Libya Card Recapped + DAZN's Todd Grisham, Ring Deaths In Japan And More | Fight Freaks Unite Recap - Big Fight Weekend Boxing Podcast

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Well, we are off of a lighter reekend, although there
was fight action in LIBBYA. Do not besmirch the Fight
Freaks Unit Recap podcast, because if there are some decent
fights for recap, we'll do that, or do our best
to do that.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Welcome back in however you found us. We're gonna have
some fight news.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Unfortunately, some tragic news in Japan with the death of
a couple of different fighters. We now know why Dmitri
Beevil can't fight Archer better be Ever anybody else for
a while. We're gonna explain that in a little bit. Hello,
and good to be back with you. I am merely
the somewhat competent host TJ. Reeves, Hello, Big Dan, Rayphiel.

(00:40):
Fight Freaks Unit, after all is his substack online, his newsletter.
Keep subscribing, keep getting your intel, get the notebook, get
breaking news, get his show, and.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Tell all on the substack. Good to be with you.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Don't have a ton to go over into recap mode.
Got some, but we got plenty to go over.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
How are things good? It's not the biggest weekend. We
got plenty of news, my man.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
I know we'll get to that.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Uh and again, horrible stuff in Japan, a constant reminder
that as much as we enjoy boxing, it is a violent,
dangerous sport.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
So we'll get into that a little bit. All right.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
I must confess I have been busy this weekend. I
have seen your sub stack with the uh, with the
news and the and the recaps, and I've seen some
of the stuff on social media.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
I did not watch the fight card from Libya.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Now here's the great thing, peeps, how are you found
us on the podcast outlets? This man watches it all
and sees it all. So let's get into this card
from Benghazi, Libya, including the featherweight early knockout from mirco
Quao to win the vacant WBA interim featherweight title. All right,
get into that and the rest of this card in

(01:45):
the recap mode for us.

Speaker 4 (01:47):
Well.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
As I said in the preview when we touched on
this fight in the previous episode, as we looked ahead
to it, I'm a I'm a I'm a fan of
merco Quao.

Speaker 5 (01:56):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
He's an Argentinian fighter, undefeated, Uh. Right off the that
just the mere fact that he was signed with the
promoter Samson Lukawitz, who I've always had huge respect for
for his boxing acumen and picking diamonds in the rough,
so to speak. As some background, he's the guy that
found Sergio Martinez from nowhere.

Speaker 4 (02:15):
He's the guy that brought.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
Manny Pack out to the United States initially, and others
that he has worked with through the years. But anyway,
I first saw him live back in February. He fought
on the David Benavidez David Morrell under card. He looked
very good and got a knockout in the tenth round,
and you know, I was happy to see him again.
So that's the good news. The bad news is it's
an absurdity that they made this for the WBA Featherweight

(02:38):
interim title. No offense to my man Samson or to
murk On Quao who won this belt, which is prepositious
because you have Nick Ball, who is the actual WBA
champion who is going to fight coming up this coming Saturday.
And it's not like he's injured. There's no reason that
couldn't have been made. It's not like Quayo has agreed
and been waiting for years for a fight. So it
just zies me wild. We don't have to get into that.

(02:58):
It'll give me another stroke apparently, but just just awful.
But nonetheless, he did fight this fight against Sergio Rios
in the main event of this card. It was, say,
why in the heck was there a fight card in Benghazi, Libya?

Speaker 2 (03:11):
We're talking about that.

Speaker 4 (03:12):
A hotbed for a fight.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
Was there at least was there at least decent crowd
or was it friends and family only?

Speaker 2 (03:18):
From what you could see, seemed like.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
A decent crowd, and you know, the government backed it.
So they paid, They spend money because Mike Tyson was
their ringside. He'd just come for a weekend in Benghazi.
He was paid, I am sure to make an appearance there,
but Tyson was on hand, and there were some other
dignitary types and so anyway, this was the main event,
and so putting the nonsensical aspect of the title aside
for a moment against an opponent in in Rios, who

(03:43):
was not anything spectacular, merk Oquayle looked great. I mean,
he scored three knockdowns, He got a second round knockdown.
He was a devastating puncher in this fight, and just
it looked really good. And I'll tell you what, I'm
happy to see him fight. And he pick a featherweight
champion contender, whatever, bring him on. This guy's going to
give guys a tough, tough night at the office. He's

(04:03):
a very dangerous fighter. He runs his record now to
sixteen and oh with thirteen knockouts. He's young, he's twenty
four years old.

Speaker 4 (04:11):
You know. He is work.

Speaker 3 (04:12):
Besides being promoted by Samson Lukwitz, he is involved with PBC,
so hopefully they'll find a place for him whenever they
start doing some more cards, whether it's on a free
preliminary like he was in his most recent fight before
this one, or if he's you know, perhaps on the
main card in a defense of this interim title, him
and Nick Ball, if Nick Ball were to win Dynamite

(04:32):
fight for a lot of reasons. Anyway, that was the
main event, and then moving on to the other fights.
There was like five or six fights on the show,
but the other fight a couple other fights that were
of somewhat consequence. You had Albert Ramirez, the very good looking,
undefeated fighter who's from Venezuela, who's been fighting out of
Montreal because he boxes for I of the Tiger promotions
up there in Quebec. He's now twenty two and Oho

(04:55):
with nineteen knockouts. Now, this fight against Jerome Pompion, who
was from New Zealand, this fight was originally done as
a WBA light heavyweight title eliminator. Okay, not in reasonable
Ramirez has been moving along, although Panpeon not exactly, you know,
a top top guy. Another one of these absurd WBA things.
But nonetheless, they were making the match now literally I

(05:18):
don't know if it was the day before the fight
or two days before the fight, but it was during
fight week where suddenly it went from a title eliminator
to the interim title.

Speaker 4 (05:27):
So, you know, any.

Speaker 3 (05:28):
Whatever, Now the WBA, Yes, TJ, what do we say
at this point?

Speaker 4 (05:33):
What are we doing here?

Speaker 2 (05:34):
What are we doing here? Didn't they say?

Speaker 1 (05:37):
And two years ago, you, you like, got on me
because I said they're full of crap and I don't
believe them that they're gonna get rid of these secondary titles.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
And here we are two years later, they're full of crap.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
They're not getting rid of these interim and secondary belts.

Speaker 4 (05:52):
All things can be true.

Speaker 3 (05:53):
At the same time, they in fact did get to
a point where they had maybe two or three interim
titles and no divisions with three champions, and so they
were doing their job in my opinion, and then suddenly
they were like fuck it.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
And now yeah, okay, So you love to say two
things can be true at the same time.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
That doesn't apply in this case.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
They weren't getting rid of secondary titles, but they have
a whole bunch of them now they still have them.
I'm ridiculous, but go ahead, go ahead with this fight.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
Back at that point, whenever it was, they were down
to like the regular slate of title holders and then
there was like three divisions or whatever it was that
had an interim champion. That's not good, but it was
way better than it was now as of when I counted.
After this card that just happened, they are now and
they recognize eighteen weight classes because they also recognize the

(06:43):
legendary bridgerweight division. The WBA now has twenty eight world
title holders and two weight classes once again with three
champions a piece, including the heavyweight division.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
Full of crap. They're full of crap.

