Latest / Big Dog Lukie Boxing Podcast / The Paywall Podcast: Canelo vs. Christian Mbilli Storylines

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The Paywall Podcast: Canelo vs. Christian Mbilli Storylines · Big Dog Lukie Boxing Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: What's up, everybody?
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's your good friend, Lukie.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: And we are live.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: And already people in the chat love to see it.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: My guy, Fan.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Fan.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: Keep me motivated when the lights don't want to stay on.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: And this establishment, Fan keeps me going.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: This is the Paywall Podcast.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: For those unfamiliar with the Paywall Podcast,
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: The point of this is,
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: if I ever tried to monetize my stub stack and put up a paywall,
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: well, this would be the content that I would put behind that paywall.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: This would be one of the features that and the once a week podcast would obviously go there.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: But for the time being, I'm going to do that.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: I just consider it kind of not a joke, but it's funny to me to call a podcast, Paywall Podcast.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: And in this podcast, I do, or I shouldn't say I do, I answer five questions.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: And as my guy Fan in the chat said, I need to do a better job at being guided by the questions.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: So this week, I'm going to try to do a better job at framing the questions.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, today was the weigh-in for Canelo Alvarez.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: The face of boxing,
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: the biggest star we have currently fighting Christian and Billy in Riyadh,
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: Saudi Arabia.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: We're not going to touch on as much the Saudi Arabia aspect of it because
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: the weigh-in has happened, everything has occurred and all that.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: We might get to that in the fifth and final question adjacent,
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: but this is going to be a more fight-centric breakdown.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: So we're going to get to the questions starting right now.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: The first question is, is this the end of the road for Canelo Alvarez?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: Stay with me.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: So Canelo Alvarez at this point,
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: and I've got to do some research, but I believe he's 36 years old.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: Let me see if that's true.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: 36 years old.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: And this will be his 69th fight.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: 69.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, bro.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: And he's had a long career.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: His career, in fact, is now 21 years as a professional.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: And that is wild.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you think about,
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: or at least for me,
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: if I think about what I was doing 21 years ago,
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: I might have had a casual interest in boxing,
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: but that's when he started his pursuits of legacy and greatness.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: And really, let me go back to that.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: Canelo has been a high-level pay-per-view guy for,
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: let's see, I'd say dating back to maybe 2012 even.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: Let's see when that started.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we could make the case that it started with Josecito Lopez.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously,
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: Alfonso Gomez was a fight that was in a high profile spot and it was
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: a dual site event.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: But I'd say really the opposite.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: Austin Trout.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: So for 2013, April.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, that's approaching 14 years.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's close to 14 years of being a main event high-level boxer.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: So if you think about it in terms of time,
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: and time is something we always need to think about, right?
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: We are gifted a moment or years on this planet.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: And we look to leave a lasting impression for those who care about us,
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: for those that love us and so forth and so on.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: And for Canelo Alvarez, he has made the most of his abilities.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: He's made the most of his time because he's not just been at
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: the level most fighters want to get to.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: He's done it for a decade and a half.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: We're not talking about being a pro.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking about being at some of the most consequential fights,
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: the fights that impact the world,
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: the fights that define generations,
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: the fights that young fighters go in the gym and hit a heavy bag and say,
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: I want to be the next Canelo.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: He's been doing that for a decade and a half, essentially.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's a reasonable question to ask.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: At some point, have you just done it for so long?
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: That enough is enough and it's over.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's a reasonable question to ask.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: And then I think when you look at Christian Mbilly, there's two ways to look at Mbilly, right?
