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Can Moses Itauma Make a Comeback? · The Mixed Company Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: In this corner, standing at 6'5, weight class unknown, but
0:04
Speaker 1: hailing from the city of sin, put your hands together
0:07
Speaker 1: for Jamison Welch.
0:08
Speaker 2: And in this corner, standing.
0:09
Speaker 1: At 5'10, weighing in at pounds, and coming to us
0:14
Speaker 1: from his super secret bunker with no AC in Tucson, Arizona,
0:18
Speaker 1: put your hands together for Luis Montemayor.
0:25
Speaker 2: Thank you. Welcome back to another episode of Mixed Community Podcast.
0:28
Speaker 2: Of course, I'm going to have the show. I'm Jameson.
0:31
Speaker 2: As always, I'm joined by Luis. Luis, what's going on, man?
0:35
Speaker 3: What's up, Jameson? Always happy to be back on the
0:37
Speaker 3: mic for this show. Yeah, we got a couple things
0:40
Speaker 3: to review here. There's a big fight over the weekend
0:44
Speaker 3: in the UK. Moses Itama versus Filip Hergovich for heavyweight title. And,
0:50
Speaker 3: you know, we talked previous episode about how Moses Itama
0:53
Speaker 3: was supposed to be the next big thing, you know,
0:57
Speaker 3: the next great heavyweight. 21-year-old kid, you know, Flawless record.
1:02
Speaker 3: But he got beaten over the weekend. And I got
1:05
Speaker 3: a lot to talk about in terms of the actual fight.
1:07
Speaker 3: But here's a question I want to start out for you.
1:10
Speaker 3: In your opinion, how do we know as boxing fans
1:14
Speaker 3: when somebody has an up and comer has a setback
1:17
Speaker 3: versus when they were overhyped and maybe, you know, weren't
1:21
Speaker 3: that great to be with? I'm not saying Moses Atom
1:23
Speaker 3: is that. I'm just curious as to how you see
1:26
Speaker 3: the distinction, if any.
1:27
Speaker 2: That's a good question. That's actually a great question, actually.
1:30
Speaker 2: I think they both kind of coincide with each other.
1:34
Speaker 2: I think that we all have our preconceived notions of fighters,
1:38
Speaker 2: good or bad. So it depends on where it fits
1:41
Speaker 2: with your agenda. So if you feel like a boxer
1:45
Speaker 2: is on to great things and they have a setback,
1:47
Speaker 2: he's like, hey, you got beat that night, it's a
1:49
Speaker 2: minor setback. If you feel the boxer's overrated, then it
1:53
Speaker 2: also fits your agenda. So I think it's more of
1:55
Speaker 2: that more than anything. I'm more of the impression of this.
1:59
Speaker 2: It's all case by case because we've seen everything. We've
2:01
Speaker 2: seen young guys get beat and rebound and have great careers.
2:06
Speaker 2: We've also seen young guys get beat and never be
2:09
Speaker 2: the same. I think a lot of it comes from
2:11
Speaker 2: how were they beat? Was it a close fight? Did
2:13
Speaker 2: they get robbed? Did they get KO'd in the fourth round?
2:17
Speaker 2: I think it's a lot of case by case. A
2:20
Speaker 2: lot of case by case involved. That's where I would
2:25
Speaker 2: be like, hey, what's been going on in their last
2:29
Speaker 2: couple fights, what happened in this fight, did they adjust,
2:32
Speaker 2: did they get caught? Because here's the thing, if you
2:34
Speaker 2: get caught with one and you get dropped, that can
2:37
Speaker 2: happen to anybody. It doesn't matter to anyone. We've seen
2:41
Speaker 2: anyone take that. However, if you're getting severely outboxed and outclassed,
2:48
Speaker 2: that could be a different story. Especially if you're known
2:52
Speaker 2: to be a certain type of boxer, you get beat
2:55
Speaker 2: a certain way, That can be.
2:57
Speaker 3: Like, ooh, I don't know.
2:59
Speaker 2: I have some doubts. So, yeah.
