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Once-A-Week Podcast: Why I Hate Talking About The Business Of Boxing... · Big Dog Lukie Boxing Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: What's up, everybody?
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's your good friend, Lukie.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to thank you for being you because this podcast is brought to you by you.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's the once a week podcast going on about three years, I want to say.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: What a wonderful time to be alive and And this Sunday national holiday, it is my birthday.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: I won't tell you my age.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Feel free to guess in the comments section.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: But because of that,
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: last week I had some, well,
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think for full transparency before I get into the lead topic,
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: I have some issues going on in my personal life, which we all do.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I've chosen not to speak on them.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, which you can't also like,
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: I can't do a monologue and go,
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: I got stuff going on, but I'm not telling you guys intentionally about it.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so feel sympathy for me.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: By no means am I doing that.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I think a lot of people don't care,
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: but I do feel that I should tell you guys That there might be unhinged moments
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: because I'm going through some stuff in my life and it's
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: a little different right now.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's a little unexpected personal situation and at times you might get just frustrated, Lukie.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to put that out there because I think some people were like, what's going on here?
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: But I got some criticism last week and I'm going to do this one
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: and share unapologetically my feelings on the business of boxing
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: and why I hate this conversation so much.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I've been around boxing.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: I've enjoyed boxing since basically Tyson.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Tyson was a thing when I was a child.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Tyson was cool.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Tyson led to, you know, me casually being a boxing viewer in my 20s.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then in 2010, I needed more of a hobby.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: And Bernard Hopkins was someone I grew up watching.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: And he fought Chad Dawson.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that was really cool, et cetera, et cetera.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then one thing led to another.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Started learning the sport.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: And by 2016, I was hitting the road to Tachi Palace in Fresno, California.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I think Maybe I've told this story,
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: but we'll tell this story here because it's probably,
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: to me, it's more fascinating than what I'm going to get into.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: I remember I'd been going to the Don Chargin and the Paco Damien shows and I left
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: the condo complex and I'd shoot these videos and it was really dress rehearsals for
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: the big stage, learning how to do stuff.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember I typed into my GPS.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Usually it was like a one hour drive anywhere.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I typed in Tachi Palace for the,
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: it was maybe it was, I think it was Andy Ruiz was the main eventer.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: It was a 2015, 2016 card.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: It was Andy Benson.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is his first fight on a top-ranked card.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Ended with basically the first round stoppage.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: The guy didn't come out of the corner, but that's neither here nor there.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember thinking to myself,
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: oh my goodness, if anything happens to my car, I'm no longer around people I know.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then that turned into one of the best decisions because just driving down there
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: for God knows three, four years, that became a communal hub of support.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it taught me that You know,
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: you have to hit the road to expand your mind and, you know, to do what you do.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like right now, sometimes I'm not adventurous enough.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I don't make the videos that I really should.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Speaking of which,
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Good Fight has a video on Kumar Prescott,
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: an exciting up-and-comers fighting this Friday, coming out very, very shortly.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: But also, like,
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: to speak to that point about,
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: like, you know, hitting the road to make opportunities happen...
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then that fear of the unknown.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Leave me comments if you want me to do,
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: like if people want me to do more videos,
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: leave comments of fighters you'd like to see it because that really does inspire me.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: I hear that all the time.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: And for those on the iTunes, we just made kind of a new feed out of the old feed.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: So this is going to be all the newsletter podcasts or what you're getting.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Hello.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: And if you...
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Listen via Substack,
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: maybe give a review or a five-star review to one of those podcast apps so I can be
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: a little bit more relevant trying to give you guys and gals tons
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: of exciting content moving forward.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: But let me get into this topic.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: The business of
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: boxing to me is the most uninteresting thing as I sit here as
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: a middle-aged guy.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because the business of boxing is typically what benefits a promoter,
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: what benefits a Essentially, everybody but the fans.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: The business of boxing is a way I feel,
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: the way I define it is build up fighters by any means necessary
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: that you think are profitable.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: The business of boxing is we need a New York fighter because New York City is
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: a big hub and we need to go to Madison Square Garden,
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: build up a Puerto Rican fighter, build a Las Vegas fighter.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: We need a West Coast fighter.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: We need a Texas fighter.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's like building up hubs and it's about It's about, okay,
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: we're looking at,
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: we're soullessly looking at the money rather than looking at making good fights
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: and letting the talent lead where the money investment goes.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: So the current model of business to me frustrates me because I feel like the model
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: that we've lived for the last 15 years led us to this point of boxing dystopia,
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: which is...
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Either build up some people based on their charming and charismatic personalities.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: They get to a certain level.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: They're relatively untested.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then you just hope to God that they can make it at that next level.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, I have some level of talent to be in that position.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: But really, a lot of fighters get kind of a cakewalk to a certain point in the sport.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then you find out how good they are.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's been the model for the last 15 years.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Problem is now with mega investment,
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: with kind of like this 1% millionaire class of boxers,
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't say it exposes some fighters, but you're starting to learn something.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Some fighters might not be as good as you thought they were.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Some fighters might have been good matchmakers.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Some fighters might have been strategic people who were able to jump when
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: the iron was hot at certain times.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: But now when you're just making big money fights,
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: when it's the cash grab era,
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden,
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: you can see anything happen because the investments are no longer protected.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: This came up kind of with my views around, obviously, I'm a big women's boxing supporter.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: It really goes back to starting in the gym and Casey Croft just being one of
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: the only people that had my back and supported me.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Casey was always there.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, being around Casey in the gym normalized women's boxing to me.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I guess there's a thing that I also need
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: to say too is like I've been around boxing, gyms, and so forth and so on.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I hate these concepts.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm rambling,
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: but I hate these concepts of, well,
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: I can't even tell who would be a better prospect because you got to see the timing
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: and all that.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: F out of here, man.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, timing matters so much to a certain degree with boxing,
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: but you should be able to look at who's a fighter that has ability,
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: who could be put into fights, and you could throw tough.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Or what are realistic, foreseeable matchups in the next two to three years?
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: If you're unable to see, like, let's do this exam right now.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: So let's do...
