MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Results: Shakur Stevenson vs. Oscar Valdez & Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano

Episode Date: May 1, 2022

Brian Campbell has you covered with instant reactions to Shakur Stevenson vs. Oscar Valdez and Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano. Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn 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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One half of the morning combat duo Wow I mean, it's already the month of May But what a night tonight was Saturday night, April 30th, 2022 1.05 a.m. As we turn the calendar forward To the month of May and a pair of boxing

main events this evening. Wow. Wow. Build is the biggest women's fight of all time. Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano put on an instant classic and then some in New York's Madison square garden, contentious decisions and all. And of course a couple thousand miles away or so in Las Vegas in unbeaten New York's Madison Square Garden, contentious decisions and all.

And of course, a couple thousand miles away or so in Las Vegas, an unbeaten 130 pound title unification in which Shakur Stevenson makes the leap from that guy might have next to put that guy in your top 10 pound for pound right fricking now. Wow. Okay, let me get my ish together here. Turn off. All right, we're live, we're direct, we're local, we're late-breaking. It is your boy, BC. Of course, I do this show with Luke Thomas every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday,

but it's some of these bonuses that get me fired up, and tonight, you know, enough prestige, name value. And in the end, you know, storylines delivered in the ring to justify doing this. Boxing absolutely on fire. We saw that in the, you know, in the crowds of Tyson Fury's return against Dillian White. And certainly on this special night, 10,000 in the MGM Grand Garden Arena to see Shakur Stevenson take that wide unanimous decision over Oscar Valdez. But it was New York's Madison Square Garden and a sold-out crowd

of more than 19,000 with Ireland showing up, Puerto Rico showing up, but boxing, but New York showing up. And really what's going to go down as one of these special fight crowds and atmospheres. And you can, you could sense that a mile away from, from watching it through the screen. And, uh, you know, your boy BC lives, what, 90 minutes, two hours away from the old garden. And he didn't go down for this one. He's pinching himself on this one. So let's get into it right off the top.

It was a DAZN main event. It was billed with so much hype. Number one versus two pound for pound. Katie Taylor, the unbeaten former Irish Olympic gold medalist, undisputed lightweight champion, all four titles. But she's facing the most decorated fighter in women's boxing history in Amanda Serrano. Nine titles, seven weight classes. Right now, she's the unified champ at featherweight, which is two divisions below Taylor, even though Serrano in reality is the bigger fighter.

So we knew we had this incredible matchup on paper and to put even more pressure on what this could have ended up being spoiler alert. It was, is that you're putting this as the first all female combat sports main event in the 142 year history of MSG. You're putting it in the big room. You're getting a sold out crowd. These two women are on the today show. You got Jake Paul. You got Eddie Hearn trying to bet a million dollars on this fight. It really, let's give full credit to the promoters, to the networks, to really boxing media in general. This story, it crossed over. People cared. People turned out for this.

Ariel Helwane was there I mean like you know it really drummed up the necessary interest to go from niche fight which it was it was a niche niche niche it was a niche fight to begin with but it got the crossover mainstream attention but how many big fights in any combat sport have those drums played that this fight matters you got to tune in and not delivered this one you know talk about fight of the year contender talk about instant classic this might be forget about stakes this might be the greatest women's boxing match of all time just in terms of the performances turned in by both ladies. Of course, in the end, it goes down as a split decision win for Katie Taylor in a fight that, I love to say it, I wear out this phrase,

however you scored this fight, you were probably right. I mean, that's what it is. Did I think that the zone broadcast, Chris Mannix in particular, maybe overly were scoring in the direction of Serrano and missing some things Katie Taylor were doing. Absolutely. Sometimes there can be a group thinking that, but the whole point is again, however you had it.

So it's a 10 round fight. If you had it six, four Serrano, you're not wrong. If you had it six, four Taylor, you're not wrong. No knockdowns in the fight. You could have, you could have scored a 10-8 round in round five when Serrano absolutely put it on Taylor. One of the three judges ended up doing that. But let's look at the lead here.

