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All right, everyone. Welcome back.
It is another episode of Inside Boxing, presented by ppv.com.
I'm Dan Kenobo.
He's the champ.
Chris Algeri, represented by ppv.com, fight announcement.
Sebastian Fundor is taking on Keith Thurman on March 28th.
And it's going to be live on ppv.com.
So if you're going to order the fight, do it with ppv.com.
There'll be a live interactive chat that we'll most likely be in.
We'll most likely be in Las Vegas covering the fight.
Stream it to your big screen TV, your phone, your tablet.
Any device, no subscriptions.
We'll never ask you for a subscription.
You can go fight by fight.
But this is the first.
Not the first.
I think it's the second big offering of 2026 on ppv.com.
Pretty good card as well.
We got Keith Thurman coming back, fighting Sebastian Fundor.
We got Frank Sanchez taking on Richard Torres,
which is an IBF eliminator.
So ppv.com is our proud, presenting sponsor.
They have been for the last couple of years.
They're very good to us.
So be good to them and everyone.
We know you're going to watch the fight.
So order with ppv.com and help keep the lights on for me and Chris.
Chris, how are you, my friend?
I am doing great where my ppv.com hat because there's swags.
Actually, pretty good man.
We're a bunch of their stuff all the time.
And not because I'm trying to just rep them.
It's just because it's a comfortable stuff.
But yeah, definitely join us in the live interactive chat.
We have a lot of fun in there.
And if we are there, then just follow us on all the socials.
Then and I, we kick ass when it comes to fight weeks showing what's going on behind the scenes.
I think that's where we're at our best.
Obviously, we could do our podcast twice a week.
But once the fight comes and we get into our element on fight night or fight week
is when we shine.
That's when we that's when we win our amies.
Yeah, we've been we've been to throughout our lives.
You and I combined we've been to more fight weeks
than I think maybe yeah, I mean, especially for us, anyone close to our age,
we've been to a lot because you've been going since you were a little kid.
I've been going since my early teens
and plus all the big fights that I've been involved in between calling and fighting myself.
Way different.
Obviously working one going as a fan fan super fun.
Get there Thursday.
Get drunk.
Have a fun flash with your friends.
Go to the casino working.
I'm not saying it's a my complaining here.
But these fight weeks are starting so much earlier.
The MVP fight weeks are starting Sunday night.
Monday Monday.
I hit the ground running Monday.
PPV.
I'm leaving Tuesday night.
Fight weeks have gotten so much different.
Yeah, people think they're fun too.
People would think we're just out there just just party and having a good time.
But like, no, it's work, man.
Those weeks are exhausting.
Like we need vacations after those weeks,
not even like to celebrate,
but just to have your body get reset.
Yeah, the Miami Jake Paul Joshua was fun.
It was like burning both ends of the candle.
Yeah, yeah.
Because I was telling this to a guy, a kid at MVP who's new.
And he's like, what's your favorite fight week?
And I was like, I got to tell you man, like Joshua Jake is up there.
Because we're in South Beach.
Yeah, it's like a big match of the biggest fight week.
They always happen in Vegas and Vegas is fun.
But imagine dumping it on like a beach in a new location,
new hotels, like new scene, like that was, that was nuts.
Well, I did the canelo year dorm in Miami,
but it was during the pandemic.
So like it was, it was great that it was in Miami.
And I literally could drive there,
but we were also stuck in a whole hotel.
But matchroom was great because they rented out the entire hotel
for the production for the promotion, which is great.
So we're all in the same place, which is very cool.
But other than that, I mean, we were in a, we were in a bubble.
A lot of, a lot of ordering out, a lot of ordering in.
Well, that happens.
So yeah, go ahead and order a sermon fundora, big fight,
154 pounds of title fight with ppv.com.
We start our show in the 154 pound division.
Unfortunately, not the greatest news.
Unless you're asked for Delahoya and golden boy,
because the virtual Ortiz boots and his golden boy,
saga has reached, I don't know if this is a resolution,
has reached some type of finality.
If you're according to virtual Ortiz,
who says I am done with golden boy,
but a few days ago, a judge ruled in favor of golden boy,
which long story short, I'm going to get too much
into the legal jargon here.
Means that Ortiz cannot make any future fights
without golden boy's involvement.
Ortiz's manager and Ortiz tried to circumvent golden boy
to make the boots fight,
which would have been a more favorable terms.
There was a story out there that Eddie Herne
was offering virtual up to 12 million.
There is a report out there that Oscar and golden boy
were more towards the three million.
So obviously that backfired, because the judge ruled that,
no, you have to honor your fight contract with your promoter.
You can't go and use a third party
while you're under contract with golden boy.
So this saga has played out right before our eyes,
but now we see something new here with virtual Ortiz saying,
I'm done with golden boy.
I don't know if he's done with golden boy,
because how many times,
Chris, you've been in litigation yourself.
How many times does the judge rule
with the side of the promoter?
And the judge says, no, you're going to play out your contract.
How many times have we seen this with golden boy,
whether it's Canelo Alvarez,
who ultimately got out of his contract,
but still had some rough moments with golden boy
still under that banner.
And Ryan Garcia, in recent terms,
who tells you every single fight,
oh, I'm a free agent.
I'm done with Oscar next to you.
No, he's hugging Oscar after the fight
and they're planning their next one.
In terms of what, you know,
virtual said, like I'm done,
is that just him being like, personally,
like I'm done, I'm done dealing with this,
doing this, whatever, but like I'm actually I'm still there.
You know, is that it, you know,
is that really what that means?
Because generally the case when it comes
to these kind of judgments from the court system,
they almost always side with the promotion,
the promoter, not the fighter,
and just alluding to what you were just saying.
But I've actually heard some information
that maybe you're not even privy to about this whole thing.
Definitely heard that the dollar amount
was closer to three million.
I heard that there was no incentive
under 200,000 buys on pay-per-view,
which this day and age of piracy is sometimes hard to break.
And even though these two are very well known
within our sport, they're not huge crossover stars.
So breaking the 200,000 mark might actually be tough.
So you got to think that, all right,
it's just going to be the base guaranteed amount,
which if it's three million in this market, it's pretty low.
And in that case, you look at a Rick Meridian
who is fighting for his charge to make more money
that he thinks he's more deserving of.
So I'm not going to knock him for that.
But in terms of him trying to circumvent
gold-noboy promotions,
I don't know this.
I have not seen the contract, but I have heard
that there was a stipulation in said contract
that if the options were not available
beyond just one fight offering,
that the virtual RT side could go reach
and look other places on their own
and work without the promotion.
So again, these are all things that we need to look up.
We've been trying to get representatives
from either side to come onto our pro box show
and talk to us about this kind of thing.
So all of this is just what we've been hearing
and piecing it together and every day it changes
and it gets a little more involved.
And the more that we know, the more questions come up.
