question about heart, no question about grit, no
(29:56):
question about mental toughness, no question about the lifestyle that
you outside the ring. I talk about your personal life.
I'm talking about your boxing life. No question about that.
Because you showed us in the biggest moments. Isac Cruz
got a knockdown in the third round. It wasn't a
traditional knockdown where you see the fighter hit the canvas,
but it knocked Roach all the way back several feet.
(30:17):
And that shows you the type of power that Isaac
Cruz possesses and what he's capable of. The problem with
him is he's not able to keep it up. He's
not able to sustain that level of intensity, that level
of work rate, or that level of punch count throughout
the duration of the fight. If Isaac Cruz dedicates himself
(30:37):
more outside the ring and takes this more serious, he's
going to be even more dangerous than he already is.
And for Lamar Roach, I think that was a disciplined
thing in the ring where the game plan should have been.
He should have implemented the game plan more in a
disciplined way early in this fight. If you put the
(30:58):
right kind of money in the bank early on six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
you hit return, that investment is gonna pay you dividends.
And then the championship rounds for me are ten, eleven,
and twelve, not just eleven and twelve. Then it boils
down to who's in the better shade, whose mind is
(31:19):
still sharpen and working the way that it's supposed to.
And then it's gonna take some grit, some determination, some heart,
because all of us are tired, all of us are fatigued,
all of us would love for that final bell to ring.
But I want this a little bit more than you.
But at least you've established yourself if you're a Lamont
roach in a better way on the scorecard. So both
fighters could have done something different to put themselves in
(31:42):
a better position. So it's hard to argue with the draw.
I just don't appreciate the one fifteen one eleven. I
would love to speak to that judge and have him
break that down for me, because I didn't see that
kind of fighting
Whatever the sport Ward John Dream hanging out with my
man andre Ward. We threw Hall of Famers to bring
y'all a show called a Hall of Game, a show
where we discuss.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Boxing, sports, life and entertainment from RV.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
How much better Neck and you get?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Me and Roy don't always agree, but one thing you
will get is a Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
What a game?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome back to another episode of the Hall of Game.
I'm your host, andre Ward Man, where I'm yet again
without my co host Roy Jones Junior.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
I need you all to pull out an APB on
Roy Jones.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I know he's traveling, I know he's moving around taking
care of business, but I need him back on the
Hall of Game. Y'all have been asking for him to
be back on the Hall of Game, and I missed
my brother, but I'm gonna hold it down until he
gets back.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
We got a great show today.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
It's a recap of Saturday Nights card in San Antonio,
Texas at the Frost Bank Center.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
On the PBC pay per view card on Prime Video.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
We previewed this card going into the week and it's
a card that I was very excited about for a
lot of a lot of reasons. Haysus Ramos Junior and
Shane Moseley Junior fought for the WBC Interim middleway title.
Arizlondi Laura fought Johann Gonzalez, who stepped in for jeneback
Aleem Honolu because of a positive or adverse finding in
(01:24):
his VADA testing. Shaki Foster fought Stephen Fulton. Stephen Fulton
came in two pounds overweight and for whatever reason, the
WBC still sanctioned this fight as an interim lightweight title
and then in the main event, we had Isaac Pittbull
Cruise against Lamont Roach for the interim WBC super Lightweight title,
(01:45):
and that, my friends, was a good fight. The fight
with Haysus Ramos and Shane Moseley was a good fight
for two fighters in similar spaces. I had Shane Mosley Jr.
On the Contender Series in twenty eighteen. Shane Moseley is
a good fighter with good skills and believe it or not,
he has some of his father and him. You see
(02:06):
some of the fast, twitchy type of punches and foot movement.
He's a very tough fighter who can take a lot
of punishment. I don't know if that's a badge of honor,
but it's certainly something that you respect. He did take
a lot of punishment in the fight with Hayesus Ramos.
He never quit, he never stopped trying to win. But
when you're taking punishment like that at this stage in
your career, when you're trying to get to a championship level,
(02:26):
you gotta start taking some hard looks at your career
and see if this is something that you really want
to do. Because things are not gonna get easier for
Shane Mosley Jr. They're going to get harder. But the
future is bright for Hayesus Ramos. Just a good young
fighter who has a great family and a great background,
and he's a fighter that does a lot of great
things and I like what I've seen from him so far.
