TMCP Ep 33: The Gayle Falkenthal Interview

Luis and Jamieson were honored to be joined by veteran award winning broadcast and print journalist, editor, producer, talk host and commentator Gayle Falkenthal for this week's episode! After learning a bit about her experiences within the field, the trio recapped their favorite bouts and events of 2025 before discussing fighters and matchups to watch for in 2026.

Be sure to check out her articles here: https://nyfights.com/author/gayle/
Check out her youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/ ⁨@GayleFalkenthal⁩  

Watch the full episode here:      • The Mixed Company Podcast  
 
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
In this corner, standing at six foot five, weight class unknowns,
but hailing from the city of Sins. Put your hands
together for Jamison will and in this then in his
five foot ten, weighing in at pound and coming to
us from his super secret bunker with no AC in Tucson, Arizona.
Put your hands together for Louis Montemao. All right, thank you.

(00:23):
Welcome back to another episode of the Mixed Company podcast.
Of course, on one half of the show, Jamison drum
by Luise. Louise, what's long man?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
And Jamison, I am so excited to be here for
our very first episode of twenty twenty six, So so
excited about the new year, excited about the world of boxing.
You know, I take this show seriously, so this is
airing on January first. I was very I behaved myself
last night very much, so I'm not hungover for the
show at all. So Happy New Year to you, Jamison,
and happy New Year to a very special guest that

(00:55):
we have today. We have an award winning boxing journalist
who is going to join us today and recap the year.
Please welcome to the ring, Miss Gail Fuckenthal.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
Happy new Year, everybody. What a great way to start
it off. Thank you for inviting me on the show.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Oh, thank you so much for being here. And you know,
I say boxing journalists, but you know there's more to you.
You're a commentator, you know you're an editor. You've done,
you've done as a PR consulting. I mean, you do
so much. Like I didn't want to overload with credits,
but just give us a little bit about you know
what you want to tell the people, what you do,
you're interestar and you know what what you want to
put out there.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
Well we'll make it simple because we're really here to
talk about boxing, not about me, but just for the
credit list. I'm based in San Diego, California, where I
grew up in a household with a boxing crazy dad.
And being in San Diego and before the days of
streaming and really before the days of a lot of cable,

(01:52):
we watched a lot of TV both from our side
of the border, and you could watch all the stations
in Tijuana. So what's on TV in Mexico it's pretty
much Telenovella's soccer and boxing. So I grew with that
and did the region funny enough, without a lot of
major fights or fighters, but a tremendous interest in boxing,

(02:15):
and my best girlhood friend was a Latina girl who
loved boxing just as much as me. And I always
wanted to be a sports journalist, but I was really
a little too early. It was born a little too
early for a lot of women getting into sports writing
or sportscasting unless you covered tennis, gymnastics, figure skating. Not

(02:37):
that there's anything wrong with that, I watch them all,
but I ended up going just into street broadcast journalism
and print journalism for most of my career. But I
left the news business because I actually wanted to make
some money, and I know all of you out there
who do this understand. So I eventually got into the
public relations side of things and eventually started my own

(03:00):
PR firm. Did you know that Siren Call was always
still out there? And I got a little part time
gig on a new online news site, at first just
writing media commentary, but I had the opportunity to fill
in for our sports editor to go cover a fight

(03:20):
in Las Vegas and it was Pacquiao Marquez three, and
he never got his job back. That's my story in
a nutshell. So for the last fifteen years I've been
doing this again as a side job, which is the
best way to cover boxing when you do not need
it to pay your mortgage. So that has been a

(03:41):
good thing and it's benefited me to be able to
see my side of that profession from both ends, watching
all of those folks we deal with on the pr
side in boxing, dealing with us, and hopefully keep my
writing and commentating and unication skills sharp. But what a

(04:02):
fun time to be in to see a lot of good,
a lot of bad, a lot of ugly, a lot
of excitement. You know, there's always a knockout around the
corner to save things for us.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Absolutely, and yes, we are here to talk about boxing,
but we're not not here to talk about you. Because
I'm also curious about where there any particular fights or
fighter is that you're really a fan of that really
got you into the sport or was it just because
it was on all the time.

Speaker 3 (04:29):
You know, I've always enjoyed watching a lot of the
Mexican and Mexican American fighters in Southern California. I will
say because the first fight I ever saw ringside featured
Manny Pacquiao, who is already a pretty big star, I admit,
you know, along the way. He's always been one of
my very favorite fighters. You know, we all grew up

(04:49):
watching Oscar de la Hoya, and of course we watched
Manny destroy Oscars. That was a lot of fun. And
I have enjoyed walk watching the wave of Eastern European
fighters become big stars in the United States, starting with
guys like well, of course, you had Vladimir Klitschko back
in the day. The one I really got to know

(05:11):
because he ended up stationing himself in southern California for
a lot of his career was Gonadi Glovkin, who's I
think you see his glove over there over my shoulder.
And I also was very well acquainted with his trainer
at the time, Abel Sanchez, who was from the San
Diego area, who after he took Terry Norris to fame,

(05:34):
he kind of retired and he's a building contractor by
skill sets, so he built houses and stuff like that,
and then he retired again a second time, and he's
been drawn back in, so that's been a fun story.
I also, of course, always enjoyed watching even the kind

(05:55):
of no name guys that come out of Mexico, you know,
watching fights on Mexican TV from places like Big Punch
Arena right where you've seen a lot of the greats,
and Eric Morales obviously was a big favorite of all
the Mexican wars. I've always enjoyed the smaller weight divisions.

(06:17):
I think in part because we did watch so many
of the greatest fighters from Mexico they're in the lower
weight divisions. I've always had a soft spot along the
way for Jorge R. Say. I keep voting for him
to get in the Hall of Fame, crossing my finger
is one of these days everybody will recognize what a
great fighter he was. And to this day, I still

(06:40):
have an enormous admiration for the lower weight divisions. And
I'm so pleased to see one of the biggest stars
in the sport being in that lower you know, that
lower tier of weight divisions, and I think of that
as anything featherweight under and U and one of our
biggest emerging stars also being from that division. And will

(07:04):
there ever be a collision course between Naoia in a
way and vam Rodriguez, We will see.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
You know, yeah, you and I personally, we have a
lot of similarities there because I'm Mexican, American grew up watching,
so I've always kind of related to the to the
little guys. So but yeah, but at the end of
the day as well, I just love watching fights. I'll
put one on even if I don't know the name.

Speaker 3 (07:27):
So, you know, sometimes the no name guys, you know,
the the even matchups down on the you know, early
early fights on a card deliver the best action. You
are just these guys have nothing to lose, they let
it rip and it's just it's a ton of fun.
And you know, this is not to say I don't

(07:48):
love a good heavyweight fight, a great, spectacular heavyweight knockout
by by any means, that's that's a part of the
sport too. And I firmly believe the cliche that when
the heavyweight division is healthy, boxing as healthy. But how
can you not love the speed, the offensive aggression, the

(08:09):
punch output, the movement. That's something the smaller weight division
fighters at the highest level deliver. You know that a
guy having a move two hundred and fifty pounds around
a ring just I'm sorry, just cannot do it. I
think that's why I've also really always loved those that
sort of middleweight division grounds, you know, middleweight right there

(08:31):
at the center, because it's the intersection of both. It's
the intersection of guys who still have plenty of speed
and hand speed, but still have tremendous power up at
that size. And you know, maybe that's why I was
always such a big fan of Galovkin, of Canelo Alvarez
when he was sitting at that weight class, which I
firmly think were his best days. And I'm so disappointed

(08:55):
right now with the middleweight division. There's just you know,
the next generation of talent hasn't emerged. Yeah, we've got
champions there, but you know not they they aren't. They
aren't the men that we remember of this glamour division
at all. So either step up, guys, or move aside.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
Well, you know, we, Jameson, I critique the boxing world
love because we love it and we want it to
be it's the best board in the world, and we
want it to be the best to live up to it.
So I can definitely appreciate where you're coming from, and
I definitely appreciate your passion for the sports.

