It's good that we've been going this long and
haven't really started yet, because I've been
capturing it all. Oh, it's fucking fantastic
conversation. All right, let's fucking do this.
Boxing B -sides meets boxing before dark. All
the boxing peeps are in the same place. Shanada.
It's a crossover. Yeah, you are the crossover
elite right now. How's it going over there in
JP? I am so fucking tired. I got home at 7 a
.m. And it is now 11 a .m. So. Japan. And then
we also got Saul, the one and only. Taul. Probox
good. Probox good. All right. Lester Martinez.
Gave a good account of himself. Good account.
I have thoughts about that fight. All right.
So do we just want to jump into the... Canelo
Crawford card, we'll just work our way to the
bottom. First, honorable mention to the shitty
matchroom card earlier that day. Molly McCann
switching over from MMA to boxing and still getting
kicked. That was really funny. Referee, out of
his mind, not there at all. Blatantly front kicked.
Fucking hand up his ass, I guess. I cannot believe
that's not a DQ for someone to throw a front
kick. That's fucking ridiculous. Molly McCann
didn't care. Of course she didn't care. She can
handle it. She just kept beating the shit out
of her. Yep. Yep. Normal day in the beautiful
UK, I guess. Alright. Oh, it was a UK card. It
was. Nick Ball kicks people too, so it must be
a UK thing. Anyways, no one cares about that
card. I care about it. Can you give me admin
terms? We'll get back to it the next time we
sit down. So, I wanted to start on the Canelo
Crawford card, Marco Verde. Man, what's his name?
I wrote down the wrong one. Akale. Akale. I forgot
his name. So, he was pretty upset that the fight
was stopped. Oh, this stoppage was horrific.
You think so? I agree. I'm not one of those boxing
fans where the fighters have to die every time
for it to be a stoppage. like it's not it's not
the amateurs like you don't like you don't stop
it at the slightest wobble you see if he's actually
hurt judging by how he's defending himself and
then you step in you don't just watch him barely
wobble after getting hit like slightly through
your guard like this stoppage was really bad
granted it was going in that direction but this
stoppage is really bad i agree i think that um
I wouldn't say it's probably one of the worst
ones I've seen. Obviously, I think it still goes
to Milt Taylor and Chavez. Really? Yeah. You
guys don't agree with that? Continue with this
one. Continue with this one before we get sidetracked.
Yeah, you're right. We'll talk about that another
day. But either way, it was a bad stoppage, I
feel. That was way too early. Again, he was getting
hurt. There's no doubt about it. He was going
to lose the fight. But they just stopped it.
I believe they stopped it just to keep padding
the record of Marco Verde. Which I understand,
but, you know. I thought that it was going in
that direction, and it wasn't necessarily that
he was hurt in that moment, but it was just that
he was not adequately defending himself over
the course of, what, four rounds? Three and a
half rounds? He wasn't adequately defending himself,
is what my thinking is what the ref was thinking.
I know we've done the devil's advocate. It was
just a bad stoppage, but there's not much else
to it. Yeah, it was a little early. I don't want
to scream corruption or whatever. It's just one
of those value judgments because the ref is there
and you're not. Whatever. It is what it is, unfortunately.
Like for the case of Akali. It was a shutout
to that point. Akali was never going to win that
shit. Save him from a little bit of extra punishment.
As much as he's not going to like it. Of course
he's not going to like it. He's a professional
fucking boxer. He's not going to like it. But
that's what you're there for, ref. One thing
I will say is that Akali kind of did give him
a good fight. He did. Yeah, I got to give him
props. He He was duking it out. Yeah, it was
a good scrap. He made it scrappy. Yeah, he made
it scrappy. It was fun. It was a good fight,
but ended in a horrible card. Yes. Oh, moving
up. Sultan Al -Muhammad versus Martin Caraballo.
Sorry, they apparently don't do double L's in
Miami. Yeah, it was a one -way beating. Like,
pretty much from the onset. It was not very interesting.
No. I found this more interesting than the Muhammad
Al -Aqal. Oh, yeah. Like, I would have rather
had this. I would rather have, if you're going
to give me a Saudi plant, I would have taken
Sultan Al -Muhammad over Muhammad Al -Aqal. No,
I will say that was a really good fight to open
the card. It's funny, though. A lot of the openers
were better than some of the main fights on the
card. I'm not naming names. Callum Walsh should
not have been so high up. Callum Walsh should
have... I got words to say once we get there.
But they should be pushing this kid, Sultan,
a lot more than Alakel. Alakel is... We'll get
to it right now. He was boring as fuck. Pill
-fisted. But we'll get to it right now. Stolten
is fun, at least. He was a fun fighter. Yeah.
Moving up, Reito Tsutsumi gets the stoppage and
won over Javier Martinez. Is there a lot to take
away from a one -round stoppage? Reito's the
better brother, for sure. I've been saying it
the whole time, but he's definitely the better
brother. That was a pretty fucking... That was
a pretty good knockout. Another Saudi plant.
Sutsumi. To an extent, yeah. He's a step removed
from Sultan Al -Muhammad or Al -Aqal. He's like
a step cousin. Yeah, he's still a plant though.
Yeah. Not like Caleb though. It makes me want
to... It makes my opinion of you start in a negative
place. Whereas it would be neutral any other
way. Raico Santana stopped Steven Nelson. This
felt like a bad stoppage. Another one that happened
a little bit too soon. I don't know. What do
you guys think? I don't know why they stopped
it that early, dude. He wasn't hurt. He wasn't
damaged at all. He was caught in a bad position.
That's really what it was. I mean, I've seen
rescue fighters that are fucking out on their
knees, out on their feet. That's what I mean.
I don't know. Just a weird night. Just a very
weird couple stoppages. Yeah, this one felt like
it should have been an eight count. and even
then like like you have to i get i get the whole
like you have to protect them from themselves
but also like it's professional boxing on like
like you need to you need to give them a little
bit of leeway to bounce back and recover because
some some fight some fighters can get like shattered
easy and recover like it's nothing like They
look like they're on skates the entire fucking
fight, but they keep recovering quickly, so you
can't, like, you can't judge it by a first look.
Especially in a ten -rounder. A four -rounder,
whatever. Right? Ten -rounder? No. No. Unacceptable.
Yeah. I was gonna say, like, for a ten -round
guy, you're not giving him a ten -round guy's,
like, giving him enough rope. for him to hit.
He should be hanging himself with it. You shouldn't
be stringing him up. Honestly, like, Steven Nelson's
off the butt Pacheco, you know? Obviously, Pacheco's
not the greatest, but he's taking harder shots.
You know? He didn't look hurt. He was just buzzed
a little bit, you know? Bad stoppage. This was
the Cuban that had Team Mexico on his hat. I
thought that was funny. Yeah. Ironic. Yeah, I'm
sure he's a... He's a Reynoso guy. That's probably
what it is, but... Because, like, Stephen Nelson
is a BOMAC guy, right? BOMAC guy, yeah. So they
have their guys, like, up and down the bill.
Except for the Saudi plants. But moving up, Jermaine
Franklin, UD over Ivan Ditchko. Which of you
two was it that was really going hard for Jermaine
Franklin? Me? I'm 100 % right. I was wrong. Ditchko
was not ready, and Jermaine Franklin, again,
he showed up ready for the occasion. And voila,
he actually... Did it. He just did it. Franklin
is always ready. Like, he stays in shape. Like,
Franklin... Shape is a broad term. He stays in
his version of shape. He's a professional who's
ready to get off the couch to fight. And you
know what? Like, Ditchco, 35, never really fought.
Danny won with a winning record. Or, like, with
a good record. and like it wasn't he wasn't gonna
be the guy to step up at 35 to beat jermaine
franklin like have you ever seen it's this it's
it's a meme but it's like about amazon reviews
it says like uh 5 .0 on 35 reviews It's the Drake
one. Or, like, a 4 .5 with, like, 30 ,000 reviews.
Yeah. Exactly. Like, that's what Drake Franklin
is. He's that 4 .5. Yeah. Well, that's crazy.
