Latest / The Mixed Company Podcast / Gayle Falkenthal Interview

Transcript

Gayle Falkenthal Interview · The Mixed Company Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: In this corner, standing at six foot five, weight class unknowns,
0:04
Speaker 1: but hailing from the city of Sins. Put your hands
0:06
Speaker 1: together for Jamison will and in this then in his
0:10
Speaker 1: five foot ten, weighing in at pound and coming to
0:14
Speaker 1: us from his super secret bunker with no AC in Tucson, Arizona.
0:18
Speaker 1: Put your hands together for Louis Montemao. All right, thank you.
0:23
Speaker 1: Welcome back to another episode of the Mixed Company podcast.
0:26
Speaker 1: Of course, on one half of the show, Jamison drum
0:29
Speaker 1: by Luise. Louise, what's long man?
0:32
Speaker 2: And Jamison, I am so excited to be here for
0:34
Speaker 2: our very first episode of twenty twenty six, So so
0:38
Speaker 2: excited about the new year, excited about the world of boxing.
0:41
Speaker 2: You know, I take this show seriously, so this is
0:44
Speaker 2: airing on January first. I was very I behaved myself
0:47
Speaker 2: last night very much, so I'm not hungover for the
0:49
Speaker 2: show at all. So Happy New Year to you, Jamison,
0:52
Speaker 2: and happy New Year to a very special guest that
0:55
Speaker 2: we have today. We have an award winning boxing journalist
0:58
Speaker 2: who is going to join us today and recap the year.
1:01
Speaker 2: Please welcome to the ring, Miss Gail Fuckenthal.
1:05
Speaker 3: Happy new Year, everybody. What a great way to start
1:07
Speaker 3: it off. Thank you for inviting me on the show.
1:10
Speaker 2: Oh, thank you so much for being here. And you know,
1:12
Speaker 2: I say boxing journalists, but you know there's more to you.
1:15
Speaker 2: You're a commentator, you know you're an editor. You've done,
1:18
Speaker 2: you've done as a PR consulting. I mean, you do
1:20
Speaker 2: so much. Like I didn't want to overload with credits,
1:23
Speaker 2: but just give us a little bit about you know
1:25
Speaker 2: what you want to tell the people, what you do,
1:27
Speaker 2: you're interestar and you know what what you want to
1:29
Speaker 2: put out there.
1:31
Speaker 3: Well we'll make it simple because we're really here to
1:33
Speaker 3: talk about boxing, not about me, but just for the
1:36
Speaker 3: credit list. I'm based in San Diego, California, where I
1:39
Speaker 3: grew up in a household with a boxing crazy dad.
1:43
Speaker 3: And being in San Diego and before the days of
1:46
Speaker 3: streaming and really before the days of a lot of cable,
1:52
Speaker 3: we watched a lot of TV both from our side
1:54
Speaker 3: of the border, and you could watch all the stations
1:57
Speaker 3: in Tijuana. So what's on TV in Mexico it's pretty
2:01
Speaker 3: much Telenovella's soccer and boxing. So I grew with that
2:07
Speaker 3: and did the region funny enough, without a lot of
2:11
Speaker 3: major fights or fighters, but a tremendous interest in boxing,
2:15
Speaker 3: and my best girlhood friend was a Latina girl who
2:19
Speaker 3: loved boxing just as much as me. And I always
2:22
Speaker 3: wanted to be a sports journalist, but I was really
2:25
Speaker 3: a little too early. It was born a little too
2:28
Speaker 3: early for a lot of women getting into sports writing
2:31
Speaker 3: or sportscasting unless you covered tennis, gymnastics, figure skating. Not
2:37
Speaker 3: that there's anything wrong with that, I watch them all,
2:40
Speaker 3: but I ended up going just into street broadcast journalism
2:44
Speaker 3: and print journalism for most of my career. But I
2:48
Speaker 3: left the news business because I actually wanted to make
2:51
Speaker 3: some money, and I know all of you out there
2:54
Speaker 3: who do this understand. So I eventually got into the
2:57
Speaker 3: public relations side of things and eventually started my own
3:00
Speaker 3: PR firm. Did you know that Siren Call was always
3:03
Speaker 3: still out there? And I got a little part time
3:06
Speaker 3: gig on a new online news site, at first just
3:12
Speaker 3: writing media commentary, but I had the opportunity to fill
3:17
Speaker 3: in for our sports editor to go cover a fight
3:20
Speaker 3: in Las Vegas and it was Pacquiao Marquez three, and
3:24
Speaker 3: he never got his job back. That's my story in
3:29
Speaker 3: a nutshell. So for the last fifteen years I've been
3:32
Speaker 3: doing this again as a side job, which is the
3:36
Speaker 3: best way to cover boxing when you do not need
3:39
Speaker 3: it to pay your mortgage. So that has been a
3:41
Speaker 3: good thing and it's benefited me to be able to
3:45
Speaker 3: see my side of that profession from both ends, watching
3:51
Speaker 3: all of those folks we deal with on the pr
3:53
Speaker 3: side in boxing, dealing with us, and hopefully keep my
3:57
Speaker 3: writing and commentating and unication skills sharp. But what a
4:02
Speaker 3: fun time to be in to see a lot of good,
4:07
Speaker 3: a lot of bad, a lot of ugly, a lot
4:09
Speaker 3: of excitement. You know, there's always a knockout around the
4:12
Speaker 3: corner to save things for us.
4:15
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and yes, we are here to talk about boxing,
4:18
Speaker 2: but we're not not here to talk about you. Because
4:19
Speaker 2: I'm also curious about where there any particular fights or
4:22
Speaker 2: fighter is that you're really a fan of that really
4:25
Speaker 2: got you into the sport or was it just because
4:27
Speaker 2: it was on all the time.
4:29
Speaker 3: You know, I've always enjoyed watching a lot of the
4:32
Speaker 3: Mexican and Mexican American fighters in Southern California. I will
4:35
Speaker 3: say because the first fight I ever saw ringside featured
4:39
Speaker 3: Manny Pacquiao, who is already a pretty big star, I admit,
4:44
Speaker 3: you know, along the way. He's always been one of
4:46
Speaker 3: my very favorite fighters. You know, we all grew up
4:49
Speaker 3: watching Oscar de la Hoya, and of course we watched
4:52
Speaker 3: Manny destroy Oscars. That was a lot of fun. And
4:57
Speaker 3: I have enjoyed walk watching the wave of Eastern European
5:02
Speaker 3: fighters become big stars in the United States, starting with
5:06
Speaker 3: guys like well, of course, you had Vladimir Klitschko back
5:09
Speaker 3: in the day. The one I really got to know
5:11
Speaker 3: because he ended up stationing himself in southern California for
5:15
Speaker 3: a lot of his career was Gonadi Glovkin, who's I
5:18
Speaker 3: think you see his glove over there over my shoulder.
5:21
Speaker 3: And I also was very well acquainted with his trainer
5:24
Speaker 3: at the time, Abel Sanchez, who was from the San
5:27
Speaker 3: Diego area, who after he took Terry Norris to fame,
5:34
Speaker 3: he kind of retired and he's a building contractor by
5:39
Speaker 3: skill sets, so he built houses and stuff like that,
5:44
Speaker 3: and then he retired again a second time, and he's
5:47
Speaker 3: been drawn back in, so that's been a fun story.
5:51
Speaker 3: I also, of course, always enjoyed watching even the kind
5:55
Speaker 3: of no name guys that come out of Mexico, you know,
5:59
Speaker 3: watching fights on Mexican TV from places like Big Punch
6:03
Speaker 3: Arena right where you've seen a lot of the greats,
6:08
Speaker 3: and Eric Morales obviously was a big favorite of all
6:12
Speaker 3: the Mexican wars. I've always enjoyed the smaller weight divisions.
6:17
Speaker 3: I think in part because we did watch so many
6:20
Speaker 3: of the greatest fighters from Mexico they're in the lower
6:24
Speaker 3: weight divisions. I've always had a soft spot along the
6:28
Speaker 3: way for Jorge R. Say. I keep voting for him
6:30
Speaker 3: to get in the Hall of Fame, crossing my finger
6:33
Speaker 3: is one of these days everybody will recognize what a
6:36
Speaker 3: great fighter he was. And to this day, I still
6:40
Speaker 3: have an enormous admiration for the lower weight divisions. And
6:43
Speaker 3: I'm so pleased to see one of the biggest stars
6:49
Speaker 3: in the sport being in that lower you know, that
6:52
Speaker 3: lower tier of weight divisions, and I think of that
6:55
Speaker 3: as anything featherweight under and U and one of our
7:00
Speaker 3: biggest emerging stars also being from that division. And will
7:04
Speaker 3: there ever be a collision course between Naoia in a
7:08
Speaker 3: way and vam Rodriguez, We will see.
7:12
Speaker 2: You know, yeah, you and I personally, we have a
7:14
Speaker 2: lot of similarities there because I'm Mexican, American grew up watching,
7:19
Speaker 2: so I've always kind of related to the to the
7:21
Speaker 2: little guys. So but yeah, but at the end of
7:24
Speaker 2: the day as well, I just love watching fights. I'll
7:26
Speaker 2: put one on even if I don't know the name.
7:27
Speaker 3: So, you know, sometimes the no name guys, you know,
7:31
Speaker 3: the the even matchups down on the you know, early
7:34
Speaker 3: early fights on a card deliver the best action. You
7:39
Speaker 3: are just these guys have nothing to lose, they let
7:42
Speaker 3: it rip and it's just it's a ton of fun.
7:45
Speaker 3: And you know, this is not to say I don't
7:48
Speaker 3: love a good heavyweight fight, a great, spectacular heavyweight knockout
7:52
Speaker 3: by by any means, that's that's a part of the
7:55
Speaker 3: sport too. And I firmly believe the cliche that when
7:58
Speaker 3: the heavyweight division is healthy, boxing as healthy. But how
8:03
Speaker 3: can you not love the speed, the offensive aggression, the
8:09
Speaker 3: punch output, the movement. That's something the smaller weight division
8:14
Speaker 3: fighters at the highest level deliver. You know that a
8:17
Speaker 3: guy having a move two hundred and fifty pounds around
8:20
Speaker 3: a ring just I'm sorry, just cannot do it. I
8:23
Speaker 3: think that's why I've also really always loved those that
8:27
Speaker 3: sort of middleweight division grounds, you know, middleweight right there
8:31
Speaker 3: at the center, because it's the intersection of both. It's
8:35
Speaker 3: the intersection of guys who still have plenty of speed
8:38
Speaker 3: and hand speed, but still have tremendous power up at
8:42
Speaker 3: that size. And you know, maybe that's why I was
8:45
Speaker 3: always such a big fan of Galovkin, of Canelo Alvarez
8:49
Speaker 3: when he was sitting at that weight class, which I
8:51
Speaker 3: firmly think were his best days. And I'm so disappointed
8:55
Speaker 3: right now with the middleweight division. There's just you know,
8:59
Speaker 3: the next generation of talent hasn't emerged. Yeah, we've got
9:03
Speaker 3: champions there, but you know not they they aren't. They
9:10
Speaker 3: aren't the men that we remember of this glamour division
9:15
Speaker 3: at all. So either step up, guys, or move aside.