Speaker 3 (09:35):
If we don't feel the truth about it, what's the point,
right We we love it even with all its sports
and flaws and we all know what they are, but
when a great fight goes down, there's no truly to me,
there's nothing more exciting in the world of sports, and
I love sports, but there's nothing like the excitement of

(09:57):
a big win in a meaning full prize fight.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
One hundred percent agree, one hundred percent agree. So that's
kind of a good transition for where we're going next.
You know, I wanted to get your thoughts on boxing
as a whole in twenty twenty five, just this past year.
You know, we had some great fights, we had some lulls.
We talked about the good and the bad. I really
love you talking about the the lack of stars in
the in the middle division there. But I mean, what
do you see as a whole in terms of where

(10:23):
boxing is because I think it's harder to find because
top rank isn't on TV nothing, everything is on streaming.
Are we at a low point? Are we at a
new opportunity for something different and exciting? Like is what's
your take on it? For what you've seen this past year.

Speaker 3 (10:37):
I think boxing has a lot of potential and we're
in a transition period, so we don't really know where
we're going from where we've been. We are at a
point now we're in the United States there is no
linear or cable television outlet showing boxing for the first time.

(11:00):
That's a culture shock for a lot of people. Top
Rank has left ESPN as of the end of August
July somewhere in the summer. They still don't have a home.
They're fighters, still don't have a home. Now. Top Rank
has placed their guys in a few women on other cards.

(11:20):
You know, they are getting out there. They are fighting,
but they are not under the Top Rank banner, and
they're relying on the charity and matchups of the other promoters.
So they're doing what they can. But boy, I sure
hope they find a home soon, and it isn't on
some you know, third tier cable network. On the other hand,

(11:42):
the potential for streaming has been a plus in so
many ways. There is no way twenty years ago, even
ten years ago, I could have imagined being able to
see fight cards live from around the world in real time.

(12:02):
One of that meant I was getting up at three
in the morning to watch them from Japan. Didn't matter
because streaming has allowed us that access. And sometimes it's
a grainy YouTube channel and sometimes it's a kind of
a sketchy I don't know what it is, and they
want me to pay five bucks for it. And then,
of course they're the big operators, you know, broadcasting around

(12:24):
the world. But we the fan have more access to
worldwide boxing than we ever did before. The problem is
when there's a price tag attached to a lot of
it that really prices out the average fan. How much
can you expect the average person trying to pay their

(12:46):
bills to cough up? If you really want to watch
every significant fight, every decent pay per view card, you know,
we're talking hundreds of dollars a year. And while I
do not advocate piracy or streaming, because these guys need
to make a living and need to make a profit
where the fighters don't get fights and they don't get paid,

(13:10):
but the fans can only be hit up for so much. Hey,
the promises that were made to us to remember, pay
per view is dead. Pay per view is dead. And
that's the same network now asking someone to pay close
to five hundred bucks a year. Oh, but you're going
to get all your pay per views free? Well, what

(13:30):
if you don't want to watch all those pay per views?
It doesn't matter that's a model, you know, digital delivery
of content, entertainment, sports, what have you. It is still
in some ways finding its way. The good news is
some of the big streaming operations that didn't establish themselves

(13:54):
to get into the business of sports casting are figuring
out that live sports is a huge draw offer its
other content. So you have the players like Netflix and
Prime Video coming in, you know, and I'm okay with
that as long as they can continue to offer it
primarily as part of a subscription package. Netflix seems inclined

(14:14):
to hand us these big cards, these stunt cards. Prime
Video a little less, but we have had some good
cards with just your subscription. I'm hopeful that this all
sorts itself out, calms down, realizes they've got to have
fan eyes on these things without attaching dollars all the

(14:36):
time to keep the sport healthy. You also have that infusion,
you know, the last couple of years of money from
the Middle East, specifically from Saudi Arabia, you know, and
the Turkey Alah Shakes and the Saudi General Entertainment Authority
have a completely different business model. They don't need to
make a profit. This is a marketing expense for them.

(15:00):
This is a tactic to get people to consider vacations
high end tourism in the Middle East, specifically in Saudi
and it's also aimed at the British and European market
of people who might invest, who might buy a vacation home.
We don't see that in the United States. I mean,

(15:20):
we are getting that benefit without being played to, although
there is the political aspect we could go down that
rabbit hole, and I don't want to start our year
doing that. We're gonna have plenty of time to consider
that because we are seeing the Saudi's partnering in a
new venture, which was one of the big stories of

(15:42):
twenty twenty five with Dana White, who's always wanted to
get into boxing, but he wants to bring the UFC
business model to boxing. That's going to take some political
will and a change in legislation, specifically with the ALIAC.
I am interested to see how that plays out. I'm

(16:04):
concerned about it. I want to see what eventually happens. Obviously,
the current promoters they still want the infusion of Saudi money,
but they don't want to see a single entity taking over.
ZUFA was starting to sign boxers to its roster they

(16:26):
aren't going to be the big stars. The big stars
are not going to want to operate under that pay scale.
So for a while it's going to be a development league.
I'm okay with that. It looks like the first event
is going to be at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
It's kind of an odd spot for your first big
fight on your new banner. It's at the Apex. But

(16:49):
we'll see that in late late this month. But let's
see how much patience and how much money the Saudis
want to think in If it's nothing but development fights,
development fights, prospects, it's going to be a better promoted

(17:10):
version of pro Box, and pro Box delivers some absolutely
great cards, but nobody pretends pro Box is putting on
any way in Na Kataki, Nakatucki or Crawford and Canelo.
So let's see what happens.

Speaker 2 (17:29):
That's fair. And we've had a lot of conversations about,
you know, how uneasy it we are about the Middle
East money coming in, the Saudi money and Dana White.
But I got more to ask, but I don't want
to monopolize.

Speaker 4 (17:39):
The interview of Jameson please jump in here, So Gil
quick question if you were boxing commissioner, what would you
do in this situation regarding the streaming, regarding where the
money is coming from.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
Is there anything that you would do or you would
change for everything that you know of at the moment.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
You know. The first thing I do is, you do
have an audience you're leaving behind with streaming only, so
we need to see some kind of broadcast pick up
from this. And I'm not sure why it hasn't happened,
you know. Back in the depths of my mind, as
we see some of these merger talks going on, I

(18:20):
have often wondered if Top Rank isn't waiting to see
some different ownership deals move around and one of the
networks that's still just scratching the surface into live sports.
It is ironic because it was one of the first
pay cable outlets that had live sports, HBO I. I

(18:45):
still have this premonition that Top Rank could go back
to HBO Boxing and reestablish itself there. I could be
way off base. I would love to see something like
that happen, especially if there's a ale. But if I
could waive the magic wand the sanctioning bodies need to

(19:07):
be brought to heal. First of all, you know they
all have a handout, they all do. You know, they
are not looking for the best interests of the sport.
They're looking for the best interests of their operations. You know, commissions,
sanctioning bodies are businesses. Their business objectives do not always

(19:31):
benefit the sport. We could regulate that. Calm that down,
boil that down. I'm not sure that you need just
one sanctioning body. And I think the genie got out
of the bottle a long time ago. You're never going
to stuff that in. Say what you will about all

(19:53):
these belts. Fighters want the belts. Belts are leverage for
them to get better paychecks, better deals. I'm all for
whatever gets those guys paid, right, but there needs to
be some unification over them to at least get them
all to follow the same rules and cooperate with each other,

(20:16):
you know. On the other hand, the Ring magazine belt
does not charge a saying Scheik fee is overseen by
a committee including a lot of journalists, their ratings committee,
and the rules are very very strict about who what
level of fight gets to fight for a ring magazine belt.
That's the one the fighters prize for a reason. Can

(20:39):
we somehow consolidate the other belts to have some systems
similar to that? Let's for you know, I am very
tired of the interims and the secondary belts and the
you know, Africa title, the Asia, Pacific, the global Make
those make those some kind of ranking. But does everybody

(21:03):
need a trinket to hang on to? That would help
a lot of people. The average fan. If you ask
the average fan who is the middleweight champion? Well, they
don't really know. And there are four guys who can
claim to be the middleweight champion, well three right now
since one of them looks like he's gonna be stripped.