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Joel Irarte.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: He is a promising up-and-comer with Golden Boy Promotions.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm very high on him.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: His last fight, 147.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: So let's just look and prognosticate at potential future fights we could see.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that realistically,
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: like a fight against Abel Ramos is a very interesting,
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: compelling fight moving forward.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think guys like Roley Romero down the road,
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: if he's built right, if he establishes his name, could be there.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Alexis Roach is an interesting fight.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Tiger Johnson is an interesting fight.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Avious Griffin is a very, I think that's a really good fight.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Blair Cobbs is a fight.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of different fights.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: Shoot, maybe even, who knows, someone like Kelvin Davis or Tamir Smalls or Mark Castro.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Those are all really good fights.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Even Teasley.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: The fighter from Philly.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: But what I'm saying is there has to be vision to the sport.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: And oftentimes people will look at a prospect and they'll be like, yeah, he's good.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: But they almost are dumbfounded when you try to think about what
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: the potential mega fights could be for that fighter.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: What are the fights that could really resonate and change?
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: And part of that is, who could you match these young fighters with?
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like with Abdullah Mason, when he was red hot, Keyshawn Davis was right there.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: And in the back of your mind,
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: you're like, are they going to be on a collision course at some point?
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's interesting.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's compelling.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's exciting.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: My problem with the business of boxing,
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: and then there was also like,
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: why don't you get outraged when a fighter like Zili Zhang doesn't get a fight
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: in China?
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Zili Zhang is a perfect example of how boxing traditionally works.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: You have a fighter from China who has a huge market wanting to see him fight.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: But he's not the fighter that's in favor.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: He's not Anthony friggin' Joshua.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: If he's Anthony Joshua, he gets a million and a half chances.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's why, to me, Anthony Joshua might not be a Hall of Famer.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because if Zili Zhang had the career Joshua had,
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: he just would have lost two times and not gotten the same opportunities
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: and gotten avoided.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Joshua has made...
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty much the smallest impact possible with the biggest push he had.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Every time he gets close to really a sustained run,
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: he loses, and then he gets an automatic restart.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I say that to say,
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: with Zhang,
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: he beats Joe Joyce,
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: a very tough,
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: durable guy,
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: a physical guy, a guy who probably his greatest trait was just physicality.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then what's his reward, right?
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: He beats him in the first fight and you're like, okay, maybe it's contentious.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe the fight was stopped early.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then he absolutely obliterates him in the second fight,
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: which now that I remember watching that and being like, oh my God, it happened.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: It basically happened three years ago.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: It basically happened three years ago.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then that leads into...
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Zhang fighting in basically two really high-profile
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: fights, right?
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: He gets a fight against Joseph Parker,
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: which is a really,
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: really compelling kind of super fight,
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: the fight where I think he got paid probably a lot of money.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't win that fight, but that's a fight where you fight in Saudi Arabia for the money.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: You forego the leverage you have, the stellar position you are for...
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, to do a fight in China.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: There are fighters who get preferential treatment.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's the point of the A-side.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: Zhang is not going to be an A-side fighter.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: When he knocks out Deontay Wilder, he had leverage.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: He goes in with Agat Kabayel.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: This is why Kabayel is the man to me.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: This is why Kabayel,
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think,
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: outside of Usyk and with Usyk's performance with Verhoeven, I mean,
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think that you can't even rate him higher than And then Kabayel currently,
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: you can rate him higher,
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: but Kabayel's last four wins are Arslanbek-Makmoudov,
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: Frank Sanchez, Zili Zhang, and Damian Knaibia.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: All essentially, well,
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: the Knaibia fight wasn't,
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: but three of the The four fights are B-side fights,
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: all against fairly dangerous opponents.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: Mahmoudov, you could argue, has shown to be limited, but he fought him when he was unbeaten.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Frank Sanchez,
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: to me at the time, looked like the best guy in the division who didn't have a belt.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: That was impressive.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Zhang is a big, big puncher.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: He beats him.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: And Kanibia is just like a really weird physical guy.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know, his body, his frame, his reach.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's not frigging normal.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then we get to this, right?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: So the interpretation,
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not trying to throw shade,
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: but the interpretation that I get is why do I pick and choose my outrages?
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't pick and choose the outrages, at least to my thought process.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: I look at the situation and I realistically see that there is favoritism in the sport.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: People look and promoters choose fighters that they deem more marketable
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: or they deem more success.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's inherently the problem.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: In other sports, we get that.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: There's faces of the league, NBA, NFL, whichever league we get.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: In those leagues, there's still a component of they've got to win against the best.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: In boxing,
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: the problem has been Okay,
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: they got to win, but we'll give them preferential matchups.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where I get frustrated talking about the business of boxing because
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: the business of boxing often is how can we prolong a profitable fighter just
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: to make money for the sake of making money?
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: And the business of boxing has been a code word of how do we lose the trust of the fans?
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: How do we make uninteresting fights because quarter four needs to be in
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: the green instead of the red?
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: The business of boxing has been an outlet or a way of talking
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: about why boxing isn't interesting.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: The business of boxing is a way for people to To just sit and argue and talk
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: about things that aren't in the ring.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: What I love about boxing is there's issues like social injustice,
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: racism, classism, all different types of things you get in the ring.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a truth chamber of who you are as an athlete and how you've trained.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: Some of those elements come in both good and bad,
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: but I love the purity of competition in all sports,
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: but especially in boxing,
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: because there's a different level of mental and physical toughness that's required.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: And the more we shift the conversation into the business of boxing,
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: the more we belittle and take away from the fighters.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: This sport is built on the backs of the damn fighters.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's not built on these promoters.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: And we need to get back to talking about these fighters and these fights instead
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: of talking about the business of the boxing and how this fight makes so much sense
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: and all that.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's not our effing money.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: And we need to start acting like consumers who actually care.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, now let me,
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: before I get too fired up, now let's go into your other questions for this week.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: There's big praise for Craig Scott coming on this podcast.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: Love to see that.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: What's the Henry's documentary?
