Jaron Ennis Scores Impressive KO, Fight News + De La Hoya vs Whitaker 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 has seen Jeron
Boots and has become the unified welterweight champion by virtue
of his stoppage of amintaestanionis we are ready to recap
that the entire matchroom dejone card in Atlantic City. We
have some news, we have some nostalgia and more. It
is the Fight Freaks Unite Recap podcast. I am the

(00:23):
somewhat capable host, TJ. Reeves. Hello to Big Dan, Rayphiel
Fye Freaks you night. After all is the substack in
the newsletter. You should be on both. You should be subscribed.
We always love the insight. You get news, you get nuggets,
you get updates, boxing schedules, the whole bit. If you're
on the substack and this here is the recap pod
that bears that same name, make sure to follow and

(00:44):
subscribe on the podfeed that you're on right now, like,
for example, if there's a specific fun thing like a
fortieth year anniversary of Haggler and Hearns. Because you're following
and subscribing, you get an automatic reminder or notification that
there might be a new show up. Besides what we
do previewing going into the weekend and recap going off again.

(01:05):
Is that a tease? I believe that could be a tease.
Good Big here at the beginning of the show, Big Dan,
good to have you. It's good to be Jaron Ennis
off the weekend. How are you feeling?

Speaker 2 (01:15):
I feel good. I think Boots Ennes probably feels better
than both of us combined.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Agreed with that performance. Can't say that we didn't expect
him to win, but an impressive showing. Over standionis, let's
get right into it. What stood out here because there
was a lot to like, I would think in front
of the roaring crowd as we theorized in Atlantic City.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
I mean, it was a great performance, that's the first thing.
I mean, it was a time where you've heard for
years how great Boutsennis is going to be, hadn't had
the opportunity thus far to fight another champion or another
fighter that was considered a legit top guy in his
weight class. He's bought some decent names, but they were
guys who were maybe you know, smaller who are coming up,

(02:01):
or guys on the back end of their careers. Lipinett's
for example, those types of opponents which he had done
the job against, but not somebody that had a level
of respect that Stanionis I think had from boxing fans,
from and just the industry, from media, et cetera. And
so when you hear that this guy's supposed to be
and I'll use the word, that just drives me crazy.

(02:22):
I hate the phrase, but people love the throat down
generational talent. Okay, if you're gonna be a generational talent,
then you gotta do what you did against the Stanionis.
And you know what, I don't know if Boots is
the generational talent that people claim he is, but at
the very least he did that. So that's a great
step in that direction by doing what he did to
not only win and force Stanionis's trainer, Marvin Simodio to

(02:46):
pull him out after around number six, but he he dominated.
I mean, in many ways, DJ it was. The level
of Stanionis Is not at the same level of an
Arrow Spence, but the way that Boots went about it
and the total destruction and dismantling was reminiscent of the
previous welterweight king, which was Terrence Crawford, who when they
were battling for welterweight supremacy as supposedly Jaron Ennis and

(03:11):
stani Ois were doing, given that they were undefeated, they
were both champions, the the Ring magazine title was at stake.
But the way that he went about and did what
he did to Stanionis was kind of like what Crawford
did to Errol Spence, where you left no doubt you
beat down this man, you dropped him, and you got
the stoppage. I mean it was you know, it was

(03:32):
a few rounds earlier, I mean than that, But I'm
just making the point that when I saw the way
it was, it was going down and it was clear
that it was a total domination from the beginning. By
the time we got in this fight to like, I
don't know, like rounds four to five, you're like, okay,
this is like that type of avalanche beat down where
the other guy just has oh.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
I mean, he was hammered into the body. He was
clearly scoring with the upper cut in particular. I thought
that was interesting. And once stani Otis was bleeding from
the nose and was getting staggered a couple of times,
I agree with you it was just kind of a
matter of time. Did it surprise you because he went down,
and I have not in full disclosure. I've been in

(04:11):
a couple of different worlds, including with the Master's golf tournament.
I read my Rayfield recap on the substack, but I
didn't see anything about a body injury, cracked rib or
anything like that to make me go okay, that would
be why you wave it off in the corner. I
was surprised that he didn't come back out to start
one more round and at least try it again. We

(04:31):
don't take the punches. It's easy for all of us
to sit here and go, oh, he should fight on.
He's been getting hit and cracked in the body and
in the face for the previous three or four rounds.
But what did you take of that?

Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah, he's lost every single round he knock down. His
face is a bloody mess. I don't know if this
is part of the reason, And maybe it was on
his mind or his trainer's mind, or they had the
conversation before the fight. His wife is like literally about
to give birth at any moment, right, and so he
obviously was not with her to go through with this
life altering fight in terms of the financial aspect of it.

(05:04):
So all that together it was a little surprising when
you're in your biggest fight by far like and it
may sound cruel and inhumane and whatever, but a lot
of boxing fans I had no Just to the record,
I had no problem with the stoppage at all, but
a lot of people feel like you should take a

(05:25):
little bit more before it's over. Now, if that's right
or wrong, that's you know, I can't answer that. Well, let's.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
To this, did he still have a chance to land
the huge punch? And that segues into he landed some
punches Boots in us and this has got to be
a concern for in us defensively. But just while we're
on this specific point, did he still have a chance
to land a big punch that could have altered the fight?

(05:52):
I mean, it's reasonable, but not likely.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
I agree it's reasonable. I mean, he landed some beautiful
left hands, but Boots took them really well. And I
thought that Boots it was defensively responsible. He didn't get
hit with crazy shots, but you know, it's a professional
boxing match. You're going to get hit, and not everybody
has the defensive abilities of the great defensive fighters of
all time. You know of a Willie Pepa Floyd Mayweather,

(06:16):
a Pernol whittaker, people like that. But yeah, I think
at that point he had so much taken out of
him already, the chances of him coming up with that
shot were not the best, I wouldn't think. But so,
like I said, I don't have a particular issue with
the stop, but Jen, I've known Marvin's emodio for a
very long time. He's worked with Freddie Roach for years
and years. He's a very quality guy and a compassionate guy.

(06:38):
And you know what, his guy will live to fight
another day. Stanionis is thirty years old, he's got one loss.
And you know, if in your career you go back
and look and said, you know, I did all the
things I did, and you know what, Okay, so I
lost to Joon Ennis, who may go on to do
you know, much greater things as time rolls on. That
won't look so bad on your record. Now. The one
thing about it is so now Boots will have the

(07:02):
label as being number one in the welterweight division. And
I think that's pretty clear no matter what your opinion is.
And this is not a knock on Stanionis or Mario Barrios,
who's got the ABEBC title, or Brian Norman, who's still
sort of a newcomer in terms of being a champion
with the w BO belt. The welterweight division is there's
some fun fights to be made between those guys, but

(07:22):
in terms of overall star power slash talent level and depth,
it's kind of down. I mean, Okay, Ryan Garci's coming
into the division, Devin Hainey's coming into the division, but
neither of them have done anything in the weight class.
We're going to see a t Tem Lopez in that
weight class, you know, in the near future, I would imagine.
But when you compare it to the recent era with
Crawford and Spence and Porter and Kahn and you know,