Speaker 3 (06:55):
In terms of Albert Ramirez not going to reign on
his prey because he looked good. He scored a seven
round stop it, he scored three knockdowns, he forced the
panpeon corner to throw in the towel after the third knockdown.
He looked very good and he's another guy that is
going to be a dangerous guy for the fighters in
the light heavyweight division. He's now twenty two and oh
with nineteen knockouts. He looks like like strong, like a bull,

(07:18):
just a good, rough, tough guy. And so again the
not the greatest competition on this card, but good exposure
and performance from these two guys. And let me must
miss I must mention at this moment. So I'm watching
this card, it's Friday afternoon on his own who they
weren't producing the event, they picked up the event, but
he'd like to think that the broadcaster is going to

(07:38):
have some quality control over what they're going to put
over there over their service. So I'm watching the fight
card TJ. And they brought in like Loopy Contreras, the
well known ring announcer who did all the top rank
fights for many years and is unseen on all kinds
of different broadcast platforms, HBO, show Time, you name it
through the years. So I had high hopes for some
good production. They didn't have any commentary, so the production

(08:04):
was fine as far as like replays and the pictures
even at the graphic.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
Had the clock, the clock in the round up on
the sid we.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
Did have the clock in the und but it was
irritating not to have any commentary.

Speaker 4 (08:15):
I don't really quite get that.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
But if Benghazi people are spending all this money to
put this card in their location and they're bringing Mike
Tyson in, you know you can't spend I'm.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
Only asking this.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
Is it possible that they had it in other languages
and just didn't have it in English and that's why
you got no announcer.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
It is possible. But in boxing around the world, like
any time you would do a broadcast not in the
native language of the country where the fight isn't ninety
nine percent of time it's going to be English as
the chosen life, you know. Anyway, regardless, that's a small thing.
And then for one other fight of the show, he
had the junior lightweight Francisco Fonseca, who's been in with everybody.
People might remember if he got knocked out by Ryan

(08:54):
Garcia a few years ago. It's fought a lot of
top guys. He was matched with Sophie and Uhumi, who
was a massive French amateur. You know he's an older
fighter for having only had a handful of fights. He's
thirty years old. But the two time French Olympic silver
medal winner, he was a three time World amateur champion.
Clearly their building MS Fonseca was supposed to be that

(09:14):
veteran stepping stone and what happened, a funny thing happened
on the way to the office. Fonseca scored a knockdown
and that became the difference between fonsec who got the victory,
and what would have been a majority draw. So that's
a big upset. He wins ninety seven, ninety two, ninety five,
ninety four twice and scores the upset. So that was

(09:34):
Those were the main three fights on that card. It
was not like bad action, but it was very irritating
with no commentary, and it was just a weird scenario
where they have they had.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
It strange that you would I'm just saying one more
time strange. You would have all the production elements. You
would have a production truck there, you're showing it live,
you're showing it live worldwide through the zone. You would
have all the graphics stuff that you have to pay
for that costs a lot of money, and you wouldn't
pay somebody a couple hundred bucks even if you had
to just to.

Speaker 3 (10:02):
Sit a couple of guys in at ringside doing fight.
It was just the strangest thing anyway, all right, That's
what there was. That was the only fight card of
real note anywhere in the world this entire weekend.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
There you go, and with what we do here on
the Fight Freaktion Night recap, you just got a recap
of it with those three bouts and how we go
about it from week to weeight, it's gonna be lean
the rest of August. I know, we got this Etama
Dillion White card coming up this week, and obviously you
can hear Moses E. Tama on this podcast feed and
also see him on the video on our YouTube page.

(10:34):
But you look at the rest of August, there's not
a lot there as well. Again, it's in flux because
PBC lost the Jervonte Davis card that we've been talking about.
Top Rank doesn't have a broadcast deal at the moment,
so it's a little lean for August.

Speaker 2 (10:47):
But we tried to give you what there is.

Speaker 4 (10:49):
Yeah, but listen, even the team.

Speaker 3 (10:51):
Even the groups that do have broadcasts Golden Boy, no
Big Show, Mats Room, no Big Show. I mean there's
I think there's a Frank Warren show, but it's not,
at least for in America anyway, not that big of
a deal. So it's not just the folks that are
struggling to find broadcasters. It's everybody that doesn't have a lot.
It's not even like, you know, Solita Promotions doesn't have
a card, et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
This is where it would have been smart to have
Bam Rodriguez this weekend.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
But you're saying, I hear you. We're just saying, in any.

Speaker 1 (11:19):
Event, speaking of that, speaking of broadcasters, why don't we
do this since it's a light weekend of recaps. We
recently exclusively on the YouTube page, had a great conversation
You and I and Todd Grisham had a lot of
fun banging on each other with the jabs and the barbs.
Grisham's got a great sense of humor, very quick witted

(11:40):
like you and me. We have a lot of fun
kicking it around. And he's worked a lot of prominent
main event fights and we learned a lot from him
about how he got into his blow by blow career. Remember,
he did professional wrestling for the WWE as well as
well as ESPN Sports Center when you worked with him,
So we had a great long conversation with him about
forty five fifty minutes. We're not gonna play the whole

(12:02):
thing right now. I encourage you to go watch the
whole thing on the YouTube channel because maybe we're a
little biased, but I think it's entertaining stuff about him
about his career. We took some fan questions the whole bit.
So what I'm doing for the podcast audience now, Big
Dan is He talked about the recent speaking of Golden Boy.
Golden Boy his own show that he worked the play
by play with with Sergio Mora and Chris Mannix when

(12:25):
Oscar Duarte beat Kenneth Simms and on the undercard and
the co feature Regis Progray also won that slugfest with
Jojo Diaz.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
Do they have a whole lot left? So you're gonna hear.

Speaker 1 (12:37):
You and Todd and me talking about that fight card
in the recap mode because he had just done that
fight card and then through the magic of editing and
podcast world and production, we kind of are gonna fast
forward ahead.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
In the same show where you and I and he.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
Talked about Bam Rodriguez, he worked Bam Rodriguez's win over
Cafu on July nineteenth to retain what helped me the
junior featherweight title in unified junior bantamweight titles, the unified
junior bantam way titles.

Speaker 4 (13:09):
He unified the titles, unified.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
The titles, and so Bam won that fight in Frisco, Texas.
Here Todd on both of those subjects right now for
a few minutes from the YouTube page where he's recapping
the most recent show from Chicago, and then we're talking
some Bam Rodriguez. Let's play that for you right now
here for the pot audience. Todd, what are your thoughts

(13:31):
on the Duarte victory and where it puts him in
the mix at one hundred and forty pounds.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
You were right there in Chicago.

