Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney, Teofimo Lopez In Times Square NYC, Canelo In Saudi Arabia And Inoue In Vegas | BFW Preview Podcast

A HUGE weekend of action to go over from NYC to Saudi Arabia and back to Las Vegas with massive names headlining and we'll go over it all on the "Big Fight Weekend Preview Podcast!"

Host T.J. Rives and insider Dan Rafael are ready to mix it up and analze the rare three fight nights in a row to start the month of May

The begin with the preview of Friday Turki Alashikh/DAZN PPV in New York’s Times Square
Ryan Garcia vs. Rolando Romero, for vacant WBA “regular” welterweight title
Devin Haney vs. Jose Ramirez, welterweights
Teofimo Lopez vs. Arnold Barboza, for Lopez’s lineal/WBO junior welterweight title
 
Next, in order, a preview of the Saturday Riyadh Season / DAZN PPV in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Canelo Alvarez vs. William Scull, 12 rounds, WBC/WBO/WBA/IBF super middleweight unification
Badou Jack vs. Noel Mikaelian, 12 rounds, for Jack’s WBC cruiserweight title
Bruno Surace vs. Jaime Munguia, rematch, 12 rounds, super middleweights
Efe Ajagba vs. Martin Bakole, 10 rounds, heavyweights
 
And finally, another preview for the Sunday Top Rank/ ESPN card in Las Vegas
Naoya Inoue vs. Ramon Cardenas, 12 rounds, for Inoue’s undisputed junior featherweight title
Rafael Espinoza vs. Edward Vazquez, 12 rounds, for Espinoza’s WBO featherweight title 

Then, some News:

Change of PBC summer plans: Out Tim Tszyu-Keith Thurman and Sebastian Funora-Xander Zayas, In Fundora-Tszyu rematch, as Fundora will vacate WBO title and Zayas will fight for the vacant title. Dan goes over why?

Former WBC heavyweight champ Tyson Fury posts social media video with SugarHill Steward that basically says he is ending his his retirement. We all knew that he was trying to fight Anthony Joshua this Summer all along.

Meanwhile, heavyweight Jarrell Miller is out of a Fabio Wardley fight with supposed shoulder injury, Queensberry finalizing paperwork with replacement Justis Huni of Australia per Dan's reporting.

And, Matchroom and DAZN make four events official: --

May 28 in Yokohama, Japan, Eduardo Nunez vs. Masanori Rikiihsi, for vacant IBF junior lightweight title

--May 30: Guadalajara, Mexico, Manuel Gallegos vs. Khalil Coe, rematch, light heavyweights

--June 14: New York, Richardson Hitchins vs. George Kambosos, for Hitchins’ IBF jr welterweight

--July 19: Frisco, Texas, Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez vs. Phumelele Cafu, WBC/WBO junior bantamweight unification and Diego Pacheco vs. Trevor McCumby, super middleweights 

Hear it all on the "Big Fight Weekend Preview Podcast" and make sure to get all of our pod content on Apple/Spreaker/Spotify and find our video content on Youtube/Big Fight Weekend! 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big
Fight Weekend. Now here is your host? DJ Leaves? All right,
do we have a weekend coming up? We are ready
to go with a Friday night Dezone pay per view
from where from Times Square. By the way, We're in

(00:26):
Saudi Arabia with Canelo Alvarez on Saturday night with another
de Zone pay per view, and then Top Rank as
an ESPN show, Oh with the Monster Naoya in a
Way on Sunday night. Three nights of fights this weekend.
We are ready to cram it all in. Here to
a Big Fight weekend preview. I am the somewhat competent host.
TJ Reeves, Hello, Dan Rayphiel, our insider fight preaks. Your

(00:48):
night is his substack, his newsletter. You got to be
all over that. We are ready to go in the
preview mode. Here, lots and lots and lots to go over.
I normally say, how are you? Let me put a
phrase it this way? Are you rested? Are you ready
to be caffeinated? Extra snacks, extra screens, extra everything, because

(01:08):
we've got a ton a ton happening Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
I'm good. I don't need extra screens. Because they're all
on separately, they don't conflict with each other, which is
actually a good thing and not my first rodeo. I'm
looking forward to seeing the fights, and it'd be nice
to spread them out.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
However, as we have discussed before, you're tough to find
a weekend like this first weekend in May circa twenty
twenty five where you have three massive nights in a
row Friday, Saturday, Sunday. This is rare now. Sometimes you
might have had like a Friday night card hypothetically, and
then a couple of Saturday cards in different places. But

(01:44):
to have three nights in a row.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
I don't remember a time in my experience of covering
boxing that there's been this level of a show three
consecutive days. That's just not the way it is. But
I'm down with it.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Like it.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
I wouldn't want to see this every week because it
does make it implicated. For if you're a fan, you
know it's it's not a bad thing, I guess, but
you also like to have the fights breathe a little bit.
As a journalist and somebody that's reporting about it makes
it complicated because you've got a lot of stuff you
need to write about or want to write about, and
you just sometimes can't get to everything. And you know,
I feel like all these guys in a way Canelo

(02:19):
the fighters on the Friday Cart, you know, with a
lot of good names on there. They all deserve like
their time in the sun, and they're all kind of
jumping all over each other. So from that standpoint, is
not so great now because this is not boxing. Is
not football, where you can have a million NFL games
or you know, big time college games on a given weekend.
Boxing is more of a smaller sport unfortunately, but so

(02:40):
you kind of got to pay attention to everything, and
in football it's a lot of it's mostly regional, even
though there may be a big national matchup. In boxing,
while there are certainly guys who are favorites in their
home areas, it's still that the hardcore fans. It appeals
to everybody, whether you're fighting a Japanese fighter in Las
Vegas or a Mexican and Saudi Arabia, or you know

(03:00):
the younger guys that are fighting in Times Square. So
you know, I can go either way on it, and
once in a while it's kind of cool, you know.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
And again this kind of sells itself on what we're
about to do with all of the previews. Now we
should say thank you for finding us on the pod feed.
I got a couple of housekeeping things. Make sure that
you're following, subscribing, rating and reviewing us. We're still Dan
saying that if you have rated us and reviewed us
in the last couple of weeks here deadline is at
the aftermath of Sunday Night and the and the Monster

(03:29):
headlining for top rank. If you have rated us and
reviewed us on the podcast feed and you're subscribing on
the Ramping Up Big Fight Weekend YouTube channel, if you've
done both, send us a screenshot. We're going to do
it giveaway I've done. We've gotten some feedback from people
that have done both and actually followed directions. Of course,
we've got thousands and thousands and thousands of you that

(03:51):
listen to us. So when we get like seven people
that have followed the directions, I'm happy for the seven,
but I don't know what that means for the rest
of you savages.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
I thought those guys, those guys got a better chance
to We're.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
Motivating, all right, So we have that bit of housekeeping
rate us and review us Apple Spreaker, Spotify, screenshot the
rating and review the recent one, and also screenshot and
show us that you are subscribed on the YouTube channel.
We're going to give something away, whether it's a collector
cump from a big Vegas fight, the key cards with
the with the promo poster on it, some kind of

