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Speaker A: Ladies and gentlemen, this is the 12th and final round. Right hand Golovkin steps in. And down he goes again. Unbelievable. Mayweather makes a pay. What a rookie mistake.
Speaker B: A sensational left hook by dela Hoya.
Speaker A: It's facts. I'm the best. You know what I mean? I. Sometimes I don't want to believe in.
Speaker B: Myself, but it's the truth.
Speaker A: I'm the best.
Speaker B: I'm gonna show you how great I am.
Speaker A: From southern California, this is the last Round podcast. Welcome back to this week's episode of the last Round podcast. Thank you again for joining us. Before we jump into things like usual, please don't forget to, rate us and subscribe to us and follow us on your chosen podcast platform. Whether it's Spotify, you can hit that little follow button on our profile page. It's easy. It just follows us. It's like a subscription. Same thing with Apple. You hit subscribe, rate us five stars. on either platform, it, really helps us in the rankings of these podcasting platforms, and increases our visibility. And then with increased visibility comes bigger and bigger guests. So please don't forget to do that. and definitely helps us, as a show, and trying to grow organically, jumping, right back into it.
Oscar Valdez stopped Liam Wilson to win WBO interim featherweight title
Fight reviews fight reviews this past few. Friday the 29 march from the desert Diamond arena in Glendale, Arizona. On ESPN, Oscar Valdez gets the 7th round TK over Liam Wilson, who takes the third loss of his career. This was for the WBO interim super featherweight title. Valdez stopped Wilson in the 7th round to win the interim belt. that was live on ESPN plus. Was it live on ESPN plus or ESPN? It was ESPN, wasn't it?
Speaker B: Yeah, I think it was on both. It was on both, both platforms.
Speaker A: What do you think about Valdez's win?
Speaker B: I thought it was a good win to get him back into, getting back into, obviously, the win column. There wasn't a total blowout. I thought Wilson was competitive at times. Valdez just that little bit sharper, that little bit stronger, a little bit more experienced, I thought. but it was a good fight. Good fight overall to watch. Good, to see Valdez back. You know, like we always say, he's always in, in wars, he's always good, you know, good for tv. So it'd be, interesting to see where they go from here with him. But, I thought Liam Wilson looked pretty good for someone who's relatively inexperienced. He's kind of jumped up from, you know, like, australian level.
Speaker A: Boom.
Speaker B: Straight up to, like, world level, fought Navarette.
Speaker A: Boom.
Speaker B: Straight back up to world level again in fighting Valdez. But, yeah, he's a. He's another one. He's a good. A good opponent, because he just kind of comes to fight and always puts up a pretty good performance.
Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's what we talked about last week and how we said that he's been in so many wars. He's 33, which isn't, you know, I wouldn't consider that old, but he's an old 33 in the boxing game, because he's been a, pro for so long, and he's been in so many highly competitive wars and matchups. So, his body as a fighter is what has the mileage. I think that's what we were touching on last week. but you gotta think about, who was this trainer? I forgot. Who was this trainer before he went with Reynoso and Canelo's team? Do we remember.
Speaker B: Was it. I can't remember if it was a big name or not.
Speaker A: Was it robless? Was a robless?
Speaker B: May have been Robles. That's a good question. Honestly. Can't remember he's been with Reynoso for so long.
Speaker A: Yeah. Cause he's, like, stayed with Reynoso for, it seems like a while now, but I think. I think it was Manny Robles out here in LA. Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel that it was because wasn't Ruiz. Weren't him and Ruiz on the same team for a little bit? Andy Ruiz, and then they both left Manny Robles, and then they both went with Reynoso, and then Ruiz obviously didn't survive there.
Speaker B: Yeah, it was. It was, Manny Robles.
Speaker A: It was. Right? Yeah. Cause like, I was thinking how, like you mentioned right now, has been with Reynoso for quite a minute now.
Speaker B: 2018. He let. He went.
Speaker A: That's a long time. That's when we started the podcast. So, essentially, when we started the podcast is when he switched trainers, and he's been there ever since, you know, six. Six years or whatever. I mean, you got to give it to him. You know, it's been working. And, you know, he. He's around Canelo all the time. You know, he gets that discipline, you know, that that hard work rubs off on it. I mean, he was already a hard worker, but I'm sure he elevated his game being down there in San Diego with them. but he's obviously back in contention. I think we. I think we both picked him last week. Right? We both picked him to win. Yeah. Or, you know what? No, I think you and, I think you and Abe, Abraham Gonzalez of fights, atW.com, he was our special guest last week. I think you both picked Valdez. And I think I just went against you guys with Wilson just to kind of change it up, I think. I think. But obviously, Valdez gets a tko victory here. who do they put him up against, you know, neveretti again. What do you, what do you think? How do you, how does, how does top rank navigate Valdez from here into another big fight?
Speaker B: Well, he picked up the, WBO interim and obviously the WBO full world title is Emmanuel Navarrete, which he's already lost to.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: So I'm not too sure. Do you think they're going to go down that route again, you know, Mexican versus Mexican, you know, a big war or.
Speaker A: Yeah, I could see it. I could see it. Like, the thing is, even though Valdez lost that, fight, like, he would still put up a competitive fight. I think he, he would be the underdog. But Valdez obviously has the heart to pull out a win. Look at when he fought, during the pandemic.
Valdez wants rematch with Burchell after losing first fight
who did he fight where he knocked him out? It was in the bubble in Las Vegas.
Speaker B: Adam Lopez.
Speaker A: No, no, no. This guy was a champion. Oh, wow. I feel like we haven't seen him ever since that loss. Valdez knocked him out, like backing up on his back foot. Valdez was backing up and then caught him as he was coming in.
Speaker B: So Valdez, during the pandemic, fought Scott Quigg, Carmen Thomason, Jason Sanchez, Adam Lopez, Jason Velez, Miguel Belchell, Burchell.
Speaker A: Burchell. Yeah, Burchell. That's the one. yeah, see, because we haven't heard, we haven't really heard about Burchell. I'm sure he's fought, but, you know, he obviously lot of lost a lot of steam from that fight. you think they would run that fight right back, him and Burchell maybe.
Speaker B: Because I'm looking at the super featherweight division and there isn't too many names that jump out with you. You know, Valdez is coming to probably towards the end of his career. So you think he'd be looking for big fights, big paydays. And if you look at the champions that they have in there, you've got IBF, Joe Cardina, WBA, Lamont Roach, WBC. Oshaki Foster.
Speaker A: Oh, I can see Foster.
Speaker B: And then obviously you've got the WBO, which is, you know, Navarrete. So biggest payday for that, would you think? What Oshaki maybe, or Joe Cardina, if he's willing to fly over to the UK.
Speaker A: Is Lamont Roach, is he under because he was with a golden boy for a long time. But who's Lamont Roach with now?
Speaker B: I think he did. Did he go PBC?
Speaker A: Is it PBC? Okay, so if he's PBC, we don't, I was probably not likely that he'll go across the street, but.
Speaker B: Not many big names.
Speaker A: No. Right, right. I mean, you would think arguably Valdez is probably the most money maker name in that division, right?
Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A: So in a way, he kind of probably has the negotiation power. You know, if he, if other featherweights get offered a fight with Valdez, I would think they would reasonably consider it. Right. Because Valdez, based on name recognition, is probably the moneymaker at the featherweight division. I mean, I don't see what, I don't see who else, right.
Speaker B: Or, do you risk it, go up a weight fight? Tank Gervonta?
Speaker A: Well, you know what? I could. No, no. Because I don't think Davis can make 135 anymore. Yeah, I don't think Davis can make 135 anymore. Yeah.
Speaker B: It's an interesting one. It's an interesting one to see what they're going to do with him. Because normally there's an obvious opponent, isn't there? There's normally like some narrative, some type of payday, some type of belt, something that's kind of blaring the obvious, that where they're going to go. But I really don't see it with Valdez because he's already fought Navarrete.
Speaker A: Yeah, but I can see them running it back because it's two mexican fighters and it was, you know, and it'll sell, it'll sell as a rematch. You know, like, hey, they'll sell it. They'll market it like, hey, Valdez lost the first fight, but Valdez came back and won three in a row or whatever and then got another, got a title or an interim belt. And now he wants to rematch to avenge that loss because it was,
Speaker B: It was on points, unanimous decision, the first.
Speaker A: Right, right. I could see, I mean, I could see top rank trying to run that back, you know. And in Arizona, they obviously seems like they found, like a nice little home right there in the, in Arizona. I mean, money wise, I think that's for top rank in that division. I think that's their money fight. Again, there's a rematch between those two.
Speaker B: I know. In Navarretti's next fight, May 18, he's fighting Denis Barentsek. And that's for the vacant WBO lightweight world champion. So is Navaretta moving up?
Speaker A: Oh, it could be. Could be. Yeah, it could be. I mean, maybe, maybe they're, that, maybe that top Rank knows that. So they're positioning Valdez to, okay, now Verretta is going to move up and Valdez is obviously still at, featherweight or super featherweight and he just slides into that position. So they still have a hold on the position with the titles. Right?
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: Interesting. Oh, yeah, I can see that. I can see that. I mean, Valdez obviously, you know, he looked pretty emotional in the post fight interview and he, you know, he says he still has it and he still wants to go. yeah, I think, like we keep repeating he's the moneymaker in that division. So if they offer anybody a fight, I think it's a better chance than anything that he will get it. It's a better chance like 60 40%, you know, obviously there's promotional politics and all that, but. Yeah.
Where does Liam Wilson go from here after losing to Valdez
Do you think, do you think, what about Liam Wilson? Where does he go from here?
Speaker B: Mini. I think in his last couple of performances, you know, even though they were losses, he performed well. So sometimes, you know, you get another shot on these big cards because, you know, he fought Navarette, lost on points. and then obviously he fought Valdez, you know, did, pretty well in that performance as well. So it's, you know, I don't think it's too bad for him.
Speaker A: You know, he can go, no, yeah, I think he'll be back. Like, can't count him out.
