May 2, 2025 • 26 mins
Cinco de Mayo transforms into a global boxing extravaganza this year with major fights spanning three consecutive days across the world. We're gearing up for what could be the most action-packed weekend in recent boxing memory.
Before diving into the upcoming fights, we analyze Richard Torres Jr.'s underwhelming performance against Guido Vianello. Despite securing the victory, Torres' wild haymakers and poor footwork raise serious questions about his potential as a legitimate heavyweight contender. Has ESPN been overhyping this entertaining but technically flawed fighter?
The conversation turns somber as we discuss Joe Joyce's concerning loss to Filip Hrgović. Once a granite-chinned contender on the verge of a title shot, Joyce now appears a shell of his former self. His once-legendary punch resistance seems compromised, and his already methodical punches look even slower. Despite his post-fight insistence on continuing his career, we wonder if retirement might be the wiser choice for his long-term health.
On a more positive note, Tim Tszyu successfully bounced back from consecutive defeats with a solid TKO victory over Joey Spencer. Though effective on offense, Tszyu's defensive vulnerabilities - particularly his limited head movement - remain a concern against elite competition.
The weekend ahead features an embarrassment of riches for boxing fans. Friday brings Ryan Garcia versus Rolly Romero from New York, alongside Devin Haney facing Jose Ramirez. Saturday features Canelo Alvarez defending his titles against Jaime Munguia in an unusual Saudi Arabian setting rather than his traditional American Cinco de Mayo showcase. The weekend concludes with Naoya "The Monster" Inoue making his highly anticipated US appearance in Las Vegas on Sunday.
Which fight are you most looking forward to this weekend? Join us next episode as we break down all the action from this global boxing celebration!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
welcome to punches and punchlines, where we break
down the best in boxing with asense of humor.
And now your hosts, fritz andfranco welcome back everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
We got another episode for you.
Thanks for tuning in, thanksfor subscribing what we have
going on.
We got a quick recap of what wesaw, not this past week but the
week before, and we got a lotof stuff coming up.
This weekend.
It's, uh, cinco de mayo weekend.
There is so much boxing everynight.
Franco, it's stacked.
(00:45):
Friday, saturday, sunday.
There is a little bit ofeverything mixed in here.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
It should be a fun weekend filled with boxing yeah,
the crazy thing is that cincode mayo falls on a monday, but
we all know what cinco de mayoweekend means, and of course
it's that anyway is going to befighting.
That's yeah, that's what, like,they're synonymous with each
other.
But there's some other fightsgoing on, so we'll get into
those after we break down theseother previous fights.
(01:12):
So, uh, you ready to do this,fritz?
Speaker 2 (01:14):
I am.
He tells all the time you can'tplay boxing.
We prove them wrong everyepisode with our segment called
playing boxing.
And for our recap, we're goingto start with Franco's favorite
his boyfriend, the man, the myth, the mustache.
We are talking about RichardTorres taking on Guido Vianello.
Franco, because this is yourfavorite, I want to hear your
(01:37):
takes on it first and then I'llreact.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
I have a bad feeling that we're going to probably
agree on this one.
So, first of all, you know it'sno secret, I love me some
Richard Torres Jr.
He's got this ridiculous look.
That's our 80s porn star boxerfriend and the look is great.
He did not look great in thisfight, neither did Guido
(02:01):
Vianello.
I don't know, it looked veryamateurishish, but that would be
an insult to amateur boxers.
It was just hugging and holdingand then waiting and then the
throws that they did throw likethese punches that richard was
throwing were just so wild.
It was like like a playgroundfight, like the way a little kid
(02:23):
just throws a haymaker badfooting.
His feet were in terriblepositions.
He was just lunging andthrowing and then they would hug
and I'd like to think that wejust chalk this up as like a one
and done kind of a throw awayhim struggling with this fight.
I I don't know he looked small,but I mean that never stopped,
(02:45):
mike tyson, you know what I mean.
Like it was not a good fight.
It was just two dudes that havecompeted at an elite level in
like the olympics and stuff andthen did not look good in this
fight but maybe maybe they hadlike a bad shrimp cocktail or
something.
Uh, I I don't know, but I stilllove him.
(03:06):
He's still like veryentertaining to me.
Just I personally was notentertained by this actual fight
.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I agree that I think that Richard Torres is an
entertaining fighter.
However, I think this was thefirst test where we're like, all
right, can he be a contender,can he challenge for any belts?
And the answer to that, afterwatching this, was no, I I don't
think so.
Like he's.
He's a fun story and a fun kidto watch, but I think if you put
(03:35):
him against top 10 heavyweights, it's it's not going to look
good.
This was his first true testwhere guido valanello, like you
said, has some success in theolympics and he's had some
success as a pro and even inthis fight.
Richard torres won, but guidovillanello later on in this
fight was definitely having somesuccess when he decided to use
(03:55):
his height as an advantage, yeah, and was working the jab and
really frustrating richardtorres because, like you said,
he was coming in throwing wild,but I don't know what other
options he had because when hewas trying to come in slow, he
was just getting picked off onthe way in with a good jab.
That I saw this as a closefight, but I definitely agree
(04:16):
with the judges that RichardTorres won this fight, but I
think we'd learned somethingabout both of these fighters and
that neither one is reallygoing to be a threat for a belt.
Maybe they proved me wrong, andI would love that, you know.
But just based on this fightwhere I saw this going in as a
test for both of them, bienello,are you, you know, back on your
(04:40):
winning ways?
Are you a legit guy that'strying to climb the rankings?
And to richard torres, I waslike all right, are you just an
espn darling or are you a legitboxer?
And yeah, from this fight itlooks like the espn darling is
more the true story.
It reminds me, you know, Istill love him, but it was
(05:01):
almost like the clay collardstory, where for a few fights he
looked great and was fun andthen you start putting a bump
against real contenders.
You're like, oh well, thatwasn't as fun anymore.
Yeah, that was.
Uh, you know, it was still adecent heavyweight fight.
