MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Gervonta Davis vs. Ryan Garcia with Andre Ward, Raul Marquez & Dan Canobbio | Ep 431

Episode Date: April 21, 2023

On episode 431 of Morning Kombat Brian Campbell gets you ready for Gervonta Davis vs. Ryan Garcia. BC starts the show by breaking down the X's and O's of this fight with Raul Marquez and Dan Canobbio. What should we be looking out for? Next up Brian is Joined by Hall of Famer Andre Ward to Break down Davis vs. Garcia and discuss the world of boxing. Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.     For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Rise to rewards with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. Terms and conditions apply. Reveille, reveille, donks. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas.

I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. Oh, yeah, right. A little artsy to start off your Friday. You ain't got shit to do. You might as well get tuned in to the best damn combat sports show. Period, right? We've got the awards to prove it.

It's Morning Combat. You're BBC with the BDE. Brian Campbell, you're looking at him right here. Co-host is with the mostest. Luke Thomas still on vacation in the motherland, but you'll be seeing from him in the future. We are live in direct blue wire studios here inside the wind on the strip in Las Vegas.

One more sleep, John Anik. I think that's a patented phrase now until we get to Gervonta tank Davis, King Ryan Garcia Saturday night on Showtime pay-per-view today's episode. Yeah. It's about that fight, okay? We're final stretch predictions, breakdowns, some great special guests. Do not miss it. Top of the hour here, 9 a.m. Pacific time, noon Eastern. We will have Hall of Famer Andre Ward during this episode, sliding in to talk

about many topics, including his documentary that's coming to Showtime June 2nd. Before I introduce and bring in, though, the panel that will be joining me today, and we've had plenty of fantastic special guests this week, whether you MMA fans have appreciated them or not. Yeah, yeah, BC's watching you, motherfucker. All right, here we go with that, right? Let's go right into it. I got a great partner before we transition. I call it a life partner. No, not Luke Thomas, not my beautiful wife, right? Talking about AG1 by Athletic Greens. Because I don't always make the right decisions in my life and my travels due to, you know, my dietary decisions, which, you know, that's how I was raised. Okay? But, you know, the liver's knocking on my door.

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Had a lot of fun with Eric Raskin, Karen Mulvaney, and Alan Dawson on Wednesday's Morning Combat episode. Today, though, we got some even heavier hitters, if you know what i mean let's shift on my left of course you know from john boy media inside boxing live the the award nominated fantastic podcast he does with chris algeri and of course the heir to the throne of compu box or or you're gonna have to fight your brothers to find out it's dan canobio baby is up

everybody i'm excited to be here big fight fight week, Vegas, Blue Wire Studios. Look at this. Look at us. And we've got a world champion with us on this panel. You know, him and I, we work together on Showbox, the new generation, and, you know, we love each other. But there's some deep-seated animosity to the idea that Raul Marquez is not my favorite fighter of all time.

He's a former world champion. He's El Demonte. But, you know, you can't pick who you love. But he's one of my, I would say, my favorite broadcaster to work with. So, Raul, thank you for sliding in today, brother. Get it right, buddy. You know. El Diamante, por favor, please.

El Diamante. You forgot about El Diamante. The former junior middleweight world champion right here, okay? I mean, we just had the anniversary, correct? Yeah, we did. Yeah, we did. Yeah, in April. April, since I won the world title.

Wow. Yeah. Actually, I won it here in Vegas at the Tropicana Hotel on ABC wide world of sports the thrill of victory the agony of defeat the human drama the athletic competition remember that what you do after and we went to the uh uh delahoya Pernod Whitaker fight with my championship championship yes your party's not fucked absolutely everybody knows me they didn't have dms back then but those dms would have been there was knocking going on hey you mentioned de la jolla and we've got a fun bit because you know you can't pick who you love dan who's your favorite fighter of all time you can't pick who you love it they pick you who is

it a taro gadi a taro gadi and they you know i get it i get it italian maybe people that really know me they get it's oscar de la jolla And I didn't pick it, but it happened. Why? Because maybe he's the pretty boy that deep inside all of us suburban kids wanted to be. But he's also a badass. Did you see round 12 against Corté? But you know, he's my guy. Love him or hate him. And sometimes we do both. Let's start here, Raul. Okay. Because he was your roommate in 92 in Barcelona at the Olympics. Oscar sometimes says and does things that make us question how much we do love him. But I love him at the end of the day. Did you see what he was your roommate in 92 in Barcelona at the Olympics. Oscar sometimes says and does things that make us question how much we do love him. But I love him at the end of the day. Did you see what he was wearing yesterday? How does a grown man pull that off?

Oh, he keeps in shape. I mean, did you see his new ab work that they did? I mean, he loves to show it off. I mean, if I had the money to do that, hey, listen, I would do that too. Why not? But yeah, no, Oscar, man, we go way back. You know, we were roommates in the Olympics. You might have stories.

Even before that. Do you have stories? I got a lot of stories. That's another show. That's a whole show. I mean, Dan, what do we hear about the Olympic Village historically? I heard it's a lot of action going on. In many ways.

In many more ways than one. A lot of athletes in very good shape running around. That's true. With not a lot to do. Downtime. You were there with Oscar and the Dream Team as well. The Dream Team, the volleyball people, everybody was there. Magic, Mark Barkley.

I mean, great memories. Just walking in the Olympic ceremonies. I'll never forget that, man. Just here I am, me and Oscar and the rest of the team, walking in this big stadium and representing the United States of America. Man, what a feeling, bro. Well, look, you made a great transition from not just fighter to broadcaster. You'll be on the Espanol call of Saturday Showtime pay-per-view,

Tank Davis, Ryan Garcia. We love your work on Showbox, but you're also, man, you're the trainer. You know, you trained your first son as a pro. Actually, my father trained Arturo. Arturo, and I was helping, you know, you trained your first son as a pro. Actually, my father trained Arturo. Arturo. And I was helping, you know, with Arturo. But now I train my other son, Giovanni Marquez, who's 22 years old. He debuted on Showbox, which we saw that.

You know, you guys did a great job. And I was so nervous. I think you did a great job, too. I was so nervous. Thank you, man. Yeah, he's 5-0 now, by the way, with three knockouts. He's coming up. He's got a lot of talent. We sparred. As a matter of fact, for. Yeah, he's 5-0 now, by the way, with three knockouts. He's coming up. He's got a lot of talent.

We sparred. As a matter of fact, for that fight, he got ready here in Vegas. He sparred Shakur Stevenson, who's, dude, he's one of the best up there. You know, he hired him for sparring because he gave Shakur great work, and it was good work. Just imagine the experience sparring with Shakur. You know, I always tell Giovanni, back when I was in the Luduva days, I call him.

I was around Pernell Whitaker, M Melrick Taylor, Evander Holyfield. I mean, I sparred guys like Johnny Bumfuss, Rocky Lockridge, Vinny Pazienza, John John Molina. You know about that, right? Oh, I know about John John Molina. Yeah, all those guys. I was sparring them when I was an amateur. So, you know, when I'm sparring these guys,

then I'm going to national tournament, I'm like, this guy, Dan, Brian Campbell. I mean, can you guys fight i mean no i can't never been in the fight never been punched never been kissed never been never been kissed never been punched there you go first time for everything um i love the work as i said collectively that that you're doing it's great to get you on the show today in your train and uh dan before we dive into this fight um you you made a nice pivot over to John Boyd, but I feel like you guys are playing more wiffle ball than you are doing boxing coverage,

although I love Al Jerry. They got me running around doing all sorts of things at John Boyd Media. Obviously, I cover boxing there, but we have a warehouse in Jersey City where we put on these events, and Blitzball is one of them. It's like a new age wiffle ball. I feel like I'm cheating on wiffle ball. They don't play Blitzball in Houston, apparently. It's a yellow ball that curvesiffle ball. I feel like I'm cheating on wiffle ball because that's what I grew up with. They don't play blitzball in Houston apparently.

It's a yellow ball that curves. I don't even know what it is. It's a yellow ball that curves like crazy. I played college baseball. You did? Yeah. Where'd you play college baseball? Long Island, Suffolk Community College.

Okay, okay. Number one in your hearts. But they got me out there and I thought my playing days were over, but I'm on the mound. And Chris Rose, a former, still is a broadcaster, calling these games, and I'm on there, and they call me Old Man Dan because I work with a bunch of, like, young 20-year-olds. So Chris Rose from The Best Damn? Yes.

Oh, the original. He's one of our announcers. He's a John Boy personality, and, yeah, it's a great place. I mean, it's an awesome place to work, and they got me doing boxing. They don't know much about boxing, but I educate the kids. Everyone in the office is asking me about this fight. That's how you know it's a big fight. They're casual boxing fans or they're just casual sports fans.

And Ryan Garcia did come through the office at John Boy last year. But they're all asking me about this fight. And I think that's the type of fight this is. It's like a crossover event. It's like one of these fights where non-boxing fans are going to tune in. Hardcore boxing fans are going to tune in. Yeah, my kids are sending me TikToks of Ryan Garcia. I'm like, this tells me the fight has made it.

Yeah. So is Ryan Garcia that they know more? Who's more popular with your kids? I don't have any kids. I mean, no, no. I'm talking about with your kids that I know of. Everyone knows Ryan Garcia. Everyone knows Ryan Garcia because from social media, of course,

but also from him coming through the office. He showed up, and he was so nice to everyone, and he was kind of like unannounced. Kids were working at their desk, and all of a sudden, Ryan Garcia's walking through. But, yeah, they see him on social media in the purse bet. As silly as that was, because we obviously know that's probably never going to happen. Oh, where winner takes all.

Right, the winner takes all was shared everywhere, not just on the boxing pages everywhere not just on the boxing pages not just on the sports pages but like the entertainment pages like shade room you know complex like that right there that little 10 second clip yeah did more for this promotion than anything and that just shows you where this is the first ever social media super there it is oh there it is that's the buzzword right there it really is because they're really leaning into it like it's obviously social media has been around for 10, 15 years, but we haven't had a fight where both guys really tap into their followings.

Obviously, Ryan Garcia, I think it's like a chip on his shoulder. I'm more than just a social media guy. I'm more than 9.5 million Instagram followers. I feel like if you say Ryan Garcia, then the next thing you have to say about him is he's got 9 million Instagram followers. But this fight's huge, and I can't wait to see it on Saturday, and I can't wait to break it all down. All right.