Speaker B: I think going over there, going back to Australia, I think he'll get the big fights. I think because he's been on that world stage, you know, he can say, you know, I faced Valdez for a championship, I faced Navarretta for a championship, lost both of them by tko. But, you know, you can still put on there, you know, two time world title challenger. And I'm sure he can probably go back over to Australia and make some, you know, good money that way.
Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And then Valdez said, said after the fight, he, said, quote, guess I'm not finished. Guess I'm not finished. Because I think he probably read and saw and heard in media, about like, hey, you know, is he kind of at the end of his rope? You know, it's, he has a lot of mileage on there. I mean, we talked about that. We touched real, we touched on those topics. And, then he also said, quote, I want to be an example in boxing. You might lose. You might lose in life, you might, you, might lose. this is, I'm trying to read it because I know it's a. I, thought that was supposed to be win, but it's not. It says, it says, I want to be an example in boxing, you might lose. In life you might lose. But it's an obligation to come back stronger. If I fall on the canvas, I'm going to get up and continue my path and my dream. That means anybody can do it. So obviously, unquote, obviously he's, you know, he's got that, that confidence back. It seems like it's kind of ignited in him again. and I'm sure it doesn't hurt that Reynoso and Canelo are on his team. And I'm sure they've given him a words of encouragement like, hey, man, look, you know, you could take losses and still be the best fighter in the world, you know, so let's show them that we're, we still got it. So, yeah, six years being with that camps in 2018. You got to give it to him. And like, he's, he's learning from a lot. He's learning from a lot.
Sinister Strada remains undefeated with unanimous decision win over Costa Valle
And I also on this card in the co main event, probably the fight that, we all looked forward to, or one of them at least. Sinister Strada, former golden boy fighter now turned to top rank, remains undefeated at 26 and zero with a ten round unanimous decision win over your Costa Valle, who takes the third loss of his career. Estrada won by scores of 97.93. On all three scores scorecards, Estrada is now the undisputed minimum weight champion of the world. we all picked Estrada last week, but I think we were intrigued by the matchup. Valla did, have some moments in the fight. And, from the crowd in there, you know, I guess that the decision was booed, but there was a big via crowd. But there was also some people were there for estrada. and we, you know, we've been to many, many fights in person. And if you haven't been to fights, it's a little, it's a lot more difficult to see and judge a fight while you're there in person than it is to be watching on tv with all those intimate camera angles. So, you know, if you're there on purpose and you hear the crowd cheering or booing after each punch or whatever, you're gonna kind of buy into the adrenaline of the enter, and the energy of the crowd. that just, it's natural. but Estrada did pull it out. But I thought it. I thought it was a fun fight. That was a fun fight. They both had two belts apiece. I could see them rematching. I don't know. I don't know if it's gonna happen immediately, but I could see them rematching. I think Estrada is still the. The favorite. The favorite. But, you know, what else do they have? Like, what other options do they have? You know, have via go and get another solid two wins, under her belt to kind of get back in contention, and then you rematch it maybe next year. What'd you think about the fight then?
Speaker B: The fight was. Was okay. It's. It's kind of. I say the same thing every time. The problem. You do.
Speaker A: You do. I know where you're going. I know where you're going. But, like, it's just story. It's the story surrounding it. Like I mentioned last week, it's the story surrounding this fight. The promotional teams, you know, one against the other, and they were, you know, Estrada was on one team or the other, and now she's switching. That's what made everything intriguing. because if this was just a regular fight and, you know, Valle wasn't really known, then it'd be just another fight, right?
Speaker B: Yeah, 100%. It was good that it had that build up. And then also the. I didn't really realize that Valle's coach used to kind of be part of Estrada's team.
Speaker A: Yeah, I didn't know that until that night.
Speaker B: Yeah, I didn't realize that until I was watching the build up. Like, the day before, I was watching some stuff on YouTube, and I didn't realize that. So that kind of made it a little bit edgier as well. And then Estrada kind of being, very edgy in the interviews, you know, didn't want to shake hands, you know, kind of completely blowing her off and ignoring her. But then, you know, it's the same sorts of thing. I complain every time about the women's fights is no knockdowns again, you know, no knockout. Every single big fight. Every single big fight goes to points, you know, Taylor Serrano, Taylor Cameron, both of those fights.
Speaker A: But, like, you're right. You're right. And we've touched on this a thousand times, and I'm sure people are pissed off at us for always touching on it. especially the people who are big, big fans of female boxing. but it's the female fights that are become marketable, and you get a little bit more invested in are the ones with an external story that are attached to it. Taylor Serrano, Madison Square Garden. Jake Paul involved the environment that it was enclosed in and marketed, and Madison Square Garden sold out and all that. People bought into that story and they got so much publicity. So there was no knockdowns. You're right. There was no knockdowns, no kos. It was a decision. You know, it was a fun fight, but, like, it was also the energy of the crowd there, the energy of the event, it elevated it. Because you're right. Like I said, if this, if it was just another standard fight, you know, in a main event in the UK or over here, over here in the United States, you know, it would have been probably a, fun fight, but the energy wouldn't have been there, you know, same thing with this one. The external forces around it elevated it. But there was no knockdowns. There was no kos, like you said.
Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's just a major thing for me because I just find it funny how, like, a lot of other podcasts or boxing media, like, they'll talk about the Wilder fight and then they'll say, oh, you know, we love Wilder, because at any minute, you can knock people out, but yet they'll then turn around when they talk about women's fight and go, oh, it was an amazing fight. And, you know, but then they forget what they've just said about, you know, wilder and all the heavyweights, like, oh, you know, this is the reason we love boxing. It's gladiatorial. The blood, the guts, you know, climbing off the canvas. But then they'll talk about a women's fight and be like, oh, it was amazing. Just because they don't want to be honest and talk, like, the truth about women's fights, you know, it's no.
Speaker A: Right, right.
Speaker B: It's true.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: You know, after like, five or six rounds, you're kind of like, okay, Estrada's got this. There's going to be no knockdowns, nothing. There's going to be no knockouts. You end up just, like, turning off because, you know, you can kind of half watch it, half playing your phone because, you know, you're not going to miss a huge right hand land and knock someone clean out because it just doesn't happen. It only happens when a strider's fighting some random chick that used to fight at a fairground or something like that. Or, you know, someone who's just been dragged out of an Uber, who's an Uber driver and stuff like that. That's the only time you get knockouts. Even people like shields doesn't get knockouts. right. And it's just, they keep putting it on and pushing it, but it's, it's, it's not that great to watch. I've been honest. You know, I like watching the strata because she has that Roy Jones style. But I still know at the back of my mind, this is going ten rounds every single.
Female boxing needs stories to get publicized and to get marketed, you know
Speaker A: No. Right. No, you're right. Yeah. And I mean, that's just the nature. Nature of female boxing. You know, it's. We have to. The ones people get invested in are the ones with the stories around it even. I mean, any fight, any fight, when there's a story around it, people get invested. That's for any fight. Male, female, it's the same thing. But female boxing has shown to need that for people to get invested and to get publicized and to get marketed, you know? I mean, even, like, going back to the Taylor Serrano example, even Eddie Hearn said, he was like, yeah, he said, we've been trying to make this fight for a long time, but we just couldn't make it because it wasn't financially viable. And then he said, but when Jake Paul got involved, it elevated the. It elevated the fight. And then they were able to make it because Jake Paul got involved. So, I mean, that, that tells you. He's telling you a lot. Eddie Hearn, with those words, is telling you a lot by saying that, like, he's saying, like, the fight wasn't worth it business wise, to just make it like it was. It was, you know, to headline a card, to put it on undercard. It just wasn't financially viable. But then this guy gets involved who has a huge platform, and the business makes sense because more money was attracted. I mean, that's. That's a big statement to say, but it's true. It's true. You know, so, I mean, going back to Estrada Valle, like I said, where else could they really go, you know? Especially Estrada now being undisputed. You know, she's really done her thing ever since turning pro, throughout. Throughout her golden boy run. And then now being with top rank, you know, I mean, she's obviously the best. I don't think it's disputable that she's the best fighter in those lower weight classes for the female divisions. but I think she's the best fighter by a mile, you know. so you put via, golden boy puts via, and maybe two, three more fights to kind of get wins under her belt. maybe moves her up. Maybe Estrada moves up and then they meet again in like a year, year and a half, you know, I mean, what else, what else are you going to do?
Speaker B: Nothing that sells. You know, she could go back up the strata, that is, go back up to 108 fight, you know, people like nary or Bermudez. But I'm sure that half the people listening when I said those names had no idea who they were, you know.
Speaker A: You'Re talking about Lewis nary, right, exactly.
Speaker B: That'd be interesting.
Speaker A: Right?
Speaker B: And then, you know, where she could do like you say, you could turn around and do Vaye now, you know, the interview afterwards by Vaya and her coach, Gloria kind of sold the second fight even more straight away that, you know, they were jumping on, talking smack, arguing with. I, can't remember. Was it Cregel was doing the interviews in the ring?
Speaker A: I think it was Mark Creagle.
Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I agree with him about the, about the ESPN. Turn around and do it again. Now, like you said, there really isn't anywhere else to go. And it was no.
Speaker A: Right. But, like, it was pretty close.
Speaker B: And I think the crowd thought via had won, or maybe they just didn't like Estrada's interviews, you know, one or the other because she was getting booed when they were putting the, the belts around her and she was getting interviewed.
Speaker A: Do you, do you agree with the 97, 93 scores?
Speaker B: It was pretty close to industry.
Speaker A: Like, well, that's what I'm saying. Like, it was a lot closer. Like, I think via really, I think by, I think Estrada won to me. I think she did. And she was a favorite. But I think via did, like, put up a fight, like, in terms of female to female boxing. Like, I think via did put up a fight, and she kind of rose to the occasion as much as she could. That's what I'm saying. Like, if she got blown out ten rounds to zero, like, do you really want to see a rematch, like, in the next year? Like, now, give us a couple years and maybe again. But do you, do you agree with the 97 93?
