January 2, 2025 • 43 mins
Jamieson and Classy are back in action to wrap up 2024 and look ahead to 2025 across the boxing landscape. They discuss fight expectations and preferences for the year and a few things they would prefer to see change within the fight game. This week's Pop Pugilism features a great breakdown of The Fire Inside, which is depicts the grind and eventual rise of Olympic Gold Medalist and professional fighter Claressa Shields.
Be sure to follow the show on Twitter @MixedCoPodcast and to submit any questions, topics or suggestions to letters@mixedcompanypodcast.com and leave us a review on whatever your preferred podcast platform may be.
Be sure to follow the show on Twitter @MixedCoPodcast and to submit any questions, topics or suggestions to letters@mixedcompanypodcast.com and leave us a review on whatever your preferred podcast platform may be.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
In this corner, standing it six foot five, weight class
unknown hailing from Sin City, Las Vegas, Jamison Welch And
in this corner standing it five foot nine, Wayne Town
with six wins.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Three losses, two arrests, four late payments on student loans,
and two total painkruptcies hits the Classy I'll go hold.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
All right, Welcome back to another disition of mixt Company podcasts.
I'm your host, Jamison Welsh, as well as the other
host on this show, Classy Alcoholic Classy.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
What's going on?
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Man?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Oh man?
Speaker 4 (00:42):
I am feeling great because we are back with episode six,
the first episode of twenty twenty five. If you can
even believe it. I'm still nursing my new year's hangover,
but I'm ready to start the year strong and keep
taking the show to the next level. How are you
feeling here in twenty twenty five, Jimson, I'm doing well.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I'm doing well.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
You know, it's one of those things where you know,
time really flies, you know flies. We lived back it
last year, all the things that happened, the fights that
were talking about but didn't happen, the fights that we
want to see happen. You know, a lot of stuff
happened and you don't think about it because it's time
just flies at a rapid pace.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
Well, I mean Glad even brought it up because, you know,
before we fully closed the book on twenty twenty four,
I wanted to talk about a few things.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I mean, in my opinion, it was a good.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Year for boxing, as long as we ignore the travesty
that was Mike Tyson coming back to the ring, which
I intend to.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Uh, that's not boxing, That's that's fair. It wasn't boxing.
That wasn't that's fair. That's fair.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
It's just like a weird thing that happened that you know,
it's like a fever dream that we had. Woke up
from it, and then we're like, all right, we're back
to the rest of the year. In fact, yeah, I mean,
I don't really want to do a full year in
review or anything like that, but I do have to
ask you, did you have a favorite fight in twenty
twenty four?
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Jis So the favorite fight is tricky, right, because it's
too cliche to say fear a usick one with everything
going on, like, it's too cliche to say that.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
With that being said, that's.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Probably my favorite one and not just because Fury lost.
It's more of like whenever you have a heavyweight fight
in the non favorite wins, it's always an interesting situation,
but all those souls and the storylines around it, because
Fury is basically fight to fight when it comes to
retirement or to stop fighting whatever. So whenever you see
(02:21):
a situation like that, it's always interesting. But if I
looking back on it, the favorite five year is probably
that one. My least favorite fight is probably Ryan Garcia
versus Devin Haney just based off all the shanigans that
have come with that, Like I could do it out,
all the extras that have come with that, you know
what I mean, Like it's just a retute bit turnoff.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
But it's been an interesting year, very interesting year to
say the least. So why was Fury versus you sick
one your favorite? As a post to part two, So
what it.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Comes to Fury is whatever, somebody is king of the hill, whatever,
somebody is the top dog, and everyone knows, was like, hey,
in order to get to this guy, you gotta do
this to me. There's something with that that you can't
necessarily place. And then when that fight is close, when
it's close on the cards, and it's like, hey, technically
(03:13):
it could either way, even though I thought you said one.
But with that being said, those are the fights that
we remember. Those are the ones we're like, ah, okay,
I remember when this fire took the crown. I remember
when this fighter got better. And those are things that
as boxes, we always remember when guys took that leap, right,
we always know that, hey remember when they did this
(03:34):
and they haven't looked back since it's one of those
type of things. And also we don't have many great
heavyweights anymore. There's not a long contending list of heavyweights,
so it's one of those things we look back on it.
It was like, hey, if Furre is the best guy
in U six two, who's the third best guy? I mean,
they're talking about Fury facing Joshua this year.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
I mean, don't watch it, don't get me wrong, but
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Excited about it.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
No, I'll watch it like when I I might not
watch it live, but that's the thing.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
I might watch it when it you know, when it's available.
I'm not gonna I'm not gonna wear no pizza for
it all but it that way, but I'm not gonna,
you know, I'm not gonna make it a moment. I'll
get to when I get to it. Sure well, and
we don't need to rehash it.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
But we talked last episode about how Fury himself said
he wants to take the easiest fights for the biggest payday.
So why am I getting invested? And if that's what
you want out of your own you know, those are
your own words. You're not no longer kind of reaching
for greatness. You kind of decided that you're looking for
an exit strategy, which is perfectly fine, But that doesn't
exactly you know that.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
But I'll say it like this, When you're the champ,
we don't want to hear that, you know what I mean,
When you're the chant, when you're Numeroleno, when you're the
guy people are trying the gun for, that's not a
great thing. Like I'd rather you retired than have that mindset,
because when you're the champ, where you're supposed to bring
in the best of others, you're supposed to people. We're used
(04:57):
to people danging deep when it comes to beating guys
who with a champ to overtake the crown. That's what
we're used to as fans, So if you're the champion,
you got that attitude.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
I'd rather use retire set aside lesson my else tape
to shine.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
That's fair.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
That's fair.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
I think for me, it's too much of an unfair
advantage to say Navettea versus Veldi too is my favorite
fight because I got to see it live, so I
got a whole new perspective on how awesome boxing is.
As if I needed even more of a reason to
love it, right, the fight itself was great, but also
it was such a great vibe being there. It was
built unofficially as Mexican Night, which made it even more fun.
(05:33):
I think if you take all of the live performances
I've seen in my life, of all kinds of concerts,
play as opera, ballet, you put them all together, this
boxing match is probably like top fight easy to be
honest with you, It's up there with me seeing like
The Ben live, one of my favorite bands of all time,
and also Big Frida, which actually might be the googlest
show I've ever been to, to be honest, see Brigfeeda
(05:55):
live was amazing, and yeah, this this fight was. It's
like a sad it's unfair to even kind of compared
just because of the situation of seeing it live. It
was just the coolest, the coolest thing I did all year.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Prob, the bigger fights you'll see memory, you'll you'll you'll
have because the big fights. Very few things replaced a
big fight, feel very few Like you know, Championship, super Bowl,
big fight, all that stuff is all very similar in
my eyes.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Anyway, do you have a most underrated fight of the year.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
So we talked about this earlier, We're not gonna we
weren't gonna talk about this particular card. However, you know
Katie Taylor and Man Toronto too was I mean, it
doesn'tet talked about as much, but that that was that
was that was different and mostly not that it was underrated.
It's just not being talked about as much. That's the
(06:50):
biggest thing. I think that is a situation where it
wasn't wasn't just like talked about, Like we don't think
of it when we think of that night, We think
about the debacle.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
We don't think about the actual the good fights that wrong,
the car.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
But that's probably the most underrated looking back at the
full year. But I will say this, and I want
to get your opinion about this compared to normal years,
do you feel that we had a lackluster in terms
of compelling fights that we usually have, Like it feels
like in most years we have more compelling fights than
(07:26):
we did this year.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
That's hard to say.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
I mean, I think we had a decent year up
to good, maybe not great, but I don't know. I
think better bea versus Bevol was a big deal that
was definitely hyped up.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
But how about this.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
There was a big lag period between like USIK and
Better Beev, so just kind of kind of kind.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Of a dead zone.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
So yeah, maybe you're right, maybe a bit of a
dead zone. I mean, I personally love Canelo versus Berlanga,
not that Berlanga was a great is a great fighter.
It was it was more fun to kind of watch
Canelo struggle against it giant, big slab of beef and
try his hardest and Berlanga taking the punishment to his credit,
and also got to see it at the Neighborhood, which
we've talked about before, the sports bar. The vibe was fantastic,
(08:10):
So I had a great time, But wouldn't call that,
you know, an amazing fight of his by any means
I think the biggest the biggest upset of the year
is probably Bugia getting knocked out a couple of weeks ago,
but again that was just recently. You know, there's there's
a long period where I'm kind of right thinking back
of what happened and it's kind of a dead zone.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
So yeah, you're right, this year might have been a
bit blackluster, and especially when it comes to compelling fights.
So there's always gonna be fights, but the fights we
want to see and the fights that were like memorable,
there's not a whole lot of those. That's where you know,
that's kind of where we're at with it. Hopefully that
changes going forward.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
But also chance Crawford hasn't fought that much, Like for
a guy's supposed to be number one or two pound
for pound or top three pound for pound, he hasn't
fought much like he'd beat Earl Spitz last.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Year or year before last. Bensley took a break. I
fought this past I want to say.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
August against the Israel magimuff.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Yeah, I say that was in early August or maybe
even July, but over the summer. So like fighting once
a year isn't quite it like when you're one of
the best in the sport, we got to see more
than once a year. That's not it, Like, that's not
how this goes. And I think that's part of the
problem is guys get to a certain level and they
kind of put it in cruise to So now I
(09:27):
know he's his situations a little bit different with the
promotion thing, and I know there's some things going on
with the future talks.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
But we have to get guys were active. We have to.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
It's a must because you can't be that good. And
then your one fight this year was kind of eh,
like he wasn't very impressive in the fight, Like it
was very like, all right, you're gonna win, but I'm
not really confident in this going forward. So we'll see
what happens in twenty five. But it felt like twenty
four left us kind of what a you know, uneasy
(09:58):
feeling like that there could have been It felt like
we didn't give as much as we could have.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
But specifically, yeah, he kind of struggled going up that
weight class again, gets madermalv I agree. They'd be interesting
to see if he does get the Canelo fight. You know,
two weight classes up.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
What that's going to mean for him.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
But I actually wanted to bring up a fight that's
a little bit under the radar Tail Femal Lopus versus JIMMYE.
Ortiz back in February. I think a lot of fans
didn't like it. Tail won by decision and some said
Artees got rob Of course, I think it's an underrated
fight because it's a kind of a teachable moment for boxing.