Yesterday was the press conference. Ariel Hawani, myself, Steven Jackson, were able to host the stream for Showtime Sports, and it turned into probably more entertainment than we expected because Oscar De La Hoya, who showed up in the suit with no undershirt. Stop, man. I know he's your favorite fighter, but come on. Please. I was expecting you to come fighter, but come on. Please.

I was expecting you to come through with it. You got to have big ones to pull that off, okay? You keep getting me jealous, man. Come on. You know, that's going to lead up to something. It's going to lead up to something. And you don't want, yeah. You know, a lot of people think, well, I go inside on Raul.

Will I be that dumb? You know what I mean? Probably not. But I like to think there's a chance. But my point is, guys, that that started, that stirred the mix. When Oscar comes out and says, one of the biggest storylines here is a 10-pound rehydration clause. It's even though Ryan moved up the last two fights

to the junior welterweight division at 140, this is a 136-pound catchweight bout. And he says, your team is scared and went all down that road. Do we actually think Team Tank Davis or the fighter himself is scared? We're all old boxing heads i would say no but is there any fire to the smoke here of this idea because a-side privileges is a thing in making pay-per-views whether we like it or not oscar floyd canelo tank everybody's done it you're the fighter raul should. How should Team Tank Davis defend this decision to essentially kind of force this guy down a little bit

to maybe even the terms, even though they're kind of in the same weight class, more or less? Yeah, well, first of all, let me tell you, Oscar's a veteran, man. He's a promoter. He's done it all. He's done it all. He's a fighter, a promoter. You know, he was a great, he won gold medal. And he's been around in big, he's been in the biggest fights of boxing and training camps and all that.

So he knows how to get in people's heads. You know, that's experience. He's got a lot of experience with that. And I think that was just trying to find a way of how to get into Gervonta Davis' head and even his team, which in some kind of way I think he did by saying all those comments. I really think he did. But at the end of the day, you know what? Oscar used to do the same thing too, man.

Oscar, I mean, when you're the guy that everybody wants to fight, did but at the end of the day you know what oscar used to do the same thing too man oscar i mean although what when you're the casca when you're the guy that everybody wants to fight if you want to fight me you got to go through my yes whatever i'm i'm the star you know i'm got this is if you want this fight you're gonna have to do this you got to do this you got to do whatever you have to do but you're gonna have to do it isn't that negotiation whether you're buying a house or anything it's like you pay i'll only sell to you if you pay the closing costs you know i mean like that's part of this and ryan pushed for this fight right i think he was very vocal about he's been vocal about it for going on three

years now and he really wanted that fight so badly they're like okay well if you want the fight here are some of the stipulations that you're going to have to uh adhere to and it's interesting because he is bringing it up a lot i mean he's even bringing it yesterday, sitting there now that they're paying people to spy on him. I feel like it's something that Ryan, this is what his thing for this fight. Everyone needs an edge going to training camp. You know this better than anyone. This is what their team's going with. They're going with, like, the weight thing.

But you agreed to it. You wanted this fight. You agreed to it. I am hearing rumblings that it's a late afternoon weigh-in. Ryan mentioned that. How late? I don't even know the details on that. I heard it's a late afternoon weigh-in. Ryan mentioned that. How late? I don't even know the details on that, but 3 p.m.? Wow.

Which is crazy. It is crazy. I don't know that for sure. I'm not a sources guy, but I've heard that. Okay, but let's be honest here. Like, Tank fought at 140 and beat Mario Barrios and looked good in doing it. And Barrios is a big guy. And I'm not here to see Sabathia.

See Sabathia walking by the wind right now wow yankee great i guess that happens around here right but my point is like i'm not mad at tank for doing it because it's the game like ariel hawani on the stream coming from the ma side was more like it shouldn't be it shouldn't be like this no it shouldn't be like this but it's negotiation it is what it is what's going on here i can give you 25 instances of how this has happened across the board so many times. But this shows at the very least that Tank's team respects and has, maybe not fear is not the word, right,

but heavy respect for the real danger across the ring. Yeah, I agree. I mean, look, he's going to try to get an advantage any way he can. I mean, and that's the way of getting some kind of advantage. It's a confidence thing, and he deserves to do that why not yeah you're right ryan could have said no this is the deal i mean and what steven espinoza told me caleb plant was like i'm only fighting david benavidez if i get the size of the ring i want everybody looked and said we want this fight we're okay with that stipulation took it like you guys keep saying ryan garcia they gave

him a one pound allowance he took it now we've got to move forward i think ryan garcia is bringing it up so often to motivate himself which i think is a smart thing but let's talk about how he looked in the interview process in the face-off process yesterday he looks like he's deep in a weight cut no he looks better than us number one first of all first of all first and foremost get that out of the way yes he did look a little drawn in but that's to be expected he He's a big guy. His last two fights were at 140 pounds. And when's the last time he fought at 135? Right. Go back to like 2018, 2019.

Yeah, Luke Campbell 2021. Yeah, okay. We're talking pandemic era. But he did look a little drawn in. But listen, this is what he agreed to. Once again, this is what he agreed to. He really wanted this fight. He had to put his name on the contract and agreed to all the stipulations that like you said like guys like oscar have put

in right a side too which was kind of ironic there hey bernard hopkins you're coming down two pounds in our undisputed middleweight title but that's that's the deal right and i mean you know what i see ryan very confident you know i call him you know he like instagram instagram confident you know what i mean shirt off yeah he he did i mean that's good for him and and uh and i gotta still give it to the young i call him a kid because he is young you know he's old school like he he's willing to fight the best man so he did whatever it took to fight the best and he's getting that fight and that's that's good for him well you always wanted to fight the best raul that was another calling card in your career you were world

champion i mean you took on shane mosley and there was that really bad where did you have a scar from the shane mosley oh got it it was a head a lot of scars right here right here they stopped the fight whoa the fight was over because of a accidental head but it was a contest and you were coming on you were coming i was coming out but this right here you could see my bones so i mean what you mean and i still wanted to keep going that way that's the kind of because you're a warrior so i'll take you up to ask tell us about the history of negotiations is there anything weird? Is there a fight that almost fallen apart over something like this

that you were involved in? I was never involved in anything like that because, to me, the money mattered, but that wasn't the most important thing. I'm old school. Like I said, I wanted to fight the best to be the best. That was my way. Look, when I won the world title, my first defense, I fought someone like Romalis Ellis.

He was still an Olympic bronze medalist from the 88 Olympic team, but he was a smaller guy. Could I have fought more guys like that? Like, you know, a Brian Campbell type of guy? Smaller guys. You said smaller guys first. Smaller in heart, I think he was trying to say. You know, no, but from there, you know, I fought Keith Mullins,

which a lot of people did not know about Keith Mullins. Nobody knew about Keith Mullins, you know. I fought him on the De La Hoya Camacho undercard. I was a co-main event here in vegas uh at the thomas and mack center so keith mullins and i knew him from the amateurs how good he was and stuff you know he was a good he was an army and he was a good amateur uh fighter the next in december of that same year you know when i lose the title and oscar fights with ferro rivera title wave was called in onyx city keith mullins knocks out the best of my era which i thought was the best terrible terry norris terrible terry norris so that tells you how good yes was you know then you know after that you know i fly guys like jermaine taylor author abraham at the end of my career when i beat

giovanni lorenzo on showtime upset city upset city yeah he was supposed to beat me and uh and i was a name i I beat him. I earned the shot at a monster. I mean, Abraham. I mean, middleweight was not my weight. I was more of a 154-pounder. I don't think the drug testing in Germany was up to speed at that level. And my dad always said, hey, listen, when we saw Abraham at the weigh-ins,

he looked, you know, not that big. And, you know, the next day when I see him in the ring, he looked like a light heavyweight, man. Even the commentators that did uh you know uh Al Al Al Brinston was one of the broad and Nick Nick Charles the late Nick Charles was doing the broadcasting right and he's like man that guy looks like a light heavyweight cruiserweight Raul looks like a general middleweight what's the most you've ever gained uh between the weigh-in and fight night I never gained like you know I remember you know my good friend your fighter, Arturo Gatti. He would gain a lot of weight. A lot of fighters would gain a lot of weight.

Me, the most, maybe 10 pounds. Right, so maybe 10 isn't that crazy. Yeah, I mean, look, this is the game, and it's going to be a hard weight cut for somebody of Ryan's height in any division, right? I mean, that's going to be ultimately what it is. The fun reaction we got to Oscar stirring the pot and giving us a major

narrative, or at least trying to get more attention to the idea of his fighter has to go through more, which is true is Leonard Ellerbee's reaction. Lenny. So Leonard's rebranding as like basically uncle Phil from fresh Prince. But as I said on the stream yesterday, uncle Phil will kick that ass.

True or false, Dan Leonard Ellerby was willing ready able let's do it to fist fight oscar de la joya i was absolutely like taken back by leonard i mean we know he's great on the mic we know he he's he's come after me many times he's the ceo of mayweather promotions and he'll defend floyd at every turn you know married the hatchet me and leonard are great now We took a picture yesterday. We are fine. But he will literally, on a snap, turn on and turn it on.

And he did. And I told him afterwards. I saw him in the media room. I was like, that was a 10-7 round for Leonard. Yeah, it got bad in there. You know why? Because it was short and succinct. Like, Oscar read his. And it was a pretty ho-hum press conference.

Somebody wrote that for Oscar. And Oscar didn't say anything. I don't think he spoke up that much after that. No, because he sent him to hell. Right. Yeah. It was a pretty ho-hum press conference up until then. You know, I got my guy here with me, Dre, who was not a big boxing guy,

and he's never been to a press conference, and it was pretty procedural. Like a lot of these press conferences are very procedural. And here's the MGM beverage manager with the perm, you know. I just want to thank everyone for, you above reading and then all of a sudden oscar comes up and he's got his prepared statements and even like something about him just reading him it didn't like click that he was going to go that route and he went that route and he fired that first shot but then here comes lenny and sustained short maybe three lines. I'm out. Drop the mic. Okay, so he basically said, people, if you're an MMA fan or not a deep boxing fan, you may not know the levels of this rap war that Leonard won yesterday.