Speaker B: Yeah, I thought it. I would have. I wouldn't have complained. a 96 94. I thought it was pretty close. I just thought Estrada probably had, she kind of mixed the styles up a little bit. Sometimes she'd stand in the pocket, and then other times, you know, towards the end, she would kind of come down and go under a lot of viet punches and go to the body a lot, invested quite a lot of, time.
Speaker A: She got clipped a couple, couple times too.
Speaker B: Yeah, and she got, she got. She did get clipped. A couple of nice shots by via. It just wasn't enough. I would have liked to have seen via his output a little bit more. You know, Estrada kept kind of like catching her as she was coming in.
Speaker A: Right.
Speaker B: I think Estrada just had more game plans. It looks like she had an a b and a c where via didn't just look.
Speaker A: Yeah, no, Estrada is like, he's good. She's got high iq. Yeah, she does. She does. Like, that's why it's hard to beat her. She's got a high iq.
Estrada and Valle were separated in terms of punches landed
badlefthook.com for as much, as the boxing media landscape has been changing, however much confidence, you want to put in their score, whoever scored it scored at 95 to 95. so some people saw it pretty, you know, even, but I did. I think it's safe to say that me and you did agree that Estrada did win. You know, even if it was a closer fight, I think estrada did, did win. You know, I don't think there's dispute in that, right? No.
Speaker B: I thought Estrada probably took, I think, some of the rounds that Estrada won. She run convincingly where, now and again, Valle would win around, but they were still kind of close because it was back and forth, back and forth in the pocket, kind of slug them out type of style, where Estrada at times, she would just convincingly win around, which you could essentially, if it was like MMA, it would have been a ten eight. But obviously very rare. Do you see that in boxing? And obviously you need a knockdown. So, yeah, I thought it was. I think the right person won. But to me, like you said, not really anywhere else to go because of the lack of depth and, you know, characters and, you know, big purses in women's boxing, just turn around and do it again.
Speaker A: Right, right. And if you look at the compubox statistics for this fight, for people who probably didn't watch the fight and they look at the compubox and they said, oh, my God, that was a close fight. This is. These are the numbers here. Estrada landed 102 of, 412 total punches, which is 25%. Valles landed 99 of 435, which is 23%. So they were literally separated in terms of punches landed, between four punches. Power punches. If you break it down to power punches, Estrada landed 86 of 259 for 33%. Valla landed 85 of 267 for 32%. So if you look at the stats, it was a close fight. It was a close fight. I think it was a tough fight. It was, I think, via really, you know, I thought Estrada, I think, like we talked about last week with Abraham Gonzalez as, our guest, I thought Estrada was going to be a little bit more dominant because of her iq. But, you know, was it. Let me ask you this. Was it, even though Breastrada got the win, was it more that Estrada let her guard down or the confidence was just cockiness and she thought, oh, I'm the better one? And she kind of, you know, the preparation wasn't as sharp as it should have been because she took valle for granted? Or was it just a via is better than we think? I mean, obviously she's good for that division and that female side of the boxing side, but I mean, which one do you think? Do you think Estrada took her for granted and maybe that's why it was closer? Or do you think Valle is better than people think in terms of being compared to Estrada?
Speaker B: It's a good question. Kind of like a combination of, you know, Estrada maybe took rounds off because she was doing, you know, so well in certain rounds and would kind of get caught.
Speaker A: She was doing like the bull matador thing, too. She was like trying to taunt her.
Speaker B: Yeah. You know, especially there was certain rounds where she would do that. And then, if she would have.
Speaker A: Got, like, clipped with that, like, what if it's crazy?
Speaker B: Because obviously, it's hard to tell because, you know, we're not, we're not a straddle. But sometimes maybe she was just getting drawn into the pocket by via. But then also, you know, like you touched on, there was a lot of bad blood going in there. So maybe at times Estrada was like, you know what? Like, you've got like one of my coaches, you, you know, you've taken that spot of golden boy. Maybe she wanted to throw down. You know, maybe she wanted to try and knock her out or knock her down or something like that. So it's kind of hard to really say. So it's, you know, it could be a combination of, you know, many things. And then also, I think Valle probably did prove to a lot of us that she's better than we thought because she'd never really been in there with someone as good as Estrada are.
Speaker A: I think Valle. And tell me if you agree with this or not. I think Vallad at this point, because obviously they were the two best fighters in that division, in those lower divisions, and they fought for undisputed. But I think a lot of people always, you know, boxing fans knew, like, okay, Estrada, like, even though they're both fighting. Estrada is the better fighter. She's the number one fighter, you know, obviously, unless she lost and switches. But I think Valle really solidified herself as a number two fighter in those lower, lower divisions like that in the female boxing side. and because like we talked about earlier, like I mentioned, Estrada is the best fighter in those lower divisions by a mile with the iq. But I think Valla really solidified herself as the second best fighter in those lower divisions by a mile to the, to the opponents and the fighters behind her. Does that make sense?
Speaker B: Yeah, no, I get.
Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, like, all we can see is a rematch, right?
Speaker B: Yeah, I think we've, we've touched on it.
Speaker A: Right.
Speaker B: You know, there's not many names, paydays, there's nowhere to really go. And, like, with the bad blood.
Speaker A: And I think that they should put it in LA.
Speaker B: I think Valle's team kind of killed it, in my opinion, afterwards by doing that in ring interview and still being kind of spiteful and kind of saying that, like, the wrong person won and arguing with Mark Cregel.
Speaker A: I mean, it was, I mean, do you think that, if you were on her team, especially as close as the stats were, and, you know, when you're there and you're just like, hey, she's landing like it's a close fight. I mean, it is close. They were both clipping each other, you know, and you're in the moment, you're, you're, emotional and the adrenaline's going again. If you lose a decision, even if it was a 97, 93 or whatever, you know, would you, as, part of her team, especially with as much, you know, banter and crap that Estrada was talking, would you in the post fight interview say something too, like, hey, you know, we felt we won. Like.
Speaker B: It'S kind of hard because, you know, that kind of sold a rematch straight away, like WWE style. But then, you know, do you want to just be more professional and be the bigger person and just turn around and be kind of like, you know, the best man won, like, respectful to.
Speaker A: Him, but I think for female boxing, they need to sell it.
Speaker B: No, exactly, exactly. But then you've got that WWE type of thing where you're kind of like, okay, we've lost. I've already kind of guaranteed my next fight by doing that or calling out somebody else.
Speaker A: Right.
Speaker B: You've got that narrative, like you just said, like, fights are bigger, and better when they have that type of narrative.
Speaker A: Yeah, the story.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: So, yeah, either way. Yeah, I see them running it back. Not this year, probably next year, but, yeah, there's not too many, too many options there.
Sebastian Fundura defeated Tim Zhu on Saturday in Las Vegas
moving on. Also this past Saturday, the 30 march. Actually, this is the Saturday. The other fight was on Friday, I believe, in Arizona. This is on Saturday, the 30 march from the T Mobile arena in Las Vegas. The inaugural edition of Amazon prime pay per view with PBC. Sebastian Fundura, who was a. A little less than two week replacement for Keith one time Thurman, who got injured, gets the surprising. I don't know if you want to call it surprising because he is a tough out. A, split decision win over Tim Zhu, who takes the first loss of his career in Las Vegas. Sebastian Fundura is now the unified WBO and WBC super welterweight champion of the world. Fundura won by scores of 116, 112, 115 113. and 112 116. That was towards zoo. there was a. They were both. It was one of those bloodiest, maybe the bloodiest fight of the year. So at, this point, they could. Has a pretty good shot to win. Bloodiest fight of the year. Zhu, was cut on top of his head from an elbow from, Fundora early in the fight that I would think, at least in my eyes. And you tell me what you think really affected the fight. kazoo. Zoo was doing well. I think he did well regardless. But it was a bloody fight, and they really, really fought it out. but Fundora pulled out the win. what did you think about the fight? I kind of.
Speaker B: If you go back two weeks, I remember when they made this fight and we spoke about on here, I picked Fundara. And then in the week, building up to the fight, I watched YouTube videos and all this type of stuff, listening to different podcasts, and I changed my opinion. I went for zoo. I kept thinking that, you know, what?
Speaker A: it's because the activity.
Speaker B: Yeah. And then he was just listening to certain things, and I kind of started to think that, you know, Fundara's defensive flaws. And then I kept saying that, like, you know, his long levers. Tim Zhu's gonna punch when he punches and he's gonna have shorter, connection, when he's going to catch him with a hook. Pretty much the prime example, like a copy and paste of the Mendoza, you know, when Mendoza knocked out Fundara. But, yeah, you know, I should have kind of stuck with my first, pick and gone for Fundara, unfortunately, yeah, I think you're going to have to go down the route of the cut on his head was, you know, huge. And it looked like, obviously, it was affecting him constantly, not being able to see.
Speaker A: And then just had his nose broken, too, right?
Speaker B: Yeah, Fundara had his nose broken. And then, Fundara, I thought, just very disciplined, just kept on that jab. I thought his defense looked a little bit better. It looked like, you know, when he was throwing stuff as quick as he could, he would try to get back his hands back up to protect him. You, know, obviously, the flaw that cost him the fight against Mendoza because I was ringside for that. And Fundora was pretty much coasting that. Sorry. Yeah, Fundora was coasting that until he got caught. I think for some reason, it doesn't look like they're going to run it back. He keeps saying that it looks like that they're going to maybe go down the Crawford route. I know the WBO today, we reposted it on Twitter, or x, as it's now called, that they've pretty much started negotiations for that. Unless, Fundora decides to relinquish the WBO. It's an interesting one. That division is kind of on, fire right now. So it's going to be interesting to see what PBC do. Who do they have more stock in, essentially, is what. Right.