9:20
Speaker 2: Well, you know, we, Jameson, I critique the boxing world
9:23
Speaker 2: love because we love it and we want it to
9:25
Speaker 2: be it's the best board in the world, and we
9:26
Speaker 2: want it to be the best to live up to it.
9:28
Speaker 2: So I can definitely appreciate where you're coming from, and
9:31
Speaker 2: I definitely appreciate your passion for the sports.
9:35
Speaker 3: If we don't feel the truth about it, what's the point,
9:38
Speaker 3: right We we love it even with all its sports
9:42
Speaker 3: and flaws and we all know what they are, but
9:45
Speaker 3: when a great fight goes down, there's no truly to me,
9:49
Speaker 3: there's nothing more exciting in the world of sports, and
9:51
Speaker 3: I love sports, but there's nothing like the excitement of
9:57
Speaker 3: a big win in a meaning full prize fight.
10:02
Speaker 2: One hundred percent agree, one hundred percent agree. So that's
10:04
Speaker 2: kind of a good transition for where we're going next.
10:06
Speaker 2: You know, I wanted to get your thoughts on boxing
10:08
Speaker 2: as a whole in twenty twenty five, just this past year.
10:10
Speaker 2: You know, we had some great fights, we had some lulls.
10:12
Speaker 2: We talked about the good and the bad. I really
10:15
Speaker 2: love you talking about the the lack of stars in
10:18
Speaker 2: the in the middle division there. But I mean, what
10:20
Speaker 2: do you see as a whole in terms of where
10:23
Speaker 2: boxing is because I think it's harder to find because
10:26
Speaker 2: top rank isn't on TV nothing, everything is on streaming.
10:29
Speaker 2: Are we at a low point? Are we at a
10:31
Speaker 2: new opportunity for something different and exciting? Like is what's
10:35
Speaker 2: your take on it? For what you've seen this past year.
10:37
Speaker 3: I think boxing has a lot of potential and we're
10:40
Speaker 3: in a transition period, so we don't really know where
10:45
Speaker 3: we're going from where we've been. We are at a
10:48
Speaker 3: point now we're in the United States there is no
10:53
Speaker 3: linear or cable television outlet showing boxing for the first time.
11:00
Speaker 3: That's a culture shock for a lot of people. Top
11:03
Speaker 3: Rank has left ESPN as of the end of August
11:08
Speaker 3: July somewhere in the summer. They still don't have a home.
11:11
Speaker 3: They're fighters, still don't have a home. Now. Top Rank
11:15
Speaker 3: has placed their guys in a few women on other cards.
11:20
Speaker 3: You know, they are getting out there. They are fighting,
11:22
Speaker 3: but they are not under the Top Rank banner, and
11:25
Speaker 3: they're relying on the charity and matchups of the other promoters.
11:29
Speaker 3: So they're doing what they can. But boy, I sure
11:33
Speaker 3: hope they find a home soon, and it isn't on
11:36
Speaker 3: some you know, third tier cable network. On the other hand,
11:42
Speaker 3: the potential for streaming has been a plus in so
11:47
Speaker 3: many ways. There is no way twenty years ago, even
11:53
Speaker 3: ten years ago, I could have imagined being able to
11:57
Speaker 3: see fight cards live from around the world in real time.
12:02
Speaker 3: One of that meant I was getting up at three
12:04
Speaker 3: in the morning to watch them from Japan. Didn't matter
12:08
Speaker 3: because streaming has allowed us that access. And sometimes it's
12:12
Speaker 3: a grainy YouTube channel and sometimes it's a kind of
12:16
Speaker 3: a sketchy I don't know what it is, and they
12:19
Speaker 3: want me to pay five bucks for it. And then,
12:21
Speaker 3: of course they're the big operators, you know, broadcasting around
12:24
Speaker 3: the world. But we the fan have more access to
12:30
Speaker 3: worldwide boxing than we ever did before. The problem is
12:35
Speaker 3: when there's a price tag attached to a lot of
12:38
Speaker 3: it that really prices out the average fan. How much
12:42
Speaker 3: can you expect the average person trying to pay their
12:46
Speaker 3: bills to cough up? If you really want to watch
12:50
Speaker 3: every significant fight, every decent pay per view card, you know,
12:55
Speaker 3: we're talking hundreds of dollars a year. And while I
12:59
Speaker 3: do not advocate piracy or streaming, because these guys need
13:03
Speaker 3: to make a living and need to make a profit
13:06
Speaker 3: where the fighters don't get fights and they don't get paid,
13:10
Speaker 3: but the fans can only be hit up for so much. Hey,
13:15
Speaker 3: the promises that were made to us to remember, pay
13:18
Speaker 3: per view is dead. Pay per view is dead. And
13:21
Speaker 3: that's the same network now asking someone to pay close
13:24
Speaker 3: to five hundred bucks a year. Oh, but you're going
13:27
Speaker 3: to get all your pay per views free? Well, what
13:30
Speaker 3: if you don't want to watch all those pay per views?
13:32
Speaker 3: It doesn't matter that's a model, you know, digital delivery
13:39
Speaker 3: of content, entertainment, sports, what have you. It is still
13:45
Speaker 3: in some ways finding its way. The good news is
13:48
Speaker 3: some of the big streaming operations that didn't establish themselves
13:54
Speaker 3: to get into the business of sports casting are figuring
13:57
Speaker 3: out that live sports is a huge draw offer its
14:00
Speaker 3: other content. So you have the players like Netflix and
14:04
Speaker 3: Prime Video coming in, you know, and I'm okay with
14:07
Speaker 3: that as long as they can continue to offer it
14:10
Speaker 3: primarily as part of a subscription package. Netflix seems inclined
14:14
Speaker 3: to hand us these big cards, these stunt cards. Prime
14:18
Speaker 3: Video a little less, but we have had some good
14:21
Speaker 3: cards with just your subscription. I'm hopeful that this all
14:27
Speaker 3: sorts itself out, calms down, realizes they've got to have
14:31
Speaker 3: fan eyes on these things without attaching dollars all the
14:36
Speaker 3: time to keep the sport healthy. You also have that infusion,
14:41
Speaker 3: you know, the last couple of years of money from
14:43
Speaker 3: the Middle East, specifically from Saudi Arabia, you know, and
14:48
Speaker 3: the Turkey Alah Shakes and the Saudi General Entertainment Authority
14:51
Speaker 3: have a completely different business model. They don't need to
14:55
Speaker 3: make a profit. This is a marketing expense for them.
15:00
Speaker 3: This is a tactic to get people to consider vacations
15:06
Speaker 3: high end tourism in the Middle East, specifically in Saudi
15:10
Speaker 3: and it's also aimed at the British and European market
15:14
Speaker 3: of people who might invest, who might buy a vacation home.
15:18
Speaker 3: We don't see that in the United States. I mean,
15:20
Speaker 3: we are getting that benefit without being played to, although
15:26
Speaker 3: there is the political aspect we could go down that
15:29
Speaker 3: rabbit hole, and I don't want to start our year
15:31
Speaker 3: doing that. We're gonna have plenty of time to consider
15:34
Speaker 3: that because we are seeing the Saudi's partnering in a
15:39
Speaker 3: new venture, which was one of the big stories of
15:42
Speaker 3: twenty twenty five with Dana White, who's always wanted to
15:46
Speaker 3: get into boxing, but he wants to bring the UFC
15:49
Speaker 3: business model to boxing. That's going to take some political
15:55
Speaker 3: will and a change in legislation, specifically with the ALIAC.
16:00
Speaker 3: I am interested to see how that plays out. I'm
16:04
Speaker 3: concerned about it. I want to see what eventually happens. Obviously,
16:09
Speaker 3: the current promoters they still want the infusion of Saudi money,
16:14
Speaker 3: but they don't want to see a single entity taking over.
16:20
Speaker 3: ZUFA was starting to sign boxers to its roster they
16:26
Speaker 3: aren't going to be the big stars. The big stars
16:28
Speaker 3: are not going to want to operate under that pay scale.
16:32
Speaker 3: So for a while it's going to be a development league.
16:35
Speaker 3: I'm okay with that. It looks like the first event
16:38
Speaker 3: is going to be at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
16:41
Speaker 3: It's kind of an odd spot for your first big
16:45
Speaker 3: fight on your new banner. It's at the Apex. But
16:49
Speaker 3: we'll see that in late late this month. But let's
16:53
Speaker 3: see how much patience and how much money the Saudis
16:59
Speaker 3: want to think in If it's nothing but development fights,
17:04
Speaker 3: development fights, prospects, it's going to be a better promoted
17:10
Speaker 3: version of pro Box, and pro Box delivers some absolutely
17:15
Speaker 3: great cards, but nobody pretends pro Box is putting on
17:20
Speaker 3: any way in Na Kataki, Nakatucki or Crawford and Canelo.
17:26
Speaker 3: So let's see what happens.
17:29
Speaker 2: That's fair. And we've had a lot of conversations about,
17:31
Speaker 2: you know, how uneasy it we are about the Middle
17:34
Speaker 2: East money coming in, the Saudi money and Dana White.
17:36
Speaker 2: But I got more to ask, but I don't want
17:38
Speaker 2: to monopolize.
17:39
Speaker 4: The interview of Jameson please jump in here, So Gil
17:42
Speaker 4: quick question if you were boxing commissioner, what would you
17:46
Speaker 4: do in this situation regarding the streaming, regarding where the
17:50
Speaker 4: money is coming from.
17:51
Speaker 1: Is there anything that you would do or you would
17:53
Speaker 1: change for everything that you know of at the moment.
17:56
Speaker 3: You know. The first thing I do is, you do
17:59
Speaker 3: have an audience you're leaving behind with streaming only, so
18:05
Speaker 3: we need to see some kind of broadcast pick up
18:09
Speaker 3: from this. And I'm not sure why it hasn't happened,
18:12
Speaker 3: you know. Back in the depths of my mind, as
18:16
Speaker 3: we see some of these merger talks going on, I
18:20
Speaker 3: have often wondered if Top Rank isn't waiting to see
18:26
Speaker 3: some different ownership deals move around and one of the
18:29
Speaker 3: networks that's still just scratching the surface into live sports.
18:35
Speaker 3: It is ironic because it was one of the first
18:39
Speaker 3: pay cable outlets that had live sports, HBO I. I
18:45
Speaker 3: still have this premonition that Top Rank could go back
18:51
Speaker 3: to HBO Boxing and reestablish itself there. I could be
18:55
Speaker 3: way off base. I would love to see something like
18:58
Speaker 3: that happen, especially if there's a ale. But if I
19:03
Speaker 3: could waive the magic wand the sanctioning bodies need to
19:07
Speaker 3: be brought to heal. First of all, you know they
19:11
Speaker 3: all have a handout, they all do. You know, they
19:18
Speaker 3: are not looking for the best interests of the sport.
19:21
Speaker 3: They're looking for the best interests of their operations. You know, commissions,
19:26
Speaker 3: sanctioning bodies are businesses. Their business objectives do not always
19:31
Speaker 3: benefit the sport. We could regulate that. Calm that down,
19:37
Speaker 3: boil that down. I'm not sure that you need just
19:42
Speaker 3: one sanctioning body. And I think the genie got out
19:47
Speaker 3: of the bottle a long time ago. You're never going
19:50
Speaker 3: to stuff that in. Say what you will about all
19:53
Speaker 3: these belts. Fighters want the belts. Belts are leverage for
19:57
Speaker 3: them to get better paychecks, better deals. I'm all for
20:02
Speaker 3: whatever gets those guys paid, right, but there needs to
20:07
Speaker 3: be some unification over them to at least get them
20:12
Speaker 3: all to follow the same rules and cooperate with each other,
20:16
Speaker 3: you know. On the other hand, the Ring magazine belt
20:19
Speaker 3: does not charge a saying Scheik fee is overseen by
20:22
Speaker 3: a committee including a lot of journalists, their ratings committee,
20:28
Speaker 3: and the rules are very very strict about who what
20:32
Speaker 3: level of fight gets to fight for a ring magazine belt.
