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Episode 64 of The Fight breaks down a wild Saturday in boxing, from Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz and Lamont Roach battling to a controversial majority draw, to Jai Opetaia’s brutal round eight knockout that shook the cruiserweight scene, to Shabaz Masoud edging Peter McGrail on the cards and Elif Nur Turhan scoring a shock stoppage over Beatriz Ferreira. I walk through the momentum swings, the judging drama, and what these results really mean for each division, giving you the story behind the scorecards in one hard hitting episode.
Episode Transcript
It's real late in LA.
The fight campaign in the fight.
Listen, we had some blah blahblah boxing.
Lamont Roach versus Isaac Cruz,and a whole lot of fists were
flying.
SPEAKER_00 (00:17):
People were crying.
People were lying.
The judges were robbing.
SPEAKER_01 (00:25):
Listen, there's a lot of fights.
There's a lot of fights.
There's a lot of boxing.
There was a lot of cards.
We're going to get into the UKcard first.
I believe it's the UK.
I don't know.
It was early as fuck.
No, it was Australia.
Jai Opetai.
That card.
We're going to talk about someof the boxers there.
Jai himself and just how thingsare looking.
(00:47):
You know, boxing is amazingright now.
Completely amazing.
It's just like whoever you wantto fight, you're going to see
them fight.
There's nobody ducking anybodyin this era of boxing.
We get a fifth round TKO by theunderdog.
(01:10):
Toronto defeats Beatrice.
Okay.
TKO.
She gotta go.
How could we all know?
A lot of power, a lot of a lotof ferocity, a lot of
viciousness in that ring.
It was crazy to see how viciousand how dangerous a female
(01:32):
fighter.
I mean, I've seen it, you know,I've seen crazy KOs and
knockouts, but like she justpummeled this girl.
She just had the superiorartillery.
Now getting into the card, wehad another upset.
We had Max defeat Jed Morris ina TKO round four, outclassed him
(01:54):
from the bell until he fell.
Great, great, great fight.
It's good to see theseuppercomers come up and show out
and show that they deserve theopportunities they get.
A lot of times in boxing, a lotof times in fighting, it's all
political, political.
And it's good to see that justbeing a good fighter and a great
(02:15):
fighter and having the superiorskills still gets you somewhere
in the sport.
It's good to see.
Good to see Jai Apatai.
He faced some early, earlyadversity to get the KO late in
eight.
That is, man, this guy isprobably the most dangerous
cruiserweight we got.
(02:36):
I hope he doesn't go up toheavyweight before Benavidez and
him can have a fight, have areckoning, have some violence.
That cruiserweight division ison fire.
It's very exciting.
I like everything about it.
I can't wait to see the nextfights that come up.
Remember, you know, all theseguys are around that weight
(02:56):
class.
They can come down, they canmake super fights, they can make
a lot of crazy fun fights.
Now, to me, this Arizona Larafight was a fun fight.
I knew this guy was going totake his time.
New opponent, people are askingwhy he didn't rush for a finish.
It's a new opponent.
His other opponent got caught onsteroids, got caught on pets.
(03:19):
Nobody's talking about that.
Don't come to me talking about aboring fight when this guy
almost got into a fight with aguy on fucking roids.
Like, and nobody cares.
Nobody cares.
People are telling me Laura wasboring.
He dropped the guy twice and hewon.
This was a UD.
It was a great fight.
(03:40):
I don't understand how much riskcan a 42-year-old take when he's
already dropping his opponentsand winning the fight.
Now, did it feel like the skilldeficit was too large for his
opponent to ever cross?
Yes, but hey, that's whathappens when you have late
fights, late replacements,because fighters are on fucking
(04:05):
drugs.
We're not blaming the people whodon't do drugs.
Now we are going to blameStephen Fulton for moving up and
not even being ready.
He came up sloppy.
The fight was sloppy.
He got outworked, outclassed,outboxed by Foster.
Listen, I'm from Philly.
(04:26):
I had to eat some crow.
I did have to bet against myman.