(21:26):
What is a unified champion? What's an under They don't
know this stuff. If you ask who won the World Series,
they know. If you ask them who won the super
Bowl they know? How do we get there so that
they know who the champion or the few are. Perhaps
we need to dial back the number of divisions. I mean,

(21:49):
are we at eighteen divisions? Now? This is nuts? This
is nuts. There's a sweet spot between the original eight
and this you know, explosion of divisions we have. Now,
let's boil that back down to a reasonable dozen thirteen,

(22:12):
and let's stop this nonsense of inserting a division here
and a bridger weight here, and I mean that that
would force more people to fight against each other. It
would help tremendously. You know, the great Larry Merchant said
it the best. You know, boxing. You can't fix it

(22:33):
and you can't kill it. I mean, that's the bottom line.
We can chop away at the margins. Yeah, but you know,
boxing is its own animal. It really is, and deep
down you know that's part of the charm of it
in a way, isn't it right, even if it frustrates

(22:55):
us so much sometimes? But let's tidy up the obvious right,
Let's go after that low hanging fruit. Let's maybe consolidate
some divisions. Let's let's bring the sanctioning bodies to heal
and if it takes the promoters, great. You know, we
never thought we would see, for example, Eddie Hearn and

(23:16):
Frank Warren sitting together at a fight, yucking it up,
watching all their fighters fight each other. Or Bob Aram
and Foscar de la Joya, you know, doing business. They
are they have somewhat been forced to because they have
to follow the money. But it means that when the
conditions are right, it is possible, and that gives me

(23:38):
some hope.

Speaker 2 (23:40):
Well, no, it's yeah. It's a really interesting take because
sometimes we're kind of down on how money has gotten
too much into boxing. Jamison and I haven't talked about
this at nauseum, but you're right, I mean, it can
be a motivator for what we want to see. But
before we get into you know, picks jameson, do any
you have another one to jump in with.

Speaker 1 (23:58):
Yes, So obviously there's a several hotspots for boxing in
the country. You're from the west, you have West coast
route of San Diego. Of course La is closed. Of
course Vegas is closed. What's the difference between boxing on
the East coast and boxing on the West coast.

Speaker 3 (24:14):
Well, interestingly enough, I've had a very short period of
three or four years right before the pandemic actually where
I worked for main events out of New Jersey for
Kathy Duva, and so I was involved in a lot
of the promotions back east versus promotions that you see
here in the West coast, primarily as you said, Las
Vegas in La you know, And part of it follows

(24:39):
the fighters themselves, the culture of the region, the personality
types of the region. You know, everybody, whether it's true
or not, has a picture in their mind of someone's
from Los Angeles or Southern California, right, and someone who's
from New York or New Jersey, and the flavor of

(24:59):
those personalities. You know, New York and New Jersey area
had been a hotbed of club fights and guys, you know, hard,
scrappy guys rising up through the ranks, you know, through
places like Joda Guardia's Starboxing, through main events who developed

(25:21):
a lot of local fighters, you know who ran lower
you sort of lower tier cards that I would say
maybe were club fights plus. And the objective was signing
guys who were fan friendly, you could put meet in
the seats, sell tickets, right, So you had that that

(25:45):
flavor of you know, rough and ready, you know competitors,
many of whom went on to become champions, and you
had a similar culture, but driven by the Latino experience.
It's in particular in Southern California. But the one thing
they both share is, let's face it, nobody gets into boxing.

(26:10):
It's always dangerous to use the word nobody. Very very few,
a tiny fraction of boxers get get in. The mass
majority do not come from an affluent background. Right, Boxing
is a very tough sport. It's you know, very few

(26:30):
people's first choice of way to make a living, but
it's accessible. It's a sport that when you first start,
you know, you don't need teammates, you don't need a
lot of equipment. You need, you know, the desire and
will to get in there and train and have someone
get a pair of gloves out of a box, you know,

(26:53):
a dozen at the side of the gyms, drop them
on you. Yeah they okay, they fit, okay, and go
at it right. And you've seen a lot of guys
rise from poverty because they are so driven to get
to the top, because they want to feed their families.
And you know, it's almost every Mexican fighter that ever

(27:16):
lived fits that category. You know, every guy from a
blue collar background on the East Coast, everyone who you
know was hanging on by a fingernail, starving, you know,
through rough winters in Eastern Europe, in some of the
Soviet breakaway republics. They all have the same thing in

(27:38):
common that this is their way out. That's the kind
of motivator. Someone needs to stay in the sport long
enough and train hard enough to be good at it
and then have that you know, tiny percentage of a
chance of making life changing money. And to this day,

(28:01):
even though boxing is no longer a mainstream sport, especially
in North America, if you ever look at the list
of highest made athletes that Forbes magazine still puts together,
there are always a significant number of boxers in the
top twenty, which is really saying something given the eye
popping salaries guys are making at the highest levels of

(28:23):
the big professional sports that are so popular soccer, NFL,
NBA show.

Speaker 1 (28:29):
Hey O, Tony, Definitely, now where do you prefer doing
business at, whether it's covering a fight or promoing a fight?
You before the West Coast or the East Coast in
that regard.

Speaker 3 (28:40):
Well, from a purely selfish aspect, you know, having a
flight to the East Coast is pain in the you
know what, right, and I will certainly do it, and
you know, once I'm there, I enjoy the hell out
of it. There truly is nowhere like Madison Square Garden
to see a fight. To this day, the last fight

(29:02):
I attended there was the big all women's car that
MVP put on in July. Spectacular, you know, backed by
Netflix money done, beautifully promoted, beautifully fan events at the
highest level, you know, just couldn't couldn't have been run better,

(29:24):
staged better. And while the main event didn't necessarily rise
to expectations, boy a lot of those undercard fights were
just phenomenal. Loved it. But you know, when Vegas is
an hour plane flight or five hour drive, and there's

(29:44):
so many good venues there, from smaller up to the
you know, big arenas, and of course now we have
Allegian Stadium in the play apparently believe me, T Mobile
arenas plenty big. It's about ten percent sea, it's about
ten fifteen percent more than Madison Square. Guard does that
twenty three thousand plus if they really pack it. You know,

(30:07):
you can't be a Vegas fight. You know, I can
kind of as long as I remember to apply for
a credential, I can kind of make the call. I'm like, yeah,
am I gonna go? I don't know, I got I
should I get at the car now? And the truth is,
for me, all of my family now lives in Las Vegas.
Every one of them, one by one moved from San
Diego to Las Vegas. So that's you know, it's kind

