Fabrio Wardley Stuns Joseph Parker + Fight News And Holyfield-Douglas Nostalgia Too! | Fight Freaks Unite Recap - Big Fight Weekend Boxing Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Yes, indeed off of a weekend that he has seen
Bobby O. Wardley, did we not say dangerous spot for
Joseph Parker. Bobby O. Wardley gets Rayfield's been frothing for
like twenty four hours, a controversial TKO win, although he earned,
he earned this victory that I'm saying that to get
the WBO's interim heavyweight title. We're ready to recap that.

(00:24):
We've got a women's world title fight later in a
week that we'll talk a little bit about because it's
gonna be up before we're back on. And then some
fight news and a little nostalgia, a little heavyweight titled Nostalgia,
a thirty fifth anniversary of a significant heavyweight title fight.
All coming up here on the Fight Freaks Unite recap podcast.
I am the somewhat capable host TJ. Reeves. Hello, Dan Rayfield,

(00:46):
our insider. Fight Freaks Unite is his substack, his newsletter
be subscribed to that get all the goods, get all
the deats. Did you know that there's now new vernacular?
Has your son brought this to you? My teenage twins,
your teenage son that I was not aware that the
t as in like tea that you drink, not the
letter T. The T means the info, the critical news,

(01:10):
the details. In the current pop culture vernacular, Rayfield has
Rayfield has the T. You have the T. The dat's
the info, the inside stuff. Have you ever been complimented
that way?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Besides, if I knew that was a thing, I would say, clocket.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Oh, okay, there you go, that one, you know. But
the twins are going, oh, yeah, that's the T. Oh yeah,
you got the T. And I'm like, what are we
talking about with the T? And the T means you
got the goods, you got the info, you got the details,
you have the knowledge.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
You actually, on Twitter a couple of days ago, having
nothing to do with boxing, I said, I have no
idea what my son's slang means anymore, Okay, but conversation.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Catching you up on what the tea means?

Speaker 2 (01:54):
That's not what he uses, Okay, I'm.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Just saying, if he does, that's what that means.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
At least, and all him and the kids are all
like obsessed with this whole six seven thing. I have
heard no idea, correct.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
Because it's a TikTok thing.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
And I'm.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Dance and you know, okay.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
But Lockett Lockett, the T Clockett.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
You've got the T on the substack, on the newsletter,
be there for all of the info. Thank you for
finding us on the podcast outlets, Apple, Spreaker, Spotify, make
sure you're following, subscribing, ratus and review us. If you
enjoy the content, rate us and review us. That helps
in the algorithms. And also the YouTube page, Big Fight
Weekend YouTube page. We do a lot of content there
with nostalgia. We got some more live stuff coming up.

(02:35):
Great interview with Mark Kriegel about the Mike Tyson book recently.
All kinds of stuff there. We go live before and
after Big Time Fights, so and some of that's coming.
So you notice a Big Fight Weekend YouTube page.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yes, I dare say, by the way, that like my
my the demographic, let's say, of those who participate and
subscribe and read my newsletter, probably none of them use
the word t or clockett.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
But their kids, their nieces and nephews. This is the vernacular,
this is the slang. And we're going to try to
give you some tea here on what.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Happened about that. When it comes home about that one,
we'll see.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah, let's see what he knows all right. H So
let's get to it. The WBO interim heavyweight title fight.
Joe Parker putting his position on the line. He was
in line to fight Alexander Usik and took the risk. Yes,
and took the risk to fight Fabio Wardley. In this fight.
We well documented it, we built it up, and now

(03:30):
the upset has happened in what was I will say this,
it was a tremendous fight. I got the chance to
take it in. There was drama right away, big punches
right away. I believe it's a fight of the year candidate.
Wardly gets the win. I know you're three to two
to one blast off on the referee coming up about
the stoppage, but let's get into it. Your thoughts on

(03:51):
the fight and ultimately Wardly with the upset.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
Right before we get to the ending of the fight.
And it was a terrific fight. I don't know if
I necessarily have it at the level that you're talking
about as the fight of the year. Will it be
on that list when people go through and make their
top five or ten. Yeah, yeah, I would think that's sure.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
I'm still going to be It's got to be in
the top five.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
It's got to be fair. That's fair what was at.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Stake, and these guys bombed each other and the crowd
roaring had you had a lot of what you would
want out of a fight of the year. I'm not
saying it is. I'm saying it should be considered.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
Some people may pick it. I I personally won't pick it.
I can tell you that right away. I mean, I'll
certainly give it its plaudits and it's due, uh, but
it won't be number one. Nonetheless, it was a terrific fight.
Both guys were gentlemen and class actual leading up to
the fight, and and even with what happened at the
end of the fight, both guys showed class. Joseph Parker
and Faby Wardley are immensely likable guys as people, as fighters,

(04:49):
and so from that perspective, it's all good. And they
put on a rumble. They put on an excellent fight.
You mentioned that Joseph Parker risked his position as the
next mandatory challenger for Alexander Ustik if he wants to
maintain the undisputed status, which it feels like he does.
You know he was. He didn't maintain the undisputed status
the last time, and that was because he had a
contract to do a rematch with Tyson Fury. If he

(05:11):
if he had his choice, he would not have given
up that title. He would have maintained it. But you know,
the combination of the contract plus the you know, crazy
amounts of money that he was able to make for
that rematch compared to what he would have had he
done the do mandatory at the time, you know, it
was obviously much less money. So I feel like he
will keep that position, He'll keep that belt and they'll

(05:31):
do the fighting. By the way, Fabio Wordley, coming off
a great matchup like this and exciting puncher, and being
that he is from Britain and the and the excitement
around what happened on Saturday night, you got to figure
that Afusika does agree to fight him, that they can
go to you know, a big stadium or wherever in
the UK and absolutely at a big event. I mean,

(05:52):
I don't know if it draws ninety thousand like some
of the other pipes, but could they put it at
you know, Toddenham for example, where they drew sixty five
for you know, a Tyson Fury fighter for Ben and
you Bank. I mean, yeah, I'm sure they could do
that and that would be a big event over there.
And Frank Warren was speaking about after the fight at
the postfight press powers that if they can work the
deal out. You know, he obviously promotes Worley in Parker,

(06:13):
he does not promote Busick. But they their teams all
know each other and I feel like they get along
with each other. He was talking about the prospect of
doing that fight in March. We talked about on the
last or one of the last shows that Hoosick announced
he's back in some training. He's back is okay, and
he's gonna fight next year and fight for three more years.
So there's literally no reason not to do that fight.
There's not like there's some other major opponent that he

(06:35):
could fight in place. Fabia Wardley just defeated the guy
that's like the number two heavyweight in boxing. So anyway,
terrific fight, Like you said, bombs away the whole.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
Let me prompt you. He Parker was in trouble in
the second round of his fight. Let's go right, Fabby
Wordley was in trouble then like two or three und
I understand. But in the second round of the fight,
Wardley hurt. Joseph Parker had him in the corner, caught
him with a good upper cut, stunned him. The crowd
is roar. I mean we had drama right away at
my point.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
Pick it up from there, yeah, I mean it was
not a heavyweight waltz. I mean we've seen lots of
fights between I mean, one thing I always take pause
with is when you have a matchup between punchers, people
go into the fight thing, Wow, this is gonna be
a hell of a fight. These guys are both big punchers.
They're gonna stalk each other, they're gonna bomb away. The
thing about it is a lot of times when those
matchups happen, it does unfold like that. But there's plenty