The pressure put on this fight to not only be exciting, to not only justify the attention that this has gotten, to be on the Today Show, to be in the big room at MSG, all that stuff. But then to over-deliver and exceed not just your entertainment expectations, which this one pushed the roof off, but the whole idea of what could this fight, single fight, the pressure being put on two women here, do for the future of the sport. Has there ever

been a greater commercial for what women's boxing could be than to see these two, the best two in the game right now, two of the best all time go in there and leave everything they had in the ring. The ripple effect on what this could create, you can't put a limit on it. The ripple effect on, you know, similar, right. To, to any young girl that was watching, you know, strike force cyborg versus Gina Carano, which led to, you know, the rise of Misha Tate and then Rhonda Rousey, and then eventually UFC buying in. I mean, what did that do to legitimize that sport, to legitimize female fighting? It's weird, but women's boxing had been around longer, has had bigger moments 25 years ago,

but had been, you know, incredibly dormant as mixed martial arts and women being taken seriously were pushed ahead. This is the breakthrough fight, Taylor Serrano, that this sport has needed to see the entire combat sports world, but really a lot of the sporting world take attention, see everyone tweeting about it, see the excitement. You turn on that broadcast and get a feel for that action and that crowd. In some ways, it's amazing that these two women delivered what they did, which was not only a great fight worth breaking down, which is what I'm here doing, but now the need and the want in the understanding of all to say like,

let's do it again. It's big business. It's great for the sport. It kind of needs to happen after a fight that disrupted disputed, excuse me. I mean, we may get a trilogy out of this. These two may go down as those pioneering groundbreakers in a lot of

waves, because you have to look at the timing, right? 2012 women allowed to box in the Olympics for the first time. Suddenly you're getting as Katie Taylor, Clarissa shields who wins two gold medals for the U S and by the way, shout out to the zone for putting her as part of the broadcast there, Jessica McCaskill as well, and really celebrating women's boxing on this night.

The Olympics legitimized a lot of things for women's boxing to be taken seriously again, but so did Eddie Hearn's job promoting Katie Taylor, now Jake Paul's recent job promoting Amanda Serrano. And we got in there and we touched gloves in front of a sold out Madison Square Garden and they exceeded the expectations. I mean, it's like, it's like, it felt like being on the ground floor of something, which, which again, isn't fully fair to a Christie Martin by the, in, by the way, the international boxing hall of fame in New York, which this June, I think it's June 10th that weekend,

they're going to do three grant, you know, induction classes because of COVID, but for also for the first time, and that is women being inducted the Layla Ali's the, the, the, uh, Christy Martins. Well, you know, Christy Martin was part of, you know, Mike Tyson pay-per-views in the past. And Layla Ali was a legitimate headliner in her own way. And they of course fought each other and that was a big deal, but this felt way more important than those fights those felt like attractions this felt like like okay we're on the ground floor of it's again like forget the sporting world we're on the ground floor of boxing which is a crusty curmudgeony group you know to say the least uh from from media to to on and down you know it's really about boxing embracing women's boxing right along with you know sort of this casual bump that this fight produced and everybody

went out there and hit an absolute home run so let's get into the fight uh we talked what could be big in terms of how this fight was decided coming in and one of that was the rule structure let's hope right now and you again you couldn't have gotten with this fight if you couldn't have gotten a better infomercial for what the very best of women's boxing can be but at the same time you also got the infomercial for why these draconian rule sets of women uh in boxing for the most part because i say that because some commissions do similar men's rules but for the most part the women's boxing you see on television the highest levels of championship boxing two

minute rounds 10 round title fights instead of 12 right so when you lose that one minute per round and you have two women like you had here who go after it who are both showing such high level skill and output and toughness and dramatic momentum swings. It's really hard to score that. It's really fricking hard to score that. So first of all, let me, let me, let me get, let me get organized here. Let me hit you with, with how the judges saw it in the end. 96, 94 for Serrano, 97-93 for Taylor, and 96-93 for Taylor. How'd your boy BC have it at the end of the day? Again, could have gone either way, and you're not wrong. 96-94 for Katie Taylor. This fight, we thought, I thought, if Katie Taylor can't get inside and push this pace, I'm not sure she can win this fight.

Because I knew coming in that Serrano, despite fighting in all different weight classes, right? From 118 to 140, she's held world titles. She's big. And she can box just as well as she can punch. What I didn't anticipate, along with Katie Taylor showing a heart of a freaking lion in the end. And that, you know, if there's one story to why or how she won this fight, it's that in the end.

