Speaker 1: Now let me get to some boxing news where Jake
Speaker 1: Paul made headlines this weekend when he called out Canilo
Speaker 1: Alvarez and a social media post gone viral. Paul took
Speaker 1: the social media and accused the four division champion of
Speaker 1: ducking him by choosing to sign a lucrative four fight
Speaker 1: a deal for the ri ODD season.
Speaker 2: All right, that was on Thursday.
Speaker 1: The first fight of that deal will take place on
Speaker 1: May fourth and Saudi Arabia, where Alvarez will faced William
Speaker 1: Skull for the underspe the super middleweight championship of the World.
Speaker 2: Now, for those of you who didn't see the.
Speaker 1: Jake Paul post, hoaj brath Paul's for a second, and
Speaker 1: take a look at this.
Speaker 3: Oh Canelo, you puta and.
Speaker 4: This fucking jettube. I just fight freen fighters Tom to
Speaker 4: expose him.
Speaker 3: So we had a signed contract to fight. Here you
Speaker 3: could see Canello signature and my signature to the right
Speaker 3: claiming he's not fighting YouTubers.
Speaker 4: Bullshit.
Speaker 3: Look at the poster we were announcing Tuesday, February eleven,
Speaker 3: claiming he fights fighters, but he's fighting Crawford, a one
Speaker 3: hundred and thirty five pound fighter and running from a
Speaker 3: real fighter like David Benavidez.
Speaker 4: You bitch.
Speaker 2: The truth is you can be bought.
Speaker 3: You're a money hungry squirrel chasing your next nut. The
Speaker 3: truth is these sports washing, shady characters are paying you
Speaker 3: hundreds of millions of dollars to stop our fight from
Speaker 3: happening because they couldn't fathom the fact that they can't
Speaker 3: create a bigger fight than me and you. Al Hayman
Speaker 3: has made you hundreds of millions of dollars and you
Speaker 3: turned your back on him for this check. Disloyal and
Speaker 3: you were begging to do this fight on pay per view,
Speaker 3: but I have loyalty, loyalty to Netflix doing the biggest numbers.
Speaker 3: And you call me a YouTuber, but you've never had
Speaker 3: a boxing match as big as mine. Remember you told
Speaker 3: my team that your daughter came home and asked if
Speaker 3: you were fighting Jake Paul. She was all excited. You
Speaker 3: said that was the first time your daughter's ever asked
Speaker 3: you about a fight. And you're screwing over all your
Speaker 3: Mexican fans by doing your fights in Saudi.
Speaker 4: It just shows what type of person you are.
Speaker 3: And I promise you one thing, Canelo any fight that
Speaker 3: you do this year, Mine will be bigger, So go
Speaker 3: fuck off to your bus, you ring magazine and employee,
Speaker 3: you pink an orange bitch, and oh, fix that herpie
Speaker 3: on your lip, you dirty POOA.
Speaker 2: Couple of things.
Speaker 1: Before I even say anything, let me just say sources
Speaker 1: did tell the ESPN at Alvarez and Paul were finalizing
Speaker 1: the deal last week to fight May third in Las Vegas. However,
Speaker 1: Alvarez reportedly changed his mind and completed a four fight
Speaker 1: deal with Riard's Season, a move that effectively killed the
Speaker 1: fight with Paul that was expected to land on Netflix.
Speaker 1: A couple of things. Number One, Jake Paul. I like
Speaker 1: Jake Paul, like I'm a lot.
Speaker 2: I think that.
Speaker 1: He's brilliant with the marketing, highly professional by the way,
Speaker 1: shows up honest his commitments. Deserves a lot of credit
Speaker 1: for that number one. Number two, he's great for the
Speaker 1: sport of boxing because he shows you that you have
Speaker 1: the ability to avoid being at the mercy of it.
Speaker 1: Promoters who have hijacked boxing for too many decades and
Speaker 1: they've hurt the sport immeasurably. The UFC as great as
Speaker 1: it is. The number one reason is so great is
Speaker 1: because of Dana White. Because Dana White is committed to
Speaker 1: giving the patrons the fights they want to see when
Speaker 1: they want to see them, when they want to see them,
Speaker 1: and promoters for boxing never do that for us these days.