3:02
Speaker 3: No, that's all really interesting points. Well, with this kid,
3:06
Speaker 3: he had a lot of hype behind him, a lot
3:09
Speaker 3: of posters about him being the king of the ring, blah, blah, blah,
3:13
Speaker 3: all this kind of stuff. And the crazy part is
3:16
Speaker 3: he didn't get embarrassed. He was gassed. What happened is
3:21
Speaker 3: in round nine, he was barely standing. He started off great.
3:27
Speaker 3: First few rounds, I was like, I can see why
3:29
Speaker 3: this kid is a big deal. He's very strong. And
3:31
Speaker 3: the thing that impressed me most was his speed. A
3:34
Speaker 3: lot of hard punches, a lot of accuracy. But, man,
3:37
Speaker 3: he was fast. And he was landing some really very
3:40
Speaker 3: clear killer punches on Filip Hergovich. But to Hergovich's credit,
3:45
Speaker 3: he took him like a champ. You know, he took
3:47
Speaker 3: a lot of abuse. And Mositeva tired himself out. And
3:52
Speaker 3: the corner threw in the towel. Now, here's the thing.
3:54
Speaker 3: They made a very clear point that Mo Zatama had
3:57
Speaker 3: never been past the sixth round. He's all gotten all
4:00
Speaker 3: of his knockout stoppages at round six. This one, you know,
4:04
Speaker 3: had past six. And it's always crazy to me how
4:08
Speaker 3: when you've got a fighter that can get a lot
4:10
Speaker 3: of early knockouts, when they're made to go to the distance,
4:13
Speaker 3: they don't have the conditioning. It's like, how do you
4:15
Speaker 3: not have that when you're training? I mean, people are
4:18
Speaker 3: sparring for, you know, that amount of rounds. I just
4:20
Speaker 3: don't understand.
4:21
Speaker 2: Do you have any.
4:21
Speaker 3: Idea of, like, how that could happen to a boxer it's.
4:24
Speaker 2: All about your training camp like that's why i'm always
4:27
Speaker 2: in i'm very partial to old school trainers because a
4:30
Speaker 2: lot of old school trainers train their guys for 15
4:33
Speaker 2: rounds or train their guys for 15 instead of 12
4:36
Speaker 2: and the methods of uh training conditioning were different than
4:40
Speaker 2: the current day ones however um as a boxer it
4:44
Speaker 2: is your job to be in tip-top shape it is
4:47
Speaker 2: your job to be able to be able to last
4:50
Speaker 2: in the championship rounds, no matter if you're a knockout
4:52
Speaker 2: artist or not. That's the thing where a lot of
4:55
Speaker 2: guys don't quite have. That's why when guys are undefeated
5:00
Speaker 2: and guys have illustrious careers, we got to give them
5:02
Speaker 2: more props because there's so many people when that ninth
5:05
Speaker 2: round's over, you got the last three rounds, a lot
5:08
Speaker 2: of people ain't got nothing left. There's nothing left in
5:10
Speaker 2: the tank. And it's not because they're a bad person, whatever,
5:13
Speaker 2: but their training is so, so... different than the other
5:18
Speaker 2: person it's just different like with that being said i
5:22
Speaker 2: think we overlook conditioning a lot because we've seen it
5:25
Speaker 2: in so many fights just this year alone but in
5:28
Speaker 2: general where condition conditioning plays a huge factor and it
5:32
Speaker 2: really separates the good from the great if you're if
5:34
Speaker 2: you want to be honest and in my in my
5:36
Speaker 2: viewing i would say the train the tip top guys
5:39
Speaker 2: that are always in shape don't have those issues.