No, no, he's not 4 .5, guys. He's, like, 3. And
heavyweight? Like, he's, like, again, like, I'm
not saying, like, there's guys who don't beat
him at heavyweight, and he's, like, only beatable
by the top, but I'm saying, like, you have to
be a special guy to not be given problems. Like,
I think there's like... Yeah, no. You're right.
Like, he does give guys issues consistently.
He's a quality veteran. He's a good... Good gatekeeper.
Like, he tests you. He's a very... You know what?
I might want to see him fight Atalma. I think
Fabio... I think him... I think him... I think
Jermaine Franklin and Fabio Wardley is a much...
more fun little encounter instead of the potential
spoiler that he might be for Atama. I would love
to see Franklin beat Atama. That would be crazy.
That's what I mean. Dude, I just put an article
in the publish thing. Am I getting hyped for
Heavyweight? For Atama. Yeah, but I was right.
It's my point here. Daichiko was not good. And
Franklin is. Yeah, exactly what you just said.
Albeit, not the most exciting fight until near
the end. It's just because Franklin doesn't really
have power. He's a very volume guy. Yeah, he
was just loading up. He was just loading up.
He's a very solid boxer. It's just like, if he
just had a little more power... He would be a
problem. He would be such an issue. Because,
like, the success, though, like, he boxes great.
It's just the power that, like, why didn't AJ
had their success when they didn't respect him?
Yeah. Because otherwise, he pieces you up pretty
good. It's just the power on Franklin that really
costs him, which is why he's a great, like, solid
veteran for a lot of prospects. Because, like.
It's basically an IQ test. Like on risk... Yeah,
because Jermaine Franklin isn't a power threat.
He's an IQ threat. Yeah, like he's very much
tested your risk tolerance because if you're
a prospect who's bound to get knocked out, then
you're going to respect Jermaine Franklin. But,
like, it's a big IQ and risk tolerance test,
which is good. There's not much at heavyweight.
At heavyweight, it's either, like, you basically
fight, like, fat construction workers until you
get to world level where, like, oh, shit, everyone
can hit and everyone can box. So having guys
like Franklin in the mix are great, especially
for a budding prospect. Yeah. Is Franklin the
new Chisora? No. The American Chisora? He's much
better at boxing than Chizora was. I guess. Chizora
was a good test, though. I don't think he'll
ever get the chances Chizora did, though. True.
Oh, hell no. Absolutely not. Chizora has got
to be skill, record, and pain ratio. The only
person who beats him is Kambosis. like no because
like chisora like chisora has longevity there
too like every time every time you're like finally
he's gone he's lost so many times you're like
what the is he doing winning again like when
he knocked out takum and came back i'm like oh
my god another like another eight years of this
the same literally he'll like he'll win he'll
win like one or two and then he'll lose four
in a row and then like but it's just been it's
a cycle but you know what he's still around and
somehow he's the ibf mandatory which is hilarious
he's sniffing a title shot with that ibf again
yeah which is crazy put this guy out of his misery
holy fuck have you heard um you've heard maybe
you have maybe you haven't but it's a cheeky
nando's with the lads oh fuck cheeky cheeky mandos
with Eddie Hearn and the IBF. Oh, my God. Maybe
we're not doing Eddie Hearn because Chisora's...
I don't even blame Eddie Hearn for that. The
IBF has a clear set of rules. If you play their
game, you're going to get the title shot. It
doesn't... Cheeky Mando. It doesn't matter how
good or bad you are. If you play the game, you
get in line, you beat the guy in front of you,
you're there. A lot of A -side talent doesn't
want to go through that, so you end up with a
lot of not A -listers that end up getting their
titles out by following the rules. God damn it,
do they not grind their teeth just the same?
Just thought I'd throw that out there. They grind
just like everyone else. Just, just, ugh. Oh,
well. Who's next? Can we please talk about Mbili?
We're close. We're almost there. Brandon Adams,
UD over Sergei Bohachov. Oh, yes. Oh. Special
guest. Brandon Adams is the fucking, he's the
foil. He's Bohachov's kryptonite. For the record,
I got this one right as well. I said that this
was an easy way to get rid of Boa Chuck because
Brandon Adams is a lot more beatable for all
of the talent that Turkey has in his sphere of
influence at 154. I said this. I said I called
it. I said that Boa Chuck is better than Brandon
Adams. Brandon Adams is just that, like, has
his number. So the thing is that with this loss,
you go, oh. here's the guy who's better than
boa chuck and then basically only virgil gets
over with the like bad looking win here and like
you're gonna ever everyone at 154 basically gets
the feast on brandon adams and be like look this
is a better this win is better than virgil's
against boa chuck Oh, shit. Yeah, Brandon Adams
versus Madrimov. Sign it. Yeah, like, that's
what I mean. Like, for sure, Boots is going to
fight Brandon Adams next year. And it's going
to be, and half the marketing after Boots wipes
the floor with him is, look at this. This is
the guy who beat Boa Chuck, who gave Virgil hell.
I would say that me and Isaac can go to hell
right now. We're going to go to bad shit. Dude,
I was right there too. I thought that Boho Chuck
was going to get his back and he was going to
get his back just emphatically. No. No. Sometimes
a guy just has your number. The issue is when
the promoter knows that a guy has your number.
There's no problem with a guy having your number.
that's just how sports are like you could fight
20 times against brandon adams and you could
maybe win one it's just how yeah the issue how
it is he's just the issue he got you yeah the
issue is your promoter knows that and it's now
gonna you and case in point do not like the boa
chuck has got the boa chuck's pro you're probably
the next time you'll see boa chuck if uh like
is either if A guy at 154 actively calls him
out or is an IBF mandatory? Oh, no. He might
be gone for a while now. He might be a cheeky
Mando in a few years. That's the whole play.
Boa Chuck is probably pro -box bound. Boa Chuck
would do well on pro -box, actually. Oh, absolutely.
Going up the IBF route on pro -box is perfect.
Like, you can see, like, it worked out perfectly.
They now have a perfect B -side opponent at 154
that everyone has now watched, who is ostensibly
worse than Boachuk, but looks better for promotion.
So, there we go. I was two for two on these.
Yeah. I just noticed. Nathan, how you doing?
What up, fellas? Welcome to the pod, buddy. Welcome.
It goes good. We saw the good guys win on Saturday,
despite all the odds. The good guys being Inouye,
right? Yeah. Inouye and Crawford, 100%. Yeah,
Inouye. Yeah, that's it. And Jermaine Franklin.
And Jermaine Franklin. And Brandon Adams. Brandon
Adams is not the good guy here. Oh, no, he's
not. I thought he was going to be a good feeder.
I'm pro Boa Chucks thing in the mix. I'm actually,
like, the prediction was a cynical one. I respect
that. That was a cynical prediction, but I ride
for Boa Chuck here because he's fun as fuck to
watch and he's good. He's an actual good boxer.
He's tough as hell. Those body shots looked painful.
That's what I mean. I am the biggest Boots Glazer
alive because I think Boots, when he faces a
quality opponent... who, like, actually requires
him to use his defense and, like, box like a
normal human being, oh, my God. You're going
to see what makes him great. And I think Boa
Chuck would have been perfect. I think Boa Chuck
would have been perfect to get that out of Boots.
Well, basically, what happened with Stannionis
was what happened to Boots, what happened with
Boa Chuck. Yeah, I was about to say, like, Stannionis
is the blueprint for what would happen to Boa
Chuck. Oh, yeah. that's what I mean like boots
like boots performances are so inconsistent just
cuz like Like he knows he the bad part about
him having a chin as he so knows it So he doesn't
give a fuck about like guys who are not even
close to his level or aren't a threat to him
That's why I'm saying nobody seriously like dude
like who cares. He knows you can't get hit or
just like dude Well, it's boxing you go to get
here, but the team belong to say you're gonna
get hit Well, Berlanga's going to get hit by
anyone, dude. Like, come on. They're scoring
points. They're scoring points. I know. No matter
how tippy -tap it is. Like, the reason why I
prop up Boots Crawford as anywhere near competitive
is because it's not because I'm trying to downplay
Crawford. It's because I believe in Boots that
much. We're like, oh, my God. They will give
us fireworks down the stretch. i think that would
be a purist sort of wet dream like they both
like they both have that mean streak and that
dog and the dynamicism to really just like it's
not it's not so much crawford hate as it is like
boots i have belief in boots and like i hope
i hope i hope the god that like even though he
signed with matchroom like we get some fun food
stuff Yeah, it's, like, it's really not even
his fault, but, like, he is extremely avoided
as a fighter and for, like, obvious reasons,
right? The reason that he and Crawford can even
be in the same sentence is his skills are legit.