Speaker 6 (13:38):
Very entertaining fight. Oscar Duarte's he's in the ilk of Zapeta.
He doesn't have the same output, but he's got that
same NonStop Mexican aggression.

Speaker 5 (13:47):
He just won't leave you alone. And for the most.

Speaker 6 (13:49):
Part, Kennon Simms Junior handled it. Pretty well, but I
mean eventually it just breaks you down. And the big
highlight for me was this the crowd. It wasn't sold out,
and Chicago's been thirsty for a fight for a long time.
That place was electric. Man, it was on fire. And
of course the co main event with Progra and Jojo
Diaz set the table. But Oscar Duarte, man, he's a

(14:11):
force to be reckoned with. And Ryan Garcia said that
Duarte is the hardest hitter he's ever been in the
ring with, so he's going to be a problem for
anybody at one hundred and forty pounds.

Speaker 4 (14:21):
Todd, did you think that.

Speaker 3 (14:24):
When I was watching it, I mean it was competitive,
and that's how you guys were calling competitive. It just
felt to me like all the good things that Simms
was doing. He was excellent with his flurries, he was
good with his jab, he was great on his counter shots.
But it was just so very obvious to me watching
on the broadcast, but not in person. Duarte was just
he was just hitting with bigger punches. Was that what
the difference do you feel like in the fight?

Speaker 5 (14:45):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (14:45):
I felt well, I felt like Duarte, you know, he
landed more, he threw more. Well, I guess that I
don't have the copy box numbers right in front of me.
They landed about the same. Yeah, they were very close
if you're not counting the punches like Compuy boxes religiously,
it just felt like Duarte was l more and throwing more,
and he's the aggressor.

Speaker 5 (15:02):
And I've noticed in boxing scoring lately.

Speaker 6 (15:05):
And I don't know if you'll disagree with me here, Dan,
but it feels like the last couple of years, any
of these close fights, whoever the aggressor is, is getting
the benefit of the doubt. Those close rounds where everybody
on media road turns to the other guy and goes,
who did you give that to? I feel like judges
are going, well, you know what, this guy took the
fight to him, and that's why I won those close rounds.
As horrible a fight as Canelo Alvarez was against William Samll,

(15:28):
I think those those rounds where you're like, you know what,
at least Canelo was chasing him, so let's give him
the round because he was the guy chasing him.

Speaker 3 (15:35):
So just so you know, you were just saying, I
just called it up while you were saying your answer
to that question According to Covey Box in that Duarte
fight against against you know Simms, they reached land to
two hundred and twenty nine punches, but it was Simms
who only only threw six hundred and sixty nine, but
Dwarte nine hundred. So if the lands are the same,

(15:58):
but the output is you know, well much much greater.
That seemed to be, But to me it was more
that the landing shots were much heavier.

Speaker 6 (16:04):
Yeah, well, there'll be some boxing heads that'll say, wait
a minute, Sims was more accurate, so you should put
a premium on that.

Speaker 4 (16:10):
Dude.

Speaker 6 (16:11):
Duarte wasted so many punches, but you know, Duarte is
just a mall er. He's throwing. He's just trying to
hit whatever he can hit, you know, shoulders, neck, at forehead,
whatever he can land, and Sims was more of a sniper.
It just felt like Duarte was working harder, doing more
and as you said, land in the heavier shots.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
Love the insight. Dan and I recapped it.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
You lived it at ringside on the broadcast Reaches Prograde.

Speaker 2 (16:35):
Jojo Diaz. We said going in.

Speaker 1 (16:38):
Dan said this going in, that these guys are obviously
on the backside, if if not basically for the most part,
done in their careers, and that it could lead to
a toe to toe slugfest. And that's pretty much what
we got. That's us assessing it. What were your thoughts
on calling that fight which had some big punches landed
and some drama throughout.

Speaker 5 (16:59):
You're talking about the uh rigaroo fight.

Speaker 6 (17:01):
Yes, yes, yes, it reminded me of I think it
was h I think it was Derek Chasora versus Joe Joyce.

Speaker 5 (17:09):
Is that you can go to they fight?

Speaker 6 (17:11):
Yes, two guys that are kind of on the downhill.
You those make the best fights. Sometimes, guys with nothing
to lose, they're willing to take the shots. They're not
thinking of getting out of the fight and throwing in
the towel because they know it's the last chance saloon.
Those are the most exciting fights. They may not be
the most you know, aesthetically pleasing from a boxing sense

(17:31):
of the world, man, but those get the crowd going,
and that's what keeps people coming back. That's what the
you know, Joe six pack, who's been drinking a six
pack of medello out in the parking lot, wants to
see He wants all entertainment, he wants action. He wants
machismo and those are the kind of fights that delivered.
And who thought that Jojo Diaz would be the guy
that was rocking grade but it was no And and hey,

(17:56):
you want to see him again now? And he had
he's lost what he's lost seven of his last nine
Diaz has, but you want to see him fight Regis
Progra again. And that's kind of one of the you know,
hidden easter eggs of boxing. I think that someone who's
just exciting can can extend their career just because you
want to see, you know, exciting fights.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
Hey, one more that I wanted to ask you about
as well, Jesse Bam Rodriguez. You worked his title win
on July nineteenth, that had a little less than Manny
Pacquiao or the Usak Dubois. That doesn't mean it wasn't significant.
You work that you saw him in person. What's this
guy's ceiling? What's not just what he's done? What is

(18:36):
he going to continue to do?

Speaker 2 (18:37):
In your mind?

Speaker 6 (18:37):
Well, I defer to the people who know the the
you know, the Sergia Moors of the world and the
Chris mannix Is of the world, but more importantly, Barry
Jones in England I mean, he couldn't be any higher
on this guy. He thinks he's the next coming and
that you saw that fight that he had his opponent,
it's not Puma, it was a Cafu Cafu.

Speaker 5 (18:57):
He had an interesting game plan.

Speaker 6 (18:59):
I'm sure you saw this, Dan and instead of getting
in the middle of the ring and fight, he would
just stay on the ropes so that Bam couldn't throw
those those subtle movements that he used to score. And
it was a very tricky fight. And Bam after the
fight said this was the toughest opponent of his career,
but he still figured him out and he still stopped him.
And that's what people want to see. I know, we've
seen these great fighters the last couple of rounds. If

(19:20):
they're winning, they just don't do anything. Same on that
same card Trevor McCombe and Diego Pucheco. Pochecko didn't take
any risks at all. He's like, Hey, you know what,
I might get Hamsa sheer As next, I might get
this fight, so I'm just gonna jab my way to
a victory. No one wants to see that. That doesn't
help the sport, It doesn't help sell tickets. Bam Rodriguez,
if he gets you in trouble, he's going to finish you,
and he's not happy if he doesn't. And that's the

(19:41):
kind of fighter I want to get behind.

