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Speaker 1: is boxing with Chris Manning or somebody punch him in
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Speaker 1: What's this heavy? Posted by s is Chris Mannix. That
Speaker 1: was my moments now with interviews, analysis and everything going
Speaker 1: on in the world of boxing. When you have talent,
Speaker 1: you are given another chance. Here's Chris Mannix. All right,
Speaker 1: welcome back, to boxing with Chris Mannix, part of the
Speaker 1: Volume Sports podcast network. We've got a great show for
Speaker 1: you this week. I am coming to you from Abu
Speaker 1: Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. I am here as
Speaker 1: part of the broadcast team for The Zone fight Dmitri
Speaker 1: Bevil Gilberto Ramirez terrific fight. I'm gonna get into that
Speaker 1: and much more with my guest this week, Adi Oladipo,
Speaker 1: a broadcaster with the Zone, is a lot of other
Speaker 1: media over in the UK. He's gonna join me, Eddie Hearn,
Speaker 1: the promoter of this event. He's gonna join me to
Speaker 1: run through a whole bunch of topics. So we get
Speaker 1: a lot to get to on this show. But I
Speaker 1: did want to start off the top by bringing attention
Speaker 1: to something I saw last week. Last week on the
Speaker 1: under hard of the show headlined by William Zapeta and
Speaker 1: Joejoe Diaz, you had a super bantam weight fight between
Speaker 1: two undefeated prospects, Hector Valdez, who was the Golden Boy
Speaker 1: promoted prospect, and Max Ornelas, who is a free agent
Speaker 1: prospect also undefeated, both fifteen. Oh uh. They fought in
Speaker 1: the first fight of that telecast and look, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna sit here and say it was a great fight,
Speaker 1: but this was a fight that Max Ornelas clearly won. Uh.
Speaker 1: He controlled the ring with his movement, he landed more punches,
Speaker 1: his combination punching was effective. The eyeball test just told
Speaker 1: you that he won the fight. Yet at the end
Speaker 1: of the fight, two of the three judges scored the
Speaker 1: fight for Valdez seven to ninety three. They effectively gave
Speaker 1: Hector Valdez seven of the ten rounds. That's lunacy. We're
Speaker 1: gonna name these judges too. Ryle Kayez Sr. Was the judge.
Speaker 1: Ala Andro Rosian was the other judge to score guards
Speaker 1: outrageous in my opinion, sitting there, I bring this up
Speaker 1: because this happens way too much in boxing, and when
Speaker 1: this happens, you've got the lives of fighters that are screwed,
Speaker 1: negatively impacted. I spent some time talking to Max ro
Speaker 1: and a last during the week. He knew how big
Speaker 1: a moment this was for him. He knew that if
Speaker 1: he won this fight, he was probably gonna get signed
Speaker 1: by Golden Boy, he would be ranked in the top
Speaker 1: ten pound rankings, and he would have some structure to
Speaker 1: his career after operating without much over the last few years.
Speaker 1: Now he doesn't have it. He's not going to get
Speaker 1: signed by Golden Boy. He's probably not going to get
Speaker 1: a rematch. I give the w B a credit. They're
Speaker 1: one of the sanctioning bodies. I criticize a lot, but
Speaker 1: in the aftermath of this fight, they actually ranked or
Speaker 1: Naila in the top ten because they saw what everybody
Speaker 1: else saw in that Max won that fight. I just
Speaker 1: bring this up because we can't forget when stuff like
Speaker 1: this happens, because this is the true awfulness of boxing.
Speaker 1: Because at the main event level, if a guy loses
Speaker 1: a fight and the scorecards are if he more likely
Speaker 1: than not. If a guys fighting in the main event,
Speaker 1: he's gonna get other opportunities. It sucks for him, don't
Speaker 1: get me wrong, but he's gonna get other opportunities. Max
Speaker 1: Ornelas may not get opportunities like that. Again, he might not.
Speaker 1: Um hopefully he does, because I hope other promoters watching
Speaker 1: saw that he's a talent at ono and deserves uh
Speaker 1: to be signed and promoted the proper way. But there
Speaker 1: are countless examples of fighters like or Nalas who have
Speaker 1: been robbed by judges and wind up losing tens of thousands,
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of dollars some case millions of dollars
Speaker 1: in long term earnings because of poor judging. Max Anilis
Speaker 1: won the fight last weekend. He did. I'm not saying
Speaker 1: this to criticize Valdez, who was a good fighter. He
Speaker 1: just didn't know what to do with Ornelas in that fight.
Speaker 1: His movement killed him. He couldn't cut the ring off
Speaker 1: and that's why he deserved to lose or Nailas deserved
Speaker 1: to win, and he didn't. And we need to pay
Speaker 1: attention when ship like this happens, because there's too much
Speaker 1: bad judging out there and too little accountability when there
Speaker 1: is bad judging and boxing. So let's remember when situations
Speaker 1: like this happened, who the judges are and what the
Speaker 1: responses from the commissions, from the promoters, from everybody involved
Speaker 1: when bad judging happens in our sport. All right, that's
Speaker 1: my speech to top the show. Now my conversation with
Speaker 1: ad Oladipo. All right, have you been able to sleep yet? No? Struggled,
Speaker 1: struggled us just all over the place. There is no
Speaker 1: normal gun to bed at ten, waking up at seven,
Speaker 1: get in my good eight nine hours. It's like waking
Speaker 1: up at two while I'm up at two in the morning.
Speaker 1: I don't understand. I felt awful. We're recording this ada
Speaker 1: Ala depots here do Zone Broadcaster does a great job
Speaker 1: for the network. Um, I we're recording this on Friday morning.
Speaker 1: I'm still completely fine. Is it Friday? It's it's Friday.
Speaker 1: It's officially it's Friday morning in Abu Dhabi. We're an
Speaker 1: Abu Dhabi. This side of Dmitri Bevil versus Ramira is
Speaker 1: w a light heavyweight title fight, and hopefully by Saturday
Speaker 1: night we have to be I will be will be
Speaker 1: ready to go. And this is straight Like normally coffee
Speaker 1: does it for me, Like you know, normally a part,
Speaker 1: not a cup, by the way, a pot of coffee.
Speaker 1: And I'm like yes, but no, it's not. It's having
Speaker 1: the opposite effect. For some reason. How is caffeine making
Speaker 1: me full of sleep? That's when you know there's a problem. Well,
Speaker 1: I've been waking up at like three in the morning
Speaker 1: the last two nights, and like the only thing Netflix
Speaker 1: will let me stream is Seinfeld just just streaming old
Speaker 1: it's something else. But we are here in Abu Dhabi
Speaker 1: where Bevil ramier As will take place on Saturday, Onto Zone.
Speaker 1: You know. Being here in this region again, I was
Speaker 1: here for a j Ruise Part two, it got me
Speaker 1: thinking like, is this the future of boxing where all
Speaker 1: big events are going to take place in the Middle East?
Speaker 1: Because we've had a J fight twice here Beavil Ramirez.
Speaker 1: Eddie Hern made it clear this is the first of
Speaker 1: several more to come Championship Series championship level fights in
Speaker 1: Abu Dhabi, and it seems at least possible that Tyson,
Speaker 1: fury Ax and Usk winds up here at some point
Speaker 1: next year. Is this just kind of the future of
Speaker 1: boxing now? Yeah, it seems so right. I mean, look,
Speaker 1: I don't want it to be. I think you missed
Speaker 1: the hardcore fans, the working class fans that needed in
Speaker 1: the sport, whether it be in America, we get the
Speaker 1: Mexicans to Puerto Ricans, the um in English, get the
Speaker 1: English fans. They're gonna miss out. But yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: look at the events that you just mentioned that have happened,
Speaker 1: events that are going to happen. If a J so
Speaker 1: if you're Osi happens, it will happen over here. The
Speaker 1: money on offer is too big, and these guys seem
Speaker 1: to be able to splash the cash without no fear
Speaker 1: of the fight not making a profit. Once you can
Speaker 1: do that and a promoter knows you can do that,
Speaker 1: they're gonna want to come and bring the events here
Speaker 1: all the time. So yeah, it's a shame. I mean,
Speaker 1: I was at the AGA Sick as well, and it's
Speaker 1: a different type of atmosphere as to what it was
Speaker 1: in Top Noman. I know people are gonna say, but
Speaker 1: to them was the biggest state because it's bad. It's
Speaker 1: not good like a j Ruise two af after being
Speaker 1: an AJA Ruise one Mason Square Garden, which was one of,
Speaker 1: if not the best atmospheres I've ever been in all
Speaker 1: the boxing. Do you go from that to a j
Speaker 1: Ruise to where it just felt like you're I don't
Speaker 1: know how to describe it. It It was a bunch of
Speaker 1: people there that weren't really invested in the product, and
Speaker 1: when you have that, you don't get any kind of
Speaker 1: real energy in the crowd. No, no, no, And I'm
Speaker 1: not going to mention names, but I've been I was
Speaker 1: out last night and speaking to people that are trying
Speaker 1: to get on the guest list to come. No interest
Speaker 1: in boxing. I just want to be at an event, honestly,
Speaker 1: no interest in boxing. As weird here in the names.
Speaker 1: I'm like, you don't know or like boxing, But yeah,
Speaker 1: I just want to be here because there's an event
Speaker 1: in Abu Dhabi and that's what you're gonna get. Um.
Speaker 1: So it is a shame that it's happening. But look,
Speaker 1: boxing's are a worldwide sport, and in order to grow
Speaker 1: the sport, I guess it needs to go to places
Speaker 1: like here. Do you buy that though? Like Eddie says
Speaker 1: that a lot like trying to grow the sport. I look,
Speaker 1: Eddie's a great promoter. I don't know that he cares
Speaker 1: so much about growing the sport as much as he
Speaker 1: cares about the big paycheck. No, no, no no, you're right
Speaker 1: actually on that, because I've questioned Eddie and I said, well,
Speaker 1: why we're not doing events in Africa? Where are boxers
Speaker 1: out there and fans of the sport out there? Why
Speaker 1: you're not going there? The simple reasons because there's no money,
Speaker 1: So you want to grow the sport, Let's do smaller
Speaker 1: events in Africa. To show and prove that you want
Speaker 1: to grow the sports. So I'm with you. It's a
Speaker 1: lot of bs, but it just seems as though this
Speaker 1: is all inevitable. I mean, you mentioned the Championship Series.
Speaker 1: They're going to do more events here. Every fighter seems
Speaker 1: to want to come here because they know the paychecks
Speaker 1: are bigger. And I don't blame the fighters, but the
Speaker 1: promoters need to get ahold of it because we can't
Speaker 1: miss out on those big events at the O two
Speaker 1: Arena in London. MSG. You know traditional boxing hubs, and
Speaker 1: I think they're the ones that are missing out on
Speaker 1: great fights like this. Like like the people of Abu
Speaker 1: Dhabi really care about Bibul Ramirez, you know, Okay would care.
Speaker 1: People in southern California there, you would care. There you go,
Speaker 1: it's a massive like everywhere fighting. I've walked around and
Speaker 1: I barely see a poster about it. People don't really
Speaker 1: know about it. People don't know what's happening, So it's
Speaker 1: a shame. Well, there's a lot of branding on the
Speaker 1: way in. Like on the drive from Dubai to Abu
Speaker 1: Dhabi felt like every quarter mile there was some kind
Speaker 1: of poster on the way and so there was some
Speaker 1: decent branding. But as I'm driving in, I'm wondering, who
Speaker 1: are they branding to, Like, it's not there's a lot
Speaker 1: of buildings out here, not a lot of people in
Speaker 1: those buildings. No, no, no, right, I've tried to at
Speaker 1: cheap property here because it's empty. Everything is available, right.