So, like, he had to fight. I can't even remember
the guy's name. He had to fight some dude that,
like, he 12 -0'd in his first fight. He had to
rematch him right away because there was literally
no one else for him to fight. Oh, he had to grind
his teeth on Showbox to even get a spot on a
Showtime undercard. It was the Karen Chakudzian
bat guy. Yeah. I've talked about this before.
Karen is such a negative fighter. It puts Boots
in a bad light. But also, I don't think there
was a single moment where Boots wasn't in complete
control. But it was a matter of... there being
whispers that maybe Boots didn't do as good as
you think he did. Yeah, styles make fights is
all. Yeah, that's exactly what it comes down
to. Let's move up. Mohamed Alakel versus Travis
Crawford. Alakel gets a UD. Don't have a whole
lot to say on this one. This was boring as shit.
I feel like they chose that opponent on purpose
just because of the name. I thought that had
something to do with it. It's got to have something
to do with it. That's fucking too much. Travis
Crawford, Terrence Crawford. Like, come on. But
something that was worth watching. Christian
and Bealy split draw with Lester Martinez. This
is the first time I have seen nobody complain
about a draw. Nobody in SP was mad. My complaint
about the draw was not about the scoring itself.
It was about Mbili's performance. What was your
complaint with his performance? Mbili does not
have more than the single gear that he fights
in. No, Mbili's not that good. No, I know. Like,
really. No, the thing is that the way he's coached,
like... I live in Canada. I'm somewhat in the
know for Canadian boxing and everything. The
coaches he has are not bad coaches. It is not
his trainer. Fuck, you saw the corner work. The
translation wasn't great, but those who speak
French, they're trying to get him to set traps
and set up his attacks instead of just going
right into his chest and smothering his work.
If Mbili fought that fight not with a jab and
fought it maybe even 5 % smarter, it's probably
10 -0 Mbili. And credit to Lester Martinez for
hanging in there and fighting his fight. But
god, Mbili really fights like an idiot. Because
it isn't that he doesn't have more than the one
gear. He just fights in the one gear for whatever
reason. He's comfortable there. He doesn't like
leaving his comfort zone. Like, he gets, like,
mincemeat made out of him by, like, top guys
at 168. Because, like, even, like, Caleb Plant,
before Caleb Plant was washed up, like, yeah,
Caleb Plant gasses in the later rounds, but that's
only when you force him to fight out of his comfort
area. Caleb Plant could stay in, probably, second
gear in the whole fight with a guy like Imbili.
Benavidez beats the fuck out of him. Even guys
like, like you say, Pacheco. Pacheco? It's not
his coaching. It's not his fitness. He chooses
to fight with a very low IQ. And you can see
just by the draw. And it was perfect, though.
This was fight of the year for me so far. Really?
Yeah, it was fucking great. Did you not like
it? It was a great fight. Fight of the year so
far? Yeah, who beats it? I don't know. I personally
think that fucking... I don't know. Was Virgil
Boach up this year? No. No, it was last year.
Okay. I didn't know he got there last, too, on
my short list. This was more fun. I know. This
was more fun. It was a lot of fun. My thing is,
it's only because it was a 10 -round fight, too,
which I would have loved. two more rounds. That's
true. That was a weird marketing thing they did
for Netflix. Netflix demanded that the main event
was the only 12 round fight is what I heard.
To make it special. But they didn't fucking make
sense. They should have made the main 15 rounds
so we could have seen Canelo cry even more. It's
fucked up. All right. So our fight of the year.
Crawford could have done another 12, dog. Our
fight of the year. Our fight of the year of the
week. We'll talk about it right now. I had, let's
see here. Fight of the year. B -Bowl better be
if. Isak Cruz versus Angel Fierro. Really? You
had Eubank Ben. Taraji versus Akui. That's a
good show. You know, Paul, that's a good show.
Saul, you had Inouye Cardenas and Benavidez Morel.
Yeah, that. And recently, I also wanted to put
in there Boyo Matias. That's a good one. That
was a good one. That's a good show. And then
Morel Katiev on the same card. That's crazy,
but those two had to be added. Josh, you got
Cruz Fierro as well and Smith Boazzi. I think
this was better than all of those. Yeah. The
thing is, if it went two rounds, I think I just
would have give it to it. I would give it to
it. Because, like, seeing the championship rounds
of that fight would have been fire. Yeah, there's
something different about, like, having championship
rounds. You know? That's why I'm like, I know,
it is one of my top fights of the year. That's
why, it's like on the same level as Katya Morel.
Because, again, they're both 10 rounds. If they
went two more rounds, both of them, you know.
Who knows what could happen. Different ending,
perhaps. Yeah. I think we need a rematch on this
one, though. I would watch that again. Listen,
man. If Billy ever listened to his damn fucking
coaches, like, this is, like, the rematch is
uninteresting. But also, Lester Martinez... He's
not going to. He's not going to, and Lester Martinez
got better throughout the fight at timing in
Billy and setting traps. Which is very interesting.
Someone did listen to their coach and it wasn't
Mbili. Lester's been looking really good on Probox.
Like, I was excited for this one. Like I said,
like I said, don't sleep. Like we were talking
about not sleeping on Lester Martinez last week.
But, like, the way he improved through the fight,
because, like, I saw a comment on SP that was
really funny, calling him, like, the Latin American
Dave Allen with the fuck -ass Philly shell that
he uses. Because that Philly shell, that is a
street beef scrapyard Philly shell. That's not
good. It's not good. But his offense, the way
it flourished through the fight is he listened
to his coach and got more confidence. I like
it. I like it. Basically, if they pick up where
they left off, but Martinez has some more gas
from not wearing all those shots for the prior
10 rounds, I think Martinez can actually win
pretty handily. I got a question for y 'all.
What would you guys rate Lester Martinez's performance
compared to Mbili? Just rate both their performances
for this fight. What do you guys think? On a
scale of 10? Yeah. I would say Mbili 6 or 7.
Martinez 7 or 8. Mbili gets like a 5 or 6 and
then Martinez a nice 8. Like, I just... Like,
it's not, like, the IQ issue, whatever. Fighters
can have bad IQs, but, like, at least listen
to the guy screaming in your face day in, day
out when he tells you, please use your jab before
you wing hooks at him. Being coachable is a huge
thing. Like, when he's screaming at you in French,
your fucking language, because his coach is an
Anglophone. And he learned French just to scream
at you. Yeah, like, some of these Canadian coaches,
like, yeah, they're based in Quebec. They're
fucking Anglophones. Like, when you see them
at the amateur events, they're Anglophones. You
can just tell. And they're screaming at you,
and, like, please, please, like, you don't even
have to do the more complicated things, where,
like, yeah, step to the side, wing, like, no.
They're telling you, jab your way in, which is,
like, a basic fundamental of this damn sport.
Don't smother your work. It's a fundamental of
this sport. So, like, do it. Just do it. It's
also because, I mean, Lester's also with BOMAC.
We all know how we feel about BOMAC, you know?
BOMAC didn't even fit in the ring. That was between
rounds. We'll put BOMAC in there with Rick Lazor
and fucking old school Mike Collinger and Dan
Raphael. Collapses the ring, bro. We'll take
him to heart attack, bro. Now that's the fight
of the century. Who finishes an octuple bypass?
Butterbean. So I got a question for you guys.
Because we were talking about this being a 10
rounder instead of a 12. I thought, and this
is what I, just me being too a little optimistic,
I was thinking, It got moved down to a 10 -rounder
because the interim title is not a real title.
This doesn't get championship rounds. Oh, that's
a base take. That's pretty basic. They have 12
-round fights for bullshit titles all the time.