20:35
Speaker 3: That's the one the fighters prize for a reason. Can
20:39
Speaker 3: we somehow consolidate the other belts to have some systems
20:44
Speaker 3: similar to that? Let's for you know, I am very
20:47
Speaker 3: tired of the interims and the secondary belts and the
20:54
Speaker 3: you know, Africa title, the Asia, Pacific, the global Make
20:58
Speaker 3: those make those some kind of ranking. But does everybody
21:03
Speaker 3: need a trinket to hang on to? That would help
21:08
Speaker 3: a lot of people. The average fan. If you ask
21:10
Speaker 3: the average fan who is the middleweight champion? Well, they
21:17
Speaker 3: don't really know. And there are four guys who can
21:19
Speaker 3: claim to be the middleweight champion, well three right now
21:22
Speaker 3: since one of them looks like he's gonna be stripped.
21:26
Speaker 3: What is a unified champion? What's an under They don't
21:29
Speaker 3: know this stuff. If you ask who won the World Series,
21:33
Speaker 3: they know. If you ask them who won the super
21:36
Speaker 3: Bowl they know? How do we get there so that
21:41
Speaker 3: they know who the champion or the few are. Perhaps
21:46
Speaker 3: we need to dial back the number of divisions. I mean,
21:49
Speaker 3: are we at eighteen divisions? Now? This is nuts? This
21:54
Speaker 3: is nuts. There's a sweet spot between the original eight
22:01
Speaker 3: and this you know, explosion of divisions we have. Now,
22:05
Speaker 3: let's boil that back down to a reasonable dozen thirteen,
22:12
Speaker 3: and let's stop this nonsense of inserting a division here
22:16
Speaker 3: and a bridger weight here, and I mean that that
22:20
Speaker 3: would force more people to fight against each other. It
22:25
Speaker 3: would help tremendously. You know, the great Larry Merchant said
22:29
Speaker 3: it the best. You know, boxing. You can't fix it
22:33
Speaker 3: and you can't kill it. I mean, that's the bottom line.
22:37
Speaker 3: We can chop away at the margins. Yeah, but you know,
22:43
Speaker 3: boxing is its own animal. It really is, and deep
22:49
Speaker 3: down you know that's part of the charm of it
22:52
Speaker 3: in a way, isn't it right, even if it frustrates
22:55
Speaker 3: us so much sometimes? But let's tidy up the obvious right,
23:00
Speaker 3: Let's go after that low hanging fruit. Let's maybe consolidate
23:04
Speaker 3: some divisions. Let's let's bring the sanctioning bodies to heal
23:08
Speaker 3: and if it takes the promoters, great. You know, we
23:11
Speaker 3: never thought we would see, for example, Eddie Hearn and
23:16
Speaker 3: Frank Warren sitting together at a fight, yucking it up,
23:19
Speaker 3: watching all their fighters fight each other. Or Bob Aram
23:22
Speaker 3: and Foscar de la Joya, you know, doing business. They
23:26
Speaker 3: are they have somewhat been forced to because they have
23:30
Speaker 3: to follow the money. But it means that when the
23:35
Speaker 3: conditions are right, it is possible, and that gives me
23:38
Speaker 3: some hope.
23:40
Speaker 2: Well, no, it's yeah. It's a really interesting take because
23:44
Speaker 2: sometimes we're kind of down on how money has gotten
23:46
Speaker 2: too much into boxing. Jamison and I haven't talked about
23:48
Speaker 2: this at nauseum, but you're right, I mean, it can
23:51
Speaker 2: be a motivator for what we want to see. But
23:54
Speaker 2: before we get into you know, picks jameson, do any
23:56
Speaker 2: you have another one to jump in with.
23:58
Speaker 1: Yes, So obviously there's a several hotspots for boxing in
24:03
Speaker 1: the country. You're from the west, you have West coast
24:05
Speaker 1: route of San Diego. Of course La is closed. Of
24:08
Speaker 1: course Vegas is closed. What's the difference between boxing on
24:12
Speaker 1: the East coast and boxing on the West coast.
24:14
Speaker 3: Well, interestingly enough, I've had a very short period of
24:18
Speaker 3: three or four years right before the pandemic actually where
24:21
Speaker 3: I worked for main events out of New Jersey for
24:24
Speaker 3: Kathy Duva, and so I was involved in a lot
24:27
Speaker 3: of the promotions back east versus promotions that you see
24:31
Speaker 3: here in the West coast, primarily as you said, Las
24:34
Speaker 3: Vegas in La you know, And part of it follows
24:39
Speaker 3: the fighters themselves, the culture of the region, the personality
24:44
Speaker 3: types of the region. You know, everybody, whether it's true
24:47
Speaker 3: or not, has a picture in their mind of someone's
24:50
Speaker 3: from Los Angeles or Southern California, right, and someone who's
24:54
Speaker 3: from New York or New Jersey, and the flavor of
24:59
Speaker 3: those personalities. You know, New York and New Jersey area
25:07
Speaker 3: had been a hotbed of club fights and guys, you know, hard,
25:11
Speaker 3: scrappy guys rising up through the ranks, you know, through
25:16
Speaker 3: places like Joda Guardia's Starboxing, through main events who developed
25:21
Speaker 3: a lot of local fighters, you know who ran lower
25:25
Speaker 3: you sort of lower tier cards that I would say
25:29
Speaker 3: maybe were club fights plus. And the objective was signing
25:34
Speaker 3: guys who were fan friendly, you could put meet in
25:39
Speaker 3: the seats, sell tickets, right, So you had that that
25:45
Speaker 3: flavor of you know, rough and ready, you know competitors,
25:51
Speaker 3: many of whom went on to become champions, and you
25:55
Speaker 3: had a similar culture, but driven by the Latino experience.
26:00
Speaker 3: It's in particular in Southern California. But the one thing
26:05
Speaker 3: they both share is, let's face it, nobody gets into boxing.
26:10
Speaker 3: It's always dangerous to use the word nobody. Very very few,
26:15
Speaker 3: a tiny fraction of boxers get get in. The mass
26:20
Speaker 3: majority do not come from an affluent background. Right, Boxing
26:25
Speaker 3: is a very tough sport. It's you know, very few
26:30
Speaker 3: people's first choice of way to make a living, but
26:35
Speaker 3: it's accessible. It's a sport that when you first start,
26:39
Speaker 3: you know, you don't need teammates, you don't need a
26:42
Speaker 3: lot of equipment. You need, you know, the desire and
26:46
Speaker 3: will to get in there and train and have someone
26:50
Speaker 3: get a pair of gloves out of a box, you know,
26:53
Speaker 3: a dozen at the side of the gyms, drop them
26:56
Speaker 3: on you. Yeah they okay, they fit, okay, and go
26:59
Speaker 3: at it right. And you've seen a lot of guys
27:04
Speaker 3: rise from poverty because they are so driven to get
27:09
Speaker 3: to the top, because they want to feed their families.
27:12
Speaker 3: And you know, it's almost every Mexican fighter that ever
27:16
Speaker 3: lived fits that category. You know, every guy from a
27:20
Speaker 3: blue collar background on the East Coast, everyone who you
27:26
Speaker 3: know was hanging on by a fingernail, starving, you know,
27:31
Speaker 3: through rough winters in Eastern Europe, in some of the
27:34
Speaker 3: Soviet breakaway republics. They all have the same thing in
27:38
Speaker 3: common that this is their way out. That's the kind
27:44
Speaker 3: of motivator. Someone needs to stay in the sport long
27:48
Speaker 3: enough and train hard enough to be good at it
27:51
Speaker 3: and then have that you know, tiny percentage of a
27:56
Speaker 3: chance of making life changing money. And to this day,
28:01
Speaker 3: even though boxing is no longer a mainstream sport, especially
28:04
Speaker 3: in North America, if you ever look at the list
28:07
Speaker 3: of highest made athletes that Forbes magazine still puts together,
28:13
Speaker 3: there are always a significant number of boxers in the
28:16
Speaker 3: top twenty, which is really saying something given the eye
28:19
Speaker 3: popping salaries guys are making at the highest levels of
28:23
Speaker 3: the big professional sports that are so popular soccer, NFL,
28:28
Speaker 3: NBA show.
28:29
Speaker 1: Hey O, Tony, Definitely, now where do you prefer doing
28:34
Speaker 1: business at, whether it's covering a fight or promoing a fight?
28:37
Speaker 1: You before the West Coast or the East Coast in
28:39
Speaker 1: that regard.
28:40
Speaker 3: Well, from a purely selfish aspect, you know, having a
28:44
Speaker 3: flight to the East Coast is pain in the you
28:46
Speaker 3: know what, right, and I will certainly do it, and
28:51
Speaker 3: you know, once I'm there, I enjoy the hell out
28:54
Speaker 3: of it. There truly is nowhere like Madison Square Garden
28:58
Speaker 3: to see a fight. To this day, the last fight
29:02
Speaker 3: I attended there was the big all women's car that
29:05
Speaker 3: MVP put on in July. Spectacular, you know, backed by
29:10
Speaker 3: Netflix money done, beautifully promoted, beautifully fan events at the
29:17
Speaker 3: highest level, you know, just couldn't couldn't have been run better,
29:24
Speaker 3: staged better. And while the main event didn't necessarily rise
29:29
Speaker 3: to expectations, boy a lot of those undercard fights were
29:32
Speaker 3: just phenomenal. Loved it. But you know, when Vegas is
29:39
Speaker 3: an hour plane flight or five hour drive, and there's
29:44
Speaker 3: so many good venues there, from smaller up to the
29:47
Speaker 3: you know, big arenas, and of course now we have
29:49
Speaker 3: Allegian Stadium in the play apparently believe me, T Mobile
29:54
Speaker 3: arenas plenty big. It's about ten percent sea, it's about
29:58
Speaker 3: ten fifteen percent more than Madison Square. Guard does that
30:03
Speaker 3: twenty three thousand plus if they really pack it. You know,
30:07
Speaker 3: you can't be a Vegas fight. You know, I can
30:10
Speaker 3: kind of as long as I remember to apply for
30:12
Speaker 3: a credential, I can kind of make the call. I'm like, yeah,
30:15
Speaker 3: am I gonna go? I don't know, I got I
30:17
Speaker 3: should I get at the car now? And the truth is,
30:20
Speaker 3: for me, all of my family now lives in Las Vegas.
30:22
Speaker 3: Every one of them, one by one moved from San
30:24
Speaker 3: Diego to Las Vegas. So that's you know, it's kind
30:28
Speaker 3: of a nice bonus. The fight scene in Las Vegas
30:31
Speaker 3: has changed and developed, and yeah, it used to be
30:36
Speaker 3: in in its you know heydays in the eighties and nineties.