(04:24):
nick knack chatsky nugget giveaway that we're going to do
for that all right, something else that you and I
are going to do just for the YouTube. We decided
just for the YouTube audience because we love the people
that are here with us on pod, but we want
more of you on YouTube. On Friday night, people listen
to my instructions clearly. Ray Fie'll always make sure that

(04:46):
I'm clear with him. I'm now being clear with the
savages on Friday night, in the aftermath of this fatal
Fury Times Square card, you and I will come to
life live on the YouTube page. See the moving video
and picture see the fight analysis. For about fifteen minutes
or so, give or take how long Dan talks, I'm
just having fun with you. Fifteen minutes e each ish

(05:10):
each you know, somewhere around five minutes each fifteen minutes
or so total.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
We don't have to nail ourselves. Now, we're gonna recap that.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
I'm I'm just saying, depending on what all has happened.
It's not gonna be a prolonged hour preview, no no, no,
but we're gonna get it done on Friday night on
the YouTube channel peeps again. Big Fight Weekend YouTube channel
is where it's gonna be. And if you're not with
us live when it happens, you can see it later
on Saturday. On Sunday, Dan will be promoting it, We'll

(05:40):
be promoting it socially through the Big Fight Weekend channels,
et cetera. So that is coming Friday night as well,
when the Friday night card's over. We're not doing it
after the Canelo Saudi pay per view, and we're not
doing it live on the YouTube page after the Sunday
night Top Rank show. But I thought that, you know,
we want more of you to engage with the YouTube channel,

(06:03):
so subscribe, be there, come find us for that. All right,
With all of that out of the way, you and
I are thoroughly screwed up on what day it is,
what time it is, because we've already done the bet
US Boxing show, and we've already done a full fledged
long form preview of all these fights. But let's get
back into it and start with Friday, where we have
the co main events involving Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney,

(06:25):
who are who are deemed and slotted to be fighting
each other should they both be victorious. And we have
Tea Fimo Lopez as well, defending his WBO one and
forty pound.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
A title which is more important than that, well.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
Okay, the lineal title and the WBO title that he
currently has, all right, so let's get into it. The
fighters have all made weight on Thursday. We know that
this is the first time ever for some kind of
spectacle like this in Times Square, all right, So Dan,
let's get into it again. It's it's curious to me

(07:00):
that it's it's a limited invite situation to VIPs and
that I'm curious how the public in and around in
the background around Times Square come watch on the TVs
or see it for Friday night.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
I tell you what I mean, unrelated to the actual
bouts I was told, and maybe they'll work this out
in the next you know, period of time before the
show starts, that they originally had placed a chain link fence.
I saw the pictures that Turkey al Chic has posted
on his social media and Ring magazine because of their spot.
You know, it's their card. At how it looks. The
setup looks really cool, it looks very interesting, and they

(07:32):
had a chainlink fence around it where they would have
the folks who were invited in, the officials and the
fighters and everything inside that area. But if you were
on the street or you're walking around and you're a
boxing fan, you could stand there and watch it. And
then they also had bought the time on all those
number of jumbotrons and the big video screens that are
all over the place in Times Square, high above the

(07:53):
storefronts and the buildings. So what happened again? And maybe
they'll fix this, But I was told that the city
has made them do a wrap around the chain link
fence so people can't look through it, and made them
and not going to allow them to show the fight
on the video board because of some ordinance that is
related to traffic and driving, so they may not be

(08:17):
able to do that.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
And driving would be paramount to not be distracted with
the video.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
So you may so the folks that are there on
I mean, you can see it obviously, you're like you
and I were going to watch it on on the
pay per view on his own, But if you're just there,
there's a good chance you might not be able to
see it.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
Now.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
Maybe they'll even have worked that out between now when
the car starts. But I was told unequivocally that was
an issue that was happening that everybody that was.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
It would seem to me, and I have no knowledge
of this, but it would seem to me that the
working solution might be that in a certain area a
little bit back from the chain link fence, you could
probably see a little bit into the ring maybe, but
maybe they only have a couple of the screens up
with the video right in that. I'm just saying this.
That wouldn't be around the traffic because again, if you're

(09:00):
familiar with Times Square, it's nuts with cabs and vehicles
and stuff everywhere. So I can totally get where you
don't want live boxing on.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
It's not one or two, it's everything. You cannot put
it up on the board from what I'm told, again,
I would have thought they might have worked that out
ahead of time when this was all in the planning stages.
But again, hopefully they'll work it out.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
All right, So it doesn't matter because you're gonna be
watching on the tube.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
It kind of takes away from the atmosphere of having
people gathered in, you know, the whole purpose of sort
of having it there to create kind of a of
a of a musty situation. But whatever, hiks for happening,
all right.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
So Ryan Garcia, Rolely Romero, Devin Haney, Jose Ramirez again,
give me your give me your thought. You and I,
I mean, I'm just gonna go ahead and put this out.
You and I both believe this is a Ryan Garcia
knockout of Roly Romero. Tell them more? Why here on
the preview.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
Pot Well, look, first of all, in terms of the
overall situation with Ryan and Devin, they both thought each
other in that very controversial situation that took place last
April where Ryan Garcia scored three knockdowns, ended up winning
a majority decision, very close fight other than the knockdowns,
and then after the end. First of all, Ryan was overweight,
so he couldn't win the WBC Junior welterweight title that

(10:10):
Devin Haney had at that time. He has since relinquished
that title. And then Ryan of course got suspended because
he attested positive for peds and was suspended a year.
But Devin Haney, who didn't get suspended and who was
perfectly able if he wanted to get back in the ring,
also hasn't thoughts incens So both of them are coming
off of, you know, the just to slightly over a
year long layoffs since that fight. And of course, as

(10:31):
you mentioned, if they win these matches against Romero and
Jose Ramirez, their scheduled to fight each other in Saudi
Arabia at the end of this year, and so there's
a lot on the line here.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
Now.

Speaker 2 (10:41):
One thing about Ryan Garcia going into this Romero fight.
One of the reasons I think he wins pretty handily,
other than the fact that while Romero was a you know,
you know, an interesting character outside the ring, you know,
skill wise and in terms of his boxing, it's it's
pretty rudimentary in my opinion, It's not all that nuanced
at all. He's shown very dense in that chin. Recently,
he's been knocked out in two of his last four fights,

(11:02):
one at lightweight when at junior welterweight. He's going in
the ring with one of the best left hook punchers
in boxing and Ryan Garcia electrifying quick handspeed, So he
was going to be the favorite anyway. Now that Ryan appears,
and you know, I don't I don't follow him around
in his life, but based on everything I've heard and
read and seen and talked to people involved with the event,
from a mental standpoint and from his physical conditioning, he's

(11:26):
in much better shape mentally and physically than he was
when it was a complete train wreck going into the
Hainy fight, when he was drinking and partying and missing
weight and you know, ended up afterwards. You remember, he
got arrested for vandalism, which ultimately right. He went on
these crazy Dya tribes on social media, you know, spouting
off all kinds of hate language against different religions and
ethnicities and colors and this and that. You know, not