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: Mbilly is an Olympian.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: He's a fighter who I think most people believe is a crude brawler,
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: but he has the Olympic pedigree.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: Anybody that talks about The background of Mbilly.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: Talks about Mbilly almost as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: I picked this up when we had Morgan Campbell on earlier with the Good Fight podcast,
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: the broadcaster of Eye of the Tiger.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: Fantastic broadcaster, fantastic thoughts.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely loved having him on.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: But like one thing from our conversation,
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: which you guys should check out when it goes live,
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: which I believe it's live currently,
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: is that Mbilly sometimes wants to entertain the fans and wants to give people a fun,
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: fast, A fast-paced fight.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: And when he does that,
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: sometimes he's more prone to get hit like it was the Lester Martinez fight.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: And Billy also has a side to him where he's thinking more than it looks.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to compare him to getting a Golovkin per se,
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: but Golovkin is the easiest observation of a fighter.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: Who was applying pressure, but he was doing more than you would expect.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: The thing with Mbili is he fights a young man's fight.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, he might only be five years younger than Canelo,
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: but he's a lot younger in terms of ring time.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: He turned pro in 2017.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: Canelo turned pro in 2005.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: Canelo was a certified main event star by the time Mbili fought in the Olympics,
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: let alone turned pro.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so that's a big difference.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: And Billy also has what I refer to as a Nordic track style.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: He puts the speed up to a five or a six minute mile and you have to keep up with
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: the pace and pressure he's setting and sometimes he'll get hit and he won't think
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: as much because he believes that the pace and the pressure
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: and his physical conditioning is going to overwhelm a fighter.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: So why would Canelo Alvarez...
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: After, and we're going to get into this question,
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: but why, if this is the end for Canelo, why would you choose Mbilly?
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the reason Mbilly was picked or why this fight is happening,
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: and even though Mbilly is the WBC super millweight champion,
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: the fight is essentially a celebration of Canelo's legacy and a lot
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: of his achievements.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's a reflection on what he's done for the sport,
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: and it's kind of a crossroads to a certain extent for Canelo where he's A part
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: of his story is he always takes on the hardest fights.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: When people didn't think he'd take on Austin Trout,
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: he took on Austin Trout after Trout beat Miguel Cotto.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: He took on Erislandy Lara when it made not a ton of sense to fight Lara,
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: mainly because people doubted that he'd fight Lara.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: He fought Floyd Mayweather early on.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: Now he waited out Gennady Golovkin, but he did fight him three times.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: The third fight, we're just going to pretend didn't happen because it was just far too late.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: But the first and second fights were really, really fascinating fights.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: And then he went on that undisputed run from,
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: I believe it was 2018 all the way up to 2021,
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: where he stops Caleb Plant to become undisputed.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: And that was a true...
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: True amazing era of Canelo Alvarez.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: Now a contrarian will always say Canelo gets every benefit of the doubt.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: He gets every A-side advantage.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: Every close round always seems to swing towards Canelo.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: And that is kind of like what sours people to boxing as a whole.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: Is...
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: A fighter like Canelo always seems to get the benefit of the doubt.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: And a blue-collar guy that fights Canelo like San and Billy is going to have
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: to make it painfully obvious that he's won the fight.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: Because it always seems like, whether it's true or not, Canelo always gets those close rounds.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I was texting with Mike Rodriguez,
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: who I was trying to get on the show, and he's just a fantastic boxing mind.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: And let me read, let me share with you Mike's thought.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: My prediction is Canelo by disputed decision because any even round goes Canelo's way.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: That's me editorializing.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: So if I got it wrong, Mike, I'm sorry.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: And that is true.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: I think the sentiment is with this, Canelo is someone...
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: Who a lot of us are fascinated by the selection of an aggressive Mbilly
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: because there is opportunities for Mbilly to get hit clean.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: There's opportunities for various punches, right?
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: When Mbilly presses forward, right?
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: Stylistically,
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: when you're a fighter who comes forward,
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: puts your head on someone's chest, Joe Frazier, aggression.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: What does that typically lead you open for?
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: Punches that come from the ground up like uppercuts.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: When you lean forward, body shots are open.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: When you overexert or overaggressive with your punches, what does that also do?
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you're open to get countered.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: This is tricky, tricky stuff, right?