Tail came in dresses like a circus ring leader with
some cardies behind him, and he's a good fighter that's
(10:37):
put in some excellent performances in the ring before, but
he was off his game last night that night because
Ortiz came in with some good defense, a lot of speed,
and Tayal couldn't really get any worthwhile shots and he
was frustrated and you could see it. Ortees kept his distance.
Some people said he was running too much, and I'll
go ahead and give him that, but Tayal wasn't cutting
off the ring or doing much to get through the defense,
(10:57):
and I think it's because he was rattled. So it
was really interesting to see a guy with that kind
of style just be thrown off his game.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Could be honest with you no, and so, and that's
what happens with great fighters. You're not gonna win every fight,
pretty right, You're not gonna win every fight one nineteen
and like well or not, that's not gonna happen. You're
gonna have close fights. You're gonna have fights or you
gotta change and kind of dig deep. You're gonna have
fights that don't go courting to plan. And when you
pull through those fights, I then make sure a better boxer.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Right.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
We've seen all the big guys in the past where hey,
sometimes you get a very close fight, close than you anticipated,
but you get better from there, at least you're supposed
to anyway. In most cases, the greats get better. Some
of the guys are you know, above average, they end
up getting exposed. But a lot of times those close
fights make you dig deep, get better, get.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Sharper going forward. I think that's what's gonna happen here.
But no, that that was a very good fight.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
You're correct, Yeah, I you know, frustrating your opponent is
a ballad strategy. I've been given that tip myself before sparring,
because when a person is frustrated in the ring, that's
when they make mistakes. That's when they get caught. So
I was really surprised that tail ORed himself get thrown
off his game. And maybe I would say, or Teas
maybe outclassed him, if not out boxed THEMND that doesn't
count for something. I think that's why a lot of
(12:10):
people thought he should have won. But at the very leat,
I found it very interesting, a very interesting match to
analyze and see people's reaction after. So I think it's
valuable for fighters to learn from and for fancy discuss.
So I was pretty it was something I wasn't expected.
I wasn't Tailed too. I wasn't expecting tail to be
cut off guards.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Sorry.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
So the one that I'll say, when it comes to
boxers and athletes in general, there's still people, you know
what I mean, We forget that at the end of
the day.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
These are every day people that got every day issues
just like us.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
And if your mental is not right or if you
got something else going on, it's gonna show in the ring,
Like whenever you do. For instance, as people, we have
jobs and whatnot. If we're not all the way right
as a person, it's gonna show at work.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Unfortunately for these guys that works in a ring maybe
two twenty thousand people, and then in front of millions
on the that are watching on the world.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
So that's the difference. Is like as a boxer, it happens.
You're not gonna always have your best game. Sometimes you're sidetracked.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
We are human.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Things distract us, whether it's family stuff, personal stuff, all
kinds of things could happen, So it's not unusually you
just hope that you don't get sidetracked enough to where
it calls you one out right.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Well, what about Fighter of the Year. I can't think
of any reason why it wouldn't be Alexander Usik.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
But what are your thoughts? It is, you sick man,
it is, and it's gotta be.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Here's the thing too, it's not that he performed well,
two performed well against I think opponents matter more than
anything when we talk about fives of the year unless
you just put together three performances in a county year
that are just like amazing. But in terms of fighting
twice in the year doing what he did, he is
the fighter of the year. I don't think it's even
really any discussion for it.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Agreed, Yeah, that's that one was easy. Yeah, No, I
think the guy's proven himself one of the greats, possibly
one of the one of the greats of all time,
if not the goat, And yeah, shout out to him,
Shout out to both of his wins, and shout out
to whatever Fury's gonna do next, maybe retirement, we'll see.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Uh. But a quick follow up on that specific fight.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
You know, we mentioned last episode that this is the
first fight that would have an AI judge scoring it,
so it was just a test run and it didn't
have any effect on the results. If you listen to
episode five of you hear that neither of us were
really into this. Some fans were getting hype, commenting things like, well,
maybe this will stop corruption in boxing. The AI judge
scored the match one eighteen to one twelve for you
(14:31):
sick And you know, I haven't gotten a chance to
look at the Twitter and Instagram comments yet. I'm about
to do it right now, but I'm sure all the
comments were positive about this whole endeavor, and everybody was
in agreement that the robot got it right, and even
Tyson Fury was in agreement. Right like, I'm assuming that's
what I'm about to read right now, and basically basically yeah, yeah, yeah,
now fuck now. Of course, not everybody was still arguing
the results just like they always have, and some people
(14:53):
were Some people were speaking positively about the AI, but
lots of other us were saying things like, oh, this
this thing, the AI doesn't know box. It was absolute
badness that it's scored particular runs for you sake, et cetera,
et cetera. So this whole thing really accomplished nothing and
solved nothing, which is what we already expected.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
I mean, you can't make an imperfect thing perfect, right,
So when you're judging a fight, for instance, if you
and I judge the fight, right you're in tussim in Vegas,
and we're watching the same fight and we keep score,
there's a good chance we're gonna have different.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Scores, not because we're biased or favor anything. It's just
you may see something different than I may see. So
you may see, okay, the power punches are landing. I
might see a box is more active than the other.
And it comes down to preference and what I see
with my eyes versus what you see with your eyes,
and what I deemed to be impactful and what you
(15:46):
need to be impactful. So for instance, we're judging a fight.
You might have one seventeen one eleven. I might have
one sixteen one twelve. That's not that far off. The
issues is. The issue is when somebody has one nineteen
nine and somebody got one twelve or sorry, one fourteen,
one twelve or one thirteen one twelve. You know, that's
(16:09):
what it's like, Hey man, why is it that wide
of a variance? But to be honest with you, anything
from eight to.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Four rounds and you know, anything between eight four rounds,
seven to five rounds a draw, anything in that region,
you're kind of.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Okay, yeah, I mean, human error is always going to
be a thing, or is it not? Even hair let's say,
let's not say that human disagreements is always going to
be a thing in sports. And I don't really think
that there's any way to get past that. I don't
think we need to. I mean, yeah, mistakes will happen,
robberies could happen, but at the end of the day,
it's so you know what, I'll let me find it here.
(16:48):
Fury himself said, and I quote, fuck, all the compute
is keep the humans going. More jobs for humans, less
job for compute is and then he said fuck electric
calls while we're at it, which I don't know what
to befitz there, but okay whatever. So yeah, a lot
of people got super excited for this idea just because
they heard it was AI. And I don't know, man,
I'm tired of people treating AI like it's some kind
of amazing invention and that's going to save the world.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
It's like a.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Faster search engine for a non boxing situation. AI does
help a lot of things, right. You can use AI
to be very impactful. However, AI can't control everything, and
I think that's what people are trying to get to.
AI controls and that's not the case. But AI came
be a pathful. I don't want AI.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Judging fights though. I don't want that because you can
program it. You can program AI to be a certain way,
and I don't want that. That's it. I think I'm
a little more down on a overall.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
I think people maybe think the Blade Runner back to
the future to futures that they wanted are coming true
because of it.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
I don't I don't know what.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
It's like a faster search engine. You know those dudes
that think AR are the is the wave of the future.
Let's be real, guys, you just kind of want to
fuck a robot, that's all you care about him. That's cool,
like what you like, But let's be honest about a
self carry you acting like you care about integrity and
scoring boxing matches, so.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Hey, like what you like.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
But anyway, so we talked about the past, let's talk
about the future. We do this show because we love
the sport, and we criticize it out of love because
we want it to be better, right of course, Jameson,
you've talked extensively about how there need to be more
fights happening throughout the year, which I agree with. There's
no boxing season like there is a baseball season. But
you made a great point last episode when you said
(18:29):
there should be fights every weekend during the summer, and
I'm with you, summer should an officially be boxing season.
Other than that, what do you want to see change
in twenty twenty five in the sport?
Speaker 3 (18:38):
To be honest with you, I would prefer if I
mean boxing season is a good term to use, but honestly,
boxing should be year round, where every month there's a
showcase fight with a name or in or a prospect
that's either up and coming and has a name or
somebody's already established. Every month, there should not be a
month that goes by where there's not an established boxer fighting.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
It should week it's criminals.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Where we go through weeks of just that should never
happen because you're taking your fans for granted. At that point,
you're basically saying, oh, the fans, when I need money,
I'll put us something on pay per view. They'll pay
for it. That ain't right, y'all need to keep us
entertained the whole year. There's enough boxers, there's enough money,
there's the promotion companies for everything to go around to
(19:23):
be open and active throughout the year. And I think
that's where it needs to change, is that every month
there should be at least one showcase type of fight.
I'm not saying you need Crawford Canelo every month. No,
I'm not not saying that. I'm saying that you have
to keep buzz going every month to be old. Hey,
we're February, you know, Sircuras fighting such and such.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Oh March.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Again, we're not you know, le'd say in March you
have a big fight. Apriy have a big fight. You know,
Canelo fights to May. So those are things you want
going forward, not just oh that's a fight in February.
Oh the fight in May. No, no, no, no, there's
too much time that goes by without any big time fights.
Because the thing about big time fights you get more
(20:09):
casual people involved, you get the regular news involved, and
that's what carries the sport. The fans always gonna be there,
but the casual, the fifty to fifty people, that's what
you need.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
And the kids, the kids who who want to boxing
with their families. You know us we grew up watching.
You know, for me, who does such is with my family.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
You want that vibe throughout the year, that excitement.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
So that's what's gonna grow new fans.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
And yeah, you're right, I mean we got to.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
We've got a group of people, but it's small, possibly
getting smaller.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
And yeah, that's that's not a cult. Basically, boxing fans
almost like a cult now it's not. Basically, it's not
what it used to be. And when we were, when
we were coming up, when we were growing, when we
were when we were growing up, it felt like there
was so many boxing matches on and it didn't matter
what way class right. It felt like there was always
(20:58):
a good match. If got every month, every six weeks,
there was somebody fighting, and it was like a big thing.
We don't have that anymore. It's just not it does
not feel the same.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
Yeah, I'm with you. There's a lot of things I
want to see change, but I have a very specific
thing I want to talk about today, if you'll indulge me. Uh,
this concept of boxers quote quitting and why that needs.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
To go away.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
I'll explain what I mean, but let me start off
with this. During the Navarette Aldez fight, the co main
event was between a Mexican boxer name Rails Spinoza and
a Cuban boxer name Robsa Amirez. Do you know how
that fight went down, Jamison. I don't recall off top,
so Robsa Amires. So the story is that Espinosa hit
Robsi Ameres with some elbows well through in hooks. I
(21:41):
saw one. I honestly don't think it was intentional. In
the sixth round, Robsi put his hand up, turned his
back to indicate he was out. The ref stopped to fight,
and Rufinoza won by tko. Reasas said he was seeing
double and he couldn't continue, right, Okay, So of course
there was a wave of comments from fans saying that
he quit one more Yeah. One particular exchange that annoyed
me was, I guess said he quit. Another person responding
(22:04):
and said, well, why did you get in the ring
and see how you do?