(07:46):
kel Brooke and Danny Garcia, Thurman, Lamont Peterson, you name it.
I mean all those fighters, this is not that weight class.
So while I respect what Boots did to stamp himself
number one, I've been reading a lot of stuff about
like you know, and and I listened to Eddie Hern
and I get it. He's this promoter, he's excited pound
for pound, tear up the list. He's number one. Give

(08:08):
me a fucking I need to I need to get
this off my chest. Like I said, you know, we've
discussed it a thousand times. I'm a big Boots Innis fan.
Tremendous fun fighter to watch, obviously very talented. I've had
enjoyable interviews with him on a number of occasions, so
all that is good. But I am not not just

(08:29):
in the case of Ennis, but anybody. I'm not anointing
anybody pound for pound or telling anybody he's a future
Hall of Famer or he's the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Because you're the fining win in a decade long career.
Is a monte Stanionis right, who again no knock Olympian, undefeated,

(08:51):
but not a very good reason.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
This is the first world champion you've beaten.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
Stanionis is a guy who has had a he was
coming off in this fight a one year layoff. It
was only his second or his first fight in his
second fight in three years. So it's one thing to
get that belt to unify the two titles. It's another
thing to also grab up the ring hold on the

(09:20):
Ring Magazine title, which is obviously significant. I get it.
I've been writing about that belt since they brought it
back many years ago. But I don't know. His biggest
win is what a no contest or not a win,
A no contest against Louis Colaso, a split decision against
the Buttajev, a decision against Thomas Delomey who got knocked

(09:41):
out by everybody. I'm just saying Stanionis's resume had nothing
on it. He was gifted a title because of the
secondary WBA thing. So again, respect for the performance, but
I need to see more before I tell you that
he is a generational talent and pear up the pound
for penalist, or that I can get that excited about

(10:02):
that particular a name on the resume.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
And there is a legitimate point to be made again
to circle back to it, in the last fight with Shikanzian,
and in this fight he got hit, and an argument
can be made if you're in with a world class
fighter that can punch, this is potentially troubled the way
I mean he got hit.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
I don't worry about that, but I'm.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
I'm just saying that on a night where he's in control,
he was in control, but he still got popped over
and almost like he gets a little lax and forgets
about the defense. I know Sergio more was pointing out that, hey,
he sometimes throws a punch and just stays in the
same place kind of with the hands down, gets hit.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
I don't to me, that's not necessarily disqualifying in terms
of pound for pound.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
I'm not saying disqualifying in terms of pound for pound,
but it brings up the point that if he's in
with a more powerful puncher, whoever it is, I don't
know who it is right now. Is this a concern?
You don't seem to think it's that much about not say.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
The reason why is because I can think of a
million guys who turned out to be greats of greats
who took punches, who are great fighters. I mean Brera Morales, Marquez, Pacio,
Oscar de la Hoya got hit. I mean, we can
go through a thousand guys who you know, Terrence Crawford
gets hit. You know, Errol Spence got hit. You know,
when he was at his best, he was getting hit.

(11:22):
I mean, there's plenty of guys that are We're either
elite in their weight class, unified champions. I'm the pounds
for poundless future Hall of famers. However, you want to
describe a number of those guys I mentioned or or
or got elected to the Hall of Fame. They get hit.
It's fucking a fight, so that that to me is
not a big thing. I just I'm I'm trying to
maintain my enthusiasm for it. Boots did, but not get

(11:44):
too out of control because we all have the the
it's you know, you're in the moment. I would try
to take Danius that you beat. But he didn't beat Parnell,
he didn't beat Floyd, he didn't beat Oscar, he didn't
beat pak Yaw.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
I got.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
I meant, by the way, you want to talk about
getting hit, gets hit?

Speaker 1 (12:04):
Yeah, So enough, Just one more? What is more likely
in your mind before we move on to the undercard
of the match Room show. Is it more likely he
sticks around and fights another welterweight title fight, maybe a
unification fight, or is it more likely he moves up
to one fifty four? You spoke to the man in
advance of the fight. He said, after it was over

(12:24):
to Chris Mannox in the ring on his own, I
gotta take some time with my family. I got I
gotta see what's out there. He then got pressed on
don't you want to move up to junior middleweight. Have
you had trouble make it win? And he again gave
the same answer, which is, I gotta take some time.
What do you believe is more likely he sticks around
it well to waiter moves up well.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
Number one, I always I always pause if the guy
gives some type of definitive answer about those types of
things in the ring after the fight. And you know,
I'm not saying it's a bad question. You're supposed to
ask it, that's fine. So this is nothing about the
asking of what your future is though I'm sure was
asked by many people after the fight, not just by
Chris and the ring, but it's also reasonable for the

(13:04):
for the athlete to say, you know what I just
fought five minutes ago. I just got you know, a
huge win, and I want to, like, let me give
me some time to take it in and to enjoy
it and before I have to think about getting back
into hard training camp. But what I want to do
in terms of business, however, he's now a unified champion,
and the question is who's he going to fight next?
So I if they can revisit the fight with with

(13:27):
you know, with another one of the champions, like if
they can go back and you know, well, I don't
know about what. I'm not sure what Barrios is thinking about.
I'm not sure what he's at. But he's got a
mandatory that's supposedly, uh gonna be that's yeah, I don't
know if it has been ordered supposed to be ordered.
You know, can they revisit the agree you know, the
conversation with Brian Norman. Remember back in the fall, they

(13:48):
were negotiating for a unification because at that moment it
was the only way that he could get away from
doing the rematch with Chakazi, and because under IBF rules,
you you can put that off if you unify, and
that was the only unification available. So they got down
the road on that. As it turned out, they were
like five hundred thousand dollars apart, and they went their
separate ways, and Norman then defended his title for the

(14:09):
first time, you know, a few weeks ago. Look very
good against you know, a lower level type of opponent.
So maybe they'll revisit that. I still think that would
probably be a pretty good fight. And I think that
even though you know, Ennis would certainly be the big
favorite in that fight. Brian Norman, I believe would compete
with him. Uh, you know, he's a good athlete with
good power and uh you know, youth and speed and all.

Speaker 1 (14:28):
That, and the timeline matches up. Yeah. They just mentioned
Norman having just caught a couple of weeks ago. They
could fight later this summer. Can we have good things?
I said it for the first time on the podcast.