Speaker 1: But um, as long as the fighters, and I've always
Speaker 1: said that the fighters first, the fans second. I know
Speaker 1: it's probably a mix of that, but as long as
Speaker 1: the fighters are getting paid, and they were happy to
Speaker 1: quickly mention thank you to Abu Dhabi yesterday in their
Speaker 1: press conference, as they should. Big check coming, the check
Speaker 1: for all of them, everyone in the fight cards. So
Speaker 1: I think, to answer your initial question, this probably is
Speaker 1: the future of the sport. Is there any way to
Speaker 1: counteract it in your mind? Because I've been thinking about
Speaker 1: this for a few days now, and for years we
Speaker 1: had promoters trying to get into the Middle East, and
Speaker 1: he was, if not the first, one of the first,
Speaker 1: certainly the first to bring a big event in many,
Speaker 1: many years to the Middle East. And now that we're there,
Speaker 1: the floodgates are kind of open now, and I don't
Speaker 1: know how you close them. I don't know how you
Speaker 1: can convince fighters to take sixties seventy cents on the
Speaker 1: dollar in order to have an event in London or
Speaker 1: in New York or in Las Vegas. Big This might
Speaker 1: be a little bit different because of the site fees.
Speaker 1: You can probably still get big time events there. But
Speaker 1: as long as there are you know, look, I don't
Speaker 1: know what the total number for of the money Abu
Speaker 1: Dhabi's putting up for this event, but it's got to
Speaker 1: exceed ten million dollars at least. Oh yeah, absolutely, And
Speaker 1: if you are a fighter, I mean I heard so
Speaker 1: many fighters yesterday in the press confidence and this is
Speaker 1: like a holiday. They're loving out here. The families are
Speaker 1: out here, They're not going to not want to come
Speaker 1: out here, so you're getting paid more. The weather is great.
Speaker 1: They like being out here because they always feel that
Speaker 1: they can get their job done without being disturbed by
Speaker 1: friends and family. I find it difficult to convince a
Speaker 1: fight fan or fighter apologies to not want to be
Speaker 1: out here and get a bit more cheat out or
Speaker 1: do it in Sheffield, no disrespect to Sheffield. What do
Speaker 1: you want to do? You want to find Abu Dhabi?
Speaker 1: Do you want to fight in Sheffield or leads you
Speaker 1: don't want to fight Abu Dhabi. So yeah, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be difficult to reverse it. I just hope that some
Speaker 1: promoters or maybe some of the big name fighters that
Speaker 1: already get paid twenty thirty million income think okay, look,
Speaker 1: we're getting paid enough, let's do one at home. But
Speaker 1: I doubt it, City doubt it. I don't think it's
Speaker 1: happens either. I think this is where we're gonna wind
Speaker 1: up coming consistently over the next few years. As long
Speaker 1: as Middle Eastern countries want to be in the business,
Speaker 1: they're gonna be able. That's the scary thing. By the way,
Speaker 1: as long as they want to be in the business, um,
Speaker 1: and I'm listen, they do want to because they want it,
Speaker 1: to use it as a tool to attract tourism. But
Speaker 1: how long do they want to be in the boxing business?
Speaker 1: Is this just a thing for them? It ain't change
Speaker 1: anytime soon? Well, let's hope not, because it's not aund
Speaker 1: and it's lovely. Look, I mean as much as beautiful,
Speaker 1: as much as we know haven't got our sleep patterns correct,
Speaker 1: just walking around, the weather, the food, it's a nice
Speaker 1: place to be that's great. Right before I went to
Speaker 1: bed at five, I walked the UM, I want to
Speaker 1: get into the people. Ramire is fighting a couple of
Speaker 1: other things, but I want to get your take on
Speaker 1: something we saw this week Turns Crawford Errol Spence uh
Speaker 1: on the negotiating table. Earlier in the wee, Crawford signed
Speaker 1: on to fight David Avenecian on a new network called
Speaker 1: BLK Prime. Errol Spence is set to announce his next
Speaker 1: opponent at some point in the coming days. But these
Speaker 1: two guys, they got on Twitter and they talked all
Speaker 1: about hedge funds and who has our boss and who doesn't,
Speaker 1: and certain amount of splits and revenue all things. They
Speaker 1: gotta be honest. By the third tweet made my eyes
Speaker 1: completely glaze over. What was your take on I'm so
Speaker 1: happy you just said that, Because I remember the first tweet.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, Terence has woken up and he
Speaker 1: said I want to have war. This is exciting. And
Speaker 1: then Errol responded ter Twitter war Twitter as opposed to
Speaker 1: physically yeah, And I was like, I'm tired, I'm done.
Speaker 1: I I I all I cared about was seeing you
Speaker 1: guys in the ring and not this he said, she
Speaker 1: said back and forth, Bs Terrence. The idea of Terrence
Speaker 1: fighting errols for so many years because he's on that
Speaker 1: side of the street. And I remember him sitting down
Speaker 1: right it might have been after the Brook fight, and
Speaker 1: you know, basically pointing the finger at Bob and said,
Speaker 1: I'm leaving you because you couldn't get me the Errol fight.
Speaker 1: And although Bob to some people is a bit of
Speaker 1: a dinosaur on the sport, I thought that was actually
Speaker 1: quite disrespectful. And I was like, Okay, this is it. Now,
Speaker 1: he's gonna get the fight. He's already you know, he's
Speaker 1: pointed up Bob, you couldn't do it. I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: over there and I'm gonna get it done. That was
Speaker 1: a year and a half ago, and here we are
Speaker 1: now and there's no fight. There's no fight, and they
Speaker 1: probably will not be a fight. I mean, I like Terrence,
Speaker 1: but what's he thirty four? Errol looks like he's far
Speaker 1: too big for one four seven. Now, there was a
Speaker 1: time to make that fight and it's not happening. In
Speaker 1: boxing loses out because it would have been one of
Speaker 1: the best weight fights we've ever seen. It would have
Speaker 1: been that good. So ultimately I don't know who's wrong
Speaker 1: and who's right, but we miss out fight fans miss
Speaker 1: out because it was something special and that there, that
Speaker 1: alone should be putting some sort of museum, and and
Speaker 1: it should be to be labeled boxing. That right, there's boxing, right. Well,
Speaker 1: I think it was Michael Benson who kind of put
Speaker 1: together all this. Yes, like you should just print that
Speaker 1: out yea, and and shrine it boxing embarrassing for these guys. Oh,
Speaker 1: it's ridiculous. Honestly, it's it's so bad. Um. But this
Speaker 1: is this is kind of, unfortunately, what we've just come
Speaker 1: to expect. When a big fight gets announced. It's almost
Speaker 1: a jaw dropping moment for us, like wow, you know, like,
Speaker 1: oh can of plants can fight? That's why I felt
Speaker 1: this morning. I was like, what where does that come from?
Speaker 1: And that's how it should be. Forget all the negotiate.
Speaker 1: We don't we as much as fans like to be
Speaker 1: carried along sometimes the negotiating. Sometimes we just want to
Speaker 1: fight announced. Sometimes it is good to know what goes
Speaker 1: on behind the scenes because you know who's getting this
Speaker 1: and who's getting But ultimately, all we want to see
Speaker 1: is a fight post Star Fight announced fantastic and that's
Speaker 1: how it should be. All this back and forth crap,
Speaker 1: blaming our Hayman, blaming this person, blaming that person. I'm
Speaker 1: just tired of it. And yeah, I feel like Terrence
Speaker 1: smisses out because Terence as much as for me, Terence
Speaker 1: is one of the best fighters ever. You do look
Speaker 1: at the resume and thing, okay, where all those elite
Speaker 1: level wins, and he wanted one and he probably would
Speaker 1: have got one. I think, so he misses out more.
Speaker 1: But it's a shame, isn't happen, especially since he moved
Speaker 1: up to welter. Right, the resume is incredibly beat Jeff
Speaker 1: Horne for his title. He defended against B level fighters
Speaker 1: like Agis Kavelaski's uh kell Brook and Hinstein looks a
Speaker 1: little bit better names, but not top level, top five,
Speaker 1: top ten level opponents. He does miss out a little bit.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've always felt if he really is getting
Speaker 1: ten million dollars plus to fight David Avenecian on some
Speaker 1: network that's not going to sell more than twenty five
Speaker 1: pay per view guys for it, more power to him.
Speaker 1: I would make sure I got that check in escrow.
Speaker 1: That's for sure, I'd want to make sure that money's upfront.
Speaker 1: But if he can get that to just Clawbert David Avenecian,
Speaker 1: which no one's gonna convince me that's not going to
Speaker 1: be the outcome, Like David Avenues is gonna walk into
Speaker 1: a bomb at some point and go down. Um, so
Speaker 1: if he can get ten million dollars for that, good
Speaker 1: for you. But I feel like that was the final
Speaker 1: nail in the Spence Crawford column. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it
Speaker 1: has to be again, as I said, one because of
Speaker 1: age two, because now there clearly is an issue with
Speaker 1: both of the fighters in terms of negotiating. So there's
Speaker 1: like beef between the two and I honestly believe Errol
Speaker 1: will probably fight Keith and then I think er will
Speaker 1: probably move up or what. I can't believe Errol is
Speaker 1: still at one forty seven. He was in the Olympics
Speaker 1: at one fifty two, makes like and he went down.
Speaker 1: You don't often see that from guys at the Olympic level.
Speaker 1: Usually it's the progressive move up. I mean, he is
Speaker 1: a hugeound, massive and we know for a few years
Speaker 1: he didn't live the life either, right, you'd see him
Speaker 1: out of events and just behaving like a bit of
Speaker 1: a kid, but now he looks like he's sort of
Speaker 1: knuckled down and lives that life. But yeah, he's massive
Speaker 1: for one full seven and that's why I felt like
Speaker 1: it had to happen now now. So yeah, I think
Speaker 1: we miss out on it. And it's, Um, it's a
Speaker 1: massive shame for boxing, It really is, because that's the fight.
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously, look, we we work for his own
Speaker 1: but I always tweets and that's the fight I want
Speaker 1: to see more than any of them, um, regardless of
Speaker 1: the network we're on. So yeah, it's a big shame
Speaker 1: that we ain't gonna say it. Well, the lesson and
Speaker 1: the takeaway to me is don't do that. Don't go
Speaker 1: on Twitter and start like letting the receipts out on
Speaker 1: the table, like don't it doesn't you're not going to
Speaker 1: convince anybody, Like people that believed Crawford was the reason
Speaker 1: for Spence Crawford blowing up are not going to be
Speaker 1: convinced by Crawford declaring that he had a fifty million
Speaker 1: dollar offer from a hedge fund, which is a little
Speaker 1: shady to begin with. And meanwhile, Crawford fans are not
Speaker 1: going to believe Spence's take on it either, like all
Speaker 1: you're doing is further solidifying your fan bases and doing
Speaker 1: it on a website that is just a cesspool for
Speaker 1: all the worst. Honestly, I'd love to know who's behind
Speaker 1: Crawford that made him think this is the right thing
Speaker 1: to do. I don't understand, like sometimes you go that
Speaker 1: person showed that says let's leave it. We we we know,
Speaker 1: we know the real ones. No, just leave it. The
Speaker 1: idea of them going back and forth everyone was well
Speaker 1: and housn't responded, so he must mean them true. Everl
Speaker 1: then wakes up what I'm not responded, I'm gonna respond now.
Speaker 1: It's just silly. It was all dumb, all dumb. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk about the event that is happening this weekend.
Speaker 1: Be Evil against Ramirez, and this is a great fight
Speaker 1: and a great card. I actually liked this fight a
Speaker 1: lot better than the fight did he Hearne wanted, which
Speaker 1: was Bevil versus Blats. I think Ramirez is much more competitive.
Speaker 1: He obviously is much more deserving as a former hund
Speaker 1: sixty eight pound trap who has gone through whatever the
Speaker 1: w b A has told him to go through, even
Speaker 1: though these guys he fought were terrible, like that's who
Speaker 1: the w b A told him to fight, and he
Speaker 1: ultimately fought him. The question is how competitive do you
Speaker 1: think this fight is? Bevil is coming off the wind
Speaker 1: over Canelo Alvarez Ramirez. I believe it's five and oh
Speaker 1: since it's moved up to light heavyweight. But as I said,
Speaker 1: he has not fought elite competition. He fought what was
Speaker 1: left of Sullivan Barrera, he fought you know, what was
Speaker 1: left of Unski Gonzalez, Dominic Bozlona where he came from,
Speaker 1: but he fought him. Um, how competitive do you think
Speaker 1: this fight is going to be? Quite competitive? In the
Speaker 1: honest of you, although you read off those names and
Speaker 1: they're not, by any stretch of the imagination elite like heavyweights.