Like you said, there was alittle too much hugging to have
it be like, oh, you guys got togo watch this yeah, do not go
(05:24):
watch this.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Yeah, it's not worth it there was.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
There was more joy in this one than the other
heavyweight fight that I'vewatched.
Franco, did you watch any ofjoe joyce versus flip porgovic?
Speaker 1 (05:36):
yeah, this was that man that was sad, it was awful
and you know what.
Here's the thing all of theseguys, when you compare it to
usic and fury, like there's noway in hell it's.
It's what I imagine otherbasketball fans would have felt,
like that weren't from chicagoduring the 90s.
(05:57):
Like why are we even doing this?
Why are we wasting our time?
Just give them all of thetrophies.
I think joe joyce is done.
To be honest.
He needs to retire the amountof damage that he took.
It like that can't be healthy.
You know what I mean.
Like at some point, uh,somebody, somebody's being
negligible by sending him outthere like wrap it up, this was
(06:19):
not good, but I don't know whatdid you think for it?
Speaker 2 (06:22):
he said after the fight too that he was not
retiring, that this was just asmall setback, and he's.
I saw a guy who is absolutelydone.
I saw in joe joyce.
It reminded me of totallydifferent scenarios, but it
reminded me remember when mchammer was top of the world all
right, early 90s, uh, you can'ttouch us.
It sold 40 billion copies orwhatever.
(06:44):
And then, uh, within a yearhe's on tv asking for money
because he's broke, like that's.
Joe joyce was at that pinnacle,like he was a mandatory for the
heavyweight titles, you know,and then lost it by taking an
interim fight against big bangzhang and has not been the same
(07:04):
since.
He got destroyed twice byzhelei zhang.
And then who beat him inbetween that too?
Oh, is it his fourth in a rowlosing or his third in a row
losing?
Speaker 1 (07:16):
this is his second.
There was one win uh in betweenwith cash ali, but otherwise
the two zhang fights and then hewon one, and then chisora and
bergovic.
Yeah, like when you lose tochisora, that's.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
That should have been a sign right there that you're
gonna fight.
But yeah, this was, I remember,getting excited for a joe joyce
fight, because you were likeall right, this guy comes
straight forward, he's justlanding bombs, he's got a chin
made of granite.
Well, clearly, that granite raninto a chisel because it's not
the same anymore now.
Hergavik had him, had him hurta couple times.
(07:52):
Now, granted, he did land oneor two bombs that set hergavik
back on his heels, but at nopoint did I think that hergavik
was going to lose this fight.
It just it felt almost uhmelancholy watching this fight
because you're like, oh I, thisis not the joe joyce I remember.
This is too bad because I do, Ido like the guy as a fighter.
(08:12):
I'd almost like to see that behis last fight.
Or, you know, take on, uh,richard torres, see whether you
know what?
Speaker 1 (08:21):
that would be such a horrible fight because I'll also
throw in this about the JoeJoyce fight His punches were so
slow.
That would be such a horrible,slow, boring fight.
I it would make me sad becauseI do like Joe Joyce like as a
(08:52):
human and that's why one wouldstep away.
And Richard Torres, I just likehim for entertainment value.
He fights like like Rocky,where it's just sloppy and
ridiculous.
And then Joe Joyce is fightinglike your, like your internet is
buffering, so combining the twoof them would be a worst case
scenario I absolutely want tosee now joe joyce versus richard
(09:15):
torres and I'm taking torresthe whole time like oh, for sure
he's, he's winning that fight.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Joe joyce, absolutely done.
You know, who could have beendone was Tim Zou.
If he lost this fight againstJoey Spencer, that would have
been three in a row for sure.
But no, he comes back, scores aTKO when Spencer's corner
throws in the towel, and toSpencer's corner's credit.
I thought that they did theright thing, because the first
(09:42):
round Spencer looked good andthen in the second not as good.
It's just was progressivelygetting worse.
Where zoo needed this win, youknow like, yeah, he had took his
split decision loss to, uh,sebastian pandora and then got
knocked out by BokramAmar-Mertelzelev.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Oh yeah, I see that now, and I Bokram bakram
mertazeliev.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
That's probably an absolutely wrong, but it's close
and the dude is a badass wherehe, after losing to fundura you
know, to tim sue's credit hewanted to jump right back in and
it was offered a title shot andtook it.
He was not ready for it.
From the blood loss that he hadfrom the fundura fight, I think
he should have taken a year off.
But this fight against joeyspencer now, granted it's, it's
(10:39):
not a world champion, it's not aguy that has had a lot of
fights at 154, but he neededthis win and whether it's just a
confidence boost, whatever itis, he got the win.
Uh, look good doing it too.
So because in that fightagainst bakram he was getting
knocked all over and I was likeoh God, this, this is not the
(10:59):
way to come back from your firstloss.
So two defeats in a row, hisonly two of his career, and now
is back on the winning track.
Hopefully, you know, there is arematch with Pandora soon.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah, I, I thought it was.
This was a good fight.
The only thing with Tim zoothat gives me pause is the same
thing that I had said about RyanGarcia in the past, which is
just, his head movement Isn'treally there.
The defense isn't great.
So you know, joey Spencer isn'tawful, but he's not a champion,
(11:31):
he's not a world beater and Ithink that's where Tim's who's
running into problems is.
He just he has shitty defenseand so once you get to an elite
guy and you're putting your headon a tee for them, they're
going to knock your head off.
But you know, if he bobs andweaves a little bit more, he
moves his full body.
It's just, it's like a splitsecond too late, but it was good
(11:52):
to see him get his win.
He, he moves like a good boxer,it's just.
Yeah, the defense isn't there.
His head just kept gettingrocked in, but he was able to
close it out nice and quick.
He looked good once he waslaying it on, but, again, kind
of like Ryan Garcia, that's whathe relies on.
He relies on being able to getthat offense in and not really
(12:13):
worrying as much about thedefense.
But once he was moving, once hewas landing at the end and they
threw in the towel.
You know good for him and and Ido like him.
I like the announcers for thisfight even more.
They were just like these.