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: Let me see if I can figure that out.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: Leave the full comment in there and I will try to do my best.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm convinced U.S. trainers are too afraid of confrontation to demand their boxer's jab.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't think it's that.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: Let me unpack it.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'll say I'd like to know a little bit more of what you're saying,
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: but I think that The problem with boxing coaches,
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: especially in the U.S., is there's no barrier of entry.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: I could tell everybody, yeah,
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: I used to box and I never won anything,
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: but I was this bad dude and I had some crazy record.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: And if I get a group...
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: I've never had people explain that all that often.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: They just echo these words, right?
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: So...
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'd say the first issue with the jab and the American coaches is
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: that far too often we allow people in or to coach people where we don't even look
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: at their accomplishments, we don't look at their resume, their ability.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's a subtle, nuanced detail that I think can only come from time and experience in the game.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: And you have to learn the game over time, right?
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: Then you also have to think about like what is a jab philosophically?
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Why would you want to throw a jab?
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: A jab is basically distance, right?
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: But then like you could also use a jab to set up maybe a right hand.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: You could use a jab improperly.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: How fast is your jab?
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Does your jab come all at different speeds?
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: Do you throw a shovel jab, an up jab?
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: Do you jab to the tummy?
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: What's the rhythm of the jab?
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many different things with the jab.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: The jab is like a...
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the problem is on a deeper level,
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: I seem so angry today,
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: which is funny because I actually have had a great day,
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: but I'm jumping in passionate, I guess.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: The thing with the jab is...
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: I think you have to really understand what you believe the point of the jab is.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: Is the jab the stay off me, bro?
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: Is the jab the scalpel that's cutting into somebody and you're doing surgery?
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: This is the other thing, too.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a coach, I think you should say, what's the identity of my fighter?
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: And how does this tool benefit the fighter?
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: It shouldn't be, hey man, I got this jab that I teach and it's a one size fits all.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that it's not just American coaches,
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: but what you might see with American fighters are At a world-class level,
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: you might get people that are inexperienced,
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: and the jab might be something they work on in the gym,
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: but they might not think through a jab.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: Or the fighter themselves might be winning more so on coordination than game plans.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: And when a fight gets hard and you're not relying or like a tough thing to do,
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: and if you guys want to do this as a little work exercise,
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: hit a bag from range,
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: hit it with a jab,
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: hit it from range,
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: do it for,
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: three minutes,
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: three You know,
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: with a one minute break, it's pretty boring, but it's highly effective.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: And if you can stay in your boxing position,
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: move around a bag and just jab it,
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: you're simulating somewhat of,
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: okay, if worst case scenario, I'm going to know how to use my jab effectively.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to think through how do I fight with it.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I think a lot of times you see people...
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: Who maybe are very talented and they kind of freestyle and they don't go back
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: to maybe the basics or they dominate and they have a lot of success
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: and they maybe are a little overconfident in the basics
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: and you don't see people go back.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: Conor Wallace doesn't have the power to keep Ben Whitaker off.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: Good chance it happens in a 12-round match.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: Pulling for Whitaker to get the KO we got in the comments too.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the more we look at this, I think I got Conor Wallace confused with Conor Mitchell.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: But Whitaker,
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: if you don't have the power and you don't have the toughness,
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: it's just going to be a tough night.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: It feels the closer we get to this.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: We've seen this movie before, and we know how it ends.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: It almost feels like a horror film,
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: but instead of a horror villain,
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: we're
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: getting my guy Ben Whitaker, who's essentially coming in as our version of...
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, like a movie villain somewhat.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see, where are we at?
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't structure the podcast as well as I usually do, so I'm just going to go.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: I was sent a clip that says, watch this sequence followed by a photo of the winner.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I was sent a clip of Emma Nesbitt defeating Makota Wada via split decision.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to talk you through what I'm seeing.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: It looks like Wada is landing to the body and being physical.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: It looks like Nesbitt is just kind of covering up.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: It looks like she got dropped by a punch.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then it says she won.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um...
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: The thing about something like this, I need more context, right?
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because like, I don't know.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's an ex-post by what I think...
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: There's a post...
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: Where it looks like the fighter that lost is frustrated.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: I need more details on that situation.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: I don't fully feel like I can comment on that.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that that's where you get dangerous.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go into some film study and then we'll go roundabout stuff.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: So film study, we're going...
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think we're going Bilal Fawaz, Ethan James.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: For those that are unfamiliar with Bilal Fawaz,
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: he is kind of a journeyman British gatekeeper who picked up a win over Junaid Boston
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: and is just on a sensational run kind of at the British level.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm kind of curious if he can step up to the next level.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: The first fight I'm going to be watching is Ethan James versus Owen Cooper.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: I have some notes in here that says 441 first round knockdown,
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: 3645 KO punch.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: James leaves himself open, nearly gets knocked down.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: Hunt is not British level.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: James really should have been able to get on the inside and knock Hunt down.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: Let's check this out.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do some film study here.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: Always great when I don't have the familiarity with the fighters,
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: but at the same time,
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like this is how you keep yourself sharp as a guy in the game
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: when you just watch random fights.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: So let's see.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Let me look at the clock.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: So 441.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: 441, boom.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so with James, it's like he's kind of, it looks like he's baiting his way in.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: He's like a cross between like a heavy-handed puncher,
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: but he's doing a little bit of that amateur hop thing.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't have a jab.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: Really trying to counter and get to the inside.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: He has a straight right hand he throws and a left hook.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: He's just not very creative.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: The thing that I'm noticing early on is he's kind of doing the same thing.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: Right hand, left hook, jab.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: He's very straightforward.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: He's not turning angles.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: He gets a knockdown with a left hook.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: Let me watch that.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like,
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: just as I said,
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: that jab, and this guy, oh, Cooper keeps it out, misses a right hand.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: So what does he do here?
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: So Cooper's expecting a jab, and he does the Maidana without the jab.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: So he expects it.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: He kind of throws a jab-looking punch and catches him with a hook.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: That happens.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: The fight seems to turn into, like, a rock-em-sock-em affair.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: The big thing with James I'm seeing is now and anyone that's new to this,
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: this is how I watch film as you go to round nine, round 10.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: I watch earlier if you give me notes.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now he's on his back foot and he looks very, very tired.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like a will, a will fighter.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I just I'm not seeing in James a guy that has elite attributes.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm seeing someone that probably comes in as
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: a very good opponent who's physically tough, who could challenge someone.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: But he doesn't have the elite attributes I feel to control at a world-class level.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: Those are just my gut feelings currently.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: Let's watch more because I could be wrong.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: I've been wrong like twice.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see him against...