That's what I was thinking. As I was formulating
that thought, I was thinking, what they do 12
-rounders for garbage all the time. The fucking
Oriental Pacific was always 12 rounds until people
started dying. Yeah. I think I had a take at
one point about how it's just the sparring culture
more than the fighting culture. Yes. I think
the JBC doesn't do very good medicals or take
it serious. But that in conjunction with how
macho the sparring culture is? Yeah. It's a bad
combination. It's the recipe. Because the thing
is that negligent commissions, like the UK's
commission, doesn't give a fuck about anything
half the time. But the sparring culture is relaxed
enough where you don't see the consequences.
Yeah. And that ends up being my take on the JBC's
issues. Shall we continue? I want to see one
more thing. about this fight I think that from
watching this fight I know when we were on the
pod last time I talked about how Christian and
Billy and Les Martinez both fucking hell of a
fucking hit you know I think this fight kind
of proved to me that they both also have pretty
strong chins I was watching I was like damn how
are these guys how are these guys still standing
you know part of that is smothering each other's
work but also like the one the one thing i don't
give him really much credit for this because
he smothered a lot of both of their work but
the thing that less the thing that lester give
credit to lester's philly show is that he sees
every shot coming yeah sure he's gonna get clocked
by it but again most of the shots that like really
get you and you're gonna see in the main Like,
the shots that really shook Canelo are the ones
that, like, he had no idea were even coming.
It came out from fucking Texas, from Miami. They
came from nowhere. So the way, like, Lester,
yeah, Lester's open to getting hit by anything,
but it means he can see anything. Which is, like,
that. Relying on your chin is not a good plan.
Oh, absolutely not. I fucking love it. Lester's
performance. Was just beautiful, man. That kid's
special, man. That kid's special. By the end
of the fight, he was getting hit way less. Like,
that's the thing. I saw this kid improve throughout
the fight. And I think that's the thing that
a lot of people are going to miss. A lot of people
are going to harp on, oh, Mbili won too many
of the early rounds and he shaded this one. So
Mbili can totally just come back and win it.
But, like, Lester improved so much throughout
the fight that I think giving him a fresh gas
tank and the... rather obvious assumption that
Mbili is just not going to make any tactical
improvements. Like, it's there. It's there to
be won. Well, I'll tell you this. The reason
why I'm saying that Lester's special is exactly
why, for the reason you said, is that he is able
to adjust. The ability to adjust is so... It's
not talked about enough with fighters, you know?
The fact that Lester Martinez was able to adjust
and, you know... Oh, absolutely. It's shit out
of Mbili. And you know what? Yes, his trainer
is Bomax, but as we just saw, it's coachability.
As Shanada just said, it's coachability that
makes all the difference here. Because it's not
like... That's why Pacquiao was great. He listened
to every fucking word that he was told. Oh, absolutely.
I don't know. It's like, that is my opinion.
Truly my opinion. But we are... So far in the
weeds, we need to get back. I was about to say,
that opinion is going to end up quite a bit on
Patreon. This is why we don't pair me and Josh.
It's good. It's good content. All right, let's
move up. Callum Walsh for Fernando Vargas. UD
for Walsh in what was a very unexciting co -main
event. This was ass. This was the perfect time
to go get a new refresher drink, get some food,
go to the bathroom. Whatever the case was, this
was the time to do it. This fight was ass. I
went to go make myself food and eat, and I fucking
went back. I was like, who's winning? This fight
was so bad, I'm not going to talk about it. I'm
going to talk about how Max Kellerman needs to
be, like, taken out back like old Yeller. I fucking
hate Max Kellerman. Like, this is brutal. This
card was terrible. Yeah, it's hard to watch because,
I mean, we wanted him back and he became a Saudi
player, you know? Nobody wanted him back. He's
always been shit. What? What are you talking
about? See, the thing is, I used to like Max
Kellerman. The metaphor I'd use to describe him,
he's like a bell. It depends on who's next to
him, who's ringing him, what comes out as good
or garbage noise. So if he's paired with good
commentators in the past on Showtime or HBO,
I never liked him. if he was like when he when
he was on showbox with like adner mares it's
terrible that's the thing like it really depends
on who he's paired with but nowadays like in
the post like in the tur in this era where like
you can tell he basically just needs a job and
will do whatever it takes to keep it and he's
just gonna keep his mouth out of like around
whoever pays him dick it's not like you know
I think, again, I posted in the Hall of Fame
because it took me out with how abrupt it was.
Someone on the SP Discord said, Butler killed
the wrong brother. Oh, my God. With how bad he
was. did you read it it was so it took it was
out of my field that i remember seeing that and
i thought oh my god that is oh my god for all
for all intents and purposes i do not condone
that i don't condone the comment but it's like
that's the that's the level of frustration that
i'm only displaying the comment To illustrate
the frustration that having commentary this bad
on a fight this bad on an event this big really
does to, like, the whole presentation. One thing
I will say about the commentary itself is just,
it was even Max Kellerman, dude. It was, like,
John Anik does not fucking belong in this. Yeah.
Like, he belongs in UFC. Andre Ward is trying.
It's like, it's like, it's like, you know what
Johnny Anik reminded me of? Is the fucking people
in the chat. okay oh with it laying a job like
bro it's not that serious has there been any
reasonable has there been any reasonable explanation
as to why like the ufc's top brass was so involved
with this like whole card like why is anarchy
turkey on tab because turkey likes him like is
that literally it it's part of it they're trying
to take over the sport and like basically I like,
I see, I see the, not the vision in that I support
it, but I see the vision of like, you make it
a real, Oh, you can go to TKO or Riaj season.
And it's like the illusion of choice, basically
the way they're trying to take over the sport
because like, it's the same shit. It's the same
shit, but all you and all by, by introducing
a new promoter that you bankroll, you just, the
whole point is that you take updates. you take
updates and you really just try and take away
the market from other promoters and take out
fighters too sometimes yeah like that's the whole
thing because like if a guy like uh like like
oh he can't really get dates with top rank but
like he doesn't he doesn't want to jump ship
to uh tko and like oh riyadh season is there
or vice versa like it's very much talking about
another tv deal Like, there's people in this
world who still sign with Don King in 2025. Which
is fucking crazy. It's not unreasonable to think
that people will fall for this. Yeah. Because,
again, there are people who sign with Don King
in the year of our Lord 2025 so he can keep putting
on shows in Baltimore rec halls. One thing I
will say about fucking the whole production itself
is ass. Besides the arena, the arena looked nice,
but just the commentary, the fucking camera work.
Sometimes even the camera quality. I was like,
damn, is this how it's really going to be? They
called it the fight of the century. This is how
they're treating it. It feels like it was thrown
together in a couple of days. I've seen better
shit on Probox. Way better shit on Probox. This
is sort of the Canelo classic. I don't know if
there's been a single card of his that's felt.
big outside of him, right? Like it almost feels
like the UFC equivalent of watching a McGregor
card where everything else is kind of just like,
meh. Canelo Golovkin 2 was a fantastic card.
That it was. That was a good card. But it's also
been like eight years. Generally speaking, his
cards are like, you're better off going to sleep.
Right? Like, genuinely, you could watch paint
dry, and that would be more entertaining than
whatever the hell is happening on the undercard.
Well, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. This
card had some good fights. This card did have
some good fights. The Billy fight was good. I'm
not trying to tell so much shit, but generally,
the co -mains are... You know, they're not worth
writing home about, right? No one can outshine
Canelo, guys, right? We got to make sure he's
the main focus. That's true, actually. I will
say. Billy and Martinez got to move down the
bill to be completely honest. Yeah, exactly.
Also, because they're trying to promote the UFC
guy. That's their fucking point, you know? That's
the whole thing. No, I do think they moved Billy
down because it would make the main look bad.
To be compared directly afterwards. And honestly,
I think it would have been better. Yeah, exactly.
Let's prop him up. I think, honestly, it would
have made the whole event feel better if they
put it as a co -main. In hindsight, it's like,
damn. I'm going to get into it right now, but
it was like, those two fights were good as fuck,
dude. Good as fuck. Well, is that enough for
Callum Walsh and Fernando Vargas? Not a whole
lot. Callum Walsh. The fight was... Callum Walsh,
retire now, please. What's the statement? Two
bums? Two bums. Two bums. The new IBF champion?