Speaker 3 (19:42):
And you know what, Todd Dam, if anybody was going
to employ that style that you mentioned that Pachecko did,
people could have understood if Rodriguez did it in that
fight against Kafu, because a week and a half before
the fight happened, Turkey al Sheik had announced that if
he wins, so there's pressure on him about that, not
just win in general, but winning and by the way,
if you win, we already have your November fight set

(20:04):
to have a three dolt unification against Martinez. So he
went into that doubt with that on his mind. So
the fact that he went and he took care of
business and did not back off and didn't play it safe,
to me, says a lot about what's in not just
in terms of being a smart boxer, but what's in
his heart to go out there and do it and
get rid of the guy.

Speaker 6 (20:20):
And the mega fight of I wouldn't say of all
mega fights, but it's right up there is in a
way versus Bam rod Reiz.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
Can we get that?

Speaker 1 (20:28):
Is that realistic from both of you? Can we possibly
get that? Because in a way wants to fight at featherweight?
Can can Bam get up to one twenty two one six?
Can we get that? Legitimately?

Speaker 6 (20:39):
I'm asking in between fights he blows up? Now can
he get there in great shape?

Speaker 5 (20:43):
I don't know, but listen, he jumped up two weight classes.

Speaker 6 (20:45):
Dan, you remember to fight Sarissicats beside a fight Carlos
Quadris on late notice. So this guy can bounce around
all these weight classes. And if there's that much legacy
on the line and that much money on the line,
if they have that fight in Vegas, all the Japanese
businessman who come to Las Vegas, those tickets will be
going for.

Speaker 5 (21:03):
Five six thousand dollars a pop. That flight would be huge.

Speaker 3 (21:07):
So one year ago this week, when I was in
Los Angeles covering the Crawford Magrim off card I had,
I ran Bam was there as a fan, just hanging out.
His brother, or rather Robert Garcia, his trainer and manager,
had some guys on the show. And I sat with
Bam in the hotel one afternoon and he talked to
me about his dream fight was to fight in a way.
That's a year ago before he fought the fight that

(21:27):
he just won against Cufu TJ. We had him on
the podcast and I asked him again, do you remember
that you were saying a year ago that that's your
ideal fight, and he once again reiterated that his dream fight.
Once he takes care of certain other business and the
pathway is clear, that that's still the fight that he
wants against in a way. And I mean it depends
on how quickly in a he goes to twenty six.

(21:47):
Maybe they could do it at twenty two. But Bam
was like, if that fight is offered to me now
next month, next year, I'm taking the fight.

Speaker 6 (21:53):
Well, he tries said, listen, Nakatani's the only other guy
that's floating around in there, and BAM's team said they
offered Nakatani to Bam. Bam immediately said yes, but then
Nakatani decided not to. He's holding out for that Nawa
fight too. So first anyway he's got a Jacmdaliev, then
he probably has Nakatani, and then maybe Bam.

Speaker 3 (22:11):
Todd I'll say this, you tell me if you agree
I love the notion of Rodriguez against in a way,
and obviously you gotta love the notion of in a
way against Nakatani. But I have said, if you, if
I could wave the magic wand and get any fight
I wanted, I much rather see No, I shouldn't say
much rather, but I'd prefer if I had a rank
min order that the fight I'd like give you. Maybe

(22:33):
a couple of my toes for would be dam Rodriguez
against Nakatani.

Speaker 2 (22:37):
Right.

Speaker 5 (22:38):
I just in a way's got the monster, He's got
the aura.

Speaker 6 (22:41):
Knakatani to me, is a lesser known quality quantity, and
I'm the cross. To me, I want to bring in
guys people that aren't aren't big boxing fans.

Speaker 5 (22:49):
Hey you heard of the Monster? Yeah, I've heard of
the Monster. He's fighting this guy named Bam. You gotta
watch this. That's that's yeah. The name recognition carries a
lot of weight for me.

Speaker 1 (22:59):
Again, a fun, full fledged conversation on YouTube. Go see
the video the whole bit again. It ran about a
forty five minute show. Go relive that on our YouTube
page and help us out. We have a lot of
fun with all of our different guests. And different interviews,
including a guy that you go back about fifteen years
ago when he was working at ESPN in Todd Grisham.

Speaker 3 (23:20):
Yeah, I did a lot of Sports Center with Todd.
Todd would be in the studios as the anchor and
I would be on site at a fight and they
would have me on a preview whatever the fight was
I was at, or maybe do something after the fight.

Speaker 4 (23:32):
There was plenty. We did a lot of those over
the years together.

Speaker 1 (23:36):
And by the way, go to the YouTube page because
he tells the story. I'm just teasing it of the
Usik Fury first fight, the historic undisputed four belt heavyweight
title fight, where when Usik almost had Tyson Fury out
in that ninth round?

Speaker 2 (23:50):
What was he thinking? How was he calling it that?

Speaker 1 (23:53):
Todd also recalls the bizarre situation with Canelo Alvarez fighting
in the early morning Sunday morning at six am in
Saudi Arabia and how much did that affect him. Todd
was on the call on that fight on his own.
Some good barbes at Sergio Mora. What do you call Moraa?
A fever blister? He says, like a fever blister. It's
good natured though.

Speaker 3 (24:14):
I can say this though, TJ in the in the
three years of Sovieen working together, I don't think either
of us ever called the other a fever fever blister.

Speaker 1 (24:22):
No, that's an original one on the insult meter, you
and me. But go watch that on YouTube help us out.
I mean a lot of you are engaging with the
Terrence Crawford recent interview Moses a Toma video interview. We
also played the audio interview as well here on the pod,
but go watch that under the live section. Go watch
that Todd Grisham video. I think you'll get a kick
out of it, including how he got his start in boxing,

(24:45):
blow by blow and the whole bit. So good stuff
on that, all right. Unfortunately, as I said at the
top of the show, we got to cover in the
news not one, but two deaths. A constant reminder is
seemingly always there about how dangerous this sport is. Dan
and two Japanese fighters that both ended up dying after

(25:08):
being injured on the August the second Teaking Promotions card.

Speaker 2 (25:11):
So give us the full day tragic stuff.

Speaker 1 (25:14):
We hate this, but it is part of the reality
of the brutality of this sport.