It was a Suge Knight moment. It was because he basically was, look, he said, you were asleep at the wheel and we stole all your fighters to PBC and then Floyd beat all of their ass systematically one by one. There are certain things in families, Raul, that we don't talk about. We don't talk about Bruno in Luke Thomas' house. We don't talk about certain things like, oh, Uncle Joe's in prison because of this, but we don't talk about that.

I agree. Re-inboxing, don't talk about what happened when Richard Schaefer and Oscar broke up and then the PBC launched. But Leonard was talking about that yesterday. You know, and that's probably why Oscar was like, I mean, what can he say? Because whatever Leonard said, it's facts. It's true statements. So Oscar had nothing to say.

I mean, he was just – I'm glad it didn't escalate any further. It went from zero to 60 real fast, but I'm also glad that it didn't escalate into a Leonard versus Oscar thing. Like, even they said on the day day as Brian Custer's like, we're here to see the fighters. But that was a nice little co-main event. It was entertainment.

Nobody got hurt. But we were surprised to see Leonard in general at this fight because the narrative in January when Gervonta Tank Davis knocked out Hector Luis Garcia as a setup to get to Ryan Garcia, it was this is my first fight without Floyd Leonard. And the cushion, the vehicle that got me to this point, to get to Ryan Garcia was this is my first fight without Floyd Leonard and and the the you know the cushion the vehicle that got me to this point we know he has GTD promotions Gervonta Tank Davis we know you know Tom Brown Al Heyman like it's a team but that team Leonard's back did that surprise

you like we were like wait Leonard's here I was very surprised you know he all of a sudden he popped up I mean I hadn't seen him in a while right like I've been especially around Gervonta and then I guess you know they they worked out things and you he popped up. I mean, I hadn't seen him in a while, right? Like, being especially around Gervonta. And then I guess, you know, they worked out things. And, you know, he's, I mean, Leonard's a good guy. I mean, he's a good businessman. He's been around. A lot of experience with all the Floyd Mayweather fights. And, you know, running Mayweather promotions.

Why not? Where's Floyd? Where's Floyd? That's what I'm saying. Because it's like, Oscar has been calling this the fight to save boxing. And then people got on him. And they're like, that's not really true. And he's like, maybe you're right.

The fight to save boxing was De La Hoya Mayweather. That's what the Sports Illustrated cover said. We don't agree with that as boxing fans. But May 5, 2007, of course, my wedding night, by the way. You got married the night of De La Hoya Mayweather. Yeah, it's a long, heartbreaking story that I shared. And there was no streaming back then? Not really.

No, I had to find out via text message. Internet was in its early days infancy how did you even find i mean i was in mat you know i was in holy matrimony it was a beautiful but i found out the next morning when i got a text from friends that said it was a split decision but it wasn't that close it was eight four floyd all right you know our boy larry merchant always says there's nothing that can kill the sport there's nothing like save so it's not the fight to save boxing oscar ended up amid changing that to the fight to grow boxing and i think there's a lot of ripple effects and we talked about that a lot on wednesday about hopefully you know can we start talking about the idea of the winner of this fight against the

winner of lomachenko haney in a perfect world but we are closer to that perfect world than we were before it seems like correct we're getting there oh yeah we're getting there there's a lot there's a lot of good fights from between 135 and 140 a lot of talent a lot of talent a lot of you know shakur guilford lopez you know devin haney that's right there 135 to 140. yeah it's frank martin fellas frank they are right 135 140 is now carrying the sport for forever it was always the glamour divisions were heavyweight 160 and 147. yes nothing's going on at 147 maybe something big will go be going on boots and this is going on at 140 okay right and then 160 is a barren wasteland right now middleweight yeah is triple g still

there i don't even know what's going on at 160. g heavyweight is still there i don't know he's moving i think he's fighting light heavyweight soon no clue um but at heavyweight we know what's going on heavy they're all jockeying maybe saudi whatever 135 to 140 has the biggest collection of talent big names big names big names and talent and they're all very good it seems like they're all willing to fight each other ryan garcia says like this could be the start of us all fighting each other who cares if we lose that's some four princes right i love that i get ripped every time i mentioned the four kings and if people are listening i'm putting in air quotes they're called the four kings they're like yo giovante'm putting in air quotes. They're called the Four Kings.

They're like, yo, Javante Hagler, you know? Obviously, they're not the Four Kings. So who's the Four Kings from 135 to 140? Who do you think? Well, Karen Mulvaney calls them the Four Princes. Oh, the Four Princes. So it started off as Haney, Tank, Teofimo, and Ryan Garcia. But I think Teofimo, who's still at 140 and going to be fighting Josh Taylor,

I think some people, once Teofimo moved up and lost to Cambosis, put Shakur Stevenson in that mix. You've got to put Shakur on them. Shakur has the best skills of all of them. The defensive stuff, you can't teach defense. You know this. The instincts that he has on defense, it's very sustainable, his skills for a long time.

But he just has to prove it. He only has one fight at 135. But that division right there, it's hard to rank them but let's go back on your point the four princes right who would have thought that ryan garcia and geronta davis would be the first guys to fight each other and this is the most exciting matchup of all of them and they're the ones that were always their resumes are being picked that their character being picked out whether it's ryan garcia whether he really wants to be a boxer. And now they're the first two guys fighting. I understand why they're fighting, too, because it's a money fight.

It's a money fight, and it makes sense. But between 135 and 140, we've been Regis Progre. We mentioned him. Regis, yeah. Let's not forget about Regis. Josh Taylor. There's a lot to prove. Ramirez.

Subrio Matias. And you go down to. Rowley. Don't forget Rowley. He's in there. Rowley's in there, too. I love Rowley, too, yeah. But there's a lot of talent, and I think right now,

135 to 140 is the big thing right now. All right. Of course, Saturday night is Tank Davis, Ryan Garcia. That's 8 p.m. Eastern, Showtime, Pay-Per-View. You can order right now. And don't forget about the build-up to that. It starts at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific, and it's your boy, BC. It's Ariel Hawane. It's ariel hawani it's kate abdo showtime pay-per-view countdown we got some good undercard fights veto malnicki jr

feodor trichazian who's been blowing up the undercard circuit of late with big ko's is gonna have a step up so don't miss that let's get into the x's and o's of this dan you come from the great i mean you talk about like leonard if he hears someone talking jay he'll throw hands bob canobio if he hears somebody your father Jay, he'll throw hands. Bob Canobio, if he hears somebody, your father, the founder of CompuBox, talking anything bad publicly about CompuBox, he'll be up in that ass. All up in the videos. Okay, all up in the videos as a producer. But seriously, they mentioned something during the press conference

when the two fighters were drawing. The stats are the stats, and the stats tell you that Gervonta Davis, according to CompuBox, might be the most efficient fighter in the game today ryan was trying to clown him though but what'd you make of that little back and forth i loved i was sitting there watching it and all of a sudden they bring up the the stats ryan they're talking back and forth and ryan goes you got the lowest output in boxing and then gervonta goes but i'm the most accurate and i'm sitting there in the crowd like oh my god they're bringing up our numbers like Normally it's Paulie Malignaggi going, fuck, come on. They need Lance Crafters.

But, yeah, Tank is the most accurate power puncher in the sport, 47.6%. And the thing about Tank that is so impressive is that he fights this style. I call it kind of a Canelo style, kind of a Jermell Charlo style, Deontay Wilder style. It's walking a tightrope. It's low output. It's high accuracy, and it's game-changing power yes he throws the least amount of punches of any active championship fighter that's wild 34.2 yeah but he lands 47.6 percent of his power shots

and he has knocked out he's a 93 percent knockout rate and he's stopped 19 of his last 20 incredible so he's walking that tightrope he's giving away rounds early in the fight off of sheer inactivity but he knows that later on in this fight i'm going to find an opening and i'm going to stop him my thing is will that come back to bite him in the butt i always think about that yeah what if you don't find that opening what if i mean i mean we thought there's been Jermell Charlo fights, and I'm glad you brought that up as a similar style right now. Jermell Charlo does not waste punches. He waits for that opening and looks to land that big cracking right hand

or that body shot leg that he finished banana with. But don't forget about Jermell against Tony Harrison, who gave him in two fights a very close, you know, stubborn, you know, opposition in both fights, right was trailing i mean lost the first one by disputed decision the second one you're like you're gonna have to do something to his credit he did something and finished harrison but when you meet your match raul is there potential for gervonta's low career low output which is tactical to bite him in the ass in this match absolutely i always think about that yeah because, because like we talked, you know, he starts very slow,

and he doesn't really pick it up. I mean, that's just the way he fights. You know, he's always thinking, thinking, looking for openings, trying to set traps. That's what's so incredible about Gervonta. He's a very smart fighter. You know, he's a thinking fighter in there. But in the second half of the fight, all of a sudden he turns it up or he lands that home run and the fight is over but if ryan could take him

into the second half of the fight yes and you know hold them in the inside keep them at bay with the long jab with the right hand one two down the middle just keep it simple for ryan just keep it simple there's a thing about this fight, obviously Tank's a slow starter against Barrios, who has a similar build of Ryan Garcia. I think he's actually 6 foot and a 71-inch wingspan. Barrios didn't throw anything back either. Like, Gervonta starts slow, but his opponents also start slow because they are worried about what's coming back. He's the best counterpuncher in boxing or among the top.

So Ryan is also not really known as a guy that will fill it up on offense either. He's only thrown 41 punches a round. I think Ryan Garcia should come out to a fast start. He should try to bank rounds. A lot of these guys don't bank rounds early because they're worried what's going to come back. It's easier said than done. But don't get too overconfident. Like Leo Sennacher's did.

Yeah, he could get a little bit overconfident. I mean, I know Ryan is pumped up, you know, and he knows that Tank's going to start slow. So he might be a little bit too overconfident and then run into the big-leg fan. Well, there's a worst-case scenario for Ryan Garcia in this, and I also agree with you guys that it's going to be key what Ryan does with those early rounds when Gervonta is doing what Floyd did,

which is downloading information, taking his time, figuring things out. The worst-case scenario is a fight that happened here in Las Vegas. It was called Canelo. It was when Amir Khan went in there against Canelo, who does have a somewhat similar style to Gervonta, even though they're not the same stance. And Khan, typical for most of his career with the lack of durability,

looked fantastic going in there with the speed and the jab and controlling the distance. But that thing is going to land. When it landed, it was one of the tougher ones to be ringside for. To be very honest with you, it was a thudding, one-punch, destructive knockout. Has Ryan Garcia repaired? Has there been enough time entering a third fight with Joe Goosen where some of those little idiosyncrasies that may not get you in trouble against Emmanuel Tago of pulling backwards, of keeping that chin out, of not putting the right hand up to block the hook.