Speaker 1: So in that regard, Jake Paul deserves a lot of credit.
Speaker 2: He is to be respected. I like him.
Speaker 1: I hope to ultimately see him in a ring with
Speaker 1: a big time boxer so we can really really see
Speaker 1: what he's made of. Having said that, I think a
Speaker 1: couple of things are excessive here.
Speaker 2: Number one, what kind of contract was that? We don't
Speaker 2: know what kind of contract does that? Number two?
Speaker 1: Talking about Canilo Ducky Well, Jake Paul, you're smart about
Speaker 1: the fights you picked because they need to make money.
Speaker 1: Now that's not to say you weren't gonna make money,
Speaker 1: because obviously you would. You and Canilo would have been
Speaker 1: a big, big deal and it would have generated gobs
Speaker 1: and gobs of money.
Speaker 2: That is absolutely true.
Speaker 1: But you fought basketball players, You fought strikers in the UFC,
Speaker 1: You fought a fifty year old, you know, Mike Tyson. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the money was there, but it wasn't the toughest matches
Speaker 1: in the world. Why you pick those fights because you
Speaker 1: could make money without it being much of a risk. Well,
Speaker 1: if you're doing that, how you're gonna turn around and
Speaker 1: not Canilo Alvarez for doing the same, especially working in
Speaker 1: a sport that you yourself Jake Paul has called corrupt
Speaker 1: and abusive torch fighters. Now, I understand you're upset, you're
Speaker 1: a little bit of salty about Canillo using you to
Speaker 1: get a better deal from Riod or you know, or
Speaker 1: him turning down a fight with you. But what you're
Speaker 1: attempting to do with what you have done to some degree,
Speaker 1: Canilo Alvarez has done. He has for Triple G, he
Speaker 1: has Fort Mayweather, he has for I mean, even though
Speaker 1: Charlo's undersize, he was a champion. Terrence Crawford is a champion.
Speaker 1: By the way, He's not one forty, he's not one
Speaker 1: thirty five. He's one forty seven. And then his last
Speaker 1: fight I think was at one fifty four. And oh,
Speaker 1: by the way, he would move up a couple of
Speaker 1: weight classes. Now, I think Canilo needs to be fighting
Speaker 1: David Benavidez as well. But he did fight and knock
Speaker 1: out Covi Levet the light heavyweight spot. He did fight
Speaker 1: and lose the Beval He did fight Triple G not once,
Speaker 1: not twice, but three times. So when Canilo sits up
Speaker 1: there and says I.
Speaker 2: Fight fighters, he ain't lying.
Speaker 1: His reputation does speak for itself. So I can't sit
Speaker 1: up there and flow with you, Jake Paul on that one.
Speaker 1: I'd love to see you in the ring in a
Speaker 1: championship boxing match against it's a real champion. But before
Speaker 1: that happens, money aside, just talking about the purity of
Speaker 1: the sport, you should have to fight some contenders. You
Speaker 1: really really should top ten contender, one or two of
Speaker 1: them would be nice.
Speaker 2: You should have to do that.
Speaker 1: This is Canillo Alvarez we're talking about here. You understand
Speaker 1: you're supposed to be able to earn getting in the
Speaker 1: ring with him.
Speaker 2: That's just me age.
Speaker 1: I know popularity matters, gate, money matters, marketing.
Speaker 2: And all of this other side. I got it. I
Speaker 2: totally get it.
Speaker 1: But speaking strictly about boxing, you're supposed to earn the
Speaker 1: right to get in the ring with somebody on that level,
Speaker 1: because Canillo is on that level.
Speaker 2: Let's be very very clear and respectful enough to say that.
Speaker 1: Joining me now to discuss this as a man who's
Speaker 1: written about an opond on the sport of boxing for
Speaker 1: both ESPN and USA today today he's the founder, the owner.
Speaker 2: Of the publisher of what was it fight Freaks? Is
Speaker 2: that what it is?
Speaker 4: Fight free Unite on substats, tod that.