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: The problem is Canelo hasn't stopped someone since Caleb Plant in 2021.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: I've heard people, I've heard two sides.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: I've heard that I'm biased towards Caleb and I do have a fondness for Caleb.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think I probably saw him when I first was at Snack.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: I think he was one of the first guys I filmed.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: If you go to Snack System, you can see two videos I did with Caleb.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: You know what?
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to pull that up right now.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: But I did videos with Caleb a long time ago at Snack System.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: And...
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: He was just a really nice guy and we got along.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I can be biased by that a little bit and I'm not ashamed to say that that can be
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: an issue for me.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: But the other thing is I get the sentiment that some people feel as
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: though Caleb wasn't that good.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: That kind of frustrates me because to me,
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: Caleb was always above average and I felt like People just wanted to write him off
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: for whatever reason.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: And he was really like, I think that now people accurately assess where Caleb is.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: They see that spirit, the fighter within that exists with him.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: But I feel like a lot of people want to write off Caleb or did want
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: to write off Caleb at a certain point and so forth and so on.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I bring that up to say...
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: That Canelo stopped Caleb Plant.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: It was in the 11th round, but we haven't really seen the power.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I shouldn't say we haven't seen the power because he dropped Munguia.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: But lately,
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: the thing with Canelo is he kind of fights like what I'll call old guy Canelo,
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: where if he gets you hurt,
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: he doesn't fully want to ramp up,
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: at least in my perception of the fight, to gears four, five, and six.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: He doesn't want to have to breathe hard or If he's got you and he knows you're going
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: to be kind of chilling and you're not going to be too aggressive,
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: he's fine to go the rounds.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: He wants to fight at a comfortable pace.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: So the interesting thing to me,
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: and then we'll get back to is at the end is,
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: I keep going back to the question of the fight.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: And to me, the question of the fight is simple.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: If Canelo can hurt Christian and Billy...
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: This is going to be a hard fight for him,
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: Billy, to win because he's probably going to be target practice for Canelo.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: But Canelo also has shown that he doesn't love fighting at someone else's pace.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: He doesn't like fighting at someone else's speed.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's not something that creates enthusiasm for him currently.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: So...
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: I think the interesting thing is it's a legend who's known as a great counterpuncher
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: who hits very hard and accurate,
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: but it's can he land those telling blows that calm down the youthful excitement
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: of Mbili,
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: who Mbili is getting the fight of his lifetime and he's trying
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: to really prove himself.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: As a top-notch guy, as a guy who can go to that next level and really prove that he's...
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: You know, one of the best, one of the best ever of this generation.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: If he beats Canelo Alvarez,
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: no matter how it is or what era it is,
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: he goes down as one of the best of a generation.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm trying to find this Caleb Plant video and it's a long, long time ago.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm just rambling.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's very, very long time ago.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, let's see.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: There's Sergei Dervyanchenko.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: So it is, and I got to mute this just in case the audience.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: You want to know how long ago I've been in the game?
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: That is nine years ago.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: Nine years ago, almost to the day.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: Nine years ago.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: So, I mean, there's something humbling
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: about that, not to toot my own horn, but...
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: It feels good to be at
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: a high level for so long.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of questions about PEDs with Canelo.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: I think the issue with Canelo is, well, a lot of things, right?
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: He failed the test.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: He was punished, but it was a hair follicle test.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that there was reasonable suspicion around that.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: I also feel like
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: People pick and choose around issues such as drug testing.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that there's true fear around Canelo.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone wants access.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: And Conor Benn is a fighter who's not as relevant, you know?
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I think there's not as much...
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: From media members,
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: I think people are more willing to be on an island and not be able to do things
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: with Conor Benn.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas Canelo,
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: like look,
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: Canelo typically brings in really big numbers and keeps the lights on
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: for boxing websites.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that truly is something that you can't overlook, right?