Fundora Spence wants Errol Spence to fight Terrence Crawford
Speaker A: So let me, let me, let me pose some questions to you for that situation. Obviously, Aero Spence was at this fight. It's the first time he's kind of been, you know, voluntarily seen in public since Crawford, I believe so. And he showed up to the fight. Fundora wins. I think it was always a plan for Spence to get in the, in the ring, to, to go face to face with the winner or be a part of the interview. And Spence says, I, yeah, he's like, I want to fight. Then him and Fundora take a picture together. If, even if it was zoo, it would have been the same thing. And they asked Fundora about the fight with Spence, and he's like, yeah, yeah. He's like, why not? Why not? And then in the post fight, in the post fight press conference, after all the fans left, just, you know, press there and his team and talking to him, giving him questions. They asked Fundora about that and then also about Crawford, because it's like, hey, you, you want to face the guy that lost to the guy who you should be fighting? And, I mean, you got to give the kid credit. He's a, he's a very respectful guy. he seems like he's a very good interview. He's very intelligent, and, he said he's like, oh, you know, it'd be, it'd be an honor to fight Errol Spence. He said that'd be a great matchup. I think he said a match made in heaven. So he was pretty much given a lot of credit to Spence. He was like, but Terrence Crawford is the best fighter in the world. He's like, and I want to fight him. So I thought that was very interesting because obviously Fundora is a PBC fighter. I mean, at the end of the day, it's business, right? Like, Heyman has Spence probably on a long term advisement deal, so that's his guy. Crawford is not his guy. He tried to make him his guy for multiple fights and it just didn't work. Spence is his guy, so he's trying to take care of his guy because that's who he's like, hey, this guy's going to stick with me. I'm going to get more money out of him. That's why they threw Spence in there, to try to get the narrative going to get Fundora Spence, you know, and get Spence a title shot at 154, even though he came off a loss. and then Fundora comes and says, no, I want to fight Crawford. How much pool do you think these fighters? Because these could, these boxing contracts, like, unless you're like Canelo or these big stars with a lot of, a lot of pool and you're in, you know, where you can force the decision. A lot of these contracts that these promoters have with these fighters are, have more strength and power to the promoter in terms of fight, saying like, hey, if you're not going to fight this guy, then, you know, you're not going to fight, you know, you're just going to sit on the sidelines, you know, even though Fundora said in the post fight, I'd rather fight Crawford. He's the best fighter in the world. What is the likelihood that that actually happens with PBC and Al Heyman letting that happen?
Speaker B: Probably very remote due to the fact that Crawford is a promotional free agent, I believe, because unfortunately, like you touched on, if you look at, they.
Speaker A: Don'T want that belt to go outside of PBc to Crawford, who's going to be like a Canelo free agent to whoever pays the most money to him.
Speaker B: Right. You know, because if you look at this fight, you know, Fundara goes into it off a loss. He just got knocked out by Brian Mendoza. Then he comes due to Thurman m getting injured. He walks in off a loss, fights for two world championships wins, and then what he's supposed to then fight Errol Spence, who just got convincingly outclassed by Terrence Crawford. But like you said, it's the PBC, you know, the contracts, and they pretty much decide what happens. They.
Speaker A: I mean, it's business, right? Like, I think golden boy are top ranking. Those guys would all do the same, right?
Speaker B: Yeah, but, I don't know if a lot of them do as many people coming off losses, getting into a world championship.
Speaker A: No, no, I'm talking about. I'm talking about, like, putting Spence in the ring to get a title shot. Like, when the guy that beat Spence should be the guy who gets that shot. You know, you're going to put in your guy who's under. Who you have under contract on your stable. That's what I'm saying. It's business like, yeah, you know, these.
Speaker B: Things just do it more than the rest. They. Maybe they have just a bigger stable or bigger stars, and we notice it more, maybe. because if you look at another one on this card that was kind of kept in house, Rolly. Rolly had the chance to fight Ryan, and I'm sure the payday.
Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I will obviously touch on that. but you're right. That's also a tie in into this, too. It's the same thing.
Speaker B: Yeah, that cost him a fortune, I assume.
Speaker A: Yeah, we would think. Right. but I give credit to Fundora for saying, you know, staying diplomatic and stuff, but even I was surprised he even said that in the. In the post fight, saying, like, you know, it'd be an honor to fight Spence, but Terrence Crawford is the best fighter in the world. I want to fight him. Like, I gave him a lot of credit for that. you know, but I don't really expect him to fight Crawford next. I think. I expect. I expect him to fight Spence first because of Al Heyman, you know, it's a business they just did. You know, this is their inaugural event with Amazon. You know, they want to try to keep their stars, you know, under their stables so Amazon can be happy, so they can sustain their partnership with the broadcast. Right. You know, because if they give Crawford a one fight deal to fight Fundora on the next Amazon or one of the next Amazon events, and Crawford beats Fundora, he takes those titles, and then he's like, okay. I was like, who's gonna, Who's gonna. Who's gonna bet for my next services? The zone, ESPN? And they're all gonna try to negotiate with him, you know, so. And then Amazon's gonna be like, hey, what the heck? Like, what happened to that guy? I thought he was on our team. You know, we want these guys on our broadcast. That's, that's the nature of the game. That's the nature of the game. So I don't expect Fundora to fight Crawford, not any, anytime soon.
Al Heyman will convince Fundura to fight Spence at 154
I think Al Heyman will convince Fundura to fight Spence, at 154. I think that will happen.
Speaker B: he'll drop the WBO.
Speaker A: Possible. It's possible, yeah. Yeah. I mean, obviously, the president of the WBO, Paco, I think within the, within 24 hours, 48 hours, he ordered negotiations, to start between Crawford and Fundora. But obviously WBO has a closer partnership with top rank. I think that everybody knows that. so, you know, it, it kind of forces their hand. Like, hey, if you don't start negotiating with this fighter, you're going to get stripped and then top rank, then top rank probably gets the belt, you know, to go to their side. but honestly, I could totally see that. I could totally see, Al Heyman talking to Fundora is like, hey, don't worry about it. You're still going to be a champion. You know, just vacate the WBO. You're still going to have the WBC, which is the most prestigious one out of the group. He's like, and then you and Spence go at it, you know, and then let, let Crawford fight for the vacant WBO against somebody. And then Spence, Spence and Crawford fight again at 154 later on. That's what I think people think is going to happen, right?
Speaker B: Yeah. From, from what we've seen, it looks like they'll probably end up dropping, you know, the one fifth the 154 WBO title. Crawford will step up and fight somebody. Fundora will go down the different path and probably fight Spence, like you said. Unfortunately, we won't get to see the fight.
Speaker A: That and Fundura should rematch Zhu, honestly. Yeah.
Speaker B: That's strange how that doesn't seem to be really. Everyone's kind of forgotten that. And especially, like you said, you know, due to the elbow causing that huge gash, Crawford seems to have stolen the limelight, really, about him stepping up to 154 and potentially fighting for the title. And obviously that would be three weight world champion, you know, but, you know.
Speaker A: But you know what it is, though, is that zoo is, is big in Australia. Like, he's built up a name and he's been fighting in America. Like, he's really been very, very active and really tried to fight. Like, if you got to give him a ton of credit. But Zoo is still not known in the United States. His fan base is in Australia. Spence and Crawford are known in the United States. Like, they have the stock. So the money wise, business wise, Spence and Crawford, like, it doesn't surprise me that Crawford, now Spence, are getting the limelight over zoo. obviously, if zoo won, he has a momentum and then, you know, and there's a lot of money, obviously, in Australia. That's why Zeus fights a lot in Australia and a lot of tv rights over there and stuff. but, yeah, business wise, he's. He doesn't have the stock in the US market like Crawford and Spence do. So that, that's why that's happening. But he should get a rematch. Obviously, it's going to take some time for him to heal, you know, and to heal from all that, all those blows and then the cut and stuff like that. So I don't expect to see zoo until maybe the last quarter of this year. I I don't. I don't expect to see him because yet, you know, he has to recover. It was a bloody fight, but. And Fundora, he had a broken nose. Like, who knows when he comes back. but they should rematch. Fundora might fight. They. I feel like PBC is going to give Fundura another fight. They're going to try to make the Spence fight, maybe next year. which is. Sucks to say. It's like, oh, man. But, you know, Fundor did have his broken nose and it was a bloody fight, so I don't expect to see those two to fight by the end of the year. I honestly don't. I mean, do you agree with this? I don't expect Fundora or zoo to return before the end of the year. Actually.
Speaker B: M maybe Fundara because of the Amazon deal. That fight was so bloody and kind of crazy. You think that maybe they'd want to get him back out because he was kind of the opening main event on the new Amazon.
Speaker A: What if you do zoo? Thurman? That was the original fight, right?
Speaker B: Yeah, you could do, you know, it's just, you know, what's Thurman got left and is he gonna be able to get through a camp? You know, he's kind of been out in the wilderness for some time. You know, is his body gonna keep breaking down? You know, is it just gonna be one last payday for him? He kind of just scrapes through camp knowing that he's only 60% and then gets in there and zoo just smokes him.
Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Either way, this was an entertaining fight, but I. Zoo definitely deserves a rematch. you know, he just has to recover. But, yeah, I think, if you think about it, I think Al Heyman, PBC. Do you think they preferred Fundora to get the win? Because obviously Fundura is based in the United States, zoos and Australia. they probably get a bigger cut from Fundora fighting, and they can build Fundora in the United States where they've been trying to build zoo. But, you know, he's obviously got a bigger, obviously because of his dad and, you know, he's. He's been trying, like, zoo has been active, you know, really doing it the old school way. But, like, who do you really think that Al Heyman wanted to win business wise?
Speaker B: I think maybe Fundora, because if you go back, they were pushing him a lot beforehand.
Speaker A: Oh, yeah, until he lost.
Speaker B: Yeah, until he lost. Like, he was quite active. He had those cut. Was it. Was it Lubin or he had that unbelievable Ericsson.
Lubin: It was an entertaining main event there
Speaker A: Lubin.
Speaker B: Yeah, like another bloody fight. so, yeah, they were back at him a lot then. You know, he seemed to be getting, you know.
Speaker A: You know, he's a great tv fighter. That's what it is.
Speaker B: Yeah, he is. Because for someone that tall, he doesn't fight tall. He likes to fight on the inside.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: Then he didn't. Tends to be in wars quite a lot. So.