I don't know if they wereaustralian they might have been
from new zealand but they werecompletely unhinged and just
saying crazy shit the whole timewhen the fight ended.
(12:34):
They're like tim zoo rises fromthe ashes and it was just all
over the top and I love thatkind of stuff.
Like I eat that stuff up, butyeah it was fun and I know you.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
You keep pushing your ryan garcia agenda.
We'll get to him in a minute.
I know that you can't wait totalk about your favorite fighter
such a piece of shit, ryangarcia.
We'll talk about him in a minute.
We do have him coming up thisthis weekend coming up.
It's crazy.
There's a pay-per-view friday.
There's a pay-per-view onsaturday.
If you buy both of them,there's a package deal, franco,
so I'm probably going to do that.
(13:06):
Oh and then, uh, on espn.
On sunday is another card with.
Are we saving the best for last?
I owe you anyway, on sundayperhaps, but uh, I think the
people out there know thatanytime they listen to us, we're
brought to them by ZipXToothpicks.
Go over to ZipXToothpickscom.
Enter the code PUNCH10.
Save yourself some money.
I'm starting to not like thecinnamon as much lately, franco,
(13:28):
so I'm leaning heavy into themocha lately.
Maybe I'm maturing, you know.
I don't know, but I'm going torecommend the mocha to everybody
out there, like we were saying.
So, friday, saturday, sundayit's all Bach, all right.
Now, friday here's who we havegoing on a Friday Franco from
New York city.
Devin Haney versus Jose RamirezOkay, that's a good 140 pound
(13:50):
matchup.
Ryan Garcia versus RaleighRomero All right, a cheater
versus a scumbag.
Now I don't even know if theycould both be disqualified,
that's what I'm gonna root for.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Yes, the old double knockout, yeah, that would be
wonderful.
Actually, a draw might be theonly way that we win, or or
maybe disqualification beforethe fight even happens.
I don't know, but is thisactually being held in time?
Square like outside, oh Ididn't.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
That's how they're pitching it.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
It's uh, but let's in time.
Square fatal fury.
But is it like out on thestreets or do they have it like
inside somewhere?
Speaker 2 (14:30):
I thought it was I thought it was at barclay center
, uh, at madison square garden,but I could be wrong.
It happened once before, butyeah, they're, they're in new
york city.
And then, uh, tiafema lopezversus arnold barboza is going
on in that card too.
So, yeah, that's three fightsthat are well, two out of three
(14:50):
fights that are going to beworth tuning in.
For now this is for anybodythat's not familiar devin haney
sued to get his recordreinstated after ryan garcia
tested positive for, I think,600 different performance
enhancing drugs allegedly, sosomehow he got his the, the loss
, taken off of his record.
(15:10):
Now they're on the same card,but they're not fighting each
other, so it's another, likecash grab.
I don't know.
I'm gonna buy the pay-per-view,so maybe that part of it's
working, but why not just gointo an immediate rematch?
Why do you have to do theseinterim bout?
There's no belts on the linefor either one of them, but it
should be entertaining anyway.
And lopez is, I think, the mainevent, because he's the only
(15:33):
one on this card with the titleno I think they have them like
three down maybe who knows itshould be.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
And the fact that ryan garcia and raleigh romero
are the main event for thisthing is ridiculous.
The whole thing is justcartoonishly bad and, yeah, I
hope they both roll their anklesin like the third round and so
neither of them get the win.
It's like a double dq something, something.
It's just too bad.
(16:00):
People.
I don't know.
From from a wrestling fan pointof view, that's bad booking.
You know you can't have a heeland a heel you could, you could,
and some of those have beengood.
I don't think this one's goingto be that good.
I think it's going to be a shitshow of a fight.
But I do think ryan garcia isgoing to take this one because
raleigh romero is just straightduty.
(16:21):
Caca dude is terrible.
It's like not a good boxer, nota good person, not a good
anything.
Uh, he's good at irritatingpeople.
He's that kid, you know, theone that would make like fart
noises in the back of the classway past it being funny the
first time, that's raleighromero.
So, yeah, not as excited aboutthis one as I am about the main
(16:42):
fight of the weekend, as much asI love anyway, on saturday we
can't skip.
Yeah, saturday, yeah, absolutely.
Oh, as much as I love, anyway,saturday is the fight, not
necessarily because of who'sfighting against each other, but
because it's Saul CaneloAlvarez's.
This is his Christmas right, ormaybe his Easter right, because
Independence Day is closer toChristmas, but Cinco de Mayo has
(17:06):
been owned by Canelo for years.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
How long now it feels like my entire life, right he's
the king of Cinco de Mayo andhe's taking on William Skull,
which I think is the IBFmandatory, and this was part of
a bigger fight deal.
So if he gets through this,he's supposed to take on
Terrence Crawford next.
Crawford is on his retirementtour, I think now, where he just
(17:30):
wants a couple of big checksbefore he fades away.
But either way, do I thinkScull is going to put up a big
competition?
I don't, but on the undercardwe've seen evidence of a guy
that we didn't think was goingto be big competition.
Come through with a win Allright Now, right before.
The co-main event on this isBruno Saras versus Jaime Munguia
(17:52):
too.
So those two guys right therecan prove anything can happen
within the ropes.
Is it likely?
No, but it can happen and Ithink it's.
I'm.
I'm looking forward to probablysaras versus munguia more than
I am canelo versus skull.
Then fa ajagba is going to takeon martin baccoli, and we
(18:15):
remember how well martin baccolitook care of the last top rank
heavyweight that, uh, he wasthrowing against when big baby
anderson was sure that he wascoming out of there with the
wind.
We still haven't seen him sincethen.
I think those, those cartoonbirds are still circling his
head from the giant punches hetook right to the face.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
That's a fun card and well worth the pay-per-view.
Yeah, baju Jack is on there too, which he's fun, but really the
only thing that, like makes mea little bit nervous as far as
this fight goes is Canelo is notfighting here, so they're
fighting in Saudi Arabia.
And that makes me nervous.