But stylistically, let's give Katie Taylor a ton of credit. She started off fighting from distance against Serrano. She spent a lot of the fight fighting from distance. And what that did was that it was basically her taking steps back in and daring Serrano to come forward, to press the action. I think Katie Taylor and team looked at this and said, if we rush in, try to be first, try to be last, right? Try to be the, the, the, the bigger volume fighter to try to steal these rounds. You know, Serrano as a counter puncher might be her most dangerous spot it seems to me that they looked at everything the potential differences in power and size all that and thought let's let's

let's make the counter puncher have to come forward now look it turns out that serrano can do it all and regularly does but this strategy strategic change turned out to be gold for katie taylor because as serrano would come forward, you've got a moving target coming at Taylor and let's give Katie Taylor credit. She may have eaten at times one big shot from Serrano who was great to the body, was great with the left crosses, but Katie Taylor would match each of those punches with two, three, four punch combinations herself. I think Serrano was a bit surprised at Taylor's speed, certainly at her technique, which is always top game.

For a pressure fighter, which Katie Taylor is, I mean, no one's ever going to question her technique to get off power punches and combinations in close. But this was a different type of Katie Taylor, waiting for Serrano to come back. She wasn't afraid to get cornered, which we thought could be a big problem and obviously became a problem in round five, in round six,

which were two wild fight of the year contender rounds. So as this fight is playing out, I gave Serrano the opening round, but trying to gauge these two minutes, I think at the end you're judging Taylor's cleaner shots that are landing up against more of the one at a time from Serrano that were big. Now, that's a generalization of what happened that does not fully tell the story, especially if you look at the CompuBox stats. Now, can the CompuBox stats tell the story of a fight? It depends. It depends on what argument you're trying to make, right?

Like, it can support your argument, and at times it doesn't tell the true story of a fight it depends depends on what argument you're trying to make right like it can support your argument and at times it doesn't tell the true story of the fight okay these punch stats tell you that this fight was so close and it could have gone either way serrano actually outlanded taylor overall 173 to 147 yet in the biggest moments of these two round fights and two two minute round i'm sorry two minute rounds and obviously two minutes compared to three is so hard to score i think taylor was busier in the key sequences and that was the key so you're seeing here punches attempted serrano attempted 624 compared to 375 for taylor so serrano's output in general is more than Taylor because she's the chaser.

Because Taylor stood back in a counterpunching position, we had Serrano forcing the pace. But I think what would happen was Serrano was wasting a lot of punches to try to get inside. Then she'd land a big punch. But then, as I said, she'd eat those three or four in a row. So in terms of the clean punches landed in succession that the judges are seeing, you're seeing vintage trademark Katie Taylor landing those combinations to answer every big shot from Serrano.

Serrano in the end, like I said, outlanding her by almost 30 punches, but not nearly as efficient. And sometimes when you're too efficient as a counter puncher, it can hurt you. I think sometimes Jermell Charlo, great example of a guy who really is too efficient looking to counter and land that big knockout. And if it doesn't come, these fights are closer than they should be, in my opinion, based on Jermell Charlo's ability because he's too selective. Canelo, Gervonta Davis also fight in a similar style. They don't typically pay for it because of of how great they are to be fair taylor landed 39 of her punches overall to 27 for serrano but here's the key

stat 46 and a half percent taylor connected on power shots that's what the judges saw in the end even though she's getting outlanded in the key moments when they stood toe to toe and that was a lot that was a lot. That was the end of each round for the most part. There were some incredible sequences. I mentioned the fifth round, which was one sided the sixth round in which Taylor fought back, which I'll get to in a second, but that 10th round and the final 30 seconds where they last round of the fight, they just bit down and went after it. Even in those exchanges. I think the judges, when you're looking at who do I score this for in a very close round, again, you're seeing Serrano land a big one. You're seeing Taylor in those sequences come back and land combinations.

And it was enough, I believe, at the end of the day. But as I led off with, if you had it close for Serrano, you're not wrong in this case. Did she do anything wrong in this fight? Oh, and real quickly to close out on these punch stats. Overall to the body, Serrano landing 150 to 61. That was key. But here's a very interesting stat that really illustrates why this became such a great action fight.

A high technique, high level action fight. But there were no jabs. In fact, Taylor was one for 61 overall in jabs. Serrano, two for 150. Now, it's an aberration when you have a major fight in boxing that turns out to be great where the jabs are not a factor at all. It's rare. It's very rare. I don't remember one this good on the title level in which one fighter landed one jab overall and the other one landed two. But that shows you that they dug in and went after it.