But that's just life.
And that's just how boxing works.
But in terms of what we can go off of
is what we're hearing from guys.
The virtual RT saying, I'm done with gold-noboy.
I think that's more of a personal statement
than a professional statement.
Because I don't know, Chris.
My time with gold-noboy is done.
I am confident that my right to move on
to other opportunities will be upheld.
So he's saying they're going to arbitration,
which is the next step in this litigation.
And he thinks they're going to plead their case
that we should be wipe our hands clean of golden boy.
The problem with arbitration is you can have
the best case in the world and you can have
this all behind you and your lawyers can tell you,
hey man, we got a really, really good case.
This should be an easy to open and shut.
And then as they get closer, the lawyer goes,
lawyer goes, yeah, you just never know
arbitration's going to go.
We'll see what happens.
This is exactly what happens to me
in the arbitration that I've been through,
where the lawyer was super sure we had a really strong case.
And then as we got closer to the date,
I kept getting the, you never know.
It just depends on who you get that day.
It depends on how they hear it.
It depends on who you get.
Because you're not getting true experts in boxing
who are going to be hearing your case.
It's an arbitration.
It's basically hearing both sides and going,
you know what, by the letter of the law,
this is actually the way it should be.
So even if you have a really good case,
if it's not literally in black and white
and that particular person doesn't read it in that way,
it's kind of a crapshoot.
And it's very dangerous to do arbitration
because of that reason.
And it's really expensive, which is another thing.
So it can say all these things.
I did the exact same Virgil's thing, Virgil's doing.
When I had this issue with my promoter,
I said, I'm getting out, I got the right case,
I got the right lawyers, I got arbitration comment,
I'm good to go, cannot wait for this to go down,
and it did not happen that way.
And I was still with the promoter
and that happens to fighters all the time.
That's what I think is going to happen here.
I don't think he's going to wipe his hands clean
of Golden Boy.
We very rarely see that.
And if he does want to wipe his hands clean of Golden Boy,
it's going to take a long time.
And this is a guy who's 28 years old,
never been a world champion on the precipice
of huge fight with Drana and it's on the precipice
of his prime money making years.
It needs to be on the shelf.
Is he going to be like the newest Mikey Garcia,
the newest Andre Ward, who famously set out
for multiple, multiple years as they beefed
and went through litigation with their promoter.
So that's what we don't want to see.
And according to Lance Buckmire
who's done some great reporting over at Boxing scene,
he thinks that this could,
or he spoke to other attorneys in the Boxing business
and he thinks that they'll be able to settle.
And the arbitrator is going to-
You mean they're going to have to settle?
Yes.
Because like you said, when you said they're going to be able
to win, no, no, no, they're going to have to settle.
That's the thing.
You want to win.
Like you said, cut in your hand.
You want to wipe your hands.
When are we seeing the bond?
Never, almost never.
Unprecedented.
So I think what cooler heads will prevail
and virtual or cheese is going to have to make
any future fight,
whether the boots fight's not happening in April.
It could still happen this year,
but Golden Boy's gonna have to be part of it.
And I'm sitting here thinking,
like all right, as someone in the middle here,
like who's side am I looking at here?
Who do I feel pity for?
And really none.
But I'm looking at Golden Boy
and what they've done with virtual or cheese.
And the fight that he has had over the last three years
since he resigned with Golden Boy in 2024.
Bow a chuck, good fight.
Tough fight.
But dream off.
He is Saudi Arabia.
You know he was getting good high paid there.
Good fight.
Mary tough, very tough fight.
But good, good job.
Golden Boy getting in that fight.
He turned down other title fights to go fight in Saudi.
Obviously he was a big bag.
Then he had the Ericsson Lubin fight,
which is still good upon it.
So Golden Boy, I feel like has done their job.
They have taken virtual or cheese to a,
somewhat of a household name in the boxing world.
Obviously he did not become,
hasn't become a titleist,
but that's a lot to do with the health.
Has a lot to do with what was going on at 147
with Terence Crawford and Errol Spence.
That's the one knock on Virgil
is that he's a 28 year old never been a world champion.
But if you look at what Golden Boy has done for him,
I mean, it's pretty good.
If you look at what Golden Boy has done for Ryan Garcia,
now a world champion,
fight super fights with Devon Haney and Javanta Davis
and fighting on re-ad cards and making top dollar
for a guy that doesn't have top abilities.
I'm thinking Golden Boy, I'm looking at this like,
you know, they've done a pretty good job with Virgil or cheese.
So obviously he thinks he's worth more than three million.
So do I in terms of a virtual boots fight?
Because if you look at Tio and Shakur,
they made eight million each.
Even though I believe Tio and Shakur are bigger names
than Virgil and Boots.
And it's crazy that we're doing all this.
We're going on weeks and weeks of judges, arbitration,
temporary restraining orders,
words that boxing fans do not give a damn about,
about a fight that will be lucky to crack
over 200,000 bots.
This is the world we're living in.
But my main point is I believe that Golden Boy
has done a good job with Virgil or cheese.
Golden Boy promotion is one of the best promotions
in the world.
And they don't have a humongous table.
Obviously they have Oscar Deloitte,
who's the figurehead and the head of Golden Boy.
And they have their stars.
They've done well with their guys.
And even the guys that aren't the tip top,
they get them big fights.
And they're on major cars.
And they put together good cards as well.
But in terms of what's happening with this fight,
the issue is, so with Virgil had never made
anywhere near 3 million,
and they got 3 million for this fight,
we wouldn't be here talking about this.
They can't.
This is what it calls for.
The problem is is that when you have outside
influence coming in and they change the market.
And you talk about the money that he made
on those regard cards.
Well, they were paying big.
Bigger than the market was for the time.
And that raises the market share for everybody.
And everybody now expects.
And we've seen this before.
PBC came in and started overpaying.
Now, I don't, I hate to say overpaying because they're fighters.
But they raised the dollar point of the standard
for across the board.
So everyone was expecting more money.
Even, I remember even journeymen were hard to get at that time
because they were upping their auntie by 50%.
They're like, ah, nah, that's a $2,000 fight
instead of a $1,000 fight.
Or that's a $5,000 fight instead of a $2,000 fight.
And it makes things a lot more difficult.
And then you see managers who see this are like,
well, if these guys are making eight million,
how hell are we making three?
How are we making two and a half?
You know, this is crazy.
But also we're in a transition period
because the pay-per-view model just isn't what it used to be.
It's not the same thing.
So we even know 200,000 buys.
200,000 buys when I was fighting was not that hard.
That was not a hard sell at all.
And then, so that dollar point would have been like, okay,
but we're not in that time anymore.
We live in a world of piracy.
Getting 200,000 buys is tough.
And especially when you have like these guys
who their profile doesn't match their skill.
So you've got, I understand where Virgil was coming from.
