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. The B
-Side thing. This is the B -Sides Boxing Podcast.
Oh shit. Alright, we ready to fucking do this
thing? You ready to rock? Yep. All right. Fucking
Boxing B -Sides. We're back in 2026. Joined by
the one and only Saul. Hello, guys. What's up,
what's up, what's up? Glad to see you guys in
the new year. You guys can hear me. Back from
hiatus. It's Josh. Yes, we are back. Oh, man,
I saved this little bit of news. Obviously, this
happened a while ago, but I wanted to give Josh
a little bit of time to get something out on
Crawford retiring, 42 -0, 31 stoppages, five
-division champion, three -division undisputed.
Retired the duck boots in Benavidez. You hate
to see it. Duck Benavidez? You hate to see it.
And Jake Paul. And Jake Paul. On a serious note,
it's actually like, how good of a fighter do
you have to be for that career to be a disappointment?
How is it a disappointment? He could have fought
more guys. He could have just fought more guys.
Like, I'm gonna say, like, the top -ranked extension
era, like, Jeff Horn until he fought Spence was
not great. And that was his, like, absolute peak,
too. Hey, he fought Kell Brook and he fought,
uh... Sean Porter. Sean Porter. Okay, Sean Porter,
fair enough, but, like, Kell Brook, Amir Khan,
Mean Machine, Jeff Horn. The worst Benavidez.
I think if he had just not signed the extension
with top rank, he would have beaten Spence sooner
and we would have gotten more out of him, which
is he's good to watch in the ring. He was always
a fun watch. Let me ask you this. I'm curious.
Was there a possibility that he would have been
signed by the PBC at that early on? Yeah. I mean,
an American, like, all -action guy in the ring
who is, like, the direct rival of your best,
of one of your better guys. Did they ever send
an offer out? I'm just curious if it's known
that they sent an offer out. Well, he didn't
even entertain, like, them sending an offer.
He signed that extension with Top Rank at Lightspeed.
He's like, I hate racism. sues his promoter for
being racist, but how good is he as a fighter
to have basically avoided stardom until the very
end and still done it? So here's something interesting
that I'm thinking about. If he had not re -signed
with Top Rank, if he had signed with PBC instead,
he would have been stripped of that WBO title.
And we wouldn't have gotten an undisputed welterweight
fight. That's true. It's true, but I feel like
the profile of him fighting Spence ends up being
the... Still bigger. Yeah, like he ends up moving.
He probably fights Charlo. Like the... What was
it? Jermall is the one at 154, right? Jermall.
Jermall. He probably fights Jermall at Jermall's
peak. He has a much stronger later half of his
career. He probably still wins all those fights.
It's just that we get to see more of him. I don't
think it's a bad thing to have considered. We
didn't see enough of him. Really. You don't think
BBC would have put him with some tuna fights
either? Yeah, but he still would have had the
big fights. He would have had more big fights,
and he would have had, like, instead of, like,
Amir Khan, like, it would have been someone.
His tune -up would have been, like, Danny Garcia.
That's what I mean. Like, it would have been
Danny Garcia. And at 154, it would have been,
like, Lubin, or, like, it would have been, or
even Castaño. He would have caught Castaño off
a loss. So that's what I mean by, like, he could
have accomplished more, and that's, like, he
still accomplished more than most guys ever do.
But... You think if he went to PBC, you think
that would rival Mayweather? We would have seen
enough of him against great opponents to be able
to actually tell. I don't know how he'd perform,
but we would have seen enough of him to tell.
I feel like I've seen enough to tell. I don't...
Because, like, skills -wise, he can definitely
do it. It's just, like, how much do you count
strength of resume? But you know what? We would
have never gotten Mario Barrios as a WBC champion.
Yeah, I think he would have fought Pacquiao,
too. Pacquiao would have been in a wheelchair
from... Crawford. Pacquiao was going to fight
Spence. That's what I mean. That's what I mean.
All these things. At that point in time, Crawford
has already beaten Spence in this hypothetical
timeline. Like, it's a whole... You think they
would have made the Spence fight before or after
his car accident? You think that was possible?
Well, the car accident... I don't think it would
have happened before the accident. No, it would
have been after Porter. But it's still like it's
not his eye falls out and the car accident and
he's got a bunch of miles on the clock and he
cleared out 147. It's just the car accident.