Speaker 3 (25:19):
I've covered a lot of ring deaths through the years. Unfortunately,
some I've been at. Others obviously I wasn't there, but
wrote extensively about them, and not only in my twenty
five years of covering boxing as a journalist, but a
lifetime as a fan of boxing. Anytime a fighter dies,
you know, it's a very sad and unfortunate situation. But
I have to tell you and I can't say that
it's unprecedented, but in my experience of covering it for

(25:42):
all those years, and a total of probably close to
what forty five years or so of watching boxing TJ,
I can't recall or am not aware of ever two
fatalities on the same card. So in a story that
I wrote about it, I refer to this as one
of the darkest weekends in the history of boxing, when
you have not one, but two men who died fighting

(26:03):
on the same card and died within one day of
each other. The card took place on August second, as
you mentioned, at the kirk Kuhan Hall in Tokyo, a
very famous location for a lot of the club shows
that take place in Tokyo, and so you had a
fighter named Shigatoshi Kotari. Both by the way, both of
the fighters who passed away. We're twenty eight years old.

(26:24):
So Shigatoshi Katari, he fought to a draw in the
main event, a twelve round draw against a fighter named
Yamato Hata. They were boxing, and for what in Japan
and in Asia is a big deal. The ob p
OPBF a regional title. It's for the Orient and you
know and Pacific, right right, So that's a very important

(26:48):
stepping stone title for Japanese fighters on their way to
perhaps getting a chance to fight for a world I
kind of like if you fought for the British or
the Commonwealth title, the European title, you know, if you
fought for know, the NABF title or something like that
in the United States. In any event, so that was
the main event. They fought to a draw. He left
the ring under his own power. Katari and I watched

(27:12):
the fight. I watched both fights. The full card is
actually on YouTube. It was streamed on the service called
You Next in Japan. Uh And while it was a good,
hard hitting kind of fight, there was nothing in that
fight that I saw from watching zillions of fights where
you'd thought, okay, that is a fight where you kind
of have to guard your eyes, like, oh my god,

(27:33):
this guy is gonna be in some trouble, or it
should be.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
I wasn't knocked down violently, for example, that would give
you a pause to go, okay, maybe that's what caused it.

Speaker 3 (27:41):
Okay, Yeah, I'm not I'm not comparing, because in this case,
the fighter ended up living even though he's severely brain damaged.
I was ringside when the heavyweight Muhammad Abda Salamov was
in a in a fight in Madison Square Garden stater
against Mike Perez and he lost that fight, and it
was a rough, tough fight, but I never and it

(28:03):
ended up getting stopped. But I never thought to mys,
oh goodness, this is like a serious situation.

Speaker 2 (28:07):
Now.

Speaker 3 (28:08):
The New York State Commission was derelict in their care
for him after the fight and ended up paying out
tens of millions of dollars in a settlement, and he
ended up, you know, having a severe brain injury and
was hospitalized, and it's obviously never going to be the same.
But it was the kind of fight when you watch
the fight itself, you never thought yourself, this is like
a match where this person might die because of whatever

(28:28):
happens in the fight. Now, if you go and you
take a look at this fight that I'm talking about again,
it was it was a tough fight, but there was
nothing in it that you would say, oh my goodness,
this is like a just a really hard, tough, physical, grueling,
grinding kind of fight where there's gonna be a problem.
So he walked out of the ring under his own power.
That you know, the fans that were in the stands,

(28:49):
they were kind of giving him high fives and slaps
on the back on the way back.

Speaker 4 (28:52):
To the dressing room.

Speaker 3 (28:53):
And when he got to the back is when he
lost conscious and they took him to the hopital and
they performed surgery, and he was in a came for
the last several days and then obviously he did not
make it, so that that was very unfortunate. Obviously now
in the fight that was earlier on the card, So
that was the main event for I said for the
Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation one hundred and thirty pound title.

(29:15):
And I might add, by the way that and I
went on the JBC, which is the Japanese Boxing Commission's website,
you can read their incident report if you run through
the translator One of the things that the JBC has
done in almost immediately since this situation occurred is they
have reduced those regional title doubts from what our schedule
twelve round fights like this one was. They will now

(29:35):
be ten round fights, as will other regional title fights,
where summer twelve summer ten. I mean, that's one, I
guess sort of safety measure. I mean, if you remember
going back in the eighties when the major organizations, starting
with the WBC, in the wake of the ray Mancini
victory that resulted in the death of Duke U Kim
in their leg win world title fight that was nationally
televised from Las Vegas.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
That's arguably the most famous ring death we've talked about.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
That was.

Speaker 3 (30:02):
The immediate reduction from fifteen to twelve, and in terms
of Asia and in Japan specifically, they'll now go from
twelve to ten. So but anyway, on that soul so, uh,
just a really bad situation. So Katari passes away, like
I said, on Friday, and then in one of the
undercard fights, Uh, you had another fighter that also passed away.

(30:26):
That was just a crazy that that would happen on
the same show. You had a Japanese lightweight. Katari was
a junior lightweight. You had a fighter named hiro Masa
Urukawa who was in a fight against another Japanese fighter
named Yoji Sato. Now this was a rough fight, but
it ended with a massive eighth round knockout. Was only
an eight round schedule fight. This was a brutal knockout

(30:50):
and his body just went limp and they immediately had
him and stretched him out. Whereas the other fighter was
able to leave the ring under his own power, never
got knocked down and seemed to be okay, this fighter was, uh, well,
you knew this.

Speaker 1 (31:02):
You knew this was serious, and you knew this was
trouble from the knot. But you can tell, you can tell,
you can.

Speaker 3 (31:06):
Tell serious, yes, but not to the extent where you
think death is going to happen. But he did get
taken out on the stretcher right away, and uh. And
then the JBC Japanese Boxing miss reported once again that
both of these guys have been taken to the hospital
to have brain surgery, which is what happened. And he
ended up paying on for a day longer and then
he passed away on Saturday. And and the thing about

(31:27):
it was I'm looking at their records because I was
writing a story about about what happened. If you go
back and you take a look, uh at their at
their records. Okay, so they first of all, they're not,
you know, hugely experienced fighters. Katari was only eight wins,
two losses and two draws. You know, these are like
club levelish type fighters in uh in Japan. Mm hm

(31:50):
that it was just one of those things where you
just would never expect that again in these types of
fights that were not so so rough. And and and Urakawa,
you know, he'd been a professional since twenty eighteen. He
did lose for the third time in four fights, but
the other fights were decisions, and the sort of ironic
is that the one win that he got was he

(32:14):
knocked out Katari. They had fought. The two men that
died had fought each other in twenty twenty four, also
in that same venue at Corkuan Hall. So just a
horrible day for the sport of boxing, and obviously for
the Japanese Boxing Committee, obviously for the families and friends
of these two men. But you know, they're the JBC
is doing what they would normally do. They'll have their

(32:35):
investigation to see if there's any specific circumstances. There's always
the immediate sort of thought about weight loss, you know,
when you're fighting in non heavyweight fights, about the dramatic
amounts of weight loss. Now, they do have very specific
rules and regulations in terms of how much weight fighters
in Japan can gain between the time they have their
weigh ins and when they actually do their fights. I'm

(32:58):
not sure what the percentage gained was. I didn't see
that in their report. But this is, uh, this is
gonna have an impact on Japanese boxing, it seems to
me based on all the things that have been happening
just immediately with the with the o PBF changing their
rules right off the bat in terms of the length
of title fights. So just just a bad situation. But
like I said, the main event fight was not the

(33:20):
kind of fight where you'd think this is gonna happen
at all, because although a tough fight, not like that
the knockout in the other Undercart fight that was a
brutal knockout. He was left like a rag doll on
the mat.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
Awful and again a reminder, I mean, we've had some
recent deaths obviously in fights in America in the last
few years, the Maxim Dadashev the death fighting superal Mattias
and then Patrick Day, the American fighter that was knocked
out by Charles Conwell.