(02:47):
And the sky's the limit for Ramos moving forward, and
he's looking forward to fighting for the full championship WBC
title in the near future.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
The fight that we were looking for.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Arislondi Laura and Jenebec Aliem Honulu wasn't the fight that
we got. We said at the top of the show
that Jenebec had an adverse finding with his VADA testing
leading into the fight, Jennebec had to step aside as
he's waiting for his BE sample to come back. I'm
going to reserve my opinions until that sample comes back.
But that's not a good look for him and his team,
(03:24):
as this was the opportunity that he really wanted. Jennebec
was a guy who passed the eye test with flying colors,
and it seems.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Like nobody really wants to fight him. And what he's
missing is the name's sake or the type of.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Marquis victory to get him in position where guys can
no longer duck and they have to fight because there's
enough money on the table. This is a huge setback
for team Jennebec if the B sample comes back positive.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
He's got other issues that he has to deal with.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
But there's always a placement in the sport of box,
and there's always a fighter somewhere. He might be sitting
on the couch, or he might be in the gym
and he's just a phone call away. And that fighter
was Johan Gonzalez. Johan looked very, very strong and in shape,
and he was a tougher fighter than many thought that
(04:20):
he would be.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
For Arizlonadi, Laura.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Lara dropped Gonzalez in the first round and then ultimately
in the last round, but Lara sort of went back
to some of his older ways where there's excess movement,
not enough punches, and I don't know, you have to
give him a little bit of grace, Laura, because he
didn't have a lot of time to prepare.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
For Johan Gonzalez.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
This is Gonzalez's super Bowl and this is just another
fight for Lara. He was preparing for another fighter and
another type of fight and it's switched in the fourth quarter.
That's a lot to deal with, but you do expect
a fighter of Lara's caliber and with Lara's experience to
make those adjustments. And I think that Laura could have
(05:03):
gotten Gonzalez out of there. And he's shown that in
his older age, being over forty, I think Lara's forty two,
forty three years old, forty two years old, that he's
willing to stand there more, he's willing to stay in
the pocket. And he's surprised a lot of people because
Laura's always had respectable power, but he's shown that he's
got real power, the type of power that's knocking guys
(05:27):
down and then knocking him out. And he showed that
early with Gonzalez, and then he showed it late. If
you could carry your power late into a fight like that,
that tells me that Laura could have did more. He
didn't get a great response from the fans, and that's
tough because that could stop other opportunities for Lara. There's
not a lot of reasons why fighters want to face
(05:49):
a skilled, dangerous, experienced fighter like Laura who's forty two
years of age without some serious reason. And the reason
that he he's given these promoters and other fighters to
step up is the type of fights that he's been
putting on, these knockouts and these stoppages where he's old
enough where fighters will take a risk, like a Jena
(06:11):
Beec where Okay, if I beat Alara, I get this
on my resume. Man, I got a marquee name now,
and I can tell people that I have a marquee name.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
But if Lara.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Continues to fight those kind of fights at this stage
in his career, he may start hurting opportunities for himself
moving forward, because it's an easy way for fighters and
promoters to step aside and say, oh.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
He's gonna run it's gonna be a boring fight.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
So I think Laura could have stepped on the gas
and really stayed in the pocket. Was with Gonzalez in
the midway point in that fight, and I think he
really could have stepped He really could have got him
out of there. Because though Johan Gonzales would look strong
and in shape, he looked like he had been in
the gym when he got the call. I didn't see
(06:59):
anything from Gonza y'allez that concerned me for Laura.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
I didn't see punches or a.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Game plan that made me feel like, Laura, you need
to box and get out of here, get your check,
get the win, and move on.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
That's not what I got from Gonzalees.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
So I don't know why Laura went back to those ways,
but I'd like to see Laura stay in the pocket
like he was. Y'all know, I'm boxing first. That's what
I believe in, That's what I was raised on. So
I'm not a guy that is quick to caualifighter boring
because they didn't stand there and take a lot of punishment.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
But when you see that, you could do more.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
When you see that is there are opportunities you want
to take those opportunities, especially against a late minute replacement,
and especially when you're at this stage in your career
like Laura was, but winning covers a multitude of sins.