Like, how are you going to do aCinco de Mayo fight?
How many Mexicans are goingover to Saudi Arabia?
(18:56):
Maybe a handful, you know, butit makes me a little bit nervous
as far as how the crowd isgoing to be.
They're still going to bepulling for him, they're going
to be pulling for Canelo, butit's not going to be the usual
wave of 100,000 people in Dallasjust screaming their heads off.
I also wonder how reserved hisintroduction is going to be.
(19:17):
He's probably not going to havethe 150 mariachis come out and
sing him out, because I don'tthink they have 150 mariachis in
Saudi Arabia, probably a littlebit hard to find.
So, looking forward to thefight either way, I love
watching Canelo, love watchinghim do his thing Like he's just
so elite in the way that hefights.
Always look forward to thefight either way, I love
watching canelo, love watchinghim do his thing like he's just
so elite in the way that hefights, always look forward to
(19:37):
it, but with the location andeverything, I don't know that
it'll have all the pomp andcircumstance that it usually
does for a canelo fight yeah,it'll definitely be a different
vibe.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Maybe instead of the mariachis he just got a guy with
the boombox playing mariachis,like he's got the old big 1982
giant boombox on his shoulderand he just walks behind canelo
on the way out.
That's what I'm hoping for.
If you can't have the mariachis, at least have the giant
boombox with the mariachi musicblaring.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
That would be incredible yeah, I'm trying to
think what, like amazing mexicanrock star musician hasn't come
out with him because somehow hepulls down whoever's the hottest
in like mexico at that point,that's who walks him out.
So yeah, I'm kind of curious tosee what he ends up doing.
Or if it is just like you knowcanned music and they just play
(20:31):
them out to whatever.
But that'll be fun.
And then Sunday it's themonster, for it's Naoya Inoue.
But he's finally fighting herein the United States, in Vegas.
I can't wait, I can't wait.
I'm also curious again how isthe location going to affect
this fight?
What do you think?
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Oh, I think you can drop Nioh anyway on the moon and
he's still going to draw acrowd and he is going to beat
the shit out of people put infront of them.
You've seen, or at least I'veseen anyway, Japanese fans will
travel to watch their sportsstars.
You know, when I was at thewhite socks hosted the All-Star
(21:13):
game in 2003, and I went to abunch of the different they have
, basically you buy the oneticket but you got to go all
three days or you got to buytickets for the three days in
order to go to the All-Star game.
So there was plenty of Japanesefans all in their Hideki Matsui
jerseys and stuff like that.
(21:34):
But I was like good for them.
I'm like that's cool that youtravel literally halfway around
the planet to come support theguys.
So I thought that was reallycool.
When ichiro was in all-stargames, there was always a giant
japanese contingent that wouldshow up to those games.
So at least from what I've seen, they do travel.
And yeah, we've been to lasvegas before.
(21:55):
It's not like you're like, oh,how come there's no asian people
here.
That's not the case.
Like there, there are a numberof asian people in the city of
las vegas.
So I think that it's going tobe a rousing success.
If I didn't have other thingsto do this weekend, like that
would have been more.
Like maybe a trip to vegaswould be worth it, where we
(22:17):
could have watched friday,saturday in the casino and then
went live sunday like that wouldhave been pretty wonderful yeah
, I think it's going to be great, but also I'm excited to watch
boxing at a normal time, likenot at five in the morning yeah,
I'm looking forward to that forsure.
You know it'll all wrap up onthat Sunday night and you know
(22:38):
we'll have to get together witheverything fresh in our brain on
Monday to chat about it, causethere is a lot it's going to be
a lot to discuss.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah, for sure, it's a.
It's a whole lot of boxing,it's a whole lot of you.
You know, sometimes we'll getto be able to skip a lot of the
stuff on the undercard becauseit's just stuff that they threw
together last minute, but thatis not the case with the cards
this weekend.
These are these are somestacked cards yeah, are they
going to?
Be great fights who knows?
Speaker 2 (23:03):
but I think they should be if anybody is not sure
about buying the pay-per-views.
If you, if you're like I'm onlygoing to buy one of these
pay-per-views, make it Saturday.
Saturday is going to be themuch better, at least on paper.
Saturday will be the muchbetter of the pay-per-views.
Friday is like a nice appetizerthat'll lead you up into
(23:24):
Saturday and Sunday.
I'm still going to buy it onFriday as well.
So you know, check it out,franco.
If out Franco, if you didn'thave anything else that we
wanted to check, uh, catch up onor discuss, coming up, I have a
trivia question ready for you.
Uh-oh, uh, still waiting foryour uh streak to be over.
I think you're only at two, sothat's not too bad.
(23:45):
I went.
I went weeks without withoutgetting one right.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
So yeah, I hate that when I I hear the names and they
sound familiar, but I don'tknow if they sound familiar
because it's from something elseor it's from boxing, I'm like,
oh, I know that name and then mybrain just shuts down, so I'm
ready this time though okay, soin honor of cinco de mayo
weekend, nioya, anyway.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Uh has defeated 29 people, franco.
Uh, which of these people hashe not defeated?
The monster has not defeatedone of these.
One of these guys, franco, andI'm I want you to pick it out
was it jamie mcdonald, charliecox, ricardo rodriguez or yuki
(24:31):
Sano?
Ricardo Rodriguez?
You are absolutely incorrect.
Oh no, he did defeat RicardoRodriguez.
He did not beat Charlie Cox.
Charlie Cox is the actor whoplays Matt Murdock slash
Daredevil in the Netflix andDisney Plus series Daredevil.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
So it sounded like a good boxing name, like yeah,
could be from the uk.
You know a bunch of guys withrecords of one and 151.
Yeah, I'm trying to tell likecharlie cox record.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
It would be, you know , like 14, 44 and three.
You know what I mean.
Like that's who charlie coxsounds like.
You know, if he was a reallygood boxer, it'd be just Charles
Cox third or the third, orsomething like that, you know.
All right, franco, I'll have toget something prepared for you
for next week.