You just have to make one mistake against Tank, and that's it. But I think he's corrected some of that. If you saw him with Luke Campbell, he was dropping his right hand. We all know he pulls up. He has his chin up in the air. That's not a good thing. But when you saw him with Fortuna, Fortuna tried to land some shots, and he blocked them.

The defense was better. Fortuna, Southpaw. Three of his last opponents have been Southpaws. He's fought, I think, five now in his career. But just to go back a little bit, we talk about Canelo stopping Khan. Flip it around. Canelo fighting Kovalev. Yes.

Slow start. Giving away rounds off of Shira inactivity. You're right. And then stopping him in the 11th. But for Canelo, he's lost some of that power late. It's just going to happen over the course of a career, attrition, and all that. But that's an interesting thing in this fight to me, is if Ryan can bank rounds early.

Early. That's one of the keys, yeah. His style is he's not a guy that's going to throw 50, 60 punches around. He's not going to score points. He's literally like a plotter. He moves forward and he looks for that one punch. So those early rounds are going to indicate a lot. If Ryan could bank rounds and he could also get the attention of Gervonta,

then I think it's going to be really interesting in the second half of the fight. But if he sits back like a lot of these guys have done, whether it was Hector Garcia, whether it was Barrios, throwing 20 punches around too. That's when you create openings for Tank, and he's watching every little thing you do, man. He even lets you get confident. Yeah, he lets you get confident.

He even loses some rounds and lets you hit him here and there. And then all of a sudden, he lands that. Well, they used to say in basketball, Bill Russell would purposely not block shots that he knew he could block in the first three quarters to save it for the big moments when he can actually swallow somebody. There's some element that,

well, why do you think, and I think this is an honest question, Tank had the Floyd arm around him from the beginning, which puts a label on you. Tank is on the wrong side of the police blotter a lot and maybe potentially serving some time after this fight based on how his sentencing hearing goes in May, he doesn't get pound-for-pound respect.

And I think we're at the point now where it's like, what else does he have to do? He's moving weight classes. He's fighting all different kinds of fighters. He's an absolutely complete fighter. If he's not one of the 10 best boxers in this game today, who is? I mean, and I think he should get that respect that you're talking about i mean look at leo santa cruz roly romero uh gamboa pedraza pedraza although all those guys they're they're top guys you know i don't ryan has never fought anybody like that no

you know and he and tank beats him he destroys this guy's mario barrio is a good fighter too um and i think that this is why this is why Tank won this fight, too. You know, I think, you know, he beats Brian Garcia in an impressive fashion, knocks him out. I think that's going to put him up there over the top. Over the top. Do you think it's his best win? If Tank beats Brian Garcia, is that his best win?

As long as Ryan shows us the danger, presents the level of danger that we expect that he can, yes, I think this would be. When we asked Tank, and we did in the New York City press conference, like, is this the best fighter you ever fought? He is quick to say, no, I don't think it is. But it's the most dangerous. It's the biggest fight for him, and it's the most dangerous. Right now I have Pedraza as Tank's best win,

and then I have Barry, oh, Isaac Cruz too. Oh, yeah. That was a tough one. Last minute too. It went the distance. It was the one hand, and he did show a tough one. Last minute, too. It went the distance. Right. It was the one hand, and he did show a lot of boxing ability in that. I think Gervonta Davis'

IQ is so underrated. They think of him as just a knockout guy, but like you said, he's setting traps and all that. But if he's able to beat Ryan Garcia, and like you said, if he's able to put up a good performance, Ryan, it will be his best win. It will be, because I do think he has respect for him. That's why they put in all these clauses. That's why. And, you know, Ryan's figuring it's figuring out too it's why they're supposedly sending spies okay let's talk about

that raul you've been in this game a long time you're a trainer today i know i was that way is this a normal practice where we i didn't have that money to hire spies so leonard ellen we have been with the potions is claiming that they have hired somebody that's in the camp of ryan garcia and is regularly reporting back all the good and the bad. Does that happen a lot? I'm sure it does. You know, there's a bunch of guys that are going to be talking, you know, sparring partners.

Hey, if I could pick up some extra money, like, you know, hey, I'll let you know what's going on over here. But at the end of the day, hey, like Ryan said, it really doesn't matter because it's them two in the ring, you know, with their talents. It doesn't matter. They know, each of them knows what their game plans are, and that's the way boxing is.

But it's always, I think it creates, you know, head games. You know, hey, you know, you got dropped with a body shot, and, you know, I'm going to do the same thing. And, you know, if it lets you get to your head, it gets in your head, then that's going to be a problem. But I don't think, you know, Ryan seems pretty comfortable about that. Yeah, Tank heard that somebody dropped him with a body shot. Okay, big deal.

It happens. Ray Leonard got knocked out. Ray Leonard told me he got knocked out a month before the Hagler fight. Yeah, the best get hurt. Did you guys, yeah, did you see, there was some footage of Canelo sparring. I think it was Rashidi Ellis, maybe. I didn't see that. And Canelo was up against the ropes, and he was literally shelled up,

just like in the B-ball fight. Right. And he's taking shots, punishment. And someone someone leaked it or whatever and it showed up on twitter and it's like oh my god look at this canelo's getting beat up and sparring like doesn't it like recur to you that he's preparing for a potential b-ball rematch and b-ball's gonna put up against the rope so he's working on things exactly like sparring it's getting out of control with the leaking of sparring stuff and my co-host uh chris algeri um always talking about sparring is getting out of control with the leaking of sparring stuff. And my co-host, Chris Algieri, always talking about sparring. Like, oh, I spar with Canelo.

I spar with this guy. And I'm thinking about sparring. And this won't apply to you, but it'll apply to me and you. It's like the boxers sparring is like their little like inside world that we're not allowed to get in yet. Because they're working on specific things. They're allowing you to know about it. You rarely hear about it or at least used to not hear about it. we're seeing it more spadafora beat floyd mayweather maybe but it's interesting to me the whole sparring world because it's the one thing that the boxers

have where if there's supposed to be no cameras rolling it's supposed to be working on things no media involved it's like your little fraternity in there oh i spar with that guy spar with that guy and we we hear little things about it but we don't know anything about sparring sessions it's fair i mean there's every every fighter has their their their training camp you know oh, I spar with that guy, I spar with that guy, and we hear little things about it, but we don't know anything about sparring sessions. It's fair. I mean, every fighter has their training camp, however they want to move the training camp. But look, one round, two rounds, you might just want to work on defense, covering up, countering,

just working nothing but jabs, nothing but jabs, jab to the body, you know, different combinations. Yeah. I mean, I'd like to see the footage of Paulie and Connor. Oh, didn't we see it already? No, we haven't really. You dropped them. I've talked to people that were there, and they have the story.

I hope one day at that point. That's got to be one of the most infamous sparring sessions of all time. Without question. Yeah. Without question. Did you and Oscar spar ahead of the 92? No, he was too small, man. He was a 132-pounder.

I was always the bigger guy, the stronger guy.'re the guy you know what i mean better abs you know has a video on his phone of dana white being like you were like the baddest in boxing you love that one right bro my dad tells me story about all the time like tough tough son of a can you say that blood yeah yeah you could say that i like him he had a great chin too one more time oh he's gonna be popped up no i've heard story i wasn't like i i think i went to a couple of your fights but my dad would tell me like this guy right here i came to fight man i came to fight that's what people want to see they want to see knockout old school blood

no blood whatever head butts elbows whatever it took that's how your pops taught you that's the way old school and that's how he's teaching your son now. It's beautiful. Old school boxing, yeah. Indeed, indeed. But Gio's got flashy skills, too. He does. You see them. I do.

You see them, yeah. I want to see him back on Showtime or wherever his career is headed. We'll go back. He's headed. We'll come back, yes, for sure. All right, let's bring this home on the idea of who wins this fight and why. A big part of the narrative is what we don't know about Ryan Garcia. And look, he's going to have his chance to make that leap

in the toughest matchup to date. Is there anything we don't know about Tank Davis? We assume his chin is great and that if it goes to a war he appears to be built for that but what have we actually seen up to this point in the history of of Gervonta Tank Davis either being hurt or needing to dramatically alter his game plan in the face of opposition? Dan he's largely been in control of these fights. I think of the Gamboa fight, but that is also a, he wasn't tanked yet. He wasn't tanked yet, but I don't know what was going on outside of the ring. I know he had some weight issues.

He had those early on in his career. He's so much mature now. So much more mature now. Totally different guy. But in that fight, he was tagged a lot. He was getting hit. He did have to change his game plan. Then you look at the Isak Cruz fight, and that of course was because of the hand injury and he showed that

he could win with just a jab and he had to have a you know a second game plan and adjust on the fly which is really really impressive skills pay the bills we've seen the knockouts we know the low punch output uh we know the downloading the data even though i hate that term uh but we haven't seen him really stung we haven't seen him really hurt part of me wants to see that saturday night i always want to see like a guy like his reaction or like floyd when he got stung by mosley i want to see some reward against sergey kovalev in the first fight right yes i want to see him battle through something but you know what we might never see these guys get hurt you know they're so young right now and fast to me like someone like Roy Jones when he was coming up man I mean defensively nobody nobody would catch him you know I guess I guess as he got older then he

got caught you know so I think guys like like you're talking about like Gervonta Shakur because their their skills are so incredible you know they're they're so much little things going on in there like the small movements the positioning the, the timing, you know, the way. It's a different level of fighters. Like, you don't know until you get in there with a guy like that. But going back to getting hurt, they might never get hurt because of their skills. You know, once they get to it. You're saying early, though.

Early, early and early, yeah. And as you age and you get older, you know, your reflexes are not the same. Yeah. Like Roy, yeah. We've still seen him fight, man. He fought like last month. Yeah, but Anthony Fettus, I mean, I hope there's not more, but he's a competitor.