Speaker 1: I think I don't think we've seen the best of Ramiroors.
Speaker 1: I think there's still a few more gears to come
Speaker 1: from him. Um, he's very, very big. I couldn't quite
Speaker 1: believe that big he was. I interviewed Bivil for the
Speaker 1: Zone and then interviewed Ramires immediately after, so I kind
Speaker 1: of gauged a size a bit better, and he's a
Speaker 1: big man. He looks like he's actually struggling at the weight.
Speaker 1: I could tell he was almost He's huge, like he's
Speaker 1: going he's going to rehydrate above two hundred pounds easily, easily,
Speaker 1: and he's going to try and walk you down. He's
Speaker 1: a self poor, but I think Bivill could be a
Speaker 1: bit special. There's something ab up Pivil. He's now sort
Speaker 1: of found himself as well. I think he's confident. He's
Speaker 1: English is a lot better by the way, which surprised me.
Speaker 1: Not that that helps his boxing ability by any stretch
Speaker 1: of imagination, but I think he's just becoming a man
Speaker 1: in front of us um and a very skillful man.
Speaker 1: And I think I think people's eyes were open to
Speaker 1: him from the Canello performance, but people should maybe have
Speaker 1: done their homework a bit and looked at the other
Speaker 1: fights against Jean Pascal and Joe Smith and realized that
Speaker 1: this is a good boxer. And when he needs to
Speaker 1: go through the gears, I've noticed he can do it
Speaker 1: very quickly. Now when he needs to kind of okay,
Speaker 1: I need to maybe do a bit more here, he
Speaker 1: seems to be able to do it. Um. I think
Speaker 1: he'll struggle early, just with the size and trying to
Speaker 1: work out Ramirors. But once he starts to kind of
Speaker 1: gauge distance and size and maybe test, maybe even get
Speaker 1: hit with something just to kind of feel the power,
Speaker 1: I think we are going to see a Bivil that
Speaker 1: is I don't want to say the number one because
Speaker 1: I think that's perturb but it's definitely number two in
Speaker 1: the division. The key to me is how does Ramiras
Speaker 1: use that size us. He's gonna try to walk him down.
Speaker 1: That's his game plan. All his team this week, I've
Speaker 1: talked about that being his game plan. We've seen him
Speaker 1: do it time and again. Bevil, though, is really good
Speaker 1: against that type of style. I mean, we called the
Speaker 1: Joe Smith fight several years ago. Joe Smith is a
Speaker 1: pressure fighter. And besides that one shot in the eleventh
Speaker 1: round where Smith buckled Beable and if he gave him
Speaker 1: ten more seconds, who knows what, but it happened. But
Speaker 1: besides that moment, he lost every round it was. It
Speaker 1: was a complete wipeout. And you know, talking to to
Speaker 1: Beable's team this week, they know he's got to move.
Speaker 1: He can't stand there and try. He's not going to
Speaker 1: stand there. And so like if if Ramirez is capable
Speaker 1: of cutting the ring off, walking bevil down, throwing the
Speaker 1: kind of volume combinations we've seen him throw in other fights.
Speaker 1: I give him half a chance, but that's gonna be difficult.
Speaker 1: Like Ramirez, I think he's talented. His best wins, though,
Speaker 1: came against Jesse Hart, like those are the best wins
Speaker 1: on his resume, and at light heavyweight, he hasn't had
Speaker 1: the opportunity, not through his own fault. He's he's fought
Speaker 1: who's had too as we said, but at light head
Speaker 1: be weight, he has not had the opportunity to test
Speaker 1: himself at the highest level. So this will be I
Speaker 1: think Gilberto Ramiror is going from B level opponents to
Speaker 1: an A A plus level opponent one fight. Yeah, which
Speaker 1: doesn't mean he can't be up there with an A
Speaker 1: A plus, right, because what he's beating all the B
Speaker 1: level opponents. But you're right, I mean it's it's probably
Speaker 1: the most misleading forty four and record there is or
Speaker 1: has ever been in the sport, right, I mean four
Speaker 1: and those sounds incredible, But then you look at the
Speaker 1: resume and there it's Jesting Hart, it's off Abraham at
Speaker 1: one six eight, and that's it. You can shut the
Speaker 1: door on the rest, whereas bivil is just I just
Speaker 1: think he could be a special fighter. Bivil um that
Speaker 1: there's something about him. He's calmness, he's so confident. Now Um,
Speaker 1: I think we have something special and I think he's
Speaker 1: gonna again go through the gears. I think he'll struggle
Speaker 1: in the first three or four rounds, just adapting to
Speaker 1: the south ball, adapting to the size. As you say,
Speaker 1: Ramires will be in there plus two hundred in terms
Speaker 1: of weight. But once he kind of gets all those
Speaker 1: things down, I think we're gonna see something special and
Speaker 1: I think he's going to run away with it. I
Speaker 1: think this could be I don't know, nine free eight
Speaker 1: for something like that. And one thing I've seen a
Speaker 1: Bible over the years is that he gets up for
Speaker 1: a higher level of competition. He got up for that
Speaker 1: fight against Joe Smith. He got up big time for
Speaker 1: that fight against Canelo. This is a former sparring partner
Speaker 1: of his in into Ramirez. It's a title defense. He
Speaker 1: knows what's next for him next year. If he wins,
Speaker 1: he can potentially face either Canelo or Archer. Better bief
Speaker 1: two massive money, massive proceigure at all plus I also
Speaker 1: think it's a home run. If he beats Erto Ramirez,
Speaker 1: Bible's the fighter of the year, Like I think, I
Speaker 1: don't think anyone as well, I said, I said, and
Speaker 1: he said, I don't think so I said, no, no,
Speaker 1: you are, I said, I'm the judge and jury. I
Speaker 1: don't know who doesn't know who's even because guys aren't
Speaker 1: fighting mostly. Yeah, ma'am Rodriguez, shout right free fights this
Speaker 1: year as well. You've gotta have a shout for free fights.
Speaker 1: But I mean for you to beat Cannelo and then
Speaker 1: Zurdo back to back, you have to be fight of
Speaker 1: the that's the highest level. Beat the former pound for
Speaker 1: pound king, beating undefeated Zodora Mirror as your top of
Speaker 1: the list. Um. The co main event is interesting to me,
Speaker 1: and that's because most women's fights nowadays are interesting because
Speaker 1: women are doing it out there with making top fights
Speaker 1: where men are just talking about them. Jessica mccaskell, a
Speaker 1: lot of people that listen to the show in the
Speaker 1: US have become more familiar with her. She did lose
Speaker 1: to Katie Taylor a few years ago, but since then
Speaker 1: she's had two wins over Cilia Breakers to become the
Speaker 1: undisputed champion at forty seven pounds. Now she's dropping down
Speaker 1: to face Chantel Cameron for the undisputed championship at one
Speaker 1: forty For the record, nice bit of politicking by match
Speaker 1: Room and Rick Ramos to the people in involved with this,
Speaker 1: because I don't know why it is for undisputed, like
Speaker 1: the other two belts were vacated by Kaylee Reyes because
Speaker 1: she got a better offer for HBO to be an actress,
Speaker 1: And how they almost just grabbed those two belts without
Speaker 1: people fighting for them and said we'll take them and
Speaker 1: put them on this fight carta range. Honestly, I find
Speaker 1: it weird, but look, ultimately I do think it's the
Speaker 1: two best girls potential. Chantell definitely at one for because
Speaker 1: she's proven it, and I think Jessica McCaskill in the
Speaker 1: past is all there, So ultimately you are probably looking
Speaker 1: at the two best and sweat glass anyway, Um now
Speaker 1: that how good? How good is Chantel Cameron because McCaskill,
Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of pressure fighter good conditioning. Uh.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't call her heavy handed per se, but in
Speaker 1: terms of she's not a one punched knockout artist, not
Speaker 1: a lot of women in boxing are, but she can
Speaker 1: hurt you and has her previous opponents, including the last
Speaker 1: one who quite literally quit in the middle of and said,
Speaker 1: I want to go home to my kids. I don't
Speaker 1: want to do this anymore. She effectively retired her so unbelievable.
Speaker 1: I've never seen that. I had to I was sitting ringside,
Speaker 1: like ten ft away. I'm walking over and I'm trying
Speaker 1: to get someone to translate what she's yelling at her
Speaker 1: manager down below. It was wild to see that. But
Speaker 1: that was a feather in the cap of Jessica McCaskill.
Speaker 1: How good is she? Ante Cameron? Very good? Honestly very good.
Speaker 1: It's weird everything you just said there about Jessica McCaskill
Speaker 1: pressure fight had come forward. I was like, is he
Speaker 1: talking about Chantell there or Jessica, because Santel pretty much
Speaker 1: mirrors that. I don't think she has the power that
Speaker 1: jess does, but not many fighters in women's boxing do.
Speaker 1: Bomb Garden and Savannah maybe but Jessic definitely. Jessica definitely
Speaker 1: has more power. But I think Chantell is definitely the
Speaker 1: better boxer of the two. I've seen Chantell's spa dies
Speaker 1: and handle herself and yes, look they're not tearing up
Speaker 1: as they shouldn't do. But in terms of the movement,
Speaker 1: in terms of the clinch, she's strong, very big at
Speaker 1: the weight, which might not be a positive. We'll get
Speaker 1: to that, just because I feel like she balloons up
Speaker 1: and wait a lot, like really balloons up and wait
Speaker 1: and then sort of shrinks herself down to one faulty.
Speaker 1: But she is very very good and in the UK
Speaker 1: people have been begging to see her versus Katie Taylor
Speaker 1: because they think she's the one that should and can
Speaker 1: beat Katie Taylor. So look, she's very good, very confident,
Speaker 1: trained by Jamie Moore, She's in a good camp, she's
Speaker 1: around good people, and I think they think this is
Speaker 1: her time. I think they think that you know, Jesse
Speaker 1: has maybe had her time was just right around there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you might be thirty. Yeah, yeah, And I
Speaker 1: think they think that Chantel is now sort of the
Speaker 1: freshmen of the two and the one that's going to
Speaker 1: go on. But how answerting to you is that ballooning
Speaker 1: up and wait, because I've heard that too from you know,
Speaker 1: different people around match room and around the UK boxing scene.
Speaker 1: And whereas you see McCaskill, and even though she was
Speaker 1: fighting at welterweight, she was fighting making one is not
Speaker 1: a problem for she really is a natural hundred and
Speaker 1: forty pounder with chantel Like, is it a concern that
Speaker 1: between fights maybe she's not as disciplined she needs to be. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I always think, I don't care who you are.
Speaker 1: I think that will come to her. You've done down
Speaker 1: the line. We send fighters live like that, and it
Speaker 1: just it doesn't work. I've never understand it, like this
Speaker 1: is a short career. Do whatever you want to do
Speaker 1: after after boxing, when you're done, you meant he is
Speaker 1: fighting in between fight camps, live like a fight and
Speaker 1: live like an athlete. That's the problem with fighters in general.
Speaker 1: It's almost like they feel because they only fight two
Speaker 1: or three times here like their part time athletes, and
Speaker 1: they can do whatever they want. You can't, especially when
Speaker 1: it comes to make him wait. But I think this camp,
Speaker 1: like seeing her fight Bustos and seeing at in between
Speaker 1: fight campus in and now, I think this is probably
Speaker 1: as disciplined that she's been. So she's obviously taking this
Speaker 1: very very seriously, and she knows she has to because
Speaker 1: in front of hers a dog in Jessica McCaskill, which
Speaker 1: surprised me why jess mcask was such an underdog in
Speaker 1: this one. But um, I think for this fight, I
Speaker 1: don't think it will matter going forward. They've got to
Speaker 1: put they've got to put a stop to it. But
Speaker 1: I think for this fight, she's really trained a butt off,
Speaker 1: so I think I think she's good for this one.