Speaker 2 (33:49):
And in that case it.

Speaker 3 (33:50):
Was there's still there's still rare, though boxing doesn't still rare.

Speaker 1 (33:54):
And I'll just I'll say this and then we're gonna
move on. Obviously, whenever this is happening, it's awful, it's horrendous.

Speaker 2 (34:02):
We are detached. Though in the United States.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
You do a fantastic job of covering the sport worldwide
and talking about Japan. For most United States sports fans,
they wouldn't know about these two deaths. You are hardcore.
You're informing our audience. I realize our audience is boxing specific.
But for example, when when a fight er death happens
in the United States, it's a much bigger deal because

(34:25):
it happened here, it doesn't make it any less significance
than it significant world.

Speaker 3 (34:29):
Why this is in Japan, it's probably a big deal,
whereas in America.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
I would have I'm just speculating.

Speaker 1 (34:35):
I would have to think this is like the lead
story on a lot of their news coverage from this
weekend that two of the fighters that fought on the
same car died.

Speaker 2 (34:43):
Ignificant thing, So.

Speaker 4 (34:45):
I don't know that to be the case.

Speaker 3 (34:46):
But here's just one other thing about it though, and
why it's not the kind of thing you would have
expected in the ur Kawa fight, particular against Sato. So
they're fighting in their match and they're going into the
eighth round. It's only an eight round fight. Er Kawa
uh who was the person that died, was actually winning
the fight going into all the cards. So I mean
it was close. He was up sixty eight, sixty five,

(35:07):
sixty eight, and sixty seven to sixty six, so you know,
a knockdown or you know something there, he might be
able to get back in and actually you know, or
you know, the other fighter you get to win if
you didn't get the knockout. But anyway, the point was
sometimes when you see these types of fights, it's a
one sided ass kicking and a guy's just taking a
beat beating, yeah, taking an eating.

Speaker 1 (35:24):
Not the case, not the case in either of those
in either of those fights, right, is what you're saying
with them horrible, horrible, but we gave it. Its just
due rip to those fighters, their family, their friends and
We'll see what kind of results, if there is any,
come from investigating weight cut and then rehydration, and what
kind of effect that might have had. We'll see how
how stringently they negotiate that. All right, this is obviously

(35:48):
less significant and important than when you're talking about fighter deaths.

Speaker 2 (35:51):
But there's other fight news.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
You you left us with bread crumbs figuratively on Friday
and said, hey, I'm talking with Vadim Corneloff, and there's
supposed to be news about Dmitri Bevol and we're thinking
about next fight. Maybe there's next fight news about Bevol.
He's not fighting better BF. Oh it wasn't the next fight,
it was what instead, And this was a bit shocking

(36:15):
to find this out about him.

Speaker 3 (36:17):
On Friday, they announced that he had undergone back surgery
in his hometown of Saint Petersburg, Russia, not from a
specific injury, according to Bevols. He posted a photograph of
himself with his doctor as well as a statement, and
I also texted several times back and forth with vadm.
This was not necessarily a specific fight. It's not like

(36:39):
he got hurt in the fight against Better bv than
he needed the surgery. So the bottom line though, is
he had this procedure done, he's going to be out
six to eight weeks and before he could even train.
He won't fight again this year. He'll be back next year,
they say, And obviously that means that the better BEV rematch,
which what or the third fight rather which probably wasn't

(37:00):
going to happen until next year anyway, now definitely won't
happen if at all. But the thing is, the way
I'd explain to me is when better Biev was announced
that he was taking that fight on November twenty second
on Theria card with David Benavitte's and Anthony Art in
the main event, it wasn't like he took that because
he knew that that people was having surgery. That was

(37:23):
from what they tell me, that was like happenstance. So
it just so happens that he's going to be out.

Speaker 4 (37:28):
He's not.

Speaker 3 (37:28):
It wasn't like he was planning an interim fight. He
was having the surgery. So in his statement he'd said
I took my doctor's advice. He basically said that he's
been dealing with whatever the issue is for like ten years,
but it hasn't been to the level where he needed
to have an operation, but he said every time he
would have a training camp, it was getting progressively worse,
and it got to a certain point that it was like, Hey,

(37:49):
let me get this taken care of.

Speaker 2 (37:50):
And let me say this.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
I'm somebody that suffers from a bit of a bad back.
I'm becoming an old man, Raphael. You and I are
the same age. I have a doctor, I don't see
a specialist. I know so much about surgeries in the
line of work that I do with the Buccaneers, etc.
I'm only saying this in general terms. Back surgery is
never a good thing. Back surgery means you've got problems,

(38:15):
and generally speaking, you are lesser after back surgery, especially
in a brutal sport like professional football, something like professional hockey,
even in boxing, etc. I have no idea. I'm not
Bevols orthopedist. I didn't do the back surgery. I'm just
playing one on the podcast. All I'm saying is there's
not anything minor about back surgery that has you out

(38:37):
for a couple of months before you can even start
moving around.

Speaker 2 (38:40):
So stay tuned, stay tuned on what this is and.

Speaker 3 (38:42):
How it affects, and listen to Metria Biebel. He's thirty
four years old. He's not a young man as far
as a boxing career goes. He's not like an old man.
But if you take a look at the kind of
fights he's had over the last bit, combined with the
fact that he had all those amateur fights, this is
not a young fighter. I mean, he's coming down the
stretch of his career. I find it to be somewhat
ironic that he's thirty four and is the one having

(39:03):
back surgery and it's been better bf who's the one
now ready to go at age forty almost to be
forty one, even though you know he's ad his that
he's had some injuries, not like this. His has mainly
been his had a knee problem. But uh, yeah, we
don't know. I mean whether whether Bivol is ever going
to be back one hundred percent, hopefully he will be.
You know, he keeps himself in good condition. He hasn't
taken a tremendous amount of punishment relatively speaking, and obviously

(39:27):
he is still the unified and the linear light heavyweight champion,
even though he had to give up. The status has
undisputed because of the the mandatory situation with the WBC,
but you know, hopefully he's good to go.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
Does this lead you to believe on the Rayfield meter
that we might see Better BF and David Benavetez before
we see a third Bevil fight now in light of
the back surgery, what does the Rayfield antanna say before
we move on to other news, because they're.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
Fighting on the same card. Yeah, now it kind of follows.