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Always? Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
The dude responded and said I wouldn't have quit, which
easy to say behind Instagram comments. Tough guys, sit down,
sit your ass down. But we need to stop acting
like we know what it means to be in a
boxing match to that highest level, and stop acting like
we know better than the fighters who put their health, bodies,
and yes, their lives.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
On the line for the sport. You know I mentioned
they're good. The number one priority in any sports.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
Health. We've got to prioritize health. Unfortunately, we've seen boxes
in the past that did not quit in time, or
they should have quit a minute or two earlier, and
they have never been the same since.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
So I don't mind someone saying, hey, they don't have.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
It tonight and having all their faculties the next day,
rather than somebody trying to compete when they can't end
up getting medically impacted.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
That's not it. That's not cool. So I think it's
a different world in different air nowadays than in the past.
But you shouldn't have to If you're losing and you
can't defend yourself, I think it is right for you
to quit. And I don't think there's a problem with that.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
Yeah, I mean it bucks you're either fighting or you're not.
And if you stop fighting for whatever reason, then the
other person wins. That's that's you know, and your opponent
choosing not to continue for any reason is one of
the ways you win. Let's speak them to the rules
so you can say, BASI remors lost you want, you
want to call him a loser if you want whatever.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Don't see he quit.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
I mean he made a valid decision that he's allowed
him make for his own safety, and there's no shame
in that.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Plus he made it because he was too hurt to
keep going.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
I mean him walking away was no different than getting
caught with a body shot than he couldn't get back
up from. Right.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Look here, when you when you quit in a fight,
you know your body better than anyone that's you know
where your body's about to go out on you. You
know what when your body is a strong point. You
know all these things, so when it's time, you have
to do what you gotta do. This is about your life.
This is not about one fight. This is about your life.
If you guys don't the teut, it's okay, get better,
(24:01):
move on, come back next time. But you gotta make
sure there's the next time. And I think fans don't
quite yet.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
I mean, if you're watching a tennis match in one
of the players like sprains and ankle, you're not gonna
say they quit, right, you just pobb.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Sports fans in the dage, Sports fans in the day
and age are totally different breed.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Brother.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
Okay, fine, then you shouldn't be saying that. But well
here's you're correct.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
You're correct. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
I mean here's another thing too. I think we should
even stop using the term quit, because there's an official
term for what happened when a fighter stops voluntarily fighting.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
The term is retired.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
So if you say the fighter retired in the sixth round,
or the corner retires their fighter when they throw in
the top right.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
You know, you can.
Speaker 4 (24:39):
Criticize boxes for a lot of shit, but deciding to
retire for whatever reason isn't one of them. So if
they just didn't feel like fighting, they wouldn't have made
it up in that ring in the first place.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
You know, witting is a tough term because the only
way actually someone quitting is if as long as if
it's not help related, right, so they just say I
don't want any more than all right, you.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Can say someone quid.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
But I don't think that's unnecessarily a bad thing in boxing,
because it's the sport is way different. Like we can't
compare boxing other sports because of the brutality of it all, you.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Know what I mean. So somebody don't have this, they
got it.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Like sometimes you'll see a guy in the ring and
he just can't go no more for whatever reason, he
just can't go, whether it's in his mentals or physical
or both.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
And that's okay. I don't think that's a bad thing.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
Yeah, And that's another it's not like again going back
to I use a tennis analogy because there's two people.
But if a tennis player is like, is losing and
they throw their recket and they walk off, you know,
that's a forfeit and that's not really like the way
the match works. But in boxing, a person not being
able to take it anymore. That is a valid win.
You know, you get a valid dub if your opponent
(25:47):
just can't continue. So I don't see why there's a
reason to add on to this and say, oh, he quit,
he sucks.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
I wouldn't have done that.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
And yeah, other comments are like, well, fighters have fought
with a broken jaw, they fought with sprayed rives, and
that you can't tell somebody you know that they need
to push through an injury when they can't.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
What they tell you they can't. These are the same
people who call out sick when they got two coughs
in a row. Yeah, who call out sick when they
get a paper cut. These are the same people who
go home early when they have an OWI okay, So
you got to remember that. You gotta understand. These are
the same folks that are saying these things. So that's
(26:28):
why I don't like, don't be the tough guy on
online but at work all because you got PTO and
you have a little headache, you're going home at eleven
am instead of toughing it out.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Not trying to hear that agreed.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
I mean I said before, I've done a lot of sparring.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
I've gotten my ass kicked. I've had to push through.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
But also I'm in a gym with guys that are
going like sixty percent and don't want to knock you out.
So I would never say, oh, well, ro basically for
me to sure it kept going, you know, this person
should have fullen through a broken job. Absolutely not, And
I especially don't want to hear it from anybody that
hasn't gotten their ass kicked by a staring partner.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Right or if you've never been around the gym, if
you've never been around open gym, I don't want to
hear it. Absolutely. So that's the thing I think.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
I think it's fair to say that when it comes
to our criticisms for you know, to make the sport better,
you kind of talk about the business, the industry. I
talk about the fandom and how I want fans to be.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
To be better. So yeah, I mean, let's let's stop
shaming these folks.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
You know, they got up there at a pro match
in that ring, which it takes balls to get in
that ring in the first place.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Let's be real about it. Oh absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
So yeah, So twenty twenty five boxing boxing fans, let's
be better. Let's uh, let's progress, Let's be better versions
of ourselves. So speaking of people that become better versions
of theirselves, let's move on to our pugilism segment, where
we discuss a boxing movie, TV show, or documentary. I'm
very excited about today's episode because we usually talk about
(27:50):
movies that are a few years old and a couple
of decades old in one case, but this time we're
talking about a new movie that isn't theaters right now.
The fire Inside premiered on Christmas Day, though my myamc
head screening is starting on the twenty four, so I
got to see it on Christmas Eve. Shout out to
movie theaters employees. By the way, a lot of people
don't know that theaters are up in three hundred and
sixty five days a year.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
That's right. So yeah, my two favorite.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Working class heroes are bartenders and movie theater employees. Jamison,
did you get a chance to check out this movie?
Speaker 2 (28:18):
I actually did? I actually did you know? Ironically, my
firestick went out, so I had to go through other
means to watch it, but we didn't watch it.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
It was a very interesting movie. I certain things I
was not aware of, but it's the similar story of
most boxers, right, like you grew up in a very
rough area. In this case it was Flint, which is
one of the worst per capital places that grow up
in this country, and you kind of have a lot
of struggles and you turn those struggles into your fuel
(28:47):
for boxing, and next thing you know, you're in this
case during the Olympics, you know, and you you know,
create a craft and you go from there. But that's
kind of how it's very interesting that we don't see
a lot of box was coming from the suburbs, right
you know, have a lot of boxers coming up in
three car garage homes. It's just not very This just
doesn't have that much Like most year boxers still that
(29:08):
they had to have a certain background to have that
kind of energy and fuel. But this is a very
It was a better movie than I expected. I think
the acting was on point. Most of the boxing scenes
wererong point.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
It was.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
It wasn't bad. It wasn't bad at all.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
Actually, before I should have gave a little bit more
of an intro. The movie is about a real boxer
named Clarissa Shields. The film is the true story of
how she won a gold medal for women's boxing in
twenty twelve, which is the first year women's boxing was
even allowed in the Olympics. Ryan Destiny is the actors
who played Clarissa Shields, and she did.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
An awesome job.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
I really liked this movie, so it is something very
interesting that I wasn't expecting. It's it's not a spoiler
because the trailer basically gives it away. Clarissa actually won
two Olympic medals back to back twenty twelve London twenty
sixteen reel, and the winning of gold medal is usually
the triumphant climax of the standard sports.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Film, but none of this one.
Speaker 4 (30:04):
Clarissa winning her first metal happens like two thirds of
the way through the movie. The rest of the movie
is everything that happened immediately afterward. You know you mentioned
she's from Flint and grew up poor as hell. After
winning the medals, she thought that her life was going
to change dramatically. She was going to take care of
her family, put them in a big house. But that
didn't happen because she wasn't getting sponsorship deals with anybody
because nobody really cared about women's boxing back then. Plus
(30:26):
she was told she was abrasive and not media friendly.
In interview, she said she liked boxing because she liked
beating people up, and her white media handlers were like, hey,
you can't say stuff like.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
That, right.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
They try to get her to put on makeup to
quote improve her image. So I think ultimately it's a
boxing movie kind of on the surface, I think it
cares about boxing, like forty percent, and the rest of
it is a story of how growing up under the
weight of generational poverty's suit like a vortex. It sucks
everything in and not even winning a fucking Olympic gold
medal can ninue you out of it. So I was
(30:58):
really impressed by that, to be honest with you, No,
it was cool.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
They intertwined both her personal life in the boxing part
really well. You know. The boxing coach was also did
a very good job. It was cool.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
I liked it.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
I enjoyed it a lot. But also there's a lot
of these stories that don't end this way, right.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
You've got a lot of people growing up in very,
very tough places with similar coaches, and it doesn't work
out this way. It usually goes the other way, you know,
usually goes with the way of not working out and
unfortunately other things happened.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
So no, it was cool. You know, it was definitely
a good movie, a better movie than expected.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
I don't know how I was gonna do in the
box office, but it was well, the movie did the
job off of it that way, the movie did the job.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Yeah, I was looking up. So the box office is
it's not great. You know, it is a low budget movie.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
It's like twelve million budget, but I think it did
like five millions so far since it premierre to Christmas,
which is still early. If it doesn't make its money
back in theaters, it might make it back on you know,
on disc streaming whatever.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
The movies make themselves back overseas. That's how it makes
the money back. So it'll if it did finally open
a weekend, it'll be fine. But yeah, it's it's tough
too because women's boxing is still not looked at like that.
For in terms of the situation. However, if she would
have did this coming up now, she definitely wouldn't have
been poor. There would have been a bunch of small
(32:19):
companies offering deals for social media stuff, all kind of stuff.
But again, it shows you just the time back in
twenty twelve, there wasn't you know, the thought process and
ideas were different than they were thirteen years later.