Yeah, I'm definitely lookingforward to boxing this weekend
for anybody.
Like we said, strap it in.
(25:26):
If you're not going to buy anyboxing this weekend, you can
still hear us talk about it.
Uh, on the next episode, we'lldefinitely be breaking it all
down.
And sunday, if you have espn,that's the nioya anyway, fight
is free.
I n o, u, e is how you spell.
Anyway, if you're looking forit, if you want to do a search,
watch some of his highlightsbefore the fight even comes on.
(25:48):
Nioya, anyway is an absolutejoy, so make sure you watch that
.
And uh, yeah, thanks forsubscribing, thanks for franco
to doing all the real work, andif you don't have anything else,
franco, I'm throwing in thetowel thank you for listening to
punches and punchlines.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Make sure to like, subscribe and follow and we'll
see you next week when we breakdown the best in boxing with a
sense of humor.
welcome to punches and punchlines, where we break
down the best in boxing with asense of humor.
And now your hosts, fritz andfranco welcome back everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
We got another episode for you.
Thanks for tuning in, thanksfor subscribing what we have
going on.
We got a quick recap of what wesaw, not this past week but the
week before, and we got a lotof stuff coming up.
This weekend.
It's, uh, cinco de mayo weekend.
There is so much boxing everynight.
Franco, it's stacked.
(00:45):
Friday, saturday, sunday.
There is a little bit ofeverything mixed in here.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
It should be a fun weekend filled with boxing yeah,
the crazy thing is that cincode mayo falls on a monday, but
we all know what cinco de mayoweekend means, and of course
it's that anyway is going to befighting.
That's yeah, that's what, like,they're synonymous with each
other.
But there's some other fightsgoing on, so we'll get into
those after we break down theseother previous fights.
(01:12):
So, uh, you ready to do this,fritz?
Speaker 2 (01:14):
I am.
He tells all the time you can'tplay boxing.
We prove them wrong everyepisode with our segment called
playing boxing.
And for our recap, we're goingto start with Franco's favorite
his boyfriend, the man, the myth, the mustache.
We are talking about RichardTorres taking on Guido Vianello.
Franco, because this is yourfavorite, I want to hear your
(01:37):
takes on it first and then I'llreact.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
I have a bad feeling that we're going to probably
agree on this one.
So, first of all, you know it'sno secret, I love me some
Richard Torres Jr.
He's got this ridiculous look.
That's our 80s porn star boxerfriend and the look is great.
He did not look great in thisfight, neither did Guido
(02:01):
Vianello.
I don't know, it looked veryamateurishish, but that would be
an insult to amateur boxers.
It was just hugging and holdingand then waiting and then the
throws that they did throw likethese punches that richard was
throwing were just so wild.
It was like like a playgroundfight, like the way a little kid
(02:23):
just throws a haymaker badfooting.
His feet were in terriblepositions.
He was just lunging andthrowing and then they would hug
and I'd like to think that wejust chalk this up as like a one
and done kind of a throw awayhim struggling with this fight.
I I don't know he looked small,but I mean that never stopped,
(02:45):
mike tyson, you know what I mean.
Like it was not a good fight.
It was just two dudes that havecompeted at an elite level in
like the olympics and stuff andthen did not look good in this
fight but maybe maybe they hadlike a bad shrimp cocktail or
something.
Uh, I I don't know, but I stilllove him.
(03:06):
He's still like veryentertaining to me.
Just I personally was notentertained by this actual fight
.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I agree that I think that Richard Torres is an
entertaining fighter.
However, I think this was thefirst test where we're like, all
right, can he be a contender,can he challenge for any belts?
And the answer to that, afterwatching this, was no, I I don't
think so.
Like he's.
He's a fun story and a fun kidto watch, but I think if you put
(03:35):
him against top 10 heavyweights, it's it's not going to look
good.
This was his first true testwhere guido valanello, like you
said, has some success in theolympics and he's had some
success as a pro and even inthis fight.
Richard torres won, but guidovillanello later on in this
fight was definitely having somesuccess when he decided to use
(03:55):
his height as an advantage, yeah, and was working the jab and
really frustrating richardtorres because, like you said,
he was coming in throwing wild,but I don't know what other
options he had because when hewas trying to come in slow, he
was just getting picked off onthe way in with a good jab.
That I saw this as a closefight, but I definitely agree
(04:16):
with the judges that RichardTorres won this fight, but I
think we'd learned somethingabout both of these fighters and
that neither one is reallygoing to be a threat for a belt.
Maybe they proved me wrong, andI would love that, you know.
But just based on this fightwhere I saw this going in as a
test for both of them, bienello,are you, you know, back on your
(04:40):
winning ways?
Are you a legit guy that'strying to climb the rankings?
And to richard torres, I waslike all right, are you just an
espn darling or are you a legitboxer?
And yeah, from this fight itlooks like the espn darling is
more the true story.
It reminds me, you know, Istill love him, but it was
(05:01):
almost like the clay collardstory, where for a few fights he
looked great and was fun andthen you start putting a bump
against real contenders.
You're like, oh well, thatwasn't as fun anymore.
Yeah, that was.
Uh, you know, it was still adecent heavyweight fight.
Like you said, there was alittle too much hugging to have
it be like, oh, you guys got togo watch this yeah, do not go
(05:24):
watch this.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Yeah, it's not worth it there was.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
There was more joy in this one than the other
heavyweight fight that I'vewatched.
Franco, did you watch any ofjoe joyce versus flip porgovic?
Speaker 1 (05:36):
yeah, this was that man that was sad, it was awful
and you know what.
Here's the thing all of theseguys, when you compare it to
usic and fury, like there's noway in hell it's.
It's what I imagine otherbasketball fans would have felt,
like that weren't from chicagoduring the 90s.
(05:57):
Like why are we even doing this?
Why are we wasting our time?
Just give them all of thetrophies.
I think joe joyce is done.
To be honest.
He needs to retire the amountof damage that he took.
It like that can't be healthy.
You know what I mean.