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: Let's keep going more and more about this.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: But I think my question,
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: dating back to the number one question, is this the end for Canelo Alvarez?
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, if he loses to Christian and Billy,
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: I think we see Canelo go into the cool old guy role, right?
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: He starts to become the,
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know,
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: good Samaritan type fighter, the cool old vet who, you know, is taking fights.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: But I don't think that he's serious.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: He takes the same serious competition after this.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think that he lives for those high-level fights if he were to lose this.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: I think if he wins this,
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: there's going to be hopes that he could land a Terrence Crawford fight because
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: that was kind of an embarrassing loss, if we're being honest.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: A smaller guy moved up in weight and outboxed him.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that really hurts him.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: Aspects of his legacy because going into the start of this decade,
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: he was the number one guy and losing to Crawford,
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: Crawford three division undisputed champion really has this amazing career.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: Historically, Crawford has one of these careers on paper that are on.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: He's like a Henry Armstrong like fighter.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: And now you can't put Canelo above Crawford.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: You can't put Canelo above.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: In a way,
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: in my opinion,
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: you can't put him above Usyk, although I think some people might argue that one.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: But so for me, this is really what's interesting is this is the first fight outside of Crawford.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: Where Canelo is fighting a young guy since the Bivol fight.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: And since the Bivol fight,
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: we've seen Canelo,
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: at least to me,
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: and push back to me if you disagree,
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: chat, he doesn't have the same youthful exuberance.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: He fights kind of like someone,
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: like I keep saying, whereas his full spirit doesn't seem to be in the sport.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: It seems like he's fighting...
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: As a businessman and he's making money, but he doesn't seem like that same enthusiasm is there.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's almost like he's mentally retired, but he's physically able and willing to fight.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's my first thing.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: So to answer the question,
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: if Christian and Billy were to beat Canelo, I think it is the end for Canelo.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's the end of him.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: He's already been moved off of most pound for pound list, right?
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: If he won here, he'd probably make a return at the tail end.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: But it's like if he loses this fight,
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: it's really the end of him being a relevant dominant fighter.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: At the top of the sport.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: And then we start to have to wonder where his role in pay-per-view boxing is.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: Because though he has a big fan base,
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: two consecutive losses in a row,
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: now we have to start to reevaluate where he stands in the sport.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: And as my guy Boxer Gray once said, we got to stop being in love with 2016 fighters.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: That was 10 years ago.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: And those guys consistently lose now.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: And Canelo's more of a 2016 fighter than he is a 2026 fighter.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's not that hot of a take of saying next year is probably Canelo's last year as a pro.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe he'll make it to 2028, but we're getting close to the end.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: He's had a good career.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: He's made a lot of money, though, so no fears.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: But I think that for this fight,
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: this tells us if it's the end for Canelo, at least at the highest level.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: Said what WTF did a random Google search on Canelo and he's
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: the second highest paid athlete in the world.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: Career total 800 million in total earnings.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he can chill.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that sometimes like you can see that in his performance.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: Let's see.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: Why do you think Roja versus Bia was at a 165 catchweight and who asked for it?
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I don't know, to be honest with you.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: That's just speculative.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: And typically when people ask for that,
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: Without knowing anything of the situation,
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: just from situations,
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: typically whoever has more leverage and power is the person that's able to negotiate
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: a catchweight, right?
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: So whoever holds more power in that situation,
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: that dynamic,
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: unless the traditional A-side promoted fighter wanted to make it to the fight night,
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: that typically is where that comes from.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: Let's go to the second question.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: My second question, win or lose, what happens to both fighters?
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean,
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: for Mbilly,
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: it's kind of a fun one because it's like if he wins,
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: he becomes the modern Dimitri Bivel.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: But the thing is, he has a more exciting style than Dimitri Bivel.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I think...
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: Eye of the Tiger management has really,
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: really built up this amazing roster of boxers and gone to that next level recently.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I think there's a real hope,
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: possibly,
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: that Mbilly would be active and take on really,
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: really interesting fights with an exciting style.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: If Mbilly were to lose...