Speaker 1: Please got to let the audience know that the one
Speaker 1: and only Dan Rayfield. What's going on, buddy? How you doing?
Speaker 4: Great? To be hout with you. I kind of figured
Speaker 4: when this topic emerged we might be discussing it.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I wanted to know your thoughts when you saw
Speaker 1: Jake Paul going off showed the contract with the signatures
Speaker 1: on it. Even though he did that relatively quickly, by
Speaker 1: the way, I didn't get the chance to really really
Speaker 1: see it.
Speaker 2: Nevertheless, that's what he said.
Speaker 1: He's implicating that Canelo Alvarez signed to fight him.
Speaker 2: It was supposed to happen.
Speaker 1: It was supposed to announce it February eleventh, but it
Speaker 1: did not end up happening.
Speaker 2: Your thoughts, your reaction to what you saw from Jake.
Speaker 4: Paul, Well, Jake is upset, honestly. But if you take
Speaker 4: a little clue at the document that he supposedly signed,
Speaker 4: that's supposedly the fight contract. If you take a look
Speaker 4: at it, closely stephen A. What it was was a
Speaker 4: confidentially a confidentiality agreement. It wasn't a doubt agreement. It
Speaker 4: wasn't a let's sign for the fight. This was here's
Speaker 4: what we're working on. And then they take that so
Speaker 4: they can let the people that they're trying to sell
Speaker 4: the fight to know that they've got both sides on board.
Speaker 4: So that was maybe a little fast and loose with
Speaker 4: the truth. But the reality is Jake Paul wanted to
Speaker 4: fight Canelo Alvarez, and I don't think that Canelo was
Speaker 4: really truly that interested in the bout. That's been his
Speaker 4: sort of thing he's been saying all along. But I
Speaker 4: think what he did was he used Jake Paul and
Speaker 4: the people at his company, MVP, to raise the price
Speaker 4: that he was going to get from Turkey al Sheik
Speaker 4: from Saudi Arabia, to do real fights, to do other
Speaker 4: title defenses, to do with the fight with Terrence Crawford,
Speaker 4: and that was used to sort of jack up the price.
Speaker 4: And if he didn't get the price yet, maybe he
Speaker 4: would have gone through with it, but Jake Paul felt
Speaker 4: that he was going to it feels like he was
Speaker 4: aggrieved because Canelo has gone and done a four fight
Speaker 4: deal with Turkey al Sheik to bring his talents to
Speaker 4: Saudi Arabia for three of those fights.
Speaker 1: That sounds like the latest dealings in the world of
Speaker 1: boxing as far as I'm concerned. That's how business goes
Speaker 1: from Tom to tom. I can understand why Jake Paul
Speaker 1: is a bit upset, but Canilo Alvarez is a four
Speaker 1: division is you know, this is four different weight classes.
Speaker 1: This man is one of the greatest in the game,
Speaker 1: arguably one of the greatest ever in a lot of
Speaker 1: people's eyes, and to me, him fighting Jake Paul would
Speaker 1: have made no sense whatsoever for him outside of just money,
Speaker 1: because Jake Paul, as much as I respect him and
Speaker 1: what he's trying to do, hasn't earned the right to
Speaker 1: be in the ring with Canelo Alvarez as far as
Speaker 1: I'm concerned.
Speaker 2: How do you see that, Dan.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't disagree with that, But I think at
Speaker 4: the end of the day, Canelo Alvarez has secured a
Speaker 4: certain aspect of his legacy. I don't think there's a
Speaker 4: lot more left for him to do in terms of
Speaker 4: the legacy that you mentioned, and so in terms of
Speaker 4: the overall reason to do the fight with Jake Paul
Speaker 4: is about the money. He's trying to put as much
Speaker 4: money in the bank before now you know, now in
Speaker 4: the end of his career, Jake Paul's doing the same thing.