Yeah. Which like he looked just fine after the
car accident against Danny Garcia. Yeah. It was
after his eye fell out that he looked A little
diminished with Ugas. If Ugas had any killer
instinct, he would have got him out. That's what
I mean. Say what you will about Crawford, he's
great, but I would have liked to have seen more
of him against better opposition. Like I asked
earlier, would you think that a run like that
at PBC would have rivaled Mayweather's run? I
don't think it would have beaten it. I don't
think so. The longevity and the quality of opponent
was just not there. Like Cotto, Marquez, De La
Hoya, Pacquiao. I'll take those guys over. Yeah,
Ricky Hatton at his peak too. It's crazy, but
the thing is that I'm saying we would have gotten
the C at least from an eye test. Because, like,
I'm going to say, there's a big difference between
Jermel Charlo and David Avenisi in terms of,
like, owning them and, like, the eye test. I
mean, honestly, you're 100 % right. I agree with
you in the sense that if he got more fights,
he probably would have been seen as even greater.
Because that was Crawford's prime at that time.
But you never know. I mean, he could have lost.
No? Yeah, but the thing is that I respect stepping
up and let's say he gets a fight at 160. He fights
a guy at 160 and it's crazy and he loses. I respect
it a lot more than what he actually ended up
doing, which was garbage fights, Spence Canelo.
Because even Madrimov is like, okay, sure, you
fought a tight list at 154, but you also had
active challengers at 147. I'm not saying that
he avoided them. That's just the timing being
wrong. I do know that Manny Pacquiao avoided
Crawford for sure. I actually honestly doubt
that. To be fair, Pacquiao was just not signing
with Arum. If Pacquiao had won against Jeff Horn,
we would have gotten Crawford Pacquiao. I don't
know. I've seen the sources. I totally believe
that he wanted nothing to do with them. Crawford
is that good. But I'm going to say Crawford could
have forced the issue by just becoming a star
the way Spence did. We could have stolen Spence's
chain. Yeah. So, again, fantastic career, but
it could have been, like, genuinely legendary
because he's... I deride Crawford a lot for his
out -of -the -ring choices, but it's because
he's so good and so fun in the ring that, like,
all he did out of the ring was basically damage,
like, how he entered the ring. You expect better,
right? Yeah, like, I expect you not... Like,
I expect you, like... You're a tight list at
147. You go and you hunt out every other name
instead of just waiting. And the thing is that
just by accelerating the timeline, he probably
ends up beating... He still beats Canelo. But
it happens a couple years earlier. You don't
make as many excuses. And now Crawford can actually
capitalize on that by being the man. Well, ladies
and gentlemen still listening to this rant. A
good overview would be legendary fighter, great
career. Like, his career is great. Like, how
great do you have to be for a career where you're,
what, three -time undisputed to be a disappointment?
Not that. Fucking fighting David Avenisian. Like,
how good do you have to be? to have wins against
Errol Spence and Canelo and be a three -time
undisputed guy, having started at 135, and, like,
it's still considered, like, yeah, he could have
done more. Like, it's not hate towards Crawford.
It's just, like, this guy could have been, like,
so much more. Because it's rare that we get an
all -action guy who just has, like, skills for
days. Happy retirement for Crawford. But I think
Legacy, like, we're going to look back on this,
and he's going to be a big, like, super talented,
like... Super talented, but he can't scrape top
10, top 20 discussions because of the strength
of resume. I disagree with that, but... Yeah,
me too. I would put him in the top 10, at least.
It's a very dense all -time list. I feel like
you need... Like, I'm going to say, like, three
or four, like, my arbitrary number for, like,
bona fide all -time greats to get into that top
15, top 20. And I'm not saying, like, the 1940s
guys who they, like, fight Hall of Famers over
lunch. Because, like, those are very charitable
inclusions. But I'm saying, like, guys like Hopkins
who did it in, like, three separate decades at
the least. I think it'd be Hopkins. Yes, but
I'm saying in an all -time great way. Are we
talking best or are we talking greatest? Depends.
In greatest, Crawford doesn't scrape it. In best,
absolutely. Put him up there. Greatest, I still
think he scrapes it because of the three times
undisputed. Jumping up three weight classes is
no easy feat. It seems easy now after the fact,
but you got to remember, we were all thinking
that Canelo was going to win. That Crawford was
nuts. I still think that's one of the greatest
feats that's ever been, that's ever happened
in the sport. It's like how people hold Roy up
so high. Yeah. After you fucking fought John
Ruiz. It's not like you fought Van Holyfield.
You beat John Ruiz. John Ruiz beat Holyfield
in the trilogy at the time, but that's besides
the point. I don't know. I use Hopkins. It's
like, there's, there's, there's gotta be like
a, like Hopkins has a huge strength of resume
in addition to like, the gimmick of being old
and continually moving up. Hopkins is great because
both of those. Yeah, it's just the strength.
If he just stuck around, if his career was just
timed differently, think of it. He'd still have
Spence and Canelo, but you add Jermell, and you
add a bunch of top 10 guys instead of top 30
guys. Well, let me ask you this. I'm probably
Pacquiao too. I'm curious. Where would you rate
Roy Jones Jr. on this supposed list of yours?