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: Even if he gets knocked out, I still think that there's excitement around him.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: I think the way he performed against Lester Martinez, it was a draw.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: I think Diego Pacheco versus Mbili is a fascinating fight.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: Another Eye of the Tiger fighter, Oslis is Iglesias.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: That's a really good fight.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I think there's a lot of really, really good options for Mbili.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I think Mbili being at this level,
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: Really raises his profile and gives him a chance to be a higher profile fighter
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: than most people probably suspect.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: I actually had a question.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: I was thinking about throwing that in.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to talk about that, but I'm going to finish this one.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: With Canelo Alvarez, I think this is win or this next part of your career is forever changed.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: So for Canelo, he has to win even if he wins a close fight.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: Everything's fine.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: If he loses to Christian and Billy, there's a sense that, oh man, this isn't the same guy.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it kind of might even rewrite history and say,
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: you know, after that Bivol fight, he was a different guy.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: And look at the opposition he fought between there.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it kind of changes his window of being like,
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: a guy that was pretty dominant in this decade to,
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: you know, from 2018 to 2022, he was really the man.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: And then he kind of struggled.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that there's...
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: Some major historical significance for Canelo.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: Canelo's probably going to go down as the greatest historical Mexican fighter,
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: at least financially and just in terms of narratives.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: I think Canelo's going to go down in that sense.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: But I do think he needs to win this because there is a level of,
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm proving I'm still one of the top guys in the division.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not just old guy Canelo.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: And if he were to lose to Mbili,
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: I think the sentiment is,
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: which may be wrong,
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: is prime Canelo would have knocked out Mbili because he's that aggressive.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: So the more this fight is competitive, the more Canelo looks...
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: He's unhappy or unsatisfied with the way the fight is going if that were to happen.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: I think it hurts his legacy in the short term.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: And then the thing with him is he's had this great era of like from 2013 to 20,
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: really like 2020, 2013 to 2022, right?
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: He had a great era.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then he has like this second run.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: But I think the real thing he's got to be aware of is that
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: People love to rewrite history.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: I love to rewrite history.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like Canelo's always had every advantage,
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: essentially, in most fights, except for the Floyd Mayweather fight.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: Except in, I mean, that's really the only fight.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: You know, every fight seems like he has bits of advantages.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: Crawford had to move up to him.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: Crawford moves up in weight to 168 and beats him.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that this is a sneaky, huge fight for Canelo's legacy.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to answer a fun question from my guy, Fan.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think David Picasso can keep Martin off of him?
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: The more I think about this fight,
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: the more I feel like Martin has a real chance to upset David Picasso.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think Picasso is a solid fighter,
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: but whenever he's stepped up in competition,
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: the words we've used to describe him have often been he's tough,
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: he's relentless, he's gritty, he shows heart.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: We don't talk about ability skill and what he's doing in the ring.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: We tend to talk about intangibles such as durability and stuff of that nature.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: My gut feeling is these guys are going to run into each other and it's going to be
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: a battle of who can outlast the other.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'm kind of thinking Martin might have enough To do it.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I also think Picasso coming off a fight with Neo Inouye,
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: you know, that was a pretty grueling fight.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: He made it the rounds, but that's a really big puncher.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: And that can have lingering effects that people don't think about it.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: I always talk about the video game thing.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: The health bar doesn't reset.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: And that for guys like Mbili and Canelo, that's very true.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: But for Picasso,
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: it's like you get in there with one of these Hall of Fame guys like Inouye,
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: And everyone goes, okay, look at this guy.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: He's one of the top guys or he did this really big performance against Inouye.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: And obviously, for those that are unaware, he came back in August and stopped.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: Stopped a guy in two rounds, Mikkel Rikon.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: But really the fight,
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: and that was his move up,
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: or he had moved down to fight in a way at 122,
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: but he's traditionally been between the two weight classes,
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: between featherweight and junior featherweight.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: And now Picasso is fighting back at featherweight for a WBC silver featherweight title.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: One might assume that the winner of this fight would be in line for a mandatory
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: for Bruce Carrington at some point or to fight an eliminator.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: The thing about Martin is you look at his record, 28-0, 21 KOs.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: You can look at the opposition,
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: okay, maybe not the most notable, but it's pretty decent records.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: Pretty solid.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like,
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: you look at a fight,
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: like the fights that I look at are like, okay, he fought 2025 May in Nevada.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's a knockdown against a veteran.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: The guy's 19, 12, and 2, Francisco Pedrazo.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: Let's see how many times this guy's been stopped.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: He's stopped twice.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: So he knocks down a guy that's only been stopped twice.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: Who were the guys that stopped him?