Where Rick Ridgey is coming from
because they're looking at their guy
and they're like, my guy is worth way more than 3 million.
My guy is made close to if not 3 million already
to fight lesser opposition than who we're fighting.
And you've got to understand
that this is a really, really risky fight.
So to take 3 million because of the landscape
of they've been into, they want more.
I get that, I get that.
But how much does letting the outside influence
of the market affect your career?
It's the common to play where you have to decide.
Like, this might be one of those times
whereas I have to take short money for big opportunities,
which I've done in my career
and understand it's tough to do that.
But I did it when I had made zero money.
So I was completely broke when I took the risk
to take a low money fight, to earn a big money fight.
So it's a little bit different
when you've already been making good money.
And then you have to make either a little bit more
or equal money to fight a much more dangerous fight
and a much bigger event.
You know, when I hear that matchroom had offered 12.
12 has come from, that's a lot.
That's a lot of money and I don't know
how much I trust that number.
But if you were to tell me five for this,
I'd be like, yeah, five for us,
five million is a lot of money.
Do I think these guys
deserve more based on what other fighters
around they're making?
Yes, but guess what?
That's not how the market works.
It doesn't work like that.
You know, you have to be a star
and either one of these guys
are crossed over breakout stars.
They are very good fighters.
Top flight, top of the food chain boxers.
But in terms of their earning potential right now,
yeah, it's not that expensive of a fight
but three millions of tough pill for me to look at.
Cause I'd be like, you know, like that's, dude,
I've, I've, that's like numbers from when I was fighting.
12, you know, at the height of my career,
you know, 12 years ago, 13 years ago.
And it's just tough when you see other guys around you,
but you gotta think we're basically in it.
We're in two realities.
There was a reality where Turkey's involved
and the dollar signs go way up.
And then there's the whole world
what boxing is and the dollar amount
that's related to there.
But yeah, there's a big gap.
I'm glad you brought that up.
I'm glad you brought that up to Turkey.
Cause Turkey's not involved with this is his, obviously,
his non-involvement in virtual boots is, is deafening
because this fight would have been through the law.
It would have been crossed the line already.
He would have upped the ante.
He would have made it happen.
And we wouldn't have had all this, the stuff here,
but he is not involved with this fight.
And now we're seeing what we've been seeing.
We're seeing ridiculous litigation play out.
We're seeing guys fighting over how much they're worth
and that's very important.
This could be the biggest fight
of virtual artisans career.
This could be it.
This could be the, the, the culmination.
So you gotta get compensated.
I do agree three is low.
12 is high, you know, Shakur and Tio making eight.
Those are, those are different names.
I feel like they sold out MSG.
I do think this fight will do a really good gate too.
Yes, putting on where they put it.
But yes.
Yeah, yeah, we have Vegas.
It's going to do a good gate.
I think Vegas is probably the smartest
because you're going to get both fan bases.
I think the close you are to the Mexican fan base,
the better, but not too close
where you won't get the East Coast to come.
But the East Coast will come to Vegas.
They're not going to come to California.
They're not going to come to Texas as much.
Yeah, probably not.
Texas a little bit, but California might be tough.
But Vegas, everybody wants to issues go to Vegas
for a big fight.
Of course.
So I ultimately do think we still get this fight later
in the year.
It's not going to happen anytime soon.
So what does this mean moving forward
with Boots and Virgil technically on the shelf?
What does this mean moving forward?
Who will Boots fight?
Could they fight Ajash Kelly at 154 if he could pick up a bell?
I'm seeing Rashidi Ellis is named
being thrown around another soft touch for Boots for Virgil.
It doesn't mean that he's going to fight a charlotte.
Spence is tied up with Zoo.
So as this fight starts to crumble,
we have to think about what's next
because these guys are still in their prime.
I'm curious about where they go from here.
Well, you would think that
a matchroom having both Josh Kelly and Geron Ennis
and saying prior to the Mrtazaliyah fight
that Kelly had already agreed to fight Spence and Virgil.
Oh, out the window because it's an opportunity
for Zandrazias to fight Josh Kelly.
In which case, there's a chance for Josh Kelly
to potentially, I don't, I don't think you said it.
If I'm Boots Ennis and Eddie allows Josh Kelly
to fight Zias, I'm going to be pretty pissed.
Watch, that's exactly what's going to happen.
Watch, really?
I think so.
Yeah, like for whatever reason,
Eddie does not put Boots first in these situations.
He, he, it's almost like he's like, yeah, he's like,
I got this, I got this, this monster
that I'm kind of keeping up and right,
and keep it, I'm ready for the big one.
But in the meantime, you know, I'll keep the other guys,
you know, fighting for these better opportunities
because it's like, he's like, he's like sitting on his,
you know, it's like the queen on your, on your chessboard.
He's like, I'm sitting on, I'm waiting on that.
I'm not, I'm not going to release that until I,
until I need it.
And I'm going to let the other, you know,
pawns and rooks and knights do what and bishops
do all the battling while I, I maintain.
Too much waiting though.
My best piece, it's, it's silly.
And it's, and we're wasting Boots.
But it tends to happen.
It seems that happens to Boots quite a bit.
The guy is always on the outside looking in.
He's not getting the opportunities.
And maybe it's because he doesn't have the mouthpiece
which you really need in boxing these days.
Maybe it's because they don't have that familiar connection
or because you see Eddie, Eddie, being a younger promoter,
I mean, younger in terms of his age,
not in terms of his experience in the sport.
I think he has a different kind of personal connection
with the fighters more so than other ones.
We saw that with Ben, the, the Conor Ben situation.
We've seen the way that he keeps guys around
like Tony Bellu, you know, he's,
he's got Anthony Joshua.
He's got guys that he himself grew up within the industry
and then keeps them extra close.
Close enough that he could, they actually can hurt him
as you see in the Conor Ben situation.
Whereas some of the older guys,
they're impervious to that stuff.
Like Bob Aaron's bulletproof, you're not gonna,
you're not gonna hurt Bob's feelings.
You know, he'll be up, he'll be,
maybe you won't like something you do or whatever.
He'll be more offended than anything
but he's gonna move right on.
Oscar has been in this sport long enough
and even though he's a younger guy too,
I think he's pretty bulletproof to this kind of stuff.
But Eddie seems like he keeps it really close
to the chest with certain fighters.
And it just doesn't seem like boots has that connection
with him and ultimately it's hurting boots.
But you know, he's like close,
he seems close with Josh Kelly.
So Josh Kelly is now kind of in the driver's seat
because he scored a big upset.
I don't see boots and Josh, even though it makes too much sense.
A big, another big part of this that we failed
to mention so far is DeZone.
With their new pricing plan, the new DeZone Ultimate,
they're putting an emphasis on subscribers.
Just like Netflix is when they acquire a big fight,
it's not so much about the competition,
it's about getting more people to subscribe
to their streaming service.