(07:24):
of times where it doesn't unfold like that because both
guys are wary of the other man's power, and so
it turns into be slightly more tactical or less interesting
than it may have been in terms of the perspective
going into the fight. But Wordley and Parker were the
first part where they both are good punchers and they
both let it all hang out and they both took

(07:44):
big shots. They both they delivered big shots, and uh,
you know, it was it was what you want to see, you.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
Know, So this just to just to refresh you and
for the audience. This specific sequence is laid in the
round and Parker ends up spitting his mouthguard out. They
call it the gums in England, and on the broadcast,
maybe got it punched out. I know, I saw him,
he got rid of it. He got rid of it
to buy time, and I know your opinion, your opinion, okay, Well,

(08:10):
and then the cornerman comes up and the cornerman slow
playing it because he's buzzed, and it's Darren Barker, right,
and Barry Jones correct. They both went crazy on the
broadcast about your boy Howard Foster the referee giving Parker
extra time to recover and not letting Mordley press the
advantage of having him hurt there in the corner. So

(08:31):
that's the first dubious part of how this thing was
maybe officiated, because that, I mean, that was a big moment.
He had him clearly hurt in the corner late in
that second round. It was eye opening and now it's like, hey,
the fight is on, so go ahead. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
Well, I mean, and there was a lot of maybe
not moments like that where it was something specific, but
in terms of a guy being hurt, but like I mentioned,
Fabia Wordley was you know, it was hurt several times
in fight. I felt like and as was Parker. It's
a heavyweight fight. I mean, that's gonna happen. Both guys
were resolute, if you will, in terms of being able
to take the shots. You know, I remember at one
point the announcer we're talking about, and this is probably

(09:09):
late in the fight. I want to say, maybe like
round eight or nine or ten or something like that, like,
how can they not have been a knockdown at this point?
Which was pretty amazing?

Speaker 1 (09:16):
Where do you come down? Do you believe their chins
are that good? Or maybe did this demonstrate in combination
maybe they're not elite big time bombers. No, it's a
combo of both. What do you think?

Speaker 2 (09:29):
I mean?

Speaker 1 (09:29):
Because they lasted each other, Dan with big shots.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
Wardly, we're just getting to know he hasn't been in
with big punchers. But based on everything I have seen,
and I've seen a number of his fights, it's got
a good chin. Joseph Parker. I've watched his entire career.
He definitely has a good chin. The guy other than
what happened Saturday, had only been stopped once in a
long career by Joe Joyce, you know, five years ago
or whatever it was. And and traditionally fighters who are

(09:58):
of Samoan background, they have the big neck, that's part
of their character, of their of their build. They've been
known to have good chins. You can go through, you know,
David Tua as an example a Samoan background from New Zealand,
amazing chin, one of the greatest chins in heavyweight history.
The fact that Joseph Parker has a good chin is
not a surprise. And he's been in with a lot

(10:18):
of good fighters for the years, including Fabio Wordley, including
Anthony Joshua who didn't come close to knock and hang
him out, and others. So no, I believe it's a
it's a matter of both men are able to take
good punches, you know, in addition to being able to
deliver them with real punching power. So look at the
point we got, you know, you talk about about how

(10:40):
he was hurt in the second round, and that's fair,
but by the time they got to like round eight,
nine ten, Parker had basically been the boss. He he
there was moments in every round where Wordley would have
a cup. If you look at the official score cards
at the time of the knockout, this was not it
was they were. They were on the way to what
would have been, Yes, at that moment in time, would

(11:01):
have been a majority decision, because one of the judges
had it ninety five to ninety five, but the two
other judges, one judge had it ninety eight to ninety
two in favor of Parker and one judge had it
ninety six and ninety four in favor of Parker, which
both seemed understandable. I don't think the ninety eight ninety
two was some kind of crazy outlier. I feel like,
you know, you scored that fight. Honestly, he absolutely could

(11:23):
give him eight of those.

Speaker 1 (11:24):
I thought scoring along that it was six to three
going into the tenth round, fair, So, I mean, I
thought he was in command at that point. But this
is boxing. Anything can happen, and now we're going to
get to the drama of what did happen.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
Yes, right, so obviously they got to that eleventh round,
and you know, Wordley had been coming on. You know,
he did have a good tenth round, and look what happened. Happened.
If you watched the fight, had he definitely nailed Parker
with an uppercut, had him backing up into the ropes,
he was letting his hands go, and the way I

(11:58):
characterized what I was seeing, I saw a lot of
agreement with what I posted when I put it on
social media. I very strongly felt at that moment that
it wasn't that Joseph Parker was hurt. He was tired. Yeah, yeah,
it had been a grueling fight, but being tired is
not grounds to stop a fight. He was tired, he
was not hurt, so he did back into the ropes.

(12:20):
And if you watch what became the finishing sequence, as Fabio,
Wordley is throwing punches and he's doing his job, and
I have nothing bad to say about Wordy, but a
lot of those punches missed. He slipped a few punches,
and even though he had not thrown a lot back
in terms of the to make the fight continue on
he did right before the stoppage, get Wordy off him.

(12:41):
Because Joe was backed up to the ropes. He threw
a nice left hand and well, I don't know if
it connected or connected full or maybe grazed and whatever,
but it was certainly a very discernible punch that did
make Wordy back up, either because he maybe shoved him
a little bit or he maybe he clipped him a
little bit with the punch, but he definitely got in
a punch and so okay. And then right after that,

(13:03):
Wordley comes back and he has him on the ropes
again and he's missing some of those shots, and yeah,
Parker's absolutely guessed, and the referee, Howard Foster, stepped in
and stopped the fight. And while is it the worst
stoppage I ever saw, No, if it was stopped in
a fight where you're talking about a couple of prospects
or young guys or and it's just a six rounder

(13:25):
on an undercart, it wouldn't even register, probably just because
that's to be expected. But I believe that when you're
in that position that the you have to understand who
you're refereeing. Number one, you have to understand the magnitude
and stakes of the event, and you also have to
understand the history of the fighters who are involved. And
I'm not saying that you're gonna, you know, sway one

(13:46):
way or the other, because you're looking to, you know,
get a certain guy to win or anything like that.
But you have to have a recognition of your surroundings.
You know, this is a guy there. There's never been
a knockdown, there's there's no discernible injuries. Guys are not bleeding.
You know. It was not in any way stoppage, time a.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
Hold on time out. Parker was bleeding. Talk to Parker,
look what he was bleeding.

