The B -Side in boxing. B -Side shit. B -Side.
B -Side. And the B -Side. You got a B -Side.
The B -Side. B -Side. B -Side. B -Side. That
B -Side thing. This is the B -Sides Boxing Podcast.
Well, well, well. We have passed. It's past July
1st. So it's time to get our mid picks, mid of
the year picks. Mid picks doesn't sound very
good. Alex, the one and only. What's going on?
How you doing? And joined again by Isaac. Yo,
yo. He's giving us his boxing picks. If you want
to hear the MMA ones, Ultimate F and Casuals,
go check that out. All right, let's just get
right into it. Stoppage of the year. Alex, what
do you got? In my opinion, I think the stoppage
of the year, got to go to Brian Norman Jr. No
doubt about it. That was a nasty KO. I thought,
I thought Jen Psaki was dead for a bit. That
was nasty. Watching that, watching it live, it
was 4 a .m. I was screaming. You know, and you
know, the thing is, I know it kind of seemed
like cream pie, but it really, it really proved
to the world that Brian Norman Jr. He's got what
it takes to be at world level. You know, he treats
himself as the champion. And what he said about
boots afterwards, dude, kind of cold, you know.
He had to pack his boots for Storm and Norman.
You know, whatever he said. That's good. After
knocking out, he treated the knockout with grace,
too. He bowed. You know, I like the guy. I think
he's very solid. But, yeah, that's my stoppage
of the year. I'm up here. My secondary pick was
Norman over Sasaki as well, but I picked something
else, another one just to have something different
for flavor, and that's Dave Allen knocking out
Johnny Fisher. Dumpy heavyweights, and then fireworks.
Down goes Fisher. And the towel flew in right
after. It was perfect. Yeah, it was a good knockout.
All right, Isaac, what do you got? For me, Brian
Norman Jr., Jin Sasaki, that KO is one of the
more vicious ones we've seen in recent history.
I'm glad Sasaki is okay afterward. I mean, we
know he had some memory loss, like a month and
a half of memory loss, if I remember correctly.
But yeah, man, very nasty KO. Nasty, nasty KO,
the way he landed. Kick us off for a masterclass,
Isaac. All right. For me, dude, Stephen Fulton
versus Brandon Figueroa. Oh, my God, bro. This
was clean, clean victory from Fulton. Just complete
domination. It wasn't like, I mean, in terms
of, you know, he got knocked down repeatedly.
There was none of that. But it was just in every
facet of the game, he just dominated them everywhere.
I mean, he was punching in between Figueroa's
shots. Mid to close range, he was dominating.
Figueroa can do nothing that way. than absolutely
nothing. Alex, what did you have? I kind of have
a couple. I couldn't necessarily choose. What
do you got? Let's hear them all. So, my first
one has got to be Boots versus Stanionis. Good
one. Ranking -wise, they both have titles. This
is part of the Lineal Championship, correct?
Right? Yes. Lineal Champs? I'll tell you this,
that... I honestly think it was going to be a
lot more competitive than what it ended up turning
out to be. So did I. It was a fantastic fight,
and I think it was a true masterclass. That's
my first one. My second one is going to be, it's
kind of a shit pick, Stevenson versus Tadley.
Tadley did the greatest two days notice. He came
in, and he got a round against Shakur. I think
it was that, right? All right, guys. Come on.
Come on. Come on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There you
go. There you go. And then I can... This one,
this is like the true one. I really couldn't
decide between this one and Boots. And I think
that the Bivol -Benerbief 2 fight was a masterclass,
not purely for domination, but the fact that
Bivol stepped it up to another notch that I truly
didn't believe it was even possible for him.
Like... Within the first, what, six rounds, he
was playing possum. And then after that, oh,
my God. He came out, and that was a domination
over Betterbeef. I have never seen Betterbeef
like that. It was making a miss, all this BS.