It breaks my heart. I mean, we love him so much. It really hurts me. All right, before we close with our predictions for this fight, and by the way, we're going to have Andre Ward in the studio, top of the hour here. Don't miss it. We love what Tank's put together.

It's a career highlight reel of brutal and exciting and amazing knockouts. Everyone's got a favorite, so the three of us have decided to pick ours and present them to you today. Raul Marquez, El Diamante. Close, right? Very good. H-Town in the house. You're getting better all the time.

What's your hometown in Mexico? Valle Hermoso, Tamaulipas, Mexico. I can't say that. I cannot say that. Right across the border. Texas, Brownsville, Texas, Matamoros, little town, Valle Hermoso. You get the first pick here, the great career of Gervonta Davis. We're going to run the highlight.

We're going to react to it. What's your favorite knockout in Tank's run? Well, for me, I mean, it has to be when he fought uh roly roly romero you know because all the other trash talking with roly and tank it was uh you know um it was exciting then just the way as we see right there you know like uh you know tank oh dude that's floyd versus ricky hatton stuff as a matter of fact you know roly was in the fight you know he he had won some rounds and tank was so smart. He felt Roley's power.

There's the left hand right there. And I think Romero got a little bit overconfident. That's what Garcia can't do, get a little bit too overconfident because he was catching him early, and he won some rounds, and you could see where Tank was holding him. I think he felt his power. Yeah, he did feel his power, and then Tank was holding him and doing the right thing. Tank was respectful once he felt that.

Yeah, but at the same time, dude, I mean, that's Houdini. Get in, get out. I mean, it's Floyd versus Ricky Hatton. It's beautiful. Dan. The memes that came from that, the Martin meme, it's almost too good. I mean, Roley, he knows what he's doing. He puts himself in the bullseye of the meme.

He threw a left hand And then he circles back. He threw a left hand, and then he circles out of there in case he didn't go down or whatever. He was ready to catch him again. He's one of the best counterpunchers up there. Floyd, I mean, excuse me. That was Canelo. Yeah, great knockout. All right, Dan, you get the second choice here,

the career of Tank Davis. Take us there. Oh, it's Leo Santa Cruz. This is one of the best knockouts in the history of boxing. I mean, this should be played on highlight reels for years and years. Leo Santa Cruz was leading in this fight, and for some reason, as you'll see here, one punch, two punch, or that second one. Three straight.

You can't throw the same punch twice. You can't throw the same punch three times to a vicious counterpunch like Javante Davis. It's uppercut, nonetheless, which is one of the hardest punches to land, and he is out cold. You know, Raul, Luke Thomas calls it is one of the hardest punches to land. And he is out cold. You know, Raul, Luke Thomas calls it the land of wind and ghosts. That's where he went, you know? That is perfect. And you know what?

Like Tank said, you know, why would he throw the same right hand three times? And he was timing them. He was watching that. He let them get confident. Boom. The second one. And then set them up. Dude, Halloween night, Alamo Dome.

That was a special fight. 1.30, Tank moved down in weight for that one. That was that stretch of three straight fights on pay-per-view in three different divisions for Tank. Disastrous knockout. We were just talking about how the low output of Tank early in that fight, it was really low against Santa Cruz, and Santa Cruz got out to a really good start.

He was actually, I think he doubled him up in the power department in terms of punches landed, and he got overconfident overconfident that's feeling good that's a key lulling the sleep a little bit that's a that's a key you gotta stay very focused and control for i'm talking for right control that range i thought you're talking about me and my life my career very cocky yeah yeah overconfident just like the first rule in an orgy we have a no eye contact rule uh show box the new generation because we can throw each other off with just the blink of an eye. I went up and down Tank's career. I wanted to kind of pick an oldie but goodie that people don't remember.

Let's go back to June 2016, Seminole Hard Rock Hotel Casino in Florida. Mario Antonio Macias was the journeyman guy that came through at that point. He had a bunch of losses, but he was looking to try to take Tank deep. Tank wearing the huge shorts in this one. But look, Tank sometimes can do ridiculous shit like Roy Jones type shit, leaping right hook around the guard. Take right hook, man.

Just a thing of beauty. And look, it was a delay. It was a delay. The fight's over. That's, I mean, that's what happens. He can do that stuff. He can wait for rounds and pick out the one moment uh he's a spectacular fighter but some of these early ones man he

these guys did you can't see that coming come on dude a lead right is one of the best punches in boxing so pretty like floyd made a whole career on throwing that lead right right it's not the punch you see too often that connor you're talking about getting off his feet doing the roy jones i mean that was if they could replay that again, that's like – Look, when he throws that right – You know, we talked about Roy Jones, that counter right hook. You know, Roy Jones liked the roosters. You know, it's like a rooster kick.

You know, like they kick – That's exactly what he was doing. It was like a rooster, boom, with the right hook, right? Chasing after the rooster. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Roy had a way with the cocks. You know what I mean? I saw that picture that week that time. Come on, bro. Did you say cocks, had a way with the cocks. You know what I mean? I saw that picture that leaked that time.

Come on, bro. Did you say cocksman? Orgies. On my show, did you say cocksman? That's ridiculous. Let's close it with a kiss here. This Saturday night, Showtime pay-per-view. Raul, I want to respect you're on the broadcast.

Are you allowed to lean and make a prediction publicly? I don't know if you are. I can. I mean, yeah. Why not? Who wins this fight and why? I want to know. Well, I think it's going to be some slow rounds early on.

You know, just like, you know, we know the way Tank fights. And I don't know if Ryan's going to take advantage of that, which he should to put those rounds in the bag just in case. And then, you know, middle rounds, some good exchanges. People are going to get excited. Both of them might get rocked, which we want to see that. And, you know, like we talked about the whole show, we've never seen Tank get rocked, like really hurt or down.

I mean, I could see him maybe going down, getting caught, going down, getting back up. Wow. I once predicted that Floyd would get dropped by Canelo. That didn't go well. But, you know, Tank, you know, he's got that dog in him, man. I think he's another level. I really think he's another level. And I think throughout the whole fight that we've been talking talking about, like he's a thinking man in there.

He's always thinking, trying to set you up, looking for those openings, let you get confident, let you land some good shots. But inevitably he's going to find the mark is what you're saying. Yeah, but then, you know, I think in the – I'm going to go TKO in round nine. I think he's going to find the home run. I like that area. He's going to find the home run.

If you're a betting man, 8, 9, 10, where do you go? My prediction is the fans are going to win. I hope both teams play well. I actually do hope it's a competitive, fun fight for the sake of boxing because I'm always looking out for the health of the sport. But it's really hard to pick against Javonta Davis. I think right now in DraftKings, rounds 7 through 12, you can get plus 220 for a tank stoppage, plus money in round 7 through 12,

which a lot of people are picking. But I do think it's going to be a closer fight than people expect. I think that Ryan's speed, his length, that stick jab that he puts out there, the range finder, and the left hand. I mean, he's talking about he's a one-dimensional fighter, but if your one dimension is better than other guys, their whole parts, then it's a damn good weapon to have. I think it will be a very close fight, but it's hard to pick against Tank. I just hope that it's a fight where a rematch afterwards is talked about. Can Ryan win this fight?

I say yes. He has the athleticism. He has the want. Can his skills have making another leap under Joe Goosen? It's possible. Is it as likely, though? No, it's more likely that Tank Davis gets this done because I think he's that great. It's time to get you guys done, and I've been so thankful.

Dan Canobio from John Boy Media, Inside Boxing Live with Chris Algieri. CompuBox, you know him. He protects the sport on Twitter, even if the haters get on. And thank you, sir, for joining. Thank you for having me. You need to plug anything the rest of the week? No, just follow Inside Boxing live on YouTube and our socials.

Chris Algieri just landed. Oh, I love that, man. He's out of the cage. He's a handsome guy. He knows how to eat well, too. I should learn from him. Well, nothing worse than eating a terrible meal and going on Instagram and seeing Chris.

And Chris has just had avocado again. And Raul Marquez, Showtime Boxing. You'll be on the Spanish call. Showbox the new generation. That's it. June 9th. You're training. June 9th, we have a show box show.

We will in the Hall of Fame. Giovanni Marquez 5-0. Giovanni Marquez 5-0 with three knockouts. Up and coming prospect. Follow him. Follow El Diamante Raul Marquez. I hope you warm that chair up for Andre Ward because he's right around the corner. I don't know yet but we'll find out.

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slash COMBAT. Use our code COMBAT with a K. It's time to reclaim your masculinity and become the best version of yourself. You can be a washed dad There's a lot of us out there. Well, you need to look like one. That's the question. Do you want to look like one? Try black force testo stack and use the code combat with a K for 10% off Maybe you'll start looking like Andre Ward. In fact, um, we're gonna throw to a trailer here There's a great documentary coming to Showtime June 2nd. You can watch it on Showtime and Paramount streaming services galore. And it is called S.O.G. The Book of Ward. It's about the Hall of Famer,

the fantastic broadcaster and the guy who really right Olympic gold medalist, but really made his name as a pro here on Showtime in the Super 6 Boxing Series, and then went on to even, you know, amazing great fights beyond that, the pair of fights with Sergey Kovalev and all that. Check out this trailer ahead of June 2nd for SOG Book of Ward. Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich,

but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only. At participating McDonald's in Canada. Ladies and gentlemen, Andre Ward! My career wasn't perfect. I made mistakes.

Now he goes for it! Trouble's gonna come. How are you gonna respond to it? You know what we're here for! Don't go home without it. I'm thinking about my journey to that point. I'm thinking about my struggles. You have to understand what I've been through.

I'm a Bay Area kid, through and through. It's a major street culture. Both parents are drug addicted. My dad was heroin, and that's my hero. His dad had brought him to the gym, and I said, little kid got a little pop. You could tell the kid was different. I think you're alien, for real.

The kid is actually dressed for you. My dad never stopped fighting, but he had a heart attack at 46 years of age. For Andre, it was devastating. It took me hitting rock bottom to where I finally began to communicate with God again. I felt a burden to finish everything we started. He's one of the greatest champions

from the history of boxing. 32 and 0, his brother Andre Ward was great. Jalapeno, Jalapeno! Boxing has devoured many great men. I'm going to do things my way. People don't identify with a guy who has chosen as his nickname, Son of God. I said this early in my career, you know, I'm gonna retire from boxing.