(11:48):
a good situation. But it seems like he's got his
shit together right now, which is good. So if he's
on point in physical and mental roller Romero is getting
knocked out. In my opinion, it's not going to be
that hard. So he'll put himself into that fight now. Haney.
He goes thearing Jose Ramirez, who has been an excellent
fighter for a long time. A former unified champion had
won for him and Haney. Both are moving up to welterweight,

(12:11):
So I don't know why they did this because one
forty seven is a wal the right limit, but both
of them are moving up, so for whatever the reasons were,
it doesn't benefit anybody. They made this a contract weight
of one hundred and forty four pounds, as I guess
they ease into this weight class. But Jose Ramirez, you
know who's been who's a credit in terms of the
way he has fought, his willingness to fight good guys
for the most part, and just the way he carries

(12:32):
himself as a person is a very good you know,
in the good guy basically. But he's seemed better days
in my opinion. I mean, he looked terrible against Barboza
in the last fight in the fall when he lost
in uh Saudi Arabia, and even when he had won
a few fights in a row since the Josh Taylor loss,
he didn't really shine. He won, but he wasn't fighting
like the top top guys. Good good opponents, but not

(12:53):
nothing that would blow your doors off. So Hani if
he's mentally together, because he did, they go to some troubles.
Admittedly after that Boss and all the stuff with the
peds and everything was going on with the Garcia aftermath.
You know, he's still a lot younger, he's still fast.
Should be you know, a win for him also, And
so again, when they made this card, they're not trying
to get Garcia and Hainey beat, but they also wanted

(13:15):
to make a show where you had reasonable opposition, you know,
quality guys to compete, where at the end of the
day the two favorites would win and they can move
on to the rematch. So Romero and Joser Ameras are
obviously a good, solid professionals, but both of them have
perhaps some chinks in that armor, so to speak, compared
to the main to the to the name guys or
the bigger name guys, I should say. So from that standpoint, yeah,

(13:38):
Garcia and Hainey are obviously the favorites and are supposed
to win, but it is boxing. You never know. Josier
Americs can summon another big time fight if Roly Romero
can find you know, and land a big punch on
on Ryan Garcia. One thing that really does have, which
is pretty much the only thing he has besides a
good heart, is he does have a good punch if
he lands. So that those are the main events, but
it'll be interesting because of the atmosphere or lack there of,

(14:01):
because again, if it's in Times Square but you don't
have a big crowd and then you're not gonna have
it's gonna be maybe a little quiet. It won't be
quite like being in the bubble, right, but it also
won't be like if they were in Madison Square Gardens. Yeah,
if they had put this fight in the garden, they
would have sold fifteen thousand tickets for this kind of show,
I would think, and it would have been people going
absolutely crazy for these fights, you know, for Garcia and

(14:22):
all the hooplow that these guys bring, te Femo and
all the matchups. So though that's that fight, that's sort
of the entry. Can they get to each other and
with Tafimo Lopez, as we mentioned on a number of occasions,
if you're gonna pick an upset of any of the
fights on this weekend, this one seems the one that's
right for the upset. I say that not for any
disrespect to Lopez, but Barbosa is pretty good. He's undefeated,

(14:46):
he's really super hungry. He's coming off his two best wins.
He beat Ramirez clean in Saudi Arabia. He followed that
up by going on the road and scoring. You know,
he was an underdog against Ramirez and they beat him clean.
Then he was the underdog when he went to Manchester,
England and he bumped off Caall. He won a split
decision basically in Caterall's backyard, so that tells you the
real deal there. So that's two upsets in a row.

(15:06):
He's very confident. He's getting his first title shot after
begging for one for a long time. And Tifiomo Lopez,
as we know, sometimes can look phenomenal and other times
can look, you know, just very pedestrian. Even if he's won,
he's looked pedestrian. He has not really fought. In my opinion,
he has not. He's won, but he hasn't looked impressive
at all since he's been at one forty other than

(15:28):
the Josh Tailer Fred he's got one stoppage in that
weight class against Camp. In the first fight. He looked
terrible against Jermaine Artiz. I thought he lost that fight.
He looked, you know, he beat Steve Claggett basically every round,
but it was not a very top level performance. But
he's But the thing about Ti Fimo is when the
big fights are there, he has shown up.

Speaker 1 (15:45):
I was just coming right there. We said this before.
If we get the tea of Femo Lopez against Josh Taylor,
that's trouble for Barboso. But I believe there's enough distraction
with everything that's going on that Barboza's got a legit shot.
I picked him. I picked him on the bat Us
Show to pull the upset.

Speaker 2 (16:02):
Well, if you're picking him to win the fight, I
don't know if you're doing it because of distraction, because
this is seeming like the first time in a while
where there really isn't a lot of distraction on Tifemo.
He seems real calm and cool, having a good time.
Not you know, he's kind of playing the playing the
joker part of this promotion. I mean, he's really been
the one that's frankly been selling it him and his father.
But Lopez has a lot at stake also, And I'm

(16:23):
gonna tell you what we're talking about. How Hane and
Garcia are headed to the rematch if they win their
fights on Friday, ti Fimo, if he wins, is going
to probably be on that undercard against a bigger name opponent.
If one of the two guys in the main events
between Garcia and Hani, if either one of them lose,
there's a very good chance that come the fall fight
that I just mentioned, that Tifimo ends up being the

(16:43):
opponent for the guy that could maybe wins if one
of the other guys loses, So he maybe fights a
Devin Haney if Garcia loses or vice versa, and even
if not, this is the first of three fights he
has with Turkey. They're talking about a Richardson Hitchins unification fight.
They're talking about the winner of the ultimate Garcia versus
Hainary match if they get to it. They're talking about

(17:03):
maybe in the fall the Geron boots and his fight,
him moving up to the welterweight division. So he's got
a lot at steak and Barbosa has been beating his
chest by week saying you know what, basically, fuck him,
I'm coming to ruin all those plans. So that makes
that to me, that's why that fight's probably the most
interesting in terms of the storyline, not necessarily the action,
but you know, there's a reason to watch the show,
even if the odds on the two other fights are

(17:25):
kind of wide. The name recognition, the name value, what's
at stake for all three guys and the B side
so to speak, there's so much at stake for them also,
and the location. It does make it an interesting card,
and I was happy that because they put two fights
on pay per view back to back nights with this
card in times square, plus the Canelo card on Saturday
at least, which is highly unusual. I mean, in the

(17:47):
annals of pay per view, the same company has never
done back to back nights of pay per view to
my remembrance whatsoever. But at least, if they're gonna do that,
at least the Zone did a promotion that makes sense
where you know, you can buy either one of it
if you want, but you also get a nice discount
if you buy both. So that's I guess a silver lining.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
All right. So that is Friday night, and then we
move on to Saturday night, where Canelo Alvarez will fight
for the first time outside of North America, fighting in
Saudi Arabia. You did speak to him. We put it
up on the pod feed a couple of different times,
including as a standalone podcast earlier this week the channel,
and it's on the YouTube channel as well. Good promotion