(30:28):
of a nice bonus. The fight scene in Las Vegas
has changed and developed, and yeah, it used to be
in in its you know heydays in the eighties and nineties.
You know, not a lot of fighters lived and trained there,
but now they do. In the critical mass of gyms

(30:49):
of world class trainers operating out of Las Vegas and
the sparring that's now there full time, that has really
evolved in the last ten years or so. You know,
you need to give a little bit of a nod
of guys like Floyd Mayweather SEWN and Kenny Porter's Gym,
some of the other longtime gyms that have generated their

(31:11):
own ecosystem there. That has been a plus. That's something
that the East Coast always had from the get go
that Las Vegas had to develop. The sparring in Los
Angeles is still really unparalleled on the West Coast and
there's still a lot of fighters. You know, if you're

(31:31):
west of the Mississippi and you want high level sparring,
a lot of guys still come to Los Angeles. Now
you have a lot of the Asian fighters, particularly the
Japanese fighters coming into Los Angeles for the world class
sparing they want. Then you also have you know, growing
scenes like Houston just you know, got its own boxing

(31:53):
scene that's very high level. You have a lot of
fighters now down in Florida, you know, they live there
and I have to pay taxes on their money. You
have Cuban fighters much more able to come and perform
in North America. You know, we have all little pockets
like you know, Team Crawford and Omaha. A lot of

(32:15):
guys have gone there as well. So I think that
diversity is awfully nice and it opens the doors a
lot more to a lot more fighters, including the women's
professional fighters that are starting to really grow that side
of the sport. But given the choice, yeah, and my

(32:35):
own personal selfishness, oh yeah, I'll go to Vegas any day.
Just that's just so much easier, and a fight week,
depending on the card, can be really big in Las Vegas. However,
I will say the Taylor Serrano three all women's card
MVP put on that was big talk all over New

(32:59):
York surprisingly so fight posters and bars everywhere, not just
the Irish bars, okay, everywhere. So I was very impressed
with that. You know that the carnal boxing culture is
still there in New York. I would hate to see
that go away.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
Yeah, when we're we're big supporters Jamison and I have
women's boxing as well. You know, there's a lot of
boxing fans that are just very you know, they have
a lot to say about women in the women's sports
in general. Not us, not us, okay, right right right,
We're we're not about that, you know where we support
boxers one here. But yeah, let's swiss tracks and get
into the picks of twenty twenty five. You know, I

(33:41):
really I don't see how anybody's top fight of twenty
twenty five is going to be different. Is it going
to be a surprise? But I don't know, you know,
just give us. I don't know. If you get top three
maybe of your fights of the year.

Speaker 3 (33:53):
I I sure will, you know, I think an early
candidate because it was such an event as much as
it was a fight, was finally seeing Chris you Bank
Junior and Connor Benn get in the ring. Right. What
a spectacle, what a build up? You know it if

(34:17):
someone scripted that as a feature film, they someone would think, oh,
you know, I'm quite sure this is all believable, And
you cannot tell me that you didn't stand up off
your couch when you saw Chris you Bank Senior get
out of that limo who showed up to see his
son fight for their family honor. And the fight, you know,

(34:40):
was very competitive. It might not have produced anyone spectacular
moment in the ring, but it had a lot of
that tension, a lot of that cultural pride. I think
that's on anyone's shortlist. It really really has to be.
And then you fast forward to few months and you know,

(35:01):
we always expect to have a really great fight on
Cinco de Mayo weekend, and you had this big, you know,
multi continental card, all this stuff going on and Canello
making his first appearance in Riod that Times Square card
that was so talked up. I mean, how much more

(35:25):
of a disaster could all of that been? I mean
it was just cringe worthy, right, was just the worst.

Speaker 2 (35:32):
We were not happy. We were not happy.

Speaker 3 (35:34):
Oh, I mean the New York fight was bad enough.
And I sat and watched that card in the Top
Rank offices with a bunch of the staff, with the
chairman himself, with Cynthia Poncher and a whole bunch of
people Christina Poncher pardon me, and I mean that was

(35:56):
just a face Palm. The whole way through. It was
just horror hole. Then I take a break. I go
over my sister's house and I said, I'm gotta watch
this card from Saudi Arabia. It was even worse. It
was worse, the worst. But I was there in Las
Vegas to cover that forgotten third card on Sunday night,

(36:21):
the return of Noel. In a way, after many years
away from the United States, facing this get Ao, scrappy
young Mexican guy from San Antonio who I had sat
and talked to at length when he came out to
Los Angeles for a media day, and his trainer at

(36:41):
the time, Joel Diaz, was so high on, so high
on him, and I thought, you know, Joelle, Joel is
not a hype man, right, And I watched him cardenis
going through, you know, your typical media workout with Joel,
and I thought, okay, all right, Well, let's hope he
gives a good account of himself. That card was thrilling

(37:05):
top to bottom. It was everything those other two bloated, overpaid,
over hype produced cards were not. It was a shame
that thea Tmobile arena was not full. Shame on everyone
who failed to fill any empty seat in that arena.
But the ten thousand plus or so of us that

(37:27):
were there were treated to an absolutely phenomenal evening with
all the bells and whistles, with the big ring looks,
with that shocker of a knockdown by Cardanis of the way.
Let me tell you, we were not certain he was
going to get to his feet and stay on his feet.
He was wobbly, but that's the muscle, memory, instinct and

(37:51):
determination of a champion that you forced him to go
forward and then turn that fight around and now in
some great moments on the under card, a very impressive
knockout once again by spoiler alert, my prospect of the
year Emiliano Vargas, who looks, do you know this point
to be the real thing? So that's got to also

(38:11):
be there the fight of the year. To me, that
main event between Inua and Cardenas, and the framework and
timing of that fight around it really lent to putting
the spotlight on why to me it was a big event.
But then go three months down, four or five months

(38:33):
down the road and a few miles down the road
to Allegiance Stadium, and you know you cannot deny the
impact of a card like Canelo versus Bud Crawford with
the surprising outcome at the end. So what's your fight
of the year. You know, I'd say you could pick

(38:54):
any of the three and absolutely justify what the fight
of the year was. You might pick something different for
the event of the year, right, and I would argue
that really winnows down to either you Bank Ben or
Canelo Crawford. Is your event of the year. I'm gonna

(39:17):
I'm I think be an outlier as we read all
of our lists that are out there right now, and
I admit to the bias of having Ben ringside, But
the Annoy versus Cardinist fight from a pure fighter's perspective,
to me, that's the fight of the year. It didn't
it didn't have the expectations, the build up, the promotion,

(39:39):
the volume, the eyeballs. That's still my fight of the year.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
Awesome, No, it was a wonderful night, yeah.

Speaker 3 (39:45):
Now, And I would put the other two right up there.
I would add Abdullah Mason and Sam Noakes, you know,
as another fight in that category. I also very partial
to a fight that was not for a title, did
not involve Americans. The heavyweight fight between British fighters Dave

(40:09):
Allen and Johnny Fisher was an absolute slobber knocker. If
you love the heavyweights, that's your fight. You know. I
could even make a an argument just for spectacular result
stakes sake of earlier in the year Moses and Tama

(40:30):
absolutely wiping out Dillian White. I mean, he just blew
right through him, and we all thought, yeah, here's the
first big test for this young heavyweight. White's gonna take
him into the deep waters. No it didn't. He did not.
It did not. Have so a lot of good choices.

Speaker 2 (40:49):
Yeah, great list. And you see you seem to never
miss a fight, which I like that. I try to
catch everyone, so.

Speaker 3 (40:56):
Even it's a hard one, you just you know, once
in a while there's a fight I don't see. But
that's why there's YouTube.