Speaker 2 (14:11):
But it happened to the last on his nose.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
All right. So this is where you love the back
and forth, and we tend to disagree at times. And
I know you're going to go off about Howard Foster,
but you know what, I'm going to use my ray
Field terminology here on the Fight Freaks to Night Recap podcast,
you talk all the time and I have to listen incessantly.
There's a good word about the range of acceptable scoring.
So now let's go through the range of a stoppage.
So we have, on the one hand, the absolute correct

(14:37):
time to stop a fight, perfect it should have been
stopped right there. Then we have the range of what
is the worst stoppage you've ever seen, Like you've said,
and this was not the worst stoppage I've ever seen.
This one I believe is more in the range of
a correct stoppage for these two points. Number one, he
beat him up for about a sixty second time period

(14:58):
where Parker is wobbling all over the He's hurt, he's tired,
he's bleeding, he's not firing back. The announcers are saying,
he's not firing back, he's not holding The crowd is
roaring to me. It's in the range of an acceptable stoppage.

Speaker 2 (15:14):
Now, okay, that's fine, but hold on, hold on? What
was your did you would you as I thought?

Speaker 1 (15:20):
It was probably one punch too soon. I thought it
was on the verge of one more significant punch that
should be it. And don't we oftentimes say that you
want a fight to be a punch too soon rather
than a punch too late. I realize the stakes. I
realized what was going on. But the argument can also
be made Joseph Parker put himself in that position by

(15:43):
by wearing that hold on, let me finish by engaging.
By wearing down, he put himself in position where he
could get stopped, and Wordley was taking it to him.
It's not as if that the whole sequence was only
five or ten seconds Dan, it's about sixty seconds.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
As you know, as I said, he's roughing up down.
He's tired, not hurt. And he also was disagree that
he was hurt earlier in that sequence. Maybe not at
the very very end.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
He is a little stunned when he's looking at the
referee when the reference anyweight championship like in your line,
I'm well aware of what was at stake and again
say to you, for me, it's within the range of
an acceptable stoppage because he had been beating him up.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
Is that Howard Foster for decades has sucked and this
is just another one that adds to his lore as
one of the worst referees I've ever laid eyes on it. Okay,
he is terrible, and why he keeps catching these biggest.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
Then why did the WBO have him on the list.

Speaker 2 (16:44):
Because if you knew how the British Boxing Border Control operates,
you would understand.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
But doesn't the WBO dictate for their no fight.

Speaker 2 (16:53):
No they do not, So I will explain it to
you since you need to be schooled a little bit.
And if you take a look at what Gustavo Oliveri,
who is the president of the WBO post on his
social media to remind somebody else who was making the
same statement, is that number one in a lot of plays,
especially like in the United States, sanctioning bodies do not
pick judges or referees. They some commissions give them the

(17:13):
respect to allow them to make recommendations. But let's just
take the Nevada State Athletic Commission for a minute. That
the organizations have nothing to do with picking judges. They
may send them a list of a you know, for
their title fights, of people that they are okay with.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
But the commission reason that I know this, hence the
reason I prompted all of this by saying on the
WBO's list.

Speaker 2 (17:33):
But in terms of the WBO or I'm sorry. In Britain,
what they do is they pick a British referee and
one judge, and the other two are typically international judges,
so they had no say so in who the referee was.
Now that doesn't mean they wouldn't that they could potentially pick,

(17:54):
you know, a a non British referee, which obviously there's
been non British referees in fights, but that's been pretty
much the way they do things. So the organization didn't
have a say so. And it's not just in Britain,
it's pretty much everywhere. The local commission that oversees as
the regulator, they're the ones that have the right to
choose who's going to referee or a judge a fight.

(18:15):
I mean, and we've discussed this when it comes to
suspensions and drug testing and all that. The organizations their
purview is the title is the sanction that type of thing,
the regulation of the bout, whether it's medical or officiating,
that is the purview of the local commission. So the
WBO cannot be held in any way accountable for Howard
Foster being appointed. That would be Robert Smith from the

(18:37):
British Boxing Board of Control and the rest of that
organization that made that appointment. Now, Howard Foster has a
litany of bad things in his background. He's been a
judge it feels like forever, and if you go back
and look through the course of recent times or even
older times, I'll just give you a couple. First of all,
he is the referee in what some would argue is

(18:57):
maybe the worst stoppage in the history of British boxing,
and that was the first fight in twenty thirteen. That's
how far back, we have to go. That was the
match for the super middle white title, the first match
between George Groves and Carl Frotch, where he stopped that
fight in the ninth round, and and and Froch, you know,
ended up having a rematch because there was so much

(19:19):
criticism of that stoppage. I mean that you could you know,
you could google that, they'll find and.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
By the way, just alert everybody, because you're a savant
with these things. That was way more egregious than this
your mind, absolutely absolutely so. But that that that's like,
that's the big one in his background. But he also
was involved in others. I mean, he was the one
who didn't stop the fight between Daniel Dubis and Kevin
Lorena when Duba was down three times in the first round,

(19:45):
and then uh when Lorena was down later but didn't
seem nearly as damaged as Daniel Dua was in that
first run. He's short circuit of that fight in round three.
Not unsurprisingly, he leaned in favor of the British fighter
Daniel in that fight, as he did against against Joseph
Parker in last night's fight.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
Now, if you look at and and he's also was
involved in a Fabia Wardley fight that was only two
years ago in twenty twenty three, when Fabia Wardley fought
Mike Kofe, who was journeyman ish, but Wordley was still
not that established, so he was sort of still on
the rise. Uh. That was a fight that Wardley ended
up winning on a on a flurry of shots where
he scored what was ruled a knockdown. But if you

(20:27):
go back and look at the video, clear as day
that coffee slipped and it should never have been ruled
the knockdown, much less the fucking stoppage of the fight.
So and again I come with the receipts and we
could go and spend fucking do a whole show just
in how shitty Howard Foster is. I just gave you
three glaring examples.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
So what So the logical follow up is what's up
with the British Boxing Board of Control continuing to give
him these prime assign answered in huge fights. That's the
real question.

Speaker 2 (20:52):
I have no idea. All I know is this my my, my,
my good pal Steve Smoker's I'll be rolling over in
his grave right now after that stoppage. You know that's
a guy, and we can go through and pick out
some of the referees that that just had an idea
of when to stop. And I always go back to this.
I don't remember what year it was, It's a long
time ago. And I was out of fight and I
ran into Smoger in the hotel and we were always friendly,

(21:15):
uh And when we sat down, we talked, and I
was interested in his referering philosophy. And I've done this
with other officials that I've met through the years, just
to hear from them without the controversy of what something
that just happened. Just what do you look for when
you stop a fight or when you let a fight continuer,
or however you want to phrase it. And one of
the things that Steve said to me, and and I've
heard him and I heard him say this to me a

(21:36):
couple of times for the years, there is what he
called the telling blow, like the clear shot where the
guy's head is rocked and his eyes roll up, or
some kind of uh, you know, body motion or something
that would indicate to you that he's lost his consciousness
in some fashion, or he's not in control of his
senses or his movements. That type of thing. And in

(21:56):
the fight between Parker and Wordley, that shot never came.
You can tell me all you want that he was hurt, fine,
he was taking some incoming that he wasn't thrown back,
But there was never a moment where I felt and
I'm sure that, and Joseph Parker said so after the fight,
that he was not in control of his senses, that
he didn't know where he was, that he was out
on his feet, maybe buzzed a little bit, but absolutely