(18:26):
that that is Saturday night. Now he's back in the ring.
He's fighting William Skull. You know my feeling on this,
I've said over and over again. You know, I think
I speak for a lot of people that are just
rolling their eyes at this. I understand. I mean, this
is a this is a money thing for Canelo, and

(18:47):
it's an opportunity to get back in the ring and
essentially tune up for the Terrence Crawford fight that's coming up.
So that headlines and the interesting thing. We'll get to
the undercard in a few moments. This is in the
middle of the night with the undercard and the main
of the early Sunday morning Saudi Arabia time back to
late night in the Eastern and Central time zone at
least in the United States and for Mexico in the

(19:09):
Central and Mountain time zone where most of the country is,
it'll be primetime. But this is early morning, and I'm fascinated,
you know, because that's obviously different on the body clocks
for Canelo and for Skull to be fighting Sunday morning.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
Well that was the reason why Canelo went to Saudi
Arabia three weeks before the fight. They try to acclimate
to all those elements, whether it's the food, the weather,
and the timing of when you're going to fight. So
they did the right thing. They didn't wait till fight
week to get there. They went three weeks ago, So
good for them, and they'll get used to the situation. Look,
you say it's strictly a money thing, and it is.
Obviously that's a huge part of it, and to get

(19:42):
ready for the Crawford fight, which is even bigger money
back here in America. Now, you and I can can
laugh at it as casual fans can can mock it,
but there's something to be said because Canelo and for
whatever reason, Turkey want him to be reunified as the
undisputed champion because it will make the Crawford fight a
bigger deal promotionally, because it will give Crawford the opportunity

(20:04):
to become a three division four belt champion, which has
never happened. And Canelo, as he spoke about on the podcast,
interview that I did with him. He likes the idea
of being the only fighter so far in the four
belt era to be a two time undisputed champion in
the same weight class. So yeah, the belt got taken
away from him, which was ridiculous, but I get it,
and now he's got a chance to basically get it back.

(20:25):
He's like, Okay, William Skull, you've been renting my belt
for the last few months. I'm going to come get
it back from you. And it is what it is.
I mean, it is the lowest profile Canelo fight that
I can think of since he's been a star level
fighter for a lot of different reasons, not the least
of which is because it's in Saudi Arabia and the
opponent is completely unknown. So if you take, for example,
like when he fought John Ryder, it wasn't like that

(20:46):
big of a deal, but at least it was in
North America, so his fans here could see it or
at least hear about it anyway, and he was fighting
at home in Guadalajara, so it was like a big
deal as a homecoming fight, so it still was an event.
This is not quite the same He's fighting in a
six to seven thousand seed arena. Canelo has not fought
in an arena that's small and literally probably I don't know,
you gotta probably go back in fifteen years. I'd say ten, twelve,

(21:08):
fifteen years, something like that. But it's an ends to
a meet, you know, or I should say it means
to an end, which is take care of business. You're
gonna make a pile of money. He's gonna, theoretically, if
he wins get back the IBF belt, he'll go into
the mega fight with Crawford in the fall. It'll be
for all the belts once again, and then and then
he's off to the two more fights he has in
twenty twenty six. If he beats Crawford. There's been already

(21:29):
conversation about maybe fighting Chris Eubank Junior, who would go
up to Super mid away coming off that you know,
amazing fight he had last week with Connor Ben. So
there's still lots of things for him to do. But
in terms of this main event, look, not every single
fight's gonna be the all star fight, you know. I
know people didn't necessarily like Monkey or Berlanga, but at
least they had name recognition at least they had entertaining styles.
At least they had some accomplishment, had been in front

(21:53):
of a lot of fans over the over the last
few years. Skull comes as obscure as it gets. As
I've mentioned, when Canelo fought back in May of last year,
he was so buried on that undercard in an eight rounder.
It wasn't even part of the streaming. And somebody like
myself that prides himself on getting to the arena early
to see all the fights.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
It was so great.

Speaker 2 (22:11):
I even missed that particular bout because of some other
stuff that was going on that day. So you know,
it is what it is, nobody. You don't have to
buy it, you know, but it is one of the
biggest stars in boxing, and you know, take it for
what it's worth. Yep.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
So he is headlining, and then the three fights below
that is a cruiserweight world title defense for Badu Jack
He's back, Bruno sirase Haimi Mungia is an intriguing rematch
from Mongia after the one punch knockout loss for him.
And then also the heavyweights Faa Jagba and Martin Bucolier
fighting and will now go over all three of those briefly.

(22:46):
First of all, with Jack back defending his Cruiserweight Championship
in the co feature. Go ahead, yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
Mean this is like a pretty decent fight if you're
into if you if you're familiar with these two guys.
I mean, Jack had won that title and then was
going to try to win the Bridgerway title. Whatever reason,
the fight never materialized and he went up and he
had a long layoff, and in the meantime, uh Noah
McCallion won that belt eventually, and but they basically they switched.

(23:13):
It was really weird the way that the WBC actually
did the right thing, but it was kind of happenstance
that it was sort of luck that Jack decided to return.
They took him out of the in recess and put
him back in the full title, while mccallian went from
the full title into the in recess position because he
was engaged in a lawsuit with Don King and injured
and unavailable. And there's a whole big thing. Now it's

(23:34):
Jack as the champion, which you know, he never lost.
Mccallian is out of recess quote unquote and is fighting him,
and it's you know, they're the two top guys in
the WBC. It's actually on paper, if you asked me
just from the action perspective, it actually lines up like
a pretty decent fight. They're coming off layoffs. But but
McCallan has settled his differences with his promoter, and and

(23:55):
Jack has always been a guy that is always given
a great effort he's been in the ring. He's kind
of he's becoming underrated. I'd like to see him have
been a little more busy, but he's always been in
good fights over the years. He's won some some rough ones.
I mean, I'll tell you that the fight he had
was a super middleweight unification that I was at several
years ago against James degall As a spectacular fight was

(24:16):
a Fight of the Year contender. Turned out to be
a draw. So he's back. You mentioned about Sarasse and Mongia.
As you mentioned Humungus. It was picked by everybody as
the upset of the year for twenty twenty four. In December,
he Mongia was going home to Tijuana squeezed in a
fourth fight last year. As we always say, let's hear
it for activity. As they were trying to set up
a big twenty twenty five and in an outdoor stadium

(24:38):
in his hometown against a guy that was undefeated but
had like what was he twenty five and oer or
something like that, or twenty six now with five knockouts
or something like that. Yeah, crazy had fought absolutely shit opponents,
and I mean terrible. Yeah, just the dregs of you
could find.

Speaker 1 (24:55):
If you were documenting an out of nowhere opponent scoring
a upset with one punch, you'd be hard pressed to
find another more glaring example of it than what happened
in this fight.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
I mean there you we could find a few of
similar level, but this was very shocking, particularly because he
was at home. And keep in mind he had dominated
and won every single second of that fight, including scoring
a second round knockdown against RaSE. And then uh, mister Mangia,
who wouldn't know how to spell defense if you spot
him the D E F E N s uh just

(25:31):
dropped his hands and let the man.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
I prefer to do it another way whenever I'm making
the point, there's no D in Mangia, and that's obvious.
There is no DA and he doesn't have any D.