Speaker 1 (39:59):
It kind of kind of almost makes sense that that
could happen.

Speaker 2 (40:02):
What do you say real quick?

Speaker 3 (40:04):
I say, that's a very good possibility, partly because they're
both involved now with Turkey to a degree, being on
the same show together, being in the same weight class,
and if you take Bible out of the picture, the
next two best guys in the division, I don't think
you can really argue it are gonna be People are
gonna say it's Better be Of and Benavidez. Benavitez was
did some interviews and was talking about how he would
love to fight that fight. I mean even after he

(40:25):
fought David Morrell, and he was talking about remember at
that point, he's the mandatory for the WBC title, which
at the time was still held by Better Beef because
it was just before he had had the rematch. You know,
it was a couple of weeks before the rematch that
he had with people. Remember Turkey had made the whole
thing about they were inviting Better benevide Is to attend

(40:46):
the fight. So at the post fight news conference after
he defeated David Morrell, benevide spoke about his desire to
have a fight against the winner. Okay, so Bivil was
the winner, but Better bv is still there. Theoretically he'll
be coming off of a victory against the opponent that
he faces on that card where David is the main event.
And so yeah, that's a that's a pretty big fight.

(41:07):
I mean, okay, it's not the people to fight, fine,
but you know what, you can't.

Speaker 2 (41:10):
You have you have that fight in the United States.
It's a big fight.

Speaker 4 (41:13):
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (41:14):
The point when he was talking about it where he
wasn't really thrilled about getting involved with the red seasoned
folks was because he made and he went he went
on and on about this at the news comers.

Speaker 4 (41:23):
My people are here in Vegas.

Speaker 3 (41:24):
Yes, I finally got to a point in my career
where I'm bringing in a lot of fans. He'd done
a big crowd for that fight. You know, he appeals
to die hard boxing fans. He's got a great uh
following from Arizona, where he's from Phoenix. He's got a
lot of the support from the Mexicans and the Mexican
Americans be at Southern California wherever. And he's a highly
entertaining fight. His pay per view numbers on those cards

(41:47):
were not, you know, gang busters, but they were growing
and they were they were doing well, and he was
getting bigger purses and you know, people were happy with
the business that was doing. So he wanted to stay
there and continue to build his his brain in his name.
Here you do a better BF fight and he's the opponent.
They PLoP that fight in Timobile Arena or the MGM

(42:07):
or Mandala Bay or any of the great arenas in
Las Vegas. Absolutely that would be a big event. So
I'd be happy to see that fight. And if he
fights Biebel, you know, for undisputed, even though in my
mind a hollow on disputed because they basically stripped him
of the title, Bibel still will be another big fight
because David Benavitez is the future of the division and

(42:28):
these two guys are a little bit older and so
matched up any which way, I'm pleased to see it,
but hopefully, most importantly, hopefully Bibel is the you know, you.

Speaker 1 (42:38):
Make a great point at thirty four. I mean, stay tuned.
It's not a given off off of a back surger.
A couple more news items before we get out of here.
Juneto Nakatani, speaking of Japanese fighters, has decided all right,
I am, I'm now gonna do it. I'm gonna move
up into the weight class with Naoya in a way,
move up into junior featherway. Tell me more about what's

(42:58):
behind this. It's not unexpected. Go ahead, no, I.

Speaker 3 (43:02):
Mean, it's always been sort of thought that he was
going to do this. Now he is the unified champion
at bandon weight. He has the WBC and the IBF title.
He's won titles in three different weight classes, and he
wants to pursue a title and a fourth weight class.
We've always known that the prospect of an inn Waight
fight has been there top rank, and both sides have
been talking about it for a while as a possibility.

(43:23):
Remember back a while ago, they were talking about maybe
trying to do this type of fight at the Tokyo Dome,
where for my knowledge of Japanese boxing history, this would
probably be the most significant, biggest all Japanese fight in
the history of the country.

Speaker 4 (43:35):
There's been a lot of.

Speaker 3 (43:36):
Great fights with Japanese fighters, but not necessarily between Japanese fighters,
because a lot of times when the Japanese fighters are
champions are top top fighters, the people over there have
done everything they could to sort of keep them apart.
It's not quite the same anymore, and na Katani doesn't
really have a lot to prove it VANDAM weight at
this moment because he's done what he has to do
and the other unification fights really aren't available to him

(43:57):
at the moment. You know, he's done. He's won all
of his fights in the Bandam White division by knockout.
He'spot five times in the division, he won the title
by knockout. He's made his defenses by knockout, including unifying
two of the belts in his most recent fight in June.

Speaker 4 (44:10):
So there's that.

Speaker 3 (44:11):
So anyway, he was There's a TV network over there
called Wow Wow, and they put on a lot of
fights and they show also replays of fights. So apparently
he had done an interview with the folks there in
preparation for them to show the replay of his unification
fight that took place. Like I said in June, and
in the interview he said when asked that you know,

(44:32):
is am I moving up from bandamway from the next fight, Yes,
you know, I'm going to vacate my Bandon White title.
So while he hasn't officially done that, that will happen,
I assume in the near future. And what it does
is if in a way, who was fighting coming up
against Akmadaliev in September and then he's supposed to be
going to fight another fight at the end of the
year in Saudi Arabia, I can't imagine they're going to

(44:54):
do Nakatani, and in a way in Saudi Arabia that
would be tragic.

Speaker 2 (44:59):
Right, doesn't make anything.

Speaker 3 (45:01):
So I assume Nakatani probably maybe takes a fight, you
know in Japan to like get used to the weight.
Just put him in at at one hundred and twenty
two pounds. In a way, we'll do his thing for
the rest of the year, and then it seems to
pave the way for next spring at the earliest. The
two of them meeting in the big Japanese super fight.

Speaker 1 (45:20):
Now, I'm going to bring up what we replayed during
the podcast as you were talking with Todd Grisham, you
said on that live YouTube show, if I could wave
a wand it would be Nakatani and who Bam Rodriguez,
who knows Nakatani's not gonna fight Bam to the exclusion
of fighting in a way.

Speaker 4 (45:38):
By the way, that's my dream.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
I understand in terms of fantasy matchups. Could we get
that fight somewhere down the road, stay tuned.

Speaker 3 (45:47):
But listen, I get it from a business point of view.
Of course, Nakatani against against in a way is a
gigantic fighter.

Speaker 4 (45:55):
I did like that.