Speaker 4: Would have both made tremendous amounts of money for this,
Speaker 4: but Jake Paul is I respect him also well. I
Speaker 4: enjoyed Jake's events, interviewed him about his events, and I
Speaker 4: have nothing but respect for what he's doing in terms
Speaker 4: of trying to make himself a better boxer. But it's
Speaker 4: not at the championship level boxing that Canelo Albers has
Speaker 4: been at for the last more than a decade decade
Speaker 4: plus decade and a half. And so to think about
Speaker 4: him going in the ring with Jake Paul, whose only
Speaker 4: advantage is his size, you know, obviously most people would
Speaker 4: look at Canelo overs and say, look, you can get
Speaker 4: him out of there easy. Now. At least in these fights,
Speaker 4: he's gonna be fighting actual championship level boxers, maybe not superstars.
Speaker 4: Like his first fight of this deal is against a
Speaker 4: very unknown fighter named William Skull who picked up the
Speaker 4: vacant IBF belt that Canelo was forced to that was
Speaker 4: stripped of him because he didn't fight the mandatory. William
Speaker 4: scull was totally unknown and brought nothing to the table.
Speaker 4: Now he's gonna fight him, but he's still an actual
Speaker 4: professional fighter with real fights in his own weight class.
Speaker 4: So I get where Canelo is coming from, and I
Speaker 4: get where Jake Paul is coming from.
Speaker 1: Let's go let's go to Canelo for a second. I'll
Speaker 1: get back to Jake Paul in a minute. Let's go
Speaker 1: to Canelo for a second. I mean, I don't like
Speaker 1: I don't root against him. I respect the hell out
Speaker 1: of him. I've interviewed him on a couple of occasions.
Speaker 1: I know what a great fighter he is. I know
Speaker 1: what he brings to the table. I've seen him against
Speaker 1: Triple G obviously, against Mayweather, obviously, against Charlo and others.
Speaker 2: We get that he's proven himself. Okay. The flip side
Speaker 2: to it, however, is that there's.
Speaker 1: A guy by the name of David Benavidez out there,
Speaker 1: the Mexican Monster, that's got to move up to light
Speaker 1: heavyweight because Canillo won't give this guy a fight.
Speaker 2: As a as an expert of the pugilistic sport.
Speaker 1: That is boxing, knowing what you know, how do you
Speaker 1: feel about Canelo avoiding David Benavidez and how foreign foreign
Speaker 1: is it for him to be avoiding David Benavidez.
Speaker 4: I mean being truthful, and I'm known as a Canelo
Speaker 4: guy Steve Day, but it's disappointing because that's the fight,
Speaker 4: that's the real fight that fans, I think want to see.
Speaker 4: It's not like there's not other fights they'd be interested.
Speaker 4: And sure Terrence Crawford fight will interest a lot of
Speaker 4: people in the mainstream because of all the history that
Speaker 4: goes with it and where both those guys are in
Speaker 4: the sport. But Benavidez has earned the opportunity. He clearly
Speaker 4: is a top level fighter, whether it's in the super
Speaker 4: middleweight division or the light heavyweight division. He's now fighting
Speaker 4: in the light heavyweight division. Has made it very clear
Speaker 4: that where his body is now after having now had
Speaker 4: two light heavyweight fights a really outstanding performance a couple
Speaker 4: of weeks ago against David Morrell, that he's not about
Speaker 4: to drop back down to one to sixty eight. So
Speaker 4: if Canelo will ever agree to fight him, it's going
Speaker 4: to have to be in the light heavyweight division, where Canelo,
Speaker 4: by the way, has had two fights in the past.
Speaker 4: They spectacular a knockout to win a wealth title against
Speaker 4: Sergey Kovolev, and he got out boxed by Dmitri Bievo,
Speaker 4: who's a much different style than the Avidi's. So I
Speaker 4: think that Canelo realizes, Look, he's I won't say he's
Speaker 4: playing out the string, but he's making more moves that
Speaker 4: are going to benefit his bank account than perhaps to
Speaker 4: give him another loss on his record. Taking on William
Speaker 4: Skull is not a big gamble, even frankly taking on
Speaker 4: a Terrence Crawford, who's a great fighter's own right, but
Speaker 4: the weight disparity is so great, right, I would think
Speaker 4: that he and his team think it's that great of
Speaker 4: a risk. And then there's two other fights on this deal,
Speaker 4: which I don't even think are named in the contractor
Speaker 4: in the agreement, and they'll be able to sort of
Speaker 4: pick and choose. So he may be able to run
Speaker 4: the table on the four fights. But David Benavidez poses
Speaker 4: a massive threat. He knows it. You know it, I
Speaker 4: know it. Anybody who watches boxing knows it.