30:41
Speaker 3: You know, not a lot of fighters lived and trained there,
30:44
Speaker 3: but now they do. In the critical mass of gyms
30:49
Speaker 3: of world class trainers operating out of Las Vegas and
30:53
Speaker 3: the sparring that's now there full time, that has really
30:57
Speaker 3: evolved in the last ten years or so. You know,
31:00
Speaker 3: you need to give a little bit of a nod
31:02
Speaker 3: of guys like Floyd Mayweather SEWN and Kenny Porter's Gym,
31:08
Speaker 3: some of the other longtime gyms that have generated their
31:11
Speaker 3: own ecosystem there. That has been a plus. That's something
31:15
Speaker 3: that the East Coast always had from the get go
31:21
Speaker 3: that Las Vegas had to develop. The sparring in Los
31:25
Speaker 3: Angeles is still really unparalleled on the West Coast and
31:28
Speaker 3: there's still a lot of fighters. You know, if you're
31:31
Speaker 3: west of the Mississippi and you want high level sparring,
31:35
Speaker 3: a lot of guys still come to Los Angeles. Now
31:38
Speaker 3: you have a lot of the Asian fighters, particularly the
31:41
Speaker 3: Japanese fighters coming into Los Angeles for the world class
31:45
Speaker 3: sparing they want. Then you also have you know, growing
31:48
Speaker 3: scenes like Houston just you know, got its own boxing
31:53
Speaker 3: scene that's very high level. You have a lot of
31:56
Speaker 3: fighters now down in Florida, you know, they live there
31:59
Speaker 3: and I have to pay taxes on their money. You
32:02
Speaker 3: have Cuban fighters much more able to come and perform
32:06
Speaker 3: in North America. You know, we have all little pockets
32:11
Speaker 3: like you know, Team Crawford and Omaha. A lot of
32:15
Speaker 3: guys have gone there as well. So I think that
32:18
Speaker 3: diversity is awfully nice and it opens the doors a
32:22
Speaker 3: lot more to a lot more fighters, including the women's
32:28
Speaker 3: professional fighters that are starting to really grow that side
32:31
Speaker 3: of the sport. But given the choice, yeah, and my
32:35
Speaker 3: own personal selfishness, oh yeah, I'll go to Vegas any day.
32:39
Speaker 3: Just that's just so much easier, and a fight week,
32:45
Speaker 3: depending on the card, can be really big in Las Vegas. However,
32:50
Speaker 3: I will say the Taylor Serrano three all women's card
32:54
Speaker 3: MVP put on that was big talk all over New
32:59
Speaker 3: York surprisingly so fight posters and bars everywhere, not just
33:06
Speaker 3: the Irish bars, okay, everywhere. So I was very impressed
33:11
Speaker 3: with that. You know that the carnal boxing culture is
33:15
Speaker 3: still there in New York. I would hate to see
33:17
Speaker 3: that go away.
33:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, when we're we're big supporters Jamison and I have
33:21
Speaker 2: women's boxing as well. You know, there's a lot of
33:23
Speaker 2: boxing fans that are just very you know, they have
33:26
Speaker 2: a lot to say about women in the women's sports
33:29
Speaker 2: in general. Not us, not us, okay, right right right,
33:32
Speaker 2: We're we're not about that, you know where we support
33:34
Speaker 2: boxers one here. But yeah, let's swiss tracks and get
33:39
Speaker 2: into the picks of twenty twenty five. You know, I
33:41
Speaker 2: really I don't see how anybody's top fight of twenty
33:44
Speaker 2: twenty five is going to be different. Is it going
33:46
Speaker 2: to be a surprise? But I don't know, you know,
33:49
Speaker 2: just give us. I don't know. If you get top three
33:50
Speaker 2: maybe of your fights of the year.
33:53
Speaker 3: I I sure will, you know, I think an early
33:57
Speaker 3: candidate because it was such an event as much as
34:03
Speaker 3: it was a fight, was finally seeing Chris you Bank
34:07
Speaker 3: Junior and Connor Benn get in the ring. Right. What
34:10
Speaker 3: a spectacle, what a build up? You know it if
34:17
Speaker 3: someone scripted that as a feature film, they someone would think, oh,
34:21
Speaker 3: you know, I'm quite sure this is all believable, And
34:26
Speaker 3: you cannot tell me that you didn't stand up off
34:29
Speaker 3: your couch when you saw Chris you Bank Senior get
34:32
Speaker 3: out of that limo who showed up to see his
34:35
Speaker 3: son fight for their family honor. And the fight, you know,
34:40
Speaker 3: was very competitive. It might not have produced anyone spectacular
34:47
Speaker 3: moment in the ring, but it had a lot of
34:50
Speaker 3: that tension, a lot of that cultural pride. I think
34:54
Speaker 3: that's on anyone's shortlist. It really really has to be.
34:58
Speaker 3: And then you fast forward to few months and you know,
35:01
Speaker 3: we always expect to have a really great fight on
35:04
Speaker 3: Cinco de Mayo weekend, and you had this big, you know,
35:09
Speaker 3: multi continental card, all this stuff going on and Canello
35:15
Speaker 3: making his first appearance in Riod that Times Square card
35:20
Speaker 3: that was so talked up. I mean, how much more
35:25
Speaker 3: of a disaster could all of that been? I mean
35:28
Speaker 3: it was just cringe worthy, right, was just the worst.
35:32
Speaker 2: We were not happy. We were not happy.
35:34
Speaker 3: Oh, I mean the New York fight was bad enough.
35:38
Speaker 3: And I sat and watched that card in the Top
35:42
Speaker 3: Rank offices with a bunch of the staff, with the
35:46
Speaker 3: chairman himself, with Cynthia Poncher and a whole bunch of
35:51
Speaker 3: people Christina Poncher pardon me, and I mean that was
35:56
Speaker 3: just a face Palm. The whole way through. It was
35:58
Speaker 3: just horror hole. Then I take a break. I go
36:03
Speaker 3: over my sister's house and I said, I'm gotta watch
36:06
Speaker 3: this card from Saudi Arabia. It was even worse. It
36:10
Speaker 3: was worse, the worst. But I was there in Las
36:14
Speaker 3: Vegas to cover that forgotten third card on Sunday night,
36:21
Speaker 3: the return of Noel. In a way, after many years
36:23
Speaker 3: away from the United States, facing this get Ao, scrappy
36:29
Speaker 3: young Mexican guy from San Antonio who I had sat
36:32
Speaker 3: and talked to at length when he came out to
36:35
Speaker 3: Los Angeles for a media day, and his trainer at
36:41
Speaker 3: the time, Joel Diaz, was so high on, so high
36:46
Speaker 3: on him, and I thought, you know, Joelle, Joel is
36:49
Speaker 3: not a hype man, right, And I watched him cardenis
36:54
Speaker 3: going through, you know, your typical media workout with Joel,
36:57
Speaker 3: and I thought, okay, all right, Well, let's hope he
37:00
Speaker 3: gives a good account of himself. That card was thrilling
37:05
Speaker 3: top to bottom. It was everything those other two bloated, overpaid,
37:10
Speaker 3: over hype produced cards were not. It was a shame
37:15
Speaker 3: that thea Tmobile arena was not full. Shame on everyone
37:20
Speaker 3: who failed to fill any empty seat in that arena.
37:23
Speaker 3: But the ten thousand plus or so of us that
37:27
Speaker 3: were there were treated to an absolutely phenomenal evening with
37:31
Speaker 3: all the bells and whistles, with the big ring looks,
37:35
Speaker 3: with that shocker of a knockdown by Cardanis of the way.
37:40
Speaker 3: Let me tell you, we were not certain he was
37:43
Speaker 3: going to get to his feet and stay on his feet.
37:45
Speaker 3: He was wobbly, but that's the muscle, memory, instinct and
37:51
Speaker 3: determination of a champion that you forced him to go
37:53
Speaker 3: forward and then turn that fight around and now in
37:56
Speaker 3: some great moments on the under card, a very impressive
37:59
Speaker 3: knockout once again by spoiler alert, my prospect of the
38:04
Speaker 3: year Emiliano Vargas, who looks, do you know this point
38:08
Speaker 3: to be the real thing? So that's got to also
38:11
Speaker 3: be there the fight of the year. To me, that
38:13
Speaker 3: main event between Inua and Cardenas, and the framework and
38:19
Speaker 3: timing of that fight around it really lent to putting
38:24
Speaker 3: the spotlight on why to me it was a big event.
38:28
Speaker 3: But then go three months down, four or five months
38:33
Speaker 3: down the road and a few miles down the road
38:35
Speaker 3: to Allegiance Stadium, and you know you cannot deny the
38:39
Speaker 3: impact of a card like Canelo versus Bud Crawford with
38:45
Speaker 3: the surprising outcome at the end. So what's your fight
38:50
Speaker 3: of the year. You know, I'd say you could pick
38:54
Speaker 3: any of the three and absolutely justify what the fight
38:58
Speaker 3: of the year was. You might pick something different for
39:03
Speaker 3: the event of the year, right, and I would argue
39:07
Speaker 3: that really winnows down to either you Bank Ben or
39:11
Speaker 3: Canelo Crawford. Is your event of the year. I'm gonna
39:17
Speaker 3: I'm I think be an outlier as we read all
39:20
Speaker 3: of our lists that are out there right now, and
39:23
Speaker 3: I admit to the bias of having Ben ringside, But
39:27
Speaker 3: the Annoy versus Cardinist fight from a pure fighter's perspective,
39:32
Speaker 3: to me, that's the fight of the year. It didn't
39:35
Speaker 3: it didn't have the expectations, the build up, the promotion,
39:39
Speaker 3: the volume, the eyeballs. That's still my fight of the year.
39:43
Speaker 2: Awesome, No, it was a wonderful night, yeah.
39:45
Speaker 3: Now, And I would put the other two right up there.
39:49
Speaker 3: I would add Abdullah Mason and Sam Noakes, you know,
39:53
Speaker 3: as another fight in that category. I also very partial
40:00
Speaker 3: to a fight that was not for a title, did
40:04
Speaker 3: not involve Americans. The heavyweight fight between British fighters Dave
40:09
Speaker 3: Allen and Johnny Fisher was an absolute slobber knocker. If
40:13
Speaker 3: you love the heavyweights, that's your fight. You know. I
40:19
Speaker 3: could even make a an argument just for spectacular result
40:25
Speaker 3: stakes sake of earlier in the year Moses and Tama
40:30
Speaker 3: absolutely wiping out Dillian White. I mean, he just blew
40:34
Speaker 3: right through him, and we all thought, yeah, here's the
40:37
Speaker 3: first big test for this young heavyweight. White's gonna take
40:40
Speaker 3: him into the deep waters. No it didn't. He did not.
40:44
Speaker 3: It did not. Have so a lot of good choices.
40:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, great list. And you see you seem to never
40:53
Speaker 2: miss a fight, which I like that. I try to
40:54
Speaker 2: catch everyone, so.
40:56
Speaker 3: Even it's a hard one, you just you know, once
40:59
Speaker 3: in a while there's a fight I don't see. But
41:01
Speaker 3: that's why there's YouTube.
41:02
Speaker 2: Come on, guys, that's yeah, that's how I watch. I'm sorry,
41:05
Speaker 2: that's how I watch all the fights, because man, I'm
41:07
Speaker 2: not getting up at three four in the morning. I'm
41:08
Speaker 2: just not going to.