5:42
Speaker 3: Yeah and you know i i am speaking as He's
5:45
Speaker 3: a fat guy who took some boxing classes several years
5:47
Speaker 3: ago and has done a lot of sparring. So nothing
5:50
Speaker 3: very serious. But I realized for myself quickly on after
5:55
Speaker 3: taking a few classes that it changed the way I
5:58
Speaker 3: saw boxing. To me, it's not as much about strength
6:00
Speaker 3: as endurance. You want to get in there. Of course,
6:03
Speaker 3: everybody wants to kick ass and get knockouts. And even
6:07
Speaker 3: in the gym, you want to look cool and overwhelm
6:10
Speaker 3: your opponent. But really, at the end of the day–
6:13
Speaker 3: at least early goings, all I cared about was staying
6:15
Speaker 3: on my feet and, you know, not getting fucked up.
6:19
Speaker 2: It's the mental part. The mental part is the biggest part.
6:22
Speaker 2: Your mental has to be sharp. If your mental is
6:25
Speaker 2: not sharp, you have no chance. You have no chance
6:28
Speaker 2: at all. Yeah.
6:29
Speaker 3: And I think that kind of is the flip side of,
6:32
Speaker 3: of all these boxing fans saying we want to see
6:34
Speaker 3: knockouts and they love knockout guys, this and that. But
6:37
Speaker 3: if you, if you're a knockout guy and you're used to,
6:40
Speaker 3: you know, only fighting for a couple of rounds, you know,
6:43
Speaker 3: the day that you're put up against, you know, some
6:45
Speaker 3: real resistance and you're challenged, you gotta be ready for that, man. Uh,
6:50
Speaker 3: I don't know. And again, again, not a professional, don't
6:53
Speaker 3: know a lot about this, but I would imagine if
6:57
Speaker 3: somebody kind of has that natural strength and can be a,
6:59
Speaker 3: you know, a big person, strong person, speed and knockout power,
7:02
Speaker 3: they're going to focus on that. Understandably. Um, But you
7:06
Speaker 3: can't let the rest lapse, you know? There's a lot
7:10
Speaker 3: of people... Go ahead, go ahead.
7:12
Speaker 2: So, no, you're good. No, you're perfect. That was spot on.
7:15
Speaker 2: Biggest issue was this, though. Most knockout artists train for
7:20
Speaker 2: power and for knockouts and not for endurance. So that's
7:23
Speaker 2: why Tank was so special. Because Tank was a knockout artist,
7:27
Speaker 2: but he didn't get out of shape. He was ready
7:29
Speaker 2: to go 12. That's part of the reason why he
7:31
Speaker 2: was so well-liked as a boxer, well-loved, because... He can
7:36
Speaker 2: end the show at any given time. But if he
7:38
Speaker 2: goes 12, he's not dog tired. Very few guys like that,
7:42
Speaker 2: especially the lower divisions. It's very, very rare to see
7:47
Speaker 2: something like that. So with all that being said, yes,
7:51
Speaker 2: you're absolutely correct. You are a thousand percent spot on.
7:54
Speaker 2: You know, when a guy is known for a knockout artist,
7:59
Speaker 2: the game plan for any good boxer or better is
8:03
Speaker 2: to stay away from his power zones, Make him box.
8:07
Speaker 2: Make him move his feet. Make him chase you. Make
8:09
Speaker 2: him get a little bit tired. And then you'll see
8:12
Speaker 2: the eighth, ninth, tenth round, those punches don't have the
8:14
Speaker 2: same steam on it because he ain't got enough energy.
8:16
Speaker 2: That's normally the playbook. That's how it's always been. I mean,
8:20
Speaker 2: I'll give you a perfect example. We're dating ourselves a
8:22
Speaker 2: little bit. But I remember, if I'm not mistaken, when
8:28
Speaker 2: Holyfield and Tyson fought the first time, that was kind
8:33
Speaker 2: of the game plan for Holyfield. Like, hey, stay away
8:35
Speaker 2: from the power punches. Make Tyson work. Make Tyson work.
8:39
Speaker 2: And then Tyson gets tired at the end. If my
8:42
Speaker 2: memory serves me correct, that's kind of what happened. And
8:45
Speaker 2: it's happened in other fights as well. So that's just
8:47
Speaker 2: kind of the game plan. Can it be executed? A
8:51
Speaker 2: lot of times it can. That's kind of why a
8:53
Speaker 2: guy like Shakur is so tough to beat because he's
8:55
Speaker 2: in tip-top shape. He's going to beat you on points.