Speaker 2 (25:41):
He got absolutely just schlecked with this big right hand
and down he went and he was knocked out, and
so now he had the right to a rematch and
they've worked it out, and so they're doing this rematch,
and you know, everything's on the line for him because
you cannot be losing to this dude two times in
a row.

Speaker 1 (25:56):
Nope. I mean, you know, this is career threatening stuff.
If he doesn't not to say that he's never going
to fight again, but if he loses to this guy again,
monkey is somehow, some way huge problem.

Speaker 2 (26:10):
Now, the good thing for Mongia is that he goes
into this fight where he is now working with Eddie
Renoso as his trainer. They've been together now since that
last fight, so he's had a chance to work with him.
He's been in the gym and part of that Canelo team.
They Canelo told me that they didn't they weren't sparring together,
but they were working together, you know, training together, So
that that can only rub off well on somebody in

(26:31):
that environment. Because no matter what you think about Canelo, Uh,
the man works hard. I mean, there's a reason that
he's still at the top after all these years because
he hasn't you know, he hasn't fallen, He's not susceptible
to that. Marvin Hagler a great quote from many years
ago about you know, it's hard to get up and
run when you're sleeping in silk pajamas. Canelo does sleep
in silk pajamas and sometimes he wears them the press conferences.
But he's still out there doing his roadwork and exactly

(26:53):
take a name.

Speaker 1 (26:54):
So so's that makes the difference from Mongia. We'll see, yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:57):
And then the heavyweight fight at Jagua and Bacoli. This
was supposed to be actually, originally it was going to
be on this Times Square card. It was supposed to
be a twelve round IBF heavyweight elimination fight. But when
Baccoley took the fight against Joseph Parker on like a
two days notice and went to Saudi Arabia and got
knocked out in the second round for obvious reasons, the
IBF was not going to then sanction the fight as
an eliminator when the dude just got knocked out and uh,

(27:20):
that was no can do. So they still are going
to do the match, it just doesn't have the stakes
and being an eliminator fight, but it's still a nice
matchup a Jagua. You know, decided to stay in this.
He could have pulled out and gone the IBF RAP.
But I'm sure he's being paid very well to stay
in this fight. And at the end of the day,
it's about making money in this sport. And if he wins,
it's it's not gonna it's not going to disable him
from getting a bigger fights. So as a good heavyweight tussle,

(27:43):
we'll see what Bocoli's got after that terrible uh knockout.
I mean, obviously, I'm sure he'll be in better shape
for this fight. He didn't have a lot of time
trained for the last one. A jog was you know,
cut from Granted, he's always in great shape and both
guys can crack.

Speaker 1 (27:56):
It's the heavyweights, and it's the heavyweights. We're always intrigued.

Speaker 2 (27:59):
And we'll see who can take make the best shot.
So look, the other fight card in New York has
a better group of name fighters, let's say, but not
necessarily in terms of the odds other than the t
Femal fight. Not the most competitive at least in terms
of the wagering. This card, while the main event is
like you know, a wildly divergent odds on Canelo as

(28:21):
the winner. He's like a forty to one favorite. The
other fights, though for different reasons, are all intriguing. A
Jagua Bacoli is you know, should be a close fight,
odds wise, Sarasei Manghia, whatever the odds are, are still
fascinating because of the rematch aspect of what happened. But dude,
Jack McCallan may not be the highest profile world title fight,
but I actually think that will be a good fight
when they get into the ring and do their business,
and then Canelo is Canelo, So you know, this is actually,

(28:42):
in my mind, is a pretty good card, even though
I know there's not a love for the main event.

Speaker 1 (28:47):
All right, and again that is Saturday night in Saudi
Arabia on his own pay per view. We move forward
to Sunday night in the preview mode, and all we
get the third of three big nights, and that's the
Monster Naolia in a way, defending the under disputed one
and twenty two pound titles. Again someone named Ramon Cardenius.
We'd love to tell you that's a household name, not

(29:07):
really Cardenius out of San Antonio, Texas. Is I mean,
he's a fighter that has not fought a lot of
reputable names that you would even know. This is set
up obviously for the monster to have a big night.
You never know in boxing. But here we go with
the latest appearance. Go over this again, Dan, I know
we did talk about it on the US Show back

(29:29):
on Wednesday. This is the latest appearance that he's been
in the United States and this has got a chance
to have a pretty good atmosphere in the T Mobile
Arena here for him on Sunday night.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
Well, it's his FOURTS fight in America. Before he became
a superstar, he fought one fight out at HBO Undercart
in California several years ago, a fight I actually was
at the one time I had the privilege to watch
No You in a way from ringside. And then he
had two other fights in world title doubts that took
place in Las Vegas. One was in the actual bubble
when there was no fans allowed, and then he came
back and I think the second fight when he did
that fight, I want to if I remember correctly, there

(29:58):
was was in a smaller revenue, but there was just
a limited crowd allow. This is like when COVID was
starting to ease a little bit, but they were able
to have maybe like a thousand fans there or something
like that. So now we come back as a as
a as a superstar, at least in Japan. And you know,
most people consider him at worst number three in the
world pound for pound. Some people argue one or two
point is he's in that elite level and he's done,

(30:19):
and he's now headlining in an arena like t Mobile,
headlining on ESPN for the first time. You know, it
is unusual. It's a Sunday night. His opponent's not well known,
as you mentioned with Cardenas. I think if you if
you take a look at the seat maps and listen
to some of the folks that are more knowledge about
the ticket situation than I am. Different brokers that I've
talked to, tickets are struggling. They've they've lowered the prices

(30:41):
dramatically because it's it's a look on the bet us.
He was sixty to one noight in a way to
win the fight. I mean, you know, there's something to
be said for competition. You know, no no knock on Cardenas,
but he doesn't have anybody of repue on his record whatsoever.
He's never fought a name guy. Ever, he's just not known.
It doesn't mean he's no good, but he's got a
great record twenty six and one. He's not been stopped

(31:01):
in that one lossing. You got to go all the
way back to you know, twenty seventeen and when he
was still you know, somewhat earlier in his career before
he suffered a loss, but again not to a big
name whatsoever. He lost to a guy that was fourteen
and nine and one draw, for what that's worth, in
a fight they took place in Mexico. So look, as
you mentioned, this is in a way showcase, he's supposed
to win big. As it turns out, it was just

(31:22):
today as we're taping this on Thursday, that the MJ
Acmadalia of people signed the provision of services agreement with
top rank and everybody involved with that fight to make
official that if in a way is the winner and
the injuries, he's under contract to do the fight within
a way that will take place in mid September in Japan.
So in a way against MJ. MJ is the best

(31:44):
point at one hundred and twenty two pounds that in
a way has yet to fight. That's a worthy kind
of fight. He is a mandatory meant bigger, Yeah, a
lot bigger than than Cardenas. So you know, I think
most people expect in a way to just show up
and power punch his way to a victory. However, whether
it's early, late, whenever, but the Doe domination and we'll see.
I mean, I'll put it to you like this, whether

(32:06):
he wins by knockout decision, it doesn't, it doesn't have
an impact in terms of like his standing. You know,
if he loses, obviously it's a dramatic disaster, but it
will be fun. Look, I mean, after after a big
weekend of watching the New York card and then you know,
whatever is gonna happen in Saudi Arabia to then also
kick back on a Sunday night following the baseball game,

(32:28):
which coincidentally's with Otani. They got the two Japanese superstars
back to back broadcast on ESPN. One baseball game, one
boxing event. Is sort of intriguing, and uh, look, I'm
in I've been following it away since day one pretty much,
so I'm grill to see him on TV.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
And here's and here's the thing. He's in his prime
ten straight championship defenses by knockout, and only two of
those fights have seen the tenth round, So more than
likely you're gonna see explosive Naoya in a way before
the tenth round, and maybe even before like the fifth
or the sixth round.