(22:18):
knew what was going on where he was all that
kind of stuff. So from that perspective, at that level,
that fight should not have been stopped. And furthermore, I
will praise Joseph Parker and Andy Lee, his trainer, who
have nothing but add tons of respect for a ball,
their whole team. They came to the press conference and
at a moment when I have been present for a
thousand guys who have just ripped and been shipped all

(22:40):
over the officiating and went absolutely fucking crazy about the
ending of a fight, Joseph Parker was an absolute gentleman.
I was okay, I wanted to continue, Yes, and Andy
basically said the same thing. But at the end of
the day, they congratulated Fabio worldly. They didn't talk bad
about Howard Foster. They didn't really known Howard Foster. He

(23:00):
just said I was good to go. I wanted to continue,
and he said he wished Faby Wardy good luck in
his next assignment. He said, I'd like a rematch, but
he knows that even if he gets a rematch, it
won't be till after when or Lewis Wardley ends up
getting the title fight against Alexander Usik. So I definitely,
and I'm wearing a hat. I will tip my hat
to Andy Lee into Joseph Parker for showing that kind

(23:21):
of class in a very difficult moment. You know, And
I've said, I've said this many times in my career
for for just hold on, but for me, it's when
a guy loses that you find out what they're made of.
Like I remember lots of fights where you're thinking a
guy's gonna act one way and a loss and he
turned out, Wow, he really amed. Now see my mad
When he lost to Brera, I thought it was going
to go crazy in the press, cards and and and
and you know, do his chirpy self and talk all

(23:42):
kinds of shit. He was as humble and respectful as
anybody could have been. And I was really happy to
see uh Parker and Andy act like that and let
guys like me and other pundits send out a problem
with the stoppage to launch our artillery. So I would
say this every time you see Howard Foster, you know,
be wary.

Speaker 1 (23:58):
And that, and why do they keep putting him in
the biggest moments. The phrase that always comes to mind
is adversity reveals character, good and bad. Whatever your character is,
adversity is going to reveal that. I'm just gonna say no, Now, look,
let me just say this in conclusion, and then we're
going to move on to what's next real quick here.
To wrap it up. You often do this to me.
You're much more aggrieved over this than I am. I

(24:21):
thought he was hurt. I thought he was in trouble.
I think he's gonna regret when he watches the fight
back that he put himself in that position when he
was clearly winning the fight, and I didn't have as
big a problem with it. Maybe one more significant punch
than there is no doubt, but he hit him with
a lot of significant punches.

Speaker 2 (24:37):
The one thing he could have done is to mitigate
the circumstances. And it's just and this is the same
for a lot of fighters got that heart, could have
taken a knee, given up the point. I feel like
they felt like they were far enough ahead. He would
have maybe got an extra you know, between the eight
count and whatever to wipe off the gloves and all
the other stuff that goes on. He would have gotten
you know, fifteen ish seconds or so, or ten seconds

(24:58):
at least to help clear the cobwebs a little bit.
And that may have helped. But you know, he was
too proud to take the knee, as ever said. But
if he takes the knee, you know, he's still gonna
win the fight if it goes to the distance.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
So let's move to the next level. And you mentioned Usik,
all right, so call me call me crazy here. So
this this ties in. We're gonna go ahead and tie
into the news. So Queensberry is trying to line up
Derek Chesura and Dillian White to fight on a main event,
which you're about to talk about. Can I ask on
the recap pod where is Moses Etama Because to me,

(25:30):
sitting here at a distance in the United States and
Atama fight with Fabio Wardley, if he's not fighting Usick,
if Usik doesn't want to fight him, if this is
all FF, if that is tremendously intriguing at this point,
they've been active, they both punch big. I'd love to
see that. Why can we not get Atama in the
ring in the next month or two on the same
timeline with Wardley, where if Usik doesn't fight him for

(25:52):
whatever reason, that can be the next fight. All right,
So lay out what you found out and we'll kind
of go from there. On the heavyweight picture, go ahead.

Speaker 2 (25:59):
Yeah, well that would be good fight. But a Tama
is either gonna he's gonna be in a couple more
developmental fights unless he's gonna get a shot at the
big title. So that that that I mean. I don't
I'm not saying don't make the fight, but I understand
from a business perspective why Queensberry wouldn't do that matchup.
It doesn't make sense. After Wardley just did what he did. Okay,
first couple of things. Number One, most likely usk is

(26:21):
gonna fight Wordley unless there's some kind of major score.
So he's gonna get the shot. He's earned it. Whatever
you think about the stoppage, he got the win. He
also had the big camback against Hooney. He also has
you know, uh, the win against.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
A Clark right.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
Well, yeah, Fraser Clark came out in the first round,
right yeah, in the rematch of what was like one
of the nice the best fights always and before the
draw with with Fraser Clark, the fight I just mentioned
this was the fifty to fifty fight when they're both
undefeated in Saudi Arabia where he knocked out David Adela,
which was which was his first rick big win. That
was the one that came after that Kofie fight that

(26:56):
I mentioned where wasn't controversial that Wardley was the winner
because it felt he was gonna win, but it was
a stoppage that was somewhat questionable anyway. So you're looking
at probably in the springtime Usik against Wardly, and that's
an exciting matchup and it would do probably have a
lot of attention. That's the type of fight you want
to see because Parker was probably considered by most going
into the fight is the number two heavyweight in the world.

(27:19):
We discussed that caveats whereas Joshua hasn't fought for a
year and Fury claims he's retired and et cetera, et cetera.
So that's probably what's gonna happen there in terms of
a time. And now Frank is basically like the guy
that has he runs the heavyweight division basically right now.
He's kind of reminds me of like the nineteen eighties
nineties version of Don King, where you know, they loaded
up on all the top contenders and you know, and

(27:40):
things like that. He doesn't have Usik who's the champion,
but he's got all the guys that Usik should be fighting,
including Tyson Fury if he comes out of retirement. So
they had a lot of the heavyweights that were present
at that fight on Saturday Night. So you mentioned the
plans are for a December thirteenth Queen's Very card. That's
going to be most likely there to score in a

(28:00):
third fight with Dylan White. Uh. Dylan White obviously is
coming off of a one sided first round destruction at
the hand most of the Tama. That's a very questionable
pay per view headliner.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
Can I just say it, that's a joke. That's a joke.
It's a joke that that's a pay per view fight
at least in the United States or anywhere.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
The Brits will probably eat that up. I don't know
if maybe they will, but anyway, that that's that's the
thing to Sora. He's actually looked a lot better in
recent fights than White has. But it's White who's already
got two wins against TSA through the years. So whatever,
that's sort of like the old war horse is kind
of close to bowing out for good and whatever. Maybe

(28:39):
they can squeeze it off.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
Why can't we have good things? Why can't we have
somewhere in this mix?