No W. Two bums. Two bums. All right. Now, the
reason that we're here. Terrence Crawford beats
Saul Canelo Alvarez. In 12. Let me start by preparing
my healthy serving of crow with a lot of humble
pie on the side because I picked Canelo. It was
a coin flip, but I still went with it. I stand
by what I went with. Crawford pitched the perfect
game. Canelo was... We were talking about, before
we started, talking about Canelo being good on
the inside. Who was that that was... Yeah. That
was me. I thought Canelo was winning the exchanges
on the inside, but his feet are so fucking retarded.
Canelo can't catch anyone anymore. No, and it's
like his... It's not even... It's just the cutting
off the ring. too that just like even if his
feet weren't there it's just the fact that like
he just doesn't I don't know if it's the attention
span or like the wear and tear but like ADHD
in the middle of the ring like I'm fucking serious
like like like I'm serious like he just cannot
get the like the ring cutting going and it's
that's Like, it's probably the most frustrating
part, because you know what? You cut off the
ring, you get to him, Crawford outmans you there,
whatever. But, like, if you let Crawford stay
in second gear for 80 % of the fight, and just,
like, hate you? It's not... It's on you. I think
one of the issues with Canelo is he, if you look
at, you know... 10 000 foot view of his career
the fighters that have given us him the most
trouble are the ones that are able to fight in
both directions right the ones that are constantly
switching up like when he doesn't have like one
area where he's dominant he really really struggles
and you could see him getting progressively more
frustrated over the course of the fight he wasn't
even getting like like distressed he was just
like pissed like why the can't i catch this guy
and it was because Crawford was very, very intelligently
mixing what range he was going to fight. He's
like, I'll fight in the pocket, counter -punching
at times, and then as soon as it gets a little
too sketchy, I'm out. I'm back on my bike. I'm
boxing you from long range. And he could not
cope with that, that style change mid -fight.
He kept telling me to reset the whole fight.
He would start kind of getting into a groove,
and boom, Crawford moves. There were times that
Crawford would get in the corner, move. Kano
would start trying to load up a punch, and Crawford
would already be on the other side of the ring.
He would be inching towards him, and then he's
already moving laterally out of position. It's
not like a skull where he keeps backpedaling
out of it. Genuinely, the lateral movement and
ring craft is just... Holy shit. I don't want
to hear anybody say Crawford was running. That
was not running at all. That's the comparison
I'm saying. In my personal opinion, I think that
this is probably the best performance against
Canelo anybody's ever had. Better than Bivol.
Even better than Mayweather, in my opinion. I
mean, this was a masterclass. I don't know about
that. Canelo didn't even land on Mayweather.
Look, look, look. Well, hold up. Mayweather,
look at the times it happened, okay? Mayweather,
it was when it was early in his career. If you're
looking at it that way, Canelo's over the hill
right now, too. Well, it depends. It's half glass
full, half glass empty. I think he's the most
seasoned he's been in his whole career. Season
doesn't matter if your legs don't get going.
Horrible. Well, the thing is that, let me tell
you this. Wait, wait, wait, hold on. Like, B
-Hop against Joe Smith Jr., that was the most
seasoned Bernard Hopkins ever. He was also 52
and had no legs left. I will say this, too. It's
not like Canelo didn't train. And it's also like
Canelo did not try to fight. Okay. He had a game
plan. I mean, we all saw he was trying to go
for the body first. You know, he tried doing
what he does with all the big fighters. Goes
to the body, fucking jab, jab over him, right?
You know, it didn't work. He had a plan and he
looked, he probably looked, in my opinion, he
looked the slimmest he's been in years. So it's
not like he didn't train. He put in the effort
to win. And it just wasn't enough. And I don't
think we should just look at this as a Canelo
fail, because in order for Crawford to win this
fight, he had to bring an all time performance.
And that's what he brought. And, you know, over
on the casuals, when we were talking about this
fight, I talked about the one scenario I could
see Crawford winning. And it was what we sort
of saw here. It was similar to the Spence fight
where. canelo wants to come forward crawford
wants accepts that and wants to punch second
and that's basically how this fight came out
in those exchanges crawford was just better every
single time like and i mean especially like i
think it was round eight or nine they got into
some seriously like dangerous exchanges and in
the last couple fights granted against inferior
competition canelo was like you know knocking
munguia or belonger out or not out, but he completely
shut them down with one dynamic punch. And in
this fight, he wasn't able to find that punch
on Crawford because Crawford, in those exchanges,
was able to keep his defense and his offense
at the same level. He never let himself get out
of position, and whatever Canelo hit him with,
he hit him back like three or four times more.
Yeah, I mean, I think that, like, I think what
made me realize that Crawford won the fight was
when they would get into the pocket and Crawford
would beat the shit out of him in the pocket
and just move out the way. I was like, dude,
there's no way he's winning the fight. Because
if Canelo can't even win in the pocket and get
a shot in, how the fuck can you reach him any
time in the fight, you know? He beat him at his
own game. And there was times, I believe, I think
it was, like, the 10th round, where it looked
like vintage Canelo was coming out, like, vintage,
like, when he was, like, triple G. type canelo
where he was just throwing throwing throwing
just you know trying to land a punch and oh my
god he couldn't get in you know crawford it was
it was a master class you know it was beautiful
crawford took the punches better than i expected
as well i thought canelo was gonna hurt him Like,
really hurt him. And Crawford was hurt a couple
times. I don't care what people say. He was hurt
a couple times. Yeah. He has his dog. He has
that dog in him. Yeah. I was impressed with Crawford's
ability to take a punch. I didn't think he would
handle it that well, and that's why I was thinking
Canelo would win. I lean towards that same mentality.
A very, very good... smaller guy is going to
lose to the very good bigger guy. That's kind
of what I went with. Unfortunately, Canelo's
just not very good anymore. Yeah, he's not very
good. He was never good, actually. He was my
hater. Two bums. Two bums. Two bums. I think
there are parallels here, though, between you
know Crawford and Usyk right both guys jumping
up like an absurd amount of weight from you know
where they've been standing and like yet they're
able to overcome that sort of odds just like
purely from boxing IQ yeah they just they succeed
in different ways though like Crawford very much
it's uh it's a very lateral like he definitely
uses a ring of generalship To overcome whatever
shortcomings the size may give him. Whereas Usyk
flat out. His offensive craft. And like forward
footwork. Were his highlight traits. In the weight
jumps. Right. Like stylistically they couldn't
be more different. But I think the core of it
is. Like. They are just masters of their craft.
They know. If you put the right kind of style.
Especially like I think. In hindsight. the kind
of style that canelo brought out that's exactly
what crawford wants he wants someone that will
come to him don't make me chase you down like
you know madrimov did or you know madrimov the
way he i think we were there i think i know we
were there live for that fight uh me and leo
um and that fight was cut which is frustrating
because madrimov would not stay still he wouldn't
really press forward and range or ever commit
but moving from the opening bell canelo is Loading
up power shots immediately. He's wading into
Crawford's territory. And once he's there. There's
no one better than him. Clearly. There's no one
that can touch him. When you step into that world.
I will say. This is where I. I fully agree. In
the realm of possibility. At those lower weight
classes. Again. I say that's where U6 is the
strongest. In those deep waters. But I guess.
Part of it is how much dog, not to interrupt,
but like the most standout trait isn't even a
skill one from Crawford and Usyk, like tangentially.
They have this like intangible freak athleticism
and even more intangible determination that really
like they assert their will, even if they're
not necessarily in a good spot. Yeah, I could
totally see that, because every time that Crawford
got bothered, he made it a point to pay Canelo
back. Even if he didn't get him back as good,
the next round he poured it on. Yeah, and same
with Usyk. You see his highlight moments at heavyweight
are always when this huge Goliath rushes him,
gives him some adversity, and he takes a breath,
sits down, comes back, and just pillared a post.
And it's like, Like, it's only happened with
AJ and Fury because those have been, like, they're
not these most skilled opponents, but they're
definitely his hardest opponents. And even with
Bratis and Michael Hunter, you saw it there,
too, where, like, they give him some adversity,
and instead of, like, backing up at it, he just
has that dog to be able to, and that's something
that, like, I... I appreciate a lot from Crawford
in that fight because very easily he could have
just backed up, moved laterally, and watched
Canelo. No, just not even because Charlo only
went backwards. Crawford could have made a sort
of backward lateral move and kept Canelo floundering.