And that also shows you, by Serrano landing just 1.3% of her jabs, she was two for 150 overall. That doesn't necessarily lead to, even though you're looking at the stats, you're like, she attempted two times as many as Taylor. She landed 30 more punches than Taylor. Why doesn't she automatically win? Because sometimes it comes down to those big sequences in the middle of a round. And if a judge is constantly seeing Serrano miss by, by just sort of floating that jab. There were times I thought maybe Serrano, despite being the bigger puncher,

despite having this incredible fifth round where I mentioned you could have scored at 10, eight, where it looked like she had Taylor on the verge of knock down and potentially knock out. I thought Serrano should have mixed in a little bit more boxing. Maybe in time, maybe at times taking a step back and force Taylor to come forward for everything I just said with Serrano being the bigger puncher or maybe

look at look at Serrano committing more to her jab in terms of landing it and getting out of the way but how much can you criticize in essentially a perfect fight essentially an incredible highly skilled action fight in which both emptied it. And how really are you going to point the finger at Serrano in any category? When, like I mentioned, she landed more and attempted more and won some of these key statistical categories, but then doesn't win the fight. So, you know, I give the opening round, which is very close to Serrano. And then I thought Taylor started to separate herself in a very close fight. And it was, uh, it was key flurries at the right time.

It wasn't necessarily Sugar Ray Leonard listening for the 10-second clap or listening for his corner to yell 30 seconds in, of course, the 1987 showdown with middleweight champion Marvin Hagler, where you can say, oh, did Sugar Ray steal those rounds by flurrying late, giving the judges something to remember? I really think as each of these rounds seem to end with a toe-to-toe brawl, Taylor just found a way to leave that better statement at the end. And she never really allowed herself to get roughed house at all.

I liked her physicality inside. And at the end of the day, I liked her toughness because this fight looked like, after I scored a bunch of rounds in succession here for Katie Taylor, it looked like Amanda Serrano was going to start running away with it. If not end it in that fifth round, she walks, uh, Katie Taylor down to the corner, uh, Taylor to her credit, it bites down, tries to fight out of each other, but they really round five. I thought was for the first time outside of those little flurries to end each round where they both committed to, I'm just going to bite down and throw, and I'm going to take what I have to take to land what I have to land. And that's when Taylor got into trouble,

you know, the statement. And of course it sounds horrible when referencing it to a women's fight, but you know, that play on words, don't hook with a hooker. That was Katie Taylor's problem. When, when things got really hot in round five, the difference in power in terms of Serrano, who has great speed. I thought Taylor's hand speed was a little bit faster, but Serrano could still get off those big shots so effectively. Once she started to stagger Katie during those big exchanges, she thought the fight was over.

Katie Taylor's got a cut around her eye. Her face is starting to get blot you know faces starting to get blotchy and a little bit swollen the fact that katie taylor didn't go down is incredible the fact that she didn't get knocked out in this round is incredible and the fact that essentially she just stood there in the closing seconds around five and really not knowing it seemed like where she was just firing bombs to survive it. Where after round five, most of these rounds up to this point, Katie Taylor had been standing for the 60 second break between rounds, which is, you know, an old George Foreman mind trick.

You've seen fighters do that through the years to show you that, you know, I don't need to sit on the stool. I don't need the rest. They pull out the stool for her after round five. And to be fair, you know, I questioned in the moment, could they even stop the fight right there? Because Katie Taylor's buzzed. I mean, she's, she's arguably out on her feet. In fact, you know, fights, you know, a lot of times the greatest action fights we've ever seen

involve guys operating while they're out on their feet. Look at Tim Bradley against Provodnikov or, you know, different points in the Gotti Ward trilogy. But what Katie Taylor did in round six, when it looked to be, okay, the momentum has changed for good. Serrano smells blood. This is where you just can't discount who 35-year-old Katie Taylor is. You know, like as ridiculously humble and hardworking a fighter you can ever imagine. She comes out in round six the pace is high she's getting flurried on she got wobbly after getting hit by a big shot and i'm like okay that's

it but something happened i think amanda serrano committed too hard to the knockout she squared up way too much and seeing in thinking let me just land one more big shot and i think serrano squaring herself up left her wide open and taylor started putting on combinations to end round six that were so thunderous that i thought she stole the round in that and i think she stole the fight with that with that stand she showed in round six because from there on out until that final end of that 10th round when both looked hurt to be fair when they were just landing bombs, I never really saw Katie Taylor compromised again. You know, there was a good stretch around seven that, you know, people on Twitter equaled my analysis and thinking, is Serrano giving away round seven? Did she, you know, go for the knockout so aggressively in rounds five and six that she sort of had to take a step back?