He will get another opportunity, and I'm excited to see
who Arislondi. Laura will get another opportunity against. I think
(07:55):
the fight that I was looking forward to the most
was the co main event, even though the main event
was exciting, and that was also a fight that I
was looking forward to. It's the Oshaki Foster Stephen Fulton fight,
which was scheduled for Oshaki Foster's one hundred and.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Thirty pounds WBC title. Stephen Fulton was.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Just coming up in weight from one twenty six to
one thirty. But fight week or the day before the fight,
he comes in two pounds over the limit. He comes
in at one thirty two for one hundred and thirty
pound limit. And when you look at Fulton's body, to me,
he didn't look like he had the cuts and the
grooves and the type of body that you want to
see from a fighter that's been in a long training
(08:37):
camp and that's been making all the sacrifices. I had
concerns with Fulton being two pounds over because you're moving
up in weight, you're moving four pounds north of where
you just previously were. Not to say that it still
wasn't hard for him to make weight, because the misconception
is that because a fighter is moving up in weight
that they're still not draining themselves to make that weight,
(08:58):
even though it's a higher way. Fulton gets pretty heavy
in between fights. We talked about it right here on
the Hall of Game. He said, I like my food.
I like to relax after my training camps. I don't
like to do much. And I don't know what happened
to Fulton in camp. There's a lot of rumors circulating
about personal issues or camp not going.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
The way that it was supposed to.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
I know he had issues making the one hundred and
thirty pounds limit, But the question is is why why
was Folton not able to dial in and make the
weight precisely the way he was supposed to as a fighter.
I'm asking why was his body not in the type
(09:40):
of shape that he was supposed to be in. This
fight was a long time coming. There was multiple cancelations,
there was a.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Lot of back and forth.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
I don't think it was real bad blood, but it
was boxing bad blood. It's competitiveness. You want to face
fight me for my title? You think you're gonna come
up and wait and take what I have. Fulton's like,
don't take it personal, but yeah, I'm getting ready to
come get your belt. They had all of the makings
of a great matchup that night, but as the fight unfolded,
(10:11):
the fight started out like the script that everybody had
written thought was gonna get played out. Oshaki Foster, the bigger,
more established fighter at the way, not walking down but
putting subtle pressure on Stephen Fulton, and many believed that
Stephen Fulton had the box. He's the smaller fighter, he
(10:31):
doesn't punch as hard as Foster, so he better be smart.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
And that's what we saw in the first couple of rounds.
But that's not all I saw.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
I saw the script as it was written being played out.
But I also saw Fulton not being confident, and I
don't know if that's because of the weight issues, because
oftentimes as a fighter, you don't always feel great going
into a fight. The goal is for everything to peak
your sharpness mentally, your focus, your physical prowess, your physical
(11:05):
body as you made weight. You want to make weight
the right way. You want to put the weight back
on in the twenty four hour period or less that
you have to put the way back on. You want
everything to be clicking, but the reality is, even though
you have a fight day, things are not always clicking
the way that they're supposed to. It didn't look like
Fulton was right going into the fight, and he didn't
(11:27):
look right early on in the fight. And what I
saw was a fighter who had a lot on his mind,
who didn't have the best training camp. This is just
all speculation and what I'm seeing from my years in
the sport. But I also saw Stephen Fulton allowing Oshaki Foster.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Who did his part.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
He came in in tip top shape, he made the weight,
and he did what he was supposed to do, and
he actually showed more wrinkles in his game. He was
just supposed to be the puncher. Oshaki Foster was just
supposed to be the bruiser. But he also that I
can do multiple things, and I'm gonna get to that
in just a second. But for Fulton, I don't think
it was just the training camp. I don't think it
(12:06):
was just the way cut even though I know that
had a lot to do with it, it looked to
me that Folton was allowing Oshaki Foster to win a
lot of those rounds and ultimately the fight by his reputation.
What I mean by that is the script I told
you about, right, Foster being bigger, stronger, and even carrying
(12:27):
his power lay Foster has late late fight, late round
knockouts where he's getting knockouts in the eleventh and twelfth round.