Speaker 4 (32:32):
Sure, but also yes, I agree with you. And also
if she came up now, she would have more sponship
because she was the one that made this happen, you
know what I mean. It's like it wouldn't have happened
about her, So it's like it's like a back to
the future thing where you kind of change your own paths.
So she definitely opened the path for a lot of
other female boxers. I mean the movie too, it brings
(32:53):
up the pay gaps between male and female athletes. Yes, yes,
it's socially conscious, race conscious. All the performances are excellent. Yeah,
I was really impressed. I think the best thing I
can say about this movie is that it would be
a good watch even for people who actively dislike sports movies.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Facts facts, fact.
Speaker 4 (33:10):
Honestly I speak, which I don't love them myself. I
don't dislike her of voice sports movies, but a lot
of them are so by the numbers, you know, it
takes a lot for one to stick out in my mind.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
But it's one of those movies that it tells a story,
so the common person could watch it and not be
like put off by. It wasn't too boxy, you know
what I mean? It was just right. It was just right.
Speaker 4 (33:33):
I think it does a good job telling the story,
and no matter of the sport, if she was a
baseball player or what a basketball player, I think I
think it works so pu It feels like the kind
of old school movie you might catch on a TV
on a lazy Sunday afternoon, mid budget. It's after lunch.
You sit on your clienter, crack a beer, surface channels
watch this time all the time. You know, there's particular
movies like those that make you feel a certain way,
(33:55):
And I'm glad this exists. We need more mid to
low budget movies.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
We have a scale of four gloves, so I think
I'd give it three and a half gloves.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
What about you? I go three O three. I'm not.
I thought that.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
They could have went more into what happened after the
second over the metal.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
I think that that could have been a part of
it more. For me, I kind of wanted to wait more,
and it felt like they spent so much time on
the the Olympic situation in that process, and then also
after the first Olympics, Like how nothing changed? Like would
I would have liked to see more detail now, But
it's all good. I mean, it is what it is.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
But I think three is fine. I cant talking to
three point twenty five and I think that probably be
my hottest if I had to go.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
Yeah, I was probably more impressed than you were, but
I did. I will say I was surprised that they
didn't go into the second Metal win at all. So
but I also a shout out to Brian Tyree Henry
who plays Claria's coach Jason Crutchfield. That guy's just awesome.
I love seeing him anytime he shows up. Know, he's
great in the movie, but that's pretty much expected from
him at this point. But Brian Terry Henry Henry, who
(35:05):
most people know is paper boy from Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
But yeah, no, I had a good time.
Speaker 4 (35:10):
You know. I'm glad I went to see it in
the in the theaters and so I saw that Christmas
Eve And just a quick shout out to Sonic the
Hitchhog three, which I saw the Frighten before Christmas.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Awesome movie as well. That was like that.
Speaker 4 (35:21):
I'll give that like five blocks, because did you grow
up watching or playing Sonic Games.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
When Gear and Sega Genesis all that. I did not
see the movie, but I definitely grew up playing it
for sure.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Yeah, I was laughing.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
I gotta say I went like after nine so that
all the babies would be in bed.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
But it was a Christmas weekend.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
Was a good time because I did Sonic three, The
Fire Inside and then nos Fara two on Christmas Day.
So yeah, I love going to the movie. So it's
it's actually really cool to go into a movie theater
knowing that I was going to talk about this for
this show, right right, right, So you know, more boxing movies,
you know, please, let's let's have them, even if they
don't do well.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
You gotta have lower budget, mid budget movies. Got to
pad that out.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
Not everything can be big budget superhero action thing.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Right.
Speaker 4 (36:05):
So yeah, So for a final segment, we usually do
a mail back question from the audience, but I wanted
to change it up a little today and try something
different as an experiment. So right, I still do have
a couple of mail back questions to get through, and
I would encourage y'all to keep sending him in. We'll
plug where you can reach this at the end. But
for today, I actually wanted to ask my own question
that I'd like my co host to answer.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
I've said it many times before.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
I love boxing, but I don't consider myself an expert,
and there's a lot I've been learning thanks to the show. Right, Jamison,
You're the expert here, and there's something I realized I
don't really understand, and it was inspired by the movie.
So just to set this up, Clarissashield is one of
four fighters male or female to be an undisputed champion
in two different way classes. So there's only four people
that have done it. One of the others is one
(36:47):
of our favorite fighters, Bud Crawford, so shout out to him.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
So just really quickly for the folks who don't know
what it means to be undisputed. There are four different
boxing commissions and each one has their own belt, WBOWBA, WBC, IBF.
That's why see boxers with the shitloatle belts that look
different or different colors. There's four belts for each weight class,
and if a fighter gets all four of those belts
in the same weight class, they become.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
The undisputed chip.
Speaker 4 (37:08):
So I guess one way I can describe it as
becoming undisputed is like getting an oscar, and then being
undisputed in two weight classes is like getting an egot,
because both are hard, but one is so difficult that
only a handful of people have ever done it. Ever,
So the question that I've never really understood when a
fighter becomes an undisputed champ for a particular weight class,
(37:30):
how do those belts get broken up again and end
up with different fighters? Because if I'm undisputed and people
keep challenging me for all four of my belts and
I wash every challenger, I'll be undisputed until I retire.
But I know that's not the only way for the
belts to be up for grabs. So how do undisputed
champs go from having all four belts to ending up
with only three or two? I've never really.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
What's happening now more than ever, is that guys are
basically relinquishing belts for different reasons.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
Part of the sanction fees to say I don't want
to I don't want to be I don't want to
pay three hundred grand for this or how much it costs.
I remember Floyd being very adamant, like, hey, why am
I paying an extra five hundred plus grand for this belt.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
I don't need the belt. Belt doesn't find me. Blah
blah blah.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
Now does he have the extra money, of course, but
from a business standpoint, you technically don't need it. And
also every fight is different, right, so before the fight
you would ree upon what's at state for the fight.
There's been fights as weird as it sounds, where not
all the belts have been on the table. I don't
know why that is. That's that's always been odd to me.
(38:33):
But it'll always be like, yeah, this fight's not for
all the belts, just for the WBA. I'm like, ah,
this doesn't make sense, but.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
It's always to me. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
But every federation has like its own top ten list,
so they'll be like, hey, the guarantee challenger for the IBF,
you gotta fight something.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
They do fight.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
It's only for the IBF belt, it's not for all
the belts. So that's always weird. I'm not quite sure
why that is, but every fight has its own thing.
I always like when guys say, know what, forget about
everything's on the table, you want to come beat me.
I'm a big fan of that. But once you know
the business side that it cost so much money for
these federations and we're not for these belts. I understand
(39:12):
why a lot of guys are liquish it, or a
lot of guys say, hey, you know what, I'm gonna
chill this year in fighting. Y'all can do it out.
So if you don't meet your mandatory challenger, you relinquish
the belt, and then the next two guys end up
fighting or wherever they a point, ends up fighting for
that belt.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
So when you mentioned the fees, does that mean if
you win a belt you got to pay like for it?
Holy shit, that part I did not know at all.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
Yes, yes, yes, you gotta pay. You gotta pay fees.
So when you go to fight, you got to put
up a certain amount to fight for that belt. So
that's why in the past you've heard guys saying, now
I'm cool, all relinquished. I don't even want to pay
the extra just for that. It's kind of odd, but
everybody got to make their money. So that's why you've
(39:54):
heard in the past where Floyd be like, I don't
need the belts. I know we know who, we know
the records, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
So that happens wrong often not, but a lot of
times is somehow will move up and wait.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
Right, so let's say you're at one thirty five and
you're undisputed there, Well you're moving up to one forty,
so you leave all the belts down there because you're
you're going up.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
So that also happens wrong.
Speaker 4 (40:17):
Often not too Okay, Okay, so if you leave all
four belts behind them, then again, whoever, whoever commissions all.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
The federations figure out who who fights for him? Okay. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (40:28):
The thing that did confuse me the most, like I said,
is I've got all four belts, but I'm fighting a
guy just for the IBF, which whatever.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
However, I'm not a fan of either. I think it's
a chubb.
Speaker 4 (40:37):
But yeah, so then if I just refuse to fight
him for whatever reason, then I make h the belt.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
Right.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
You got to remember we had the Cold War before
with all these promotion companies for the longest times, so
I remember there was times where guys weren't fighting guys
because they were you know, Golden Boy, you know, et cetera,
et cetera. And if your promotion company did not get
along gold want top ranked, that whole colde War lasted
over a decade, you know what I mean. So if
(41:03):
you got a top rank and a Golden Boy guy,
if one has too and the other one has too,
you basically see in fights between all top ranked guys
and all Golden Boy guys by each other.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
So you know that's what a lot of that happened
as well in the past. Okay, thank you.
Speaker 4 (41:18):
That's something I was having difficulty, you know, doing research on.
I tried looking up online, but my search results weren't
very helpful.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
And I'm I'm.
Speaker 4 (41:25):
Always willing to admit that if I don't know something,
you know, I'm not trying to be here pretending I
know everything. So I really appreciate expanding my knowledge based
but also for any of the listeners that didn't know
any of this, So absolutely thank you.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
So how about we get out of here and.
Speaker 4 (41:38):
Started joining twenty twenty five?
Speaker 2 (41:40):
Absolutely? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (41:41):
Where can people find you on social media at the
Jamison on Twitter and on Instagram. I'll be around always
fun being on Twitter answering questions and whatnot. And hope
everybody's saved this upcoming New year and hopefully we have
some really good fights, you know, I mean that's what
we're here for.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
We're here to make sure we get mimorable and.
Speaker 3 (41:58):
Be able to talk about it casual conversation like damn, hey,
do you see that find on ESPN?
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Oh, damn, hey, do you see that fight on Fox?
Or hey? You know hey or hey, it's about to
come on right now. Make sure you got the you know,
the app open or whatever. We need more of that
if you feel like that was missing this year. Yeah, no,
I agree. I mean the sport is very exciting for me,
but I want more people to be able to talk
to talk to you about it what our tank Davis
(42:24):
has to fight more like you're one of the faces
of the sport.
Speaker 3 (42:28):
You're an exciting fire when you when you put guys away.
We got to see you more. It can't just be
once a year. You gotta be more active. We gotta
see it more.
Speaker 4 (42:36):
We at the must the fans demanded, All right, well,
you can follow me at the Classic Alcoholic on Instagram
and Blue Sky. The podcast has its own Twitter account.
You can follow at Mixed co Podcasts. Subscribe to the
show on Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and Amazon Music. Leave us
a five star review. It only takes a minute, and
it helps more than you can possibly know. We have
(42:58):
an official show email addressed. If you have questions for
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Send it all to letters at mixed coopodcast dot com.