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: Let's find out.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, so he got stopped in his first two fights of his career.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: So this guy got stopped in 2012,
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_01: November, and then 2013, March, and then has never been stopped again.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: So, and let's see what the weight was.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: And the weights for those stoppages were 112 and 110.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: So as he moved up in weight, he proved to be a very durable guy.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: So, I mean, that's pretty...
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I...
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not super high on Picasso, right?
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: I think that Picasso, when he fought Azat Hovnissian, which was already August 2024.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's a while ago now.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: That feels a lot sooner than that.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: I thought that that was a very, very close fight.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: And the judges didn't reflect the fight I saw.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: Let me look at the box rec scores.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'd say his best win to me was against Damian Vasquez, which we're going super sick, sicko.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, the box rec score fans for 114, 113, that felt about what I saw.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: I think this is going to be
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then fans saying he didn't do that well against Crazy A,
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: nor did he do that good against Kameda.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: Very fascinated by how this fight's going to play out.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: So let's get to my next question, question number three.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_01: Let's talk about the super middleweight division.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: And the super middleweight division,
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: I think right now, is a more interesting division than we give it credit for.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: Let me pull up the box rec.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: For this division,
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: but like just off the top of my head, you got Canelo Alvarez who's there right now.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: You got Christian and Billy who's there right now.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: My guy, Osley Zaglacius.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: I absolutely love him.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: I think he's possibly a pound-for-pound talent.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: He doesn't get mentioned enough.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: We got Diego Pacheco.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: We got Hamza Shiraz.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: We've got Janabek moving up.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: We got Jacob Bank.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_01: We got Lester Martinez.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: We got Kevin Sajo.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: We got Edgar Berlanga, Demetrius Andrade, Bechtemir Malakuzia, Becht the Bully.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_01: That is a lot of really interesting fights and fighters.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: And another interesting thing about the super middleweight division is some
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: of these interesting fighters have losses.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like, sure, okay, you look at Lester Martinez, Jacob Bank, Shiraz.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: Pacheco, Iglesias.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like the problem you see in every division where you have the top eight
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: in the division and they're all undefeated and you kind of go,
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: well, can't we match them up?
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_01: And that speaks to the inherent issue with boxing is
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: that different promoters have different fighters so we don't get to see
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: the undefeated fighters fight each other and to get the best fights until a year
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: or two maybe too late because that's just the way boxing makes money and that's
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: the ecosystem, etc.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_01: But I really think that I kind of view this as a post Canelo division,
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: although that might prove to be wrong.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: We might see an amazing performance tomorrow where we go Canelo's in the mix with these guys.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: But I think we have a lot of really interesting fighters.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: And let's say you match Iglesias up with someone else in the division.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: I love the Jacob Bank and Jana Beck fight that's coming up.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: Beck the bully should get an opportunity against Jaime Munguia at some point,
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: given that Jaime Munguia beats Nikita Zahn.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: Which I expect him to win because I am a sick, sick man.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: I talk a lot about boxing.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: I watch a lot of boxing fights.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, tonight I'm going to, on Halloween Eve, what is this?