41:11
Speaker 3: It is really hard. If you're on the West coast,
41:13
Speaker 3: you know, you can kind of try to get yourself
41:16
Speaker 3: to sleep by maybe ten o'clock and maybe you missed
41:20
Speaker 3: the first few fights on the card and you know,
41:23
Speaker 3: you get three or four hours sleep, You wake yourself up,
41:26
Speaker 3: you walk, you go back to bed like me. You know,
41:32
Speaker 3: a couple of weekend, two weekends ago, you know, we
41:35
Speaker 3: had the fight card from Africa and I from you know,
41:41
Speaker 3: we had one from Ghana and then the next night
41:43
Speaker 3: you had one in Nigeria, both on his own. I'm
41:46
Speaker 3: I'm on Sunday night, I'm catching up on the card
41:48
Speaker 3: from Nigeria right, just because because you can watch it
41:54
Speaker 3: and the Zone streams so many international cards that really
41:57
Speaker 3: don't get a lot of coverage, and you know a
41:59
Speaker 3: lot of boxing applications, and there's some gems on those cards.
42:03
Speaker 3: You know, it's well worth even after the fact going
42:06
Speaker 3: back to see, yeah, how did this all play out?
42:09
Speaker 3: Is there something that I missed that maybe I should
42:12
Speaker 3: go back and look at. That is the plus of streaming,
42:16
Speaker 3: you know, we have all that content accessible and available
42:20
Speaker 3: for us. We just have to balance the price points.
42:23
Speaker 1: Yeah.
42:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's a great list. Like I said, let's
42:27
Speaker 2: switch tracks to looking forward. You know, any fights that
42:31
Speaker 2: you're looking forward to, specifically dreamfight to want them? And
42:34
Speaker 2: also who's next for twenty twenty six? Who's the big
42:36
Speaker 2: name that we're looking for. We thought it was going
42:38
Speaker 2: to be Crawford now that he's a star, But he's
42:40
Speaker 2: walking away with a wind. So what do we have
42:42
Speaker 2: to look forward to?
42:43
Speaker 3: So, you know, we have to ask ourselves, is Bud
42:47
Speaker 3: really retired? You really retired?
42:51
Speaker 1: Yeah? Or you know?
42:54
Speaker 3: Sugar Ray Leonard famously said when he came out of retirement,
42:58
Speaker 3: somebody asked him, you know what about it? You know
43:01
Speaker 3: what what happened? Why did you decide not to be
43:05
Speaker 3: retired anymore? He says, Well, none of us ever really retire.
43:08
Speaker 3: We just change our minds. So is but going to
43:12
Speaker 3: change his mind? Is it a money ploy? You know
43:17
Speaker 3: we will. But we've heard those rumors that the reason
43:19
Speaker 3: he decided to retire is because he wanted more money
43:24
Speaker 3: for a Canelo rematch that he wasn't being offered. I'm
43:27
Speaker 3: not sure that's it to me. One of the tells is,
43:31
Speaker 3: you know, bless him. Crawford has always marched to the
43:35
Speaker 3: beat of his own drum. He cannot. He is his
43:39
Speaker 3: own personality, with his own instead of internal morals and guidelines.
43:47
Speaker 3: I'm not sure he would be just retiring to take
43:52
Speaker 3: a pause if he hadn't done that incredibly well produced
43:59
Speaker 3: video announcement which clearly took some time to do, that
44:04
Speaker 3: was long in the making. That was not an overnight
44:06
Speaker 3: I'm going to announce tomorrow night I'm retiring on Instagram
44:09
Speaker 3: with a post that was a very slickly produced, thoughtful
44:16
Speaker 3: comment on his career and his decision. I'm not sure
44:20
Speaker 3: you do that if your real objective is three months
44:22
Speaker 3: from now to say, eh, you know, for the right money,
44:26
Speaker 3: I'll come back. You know, but it's always had a
44:30
Speaker 3: life outside boxing, right, He's got a wonderful family. He
44:35
Speaker 3: has a community that where he really belongs. You know,
44:39
Speaker 3: he is loyal to the soil in Omaha. He's involved
44:44
Speaker 3: in the community. He coaches a couple of his boys
44:46
Speaker 3: in wrestling. You know, I could really see him going
44:50
Speaker 3: down the road you know that Philip Rivers did until
44:54
Speaker 3: he decided to retire. You know, he's coaching kids football, right,
45:00
Speaker 3: but doesn't have quite as many kids as Rivers does.
45:02
Speaker 3: But you know, maybe he wants to enjoy his family
45:06
Speaker 3: and his money. Maybe he has seen some of the
45:10
Speaker 3: fighters of previous generations who stayed too long, whose health
45:14
Speaker 3: is showing the effects of that. He doesn't have that
45:17
Speaker 3: right now. If he wants to live a long, healthy life,
45:22
Speaker 3: he I think it will stick. I think it will
45:26
Speaker 3: stick the same way it's stuck for andre Ward. He
45:28
Speaker 3: went out at the top. Ward has certainly been tempted
45:33
Speaker 3: a couple of times. He's just has come and stra
45:36
Speaker 3: line about, you know, coming out of retirement, but he's
45:39
Speaker 3: never crossed it. I think that might happen with Crawford.
45:42
Speaker 3: I think he's done, and we are seeing this generation
45:46
Speaker 3: start to ease out. So who's coming up next? Every
45:52
Speaker 3: time we've lost some of the big stars to retirement
45:55
Speaker 3: or something, you know, something else, you know, someone has
46:00
Speaker 3: always risen to replace them. And maybe we don't really know.
46:05
Speaker 3: Right now, it looks like, you know, Crawford's out. I
46:10
Speaker 3: do think Canelo is on his way out. He's got
46:13
Speaker 3: two more fights on his deal with the re odd season,
46:17
Speaker 3: so let's see what he decides to do with those.
46:21
Speaker 3: He's always said he was going to retire at thirty seven,
46:23
Speaker 3: and well, that gives him another year and a half
46:25
Speaker 3: to get that one. Anyway, it is going to be
46:29
Speaker 3: around at least a little while longer. I would think
46:32
Speaker 3: several more years. But who's coming along? Behind them. I
46:38
Speaker 3: think that we do have some American stars if they're
46:41
Speaker 3: marketed correctly. I do think as long as his skills
46:45
Speaker 3: hold up. Emiliano Vargas is Oscar de la Hoya two
46:49
Speaker 3: point zero, I think there's a lot of potential there
46:52
Speaker 3: if they move him right. Abdulla Mason same, you know,
46:57
Speaker 3: as a Midwestern fighter, and he kind of slides into
46:59
Speaker 3: that place where Crawford held court. Very exciting fighter. Chr Stevenson,
47:08
Speaker 3: you know, merits that status and he showed us against
47:12
Speaker 3: Williams Ofpaida he can put on an exciting fight, he
47:15
Speaker 3: can do it. So this upcoming fight with him and
47:19
Speaker 3: Tifi Malopez is really going to test their market ability
47:25
Speaker 3: and their star power beyond the hardcore fans as much
47:29
Speaker 3: as what they do in the ring. So I'm very
47:31
Speaker 3: interested to see that. I'm also looking to, you know,
47:36
Speaker 3: fighters outside our shores. And though boxing is a niche
47:40
Speaker 3: sport in the United States, that is not true in Mexico.
47:43
Speaker 3: That is not true. In Great Britain, that is not
47:46
Speaker 3: true in Japan. There's a lot of talent there. We
47:50
Speaker 3: have the ability to see it through streaming. I am
47:54
Speaker 3: very excited to see what Moses Tatama does this year.
47:58
Speaker 3: You know, he wanted to be the youngest heavyweight champion ever. Well,
48:02
Speaker 3: you know, he didn't accomplish that, but damn it, he
48:06
Speaker 3: might become a world champion, especially if USIX starts giving
48:09
Speaker 3: those belts up by twenty two or three, and that
48:13
Speaker 3: would be a stellar accomplishment. It's time to get him
48:16
Speaker 3: in with some you know, tougher opposition. He has certainly
48:20
Speaker 3: proved he can handle it, and I'm I'm very excited
48:24
Speaker 3: to see what happens there. Yeah, there's some other lower
48:28
Speaker 3: level guys right now that I still think of his
48:32
Speaker 3: prospects that we have some potential, and I have some
48:35
Speaker 3: West Coast bias there. I'm very interested in Tito Mercado.
48:41
Speaker 3: I'm very interested in Joel Erie Arte, who is side
48:44
Speaker 3: a golden boy, who's you know, still I think he's
48:49
Speaker 3: I don't think he even still has ten fights yet.
48:52
Speaker 3: I hope, against hope, that we've got at least one
48:56
Speaker 3: American heavyweight to carry the banner. We've got two young
48:59
Speaker 3: guys still right at the beginning of their careers, but
49:03
Speaker 3: Joshua Edwards and Jamal Harvey, you know, figures guys that
49:08
Speaker 3: they can carry the Ball. There's there's a lot of
49:13
Speaker 3: potential matchups out there. I'm excited about Dam Rodriguez. I'll go.
49:17
Speaker 3: I don't care who's standing in front of him. I'll
49:20
Speaker 3: see that fight. I think we'll stop right there. But
49:25
Speaker 3: there's plenty. There's plenty to enjoy, and they don't all
49:29
Speaker 3: have to be championship fights. Sugar Nunias is another guy
49:32
Speaker 3: I will walk across hot holes to see who always
49:35
Speaker 3: puts on excited fights.
49:37
Speaker 2: No, I really appreciate you specifically bring up the American
49:40
Speaker 2: heavyweights because we've talked about it as well. You know,
49:42
Speaker 2: the rankings have what I think the one that comes
49:45
Speaker 2: to mind is Jared the big Baby Anderson, which uh I.
49:50
Speaker 3: Was, yeah, what what a flame out? What the hell happened?
49:55
Speaker 2: I was rooting for him, but yeah, I mean, clearly
49:58
Speaker 2: that's not well.
49:59
Speaker 3: You know, it's interesting think to me that he was
50:01
Speaker 3: among that posse of heavyweight sparring partners that Jake Paul
50:05
Speaker 3: brought in right and he was, you know, and I
50:10
Speaker 3: was very surprised to see that Jared Anderson was.
50:12
Speaker 2: One of them.
50:14
Speaker 3: I'm not sure what that portends. What it tells me
50:18
Speaker 3: is he hasn't given up the sport entirely, clearly if
50:21
Speaker 3: he decided he'd come get a paycheck to be a
50:24
Speaker 3: sparing partner. You know, let's see what happens to him
50:27
Speaker 3: this year. But I hope he has spent this time
50:31
Speaker 3: out of the ring getting his head straight and it's
50:33
Speaker 3: right deciding do I really want to do this or not.
50:37
Speaker 3: You know, from the few photos I saw, he looked
50:41
Speaker 3: like he was in you know, training ready shape. But
50:46
Speaker 3: you know, the development pipeline for American heavyweight talent has
50:54
Speaker 3: been siphoned off by the NFL, by the NBA, by
51:00
Speaker 3: Pro wrestling. For Christ's sake, I mean, these guys have
51:05
Speaker 3: more opportunity even college football and basketball with nil money.
51:10
Speaker 3: Those guys can make big, big paychecks at a young age.
51:14
Speaker 3: And I don't have to get smacked in the face.