Speaker 1: How are we to feel about Canelo Alvarez fighting people
Speaker 1: other than David Benavidez. When there's smaller fighters, like for example,
Speaker 1: when he fought Charlo, Clearly he had to move up
Speaker 1: two weight classes to fight Canelo. We knew he didn't
Speaker 1: have the power to really fend off.
Speaker 2: Canelo.
Speaker 1: I was proud that he survived for crown out loud.
Speaker 1: When I look at Terrence Crawford, I think Terrence Crawford
Speaker 1: is a marvelous box arguably the best in the world
Speaker 1: pound for pound. But can you hurt Canelo? If you
Speaker 1: can't hurt I have no doubt he could outbox him.
Speaker 1: My issue is, if you can't hurt him, what kind
Speaker 1: of a challenge can you truly truly pose?
Speaker 2: What do you say to that?
Speaker 4: No, that's listen, that's a great I mean, here's the thing.
Speaker 4: Sanello Alvarez has a historically great chin. Now, I go
Speaker 4: back way back when he first came to the United
Speaker 4: States and started boxing, and he found himself on an
Speaker 4: HBO pay per view under card years and years ago
Speaker 4: fighting against the older brother of the great Miguel Coto.
Speaker 4: His name was Jose Miguelkoto, and he had gotten a
Speaker 4: ton of hype yet signed with Golden Boy Promotions, and
Speaker 4: a lot of those of us in the media. I
Speaker 4: had seen him a couple of times before that. This
Speaker 4: is my first time seeing him in person, really paying
Speaker 4: close attention. And he almost got knocked out in the
Speaker 4: first round, and I remember steven A, all of us
Speaker 4: looking around at media row going what the heck is
Speaker 4: this off like about this man can't take a shot,
Speaker 4: He's gonna get drilled. He was lucky get the fight
Speaker 4: was over. You know that the round was over in
Speaker 4: round one, there might have been some much more trouble
Speaker 4: steven A. That was like, I don't know, sixteen seventeen
Speaker 4: years ago, I've never seen him wobbled rock physically visibly hurt.
Speaker 4: Since then, he has an all time great chin going
Speaker 4: in the ring with tremendous punchers. Cove left two fights
Speaker 4: with Gonnadi, Glofkin and plenty of other fighters, so you
Speaker 4: know he has the great chin. And like you mentioned, Ken,
Speaker 4: Terence Crawford coming up two weight classes do any damage. Yeah,
Speaker 4: he's a slick boxer, and he's also a good puncher
Speaker 4: in the welterweight division, in the junior welterweight division, in
Speaker 4: the lightweight division, but even at junior middleweight, which is
Speaker 4: where Terrence Crawford had his most recent fight back in
Speaker 4: August when he moved up and he won a world title.
Speaker 4: He didn't blow the doors off. He fought a very tough,
Speaker 4: solid opponent named Israel Majimov. He gave him a good fight.
Speaker 4: It was very close. Magineo's people seem to think he
Speaker 4: might have even been able to edge it out. But
Speaker 4: if you can't hurt an Israel maagium of at one
Speaker 4: fifty four, what the heck are you gonna do with Canelo?
Speaker 4: Albert is the sturtiest guy in the world at one
Speaker 4: sixty eight, So that aspect of it is certainly a problem.
Speaker 4: You mentioned about Charlo. Charlo is there to get his check.
Speaker 4: I know one thing about Terrence Crawford. He's not going
Speaker 4: to just come to turn up to get the check.
Speaker 4: He'll at least tried, and Charlo, I don't think, really tried.
Speaker 4: There's a difference in mindset between Charlo and Terrence Croft.