Speaker 1: I think she is. Where does the winner of this
Speaker 1: fight in your mind land in the Katie Taylor QE
Speaker 1: Like you know, Gaty is Katy looks and starts to
Speaker 1: assess what the best fights are for Look, if she
Speaker 1: fights the winner of this, she'd have a chance to
Speaker 1: become an undispeeded champion in two weight classes. You know,
Speaker 1: Katie is consumed by the legacy, consumed by being in
Speaker 1: big fights. She's been in with Jessica before. That could
Speaker 1: be a decent US fight if she wants to go
Speaker 1: back and fight there. But I would assume a match
Speaker 1: up with Chantel would be huge in the UK. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's the one. I think. If jess wins, I
Speaker 1: don't I don't think they're going to try and go
Speaker 1: down the Katie Taylor Jessica mcaskull route again. I don't
Speaker 1: know why. I know Jesse's desperate for it. I don't
Speaker 1: think Katie is so much. Why would you go and
Speaker 1: revisit a fight you've already won. Maybe that's her, that's
Speaker 1: her thinking, um. But if Chantell wins, she's desperate. My
Speaker 1: MO only sort a question with that. And I spoke
Speaker 1: to Katie about this already, about going up and wait again,
Speaker 1: she's only been up to one forty one and I
Speaker 1: was against Lindadatu and she didn't like it. She she
Speaker 1: got bullied in that fight a lot, so one thirty
Speaker 1: five is perfect for her. You get fighters like that.
Speaker 1: I always thought, remember watching Carl Frogbacker the day at
Speaker 1: one six eight, never wanted to go to one seven
Speaker 1: five when I thought it was there one six eight.
Speaker 1: My weight class start within in a way, there you go.
Speaker 1: I don't think it made a big difference of the
Speaker 1: Canella fight, but he's a hundred and sixty pounds and
Speaker 1: I think Katie is as well. Kat He's just I'm
Speaker 1: a one thirty five. So it goes back to that
Speaker 1: weight discussion with Chantel. If Shantell wants to fight Katie,
Speaker 1: I think Shantell have to go down to one, she will,
Speaker 1: or maybe you could do it like one thirty six. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean weight classes, that's kind of what they do.
Speaker 1: But I think they want the Shantell one. Look, Katie
Speaker 1: wants to go to Croake Park. I spoke to her
Speaker 1: after her last fight, and that's what she wants the shed.
Speaker 1: I know Katie is the star, and Katie can probably
Speaker 1: do eighty thousand tickets, but you need the right dance partner.
Speaker 1: And I think as much as Eddie will try and
Speaker 1: sell the Chantel fight, the only dance partners in Mandaserana,
Speaker 1: well be be a meteorologist for me. Per second, they're like,
Speaker 1: when can you do a fight in Croake Park in
Speaker 1: the way weatherwise? Like when is it okay to do
Speaker 1: a fight out there? Because that would determine when you
Speaker 1: can fight their obviously. Yeah, you're looking really between April
Speaker 1: and August, so that's that's that's the window when you
Speaker 1: get decent weather. Again, we're in Udhabi. You know you're
Speaker 1: getting anything like this no matter where in what time
Speaker 1: in Ireland, but around April two May is when you
Speaker 1: can do it. And I think that makes sense for
Speaker 1: Katie Taity. So Katie tele I feel like she might
Speaker 1: need longer camps now to get into it because she's
Speaker 1: you saw her fight, you were at her fight. Um,
Speaker 1: she's still standing in the corner between rounds and that's
Speaker 1: a leg issue. Like I remember being in the locker
Speaker 1: room after the Serranto fight and she had been standing
Speaker 1: for half of it, then sat in between rounds before
Speaker 1: and I asked Ross Emirate or trainer, and he's like,
Speaker 1: it's because of the leg the who we're trying to
Speaker 1: keep it uh from tightening up and causing her more problems.
Speaker 1: So her standing up between rounds was, is that what
Speaker 1: it's for? It's a physical thing. Yeah, it's a physical thing.
Speaker 1: Is we've seen it a little bit of it, I think.
Speaker 1: I mean, after the fifth round of Serrando fight, you
Speaker 1: had to sit down because you're just exhausted. But I
Speaker 1: think physically there's somewhere there and it's still lingering with
Speaker 1: her to the point where she has to stand up
Speaker 1: in between these rounds. So the clock is definitely ticking
Speaker 1: on the prime years peaper. I just wonder, like she
Speaker 1: loves being active. If we don't know what's gonna happen
Speaker 1: to Sarano the next few months, she wants to get
Speaker 1: that fourth piece of the hundred and twenty six pound title.
Speaker 1: It sounds like the w b A is going to
Speaker 1: accommodate her and ordered that fight to happen with Erica Cruz.
Speaker 1: But I'm missing something here, Chris, because I know Jake
Speaker 1: was talking about this as well, like she was undersized,
Speaker 1: and looks she clearly was undersized, because she's can make
Speaker 1: one twenty taller, but she's taller and she's far comfortably
Speaker 1: at one forty before. Yeah, and I mean, let's but
Speaker 1: for lots of that fight, she kicked Tailers behind, so
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, I might like get back in there
Speaker 1: and do it again, like most people, like I thought
Speaker 1: Katie might have nicked it. But that could be my
Speaker 1: sort of my bias towards Katie Taylor. But a lot
Speaker 1: of people thought Amanda won that fight, So I'm like,
Speaker 1: roll the dice and go again. Honestly, I thought Katie
Speaker 1: was her numerous times, and I never really thought Amanda
Speaker 1: was her. She took some punches, but never thought she
Speaker 1: was out on her feet. Kati the puncher there. Katie
Speaker 1: is as much as Katie kind of trained, as was
Speaker 1: my viewpoint, I as much she kind of trains to
Speaker 1: sit down on punch and she gets into the fight.
Speaker 1: She's just kind of not amateurish because she's adapting yeah
Speaker 1: and point scoring, point scoring that which looks undefeated and
Speaker 1: she's won a lot of big fights. That works. Amanda
Speaker 1: sits down on a lot of her punch. She throws
Speaker 1: a lot of punches too, more than Katie, but she
Speaker 1: sits down a lot of these shots. She's a hitter,
Speaker 1: one of maybe three four women top hitters, and another
Speaker 1: name that they up almost like you see you get
Speaker 1: that fourth fight joy for the fourth piece thirty pounds
Speaker 1: time and then you can go up as undisputed her undisputed.
Speaker 1: That to me makes more sense. If we're gonna do
Speaker 1: an in between fight for Katie Taylor, I don't I'd
Speaker 1: rather see her fight Chris Cyborg, Like give her the
Speaker 1: crossover fight like it's they wanted to do that in Vegas, Like, uh,
Speaker 1: they were trying to make that this year didn't work
Speaker 1: out for various reasons. Cyborg wants to fight Katie Taylor,
Speaker 1: wants to fight Katie Taylor, wins lops fight. I don't
Speaker 1: care choice bigger Chris Cyborg is Katie Taylor wins that
Speaker 1: fight lopside. Chris Cyborg tremendous, smartial artist, not a boxer,
Speaker 1: seems like a wonderful person too, but not a boxer.
Speaker 1: But that's what Katie deserves, didn't she Like, give her
Speaker 1: the ugely popular, gimmea over there where, a seven figure
Speaker 1: paycheck and get herself a high profile but easy whin. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a great shout. I mean they've mentioned her, they
Speaker 1: mentioned Holly Home as well, but yeah, I'm with you,
Speaker 1: especially Cyborg had she made her boxing debut, didn't she
Speaker 1: recently as well, so she's good to go. Um. Funny though,
Speaker 1: as much as Katie will destroy her, I'd love to
Speaker 1: have seen Katie versus sort of the version of Cyborg
Speaker 1: seven years ago, when she literally just was a madman
Speaker 1: or a mad woman. Apologies, just would have she would
Speaker 1: have thrown up a thousand punches around that Cybald doesn't
Speaker 1: exist anymore. But yeah, I agree, give her that an
Speaker 1: easy fight, and then we wait for Croke Park. We
Speaker 1: wait to see how all the pieces fall into the puzzle. Um.
Speaker 1: But I'm desperate to see her versus a manner again.
Speaker 1: I'm actually desperate to see an MSG that and people
Speaker 1: got upset when I said that at the interview, just
Speaker 1: because row Park in nine percent going to be Irish
Speaker 1: and I didn't mind the split MSG half Porto Rican
Speaker 1: half Irish and you don't normally get that at boxing events.
Speaker 1: It normally is sort of one one fan base. Only
Speaker 1: it's very rare where you're gonna get a fifty fifty
Speaker 1: split and fans going at each other, and I feel
Speaker 1: like it deserves that again, but look, the money is
Speaker 1: going to be at Croke Park. They're gonna go Croak Park.
Speaker 1: Or did they come out with Dhabi? Did they come
Speaker 1: to the Middle East? Katie's You know, I don't think that.
Speaker 1: I don't think that for various reasons, but I don't
Speaker 1: think is taking that that that roots. I will say this,
Speaker 1: if you fight to Croak Park, I'm going one way
Speaker 1: to the other. Because I hear that, uh that the
Speaker 1: Irish love it when Americans of Irish descent rome the
Speaker 1: countryside looking for relatives. I hear they like that, love
Speaker 1: it when you when you do your ancestral history. They
Speaker 1: want that. They're so proud to kind of show where
Speaker 1: Mannox is from here and this is where your family
Speaker 1: report nine point nine percent like I have like one
Speaker 1: relative from like Finland or something, but everybody else's Irish
Speaker 1: the country side, So I intend to roam, uh the
Speaker 1: Irish country side looking for Mannoxis. And you know what
Speaker 1: the anny thing is. I'm sure that could even be
Speaker 1: in on a depot somewhere down the line. But what
Speaker 1: I hope that's her. If it is Croak Park, I
Speaker 1: hope that's her farewell fight. I really do. I hope
Speaker 1: that's that. Yeah, I do. I mean I watched her now,
Speaker 1: you guys want like Bell, you said the same thing
Speaker 1: that what he said after the Serroonda fight. He wanted
Speaker 1: that to be want he's desperate fight retire. You guys
Speaker 1: over the UK seemed to want you to walk away
Speaker 1: sooner rather than later. Yeah. Yeah, I think we've seen
Speaker 1: her sort of come out of the Olympics, and I
Speaker 1: just remember watching her early and how fast she was.
Speaker 1: And again you mentioned that leg injury. Now obviously that
Speaker 1: didn't exist, and she's just she was just everything. She
Speaker 1: was just so quick and I watched her now and
Speaker 1: she's she's been in wars and I don't think we
Speaker 1: think of it with female fighters as much as we
Speaker 1: do with male fighters. But She's been in two wars
Speaker 1: with off in pursue, a War of Tasha Jonas, a
Speaker 1: War of Leonardartu, a war war War of the Manda Serrano.
Speaker 1: I mean, you don't want to see someone take the
Speaker 1: punishment she takes. She she she's not a defensive minded
Speaker 1: fighter anymore at all. She gets in there and now
Speaker 1: and she'll have a warf And I just thought, like,
Speaker 1: I want to see her go out with all her
Speaker 1: faculties in place, good money in the bank and maybe
Speaker 1: continue the boxing journey from from outside of the ropes
Speaker 1: as opposed to inside them. So yeah, I'm I'm like Tony,
Speaker 1: I don't know why I've got this connection with her.
Speaker 1: I feel like enough enough. Well, it's it's funny. You're
Speaker 1: probably right, but she and I said this antison last week.
Speaker 1: She might be in the best position of anyone in
Speaker 1: men's or women's boxing because of all the options she has,
Speaker 1: the ones we mentioned MICHAELA. Mayor is going moving up
Speaker 1: in wait. There have been rivals since the Olympic days
Speaker 1: that would be mentioned. There's a lot of action from it.
Speaker 1: It's the worst time for her, too cool at quids,
Speaker 1: like right now, with the price of the women's fights
Speaker 1: going up and her getting more of my She probably
Speaker 1: does now, So you're right, there are so many options.
Speaker 1: But I can see a coming unstuck with someone that
Speaker 1: a few years ago wouldn't have even NaSTA boots. And
Speaker 1: that's the that's his boxing, isn't I guess? So we'll see.