Speaker A: Yeah, and it's crazy because. It's crazy to watch because he's so much bigger. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker B: So, yeah, I think maybe. Maybe for Dora, but kind of like, like you said, I think, you know, obviously, I don't know much type of tv deal you have over in Australia, but in terms of they.
Speaker A: I've. I've read and I've heard that, you know, they make some good money out there, you know, and that zoo, and I think. What is it? Is it called no limit promotions or something like that? that they had control of the australian tv deal, that there was no Amazon or PBC partnership. I mean, maybe they got a cut. But I think I was hearing that zoo and no limit promotions and their team had, control of the tv down in Australia. So, you know, there's obviously big money down there. It works for them, so. But, yeah, either way, it was. It was an entertaining main event there. and hopefully we, see these guys back soon and recruit, recover well on the co main event. Sir.
Boa Chuck beat Brian Mendoza by unanimous decision for interim title
Hey, Boa Chuck gets the 24th win of his career with a twelve round unanimous decision win over Brian Mendoza, who we talked about a few minutes ago, who, upset fundor last year. Bochuk gets the win by scores of 118 110 and 117 111 twice. This was for the WBC interim super welterweight title. It's for the interim, but the full title was just won in the main event. So, I mean, it's weird, man. And they give these guys, like, the title, then they're holding him, and then casual fans are just like, oh, that guy's a world champion. So he's technically fighting for the number one contender spot. what do you think about this fight?
Speaker B: Good fight. I thought, you know, simply borrowchook just outworked him, just super fit, just kept throwing, and you could just see that Mendoza just couldn't really live with him. but, like, you touched on, you know, why do you need an interim when the full title's on the same, the same card? You know, essentially, the interims were brought out when, you know, somebody was injured for a long period of time and, they wanted the belt to still be kind of moved around because of somebody's injuries. Instead of stripping them through no fault of their own, an injury, you would normally do an interim title, and then obviously, when that person returned, they would fight each other, and that would get rid of the interim, and obviously, you would just have one champion again. So kind of bizarre that they're doing that, but they get their 3% on every fight, right? So I'm sure that's why we, ah, does sir.
Speaker A: Hey, Bochuk. And he's a Tom Loffler 360 promotions guy, too. So I'm sure PBC and Alex Hamer just like, man, m this guy beat our guy. I think Tom Loeffler is going to try very hard to try to, like, push boa chuck. Like, hey, he won. He's the mandatory, you know, like, that's. I think Spence and Crawford, Crawford especially, is going to have, obviously, a lot of negotiation power to be first in line. But what is a, Tom Lothar going to try to do with Bochuk? Yeah, realistically.
Speaker B: You can well, kind of got to fight Fundara, right. But then so is Crawford. So you've got.
Speaker A: Oh, yeah. I mean, I think Boczek, I think, I think everybody knows he's going to. He would take a backseat to Crawford. He probably takes a backseat to Spence, too, unfortunately.
Speaker B: Yeah, that's, that's just how it is. It's a popularity contest, isn't it?
Speaker A: So you've got.
Speaker B: I mean, if I was him, because he hasn't got that name recognition, I would maybe wait it out. But just in terms of the financial gain of fighting someone like a Fundara fighting for the full world championship, because you've got that chance of getting in there with somebody else and, you know, staying active, which, which is good, but what happens if you slip up and then there goes your chance to fight for a world championship, you know?
Speaker A: Right.
Speaker B: How often does that come around for somebody with a small promoter or smaller promoter like Tom Loeffler? So sometimes it's better just to kind of, like, wait your turn and then just, hope that, you know, sooner rather than later, the WBC do the right thing for once, but actually make him, you know, make fundor, whoever the world champion is at that time, you know, fight him.
Speaker A: Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So it's going to be, it's going to be tough for Tom Loeffler and Boba Chuck, but I'm sure they're going to try to move him around after this big win and see what they could do.
Isaac Cruz wins WBO middleweight title against Michael Zarafa
also on the card, aerosol and Lara, 30, 33 and three, gets the ko in the second round over Michael Zarafa for the WBO middleweight title. Lara still hanging around, man. Still hanging around. And, you know, made it an early night for him to get out of there. What'd you think about his win?
Speaker B: Like you said, he just keeps rolling back the years. Did he, Lara? You know, I think many years ago, I think we thought he was done, but he still manages to do it, even with a, change of style. He definitely sits in the pocket a lot more. Just, you know, his legs aren't what they used to be, so you can't get in and out, in and out. So in a strange way, he's actually probably more exciting to watch because he's not as tricky, and as wiry as he used to be. So he kind of sits there. He's a lot more hittable, but then he also hits them a lot more. Cause he's, always inside the pocket. He's always in range. good stoppage for him. You know, zarafa, you could tell as soon as he hit the floor, you're like, he's not getting back up. He was just kind of on the floor, like, shaking his head like, nah, that's it. I'm done.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: And that was all that she wrote.
Speaker A: Yeah. The middleweight division isn't really as lucrative and, attractive as it was, so it needs to, make a comeback. and also on the card in probably the most, I, guess, talked about fight after the event. It's obviously been the most social media fight in terms of attention, Isaac Cruz. Pitbull Cruz gets the 8th round tk over Roley Romero, who takes a second loss of his career. First loss coming against Gervonta. Tank Davis probably could have been his third loss because a lot of people thought he lost to Barroso. and this was for the WBo. WBA, excuse me, super lightweight title. I know we talked about this fight last week. you know, Romero does have that power, but I think we all picked Cruz, right? What'd you think about the fight?
Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I picked Cruz. I think I actually picked those sorts of rounds as well. I think I said around like seven, eight, nine or something like that. So I think I kind of nailed it, if I remember rightly. But it's been. It's been coming for a long time. You know, Rowley had had, you know, two gifts of a decision to hand him the WBA title twice. So, we all kind of knew that eventually, when he gets in there with somebody half good that he was going to lose. And, Isaac Cruz was the man. And I think quite a lot of people had their money or bet on Cruz was going to beat him. Like, we kind of touched on earlier. It was surprising that they didn't let Rowley cash out against Ryan. But Ryan's a golden boy fighter, you know, and this is an all in house. You know, I really think.
Speaker A: I really think that with that, like, you touched on it when we were talking about the beginning of the event here. And it goes back to contracts, the contracts that these promoters and advisors have with these fighters. You know, obviously, if you don't have the pool as a fighter, like, you could talk about Ryan Garcia in that, you know, how many times since he's been signed professionally with golden boy, he's done it like two or three times where he's on a contract, and then he goes and complains online to get public support, and then he forces. He forces the hand because of the public perception. Cause I think he knows, like, I can't legally change anything unless they approve it. So he goes online to say something and complain and create a narrative in support of him, which forces bad pr image for golden boy. And then de la Hoya and crew have to give in because they're like, oh, this guy's just making it. Just give him what he wants. I mean, I think with Broly Romero, it's highly likely he was offered more money for, the Ryan Garcia fight. I mean, it seems like that you would think just based on looking at the landscape here, but there is a lot of loyalty to Al Heyman. There is. But, you know, I also, you also got to think that Heyman is a smart guy. You know, he's a lawyer, Harvard educated. He's obviously a very intelligent guy. And people are never going to say it, but I'm sure it says, be like, I'm sure he's like, hey, look, like, if you win, then we'll explore the Ryan fight, but you're going to fight Cruz, you know, and if you're not, then we'll just find somebody else to fight Cruz, you know, and then the WBA is gonna strip you. Like, they're not gonna say, rollie's not gonna say that. You know, like, there's league. These are contracts. You know, these are contracts. Like, I really think that. I'm sure it has, I'm sure it is the law, loyalty to Al Heyman, but at the end of day, it is a business. And, you know, I think when somebody like Heyman, or even these other promoters, Aram, especially Bob Aram, when they have to flex their legal strong arm of that contract, they're gonna do it. They're gonna do it. And, you know, unless it's guys like Spencer, all those other guys who have a little bit more pool without Heyman, then, you know, you're, gonna have to just fall in line or not fight. So, you know, I was never surprised that Broly didn't fight Ryan. I think it was just more like, oh, they're just trying to get publicity, and he's trying to get more out of a, payday against Cruz. I mean, I was never surprised about that. What'd you think?
Speaker B: You know, when the Ryan fight wasn't made straight away, I thought, well, this is going to go too well for him because I thought Cruz would beat him. And I thought, you know, I'm assuming the payday, like you said, if you look at the landscape of what Ryan probably attracts in terms of pay per view numbers and bumps in seats compared to Cruz, I'm sure is probably a lot different. So I'm sure the payday for Cruz and Ryan is probably, like, several times different. so you would have thought that PBC would have turned around to Rowley and said, hey, we're not going to give you the Ryan fight, but we'll give you cruise. And then if you lose that, we'll give you this guy, and these two or three fights will be the same sum you would have got for fighting Ryan. Because if you roll back a few years, when Jerrel Miller popped. They offered the fight to, Louis Ortiz and it, ah, for several million. Eddie saying that, you know, obviously he went to them and, you know, was turned down by PBC. But then the PBC, if you call it a reward, gave him two wilder fights and obviously one, went twelve rounds, I think. And then the other one, m he stopped him. And was that right?
Speaker A: Yeah. And I'm sure he got pretty good paydays out of those two fights.
Speaker B: So I'm assuming that that's maybe what they're going to do to Rowley, because just imagine how pissed you'd be if PB said no, you're just not taking that fight. And you're like, well, right, it's a gladiatorial spot. You know, essentially I fight for money, right? Are you going to reward me in some other way? Because, you know, I want that fight, you know? Yeah, okay.
Speaker A: It happens because, like Eddie says in.
Speaker B: Interviews, and it may just be all talk, right?
There's legal clauses in fighter contracts with promoters and advisors
He works for the fighter, right, as a promoter, right? So, like.