Speaker 2 (41:02):
Come on, guys, that's yeah, that's how I watch. I'm sorry,
that's how I watch all the fights, because man, I'm
not getting up at three four in the morning. I'm
just not going to.

Speaker 3 (41:11):
It is really hard. If you're on the West coast,
you know, you can kind of try to get yourself
to sleep by maybe ten o'clock and maybe you missed
the first few fights on the card and you know,
you get three or four hours sleep, You wake yourself up,
you walk, you go back to bed like me. You know,

(41:32):
a couple of weekend, two weekends ago, you know, we
had the fight card from Africa and I from you know,
we had one from Ghana and then the next night
you had one in Nigeria, both on his own. I'm
I'm on Sunday night, I'm catching up on the card
from Nigeria right, just because because you can watch it

(41:54):
and the Zone streams so many international cards that really
don't get a lot of coverage, and you know a
lot of boxing applications, and there's some gems on those cards.
You know, it's well worth even after the fact going
back to see, yeah, how did this all play out?
Is there something that I missed that maybe I should
go back and look at. That is the plus of streaming,

(42:16):
you know, we have all that content accessible and available
for us. We just have to balance the price points.

Speaker 1 (42:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
Yeah, well that's a great list. Like I said, let's
switch tracks to looking forward. You know, any fights that
you're looking forward to, specifically dreamfight to want them? And
also who's next for twenty twenty six? Who's the big
name that we're looking for. We thought it was going
to be Crawford now that he's a star, But he's
walking away with a wind. So what do we have
to look forward to?

Speaker 3 (42:43):
So, you know, we have to ask ourselves, is Bud
really retired? You really retired?

Speaker 1 (42:51):
Yeah? Or you know?

Speaker 3 (42:54):
Sugar Ray Leonard famously said when he came out of retirement,
somebody asked him, you know what about it? You know
what what happened? Why did you decide not to be
retired anymore? He says, Well, none of us ever really retire.
We just change our minds. So is but going to
change his mind? Is it a money ploy? You know

(43:17):
we will. But we've heard those rumors that the reason
he decided to retire is because he wanted more money
for a Canelo rematch that he wasn't being offered. I'm
not sure that's it to me. One of the tells is,
you know, bless him. Crawford has always marched to the
beat of his own drum. He cannot. He is his

(43:39):
own personality, with his own instead of internal morals and guidelines.
I'm not sure he would be just retiring to take
a pause if he hadn't done that incredibly well produced

(43:59):
video announcement which clearly took some time to do, that
was long in the making. That was not an overnight
I'm going to announce tomorrow night I'm retiring on Instagram
with a post that was a very slickly produced, thoughtful
comment on his career and his decision. I'm not sure

(44:20):
you do that if your real objective is three months
from now to say, eh, you know, for the right money,
I'll come back. You know, but it's always had a
life outside boxing, right, He's got a wonderful family. He
has a community that where he really belongs. You know,
he is loyal to the soil in Omaha. He's involved

(44:44):
in the community. He coaches a couple of his boys
in wrestling. You know, I could really see him going
down the road you know that Philip Rivers did until
he decided to retire. You know, he's coaching kids football, right,
but doesn't have quite as many kids as Rivers does.
But you know, maybe he wants to enjoy his family

(45:06):
and his money. Maybe he has seen some of the
fighters of previous generations who stayed too long, whose health
is showing the effects of that. He doesn't have that
right now. If he wants to live a long, healthy life,
he I think it will stick. I think it will
stick the same way it's stuck for andre Ward. He

(45:28):
went out at the top. Ward has certainly been tempted
a couple of times. He's just has come and stra
line about, you know, coming out of retirement, but he's
never crossed it. I think that might happen with Crawford.
I think he's done, and we are seeing this generation
start to ease out. So who's coming up next? Every

(45:52):
time we've lost some of the big stars to retirement
or something, you know, something else, you know, someone has
always risen to replace them. And maybe we don't really know.
Right now, it looks like, you know, Crawford's out. I
do think Canelo is on his way out. He's got

(46:13):
two more fights on his deal with the re odd season,
so let's see what he decides to do with those.
He's always said he was going to retire at thirty seven,
and well, that gives him another year and a half
to get that one. Anyway, it is going to be
around at least a little while longer. I would think
several more years. But who's coming along? Behind them. I

(46:38):
think that we do have some American stars if they're
marketed correctly. I do think as long as his skills
hold up. Emiliano Vargas is Oscar de la Hoya two
point zero, I think there's a lot of potential there
if they move him right. Abdulla Mason same, you know,
as a Midwestern fighter, and he kind of slides into

(46:59):
that place where Crawford held court. Very exciting fighter. Chr Stevenson,
you know, merits that status and he showed us against
Williams Ofpaida he can put on an exciting fight, he
can do it. So this upcoming fight with him and
Tifi Malopez is really going to test their market ability

(47:25):
and their star power beyond the hardcore fans as much
as what they do in the ring. So I'm very
interested to see that. I'm also looking to, you know,
fighters outside our shores. And though boxing is a niche
sport in the United States, that is not true in Mexico.
That is not true. In Great Britain, that is not

(47:46):
true in Japan. There's a lot of talent there. We
have the ability to see it through streaming. I am
very excited to see what Moses Tatama does this year.
You know, he wanted to be the youngest heavyweight champion ever. Well,
you know, he didn't accomplish that, but damn it, he
might become a world champion, especially if USIX starts giving

(48:09):
those belts up by twenty two or three, and that
would be a stellar accomplishment. It's time to get him
in with some you know, tougher opposition. He has certainly
proved he can handle it, and I'm I'm very excited
to see what happens there. Yeah, there's some other lower
level guys right now that I still think of his

(48:32):
prospects that we have some potential, and I have some
West Coast bias there. I'm very interested in Tito Mercado.
I'm very interested in Joel Erie Arte, who is side
a golden boy, who's you know, still I think he's
I don't think he even still has ten fights yet.

(48:52):
I hope, against hope, that we've got at least one
American heavyweight to carry the banner. We've got two young
guys still right at the beginning of their careers, but
Joshua Edwards and Jamal Harvey, you know, figures guys that
they can carry the Ball. There's there's a lot of

(49:13):
potential matchups out there. I'm excited about Dam Rodriguez. I'll go.
I don't care who's standing in front of him. I'll
see that fight. I think we'll stop right there. But
there's plenty. There's plenty to enjoy, and they don't all
have to be championship fights. Sugar Nunias is another guy
I will walk across hot holes to see who always

(49:35):
puts on excited fights.

Speaker 2 (49:37):
No, I really appreciate you specifically bring up the American
heavyweights because we've talked about it as well. You know,
the rankings have what I think the one that comes
to mind is Jared the big Baby Anderson, which uh I.

Speaker 3 (49:50):
Was, yeah, what what a flame out? What the hell happened?

Speaker 2 (49:55):
I was rooting for him, but yeah, I mean, clearly
that's not well.

Speaker 3 (49:59):
You know, it's interesting think to me that he was
among that posse of heavyweight sparring partners that Jake Paul
brought in right and he was, you know, and I
was very surprised to see that Jared Anderson was.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
One of them.

Speaker 3 (50:14):
I'm not sure what that portends. What it tells me
is he hasn't given up the sport entirely, clearly if
he decided he'd come get a paycheck to be a
sparing partner. You know, let's see what happens to him
this year. But I hope he has spent this time
out of the ring getting his head straight and it's
right deciding do I really want to do this or not.