8:58
Speaker 2: So if you can't drop him, don't know how you win. So, yeah.
9:03
Speaker 3: Well, and the thing too about Tyson specifically and other
9:05
Speaker 3: big strong power punchers is that, you know, you, you,
9:08
Speaker 3: you don't want to be pushed back. You want to
9:10
Speaker 3: push forward and get them off their game plan and
9:12
Speaker 3: also get them off balance. So they don't have the
9:14
Speaker 3: ability to set up that really, really strong power punch.
9:17
Speaker 2: Right.
9:17
Speaker 3: But that's easier said than done when you have a goddamn,
9:20
Speaker 3: you know, huge beefy dude that could send you to
9:22
Speaker 3: the phantom zone with an uppercut.
9:25
Speaker 2: So, but yeah.
9:26
Speaker 3: And, you know, again, you know, a shout out, respect
9:28
Speaker 3: to Phillip, Phillip Bergovich for, not just taking the punishment
9:32
Speaker 3: in those very early rounds, but then letting his hands
9:35
Speaker 3: go later, pushing back, like I said, throwing Itama off.
9:39
Speaker 3: And yeah, me as a spectator, I see that and
9:43
Speaker 3: I'm like, it takes a special kind of person to
9:46
Speaker 3: have the guts to do that, to get in his
9:48
Speaker 3: face and get him off balance because that kid was...
9:52
Speaker 3: Itama was also landing a lot of very accurate strong
9:55
Speaker 3: punches on a dude that was taller and had more
9:57
Speaker 3: reach than him, which is.
10:00
Speaker 3: Always the worst when you got somebody that uses their...
10:03
Speaker 3: Smaller than you, but uses their size really well and
10:04
Speaker 3: gets on the inside. That's what I always thought he'll be.
10:07
Speaker 3: Not that I was ever that great at sparring anyway.
10:09
Speaker 3: But yeah, it was overall a really good fight and
10:12
Speaker 3: a really interesting case study is what I would call it.
10:16
Speaker 2: And.
10:16
Speaker 3: you know, a young guy and, you know, showing where
10:19
Speaker 3: his flaws are. The way they talked about him going in,
10:21
Speaker 3: it's like, he's invincible.
10:23
Speaker 2: He's, you know, undefeatable.
10:25
Speaker 3: I don't, I always get a little like iffy with that.
10:29
Speaker 3: You know, obviously there are guys like Floyd and Bud
10:32
Speaker 3: that went out with a perfect record. But when you
10:35
Speaker 3: start kind of hyping up someone like that up early
10:37
Speaker 3: as the next, as the next blah, the next Tyson,
10:40
Speaker 3: the next Floyd, I'm always like, eh, you got to
10:42
Speaker 3: show me a lot.
10:43
Speaker 2: Especially when they're not a household name. You know what
10:46
Speaker 2: I mean? That's the thing. It's one thing if they're
10:47
Speaker 2: a name that every sports fan knows. But if that's
10:50
Speaker 2: not the case, people got to start Googling and whatnot.
10:54
Speaker 2: It's a little tricky. But, again, it's all about how
10:58
Speaker 2: you respond. That's the difference. Like, we've seen young guys
11:02
Speaker 2: with a lot of promise respond different ways. I think
11:04
Speaker 2: if you respond well, all is well, no one's tripping.
11:08
Speaker 2: If you don't respond well, you know, I don't know.
11:12
Speaker 2: I don't know. Yeah.
11:14
Speaker 3: Well, shit, we were talking about Andy Ruiz, and he's
11:16
Speaker 3: fighting this weekend. He's the guy that won a big
11:18
Speaker 3: upset and didn't respond well. So, you know, if.