Speaker 2 (28:45):
We have plenty of good things. We had good things
last night's not being I.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
Understand, But I'm just saying, can we not have Etama
fight in November or December? Which again on I'm calling
my shot right here in late October that if Usik
decides not to fight Fabi Owardley, I've to see him
fight at Tama. Let's make that happen. So get a
Tama in the ring one more time and then make
that fight if it was okay. So that's all I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (29:07):
So so originally, go back a couple like a month ago,
Frank Warren said in a bunch of interviews that a
Tama was going to headline this December thirteenth card. It's
taking place in the co Op Live in Manchester. Then
they kind of got tangled up when that order went
out for him to fight pool Lev and the WBA
uh you know, got into it with the pool Lef
team because they had already made another fight, so that
was sort of put off. They thought maybe Poolelev would

(29:29):
fight Atama, and they I guess they slowed down the
plans for December so and and and at the same time,
Jasaa said he was going to be on that card
probably uh you know, then not not necessarily against White.
The bottom line though, is now if Jasaa and White
is on that is that show's Maine event. There is
two things that are possible. Either a they could maybe
fight uh Toma against somebody else on the undercard, or

(29:53):
he fights and headlines his own card in February. I
forget the date, but there was a date in February
that Frank mentioned or not completely out of the realm,
but possibly that a Toama could fight both dates December
and February. That would be ideal. But one thing you
have to remember everything is the bottom line they don't have.
It's not this is not a turkey who can spend
whatever he wants. This is a budget and it's not
that they can't get a Toma in the ring. They

(30:15):
have to pay a Toomas opponent so much money that
it blows the budget. So to put him on the
same card, which is sore and white from a budgetary perspective,
probably doesn't work. Not because a Tama is unwilling or
doesn't want to fight. Is that at what point do
you blow your brains out on the cost of an opponent.
So it puts it in a scenario where he can
only be in the main event because the budget's much bigger.

(30:37):
So that's that's kind of down in the weeds. But
the bottom line is a Toma will be back either
December or February, or you know, in a perfect world,
both dates. But that's what they're doing. As Frank has
been doing all these heavyweight fights and uh, you know
the worst time frame is what Frank said.

Speaker 1 (30:53):
All right, so stay tuned for that. There's also heavyweight
news while we're just here on a Geet Kabba yell
also ringside and he might factor in details deeds. Give
me the tack give me the t So.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
If Queensbury announced and I had written this a couple
of weeks ago, but they made it more formal a
few days ago. They promote Agitacabil. Also, he is the
WBC's interim heavyweight title there, so he's got a position
and he's on his own good run. But his last
three fights have been in Saudi Arabia and he hasn't
fought at home in Germany since I want to say,
like twenty twenty three or so. And so the combination

(31:29):
of that and his new status with this title and
how good of a run he's been on, plus the
fact that Queensberry is looking to expand beyond just doing
fights in the UK. You know, they're the official promoter
for many of the fights that take place in Saudi Arabia.
When we had Frank Warren on this podcast, you know,
a few months ago, he talked about and this will happen.
It's just a matter of exactly when they will come

(31:51):
to the United States and put on some events. But
they're going to also go back with not of time
with Fabiel and take him home to Germany to do
a fight for the first time in a while. So
he's gonna fight there, and that's gonna be a big deal.
That's gonna be in January. They don't have an opponent
set yet one hundred percent. But you know, Germany for

(32:11):
a long time was a hotbed nineties two thousands when
you had the battle between Sourland Event and Universal. They
both had very robust television deals. They both had a
good amount of champions, and they put a lot of
tough fights and guys like Darius Mikolchevsky and Arthur Abraham
and Juan Carlos Gomez, obviously the Klitschko brothers when they
were on the way up and in their early title
days with univers and so it was a real hotbed

(32:33):
and it's really petered out. The German action has been very,
very weak recently over the last number of years. The
occasional title fight and this and that, but nothing like
it was.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
And they feel like Raba yells a fun babba, Yelle's
a fun fighter. He's been waiting for a while to
get a bigger fight. So let's see who they match
him up with. And you say January for him, so
we gotta wait.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
Yeah, I wouldn't say it's not gonna be something that's
going to be blow your doors off. They're gonna look
for like a solid opponent, keep him busy. UH. The
date gonna be January tenth, it'll be on his own
and they're going to go to a place an arena
in Oberhaus in Germany. UH and and try to read
you know, not only for Cabrio, but in general terms,
sort of try to build up the German scene because
it's a They've got great fans there and it's been

(33:15):
a hotbed in the past, and there's no reason not to,
uh to try to bring something back to those fans
who you know, there were times in the day where
you know, Clitchko would do a heavyweight defense and be
on UH on their network RTL that he was associated with,
they would have tens of millions of viewers, tens of
millions in a country where in the United States in
those same timeframe, you know, maybe you get a couple

(33:37):
of million on HBO and a country that's you know,
ten times bigger. So so the market can be there
for the right fighter.

Speaker 1 (33:44):
Tell It tells you that if you're active and they're interested,
there's still fight fans that are around.

Speaker 2 (33:49):
And RTL is paying like, you know, seven eight million
dollars to do a clinical event, besides what the other
places around the world were paying, and HBO and the
gate that was sold out of the arena. So they
look at that as a very as a very fertile
market to try to rebuild a little in Germany. And
Tabiel is obviously a guy that feel like they can
do some business with their.

Speaker 1 (34:09):
All right, let's get to some more news real quick.
You've been talking to us about the Janabec eras Landy
Laura three belt middleweight unification fight. Give me, give me more.
Now it's now.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
You want the T you want the T daddy, T go,
I'll give you the T daddy. So my reporting tells
me that yes, this fight, of course was being discussed,
but now I'm told it is signed and it will
take place on December sixth. It will be the co
feature on the PBC on Prime Video card where the
main event will be Pitbull Cruise against Lamont Roach Junior
taking place in San Antonio. This will be to unify

(34:41):
three of the belts in the weight class. You know,
Janabec has already got two of the titles. He's got
the WBO in the IBF title. Yeah, Arislandi Laura Who's
got the WBA title And at long last, after however
many years it's been in terrible, horrible mismatch fights, Laura's
fighting a real guy for the first time in ages.
He has made a liv stealing money as of middleweight,

(35:02):
stealing money in the latter days of his Jinger middleweight
days against complete stiffs or no counts or guys that
didn't belong in the ring with him. You know, Jannenbeck
may not be the highest profile champion, but he is
an Olympian, he is undefeated, he's thirty, he's younger, he's strong,
a lot of bouts. So this is this is interesting
and and the fight itself is not necessarily two guys

(35:25):
with big fan bases, but as a fight to add
some depth, to add something important in terms of a
three belt unification uh to this undercard that they're going
to do on December sixth. To me, I find it
to be intriguing. And Laura, who I was critical of
a thousand times for being one of the most boring
fighters in the world for many many years and then

(35:45):
later ended up having that fight of the year back
twenty eighteen ish I want to say, or twenty seventeen
against Jared Hurd. Ever since then, as he has slowed
down a little bit, He's always had the skills, and
he always had we now know he has a heart
the skills to not get into two tough fights obviously,
but now that he has no choice because his legs
aren't what they were when you know, he ran around

(36:07):
the ring for twelve rounds against Canelo, as he's kind
of stand forced to stand and fight a bit more,
and it makes the fights better for the viewers who
were paying attention. And so that'll be a nice fight
for that undercard. Yes, And then this is what I
think about further down the road, besides just the fact
that there's three belts to be unified, in that it
may provide the opponent if Terrence Crawford there, especially if.