I didn't see Fulton taking the chances that he was
supposed to take in order to try to get some
respect from Oshaki Foster. I didn't see Fulton stepped to
Foster in spots the way he.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Was supposed to, to take.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Some ground from Oshaki Foster that he was supposed to.
I didn't see that that Philly thing, that willingness to
risk getting knocked out or risk getting hurt, to put
your game plan down, to put your stake in the
ground and let the opponent, the fans, the judges and
everybody know that. Yeah, I know I'm supposed to be boxing,
(13:11):
but I'm gonna get mine too. I didn't see that
from Stephen Folton. I didn't I didn't feel that like
you can feel that type of energy and that type
of mindset when it's being displayed, like, oh, oh he
getting his respect right now, Oh he just drew a
line in the sand. You saw it with Terrence Crawford
and Canelo Alvarez. You see the normal script playing out,
Crawford boxing, Canelo Alvarez stalking. But then all of a sudden,
(13:34):
you saw certain rounds where Terrence Crawford went off script
and he drew a line in the sand. And as
a fighter, you know, oh, he's getting his respect. He's
sending a message to Canelo and to everybody watching that
is not gonna be the way that you think it's
gonna be. I didn't see that from Stephen Folton. I
didn't see that kind of fight from Stephen Foulton. And
(13:56):
it's sad because his corner was telling them all the
right stuff. In the first two or three rounds, you
could see that Folton was still trying to process and
figure out how to how to how to solve the
puzzle about Shaki Foster. But right around a fifth, sixth round,
seventh round, in between, in between the rounds, you started
(14:16):
seeing Fulton just kind of drift. You start seeing his
mind drift. You start seeing his mind drift. You gotta
you gotta stay focused in a fight, especially when things
aren't going your way. It's very easy to start to
give up mentally. You may not give up physically, you
may not stop throwing punches, but your mind starts to
drift and you start becoming a spectator to your own event.
(14:38):
So your coach is talking, you hear them, but you
really don't hear him. Your mind is on something else.
And that's what I started to see from Stephen Folton
in the middle of this fight, and I think it
was a sixth or seventh round. He came out and
he started throwing like air punches like they weren't reaching Foster,
but he just started throwing air punches as if he
was like shadow boxing. And that just let me know
(15:00):
that this is not gonna be the night for Stephen Fulton.
I don't know what happened, man, I have a lot
of respect for Stephen Fulton. I've stayed at that on
this show and on this platform, and I continue to
I'm not a fighter who sees a fighter have that
kind of showing or a fighter that doesn't show up
the way he's supposed to and then I say, oh,
he's trash.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
He was never anything that's not me.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
I have a lot of respect for Fulton, but something
went wrong in its preparation, something was wrong the week
of the.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Fight, and.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Something wasn't right with him on fight night. But that
being said, some of what was and maybe most of
what was wrong with Fulton in that fight was Oshaki Foster.
We can't take away from the performance of Foster and
the professionalism and everything that he displayed.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
In that fight. He was sturdy, he looked very strong,
He looked sure of himself. But he was smart.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
And I love to see a guy who's known as
a bruiser and a puncher and the stronger fighter not
abuse what he has in his arsenal. Foster could have
easily not respected anything about Stephen Fulton and just tried
to walk through him, and maybe maybe he would have
maybe he would have got the stoppage, maybe he would
have done better. I don't know, but I like what
(16:15):
I saw from Foster. I saw a thinking man that night,
Saturday night against Stephen Fulton. I saw a man who
was thinking through his steps and processing his moves.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Foster was playing chess on fight night. He wasn't playing checkers.
He was thinking two three steps up ahead.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
And this fight is gonna elevate Oshaki Foster as a
fighter overall, because he's got the toughness, he's got all
the stuff. He showed that he got some flavor, he's
shown that he's got ranged to his game. Great fight
from Oshaki Foster, it's not a good fight for Stephen Fulton.
And he's got to go back and he's got to
retool and be honest with himself about.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
What went wrong.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
If anything went wrong in his personal life, in training camp, mentally,
if he just didn't believe that he can win. I
didn't see a confident Stephen Fulton. You cannot knock a
fighter who takes a chance to win and comes up short.