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: This Dom Hunt versus Ethan James, March 21st, came out six months ago.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm getting an ad.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: I really need to get YouTube premium or whatever when I do this film study
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: because it is very unfun to watch this stuff.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: In this fight, okay, so, I mean, this almost looks like the same fight.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: You could fool me and tell me this is the same fight.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my God.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think I just, this is a Hall of Fame moment.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think I, this is what happens.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think James was doing, was he doing so bad that I thought he was the other guy?
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: Was he doing so bad that he was the one that got knocked down?
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta watch this again.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: This might be a Hall of Fame moment.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: I think I just watched a fight.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: Let me see this.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: I just watched a fight and got it wrong based on ability.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: So Owen Cooper impressed me in that fight.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: Ethan James looked very, very vulnerable and weak.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: And now against Dom Hunter, it's like the same fight.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: To me, Ethan James, that's embarrassing but awesome.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: Ethan James is frail, unable to keep people off, and extremely vulnerable.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't have the distance management.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: This is going to be a hard fight for him.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: Bilal Fawaz is just too much, in my opinion.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: He's too physical, too tough.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: Can you preview Ricardo Sandoval versus Oscar Collazo?
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, the fight's no longer happening.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: I will say this, and I'm not going to watch tape on it.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: I will say this.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: The fight is no longer happening.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let me see who Ricardo Sandoval's fighting.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think he's fighting Sergio...
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: Mendoza might be his name.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: Facts do matter.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: But to me, I thought this was a horrible fight for Colazo.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: I get Colazo has a lot of hype and people are extremely excited about him as
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: a physical puncher at 105 pounds.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yet Colazo to me is very frustrating because though he is exciting
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: and he's getting these knockouts and There's a big push behind him since 2023,
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: maybe 2022.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: The frustration I see currently for myself is where are the unification fights
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: and how do we justify his minimum strawweight ranking compared
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: to someone like Say maybe a Yabuki or even Agat Kabayel who are making the case
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: by fighting really, really top guys.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: He has kind of won at that level, but also like I still feel he's unproven.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: I felt like moving up two weight classes to fight Ricardo Sandoval,
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: who is a very physical, tough guy.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: That workman-like professional who's kind of been through the ringer as
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: a pro was just going to be too much for him.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I greatly favored Sandoval and I thought Sandoval was going to probably break him down.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought it was going to be a misstep in his career, to be perfectly honest.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: I thought it was too much too soon at a weight class, just moving up.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: Just to try to make a statement.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that hardly ever is good.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: Can you preview Abraham Suleiman versus Sonny Hardy?
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: See if I get Sonny Hardy right.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: That would be amazing if this is just the Lukie thinks every fighter is
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: the wrong fighter podcast.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um...
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, pretty obvious who Sonny Hardy is.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: So unfamiliar with either guys.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: Neither guy looks like a world-class fighter,
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: but obviously they're fighting in developmental fights.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: Sonny Hardy is very much a blood-and-guts, physical, tough guy who he's loading up.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: He's blinking to throw right hands there like rocks.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: He's just going to sit there and chuck them.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: He's a guy who's going to get hit.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: So what I do, I can see that early in the fight.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go to the fourth and fifth round.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of falling in with Hardy.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: Hardy falls in, falls in.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: His distance is non-existent.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: His ability to find his range is non-existent.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: Headbutt City.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: He's going to lean in.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: He throws some sneaky uppercuts on the inside when he's leaning in.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: But he's just falling in, falling in, falling in.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: Clenches afloat.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's toughness.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to be fighting in the pocket.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: Lean in, lean in.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: Ugly fight.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: Just awful fight.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: Not blown away by that performance.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: Let me look at Suleman now.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: I
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: feel like I've seen Suleman.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: I used to upload his photos when I was at boxing scene
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: because it's like he looked like he was good enough.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: There was one that was thrown to me,
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: but I'm going to go off the matchroom video of him stopping Nico...
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: I can't say the guy's name, but the guy's kind of messing with him.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: But this probably is going to go back to the boxing,
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: like boxing in a nutshell,
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: where you have a guy that's just going to be coming forward
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: and is like way too tough for his good against a very,
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: very talented, coordinated guy.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what this looks like.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: This just looks like boxing in a nutshell.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: How good is Suleman?
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure, but he's able to move right and left.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: He's someone where his ability to faint,
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: his ability to think,
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: his coordination from jabbing,
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: moving, sidestepping, it can slow down aggressive fighters.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: There's probably going to be a guy who's too physical,
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: who's going to be too much for him, right?
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: He's got enough hand speed.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: Who knows where his hand speed exists?
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: But the thing I see is he's a guy who faints.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: He's a guy who's not a steady target.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: He's got some flash to his style.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: And guys that come forward are probably going to be like the worst matchup
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: against him because he's going to be able to do his flashy style,
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: be able to kind of shut them down with clean,
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: accurate punching and really look like a million bucks.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I expect Suleiman to really have a stellar performance.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: Probably gets a stoppage just based on the clip I just saw right there.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's keep going.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: Wilkins Mathieu versus Vladimir Shishkin.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, Wilkins Mathieu...
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: Matou is someone who really, really confuses me because I'll start with him.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: I don't fully see it.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: And there's really, really smart people who really, really are high on Wilkins.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: Matou.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: Keep saying it.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: But at 21 years old, he's a promising, promising fighter.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: But is he as good as Oslysses Iglesias?
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: Not at all.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: Is he even as interesting as Mbili?
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: Not really.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: But I wasn't high on Mbili to begin with.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: I guess for me, the problem with Wilkins is he's coordinated, he's got speed, he's got power.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: He just seems robotic and nothing jumps off the page.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: And against Esquivia Falco in his last fight, I felt like Falco is an older version of himself.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: I remember Falco from my top-ranked days going to regional cards
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: and he was almost like a coach amongst his peers.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: He had a very high boxing IQ.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: And in this fight, it's like I'm watching in round seven...