Out of curiosity. On like a greatness list or
like a best list? Because if we're going best,
like prime Roy Jones Jr. is one or two. Yeah,
he beats most people. He's one or two. Like.
Greatest. Yeah. But, like, greatest is such a
hard one because, like, dude ranks, it's, like,
such a combination of, like, greatest, like,
your household name, you have a strength of resume,
you have skills, like. Possibly your amateur
career, too. Yeah. Ish. Like, I don't know, like.
I don't know if I would count amateur career
as criteria. I hope, like, Olympic gold medal,
I guess, depending on. Yeah. Like, I'll say,
like, the way I say Ali has all of those. Like
when you think of like, like anywhere near the
greatest, like kind of Ali level. Cause like
he was the best first time. Like he was a cultural
icon. He had the skills to in multiple and the
longevity. Like it's a, it's a very subjective.
It's more subjective than just saying best because
best you go. like best you could just like you
look at it with your eyes and you go this is
this guy's the best but greatest is such a subjective
thing but like like i definitely think crawford
like especially because how dense boxing's history
is yeah you gotta put people like johnny johnny
sullivan sullivan up there like you gotta say
yeah like i was gonna say like you gotta put
sell you gotta put joe lewis there Even though
you know in your heart Crawford beats his ass,
this guy has probably the single most culturally
significant win ever in his rematch with Max
Schmeling. I was going to say Jack Johnson. Jack
Johnson, too. That's what I mean. The history
of boxing is so dense. that i think crawford
not saying crawford is top 20 isn't like disrespectful
but it's like his skills transcend whatever notoriety
he may have lacked yeah i don't see it as disrespectful
as like in a sport that has less of a history
i agree somewhat All right, let's keep it rolling
because we got another... We went a while there.
Yeah, there's another piece that I want to spend
a lot of time on. So really quick, we'll talk
about them more in a second, but Inoue and Nakatani,
they're aiming for May 2nd at the Tokyo Dome.
So that's cool. Fucking Jaime Munguia passes
on fighting Osles Iglesias for the IBF title.
Like, you expected this because, like, I'm going
to be real. I watched – I actually – I thought
Osles was, like, one of those, like, Ajit Kabayal,
like, me – like, I'm just trying to be different
picks. I want to be the first on the train. Yeah,
like, I just want to be different because if
I'm wrong, I just say I try. Like, it was a risk,
right? Yeah. But, like, no, this guy actually
has – this guy is kind of crazy for 168. Mm -hmm.
But he's also not... He won't attract enough
numbers yet. You assume that Munguia, his chin's
been cracked, his skills have always been limited.
You want one more fight against someone huge.
I personally think that if moved right, he can
become... a decently known guy within the sport.
Not maybe with the sports community in general,
but within the sport. Just on skills and if he
keeps fighting, absolutely. But I am going to
say that if you're Munguia, you don't want to
run into that right now because you're basically
going to get your ass kicked in a Montreal casino
for pennies. No, I think Iglesias is becoming
one of Turkey's fucking pets. Oh, I know, but
his last five fights have been in Quebec. You
said that Iglesias is being moved by Turkey?
How is that? No, I think I'm... Wasn't his last
card fucking a... He beat Shishkin in Montreal.
Okay, then never mind. I mixed it up. Never mind.
No, he's been fighting under... He's been on
Eye of the Tiger cards. Yeah. I figure, like,
it's going to go to purse bids. Goldenboy isn't
going to be able to afford it, so it's going
to end up being Eye of the Tiger that picks it
up. So... Well, I don't think he's not even a
Goldenboy anymore. I think he's still a top rank.
Yeah. So I'm saying, like, if you're Munguia,
you avoid that fight. Like, you don't. Well,
I mean, that's a high risk, pretty low reward.
Low reward. Because the thing is that, like,
Iglesias is in that spot where, like, if Munguia
wins, oh, he's been exposed. Yeah. And if Iglesias
wins, Munguia gets none of the benefit. He's
just, especially, like, all, like, really what
we remember isn't even the Canelo loss. We remember
Saras putting him out to pasture and him having
to use steroids to win. Exactly. A lackluster
win at that. A very lackluster win. On the IBF
rankings, Iglesias is first. The second slot
is empty. Third is Canelo, who also ducked Iglesias.
Fourth is Munguia. Canelo's not on the timeline.
We don't even know if Canelo's coming back. They
say he's back in training. Yeah, but for what?
Circus show fights or real? Probably against
Jake Paul. Nothing legit. That's what I mean.
Iglesias is a legit guy, I fear. If Canelo comes
back, it's going to be against someone like Shiraz.