Now that's what DeZone is doing with DeZone Ultimate.
They are very clear that they wanted virtual
and boots to happen because that means more people will
subscribe, more people will throw down the $500 a year,
which is why I don't believe they're going to allow
other fights to drift away.
If Josh Kelly has a title, he fights on DeZone with Matrum.
They have an exclusive with DeZone.
And in boots and his fights on DeZone and his with Matrum,
that's the fight that I feel like the networks now
are getting more involved, especially DeZone.
Because now they're seeing virtual and boots blow up
right in front of their face to DeZone.
They're like, great gracious.
We're going through all sorts of litigation.
We're beefing with Oscar DeLahoyo,
where you may not have his Golden Boy fights on our air anymore.
So I would be absolutely shocked if Kelly fights Ziya.
If Kelly fights Ziya on DeZone, then yes.
And as we've seen, Top Rank does not have a broadcast home.
If Kelly going to fight Ziya on Tubi in Puerto Rico,
I don't know.
That remains to be seen.
Like we saw the morale fight get past the line,
but that's different.
This is a way bigger type of fight.
That's interesting aspect of all this is DeZone's involvement now
and getting, being a lot more aggressive
when it comes to getting these fights on DeZone
to justify this DeZone ultimate plan.
Who is Josh Kelly's mandatory?
That's a good question.
Because then if there's an opportunity for a,
what's the word I'm going to go for for?
Like a mandatory type of fight?
Well, no, there's an opportunity for a unification.
They're going to go that route, of course,
instead of a voluntary defense against boots,
because I'm sorry, Josh,
I know you just want a big fight against a guy that,
you were the underdog in,
but you're getting fed to, to drawn in us in that case.
And Eddie's then making a lateral move,
even though we can probably make a lot more money with boots.
But yeah, I don't know.
The unification is going to take precedent over
a voluntary defense against a guy in your own stable.
I mean, if we were just going by like,
hey, it's take our way all the politics,
it's take our way all the rankings,
take our way of that.
Josh Kelly boots makes sense,
because that boots can get,
he can get his title,
he should be a favorite in that fight.
Josh Kelly gets a nice big payday,
which he didn't even know was going to happen
at this point in his career.
He upsets Marta Tassaliaf,
who no one wanted to fight,
probably did that on short money,
or now he's going up against boots in the US
and like Philly or something, summer fight,
makes all a sense.
But for Virgil, this is a little more cloudy.
If he can get past all the litigation and stuff,
like they should just go right towards the boots fight.
You know, this all clears out
and Virgil has to still work with Golden Boy,
which can still very much happen.
Like, that's the whole point is Golden Boy said,
like we don't want you to go through all this,
just make the fight with us.
It's not going to be on the terms that your manager went out there
and found supposedly for the 12 million.
So there's a very good chance
that boots and Virgil still happens,
but not obviously in April,
happens in the summer or in the fall.
But Virgil, if he doesn't fight boots,
this is when he can look at some of the options
that they were talking about
when they were going through this negotiations
at the early stages.
You know, in Errol Spence,
who's locked up with Zoo, probably not going to happen.
But a Virgil in a Jermel Charlo in Texas,
that sells tickets, that makes sense.
Cells tickets, you get to have a legendary figure,
legendary name on your ledger.
You get access to, I mean, just doing that fight
in Dallas is big,
or doing that fight in Texas is big.
It keeps Virgil busy,
which is something that's plagued him in his career.
But you know, what confuses me about this little situation?
Like, if there is more money in the pot,
it would be whoof De La Jolla to make this fight anyway.
And like you said, I said that thing,
that same thing too.
When we got this news that the arbitration apparently went
towards De La Jolla, I was like,
okay, you could still make the fight.
Like De La Jolla wants to make the fight too.
I wholeheartedly believe
De La Jolla thinks he has the better fighter,
that he thinks that Virgil or T's can beat Buttenas.
And I wholeheartedly believe that matchroom believes
that they have the better fighter,
that Jaron can beat Virgil.
And I don't think it's the sides,
I don't think it's the fighters, it's just the deal.
And this has been an issue in every fight
throughout history when it comes to top flight guys,
especially when they're young and they're trying
to make the biggest paidies of their career.
But I think, yeah, I think, I mean,
listen, Oscar wants more money for Virgil too,
because he gets the more money that's in the pot,
the more money he gets.
People forget that.
People forget it's not just the promoter paying the fighter,
the promoter makes the money as well.
So the bigger the more money that's in the pot,
the more money for everybody.
So is it a situation where there just isn't that much money
in the pot for this fight because of the perceived
market share and the public perception of this fight
and the demand for it?
I don't know.
It's getting mudnier and mudnier
than the more information we get.
Yeah, it's insane what fans have to deal with.
It's like, can we, are we getting this fight
or are we not getting this fight?
Like, I expect this type of stuff
for like, maybe other Pacquiao,
which was like, painstaking negotiations.
I remember following along with that from like, 2010
and it culminated in 2015.
Like, yes, because that's like five million pay per view
buys $180 million dollar gate,
or $70 million dollar gate and all sorts of revenue.
Like, not for this, but I mean,
this is the world we're living in and you have to,
you know, these fighters want the top dollar
and I get that, makes all the sense in the world
and when it comes to that, but it's very frustrating.
Especially a risky fight.
A risky fight for both guys.
That's another thing too.
I think both guys identify that they could lose this fight.
So if I'm gonna lose and I've been working my way up
to this moment my entire life.
And now I've worked into a position where I'm undefeated.
I'm at the top pound for pound list
and at the top of ranking list.
And now I'm taking on a guy, it's not even a world title fight.
I mean, they could fight twice, three times
if they're smart, but yeah, I get it.
So it's gonna be, and that's what this is.
There's a lot of extra emphasis on it
because it's a very dangerous fight for both guys.
And as we know with both guys,
they've kind of been moved the same way
where it's like, we've heard a lot about each guy.
We've yet to see them or Boots has won a title at 147.
He's accomplished a little bit more.
But even Boots, I would say, has Hatton.
The versus probably is arguably
fought the better composition.
I mean, Majormov is heading shoulders
above anyone Boots has fought.
Definitely.
You can go through that all day.
That's why this composition is super confusing
because of all those things.
I see both sides because, listen,
if you asked me this 10 years ago when I was a fighter,
I would be 100% on the fighter side
and arguing for more money and be like,
nah, I'm worth more than that.
Like, listen, my first L, I got paid a lot of money.
A lot of money.
And first risky, no, my first risky fight was not
a lot of money, but I won it.
But like, you know, when I took another even riskier fight
jumping up a way class and fighting
many packing out in the cow,
that was a huge price tag attached to that.
Rightfully so.
Which made it more palatable to take all those risks.
Every time I've taken big risks, like for example,
fighting Connor Ben jumping up a way class once again,
you're going across the pond, you know,
dealing with the UK commissions over there.