11:21
Speaker 2: It's a little bit different, though. His response not responding
11:25
Speaker 2: well is a little different. He started eating and doing
11:29
Speaker 2: extracurricular activities. He was outside, outside, but he won. So
11:34
Speaker 2: he wasn't focused as he was prior to getting the belt.
11:38
Speaker 2: Once he got the belt, all hell broke loose. And
11:41
Speaker 2: he didn't even say, so there was not no rumors. Like,
11:42
Speaker 2: he didn't even He even mentioned, I think, his wife
11:45
Speaker 2: or his girlfriend at the time did, too. But, yeah, like,
11:47
Speaker 2: it was one of those things, which is, I mean,
11:51
Speaker 2: I understand. We're human. I get it. Like, there is
11:53
Speaker 2: no way we would have thought he would win every,
11:56
Speaker 2: you know, there's no way we would have thought he
11:59
Speaker 2: did what he did. But with that being said, it
12:02
Speaker 2: goes to show you, you got to do so much
12:04
Speaker 2: more to maintain it once you get it. Once you
12:06
Speaker 2: get that belt, you got to work extra hard. You
12:08
Speaker 2: got to stay in that much better shape. You got
12:10
Speaker 2: to get better. He never got better. That's the problem. Yeah.
12:14
Speaker 3: And yes, I know that it's different. I guess in
12:16
Speaker 3: my mind, I see it as a lack of focus,
12:19
Speaker 3: you know, for somebody that loses and then flames out.
12:22
Speaker 3: And then like a big, a hype name, young guy
12:26
Speaker 3: loses and never really gets that shine back, I guess
12:28
Speaker 3: you'd say. And, you know, you got to focus on
12:32
Speaker 3: getting yourself back in shape and getting back in the
12:33
Speaker 3: ring and kicking ass again.
12:35
Speaker 2: In either scenario. You can get the shine back. However,
12:38
Speaker 2: here's the thing. You've got to fight right away. You
12:41
Speaker 2: can't wait. You can't have tune-ups. If you want to
12:43
Speaker 2: get the shine back, you've got to get the rematch
12:46
Speaker 2: and handle business. That's the first step. Because guys have
12:49
Speaker 2: lost early. It's happened. Like, Lex Lewis got beat by
12:53
Speaker 2: Ahsan Rahman before. Things happen. Shit happens. It's more about
12:56
Speaker 2: how you rebound and how you figure it out. That's
13:00
Speaker 2: what boxing's about. Sure, I agree.
13:02
Speaker 3: And also another thing, too, I've always said, that I
13:05
Speaker 3: think boxing fans are a little too harsh when somebody loses.
13:08
Speaker 3: If somebody doesn't have a perfect record, oh, they were
13:11
Speaker 3: always overhyped. They were always shitty. They were never that good. Blah, blah, blah.
13:16
Speaker 3: I disagree with that. I don't think a loss means
13:18
Speaker 3: that you're the worst fighter ever and you were never
13:22
Speaker 3: actually good. Although there is a lot of, that yapping
13:27
Speaker 3: online and if people are online on social media, that
13:29
Speaker 3: can get to anybody. I've said before, you know, you
13:31
Speaker 3: had somebody just saying you suck, you suck, you suck
13:33
Speaker 3: to you every single day. You know, that's, that's a
13:36
Speaker 3: lot to deal with.
13:37
Speaker 2: It is, but here's the thing. First and foremost, you
13:39
Speaker 2: got to block that shit out and you got to
13:41
Speaker 2: leave social media. If you can't handle it, that's going
13:44
Speaker 2: to negatively impact you. Got to get off there. That's
13:46
Speaker 2: number one rule. Secondly, most importantly, you can control what
13:50
Speaker 2: you can control. You got to take care of yourself.
13:53
Speaker 2: You got to get better. The things you can control
13:56
Speaker 2: is getting better, getting stronger, getting more endurance. Those are
14:00
Speaker 2: things as a boxer that you have control over. I
14:02
Speaker 2: think we give the excuse to guys for not taking
14:05
Speaker 2: control of what they can control. I'm with you. I
14:07
Speaker 2: agree with you that the social media stuff is becoming
14:10
Speaker 2: disgusting because the attacks become personal. They seem personal, not objective.