It's going to be a British guy. Shiraz is busy,
though, with Pacheco. I mean, Canelo's saying
he's going to come back in September. He's not
going to come back in May. Yeah, we'll see what
it's against, but the point is that Iglesias
wants that title now because he's 28. You want
to maximize your prime. Iglesias is going to
get that title no matter what. He's going to
get all the titles if he can. But you don't want
to stall in making the fight. You want that title
now, and he's in his prime. I mean, there's also
William Skoll, but I don't think they fucking
order that around. Skoll is at 10th. After Munguia
is... I'm just going to go down the rankings.
Yeah, is Shiraz, Troy Williamson, whatever. It's
probably going to be Troy Williamson. Because
the way you can do it, because Eye of the Tiger,
they just take a cut. They don't really care
that much about, like, you're my fighter, you're
my fighter. They just keep taking a cut. So what
would happen is... Send him over to the UK to
fight Troy Williamson for a title on a match
or wonder card of some kind or Saudi. Eddie signs
him. And then from there, you carry on. That's
the most likely option. I see that title fight
happening on a real season card. Yeah, like it's
going to be like a way like you take one of the
British guys that Eddie has that are ranked.
Like Troy Williamson right there. You. You put
him up, Eddie signs him, either Tiger's pretty
content to keep cashing checks slash keeping
him busy in Quebec, especially if he has that
world title. You go to one of the casinos in
Quebec and go like, yeah, we have a world title
fight. You'd be surprised how it fills in. When
they had better be fighting Marcus Brown, it's
pretty cool. I don't know. I'm pretty sure that...
if Munguia's not going to fight him, it's got
to be someone like Troy Williamson. Because Troy
Williamson, that seems like the type of guy that
will take that fight. Because, I mean, if it's
no one else, it's going to be, you know, they're
giving him a shot. Who else is going to give
him a shot, you know? I did see a bit of news
that Troy Williamson might be looking to defend
his EBU title instead. Yeah, but if the IBF mandates
it, he's going to... I don't see why he wouldn't
take it, but... Like, he's sitting on the EBU
belt until he gets a title shot, like what Avanesian
did twice. They just, like... Because there's
no reason, like, he's bad enough to lose to any
of those guys at the European level. But, um...
Who knows? Who knows? I hope he gets the fight
soon. I don't want to waste much time, especially
now that Crawford say what you will about him
not faking any defenses. At least he's letting
the division move. Let's keep it moving. He only
fought once last year, I believe. And the year
before that, I think he only fought twice. You
also got to get some activity, too, because one
fight a year at your prime age like that ain't
going to work out. He had four fights in 2024
and then one fight in 2025. Oh, he had four fights
in 2024? Yes. Oh, okay. But only one fight last
year, which is not good. Yeah. All right. So,
yeah, Munguia. Quack, quack. So we came across
this excellent write -up. It was about the National
Combat Sports Summit. Yes, I did see this article.
Man, we got some good stuff out of this. Jack
Reese, apparently since he retired from refereeing.
Fucking finally, by the way. He was kind of like
the head or the keynote speaker or something
for this. Let's see. Some of the key takeaways
I got out of it from Jack Reese. His words. We
got to get rid of the old thinking and revitalize
the manuals. In the Tank Davis versus Lamont
Roach fight, we couldn't find it written anywhere
that when you take a knee voluntarily, it's a
knockdown. It's always been the policy most everybody
always used, but now it's in writing. Man, that
kind of made me mad again about that fucking
fight. Still gets under my skin. I watched Lamont
Rocher's cruise last night. I was thinking about
Lamont Rocher's plight. Thank you. I have a funny
anecdote because I did end up being right that
it was something weird that there was nothing
in paper to handle it with. I ended up being
proven right about inadequate training or standards
for judging and refereeing that need to be updated.
I ended up being proven right here. But I have
a story, and it's lacrosse related, but it ends
up being the same principle. So in lacrosse,
there's regulations on how the stick is to be
constructed and everything. Like stick length,
how wide it has to be, how long the strings are,
a lot of things. But it didn't have trick construction.
That rule was created when at a national championship,
a stick check was called on a midfielder who
had a stick that the shaft was a paint roller.
So like you click the button and it extends itself
to play defense. And then you click the button
again and it like folds back in to a short length
one to play offense. And it was something like
so weird and not in the rules that technically
they had to let it fly for that national championships.
But then very next year it was in paper trick
instruction. And it's a very, very similar thing
here. But it's something so fundamental that's
been used for years. Yeah, it was the de facto
rule. Yeah, but it wasn't a rule. So, like, that's
the thing. So, like, you get a guy, like, especially
because, like, say what you will about Steve
Willis, he's always had pretty normal fights.