That's letters at mixedco podcast dot com. Thank you so
much for listening, and stay tuned because two thursdays from
now we'll be back with Mas Fuego for the new year.
(43:19):
Stay safe, see you soon, and salut
In this corner, standing it six foot five, weight class
unknown hailing from Sin City, Las Vegas, Jamison Welch And
in this corner standing it five foot nine, Wayne Town
with six wins.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Three losses, two arrests, four late payments on student loans,
and two total painkruptcies hits the Classy I'll go hold.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
All right, Welcome back to another disition of mixt Company podcasts.
I'm your host, Jamison Welsh, as well as the other
host on this show, Classy Alcoholic Classy.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
What's going on?
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Man?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Oh man?
Speaker 4 (00:42):
I am feeling great because we are back with episode six,
the first episode of twenty twenty five. If you can
even believe it. I'm still nursing my new year's hangover,
but I'm ready to start the year strong and keep
taking the show to the next level. How are you
feeling here in twenty twenty five, Jimson, I'm doing well.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I'm doing well.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
You know, it's one of those things where you know,
time really flies, you know flies. We lived back it
last year, all the things that happened, the fights that
were talking about but didn't happen, the fights that we
want to see happen. You know, a lot of stuff
happened and you don't think about it because it's time
just flies at a rapid pace.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
Well, I mean Glad even brought it up because, you know,
before we fully closed the book on twenty twenty four,
I wanted to talk about a few things.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I mean, in my opinion, it was a good.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Year for boxing, as long as we ignore the travesty
that was Mike Tyson coming back to the ring, which
I intend to.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Uh, that's not boxing, That's that's fair. It wasn't boxing.
That wasn't that's fair. That's fair.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
It's just like a weird thing that happened that you know,
it's like a fever dream that we had. Woke up
from it, and then we're like, all right, we're back
to the rest of the year. In fact, yeah, I mean,
I don't really want to do a full year in
review or anything like that, but I do have to
ask you, did you have a favorite fight in twenty
twenty four?
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Jis So the favorite fight is tricky, right, because it's
too cliche to say fear a usick one with everything
going on, like, it's too cliche to say that.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
With that being said, that's.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Probably my favorite one and not just because Fury lost.
It's more of like whenever you have a heavyweight fight
in the non favorite wins, it's always an interesting situation,
but all those souls and the storylines around it, because
Fury is basically fight to fight when it comes to
retirement or to stop fighting whatever. So whenever you see
(02:21):
a situation like that, it's always interesting. But if I
looking back on it, the favorite five year is probably
that one. My least favorite fight is probably Ryan Garcia
versus Devin Haney just based off all the shanigans that
have come with that, Like I could do it out,
all the extras that have come with that, you know
what I mean, Like it's just a retute bit turnoff.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
But it's been an interesting year, very interesting year to
say the least. So why was Fury versus you sick
one your favorite? As a post to part two, So
what it.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Comes to Fury is whatever, somebody is king of the hill, whatever,
somebody is the top dog, and everyone knows, was like, hey,
in order to get to this guy, you gotta do
this to me. There's something with that that you can't
necessarily place. And then when that fight is close, when
it's close on the cards, and it's like, hey, technically
(03:13):
it could either way, even though I thought you said one.
But with that being said, those are the fights that
we remember. Those are the ones we're like, ah, okay,
I remember when this fire took the crown. I remember
when this fighter got better. And those are things that
as boxes, we always remember when guys took that leap, right,
we always know that, hey remember when they did this
(03:34):
and they haven't looked back since it's one of those
type of things. And also we don't have many great
heavyweights anymore. There's not a long contending list of heavyweights,
so it's one of those things we look back on it.
It was like, hey, if Furre is the best guy
in U six two, who's the third best guy? I mean,
they're talking about Fury facing Joshua this year.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
I mean, don't watch it, don't get me wrong, but
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Excited about it.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
No, I'll watch it like when I I might not
watch it live, but that's the thing.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
I might watch it when it you know, when it's available.
I'm not gonna I'm not gonna wear no pizza for
it all but it that way, but I'm not gonna,
you know, I'm not gonna make it a moment. I'll
get to when I get to it. Sure well, and
we don't need to rehash it.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
But we talked last episode about how Fury himself said
he wants to take the easiest fights for the biggest payday.
So why am I getting invested? And if that's what
you want out of your own you know, those are
your own words. You're not no longer kind of reaching
for greatness. You kind of decided that you're looking for
an exit strategy, which is perfectly fine, But that doesn't
exactly you know that.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
But I'll say it like this, When you're the champ,
we don't want to hear that, you know what I mean,
When you're the chant, when you're Numeroleno, when you're the
guy people are trying the gun for, that's not a
great thing. Like I'd rather you retired than have that mindset,
because when you're the champ, where you're supposed to bring
in the best of others, you're supposed to people. We're used
(04:57):
to people danging deep when it comes to beating guys
who with a champ to overtake the crown. That's what
we're used to as fans, So if you're the champion,
you got that attitude.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
I'd rather use retire set aside lesson my else tape
to shine.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
That's fair.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
That's fair.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
I think for me, it's too much of an unfair
advantage to say Navettea versus Veldi too is my favorite
fight because I got to see it live, so I
got a whole new perspective on how awesome boxing is.
As if I needed even more of a reason to
love it, right, the fight itself was great, but also
it was such a great vibe being there. It was
built unofficially as Mexican Night, which made it even more fun.
(05:33):
I think if you take all of the live performances
I've seen in my life, of all kinds of concerts,
play as opera, ballet, you put them all together, this
boxing match is probably like top fight easy to be
honest with you, It's up there with me seeing like
The Ben live, one of my favorite bands of all time,
and also Big Frida, which actually might be the googlest
show I've ever been to, to be honest, see Brigfeeda
(05:55):
live was amazing, and yeah, this this fight was. It's
like a sad it's unfair to even kind of compared
just because of the situation of seeing it live. It
was just the coolest, the coolest thing I did all year.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Prob, the bigger fights you'll see memory, you'll you'll you'll
have because the big fights. Very few things replaced a
big fight, feel very few Like you know, Championship, super Bowl,
big fight, all that stuff is all very similar in
my eyes.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Anyway, do you have a most underrated fight of the year.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
So we talked about this earlier, We're not gonna we
weren't gonna talk about this particular card. However, you know
Katie Taylor and Man Toronto too was I mean, it
doesn'tet talked about as much, but that that was that
was that was different and mostly not that it was underrated.
It's just not being talked about as much. That's the
(06:50):
biggest thing. I think that is a situation where it
wasn't wasn't just like talked about, Like we don't think
of it when we think of that night, We think
about the debacle.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
We don't think about the actual the good fights that wrong,
the car.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
But that's probably the most underrated looking back at the
full year. But I will say this, and I want
to get your opinion about this compared to normal years,
do you feel that we had a lackluster in terms
of compelling fights that we usually have, Like it feels
like in most years we have more compelling fights than
(07:26):
we did this year.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
That's hard to say.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
I mean, I think we had a decent year up
to good, maybe not great, but I don't know. I
think better bea versus Bevol was a big deal that
was definitely hyped up.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
But how about this.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
There was a big lag period between like USIK and
Better Beev, so just kind of kind of kind.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Of a dead zone.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
So yeah, maybe you're right, maybe a bit of a
dead zone. I mean, I personally love Canelo versus Berlanga,
not that Berlanga was a great is a great fighter.
It was it was more fun to kind of watch
Canelo struggle against it giant, big slab of beef and
try his hardest and Berlanga taking the punishment to his credit,
and also got to see it at the Neighborhood, which
we've talked about before, the sports bar. The vibe was fantastic,
(08:10):
So I had a great time, But wouldn't call that,
you know, an amazing fight of his by any means
I think the biggest the biggest upset of the year
is probably Bugia getting knocked out a couple of weeks ago,
but again that was just recently. You know, there's there's
a long period where I'm kind of right thinking back
of what happened and it's kind of a dead zone.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
So yeah, you're right, this year might have been a
bit blackluster, and especially when it comes to compelling fights.
So there's always gonna be fights, but the fights we
want to see and the fights that were like memorable,
there's not a whole lot of those. That's where you know,
that's kind of where we're at with it. Hopefully that
changes going forward.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
But also chance Crawford hasn't fought that much, Like for
a guy's supposed to be number one or two pound
for pound or top three pound for pound, he hasn't
fought much like he'd beat Earl Spitz last.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Year or year before last. Bensley took a break. I
fought this past I want to say.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
August against the Israel magimuff.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Yeah, I say that was in early August or maybe
even July, but over the summer. So like fighting once
a year isn't quite it like when you're one of
the best in the sport, we got to see more
than once a year. That's not it, Like, that's not
how this goes. And I think that's part of the
problem is guys get to a certain level and they
kind of put it in cruise to So now I
(09:27):
know he's his situations a little bit different with the
promotion thing, and I know there's some things going on
with the future talks.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
But we have to get guys were active. We have to.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
It's a must because you can't be that good. And
then your one fight this year was kind of eh,
like he wasn't very impressive in the fight, Like it
was very like, all right, you're gonna win, but I'm
not really confident in this going forward. So we'll see
what happens in twenty five. But it felt like twenty
four left us kind of what a you know, uneasy
(09:58):
feeling like that there could have been It felt like
we didn't give as much as we could have.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
But specifically, yeah, he kind of struggled going up that
weight class again, gets madermalv I agree. They'd be interesting
to see if he does get the Canelo fight. You know,
two weight classes up.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
What that's going to mean for him.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
But I actually wanted to bring up a fight that's
a little bit under the radar Tail Femal Lopus versus JIMMYE.
Ortiz back in February. I think a lot of fans
didn't like it. Tail won by decision and some said
Artees got rob Of course, I think it's an underrated
fight because it's a kind of a teachable moment for boxing.
Tail came in dresses like a circus ring leader with
some cardies behind him, and he's a good fighter that's
(10:37):
put in some excellent performances in the ring before, but
he was off his game last night that night because
Ortiz came in with some good defense, a lot of speed,
and Tayal couldn't really get any worthwhile shots and he
was frustrated and you could see it. Ortees kept his distance.