Speaker 1 (36:31):
It's Janna Back who's the younger, bigger puncher, and the
intrig I mean, I don't know if Laura wins like
a boring, awful decision. I'm just saying we can't have
good things. I don't know how appealing that is.

Speaker 2 (36:41):
But if Crawford wants to fight and he doesn't want
to defend against the big monsters at sixty eight and
he says over and over, I'm not going back to
fifty four because I can't make that weight anymore. And
the the sweet spot is one sixty. You want to
go for some stakes out. That's not a big superstar
name either guy. But you know what, he could win
a title, getting another weight class against and pick up

(37:02):
three more belts and just keep adding to his collection
of hard Where he's gonna need a he would need
a bigger, a bigger, a bigger cabinet, probably in the
in the den like the Rayfield collection.

Speaker 1 (37:10):
He needs a new wing. He needs a new wing
of the building. All right, A couple more news, guys, I.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
Didn't tear down my east wing like they didn't. Watching.

Speaker 1 (37:17):
I understand you don't have one hundred and thirty million
dollars innovation in the way I didn't think.

Speaker 2 (37:21):
So I'm gonna go to a ballroom in the end
of my house.

Speaker 1 (37:23):
There's news on Tim Zoo and interesting you did say before,
maybe he's got to change the dynamic. Who's in the corner,
et cetera. And you have you have learned what's the
latest here, what's going on?

Speaker 2 (37:36):
Well, I would know this isn't so much tea. This
is uh, this is Tim's I'm gonna start using that tea.
This is Tim zoo posting on his social media Instagram.
I follow him on Instagram and he announced and this
is not a surprise that he made a trainer change.
I didn't necessarily know who he was gonna go with,
but he had been trained for his entire career by
a man named igor uh Golo golo Ubev in Australia.

(37:59):
That was just trainer got him to the title, and
obviously he helped develop him. But Tim has been in
some rough times over the last year and a half
or so, and he's coming off of that loss once
again to Sebastian Fundora in July where he was completely
outclassed and retired on the stool, and that was a
pretty devastating loss. He had gotten the harsh knockout losses.

Speaker 1 (38:17):
He is in a real crossroad situation right now with
these knockouts to Bachrum and then to Fundora.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
Yes, absolutely so, he made the decision to and and
after he lost against Fundor in the in the July fight,
there was some that we're saying like he should retire,
which I you know, I kind of found that was
a little bit dramatic in my mind. He's thirty years
old and you know, had the three losses. But still
that didn't seem to me the time you're going to
call it a deck. But he did say that he
was going to fight it, you know, continue to fight, okay,

(38:44):
and at that point you're like, he's going to probably
reorganize this team to some degree, and that's what he
has announced that instead of staying with his longtime trainer,
he's going to now train in Miami under the guidance
of Pedro Diaz. Pedro Diaz worked with a bunch of
the Cuban olympian through the years. He you know, out
of Cuba, was very integral on their national team preparation

(39:05):
in the terms of the professional assignments. I first, I think,
in my off the top of my head, first time
I ever met Pedro and uh and got to know
him a little bit, was he he ended up being
the trainer, uh for Miguel Coto for for some of
his bigger fights. Uh when when when he went looking
for a trainer change. He's also was known to have
trained Giromo Riggando, who was obviously one of the top Cubans.

(39:27):
He trained for a for some time a little bit
with Philip Perkovich, the heavyweight. So this is a guy
that's vastly experienced, that's got respect from pretty much everybody
in the business. And uh, the thing about it was
when Zoo was deciding what he's going to do. Uh,
I didn't know this until it was talked about on
I think it was on one of the Australian Fox
or news channels whatever, that that Tim had come to

(39:48):
the United States to do what a lot of guys do.
Anthony Joshua had done this before. Guys did do this.
They came to basically do the rounds in America to
try out different gyms and stee they might mess with,
make appointments with different trainers. So apparently Tim not only
did he come to America and have some time where
he worked with Pedro Paedo Diaz, he also went and
worked a little bit with Abel Sanchez, a top notch trainer,

(40:10):
a guy that's been on the Hall of Fame. Ballot
went and worked out in La with Rudy Hernandez, who
was a very very underrated trainer. He's best known these
days as the trainer for a Junto Nakantani and Anthony Olaskagua,
the brother of the late champion Genera Hernandez. So he
was going with top notch guys and he just decided,
as he said, Pedo Diaz was his guy. So we'll

(40:31):
see if that can work and if he can mayke
a come back.

Speaker 1 (40:33):
Yeh, he has got an uphill climb after a couple
of big ko losses for a guy that you know
again huge superstar in Australia. But that is past tense
right now with those two defeats. Okay, speaking of superstars,
we have news on Manny Pacquial's son making his professional debut.

(40:55):
Tell us more and we got to wait a little
bit relative right now. But what's going on.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
So Paci always had a promotional company was longtime MP Promotions.
Now they've rebranded at Many Pakiao Promotions. They've promoted shows
in the Philippines through the years, but they're going to
be doing a series of events now in the United
States and their first one is going to be on
a November twenty nine. Sean Gibbons, who is Many's right
hand man and been the longtime guy that runs Anti

(41:20):
Promotions down many Pacio Promotions. He said to me that
this was going to be televised on ESPN de Portez
here in the United States. But anyway, they're doing a
card at the Pachanga Resort in Temecula, California, and on
that show, not the main event will be the co feature,
not because it's a big fight, but because it's Manipacio's son.
Many Pakio Junior goes by the nickname Jimuel, that he
is going to make his professional debut. He's been training

(41:41):
as an amateur for the last three years or so.
As trainer is Marvin Simolio, who is the longtime assistant
trainer for Many Packyo Senior and has been in the
Wildcard Gym with Freddie Roach for years. That's where his
son trains and he's turning pro on that card. So
he's in a four round lightweight fight. The opponent that
they picked out from is nobody you ever heard of.
Is a guy also making his professional debut in Brendan Lally.

(42:04):
But anytime you have the son of one of the
greats of all time turn and pro, it's something that
I would think people might be interested to check out.

Speaker 1 (42:13):
One more bit of news item and It's kind of
like in the preview mode because we normally tape on
Thursday leading into Friday and Thursday night. You did mention
this fight Thursday night. Now is the fight between MICHAELA.
Mayer going here against Mary Spencer for the WBA Women's
Junior Middleweight Championship.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
Fight.

Speaker 1 (42:32):
It's in Montreal. Just once again for the audience here
that maybe didn't hear what you said before, this is
coming up here later this week.