Yeah. Like, when guys are taking knees, it's
because they're being folded by body shots. It's
like he hasn't had, like, a hard night's work.
So, again, like... I'm glad it's in paper and
I'm glad the sport is taking steps to consider
this type of thing and scoring as well. It makes
the sport better. Yeah. Because again, like it's
not, oh, that'll never happen. It did happen.
One, two other points from, or one point more
from Jack Reese was his words. We sanction competitive
bouts. When the bout is no longer competitive,
we get the guy out of there. Yesterday's solutions
don't solve today's problems. Don't confuse activity
with effectiveness. So there looks like they're
going to be pulling the plug a little bit quicker.
Another one, the push, the summit. One of the
key pieces was the push to eliminate 10 -10 rounds,
even in ultra -competitive or if there's no action
in the round. And Jack Reese called 10 -10 scoring
unacceptable. The head of the California State
Athletic Commission said, if you score 10 -10
rounds, don't expect a call from us ever again.
Good. Like... 10 -10 rounds is something that,
like, if you're a teenager watching boxing and,
like, you don't really know what's going on,
you do. Not as a professional judge judging a
world title fight. Or British judge. Yeah, they're
notorious. That's, like, honestly, I interpreted
that as Jack Rees, like, basically taking a jab
at how they run things in the UK. Yeah, probably.
Because it's pretty bad. So the move to ax 10
-10 rounds, which is a good thing. Another thing
was the Association of Boxing Commissions. They
want judges to more liberally award 10 -8 rounds
in cases when a fighter decisively wins a round.
That was something I had mentioned some years
ago when we were talking about shitty draws or
bad scoring in general. Is that a possibility?
And everyone that I had talked to at the time
was pretty against it. But it looks like that's
the direction they're going anyway. I don't know.
Not sure how I feel about this one. It needs
to be a very strict on -paper criteria because
decisively wins a round is so vague. Right. Like,
I think visibly hurt is a good one. Yeah, if
they're buzzed. But, like, borderline, baseline
criteria, right? Like, without, like, if you
just want to put it in simple words, you go...
You go visibly hurt. Spends whole round against
ropes. Right? Or if they throw no punches and
the other person does. Inactivity. See, that's
what I mean. You need a table of officials to
sit around and spitball scenarios in which it
would apply. Because if you just get decisively
one... you're going to end up with a... That's
going to open for corruption. Yeah, exactly.
It's going to backfire because you're going to
say, oh, he decides... Like, literally, Cruz
Roach. You can say, oh, Cruz decisively won that
round because you didn't get an angle where you
saw Roach catching and shooting. Mm -hmm. Right?
And that ends up being a 10 -8 instead of, like,
a 10 -9 that's shaded one way. 100 % agree. I
mean, honestly, I agree with all you guys have
taken. I honestly think there's a lot of... downsides
a lot of uh cons versus pros i think uh one thing
though that i think it can you know inspire is
a little more activity in fights you know you
like you know sometimes in the beginning a couple
rounds where there's only one guy throwing another
guy's kind of one of the examples that they used
was uh the katie taylor amanda serrano rematch
the first round specifically where Like, I think
Katie Taylor landed the only punch of the round.
So that was one of the examples they were using
for, like, decisive 10 -8s or eliminating 10
-10s. But you see right there, if the fighters
knew that they could get a 10 -8 round and not
just be one round behind, but be two, that could
inspire more action in the fights, which, I mean,
can't be good in a sense. Yeah, the 1010 thing,
this is only for this national summit was for
obviously for the for Americans. So I think Suleiman,
the WBC guy, he was sponsored by the WBC. OK,
so, yeah, he was there and he was saying he wants
like these measures that they talked about to
be taken to the UK as well. Instant replay and
getting video replay the correct cards before
they get officially submitted were some points
I saw. Yes. That, like, they amend every issue
I've brought up with judging in this sport. Being
able to actually see the fight, not just from
an obstructed angle, will fix so much judging.
And the thing is that, like, when... Like, it
will make corruption obvious when it occurs.
Mm -hmm. It's not... Because, like, here we'll
get bad cards, and then you'll just have to be
like, well... If you see the fight with the ropes
in the way, equipment in the way, cameramen in
the way, from one angle, you can get it from
there. It's not even like you're coping with
a result. That's just how boxing is. Have you
ever had ringside seats to any kind of fight?