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: Wilkins is getting hit clean.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: He's having trouble just dealing with some of the issues an older Falco gets.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I see a very coordinated young guy who's extremely confident,
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: but I also don't see someone who has the skill sets of
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: a long reigning champion like Oslysis Iglesias.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: I also don't love the assumption that You can sit on the ropes
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: and counter punching is always going to work out great for you.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: That seems like a trait that people do when they fight a lot of older fighters,
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: kind of like a Squivia Falco.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then as they ramp up in competition, they magically get caught with a punch.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: I remember Jose Benavidez Jr. was kind of notorious of that when it was top rank on True TV.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: He'd sit on the ropes and win very, very close, questionable decisions.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then when he ramped up to that next level, it was kind of hard.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: And he had a lot...
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: I think he honestly has more ability than Wilkins Mathieu.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_00: Mathieu just has more dynamic traits.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm watching Shishkin.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: Shishkin wearing, I believe, the Kronk trunks.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: He's got that...
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: What I call a European style where he fights more upright.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not necessarily that it's wrong, but it's like very foreign to me, that upright style.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: So by that I mean he stands taller,
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: he doesn't bend his knees as much, but he's able to get off the line.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: By that I mean he's able to get his head off of a spot, like a line to be hit.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: He's able to move it.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm watching him fight Jason Minda.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: It was uploaded a year ago,
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: and this basically just looks like a way to knock the rust off for him.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, looks like an experienced kind of guy in Minda who knows his place in the sport.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: He wants to keep fighting.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: He wants to compete.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: Also looks like he gave Shishkin a souvenir.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm well into the fight.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: The big thing with Shishkin is it looks kind of obvious to me that he loves that right hand.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: So his jab alone isn't a blinding or a deflating jab, but he pairs it with a right hand.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that his right hand...
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't ever seem to put a punch together.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: And in this fight with Minda, he's given Minda ability to exit out left and
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: The thing I'm noticing is this is great film study for Wilkins Mathieu
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: because Shishkin is very uncreative when Minda's on the ropes and
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: that seems like that's Mathieu's biggest asset is he sits on the ropes.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's on the ropes and he has some creativity.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: So that's not super promising.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: Let's watch the fight that I actually was super pumped for.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: My guy, Olysses Iglesias versus Vladimir Shishkin.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: This was like a lukie Super Bowl.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: Big Olysses Iglesias guy, style over substance.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: In this fight,
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: you know, I mean,
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: it's tough because the thing with Iglesias is like,
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: you know, a guy like Yeleni Hernandez, everyone's like, man, this guy's a monster.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: I look at Iglesias and I see that what people say Hernandez is
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: because it's like he has the ability to box.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: He also has power and he can walk you down or he can box off the back foot.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: In the third round,
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: he went from boxing to all of a sudden being a predator and weaponizing his power,
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: looking to land hooks over the guard.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: And he has Shishkin on his back foot moving back and defensive.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think...
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: And Matthew is going to make this look at all like what Iglesias is doing.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: I mean,
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: Iglesias is taking a title challenger and making it look like a tune-up fight,
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: which I don't think Matthew has the talent.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: The other thing is the combinations Iglesias throws.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a right hook, straight left hand.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: Then it'll change it up and then it'll throw a smoke left hand.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm in about two minutes and 10 seconds to the fifth round.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: There's a punch variety.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then like if you watch two minutes and two of round five, Iglesias throws a left hand.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: When he knows it won't land,
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: he stops,
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: and then he feints a right hook,
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: but he keeps his distance so Shishkin doesn't feel comfortable punching.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: The problem with this fight,
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: the Iglesias-Shishkin fight,
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: is Shishkin is a fighter who needs to fight at range,
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: and by that I mean he needs to get the full extension on his jab to set up
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: a right hand.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_00: But Iglesias is better at understanding distance.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: The problem with this fight is Matthew, to me,
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: likes being on his back foot and sometimes likes guys to come to him
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: so he can exploit his hand speed.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: It could be a fight.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: The problem is I feel like a big momentum guy is...
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's hard to be a guy like Shishkin,
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_00: to come out of a fight like Iglesias,
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: to come out of a William Skoll fight where you probably feel as though you won
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: the fight.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now you're going in with a 21-year-old that you probably think you're more talented than...
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_00: But you also look and go, man, the promotion isn't behind me.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: The politics of the sport aren't behind me.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: The business of boxing isn't behind me.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: And how does that not wear on you and the physical wear and tear
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: that you've been dealt in the sport?
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that makes the matchup hard, but I won't lie to you.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm actually pretty compelled for that matchup.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's an interesting fight.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: Can you preview Iman Kitav versus Padraig McCrory?
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: To me, I don't have any film study thrown my way,
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: but Ketoff was the most, like, to me, the most impressive 2020 Olympian of anyone.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_00: His fights were incredibly fun.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: And he was a concussive puncher who's,
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'd say,
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_00: at times underachieved as a pro,
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: but he really has potential to be a really top-notch guy.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, there's going to be a comparison to better beef.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure he's quite in that realm.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: But he's a really good fighter.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: And Patrick McCrory is a good but not great guy who sometimes relies
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: on physical toughness to carry him along.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's not good to be the physical tough guy against a real big Chechnyan puncher.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's going to be
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: Can we preview Islices Iglesias versus Oliver Zoran?
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to do that.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm looking at Oliver Zoran.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: Never watched his fights.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: Good looping right hand.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: Got a little...
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_00: See what he does.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this,
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: just watching early on these fights,
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: the competition,
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: albeit these aren't all world-class fights,
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: but the competition are nowhere near Iglesias' level.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_00: He's punching one in two times at most.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's a one-and-done style of jab, hard as I can, right hand.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: I just think that he's going to, this, like,
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: Unless Duran is a guy who what he's doing right here is extremely special
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: from hand speed to power,
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: this is going to be a fight where he's not going to be able to...