Speaker 1: She's got tough decisions to make, no question, all right,
Speaker 1: last thing for you, the obligatory what the fund is
Speaker 1: going on with Connor band question? At this point. The
Speaker 1: latest development that we saw in the last week was
Speaker 1: kind of been admitting to testing positive twice now for
Speaker 1: the same band substance, this fertility drug that is still
Speaker 1: has still not been explained how it got into a system.
Speaker 1: They've kind of transitioned to blaming the testing, blaming contamination.
Speaker 1: People listening in the US that watched a lot of
Speaker 1: Major League Baseball, we have seen this song before. We
Speaker 1: have seen this movie before. In Major League Baseball, you
Speaker 1: had all the great home run hitters from the early
Speaker 1: part of the two thousands. When they eventually got busted,
Speaker 1: they were blaming the testing, they were blaming contamination. Most
Speaker 1: eventually came around and said, yeah, I did it, and
Speaker 1: you know, cop to it. You know, ten fifteen years later,
Speaker 1: it just feels a little familiar to hear someone like
Speaker 1: Connor Ben blaming contamination and potentially blaming some of the testing.
Speaker 1: Where do things stand with Connor Ben? And what's been
Speaker 1: your reaction to how he's started to try to explain
Speaker 1: these this stuff away. Um he's not explaining that well enough. Um,
Speaker 1: there seems to be. I will tell you, this is
Speaker 1: me trying to just paraphrase Ben. I'm gonna tell you something,
Speaker 1: and then oh, I can't tell you the full bit
Speaker 1: because of legal reasons. You even tell us that you
Speaker 1: don't tell me, like you can't just do this. I'm
Speaker 1: going to give you parts of the story, then stop
Speaker 1: when the questions get difficult and say out for legal reasons,
Speaker 1: I can't really go down that route because they really
Speaker 1: aren't either, Like I've asked legal experts this to it,
Speaker 1: like repeatedly over the years, like if you're innocent, you
Speaker 1: are allowed to scream your innocence from the Rooftop's one
Speaker 1: thing I said immediately after I said, Look, as soon
Speaker 1: as this came out, I said, and I've done a
Speaker 1: video about it, and maybe connor Ben's team weren't happy
Speaker 1: about it. But I said, look if you are if
Speaker 1: anyone accuses me Manna of anything that I've not done,
Speaker 1: there is no legal team in the world that's gonna
Speaker 1: shut me up. I'm going to be screaming because my
Speaker 1: reputation right now is in the mud. I'm not going
Speaker 1: to rely on lawyers and Eddie Hearn to speak for me.
Speaker 1: I'm going to come out and speak for myself. And
Speaker 1: if I say a couple of things wrong, so what
Speaker 1: I'm going to speak hiding behind people and I think
Speaker 1: that's the only way I can use a Hiding behind
Speaker 1: people is just not working for Connor Ben and it's
Speaker 1: got to the point now where no one believes him.
Speaker 1: It's the British public. And bear in mind, you know
Speaker 1: he's a British fighter and we tried to get behind
Speaker 1: our fighters. No one believes him anymore, and that's it.
Speaker 1: I said, you might be able to prove somehow that
Speaker 1: you're innocent in the court of law because of legal ramifications,
Speaker 1: but in terms of the public, you're done because they
Speaker 1: don't believe you. The public don't believe you. The public
Speaker 1: can make or break you in the UK because they
Speaker 1: won't buy your fights. They won't put bums on seats
Speaker 1: and that's a problem. So right now it's looking really
Speaker 1: really bad for Connor Ben really bad. I'm not quite
Speaker 1: sure what he does. I think he's doing the media
Speaker 1: around on different broadcasters. Next week he's gonna be grilled
Speaker 1: by you know we we we as. You're actually quite
Speaker 1: different because you, as a boxing journal, you actually asked
Speaker 1: the tough questions. In the UK, it's almost this full
Speaker 1: of boxing journals are quite soft when it comes to
Speaker 1: the fighters, like they're scared to ask questions because there
Speaker 1: might be blackboard and you know that's it. You're banned
Speaker 1: from events. He's going to go to places where proper
Speaker 1: journal is going to ask him questions who don't give
Speaker 1: a damn about boxing. I want to see how he
Speaker 1: survives that, but I don't see. I can't see anything
Speaker 1: but a band and hopefully look if he's innocent, and
Speaker 1: it's the big if fingers crossed that comes out. But
Speaker 1: I'm with you. I feel like in six or seven
Speaker 1: months it might just be a case of I f
Speaker 1: up guys. Yeah. I mean, to my knowledge, nobody's been
Speaker 1: fired on his team, like you would think that there'd
Speaker 1: be a fall guy at some point. Whoever his nutritionist is,
Speaker 1: whoever is in charge of giving him whatever he puts
Speaker 1: in his body. Not to say it's their fault or
Speaker 1: than they did anything, but that would be a kind
Speaker 1: of a typical move by someone in Connor Bent's position.
Speaker 1: He's clearly known since what late August when that first
Speaker 1: test came back, that this was out there, and here
Speaker 1: we are in early November and there's been no reasonable explanation.
Speaker 1: That's wild to me. It's wild that you don't even
Speaker 1: sup something. Even Jarrell Miller had some bullshit for a while,
Speaker 1: like he was spending some yards about about some things,
Speaker 1: like there's not even been like a believable like I
Speaker 1: don't know what happened with Canello all those years ago.
Speaker 1: But the second the positive test came back, Canello came
Speaker 1: out and said, it's the meat in Mexico. There was
Speaker 1: testing of that meat. It turned out we're testing, so
Speaker 1: you could there was a degree of deniability that you
Speaker 1: could buy that, like I've not heard anything, and you're closer,
Speaker 1: but have you heard anything that you boyd nothing like
Speaker 1: and said that because I mean, everyone remember when Billy
Speaker 1: Joe Sonders was gonna fight demit Andre and he blamed
Speaker 1: it on the nasals, praying like, whether you believe that
Speaker 1: or not, Okay, that's what you said it is, and
Speaker 1: I still I don't believe that nonsense for one second,
Speaker 1: but that's what it is. And Tyson fury and the
Speaker 1: ball meat and the farmer and rubbish story again. But
Speaker 1: you've given us something nothing with Connor Ben and like
Speaker 1: how long can you keep silent for? So no, I've
Speaker 1: I've heard nothing. Um And the longer it gets, the
Speaker 1: worse it gets out. I felt that maybe they felt
Speaker 1: and this is the team that the longer it gets
Speaker 1: it will start just to go away and people will forget. No,
Speaker 1: it's actually becoming worse now because Chris, you Bean Junior
Speaker 1: is starting to talk and everyone now, and even Eddie
Speaker 1: I've noticed it started to distance himself a little bit
Speaker 1: by saying things like well, I'm his promoter. I'm not
Speaker 1: he's you know, if he comes back, we promote his fights.
Speaker 1: Whereas before I felt like Eddie was willing to die
Speaker 1: on that hill with him. Now I don't think it
Speaker 1: is the case. So yes, it's not looking great at all.
Speaker 1: He's obviously given up his British Boxing Board of Control license,
Speaker 1: which again, I'm guessing someone's advising to do and the
Speaker 1: conspiracy theorist amongst us like, well, if he's done, that
Speaker 1: is that because then he can't be banned by them,
Speaker 1: and what's the reason for him to give it up?
Speaker 1: So it was it was a tactical move like Jarrell
Speaker 1: Miller wasn't initially banned for the Joshua test because he
Speaker 1: was he never had fought in New York. It wasn't
Speaker 1: licensed yet in New York, so it was a it's
Speaker 1: a bit of a loophole. But whenever he tries to
Speaker 1: come back, we know this, he's gonna get tagged. Like
Speaker 1: he's not gonna be able to find anywhere credible you
Speaker 1: can fight, somewhere to fight, but like he's not going
Speaker 1: to fight and you know the Caribbean or something that
Speaker 1: that's not going to happen. Here's the last point I
Speaker 1: would ask you, do you think he fights? No chance? Um?
Speaker 1: If he no, I actually I just don't. I don't.
Speaker 1: I think I think they're going to be quite about it.
Speaker 1: If I'm honest of you. This again, this is my
Speaker 1: conspiracy hot on, conspiracy hot on because boxing, as you know,
Speaker 1: is the wild world West. I thought it would just
Speaker 1: be quiet and there might be a band almost like
Speaker 1: a silent band that we don't know. And then he
Speaker 1: just comes back and we're not quite sure what's happened,
Speaker 1: but he's, you know, behind the scenes, has been banned
Speaker 1: fourteen months and he's just oh, I'm back and no
Speaker 1: it wasn't banned and boxing, honestly boxing. It's so disappointing
Speaker 1: that because it was such a big fight, um, and
Speaker 1: it was one that sort of we as British fight
Speaker 1: fans needed, we needed a big fight like that, and
Speaker 1: it was going to set out the O two are
Speaker 1: and it was going to do good numbers on the
Speaker 1: Zone broadcast um. And for that, just a full flat
Speaker 1: like that because of this, And so I think that's
Speaker 1: why it's almost unforgivable, and I think that's why the
Speaker 1: British public are really upset with him, just because everyone
Speaker 1: had been fully invested. All the shoulder programming was good,
Speaker 1: everything was I did a face off which did over
Speaker 1: a million views. Like people are really like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: this is it. For that to happen four days before,
Speaker 1: or for it to be canceled at least four days before,
Speaker 1: he's just kicking the tea for everyone, all part of
Speaker 1: what's been a pretty crappy overall two. It's been bad,
Speaker 1: it has, doesn't it as well? I was thinking as well,
Speaker 1: like what's really happened this year? And I'm not much.
Speaker 1: We had a decent start kind of and then the
Speaker 1: last six months nothing. The fall has been outside of
Speaker 1: what we're doing here on Saturday and December Chocolate t
Speaker 1: versus Strata Part three. That's a great fight. Not a
Speaker 1: lot it breaks have been a very bare fall and
Speaker 1: at this point start looking a lot better. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: can ask you a question, Yeah, any movement on the
Speaker 1: Ryan Guss. So what Oscar is saying is true that
Speaker 1: the deal is basically done, the frameworks dealing, and I
Speaker 1: reported this a week ago, week and a half ago
Speaker 1: that it was done. Um, now the question becomes how
Speaker 1: does it get done on the broadcast level? Is it
Speaker 1: can it get done with a code distribution, which is
Speaker 1: what the zone wants, or is there some kind of
Speaker 1: financial package that PBC and Showtime can put together that
Speaker 1: it wouldn't be this, but it would effectively be buying
Speaker 1: to zone out, Like is there something they can do
Speaker 1: to make that happen? I mean a lot of people
Speaker 1: kind of glommed onto this idea that Ryan Garcia doesn't
Speaker 1: have an exclusive contract with the Zone. Well, he does
Speaker 1: have one with Golden Boy. Golden Boy has one with
Speaker 1: his own. It's a distinction really without a difference, and
Speaker 1: if it wasn't, there wouldn't be talks about a buyout
Speaker 1: or some kind. Obviously. I think the Zone prefers to
Speaker 1: do a code distribution, and look, honestly, it's not that hard.
Speaker 1: It's not ideal for Showtime because they take a little
Speaker 1: bit less of the pie, but it's not difficult to do.
Speaker 1: And some of the biggest fights we've had in the
Speaker 1: last eight nine years have been code distributions. Paquille versus Mayweather,
Speaker 1: the two Fury Wilder fights, big events. UFC and Showtime
Speaker 1: got together do Connor McGregor versus Floyd. It's not difficult.
Speaker 1: It's just a little bit more pain for the networks
Speaker 1: because they don't get as big as slice of the Pie,
Speaker 1: and boxing fans don't care about that like they don't.
Speaker 1: If this falls apart because the networks can't figure it out,
Speaker 1: that network's gonna take the backlash, not the promoters, not
Speaker 1: the fighters. This is become a network issue that needs
Speaker 1: to be resolved. And look, we do sit here working
Speaker 1: for the Zone. People can say we're biased, do we
Speaker 1: want but the Zone is trying to make it happen
Speaker 1: like that. They're trying to work and do a deal
Speaker 1: involving Showtime. At this point, may with the promotions Al Hayman,
Speaker 1: Showtime are not inclined to do a deal with this side.