But it's tough, and I know that Stephen Fulton's feeling
this right now. He didn't put himself in the best
(17:16):
position to get that dug and I don't think he
really believed in himself once he got in that ring.
Foster was who he thought he was. He may have
been even better than he thought he was. And I
didn't see Stephen Fulton that one time told that line
and draw that line in the sand and left. Foster
know you're gonna have to earn this tonight. I wish
(17:36):
Fulton nothing but the best. Boxing is a sport of second, third, fourth,
fifth chances. I believe that he's gonna get back to
where he was. I'm hoping that he gets back to
where he was and that he's able to make adjustments
because everybody's story is different. Some fighters they don't lose.
Some fighters never have the bad night or the bad performance,
(17:58):
but it doesn't mean they haven't go on through things.
They had their own struggles in their own fight. Stephen
Fulton has had his struggles and has had his fights
in the boxing ring, but thus far he's always overcame
no struggles, and I'm hoping and believing that he'll do
it again and the future is.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Bright for Shaki Foster. Shaki Foster, he's got.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
History with Shakur Stevenson, and his quote after the fight
was I want Shakor Stevenson. He said, I've been saying
it for the longest, but it looks like he's gonna
be fighting at one forty, so I have to choose
either one thirty or one thirty five. I'll see what
happens and make a decision from there. Excited about the
future of Oshaki Foster. He's earned the right to be
in his position man and once again man. Big things
(18:39):
up ahead for Foster. The main event over delivered the
pit bull Cruise and Lamont Roach for one hundred and
forty pounds WBC Interim super Lightweight title. This fight ended
on a majority draw one fifteen, one eleven for Cruise
and you had one thirteen one thirteen two times for
(19:01):
a majority decision draw. I thought Lamont Roach had done
enough to win that fight, but not by a landslide,
maybe a point or two. The point that I always
make is when a fight is that close, you can't
scream robbery if it doesn't go your way, because there
are swing rounds that can go either way. There are
(19:22):
moments of the fight that judges look at in a
particular way. Lamar Roach may be our boxing Cruise for
most of the fight, but then all of a sudden,
Isaac Cruz has a moment with ten or fifteen seconds
before the bell rings, and then all of a sudden,
that's the last thought on the judge's mind and they
mark that round for Isaac Cruz. I don't think that's
(19:43):
the right way to judge around. I think the way
you're supposed to judge around is the totality of the
three minutes. But you have humans sitting across the ring
that are judges, and sometimes they like what they like,
or they see what they see, and it sways them
to give a round or two to a guy that
maybe you thought, or we thought as a viewing audience,
should have went the other way.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
I don't think a draw is robbery.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
I do think Lamont did enough. And I'll say this
about Isaac Pittbull Cruise. I like Isaac Cruz. He's a short, stocky,
all muscle type of fighter. He's got underrated defense because
he is stout and he's short.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
To the ground. He knows how to tuck that chin.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
He gives you the top of the head because that
doesn't hurt as much or put him in as much
danger as getting clipped on the chin and maybe getting
clipped on the temple.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
I like his style. He makes everybody work.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
He pushes everybody to the limit, and I knew it
would be no different with Lamont Roach. But the issue
that I have at Cruise is Cruise started the fight strong,
like he typically does. Then he fades or he tries
to preserve energy, and then he tries to step it
up at the end. Isaac Cruiz does that not just
(20:56):
because of strategy. It's also because of how he carries
himself and lives outside the ring. I don't know his
personal life. I say live, meaning how he keeps his body.
Isaac Cruz is one hundred and forty pound fighter, and
I would guess he gets to one seventy maybe higher
(21:19):
in between fights. This is just off me looking at
his face, looking at his body, and sizing fighters up.