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_00: Where he's not going to be able to do it.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: He's not going to be able to, to push the, he's not going to be able to dictate.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like the first thing I see in all of his highlights is he's going forward
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_00: against kind of chubby dudes.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like,
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: or now they're like somewhat more in shape,
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: but it's like, he's always going forward.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: He's always going forward.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: At the end of his highlights, he's going forward.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: He's going forward.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now the first fight, he's not going forward.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: He catches a guy with a hook, but it's like,
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the thing with him is he has decent hand speed,
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_00: but I don't see this fight being competitive at all.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like this is the only guy willing to step up to fight my guy.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: That would fight him, to be honest.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_00: And he has some hand speed.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: He has some stuff he does.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_00: But it feels like this fight's going to be over in about 12 seconds.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_00: And what I mean by that is the minute Iglesias puts him on the back foot,
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: the fight's over because he's just not going He's going to know how
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_00: to run his system against a really,
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_00: really smart strategic fighter who can fight at three different ranges,
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: long, mid-range, and short.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_00: He has a crazy right hook that's knockout.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't be shocked if he knocked him out in one or two rounds and if the punch is
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_00: the right hook.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because it just seems like this is a guy who's going to be jumping up a crazy amount of levels.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_00: And he's been used to being the more physically coordinated and gifted.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_00: Once again, business of boxing, right?
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_00: His whole career, he's the more physically gifted fighter.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now he steps up with an equally or more talented fighter and then
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_00: the fight could look really, really weird.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_00: Can you preview Hamza Yudin versus Sean Bruce?
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's, is it Bruce or Bunce?
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, here we go.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_00: Alfie Clegg versus Sean Bruntz.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: Bruntz is in the red.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's a British flyweight.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's called Destiny Calling from February 2026.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I won't lie to you.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_00: Sean Bruntz,
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: or Sean Bruce,
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_00: not Bruntz, Is a classy, solid, world-level flyweight to me from what I'm seeing.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_00: There's not a lot to him.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: He's upright.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_00: He's going to come forward.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, he's not going to jab because that's kind of like a domestic...
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_00: Trade of all domestic fighters,
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_00: but especially kind of romanticized,
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'd say romanticized British-level guys tend to be like,
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_00: come here, I'm going to show you how tough I am, etc., etc.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_00: He's a good pressure fighter.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think that the thing is he runs his combinations really good on the ropes.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_00: He's able to punch.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_00: Volume is always good at flyweight.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not seeing anything that's stellar,
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_00: but if you're not in physical shape and you can't push the pace,
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_00: he's someone that I feel like can fight at an infinity pace for
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_00: an entire fight duration.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: And those guys are pretty frigging annoying.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_00: Let's check out Yudin.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard really good things about him.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think I've watched him.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see what it is.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like this is probably going to be the Suleiman fight all over again,
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_00: where you have a guy who probably has faster hands,
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_00: more coordinated, flashy style, and then there's a guy coming forward.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_00: The exception is,
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like in this fight,
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_00: Juden doesn't throw as many punches, is a little too stationary.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_00: Suleiman's feet are wide, but...
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_00: Udon is doing the Adonis Stevenson thing where like sometimes guys act like they're
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_00: on a skateboard and like have their feet too wide because they think they're going
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_00: to get real big leverage on a right hand.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: And the downside to that is if you step correctly, they're not able to combination.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_00: So they can't get off the one.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_00: They basically can only throw two punches at a time, and then they have to reset.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_00: And against a fighter like he's fighting, that could be problems, right?
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because you have a guy who's coming forward,
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: going to push the issue, and if he lets his hands go, that could be weird.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think this fight's probably going to be more competitive.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know the records, which is bad.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean, once again, records in boxing are utter crap, you know?
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly,
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_00: we should only acknowledge the world-class wins at this point because a lot
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_00: of this is just developmental until you get to a certain level and then we find out
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_00: the character you are.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_00: The thing that, like, he's talented.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_00: I just don't really understand his identity as a fighter.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like he's kind of a flashy guy that wants to catch Perry, but he, like, he has...
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing with Yudin.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm in round six of round eight to...
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_00: He's too enamored with the ability of him making an opponent miss.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe early on when he was a kid,
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_00: maybe I'm going too psychological, that psychologically wore on him.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_00: So he likes doing mind games to people.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_00: But it's like he's enjoying making you miss four times and there's not anything coming back.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_00: And to me,
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_00: that's just a little bit annoying because it's like he's physically bigger
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_00: than Leonardo Jose Blanc.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_00: And he's just a little too satisfied being like,
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_00: let me jab you, let me jab you, let me jab you, let me jab you.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_00: Defensive move, defensive move, defensive move.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_00: It feels,
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_00: and I get it,
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_00: the guy's probably hits hard and all that,
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_00: but I don't feel a level of dominance in this fight.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I would not be shocked if this is a real fight,
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_00: you know, because I don't see like a huge, huge skill difference there.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_00: Also in X, I got five different frigging unread messages.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's always, that's always frigging scary.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, what did I do wrong?
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_00: Next one.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_00: Can you preview Bilal Fawaz versus Ethan James?
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_00: Oh no, I've already done it, but we'll do it again.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I think I've already done that one.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I think I already went through that.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_00: James, but just to say it again, James is a...
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_00: A physically tough come forward fighter who's willing to throw punches and willing
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_00: to make a fight physical.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_00: Ethan James to me is just clumsy and awkward and I don't see him being able
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_00: to keep Fawaz off of him.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is why we use the term weight bully.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_00: Talon is listed at 5'6", boxing at 115 pounds.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a fight that just happened,
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_00: I believe I was hearing about it,
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll go on my rant, but this is, yeah, it happened three days ago.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_00: Mikey Talon is obviously, he's the omen.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_00: And he fought Gonzalez-Coronaldus, and I believe it ended being a draw.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_00: Look, we're going to, I'll just call it for what it is, right?
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_00: I hate the term weight bully because to me, you know, Not everyone's going to be talented.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_00: So sometimes you have to get a blue collar guy that works hard that might have
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_00: to go down and wait.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_00: And their advantage is that they're not as talented.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_00: They don't learn as quick, but they're willing to sacrifice and work hard.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I inherently take some exception to weight bully
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_00: because I feel like weight bully is a way to discredit hardworking guys
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_00: who are trying to maximize their talent and they're just not as talented.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't ever rocket science that Talon isn't really elite.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_00: He's someone that's gotten opportunities.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he's enamored people in power.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_00: But I've never looked at him and said, okay, this guy's ready for the top of the division.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_00: He's always looked like a vulnerable guy who's been presented with big opportunities.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_00: And this just kind of was proof, right?