It was making a miss more than in the first fight,
you know? Crazy. I think that's truly what separates
a great fighter from a generational talent, was
that performance. Damn. Mine seem a little...
I don't know. I think mine are fine. David Benavidez
over David Morrell. That was my first pick. Abs
just loved it. Every second of it. Very good.
Good one, yeah. And my second one, just in case,
Teofimo over Arnold Barbosa. Oh, yeah. That's
another good one. Oh, yeah. Very good performance
from Teofimo. I'll roll it into Villain of the
Year. This is for non -fighting stuff. Number
one pick, Canelo signing with fucking Riyadh.
Not happy about that. Let's see. Number two was
DB3 for their shenanigans with Nasheer Albright.
And then I have a third one that I have an E
next to. It's my Emeritus pick. This is always
going to be one of them. Whoever the fuck is
letting Derek Chisora continue to fight. That
is unacceptable. All right. Isaac, what do you
got? All right. So for Villain of the Year, I
put Canelo and Skull along with Haney and Ramirez,
bro. That ruined that weekend. Those two fights,
I couldn't believe they were that boring. I mean,
ruined Friday and Saturday. Yeah, those are my
villains, bro. It was a crazy bad fight. I almost
killed boxing right there. Thank you, anyway,
for stepping up. Oh, God. All right, Alex, round
us out. I agree with your pick. I was going to
say Keyshawn for the villain of the year. And
I know it's crazy. I have to kind of switch up.
I still support Keyshawn as a boxer, but, man,
what he did that night was terrible. Yeah, absolutely.
It ruined a whole card, homecoming card. It's
embarrassing. Hometown, yeah. He was my argument.
Yeah. It was just embarrassing what he did. And
DB3 as well. I don't want to say DB3 exactly
because I know one of the brothers wasn't really
involved. Yeah, he didn't do anything. The oldest
one. Yeah, but, you know, Keyshawn and his other
brother, that's just, that was unacceptable.
And that's between him and then Cole, for obvious
reasons, like what Isaac mentioned, he made that
fight horrible. And I know I could blame Canelo,
but at the same time, I knew Canelo was going
to fight a Cuban like that, but that dude just
ran. And then my third one is Turk Yalashik.
Is this your emeritus pick? Yeah. Always going
to be in there? Because it's kind of BS. Yeah.
I don't even know how to explain it. I explain
it every day. What about your new face of the
year? Doesn't necessarily have to be a prospect.
It could be somebody who just like broke onto
the scene and they've been a contender for a
few years and then they had some awesome performance.
Alex, what do you got? See, I got a couple. I
would say my two would be Floyd Schofield. Obviously
with that win over Tim Farmer. That was phenomenal.
I would also say that Abdullah Mason is an also
obvious pick. But I think Abdullah Mason, he
kind of saved that card. He not saved so much,
but salvaged that card by putting on a pretty
good performance against Nakatila. I was expecting
that he was going to beat Nakatila, but the way
he handled himself against Nakatila as well,
his public image, the way he fought was phenomenal.
That's how a boxer should be, I would say. Isaac,
what about you? For me, I put Moses Atamaman.
I feel like I know we spoke a little bit about
him last year, a little bit on his rise. But
this year, I mean, I feel like he's really made
like a strong push into the boxing sphere where
he's starting to become like pretty big in the
UK and then like worldwide boxing fans know who
he is. I mean, it's been really nice to see his
rise. But, you know, he's not there yet at the
title, but I think he'll be there. He's one to
watch for sure. As far as, like, for honorable
mention. Oh, no, I was just saying for honorable
mentions, I had Abdullah Mason and Emiliano Vargas
as my honorable mentions. Yeah, I had Emiliano
as well. Just for the same reasons that I gave
it to Mason last year. He's bringing his fights
together really well. He's staying active. He's
keeping himself in the spotlight as much as he
can. And he's doing a great job. He's very composed
and carrying himself well in the media and stuff.