But no, when faced with adversity, he showed
that intangible. He's always had it, but here
he can actually, again, in a truly necessary
great moment, he really gets to show those intangibles.
Crawford proved that he was a great fighter and
that Canelo was just a very good fighter. It's
crazy to me because I was just thinking over
yesterday, it's like Canelo's whole career has
been building up towards losing to Crawford.
This is Crawford's legacy, you know? He'd be
killed. Who fought Mayweather? Who fought Bevo?
Who fought all these guys? I think it's hyperbolic.
I think it's hyperbolic to say Crawford is top
10, top 15, all -time greatest. Because his legacy
is going to boil. As much as the eye test can
carry, he just needed more fights against truly
good opposition. to be because yes he has the
because the thing is that like like excluding
whatever excuses haters like myself can make
about spence and canelo where is the good fights
his entire legacy is predicated on two wins where
he showed his greatness but for the rest of his
career it's honestly like the fact that his hardest
fight is against mean machine is not great because
like In every great fighters, like all -time
great fighters, they have good wins. They have
good wins, they have great wins. Like, you're
not going to... Yeah, beating Hagler... I was
going to say mediocre wins against very mediocre
guys. Beating guys, like Sugar Ray Leonard is
a comparison point here. Because, yes, he beat
Hagler, earns Duran. But he also has a lot of
very good wins at his weight classes that he
fought at. Let's take a peek. Yeah, Donny Lalonde
at super middleweight. That was a good win. Not
an all -time great opponent win, but that's a
good win. That's a good win. It's similar to
this fight where he went up and beat a bigger
guy. Not a great guy, but... Wilfred Benitez
is an underrated great win. And he dominated
that man. Yeah. But at the same time, like, yeah,
you're right. Trigger Leonard's resume is definitely
one of the greatest of all time. And the thing
is, he's considered one of the greatest of all
time. Yeah, but that's the company Crawford is
entering. But I don't, like, I think he can be,
like, this is being, like, extremely down on
it and saying, like, top 30 all time. And that
will just be on... That's still great. Great,
great, great. Yeah, 100%. But it's purely...
It's purely like... Again, I've already made
my case for why I dislike him outside of the
ring for that top rank extension. But the thing
is that in the world where he goes to PVC, he
has those good wins. He has those good wins.
He has Thurman and Porter. He moves up to 154.
He'd probably get Danny Garcia at 54 instead
of Madrimov, who's somebody that will probably
not be considered a good win considering how
strong the division is. He probably hangs with
Boots at some point. So he has a bunch of...
I use Ray Leonard as the example because outside
of the standout wins, he has a pretty thin resume.
He was a bit of a diva. Ugas too. But even then,
you're right. Ugas. Pacquiao. He would have had
Pacquiao. Yeah, he would have had Pacquiao. He
would have had Barrios. He would have had a better
Spence. Yeah. And a better Canelo. And the thing
is that if he's at 168 at the time Canelo becomes
undisputed, you're not... There's... Benavidez
and Morella right there. And the thing is...
That's assuming he... Mikey Garcia. That's assuming
he fights... More than once a year, though. No,
but even with the once a year... I think with
quality opponents like that, I think he would
fight more than once a year. Yeah, but instead
of Amir Khan and Kell Brook, even if you swap
out the top -ranked extension fights with all
good contenders, now you have a resume that is
like, you can crack top 20, top 15 conversations.
Because... I mean, I think him doing this in
general puts him in the top 15. My opinion probably
top, yeah, definitely top 50. The reason, the
thing is that, like, if you look at fighters
before weight classes became so common, like,
again, Leonard moving up to 168 to fight Donny
Lalonde, that was one of the first, like, major
168 clashes. The weight class was very new. Like,
the weight jumps, weight jumps were scarier,
like... there because you had because like again
leonard on a three -year layoff went from 147
to 160 which is the same jump to fight hagler
who is a infinitely like i will at that stage
in the career yeah hagler was probably on the
downside but it's not like he was anywhere near
over the hill this was marvin hagler no i mean
That itself is legendary. They were great comparisons
to that fight with this fight. But that's the
point of it's great. It's absolutely a testament
to Crawford's greatness. And I say this as a
complete this guy is detestable outside of the
ring. I don't think a bigger loser could be an
all -time great. This guy's going to waste all
his money with his seven kids and be back fighting
Jake Paul in 12 years. We pushed it out a few
years, but we're still back on Jake Paul. I think
he's done. I think Crawford's done after this.
I'm surprised if he goes and fights another fight.
There's nothing better than this, honestly. The
thing is, you have to consider the way his life...
Yeah, he lives incredibly frugal, but this guy
will not stop having kids. He's got enough money
to feed a million kids. Go to Africa. No, but
the thing is, Crawford strikes me as somebody
who, again, he's always believed he's a bigger
star than he actually has been. I'm not saying
he's going to gamble the money away like Michael
Jordan does. I'm saying he's going to make some
bad business investments with putting his name
on it. Maybe a chain of restaurants, a car dealership,
something that doesn't work out. and he'll be
back which is unfortunate but so i think with
that threat and the threat of seven kids you're
going to you're going to run into turkey especially
because like turkey's going to offer him a fight
like a check he cannot refuse a check especially
because crawford can be buttered up real easy
He's going to butter Crawford up. Be like, listen,
man, you will be the greatest of all time. I'm
going to give you like $300 million if you face
my guy here, David Benavidez or something like
that. I do want to give someone time that they
are. Oh, absolutely. For a while. Yeah, he's
been here for a while. He's going to go to bed
soon. We got to get his piece in. We've all been
talking. This guy just barely joined. We got
to hear what he's got to say. Welcome in, Isaac.
So I'm the resident Canelo fan. Yeah, go ahead
and get your booze in. I was cheering for him,
hoping he would win this fight. I did know that
he could possibly lose. I even told all of my
family. I mean, they didn't believe me again,
even though I told them that in the bubble fight.
But I told them there's real chances that Canelo
could lose. And man, dude, bud. Bud is an all
-time great boxer, not just in this era. He is
an all -time great boxer. He's a very special
fighter. I said the same thing whenever we saw
Usyk do his thing with Fury and Dubois. And I'm
going to say it again with Bud. This is a very
special fighter. And this is in our era. We're
seeing a spectacle, man. It's one of those things
that's humbling to see. And, I mean, bro, not
every generation gets a fighter like this. I
mean, this is amazing to see. Bud is just incredibly
talented as a boxer. I mean, he was in fighting
with Canelo multiple times throughout the fight.
And, you know, landing pretty well. I mean, you
compare their faces in the post -fight press
conference. Bud was barely touched. I mean, Canelo
landed some, but not... There was at no point
in the fight where I was like, oh, Bud is hurt.
You know, Canelo landed a few times, but there
was nothing really substantial. And man, his
defense was on point. His offense was on point.
Book work, his feints. I mean, his counters.
It was like from bottom to top, he was just...
a near perfect fighter like it's pretty much
as perfect as you can get and it was just an
incredible to see man uh i had a feeling you
know anyone that's saying robbery by the way
is just completely wrong you can i i didn't even
say robbery and i hate bud crawford more than
most people love their mothers there's zero zero
world where canelo wins that fight like you you
cannot like canelo is my boy You can barely argue
for a draw. Barely. There's no world where Canelo
wins. Bud deserved that win. And, you know, for
people saying, like, oh, Canelo's, he's more
washed. I mean, like, yes, but Bud came up in
weight. So that cancels each other out. I mean,
it's, give him his flowers. Give Bud his flowers.
Like, this is an all -time great win, and his
name just shot up. an all -time great list. I
mean, three -time Undisputed. He went from, like,
fourth or fifth in this era, in my estimation,
to, like, okay, one or two interchangeably. And,
like, he's in the conversation. Absolutely. He's
at the table. Yeah. Yeah. It's a special fighter,
man. It's nice to see, man. This is... I mean,
I said this with Nathan and Leo after... Usyk
completely dismantled Dubois. We don't get to
see these type of fighters often. So whenever
they do come around, I mean, it's must watch
and just enjoy. Like, take it in. Because these
fighters really, it's a rarity. It's a rarity.