I paid a lot of money.
Like, you get paid for those kind of incentives
and taking more and more risks.
So I understand, I understand where they're coming from
the fighter's perspective.
But then now as someone who works in the media
and is on the other side of the business to a degree,
kind of media is kind of like the third person, right?
We're kind of like, it's like fighter, promoter,
business, fighter, and then like versions of Algeria.
Yeah, so wearing different hats,
but I understand the business side a lot more
in dealing with promotions and also my work with ProBox TV
and seeing how, you know,
workings of promotions were also promoting fights myself,
which I've done, which we should do one day.
You said busting promotions.
Yeah, I see where I see where Oscar is at too.
And Eddie, I feel I see where everyone's at.
And like you said, who do you feel quote unquote bad
for who you don't pity anyone in this sport?
But who do you side with?
It's really hard to carve a way, you know,
who's right and who's wrong?
And that's why when it comes to this kind of litigation stuff,
it's going to be, it's going to be a while, dude.
Yeah, it's crazy.
Let's move on to a title fight this weekend.
Sunday night, Jai Opataya will be fighting Brandon Glanton
for the Zufa Boxing Cruiserweight title ring title
also on the line.
IBF title, we don't know.
Unfortunately, possibly, unfortunately,
this fight has been overshadowed by the not more politics
in the sport when it comes to which belts are on the line.
Who's fighting for what belt?
The Zufa title we know is on the line.
The ring title we know is on the line because they did a photo
up and Opataya had the ring title.
Some girl in the video had was holding the Zufa belt.
The IBF has come out and said he must choose
which belt you're fighting for.
So Jai Opataya is the IBF champion.
He's the ring champion.
Obviously, Zufa trying to shut down the sanctioning bodies
and now they tell Opataya, you must choose which one
you fight for.
It can't be both IBF or Zufa.
And I think we know what Opataya is going to choose here.
He's not going to bite the hand that's feeding him,
which is Zufa paying him a good purse, putting him up
and having him fight in the train in the performance institute.
So we knew that Opataya was a guinea pig here.
We knew that they signed a reigning champion with a title.
We knew that he has said since day one,
I want to be undisputed champion.
But we're like, wait a second, that doesn't really Jai
what Zufa is about.
And now we're seeing it come to a head here, Chris,
where the IBF title is going to be vacated here.
This is a shots fired, defensive shots fired by IBF.
Because listen, Zufa came in and they said,
we're abolishing all the belts.
We're drawing a line in the sand.
And IBF's taken to his guns.
And I'm not surprised yet at the IBF
because IBF is generally the governing body
that does stick to their guns.
They will strip guys, they will enforce mandatories.
They will stand on business.
And so for this, it's standing on business.
Well, if you're getting rid of us,
then we're gonna get rid of you.
If you say our belts don't matter,
we can't be here involved.
And then your belt holders can't hold our belts either.
It's a bold move, it's a bold move by the IBF.
We'll see if the other governing bodies will follow suit
and take notice, it's a big risk.
But the IBF is willing to take risks.
Again, they stand on business, I'm surprised.
And it's also some kind of confusing messaging.
And Dan, I think you're more locked in
because of all the time you spend slithering around Twitter.
Zufa came out and said,
we're only doing the original way classes,
but then they signed Opataya, right, to Cruiserweight.
They say we're not recognizing any of the other belts,
but then they actually verbally came out and said,
we will allow Opataya to fight for the other belts.
Then Opataya actually signs a fight and is going to fight
and goes, no, we're not showing this belt anymore,
we're only gonna show the ring.
So the messaging is very confusing and muddled.
So where are we with Zufa and other organizations
and just the rules they displayed before they even showed up?
Showing up.
Good question.
That's what we're watching unfold before our eyes,
is they came into a sport that is very fractured.
They came into a sport that has a ton of weight classes,
a ton of belts, a ton of rules, a ton of all sorts of precedents
and they're trying to tear that down.
And we're gonna come in and we're gonna,
like what we've seen and what we've thought
was we're gonna come in and reset the market
and pay these fighters kind of like the UFC model.
And then they go inside Conor Aben for $15 million.
Or they go, I've heard that some guys,
I've heard an astronomical number for FAA, Jagba.
I've heard even some lower level guys
are getting pretty good if not better than what's out there
in terms of signing with Zufa.
So yes, the messaging has been very off.
I think Zufa and Dana, this is why Dana didn't want
to jump into boxing.
I went back and looked at my phone, 2017,
on the Mayweather McGregor media tour.
When I first started doing media,
I interviewed Dana White and he was standing in
with a Zufa boxing shirt and he was saying,
yeah, I'm thinking about dipping my toe in
but boxing's a mess.
And he was saying that from 2017,
straight up until last year before Turkey came in
and it's like, yeah, I'll bankroll your Zufa enterprise
and you won't have to deal with all of the headaches.
Just be the figurehead that you are.
And that's what we're seeing now.
And now we're seeing this play out with Opataya,
who is obviously like the perfect person here.
He's not the greatest when it comes to the business.
He is relatively unknown.
He is a top 15 fighter.
He has a world title, he has a ring belt,
and he's formidable and he's going to be in a title fight.
Like I would like to know if Opataya knew,
like he's been saying since day one,
I wanna be undisputed, I wanna fight for other titles.
So did he know the ramifications
of what was gonna happen here?
Like you had to figure like his team had to know that.
Like they had to know like there could be a problem.
We're gonna potentially run into a problem
on fight one of your deal here
because of where your current promoter sits
in terms of versus sanctioning bodies.
Yes, and from what I understand about Opataya,
he's kinda like, he's what you want.
And a fighter is like, who am I fighting?
Show me where, you know, I'll go get him, kind of thing.
So, but also because of the changing and messaging,
maybe he was told one thing and has been presented another.
And essentially what happens on Sunday
is where the rubber hits the road and all this stuff.
All these things that we're kind of confused about,
it's like, well, is this belt gonna be recognized?
Is he going to be stripped?
No, you know, so like, that gets stripped.
Yeah, yeah, so like, and then what happens?
Like you just gave up on your dream.
You gave up on your, so does that Opataya?
Then the questions start coming out of Opataya.
Like are you giving up on your dreams of being
undisputed with the original belts
and then which his retort would probably be,
you know, maybe even a gun tucked into his ribcage
is that like, no, no, I'm not giving up my dreams.
I'm just shifting my dream to a different dream.
We're not giving up.
Is anyone going to ask him that after?
Zufa Chavin.
Not at this, at that, at that, at that price.
Maybe, I hope so.
There's got to be one boxing guy in there,
rogue boxing reporter that this, we,
I want to hear about it now because I assume
by the time we're done recording or between now and Sunday,
there's going to be like a definite resolution
because Chava over at ESPN will discreet reporting
is the one that said that the IBF has drawn a line
in the sand.