14:17
Speaker 2: That's the problem. That is the issue. Until that gets
14:20
Speaker 2: figured out or solved, I don't know what to say.
14:23
Speaker 2: But in terms of the things you can correct, those
14:26
Speaker 2: are the things where it's like, let's focus on that.
14:29
Speaker 2: Forget social media. Forget the guy sleeping on someone else's
14:32
Speaker 2: couch to get by. How are you going to get better?
14:35
Speaker 2: That's what matters. Yeah, absolutely.
14:38
Speaker 3: And, you know, it's, I mean, it's all a factor.
14:41
Speaker 3: It's always, you know, been a factor before. Social media
14:43
Speaker 3: is different, of course. But, you know, you got people
14:46
Speaker 3: on sports news channels talking about what a shitty boxer
14:48
Speaker 3: you are, you know, back in the day anyway. So
14:51
Speaker 3: that's never going away.
14:53
Speaker 2: I don't believe.
14:54
Speaker 3: It's just different now that it's on your phone, in
14:56
Speaker 3: your hand. But no, I mean, really, at the end
14:59
Speaker 3: of the day, another thing I've always said, and not
15:01
Speaker 3: just in boxing, but in life, that I think we
15:03
Speaker 3: learn more from our losses.
15:05
Speaker 2: Than our wins, honestly. Yeah, that's life. You learn more
15:09
Speaker 2: from disappointments, from hardship, from struggles, from failure, than you
15:14
Speaker 2: do from success.
15:15
Speaker 3: 100%.
15:17
Speaker 2: I believe that 100%.
15:19
Speaker 3: And yeah, I mean, Moses Otama, you know, he seems like...
15:23
Speaker 3: like he's got a good head on his shoulders and,
15:25
Speaker 3: you know, he was very humble afterwards. I said, Hey,
15:27
Speaker 3: you know, shit happened. I couldn't make it to the end. And,
15:31
Speaker 3: you know, shout out to her govich. So I'm hoping that,
15:33
Speaker 3: you know, the kid has talent. Like that's undeniable. The
15:37
Speaker 3: way he looked in the early fight, you know, just amazing.
15:40
Speaker 3: And I can see exactly why he was so favored.
15:44
Speaker 3: But this is one of those, I would say probably
15:47
Speaker 3: rare cases of the older experience fighter beating the younger guy. Cause,
15:51
Speaker 3: Most of the time, I think that we see the
15:53
Speaker 3: younger guy with youth and stamina and strength. They seem
15:56
Speaker 3: to always kind of get the.
15:58
Speaker 2: Older guy out of there. That's how it's supposed to be,
16:00
Speaker 2: but it's weird these days, man. It's weird. Yeah.
16:04
Speaker 3: But another thing, too, about Hergovich. So this is an
16:10
Speaker 3: interesting– I didn't realize what the names of all the
16:13
Speaker 3: heavyweight champs are currently when I looked this up. So
16:17
Speaker 3: the belt holders are Hergovich. a guy named Barat Gassiev,
16:22
Speaker 3: Ajit Kavayel, and Neno Dubois. Like, no Americans, nobody.
16:27
Speaker 2: There's no household names. That's the issue. There's no names
16:31
Speaker 2: of the casual person. Like, that's boxing's biggest issue is
16:35
Speaker 2: that the money division in the sport is unfamiliar to
16:39
Speaker 2: the masses. That's the issue. Like, the heavyweights have to.
16:43
Speaker 2: There has to be one. Like, oh, okay, I know
16:45
Speaker 2: who that is. The name's just right off. A lot
16:48
Speaker 2: of people would struggle to name what sport they play. Yeah.
16:51
Speaker 3: No, that's very true. And no disrespect to them, obviously.