51:18
Speaker 3: So if you're a big American athlete, you know, I
51:25
Speaker 3: can absolutely see why a lot of the potential heavyweight
51:29
Speaker 3: talent is being siphoned off elsewhere. It does concern me.
51:34
Speaker 3: One of these days, I keep telling myself, I'm going
51:36
Speaker 3: to write a long, thoughtful article about this, and maybe
51:40
Speaker 3: you guys have finally gotten me off the fence to
51:43
Speaker 3: do it.
51:44
Speaker 2: We'd love to read it. I've read some of your
51:45
Speaker 2: writing and it's wonderful. So go one more thing, Jameson,
51:49
Speaker 2: do you have anything else you want to jump in with?
51:51
Speaker 3: Oh?
51:51
Speaker 1: No, I'm good. My biggest thing is this, when it
51:55
Speaker 1: comes to boxing in general, how do you sell fans
52:01
Speaker 1: on the sport going forward? Because we're boxing like purest,
52:04
Speaker 1: like we eastleep, drink everything boxing. As someone who covers
52:09
Speaker 1: it also works in the industry, how do you sell
52:12
Speaker 1: the casuals and the people who tune in when they're
52:15
Speaker 1: like a big event. How do you sell them on
52:17
Speaker 1: the sport besides those events?
52:20
Speaker 3: You get them to a fight, you get them inside
52:23
Speaker 3: the arena. One of my big concerns, and Luis you
52:28
Speaker 3: used the absolutely perfect adjective for me. I meant to
52:31
Speaker 3: comment on this, the uneasiness we feel about the influx
52:36
Speaker 3: of the Saudi money and the Saudi influence and the
52:40
Speaker 3: Saudi's buying, you know, the Bible of boxing, our major
52:45
Speaker 3: publication is the concern to me, although many of my colleagues,
52:49
Speaker 3: who I think very highly of working for them, I
52:52
Speaker 3: trust that they will hold the highest standards. Be that
52:56
Speaker 3: as it may. Part of the problem with this is
53:00
Speaker 3: that so many of the big fights and the undercut
53:04
Speaker 3: opportunities have moved outside the United States. You know, these
53:08
Speaker 3: big cards that are happening in RIOD used to be
53:12
Speaker 3: happening here. And they weren't only happening in Las Vegas,
53:17
Speaker 3: La or New York. They were happening in Houston or Dallas,
53:21
Speaker 3: or Florida or Cleveland, or you know, go down the list.
53:29
Speaker 3: When I can get some of my friends or colleagues
53:32
Speaker 3: or people I know, or my brother's new girlfriend or
53:35
Speaker 3: whoever it is, to go to a fight and sit
53:39
Speaker 3: there and see it in person, they are hooked Kathy Duva.
53:46
Speaker 3: When I work for her at main events, you know,
53:48
Speaker 3: I came to see the wisdom of her approach of
53:51
Speaker 3: spending so much time and energy on developing local fighters
53:55
Speaker 3: who brought in local fans, you know, to see the
53:59
Speaker 3: guys they knew friends, you know, the person in their
54:01
Speaker 3: neighborhood or they went to school with, or you know,
54:04
Speaker 3: came from their town. But they also got to see
54:07
Speaker 3: the all the other fighters and if they were the
54:09
Speaker 3: guys in the low undercard, and they stuck around to
54:11
Speaker 3: see the you know, more season talent. Once you have
54:18
Speaker 3: seen a fight card in person, and you know hopefully
54:20
Speaker 3: it isn't the Times Square card right, it's got something
54:24
Speaker 3: to offer. You know, I think you make a fan
54:27
Speaker 3: for life, you really do. Club fighter club fights from
54:32
Speaker 3: the small promoters, you know, they're hanging by a thread,
54:36
Speaker 3: and we need to as a boxing media community, I
54:43
Speaker 3: firmly believe we need to give as much support as
54:46
Speaker 3: possible to the Salita promotions of the world, the Star
54:51
Speaker 3: Boxing promotions of the world. You know, the smaller operations
54:55
Speaker 3: out here. There's still you know, a dozen of them
54:58
Speaker 3: on the West Coast and southern Calilifornia. But it used
55:01
Speaker 3: to be for years and years Thompson Boxing who grew
55:04
Speaker 3: a lot of homegrown talent, the community of boxing enthusiasts
55:12
Speaker 3: who developed more in the northern part of California. Those
55:16
Speaker 3: are the folks who will absolutely fill the biggest arena
55:20
Speaker 3: in not the biggest city, Fresno, California. They have an
55:24
Speaker 3: arena that seats about I think sixteen thousand. They've developed
55:29
Speaker 3: that Northern California talent. They get the fans there, you know,
55:33
Speaker 3: with club fights and cheap seats, they fill that arena,
55:37
Speaker 3: and those same fans, you know, a small portion of
55:42
Speaker 3: them will say I'm going to buy that pay per view.
55:45
Speaker 3: I'm going to follow this guy who isn't from my
55:47
Speaker 3: town because they are really enjoying this. We cannot lose that.
55:53
Speaker 3: I would really like to see more of these domestic
55:56
Speaker 3: fighters getting the big paychecks in Saudi say all give
56:00
Speaker 3: you a fight and red Yeah, but I want to
56:03
Speaker 3: fight back at home, and we've got to keep doing that.
56:08
Speaker 3: You have fighters you don't like Shakur Stevenson who can
56:13
Speaker 3: sell out in New Jersey and environs. You know when
56:17
Speaker 3: he was still in the game. We don't really know
56:20
Speaker 3: what's going to happen with Tank Davis. But Tank Davis
56:23
Speaker 3: could Phil Barkleys, could Phil Aritas in Baltimore. Keishaan Davis
56:27
Speaker 3: was there to sell out in Norfolk untill he what
56:31
Speaker 3: the beds come back. Let's see what happens. That is
56:35
Speaker 3: what needs to happen to keep boxing at least healthy
56:40
Speaker 3: enough for the next few years.
56:43
Speaker 2: Got to say, we love your takes, we love your knowledge,
56:46
Speaker 2: we love your passion, and all the things you're talking
56:48
Speaker 2: about are things that you know. James and nine knocked
56:50
Speaker 2: back and forth as well. You know, so you seem
56:52
Speaker 2: to have a really good idea of where the fight
56:54
Speaker 2: game is.
56:55
Speaker 3: Think those of us who've been around and absorb, you know,
56:57
Speaker 3: we all come to the same correct conclusions, and maybe
57:01
Speaker 3: we take different avenues to get there, but we know
57:03
Speaker 3: what it's like to sit there ringside, and we know
57:07
Speaker 3: what it's like to see the up and coming talent
57:09
Speaker 3: and how hard they work and some make it and
57:11
Speaker 3: some don't in the pluses and minuses. I'm I think
57:17
Speaker 3: uneasiness is the perfect word because there's still a lot
57:23
Speaker 3: of promise out there. It's kind of like life right now,
57:26
Speaker 3: you know, there's some but that means there's still room
57:30
Speaker 3: for optimism. There's still room for it.
57:33
Speaker 2: Absolutely, what a great way to start the year. Actually,
57:36
Speaker 2: last question, since we do talk about pop culture on
57:38
Speaker 2: the show as well, do you have a favorite boxing movie?
57:42
Speaker 3: You know this is gonna sound funny. I'm not the
57:46
Speaker 3: biggest overall fan of boxing movies because it's so hard
57:51
Speaker 3: to get it right, you know, I mean, it just
57:54
Speaker 3: has to be off a little bit. This is a
57:57
Speaker 3: question I often ask boxers who I interview on my
58:00
Speaker 3: YouTube channel. I fire off of changes a little bit
58:03
Speaker 3: from time to time, but I fire off a dozen
58:05
Speaker 3: sort of odd ball questions, you know, because they have
58:09
Speaker 3: been asked the same stuff a billion times, and I
58:13
Speaker 3: always ask them what their favorite movie is so far,
58:17
Speaker 3: by far, the majority of boxers who I ask name
58:22
Speaker 3: the movie South Paw, which really shocks me. Right mine
58:28
Speaker 3: is an old school classic. It's got to be raging bull.
58:33
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, yeah, we talked about South of the show.
58:37
Speaker 2: We weren't thrilled about it.
58:38
Speaker 1: We can we.
58:39
Speaker 3: Thought, you know, it got a lot of criticism. It did,
58:45
Speaker 3: but over and over they'll they'll say, yeah, my favorite
58:49
Speaker 3: is and I think I'm gonna hear you know, Cinderella
58:53
Speaker 3: Mann or Rocky or you know Creed blah. You know,
58:58
Speaker 3: I really thought that would talk a lot of fighter.
59:00
Speaker 3: Oh no, I hear Southpaw over and over.
59:03
Speaker 2: Interesting.
59:04
Speaker 3: Interesting, Yeah, that's just not what I've ever expected to hear.
59:10
Speaker 3: But for me, right people, I think the grittiness of it,
59:14
Speaker 3: the reality of it, and it did get a lot
59:17
Speaker 3: of the details a right, it really did.
59:20
Speaker 2: Sure, well, thank you so much for being here. Before
59:23
Speaker 2: we let you go, we want to give you a
59:24
Speaker 2: chance to plug that YouTube channel, you know, website, you're
59:27
Speaker 2: writing anything you want social media handles.
59:29
Speaker 3: Please well see that name right there under me. There's
59:33
Speaker 3: only one of me. You google that sum, you can
59:37
Speaker 3: spell it right, and I get it. It's a lot
59:38
Speaker 3: to ask, but if you pop that up, you're gonna
59:42
Speaker 3: find me. There's only one Gaiale Falconhal in the world.
59:46
Speaker 3: But easier is My writing is at ny fights dot com,
59:51
Speaker 3: Andy Fights dot Com. I get it. I'm in San Diego,
59:54
Speaker 3: but I write for en Wi Fights and my YouTube
59:57
Speaker 3: channel is under my name, but it's Gale falcan Thal
1:00:00
Speaker 3: on Boxing, and it's primarily a lot of interviews, and
1:00:04
Speaker 3: I tend to interview, you know, not the big superstars,
1:00:08
Speaker 3: but the talents I think you should know. But occasionally
1:00:12
Speaker 3: you'll see a familiar name. One of my favorite interviews
1:00:14
Speaker 3: last year was with Hams of Shiraz, whose absolute delight
1:00:18
Speaker 3: to interview Cecilia Brecas as she was about to, you know,
1:00:23
Speaker 3: come in and have one last retirement fight, which you know,
1:00:27
Speaker 3: thankfully she wants. I think she's finally done. Gabriella Fandora
1:00:32
Speaker 3: has always been one of my very favorite interviews, as
1:00:35
Speaker 3: is her brother. So I pop them on when I
1:00:39
Speaker 3: can get them, and right now I'm waiting on Kayden Griffiths,
1:00:44
Speaker 3: who's a prospect with Golden Boy, who I think has
1:00:46
Speaker 3: got a lot of talent, so that should be the
1:00:48
Speaker 3: next one coming up, maybe another week or so.
1:00:52
Speaker 2: Okay, great, and I got it.
1:00:53
Speaker 3: If you see me at the fights, come say hi. Right,
1:00:58
Speaker 3: I'm not hard to spew on media, row.
1:01:01
Speaker 2: I do got to mention you have been very committed
1:01:04
Speaker 2: to trying to get boxing content on Blue Sky, which
1:01:07
Speaker 2: I'm on Blue Sky. You know, there's not a lot
1:01:08
Speaker 2: of it. I'm trying to grind and get that going.