Speaker 2 (14:37):
Here's where we want he's you know, because I don't
think the Norman fight's the next fight, that's my opinion.
I think what may happen, And and Eddie made the
point in the ring afterwards that they're going to take
him back to Philadelphia, which is smart, you fish where
the fish are. So all, I've had, you know, three
out of four fights in Philly, with the other fight
being Atlantic City, which is you know, a short down

(14:57):
a short drive down the expressway. Remember Gisov, who will
talk about him. Then he fought on the undercard, and
when Boots won the fight, he inherited Giusov as the mandatory,
which was Stanionis's mandatory. Remember, before Stanionis against Boots was made,
the fight between Stanionis and Giosov was ordered. Gisov was
also a matxroom fighter, TGB and PBC that work with

(15:21):
Stanionis had made a deal with Matchroom to do that
mandatory fight. It was supposed to be Stanionis against Giusov
on a Spring PBC card. In the end, they Giusov
agreed to step aside to allow this fight to take
place between Stanionis and Ennis. So it is not out
of the question that if they want to do some
type of quick turnaround and come back this summer or

(15:43):
you know, I guess whatever, it would be to take
him to Philadelphia and Eddie can make that fight in
two seconds, Ennis against Giosov, get the mandatory out of
the way, and look, you know, Gisov may not be
a well known guy, but he got some exposure on
the show. He was an Olympic silver medalist, he is undefeated,
et cetera. So I think that's a possibility. And you

(16:04):
also have to look at what Turkey Alshika has been
speaking of, and this again would be further down the
road before he gets to one hundred and fifty four
pounds weight class, which he'll be there eventually. It's just
a matter is that one more fight, two more fights?
You know about the May second card in Times Square,
if Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia win and they do
the rematch in the fall in Saudi Arabia and if

(16:25):
Tiafimo beats his guy Barbosa to retain the junior welterweight
title on that May second undercard. Turkey would like to
have Tiafimo fight his next fight on the same cart
in Saudi Arabia with the Hainy Garcia rematch, and said
he'd like it to be for him to go up
to challenge Boots Sends for the welterweight title. So if
you can't unify, there are worse things in the world.

(16:48):
To fight an undefeated Olympic medalist in a mandatory get
it out of the way, or to take on a
big name later in the year like tia Fimo Lopez,
which was a marquee fight as well that she'll be
very very well paid. So he's going to have a
huge amount of options. So his options would be the mandatory,
maybe tia Fimo later in the year. If ta Femo wins,
maybe there's the possibility of making a fight with Barrios

(17:10):
or with Brian Norman, or you know, go to one
fifty four where there's obviously a storyline about everything that
went on with the fight not happening against Virgil Artist
Junior and other junior middleweights. It's a hot division. It's
good to be the king right now, Bootsennez. He's got
a huge amount of opportunities. There'll be a lot of
money for him. He's got a good fan base, there's

(17:30):
plenty of opponents for him at fifty four and forty seven,
and because now, besides just being the champion and having
the belts, he also draws a crowd. So I mean,
he's got a lot going for him, and he's still
a superb fighter, and I look forward to seeing him
back in the ring against any of those types of guys.

Speaker 1 (17:47):
Good enough, I rest the uncroll we mentioned giosof did
knockout Franco o'campo.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
Was this was a rough one on gisof Okay.

Speaker 1 (17:54):
So, for the record, I did not see that fight.
I am aware that he scored the knockout. Do you
have anything else to add on that other domors?

Speaker 2 (18:02):
No, yeah, I mean the main thing about it was,
I mean, it wasn't like he beat a top guy
in terms of his victory against Frank Olcampo. This was
not like a well known opponent seventeen to three now
with eight knockouts at Argentina Argentinian fighter who he dropped early,
and then you know, finished off with seeing plan some
very tremendous body shots and beat them up. But the
thing that was so emotional about it was watching Gisov

(18:25):
in the interview number one. You know, it's always the
gamble when you're the mandatory and you've now risked that position.
So he did get safely through that to retain the position,
but it was very heartbreaking because if you followed along
with the news, it was about a month ago that
his two year old daughter, she died because she had
this very rare brain condition. Wow, so he's been in
the training camp going through this obviously, you know, losing

(18:45):
your daughter like that was that's more horrible no matter
what the scenario. But to be doing it when you
got a fight on your on your mind, which is
the future of your life and your family in terms
of your finances, you know, there was a lot of
pent up emotions. So when Mannix was in the ring
with him afterwards, I thought Chris did a really good
job with the interview. You know, he asked him about
the fight appropriately, but you know, you got to ask

(19:06):
about it, so he did in a very professional and uh,
I thought, good way. And you know, Giosov got all
choked up. I couldn't blame I almost got choked up
watching it and he started to cry a little bit.
But uh, you know, talking about we did it for
his daughter and everything. So you know, it's unfortunate that
it happened, obviously, but it's if he does get the
title shot. It's a huge part of the storyline of

(19:26):
the fight. I mean, you wish it wasn't, but it
is what it is. So yeah, I mean you catty
and not root for the guy. Sure, I mean to
go what he's been through like that.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
Both parents and that horrible thing. And thank you because
again this is why you are who you are, illuminating
that for those who were not aware, I was not
aware until you.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
Yeah, I'll tell you what to think about though, in
terms of Giosov, and this was the fight that opened
up the main card. I was at Gisov's previous fight
when he fought on the boardwalk in Santa Monica the
week you know, a few days before Terence Crawford fought
Magromov in Los Angeles, and you know, he won the fight,
but it was very unimpressive. He just sort of like
sort and again he was risking the mandatory position at

(20:04):
that time too. He kind of went through the motions.
I felt like he you know, he won. I think
officially he was a split decision or a majority of this,
even though I thought he definitely won the fight, but
it was nothing to write home. Aback, You're like, you know,
I'm not sure this guy is like a real contender.
He actually did look a lot better now. He was
fighting a similar sort of lower not I won't call
him a lower level opponent, but not in elite a
contender type, and he looked good. He had snappy punches,

(20:25):
he landed, like I said, some good shots. He you know,
he was very offensive minded like I said, dropped him
in the first round, and then the fourth round put
him down, uh you know, to the knee with with
a bunch of body shots, and you know, the guy
just wanted no more and let the you know, he
was there old I'll get up at ten and a
half kind of thing, and uh, you know, God got
a good knockout in that fight. So I'm not sure

(20:46):
I would I would pick him to beat Boots Ennis,
But considering he's an undefeated fighter, he is a mandatory.
He's coming off this knockout. He is a silver medal
winner in the Olympic Games. You know, if Boots has
to go that route, I don't really have a problem
with it, though you'd like to see more of a
marquee opponent.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
All right, So back to the co feature right before
the Boots fight. That was Raymond Ford and Thomas Matise.
Oh God, which Rayphael has on my rundown garbage fight
for the ages. That's one way to describe it. Now
you have to confess to me that you did not
live through this live. I will confess to the audience.
I picked it up in about round five, and I

(21:24):
could have picked it up in the final thirty seconds
of round ten and probably been a lot better off.
One sided Matise, I mean round after round Danny wouldn't
doing anything in his fight, had a bit of a
swollen eye. Ford in complete control, boring, one sided fight fall.
That's me saying that.

Speaker 2 (21:41):
Yeah, all right, So I mean, let's get this out
of the way. Ford won the fight one hundred ninety
on all three scorecards. And if you scored any round
for a tease, You're a fucking idiot and should be
excommunicated from the boxing unit. I mean that, that's the
clearest you know, if you want to you want to
teach a judging panel or you know, do us some
of I had to score a shutout.

Speaker 1 (22:01):
You want to see a shutout, We're going to show
you a shutout. This is how that.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
Was not even there was nothing remotely competitive or interesting
about this fight, you know, I mean, look for it.
You know, he did what he's got to do.

Speaker 1 (22:12):
I didn't.

Speaker 2 (22:12):
I didn't think it was a great performance. But you know,
at least he was there to fight. I mean, the
other guy just was not there. He was a you know,
a guy that just showed up for the pay day,
if you asked me. So as horrible as it could
possibly possibly get. So I need to illuminate with you
for a brief moment about the copy box. Now I
say it every time we discussed it. It's not the
end all be all, but it always serves, in my opinion,

(22:34):
as a quality guide to the to the fight. So
I asked you TJ Reeves, HM, my somewhat competent co host,
thank you. How pathetic was Matis is showing. Would you
like to know how pathetic it was?