Speaker 1: It's crazy again again, it's crazy. And if I'm the Zone,
Speaker 1: Ryan Garcia is all next big star, right, I mean
Speaker 1: behind Canelo and a J He's that guy that There's
Speaker 1: no way I don't want to be involved in this,
Speaker 1: nor should they. They paid in like almost ten million
Speaker 1: dollars last year to fight like you don't just walk
Speaker 1: away neither show Time. By the way, Showtime should't have
Speaker 1: to walk away from Javante. They've done his last eleven fights.
Speaker 1: They deserve to be involved in this fight as well.
Speaker 1: It's not Mayweather versus Pacio, but it's a fight that
Speaker 1: will exceed five thousand paper views. How many fights out
Speaker 1: there will do that. Crawford Spence might not do five thousand,
Speaker 1: but it's a better fight, but it might not do
Speaker 1: five thousand. Ryan Gonna says it's it's the injection the
Speaker 1: sport needs. And I mean, look, it should oh could
Speaker 1: be anything, honestly, could could literally these guys could fight
Speaker 1: at one forty. They could. Javancy doesn't have the frame
Speaker 1: for one for seven, but he certainly has the girth
Speaker 1: he could go up there as well. But yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: if if i'm if I'm the Zone, and I look
Speaker 1: at the situation with Devon Haney where we came over
Speaker 1: and you know, we built this Devon Hany fighter up
Speaker 1: and then he's gotten and become a dispirit on another network.
Speaker 1: We're not letting that shually happen again. There's no way,
Speaker 1: so no that I think they need to continue to
Speaker 1: fight for this one. It's a shame. Look again, it
Speaker 1: goes back to boxing. It's a shame if it falls
Speaker 1: apart because of the networks. But I think both Showtime
Speaker 1: and The Zone should almost be fighting for this one.
Speaker 1: There's so much pressure on both sides because there's no
Speaker 1: good alternative for either guy. Like if Tank walks away
Speaker 1: Isa Cruise too, does anybody really care? Especially on pay
Speaker 1: per view, Ryan fights at one forty. He's not going
Speaker 1: to fight one of the title holders or one of
Speaker 1: the top guys. So it's basically another tuneup fight at
Speaker 1: one forty. I don't this is the one fight like
Speaker 1: Crawford walking away for the ten million dollars, and that
Speaker 1: I don't like it. I kind of understand it to
Speaker 1: a certain degree. This there's no understanding at all. This
Speaker 1: has to get done someway, somehow, has to get desperately
Speaker 1: won it as well, both of them that they're I
Speaker 1: don't use the word hate a lot in boxing, because
Speaker 1: sometimes it's just fight. It's trying to sell fights. But
Speaker 1: they genuinely dislike yes, yes, and they both have fight
Speaker 1: changing power. Like you can sit there and say Javante
Speaker 1: is more experience whatever. Ryan's got his chin up in
Speaker 1: the air. But whoever lands first probably wins. That's just
Speaker 1: the way it goes. They both have completely devastating power,
Speaker 1: two different fan bases as well. It will be fantastic
Speaker 1: face A probably l A. Ryan and Javante do well
Speaker 1: out there. Ryan's a West Coast fighter. Javonte, to his credit,
Speaker 1: sells anywhere, but Ryan has mostly sold in southern California.
Speaker 1: It's a big fight. Staples. No, actually no, Oscar said this,
Speaker 1: and he's right. Vegas they actually have, and I was
Speaker 1: told they agreed as part of the promotional pact UH
Speaker 1: in a January date in Las Vegas, So Vegas. They'll
Speaker 1: put up a big sighte fee for it. You'll get
Speaker 1: all the built in Southern California traveling there. Just a
Speaker 1: major best guy. I can't I can't allow myself to
Speaker 1: get excited about this. I can't do it. I can't
Speaker 1: do it, Addi el Adipo. Follow um on social media.
Speaker 1: Check him out on Saturday as part of the Zone
Speaker 1: broadcast bevil Verse Ram Mirror is always good to catch
Speaker 1: up mat and when we come back my conversation with
Speaker 1: Eddie hearn Well, the NBA season is underway. It's the
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Speaker 1: the NBA. All Right, Eddie Hearn is here. We are
Speaker 1: both in Abu Dhabi. Eddie is in undoubtedly more luxurious
Speaker 1: confines than I am in at the moment. But we're
Speaker 1: here for the Dmitri beevil Zerdo Ramirez w B, a
Speaker 1: light heavyweight title fight. That's the fight you can see
Speaker 1: on Saturday onto Zone Eddie, you are becoming a mainstay
Speaker 1: in the Middle East. How are you enjoying this visit.
Speaker 1: It's been tremendous. I mean that we know, obviously there's
Speaker 1: a lot of people trying to do a lot of
Speaker 1: fights in the Middle East. Few ever materialize. Actually, I
Speaker 1: think we're the only promotional company that's managed to deliver
Speaker 1: any big fights in the Middle East yet. And we've
Speaker 1: had two experiences in Saudi Arabia for the World Heavyweight
Speaker 1: Championship and Saturday marks a new journey with Abu Dhabi
Speaker 1: and the DCT here in a long term partnership for
Speaker 1: the Champion Series. And I think we've got a head
Speaker 1: of a fight, you know, the head of an undercard
Speaker 1: as well. We're gonna have a huge crowd at the
Speaker 1: head of arena. I'm really excited. You know. It's quite
Speaker 1: nice to be popular, Chris really for a week, you know,
Speaker 1: and just come somewhere where people actually are genuinely excited
Speaker 1: about what you're about to bring to the country. And
Speaker 1: I really feel like the Middle East is going to
Speaker 1: be a pivotal market and territory for the sport boxing
Speaker 1: over the next few years. And we're delighted to be
Speaker 1: here to stay. So elaborate on that a little for me,
Speaker 1: because are they all the deeper and our discuss sing
Speaker 1: this earlier. Is this the new normal where if you
Speaker 1: have fights of a certain level, it's likely that they're
Speaker 1: gonna wind up in Saudi Arabia or in Abu Dhabi.
Speaker 1: Is this going to be kind of part of the
Speaker 1: boxing ecosystem moving forward? Well, it will definitely be part
Speaker 1: of the ecosystem. I mean, you know, there's only so
Speaker 1: many fight nights that they're looking to do, so obviously
Speaker 1: there's and there's a multitude of major fights a year,
Speaker 1: so it's not like, you know, we're going to see
Speaker 1: boxing disappear from the United States and the UK. I
Speaker 1: just feel like this will be another stop on the
Speaker 1: map for Google Boxing. And you know, obviously they're very aggressive,
Speaker 1: they want to bring the big fights here. Um, And yeah,
Speaker 1: I just think you know, some people, you have to
Speaker 1: understand the world's a big place, right and just because
Speaker 1: boxing has been in Madison Square Garden for many years
Speaker 1: and the MGM grant, don't mean that every big fight
Speaker 1: has to go there. Now. You know, at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, not every big fight can be housed
Speaker 1: in the Middle East. But I certainly think, you know,
Speaker 1: our plan will be to stage four events in next year,
Speaker 1: you know, and I expect to see potentially who stick
Speaker 1: against Joshua, sorry against Fury in the Middle East, you know,
Speaker 1: in Saudi Arabia. So yeah, they want to be players
Speaker 1: in the market for big fights, and with that being
Speaker 1: the case, you will definitely see this become a solid
Speaker 1: destination for big time boxing. It's great that fights get made,
Speaker 1: and Despight probably got made in part because of the
Speaker 1: financing from the government here. It's also great that fighters
Speaker 1: are getting paid, you know, good money as they are
Speaker 1: in this situation. But how do you balance you know,
Speaker 1: kind of taking fights out of organic locations and what
Speaker 1: you might lose as a result of whether it's a
Speaker 1: sold out crowd at Wembley a fight like this, you know,
Speaker 1: Vacuum would probably do a really good crowd in southern California,
Speaker 1: where Ramirez has has developed something of a fan base there.
Speaker 1: How do you balance that with with being here and
Speaker 1: being in organic locations. I think it's just the start
Speaker 1: of the process. You know, every market that you go
Speaker 1: into that where you see boxing develop and grow, has
Speaker 1: to start somewhere. I mean, the fact is we'll have
Speaker 1: over ten thousand in the ety head on Saturday, and
Speaker 1: I think the atmosphere will be fantastic. You've just seen
Speaker 1: UFC here two weeks ago. It's one of the best
Speaker 1: UFC's that we've seen in terms of atmosphere. They did
Speaker 1: the NBA the week before, They've got Formula one next week.
Speaker 1: You know, at the end of the day, you have
Speaker 1: to educate the audience. Now, we know that in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles there's a lot of fight fans, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of Hispanic fight fans and Mexicans that are going to
Speaker 1: come out and create a great atmosphere. Boxing is something
Speaker 1: that is embodied in the history, you know, and their culture,
Speaker 1: so obviously over here it's not. But it doesn't mean that,
Speaker 1: you know, people here don't watch boxing every week around
Speaker 1: the world, they do, and they're very excited to see
Speaker 1: it here and I think you'll you'll see that within
Speaker 1: the atmosphere at the weekend. I think, you know, again,
Speaker 1: we shouldn't just limit ourselves to boxing. Boxing is in
Speaker 1: London and it's in Boxing is a global sport and
Speaker 1: we have global ambitions with the zone. We you know,
Speaker 1: I keep saying it, and I always normally say no,
Speaker 1: I don't, I don't want the credit, but I actually
Speaker 1: do want the credit. Like we are the only global
Speaker 1: promotional company. You know, we are staging in fight nights
Speaker 1: in different countries virtually every single week. Who is doing that?
Speaker 1: Who has ever done it before? You know, a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago, we were in the UK, then we're
Speaker 1: in Brisbane, then we're in Mexico, then we were back
Speaker 1: in London. Last week now in Abu Dhabi, were in Cleveland.
Speaker 1: Next week we go back to London, then we go
Speaker 1: to Phoenix for a Strata Chocolate t so leads for
Speaker 1: Warrington Lopez, Like, you know, this is a pretty special
Speaker 1: project and journey that we're on, and we have ambition
Speaker 1: to raise the profile of the Score in every key
Speaker 1: territory that we feel has potential. So yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying you're going to get an atmosphere like
Speaker 1: you would in downtown l A for this five, but
Speaker 1: you're going to get a pretty world atmosphere. And there's
Speaker 1: a lot of people very excited to see Boxing launch it.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of positives to what you just said.
Speaker 1: There um at the same time, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: negativity right now in boxing. I mean that what we
Speaker 1: saw this week with the Twitter spat between Errol Spence
Speaker 1: and Terence Crafford, I thought was the worst possible thing
Speaker 1: that could have happened between those two guys. We're seeing
Speaker 1: less and less optimism, at least publicly about Ryan Garcia
Speaker 1: and Tag Davis. How do you feel about where boxing
Speaker 1: in general is right now? So I think how many
Speaker 1: times have we seen over the years in boxing? You know,
Speaker 1: you get a spell where three or four big fights
Speaker 1: that you want or one big fight that you one
Speaker 1: doesn't get made, and everyone comes out and says, I've
Speaker 1: had it boxing, and then all of a sudden last night,
Speaker 1: you know, plant against Benavidez gets announced. You know, whether
Speaker 1: that's a bit of pr or whether that's you know,
Speaker 1: actually going to get an official day, which I believe
Speaker 1: the latter fantastic fire great for boxing, and you'll just see.
Speaker 1: I feel like being in the industry there is a
Speaker 1: bit more added pressure and potential glory now for making
Speaker 1: some really big fights over the next couple of months.
Speaker 1: So people have to understand that promoters want to make
Speaker 1: big fights like one we have to do do for our
Speaker 1: broadcaster too. We have to for the sport three. We
Speaker 1: want to for the fans before we want to make money,
Speaker 1: and the only way you can do that is to
Speaker 1: really make be Marquis nights. So you are unfortunately dealing
Speaker 1: with at times an inflated market, other times people taking
Speaker 1: advice from people that have absolutely no understanding about business
Speaker 1: or the numbers around the fire. And I stressed before
Speaker 1: you know, I don't often feel sorry for our Haiming.