Like at some point, uh,somebody, somebody's being
negligible by sending him outthere like wrap it up, this was
(06:19):
not good, but I don't know whatdid you think for it?
Speaker 2 (06:22):
he said after the fight too that he was not
retiring, that this was just asmall setback, and he's.
I saw a guy who is absolutelydone.
I saw in joe joyce.
It reminded me of totallydifferent scenarios, but it
reminded me remember when mchammer was top of the world all
right, early 90s, uh, you can'ttouch us.
It sold 40 billion copies orwhatever.
(06:44):
And then, uh, within a yearhe's on tv asking for money
because he's broke, like that's.
Joe joyce was at that pinnacle,like he was a mandatory for the
heavyweight titles, you know,and then lost it by taking an
interim fight against big bangzhang and has not been the same
(07:04):
since.
He got destroyed twice byzhelei zhang.
And then who beat him inbetween that too?
Oh, is it his fourth in a rowlosing or his third in a row
losing?
Speaker 1 (07:16):
this is his second.
There was one win uh in betweenwith cash ali, but otherwise
the two zhang fights and then hewon one, and then chisora and
bergovic.
Yeah, like when you lose tochisora, that's.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
That should have been a sign right there that you're
gonna fight.
But yeah, this was, I remember,getting excited for a joe joyce
fight, because you were likeall right, this guy comes
straight forward, he's justlanding bombs, he's got a chin
made of granite.
Well, clearly, that granite raninto a chisel because it's not
the same anymore now.
Hergavik had him, had him hurta couple times.
(07:52):
Now, granted, he did land oneor two bombs that set hergavik
back on his heels, but at nopoint did I think that hergavik
was going to lose this fight.
It just it felt almost uhmelancholy watching this fight
because you're like, oh I, thisis not the joe joyce I remember.
This is too bad because I do, Ido like the guy as a fighter.
(08:12):
I'd almost like to see that behis last fight.
Or, you know, take on, uh,richard torres, see whether you
know what?
Speaker 1 (08:21):
that would be such a horrible fight because I'll also
throw in this about the JoeJoyce fight His punches were so
slow.
That would be such a horrible,slow, boring fight.
I it would make me sad becauseI do like Joe Joyce like as a
(08:52):
human and that's why one wouldstep away.
And Richard Torres, I just likehim for entertainment value.
He fights like like Rocky,where it's just sloppy and
ridiculous.
And then Joe Joyce is fightinglike your, like your internet is
buffering, so combining the twoof them would be a worst case
scenario I absolutely want tosee now joe joyce versus richard
(09:15):
torres and I'm taking torresthe whole time like oh, for sure
he's, he's winning that fight.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Joe joyce, absolutely done.
You know, who could have beendone was Tim Zou.
If he lost this fight againstJoey Spencer, that would have
been three in a row for sure.
But no, he comes back, scores aTKO when Spencer's corner
throws in the towel, and toSpencer's corner's credit.
I thought that they did theright thing, because the first
(09:42):
round Spencer looked good andthen in the second not as good.
It's just was progressivelygetting worse.
Where zoo needed this win, youknow like, yeah, he had took his
split decision loss to, uh,sebastian pandora and then got
knocked out by BokramAmar-Mertelzelev.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Oh yeah, I see that now, and I Bokram bakram
mertazeliev.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
That's probably an absolutely wrong, but it's close
and the dude is a badass wherehe, after losing to fundura you
know, to tim sue's credit hewanted to jump right back in and
it was offered a title shot andtook it.
He was not ready for it.
From the blood loss that he hadfrom the fundura fight, I think
he should have taken a year off.
But this fight against joeyspencer now, granted it's, it's
(10:39):
not a world champion, it's not aguy that has had a lot of
fights at 154, but he neededthis win and whether it's just a
confidence boost, whatever itis, he got the win.
Uh, look good doing it too.
So because in that fightagainst bakram he was getting
knocked all over and I was likeoh God, this, this is not the
(10:59):
way to come back from your firstloss.
So two defeats in a row, hisonly two of his career, and now
is back on the winning track.
Hopefully, you know, there is arematch with Pandora soon.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah, I, I thought it was.
This was a good fight.
The only thing with Tim zoothat gives me pause is the same
thing that I had said about RyanGarcia in the past, which is
just, his head movement Isn'treally there.
The defense isn't great.
So you know, joey Spencer isn'tawful, but he's not a champion,
(11:31):
he's not a world beater and Ithink that's where Tim's who's
running into problems is.
He just he has shitty defenseand so once you get to an elite
guy and you're putting your headon a tee for them, they're
going to knock your head off.
But you know, if he bobs andweaves a little bit more, he
moves his full body.
It's just, it's like a splitsecond too late, but it was good
(11:52):
to see him get his win.
He, he moves like a good boxer,it's just.
Yeah, the defense isn't there.
His head just kept gettingrocked in, but he was able to
close it out nice and quick.
He looked good once he waslaying it on, but, again, kind
of like Ryan Garcia, that's whathe relies on.
He relies on being able to getthat offense in and not really
(12:13):
worrying as much about thedefense.
But once he was moving, once hewas landing at the end and they
threw in the towel.
You know good for him and and Ido like him.
I like the announcers for thisfight even more.
They were just like these.
I don't know if they wereaustralian they might have been
from new zealand but they werecompletely unhinged and just
saying crazy shit the whole timewhen the fight ended.
(12:34):
They're like tim zoo rises fromthe ashes and it was just all
over the top and I love thatkind of stuff.
Like I eat that stuff up, butyeah it was fun and I know you.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
You keep pushing your ryan garcia agenda.
We'll get to him in a minute.
I know that you can't wait totalk about your favorite fighter
such a piece of shit, ryangarcia.
We'll talk about him in a minute.
We do have him coming up thisthis weekend coming up.
It's crazy.
There's a pay-per-view friday.
There's a pay-per-view onsaturday.
If you buy both of them,there's a package deal, franco,
so I'm probably going to do that.
(13:06):
Oh and then, uh, on espn.
On sunday is another card with.
Are we saving the best for last?