1:01:10
Speaker 2: So you know our show is still very humble on
1:01:13
Speaker 2: there because we didn't we started.
1:01:16
Speaker 3: Did and I'm thrilled that you did that. You know,
1:01:22
Speaker 3: it's going to be hard to pry people away from
1:01:24
Speaker 3: boxing Twitter. I get that, and I'm I'm there, but
1:01:28
Speaker 3: Blue Sky is a little more congenial environment and I
1:01:32
Speaker 3: think that I think we're just smarter, nicer and more
1:01:36
Speaker 3: fun people over there.
1:01:37
Speaker 2: I'm just going to say I would agree no offense
1:01:41
Speaker 2: to the one guy here who's still on boxing Twitter Jameson. Oh,
1:01:46
Speaker 2: that's fair, that's fair.
1:01:47
Speaker 1: That's fair.
1:01:49
Speaker 3: You've got to engage. I mean, and you know, nobody
1:01:51
Speaker 3: ever accused of boxing of having too many manners, so
1:01:56
Speaker 3: that's fair. You know, we got to play in all
1:01:59
Speaker 3: the playgrounds yeah.
1:02:01
Speaker 2: And also to be fair about on BUCKX in Twitter
1:02:03
Speaker 2: because I was banned, I don't want to talk about
1:02:04
Speaker 2: it anyway, So we really appreciate you being.
1:02:07
Speaker 3: We'll talk about that offline.
1:02:09
Speaker 2: I've been definitely definitely yeah, but seed to know. Yeah,
1:02:13
Speaker 2: well how about this, not only that, but how about
1:02:15
Speaker 2: we talk more when you come back on the show,
1:02:16
Speaker 2: because again, we love your knowledge and passion and there's
1:02:18
Speaker 2: a lot gonna be a lot more to talk about
1:02:20
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty six. So are you willing to come.
1:02:21
Speaker 3: Back on anytime? Thank you very much and we look
1:02:24
Speaker 3: forward to it.
1:02:25
Speaker 2: Excellent. Well, have a have a good twenty twenty six
1:02:29
Speaker 2: scale and yeah, we'll be talking to you soon.
1:02:31
Speaker 3: Happy new Year, and a belated season's beatings to everybody.
1:02:35
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you. Wow.
1:02:37
Speaker 2: What an amazing interview with Gail Falkenthal. She was awesome, James,
1:02:40
Speaker 2: And how'd you feel about that?
1:02:42
Speaker 1: That was really cool? Like she someone that works in
1:02:44
Speaker 1: the industry but also doesn't have a huge ego that's
1:02:47
Speaker 1: intimidating a lot of people with her standing would be
1:02:52
Speaker 1: more like aggressive with their tone and their knowledge. As
1:02:56
Speaker 1: she was very complimentary of us herself, our knowledge or
1:03:02
Speaker 1: experience in sport of boxing, and you can't do anything
1:03:05
Speaker 1: but the love that. So amazing guests, probably our best
1:03:09
Speaker 1: guest thus.
1:03:09
Speaker 2: Far, I guess, best suited to just kind of our styles,
1:03:13
Speaker 2: our opinions, just kind of somebody's on the same wavelength
1:03:16
Speaker 2: as us. Yeah, just super super excited to have her
1:03:19
Speaker 2: on and absolutely gonna have her back, no question.
1:03:22
Speaker 3: Cool.
1:03:23
Speaker 2: Well with this episode ran long because Gail was such
1:03:25
Speaker 2: an amazing guest, So let's wrap it up by actually,
1:03:28
Speaker 2: let's wrap up twenty twenty five and ball it up
1:03:31
Speaker 2: and toss it behind us. So I wanted to talk
1:03:34
Speaker 2: about our top fights of the year overall. I was,
1:03:38
Speaker 2: I was looking back at the fights I really enjoyed.
1:03:40
Speaker 2: The year started off strong. There was like four fights
1:03:43
Speaker 2: in February that were awesome, Three fights in February that
1:03:45
Speaker 2: were absolutely awesome, maybe kind of a lag in the middle,
1:03:48
Speaker 2: and then you know the big Crawford Canelo event at
1:03:51
Speaker 2: the end of the year.
1:03:53
Speaker 5: Do you have some fights this year that really really
1:03:55
Speaker 5: stuck with you? So, of course she made a great point.
1:04:00
Speaker 5: Event and fight are two different things. So like, for instance,
1:04:07
Speaker 5: Canelo Crawford or Crawford, I how you want to put it.
1:04:11
Speaker 1: That's probably the best event of the year for a
1:04:13
Speaker 1: lot of different reasons. The fight was good as well,
1:04:16
Speaker 1: like boxing wise, but I wouldn't say it's the best
1:04:20
Speaker 1: fight of the year. But it was by far the
1:04:22
Speaker 1: best event because of all the things that took place,
1:04:26
Speaker 1: all things were at stake and all that jazz. So
1:04:29
Speaker 1: I think in general, when it comes to the best fight,
1:04:34
Speaker 1: you can put that in there. But when she mentioned
1:04:36
Speaker 1: the best event, it's like, huh, that's interesting, because yeah,
1:04:42
Speaker 1: the event and fight are two different things. Again, e
1:04:48
Speaker 1: Bankworth's been was good. The problem I have with the
1:04:55
Speaker 1: Naolia in a way fights is I don't watch so
1:04:59
Speaker 1: I like the talk about the fire I've seen live.
1:05:01
Speaker 1: I'm looking at for it with all due respect.
1:05:06
Speaker 2: Hold on, but wait no, that was the one in
1:05:08
Speaker 2: Cinco de Mayo where he was in Vegas, so that
1:05:10
Speaker 2: I saw that live at eight PM, so that one
1:05:13
Speaker 2: was that general.
1:05:14
Speaker 1: Though I came, oh, well, the fight he had in Tokyo,
1:05:18
Speaker 1: but it was at three three yard time. I'm not
1:05:20
Speaker 1: that's not fair because I didn't necessarily watch that live.
1:05:24
Speaker 1: So it's kind of tough. But if we're talking about
1:05:27
Speaker 1: performance base and what things meant, man, that's such a
1:05:31
Speaker 1: great question because I hear the thing, Well, matt Roach
1:05:34
Speaker 1: had held of twenty twenty five. Yes, a hell of
1:05:37
Speaker 1: a twenty twenty five. You can't tell me his performances
1:05:40
Speaker 1: is any worse or any someone had a better performance
1:05:44
Speaker 1: of twenty five than he has. You can't, you can't,
1:05:47
Speaker 1: and you can either pick even fight. Of course, the
1:05:49
Speaker 1: fight verse Tank is the one that's going to be
1:05:52
Speaker 1: known for a lot of reasons and whatnot. But to me,
1:05:56
Speaker 1: in my in my opinion, I think the the fight
1:06:01
Speaker 1: he had with Tank is just as big as anything
1:06:04
Speaker 1: because of what's taken place since that, and also it
1:06:07
Speaker 1: helped launch a career, It helped Lotch, somebody that we had. Well,
1:06:11
Speaker 1: matt Roach was on nobody's radar this time last year.
1:06:14
Speaker 1: He was on no why we when he got announced
1:06:17
Speaker 1: versus Tank, We're like, all right, well there's a speed
1:06:20
Speaker 1: bump to eventually taking secure, that's what we're all thinking.
1:06:23
Speaker 1: But nah, then he fights six months later was very well.
1:06:27
Speaker 1: So to me, one of his fights has to be
1:06:29
Speaker 1: on that list just because of everything that spark since then.
1:06:33
Speaker 1: And hell, you can make argument that he may have
1:06:34
Speaker 1: retired Tank, he may have beat the boxing out of Tank.
1:06:37
Speaker 1: It is possibility that that may be the case, as
1:06:40
Speaker 1: crazy as that sounds, So yeah, I would put that
1:06:43
Speaker 1: fight in there. Man. I was very happy to see
1:06:50
Speaker 1: and even Gail made the Gail made it a point
1:06:55
Speaker 1: dimension that Shakira Stevenson was actually aggressive for the first
1:06:58
Speaker 1: time in a long time, not other necessarily making the
1:07:02
Speaker 1: best fight of the year per se, but in that list.
1:07:05
Speaker 1: But it was good to see a contender improve upon
1:07:09
Speaker 1: a flaw and show it out versus opponent that's not
1:07:13
Speaker 1: like a Toman who can that's a pretty good opponent.
1:07:16
Speaker 1: So I was like, I guess I'm playing more of
1:07:18
Speaker 1: a moment per se. But the fight is tough because
1:07:21
Speaker 1: if you think about events and moments and fights, it's
1:07:24
Speaker 1: kind of tough to kind of break it all down
1:07:28
Speaker 1: like that. But that being said, I will say this,
1:07:33
Speaker 1: and you're not gonna like this. Anthony and Joshua breaking
1:07:37
Speaker 1: dude's face is the best boxing moment of the year,
1:07:39
Speaker 1: and only because it involved injury, not because of boxing.
1:07:43
Speaker 1: Hopefully this man that stops. Hopefully we ain't got to
1:07:46
Speaker 1: do this ship no more. But dude broken two spots.
1:07:50
Speaker 1: It's amazing to me. And after this charade is finally inding.
1:07:56
Speaker 2: I wasn't even gonna say about this because I don't
1:07:58
Speaker 2: think it's over. I think he's cloud want to come back.
1:08:01
Speaker 3: Don't come back when.
1:08:02
Speaker 1: You're facing like that, because here's the thing, Louise, something
1:08:05
Speaker 1: went wrong, was wrong, or somebody missed the memo, but
1:08:09
Speaker 1: dude's face is gone, and you don't come back. You
1:08:12
Speaker 1: don't box again. After that, his face was it's over,
1:08:17
Speaker 1: It's over.
1:08:18
Speaker 2: I mean, okay, I I can appreciate that, Yes, this
1:08:21
Speaker 2: absolutely is the end of the Paul Clown show that
1:08:24
Speaker 2: I'm happy. But here's the thing, I couldn't eve enjoy
1:08:28
Speaker 2: it because I just don't care about him. I don't care.
1:08:31
Speaker 1: I did be notified of what happened. I had, I
1:08:33
Speaker 1: didn't watched, I was. I was being told, hey, it's
1:08:35
Speaker 1: not rigged. Dudes in there fighting for his life, and
1:08:39
Speaker 1: then two minutes later, oh dude got knocked out. Oh
1:08:42
Speaker 1: his face is broke, all like, oh great, but again
1:08:45
Speaker 1: I'm not paying on mine to it or whatever. I'm
1:08:47
Speaker 1: glad that that shrade is finally over and he got
1:08:50
Speaker 1: in with a real boxer. Also prayer Anthony Joshua. He
1:08:54
Speaker 1: just survived a crazy car crash and he lost to
1:08:57
Speaker 1: people his trainer and uh yeah, I think like nutritionis
1:09:02
Speaker 1: or something like that, or his corner guy something else
1:09:04
Speaker 1: from his team.
1:09:05
Speaker 2: Yeah in Nigeria. Yeah, he was a passenger and I
1:09:08
Speaker 2: got Latifa and got me. Yeah, that's him.