I'm not gonna let boxing retire me. This was all the plan from day one. Only thing you ain't done in boxing is lose. What's there to stick around for? I wanted to have a body of work, not just in the ring, but as a man. We close this chapter. This book is closed. SOG, the book of Ward.

Only on Showtime. Streaming with Paramount+. And if that teaser didn't get you fired up, it's even better, the film. I was moved by this. Andre Ward, the first ballot Hall of Famer and so many other things. Father, son, so many things,

husband. I love the phrase that's in the start of that teaser. Cause you're like, you know, you don't know me until you know my story. You know, I don't think us who felt we even knew you to a high level. And you know, you've always been one of my favorite fighters. I've always enjoyed interviewing you because you're, you're tough. You're honest, but you are a next level, honest and open in this film that we've never seen before. I want to thank you for doing that because it helps me understand you, the man, on a deeper level. Why now? And this is not your natural move, so why in general?

Man, it's a time and a place for everything. I knew early on, when the world first saw me in 2004, I was rough. I was fresh off the streets and just giving my life back to God and was trying to figure it out. But I also had studied boxing and I knew that I didn't want to come in with the same old rags to riches story. I grew up in the project. I didn't really want to lead with that. I wanted people to get to know me for who I was at that time. Embrace me. And here's the other thing.

I'm an 80s baby. So I grew up like we don't tell our business. We don't like the world we live in today is not the world. There's no such thing as a therapist. You know, don't be telling people your business at all. Yeah. You know, we just that's how I was raised. So the world we live in today is a lot different. And I just, I knew the story would be told one day and I wanted to tell it in my words and tell it the right way. And here we are. Look, a powerful film that focuses

on your personal character. And it's like, I say love him or hate him because not everything you did and decisions you made business-wise, boxing-wise, and to be fair, we didn't know a lot about what you were dealing with. The major injuries, like there's a lot of what you were dealing with, the major injuries. Like, there's a lot of things that come out in this film,

even if you followed Andre's career, that we didn't know. But you did stand firm to your principles along the way. And there were times, as a journalist and fan, I'm like, what is he doing? He's been out a long time. You know, and then, of course, when you retire, everybody's knocking for you to come back. That seemed to be important for me from the beginning, that I'm going to live my life and operate my career this way, and whether the media or the fans love or hate me, he's knocking for you to come back. That seemed to be important for me from the beginning, that

I'm going to live my life and operate my career this way. And whether the media or the fans love or hate me, they're just going to have to deal with it. Yeah, I mean, I think the dislike or the questions get a lot more, you know, notoriety than they should. You know, so there was a lot of respect during those tough times when, you know, going through a lawsuit, there's a lot of support and a lot of genuine people just saying, dude, we just want to see you. Then you had the other element where it's like, oh, he's wasting his career. What is he doing? Oh, my gosh.

But I think the part that the media lost sight of was that do you guys realize that, you know, money's going out to fight for something I believe in, but no money's coming in. And that's one of the hardest times. I mean, probably bar losing my father that I've ever had to deal with. You're not humanized in that way. It's just get in there and perform for us we want to see you tough time but it was something I had to go through and it was something that was necessary and also say this you know I knew I knew my role in boxing you know as I was going through that lawsuit I started to realize that my my my my calling in the sport is not to be the next Floyd Mayweather it's to be the first Andre Ward.

Do it the way I feel led to do it. Try to make the right decisions. You don't make them all right. And whatever may come, may come. But stand on that, and hopefully that'll be a blueprint for the next generation. Well, the biggest thing I think we can respect as fans and admirers was that you did it your way. You probably could have come back a lot.

I'd love to get into that, actually. But, you know, there's always money there. But you stood firm. You stood firm in a lot of ways. You're one of the greatest fighters I've ever seen. And that's undisputable. First ballot Hall of Famer, retired undefeated, did it your way. Do you feel like you maximized the gifts you were given

and fought everybody you could? And when you do look back on it, are you 100% fulfilled with what you accomplished? I'm at peace. I'm at peace. Now not a warrior in me the competitor in me I want more yeah you know I can always see somebody and my brain starts to go to that place and I can get him I can get him man I just probably need a good six months seven months couple tune-ups like that that's not going away because that that's the competitor, right? I'm going to be 60 doing that. But deep down, I did it the way it was supposed to be done. And I believe I maxed out.

You know, I didn't cheat the sport. I didn't cut corners. I maxed out. I got every ounce of, I gave God back every ounce of talent and gift and effort that I possibly could. And I gave the sport my all, but I couldn't give the sport all of me. I had to leave some for my family and my loved ones. And then the other things that I got going on I gave the sport my all, but I couldn't give the sport all of me. I had to leave some for my family and my loved ones. And then the other things that I got going on in life, like this project, you know, I know that, you know, I have this in me to create and do things like this and you use it all up in a boxing ring. You can't do it. Well, you were

executive producer of this project. And of course comes out June 2nd on Showtime and Paramount streaming channels, SOG, The Book of Ward. Why was it important for you to take as big of a hands-on role? Because I ask people that work at Showtime because I was curious, how big of a hands-on role did he take? It seemed like you wanted, not in a vain way, I want to control it, but there was a message you were trying to put out with this film. It hit me. That seemed to be a big focus.

Well, the team at Showtime, Nima, Steven Espinoza, and everybody at Spring Hill, too many to name, that was their vision from the beginning. And I'm just a hands-on type of fighter. I was like that in my career with the business side, and I'm like that pretty much with any project that I'm involved in. I know how to stand down and give way when I need to. But I'm very collaborative. And I have great ideas. I have insight.

And it worked out great. And I think everybody's going to enjoy this. And I think it's going to be a lot of eyebrow raising in a good way. But the time was now to talk about these things. And I'm excited. And obviously, it couldn't have been hard telling, you know, the back story of your family. I didn't realize how, you know,

when you were going through a very pivotal time in your late teens, you're an Olympic prospect, but things in your family are not good, and it could have been easy. And I think a lot of us had moments in our life where we went down the wrong road a bit. I didn't realize you were further down that, and everything could have gone away. And I look at that as like, man, it's a major turning point, and you passed the test. I mean, how often do you think of that? Like it could be completely my story.

Like you have a lot of control over your legacy and narrative because of how deftly you, you, you, you maneuvered and you had to get up off the canvas sometimes to do that, but you have that control. But like, how often do you think about that? It really like, this could be an entire different ending right now. I think about it often. I think about it often. I think about it often. I was thinking about it the other day, and it brings me to tears because, you know,

this is one reason I also wanted to put this out the way that we put it out is, you know, I think my harshest critic may walk away, and they still may not be a fan, but they may walk away and say, I understand this guy a little bit better. And somebody that's been supporting me can walk away and say, that's why I was supporting this guy all these years. Man, I missed the Olympics by this much. And I didn't care about it. I didn't care. I was using drugs. I'm drinking. I'm numbing the pain from my father's death I'm in the streets And I've been this prospect My whole life Since I was nine years old

I didn't have a normal childhood I gave up a childhood to be this elite guy And you just get burnt out And you get tired Plus life hits you And it all hit me at one time And I uttered the words I don't care about the Olympics

I don't care And I'm thankful I had a man in Verge who was a praying man. And my mother at that time, she was doing good, getting her life back together. He said, son, if you let this pass you by, you'll never live it down. And I fought him on it like, no, I know what I'm doing. But deep down, I knew he was telling the truth. And I'm so glad I had somebody to look me in the face and be honest with me.

I mean, this isn't about me, but I mean, I hit a level of depression, substance abuse, and walked away and dropped out of college. So when I walked in that, I look back on it and say, man, I'm so lucky to have come around and be where I am today, but I remember what the voices were of like, yeah, man, this isn't worth it. This isn't all this. It's not worth it. The pressure is just not worth it.

But you found your way. Virgil Hunter Hunter your trainer and father figure in a lot of ways I didn't realize man he you and your brother had moved in with him we think of him as the calm voice the careless whisperer in the corner there but I've got a lot you know an even deeper level of respect I mean do you look at Virgil as an angel that yeah man God definitely sent him to me and I think at that time in his life i was sent to him he was uh you know his son jovan he had uh been training his son and you know some stuff happened in the family he wasn't able to you know he's basically torn away from jovan and i stepped in at that right time and it uh he talks about he said man we saved each other's lives

so god definitely sent him to me he was the right man for the job and it's just amazing that we stuck together the way that we did and we went as far as we did and uh you know he's not officially a hall of fame trainer but he's a hall of fame trainer in my book and a hall of fame man and we all we all need people man we need people we need messengers people to come at certain points in time in our life and be that voice, to be that support system, and to be honest with us and keep it real when it's time to keep it real. Yeah, absolutely, in that regard. And there's no shortage of prime voices in this film,

from Michael Jordan to Marshawn Lynch to Dame Lillard, and then obviously from a boxing standpoint, Roy Jones Jr., I mean, Bernard Hopkins, all of our heroes, all of your heroes. Is there any level of pinch me when you see the final rough draft on this doc and you're like, I got MJ sitting down breaking down my personal character, not me as a boxer, my personal character as a man. That's a wake-up call, right?

It's a wake-up call. It's crazy. It's surreal. And I almost didn't even ask him to be in it. My brother, who's the co-director of Deontay Thompson, of this film, he brought it up. He's one of those voices in my life, like, man, use your contacts, man, call him. I said, bro, I'm not calling Mike. I'm not calling him.

I'm not asking him to be in this. You know how many people are asking him to be in projects, and he's probably going to say no. I took him up on it. I called Larry Miller, former president of Jordan Brand, my good friend. He said, let me call Mike. I'll see what's up. He said, Mike wants you to call him yourself.