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: Is this All Hallows Eve?
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: I believe so, but let me know in the chat.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to watch probably some tape tonight.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to probably watch Nikita Zahn and Jaime Munguia fights.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: I really like this division.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's rebuilding in a nice way.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that this is a perfect fight,
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: the main event, that really set the stage for what's in store.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: Jaime Munguia is as frustrating a fighter as I have seen.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: I was at his media workout.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: God, it was... Let me tell you when I was at the media workout.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: I can remember that I took my aunt to get cancer treatment.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_01: It
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_01: must have been either July or August 2018.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_01: Look at this year for Jaime Munguia.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: This is basically what made Munguia a star.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_01: In 2018, he fought four times, though
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: Those four fights were against a guy that I've never heard of.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: They knocked out Navarrete in Mexico,
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_01: knocks out Saddam Ali to become a world champion,
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_01: beats Liam Smith and then beats Brandon Cook.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: Those are his four fights.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then he comes back and then he just has a bunch of fights that we want
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: to forget,
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: especially the Dennis Hogan fight where it felt like Dennis Hogan outboxed him.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: And then after the Dennis Hogan fight,
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_01: it's just been a lot of mid fights, to be perfectly honest with you.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's just been a lot of treading water and just not very exciting fights.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then he fought maybe in 2023.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_01: In 2023, he fought Sergei Dervyanchenko.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_01: It was Derevyanchenko a little past his prime.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_01: He beat John Ryder, which honestly was a pretty good win at the time.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: And then he loses to Canelo.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: We've got the Eric Bazinian fight.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, that was good.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: Good win.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_01: Gets knocked out by Bruno Saras.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: Comes back and beats Bruno Saras.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_01: And then the Resendez win, I thought he'd kind of turned a corner.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, wow.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: At 30 years old, Jaime Munguia is kind of like a complete fighter.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: And then I was really excited to see him fight Beck the Bully.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_01: And now we're fighting Nikita Zahn, who I know absolutely nothing about.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_01: And that does not inspire me all that much.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_01: So that's pretty frustrating.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I am pretty high on the super middleweight division.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I think...
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_01: This fight really helps paint the picture.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_01: Question number four, Rafael Espinoza in the stalling featherweight division.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: Rafael Espinoza was a revelation.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_01: I sat in this room nearly three years ago in December when
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_01: that Rougarou poster was gifted to me by Declan Warrington,
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_01: which thank you to Declan for doing that.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: That was really thoughtful of him.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_01: And he beats Robisi Ramirez, who me and Dakota have praised Robisi.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: And then he stops him in the rematch.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_01: Robisi has gone on to do absolutely nothing.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_01: His career is absolutely stalled.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I would have expected Espinoza to really go to that next level.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_01: He felt like the modern version of Emmanuel Navarrete.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_01: Sure, he's 32 years old, but at 6'1", making the 126-pound limit,
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_01: I expected a lot.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yet, all we've seen since the two Rabisi wins and a win in between the fight,
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: we've seen him stop Edward Kidd Vasquez, which, okay, that's impressive.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_01: He did that in seven rounds, chopped, chopped, And then he stopped Arnold Kayegi.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: And Arnold's a very good fighter.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: But also, I think we all say we want to see another defense.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_01: And then for this fight, he's now taking on Ricardo Blandon.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_01: Originally, he was set to face Lorenzo Parro.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_01: I was excited about it because Parro had beaten Elijah Pierce.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_01: Pierce was a guy on OTX Boxing that I talked to a lot.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_01: It was a pretty exciting up-and-comer, yet...
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_01: Ricardo Blanton,
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_01: just to be perfectly blunt and honest with you,
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_01: which is probably how I should always keep it
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: because that's how you keep your friends.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_01: He just doesn't feel like a world challenger.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_01: He has a loss a couple of years ago to Rene Alvarado.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_01: He lost to David Cuaro.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_01: He just does not feel like someone...