Speaker 1 (22:46):
Let me put it this way, how pathetic was his
punch landed output in this ten round bout, Dan.

Speaker 2 (22:53):
It wasn't just landed, it was it was thrown also.
So first of all, uh, ray Ford outlanded him in
every round, which should go without saying. In the entirety
of a ten round fight, Thomas Matisse landed twenty four punches.
I've seen offensive minding guys land twenty four punches in
a round, in a or in a minute of a round.

(23:15):
Right in a round, though, he lands twenty four shots. Now,
maybe that's a credit to ray Ford's defense, but now
it really wasn't. No, And the reason why is because
in the entirety of the fight, a ten round fight,
he threw one hundred and twenty six punches.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
At I went to public school. That is roughly twelve
punches around for ten rounds. That is not an instant,
not existent output.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
Let me give you some historical data. Would you like
some historical data? Teachers in the doubt Copy Box has
been tracking boxing matches for forty years. Literally, they started
in nineteen eighty five, forty years, and they have tracked
definitely thousands of five five say, probably tens of thousands

(24:01):
of fights at the stage with all the events they
have done tens of thousands of fights in a ten
round fight in the history of their company in any
way class. This is not just like the one hundred
and thirty pound weight class where this bout took place.
In twenty six punches thrown are the fewest ever in
the history of a ten round bout tracked by copy
Box in forty years literally ever ever, now the twenty

(24:26):
six punches landed, that is the set. It's tied for
second worst of all time. Wow, this is how bad
it got when I'm looking at the stats sheet when
they when they sent it over, and you know, it
gives you the round by round, not just the totals,
but it gives you what they did per round.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
TJ.

Speaker 2 (24:43):
In the first round, Matisa landed zero out of four.
In the eighth round, he landed zero out of eight.
In the tenth round, he landed zero out of five. Now,
I tell you it's not as though Raymond Ford is
a bad A is a you know, he's a sound
defensive But again I say to you, he is not
Perna Whitaker. He is not Floyd Mayweather, right, he is

(25:04):
not Willie Pep. It is as heinous as it gets.
And so when I saw he had three, I've seen
It's rare, but it happens where a guy lands no
punches in a round, and usually it'll be like the
first round, the second round, fights getting started.

Speaker 1 (25:20):
In additions, fight where he didn't get knocked out. Yeah,
go get it, go get it under this.

Speaker 2 (25:24):
When I was here as zero and I see it
three times, I actually emailed to Bob Knobio, who's the
top guy at COPIAX, his company, and I was like, Bob,
I've been I've been reading your stat sheets and following
year and know your statistics and all that for twenty
five years as a journalist and obviously longer than that
watching you know, the the stats on television. I said,

(25:45):
I'd never seen three ophers in a fight ever, I asked.
I was like, is that you know? Is this? Am
I losing my mind? So he said he actually emailed
me back this morning Sunday morning. He says he went
over the top ten lists for the fewest punches landed
in a ten round fight and found that Matiza is
the only fighter ever ever to lands zero punches in

(26:06):
three different rounds in copy box history, and he followed
up so Lennon Castillo was a light heavyweight in two fights,
and Caine Salvin, who I've never heard of to be
quite a boy. They both landed zero punches in two
rounds in one fight. But now our hero Thomas Matisse.

Speaker 1 (26:26):
He has a record to himself of three donuts, three
bagels in a ten round fight where you didn't land anything,
all right, So that's hard to do. Okay, We've probably
given this too much.

Speaker 2 (26:39):
Time, and I'm infatuated with this.

Speaker 1 (26:41):
I understand with how bad that is. So now let's
turn it to Ford, Yes, and what does this mean
for him off of the dubious performance of his opponent?

Speaker 2 (26:51):
All right, So, as you know, he lost his featherweight
title in a very close fight by split decision to
Nick Ball last summer, and he then moved up to
junior light. Wait, this was his second win in a
row in the division and his hopes are on one
thing at this point. So he is with Matchroom Boxing.
There's a fighter named Eduardo Sugar Nunias who's also with
Matchroom Boxing. Eduardo Sugar Nunias is going to Japan to

(27:13):
fight for the vacant IBF Junior lightweight title on May
twenty eighth in Yokohama. He's taken on Massenary Rakishi, and
the great hope is if Sugar Nunyas, who probably will
be favored in that fight even though he's traveling overseas
to go to the other man's country, that if Nuniez
wins the fight, that he's hopeful and I think Eddie
would like to do the fight also to match Nunias
against ray Ford in the title fight. Obviously it's gonna

(27:35):
be It's not a mandatory, so you know, Nounyas is
gonna have to agree to it. He's gonna have to
work things up. But if he can win the title,
that seems to be the best pathway for Forward to
get to a title shot, you know, quickly.

Speaker 1 (27:47):
All right, So he did his part. Even if we
have a dubious opponent.

Speaker 2 (27:53):
Spot wise, I still can't get over those stats.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
Man. I'm with you. You have knights. Hey, look in baseball,
you covered baseball for a long time. You have Knights.
Have a no hitter where you can't get a hit,
can't get a hit in nine innings of a game.
But it's just kind of like the same thing here
when I when.

Speaker 2 (28:07):
I watched that fight a little bit, and I think
about those stats. You know, sometimes there's a movie that's
so bad you watch it like ironically, that's what this
fight is. This this fight is the boxing version.

Speaker 1 (28:19):
Let me let me let me flash one for you,
like it's spaking a flashing like Demmy Moore and Burt
Reynolds in strip Tea's so horrifically bad movie.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
What's the movie that was such a such a flop
with Mariah Carey.

Speaker 1 (28:37):
I'm trying to remember, Oh no, no, hold on, hold
on my wife? And was it Gie? I think it
was Gelie where you was with Ben Affleck or whatever.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
You watched the movie ironically, and yes, because it's so bad.
They tried a shack too.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
Is horrific and painful to watch with Jackie Mason And
what was it?

Speaker 2 (28:59):
Sober on an ironic basis, like they make it like
it's supposed to be like a real movie, but you
watch it in derision. When I think of that, That's
what I will always think of if I ever am
prompted to look at anything related that Ford versus Matisse
ever again.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
All right, So Amari Jones was the opposite of ten
rounds of boredom. This, this is the rising US Olympian
right back in the ring, three weeks after his first
pro fight. He's right back in the ring here in
Atlantic City, and he blitzed William Jackson inside of one round.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
Tell me more, no, like he did what he was
supposed to do. He turned pro a month ago, or
thereabouts three weeks ago. Actually, he scored a knockout in Orlando,
in his hometown. He got a secon round knockout. They've
been putting it in with guys with pretty good records.
But you know, if you explore underneath those records, if
you in the in the immortal words of our great
friend Steve Farhad from the old show box days, if
you go inside the numbers, or go behind the numbers,

(29:54):
as he would say, you'll see that there's not a
lot there. Because William Jackson, who was Amari Jones's opponent,
this was his fourth consecutive loss, third in a row
by knockout, and those were all since twenty twenty one.
But then you go back, he hadn't had his previous
fight since a draw in twenty seventeen, and before that
hadn't fought since twenty fourteen. I'm making the point that
since twenty fourteen, this opponent is zero to four with

(30:17):
one draw, including this Sami Jones knockout. So if you're
gonna put the guy that high up on the card,
and again, I get that he's in his second professional fight,
I'm not trying to rush him. I'm not saying anything
negative about Amaro Jones. I think he's a phenomenal prospect.
I just look at it like you should be that
high on the card if you're fighting a guy, whatever
his record is. That's that dubious of a backve.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
You love my humor and how I circle back to things.
So there's a very famous outdoor shop in Saint Petersburg, Florida, Tampa,
Saint Pete cler Water called Bill Jackson's William Jackson's Place,
any kind of outdoor whatever you wanted for hunting, fishing, kayaking, whatever.
What you're saying is the Bill Jackson of Bill Jackson's
might have been better than William Jackson in this case, MRI.