(50:37):
You know, from the few photos I saw, he looked
like he was in you know, training ready shape. But
you know, the development pipeline for American heavyweight talent has
been siphoned off by the NFL, by the NBA, by

(51:00):
Pro wrestling. For Christ's sake, I mean, these guys have
more opportunity even college football and basketball with nil money.
Those guys can make big, big paychecks at a young age.
And I don't have to get smacked in the face.
So if you're a big American athlete, you know, I

(51:25):
can absolutely see why a lot of the potential heavyweight
talent is being siphoned off elsewhere. It does concern me.
One of these days, I keep telling myself, I'm going
to write a long, thoughtful article about this, and maybe
you guys have finally gotten me off the fence to
do it.

Speaker 2 (51:44):
We'd love to read it. I've read some of your
writing and it's wonderful. So go one more thing, Jameson,
do you have anything else you want to jump in with?

Speaker 3 (51:51):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (51:51):
No, I'm good. My biggest thing is this, when it
comes to boxing in general, how do you sell fans
on the sport going forward? Because we're boxing like purest,
like we eastleep, drink everything boxing. As someone who covers
it also works in the industry, how do you sell

(52:12):
the casuals and the people who tune in when they're
like a big event. How do you sell them on
the sport besides those events?

Speaker 3 (52:20):
You get them to a fight, you get them inside
the arena. One of my big concerns, and Luis you
used the absolutely perfect adjective for me. I meant to
comment on this, the uneasiness we feel about the influx
of the Saudi money and the Saudi influence and the
Saudi's buying, you know, the Bible of boxing, our major

(52:45):
publication is the concern to me, although many of my colleagues,
who I think very highly of working for them, I
trust that they will hold the highest standards. Be that
as it may. Part of the problem with this is
that so many of the big fights and the undercut
opportunities have moved outside the United States. You know, these

(53:08):
big cards that are happening in RIOD used to be
happening here. And they weren't only happening in Las Vegas,
La or New York. They were happening in Houston or Dallas,
or Florida or Cleveland, or you know, go down the list.

(53:29):
When I can get some of my friends or colleagues
or people I know, or my brother's new girlfriend or
whoever it is, to go to a fight and sit
there and see it in person, they are hooked Kathy Duva.
When I work for her at main events, you know,
I came to see the wisdom of her approach of

(53:51):
spending so much time and energy on developing local fighters
who brought in local fans, you know, to see the
guys they knew friends, you know, the person in their
neighborhood or they went to school with, or you know,
came from their town. But they also got to see
the all the other fighters and if they were the
guys in the low undercard, and they stuck around to

(54:11):
see the you know, more season talent. Once you have
seen a fight card in person, and you know hopefully
it isn't the Times Square card right, it's got something
to offer. You know, I think you make a fan
for life, you really do. Club fighter club fights from

(54:32):
the small promoters, you know, they're hanging by a thread,
and we need to as a boxing media community, I
firmly believe we need to give as much support as
possible to the Salita promotions of the world, the Star
Boxing promotions of the world. You know, the smaller operations

(54:55):
out here. There's still you know, a dozen of them
on the West Coast and southern Calilifornia. But it used
to be for years and years Thompson Boxing who grew
a lot of homegrown talent, the community of boxing enthusiasts
who developed more in the northern part of California. Those

(55:16):
are the folks who will absolutely fill the biggest arena
in not the biggest city, Fresno, California. They have an
arena that seats about I think sixteen thousand. They've developed
that Northern California talent. They get the fans there, you know,
with club fights and cheap seats, they fill that arena,

(55:37):
and those same fans, you know, a small portion of
them will say I'm going to buy that pay per view.
I'm going to follow this guy who isn't from my
town because they are really enjoying this. We cannot lose that.
I would really like to see more of these domestic
fighters getting the big paychecks in Saudi say all give

(56:00):
you a fight and red Yeah, but I want to
fight back at home, and we've got to keep doing that.
You have fighters you don't like Shakur Stevenson who can
sell out in New Jersey and environs. You know when
he was still in the game. We don't really know
what's going to happen with Tank Davis. But Tank Davis

(56:23):
could Phil Barkleys, could Phil Aritas in Baltimore. Keishaan Davis
was there to sell out in Norfolk untill he what
the beds come back. Let's see what happens. That is
what needs to happen to keep boxing at least healthy
enough for the next few years.

Speaker 2 (56:43):
Got to say, we love your takes, we love your knowledge,
we love your passion, and all the things you're talking
about are things that you know. James and nine knocked
back and forth as well. You know, so you seem
to have a really good idea of where the fight
game is.

Speaker 3 (56:55):
Think those of us who've been around and absorb, you know,
we all come to the same correct conclusions, and maybe
we take different avenues to get there, but we know
what it's like to sit there ringside, and we know
what it's like to see the up and coming talent
and how hard they work and some make it and
some don't in the pluses and minuses. I'm I think

(57:17):
uneasiness is the perfect word because there's still a lot
of promise out there. It's kind of like life right now,
you know, there's some but that means there's still room
for optimism. There's still room for it.

Speaker 2 (57:33):
Absolutely, what a great way to start the year. Actually,
last question, since we do talk about pop culture on
the show as well, do you have a favorite boxing movie?

Speaker 3 (57:42):
You know this is gonna sound funny. I'm not the
biggest overall fan of boxing movies because it's so hard
to get it right, you know, I mean, it just
has to be off a little bit. This is a
question I often ask boxers who I interview on my
YouTube channel. I fire off of changes a little bit

(58:03):
from time to time, but I fire off a dozen
sort of odd ball questions, you know, because they have
been asked the same stuff a billion times, and I
always ask them what their favorite movie is so far,
by far, the majority of boxers who I ask name
the movie South Paw, which really shocks me. Right mine

(58:28):
is an old school classic. It's got to be raging bull.

Speaker 2 (58:33):
Okay, yeah, yeah, we talked about South of the show.
We weren't thrilled about it.

Speaker 1 (58:38):
We can we.

Speaker 3 (58:39):
Thought, you know, it got a lot of criticism. It did,
but over and over they'll they'll say, yeah, my favorite
is and I think I'm gonna hear you know, Cinderella
Mann or Rocky or you know Creed blah. You know,
I really thought that would talk a lot of fighter.

(59:00):
Oh no, I hear Southpaw over and over.

Speaker 2 (59:03):
Interesting.

Speaker 3 (59:04):
Interesting, Yeah, that's just not what I've ever expected to hear.
But for me, right people, I think the grittiness of it,
the reality of it, and it did get a lot
of the details a right, it really did.

Speaker 2 (59:20):
Sure, well, thank you so much for being here. Before
we let you go, we want to give you a
chance to plug that YouTube channel, you know, website, you're
writing anything you want social media handles.

Speaker 3 (59:29):
Please well see that name right there under me. There's
only one of me. You google that sum, you can
spell it right, and I get it. It's a lot
to ask, but if you pop that up, you're gonna
find me. There's only one Gaiale Falconhal in the world.
But easier is My writing is at ny fights dot com,

(59:51):
Andy Fights dot Com. I get it. I'm in San Diego,
but I write for en Wi Fights and my YouTube
channel is under my name, but it's Gale falcan Thal
on Boxing, and it's primarily a lot of interviews, and
I tend to interview, you know, not the big superstars,
but the talents I think you should know. But occasionally

(01:00:12):
you'll see a familiar name. One of my favorite interviews
last year was with Hams of Shiraz, whose absolute delight
to interview Cecilia Brecas as she was about to, you know,
come in and have one last retirement fight, which you know,
thankfully she wants. I think she's finally done. Gabriella Fandora

(01:00:32):
has always been one of my very favorite interviews, as
is her brother. So I pop them on when I
can get them, and right now I'm waiting on Kayden Griffiths,
who's a prospect with Golden Boy, who I think has
got a lot of talent, so that should be the
next one coming up, maybe another week or so.