Some people said he was running too much, and I'll
go ahead and give him that, but Tayal wasn't cutting
off the ring or doing much to get through the defense,
(10:57):
and I think it's because he was rattled. So it
was really interesting to see a guy with that kind
of style just be thrown off his game.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Could be honest with you no, and so, and that's
what happens with great fighters. You're not gonna win every fight,
pretty right, You're not gonna win every fight one nineteen
and like well or not, that's not gonna happen. You're
gonna have close fights. You're gonna have fights or you
gotta change and kind of dig deep. You're gonna have
fights that don't go courting to plan. And when you
pull through those fights, I then make sure a better boxer.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Right.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
We've seen all the big guys in the past where hey,
sometimes you get a very close fight, close than you anticipated,
but you get better from there, at least you're supposed
to anyway. In most cases, the greats get better. Some
of the guys are you know, above average, they end
up getting exposed. But a lot of times those close
fights make you dig deep, get better, get.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Sharper going forward. I think that's what's gonna happen here.
But no, that that was a very good fight.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
You're correct, Yeah, I you know, frustrating your opponent is
a ballad strategy. I've been given that tip myself before sparring,
because when a person is frustrated in the ring, that's
when they make mistakes. That's when they get caught. So
I was really surprised that tail ORed himself get thrown
off his game. And maybe I would say, or Teas
maybe outclassed him, if not out boxed THEMND that doesn't
count for something. I think that's why a lot of
(12:10):
people thought he should have won. But at the very leat,
I found it very interesting, a very interesting match to
analyze and see people's reaction after. So I think it's
valuable for fighters to learn from and for fancy discuss.
So I was pretty it was something I wasn't expected.
I wasn't Tailed too. I wasn't expecting tail to be
cut off guards.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Sorry.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
So the one that I'll say, when it comes to
boxers and athletes in general, there's still people, you know
what I mean, We forget that at the end of
the day.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
These are every day people that got every day issues
just like us.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
And if your mental is not right or if you
got something else going on, it's gonna show in the ring,
Like whenever you do. For instance, as people, we have
jobs and whatnot. If we're not all the way right
as a person, it's gonna show at work.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Unfortunately for these guys that works in a ring maybe
two twenty thousand people, and then in front of millions
on the that are watching on the world.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
So that's the difference. Is like as a boxer, it happens.
You're not gonna always have your best game. Sometimes you're sidetracked.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
We are human.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Things distract us, whether it's family stuff, personal stuff, all
kinds of things could happen, So it's not unusually you
just hope that you don't get sidetracked enough to where
it calls you one out right.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Well, what about Fighter of the Year. I can't think
of any reason why it wouldn't be Alexander Usik.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
But what are your thoughts? It is, you sick man,
it is, and it's gotta be.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Here's the thing too, it's not that he performed well,
two performed well against I think opponents matter more than
anything when we talk about fives of the year unless
you just put together three performances in a county year
that are just like amazing. But in terms of fighting
twice in the year doing what he did, he is
the fighter of the year. I don't think it's even
really any discussion for it.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Agreed, Yeah, that's that one was easy. Yeah, No, I
think the guy's proven himself one of the greats, possibly
one of the one of the greats of all time,
if not the goat, And yeah, shout out to him,
Shout out to both of his wins, and shout out
to whatever Fury's gonna do next, maybe retirement, we'll see.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Uh. But a quick follow up on that specific fight.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
You know, we mentioned last episode that this is the
first fight that would have an AI judge scoring it,
so it was just a test run and it didn't
have any effect on the results. If you listen to
episode five of you hear that neither of us were
really into this. Some fans were getting hype, commenting things like, well,
maybe this will stop corruption in boxing. The AI judge
scored the match one eighteen to one twelve for you
(14:31):
sick And you know, I haven't gotten a chance to
look at the Twitter and Instagram comments yet. I'm about
to do it right now, but I'm sure all the
comments were positive about this whole endeavor, and everybody was
in agreement that the robot got it right, and even
Tyson Fury was in agreement. Right like, I'm assuming that's
what I'm about to read right now, and basically basically yeah, yeah, yeah,
now fuck now. Of course, not everybody was still arguing
the results just like they always have, and some people
(14:53):
were Some people were speaking positively about the AI, but
lots of other us were saying things like, oh, this
this thing, the AI doesn't know box. It was absolute
badness that it's scored particular runs for you sake, et cetera,
et cetera. So this whole thing really accomplished nothing and
solved nothing, which is what we already expected.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
I mean, you can't make an imperfect thing perfect, right,
So when you're judging a fight, for instance, if you
and I judge the fight, right you're in tussim in Vegas,
and we're watching the same fight and we keep score,
there's a good chance we're gonna have different.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Scores, not because we're biased or favor anything. It's just
you may see something different than I may see. So
you may see, okay, the power punches are landing. I
might see a box is more active than the other.
And it comes down to preference and what I see
with my eyes versus what you see with your eyes,
and what I deemed to be impactful and what you
(15:46):
need to be impactful. So for instance, we're judging a fight.
You might have one seventeen one eleven. I might have
one sixteen one twelve. That's not that far off. The
issues is. The issue is when somebody has one nineteen
nine and somebody got one twelve or sorry, one fourteen,
one twelve or one thirteen one twelve. You know, that's
(16:09):
what it's like, Hey man, why is it that wide
of a variance? But to be honest with you, anything
from eight to.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Four rounds and you know, anything between eight four rounds,
seven to five rounds a draw, anything in that region,
you're kind of.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Okay, yeah, I mean, human error is always going to
be a thing, or is it not? Even hair let's say,
let's not say that human disagreements is always going to
be a thing in sports. And I don't really think
that there's any way to get past that. I don't
think we need to. I mean, yeah, mistakes will happen,
robberies could happen, but at the end of the day,
it's so you know what, I'll let me find it here.
(16:48):
Fury himself said, and I quote, fuck, all the compute
is keep the humans going. More jobs for humans, less
job for compute is and then he said fuck electric
calls while we're at it, which I don't know what
to befitz there, but okay whatever. So yeah, a lot
of people got super excited for this idea just because
they heard it was AI. And I don't know, man,
I'm tired of people treating AI like it's some kind
of amazing invention and that's going to save the world.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
It's like a.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Faster search engine for a non boxing situation. AI does
help a lot of things, right. You can use AI
to be very impactful. However, AI can't control everything, and
I think that's what people are trying to get to.
AI controls and that's not the case. But AI came
be a pathful. I don't want AI.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Judging fights though. I don't want that because you can
program it. You can program AI to be a certain way,
and I don't want that. That's it. I think I'm
a little more down on a overall.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
I think people maybe think the Blade Runner back to
the future to futures that they wanted are coming true
because of it.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
I don't I don't know what.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
It's like a faster search engine. You know those dudes
that think AR are the is the wave of the future.
Let's be real, guys, you just kind of want to
fuck a robot, that's all you care about him. That's cool,
like what you like, But let's be honest about a
self carry you acting like you care about integrity and
scoring boxing matches, so.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Hey, like what you like.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
But anyway, so we talked about the past, let's talk
about the future. We do this show because we love
the sport, and we criticize it out of love because
we want it to be better, right of course, Jameson,
you've talked extensively about how there need to be more
fights happening throughout the year, which I agree with. There's
no boxing season like there is a baseball season. But
you made a great point last episode when you said
(18:29):
there should be fights every weekend during the summer, and
I'm with you, summer should an officially be boxing season.
Other than that, what do you want to see change
in twenty twenty five in the sport?
Speaker 3 (18:38):
To be honest with you, I would prefer if I
mean boxing season is a good term to use, but honestly,
boxing should be year round, where every month there's a
showcase fight with a name or in or a prospect
that's either up and coming and has a name or
somebody's already established. Every month, there should not be a
month that goes by where there's not an established boxer fighting.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
It should week it's criminals.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Where we go through weeks of just that should never
happen because you're taking your fans for granted. At that point,
you're basically saying, oh, the fans, when I need money,
I'll put us something on pay per view. They'll pay
for it. That ain't right, y'all need to keep us
entertained the whole year. There's enough boxers, there's enough money,
there's the promotion companies for everything to go around to
(19:23):
be open and active throughout the year. And I think
that's where it needs to change, is that every month
there should be at least one showcase type of fight.
I'm not saying you need Crawford Canelo every month. No,
I'm not not saying that. I'm saying that you have
to keep buzz going every month to be old. Hey,
we're February, you know, Sircuras fighting such and such.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Oh March.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Again, we're not you know, le'd say in March you
have a big fight. Apriy have a big fight. You know,
Canelo fights to May. So those are things you want
going forward, not just oh that's a fight in February.
Oh the fight in May. No, no, no, no, there's
too much time that goes by without any big time fights.
Because the thing about big time fights you get more
(20:09):
casual people involved, you get the regular news involved, and
that's what carries the sport. The fans always gonna be there,
but the casual, the fifty to fifty people, that's what
you need.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
And the kids, the kids who who want to boxing
with their families. You know us we grew up watching.
You know, for me, who does such is with my family.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
You want that vibe throughout the year, that excitement.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
So that's what's gonna grow new fans.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
And yeah, you're right, I mean we got to.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
We've got a group of people, but it's small, possibly
getting smaller.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
And yeah, that's that's not a cult. Basically, boxing fans
almost like a cult now it's not. Basically, it's not
what it used to be. And when we were, when
we were coming up, when we were growing, when we
were when we were growing up, it felt like there
was so many boxing matches on and it didn't matter
what way class right. It felt like there was always
(20:58):
a good match. If got every month, every six weeks,
there was somebody fighting, and it was like a big thing.
We don't have that anymore. It's just not it does
not feel the same.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
Yeah, I'm with you. There's a lot of things I
want to see change, but I have a very specific
thing I want to talk about today, if you'll indulge me. Uh,
this concept of boxers quote quitting and why that needs.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
To go away.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
I'll explain what I mean, but let me start off
with this. During the Navarette Aldez fight, the co main
event was between a Mexican boxer name Rails Spinoza and
a Cuban boxer name Robsa Amirez. Do you know how
that fight went down, Jamison. I don't recall off top,
so Robsa Amires. So the story is that Espinosa hit
Robsi Ameres with some elbows well through in hooks. I
(21:41):
saw one. I honestly don't think it was intentional. In
the sixth round, Robsi put his hand up, turned his
back to indicate he was out. The ref stopped to fight,
and Rufinoza won by tko. Reasas said he was seeing
double and he couldn't continue, right, Okay, So of course
there was a wave of comments from fans saying that
he quit one more Yeah. One particular exchange that annoyed
me was, I guess said he quit. Another person responding
(22:04):
and said, well, why did you get in the ring
and see how you do?