Speaker 2 (31:00):
But the bottom line is Amari Jones did what he's
supposed to do. He hit him with a you know,
he let him basically give his you know, a few
seconds of on rush to see if he could do
something crazy. It failed miserably, and Amari then took his time,
as it were, even though you know, he got the
knockout in like a minute and forty something seconds or
fifty something seconds, but he just waited and was very patient,

(31:20):
and when he got the opportunity in Jackson, you know
kind of got a little bit wildly. You know, he
counted him with a beautiful right hand, caught him right
on like almost I think it was like the rib
cage or in the solar plexus area, you know, in
the whatever on the side of the of the body,
and the guy just collapsed to the all fours and
you know, was counted out and looked like he was
an agony. So, I mean, he took a real good
shot in that fight. But Amari Jones is going to

(31:42):
stay active. I'm pretty sure that when we see the
next Matriom card that takes place here in the United States,
he'll probably be on it. I wouldn't be surprised, you know,
ed if at some point they bring Amari Jones to
the UK to fight on a Mattroom card in England.
Eddie has done that plenty of times in terms of
his American fighters as well as his British guys were
to bring him back and forth to give him international experience.
So Amaro Jones absolutely a fighter to watch, twenty two

(32:04):
years old, tremendous looking crosspect and you know this was
just another stepping stone as he moves along in his career.
But the longer picture is, you know, two years from now,
two and a half years from now, something along those lines,
you know we'll be talking about Amari Jones probably stepping
up into like you know, your title eliminator type fights,
taking the path like a Diego Pacheco has taken, or

(32:25):
taken the path like the Ma Williams has taken. The
guys who you can just tell have bright futures, but
this kid might be the best of that group.

Speaker 1 (32:33):
All right, So good recappage of the Mattroom desone show
in Atlantic City. Let's move on to some news. WBC
cruiserweight champion Badu Jack has a new opponent as he
gets ready to fight on the Canelo Williams Skull May
third show in Riod. Tell me more about what's going
on there to start the news off.

Speaker 2 (32:55):
Well, he was supposed to fight his mandatory who was
Ryan Ruzeki, and this was a fight that had been
made now for the undercart Rozick. He's an entertaining fighter
from Canada who had been waiting for this title opportunity,
and that was scheduled for the fight. And then last
week he tore his biceps in a sparring session, and
so they had to get into opponent and so and
without getting into there were ridiculous details of champions and

(33:17):
recess and all the craziness of what has occurred with
this WBC cruiserweight title. Because Jack had been the champion
in recess, he basically, to make a long story short,
he switched places with Noel mckellon, who had won the title.
Because Jack had gone up and weight, or was attempting
to go up and wait in an effort to win
the Bridgerway title. He couldn't get the fight anyway. He's

(33:38):
then reinstated as the WBC's champion. McCallan was having fights
postponed for various reasons, injuries, and then he was in
a contract dispute with his promoter Don King et cetera.
And so Jack was then reinstated, and now McCallan as
the guy who was not injured any longer and has
worked out whatever his issues are with Don King. When

(33:59):
Rozie he got injured, he was the guy that was like, okay,
my chance. So basically this is like your current WBC
champion against the guy that never lost it in the
ring in McKellan. And amazingly, because Don King, even at
ninety three years old, can still drive the hardest bargain
in the world, they were able to work out the
deal and so in my opinion, they actually get I

(34:20):
don't know how prepared McKellan is, but on paper he's
probably a little bit of a better gradeive fighter than
Riziki is, so he gets this opportunity. So this will
be on that Canelo undercard, and it's a pretty good
fight if you ask me, I mean, if you are
interested in cruiser weights. I mean, Jack has been in
the weight class but only had the one fight when
he won the title and was off and then you know,

(34:41):
was searching for that other opportunity. So you know, they're
both coming off layoffs. But both guys can hit a bit.
Both guys get hit a bit, so as an undercard
fight for this show solid and just to make the
point here, the key here is be able to come
up with like a very solid replacement fight on a
few weeks notice. So that's your situation with bed due
Jack in that one.

Speaker 1 (35:01):
On the undercart of the Canelo May third card. All right,
a couple of other announcements about possible fight sor right,
So the WBO has granted an extension on the Sebastian
Fundora Xander zaiaz about mandating the fight. Are they gonna
get a deal done on their own? Tell me the latest,
because we did talk about the possibility of Fundora and

(35:22):
Xander Zaiez back a couple of weeks ago when Fundora
won by knockout.

Speaker 2 (35:25):
Right, So it was like a day or two after
that fight between Fondora and Cordel Booker, when Fundora won. Well,
at the fight itself, you had Zia's ringside posing for
pictures with Fondora in the ring after the fight, because
that he knew he was going to be made the mandatory.
Everybody kind of knew that. It just you know, and
Gustavo Olaveri, who was the president of the WB had
put on a social media that he would recommend to

(35:46):
their championship committee to officially appoint Zias as the mandatory,
you know, and like that Monday or Tuesday or whatever
day it was. They did, in fact do that. So
you had Top Rank, which is the promoter for Xander Zias,
and PBC and TGB, which work with Sebastian Vandora Samson Lukawitz.
They were meeting for lunch with the top ringing people

(36:06):
with every intention to try to make this fight, you know,
for sometime this summer. And so the official order went
down and they had a certain number of days to
negotiate a deal or the WBO would order a purspit.
But the thing about this particular situation is that you've
got two sides who are interested to make the fight,
who are working towards making the fight. So what happens

(36:27):
in those cases is jointly they went to the WBO
and said, hey, guys, you know, we're getting close, or
can you give us a little bit more time. And
so there's no reason not to do that. There's no
one being hurt, both sides are on board, so as normal,
the WBO granted that extension. So Gilb Gustavo Oliveri, the
president of the WBO, announced that they had extended that
negotiating period till April twenty fifth, at four pm Eastern time,

(36:50):
and so if they don't have a deal by then,
then they'll schedule a perspit. But it feels like they'll
probably make a deal. We talked a little bitout last
week about there's not anything official, but a top rank
and PBC certainly are interested to work together a little
bit more than maybe they have in the past. They
have fights that make sense. This is a mandatory, so
it's not even like they're just doing it just to

(37:11):
do it. Both fighters seem to want to fight. It's
an interesting matchup. But I think if you asked, you know,
boxing fans. So I feel like this extension is a
good thing because it tells me they're probably getting closer
to a deal and just need to you know, hammer
out a few details, and you know that does take
them take some time. So I hope that it gets
done and we'll see this fight probably. I would think
if it does get squared away, maybe July, maybe August,

(37:33):
but you know, this summer, all.