Speaker 2 (01:00:52):
Okay, great, and I got it.

Speaker 3 (01:00:53):
If you see me at the fights, come say hi. Right,
I'm not hard to spew on media, row.

Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
I do got to mention you have been very committed
to trying to get boxing content on Blue Sky, which
I'm on Blue Sky. You know, there's not a lot
of it. I'm trying to grind and get that going.
So you know our show is still very humble on
there because we didn't we started.

Speaker 3 (01:01:16):
Did and I'm thrilled that you did that. You know,
it's going to be hard to pry people away from
boxing Twitter. I get that, and I'm I'm there, but
Blue Sky is a little more congenial environment and I
think that I think we're just smarter, nicer and more

(01:01:36):
fun people over there.

Speaker 2 (01:01:37):
I'm just going to say I would agree no offense
to the one guy here who's still on boxing Twitter Jameson. Oh,
that's fair, that's fair.

Speaker 1 (01:01:47):
That's fair.

Speaker 3 (01:01:49):
You've got to engage. I mean, and you know, nobody
ever accused of boxing of having too many manners, so
that's fair. You know, we got to play in all
the playgrounds yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:02:01):
And also to be fair about on BUCKX in Twitter
because I was banned, I don't want to talk about
it anyway, So we really appreciate you being.

Speaker 3 (01:02:07):
We'll talk about that offline.

Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
I've been definitely definitely yeah, but seed to know. Yeah,
well how about this, not only that, but how about
we talk more when you come back on the show,
because again, we love your knowledge and passion and there's
a lot gonna be a lot more to talk about
in twenty twenty six. So are you willing to come.

Speaker 3 (01:02:21):
Back on anytime? Thank you very much and we look
forward to it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:25):
Excellent. Well, have a have a good twenty twenty six
scale and yeah, we'll be talking to you soon.

Speaker 3 (01:02:31):
Happy new Year, and a belated season's beatings to everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:02:35):
Thank you, thank you. Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:02:37):
What an amazing interview with Gail Falkenthal. She was awesome, James,
And how'd you feel about that?

Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
That was really cool? Like she someone that works in
the industry but also doesn't have a huge ego that's
intimidating a lot of people with her standing would be
more like aggressive with their tone and their knowledge. As
she was very complimentary of us herself, our knowledge or
experience in sport of boxing, and you can't do anything

(01:03:05):
but the love that. So amazing guests, probably our best
guest thus.

Speaker 2 (01:03:09):
Far, I guess, best suited to just kind of our styles,
our opinions, just kind of somebody's on the same wavelength
as us. Yeah, just super super excited to have her
on and absolutely gonna have her back, no question.

Speaker 3 (01:03:22):
Cool.

Speaker 2 (01:03:23):
Well with this episode ran long because Gail was such
an amazing guest, So let's wrap it up by actually,
let's wrap up twenty twenty five and ball it up
and toss it behind us. So I wanted to talk
about our top fights of the year overall. I was,
I was looking back at the fights I really enjoyed.
The year started off strong. There was like four fights
in February that were awesome, Three fights in February that

(01:03:45):
were absolutely awesome, maybe kind of a lag in the middle,
and then you know the big Crawford Canelo event at
the end of the year.

Speaker 5 (01:03:53):
Do you have some fights this year that really really
stuck with you? So, of course she made a great point.
Event and fight are two different things. So like, for instance,
Canelo Crawford or Crawford, I how you want to put it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:11):
That's probably the best event of the year for a
lot of different reasons. The fight was good as well,
like boxing wise, but I wouldn't say it's the best
fight of the year. But it was by far the
best event because of all the things that took place,
all things were at stake and all that jazz. So
I think in general, when it comes to the best fight,

(01:04:34):
you can put that in there. But when she mentioned
the best event, it's like, huh, that's interesting, because yeah,
the event and fight are two different things. Again, e
Bankworth's been was good. The problem I have with the

(01:04:55):
Naolia in a way fights is I don't watch so
I like the talk about the fire I've seen live.
I'm looking at for it with all due respect.

Speaker 2 (01:05:06):
Hold on, but wait no, that was the one in
Cinco de Mayo where he was in Vegas, so that
I saw that live at eight PM, so that one
was that general.

Speaker 1 (01:05:14):
Though I came, oh, well, the fight he had in Tokyo,
but it was at three three yard time. I'm not
that's not fair because I didn't necessarily watch that live.
So it's kind of tough. But if we're talking about
performance base and what things meant, man, that's such a
great question because I hear the thing, Well, matt Roach

(01:05:34):
had held of twenty twenty five. Yes, a hell of
a twenty twenty five. You can't tell me his performances
is any worse or any someone had a better performance
of twenty five than he has. You can't, you can't,
and you can either pick even fight. Of course, the
fight verse Tank is the one that's going to be
known for a lot of reasons and whatnot. But to me,

(01:05:56):
in my in my opinion, I think the the fight
he had with Tank is just as big as anything
because of what's taken place since that, and also it
helped launch a career, It helped Lotch, somebody that we had. Well,
matt Roach was on nobody's radar this time last year.
He was on no why we when he got announced

(01:06:17):
versus Tank, We're like, all right, well there's a speed
bump to eventually taking secure, that's what we're all thinking.
But nah, then he fights six months later was very well.
So to me, one of his fights has to be
on that list just because of everything that spark since then.
And hell, you can make argument that he may have
retired Tank, he may have beat the boxing out of Tank.

(01:06:37):
It is possibility that that may be the case, as
crazy as that sounds, So yeah, I would put that
fight in there. Man. I was very happy to see
and even Gail made the Gail made it a point
dimension that Shakira Stevenson was actually aggressive for the first

(01:06:58):
time in a long time, not other necessarily making the
best fight of the year per se, but in that list.
But it was good to see a contender improve upon
a flaw and show it out versus opponent that's not
like a Toman who can that's a pretty good opponent.
So I was like, I guess I'm playing more of
a moment per se. But the fight is tough because

(01:07:21):
if you think about events and moments and fights, it's
kind of tough to kind of break it all down
like that. But that being said, I will say this,
and you're not gonna like this. Anthony and Joshua breaking
dude's face is the best boxing moment of the year,
and only because it involved injury, not because of boxing.

(01:07:43):
Hopefully this man that stops. Hopefully we ain't got to
do this ship no more. But dude broken two spots.
It's amazing to me. And after this charade is finally inding.

Speaker 2 (01:07:56):
I wasn't even gonna say about this because I don't
think it's over. I think he's cloud want to come back.

Speaker 3 (01:08:01):
Don't come back when.

Speaker 1 (01:08:02):
You're facing like that, because here's the thing, Louise, something
went wrong, was wrong, or somebody missed the memo, but
dude's face is gone, and you don't come back. You
don't box again. After that, his face was it's over,
It's over.

Speaker 2 (01:08:18):
I mean, okay, I I can appreciate that, Yes, this
absolutely is the end of the Paul Clown show that
I'm happy. But here's the thing, I couldn't eve enjoy
it because I just don't care about him. I don't care.

Speaker 1 (01:08:31):
I did be notified of what happened. I had, I
didn't watched, I was. I was being told, hey, it's
not rigged. Dudes in there fighting for his life, and
then two minutes later, oh dude got knocked out. Oh
his face is broke, all like, oh great, but again
I'm not paying on mine to it or whatever. I'm
glad that that shrade is finally over and he got
in with a real boxer. Also prayer Anthony Joshua. He

(01:08:54):
just survived a crazy car crash and he lost to
people his trainer and uh yeah, I think like nutritionis
or something like that, or his corner guy something else
from his team.