That's interesting to me, Chris,
because this Opataya Zufa situation,
if you're a current champion and you sign with Zufa,
it's likely that you're going to have to vacate that title now.
It's likely that the other sanctioning bodies
are going to follow course with the IBF did.
It's one of the other.
It cannot be both.
I can't see the WBC allowing them, allowing Zufa
to and working together.
I can't see some of the other organizations.
So I think the IBF stands here
is what we're going to see moving forward.
And Opataya is the guinea pig here.
So if you notice, Opataya is the only champion to sign
with Zufa, like these other super fights
that are getting done, like the Connor Benz
and we're going to see everybody
that's on that card, supposedly.
They're still going to be able to fight for titles.
They're going to have title fights on those cards.
These ring cards have title fights on them.
So it's different than these guys who are signing the Zufa.
Opataya signed with the general public.
He signed with the guys who are like,
I keep saying this about these Zufa cards.
Watch the undercards of these fights.
That's the future.
That's the real, that's really what Zufa's doing.
They are signing the next crop.
They're gathering all the young talent
in the developmental years
and they're going to develop them in their battle ground.
And that's really the play.
And it's a long play.
It's going to take a couple of years.
It's basically going to take like almost like a generation
of talent year.
And generations in boxing are shorter
than lifetime generations
because of Boxer's Windows 10 years.
So it's going to take more time for that to really show itself.
These are the things that are coming in.
The Connor Benz and these big fights
and these ring cards with these stars and champions
and fighting for titles.
It's a whole different part of the game plan of the rollout.
So I think the real rollout is the signing
of the lower level talent, the developmental level.
Opataya signed with like into that grouping.
He signed into that wave,
not the big super fights
where he can get fight a mechelion
on a right, a ring card and make so much money.
Like now we're not going to see that fight unless,
unless they're fleshing out the Cruiserweight Division
and they get a mechelion
who then is also like a guy like him
without a title.
What the hell is he?
He's going to give up his belt.
The whole lore of that fight
was that it was a unification.
That's it.
Which is a case for the belts
and why, you know, they matter
as much as they are a mess.
I mean, hate sanctioned fees,
but we love a unification.
We love the word undisputed.
They matter. They matter.
It's wild. It's crazy to see it.
But like if you look at like a Shakur,
like say Zufa signs a Shakur, for example,
you know, ring magazine champ.
He's also has old-fashioned belts.
Are they going to make him,
is he going to have to vacate those?
Or are you saying that they're going to just put
those types of fighters on the ring card?
They're going to shift them to the ring cards
because what we've heard from Zufa
and the top dogs at TKO is that if you're assigned
to Zufa, you're going to be able to fight
on seller-read ring cards
and you're also going to be able to fight on Zufa cards.
And with Opataya, he's a rare case
where he is a champion.
He's a top, he's the number one guy
accrues away top 15-ish in the world.
But he's not a huge name
where he is going to fight it in Apex.
Shakur is not fighting it in Apex.
So what you're saying is
if they do sign of reigning champion of Shakur's level,
this is going to happen when they're going to feed him
to a ring card where we've seen so far ring
is still working with the Sanctuary Buys
like WBC and the others.
Exactly.
And that's going to happen for a time.
Again, this is a generational move
until those guys are out of the picture,
until they inundate us so much with the Zufa belt
and that the old belts don't matter.
And it washes out our memory
that those old belts did matter.
You're getting less and less.
This generation doesn't watch fights before them.
They don't know about the guys holding up the green belt,
the guys holding up the red belt,
the guys holding up the black belt.
Then it's less and less.
You see that.
So the play is, you know,
forget about the past, we're moving forward.
We are now, this is the world of Zufa.
This is the NWO.
Don't worry about those old belts.
But there's still guys currently who are fighting
that actually the old belts matter a lot.
A shocking foster famously said,
man, this just belt changed my life.
I grew up watching guys hold these belts up
and I always dreamed of being that guy.
There are kids being born today
or there's kids that were born in the late 90s
in the early 2000s,
who maybe aren't that in wonderlust and love the belts.
And now they see this shiny Zufa belt
with $100,000 in gold diamonds on it.
And they go, man, I want that belt.
I grew up watching the UFC.
You go that belt, ugly.
Of course it is.
Is there hope that Sadie is?
No, it's horrible.
But that doesn't matter.
That can be changed.
I'm looking always change and always matter.
People used to always ask me, Chris, man,
you're a world champion kickboxer.
You are a high level state level wrestler.
You're all state wrestler.
You're a world champion boxer.
Why wouldn't you have just gone to MMA?
I didn't grow up watching MMA.
I grew up watching boxing.
It wasn't my dream to be an MMA champion.
That meant nothing to me.
Being an UFC champion, it was a belt.
I want to be a champion.
So, you know, it was never, never crossed my mind.
Kids growing up now are kids who were born in the 2000s.
They grew up watching UFC champions.
They remember.
And that belt looks like, and that belt looks like,
looks like it.
You just like it.
Yeah.
So it's a very smart play.
And it's obvious what they're doing.
And, you know, it's, it's, it's not,
it doesn't seem like it's working right now.
And the old heads are sitting there going,
oh, man, look at this lovely belt, you know,
whatever, you're going to make these guys give out their belts.
It's a long play.
You know, you're going to do the Superfights
until that generation is behind us.
And all the new crop is left if they've grown into
being the higher level.
And that's when the market really changes.
Yeah, I'm very curious to see what it means though.
If you vacate this belt, it becomes like a mess
because then the IBF title becomes vacant.
Like they don't want to have a top two guys.
And then you have two guys fighting for the IBF
who are not considered the best as we know,
we know that Opatai is the best.
Can Opatai, like, I feel for him a little bit
because I, like, I want the, he's just a guy
who just wants to fight and he's, he's a great fighter.
He's awesome.
That's what I mean.
Like a food chain champion.
I think he's stuck in the middle of this.
And I understand like he probably should have asked
more questions, but we don't know what was asked.
I would like to see if he wins this fight, what he should.
And then Benavitas wins his fight against Zerto.
Like when Benavitas fights Opatai, do we need four belt,
like do we need to say like this is a unification
or do we just know as fans that this is the top guys?
As fans, the die hearts, no.
For marketing purposes.
You can always just say, this is number one, verse number two,
doesn't have to be a unification,
doesn't have to be undisputed.
We're gonna use that ring belt.
Like I once I've been beaten the drum on that
for the last couple of months is the ring belt
is gonna become more in focus.
He had that ring belt.
Well, the ring belt is used to legitimize the Zufa belt
because that's gonna be the ring belt
that's like the universally recognized baddest guy
in the division.
Like he's the best guy.
Which they own.
Which they own.
Wild, which they own.
That one's got gold on it.
And that one looks cool.
That belt, thanks.