Speaker 2 (32:57):
And how about the fact that for change, we don't
have to wake up at four o'clock in the morning
to watch.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
Them crewe it's not breakfast with the Japanese boxing, and
on the cod feature fight, we should not sell it short.
This is interesting. Rafael Espinoza defends the WBO featherweight title.
He's the guy with the two wins over Robes c Ramirez.
He's fighting Edward Vasquez and the co features something real
quick on that in the preview mode for Sunday.

Speaker 2 (33:21):
So that's you know, on paper anyway, it seems to
be a more closer fight anyway than it would be
within a way against Cardenas now Vasquez. If you remember
a couple of fights to go. This is back in
like the end of twenty twenty three. He fought over
on the Matchroom card that they do annually in Monte Carlo,
and he challenged Joe Cordina for who at that time
was the IDF title holder at one hundred and thirty pounds,

(33:41):
and he gave him a great fight. It was a
majority decision that he lost. It was super close, and
he's won two fights in Erro since then at one
hundred and thirty. Now he's dropping down to featherweight to
challenge Espinoza for the title, so we guess he's the
bigger guy wait wise, although Espinosa, as you know, is
a very tall, you know, kind of freakishly tall. He's
like the Sebastian Fandora of the featherweight. He goes six
foot one as one hundred and twenty six pounder, so

(34:03):
that is absolutely gigantic. And he's got a long reach,
and he's got you know, a tremendous wingspan and long
you know, long torso long everything, and he can get
some good leverage on those punch as of his he's
twenty six and oho with twenty two knockouts, and so
he's the big favorite. But really, what this amounts to, well,
number one, it's single to my weekend, So I guess
top rank figure. We got a Japanese fighter fighting I

(34:24):
guess a Mexican American. But now we got a Mexican
national who's a champion, put him on that co feature
with with this fight with Vazquez, get maybe a little
bit more attention from the Mexican fan base. But really
what this is in essence, and I wrote a little
bit about this in one of my newsletters this week.
This is and and Espinosa acknowledges this, and top rank
would acknowledge this also, this is in essence, This is

(34:45):
like an audition for in a way because in a way,
whatever happens with this fight, whatever happens with mac Mandaliev
and he's still planning also a Saudi Arabi fight in
December that at some point this at the end of
this year or next year, he's moving up to one
hundred and twenty six pounds. Hopefully we'll be after he
fights Nakatani. But he Espinoza wants to be standing there

(35:06):
yeah and say I'm the champion of the WBO, come
and challenge me. And so I'm as They put him
on this undercard for a reason besides just being the
fact that he's a Mexican champion. They want the Japanese
viewers who are going to be watching this fight at
home in Japan to see on this undercard a potential
opponent for their hero. Remember it wasn't that long ago

(35:26):
that when Robasi Ramirez had this title that they actually
had him defend the title in Japan on an in
a way undercard on once again that was an audition.
Now he ended up losing to Espinosa, so that kind
of went out the window. But now Espinosa has that spot,
and so this is as I said, this is the audition.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
And so again a lot of intrigue for that reason,
for that fight, and it does have the tie into
Sinco DeMaio. Even if it's May the fourth on Sunday night. Man,
that's a lot in the preview mode. And again we'll
do a full recap off the weekend peeps of all
of this. Another mention that will be your way on
Friday night talking about the Friday Night Fatal Theory card

(36:03):
from Times Square. But we're going a full recap of
the Canelo pay per view, all of it, including his
main event, and this in a way top rank ESPN card.
We should emphasize again it's not a pay per view. Yes,
you have to have ESPN or ESPN Plus to be
able to see it, but it is an ESPN main
event for in a way the two two fights, correct,

(36:24):
not three on the ESPN portion correct or just the one?

Speaker 2 (36:28):
No, No, the ESPN main card is in a way
in esp Nooza, but every single fight on the show
is also on.

Speaker 1 (36:33):
ESPN Plus earlier in the night. Okay, So check into
all of that, and that leads us next to the news.
There's a lot of it. Hey, Rayphiel, you always got
to keep me straight. I mean, this is half the
job for you. I thought we were getting Tim zu
and Keith Thurman, but a funny thing happened on the
way to Zoo Thurman because now apparently it's going to

(36:55):
be a rematch with Sebastian Fundura. What's going on here
this week? Including the very late Stephen on Thursday evening? Right,
what's up?

Speaker 2 (37:03):
So yeah, it was supposed to be Thurman against Uh
Tim Zoo that the fighters were embracing of that. Remember
when Thurman made his return, it was Tim Zuo sitting
ringside doing commentary for the Australian pay per view which
we were being seen here in America simulcast and and
uh and he had and Thurman had gone also to
Australian knocked out an Australian fighter, Brock Jarvis. They both

(37:25):
had scored early knockouts. They were talking shit with each
other and PBC said, that's what we're doing. That the
you know, everybody was basically that's what we're doing. Okay,
that's cool. I love that. I actually really liked that fight.
Remember they were supposed to fight each other uh in
March of last year before Thurman had the biceps injury
and ended up having to pull out. He got replaced
by Fandora. Fondora ended up beating Tim Zuo with that

(37:46):
tremendously blood soaked fight because of the horrible gash that
Tim had on his scalp and also Fandora with the
nose injury, and and he ended up winning a you know,
close decision against him in that fight. Now he was
off for a while, Tim Zuo Fendora fight for basically
a year, came back a few weeks ago and knocked
out Cordel Booker in defense of his title. Meantime, Tim
Zu had fought twice. He had gotten blitzed and draw

(38:08):
just drilled by Martazalayev Black in October and lost and
then came back again, and as I mentioned, had that
fight where knocked out Joey Spencer in Australia, thinking it
was going to set up this Keith Thurman fight. As
it turned out, Tim Zuo had a rematch clause that
allowed Fondora to take an interim fight, which was the
Cordel Booker fight. So according to No Limit Boxing and
the PBC, people who worked with Tim also said that

(38:29):
Tim exercised their right to the rematch, so that mean
Fondora had to fight him. He had been ordered to
defend the WBO mandatory. He's re member, he's the unified
champ of the WBO and the WBC. He had been
ordered to fight the WBO mandatory. Xanders ayas Zius jumped
in the ring after the Booker fight. They posed for
pictures together. They both said they want to fight top rank,
and PBC and Samson Lukowitz, the promoter, were all working

(38:53):
to try to make the fight. They had actually asked
the WBO to delay the purse bid by one week
because they were getting close to a deal. So they
said the WBA have said, fine, we'll grant you the uh,
We'll grant you that extra time and then move them
out of nowhere. I think they looked at the numbers
and they realized, you know what, it's a bigger fight. Financially,
Tim wanted the rematch. He took the rematch, and so
there goes Zius against Fandora, there goes Zoo against Durman,

(39:16):
and it's going to be sometime this summer, probably July.
It will be Tim Zoo in a rematch with Sebastian Frondor.
And as you mentioned, Thursday night, and this is not unexpected,
the WBO anow it'ced through a resolution that they had
stripped Sebastian Frondora of the WBO title. So he'll go
into the fight with Zoo only with the WBC title,
and Xander Zias will be fighting for the vacant WBO title.