Speaker 1 (37:35):
Right, another fight that is being discussed top ranking PBC
are talking about o Shaky Foster, WBC Junior Lightweight Champion
and potentially Steven Fulton. What do we know? How realists stick?
What do we think? What do we hear?

Speaker 2 (37:52):
Well, it is realistic. I mean Tom Brown from TGB
Promotions and you know who works obviously extremely closely with
PBC promotes all the shows, was in Atlantic City as
one of the representatives with Stanionis who was talking to
some of the some of the media people. And this
had been kind of a rumor for the last little
bit that while Stephen Fulton had just won the WBC's

(38:15):
federweight title in February with his rematch victory against Brandon Figueroa,
he wants to go up and wait and O'shaki Foster,
who is the wbc' one hundred and thirty pound champion,
who's with top rank, he is in an optional period.
He does not owe a mandatory Remember, I kind of
got on their case because instead of making O'shaki Foster
against Emmanuel Neverette, they went ahead and made Emmanuel Neverette

(38:37):
against a guy that most people never heard of, and
O'shaki was still an optional period. Well, maybe this is
the reason because there have been some conversations about that
fight taking place, so like it's kind of a fight
out of nowhere, Like I don't think it's a great fight.
I don't think it's a bad fight. But it's it's
cool that you have one champion from a lower weight
class trying to go up to the next weight class
to try to win yet another title, because Fulton would

(39:00):
be going for a title in a third division. He's
been a titleholder at one hundred and twenty two pounds,
he's the current title holder of one of the organizations
at one hundred and twenty six pounds, and so this
will be a chance at one thirty. And you know,
Oshaki is not a guy that's ever ducked or dodge anybody.
So you know, that's a solid matchup if they can
make it. I'm not sure, you know, they didn't say,
like what you know what Carter would be on. It
will probably be its own headliner at some point, but uh,

(39:22):
you know, it's sort of just a kind of kind
of an out of the blue kind of fight. But
not bad, you know what I mean, not a bad fight.

Speaker 1 (39:29):
All right. One more piece of news and that is
the WBC revealing details of their upcoming four division Grand Prix.
The first stage of this is in Saudi Arabia, what
later on this weekend, So tell me more about what's
going on here. I saw something about how it's prospects
that are involved in multiple divisions here, So tell me

(39:53):
more about what's going on with the WBC Grand Prix.

Speaker 2 (39:57):
Well, I think this is a pretty interesting idea. I'm
glad to see that they did. It's a chance to
sort of build some of these younger guys that we
don't know about. And the idea here is by the
time these four tournaments are over, that they'll have some
fighters that, even if they're not the winners, that they'll
have made a little bit of a statement, made a
little bit of a name for themselves, and garnered some
much needed attention to their careers. So, if you go

(40:17):
back to December when the WBC held its annual convention
in Germany, they announced that they were going to do
this and Turkey al Chic was a partner in it.
They were going to be involved as well. And so
you said, it starts coming up April seventeenth to April twentieth.
This will take place in Riad and they're doing it.
You know it's not a big arena'll do it at
what they're called the Global Theater. They're in Read. If

(40:38):
you're in Read, the tickets are free. Actually no, you
don't have to pay for me. You just got to
go and register at the link that's on the WBC
website and you can get free tickets. If you're in
Saudi Arabia and you're listening to our podcast, there's your
hot tip of day. But that's also good because you know,
you get people in the arena'll to let them check
these young guys out. But anyway, so they're doing and
again this was stuff that was announced in the in

(40:59):
the convention. They're doing a tournament in the junior welterweight division,
the middleweight division, the heavyweight division, and the featherweight division.
And they've started. If you take a look at their website,
I ran a picture of one of the draws they
started to unveil what the what the draws are. They're
not going to be fighters that most people recognize. What's
intriguing to me is that they've got fighters from all

(41:19):
over the world, all kinds of countries represented. So for example,
in the featherweight division, they got eighteen countries in the
junior walterweight division's twenty one countries. Wow, So that you
know this is that's good number one, and they're gonna
have it's one hundred and twenty eight total fighters, so
you know, divided by four, and they're gonna run those
sixty four fights over the first four days. I just

(41:41):
mentioned each of those weight classes. But the thing that
was cool that I said, oh, it'll be on his own,
by the way. So but they announced a few more
details besides unveiling the names of who was going to
be in it. What the draws are in the first
round and the first round of these are six round bouts.
I think they're going to go up to eight round bouts,
as they call the field, and I think the finals
our ten rounds. Will see if that holds up. But

(42:02):
a few things about it. A and this is something
that I'm not surprised by because the WBC has championed
this for a long time. Uh, They're going to use
open scoring. So after the second round and after the
fourth round, the scores will be made public to the viewers,
to the people in the arena as well as to
the to the boxers.

Speaker 1 (42:20):
Participants will know.

Speaker 2 (42:22):
So there's that aspect of it. Uh. The winner gets
to hose a Suliman Trophy, which is named in honor
of Mauricio Suliman's father, who was a person that had
championed this type of grant pre activity for a very
long time. So the way Mauricio explained that this is
sort of the the the realization of a of a
dream of his father to have this sort of international

(42:42):
tournament involving, you know, these young fighters. So that was
something that they had worked on. It never came to pass,
but now it is happening. No draws, TJ. Let's hear
it for no draw So the way that it was explained,
I actually Mauricio posted a video that he did explaining
this on the WBC's website. If there is a draw
after six rounds, they will use what they call enhanced scoring.

(43:03):
And so when each judge scores the round by round
they have any showed what I've seen this before. They
have a paper and it has whatever your score is,
you still check a box of how you characterize the
round either close, moderate, decisive, or extreme. And so what
they'll do is each of those boxes that cat Shok

(43:23):
get checked off will get assigned to numerical value, and
if the fight is a draw at the end of
the round, they'll use that numerical value on the three
judges scorecards of those now eighteen scored rounds, you know,
you know, six rounds times three judges, right, and they'll
and they'll figure out the winner based on that. If
that turns out to be a draw, which seems to
be unlikely, then it's like fuck it, We're going to

(43:45):
talk to our three supervisor three supervisors, and they're.

Speaker 1 (43:47):
Going to pick the winner right on who they think.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
They'll have backup fighters on hand, so we don't have
to worry about dropouts.

Speaker 1 (43:54):
It's like pro wrestling. There must be a winner. Yeah, example,
So if you're out, who won these fights in the
grand draw no draws, and they're gonna they're gonna ring
a buzzer right, well.