Speaker 3 (45:56):
That Bam, you know, talking about if he ever gets
a chance to fight in a way, and I'm sure
he would not turn down knakatan either. He's talked about
how much he would like to go travel and fighting
just Gan. Remember he's he's an American fighter, but he
is very close and aligned with mister Honda from teaking promotions.
They they you know, he's the guy that promoted him
for a long time and they have a relationship there,

(46:16):
so you know he would be happy to go and
fight on one of mister Honda shows, and if it
can be against anyway, great, If it could be against Nakatani, great,
But the main thing is, you know, Nakatani is now
in the same division as the Monster and that can't
go on without them fighting each other.

Speaker 1 (46:31):
I'm with you one more note here we had talked
previously about Boxer the promotional outlets deal with Sky Sports
going away and the fights were briefly what they were
on the Peacock ap briefly in the United States for
a little while new TV deal for Boxer for the
British fight fans go ahead with the nugget on that.

Speaker 3 (46:50):
Well, similar to what happened here in the United States
with ESPN not renewing any kind of agreement with Top Rank,
Boxer found itself in a similar situation. Remember when Matchroom
Boxing did not stay with with Sky Sports. Sky Sports
is their big sports uh pay cable station in the UK.
They did a deal to bring you know, Mattroom was

(47:12):
on de Zone in America, but in the UK all
their action was on Sky Sports or sky Box Office
pay per view, So when that was up, they took
all of their inventory to the Zone. And so Sky,
which has been traditional in boxing in the UK for
decades and decades and decades, made a new deal exclusively
with Boxer, which is a fledgling new company, but they

(47:32):
had signed some good fighters and this and that, and
say they made a deal with them for.

Speaker 4 (47:37):
About a year or so.

Speaker 3 (47:38):
Of that deal, their their fight cards were simulcasts in
America on Peacock because Sky and Peacock are both Comcast companies.
In any event, the Sky, uh, the Sky folks were
a little disappointed with Boxer, which frankly they should be,
because they really didn't deliver, in my opinion, what they
should have. Not that everything was bad. I'm not gonna

(47:58):
it's not black or white, but the drop off and quality,
in my opinion, was enough to make them scratch their head,
maybe based on I don't know what they were paying,
but decided, you know what, we're just not gonna re
up with you guys. So that became a thing where
they were now no longer under the Sky Sports banner,
and Boxer was out there looking for a new deal also.

(48:19):
And BBC, which is obviously the most well known airwaves
in Great Britain, is a huge deal for anybody to
be on that and so they were able to make
a deal with BBC to bring their events. So again
there's not a lot of detail that's been doled out yet,
but what they did say in making the announcement is
that there'll be primetime Saturday night fights, which is similar

(48:39):
to what they were on Sky as well as what
we are all used to for the bigger fights on
primetime Saturday Night. It didn't say how long the deal is,
no mention of what the level of financial commitment is,
how often they're going to have them with the broadcaster
team is going to be things like that. The first
card was not yet announced, although there have been outlets
in Britain. My boys at probox Fans and I think

(49:02):
the Daily Mirror have reported that the first card will
be September twenty seventh in Birmingham, and it'll be and
they're gonna focus it based on the way their announcement
would be like the biggest level of British fights. Maybe
they'll get some world title action, but they're gonna have
Frasier Clark against Jamie TKV which will be for the
vacant British heavyweight title. So good way to kick things off,
as far as heavyweights go. We'll see if that comes

(49:24):
to pass, if that's legit. But the point is BBC
is an over the air station. It's not hidden behind
a you know, a cable paywall or traming paywall. Now,
it's not necessarily gonna be on BBC one, like the
main channel. From what I understand, this first card and
most of their cards will be on BBC two. But

(49:45):
I think it's and I'm not an expert on British television,
but it's kind of like more people get ESPN then
get ESPN two, but it's still about the same. We'll
see how that plays out. And also they also made
a point in their announcement that they'll also be some
undercard matches and build up stuff and all kinds of
other material related to this. It will be on what
is the equivalent of BBC Streaming, which is what they

(50:06):
call the BBC eye Player, and their website and BBC
Sounds and BBC Social Media and all that. But if
you can be associated with BBC, I mean that's a
pretty big brand name in the UK. And keep in
mind they have not had boxing in any meaningful way
on BBC and they used to show fights all the time.
Back in the back when I first started to cover boxing. Remember,

(50:27):
they made a big deal with the gold medal winner
who was a super heavyweight, Aldi Harrison, who fought all
of like his first ten fights. He was a big,
big heavyweight prospect at the time. He was headlining shows
on BBC. But they haven't done a fight on BBC
since two thousand and four.

Speaker 4 (50:41):
Wow, this was a.

Speaker 3 (50:44):
Clinton Woods Rico Hoy IBF light Heavyweight Championship fight, so
it's been twenty one years. But the only exception I
could find was Lauren Price, who was a big, big
star in her own area. She was on Sky, but
they let them show it on DBC in her home area.
But this is still this is a this is the

(51:06):
first time it's been like this interesting on BBC.

Speaker 1 (51:08):
Now, let's see if boxer will do what they didn't
do and then follow through with better fights, more consistent fights.

Speaker 3 (51:13):
Just to just to let folks know. I mean, the
fighters that they're involved with. They involved with Chris Youu
Ban Jerior, but he's got the the Connor Ben rematch
coming up. But other fighters that they work with, Adam Zein,
Chris billim Smith, Ben Whittaker, the Doll Riley, Carolyn Debois,
Lauren Price. I mentioned that Tasha Jonas obviously, Fraser Clark
Uh and tkv Uh. And they've got some other fighters

(51:35):
Callum Simpson and some others. So we'll see if they
can help build up those fighters and and and bring
but more importantly, bringing boxing to a primetime audience for
free across the airwaves, without having to have cable or
or a satellite service or something, or a streaming service
throughout the United Kingdom.

Speaker 2 (51:53):
All right, we're all for that. There we go. We
got something out of a recap. You got some fights
from Libya.

Speaker 1 (51:58):
You heard a little bit from Todd Grishams, fortunate news
in Japan, an update on Dmitri Beevil.

Speaker 2 (52:02):
You got a bunch here on the pod again.

Speaker 1 (52:04):
Go find Moses Etama on the YouTube page. You can
also hear it on this podcast feed. He fights Gillian White.
Much more on that fight later this week and that
fight card. Nick Ball defending the WBA featherweight title in
the co feature on the undercard. With that, my friend,
have a good week coming this week. We come to
the conclusion of another recap pod. Thank you, Big Dan Rayphiel.

Speaker 4 (52:26):
Yes, sir, there you go.

Speaker 2 (52:27):
I'm merely TJ Reeves.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
Follow, Subscribe to this podfeed, Apple Spreaker, Spotify. It is
the Fight Freaking I Recap Podcast five,

All Episodes

Libya Card Recapped + DAZN's Todd Grisham, Ring Deaths In Japan And More | Fight Freaks Unite Recap

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Libya Card Recapped + DAZN's Todd Grisham, Ring Deaths In Japan And More | Fight Freaks Unite Recap