Even in amateurs. Even the amateurs, the judges
are worse. In the amateurs, the judges have it
even worse because there's moving parts right
next to you because they've got to get fight,
fight, fight, fight, fight done. And then some
of them just referee the fight or are about to
referee the next fight. They get tired. That
happens in the UK. It's something that, at the
very least, I'm not saying... Ostensibly, we
need more training and more officials, but that's
not going to happen, as in any sport. But these
safeguards to basically improve how these officials
conduct their business are so sorely needed because,
again, we're in a digital age. WBC also mentioned
that they're going to expand their use of the
five -judge panel. I don't mind that because,
again, the larger the sample size, the easier
it is to get an accurate result. Right. Maybe
you have one bad judge versus four good judges.
Yeah. Like four judges overrule one bad judge.
But different views of the fight, you get a more
accurate picture. It's like even three judges
with a good view of the fight versus two who
may have not. It's harder to pay off five judges
if we're going to go that route. that too and
um like eventually like with the five judge system
it's so awkward to fit them around the ring that
they're like venues are going to have to give
them what basically amounts to a little booth
oh i've been i've been saying that shit for fucking
years give at least one of them a booth off to
the side yeah the thing is that like there's
only four sides so you either put two on one
side and now it's unbalanced or you have to do
the booth idea and now that's what i mean like
the summit was like super like i get to be like
i told you so i told you so this is how this
is how we fix it this is like but the the part
that i'm not even i'm more content with the fact
that they're fixing it rather than just them
pointing out problems yeah if they pointed out
the problems like you're aware of it you're not
fixing it which is like sure i'm right but this
is ridiculous it's worse if they were to just
point it out and not do anything i would say
it'd be worse exactly i could put a problem not
fix it that's obvious exactly uh last bit uh
this is uh one of like towards the end of the
summit one of uh jack reese's Quotes, we've got
to get them out of there when they are no longer
competitive. Activity does not mean competitiveness.
As a referee, as a doctor, you need to realize
this long before the fans realize it. Fighters
don't like that. And we know father trainers
seem to never throw the towel in on their sons.
And the sons never quit in front of their fathers.
But we get to send the guy home to his family.
I agree with this because, like, there's literally
one exact clip that I will point out as this.
It's the, if you ever watched the ringside footage
of Gabe Rosado against Golovkin. Oh, Jesus. That's
the fight where I'll point about, like, this
is completely necessary. Because this old man
doesn't throw in the towel and it's this cut
man who goes like, dude, your son's going to
die out there and ends up throwing in the towel.
It's like a whole discussion ringside. And I
feel like that alone shows it, like demonstrates
the point being made there. But yeah, this article
was, I got it from Boxing Scene. I highly recommend
everybody to check it out. There's a lot of good
stuff in there. Let me see. I'm going to put
my notes in here really quick before we get to
the reviews and previews. All right. Social media
shit. LVX Media Net. That's the handle everywhere.
Fucking follow us and shit. Wherever you're listening,
hit us with the rating. It helps us move up the
accursed fucking algorithm. And if you like Josh's
rants, you want them in written format, lvxmedia
.net. Go to the Wayside Sports Review. All right.
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Fucking recaps. We're going back a little bit
of ways. To December 27th, where we had the Knight
of the Samurai, ring card number 5. Too quickly,
Reito Tsutsumi knocks out Leobardo Quintana in
4. It was a nice win. And Erickson Garcia spoils
the all -Japanese win party by getting a close
decision over Taiga Imanaga. Co -main event,
Junto Nakatani gets a UD over Sebastian Hernandez
in his debut at Super Bantamweight. The chatter
online was a lot of people were disappointed
with Nakatani. Did people just not know who Sebastian
Hernandez was? I don't even think Nakatani knew
who Sebastian Hernandez was, judging by the frustration
that came on later. I don't blame him. He's one
of those... It's basically the turkey curse at
this point that one guy severely underperforms
on the marination. At least one guy severely
underperforms or loses. I'm glad he underperformed
instead of losing, though. Yeah. That would have
been dire. I think they would have done the fight
anyway. They would have done it, but I am going
to say it wasn't as much aura. Around Nakatani
at that point. Hernandez, more than anything,
has a chin. I will say. Nakatani, you can see
why Nakatani got frustrated and drained in later
rounds. Because those first four rounds where
he just... Most guys just kind of don't make
it out of those rounds. Especially flourishing
like Hernandez did. So, yeah, Nakatani could
have prepared better to box, but also, Jesus,
Hernandez has a head of stone. And that was a
damn good fight, though. Oh, that was a fun -ass
fight. Beautiful fight. Are you down on Nakatani
versus Inoue? Does it lose a little bit of its
luster because of this performance? I think it'll
be more of a surprise when it's... It was already
a niche fight for Hardcore's. So I think when
it ends up being competitive, it'll be a pleasant
surprise to a lot of people. One thing it doesn't
is it humanizes Nakatani. This is true, because
he was just killing guys up until now. True,
and Inoue has had his aura cracked a little bit
already. Yeah. And it continues to crack. Yeah,
speaking of which, Naoya Inoue, UD over. Does
he go by Alan Picasso? I'm pretty sure he does.