Called him, and it was that easy. We flew to Charlotte, and he knocked it out. So it's just crazy. We had, I think, a total of 42 interviews. Yes. Obviously, they all can't make the cut, but we had 42 people be willing to do these interviews. Yes. Obviously, they all can't make the cut, but we have 42 people be willing to do these interviews. Here's what I liked about it as a longtime inside baseball boxing guy

who's covered this game and is on the boxing Twitter rumor mill and all that stuff. You know, it's like every time, like, are they going to touch on that? Oh, they touched on that deep. Are they going to hit that? Are they going to hit that? Obviously, they hit things I didn't know about, the level of the injuries that they showed on the screen,

how much money you're paying out of pocket while you're out to repair this or that. And fans don't see that. You never wanted fans or opponents to see that. I don't think I've seen an athlete as committed to not showing in-ring weakness as I did after watching this film. That's like old-school Battlefield stuff. That's how I was raised. We don't, you know, like, again, this era is just, it's interesting to me that we announce

everything before it happens. And I get the benefits on the back end, you know, but it's also a downside too. We just kept everything quiet. We showed up on the night and we got it done. And injuries were part of it, you know? And it was just a wear and tear. Like I didn't have, I had an abnormal like drive about me and an abnormal work ethic. Like I would always push the limit.

Like, I needed Verge. I needed other people, other trainers, you know, Edward Jackson, my other assistant trainer, to say, bro, that's it. Because I'm going to find the biggest heel to run in training camp. I'm going to do that extra sprint. I'm going to go another five rounds in sparring. That catches up when you've been doing it since you've been nine. So, you know, knee stuff and shoulders and, you know,

you start getting on the back half of your career. I'm spending more money for a prehab trying to keep from getting injured than I am my actual training camp. Maintenance, man. Maintenance to keep the truck on the road, right? You got to keep it moving, yeah. There's so many great stories in terms of the rivalries in there, you know, what you walk through against Sergey Kovalev.

If I look at your career, like if somebody said said describe to me if I'm like an MMA fan we have a lot of MMA fans on the show describe to me who Andre Ward was as a boxer of course you know me I'm gonna go 90s lyrics and embarrass myself but if there was a problem you'll he'll solve it and I say that as lame as it is to say you could fight every style but there were fights that you had to fight every style in order to do it the michael kessler win which was the first round of the super six boxing tournament where you were not even remotely in the favorite conversation you were the american young is he really that good gold medalist but what i remember people were talking about jermaine taylor if they weren't talking about the three europeans right i remember they're talking about durell saying you know what he this might be his time to shine. It turned

out to be yours, but when you met Michael Kessler and that was the, okay, okay, okay, one of the favorites along with Carl Frotch and Arthur Abraham, you know what I forgot? And this doc reminded me how you made the decision ahead of time. The best way to fight this guy is to be physical, is to get in that ass, so to speak. And he didn't respond well to that. He wasn't trained that way. A lot of times we win the fight, me and my team, before we fight. We got to go out and train and execute ultimately on the night. But we see something and we know, like, if I do my job, you're not beating me.

That was what we saw on Mickle. Good fighter, but he needs you in a certain place. He's taught and trained his whole life to keep you on the end of his punches let's you know let's let's all play two fights with frotch we're great but he's allowed to counter from the outside right but he i didn't see any educated inside fighting and the inside fighting for me was just arriving at that time we had been working on it for two years prior it showed up in the Alan Green fight. And, well, a little before the Alan Green, the Edison Miranda fight.

So, like, at this stage with Kessler, it was the perfect time to test it out and to bring him to America, and specifically Oakland, and just, you know, show him some hospitality. I mean, if that fight was in Denmark, is it different? Yeah, it's different. Why?

Every time we got close, they would have made sure we broke. They would have never let me work on the inside. I probably would have had points taken for this or something else. They would have made it difficult for me, but I still believe I would have found a way. Like we think of you as slick boxer when you need to. We certainly think of you as, you know, you can counter, you can make adjustments.

But like when Saki Obiko was knocking on your door, we're like, okay, this man has to get grimy. You got grimy. Listen, I don't get credit for my chin. I probably had one of the best chins, pound for pound, in my 10-year, 12-year reign. And, by the way, Darnold Boone knocked down everybody. Right.

But I fought him first before I knew who he was. Yeah, yeah. So, and I don't want to be known for a chin, but you want to be known for one if you need it. I don't get credit for that. I was probably one of the toughest and meanest inside the ring, pound for pound, than anybody. But it's funny that the boxing is what people pinpoint.

Oh, he's slick. Yeah. No, I'm like Bruce Lee, man. I'm formless. Whatever I need to be, I need to be. Because if I'm just a slick boxer, maybe I beat Kovalev, but not the way that I did. The Kessler fight is a lot harder.

Frotch is a lot harder. Might not come out on top on a beaker side. Or if I do, I'm going to take a lot more punishment. So, yeah, the narrative is slick boxer, but, man, I can be what I need to be when i need to be it and you were able to get in the end a lot of big names in there chad dawson carl frotz the two with kovalev i liked though that they did talk about a fight that didn't happen that very much could have it's interesting because a big part of your narrative when i look back is i always felt i

was very fair to you i don't think everybody always was I don't know if that's sometimes a white or black thing subconsciously at times it's sort of like you know you didn't talk a lot of trash and they mentioned the doc you didn't act this clown you were true to who you were along the way and I always really respected that but when Gennady Golovkin started knocking people through the screen and he had that smile he became a media darling in a monster way but when I look back on that I feel like that fight could have happened and I don't think you were standing in the way of it at all no I wasn't um we talked a little bit about that in the doc you know his team uh didn't want it period and I'm not a dude that, you know, I'm not going to try to embarrass you or anything like that.

And I'm not a bully. But I'm real about my work. And especially at that time with the lawsuit and stuff like that, when you start mentioning my weight class without mentioning my name, I'm going to mention your name. And when I started mentioning his name, maybe two, three years up the road. But publicly, they're saying something different. Sure. And I had a problem with that.

And, you know, just to touch on a little bit about what you said about, you know, how fighters are marketed and different things like that, man. Someone that does have to do a race. And I'm not a person that feels like anybody can block me. I feel like what God has for me is for me and if it's mine it's going to be mine and nobody can stop that's how I feel but there are factors at play and I think for for an African-American fighter we're supposed to act or be a certain kind of way we can't be articulate and be clean cut because you're because suddenly you're boring i'm no i'm saying that's what that's what the reaction is that shrug is an agreement like

like i hate that but that's what it kind of look at a good out of galufkin you know he came over here and i love it because america is a land of you know opportunity but he was trying to find his way but because the powers that be liked him and pushed him they spoke for him when he was still trying to find his voice and he was very exciting and he was a media darling and i love the man but i feel like you guys should have fought there's no i don't i mean i look back on that you should have fought so these are the things that instead of trying to be floyd or be somebody else these are the things that i knew i had to stand for walk for and you're not going to be liked for it right you're not going to be liked for it,

right? You're not going to be always liked for it, but there was a lot, there is a lot of love to this day. That stuff just doesn't get talked about, but I'm content with that because I knew what my mission was, and I knew what my calling was to the sport. Absolutely. Your mission and your calling at the end of your career led to just two fantastic fights with Sergey Kovalev. I set up that Kessler point for a reason. Do you believe, and I think it was more apparent in the second fight, because the first fight you walked through hell. You got up off the canvas. You made those adjustments.

I hate, like you hate, when people use the word robbery on that first fight. Close fight. I thought you did enough because you took away his jab. And when he's not able to build off his jab, he had nothing for you. Maybe he's leading the dance, but he had nothing for you. The second fight was different because your mindset was different did you did you flash back to the Kessler go one and go you know what if I body this guy if I out physical the bully in Kovalev he may break well I beat I beat Kovalev in the first fight the second fight was one also in the first fight I won two fights on that night and uh what I mean is, you know, when I made the adjustment after the knockdown, I knew I had him. And that was me trying to come from behind. He wasn't physically strong,

which is strange because Kovalev is strong with his punches at the end if you let him, if he gets you at the right range. But his physical strength is weak. And I was shocked at how physically weak he was. I could pick him up if I wanted to every time we got i was shocked he didn't body canelo he boxed canelo he he couldn't he's not really physically strong so i unlocked that in the first fight and we knew going into the second fight i'm like dude i've had 12 rounds with you you're not gonna beat me and you'll see in doc, all the issues that I had in that training camp leading up to the fight was my knee. My knee kept swelling up, kept swelling up. The fight was almost canceled two or three times.

That started weighing on me. I'm trying to stay focused. Many a star would have delayed that rematch, many of them. It would have. And you could argue. We were this close. And if you had lost that, you could argue in hindsight, you know, maybe. But I never said anything about it until now. Which is blowing me away up argue this close. And if you had lost that, you could argue in hindsight, you know, maybe. But I never said anything about it until now.

Which is blowing me away up to this point. And I'll say this about the first fight. A lot of what you hear, again, the, oh, you got robbed, gets a lot of credit. But it's a lot of people that says, you know, man, I thought you pulled it out. You can't argue, like, I can't demand, oh, I won going away. It was a close fight. He fought well in the first half but it's a you know it's a fight that could have go could have gone either way by a round or two fans got to realize when a fight is that close you can't have a demonstrative oh you got robbed

robbery can't be in the question when a fight is that close you could feel like i lost but a fight that that's close you gotta you gotta you gotta concede to the man, I thought you lost, but it could have gone either way. That was probably one of the greatest comebacks, I'm going to say, that I've seen in boxing history. It's hard to argue. Because of who he was at that time, how dangerous he was, I'm coming up in weight. And you took a right cross directly in the forehead.

In the second round. I mean, directly up, you know. In the second round. Yeah. I mean, you almost moved into it. It was. round. Yeah. I mean, you almost moved into it. It was. And I did. It was like it was a rookie mistake.

Like I had my left hand down and I swayed back, telegraphed my right hand and just went straight into it. So it was like double impact. But that fight doesn't get credit. I don't get the credit for that fight. Not just the win, but the comeback. Like that fight to me is better than the second fight. Because sometimes you're in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Tim Bradley does not get credit for, your colleague on ESPN, does not get credit for the two major injuries he persevered through in the first Pacquiao fight and his resistance to take a foot off the gas. Did I think he won that fight? No. Did I think that he was the guy coming forward the entire fight through everything, and he got so villainized from you robbed Pacquiao that he was the guy coming forward the entire fight through everything? And he got so villainized from you robbed Pacquiao that he never got to enjoy it. Do you feel like you never got to enjoy what was such a breakthrough moment in that first fight?

No, no, no, no. Because of the scoring controversy. No, no. Because it wasn't a controversy to me. Right. To the media, to the fans. It wasn't a controversy to me. To some fans.