Speaker 1: And you and I have a slight different opinion about
Speaker 1: the Shallo thing. I think that shallow hit Shallo hit
Speaker 1: this man with a shot in the first or the
Speaker 1: second round, and Canillo just walked right through him.
Speaker 2: And he said, oh my God, I hurt this guy.
Speaker 1: I need to run for my life for the next
Speaker 1: ten roundsters about That's what I saw.
Speaker 2: But I hear you loud and clear.
Speaker 1: Back to David Benavidez, since you brought his name up,
Speaker 1: he wanted to fight against Morell. I walked away more
Speaker 1: impressed with Morell than I thought I would be, because
Speaker 1: the kids got he could take a punch. He could
Speaker 1: take he could he could really really take a punch.
Speaker 1: And I was very surprised by that. And I was
Speaker 1: surprised that with the shots that David Benavitez was hitting
Speaker 1: him with, that he couldn't take him down. And then
Speaker 1: I said to myself, what if he goes against and
Speaker 1: it's not before it's better beef.
Speaker 2: I'm a little bit worried about that. For dead for
Speaker 2: David Benavidez, what about you?
Speaker 4: Look, David Moreau may not have been well known to
Speaker 4: the masters, but certainly within boxing he's well known. He
Speaker 4: was a great amateur coming out of Cuba, and he
Speaker 4: has accomplishment. So don't be fooled by what the record
Speaker 4: was eleven and zero going into the bout against Benavidez.
Speaker 4: He is a really serious quality fighter and that was
Speaker 4: a really uh, you know, matchup that a lot of
Speaker 4: people were excited and so I wasn't surprised that David Merrell,
Speaker 4: you know, gave him a good fight. I mean, I
Speaker 4: take David Benavidez to win the fight for a lot
Speaker 4: of different reasons. But you talk about the possibility of
Speaker 4: David benavides facing off against the winner. There's the rematch
Speaker 4: for the undisputed title that takes place on February twenty
Speaker 4: second between Arthur better bief who is the undisputed champ
Speaker 4: and Dimitria Bievl who they fought at the end of
Speaker 4: last year and it was a very close fight and
Speaker 4: that was to unify the division. Turkey Alshk who runs
Speaker 4: the show with Saudi Arabians involved in boxing with Riann season,
Speaker 4: he said he'd loved to see the winner of that
Speaker 4: fight fight against d Benavidez. Now if there is a
Speaker 4: fact that Beevo wins the rematch, He's also said maybe
Speaker 4: there'll be a trilogy fight, but if better bv is
Speaker 4: the winner, and they also he invited David Benavidez to
Speaker 4: come to their ringside and to check it out on
Speaker 4: February twenty second. I think that's got a really interesting
Speaker 4: and good possibility to happen. That would be a huge
Speaker 4: fight for David. I would hope they would do that
Speaker 4: fight in the United States. That's where David's got a
Speaker 4: lot of fans. That would do probably quite a bit
Speaker 4: more in terms of popularity, viewership a priview than if
Speaker 4: it was taking place in Riha. But you know, we're
Speaker 4: gonna see the best fight the best if they can
Speaker 4: make that match, and David's up for it. I mean,
Speaker 4: he'll fight it. You know, David Benavidtez, He's never turned
Speaker 4: anybody down. He'll fight whoever. And he's on a really
Speaker 4: good run right now Andre and Caleb playing and then
Speaker 4: of course what he did against Wodzick when he moved up,
Speaker 4: and then this fight just a couple of weeks ago
Speaker 4: with David real he's not looking at Duck anybody.
Speaker 1: Let me get back to Jake Paul before I let
Speaker 1: you get on out of here. I really appreciate your time, Dan,
Speaker 1: Jake Paul listen. I respect him because he's his own promoter.
Speaker 1: He shows that you don't have to be at the
Speaker 1: mercy of promoters to make a fight happen. And I
Speaker 1: really applaud what he's doing for the sport of boxing
Speaker 1: in that regard, But as I've told him to his face,
Speaker 1: I'm not being a hypocrite here.
Speaker 2: You gotta fight fighters, and Mike.