(39:39):
And as Samson Lukawitz, the promoter for Fondora said to
me when I wrote about this, which was which was
likely going to happen, he said to me, look, we
know we're going in a different direction. We respect Fondora,
we think we respect Zius rather, we think he's an
excellent young fighter and maybe someday down the road we'll
see each other and we can do a unification fight
or something like that, you know, as we wish him
the best of luck. So but they're going for the

(40:01):
bigger fight, which you can't argue with. I mean, no offense, Desias,
but Sebastian Fandora Timzu rematch is certainly a bigger match
for the public and for the guys than if he
were to fight the fight against Xander Zira.

Speaker 1 (40:12):
And it's a good match, and real quick, what do
we know. Are we certain that it would be in
the United States or is it possible it would be
in Australia. You would have to think with Fondora being
the champ, he wants this in Vegas or in the
Western United States, you would think.

Speaker 2 (40:25):
I talked to Samson, who is the promoter for Fondora.
I talked to George Rose, who is the promoter from
No Limit who works with Tim Zuo. They said, look,
we don't have any details yet on it other than
it's going to be this summer, probably July or August.
I imagine without question it will be in the United
States because pay per views, while they can be successful
in Australia, you can just do a small pay per

(40:48):
view level number in the United States and it's still
going to blow away whatever they do in Australia from
a financial perspective, So it's definitely a bigger fight to
do the fight here. And as you said, you know
Fandora is going to have that say so because he
is the champion. That's right to Zoos. So yeah, I
would be willing to say that fight takes place sometime July.
I forget the date. There's a date on the on
the agenda for the that of commission calendar for a

(41:09):
PBC payper view date. H we take it. I'm almost
positive they'll do that fight either the Tea Mobile or
the MGM like they did with many of their pay
per view fights. And that's what we'll see this summer.
And then whatever date they land on, whether it's Duly
or August, you got to figure the tank Davis Lamont
roach fight goes on the other date that they don't
take up, either July or August.

Speaker 1 (41:28):
All right, a couple more things real quick. Ticon Fury
back in the news, Oh my right, ray Phiel. Nobody
believed he was retired in the first place.

Speaker 2 (41:37):
Hey watch your mouth, don't shoot the fucking messenger.

Speaker 1 (41:40):
But he's on social media with Sugar Hills Steward earlier
this week saying, uh, hey, I'm I'm gonna fight later
this year. Wait a minute, stop the presses. We already
knew this. He's gonna fight and he's likely fighting Anthony
Joshua later. This is not a mystery.

Speaker 2 (41:55):
He didn't actually say I'm fighting next later. He didn't
actually say those words. It was like a ten eleven
second video and he's like, hey, look why I ran
to it, Look why I ran into in the gym,
And then you know, they laughed and were goofing off,
and he's like, you know what's coming next. Obviously he's
going to come out of retirement. The only fight that
makes sense for him to come out of retirement for
would be the Joshua fight. He's you know, that's the

(42:16):
still a big fight financially for everybody, and still the
fight that the Brits want to see. And I have
to believe that after he saw the crazy crowd that
Watt that was that was in attendance for Chris Ubank
Junior and Connor Ben how could you not get enthusiastic
about that. I mean, at the end of the day,
these fighters have a limited shelf life to be in
this in this sport, he's got the opportunity still to

(42:38):
have at least one more absolutely humongous event that you
will make another gargantuan pile of money and you'll have
that part of you know, your memories forever. And why
wouldn't you want to do it one more time? It's
something he's been doing his whole life. I would never
say if you if you're not if you're unhealthy or
you know you're injured, I mean, then you know what
be done. But I don't think in this particular situation

(43:01):
for Joshua and Fury to both take one more big
megafight to give the fans what they've wanted, and they
deserve it for themselves to have this fight against each other.
The fact that they could even think about going through
their careers and not facing the one guy that they
have to fight even more than Joshua and Wilder because
they're their own, they're their countrymen, they've both been top champions.

(43:22):
You gotta do this everybody wants.

Speaker 1 (43:24):
And by the way, for the history of British boxing,
you get to say that I'm the guy that got
the win over the other guy when everybody's been wondering
for five years who would win this matchup. Really, since
Fury knocked off Deontay Wilder the second fight that they had,
they were trying to make this fight, so we're going
on five years of trying to make this fight.

Speaker 2 (43:45):
So that's also It also doesn't surprise me by the
way that the day that Tyson Fury posted that video
just happened to be the ability to sort of jump
all over the announcement of Usik and his rematch with
Dubois for the undisputed title because Tyson Fury, he loves
the spotlight, and he basically as soon as that fight
was announced and then they were doing the the theory

(44:07):
uh posting. I forget what day was, but whatever it was.
The day before that was when they made a Monday.

Speaker 1 (44:13):
Monday was when they made the Usk fight.

Speaker 2 (44:15):
Of Okay okay, So then there was the one day
in between and the next day they were doing the
press comments. So of course Tyson had to kind of
jump all over that because he knew, by the way,
and Tyson Fury is very calculated, in my opinion, if
he does this announcement, he knows that when all the
media guys show up at the at the at the
press conference for Usik against Duwa, they're going to ask
the writers are all going to ask the guys about

(44:37):
what do you think about Fury coming back and fighting? Uh,
you know, perhaps fighting Joshua and maybe even Fury may
have designs on maybe getting a third fight against all.

Speaker 1 (44:45):
If you're but if you're Usik, you got four wins
against both those guys, so sure to stay tuned. All right,
So speaking of heavyweights, Oh, let me just say one.

Speaker 2 (44:53):
Thing about that. Yeah, real quick, should Daniel Duwa win
the fight against Usik and become the undisputed champion a
British undisputed CHAMPI and Daniel Dull fighting Tyson Fury challenging
for the underspeeded title also would be a pretty big fucking.

Speaker 1 (45:03):
Fight, presuming that Joshua doesn't beat Fury and then maybe
gets a rematch.

Speaker 2 (45:09):
But Joshua, yeah, who knows?

Speaker 1 (45:14):
Uh? Speaking of heavyweights? All right, So Jerrell Miller was
supposed to be fighting Fabio Wardley, however he is now hurt.
Filling the details and how soon was this supposed to
happen and who is the potential replacement? What have you learned? Well?