It's perspective. Once you done been through some battles in the sport, meaning like dealing with media and stuff like that, you know what to expect. I mean, you don't, I wasn't happy about it. It gave me some perspective. Like, man, why do I keep doing this when I'm giving my all and it never seems to be good enough?

You have those thoughts. But it wasn't a controversy to me. It was, that's the price you pay when you win a lot. People don't always like winners. They say they do, but when you win a lot and then, and then you beat a guy that you're really not supposed to beat. And then you upset the apple cart. Like when I got knocked down, I could almost hear a collective, ah, we thought we knew that was going to happen. And then to come back and dig your way back in, it's hard for people, especially media members,

you know this, to say, man, I was wrong. Yeah, yeah. It's always got to be something else. So I just understood what I was dealing with. I'm wrong on a daily basis in my marriage, so I've gotten used to it, Andre, over the time. But that's not public, though. It's the public admitting that stuff.

I hope my wife isn't watching. I will say this, though. Obviously, the walk-off knockout win to end your career is like Jordan against the Jazz or Elway winning two Super Bowls and walking away. People still will say, you did hit him in the balls a couple times. Did you? Where were those punches at the end there, Andre Ward? I don't think so.

I think maybe one straight beneath the belt line. But, again, you look at the beginning of the fight, Tony Weeks said, your cup is high. Your belt line is high. You know why his belt line was high? Because he thought you might go to the body? He knew I was going to the body because of the first fight. Yeah.

He said, this is good. This is a legal blow, meaning right here on his belt that you tried to pull up over your navel, this is good. That's where the majority of those it was three punches i didn't argue it much because you had hurt him so bad to the body legally that that it's referee discretion in that moment and the referee called that a knockout so what are we going to say you know what i mean if it was i wasn't going to be mad i i actually would wish he would have let it go there's no way there's no way he was going to get to the 12th round. There's no way.

No, I agree with you. So, again, that's the price you pay for winning a lot. All right. I want to head into Davis Garcia in a second. Obviously, I do want to mention I'm glad you never came back. And I think the documentary tells us your true thoughts on it and the mental journey it took to get there. But, you know

i do podcasts i gotta fill time two years ago when canelo starts making 68 his own and he went up to 75 and he beat kovalev and we're like oh he can carry his power up here there's nobody on paper that can beat canelo at this weight class and this was two years ago and i would say except for andre ward and if you give him enough time he can fight every style he's naturally bigger i actually think he can be at that point the number one biggest star in palm for palm one in the sport did that ever actually get close besides you like on a run in the morning going you know maybe i could did it ever get anywhere yeah i think the closest i ever personally came to to being open to it was when Canelo Farkovale.

I was waiting for him to say my name. Ooh, this is, this is, okay, okay. That's probably the closest I've ever come to, like, I'm waiting post-fight to see if he says my name. Wow. And he didn't say my name. He didn't, he didn't say my name. He didn't. He didn't say your name. To me, you know, I mean, him saying my name, you know,

everything wasn't based on him, but I'm just saying that was the closest that I came to saying, if he says my name, we may have something. And I just, he just, they asked him a question about who do you want next, and he gave sort of the boilerplate response. Oh, my team, and, you know, we'll see. That was the perfect time. You just beat a I'm on my team, and, you know, we'll see. That was the perfect time. You just beat a guy that I had beaten, and, you know.

That's why people linked me and him together. It's not just my retirement. It's the fact that we have a common opponent. That's the only reason why. I don't have no beef with Canelo. I don't dislike Canelo. But nobody called you. There wasn't numbers thrown around.

Like, it never got there, right? There's some calls being made, yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah, it never got there, right? This one calls me a mate, yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah, few calls. I mean, 38-year-old at that time, probably about 38, 39-year-old Andre Ward. Like 37. Healthy?

Healthy enough to have made a run if he had wanted to? I mean, you can't convince me otherwise. But we learned in the doc, even if you weren't, you would have been there. You're not going to convince me otherwise. But it's, you know, it wouldn't have been easy, you know? It wouldn't have been easy. But how are you going to tell me that I couldn't do it? It's not going to convince me otherwise. But it wouldn't have been easy. It wouldn't have been easy. But how are you going to tell me that I couldn't do it? It's not going to register.

I couldn't have told you. And I didn't want to close your career. And you mentioned the film. Carl Frotch was a great competitor. And you took him out in the Super 6 final. And that was a fun fight in Atlantic City. Does it feel like there's a single rival in your career? I think mod people would say if there's one, it's Kovalev.

But do you feel like there's any single opponent that's always been linked with you when they talk about it? Frosch for sure. Kovalev for sure. Those are probably the two biggest. Okay. Okay. Just because of the animus and the back and forth. Indeed, indeed. And a nice flashback to when you and Carl Frosch did that little face-to-face type sit down there with Jim Gray. That was good stuff. We're going to get a face-to-face close-up on Showtime pay-per-view on Saturday when Tank Davis takes on Ryan Garcia. Man, such a creative, unique fight.

And it goes against the grain business-wise in a lot of sense. But what about fight-wise? Like, Ryan Garcia is going to have to make a certain level of leap in terms of what we've seen on the level he's faced for Gervonta. Gervonta's one of the best in this game. Is it in him? Is it in him to do that in this fight? I mean, I think that's the big question.

Both guys got to answer some questions in this fight. I think you, you know, going into the fight, it's 60-40, leaning toward Tank. I just think it's got a different, I don't want to say pedigree, but just you see different skill set. He's more polished. And, you know, obviously Tank has the power, but Tank can box. And, you know, he said it himself, you know,

in the buildup to the fight that my defense has got to be on point. So I think we're going to see a better Tank on defense. He's got a great coach, great team. So you've got to lean that way. My biggest concern with Ryan, like, he's got speed, but you got to know when to throw it, how to throw it, especially against a guy like Javante. I don't know if you can.

That's something that's got to be in you. That's an instinct thing. But the chin being up in the air, that's, like, if you're looking at this fight, analyzing it, that's the biggest concern that you have if you're looking at Ryan Garcia. And I don't see in training, in the buildup to the fight, I don't see them working on that. I still see mitts with the chin in the air as recently as his open workout, Ryan's.

So that bad habit is in there. He knows it. And that's what he's going to be waiting for. And the thing about Javante, which makes him exciting and also makes him dangerous, but also puts him in danger, is that he doesn't mind getting hit to get his shot through. He doesn't mind getting hit. So go ahead and get your shot off.

Boom, I'll take it, but I got you in range now to get mine off. I'm not sure Ryan can fix that in that 8, 10, 12-week period that he had to get ready. What do you make? You've been in some tough negotiations. If there was an A-side leverage played here, we've got a 10-pound rehydration limit. We've got a 1-pound allowance.

It's 136 here. I'm not giving that. If I'm Ryan, I'm not giving that. I hear the A-side, all this stuff, and I know Tank's been doing his thing, selling out arenas, but neither guy has a pay-per-view track record. And neither guy that, I don't know any other fighter that they both can fight right now that can do the numbers

they're probably going to do Saturday night. And the gate, meaning the overall gate, the number. Two unique, separate fan bases coming through. Ryan has, bringing a lot to the table yeah if i'm on his team and i'm ryan we give we can give on some things that i normally wouldn't give on to get this fight over the hump but when you start to play with things that can affect my strength or my ability to take a punch i'm not giving it to you and i just think they missed an opportunity and r Ryan is so eager.

You got to realize he built himself on social media. He had a name on social media before he had a name in boxing, so he cares about what the people think and what the people say. That will cause you to make decisions sometimes that aren't wise. Now, we'll see if it affects him, and I think it may be the difference in this fight because you take a guy two or three pounds south than he's been in several

years you can't take a punch the same the average person will say oh it's just three pounds that three pounds could be the difference between you getting hit with a good shot and getting buzzed and recovering or going down and not getting up by the way it makes me respect bhop coming down to 58 against oscar by the way that was crazy but he couldn't pass that opportunity up. I'm not giving that clause. That's a situation where Ryan, if he's savvy and he's thinking, oh, Oscar, this is what they want to do. I'm going to go to my X amount of million followers and say, look, I want the fight to be done, but he's asking for this clause.

I can't give it to him, y'all. Now, I gave on everything else, but I can't give him that. I think that was a missed opportunity. You can't give that give that up like on one side it's daring to be great he did what he had to do to get the to get the fight right i respect it but i get exactly what you're saying i respect it yeah from a we were talking business though right from a business standpoint it's not wise i get the eagerness i respect it and you know giovante said that Ryan's not like that. Well, he's like that because he took a clause that Javante might not have took. Right. So he's really like that.

And I respect it. I respect the insight right there. You do great work. We got a minute left here, but a great work at ESPN. And quickly on that, your transition, I mean, you've been on Showtime, HBO. You've made this a career in bloom as you were still fighting like like Roy did before you like a lot of greats but you quickly people were like he might be the best in the game and I mean respect to Paulie Malinowski, Raul Marquez who was here there's so many great ones Tim Bradley

you work with is one of the best what does that make you feel though as a competitor man it's it's uh we we always saw it coming you know something Verge has a booklet that he still has to this day where he talked about me being a broadcaster one day and when i saw roy jones broadcast i want to do it and i was able to do it during my career it's full time now it's a blessing i'm close to the sport but now i got the best seat in the house and i can talk about something i love i'm not taking no more punches though that's it's not bad it's not a bad gig you know i mean i like to get it too once in a while it pays well too andre ward it's been fantastic here on morning combat. June 2nd on Showtime and Paramount streaming channels.

It's your documentary that you played a big role in executive producer SOG, The Book of Ward. Love that title, by the way. Love what you stand for and the mark you left on the business.

It does matter, Andre. You did it your way. And I'm proud of you in that regard. So I appreciate your time there. It goes down, obviously, Saturday night on Showtime pay-per-view. Do not miss Davis versus Garcia.

One quick reminder, The Weigh-In today, streaming live on Showtime Sports YouTube channels, Ariel, Hawani, Kate, Abdul, myself. Don't miss it. Same crew, Saturday night, 6 p.m. for the Showtime pay-per-view countdown. That was Andre Ward. Thank you for joining. For Raul Marquez, the champ, Dan Canobio, I'm Brian Campbell.

This has been Morning Combat. Enjoy the fight Saturday night.