Speaker A: Right, no, that's true. But that, like, we go back to. There's legal clauses in these fighter contracts with promoters and advisors. It's, you know, if you're not. If you don't have the pool of a high profile personality that pulls in money and has displayed the power of drawing power, those clauses, those legal clauses are gonna get you, you know, because you don't have the power. You know, it's just like going into a job interview for the first time and if you don't have any experience, you know how you're gonna say, like, oh, I don't want to get paid. That I want to get paid this. Okay, like, can you justify it, like, and tell us why you feel? Well, I just want to. I just want this fight. Oh, well, you know, there's. That's not sufficient. I mean, it's the same thing, right? I mean, there's. Yeah, I mean, it sounds good, right? Eddie. Eddie saying I work for the fighters. Of that. I mean, technically, yes. Technically, yes. I think he probably gives it a shot. But I think Matrum doesn't have, you know, she also is also a business. And if they have to flex their legal arm of these contracts, they're going to do them. You know, with somebody like Anthony Joshua, I'm sure he could say, yeah, I work. I work for Anthony Joshua because Anthony Joshua has developed himself, along with the help of Eddie Hearn and Matrum, into one of the biggest stars in the sport, you know, a crossover so he has a lot of pool, so he can kind of, I'm sure after subsequent contract negotiations, Joshua started getting more negotiation power and more pull in his contracts where he said, oh, no, no, I have to, I have to prove that or I get final say.
Cruz thanks Al Heyman after Gervonta Davis fight
So did you see that clip, of the post fight interview or not post fight? If you saw the post fight when Cruz was getting interviewed, and Sean Gibbons, who, is a part of the Pacquiao camp, he's, been a part of the pack in for a long time. He's the, he's a so called president of Manny Pacquiao promotions, I think, or he's involved in somehow. I don't know if he still is or not, but he's been involved with Pacquiao for a long time, and he has a lot of fighters, and he kind of runs them. He's always there, and he's been around sport a long time. Seems a very knowledgeable guy. Cruz is doing the post fight interview. Obviously, he's speaking Spanish, you know, and you can see Gibbons going to the side of him and tell him in his ear, I don't know if it, what it said exactly, like, verbatim, but he tells them something along the lines of, oh, don't forget to thank Al Heyman. And then right after that, Cruz thanks Al Heyman. So it's like, I thought that was so funny. I thought it was so funny because people started talking about it online and saying, like, oh, you know, like they were, it kind of made sense, like, oh, you know, these guys really don't actually thank him because they want to thank him. It's in that contract. So that's a legal requirement in that contract to thank Al. Haven't. I thought that was so funny, man. I thought that was so funny that that came up as a topic. Like, oh, yeah, that's what he told, like, oh, hey, don't forget to take out Heyman. We have a legal obligation. I thought that was so funny, man. but I don't think there's a, I don't think there's a clause like that. But imagine how crazy that would be if that came out, that there was a clause in there that says gratitude, and thanks to Al Heyman after every fight.
Speaker B: But it must be some not, maybe not in the contract, but, like, you know, I kind of said after the fight, make sure to, you know, to thank Al, and everyone's just kind of done it. And because he pays so well, the people are happy to do it.
Speaker A: Yeah, no, yeah, I can see that. and then going to pit bull cruise. The guy can fight, man. The guy can fight. I think they have a, I think PBC has a star in their hands here because he's mexican and he has a, he can cultivate a following. But I think we've seen that, you know, there's not really a lot of stars that have been developed under how Heyman, in terms of like bonafide stars. And I don't know, I just, I hope Pitbull Cruz, like, capitalizes on that because he obviously has a following that he can develop and he's got a entertaining style. But, you know, is, I think. Do you think Cruz and Davis fight before the end of this year in a rematch?
Speaker B: Yeah, I could see it because they're going to need pay per views on Amazon. Yeah, they'll both sell probably slightly different markets. Right. You know, Davis one market, obviously, Cruz is going to bring in a lot of the south american market. The first fight was a blockbuster. they've both gone away, won since. Cruz is probably a bigger name. Strangely, one of the guys that people at work will ask me about because of the Gervonta Davis fight, because he did so well, a lot of people actually asked me about him and they were talking to me about this fight coming up. So, yeah, I think it sells. Obviously now he's got a world title. and obviously the WBA is one of the ones that you associate with Gervonta Davis. It's one of the titles that he's held.
Speaker A: And the PBC. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B: Throughout his career. So, yeah, and it's like we've touched on, sadly, it's an in house fight. Easy to make. PBC's favorite. They get to double dip on both fighters.
Speaker A: And they fought in 2021. It's been three years. You would think they would have made that fight, but, like, they obviously didn't want to make it. They're like, oh, no, no. this guy, actually, he was a late replacement, I think, for Roley in LA at the Staples center and he gave Davis a hard fight.
Speaker B: So three years since that already.
Speaker A: Yeah. So, you know, you would think like, oh, there would have been a rematch a long time ago, but no, they, they took their time on, so, yeah, I think Cruz is, he's, he's, he's got it, man. He just has to stay active. but he's got a following. But let's see if PBC and Al Heyman can, like, sustain the momentum and capitalize on his popularity. Because he could, man, like, between 135, 140. Cruz could be a moneymaker, you know, mexican fighter. I mean, think about who has, who, between 135, 140 in terms of a mexican fighter right now. And I'm talking about, like, from Mexico. Because there's a difference between being a mexican american fighter and a fighter from Mexico. There just is in terms of a following. It's like when Chavez fought de la Hoya, you know, people. A lot of people were on Chavez's side. You know, he had all the fan base and dela Hoya they hated. Oh, he's, you know, even says he's like, oh, yeah, they hated me because, like, I wasn't full fledged mexican, even though I am, and I was mexican american. Pit bull. Cruise, between 135, 140 right now, especially, 135, might be the biggest potential money maker. I mean, obviously, you got Davis and, you know, the other guys, but, like, if you kind of look down the pathway of the next two years or something, and Cruz can kind of. They can really keep the momentum going. I mean, you say people at, people help people, random people ask you about cruise, and you're just like, damn, you guys know who that is. It obviously works. And if you look on YouTube, look on YouTube after this fight, the rolly Cruz fight, the highlights of that fight on the PBC boxing channel has way more views than Fundora and zoo does, you know? So, obviously, Cruz and Roley, I'm sure they helped the event, but, like, you know, and I'm sure Cruz, because he's mexican, speaks Spanish a lot of, a lot of tv and on, you know, mexican tv, probably were promoting his fight because he's a mexican fighter fighting on a big platform, you know, and for a. For a world title, for Roly Romero. Let me. Let me. Let me throw this at you. Ryan and Haney fight April 20. Ryan loses to Haney the next six months. Roli. Ryan.
Speaker B: Yeah, it's that. That fight is one that would always sell due to.
Speaker A: And, you know what? I wouldn't even know who would win that fight. I think I would tip it to Ryan, but I think Ryan and Roly are so. And you think, you might agree with this. You might not. They.
Ryan Martinez beat Angelino Cordova by majority decision for WBC title
I think they're closer and talent than people think. It's just Ryan's more popular.
Speaker B: They're both very unorthodox. They're not boxes that you would tell your son, like, hey, go and watch Roley. Go watch Ryan.
Speaker A: Because that's why it'd be so entertaining. Because, like, they're both like, that. So, I mean, who would really win?
Speaker B: Yeah, both of them are lucky in terms of their social media following. And, you know, Roli, all of his shit talking and stuff like that, you know, Roli can lose this, Ryan can lose to Devon, and like you say, you could sell that, and it would still be a blockbuster just due to the amount of abuse and stuff that they would give each other in the build up it would sell, and it would probably do very good numbers on pay per view.
Speaker A: Right, right, yeah, I could totally see that. So, yeah, it's gonna be interesting to see how this, how this develops. also on the card, Julio Cesar Martinez, he made it to the fight and made weight for once, gets the majority decision win over Angelino Cordova for the WBC flyweight championship of the world. this whole card, if you think about, like, actual fights, were very, very good, very competitive fights. Like, the card as a whole, from a boxing standpoint, was great. It was great. Obviously, you know, it doesn't. From initial standpoint, it doesn't seem like the pay per view buys are going to be strong. People didn't think they were going to be strong even with Thurman. So with Fundora coming in, you know, probably, definitely hit that, hit that as a, you know, as a shot to the, to the financials there. But, you know, Martinez gets the win over, Cordova for, the WBC flyweight championship of the world. this was Martinez's 6th successful defense of that title. but he obviously had to work hard for it. It was a close fight, majority decision. there was one card that came out at 113 113, and then the other two were 114 112 for martinez. So, and then, there was bad left hook. I know we mentioned them a couple times already. They had it 115 111, and 116 110 for martinez. So what kind of fight did we really see?
Speaker B: You know, big fan of Martinez. I just love his come forward style. Puts a lot of power into each punch, just puts his hands up. There's not really much movement, not really much defense. Just kind of relies on, like, I'm bigger, stronger than you, and I'm going to just wear you down. And it's flipping great to watch. I, thought it was a good fight. I thought Angelina Cordova looked really good. I thought he was. Got knocked down a couple of times in the third round, but Cordova did still trouble him, you know, in the fight and then in the middle rounds. I don't know whether Martinez started to tire because his output did drop a little bit. He took a few rounds off. Cordova did really well then, but then Martinez kind of like turned it back on and then, you know, kind of took over towards the end. Maybe he kind of realized that it was going to go, you know, a good stretch of rounds and he kind of decided to kind of recharge a little bit, I guess, in the, in the middle rounds. But he came away with the victory. And I'm still something that I would love to see is, Martinez against Sunny Edwards at some point, later down the line. But, I'm not too sure what Martinez's promotional contract is right now. It looks like he may be with PBC for a couple of fights where he was previously, obviously with Matchroom USA, which would have made the fight easier to make with Sunny Edwards also being over there. But it'd be a great clash of styles, sunnys movement. And then obviously, you know, like I said, you know, Martinez just comes forward like a mini juggernaut, you know, just trying to wear you down. So it'd be a great fight to, have it like we touched on earlier. It also has the narrative of obviously, Martinez beating SUNY Edwards older brother, Charlie Edwards. And they sell like we touched on a couple of times tonight. We've touched on that, so.
Speaker A: Right, right.