So just, like, really enjoy it. Like, you know,
he's not going to be, he's going to turn 38 here
soon. He's not going to be around long. We'll
see what he does next, but whatever he does coming
up, I mean, just enjoy the time we have left
with him because it's going to be a while before
we see a fighter on his level again. I wouldn't
be surprised if he retires. I hope he does. I
was expecting him. I'm stating the case for how
Al -Ashid gets him back. I mean, it's easy money.
I mean, I could see him coming back for one more.
Just because after this win... He wants to revel
in it. Yeah, his stock has gone up. His next
paycheck, if he does come back, has got to be
way more. And it's going to be... Crawford has
enough of ego, per se, that it'll make it actually...
It'll validate him and every choice he's made,
almost. like he can he can be buttered up and
he can be validated into taking the next like
doesn't matter who it's with turkey could be
like all right bro i have cloned mike tyson from
the year 1986 and you're gonna fight him and
you know what if the check is big enough and
the stage is big enough crawford will do one
more and retire you know he was saying 160. They
asked him whenever he was at the analyst table.
He said, you know, potentially 160, because he's
not going back to 154, but potentially 160 he
could do. It'd be really disappointing. Four
time undisputed. But I mean, he'd go from Canelo
to someone like Janabek, which is like really...
Like Janabek is more likely to be like... retired
than fighting crawford if we're looking at the
scaling event i think like yes it would be nice
for crawford to win another title in another
weight class but i think more than anything he
wants an event that is his because his two biggest
fights up to date has been him has been spence
and him and canelo and him he needs that validation
is something that like you know it's a little
parasocial for me to surmise but the way he has
gotten on top rank and like the way he carried
himself around the build up to the spence fight
basically like he needs he wants to be the show
and you know what good for it good for him he
deserves it if like as a hater and as as a hater
and a fan i would like benavidez That'd be such
a nice fight. I don't even have Benavidez winning
that. That's a toss -up. I think another one
that... This is a clear... This other one that
I'm thinking of is Crawford would be favored
by a lot. But you could put him against Jermel
at 160. Because that's a grudge match. These
guys hate each other. And that would absolutely
be a profit to them. I would love to see that.
It's either Charlo or another guy. Boots. Boots.
I don't think he's interested in fighting Boots.
I don't know. That would be a fun fight. as much
again I've stated my love for boots and my love
to see that fight I don't think it's smart for
Crawford to come down to 154 and I don't think
it's smart for boots to go up to 160 I think
there's also whatever fight he gets sold next
it I think there can't just be money there has
to be legacy attached to it because right now
I mean y 'all might disagree with me but I think
this is the single best win of any boxer I've
watched in my lifetime. Like, I can't think of
another single win taken standalone that's better,
considering all the circumstances. In this era?
No, I think Usyk Fury is pretty high up there.
It's the closest one, I think. I don't deny that
at all, but I mean, if you look at the circumstances,
like Nakatani Inoue is going to be, that's going
to be the one I point at. That's more for the
Japanese. That's more for the hardcore. That's
for the hardcore. Not a lot of people from our
side of the world were going to tune into that,
unfortunately. Just that, like, you're going
to have to have a fight that has serious legacy
ramifications, right? Because when he took that
Spence fight, that wasn't just, I'm finally getting
paid. That's, I'm beating my generational rival,
right? And when he took this Canelo fight, he's
like, I'm beating a guy who's been a pound for
pound fighter for the last decade right challenging
the generation yes he needs something along those
lines and yeah but i mean like just evaluating
this one win like there's very few fights i think
that that rise to the level like once you think
of like like like i just said canelo has been
on the pound for pound list for the basically
over a decade at this point And, you know, we
can say all we want about how he's regressed.
But I mean, the fact that he jumped practically
three weight classes, like I don't even count
154 that much. He spent years and years as a
welterweight. He jumps up for one fight, then
moves to 168 and does that like he wins convincingly.
I mean, it's it defies all the logic you should
see because he's doing that on the wrong side
of 35 to like that doesn't happen. It never happens.
Right. And like you start piling up all these
things that it defies conventional wisdom that
he should have won this fight in the way he did.
And yet he did. And so like, right. The only
other one that makes sense is you. Right. Where
he's fighting a guy. He jumps up 30 pounds and
he's still at a 30 pound weight disadvantage.
Like that's a crazy jump up there. But I mean,
I just had a crazy. What else? I just had a great
thought. You know, years ago after the loss to
Bavole, Bavole was saying that he dropped down
to 168 to challenge for the Undisputed Super
Metalweight title. Holy shit. Is there any world
where he drops down to 168 to challenge Bud or
the Undisputed 168? No. That's not happening.
That's like Chad Rawson going back down to fight
Andre Ward. hell hell no, but also like I don't
I don't think it that I just like like as much
as people is like Well as legacy as below might
be like again I think more than like it needs
to be a good blend of legacy and spectacle Crawford
needs to be the a -side in an event To validate
his entire career after himself. It's not like
It's not yeah he would be the a side but i'm
saying i'm saying it wouldn't be as much of an
event you'd be like oh it's bibble but i'll say
if you thought benavidez that would probably
be the closest that's what i mean benavidez benavidez
is a similar on a similar like say what you have
a legacy benavidez is similar it's a bigger profile
than b of old right now and he doesn't need to
they could do it at a catch weight even like
170. The thing is that also, this fight, like
we were saying last time, was the grand finale
of boxing. There was no passing of the torch.
You know? There's no young fighter that's going
to live on it. Pack it up, guys. No, seriously.
Because, I mean, after this, I mean, are there
really going to be a lot of Cinco de Mayo fights?
Fucking... In the Mexican Independence Day fights
for a while? I mean, that was Canelo's day. That
is Canelo's day. I will say that... When's that
next time it's going to happen? You know? I will
say that... Turkey Alashik's involvement in the
sport and everything has destroyed the prospect
pipeline. So, like, yeah, once this generation
is done, it's, we're gonna, like, yeah, this
basically, like, if we're gonna treat it that
way, this basically was the series finale. I
do agree with that take. Because, honestly, like,
it's kind of sad to say, but if Benavidez does
fight Crawford, that can be a passing of the
torch. A new start for another Mexican star to
at least carry on For these days. At least fight
twice a year, you know. On the days that Canelo
fight, you know. It's just sad to think that.
Like, it's bittersweet, actually, to me. I was
thinking about it. I mean, I was so happy that
Crawford won. I was literally, like, jumping
up and down. And yelling, fuck yeah, beat his
ass, type of thing, you know. At the end of the
fight, I felt sad because I realized I was like,
dude, I've been watching Canelo for the majority
of my life. And it's sad to see him go out like
that. I saw his rise, his peak, and his eventual
decline. And it's sad to see that he's probably
going to retire. Boxing is dead has been a cliche
since they started letting black people box.
But the way the prospect pipeline is so irreparably
damaged at this point, because your options are
either you have your amateur background, which
is getting chipped away at by the year, just
by society, and you hope that you become one
of Turkey's darlings. or you fight on your regional
circuit or pro box or wherever and you grind
your way up only to be put against one of turkey's
darlings on two weeks notice like we're gonna
hit a prospect crisis not soon but it is on the
horizon and it's something that doubles that
kind of exacerbates the feeling of this feeling
like a series finale almost I mean, right now,
besides Canelo and, I guess, Tank, Tank's also
gone, but, like, what other pay -per -view star
is there? Virgil and Benavidez. Benavidez is
the closest we have to someone who has, like,
in a way, is known by casuals, but the issue
is that, like, top -ranked sucks at putting his
fights on in the United States. so him being
on facebook is a hate crime i don't care what
else to say like bro i've seen like beer league
lacrosse with more viewers on facebook bro like
this is it's criminal i think your your next
other star besides the ones you listed genuinely
i think it's moses aitama true like he's got
a lot of potential but i i totally agree with
what you're saying like there is there's not
a whole lot of guys that we know about at this
moment that who's ready to take the mantle right
it feels like he got the last helicopter out
of saigon though like very much like he's the
like he's done like the way like he got the last
helicopter out of saigon with how like he's being
developed like a normal prospect instead of like
what's going to happen which is that there are
no prospects so we're just gonna See what works.