16:54
Speaker 3: They're champs and they deserve to be, you know, they
16:56
Speaker 3: deserve our respect. But, yeah, we're being realistic here. Folks
17:00
Speaker 3: don't know these guys. And I actually don't know a
17:02
Speaker 3: couple of these guys. And I've seen, definitely saw Gassi fight,
17:07
Speaker 3: I think, on the B-Bowl undercard versus Better B. But,
17:10
Speaker 3: you know, I don't remember it. And, you know, this
17:13
Speaker 3: has got to be somebody that you can recognize instantly.
17:15
Speaker 3: If not from the face, from the name. Here's a
17:20
Speaker 3: question for you, speaking as somebody who grew up a
17:24
Speaker 3: black boxing fan. A lot of heavyweight fighters are black
17:27
Speaker 3: these days.
17:28
Speaker 2: I'm Mexican.
17:28
Speaker 3: I never, never expected of any Mexican to dominate the
17:32
Speaker 3: heavyweight field. My people are little guys. So it's a
17:35
Speaker 3: little different for me. But how do you feel seeing
17:37
Speaker 3: the heavyweight division and just how far it's come from
17:39
Speaker 3: when we were kids?
17:40
Speaker 2: Well, you got a lot of things to blame for it.
17:43
Speaker 2: You have UFC. So a lot of guys who were 6'1,
17:47
Speaker 2: through like 6'6, that are athletic, instead of boxing, they
17:50
Speaker 2: go to UFC. There's other sports that they've taken up
17:54
Speaker 2: besides the traditional ones. Also, boxing has had a negative
17:57
Speaker 2: connotation around it as well. So there's a lot of
18:00
Speaker 2: different factors that have gone into the big guy that
18:03
Speaker 2: used to be in boxing now is doing other stuff.
18:06
Speaker 2: He's now, you know, there's other options than there was
18:09
Speaker 2: 30 years ago, 40 years ago. That's just what it is. Plus,
18:13
Speaker 2: boxing 34 years ago was looked at a certain way.
18:16
Speaker 2: It was looked at as a way out. Now, there's
18:19
Speaker 2: a bunch of other ways out. There's a bunch of
18:21
Speaker 2: other opportunities if you come from humble beginnings, so to speak,
18:25
Speaker 2: that you don't necessarily need to run to boxing. You
18:27
Speaker 2: can run to other stuff and get taken care of.
18:30
Speaker 2: I mean, if you're the size of a heavy boxer,
18:34
Speaker 2: you can probably play football and figure it out. I mean,
18:36
Speaker 2: there's a lot of other options than there used to be,
18:38
Speaker 2: that's all. That's the biggest thing I would say. Definitely.
18:42
Speaker 3: And then do you feel like, I don't see how
18:44
Speaker 3: to put this, but maybe you're less interested in the
18:47
Speaker 3: heavyweight division overall than having people.
18:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, because think about it. There's no heavyweight fights that are...
18:56
Speaker 2: We're talking about the guys that keep marking here are
18:58
Speaker 2: guys that are old and past their prime. Like Tyson Fury,
19:01
Speaker 2: I don't want to see Tyson Fury fight anymore. Like,
19:04
Speaker 2: Usec is basically in the same boat. Like, we're highlighting
19:09
Speaker 2: guys that are 40 and up. That don't work in sports.
19:12
Speaker 2: Like you can't keep doing that. You got to grow eventually.
19:15
Speaker 2: So for me, I want to see someone that is
19:19
Speaker 2: young that we get to follow from first fight to
19:23
Speaker 2: last fight. Not someone that gets thrown in there. Not
19:25
Speaker 2: somebody that's had a good career in Europe and refused
19:28
Speaker 2: to come over. Nah, I want to see somebody come from,
19:32
Speaker 2: you know, first fight. We get to see them grow,
19:35
Speaker 2: get to see them grow. Them fighting every other month,
19:37
Speaker 2: every three months. And then all of a sudden, oh,
19:39
Speaker 2: they have a title fight. That's what I want to see.
19:42
Speaker 2: I don't know how realistic that is, but that's kind
19:44
Speaker 2: of where we are.
19:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I looked up Filip Hergovich's record. The last
19:48
Speaker 3: time he fought in the U.S. I think it was
19:50
Speaker 3: like 2019 or something like that. It's been a long
19:52
Speaker 3: ass time. Or 21, it was either right before or
19:55
Speaker 3: after the Rona. And then everything else was, you know, overseas,
19:58
Speaker 3: which is great, you know, awesome. But I'll be honest,
20:01
Speaker 3: I had to, I set an alarm so I could
20:03
Speaker 3: make sure I was awake by the crack of noon
20:05
Speaker 3: to catch this fight because we had talked about how
20:08
Speaker 3: I really wanted to see Moses atop a fight. And yeah, great.
20:11
Speaker 3: You know, have no problem with fights being overseas, but it,
20:14
Speaker 3: it is very different for someone who grew up with Friday,
20:16
Speaker 3: Saturday night fights. Um, hell, not even that Saturday night
20:20
Speaker 3: is boxing night in my mind from when I was
20:22
Speaker 3: a kid. Um, yeah, especially because even on school, uh,
20:27
Speaker 3: when school was in, we could stay up late to
20:28
Speaker 3: watch it with the family. So, uh, I have that
20:31
Speaker 3: connection to, to Saturday night fights. Um, so it's still
20:35
Speaker 3: to this day as a grown man, I'm like, Oh, right.
20:37
Speaker 2: It's, it's in the UK.
20:38
Speaker 3: You got to, turn on the TV early at 10
20:40
Speaker 3: in the morning or whatever. Um, so yeah, it's, it's
20:43
Speaker 3: hard for us as, as guys who grew up fans
20:46
Speaker 3: in the era we did is to kind of latch
20:48
Speaker 3: onto these names. And again, no disrespect is just, it
20:50
Speaker 3: is what it is. Um, another thing too, that's very interesting.
20:53
Speaker 3: Like I was asking you about the, um, heavyweight division.
20:56
Speaker 3: Cause of course, you know, at Tyson and, um, all
20:58
Speaker 3: these fighters for me, heavyweights, of course, I always enjoy fights,
21:02
Speaker 3: but I've never focused on that. All the Mexican fighters were,
21:05
Speaker 3: like I said, little guys, uh, and they're like one 40,
21:06
Speaker 3: one 50, um, At the most, I was skinny as
21:11
Speaker 3: a kid as well, so I always really enjoyed that
21:13
Speaker 3: and watching.
21:14
Speaker 2: The way they move.
21:14
Speaker 3: So I've never really had that much of a connection
21:18
Speaker 3: to the heavyweight division, honestly. Speaking as somebody that, you know,
21:23
Speaker 3: love all fights, but just what kind of gets me
21:25
Speaker 3: engaged has never been that. So it's really interesting to
21:28
Speaker 3: see where it is now compared to what it was
21:30
Speaker 3: when we were younger. But, yeah, you know, really, let's
21:35
Speaker 3: see what happens with Moses Itama and see if he's
21:37
Speaker 3: got the... the mental strength to come back and become
21:40
Speaker 3: a champ again. But for now, that's kind of the
21:44
Speaker 3: main things we want to talk about. And then this Friday,
21:46
Speaker 3: if you're listening to this one, it comes out. So
21:48
Speaker 3: tomorrow the 4th, Andy Ruiz comes back on the monthly
21:53
Speaker 3: TNT event. So regular, degular television, basic cable. They're actually
21:59
Speaker 3: really excited about it because I've said before, I love
22:01
Speaker 3: that boxing is on regular TV. So we encourage everybody
22:04
Speaker 3: to tune in on Fridays, support boxing on regular linear television.
22:09
Speaker 3: And yeah, you know, we'll be back next week to
22:12
Speaker 3: review that and give you our thoughts. Jameson, where can
22:14
Speaker 3: people find you on social media?
22:16
Speaker 2: Twitter at or X, whatever at the Jameson.
22:20
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22:35
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22:37
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22:46
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22:49
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22:52
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22:54
Speaker 3: listening and salud.