Speaker 2 (44:04):
Hold on, right. They'll have backup fighters, so you don't
got to worry about fights. If there's if a guy
doesn't make the weight or there's a medical issue or
an injury, they'll have somebody on standby to filling them.
You know, they'll draw some of those folks from uh,
perhaps losers that performed well in earlier rounds of the tournament.
They will use instant replay if necessary, which I totally
support and wish it was used more often. And you mentioned,

(44:25):
you know in current boxing, when they get to the
ten second part of a left and around you hear
a clapper. Uh in this they're going to and I
think this is a good idea. Actually I love this,
and I think it will make it for better thirty
seconds into the round is they're gonna have a buzzer
so everybody knows, like, you can't miss the fact that
there's thirty seconds left the clapper. Sometimes people miss thirty

(44:46):
second buzzer, you know, how much time is left. A
guy can choose to pick up his offense, which is
oftentimes what happened, you know, taking the playbook from Ray
Leonard from years ago against Marvin Hagler and so oh.
And another thing, the judges. Typically the judges sit right
at the ring apron and they're kind of even up.
They can put their elbows on the ring that they're
going to have. The judges in their positions sit on
higher chairs, which theoretically will give them a better angle

(45:10):
of what's happening. Because I've been at ringsided many times,
not necessarily in the position of a judge, but even
where the judges sit, you find yourself having to kind
of look up a little bit, maybe looking the side
if the referee gets in the way or something in it.
So you don't always have the perfect angle to see
the shot. If you're a little bit more elevated but
still close, you probably have a little bit better way
to see what's happening, and that can't hurt. So I
feel like that's a pretty good idea as well. And

(45:31):
so you add all together and it's like these are
most of these are good things, and perhaps they'll use
it as pilot programs to implement in their actual fights
in terms of the no draw type of situation. Whatever.
But I'm looking forward to this. I think this is
a great idea to introduce a lot of young fighters
who I think probably will be somewhat evenly matched based

(45:52):
on the records and the amateur backgrounds a lot of
these guys have. And you know, if they can create
out of this opportunity for young fighters on a higher level,
that's good. And if you can create a couple of
guys that get some notoriety or gain some public traction,
because of their performances in this type of tournament situation.
That's a good thing. And so again, this starts next

(46:13):
week and it'll be spaced out over the remainder of
the year. They'll have the second batch of fights later on,
and so on and so forth before they get to
the final. So it'll be another event in June, another
event in August, another one in October, and then the
grand finale in December.

Speaker 1 (46:28):
Interesting on all of that. All right, let's get to
some nostalgia. And as I mentioned at the top of
the pod, we are well aware that Tuesday, April fifteenth
is the fortieth anniversary of Hagler Hearn stand by loyal
podcast audience. We're doing a lot more with that on
its own. That being said, look for that here in

(46:49):
a day or so as we release a podcast Sunday
and a Monday. All right, with that, there are a
couple of other interesting anniversaries, including going back twenty eight
years ago. So forget about going all the way back
forty years ago. How about go back twenty eight years
ago to April the twelfth of nineteen ninety seven, which,
with the anniversary, is back on Saturday the day before.

(47:11):
We're taping this. Oscar dal La Hooya, Pernell Whittaker to
Hall of Fame. Legendary fighters squared off. Perfect here to
start up the nostalgia with two names like that. Give
me some more, Dan Rayfield.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
Big big fight. This was a huge fight. I mean
I wasn't obviously covering boxing. I was still a couple
of two three years away from my time of reporting
on boxing, but I remember this as a fan. This
was huge build up, I mean massive fight. Oscar dale
Hoya had been the WBC's junior welterweight champion. He had
knocked out Julio Sesar Chavez on cuts. He had defended

(47:47):
the title in a brilliant performance against Miguel Angel Gonzalez,
who was forty one and er at the time, and
now he's moving up to one hundred and forty seven
to challenge the great Pernol Whitaker, who at that time
he was the champ. I mean, I hear a lot
of revisionist history that he was done at that point.
He was not done at that point at all. He
had a highly controversial loss to Ramirez, and he had

(48:08):
the even more controversial draw with Julio Sesar Chavez. He
was forty one and one and a long reigning welterweight
world champion and shutting guys out and making them look
fucking silly in doing so. So I don't I mean,
maybe he wasn't at his all time pinnacle, but Pernel
Whitaker was not a shot fighter at this time. Now,
his fight before the Delaia fight, you can look at

(48:30):
it and I can understand why. You know, there was
certainly signs of some degradation he had had in nineteen
ninety six. You know, a year or so earlier, he
had had a very close fight that he won by
split decision against Wilfredo Rivera, which we still won the fight.
I didn't think it was like a loss at all.
He then won a rematch against Rivera and that was
again competitive, but he clearly was the winner. It was

(48:52):
when he got to the fight that was to set
up the Delaaa fight. He was gonna fight one more time.
This was like a live HBO fight. Oscar Delia sitting
ring side in on part of the commentary, not the
whole fight, but part of the fight with the HBO guys,
and he's fighting a Cuban fighter who was undefeated named
Diabellis Tartato. Matter of fact, it was at Boardwalk Call.
We talked about the Bootsen's fight in the main arena.

(49:13):
This was a fight that was in the upstairs arena
at Boardwall Call that holds you know, three or four
thousand people, and Deeve bel Sartata was beating the shit
out of Parnel Whittaker, just toying with him, and he
was way behind. And Oscar's about to watch, like about
a ten million dollars or so or eight million dollar
payday go down the toilet. And Parnel Whittaker we've tos
I've mentioned him a couple times in this podcast about

(49:33):
his great defensive abilities. Never known as a brilliant offensive fighter,
and certainly never known as a big puncher. However, on
this moment where he was about to let escape maybe
the biggest fight of his career financially by the way,
eleventh round knockout in devastating fashion against Deeve Belshertato. So yeah,
there was people that thought, because like that terrible performance
that he was all done. Part of that, I think

(49:55):
was because Hartada was a guy nobody ever heard of.
I don't they never really did him any favors by
matching up Turtato in the first place, a guy who
was very unknown, even though he was pretty good, you know,
a guy that had come from Cuban and went on
to become a title holder at one hundred and forty
pounds later in his career. Anyway, that was like three
months before the Oscar fight. So the fight gets made.
It's a massive promotion, as I said, huge, Oscar's moving up,

(50:16):
and they put on the fight and a lot of
people thought that Oscar lost and that Prono was the winner.
In the end, it was Oscar that won the close decision,
at least close. On the score cards. It was one
sixteen one ten, one sixteen, one ten twice for Oscar
and one fifteen one eleven for Oscar as well. So
scoring wise, you lay, well, that wasn't all that close,

(50:36):
but if you watch eaton individual round it's sure as
heck was close, and a lot of people bitched monabat,
but Oscar won the fight. I always thought Oscar won
the fight. I hear a lot of people say that
he was a gift. I don't buy that at all.
And it was a very interesting fight. I mean, Oscar,
you know, he got he got cut on an accidental headbutt.
I think that kind of messed him up little bit

(50:57):
early in the fight and maybe took him out of
his game quite a bit, at least for a couple
of rounds. Anyway, Oscar also suffered a flash knockdown in
that fight. You know, Oscar had been down early in
his career, but always pretty much showed a pretty good chin.
And even though the Dabelisir title fight, notwithstanding not known
as a big puncher, but really more of a flash
knockdown in the ninth round basically caught off guard or
caught off downs I should say, by a short little

(51:19):
left hand. In the end, though they did, you know,
three quarters of a million pay per view buys. This
is Oscar just becoming a pay per view megastar, and
this is one of the great wins on Oscar's record.
I mean, people want to talk about Oscar lost, you know,
some of his big fights, and that's sure true enough,
but you want to talk about fights that he won
against top quality opponents. He'd beat Peernel Whittaker, who again

(51:41):
he was still good, he was still the champ, and
he went out there and he did the job, and
it wasn't it Maybe wasn't the most exciting Oscar fight.
But Penel Whittaker was a fighter that nobody really wanted
to fight. He was always hard to match. Guys avoided him.
He had to go up to wait to find different
guys to fight. Oscar was like, bring it on, and
I'll tell you right now when top rank hat Oscar.
From the beginning, they were very careful with his match

(52:02):
making at one hundred and thirty, very careful with his
matchmaking at one hundred and thirty five. He didn't really
stay around at one forty very long. He did have
two good wins against Chavez and against Gonzales, but when
they got him to welterweight and he was now a
mature fighter, the handcuffs were off and he fight everybody,
and this was the beginning of that run.