Speaker 2 (45:27):
They had remember they had that crazy press corments a
couple of weeks ago where they got into like some
kind of crazy, you know, back and forth with each other.
They were like throwing down and you know, Jerrel Miller
was doing his nonsense as usual. They were promoting this fight.
It's going to be the headliner of a Queensberry design
card June seventh, and it's taking place in Fabia Wordley's
hometown of Ipswich, England. And so it was a day

(45:47):
or two ago that that Queensberry promotion said that Jeral
Miller had suffered a shoulder injury and that he was
out of the fight and that they were looking for
a new opponent. They hoped to have somebody in line
to announce in the next forty eight hours. So uh.
And there was names that had come up, and one
of them, one of them was Justice Hooney, who's the
Australian undefeated fighters like twelve and zero, not very experienced,

(46:08):
but a good young up and comer. And the other
one was Philip Perkovich who was just coming off as
a late replacement to fill in and he got the
win against Joe Joyce back in early April. So what
I was told was that they went to both sides
to see what they could do and then they would
make a decision that Herkovic agreed to terms and was
ready to do the fight, but ultimately they decided to

(46:30):
go with Justice Hoony. They were finalizing that now, and Hoony,
I think to some people would be considered an easier
fight Forwardly. I think also a big factor was that
Justice Hooney was going to come for a cheaper price,
which always is part of it when you're thinking about
these events. That budget is also part of the equation.
So it's not announced yet, but I suspected the next
day or so you'll hear an announcement that it is,
in fact Fabio Wardy will fight Justice Hoony.

Speaker 1 (46:53):
And what's the date, what's the tentative? What's it look like?
Is it going to be delayed?

Speaker 2 (46:57):
No, No, it's like I said, June seventh.

Speaker 1 (46:59):
June seventh will still will be the date, yes for
that for Wardly and the new opponent. All and then
let's wrap it here on the news with this, Matchroom
made their spring and early summer schedule available, including a
fight card in Japan that will kick it off in
late May. Go over this real quick here with what

(47:19):
they have announced.

Speaker 2 (47:20):
Yeah, they announced four events. They don't necessarily come as
any kind of great surprise, but it's good to see
it all kind of laid out in front of you.
In the United States and some other territories are in
around the world, but not in Japan and some other places.
The zone will have the coverage of the vacant IBF
Junior Lightweight title fight, which takes place March I'm sorry,
May twenty eighth in Yokohama, Japan. It's the very power

(47:41):
punching Eduardo Sugar Nunez will fight for that delt against
Massnory Rashiki. So that will be the first of those
four events. Then on May thirtieth, Natum goes back to Guadalara, Mexico.
They put on a handful of cards in Mexico every year,
and this will be a remastering Manual Gayegos and Khali
Oko in a light heavyweight fight. Guy scored the upset
in the first fight by knocking co out. And the

(48:03):
Mexico cards they don't necessarily come with the big names,
but they always have. These cards always have good actions,
so I like the match from Mexico cards. And then
again this has not come as at all a surprise
June fourteenth at the Madison Square Garden Theater. It'll be
Richardson Hitchins the ib of Junior at welterweight title holder.
He will defend against George Cambosa's returning to the same
January pulled his career making victory against Tafimo Lopez. To me,

(48:25):
this is a complete mismatch, but nonetheless that's happening. And
then they also made official fight we have already talked about.
It's now a done deal. I reported about this like
over a week ago, but that it was official. It'll
be the unification fight at Junior at banhamweight. It's the
WBC champion Jesse Vam Rodriguez against the WBO champion of
fum Lenlay Cafu from South Africa. They will meet in
the main event to unify those titles. July nineteenth at

(48:47):
the Star and the Ford Center in Frisco, Texas. It's
the practice facility of the Dallas Cowboys covered fights there.
It's actually a great location for fights. And then the
co feature will be the super middleweight fight between Diego
Pacheco and Trevor Combe, who's coming off a real game performance.
Although ultimately a loss against Caleb Plan.

Speaker 1 (49:04):
So a lot of different matchroom cards there, all right,
great stuff with the previews, with the news. All right,
we do have nostalgia as well as we release this podcast.
It is the tenth anniversary on Friday, May second, twenty
fifteen of Mayweather Paciao. Here we go again, Ray Feel
with me coaching the audience podcast audience, go find the

(49:25):
moving video, the pictures, the moving pictures of Rayfiel and me.
Dan giving his first person account of being ringside and
part of that crazy fight week where they finally got
in the ring Mayweather and Pachiao unfortunately ended up being
a dud main event as it turns out, but Dan
recounts the whole thing on the Big Fight Weekend YouTube page.
Good nostalgia there. There's other nostalgia that's going to be

(49:47):
there this weekend too. About Floyd Mayweather also fighting Oscar
de la Hoya for an anniversary on Cinco de Mayo.
And why you think Roy Jones, who made his professional
debut in early May of Night ten eighty nine, is
the most impressive fighter you've ever seen. How's that for
a tease? Go see in person, live in person, Go
see all of those videos on the Big Fight Weekend

(50:11):
YouTube page, So we're pushing you there to watch all
of that. We're not selling you short on the nostalgia
just to sell you short, peeps. We want you to
go engage with the YouTube page and subscribe. Help us out.
So many times we get compliments on you enjoy what
we do. Please help us. We're asking for the help.
Subscribe on the YouTube page, go watch those videos, et cetera.

(50:33):
And another reminder, Dan, I'm like a school teacher right
now drilling it into the kids here. But I'm just
saying I hear you and I will be live Friday
night after the fatal Fury Card, so you're hearing this
podcast on Friday. We're live on the YouTube page after
the fatal Fury Card to recap whatever happens with Ryan Garcia,
Devin Haney and the comin Events and Tea Fimo Lopez

(50:56):
as well in his title defense. Other than that, are
you for this weekend and all these fight cards from
New York to Sauday Arabia to Vegas, Holy Cow?

Speaker 2 (51:05):
As I tell you every week, I'm not fighting, So
I'm ready.

Speaker 1 (51:07):
We are ready. Thank you for finding us. Rate US,
review us Take a screenshot of that. Go to the
YouTube page and subscribe. Take a screenshot of that. We
got to give away coming up. We're live on the
YouTube page Friday night for a few minutes to recap.
We'll do a full recap off the weekend on the
pod feed. I'm all out of promo material with that.
With that, Oh, by the way, go watch the bet

(51:29):
Us show that we already did for the handicapping and
the picks. If you're looking for short term investment, go
see the bet Us show on their platforms, their YouTube, etc.
We had fun doing that earlier in a week. I'm
all out of promos. Let's get to the fights, Big Dan.
I'll talk to you on Friday night on YouTube on
the Big Fight Weekend YouTube page.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
That's good. I heard we're doing a YouTube thing on
Friday night. Is that true?

Speaker 1 (51:49):
That is confirmed? Thank you for one more reminder to
the savages. For now, we are good. You've been listening
in case you forgot, the Big Fight Weekend preview podcast
by

Speaker 2 (52:00):
A Crisis