It's really nice to see. It's like the same way
Mason was the fucking adult in the room when
he was having that little quip with Keyshawn.
It's pretty nuts, but yeah. Abdullah Mason, I
was going to put him on here again, but wanted
to get some variety. So I also picked Tara Moana.
She's doing good things over there in the Oceania.
And my emeritus pick, Tenshin Nasukawa. I've
got to make sure that Tenshin Nasukawa stays
upset. That's all I got. She's his biggest fan.
Oh, yeah, absolutely. Same way Alex here is Tamsa
Shiraz's fan. Oh, yeah. I'm a big fan. The fighter
of the year, I went with Brian Norman. Two amazing
wins. And my secondary pick was Abdullah Mason.
Continues to stay active and puts together solid
wins. Alex, who do you have? I agree with your
fighter pick with Brian Norman Jr. So far, I
think that was a phenomenal win. And I also agree
with Abdullah Mason as well. We have very similar
picks with a lot of these, but I'll tell you
this, that I also think that Bivol is also another
one. But just with that Masterclass, he pulled
off with better beef. You know. That's it. Isaac,
who do you got? Yeah. For me, I actually put
Bivol down. I mean, he's going to get, he got
the better beef fight early on in this year.
He's going to fight him again at the end of this
year. Potentially have two wins over better beef.
And, you know, one year that would be massive.
I mean, it's still, you know, we got to wait
and see. But I think he's a strong contender
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with the mid -year picks. Alex, who do you have
for your ass -whooping? Your beatdown? I got
a couple. I'm not gonna lie, I got a couple.
So, I got Keyshawn versus Baronchick for the
title. It's that one. I got Yolanda Pie. versus
Rodriguez. Oh, that's a good one. That one was
a one -sided beatdown. That was nasty, dude.
That was nasty. I would also say Boots. I got
to throw Boots in there, too. Again, I always
say that. I've been saying Brian Norma Jr. this
whole time, but I got to throw that in there.
I have to. Brian Norma Jr. Over. His first knockout
was also pretty dominant. Yeah. So just both
of his? Yeah, yeah. Cool. Isaac, what do you
have? Let's see. Wait, for which one? Beatdown.
Oh, yeah, for Beatdown, I have... For me, Boots
versus Stanionis, bro. This was just really,
really rough. We had seen, you know, Stanionis,
he likes to be in wars like that. That's something
he sort of thrives in, like, you know, foot to
foot, or toe to toe, rather, like these battles.
But, man, Boots, like, really, really just laid
it on him. His face was busted up. I mean, it
was rough, man. I mean, we knew it was going
to be a good fight, but, man, Boots really came.
He showed out. He really showed out. Definitely.
Is that the only one? Yeah. Looks like we're
unanimous. Boots versus Stan Jonas. That was
my pick. One for Variety, Andy Cruz versus Hironori
Nishiro. Oh, yeah. That was a good one. Andy
Cruz did really good. Out of Andy Cruz did. Out
of Nishiro. comeback of the year. This doesn't
necessarily have to be in the middle of a fight
comeback. It could be like a career resurgence.
Alex, kick us off again. I got a couple. I think
Gareth Jordan has had a pretty good comeback
so far. He's kind of heading a little bit towards
title contention again. I think that's kind of
a silly pick, but I mean, I kind of, I got to
feel like this is the gods are kind of saying
like, oh my God. I think Cesaro can... We gotta
make Cesaro win again for some reason. We gotta
end his life fucking early? Yep. And then I would
also say that the A .V .S. Griffin loss, that
was a pretty good comeback mid -fight. I forgot
his name. My apologies. I think it was Rodriguez,
right? Who? For Rodriguez versus Griffin? Avius
Griffin on the MVP undercard? I don't remember.
I forgot. Yeah, I don't remember either. Julian
Rodriguez? I think so, yeah. Yeah, that was him.