I'm pretty sure he goes by Alan, yeah. Well,
he doesn't go by Pablo, so... So, undisputed
Super Bantamweight Championship on the line,
and it was a fucking easy night of work in a
way. One thing about Picasso is that he's tough.
He was tough to stay in there with Inouye. I
gotta give it to him. I think Inouye is... He's
gotten a little bored offensively, if that makes
sense. Like, the creativity has not been there
his past two fights. I think he didn't want to
risk another knockdown. That's true. But still,
like, to be fair, like, there's Reckless. Like,
he wasn't like Cardenas. And like, like, like
I'm going to use the Fulton fights. The Fulton
fight was like, he was still defensively sound
and at his most creative. So there's a difference.
Yeah. I think he just looked a little bored,
which is not bad, but it is a little disappointing
considering it's a concerning pattern going into
a fight with Nakatani. Because if David Picasso
is able to counter you, Nakatani is going to
land a home run regardless of how wide the cards
are. I see what you guys were saying. It's not
taking a risk. It's a lesser opponent that he
knows is lesser. I feel like against guys like
Fulton or in the past like Donair, I feel like
he's... want to take more risks because he knows
the love of the opposition he had. Hmm. I was
going to stop up for the Nakatani. Yeah, at first
I was down on the fight, the Inoue Nakatani fight,
just because, but yeah, on further review, Nakatani
was alright. It's not the worst performance.
I still think he's going to lose pretty easily
or handily to Inouye. I just think, like, Hernandez
was like, he's such a, like, you can't really
get creative against Hernandez offensively either.
He's basically just a wall that walks towards
you. Like, I think with Inouye. Like, Nakatani's
offensive creativity shines a lot better against
an opponent who is offensively versatile compared
to Hernandez, who versatile is not a word I would
use to describe him in my life. One thing I can
say about Nakatani is that this fight also proved
that he will go to war to win a fight. Oh, absolutely.
He dug in there. Yeah, he dug in there deep.
Whereas guys will fucking quit. Like, you know,
Ryan. Against someone like Rowley, you know?
So, I think... I know, huh? I mean, I think Nakatani,
if... When faced against Inoue, he will not...
He will rather die. Oh, yeah. Like, that eye,
like, it did not look great. Which, honestly,
I feel like... I honestly feel like there's a
slight possibility that fight might be in jeopardy.
For May 2nd. For May 2nd. Might be a little too
soon. I feel like for the war that Nakatani was
in, I think, honestly, that he should take some
time to recover. Five months, though? Yeah, I
think, honestly, if they were to do it in September,
might be a little better. Shinata's in shambles.
I mean, you don't want to risk that fight, you
know? Right. I feel like with that Minecraft
Steve -ass head... That he fought? Nah, you're
right. Fuck. And the amount of punches he threw,
the amount of damage he took, you know, every
time you go into a war, a little bit of you stays
in that ring, you know? Right. So I think she
should take some time to recover. I would love
to see that fight in May, considering, you know,
Cinco de Mayo's kind of going to be a little
bleak this year. But we'll see. Anything more
for Night of the Samurai? Not really. Bam beats
both. Bam beats neither. We shall see. Alright,
moving to a quick one. Wednesday, December 31st.
Shisei Promotions at the Ota City Gym. It's the
traditional fight festival that the Japanese
do. There's a whole bunch of shit. There's a
lot of stoppages on the card. But I'm going to
be honest, I could not find a valid replay. So
the only one I did see, Kazuto Ioka, he stops
Michael Ordoskoidi in four. That was a good one.
Yeah, it was a really dominant performance. Ioka
looked good at 118. So the expectation is that
he's going to fight Takuma Inoue. So that should
be fun. Should be a fun fight. Oh, like, we were
talking, and, like, Shannara had asked, like,
about the kneeling not being an automatic point
deduction, not being a rule. And she asked, how
often do we even see people take a knee? Or the
Scoidy took a shitload of knees. The one I think
of is Donair, like, running behind the ref. That's
the one I think of when I think of voluntary
knees. And Saturday, January 3rd. Starting off
the year. There was a lot of stuff on here. Ones
that I wanted to point out. Alexis Ariza beats
Ebony Bridges by decision. Yeah, that was a bit
of a surprise. That was an upset, yeah. So congrats
to Alexis. Juan Tapia stopped in seven by Henry
LeBron. The MVP fighter, Yankeel Rivera, drops
the ball to Jonathan Gonzalez. Fucking Holly
Holm loses to Stephanie Hahn. Stephanie Hahn
retains her WBA lightweight title. It was stopped
by in the seventh. for a clash of heads, I think.