For almost most of my life, he gets really really
heavy in between fights. Some on the internet call that
way bullying. I call that a lack of discipline and
(21:41):
a lack of respect for the game. And what happens
is when the fight starts, everybody feels strong. Everybody strong
for the first four rounds. But five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
and then down the stretch.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
That's where you show your conditioning.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
That's where you show what type of life you're living
in between fights, how much or how little you actually
respect the sport.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Isaac Cruz has to.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Hold and preserve energy because everything that he did to
his body in training camp is catching up to him.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
You cannot strip off.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Twenty thirty forty pounds and expect to be in tip
top shape and fight for a duration of a twelve
round We all take rounds off, we all take moments
and to fight off.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
I'm saying you take four and.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Five rounds off where you're doing just enough to get
by or just enough to try to steal around. That's
what Isaac Cruise does oftentimes in his fights, and he
would be a lot better.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
Maybe the fight wi Lamont Roach wouldn't even be.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Close if he took care of himself a little bit
better outside the ring. Cruise, you gotta live like a
fighter until you retire. Mean that you can't have moments
to enjoy whatever it is you like to enjoy. But
you have to stay within your fight range, your weight
and fight range, so you don't have to destroy your body.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
Completely in an eight week and twelve week and four.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Month training camp. And you see fighters who have weight
issues oftentimes they have long training camps. They have three
four or five month training camps. They need a pre
camp and they need a full camp, and it's fat
camp for most of the camp. It's getting weight off
it's always feeling lethargic and tired, and it's less about
(23:40):
game plan and strategy and it's more about your weight issue.
For a championship level fighter, the primary thing.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Should not be a weight issue. Should always check your way.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
You should be on a scale multiple times throughout the
day in training camp to track how your body is flowing.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Man I just ran.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
I just lost four pounds, so I know, man I
can lose four or five if I do a five
or six mile run. Man I just got done working
out of the gym. I haven't hydrated, hydrated yet. Man
I just lost six pounds. You start to understand your
body by staying on the scale. But you shouldn't have
to lose thirty and forty pounds in training camp because
(24:21):
it's gonna come back and it's going to hurt you.
And that's what I saw with eyes a cruise, see, y'all.
I don't just look at puncher's throne. I look at
the things that a lot of people don't see because
I've lived it. And those are the things that excite
me about fights or that interest me about fights. It's
the fight, it's the fighters, it's the matchup, it's the
(24:43):
style matchup is what game plans or both fighters gonna implement.
But then I've also tracked with the fighters leading up
to the fight, and he looks like he focused, and
he doesn't look like he's pump faking. He looks like
he's really focused.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Like I got that.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Sense from Devin Haney when he was on the show
with me and Rod, And it wasn't any Rod rather
that he was doing.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
It wasn't any one thing that he said.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
But there was a couple of questions that I asked
him about Turkey and about the monetary side of the game,
and everything that he said went back to the fight.
I said, Oh, he's locked in. He's locked in. He
wasn't too high, he wasn't too low. These are the
things that I focus on, and this is what I
focused and saw with Cruise that when the initial press
conference got kicked off.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
I said, man, Isaac Cruz got a lot of way
to lose.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
He's gonna drain himself in training camp and he's gonna
make this fight with Lamar Roach a lot tougher than
it needs to be. But I like the type of
shape that Lamar Roach was in, though I don't like
the game plan that he implemented. When you face a
fighter like Cruise, you don't want to bang and fight
(25:52):
with him early on in the fight. That's exactly what
he wants. Isaac Kruz is the strongest that he's ever
gonna be in a fight in the first four rounds.
That's when you.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Use your jab.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
You make Isaac Cruz think more than he wants to think.
He's going to be aggressive. He's going to throw big shots.
That's who he is and that's what he does. But
you don't have to oblige, at least early on. See
people think that when you face an aggressive fighter, when
you face a fighter that can punch, that you're supposed
to just run from this fighter for twelve rounds, and
(26:27):
they employ the mindset that you can't hit what you
can't see. That's not really how it's done. You can't
avoid a big punch from a real puncher, one that
knows how to cut a ring, one that has experience,
and one that knows his way around that ring. He's
going to land at some point, So it's best that
you just make your mind up that I'm gonna get hit,
(26:49):
but it's not gonna be enough.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
I'm gonna be able to take the shot.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
You can't give in to what Cruise wants for the
first four rounds Lamont Roach could have and should have
early on, and you saw him trying to box in
the first round or not trying, but you saw him
boxing in the first round. But then something shifted round two, three, four,
where he's standing there early and he's trading punches with
(27:14):
Isaac Cruz at his strongest. That's the point in the
fight where the rhythm for Lamont got out. He got
out of rhythm at that point because you start to
fight a certain way, and if you're Lamar Roach, it's
hard to go back to doing the boxing. If you
start fighting, it's hard to go back to doing the boxing.