Avius Griffin was winning the whole fight, went
to the decision he was probably going to win,
and then got knocked out. That's wrong. All right.
For me... I came up with Stephen Fulton coming
back from the Inouye loss. Takes a year off,
then he comes back and lays a smackdown on Brendan
Figueroa. Another pick I had was Jesus Ramos.
Got jobbed by fucking Erickson all that while
ago. And he's been putting his wins back together.
He's getting himself back into where he rightfully
should be. And Isaac finishes off. Dude, for
me, I only had one. It was sort of hard to think,
but I put down Callum Smith, man. I put down
a Brit. I mean, it was sort of wild because,
I mean, we have only seen him lose to, like,
elite fighters. You know, he lost to Beterbiev.
He lost to Canelo. But after the Beterbiev fight,
I mean, you know, he made the move to 175. Or,
I mean, you know, obviously after the Canelo
loss, he moved to 175. But, I mean, just nothing
has, like, really been going his way. And, like,
a lot of people were counting him out for the
Boazzi fight. Me too. Yeah. And then, you know,
he came in and just got in an absolute war with
Joshua Boazzi. And he got the win, man. I mean,
he hurt Boazzi multiple times in that fight.
A really, really good fight. And he got the win
and he established himself as, you know, again,
one of the contenders at 175. I mean, we were
even talking about, I mean, it looks like it's
not happening, but we were talking about Benavidez
versus Calvin Smith at one point. So, yeah, he's
my comeback fighter of the year. All right. I'll
start us off here for upset of the year. My first
one was Resendiz versus Plant. I think everybody
was looking past Resendiz. It was like a foregone
conclusion to everyone, to most people. Lamont
Roach beating Tank is another one. I don't care
what the hell the judges said. Yep. And I had
a fun one. Fatal Fury, City of the Wolves. I'm
upset that I fucking paid for that shit. You
liked it? Oh, no. No, I did not. What? You didn't
like You Big Rude Ben? No, not that one. What
are you talking about? The Times Square one.
Times Square. Oh, Hell. Oh, yeah. That was horrible.
I'm upset. Isaac, who do you have for upset?
Dude, for me, I put down Ryan Garcia versus Roley
Romero. Bruh, I couldn't believe it. You know,
Ryan Garcia, he's coming off this win that was
later overturned against Devin Haney, where he
absolutely demolished him. Serves the suspension
time for the popping for Osterine. Comes back,
fights Rolly Romero, who had, you know, not too,
too long ago lost to Isaac Cruz. Man, Rolly in
the second round hits him with the hook, puts
him down, and goes on to win a decision. Man,
I can't believe it. I think Ryan was like minus
1 ,400 or something like that. Wow. Dude, yeah,
it was wild, man. To be honest, I didn't expect
it. Rolly looked good, though. Rolly looked good.
And Alex, upset of the year. You guys kind of
already took my picks. I was going to put Resendiz
to Plant. I honestly did not think Resendiz had
that in him to get to Plant. I knew he was not
a bad fighter, but I thought Plant was going
to be the better fighter that night. I was wrong.
And then, like what Isaac said, Roley and Ryan,
the fact that Roley took Ryan to a decision is
crazy. Not even a knockout. It was his decision.
He outboxed Ryan Garcia, Roley Romero did. So...
You guys already kind of said what I was going
to say, but I just wanted to add on that. The
fact that Roley is now a true Cuban fighter.
I don't know. That's kind of nuts. For hero of
the year, Isaac, who do you got? Yeah. So for
this one, I put down Inouye and Ramon Carabanas,
bro. Boxing needed that fight so, so bad. after
the Friday and Saturday we had had prior to this
event. This fight saved the weekend, and they
put on a war for us, man. Carter the Nice really
showed up to win. You know, he came. He didn't
go there to lay down. He came to win. He knocked
Inouye down. I mean, that was a level of excitement
that we got as boxing fans just seeing that.