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_00: And there's no fault to that, right?
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_00: I think the fault is...
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes as a sport, we propel guys up, we build them up, and then we burn them down, right?
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like,
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_00: you're the best,
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_00: and then you have one draw,
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_00: which honestly is probably the best thing that could have happened to this kid
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_00: because he realized, hey, some of the stuff I do doesn't work.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_00: But now everyone goes, oh, he got exposed and all that.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes, quote, unquote, getting exposed actually leads to moments of huge growth.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_00: But this is also why we don't have a healthy sport is
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_00: because we don't always think pragmatically about it.
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_00: Can you preview Ben Whitaker versus Connor Wallace?
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: Jermaine Pampellian is a part-time trade worker who works in his coach's gym.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_00: Some backstory with Andrei Milikaliev,
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_00: I guess was in that gym.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_00: Long story short,
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_00: this is basically
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_00: a British domestic level light heavyweight was jabbing Connor Wallace to the body
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_00: at will on the way to a split decision loss to Wallace.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_00: Wallace has a reach advantage over Jerome and couldn't keep him off.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_00: Jerome would then be destroyed by Albert Ramirez as soon as Ramirez decided to fight.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_00: Which I think that's something to talk about too is like Tank,
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_00: Abdullah Mason,
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_00: maybe Ramirez has this gear where they just let you ride and then they step it up.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's something elite fighters can do where they kind of give you their B game and
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_00: then when they put their A game on, they want you to be a little tired.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_00: Conor takes matches, Dylan Colon and can't keep Colon off of him.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_00: Dylan Lappin, the son of Usyk's manager, swept Colin 10-0.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he's basically your typical-ish Irish boxer who gets to fringe world level
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_00: with his reach and a half-decent jab.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_00: The lack of power for a light heavyweight is what caught the matchmaker's eye.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean,
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_00: everything about this just says Ben Whitaker is going to do a frigging cool dance
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_00: and he's going to come out and dance and just land something consequential and big
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_00: and he's going to be the mandatory contender for Dimitri Bivel.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean that going in as a fan and looking at the attributes.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's like Whitaker is actually an Olympic silver medalist, as I talked about with Craig Scott.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_00: It felt as though when he beat Iman Ketoff, that was his finals.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_00: It felt like he let out emotional release of energy after that, and that limited him.
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_00: There's a talent component that people don't bring up with Whitaker
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_00: because he's done this big personality thing,
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_00: and I feel like in British boxing,
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_00: people love the blue-collar guy, and Whitaker's not the blue-collar guy.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_00: Success versus Ben Whitaker by coming forward and basically walking into the inside.
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's not how pro-Irish boxing boxers fight.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's how a 6'3", light heavyweight Conor Wallace fights.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_00: I've got some tape to watch.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_00: Let's watch the Wallace versus Jerome fight.
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see.
• 53:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Wallace is at a huge disadvantage.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the big thing I see is he pushes his jab and Pampellion is basically trying
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_00: to beat him with the right hand.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_00: So he's like waiting, waiting for him to throw and he's trying to time the right hand.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_00: And what's alarming to me is Wallace as a southpaw is not picking up on this.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, yeah, this is not promising.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_00: Wallace is trying to win a fight off of coordination against Ben Whitaker,
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_00: who's the more coordinated fighter.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because in that fight, Jerome was the more interesting of the two fighters.
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just watching all these fights back.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_00: The call-in fight.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_00: Here he is, round five.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's just,
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think the big thing with me about Connor Wallace,
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_00: he loads up and he has those tense punches that never seem to land.
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like in golf, right?
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_00: When a golfer tries to swing hard, they actually swing slow.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then with Ben,
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_00: they include the Ben Whitaker,
• 54:33
  SPEAKER_00: Liam Cameron fight that we've all seen where he falls out of the ring and an injury
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_00: and et cetera.
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the only thing that stops anyone from feeling as though...
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_00: This was a big,
• 54:46
  SPEAKER_00: this is a blowout,
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_00: is many boxing people,
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_00: including myself,
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_00: have serious reservations about the mental toughness of Ben Whitaker.
• 54:57
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a portfolio approach that starts with, hey, how does Whitaker do against Liam Cameron?
• 55:05
  SPEAKER_00: In that fight, like what did he do there mentally?
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's the showboating.
• 55:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's the egocentric behavior where you think that he wants to be a people pleaser.
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then you wonder if things aren't going his way, is he going to still showboat?
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_00: Is he still going to be as tough?
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think that there's a mental fragility to Whitaker with the way he chooses to fight
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_00: that I think a lot of people question just how tough he is
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_00: because it doesn't come off to me as tough guy behavior.
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_00: It comes off as arrogant bully behavior, and bullies don't tend to dig down deep in fights.
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I think this fight won't necessarily explain that,
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_00: but there are reasonable questions I think people bring up in wondering when
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_00: that will happen.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see.
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_00: Unhappiness with the point deduction.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_00: In the Goodman fight.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_00: Hmm.
• 56:21
  SPEAKER_00: I like this.
• 56:21
  SPEAKER_00: A reader said,
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_00: I was so miffed at the Sue Boy WBC nonsense that I turned the event off and watched
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_00: an old episode of The Contender and went to sleep.
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_00: For those that are unaware, Sue Boy lost a split decision to Ricardo Malajica.
• 56:38
  SPEAKER_00: I think most fight fans scored the fight for Suboy,
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_00: but it's just kind of another gut punch in a year that just keeps kicking boxing
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_00: while it's down.
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_00: Suboy...
• 56:54
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, I thought won, but he was also this special fast-tracked boxer.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_00: And now, you know, he's got a loss on his record.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the appeal was he had beaten a washed-up Carlos Quadras.
• 57:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it doesn't fully do a lot for me because Quadras is a pretty old fighter.
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_00: But the excitement was, okay, he's jumped in with a former champion.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_00: He's willing to fight for a title.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_00: He's going to try to do it in a couple of fights.