Either way, I think that's the difference in how in this very close fight, Katie Taylor filled those holes with activity. The judges edged her on the scorecards. And I know if you watch this and didn't score it and maybe got caught up in the way that Chris Mannix was scoring it on the zone, then you hear that decision at the end and you're, and you're like, man, maybe surround will deserve better. But, you know, I think Taylor was the rightful winner in this, in the end. And it was a beautiful, incredible fight. And I think that last 30 seconds of the final 10th round need to go in a,

in a time capsule for, you know, the crowd on its feet, these two absolute warriors just digging in and throwing. This was more exciting than 99% of elite boxing fights. And the fact that, again, with this much pressure on their shoulders to, even at this point, win over non-fans of women's boxing. Oh, there's something here? Is there a reason to watch women's boxing? A good fight.

To go on MMA terms, a Stefan Bonner, you know, Forrest Griffin brawl from the first Ultimate Fighter finale, which, you know, looking back, does it hold up well as one of the best fights of all time? From an emotional and romanticized standpoint, yes, you go back and you watch that brawl.

You're like, this is the fight that saved the UFC financially and all that stuff. But that fight's a sloppy brawl. This Taylor Serrano fight was perfect. It was an educated brawl. It was a technical, skilled brawl. And the love that the crowd and boxing in general showed for these two afterwards, deservedly. And the class that these two showed for each other afterwards.

Like, that's some pure, wholesome perfection right there. And we are in a combat sports climate. And I feel that because I love that shit. When a Conor McGregor or, you know, even like a Patty Pimblitt or, you know, anyone in boxing coming through talking that ish, you love it. You want the fights to feel real, like as if people are mad at each other. But what Taylor and Serrano showed us was like, you know, the pinnacle of sportsmanship, you know, Serrano afterwards didn't complain about the decision said she thought she won. A lot of people thought she won, said, I want to do a rematch. You knowdie hearn saying afterwards i can't let katie taylor's

career end and by the way hearn's been there from the beginning i can't let uh been the beginning of when she turned pro excuse me in 2016. i can't let her career end without going back to ireland and of course you know boxing has wanted to put a massive combat sports fight in. What is it? Croke park. Is that the name of the soccer pitch there in, uh, in Ireland that I know, you know, Carl Frampton had wanted to box a big one there for years. I know he ended up fighting, uh, locally there, but didn't get, you know, the big matchup. And, you know, there was a stretch where we thought maybe Conor McGregor would be the one. I think you got to put this rematch in a soccer stadium in, in either the or in katie taylor's home of ireland there

and um i wouldn't be surprised if we needed a third one and that's like wishful thinking hopeful thinking but it's also kind of realistic thinking these two were made for each other i think they were made in this moment maybe like Cyborg and Gina Carano were way back then for Strikeforce they were made in this moment to to lift this sport and show how great they can be and they're you know 35 and 33 years old respectively but still at the pinnacle of their games and to see them you know they've been through so much I mean Serrano especially you know she turned pro before this boom and toiled on undercards, off TV, low TV. You know what I mean?

Just sort of low purses, just toiled. For her to come out and put forth this good of a performance, but yet afterwards be like, no, Katie Taylor's great. She's a real champion. And Serrano went on to say, you know, women's, they say women couldn't draw. And who knows that any better than Amanda Serrano? I mean, you know, this fight was talked about a couple of years ago before the pandemic. And, you know, Taylor's team said it was Serrano's team being too crazy and aggressive in the negotiation table, but it fell apart. And even to be fair, if this fight would have happened back in early 2020, which I think was their original hope, I don't think it would have had this type of attention. The Jake Paul factor,

the Amanda Serrano fighting on Jake Paul pay-per-view undercards. But we got here and they freaking delivered. And now it's like, how big can this rematch be? Can you do it in front of 90,000 a soccer stadium? You probably could because that's your advertisement. Go back and watch this, these 10 rounds of fury here. The pun not intended there with Tyson, but like that's your advertisement. How great can women's boxing be? How great are these two historic forces here? I mean, these two are going to end up going down in this, you know, somewhat short and small history as, as two of the greatest. And if they can end up, you know, with a trilogy wishful thinking or, or two incredible fights, you're doing nothing but creating legends. I'm so happy to see them get paid. I was so happy to see Amanda get paid i was so happy to see amanda serrano be so afterwards like we did this together you know it was the it was like the extreme opposite of when conor mcgregor and floyd mayweather hugged at the uh press conference

after their their boxing match which was like it was like two bank robbers being like man we pulled this off right you know this wasn't that this was we showed the world and you know, what I have bet, you know, even up to today, you know, I'm a, I'm a Shakur Stevenson guy. This Oscar Valdez fight was, was one of my super bowls as a boxing fan. Right. This was one of my, one of my like, damn, you got to make this fight. And on the same night, I'm, you know, I mean, there's a lot to talk about with Shakur Stevenson's performance. But I can go an hour, two hours on this on this Katie Taylor, Amanda Serrano fight because it was that great. The action, the heart, the pride. The preparation, the long road to get here in the crowd.