And then, Inouye rallies back and was able to
finish him off. Just a tremendous fight, and
boxing really, really needed it. So I put him
as my hero of the year. Alex? I 100 % agree with
that pick. That was one of my secondary picks,
I was going to say. But I think my first pick
is going to be Lamont Roach. Ah, nice one. I
think the fact that everybody was counting him
out, and he came back and came out and showed
up in his tank. To me, that's a hero. I know
it's silly to say that, but to do that to tank
what he did was... crazy and started grease started
grease skate right and funny i i just think the
whole the whole thing what what he caused was
as funny as hell i think i just i just like that
you know i like that he went on a victory tour
yeah which i thought was fun yeah um let's see
i'll give first my emeritus pick his pro box
his pro box is good pro box is always good um
but my pick was al hayman Do you remember Pritchard
Colon? The guy who kind of went into a vegetable
a few years ago after getting hit in the back
of the head? Al Heyman has been taking care of
his family and all of Pritchard Colon's medical
bills this entire time. And nobody knew about
it until it came out a few months ago. Let's
see Eddie Hearn do something like that. Exactly.
And Al Heyman does that without putting himself
in front of a camera to, you know, be a martyr
or whatever. Like, hey, look, I'm saving this
guy. I'm paying for this guy's medical bills.
I'm paying for my promotional company. I'm just
taking care of a person because he fucking needs
it and I can't. I'll step off my soapbox now.
Fight of the year. I'll start this one. My first
pick was Beevil, Better Be of Two. When two fucking
titans collide, that's the masterpiece that we
saw. A boxer versus a puncher. Both of them just
absolutely elite. And razor thin both times,
just because that's what happens when you have
such... I don't know. Amazing competitors. But
my more fun pick was Eubank versus Ben. The shenanigans
building up were kind of fun, but the fight itself
was much more fun and made up for the corny antics
before. Alex, what do you got? I got, for me,
I have... Worthy fight of the year. Anyway, Cardenas,
as I was saying earlier, that saved the weekend.
Worthy. It kind of restored my faith in Baku.
I'm not going to lie. I was pretty close to not
watching that fight just because I was so bummed
out for having to pay for that damn pay -per
-view. Yeah. And, you know, I saw it, and it
really made me happy to be a Baku fan. I was
like, damn, this is what it's all about. The
whole card itself was phenomenal. But that fight
was crazy. And then also, secondary pick, David
Morrell versus David Benavides. Also very good.
Very good pick. Moved up to the hype. Isaac,
what do you have? Yeah, I put down Isaac Cruz
versus Angel Fierro. Nice. That was my primary
pick. Very good fight. Just Mexican versus Mexican.
A war. I mean, we're obviously getting the rematch
pretty soon. It was that good. Very good fight.
Very fun fight to have. And then as one of my
honorable mentions, I put down Calum Smith versus
Boatsy. I really enjoyed that fight. That was
a good one. Yeah. The levels were shown, you
know, in the mid -lates. It started to look like
who has the extra gear. Yeah, but it's still
very fun. Man, that's it for the mid -year. I'm
going to hold on to these, and we'll see if end
of the year, if something better comes up. But
yeah, we're wrapping up our picks so far. All
the way up to June 30th was the cutoff. What
are our parting words, if we have any? Dude,
I feel like we had some solid picks. Tell us
yours. If you have anything different, tell us
yours. Yeah, you can 833 -589 -7637. Works in
WhatsApp. So if you want your audio cut on the
show, send me a voice note. Or go into Discord
and chat shit in there. But if you're going to
come in acting a fool, don't be surprised when
people start slapping you around. Alex, you got
anything? I just want to say good start of the
year. Not too bad. But the later half is going
to be something to look forward to. Especially
the next couple weeks. Absolutely. Alright, well,
if that's it, then that's it for this edition
of the Boxing B -Sides. We'll see you fucking
next time. See ya. See y 'all later.