It was a cut on Han's forehead. It wasn't even
that bad, to be honest. I think they were bailing
out Holly Holm. Yeah, because she definitely
was tiring out at that point, I agree. She's
also a little older. Yeah, she was clearly outmatched.
It seems like she's been out there forever. Can't
lie. And in the main event, Amanda Serrano gets
the decision over Reyna Tellez. She was really
going for the knockout, but didn't manage to
get it. I think she's a few behind the record
for most knockouts by a female fighter. So that
was fun. Request? Yep. And that's it for the
recaps. Not a whole lot. Not a lot. But things
will start picking up soon. It's also a light
weekend. There's nothing on Saturday. But we
do have two cards on Friday, January 16th. Ass
crack of dawn in the fucking morning. Early ass
morning. No limit in Australia. A bunch of shit
on here that I don't really care about. Liam
Paro versus Patty Donovan. I think this is canceled
because Patty Donovan got sick. Yes, to my knowledge.
And Nikita Zu versus Michael Zarafa at middleweight.
So that's fun. Oh, no limit special. Yeah. Put
up or shut up for Nikita Zu. Definitely. Zarafa's
a good test. Hold on, let me see if this is the
same guy I'm thinking of. Yeah, Liam Wilson is
on this one. What the hell kind of name is this?
Rodex Piala? Rodex? That dude sounds like he
fucks. He sounds like a Discord user on our fucking
server. He really does. Yeah, he sounds like
he fucks. He's Filipino. Well, there you go.
So Liam Wilson, I guess. He fought Oscar Valdez
a few times. So that's fun. And this card is
honestly ass. Golden Boy at the Aquisher Arena.
It's like all fucking Golden Boy prospects. It's
the usual slop right here. The headline is Alexis
Rocha versus Raul Curiel. I didn't even see the
first one, so it's difficult. Apparently it was
fun. Was it? Apparently. Okay, well. Apparently.
Yeah. Apparently. Don't take my word for it.
I don't want to be held responsible for it. I
mean, I've seen highlights of it. It seemed all
right. If it was a really fun fight, then everybody
would be hearing about it. Everybody would be
talking about it. They got this guy, Ruslan Abdullaev.
I think he was an amateur standout. Yes. I'm
just shocked Goldenboy still has prospects. That's
the part that I'm like, wow, that's actually...
Goldenboy has a decent... Yeah, this is a pretty
filled -in roster, shockingly. Scrappy Ramirez.
Scrappy Ramirez is always a good watch, I will
say. I'm pretty sure Edwards is on the right.
No, I don't think. I won't be watching. Yeah,
but that's all we got coming up. One thing I
will say about Golden Boy's prospect stable is
that it's decent and it's better than the American
stable that PBC has. You think? Yeah. What the
fuck is PBC's? American Prospect Stable. Oh,
Prospect Stable. Oh, yeah. I think you might
be right there. Yeah, but that's all they got.
That's their last hope. All right, let me do
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I want all of it. Alright. Well, I mean, I'm
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on some wild shit, then... Alright, parting words.
What do we got? Wait, when we were doing the
lists... After the next... Or the next recording.
Okay, excellent. It's an all night party. Parting
words. Happy New Year, guys. Hopefully the box
is good this year. And fuck Dana White. We'll
be talking about him next time. I was going to
say something similar to that. Let's go OG. Let's
go Virgil. Hopefully he gets a title this year.
Another year of Virgil not winning a world title.
My favorite meme. Inoue Nakatani happens before
Virgil gets a title shot. Japanese Super Bowl
before Virgil belled. I feel like we should do
a predictions list. What happens this year? Oh,
we should start publishing predictions lists
for important fights. Keep track. Like a picks
league. Okay. Yeah, I can start keeping track
of that. Bad Left Hook used to do that. And you
know what? It would be good because then we could
keep each other in check. Well, I was right about
pretty much everything last year. We started
the year. You're fucking pretty awesome about
that. We could just use the Discord pick league
for keeping track. That's true. No, but what
I mean is like, oh, like if Boots versus Virgil
is going to happen or Wilder fights Boots type
of thing, you know, that's another thing I was
talking about, you know. You know, I've been
hearing a lot that Wilder Usyk is set for end
of April. End of April in L .A.? Yeah, in L .A.
Honestly, I like I don't want to see the fight,
but I want to see the fight. I already told my
dad if that happens, we're going to go watch
that fight. I don't know if I'd want to travel
for that. Depends on the undercard. I'll do some
press. All right. Let's get the hell out of here.
That's it for this edition of the Boxing B -Sides.
We'll fucking see you on the other side of Nikita
Zoo beating Michael Zarafa. Hopefully. Oh, boy.