In the lightweight classes, it'll be fine. Because
he doesn't care. Yeah, like, the regional circuits
in the lighter weight classes should remain fine,
but, like, once you get to welterweight and above,
like, you're already seeing it at middleweight
and at heavyweight. Heavyweight is as talented
as it's ever been, but, like, it's very top -heavy.
These weight classes are really top heavy. And
it's just going to erode with time if you don't
have a spot. Because guys are going to stay amateur
if they can't do anything in the pros. We'll
get more Lomachenkos. And that's not great. You
get guys who are too old. You get guys who just
beat up on kids for the last 10 years and then
can't cut it in the pros to their full potential
because they didn't turn pro soon enough. Like,
Lomachenko had a good career, but he could have,
he could have all, like, it's something to say
that he could have been so much more if he had
just turned pro eight years earlier and actually
became a pro. And we're going to, we're going
to get a lot of disappointing prospects or prospects
that never turned pro that you'd want them to
turn pro. It's just, it's bleak. We're going
to get a bunch of Demetrius Andres. It's bleak.
And the thing is that everyone's going to still
want to stay turkeys, darling. So you're going
to get a bunch of androids. This is the same
as the Mayweather sweepstakes, wasn't it? Where
everybody just doesn't want to do anything because
they want to remain pristine enough. But that
was at the top. At the prospect level, you had
guys like Thurman and Spence camp. Again, you
had prospects campaigning. in search of the sweepstakes
it's that's what it like when the sweepstakes
is a fighter yeah it affects the top but the
prospects really get moving to make it to the
top level so they can get that shot when it's
a promoter sweepstakes where you just you just
sit on your ass there's no one there's no like
there's no one to fight to get that or to no
way to earn it you just it's rent it's chance
almost Well, then that's when you sign up with
the IBF. It's a bleak prospect pipeline is what
I mean in terms of like how we traditionally
consider prospect development, which is like
it's going to be guys never reaching their full
potential or turning pro too late or just getting
like washed over because there's no opportunity
to get built up. It's like, again, it's very
much like a series finale of boxing. But again,
I'm still going to stick around to see how bad
it gets. And you know what? If nothing else,
I have Inoue Nakatani to look forward to as one
last super fight. You're so pessimistic. Boxing
will be fine. Boxing's always fine. It's always
fine, but the thing is that it's on a decline.
It can be better, but it's on a decline right
now. Yeah, it'll come back. I'm pessimistic because
I like having the upper weight classes healthy.
I do not... Nobody cares. Well, I don't care.
Everybody cares except me. Everybody cares. That's
the thing. Like, we're the hardcores. But, like,
when I go to work and I talk to a guy, it's like,
oh, did you see the Benavidez highlight clip
on Instagram? It's never, like, did you see Bam
Rodriguez fight last week? It should be. It should
be. We are the hardcores, ostensibly. And I'm
thinking more about, like, again, a kid, an absolute,
like, a complete child. does not sign up for
boxing because uh he watched um in a way cardenas
as good as that fight was it's because he watched
a really cool heavyweight fight where two fat
dudes beat the out of each other no no i disagree
boring no like that's how it was back in the
day they would watch the heavyweight fights with
george foreman and muhammad ali even in the 90s
No, but you see the British boom in boxing was
Audley Harrison. Yeah, that's true. A heavyweight.
You're not wrong. You're not wrong. You're not
wrong. But that's the British boom. And then
it was David Price. You had AJ. And then AJ's
era really, like, that's what I mean. It's always,
like, an inspiring, like, in Europe. Like, Klitschko's
being in Germany. kind of correlates to Germany
having a really nice amateur scene right now.
But you get small guys that do the same thing.
Oh, absolutely. Not on the same scale, though.
But the thing is that the upper... So many people
started boxing because of Pacquiao. Heavyweight?
Heavyweight? Yeah, you're right. But they built
him up properly, promotionally. And that's the
point we're trying to make. So many people are
going to start boxing because of Bam and Inoue.
I think a lot of people are going to start boxing
because of this fight. When I look at Pacquiao's
career here, the thing is that this is when Friday
Night Fight cards existed and everything that
he could be on. And there were so many dates
that were filled. By a pile of promoters. That
all had TV dates. They turn on their TV. Who
is this Filipino dude? I can't pronounce his
name. And he's beating the fuck out of this champion.
Nowadays that doesn't exist. You can't flick
on your TV. The culture is not there anymore.
Because there are no TV deals. There's no room
for a kid. To turn on his TV. On a Thursday night.
And see this kid Pacquiao. Who had to put fucking
rocks in his shorts. beating the fuck out of
the world champion that story doesn't exist anymore
and that's why i think the prospect pipeline
is a little bleak i'm not saying the sport's
gonna die out but i'm saying at the up by upper
weight like upper weight classes is lightweight
and above if you go at it mathematically and
they're gonna dry up a little bit interest wise
because there's like the like there's no there's
no way it's not accessible And it gets less accessible
to access the prospects. Because before they're
stars, they're always prospects. And you need
to be able to build them, not just as fighters,
but promotionally at the prospect stage for free
in an accessible way. Like ProBot. ProBot, exactly.
But again, no TV deal. Just speaking of prospects,
I have prospects for sleep tonight, so I'm going
to dip. We've gone way off topic. We've gone
way over. Appreciate you having us. Have a good
one, fellas. Thank you for coming. We should
wrap up. What were you going to say, Sol? I was
going to say, I just want to say one last thing
about the fight. Man. It was a spectacle, dude.
I haven't felt like... Yeah, I haven't felt like
that in forever, man. I remember... I would talk
to people, just random people, about the fight
on the street. I was surprised that actually
people started talking about it, you know? It
was actually... Yeah, exactly. But it was like
a highly viewed event. You know? It was akin
to like a Mayweather Canelo. Mayweather Pacquiao
type thing. You know? People were talking about
it. It's crazy. I can't believe. I'm still in
disbelief right now that Crawford did what he
did. Beautiful, beautiful fighter. Beautiful,
beautiful man. That ring. I loved it. I loved
every second of it. He beat the shit out of Canelo.
Damn. I'm going to give. I wish I hadn't moved.
Because the corner shop. I think I've mentioned
it on B -Sides before. The corner store. near
my where I used to live like on big you can always
tell big fight weekends I go to the corner store
on like Saturday night or Saturday evening and
the place is packed the all of the beer is fucking
gone and everybody in line is talking about the
fight this is it has happened more than once
and they've all been Canelo fights But that would
have been cool to see what was happening in the
shop. Sad times. All right. Anything more for
the Terrence Crawford Canelo card? You said everything
we needed to say. You know, I'm not going to
do ads this time. Fuck that. But I am going to
throw some shit in here. Buy a t -shirt. I was
going to throw some shit in here. We got this
new jacket up. It actually looks pretty dope.
So lvx .be slash shop if you want to check that
out. LVX Media Net, that's the social media handle
everywhere. If you cannot find it, chances are
we're not on it. But if you want to hit me up,
let me know what social media app you can't find
me on. 833 -589 -7637. I want to hear what you
think about Terrence Crawford beating Canelo.
Does your heart ache? Or are your fucking loins
tickled? You tell me. That's all I got. Let's
do some parting words. Shanada, start us off.
I don't have parting words today. I'm going to
go crash so hard. I've been awake for like 48
hours. Fair enough. Saul, you got anything? Yeah,
I just want to say that there's a couple fights
that happen every couple years that reignites
the love for the sport. It reminds the fans what
we love most about boxing. You know, we had Spence
Crawford, Wilder Fury. Fucking this fight made
me realize again and again why I watch boxing.
You know, it's why we love boxing. It was beautiful.
And I'm glad I have experienced it. And I could
die happy now. Those are my parting words. I
could die happy now. Knowing that Crawford became
three times as beautiful. I could die happy now.
My top ten greatest of all time. That's crazy.
That is crazy. I don't care. I don't care. Pro
box good. Oh, fuck. That's going to do it for
this edition. This is going to go up when it
goes up. Boxing B -sides. Fucking check us out.