I owe you anyway, on sundayperhaps, but uh, I think the
people out there know thatanytime they listen to us, we're
brought to them by ZipXToothpicks.
Go over to ZipXToothpickscom.
Enter the code PUNCH10.
Save yourself some money.
I'm starting to not like thecinnamon as much lately, franco,
(13:28):
so I'm leaning heavy into themocha lately.
Maybe I'm maturing, you know.
I don't know, but I'm going torecommend the mocha to everybody
out there, like we were saying.
So, friday, saturday, sundayit's all Bach, all right.
Now, friday here's who we havegoing on a Friday Franco from
New York city.
Devin Haney versus Jose RamirezOkay, that's a good 140 pound
(13:50):
matchup.
Ryan Garcia versus RaleighRomero All right, a cheater
versus a scumbag.
Now I don't even know if theycould both be disqualified,
that's what I'm gonna root for.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Yes, the old double knockout, yeah, that would be
wonderful.
Actually, a draw might be theonly way that we win, or or
maybe disqualification beforethe fight even happens.
I don't know, but is thisactually being held in time?
Square like outside, oh Ididn't.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
That's how they're pitching it.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
It's uh, but let's in time.
Square fatal fury.
But is it like out on thestreets or do they have it like
inside somewhere?
Speaker 2 (14:30):
I thought it was I thought it was at barclay center
, uh, at madison square garden,but I could be wrong.
It happened once before, butyeah, they're, they're in new
york city.
And then, uh, tiafema lopezversus arnold barboza is going
on in that card too.
So, yeah, that's three fightsthat are well, two out of three
(14:50):
fights that are going to beworth tuning in.
For now this is for anybodythat's not familiar devin haney
sued to get his recordreinstated after ryan garcia
tested positive for, I think,600 different performance
enhancing drugs allegedly, sosomehow he got his the, the loss
, taken off of his record.
(15:10):
Now they're on the same card,but they're not fighting each
other, so it's another, likecash grab.
I don't know.
I'm gonna buy the pay-per-view,so maybe that part of it's
working, but why not just gointo an immediate rematch?
Why do you have to do theseinterim bout?
There's no belts on the linefor either one of them, but it
should be entertaining anyway.
And lopez is, I think, the mainevent, because he's the only
(15:33):
one on this card with the titleno I think they have them like
three down maybe who knows itshould be.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
And the fact that ryan garcia and raleigh romero
are the main event for thisthing is ridiculous.
The whole thing is justcartoonishly bad and, yeah, I
hope they both roll their anklesin like the third round and so
neither of them get the win.
It's like a double dq something, something.
It's just too bad.
(16:00):
People.
I don't know.
From from a wrestling fan pointof view, that's bad booking.
You know you can't have a heeland a heel you could, you could,
and some of those have beengood.
I don't think this one's goingto be that good.
I think it's going to be a shitshow of a fight.
But I do think ryan garcia isgoing to take this one because
raleigh romero is just straightduty.
(16:21):
Caca dude is terrible.
It's like not a good boxer, nota good person, not a good
anything.
Uh, he's good at irritatingpeople.
He's that kid, you know, theone that would make like fart
noises in the back of the classway past it being funny the
first time, that's raleighromero.
So, yeah, not as excited aboutthis one as I am about the main
(16:42):
fight of the weekend, as much asI love anyway, on saturday we
can't skip.
Yeah, saturday, yeah, absolutely.
Oh, as much as I love, anyway,saturday is the fight, not
necessarily because of who'sfighting against each other, but
because it's Saul CaneloAlvarez's.
This is his Christmas right, ormaybe his Easter right, because
Independence Day is closer toChristmas, but Cinco de Mayo has
(17:06):
been owned by Canelo for years.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
How long now it feels like my entire life, right he's
the king of Cinco de Mayo andhe's taking on William Skull,
which I think is the IBFmandatory, and this was part of
a bigger fight deal.
So if he gets through this,he's supposed to take on
Terrence Crawford next.
Crawford is on his retirementtour, I think now, where he just
(17:30):
wants a couple of big checksbefore he fades away.
But either way, do I thinkScull is going to put up a big
competition?
I don't, but on the undercardwe've seen evidence of a guy
that we didn't think was goingto be big competition.
Come through with a win Allright Now, right before.
The co-main event on this isBruno Saras versus Jaime Munguia
(17:52):
too.
So those two guys right therecan prove anything can happen
within the ropes.
Is it likely?
No, but it can happen and Ithink it's.
I'm.
I'm looking forward to probablysaras versus munguia more than
I am canelo versus skull.
Then fa ajagba is going to takeon martin baccoli, and we
(18:15):
remember how well martin baccolitook care of the last top rank
heavyweight that, uh, he wasthrowing against when big baby
anderson was sure that he wascoming out of there with the
wind.
We still haven't seen him sincethen.
I think those, those cartoonbirds are still circling his
head from the giant punches hetook right to the face.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
That's a fun card and well worth the pay-per-view.
Yeah, baju Jack is on there too, which he's fun, but really the
only thing that, like makes mea little bit nervous as far as
this fight goes is Canelo is notfighting here, so they're
fighting in Saudi Arabia.
And that makes me nervous.
Like, how are you going to do aCinco de Mayo fight?
How many Mexicans are goingover to Saudi Arabia?
(18:56):
Maybe a handful, you know, butit makes me a little bit nervous
as far as how the crowd isgoing to be.
They're still going to bepulling for him, they're going
to be pulling for Canelo, butit's not going to be the usual
wave of 100,000 people in Dallasjust screaming their heads off.
I also wonder how reserved hisintroduction is going to be.
(19:17):
He's probably not going to havethe 150 mariachis come out and
sing him out, because I don'tthink they have 150 mariachis in
Saudi Arabia, probably a littlebit hard to find.
So, looking forward to thefight either way, I love
watching Canelo, love watchinghim do his thing Like he's just
so elite in the way that hefights.