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Always? Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
The dude responded and said I wouldn't have quit, which
easy to say behind Instagram comments. Tough guys, sit down,
sit your ass down. But we need to stop acting
like we know what it means to be in a
boxing match to that highest level, and stop acting like
we know better than the fighters who put their health, bodies,
and yes, their lives.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
On the line for the sport. You know I mentioned
they're good. The number one priority in any sports.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
Health. We've got to prioritize health. Unfortunately, we've seen boxes
in the past that did not quit in time, or
they should have quit a minute or two earlier, and
they have never been the same since.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
So I don't mind someone saying, hey, they don't have.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
It tonight and having all their faculties the next day,
rather than somebody trying to compete when they can't end
up getting medically impacted.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
That's not it. That's not cool. So I think it's
a different world in different air nowadays than in the past.
But you shouldn't have to If you're losing and you
can't defend yourself, I think it is right for you
to quit. And I don't think there's a problem with that.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
Yeah, I mean it bucks you're either fighting or you're not.
And if you stop fighting for whatever reason, then the
other person wins. That's that's you know, and your opponent
choosing not to continue for any reason is one of
the ways you win. Let's speak them to the rules
so you can say, BASI remors lost you want, you
want to call him a loser if you want whatever.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Don't see he quit.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
I mean he made a valid decision that he's allowed
him make for his own safety, and there's no shame
in that.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Plus he made it because he was too hurt to
keep going.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
I mean him walking away was no different than getting
caught with a body shot than he couldn't get back
up from. Right.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Look here, when you when you quit in a fight,
you know your body better than anyone that's you know
where your body's about to go out on you. You
know what when your body is a strong point. You
know all these things, so when it's time, you have
to do what you gotta do. This is about your life.
This is not about one fight. This is about your life.
If you guys don't the teut, it's okay, get better,
(24:01):
move on, come back next time. But you gotta make
sure there's the next time. And I think fans don't
quite yet.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
I mean, if you're watching a tennis match in one
of the players like sprains and ankle, you're not gonna
say they quit, right, you just pobb.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Sports fans in the dage, Sports fans in the day
and age are totally different breed.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Brother.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
Okay, fine, then you shouldn't be saying that. But well
here's you're correct.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
You're correct. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
I mean here's another thing too. I think we should
even stop using the term quit, because there's an official
term for what happened when a fighter stops voluntarily fighting.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
The term is retired.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
So if you say the fighter retired in the sixth round,
or the corner retires their fighter when they throw in
the top right.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
You know, you can.
Speaker 4 (24:39):
Criticize boxes for a lot of shit, but deciding to
retire for whatever reason isn't one of them. So if
they just didn't feel like fighting, they wouldn't have made
it up in that ring in the first place.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
You know, witting is a tough term because the only
way actually someone quitting is if as long as if
it's not help related, right, so they just say I
don't want any more than all right, you.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Can say someone quid.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
But I don't think that's unnecessarily a bad thing in boxing,
because it's the sport is way different. Like we can't
compare boxing other sports because of the brutality of it all, you.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Know what I mean. So somebody don't have this, they
got it.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Like sometimes you'll see a guy in the ring and
he just can't go no more for whatever reason, he
just can't go, whether it's in his mentals or physical
or both.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
And that's okay. I don't think that's a bad thing.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
Yeah, And that's another it's not like again going back
to I use a tennis analogy because there's two people.
But if a tennis player is like, is losing and
they throw their recket and they walk off, you know,
that's a forfeit and that's not really like the way
the match works. But in boxing, a person not being
able to take it anymore. That is a valid win.
You know, you get a valid dub if your opponent
(25:47):
just can't continue. So I don't see why there's a
reason to add on to this and say, oh, he quit,
he sucks.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
I wouldn't have done that.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
And yeah, other comments are like, well, fighters have fought
with a broken jaw, they fought with sprayed rives, and
that you can't tell somebody you know that they need
to push through an injury when they can't.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
What they tell you they can't. These are the same
people who call out sick when they got two coughs
in a row. Yeah, who call out sick when they
get a paper cut. These are the same people who
go home early when they have an OWI okay, So
you got to remember that. You gotta understand. These are
the same folks that are saying these things. So that's
(26:28):
why I don't like, don't be the tough guy on
online but at work all because you got PTO and
you have a little headache, you're going home at eleven
am instead of toughing it out.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Not trying to hear that agreed.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
I mean I said before, I've done a lot of sparring.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
I've gotten my ass kicked. I've had to push through.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
But also I'm in a gym with guys that are
going like sixty percent and don't want to knock you out.
So I would never say, oh, well, ro basically for
me to sure it kept going, you know, this person
should have fullen through a broken job. Absolutely not, And
I especially don't want to hear it from anybody that
hasn't gotten their ass kicked by a staring partner.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Right or if you've never been around the gym, if
you've never been around open gym, I don't want to
hear it. Absolutely. So that's the thing I think.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
I think it's fair to say that when it comes
to our criticisms for you know, to make the sport better,
you kind of talk about the business, the industry. I
talk about the fandom and how I want fans to be.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
To be better. So yeah, I mean, let's let's stop
shaming these folks.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
You know, they got up there at a pro match
in that ring, which it takes balls to get in
that ring in the first place.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Let's be real about it. Oh absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
So yeah, So twenty twenty five boxing boxing fans, let's
be better. Let's uh, let's progress, Let's be better versions
of ourselves. So speaking of people that become better versions
of theirselves, let's move on to our pugilism segment, where
we discuss a boxing movie, TV show, or documentary. I'm
very excited about today's episode because we usually talk about
(27:50):
movies that are a few years old and a couple
of decades old in one case, but this time we're
talking about a new movie that isn't theaters right now.
The fire Inside premiered on Christmas Day, though my myamc
head screening is starting on the twenty four, so I
got to see it on Christmas Eve. Shout out to
movie theaters employees. By the way, a lot of people
don't know that theaters are up in three hundred and
sixty five days a year.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
That's right. So yeah, my two favorite.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Working class heroes are bartenders and movie theater employees. Jamison,
did you get a chance to check out this movie?
Speaker 2 (28:18):
I actually did? I actually did you know? Ironically, my
firestick went out, so I had to go through other
means to watch it, but we didn't watch it.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
It was a very interesting movie. I certain things I
was not aware of, but it's the similar story of
most boxers, right, like you grew up in a very
rough area. In this case it was Flint, which is
one of the worst per capital places that grow up
in this country, and you kind of have a lot
of struggles and you turn those struggles into your fuel
(28:47):
for boxing, and next thing you know, you're in this
case during the Olympics, you know, and you you know,
create a craft and you go from there. But that's
kind of how it's very interesting that we don't see
a lot of box was coming from the suburbs, right
you know, have a lot of boxers coming up in
three car garage homes. It's just not very This just
doesn't have that much Like most year boxers still that
(29:08):
they had to have a certain background to have that
kind of energy and fuel. But this is a very
It was a better movie than I expected. I think
the acting was on point. Most of the boxing scenes
wererong point.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
It was.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
It wasn't bad. It wasn't bad at all.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
Actually, before I should have gave a little bit more
of an intro. The movie is about a real boxer
named Clarissa Shields. The film is the true story of
how she won a gold medal for women's boxing in
twenty twelve, which is the first year women's boxing was
even allowed in the Olympics. Ryan Destiny is the actors
who played Clarissa Shields, and she did.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
An awesome job.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
I really liked this movie, so it is something very
interesting that I wasn't expecting. It's it's not a spoiler
because the trailer basically gives it away. Clarissa actually won
two Olympic medals back to back twenty twelve London twenty
sixteen reel, and the winning of gold medal is usually
the triumphant climax of the standard sports.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Film, but none of this one.
Speaker 4 (30:04):
Clarissa winning her first metal happens like two thirds of
the way through the movie. The rest of the movie
is everything that happened immediately afterward. You know you mentioned
she's from Flint and grew up poor as hell. After
winning the medals, she thought that her life was going
to change dramatically. She was going to take care of
her family, put them in a big house. But that
didn't happen because she wasn't getting sponsorship deals with anybody
because nobody really cared about women's boxing back then. Plus
(30:26):
she was told she was abrasive and not media friendly.
In interview, she said she liked boxing because she liked
beating people up, and her white media handlers were like, hey,
you can't say stuff like.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
That, right.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
They try to get her to put on makeup to
quote improve her image. So I think ultimately it's a
boxing movie kind of on the surface, I think it
cares about boxing, like forty percent, and the rest of
it is a story of how growing up under the
weight of generational poverty's suit like a vortex. It sucks
everything in and not even winning a fucking Olympic gold
medal can ninue you out of it. So I was
(30:58):
really impressed by that, to be honest with you, No,
it was cool.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
They intertwined both her personal life in the boxing part
really well. You know. The boxing coach was also did
a very good job. It was cool.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
I liked it.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
I enjoyed it a lot. But also there's a lot
of these stories that don't end this way, right.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
You've got a lot of people growing up in very,
very tough places with similar coaches, and it doesn't work
out this way. It usually goes the other way, you know,
usually goes with the way of not working out and
unfortunately other things happened.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
So no, it was cool. You know, it was definitely
a good movie, a better movie than expected.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
I don't know how I was gonna do in the
box office, but it was well, the movie did the
job off of it that way, the movie did the job.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Yeah, I was looking up. So the box office is
it's not great. You know, it is a low budget movie.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
It's like twelve million budget, but I think it did
like five millions so far since it premierre to Christmas,
which is still early. If it doesn't make its money
back in theaters, it might make it back on you know,
on disc streaming whatever.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
The movies make themselves back overseas. That's how it makes
the money back. So it'll if it did finally open
a weekend, it'll be fine. But yeah, it's it's tough
too because women's boxing is still not looked at like that.
For in terms of the situation. However, if she would
have did this coming up now, she definitely wouldn't have
been poor. There would have been a bunch of small
(32:19):
companies offering deals for social media stuff, all kind of stuff.
But again, it shows you just the time back in
twenty twelve, there wasn't you know, the thought process and
ideas were different than they were thirteen years later.
Speaker 4 (32:32):
Sure, but also yes, I agree with you. And also
if she came up now, she would have more sponship
because she was the one that made this happen, you
know what I mean. It's like it wouldn't have happened
about her, So it's like it's like a back to
the future thing where you kind of change your own paths.
So she definitely opened the path for a lot of
other female boxers. I mean the movie too, it brings
(32:53):
up the pay gaps between male and female athletes. Yes, yes,
it's socially conscious, race conscious. All the performances are excellent. Yeah,
I was really impressed. I think the best thing I
can say about this movie is that it would be
a good watch even for people who actively dislike sports movies.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Facts facts, fact.