Speaker 2 (42:40):
Well, Michael has established herself as one of the best
female boxers in the world. She currently holds the w
bo's welterweight titles. She had previously been a unified champion
in the junior lightweight division. She's moved up the scale
and after she had the two excellent fights with Sandy
Ryan where she won this WBO title and then defended
the title. What you really wanted and I really thought

(43:01):
there was a good chance this what happened. She was
calling out Lauren Price, who has the other three belts
she had unified against Natasha Jonas, and that would be
a pretty big fight, certainly in Wales or in the UK.
You know, prices from Wales would have been like a
pretty big deal. I guess there was some conversational I
guess they didn't really go too far. Mikaela, you know,
who's always wanted to fight the top opponents out there,

(43:23):
was getting a little bit frustrated, and so she decided
that they could take this opportunity for her to move
up and go for a title on a third way
class and take on Mary Spencer, who's from Montreal. They're
gonna fight the Montreal Casino, a place where Mary Spencer
has fought. You know, this is gonna be her fifth
consecutive fight in that in that building, so clearly a
hometown advantage if you will, for Spencer. But Spencer's also

(43:44):
only ten and two with six knockouts. She's forty years old.
She was a top amateur, but it's been a long time.
She was an Olympian back in two thousand and twelve.
The Kayla was the United States Olympian in twenty sixteen.
So she's much younger by five years at thirty five,
and she's going on going to the home turf. Spencer
had had to grab another title, and if you watch
Mikaela Mayor, she's been in a lot of good fights

(44:07):
as far as entertainment, value for on the female side
of things, she's pretty much always given, you know, pretty
good value for the money. Which he unified at one
thirty against Hamadusha was one of the great fights that
you'll ever see. Actually was ringside for that fight. Tremendous
battle in Las Vegas. So anyway, as women's fights go,
we've discussed as plenty of times, it's a lot easier
to make sometimes these unification fights where the fights where

(44:29):
the top females fighting each other sometimes and it is
for the men because they have fewer options. There's obviously
it's not it's become a lot more lucrative, but it's
still not on the same level as the top male fighters.
We discussed on the last show. Those in the United
States that want to watch the fight. Top Rank, which
we've discussed a thousand times, does not have a TV
deal or a streaming deal, but they do have their

(44:49):
Top Rank Classics Fast channel that you can watch this fight.
They're gonna put it on their fast channel on all
those fast channels that are out there to be and
Pluto and Roku had said, and so that's how folks
can watch it on Thursday evening.

Speaker 1 (45:03):
So again that's on Thursday night Women's world title fight
for I.

Speaker 2 (45:07):
Wanted to see the Price fight. I really want to
see Michael in Price. I thought that'd been a hell
of a fight.

Speaker 1 (45:11):
Stay tuned, you still might down the road, maybe we
can have good things true on that. All right, nostalgia time?
Can it really have been thirty five years ago? Coming
up now? In fact, thirty five years ago Saturday, we're
doing this Sunday night and a Monday. So thirty five
years ago on October twenty fifth, nineteen ninety that A

(45:32):
Vander Holyfield became the undisputed heavyweight champion, thus ending the
lightning in the bottle rain of James Buster Douglass some
eight months after he upset Mike Tyson in Tokyo, Japan.
It was over in less than three rounds with one
booming punch. All right, let's talk about it, including the
background of how we got here. That's fascinating because there

(45:54):
wasn't a whole lot to the fight other than Douglas
laying on the mat like a each whale as he
was counted out for the undisputed title. But as he's
rubbing his nose looking up and and it's over with
one shot. You know, but the the build up to
this was in the court rooms. It was in the
courtrooms for Buster Douglas freeing himself from Don King to

(46:16):
make this fight happen. And then holy Field pulls the upset,
and it really changed the dynamic of the heavyweight division.

Speaker 2 (46:22):
Really for any time, anytime the undisputed championship changes hands,
it's not only a massive event in the ring, it's
a cataclysmic thing in the business. And so that was
definitely the case when holy Field knocked out Buster Douglas.
Of course, most people were hoping that you know, Douglas
was supposed to be a speed bump fer Mike Tyson
go to you know, for him to go over to Tokyo

(46:42):
and pick up you know, and however many millions of
dollars for a quick night at the office. And then
the next fight was supposed to be the Evander Holytail fight,
which was what everybody had looked forward to for years.
It had been postponed previously because of an injury, and
it didn't happen. And then, of course Buster Douglas scored
the big giant upset, but he was still the mandatory
so the organizations, you know, he got his shot the

(47:05):
holy Field. Holyfield had been the champion that cruiser weight.
He'd been biding his time and then put together a
nice string of wins at heavyweight, and so you know,
he got the title. Some people, I feel like they
kind of downgraded a vanter because when he got the
un disputed heavyweight title, he didn't do it against Tyson.
He did it only against Buster Douglas. But I always
felt that was on faery. He certainly ended up proving
his point, you know, many years later when he when
he beat Mike Tyson twice on the on the knockout

(47:26):
and then the ear biting disqualification. But once once, uh,
Buster had won the title and he had become an
overnight sensation. He can't even underreest he can't even understand
how big of a deal Buster Douglas came. Yes, if
we weren't around at the time, I mean he was,
you know, instant fame. I mean as big as you
could see worldwide.

Speaker 1 (47:45):
Because the fight had happened in Japan. He's on the
cover of Sports Illustrated, He's on the cover of the covers.
He's all, yeah, Douglas, He's everywhere. And then again in
the build up to this he had to disentangle There's
a big world on the podcast himself from Don King.
I find it fascinating when you go back in the
nostalgia and you watch the immediate post fight comments and

(48:07):
interviews out of the ring in the arena that Jim
Johnson and Buster Douglas's people were saying, we're going to
fight a Vander Holyfield next. He's the mandatory We're going
to fight Avanner Holyfield next. Well, that's where Don King
tried to step in and say, no, I still have
a contract with you. It ended up going to federal
court and Douglas's team prevailed because they were able to

(48:29):
demonstrate that what a surprise, Don King had not lived
up to the contract he had with Douglas on the
number of fights he was supposed to give him. So
the judge basically said to Buster Douglas, you're free to
make another fight with somebody else if you want to,
and that's what's set into motion and negotiation in this fight.

Speaker 2 (48:46):
Vander was with Main Events, which at that time was,
along with Don King and Top Rank, the powerhouse of
boxing at least in the United States, if not the world.
They promoted. Evander had a lot of good fighters in
their stable, but ultimately the deal was not me and
it went to a purspit. Now, purse bids as we
know today, and most listeners weren't around back then, would

(49:07):
have no concept of this. Today, a purse bid is
you always see, okay, it's match from boxing bids or
top rank bids or you know whoever that that the
promoter of the fighters involved did on the fight. But
back then, the Mirage Hotel, which was like the new
gleaming gem of the Las Vegas trip, was the hot
place around was owned by Steve Win. Hotels and casinos

(49:27):
were also a licensed promoters and they could bid on fights.
And so this fight went to a purspit and there
was a huge amount of intrigue and what was going
to happen, who was going to win, how much was
going to go for it because this was a hot fight.
You know, Douglas became huge because of the win over Tyson.
The vander had a big name already from the Olympics
all the way through cruiserweights through heavyweights. He was a

(49:48):
well known fighter at that point. So at the time
this was the record perspit in the history of purse bids.
It was later broken. But the biggest purspit ever for
this time we got this is back in nineteen ninety
The Mirage, backed by Steve Winn, did thirty two point
one million dollars on this fight. So I forget what
the exact split was, but Buster walked away with tens

(50:10):
of millions of dollars whatever it was, and that's the
money that he basically lived on, you know, still living
on probably today to this right. But it was a
big pay per view fight back in the days when
showtime pay per view was called set uh, and they
had worked a lot with the vander Holyfield and they
put this on and the outdoors at the Mirage, and
it was a big deal. And during the course of

(50:32):
the build up to the fight, there was you know,
who's gonna win? They obviously everybody knew what had happened
with Tyson, and then Buster Douglas came to the way
in and as you said, looked a little like a
beach well, and I hear I've heard. I didn't. Obviously,
this is before my day covering boxing. I was in
college when this happened, but I remember years later when
I was on the beat at the beginning talking to
some of the veteran writers on hearing their stories. Uh.