But if the game plan is to box first, get
(27:37):
your respect in spots, meaning, oh you want to rumble,
I'll rumble for ten seconds.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Then I'm gonna go back to boxing.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
I'm gonna do it your way because I have an
advantage because I have you all balanced. I'm gonna attack
you and I'm gonna let you know that I will
hit you and I'm not afraid.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
But then I'm gonna go back to boxing. It's hard
to go to that rhythm.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
When you've gotten into a fighting rhythm, the crowd is involved,
you have to weigh that they're ooing and aweing. Now
you get hit with a big shot. If you're a
real fighter and you got that kind of dog in you,
what you think.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
You're gonna want to do next?
Speaker 2 (28:10):
You're gonna want to get that shot back right away,
sway the judges, sway the crowd and the viewing audience
at home. That's where Lamont Roach got off. He started
to fight Isaac Cruz early.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
And too often.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
And now this goes from you boxing to now fighting.
And I could see the look on Isaac Cruse's face.
He loved every bit of it. He loved every bit
of it. But what I did love about Lamont Roach,
even though I think he employed the wrong game plan,
was the hearty show, the type of conditioning that he showed.
(28:44):
You have to realize giving the whole Javonte Davis Debaco
and the fight being on, the fight being off, and
him trying to find an opponent.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
He's pretty much been in the gym this whole year.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Most of what Lamont Roach posts and talks about, it's
trained or who the next fight is going to be.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
You don't see Lamont Roach sway on a lot.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Of different things, so you kind of get where he's
at and what his mind is focused on. And for him,
most of this year has been about training, it's been
about fighting, and a lot of people Isaac Cruz is
not an easy fight. He's a fighter that when you
sign a fight him, you know it's gonna be a
long night or a short night if you don't do.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
What you're supposed to do.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
And I never saw Lamont Roach really have an issue
with the Cruise match up. In fact, I saw him
excited about it, and I think that both fighters put
on a great fight.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
I think Isaac.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Cruz, like I said before, could have done himself a
service and he would have put himself in position to
win this fight by living like a fighter in between
fights so he can be the fighter he needs to
be in the fight on the night when the lights
are bright and everything is on the line. And Lamont
Roach no question about heart, no question about grit, no
(29:56):
question about mental toughness, no question about the lifestyle that
you outside the ring. I talk about your personal life.
I'm talking about your boxing life. No question about that.
Because you showed us in the biggest moments. Isac Cruz
got a knockdown in the third round. It wasn't a
traditional knockdown where you see the fighter hit the canvas,
but it knocked Roach all the way back several feet.
(30:17):
And that shows you the type of power that Isaac
Cruz possesses and what he's capable of. The problem with
him is he's not able to keep it up. He's
not able to sustain that level of intensity, that level
of work rate, or that level of punch count throughout
the duration of the fight. If Isaac Cruz dedicates himself
(30:37):
more outside the ring and takes this more serious, he's
going to be even more dangerous than he already is.
And for Lamar Roach, I think that was a disciplined
thing in the ring where the game plan should have been.
He should have implemented the game plan more in a
disciplined way early in this fight. If you put the
(30:58):
right kind of money in the bank early on six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
you hit return, that investment is gonna pay you dividends.
And then the championship rounds for me are ten, eleven,
and twelve, not just eleven and twelve. Then it boils
down to who's in the better shade, whose mind is
(31:19):
still sharpen and working the way that it's supposed to.
And then it's gonna take some grit, some determination, some heart,
because all of us are tired, all of us are fatigued,
all of us would love for that final bell to ring.
But I want this a little bit more than you.
But at least you've established yourself if you're a Lamont
roach in a better way on the scorecard. So both
fighters could have done something different to put themselves in
(31:42):
a better position. So it's hard to argue with the draw.
I just don't appreciate the one fifteen one eleven. I
would love to speak to that judge and have him
break that down for me, because I didn't see that
kind of fighting
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