When you put the ring belt next to the Zufa belt,
I mean, that ring belt is sick.
I mean, it is a cool looking belt to begin with.
But that's when more questions come here
because to go over to the fight,
Opataya hasn't fought a top five opponent since May of 2023,
which is close to two years now.
Glantan's not top five is less four opponents
or not top five.
According to Ring Magazine and their ranking system
and how they deal with their belt.
If you don't fight a top five opponent for two years,
you get stripped.
Yeah, but we're saying the rules are being bent
all over the place.
But that's the whole point is we don't bend our rules
where the ring.
Yeah, no.
Because the other sanctioning by his bent the rules,
we don't yeah, yeah, yeah.
Until now when you have when you're bought by Turkey
and you're now like, that's going to change.
But over to the fight, Opataya, Glantan should be a bra.
Should not go the distance.
But for Opataya, he's the best cruiserweight in the world.
His skills are undeniable, but he has, like I said,
not fought a top five opponent close to two years,
four straight over match opponents.
Glantan represents a step up absolutely
as a recent competition, but even Glantan's a guy
that lost a billion Smith tough fight,
has three losses in his last three and a half years
when in Glantan Opataya is a minus 1,400 favorite
in this fight, minus 165 to stop Glantan.
So I'm expecting.
Wow, favorite to stop.
Glantan's a tough guy.
He's a brawler.
I can see Glantan making it to the end.
I really could.
You really?
Is it obviously 12 round fight?
He's extremely durable.
He comes in fantastic condition, very, very good condition.
And he hits hard enough to get real respect.
He's a dangerous guy.
The problem is just to change his speed.
He just doesn't have that next gear
that you see for the champions,
which is the exact opposite of Opataya
who's shifting up and down constantly.
He is a very dynamic offense.
So that's going to truly be the difference.
I think Opataya is just a better fighter in general,
but I could see, I mean, I could see both ways.
I could definitely see, I could agree with Vegas
and say I could see Opataya stopping Glantan
because I can see Opataya stopping almost anyone.
But if I could see it got making the distance,
Glantan is solid, solid pick.
Plus 130 for the fight to go the distance.
Hmm, that might be, that might be a worth a sprinkle.
Glantan has never been stopped.
Just fought Billy Smith.
He had that classic war a few years back with a poachy.
On the best screws away fights ever.
That probably no one has seen.
That was on like an FS1, I want to say,
from the armory in Minnesota.
Yeah, and we had a poachy on Pro Box TV after that.
We had both Glantan's been on Pro Box
and a poachy's been on Pro Box.
I think Opataya is going to win
just a matter of how, like you said,
like a minus 1,400, obviously,
I think Opataya is going to win.
Yeah, of course.
He's going to win.
Opataya, Opataya is special.
Like this fight, like the card,
I wish it kind of wish it was Saturday,
but you have seen big UFC fight Saturday.
Yeah.
They got a max Holloway versus Charles Alavera.
I even know those two names.
The BMF belt, is that all I know?
He said even I know those two names.
Two guys, I think, I think both of them
have like the most appearances
and you have to see the most wins, most, you know,
blended strikes like it's a cool fight.
I was looking at that.
It's the most strikes.
Holloway has the most strikes, has all the stats,
and then Alavera has the most subs.
I'm actually big fan of both these guys.
Alavera is one of the most complete champions
I've seen in a long time.
And he's got a cool story
because he lost a lot of fights early on
and then became champion and was super dominant.
And he was, he really used to,
he would beat guys up on their feet,
then he would take them down and choke them out.
I mean, he had really all everything.
And Holloway is just a BMF.
He's just a bad motherfucker man.
He's one of the best box,
he's the one of the best standup guys.
Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't say boxer,
but definitely one of the best standup guys.
And he's just Hawaiian, man.
He just goes out there and fights.
Wait a second, Joe Tessitor has texted us.
Uh oh.
Made a requirement, I don't know if I can read it,
but Joe Tess, yeah, I love Joe Tess.
He's the best.
I will read that after the recording.
Let's move on to the final segment here.
Have you been following this Devon Haney,
Rollie Romero, Ryan Garcia, Love Triangle?
Yeah, I love it.
I love it.
It's entertainment on 100.
It's entertainment maxing for me.
But are you seeing it?
Are you seeing it from how I'm seeing it?
And this is just all, they're all leveraging each other?
Yeah, so I literally brought this up in discussion,
yesterday or the day before,
because Connor Ben went the route of, of Zufa.
And as, and it seems like they're using it
as almost like an enticement, like $15 million,
we're gonna get, it probably means you have these three guys,
who all are stars.
And they all make a ton of money.
They're not gonna be enticed just by a price tag,
because they can make tons of money with each other.
And obviously they're all doing it.
These guys are game in the system.
And they have been, they have been for a while.
They all know each other, they all spar each other,
they all find each other in the amateurs.
And they all, they all are big names.
I mean, Rollie's is one of the best trash talkers
in recent time.
I mean, he has gotten funnier and funnier.
He really under, he's found his niche,
that he can, he can really get under people's skin.
And he gets people listening.
And he's just, his delivery is phenomenal.
Took my few years to figure it out.
And he used to be the worst trash talker who did it a lot,
but now he's gotten really good at it.
But tank fight week was pretty cringe.
Cringe, cringe.
That was good.
That was good.
Different human if you look at Rollie from that fight week to now.
Matured incredibly.
Ryan's Ryan.
Ryan is, is a, is a mega star.
And then Devon is just a, he's just,
he's undisputed at lightweight, you know,
three of vision world champion.
He's the guy to beat at, at 147 pounds.
And between all the drama and hate that, that circles him.
Yeah, these guys, these guys are just going to be breaking
in the money and they can all fight each other
and stay outside of that other bubble
for as long as they really damn choose.
So what's on the table right now in what we've seen rumored
is that David Handy can potentially fighting Rollie or Maro.
May 30th on prime video from Barclays.
Obviously the Ryan Garcia, Devon Handy fight,
is what DeZone wants, is what boxing fans want.
That's the big money fight.
So now you have Handy entertaining this Rollie offer
as a leverage play to Ryan Garcia.
You have Ryan Garcia entertaining a fight,
which of course, Stevenson to kind of raise the leverage
with a fight with, with Devon Handy.
You have Rollie Romero's mandatory.
Gustave, who has been the mandatory for years now,
who is not willing to step aside,
and that fight's about to be ordered.
So Devon Handy calls the bluff of Rollie Romero
and says, dude, the only reason you're desperate right now,
because you're gonna have to fight this mandatory,
which you're probably going to, you might lose
because this guy is very, very tough here.
GS off, yeah.
GS off, yes, excuse me, I'm butchered his name.
GS off, yeah, I was talking about who you're talking about.
I had to write down and I had to spell that properly,
but I missed it.
GS off, very tough type of fighter.
He is Rollie's mandatory.