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_01: I think everyone that's a big boxing fan wants to see unifications
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: the featherweight division.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, Brandon Figueroa lost.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_01: And Bruce Carrington won his title in January, yet I don't think has returned since.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_01: While many people talk about how middleweight is just this awful division that kind
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_01: of is snakebit.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I guess I forgot that Carrington returned in July.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_01: But I guess that fight was so underwhelming that I forgot
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_01: that Carrington's had two fights this year.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm glad I fact-checked that.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_01: But...
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's such a snakebit division that now it makes middleweight look good.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I guess my fear is if enough divisions follow the middleweight division model,
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_01: what sport do we have?
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: Because now the middleweight division is anarchy where guys aren't fighting each other.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_01: And the featherweight division,
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_01: which used to be a very active and interesting division,
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_01: has now gone that way as well.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_01: Rafael Espinoza looks the part of one of the best fighters,
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_01: but currently we're seeing him doing more singing than Then we're seeing him being
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: in the ring.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully he can look to make unification bouts or move up and challenge for future titles.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm not all that excited about this current matchup.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_01: Five, let's talk about the fight that I miss.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_01: Lindolfo Delgado versus Arthur Dirselenov.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_01: Delgado has just kind of struggled at a certain level in the sport.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_01: He's had moments where he's looked sensational, especially with knockouts.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_01: But when he fought Gabriel Gales Valenzuela, I think he was lucky to get the win.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_01: It didn't feel like a fight that he probably won.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_01: It felt as though he should be happy to get that decision.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_01: And he is opting...
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_01: Who knows what the real story is,
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_01: but it appears that there was either miscommunication or whatnot.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_01: But I won't...
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't go to Saudi Arabia, which was a long flight, etc.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_01: And...
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_01: Basically, deadlines, pass, all types of stuff.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_01: But he didn't make the trip, so forth and so on.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_01: And we knew going into this fight week with all of
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_01: the stuff surrounding what's happening in Saudi Arabia,
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_01: potentially one fighter wouldn't be on the card based on the circumstance around it.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the unfortunate circumstance for Lindolfo Delgado is...
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_01: He happens to be someone that was going to challenge for a world title.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_01: Who knows if he will ever be afforded that opportunity again.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_01: But the other thing is...
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_01: If this was possibly in the cards,
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_01: why not also let Arthur Biercelinoff,
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_01: the promotion,
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_01: and everybody know, hey,
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_01: there's a chance that, like,
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_01: I believe there's a passport issue,
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_01: tickets hadn't been sent, and possibly other things.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_01: Just alert the promotion and say, hey, would it be possible if there was a backup opponent?
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_01: Other fighters on the card found backup opponents.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: Espinosa and Munguia seem to find backup level guys.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's unfortunate that the title fight that I had the most excitement around just didn't happen.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not happening,
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_01: not for any reason other than Arthur Biersolinov doesn't have an opponent
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_01: who can challenge him in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_01: And that to me is unfortunate because this is a...
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_01: These are two guys that have waited a really long time for an opportunity.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_01: And this was the type of fight that would have been very important on
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_01: a card like this and on a stage like this.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_01: And instead, the theme of boxing in 2026 is stagnation.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing is happening.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_01: We're just going to...
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_01: Let things sit and we're going to wait until the next available fight date
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_01: and see what happens.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_01: For Delgado, I think it's a very reasonable thing.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_01: And to not travel that far distance on such short notice.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_01: But who knows how things play out?
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_01: Because world title shots are not given all that often.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_01: And for Bir Slanoff, fighting Delgado was a very winnable fight.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_01: And who knows if he stays his mandatory challenger or if it's someone else entirely.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_01: These are the things.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_01: So these are the storylines I am thinking about heading into tomorrow's fight.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_01: Let me know what you think in the comments.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_01: I am out.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: Peace, everybody.