(50:55):
And and I remember talking to some guys about this fight,
though I remember which one's exactly who were covering this,
and we're joking around half serious but half for real.
Is that when they saw what happened at the way
and then how Busser looked so terrible at the weigh
in and there and there were stories about how he
was like ordering room service in the sauna. I mean,
just crazy shit like that.

Speaker 1 (51:13):
And he's a good twenty two twenty five pounds heavier
than he was in Tokyo. It's opful. He was in
good shape and it was all spare, it was all
spare tire around the stomach. And he took the robe
off right for the weigh in and everybody went, oh
my god.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
Right and as the as the writers I was hearing
these stories from talked about how like people couldn't make
a B line fast enough to get to the sportsbook
to wager to get the best hots and put their
money all on a vander Holyfield. Uh. And then of
course it played out the next night when he showed
up in the ring with no change, and you know.

Speaker 1 (51:44):
Clearly, clearly slower out of shape, and holy Field spent
around or so trying to time him and trying to
time him in specific for a right hand, and.

Speaker 2 (51:53):
Then Douglas made one of the worst in the station.

Speaker 1 (51:55):
You and I have joked all the time that it's
one thing to have missed with a punch, but to
miss with an uppercut at range in slow motion was
just inviting Holyfield to blast him. And that's exactly what happened.
With one shot.

Speaker 2 (52:09):
He threw and missed a giant, lunging, wide uppercut and
Evander landed the absolute perfect right hand counter over it
right on the chin, put Douglas flat on his back.
And as I mentioned, as he's laying there taking the
count from the referee, he's wiping his nose to see
if he's got a bloody nose or whatever.

Speaker 1 (52:27):
He didn't even try to get up. He just laid there.

Speaker 2 (52:30):
He just laid there and they counted him out. And
you know the image I remember as you see like
he's laying on the canvas, and the team for Buster Douglas,
for Vander Holyfield, rather it storms the ring in celebration,
and you got the late Dan Duva who was the
patriarch of Main Events, the son of Lou Duva, the
brother of Dino Duva, the husband of Kathy Duva, basically

(52:52):
jumped over Buster Douglas's body as they start to celebrate,
and it's Buster, it's not Buster laying on the mat.
But you got the other group. You got Holyfield and
his team is corner, You've got Dan Duva, You've got
them all celebrating. Shelly Finkel, who was a Vander Holyfield's
manager at that time and did a tremendous job bringing
him up through the ranks to get him to the

(53:12):
heavyweight championship, and that that really made Events. Like I said,
they were a big, big deal company, but they had
never had the heavyweight champion. And now when you win
the heavyweight championship, your fighter, you now take control in
large measure of the top of the division. That was
a massive, massive, massive win for the company. And they
obviously went on and had a long and lucrative relationship

(53:33):
with Evander beyond that. But the pure joy in the
in the faces of of that team that won with
the folks remain Events and with a Vander having accomplished
what he did, he became by the way we make
a big deal about it now when somebody does it,
but this was the first time it ever happened, is
that a person had become in a multi belt era
the undisputed champion in two weight classes. This is back

(53:55):
in the time of the three belt era. Now Vander
had been the unified champion in the three out there
at cruiserweight and now he wins all the belts against
Buster Douglas. That was like a big fucking deal, I
mean huge. Now now we've seen it happen in the
four belt time, where you know, Terrence Crawford has dotted
in a third division out because of what he did
against Canelo Alvarez. We've seen two divisions with like for

(54:16):
example Noia. In a way Alexander Usik has also done
at a heavyweight and cruiserweight. But for Evander to do
that was a big, big, big deal.

Speaker 1 (54:23):
And again in the nostalgia, we never got a Douglas
Tyson rematch for this reason, that's what they had hoped
to have happened. It never happened, and and holy Field
and Tyson would not fight for six more years because
Tyson obviously went to prison after that. He got he
got charged with rape the following year in March of
ninety one or the summer of ninety one, and got

(54:45):
convicted in February of ninety two. So we didn't get
Holyfield Tyson tried to.

Speaker 2 (54:51):
Yeah, the holy Field Tyson fighted not happened on multiple occasions.
That was like a huge fight that people had wanted
to see. It was never a Vander's fault to fight
that happened. It was at one point he got injured
Doug ye and then he got a conviction and whatever.

Speaker 1 (55:04):
And then Douglas knocked him out and then holy Field
with the booming shot October twenty five, nineteen ninety became
undisputed heavyweight championship.

Speaker 2 (55:12):
I can still remember watching that fight in college at
a at a like an off campus party that we
had gone to, and people like chipped in to buy
the pay per view, and and uh, you know that
was when you did.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
The same with two college friends of mine in Memphis, Tennessee,
and I shout out to my college buddy Raylide. Well,
we were at Ray's house, we were shooting pool, we
were having a good time. We were watching the pay
per view and and you know, after about fifteen minutes
of the ring walk and the knockout, we were back
shooting pool again. I vividly remember that after that.

Speaker 2 (55:43):
It was a good time, crazy crazy in college, I
can remember two big pay per view parties I went
to for a big heavyweight title fights. One was the
Vander Holyfield against Buster and Douglas, and then not too
long later was when the Vander Holyfield defended the title
that he had won for Buster against George Truman, which
was even a bigger deal than the Dougle fight up.

Speaker 1 (56:01):
So there you go, thirty five years ago at the
time that we're doing this, Evander Holyfield becomes the undisputed champ.
And with that we have come to the conclusion of
another recap pod. My friend, have a good week. This week,
we encourage the Peaks again to follow subscribe on the
podcast feed apples Freak for Spotify. I'll also find our

(56:21):
YouTube page as well. Read Dan Substack the Fight Freak
to Night Substack subscribe up there beyond the newsletter all
of it, My friend, have a good week. As we
rolled towards Halloween is coming Friday and into the month
of November, we're almost done with twenty twenty five. Big
Dan have a good week.

Speaker 2 (56:38):
Thank you. You've bet TJ.

Speaker 1 (56:40):
There is our insider Dan Rayfield. I'm merely TJ Reeves.
You've been part of the Fight Freak to Nite Recap
podcast

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Fabrio Wardley Stuns Joseph Parker + Fight News And Holyfield-Douglas Nostalgia Too! | Fight Freaks Unite Recap