Sebastian Fundura wants to rematch Tim Zhu next
I wanted to quickly say a quote that Samson, Lukowitz of Samson boxing, which is Sebastian Fundura's fighter, I guess he just recently said, he said that the first priority is to rematch Tim Zhu next, ahead of a fight versus Terrence Crawford or Errol Spence. He said, quote, we were also eager to make this fight, that many of our agreements were made verbally. There wasn't enough time. But I wish to make it clear that team fundura will honor that the agreement, my word is always equal to a signed contract. Tim Zhu, your rematch is ready when you are, end quote. How much stock could we put into Samson Lukowitz, his words there? Because there's, there's interviews out there of him where he, especially with the whole canelo Benavidez thing, he's, he contradicts himself, you know, like, it happens. It's the boxing game. So he says, oh, it's a verbal, so it's not legal, which makes me think, oh, yeah, nothing's gonna happen. Then what do you, what do you think about that quote?
Speaker B: You kind of nailed it with your last little comment. Then, you know, it's verbal. And at the end of the day, if you're in any type of business, you're gonna have to get it in writing, because if a bigger, better offer comes along, then I'm sure people are gonna take it and be like, what verbal, you know, what verbal contract, you know, what verbal offer did we make?
Speaker A: Right?
Speaker B: This is your word against theirs, you know? So, get it all in writing. You know, it's pretty much, you know, business 101, right?
Speaker A: Exactly, exactly. moving on.
Gilberto Zurdo Ramirez becomes WBA super cruiserweight champion
Also this past Saturday, from Inglewood, California, at the YouTube Theater on de zone, Gilberto Zurdo Ramirez gets the 46th win of his career with a twelve round unanimous, unanimous decision win over Arsene Gulemarian, who takes the first loss of his career. Ramirez wins by scores of 118 110 on all three judges scorecards and becomes the first mexican WBA super cruiserweight champion. Super world cruiserweight champion of the world. What a mouthful that is. so now Ramirez holds a world title. I think we talked about this before, that he, I think easily becomes the money making fight in that division at cruiserweight. at least if you look at it as a whole. what did you think about his win and now his newly won title at cruiserweight?
Speaker B: I think we all picked him last week just due to Gulamirian's, lack of experienced opponents. For pretty much his entire career out in Europe, Ramirez been in world title fights, world champion before, obviously had the backing from golden boy. I think they probably saw that gun. Emilian was kind of like one of the weaker champions, even though I think he'd been, I think we said a WBA world champion. I think it was since 2018, if my mind.
Speaker A: Yeah, but he fought like, what, three times or something? Yeah.
Speaker B: You know, it wasn't, wasn't a lot of fights. I think the biggest thing really is, you know, where did they go next with him? You know, he's moved up all of these weight divisions, over the last few years. Ah, Golden Bayer seemed to have put a lot of stock behind him, so I'm assuming he's obviously doing good ticket sales, good views and stuff like that, because I know he was on good money at top rank and he wanted even more. So I'm guessing golden boy have obviously paid him a pretty penny, so it's going to be interesting to do what they do with him next. And it's just laughable when you're announcing him and it's 46 and, one, the amount of fights he's had, and, like we touched on during the, you know, the fight preview, who's his best fight? Like, who's his best win, you know, four to seven fights and who's the best victory that he's had, right. You scratch your head and you thinking, God, really? I really can't think. You know, the biggest jumps off. It's probably bivouac.
Speaker A: Yeah, but he lost to bivol. And also, like, Ramirez was in those divisions, 168 and all that before, like, Canelo and all these other guys were developed into those divisions. Like, he was already there. So by the time the moneymakers kind of got into those divisions, Ramirez couldn't make that weight anymore. So he's like, I, got. I can't do it. So he had to move up. So it's just bad timing.
Speaker B: Do you think he. He had to move up just due to natural progression of size, or do you think he just ate his way out of it due to just being lazy? Essentially?
Speaker A: I think it was size. He's a big guy, man. He's a big guy. I think it was size. Yeah. Yeah, I think it was size. And, you know, it's like, I mean, we know, like, making weight is tough. That's a hard fight. That's a fight even before the fight. So, yeah, I think it was just size. He's a big guy, man. He's like, what, six, maybe six two? Is he about six two?
Speaker B: You nailed it. Six two and a half according to box, right?
Speaker A: Yeah. Right. And he was making 168. I mean, you could, but, yeah, it's just, this is tough, you know, and he's mexican. Like, you know, probably a lot of mexican food. Like, it's. That's tough, man. That's a tough. It's a tough way to live.
Speaker B: We missed it. The first mexican cruiserweight champion of all time.
Speaker A: Right, I said that.
Speaker B: Oh, okay. My bad.
Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I said that. Yeah, so that's. He's. He made history right there, so good for him. And congratulations. who are the other guys that we talked about last week? Jayopatia. Is that cruiserweight? Yeah.
Speaker B: So cruiserweight champions at the minute. We have. WBC is, according to this, Norre Mikalian. I don't know who that is. WBO is Chris Bilham Smith, IBF, according to this, is currently vacant.
Golden boy is gonna try to get Ramirez undisputed at cruiserweight
and then obviously you got the IBO, which is vias, ungambo from Belgium.
Speaker A: Oh, yeah. I mean, I could see golden boy trying to make, they're gonna try. Like, their goal is gonna. Is gonna try to get Ramirez to be undisputed at that weight class. Right. I mean, that's the goal.
Speaker B: Yeah, you would think so, because if you look at the names I just read off, you know, there's a couple of guys there that we, you don't really know who they are. So it would be, you've probably got a good chance of, you know, getting because like you said, he's probably the biggest drawer in the division.
Speaker A: Oh, easily. Yeah.
Speaker B: He can probably pick and choose his opponents because that's going to be the opponent's biggest payday.
Speaker A: Right.
Speaker B: Getting those fights essentially should be fairly easy.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: And I mean, the big fight there, I think would be Chris Bilham Smith. You've got the UK and then you've.
Speaker A: Also, does Ramirez have to go to the UK for that?
Speaker B: Probably be bigger over here. Right? Because if you've got the US and mexican community would probably watch it over here. so that you think he would probably come here.
Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Either way, I think, you know, he, they found a spot for him in boxing in these divisions. and I would, I would think ideally that golden boy is going to try to go for undisputed with him. And then if he makes undisputed, then they're going to ask him, hey, do you want to move up to heavyweight? Give it a shot? You know, I mean, Usyk is what, six four? But he's shown that he could do it. But obviously Usyk is a, he's a beast and he's a great fighter, but why not? He could cover, you know, what he got to lose.
Speaker B: He picked up cruiserweight bridge away.
Speaker A: Do you think they would go for bridgerweight?
Speaker B: Okoli is, isn't he ok stepping up and going to bridge away and then.
Speaker A: I mean, I guess, but it just, nobody has really got the respect and the momentum, but, yeah, so Ramirez becomes WBA super world cruiserweight title. So we'll see where he goes.
Alexis Rocha returns with win over Frederick Lawson on Saturday
Moving forward with golden boy on, the coal main event, Alexis Rocha returns and gets the 24th win of his career with the win over Frederick Lawson, who takes the fifth loss of his career. Rocha obviously coming returning after losing to Santayan last year, I believe, bouncing back with a win, trying to get back in the win column, I think Santayan think top break announced that he's coming back in may, I believe, too. So they're kind of coming back together, kind, of close back together, returning. Rocha looked good. He m, came back, did his thing. the thing with Frederick Lawson, one of the last times we saw him, I believe last time was in January when Tony weeks, the situation with Tony Weeks happened with the stoppage, if you remember that. so that, and you know what, I don't know if we've seen Tony weeks since then. So before we kind of dive into that one, what do you think about, Roche's win?
Speaker B: I thought Roger looked good. I thought he looked very, very calm for somebody that had come back after, would you say devastating, too strong word for that type of loss since it was like two southern California fighters in his backyard and he obviously got stopped. I thought he looked very calm. I think he could have jumped on Lawson early and tried to get him out of there because, like we touched on during the previous show, Lawson had that fight, against Virgil Ortiz, where Ortiz, you know, smoked him in the first round. And you can kind of get to that point where you're like, okay, everyone's going to judge me against that performance. You know, I've got to do something similar. But he didn't. He just took his time and you could see he thought, you know, okay, the stoppage is going to come. It's going to come. He just, you know, got a few rounds in the bank. Probably got those nerves, you know, out of the way since it's his first fight back. And then obviously he got the, he got the. And essentially retired, you know, in the 7th. So he got the victory. probably got all of that frustration, nerves, all of those feelings, all of those emotions out in a good performance, something like that.
Speaker A: Right.
Speaker B: And then hopefully we'll see him back again quick. You know, he's always been a very busy fighter, so I'm sure we'll see, legs back probably again in three or four months.
Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, he's always been busy. Fire. I'm glad he returns to try to. He's still a young guy, I think, middle, mid twenties maybe, so, 26. so, he's definitely going forward. And then the Tony weeks situation, as I mentioned, he was the referee with that controversial stoppage in the Frederick Lawson back, in January, I believe. and then around that time, there was an alleged social media post that Tony Weeks said that, oh, the, the athletic commission, the medical said that he, that Lawson had, like an aneurysm or some type of sign or something like that. I can't remember you, if you can clarify, if you remember. But, And then people thought, oh, why would he post that? And then it was like deleted or something. It was like a Facebook post. I don't think we ever heard that it was like, real, but we never heard that it wasn't real. Yeah, I'm not sure. I'm not sure. you know, have we heard anything about that situation? You know, did the Nevada State athletic commission come out and say something, like, after that whole situation? I know they came out with a statement, but they really didn't say anything that we didn't already know. I don't. You know, unless Tony weeks has been referring, like, low, low level fights in Nevada that have no profile. you know, I mean, we never. We never heard anything, any follow up on that, right? I mean, I'm assuming that. And it makes sense that the. The state of Nevada is just telling Tony weeks, like, hey, just like with the triple g Canelo fight back in the day, the judge, the female judge, I forgot, she scored it. Like, she had, like, a wide score for Canelo or something and, yeah, Adelaide Bird. And they kind of kept her below the radar for a while after that to kind of have everything die down. Don't you think they're doing the same thing with Tony weeks?