• 57:21
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, he takes a loss in a close fight.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_00: And even if he wins,
• 57:26
  SPEAKER_00: as horrible as it sounds,
• 57:28
  SPEAKER_00: when you take a chance at the flyweight division,
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_00: some of the enthusiasm is lost because I feel like Suboy was really trying to make
• 57:35
  SPEAKER_00: a name for himself by rushing into these divisions and almost trying to be...
• 57:38
  SPEAKER_00: I heard Rudy Hernandez apologized to Junto and offered to resign
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_00: because Rudy gave Junto a bad game plan to not turn things up in the late
• 57:55
  SPEAKER_00: Word out of Japan is the Tekken gym is having major problems with game plans.
• 57:59
  SPEAKER_00: They're not developing plan Bs.
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_00: They're saying Matsumoto and Suboi didn't adapt.
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_00: Team tension out of Tekken is complaining about the scoring.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_00: I mean...
• 58:09
  SPEAKER_00: I did an interview with Rudy Hernandez in May a few days before I got let go
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_00: from boxing scene and go back and listen to that because I think that my interview
• 58:19
  SPEAKER_00: with Rudy Hernandez which let me know if you want me
• 58:22
  SPEAKER_00: to put archival content out I could put that out again for the podcast listeners
• 58:29
  SPEAKER_00: but he kind of goes into it and I think that
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's very tricky to talk about plan A, B, and C. So this is a tricky slope to go down, right?
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because some guys have like a plan A and a plan A and a half.
• 58:52
  SPEAKER_00: And they're not always going to be able to get away with stuff.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_00: And...
• 59:01
  SPEAKER_00: I think that a lot of times we want...
• 59:05
  SPEAKER_00: And when I look at Matsumoto and I look at Suboy,
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_00: they have a lot of ability,
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_00: but they don't seem like guys that are going to physically take over a fight.
• 59:25
  SPEAKER_00: So there has to be some thinking and craft.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now, could adjustments be made on the fly to help them?
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_00: But I also think that it's very simple to go, well, this one gym isn't adapting.
• 59:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's a noticeable trend.
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_00: But also remember,
• 59:40
  SPEAKER_00: the fighters are the ones fighting and fighters are often the ones accountable
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_00: because they have to make the adjustments too.
• 59:46
  SPEAKER_00: Feel free to do what you want.
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, translated from Japan.
• 59:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh...
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_00: Hot take that they're saying Japanese fight fans sometimes are satisfied
• 1:00:18
  SPEAKER_00: when Japanese fighters lose.
• 1:00:19
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, I feel like sometimes American fighter fight fans feel that way.
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think that's that much of a hot take.
• 1:00:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think sometimes people like being contrarians.
• 1:00:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a big Ted Lasso guy and a lot of people go, I don't want to watch Ted Lasso.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_00: Otar won.
• 1:00:36
  SPEAKER_00: He's moving up to fight Jalen Walker.
• 1:00:38
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think that's a good move for Walker?
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Jalen Walker's in a tough spot, right?
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's like he signed with Top Rank.
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now he's being moved by my good friend Patrick Reagan, who's a good promoter.
• 1:00:52
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know,
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_00: he got that tough loss and when you lose the way he lost,
• 1:00:59
  SPEAKER_00: there's always going to be doubts about your ability to fight in certain ways and
• 1:01:03
  SPEAKER_00: the physicality around your style and your ability to hold up with punishment.
• 1:01:08
  SPEAKER_00: The reason why it could be an interesting fight is Otar asked the questions
• 1:01:14
  SPEAKER_00: of Jalen Walker that he needs to answer at a high level.
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_00: And Otar has a really good win over Sterling Castillo,
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_00: who was coming off a win,
• 1:01:22
  SPEAKER_00: I want to say, over Miguel Contreras, the caveman, a little after COVID.
• 1:01:29
  SPEAKER_00: Is Valoria released from Zufa or do you take a match off like Robert Merriweather III did?
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think he's released.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_00: I just don't think there's enough Zufa fight dates.
• 1:01:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that some of the guys are taking fights off.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_00: So, I think that we're starting to see a new level of like a feeder system starting to emerge.
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_00: But I can't speak on it or really understand what's happening.
• 1:02:00
  SPEAKER_00: It would appear... Until there's an official comment, you can't really comment on that stuff.
• 1:02:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:02:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that's, I mean, there's a few more.
• 1:02:27
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see.
• 1:02:28
  SPEAKER_00: There's some really good conspiracy theories.
• 1:02:31
  SPEAKER_00: Not jumping into those this week.
• 1:02:40
  SPEAKER_00: Here's something interesting.
• 1:02:41
  SPEAKER_00: BoxRec has included WBA title fights back to its fight descriptions.
• 1:02:45
  SPEAKER_00: However, it's not made to the database of WBA matches available to the public.
• 1:02:50
  SPEAKER_00: That is, you can't find the list of past WBA match champions all on one BoxRec page.
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, shout out BoxRec and shout out my guy BoxRecGray.
• 1:02:59
  SPEAKER_00: Love BoxRecGray.
• 1:03:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hope he's doing okay.
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_00: How is the licensing structure in California?
• 1:03:06
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, but that could be a really interesting piece.
• 1:03:15
  SPEAKER_00: They're just kind of asking... Kind of just...
• 1:03:22
  SPEAKER_00: In Japan...
• 1:03:24
  SPEAKER_00: Apparently you have to box and spar and do all these things.
• 1:03:30
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to get into that stuff just yet because that feels like I should have
• 1:03:36
  SPEAKER_00: an expert on to talk about the subject.
• 1:03:39
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to leave that there.
• 1:03:40
  SPEAKER_00: I should have two more podcasts, maybe one.
• 1:03:44
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think this week is worth a paywall.
• 1:03:46
  SPEAKER_00: Let me know in the comments if you want me to speak on Friday about
• 1:03:50
  SPEAKER_00: the Anthony Joshua versus Tyson Fury press conference.
• 1:03:54
  SPEAKER_00: I happily missed it today and that absolutely ruled.
• 1:03:58
  SPEAKER_00: So until next week, it's Lukie and I will catch you at the fights.