Always look forward to thefight either way, I love
watching canelo, love watchinghim do his thing like he's just
so elite in the way that hefights, always look forward to
(19:37):
it, but with the location andeverything, I don't know that
it'll have all the pomp andcircumstance that it usually
does for a canelo fight yeah,it'll definitely be a different
vibe.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Maybe instead of the mariachis he just got a guy with
the boombox playing mariachis,like he's got the old big 1982
giant boombox on his shoulderand he just walks behind canelo
on the way out.
That's what I'm hoping for.
If you can't have the mariachis, at least have the giant
boombox with the mariachi musicblaring.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
That would be incredible yeah, I'm trying to
think what, like amazing mexicanrock star musician hasn't come
out with him because somehow hepulls down whoever's the hottest
in like mexico at that point,that's who walks him out.
So yeah, I'm kind of curious tosee what he ends up doing.
Or if it is just like you knowcanned music and they just play
(20:31):
them out to whatever.
But that'll be fun.
And then Sunday it's themonster, for it's Naoya Inoue.
But he's finally fighting herein the United States, in Vegas.
I can't wait, I can't wait.
I'm also curious again how isthe location going to affect
this fight?
What do you think?
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Oh, I think you can drop Nioh anyway on the moon and
he's still going to draw acrowd and he is going to beat
the shit out of people put infront of them.
You've seen, or at least I'veseen anyway, Japanese fans will
travel to watch their sportsstars.
You know, when I was at thewhite socks hosted the All-Star
(21:13):
game in 2003, and I went to abunch of the different they have
, basically you buy the oneticket but you got to go all
three days or you got to buytickets for the three days in
order to go to the All-Star game.
So there was plenty of Japanesefans all in their Hideki Matsui
jerseys and stuff like that.
(21:34):
But I was like good for them.
I'm like that's cool that youtravel literally halfway around
the planet to come support theguys.
So I thought that was reallycool.
When ichiro was in all-stargames, there was always a giant
japanese contingent that wouldshow up to those games.
So at least from what I've seen, they do travel.
And yeah, we've been to lasvegas before.
(21:55):
It's not like you're like, oh,how come there's no asian people
here.
That's not the case.
Like there, there are a numberof asian people in the city of
las vegas.
So I think that it's going tobe a rousing success.
If I didn't have other thingsto do this weekend, like that
would have been more.
Like maybe a trip to vegaswould be worth it, where we
(22:17):
could have watched friday,saturday in the casino and then
went live sunday like that wouldhave been pretty wonderful yeah
, I think it's going to be great, but also I'm excited to watch
boxing at a normal time, likenot at five in the morning yeah,
I'm looking forward to that forsure.
You know it'll all wrap up onthat Sunday night and you know
(22:38):
we'll have to get together witheverything fresh in our brain on
Monday to chat about it, causethere is a lot it's going to be
a lot to discuss.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah, for sure, it's a.
It's a whole lot of boxing,it's a whole lot of you.
You know, sometimes we'll getto be able to skip a lot of the
stuff on the undercard becauseit's just stuff that they threw
together last minute, but thatis not the case with the cards
this weekend.
These are these are somestacked cards yeah, are they
going to?
Be great fights who knows?
Speaker 2 (23:03):
but I think they should be if anybody is not sure
about buying the pay-per-views.
If you, if you're like I'm onlygoing to buy one of these
pay-per-views, make it Saturday.
Saturday is going to be themuch better, at least on paper.
Saturday will be the muchbetter of the pay-per-views.
Friday is like a nice appetizerthat'll lead you up into
(23:24):
Saturday and Sunday.
I'm still going to buy it onFriday as well.
So you know, check it out,franco.
If out Franco, if you didn'thave anything else that we
wanted to check, uh, catch up onor discuss, coming up, I have a
trivia question ready for you.
Uh-oh, uh, still waiting foryour uh streak to be over.
I think you're only at two, sothat's not too bad.
(23:45):
I went.
I went weeks without withoutgetting one right.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
So yeah, I hate that when I I hear the names and they
sound familiar, but I don'tknow if they sound familiar
because it's from something elseor it's from boxing, I'm like,
oh, I know that name and then mybrain just shuts down, so I'm
ready this time though okay, soin honor of cinco de mayo
weekend, nioya, anyway.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Uh has defeated 29 people, franco.
Uh, which of these people hashe not defeated?
The monster has not defeatedone of these.
One of these guys, franco, andI'm I want you to pick it out
was it jamie mcdonald, charliecox, ricardo rodriguez or yuki
(24:31):
Sano?
Ricardo Rodriguez?
You are absolutely incorrect.
Oh no, he did defeat RicardoRodriguez.
He did not beat Charlie Cox.
Charlie Cox is the actor whoplays Matt Murdock slash
Daredevil in the Netflix andDisney Plus series Daredevil.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
So it sounded like a good boxing name, like yeah,
could be from the uk.
You know a bunch of guys withrecords of one and 151.
Yeah, I'm trying to tell likecharlie cox record.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
It would be, you know , like 14, 44 and three.
You know what I mean.
Like that's who charlie coxsounds like.
You know, if he was a reallygood boxer, it'd be just Charles
Cox third or the third, orsomething like that, you know.
All right, franco, I'll have toget something prepared for you
for next week.
Yeah, I'm definitely lookingforward to boxing this weekend
for anybody.
Like we said, strap it in.
(25:26):
If you're not going to buy anyboxing this weekend, you can
still hear us talk about it.
Uh, on the next episode, we'lldefinitely be breaking it all
down.
And sunday, if you have espn,that's the nioya anyway, fight
is free.
I n o, u, e is how you spell.
Anyway, if you're looking forit, if you want to do a search,
watch some of his highlightsbefore the fight even comes on.
(25:48):
Nioya, anyway is an absolutejoy, so make sure you watch that
.
And uh, yeah, thanks forsubscribing, thanks for franco
to doing all the real work, andif you don't have anything else,
franco, I'm throwing in thetowel thank you for listening to
punches and punchlines.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Make sure to like, subscribe and follow and we'll
see you next week when we breakdown the best in boxing with a
sense of humor.
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