Speaker 2 (01:09:05):
Yeah in Nigeria. Yeah, he was a passenger and I
got Latifa and got me. Yeah, that's him.

Speaker 1 (01:09:16):
Glad he's you know, survived that because we don't have
any good boxers with like branding that people know of already,
and to lose one of his statue would really suck.
Like it'suck to lose anybody, but to lose and the
established heavyweight that we know of and we're aware of,
and it would be very bad for the sport. So

(01:09:37):
I'm glad he survived. It sucks that his team, you know,
had those attractions, but hopefully they able to recover and
get back on trap.

Speaker 2 (01:09:44):
You know, I'll say one good thing to come out
of came out of this tobacco other than dude get
into space broken. A lot of ladies discovered Anthony Joshua,
non boxing fans, and they have been absolutely loving the
look of that very handsome, very pretty man.

Speaker 1 (01:09:57):
And good for them, good for him.

Speaker 2 (01:09:58):
So you know know what, as a Joshua, get your
flowers from the ladies. Yeah, get your get your ladies,
get your thirst on you know, good, good for him.

Speaker 1 (01:10:08):
Yeah, but yeah, I'm I'm not laughing at you. I'm
laughing at the other part of that message in the chat.

Speaker 2 (01:10:19):
Oh say, I missed that, but yeah, So you know what,
absolutely man, you know, I would be very happy if
this is the last we heard of Jake Paul and boxing.
And okay, you know, I'll even be even more gracious
because it's twenty twenty six and we're all starting the
year off right in a positiveness. Let him come back
and keep promoting women's boxing, let him keep back in

(01:10:40):
promoting prospects. Absolutely, I will absolutely be happy if he
goes back and he continues doing that. Just stay at
the dam ring start off my TV. So right right anyway,
So yeah, for me, you know, I noticed at the
beginning of the year they have been to VI. This
versus David Morel was February, first battle of the David's
February is my birth month, so you know, it's a
lot going on, better be it. Versus Vivo was February

(01:11:01):
twenty second, which was amazing fight. And then one in
particular that I'm really going to give credit to. I
always get very personal, like how I felt watching the
fight and the vibe and everything. Kishon Davis versus Dennis
Barychick February fourteenth. I was in Texas and Austin visiting
family out there, and I got to watch that entire

(01:11:23):
card of boxing at different bars in downtown Austin because
back then Top Rank was on ESPN, so they just
had the fights on and for the main event went
over to this Mexican restaurant. They had a big TV
in the middle, and I asked them, can you please
put ESPN on the TV. The manager there did it
for me. That was a really fun fight, really like
very very loud place with the DJ playing that I

(01:11:46):
could thrown Latin music with the sound of the fight
was also on, and it was just a great vibe,
a great night. I remember that was a fourth round knockout.
Kishon Davis at that time was you know, at the
top of the game and was put be one of
the next biggest stars. And that fight also kind of
shows where he was in February's where we are now
and what happened with his flame out. As Gale said, so,

(01:12:09):
I think that's a very important fight just to kind
of see how quickly fortunes can change. For a fighter,
and yeah he's yeah, he will be back on the tail.
Femo shook core card and we'll just see where he's at.
He did go up and wait because he missed way
because he said he had trouble meeting. I can't remember, sorry,

(01:12:30):
I can't remember the top of my head what weight
he actually missed. But he's sticking to where he's gonna be.
So maybe Keishan will actually live up to that potential.
I don't know, but that's a fight that really sticks
with me from this year. Yeah, I'm glad Gail mentioned
in a versus cardin Is because that was a great night.
That was not just a great fight, but a nice
salve a balm after that sequin of terrible weekend. So

(01:12:55):
it was nice that now anyway saved syncred to my
weekend and just put on a great performance. Yeah, him
getting put he got knocked down for the second time
in his career, both times by Mexican guys. So and
he just fought another Mexican, David Picasso, who went the distance.
So all of these guys surviving going into the rink

(01:13:18):
with Naioi anyway and not dying, I think they're gonna
get a lot of high fives of the way back
home back in Mexico for their performances, so respect to them.
But yeah, that that was a Sunday night, which is
kind of you know, not really prime night for boxing.
But I had a great time. And yeah, it was
really nice to bounce back from the stupid Time Square
thing that I've complained about many times.

Speaker 1 (01:13:42):
It was a low light and the Keishaan Davis in
Virginia was a low light as well.

Speaker 2 (01:13:45):
By the way, Yes, absolutely Kishan's his whole missing waight
and then that whole weird thing where there was a
fight back stay maybe not like what the hell is
that all about? Yeah, that was that definitely was a
black guy in the sport of boxing. You know, no
pun intended, But yeah, in terms of pure spectacle, and yeah,
as an event, kind of cannot be that night of

(01:14:06):
Canela Crawford, all that anticipation, all the fight had been
talked about for a year. Uh, it was just like
very cathartic to finally see it and experience it. So
I don't know, I mean, I would put Canelo croft
for on the top of the list. Uh, of course,
bud Fighter of the Year, the biggest dud is the
Times Square event. But no, I mean this is this

(01:14:30):
is kind of weird year because especially after that interview. Yeah,
it's kind of hard to pick one thing.

Speaker 1 (01:14:37):
You know, it was it was.

Speaker 2 (01:14:39):
It was a good year for boxing discussion there highlights,
low lights, and you know that's that's what we're here
to do. So you know what, you know what, boxing,
you made twenty twenty five a good year for the
Mixed Company podcast, even when you sucked. So we thank
you and we hope that twenty twenty six is even better.

Speaker 1 (01:14:59):
Most definitely, most definitely, Well.

Speaker 2 (01:15:02):
Let's get out of here. Jamison. Where can people find
you on social media?

Speaker 1 (01:15:04):
Twitter? At Lee Jamison. I can't wait for late January.
We have a big boxing night. It's some fun. Of
course we'll be on a couple of times before then,
but it's gonna be a great event. Shakira Stevenson, this
is his time to be If if Crawford is truly retiring,
I still don't hundred percent believe. I'm I'm getting it,

(01:15:26):
but I don't believe it. Shakeker Stevens is the next
star on the sport and he starts that drain. Now,
if that's truly the case.

Speaker 2 (01:15:35):
You know. I h another thing that Gail said that
I realized when she mentioned Crawford's goodbye video on YouTube
with all the production. That's what makes me think as
well that he's actually retiring. I don't think it's a point.
When I saw that, I'm like, oh, he is for real.
It's not just a tweet that said I retire from boxing.
I think tag died that thentz ity just like I
officially retire through a tweeter at Instagram story.

Speaker 1 (01:15:58):
Unless he's playing the long game, right, If he's playing
on the hey I need one hundred and fifty million
or else, then I get it.

Speaker 2 (01:16:04):
But yeah, and that is absolutely possible.

Speaker 1 (01:16:08):
Don't get me wrong.

Speaker 2 (01:16:09):
I'll just say that I'm where I am right now,
where I'm sitting at the moment. I believe it, So
sign yeah anyway, all right. You can follow the show
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(01:16:30):
on the show notes, or find out our playlist on
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email address. If you have any questions for the mailbag
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all to letters at mixcopodcast dot com. Don't forget we
dropped new episodes every other Thursday, so please join us again.
January fifteenth, twenty twenty six, the new year. We're just

(01:16:51):
getting started. Baby, we got Musquego from the boxing world.
We have been the Mixed Company Podcast on nineteen Media
Group Production. Thank you so much for listening and by