Speaker 1: I don't feel sorry for him here. But the reality
Speaker 1: is is Spence Crawford and I've had criticism for saying
Speaker 1: this before, but whatever you want to criticize me for,
Speaker 1: and the same with our Hayman. We know the business,
Speaker 1: We know the numbers inside out, and the reality is
Speaker 1: is that Spence Crawford is not that big to the
Speaker 1: wider world. Is an unbelievable fight right in boxing, it's sensational.
Speaker 1: But the reason our Hayman won't put a guarantee up
Speaker 1: for that fight is because he doesn't even believe in
Speaker 1: the numbers. Right, So if you're budgeting that fire, I'm
Speaker 1: budgeting that that fight fifty or four hundred thousand paper
Speaker 1: ad guys, that's where I'm laying my guarantee. These guys
Speaker 1: are being told by some bloke who works in the
Speaker 1: local store around the corner that does a million buyers,
Speaker 1: no problem, right, So, and this is the problem. They're
Speaker 1: not prepared to take the risk on those numbers. And
Speaker 1: sometimes when you've got a fight that's supposed to be
Speaker 1: of a huge magnitude, you don't need to pay a guarantee.
Speaker 1: I go back to Fury, Joshua. You know the crux
Speaker 1: of that deal was done. No one asked for a
Speaker 1: guarantee because you know it's absolutely monstrous. But with a
Speaker 1: fire lights, it's Crawford. You just don't know. You know,
Speaker 1: it can do three hundred thousand buyers, it can do
Speaker 1: eight hundred thousand buys, because neither of them have ever
Speaker 1: drawn on pay per view, Right. I see Garsia against
Speaker 1: Tank as a much bigger fight than Spend's Crawford. People
Speaker 1: might disagree with me. The fan bases are bigger. The
Speaker 1: fan bases are totally separate as well. You know, Ryan
Speaker 1: Garcia has a very prominent position on social media. If
Speaker 1: I'm back, if I'm putting up money for fights, I'm
Speaker 1: choosing that one to put my money up for right. Now,
Speaker 1: that's a different story those negotiations. That's a different fight.
Speaker 1: That's more of a political situation between broadcasters. But the
Speaker 1: reality is is a lot of these fights aren't as
Speaker 1: big as some of the fighters think they are, and
Speaker 1: fighters are on occasion being paid money well beyond their
Speaker 1: commercial value. You're seeing it with Crawford against have an insent.
Speaker 1: So it's quite a distorted market and it's genuinely not easy.
Speaker 1: You know, fans don't really care, but we want to
Speaker 1: make the big fights. But sometimes as a business we
Speaker 1: also have to make the right business decisions to say
Speaker 1: we're not comfortable going into a fight and potentially hemorrhaging
Speaker 1: four or five six. I mean, look at when top
Speaker 1: Ranke did Crawford Can. I mean, I know what Can
Speaker 1: got paid. I was involved in that deal. I know
Speaker 1: what Crawford got paid. They hemorrhaged millions of dollars on
Speaker 1: that fight. I don't think it barely. You know, surpassed
Speaker 1: a hundred thousand buys. So what gives you the confidence
Speaker 1: of Spence Crawford all of a sudden does eight hundred
Speaker 1: or a million? Well, And that was a weird That
Speaker 1: was a weird one though that that was a weird
Speaker 1: one though, because it sounds like neither guy was looking
Speaker 1: for a guarantee. It sounds like that was broken apart
Speaker 1: for some other reasons, maybe some transparency behind what was
Speaker 1: all the revenue that was going to potentially come in
Speaker 1: Lis Crawford saying he was willing to take no guarantee
Speaker 1: for that fight. So I tend, I mean, I tend
Speaker 1: to agree with you. Now I did tend to agree
Speaker 1: with you about Look, guarantees kill pay per views. They do.
Speaker 1: Like you go back to the eighties, they weren't real
Speaker 1: grantees for a lot of a lot of fights you
Speaker 1: had from you had fighters taking the large percentage of
Speaker 1: the split, which they should um. But with all these guarantees,
Speaker 1: somebody's gonna lose a lot of money. And I don't
Speaker 1: know how you change that. Like the Crawford supposedly is
Speaker 1: getting guaranteed something like ten million dollars to fight David Avenesian, Like,
Speaker 1: if you're I don't blame him for taking that that money,
Speaker 1: that's a fight is going to be And if the alternative,
Speaker 1: you know, if the alternative is fifteen million to fight
Speaker 1: eral spends unless you really don't care about the money
Speaker 1: and you really are chasing the legacy. Then you take
Speaker 1: the Avenesian fight, because at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: it's a fight you could fight a thousand times you'd
Speaker 1: never lose once. And Avanes is a good fighter. But
Speaker 1: course was just levels and levels above it, you know. So, Um,
Speaker 1: I don't know, Chris, I mean, but I do feel
Speaker 1: like we're all under pressure to make big fights, like
Speaker 1: you need to know that as well, under pressure for
Speaker 1: our own reputation and legacy and love at the school,
Speaker 1: you know, Like I don't want to be a guy
Speaker 1: that doesn't couldn't make big fights. And I think there
Speaker 1: is a feeling seeing Oscar out here. You know, he's
Speaker 1: on good form out here. You know. I think we
Speaker 1: want to make a stand now and make good fights.
Speaker 1: But we do need corporation from the fighters and the
Speaker 1: lawyers and the managers and their representatives that actually we
Speaker 1: know what we're doing and we do understand the financials
Speaker 1: around valuation for events. All right, let's talk about this fight,
Speaker 1: because it is a terrific fight. Beavil Ramirez two undefeated
Speaker 1: champions people at one seventy five, Ramires five and old
Speaker 1: since moving up from one sixty year. This was not
Speaker 1: the fight that you initially wanted. You were trying to
Speaker 1: make Joshua Boazzi against Dmitri be evil right out here
Speaker 1: in Abu Dhabi. How do you feel about it being
Speaker 1: Beavil Ramirez instead? Pretty good? Now, I mean I was
Speaker 1: very disappointed at the time because I wanted, I really
Speaker 1: wanted to give Joshua Black today our opportunity. Obviously, he's
Speaker 1: our fight room, he's been with us into the debut,
Speaker 1: and that opportunity will come. But the buzz around the
Speaker 1: Ramrors fight, you know, on a global scale. Obviously that
Speaker 1: was a big fight for the UK, but this is
Speaker 1: a big fight for the US. Obviously, bigolds, very well
Speaker 1: known in the UK as well. We've got a big
Speaker 1: uk um sort of appearance on the undercard from Barrett
Speaker 1: and Cameron and Yaffi and people like that. So I'm excited,
Speaker 1: you know, I feel like this is one of the
Speaker 1: best fights in boxing. And I said, yes that the
Speaker 1: press Coffers is twenty and oh against forty four and oh,
Speaker 1: it's right up there as one of the top fights.
Speaker 1: And I mean, certainly in the division, but really in
Speaker 1: boxing as well. It's a fascinating fight. I think it's
Speaker 1: really good timing, you know, like you said, all fight fans,
Speaker 1: you get down in the dumps, well, tune in on
Speaker 1: Saturday night and you've got a fantastic fight and a
Speaker 1: great undercard as well, and there's a real feeding when
Speaker 1: you talk about money, Chris. Obviously, both guys getting paid
Speaker 1: well this week, but there is a big feeling around
Speaker 1: this fight from the camps and the teams that these
Speaker 1: are actually two guys that are very interested in legacy,
Speaker 1: you know, and actually believe in themselves and want to
Speaker 1: fight the best. I'm mean, certainly we've seen that from
Speaker 1: Dmitri BiVO and being around Ramirez, I get that thing
Speaker 1: as well, like now, you want to make money and
Speaker 1: sometimes you want to have a couple of you know,
Speaker 1: run out fights. But I think Ramirez feels like this
Speaker 1: is my time to prove myself now, become a two
Speaker 1: time to division world champion, and he believes he can
Speaker 1: beat Cold as always, and I'm sure you've been around him,
Speaker 1: you know, He's just I feel like there might be
Speaker 1: more levels to Dmitri BiVO, and I think the confidency
Speaker 1: will gain from the Canneloures victory may see a very
Speaker 1: special performance running on Saturday. I think you're right that
Speaker 1: both these guys are consciously aware of legacy, that they
Speaker 1: are fighting for more than just a paycheck, even though
Speaker 1: they are getting big paychecks. And that's exemplified by Bevil
Speaker 1: basically running around all weeks saying he doesn't want a
Speaker 1: Canello rematch, at least not right away. He's been pretty
Speaker 1: locked in on potentially fighting Archer better BV next year
Speaker 1: for all the titles at one seventy five. I mean,
Speaker 1: you work with Canello. Cannello has said publicly many times
Speaker 1: he wants the rematch with Bevil if be Evil wins
Speaker 1: this fight. Uh, what's your level of confidence that we
Speaker 1: see Canelo in Bevil in the next one? Well, I mean,
Speaker 1: BiVO definitely has ambitions to be undisputed. I mean, listen,
Speaker 1: that might end up coming at one who knows. You know,
Speaker 1: he talks about he looked very fresh on the scales
Speaker 1: today and that's for sure, you know, And look, at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, legacy is important, money is important,
Speaker 1: and there is a certainly a degree of legacy as
Speaker 1: well around any callow out risks fine, especially the rematch,
Speaker 1: but I believe the met is the best hundred and
Speaker 1: seventy pounds in the world, and he wants to prove that.
Speaker 1: I mean, Pivo against better Be is an unbelievable fight,
Speaker 1: you know. But when you look at the schedule, I
Speaker 1: think he's due to fight Yard in early February or
Speaker 1: something like that. Then you have Ramadan coming I believe
Speaker 1: in the March early April. That's going to keep him
Speaker 1: out till the back end of the summer. So there
Speaker 1: there will be pressure on Dmitri Vivo should he win
Speaker 1: on Saturday, to consider and negotiate turn ms of the
Speaker 1: Canelo Alvarez rematch. Um Cannello wants that fight. You know,
Speaker 1: he's a winner. He wants to avenge that defeat. He
Speaker 1: feels like maybe he wasn't a percent or it wasn't
Speaker 1: his best performance. But it's going to be a very
Speaker 1: very difficult fight. So a long way to go, and
Speaker 1: I think a lot depends on the outcome and how
Speaker 1: everything plays out. And it was reported this week that
Speaker 1: Canello had surgery on that left hand stuffing he said
Speaker 1: he was going to after the Gallashkin fight. Do you
Speaker 1: have any kind of information about where he's at with
Speaker 1: that surgery, how long it's going to keep him shelved. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I spoke to him after the surgery. I think he
Speaker 1: was very happy with her when he talked about being
Speaker 1: able to punch in two months. So I don't see,
Speaker 1: you know, certainly he's given me no indication, and I
Speaker 1: think it's too early to say May he's fine. But
Speaker 1: I believe you'll see him returning May, because if he's punching,
Speaker 1: you know, towards the end of December, there's no problem
Speaker 1: being ready for a May fight. He's already trained and
Speaker 1: he's already fit. Um could that extend till September? Maybe?
Speaker 1: You know, he's had a big run of fights, but
Speaker 1: I think he's very happy with how it went. And
Speaker 1: you know he'll be looking too and wanting to get
Speaker 1: back into the ring as soon as possible, is he.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's never out of opponents, But you know,
Speaker 1: in the aftermath of the Glaskin fire, which closed the
Speaker 1: chapter on that rivalry, you look ahead and you see
Speaker 1: Bevil out there as a revenge fight. I guess he
Speaker 1: could campaign more at one more titles. But is Canello
Speaker 1: in any way kind of running out of really marketable opponents.