Handy sees that.
I ultimately think all roads are gonna lead to Ryan versus Devon,
especially because to zone, like I said earlier,
to zone wants that fight.
They're watching Virgil and Boots slip away.
They have to justify the price of this subscription
that they have now, the year long, the zone ultimate.
They want Ryan Handy.
I think all roads are gonna lead to Ryan Handy.
All we're seeing, it's all smoke, but it's fun.
Like, I would be happy to see Handy versus Rollie.
I'd be fine seeing that fight.
It's a notification bound and it could make the Ryan fight
even bigger down the line of Ryan takes a summer fight
which he says he is too.
I ultimately think all roads lead to Handy and Ryan,
but we've seen in this boxing world,
things can take a right turn real fast.
Listen, the Ryan Handy fight never dies.
The narratives there, the histories there.
The first I was a good fight, it'll be a good fight again.
And it's really important now because both the champions,
if they were both to take detours
instead of going right at each other,
and you got Handy and Rollie's,
and then you got Ryan and whoever,
and as long as he wins, as long as they both win.
I would favor Handy in the Rollie's fight,
but Rollie's is full of surprises, man.
You can never count that dude out.
But the buildup would be great.
The marketing would be fantastic.
The fight would be pretty big.
And it would really make the Ryan fight,
Ryan Handy fight huge.
As big as it is, I mean, it's huge,
but if you could get a rollie,
it could beat Handy.
Yes, he could.
That's why I said that.
If both guys have to win,
I think that she'd go right at each other.
I would rather see Ryan and Handy go right to it this summer,
but I don't think it's gonna happen.
I do think we're gonna get Rollie in the mix
and Rollie has been known to upset the Apple Carties
done before, but the three of them,
there's an opportunity for these guys
to all fight each other multiple times.
Who doesn't want, I want to see Ryan Rollie again.
I want to see if that was a fluke
or Rollie can do it again.
A lot of experts out there are saying,
Rollie just has his number, he can do it again.
And there's a lot of experts out there
who said Ryan just has Handy's number.
He can do it again.
So even though the fight was taken off the record.
So I think these guys in terms of the way they match up
makes for a really interesting round robin
where these guys could all maybe potentially beat each other
or one guy steps up and takes over
and is able to beat everybody
and write the wrongs and become that guy.
I would lean towards Handy being that guy,
but there's no guarantee at all.
Yeah, there's a lot of different ways this can go,
but I just can't see the zone allowing Handy
to go fight on prime against Rollie.
Unless they figure out a way to do a joint broadcast
or joint promotion, we have seen that in the past.
Last I heard Handy signed a three fight deal with Turkey.
The fight one was the Norman fight.
I don't know what's going on there.
Rollie could potentially lose to his mandatory
that blows up this whole plant here.
He's just a forgotten about guy and all this roll.
He's like, he's been tweeting like crazy
last couple of days called, put a lot of pressure on Handy
because I do believe that that mandatory is coming up
and he can't get out of the way of it,
which is not a lot of, it's not big money for him
and it's a really tough fight, which is not ideal
when you're Rollie who beat Ryan Garcia.
Like biggest, what other sport
do you have your biggest win
and then you get shelved for a year?
Boxing fair.
Boxing fair, it's a minefield out there, for sure.
And Rollie's, he's always one tweet away
from talking himself into a big fight.
So he's doing his job.
I mean, he stayed quiet for a little bit,
which I thought was kind of weird
and people are overlooking him
but I think it had to do with that GS off situation
because for now I understand he is not stepping aside.
He has stepped aside numerous times.
I think that's what I mean.
He's not stepping aside this time.
He's done stepping aside, he wants to fight.
So yeah, this is boxing is crazy, man.
It's not, it's not getting less crazy
as time goes on.
These topics we're talking about are absolutely nuts.
It's all like everything.
It's Lamont Roach, Williams Zapata
for the vacant WBC title.
Cool fight.
Interesting nugget there is that it was not ordered
by the WBC according to Dan Rayfield.
It was brought to the WBC
and the WBC approved it because they,
obviously both guys are former champions
and highly ranked Zapata and Roach.
But who's getting screwed in all this
is Javier Herrera who just beat Ricardo Nunez
to win the WBC interim belt.
And even Dan is saying,
and if you follow boxing long enough,
it's like it's very rare that when a vacant title,
when the title becomes vacant
that the guy who has the interim belt
is in one half of the fight.
So Herrera gets absolutely screwed here by the WBC
because the WBC probably realized
we can more money with Roach and Zapata.
Better fight for fans.
Better fight, more money.
Roach gets another shot at the gold ring.
See if he can shot a gold, I should say.
But we'll see.
I like the fight.
I think it's an interesting fight stylistically.
And man, it would be really upsetting
if Roach got another draw.
Come on, wait, he's like, I could see that too
because Zinfeta's, it's the style matchup is interesting.
But yeah, it's a good fight.
But again, we're talking about how boxing is not fair
and you get a guy like Roach
sitting on the outside, not getting his stuff.
Screwed.
What else is new?
WBC, just, that's not, that's tough.
That's tough.
I do want to see that fight though, Roach Zapata.
Yeah, the fight.
Lucas Baudi, Skowfield could be the other good fight.
The NBA side because Tank is stripped
even though I'm seeing some tank rumors for this summer
against Pippaul.
I don't know that I'm just, I just saw on Twitter
from Shava, ESPN, good reporter.
Shava's good reporter.
He didn't say like sources in the key.
He just put out a photo and I texted a few people.
You know, where are the odds of Tank coming back?
We'll see, it should be a fun weekend.
Sunday night we have Opataya fighting for the Zufa Cruiser
weight belt, which should be as a brawl.
Yeah, that's really it from us here.
We're gonna do an episode directly after Opataya fight,
which will drop right away.
We've never done that before.
So look for the podcast late Sunday night on YouTube.
Or Monday night when you first wake up.
When you first wake up, it will be there Monday.
I think most people would watch it there,
but if you're up late or on the West Coast,
you'll be able to get pretty much like a rapid response.
Immediate reaction, yep.
Immediate reaction, which Chris likes.
He loves being off late on Sunday.
It's almost like a post-fight live.
Damn right.
Our weekly show.
Yeah, that's what we're doing on Crown.
We thank you for all the work over there.
We'll be back.
Any final words, Chris, as we head into the weekend.
Boxing continues to be crazy.
We call the Wild Wild West, but it's getting wilder.
It is getting wilder and we have to figure it all out.
I'm a legal expert, yeah.
You should just go to law school at this point, Dan.
I'm thinking about it because this boxing stuff
is getting wild, it's getting crazy.
All right, we want to keep your hands up
at all times, protect ourselves at all times.
Stay out of those DMs unless you're a boxing lawyer.
Ha ha.
Ha ha.
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Bank of America is proud to be a presenting partner
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