Speaker 1: Tyson at fifty eight years of age ain't cutting it
Speaker 1: no more UFC strikers or basketball players that ain't cutting it.
Speaker 2: You gotta get in the ring with some boxes.
Speaker 1: So while I listen, Canilo used him probably to up
Speaker 1: the ante, to up the price on the back end,
Speaker 1: and I get that part.
Speaker 2: The flip side to it is, if your Canilo.
Speaker 1: Alvarez, why should you allow somebody to get in the
Speaker 1: ring with you who hasn't really fought any contenders in
Speaker 1: the sport of boxing.
Speaker 2: To me, that's what Jake Paul has to do.
Speaker 1: So I understand his outbursts, which was the reason I
Speaker 1: had you on, But in the same breath, I'm of
Speaker 1: the mindset you kind of brought this on yourself because
Speaker 1: you're trying to get a shot at the crown without
Speaker 1: working through the process.
Speaker 2: And fighting guys that are at least contenders to that.
Speaker 4: You say, what, well, I think part of it's because
Speaker 4: Jake knows that his events are big events, regardless of that.
Speaker 4: It's not like he's not working hard. He's not really
Speaker 4: cutting the line because if other people didn't want to
Speaker 4: watch his events, he wouldn't be in that position. Because
Speaker 4: he's got a certain popularity and he brought in I mean,
Speaker 4: you looked at the Tyson fight he had on Netflix.
Speaker 4: They did gargantuan numbers, brought up all kinds of subscriptions.
Speaker 4: That was the plan. So he has that in his
Speaker 4: back pocket. He brings money, and he brings notoriety and
Speaker 4: a lot of eyeballs to his events. Whether you think
Speaker 4: he's put in enough work in the gym to make
Speaker 4: himself into a quote unquote real fighter. Now, if you
Speaker 4: step back prior to the Tyson fight, you know that
Speaker 4: he did have dude to one fight against the BKFC
Speaker 4: fighter in Mike Perry, but that was because Tyson was
Speaker 4: dealing with his illness and they had a postpone the fight.
Speaker 4: But prior to that fight, he actually did take a
Speaker 4: step back. I was sort of happy about this. He
Speaker 4: fought like actual boxers, not big names, but guys that
Speaker 4: maybe had quality amateur backgrounds that were of around the
Speaker 4: same level of professional experiences. In as he said to
Speaker 4: me in some interviews. I'm trying to build up myself
Speaker 4: as a fighter, to get the reps in, to get
Speaker 4: in the experience. Here's the problem. Those fights did not
Speaker 4: do big business, so he's kind of stuck between a
Speaker 4: rock and a hard place. He can fight those developmental fights,
Speaker 4: but nobody he gives a dart about him, and they
Speaker 4: don't bring in the kind of money. So he's going
Speaker 4: to be fighting these bigger names, whether it's MMA guys
Speaker 4: or boxers who maybe are past their best, or try
Speaker 4: to lure a Canelo win who maybe is smaller, because
Speaker 4: that's where the money is and the fans flock to it.
Speaker 4: How could you take a guy who's fighting Iron Mike
Speaker 4: Tyson and does bazillions of viewers on Netflix and say, well,
Speaker 4: now you should step back and fight a guy in
Speaker 4: an eight rounder that nobody ever heard of. I understand
Speaker 4: the predicament he's in.
Speaker 1: I definitely respect that, and I appreciate that perspective as well,
Speaker 1: because that makes sense. This is the money business. You're
Speaker 1: trying to make as much money as you possibly can.
Speaker 4: Steven A's price fighting.
Speaker 2: It's prize fighting, no doubt about it.
Speaker 1: But last thing, I'll say this much because I get
Speaker 1: where he's coming from.
Speaker 2: So where does he go from here?
Speaker 1: Because my mentality is, Okay, you want to make the money,
Speaker 1: you definitely want to do that.
Speaker 2: You don't want to do things.
Speaker 1: And I applaud Jake Paul by the way, because he
Speaker 1: promotes the hell out of his fights. He shows up,
Speaker 1: he honorts his commitments. He's more professional than a lot
Speaker 1: of the professionals in that regard.