Speaker 4 (33:10):
Honestly I speak, which I don't love them myself. I
don't dislike her of voice sports movies, but a lot
of them are so by the numbers, you know, it
takes a lot for one to stick out in my mind.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
But it's one of those movies that it tells a story,
so the common person could watch it and not be
like put off by. It wasn't too boxy, you know
what I mean? It was just right. It was just right.
Speaker 4 (33:33):
I think it does a good job telling the story,
and no matter of the sport, if she was a
baseball player or what a basketball player, I think I
think it works so pu It feels like the kind
of old school movie you might catch on a TV
on a lazy Sunday afternoon, mid budget. It's after lunch.
You sit on your clienter, crack a beer, surface channels
watch this time all the time. You know, there's particular
movies like those that make you feel a certain way,
(33:55):
And I'm glad this exists. We need more mid to
low budget movies.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
We have a scale of four gloves, so I think
I'd give it three and a half gloves.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
What about you? I go three O three. I'm not.
I thought that.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
They could have went more into what happened after the
second over the metal.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
I think that that could have been a part of
it more. For me, I kind of wanted to wait more,
and it felt like they spent so much time on
the the Olympic situation in that process, and then also
after the first Olympics, Like how nothing changed? Like would
I would have liked to see more detail now, But
it's all good. I mean, it is what it is.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
But I think three is fine. I cant talking to
three point twenty five and I think that probably be
my hottest if I had to go.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
Yeah, I was probably more impressed than you were, but
I did. I will say I was surprised that they
didn't go into the second Metal win at all. So
but I also a shout out to Brian Tyree Henry
who plays Claria's coach Jason Crutchfield. That guy's just awesome.
I love seeing him anytime he shows up. Know, he's
great in the movie, but that's pretty much expected from
him at this point. But Brian Terry Henry Henry, who
(35:05):
most people know is paper boy from Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
But yeah, no, I had a good time.
Speaker 4 (35:10):
You know. I'm glad I went to see it in
the in the theaters and so I saw that Christmas
Eve And just a quick shout out to Sonic the
Hitchhog three, which I saw the Frighten before Christmas.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Awesome movie as well. That was like that.
Speaker 4 (35:21):
I'll give that like five blocks, because did you grow
up watching or playing Sonic Games.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
When Gear and Sega Genesis all that. I did not
see the movie, but I definitely grew up playing it
for sure.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Yeah, I was laughing.
Speaker 4 (35:34):
I gotta say I went like after nine so that
all the babies would be in bed.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
But it was a Christmas weekend.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
Was a good time because I did Sonic three, The
Fire Inside and then nos Fara two on Christmas Day.
So yeah, I love going to the movie. So it's
it's actually really cool to go into a movie theater
knowing that I was going to talk about this for
this show, right right, right, So you know, more boxing movies,
you know, please, let's let's have them, even if they
don't do well.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
You gotta have lower budget, mid budget movies. Got to
pad that out.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
Not everything can be big budget superhero action thing.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Right.
Speaker 4 (36:05):
So yeah, So for a final segment, we usually do
a mail back question from the audience, but I wanted
to change it up a little today and try something
different as an experiment. So right, I still do have
a couple of mail back questions to get through, and
I would encourage y'all to keep sending him in. We'll
plug where you can reach this at the end. But
for today, I actually wanted to ask my own question
that I'd like my co host to answer.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
I've said it many times before.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
I love boxing, but I don't consider myself an expert,
and there's a lot I've been learning thanks to the show. Right, Jamison,
You're the expert here, and there's something I realized I
don't really understand, and it was inspired by the movie.
So just to set this up, Clarissashield is one of
four fighters male or female to be an undisputed champion
in two different way classes. So there's only four people
that have done it. One of the others is one
(36:47):
of our favorite fighters, Bud Crawford, so shout out to him.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
So just really quickly for the folks who don't know
what it means to be undisputed. There are four different
boxing commissions and each one has their own belt, WBOWBA, WBC, IBF.
That's why see boxers with the shitloatle belts that look
different or different colors. There's four belts for each weight class,
and if a fighter gets all four of those belts
in the same weight class, they become.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
The undisputed chip.
Speaker 4 (37:08):
So I guess one way I can describe it as
becoming undisputed is like getting an oscar, and then being
undisputed in two weight classes is like getting an egot,
because both are hard, but one is so difficult that
only a handful of people have ever done it. Ever,
So the question that I've never really understood when a
fighter becomes an undisputed champ for a particular weight class,
(37:30):
how do those belts get broken up again and end
up with different fighters? Because if I'm undisputed and people
keep challenging me for all four of my belts and
I wash every challenger, I'll be undisputed until I retire.
But I know that's not the only way for the
belts to be up for grabs. So how do undisputed
champs go from having all four belts to ending up
with only three or two? I've never really.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
What's happening now more than ever, is that guys are
basically relinquishing belts for different reasons.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
Part of the sanction fees to say I don't want
to I don't want to be I don't want to
pay three hundred grand for this or how much it costs.
I remember Floyd being very adamant, like, hey, why am
I paying an extra five hundred plus grand for this belt.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
I don't need the belt. Belt doesn't find me. Blah
blah blah.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
Now does he have the extra money, of course, but
from a business standpoint, you technically don't need it. And
also every fight is different, right, so before the fight
you would ree upon what's at state for the fight.
There's been fights as weird as it sounds, where not
all the belts have been on the table. I don't
know why that is. That's that's always been odd to me.
(38:33):
But it'll always be like, yeah, this fight's not for
all the belts, just for the WBA. I'm like, ah,
this doesn't make sense, but.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
It's always to me. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
But every federation has like its own top ten list,
so they'll be like, hey, the guarantee challenger for the IBF,
you gotta fight something.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
They do fight.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
It's only for the IBF belt, it's not for all
the belts. So that's always weird. I'm not quite sure
why that is, but every fight has its own thing.
I always like when guys say, know what, forget about
everything's on the table, you want to come beat me.
I'm a big fan of that. But once you know
the business side that it cost so much money for
these federations and we're not for these belts. I understand
(39:12):
why a lot of guys are liquish it, or a
lot of guys say, hey, you know what, I'm gonna
chill this year in fighting. Y'all can do it out.
So if you don't meet your mandatory challenger, you relinquish
the belt, and then the next two guys end up
fighting or wherever they a point, ends up fighting for
that belt.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
So when you mentioned the fees, does that mean if
you win a belt you got to pay like for it?
Holy shit, that part I did not know at all.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
Yes, yes, yes, you gotta pay. You gotta pay fees.
So when you go to fight, you got to put
up a certain amount to fight for that belt. So
that's why in the past you've heard guys saying, now
I'm cool, all relinquished. I don't even want to pay
the extra just for that. It's kind of odd, but
everybody got to make their money. So that's why you've
(39:54):
heard in the past where Floyd be like, I don't
need the belts. I know we know who, we know
the records, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
So that happens wrong often not, but a lot of
times is somehow will move up and wait.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
Right, so let's say you're at one thirty five and
you're undisputed there, Well you're moving up to one forty,
so you leave all the belts down there because you're
you're going up.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
So that also happens wrong.
Speaker 4 (40:17):
Often not too Okay, Okay, so if you leave all
four belts behind them, then again, whoever, whoever commissions all.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
The federations figure out who who fights for him? Okay. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (40:28):
The thing that did confuse me the most, like I said,
is I've got all four belts, but I'm fighting a
guy just for the IBF, which whatever.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
However, I'm not a fan of either. I think it's
a chubb.
Speaker 4 (40:37):
But yeah, so then if I just refuse to fight
him for whatever reason, then I make h the belt.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
Right.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
You got to remember we had the Cold War before
with all these promotion companies for the longest times, so
I remember there was times where guys weren't fighting guys
because they were you know, Golden Boy, you know, et cetera,
et cetera. And if your promotion company did not get
along gold want top ranked, that whole colde War lasted
over a decade, you know what I mean. So if
(41:03):
you got a top rank and a Golden Boy guy,
if one has too and the other one has too,
you basically see in fights between all top ranked guys
and all Golden Boy guys by each other.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
So you know that's what a lot of that happened
as well in the past. Okay, thank you.
Speaker 4 (41:18):
That's something I was having difficulty, you know, doing research on.
I tried looking up online, but my search results weren't
very helpful.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
And I'm I'm.
Speaker 4 (41:25):
Always willing to admit that if I don't know something,
you know, I'm not trying to be here pretending I
know everything. So I really appreciate expanding my knowledge based
but also for any of the listeners that didn't know
any of this, So absolutely thank you.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
So how about we get out of here and.
Speaker 4 (41:38):
Started joining twenty twenty five?
Speaker 2 (41:40):
Absolutely? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (41:41):
Where can people find you on social media at the
Jamison on Twitter and on Instagram. I'll be around always
fun being on Twitter answering questions and whatnot. And hope
everybody's saved this upcoming New year and hopefully we have
some really good fights, you know, I mean that's what
we're here for.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
We're here to make sure we get mimorable and.
Speaker 3 (41:58):
Be able to talk about it casual conversation like damn, hey,
do you see that find on ESPN?
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Oh, damn, hey, do you see that fight on Fox?
Or hey? You know hey or hey, it's about to
come on right now. Make sure you got the you know,
the app open or whatever. We need more of that
if you feel like that was missing this year. Yeah, no,
I agree. I mean the sport is very exciting for me,
but I want more people to be able to talk
to talk to you about it what our tank Davis
(42:24):
has to fight more like you're one of the faces
of the sport.
Speaker 3 (42:28):
You're an exciting fire when you when you put guys away.
We got to see you more. It can't just be
once a year. You gotta be more active. We gotta
see it more.
Speaker 4 (42:36):
We at the must the fans demanded, All right, well,
you can follow me at the Classic Alcoholic on Instagram
and Blue Sky. The podcast has its own Twitter account.
You can follow at Mixed co Podcasts. Subscribe to the
show on Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and Amazon Music. Leave us
a five star review. It only takes a minute, and
it helps more than you can possibly know. We have
(42:58):
an official show email addressed. If you have questions for
the mailbag, fun stories about watching Mixed Box, sorry, fun
stories about watching boxing and Mixed Company, or hate mail.
Send it all to letters at mixed coopodcast dot com.
That's letters at mixedco podcast dot com. Thank you so
much for listening, and stay tuned because two thursdays from
now we'll be back with Mas Fuego for the new year.
(43:19):
Stay safe, see you soon, and salut
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.