Speaker 1 (52:20):
So again, that's twenty eight years ago. Wow for Dale,
Hooya and Pernel Whittakers. So you moved forward to April
the sixteenth of twenty eleven, so that's later this week
on Wednesday, Victor Ortiz and Andre Berto What a fight
TJ for the WBC Welterweight Championship Fight of the Year contender.

(52:40):
You were there at the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut, and
this was wild.

Speaker 2 (52:47):
Yeah, same, give us, give us some more, same title
as what was at stake in the Whittaker and Oscar fight,
but obviously years later. I mean at the time, these
are two top young guys. Both guys are on HBO.
They've been in some exciting fights. Uh and uh and
Victor Ortiz, you know, he was a hot commodity, but
he had you know, he had some let's call malols
and his uh, you know, people, there was reasons to

(53:10):
maybe be down a little bit on him. He had
he had had a draw with Lamon Peterson that a
lot of people kind of thought was kind of gift dish,
if you will. So that was that was his his
fight before this one. So there was some sort of trepidation,
if you will, going in Berto had uh hadn't been
you know, he was a protected fighter for a while.

(53:31):
He was an Olympian, a very good talent, you know, Uh,
an early on Al Hayman fighter. He had kind of
had an easy path to the title, so to speak.
But he did have some tough fights though, and he
did have some really good fights. The Luis Calazo fight
that he gutted out a decision to retain this belt.
Took a decision against Wanni Wrango was a very tough

(53:51):
customer who had been a former champion in the one
hundred and forty tuns division. Anyway, a couple more fights,
so they make this fight just like a very hot fight.
This is an exciting matchup between these two guys in TJ.
They put on a sensational show. Now, in the end,
it was Victor Ortiz who won the title from Berto
and won the decision, and it was a Fight of
Theyear candidate. But the first half of that fight was

(54:14):
something spectacular. It didn't win the fight of the year
for most people. It did kind of slowed down a
little bit in the second half of that bout, but
that first half at least, and it's not like the
second half was bad, but the first half was just some.
It was just wild and crazy. As you mentioned, they
both both guys were down. He got Burto getting dropped
in the first round, he got Ortiz getting dropped in

(54:34):
the second round. He got both guys getting dropped in
the sixth round. And it was back and forth, and
while they're knocking each other down, they're just slinging fights,
you know, slinging punches and basically beating the crap out
of each other. One of the reasons why the scores
looked a little funny at the end was because Ortiz
did lose one point for a punch behind the head
that tappened I want to say, in like the ninth round,

(54:55):
tenth rounds later in the fight. But just a spectacular,
spectacular fight. I mean, these two guys never wanted for
action fights. And as a matter of fact, this was
the fight because Ortiz got the title, that's what set
him up. He only held it for a few months
because like four or five months later is when he
got the assignment against Floyd may Mayweather with that memorable
you know, so called sucker punch knockout from Mayweather when

(55:17):
Ortiz was not looking, even though the ref told him
protect yourself at all times. But anyway, Berto and Ortiz,
who did fight a few years later, by the way,
when they were both pretty much done, and Berto got
the got the revenge in that fight. But one of
the things I always remember, and I've told the story before,
is so like you said, I was at Foxwits for
this fight, and this always I'm always Indeed, it's always

(55:40):
endearing to me what these belts mean to the fighters.
I've told the story about being the ban with Jared
Hurd the day after he won the title, and and
and going to the airport in the same van. He's
wearing the belt around his waist. And you know, I
remember talking to you know, Devin Alexander after he won
a world title, telling me how he slept with the
title in bed with him. I mean, I mean, I've
heard a lot of those kind of stories, but this

(56:01):
is another one that jumps to my mind. I'm at
the casino and I'm going back to my room and
there was like a lounge area where the elevator bank
was and had you the only way you can get
into this area of the hotel is if you had
a room key, because that's where you were staying. And
I was staying there, so I was able to get
into that area. And it was the same area where
Victor Ortiz and a lot of the boxing people were

(56:22):
staying for the fight. Uh, because there's different towers and
such at the casino and they're holding court and Ortiz
he's dressed up in a suit and he's enjoying himself
obviously celebrating the wind, and he's sitting on the couch
and he's wearing the belt, and it's just another example
of a guy who's just pulled off this big win,
culminates the entire lifetime of work and dreams to get

(56:45):
the world title. And now he's hanging out with his
people and some of the media guys were there, and
some of the boxing people were there, and he's wearing
the belt and he's uh, he's telling stories about the fight,
and it was just for all the things that Victor
has gone through in his life. Besides that, that was
I'll be one of the happier memories I'll ever have.
And it was a I remember it like yesterday. It
was a great fight and a great night to watch

(57:05):
this young man celebrate the culmination of those dreams.

Speaker 1 (57:08):
So go back and find Orteze Burdo fourteen years ago
twenty eleven, April eleven, both guys down in the WBC
Welterway title.

Speaker 2 (57:16):
Fight or top four knockdowns total in this wow.

Speaker 1 (57:19):
All right, So we have given you great stuff on
the boots Ennus win in the entire card, some news
as well as some nostalgia. Again, Hagler Hearns is coming Tuesday.
Stand by podcast peeps. We got more on that now
that we've released the weekend recap here the Fight Free
Night Recap podcast. Stand by for more on the mayhem

(57:42):
of that fight forty years ago now coming later in
a week. Other than that, are we good? Before you
and I reconvene to talk? This is still the first round.
There's a there's a tea pie by the way before
we come back to talk about that with Hagler hunts.
Are we good? Alli?

Speaker 2 (58:00):
We are? We are good? All right?

Speaker 1 (58:02):
There we go. Many thanks, Dan Raphael, thank you for
finding us, follow subscribe, rate us, and review us. That
helps as well. If you enjoy the content, say so,
take thirty seconds and do that with the algorithms. That
helps us out. We go into the weekend previewing. We
come off the weekend recapping for Dan Rayfield. I am
merely TJ Reeks. Thank you for being with us on
the Fight Preach Unite Recap podcast

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Jaron Ennis Scores Impressive KO, Fight News + De La Hoya vs Whitaker Nostalgia Too! | Fight Freaks Unite Recap

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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;}Jaron Ennis Scores Impressive KO, Fight News + De La Hoya vs Whitaker Nostalgia Too! | Fight Freaks Unite Recap