I bet against him as soon as hewas overweight.
I'm sorry.
If you're coming up and you'reoverweight, you're fucking up.
There's something I can't bet onyou, and I didn't bet on him
heavy.
It's just, it's wild, right?
Like, how can you come up andmiss weight?
But that showed in the fight,right?
(04:47):
The lack of discipline, the lackof a plan.
I think he was going in there toget in there and bang it out,
and Foster came in there to box.
You know, Fulton's known as agreat boxer, but he got
outboxed.
He turned into like a puncherlooking for a knockout, and
that's not him.
As soon as he adopted thatmentality, I knew he was going
to lose the fight.
(05:08):
Like, I don't know what's goingon with Fulton since he lost to
Inaway, but he needs to stick tohis style.
He's an outboxer with pop.
You don't need to be going inthere trying to have wars,
trying to beat people in theinside and dominate them that
way.
It's going to put miles on yourcareer, damage on your body, and
(05:30):
you're going to get losses likethis.
Not everybody's going to be inthere trying to fight you, man.
You're still boxing otherpeople.
Like, fight to the level of yourcompetition.
Nobody looked at Foster'scareer.
Like nobody took a look at whathe can do.
Like I stopped counting him outsince he uh since he got the
belt.
(05:50):
So I really don't understand whypeople are talking shit.
Don't make any sense to me.
But um, shout out to Foster.
He outclassed Fulton for a12-0UD to me.
I don't give Fulton a singleround.
He came in fat, overweight.
He was not in fat, he was not infight shape at all.
And that's on him, that's on hiscamp, that's on his team.
(06:12):
Now, I'm not going to diminishhis talent level.
He can still beat.
I still think he can beatFoster, but he can't beat him
that way if he's not dialed in.
It's just not going to happen.
Boxing is not feelings, it'sreality.
Now, here's some brutal realityfor Lamont Roach and Isaac
Pitbull Cruz.
These guys are great.
(06:33):
These guys are good, but they'renot as good as they think they
are.
Cruz got hurt and startedboxing.
Right?
And Lamont started fighting andtowards the end started boxing.
You have to box a guy like IsaacCruz.
It has to be born.
If you don't have the artilleryto get him off you, it's not
(06:55):
going to be a good fight.
That's how he got dropped.
That's how the fight got messy.
He took a lot of damage in thisfight.
His hand is broken.
He got dropped.
I call it a draw.
The ref taking the points madeit a draw.
If the ref never took the pointsaway, Isaac Cruz gets that
(07:15):
fight, guys.
I'm sorry.
You cannot beat Isaac Cruz inthe inside.
It's too messy.
And Lamont doesn't have enoughpop to keep him off.
Now he has to fight him again.
Before he can get to Shakur, andhe's going to take more damage.
While Shakur's fighting Teo.
(07:39):
Like boxing's a war ofattrition, and he just took on a
battle that is going to it'sgoing to affect his career, man.
You just got done goingtoe-to-toe with Tank, and then
you go toe-to-toe with Isaacruz.
Two draws, two back-to-backfrustrating fights, and you
gotta go out there again and yougotta fight again to get
anywhere.
(08:00):
Shout out to Lamont Roach, butman, you gotta you you really
you really gotta understand whoyou're fighting, you really
gotta stick to the style that isthe most beneficial to you.
These fans who are calling forblood and shit while you're on
the mend, while you're inrecovery, while the vision is
(08:21):
moving on, Abdullah Mason andall them are coming up in ranks.
Like, can you protect your belt?
Can you go back down?
Like, you he has all thesequestions he has to deal with
because his forward motion hasbeen stopped again.
I think Lamont Roach is a greatspectacular fighter.
He just has to fight correctlyand fight the game plan.
All these fighters.
Devin Haney went away from thegame plan.
(08:42):
A lot of these guys go away fromthe game plan.
That's what it looked like.
I think it was a game planissue, not a talent issue.
I think Lamont Roach can dobetter.
This is Nate.
The fight happened in it's.
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