Speaker 2: I give him a lot of credit for that.
Speaker 1: But what are we to make of his future now
Speaker 1: that he said what he says, particularly when he says,
Speaker 1: I promise you I will generate more money. My events
Speaker 1: will be bigger than Canilo Alvarez, I'm not.
Speaker 2: So sure about that. Dann Rayphiel to that, you say.
Speaker 4: What, yeah, I mean, look, he's already played the Tyson
Speaker 4: card that that happened and it was huge. Canelo obviously
Speaker 4: is not happening. That would have been big, whether people
Speaker 4: loved it or not, there would have been a massive
Speaker 4: amount of people, for perverse reasons perhaps interested in it.
Speaker 4: And so now you say, who else can he fight?
Speaker 4: He's fought all kinds of former MMA or you know,
Speaker 4: MMA guys crossed over to boxing. I just don't know
Speaker 4: the answer. I mean, he is there another famous boxer
Speaker 4: that's looking to come out of retirement to fight him
Speaker 4: that would actually move the needle, you know, I don't
Speaker 4: know about that. I mean, was he gonna get Oscar
Speaker 4: de la Hoy to come out of retirement? I mean,
Speaker 4: or Floyd Maywether. I doubt that. So the one, the
Speaker 4: one name that's out there. Then he's brought it up,
Speaker 4: and I mean it would be a big event. I
Speaker 4: would personally not like to see it. He's talked about
Speaker 4: Connor McGregor. I mean that. I'm just saying that. I mean,
Speaker 4: that's where we're at here, Steven Ay. What can I
Speaker 4: tell you?
Speaker 1: I mean that, I mean come, I mean I will
Speaker 1: say this, nobody would eclipse them promotionally.
Speaker 2: That I will admit.
Speaker 1: Nobody would would eclipse them promotionally. But outside of that,
Speaker 1: when it gets down to the beer bones of a
Speaker 1: real fight, now, I'm not feeling that, not at all.
Speaker 1: Dann ray Fiel, Dann ray Phield, obviously fight freaks you not.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you, buddy, Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 4: You bet Steven anytime?
Speaker 2: All right, before we.
Speaker 1: Go, I want to send some well wishes to form
Speaker 1: a New York Knicks guard and Slam Dunk champion Nate Robinson.
Speaker 1: Prayers were finally answered for Robinson last Friday, when he
Speaker 1: received a new kidney at the University of Washington Medical
Speaker 1: Center in Seattle, Washington. Robinson first learned his kidneys weren't
Speaker 1: functioning properly nearly twenty years ago while playing for the Knicks.
Speaker 1: He was told then that he would one day need
Speaker 1: a transplant again. That happened on Friday, And here's what
Speaker 1: he posted on Instagram right before the surgery last week.
Speaker 1: Quote here to celebrate and thank the Lord for all
Speaker 1: he has done in my life. Today is the day
Speaker 1: I get my new kidney. Thank you to all the
Speaker 1: people that sent prayers and texted my phone giving me
Speaker 1: encouragement and love.
Speaker 2: End quote. Can't say how happy I am for him.
Speaker 1: It was real painful to watch him on social media
Speaker 1: when he was doing an interview and it aired all
Speaker 1: over social media where he said he needed a kidney
Speaker 1: transplant and he was questioning whether or not he would
Speaker 1: be able to capture one. So for him then finally
Speaker 1: receive that transplant and to see for him, to see
Speaker 1: hm on the.
Speaker 2: Path to good health.
Speaker 1: What more can you say, I'm just happy for him,
Speaker 1: I really really am. That's it for this edition of
Speaker 1: The Steven they Smith Show.
Speaker 2: Hope y'all enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: Thanks again to Dan Rayfield, Thanks again to my man
Speaker 1: Chris Carter. Thanks to everybody that contributed to the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: Because Kendrick Lamar did his thing, I know I feel
Speaker 1: that way. Eagles damn sure did that thing. Jalen Hurts
Speaker 1: did his thing as well. Thanks to everybody. Until next time, everybody,
Speaker 1: it's Stephen. The signing off piece alive.