Speaker B: 100%, wasn't it? Tony Weeks also did the stoppage for Roly Barroso.
Speaker A: I think it was that, too. Yeah.
Speaker B: So I think when you've got a couple of them happening, I can't remember the time period, but it seems like they were close together. I think you're going to have to at least pull him in and talk to him about that. And then, obviously, the social media post as well, you're going to have to talk to him about that. what's going on? Maybe he has to drop back down and do a few fights which aren't under the scrutiny of these big main events that are on live tv and pay per view around the world, because it's affecting people's livelihoods. That type of performance, especially for the barroso, Rowley one, that's for a world title look at Barroso. That cost him the chance to be a world champion again. And his paydays, we've seen paydays multiple times higher if you're a world champion. So that's cost him, you know, him and his family probably could essentially life changing money. So these performances, you can't just, like, brush them under a rug or, you know, like, hey, just, you know, Tony, just take four weeks, you know, go on vacation with the family, don't. Don't go on social media, and then, you know, we'll bring you back. Unfortunately, it needs to be looked at because, you know, that's his performance in his. In his job, and it affects other people. So, I'd actually forgot about that until you said, to be honest, it's going to have to try and look into it.
Speaker A: No, I saw Lawson, and while we were talking about it, I was, like, looking it up or just before, and I was like, why do I what Lawson? And I remembered, I was like, oh, yeah, Tony Weeks was a part of that situation. So, yeah, I'd really, you know, maybe we should kind of follow up on that or see if anybody follows up on that, because I'd really want to know, what happened with that situation because that was very, very intriguing.
Fabio Wardley and Fraser Clark fought to a split decision draw
also this past Sunday, the 31 march, Fabio Wardley gets the split decision draw or fights to a split draw. Excuse me, against Frazier Clark. the scores were 114 113, 113 113 and 112 115 for the british and Commonwealth heavyweight championship. What, do you think about Wardley and Clark's draw?
Speaker B: Unbelievable fight back and forth, you know, some, low blows which cost, you know, Fraser Clark some points. You know, there was a good picture of, you know, both of them just covered in blood. And then someone took a picture of the canvas and that was just coated in blood. So we had a couple of, you know, crazy blood lust fights this weekend in Fundora, and then also in this one. it was really hard to split them. I can see, you know, the draw being like, the sensible option, and hopefully, you know, they run it back either now or, you know, you know, maybe a year from now, they both go away, get some more victories and then come back. Fraser Clark, I thought he did pretty well, especially with the points deduction, to still come away, with a draw. I know some people had him winning. I thought Fabio looked a little bit lost at times. Maybe it was just the experience from the amateurs that Fraser had, but, a really good fight. And one of those ones that us, as brits always say, great british dashed up a great british fight. And that's just. Maybe it's just the, the amount of, like, achievement and amount of prestige that, you know, people, british fans put on the british title, that it brings that little bit extra, you know, out of the. Out of the fans. Or maybe it's because when you get a british fight, both fighters are, british, obviously. So maybe it's just the crowd. You get two different crowds, you know, one for Wardley, one for Clark, you know, whereas if you've got, like, a british person fighting a foreign fighter, who's to say they're essentially going to bring any fans with them? So maybe that's why, you know, these fights always tend to be so good, because you just got two rival fans just in there, shouting each other chanting and it just brings that little bit extra, our fighters. But I thought it was a really good fight. A really good fight.
Shakur Stevenson and Steve Claggett reportedly finalizing deal
Speaker A: moving on to fight previews this upcoming Saturday, the 6 April, from the fountain blue in Las Vegas on the zone. Richardson Hitchens, 17 and zero goes up against Gustavo Daniel Lemos, 29 and zero. And also Diego Pacheco, 20 and zero goes up against John McCalman, 15 and zero. So battle of undefeated is in the main and co main event. I'm really interested to see, you know, where matrum is trying to maneuver, Hitchens and Pacheco to, you know, where are they going to go, undefeated fighters, especially Pacheco. You know, obviously he's in, you, know, up there with Berlanga and stuff. You think Pacheco and Berlanga fight before the end of this year?
Speaker B: I mean, I'd hope so. I know that Pacheco has been wanting it for some time, but I think we've.
Speaker A: Obviously, it makes sense for a fight, right?
Speaker B: It really does. But it's. You do wonder, like, how much money are, matrum paying balanga? Like, do they really have to throw him in there with someone like Canelo to kind of get back the amount of money they've invested in Balanga? Because if the fight is throwing him in with Pacheco, I think you'd lose. And then are they going to get any, return on the amount of money that they put behind Balanga? Like we've said, essentially, it's a business for them, for us. We just want to see the best fights. We don't care about all that type of stuff. I think that's the thing. The problem they have right now is, can they afford to stick him in with Pachaco when he loses?
Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. I think Berlanga right now to match him is a little bit more than the investment, but we will see a, news and notes section of this week's episode of the last Round podcast. Tiofima Lopez and Steve Claggett are finalizing that deal, reportedly for June 29 in Miami for Lopez's WBO junior welterweight title, according, to ESPN. obviously it'll hang a headline, a top rank boxing show on ESPN. I know people were kind of complaining, like, oh, who's Claggett? And all that? I mean, in terms of name recognition, not strong at all. so, you know, who knows? Maybe they made offers to other fighters. Maybe the offers were low, maybe they weren't sufficient. Maybe other fighters did not you know, it's just these 135, 140 names. It's like it's all a politics. It just doesn't work. So, you know, another fight. But the thing with Lopez, like we've talked about before, we never know what kind of fighter we're going to get on the day. So that makes it intriguing to tune into his fights because we could see one of the best fighters in the world, or we could see a fight, a fighter who just not, doesn't have the discipline, and he gets beat by a guy who has no name. So, yeah, it's. It's kind of like, just tune in and see which one you get. So we will see. and then also shakur Stevenson and Artemis. I'm not even going to give that one a shot, are finalizing a deal, reportedly for July 6, a fight in Newark, New Jersey, Shakur Stevenson's hometown, for, Stevenson's WBC lightweight championship of the world. According to ESPN. Reportedly, the bout will mark the final fight of Stevenson's contract with top Rank before he becomes a free agent. He, made his pro debut with top rank one year after he captured the silver medal at the 2016 Olympics. so I'm pretty sure Stevenson is the type of guy that's going to try to go free agency and, try to test where he gets the most money. It's going to make sense. I honestly don't see Stevenson staying with Top Rank after this fight. What do you think?
Speaker B: Yeah, I agree with you, on that. I think he'll do kind of like Crawford and, you know, Canelo are doing now, and, you know, he'll just pick the biggest paydays with the biggest agencies.
Speaker A: Who does he go to? Who do you think he goes to? I say he goes to PBC.
Speaker B: Mmm.
Speaker A: I think Matrum is going to be Eddie, hers going to be right there, but I think PBC is going to edge them. I could be wrong, honestly, I could be wrong because a lot of the money problems that PBC has been having, you know, they've had a lot of fights to fighters leave recently. and, you know, Stephen Espinos said that the money, like they're in the PBC, is actually in charge of the production, tv production. It's not Amazon, it's their own team that they had to do. So it's not Showtime production team anymore. So obviously kind of read between the lines there. Or maybe it might be match room.
Speaker B: I think he'll just shop around.
Speaker A: No, he will. But like, we, if you're guess, just preliminarily guessing right now where you think he lands. First fight at least.
Speaker B: I mean, I think we'd all love to see him in there with that little crew, wouldn't we? We'd like to see him in there with, like, a Haney, a tfimo Lopez. Ryan Garcia.
Speaker A: if Haney wins against Ryan, which I think many expect him to do, I think Shakur would say, hey, he would go to match room and be like, let me get Haney. And then Eddie was like, okay, we'll give you a initial fight, give Haney another fight, and then you guys face off next year.
Speaker B: I mean, I hope so. We'd all love to see that. I think, you know, as boxing fans, to see who's the best in and around those divisions, you know, with tfimo Lopez, but he just seems speaker zero.
Speaker A: Yeah, I don't. I think we can definitely throw that fight in the toilet, especially cause Tio Fimo still has a deal with top rank, and it seems like Stevenson's gonna. On his way out. So there's. That's not gonna happen because, like we talked about earlier, Crawford PBC putting Spence in the ring to try to get the winner of Fundora zoo. And when Crawford's a guy who beat Spencer, you know, so it's going to be the same thing with Stevenson and Lopez. Like, they're going to, you know, you're going to prioritize a guy who you have under your business, because that's. That's your. The bottom line. That's what affects the bottom line for your business. So, I mean, yeah, it is what it is.
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But once again, guys, thank you guys for listening to this week's episode of the last Round podcast. Please don't forget, as we mentioned at the beginning of the show, to rate and subscribe rate, us five stars on any podcasting platform you're listening to, especially Apple podcasts. Hit the follow button on Spotify. leave us comments and all that. it definitely helps us. It helps us rise in the rankings. you know, it's free. You know, we don't really. We don't charge for anything here. You know, we just do this, out of our own love for the sport. So please help us out. And that, it's the least you could do. And it's very, very easy, and it's free, as I mentioned.
Last Round podcast is at the last round twelve, Instagram and Twitter
so as we round the finish line towards the finish line of this week's episode of the last Round podcast, Mike, go ahead and let them know where they can find us and follow us. And what's on deck for next week?
Speaker B: We are at, the last round twelve, Instagram and Twitter. And then be sure to join us next week. It's a little bit of quiet week in terms of previews, but we have Jordan Gill against Zelfa Barrett.
Speaker A: Quiet. Quite weak, huh? Huh? Quite a week. Yeah. We'll try to secure a guest, and see what we can get kind of add to, add to the week of the episode. So for once again, for my co host, Michael shepherd, I'm Danny Z. This is the last round m thanks for supporting and listening to the show. Follow us at the last round twelve on social media rate review and subscribe. This is the last Round podcast.
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