1:09:16
Speaker 1: Glad he's you know, survived that because we don't have
1:09:20
Speaker 1: any good boxers with like branding that people know of already,
1:09:25
Speaker 1: and to lose one of his statue would really suck.
1:09:28
Speaker 1: Like it'suck to lose anybody, but to lose and the
1:09:31
Speaker 1: established heavyweight that we know of and we're aware of,
1:09:34
Speaker 1: and it would be very bad for the sport. So
1:09:37
Speaker 1: I'm glad he survived. It sucks that his team, you know,
1:09:40
Speaker 1: had those attractions, but hopefully they able to recover and
1:09:43
Speaker 1: get back on trap.
1:09:44
Speaker 2: You know, I'll say one good thing to come out
1:09:46
Speaker 2: of came out of this tobacco other than dude get
1:09:49
Speaker 2: into space broken. A lot of ladies discovered Anthony Joshua,
1:09:52
Speaker 2: non boxing fans, and they have been absolutely loving the
1:09:55
Speaker 2: look of that very handsome, very pretty man.
1:09:57
Speaker 1: And good for them, good for him.
1:09:58
Speaker 2: So you know know what, as a Joshua, get your
1:10:01
Speaker 2: flowers from the ladies. Yeah, get your get your ladies,
1:10:05
Speaker 2: get your thirst on you know, good, good for him.
1:10:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, but yeah, I'm I'm not laughing at you. I'm
1:10:15
Speaker 1: laughing at the other part of that message in the chat.
1:10:19
Speaker 2: Oh say, I missed that, but yeah, So you know what,
1:10:25
Speaker 2: absolutely man, you know, I would be very happy if
1:10:29
Speaker 2: this is the last we heard of Jake Paul and boxing.
1:10:30
Speaker 2: And okay, you know, I'll even be even more gracious
1:10:33
Speaker 2: because it's twenty twenty six and we're all starting the
1:10:35
Speaker 2: year off right in a positiveness. Let him come back
1:10:37
Speaker 2: and keep promoting women's boxing, let him keep back in
1:10:40
Speaker 2: promoting prospects. Absolutely, I will absolutely be happy if he
1:10:43
Speaker 2: goes back and he continues doing that. Just stay at
1:10:46
Speaker 2: the dam ring start off my TV. So right right anyway,
1:10:49
Speaker 2: So yeah, for me, you know, I noticed at the
1:10:52
Speaker 2: beginning of the year they have been to VI. This
1:10:53
Speaker 2: versus David Morel was February, first battle of the David's
1:10:57
Speaker 2: February is my birth month, so you know, it's a
1:10:58
Speaker 2: lot going on, better be it. Versus Vivo was February
1:11:01
Speaker 2: twenty second, which was amazing fight. And then one in
1:11:07
Speaker 2: particular that I'm really going to give credit to. I
1:11:09
Speaker 2: always get very personal, like how I felt watching the
1:11:12
Speaker 2: fight and the vibe and everything. Kishon Davis versus Dennis
1:11:15
Speaker 2: Barychick February fourteenth. I was in Texas and Austin visiting
1:11:20
Speaker 2: family out there, and I got to watch that entire
1:11:23
Speaker 2: card of boxing at different bars in downtown Austin because
1:11:27
Speaker 2: back then Top Rank was on ESPN, so they just
1:11:29
Speaker 2: had the fights on and for the main event went
1:11:32
Speaker 2: over to this Mexican restaurant. They had a big TV
1:11:34
Speaker 2: in the middle, and I asked them, can you please
1:11:36
Speaker 2: put ESPN on the TV. The manager there did it
1:11:39
Speaker 2: for me. That was a really fun fight, really like
1:11:43
Speaker 2: very very loud place with the DJ playing that I
1:11:46
Speaker 2: could thrown Latin music with the sound of the fight
1:11:48
Speaker 2: was also on, and it was just a great vibe,
1:11:51
Speaker 2: a great night. I remember that was a fourth round knockout.
1:11:55
Speaker 2: Kishon Davis at that time was you know, at the
1:11:58
Speaker 2: top of the game and was put be one of
1:12:00
Speaker 2: the next biggest stars. And that fight also kind of
1:12:03
Speaker 2: shows where he was in February's where we are now
1:12:06
Speaker 2: and what happened with his flame out. As Gale said, so,
1:12:09
Speaker 2: I think that's a very important fight just to kind
1:12:11
Speaker 2: of see how quickly fortunes can change. For a fighter,
1:12:16
Speaker 2: and yeah he's yeah, he will be back on the tail.
1:12:19
Speaker 2: Femo shook core card and we'll just see where he's at.
1:12:23
Speaker 2: He did go up and wait because he missed way
1:12:26
Speaker 2: because he said he had trouble meeting. I can't remember, sorry,
1:12:30
Speaker 2: I can't remember the top of my head what weight
1:12:32
Speaker 2: he actually missed. But he's sticking to where he's gonna be.
1:12:35
Speaker 2: So maybe Keishan will actually live up to that potential.
1:12:38
Speaker 2: I don't know, but that's a fight that really sticks
1:12:41
Speaker 2: with me from this year. Yeah, I'm glad Gail mentioned
1:12:44
Speaker 2: in a versus cardin Is because that was a great night.
1:12:46
Speaker 2: That was not just a great fight, but a nice
1:12:50
Speaker 2: salve a balm after that sequin of terrible weekend. So
1:12:55
Speaker 2: it was nice that now anyway saved syncred to my
1:12:58
Speaker 2: weekend and just put on a great performance. Yeah, him
1:13:02
Speaker 2: getting put he got knocked down for the second time
1:13:04
Speaker 2: in his career, both times by Mexican guys. So and
1:13:08
Speaker 2: he just fought another Mexican, David Picasso, who went the distance.
1:13:13
Speaker 2: So all of these guys surviving going into the rink
1:13:18
Speaker 2: with Naioi anyway and not dying, I think they're gonna
1:13:21
Speaker 2: get a lot of high fives of the way back
1:13:22
Speaker 2: home back in Mexico for their performances, so respect to them.
1:13:26
Speaker 2: But yeah, that that was a Sunday night, which is
1:13:29
Speaker 2: kind of you know, not really prime night for boxing.
1:13:32
Speaker 2: But I had a great time. And yeah, it was
1:13:35
Speaker 2: really nice to bounce back from the stupid Time Square
1:13:38
Speaker 2: thing that I've complained about many times.
1:13:42
Speaker 1: It was a low light and the Keishaan Davis in
1:13:44
Speaker 1: Virginia was a low light as well.
1:13:45
Speaker 2: By the way, Yes, absolutely Kishan's his whole missing waight
1:13:49
Speaker 2: and then that whole weird thing where there was a
1:13:51
Speaker 2: fight back stay maybe not like what the hell is
1:13:53
Speaker 2: that all about? Yeah, that was that definitely was a
1:13:58
Speaker 2: black guy in the sport of boxing. You know, no
1:13:59
Speaker 2: pun intended, But yeah, in terms of pure spectacle, and yeah,
1:14:04
Speaker 2: as an event, kind of cannot be that night of
1:14:06
Speaker 2: Canela Crawford, all that anticipation, all the fight had been
1:14:11
Speaker 2: talked about for a year. Uh, it was just like
1:14:14
Speaker 2: very cathartic to finally see it and experience it. So
1:14:17
Speaker 2: I don't know, I mean, I would put Canelo croft
1:14:20
Speaker 2: for on the top of the list. Uh, of course,
1:14:23
Speaker 2: bud Fighter of the Year, the biggest dud is the
1:14:26
Speaker 2: Times Square event. But no, I mean this is this
1:14:30
Speaker 2: is kind of weird year because especially after that interview. Yeah,
1:14:34
Speaker 2: it's kind of hard to pick one thing.
1:14:37
Speaker 1: You know, it was it was.
1:14:39
Speaker 2: It was a good year for boxing discussion there highlights,
1:14:43
Speaker 2: low lights, and you know that's that's what we're here
1:14:47
Speaker 2: to do. So you know what, you know what, boxing,
1:14:49
Speaker 2: you made twenty twenty five a good year for the
1:14:51
Speaker 2: Mixed Company podcast, even when you sucked. So we thank
1:14:54
Speaker 2: you and we hope that twenty twenty six is even better.
1:14:59
Speaker 1: Most definitely, most definitely, Well.
1:15:02
Speaker 2: Let's get out of here. Jamison. Where can people find
1:15:03
Speaker 2: you on social media?
1:15:04
Speaker 1: Twitter? At Lee Jamison. I can't wait for late January.
1:15:08
Speaker 1: We have a big boxing night. It's some fun. Of
1:15:11
Speaker 1: course we'll be on a couple of times before then,
1:15:13
Speaker 1: but it's gonna be a great event. Shakira Stevenson, this
1:15:18
Speaker 1: is his time to be If if Crawford is truly retiring,
1:15:23
Speaker 1: I still don't hundred percent believe. I'm I'm getting it,
1:15:26
Speaker 1: but I don't believe it. Shakeker Stevens is the next
1:15:29
Speaker 1: star on the sport and he starts that drain. Now,
1:15:32
Speaker 1: if that's truly the case.
1:15:35
Speaker 2: You know. I h another thing that Gail said that
1:15:38
Speaker 2: I realized when she mentioned Crawford's goodbye video on YouTube
1:15:42
Speaker 2: with all the production. That's what makes me think as
1:15:44
Speaker 2: well that he's actually retiring. I don't think it's a point.
1:15:47
Speaker 2: When I saw that, I'm like, oh, he is for real.
1:15:49
Speaker 2: It's not just a tweet that said I retire from boxing.
1:15:52
Speaker 2: I think tag died that thentz ity just like I
1:15:55
Speaker 2: officially retire through a tweeter at Instagram story.
1:15:58
Speaker 1: Unless he's playing the long game, right, If he's playing
1:16:00
Speaker 1: on the hey I need one hundred and fifty million
1:16:02
Speaker 1: or else, then I get it.
1:16:04
Speaker 2: But yeah, and that is absolutely possible.
1:16:08
Speaker 1: Don't get me wrong.
1:16:09
Speaker 2: I'll just say that I'm where I am right now,
1:16:11
Speaker 2: where I'm sitting at the moment. I believe it, So
1:16:14
Speaker 2: sign yeah anyway, all right. You can follow the show
1:16:17
Speaker 2: on Twitter, Instagram, and Blue Sky. All the handles are
1:16:19
Speaker 2: the same at mixed co Podcasts. Subscribe to the show
1:16:22
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1:16:25
Speaker 2: five star review. It helps us out more than you
1:16:27
Speaker 2: can possibly know. Watch us on YouTube the link is
1:16:30
Speaker 2: on the show notes, or find out our playlist on
1:16:32
Speaker 2: the nineteen Media Group channel. We have an official show
1:16:35
Speaker 2: email address. If you have any questions for the mailbag
1:16:37
Speaker 2: fun stories about watching boxing and Mixed Company, send it
1:16:40
Speaker 2: all to letters at mixcopodcast dot com. Don't forget we
1:16:44
Speaker 2: dropped new episodes every other Thursday, so please join us again.
1:16:47
Speaker 2: January fifteenth, twenty twenty six, the new year. We're just
1:16:51
Speaker 2: getting started. Baby, we got Musquego from the boxing world.
1:16:54
Speaker 2: We have been the Mixed Company Podcast on nineteen Media
1:16:56
Speaker 2: Group Production. Thank you so much for listening and by