Speaker 1: I mean, he was chasing something a year and a
Speaker 1: half ago. That was the undisputed championship at eight. He
Speaker 1: accomplished it. What's kind of left for him out there? Well,
Speaker 1: I think he might be running low in terms of
Speaker 1: the kind of fights that really excited you know. Like
Speaker 1: what one thing I've learned with him is it has
Speaker 1: to be a challenge and it just has to be
Speaker 1: something that excites him. Voluntary defenses and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's all based on the fire. But certainly,
Speaker 1: you know, I think he's been calling out for likes
Speaker 1: if they give you Benevidez and those fun Charlo to
Speaker 1: have real fights and then build what would be a
Speaker 1: fight that would get him excited. This is Benavidez beats Plant.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, Benabdez is a fight that would
Speaker 1: excite Canello albis. I agree, and it's good that that
Speaker 1: fight has been made. Same with Charlo. You know, he's
Speaker 1: never fought anyone, and if he comes into a big fight,
Speaker 1: Canello has no problem fighting anybody. Um. For me, I
Speaker 1: think one of the things left to do in his career,
Speaker 1: he's fighting internationally. You know, I feel like he's a
Speaker 1: huge star. I'd love to bring him out to the
Speaker 1: Middle East. I'd love to see in box in London,
Speaker 1: of course, what an event it would be to see
Speaker 1: in boxing Mexico, maybe Japan, Australia. You know that that's
Speaker 1: what could be something that excites him. You know. But
Speaker 1: he loves real fights, you know, he wants tests. He's
Speaker 1: not interested in just having a run out fight. And
Speaker 1: you know, I'm sure there are plenty options available, but
Speaker 1: but certainly the rematch with Dmitri Vivo is one that
Speaker 1: he's in his mind that he must overcome a couple
Speaker 1: of things before I let you go. H I was
Speaker 1: at the press conference on Thursday, and you are all
Speaker 1: in on Galala fight, like you are all in. Your
Speaker 1: chips are on the table with Galalia Fi becoming a
Speaker 1: superstar in this sport. You called them the best prospect
Speaker 1: in boxing. There are a lot of good prospects in boxing.
Speaker 1: Why are you so high on Galala Fi. Well, it's
Speaker 1: the way that he goes about his business. I mean, firstly,
Speaker 1: anyone that wins an Mpic gold medal is an unbelievable talent.
Speaker 1: I mean, especially in today's world of amateur boxing. He
Speaker 1: breathed through that really to win that. And you know
Speaker 1: he's had two fights, right he's had two ten rounds
Speaker 1: straight off the bat. I mean he's looked brilliant against
Speaker 1: top twenty five in the world opposition. Now he has
Speaker 1: actually quite a big step up on a Saturday guy
Speaker 1: that's ranked in the top fifteen with a couple of
Speaker 1: governing bodies. I just see a fighter that goes about
Speaker 1: his work so effortlessly, you know, like bit like Jesse Rodriguez.
Speaker 1: And you know, I look at that division now, any division,
Speaker 1: you can take a foothold in Jesse coming down to
Speaker 1: fight for the w BO. Julio sees a Martinez WBC champion.
Speaker 1: You know, Sonny Edwards is over with the IBF, and
Speaker 1: then you've got Galaia fight could jump in, whether that's
Speaker 1: w B A, wherever he's going to be. And I
Speaker 1: just see fights like Martinez against y F Fire, Jesse
Speaker 1: Driguez against the Fire, like the big, big fights. But
Speaker 1: what watched this kid on Saturday. You know, for people
Speaker 1: that haven't seen him yet, watched the way he goes
Speaker 1: about his work. He's still it's only his third pro fight,
Speaker 1: but you know, at the moment he's not too concerned
Speaker 1: about getting hit and that will have the changes he
Speaker 1: goes through the levels, but a real exceptional talent and
Speaker 1: ice cold as well. CHRISTI, you know, like yet people
Speaker 1: like Dmitri Vivol who I don't think his pulse went
Speaker 1: over forty when he was sitting a changer in about
Speaker 1: to fight. The fire is at the same mold, real
Speaker 1: special fighting. Yeah, no question, people definitely was relaxed before
Speaker 1: that fight. That was surprisingly so in that sense. Anthony
Speaker 1: Joshua is going to be out here this weekend, ridden
Speaker 1: North member right now. Obviously he's not going to fight
Speaker 1: in December, but are you any closer to kind of
Speaker 1: locking down a Joshua schedule in the first half of
Speaker 1: next year. Yeah, that's really a lot of the conversations
Speaker 1: when he arrives here today, you know, sitting down and
Speaker 1: mapping out that time. Time moves quite quickly, you know,
Speaker 1: before you know it's December, and you know, and the
Speaker 1: plan really is to fight in February. You know. I
Speaker 1: think the thing is with a j similar to Canelo,
Speaker 1: he's not really motivated to have sort of takeover fights
Speaker 1: or whatever you want to call it. Every fight is dangerous.
Speaker 1: Every fight requires a big training camp and a big
Speaker 1: build up. So there's a very good chance that he
Speaker 1: could face the winner of Billian White and Jermaine Franklin
Speaker 1: on November twenty six, straight off the bat. There's also
Speaker 1: a chance he could fight a top fift thing guy
Speaker 1: Otto Wilding has been mentioned, Philip Hergovitch. You know these
Speaker 1: kind of guys. Um. You know, we have had a
Speaker 1: reply now from an August email from Cheli Finkle to
Speaker 1: say that we would would be happy to discuss that fight,
Speaker 1: which is encouraging. Whether he goes straight into a wild
Speaker 1: Of fight or has one first, probably the latter, but
Speaker 1: that's definitely a fight three. So it's just a case
Speaker 1: now of really pinning out, pinning down that training camp
Speaker 1: and and determining the date, and we expect that's happening
Speaker 1: the next week. Has the landscape for Wilder changed enough
Speaker 1: to make you more confident that fight could get done
Speaker 1: because the zone you money years ago? I think that
Speaker 1: bearing in mind the Paider view results in the last five,
Speaker 1: you know, I think it's going to be difficult for
Speaker 1: deont to land the kind of deal that he would
Speaker 1: want from boxing and now outside of an AJ fight
Speaker 1: or one of those who six or furies, and we
Speaker 1: want that fight as well. It's a tremendous fight of
Speaker 1: the boxing. I mean Deonce is a you know, a
Speaker 1: very dangerous fighter, is a brilliantction to the heavyweight division.
Speaker 1: And you know I've said before the Wilder Fury sorry
Speaker 1: Wilder Joshua might be bigger than Fury as and some
Speaker 1: people dismissed that it's probably not. I'll tell you what
Speaker 1: time that fight comes around. I mean, that is one
Speaker 1: of the great heavy weight fights at all time. And
Speaker 1: you know there's a lot of people particularly out here
Speaker 1: who would really be aggressive to make that fight and
Speaker 1: certainly one I believe will happen in Well, make sure
Speaker 1: you call Mases Square Garden before you make that fight anywhere,
Speaker 1: because that's an incredible New York fight as well. So
Speaker 1: I'm make sure you make that phone call the sal
Speaker 1: and all the guys over at MSG. One last thing
Speaker 1: for you, UM, A lot of people listening to this
Speaker 1: are US based Um the schedule. This is a good
Speaker 1: fight coming up. You've got chocolate to Astrata in December.
Speaker 1: How active do you anticipate being in the US next year?
Speaker 1: Because we've seen kind of some of your stable winnow
Speaker 1: out a little bit. You've seen some other guys like
Speaker 1: Andrew and others move on. Um how active do you
Speaker 1: believe you're going to be in the US. That's active.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think we've ended up doing something like
Speaker 1: eight or nine shows in the US this year. I
Speaker 1: think we've done five or six in Mexico um SO
Speaker 1: I think a similar amount. I mean, we're finding our
Speaker 1: feet very well. To Zone as a business and a
Speaker 1: platform is in a tremendous position in America. Now you
Speaker 1: better than it's ever been. The brand loyalty, the brand recognition,
Speaker 1: the profile is at an all time high, and we
Speaker 1: need to capitalize on that and put a great schedule together. Again,
Speaker 1: when you look at the schedule coming off Canelo against
Speaker 1: Triple G, you know you move into um Vivo against
Speaker 1: Ramirez Strata against Chocolate t SO three. Like with I
Speaker 1: still believe, by my the Zone carries the best schedule
Speaker 1: in American boxing and particularly in global boxing. So America
Speaker 1: is a very important market for us. We want to
Speaker 1: be as busy, if not busier there next year, and
Speaker 1: you know, I feel like we're in a very strong position,
Speaker 1: So looking forward to a busy at the Appreciate your time.
Speaker 1: I know that you and Jake Paul have some legal
Speaker 1: issues going on. But I was down in Puerto Rico
Speaker 1: in his camp a couple of weeks ago and papered
Speaker 1: all over his gym are pictures of you with the
Speaker 1: caption Fighter, Real Fighter. So you are very much in
Speaker 1: the mind of the team. Rem Free, rem Free. That's
Speaker 1: quite that's quite flattering. But good luck to him, and
Speaker 1: you know who'll sort the legal stuff out. But fair
Speaker 1: play to him, you know, I know, I know the criticism.
Speaker 1: He is not fault of Real Fighter and Anderson Field
Speaker 1: was faulty a but there's a lot of prospects that
Speaker 1: fought nobody for ten fights. So I like what he's doing.
Speaker 1: I think he's bringing eyeballs to the fault and good
Speaker 1: luck to him. And you've said this before, but you
Speaker 1: don't foresee any issues with a Serrano. Taylor talks with
Speaker 1: what's going on with to too big an opportunity for
Speaker 1: our clients to be childish. But the other stuff will
Speaker 1: get all it out ed. He appreciate it. Man. Good
Speaker 1: luck On Saturday. Thanks mate. Time out for this week's
Speaker 1: picks brought to you by Fan Duel and I am
Speaker 1: in Abu Dhabi this week, so I'm focused on the
Speaker 1: car headlined by Dmitri b Volte and Zero Ramires. But
Speaker 1: I am not gambling this week on Beavil Ramires. The
Speaker 1: odds just not great. I like Bevil to win that fight.
Speaker 1: You got a bet a lot to win a little
Speaker 1: in that matchup. So I'm gonna look a little further
Speaker 1: down on the car to the co made event, the
Speaker 1: women's title unification fight between Jessica McCaskill and Chantel Cameron.
Speaker 1: This is for all the belts at a hundred and
Speaker 1: forty pounds. McCaskill the undisputed champion now at one seven, Cameron,
Speaker 1: who has two belts at one forty. They're gonna fight
Speaker 1: for all the belts at hundred forty pounds. You got
Speaker 1: all that a little bit confusing, but it's a big
Speaker 1: fight in women's boxing. I like the underdog in this fight.
Speaker 1: Jessica McCaskill is coming in as a plus hundred thirty
Speaker 1: eight underdog. Jessica McCaskill has been on a role lately.
Speaker 1: She won the undisputed title by beating uh Cecilia break
Speaker 1: Who's that was a big win for her. She followed
Speaker 1: that up by winning a rematch against break wos So.
Speaker 1: She had two defining wins over the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: Her last two fights Candy Wyatt she won by knockout,
Speaker 1: Alma Bara she won by knockout. She's really been on
Speaker 1: a roll since losing the Katie Taylor back in two
Speaker 1: thousand seventeen. She's fighting Chantel Cameron, who is undefeated, who
Speaker 1: is very good, who does have eight wins by knockout.
Speaker 1: But I really like McCaskill in this fight, and I'm
Speaker 1: not sure why she's the underdog plus one thirty eight
Speaker 1: according to fan Duel, bet McCaskill to win. That's someplace
Speaker 1: you can make some money on. Take McCaskill to beat
Speaker 1: Chantel Cameron. Uh in this fight. Now method of victory
Speaker 1: you can make a little bit more. McCaskill by decision
Speaker 1: is plus two ten. I never bet on knockouts in
Speaker 1: women's box and they happen from time to time, but
Speaker 1: more often than not, especially at the highest level, we
Speaker 1: see these fights go to decision. I think McCaskill wins
Speaker 1: by decision as well. So do you want to make
Speaker 1: some money this weekend? Look to the fight Nabu Dhabi,
Speaker 1: watch it on the Zone. Bet Jessica McCaskill to win
Speaker 1: bet Jessica mccaskell to win by decision. Those are my
Speaker 1: picks courtesy of Van Duel. That's it for this week's episode.
Speaker 1: My thanks to Addi Oladipo and Eddie Hearn for joining
Speaker 1: the show. As always, subscribe, rate, review this podcast on Apple, podcast, Spotify,
Speaker 1: wherever you download podcast, and I'll see you next week.