I mean, that was something special right there. Um, you know, that'll go down as one of my great regrets in life, not going to that fight. I'm serious, you know, and I've been to, you know, I mean, I've been lucky to have been to some great action fights and, uh, you know, in all of combat sports. And I, you know, I was in the building when Andy Ruiz knocked out Anthony Joshua and upset that. And that was a, that was a moment, you know, I was in the building when Andy Ruiz knocked out Anthony Joshua and upset that. And that was a that was a moment. You know, I was in the building of Montreal when Bernard Hopkins won that world title at 46 or whatever to break the record. And, you know, doing pushups in the ring against John Pascal. You know, I've seen some shit, right?

I should have saw this. I should have been here for that. And wherever they go from here, if I can physically make it there. I got to be there. And I think you as a viewer, wherever both of them go from here together or eventually apart, you got to be there too, because this was a transaction. You watched it in front of you. Will the dividends pay immediately? Probably not. But long-term viability of women's boxing on television, women's boxing selling tickets,

women's boxing creating personalities and rivalries, you needed this. And it happened. And it was freaking better than advertised. Damn. You know, that's a win. That's a big win. And I'm really glad that this many people cared about this fight

that aren't intimately familiar with this obsession addiction that is boxing the same obsession addiction that spoiler alert tends to break your heart your wallet more often than producing this feeling. But tonight it did. So savor that flavor. It's the biggest win of both of Katie Taylor's career by far. I think the performance by Serrano in defeat is arguably among her greatest. She had to put on, she had to endure a cut

and swelling as well. And when you go back and watch those replays, and I did after that fight, you know, they ran a long package. It's like, Serrano took some big shots as well and stood in there. So, you know, BC, you're just going to come on here and just downtrodden, you know, this mono happy, but monotone late at night voice and just speak in circles about how great these women are. Yeah, I think I will. I think I did. I think probably we'll keep doing it. I mean, I mean,

what else do you want from me? Eddie Hearn quickly did talk after the fight, you know, that we could be looking at, at a rematch here to close the year. I think we will. I think we should barring any injuries. And I hope the anticipation levels for this from, you know, across all metrics, right? Ticket sales, TV, interviews and opportunities, the rest of combat sports turning its eyes to there. And that's the thing.

It's like, you know, forget about how many MMA fans this women's fight created for boxing, you know, brought over or casual fans like it can't be said enough you know who hates women's boxing more than anyone else usually the people in boxing not tonight not anymore I really feel like this is the beginning of something and it's not that I didn't predict this would be a great fight but did I did I predict we'd all have this feeling afterwards? No, no. That's because of two special individuals, Amanda

Serrano, Katie Taylor. And so, uh, Katie Taylor, six rounds to four on my scorecard. She won seven rounds to three on two of the scorecards. Uh, One of the judges I mentioned giving her a 10, eight rounds. So that, so it was a little bit closer saying that she had lost around five, 10, eight. And then of course that third judge headed the same score as me,

but in the direction of Serrano of six rounds to four. So we'll do it a second time. I think both fighters, you know, can win. I think Serrano can, if anyone can fight better from the first one, I think Serrano has a bright, a larger, brighter ceiling of potentially making adjustments. But

with that said, um, I did enough previews for this fight where each time, you know, in the end, it's like, you know, I had it up in my head and Serrano is the goods. I think she can beat Katie anywhere this fight goes. And I believe that. And Katie Taylor came out and showed me she's even better than I thought she was. So I think we'll enter that rematch with that same feeling of 50, 50, anything can happen. They're going to have pour it out in the ring,

you know, the center of the ring as they did tonight. So, you know, Ireland, the moon, Dubai on a helipad, wherever they want to put this,

I'll be ready. That was one big story tonight. The second top rank on ESPN. And by the way, thank you for not making this a pay-per-view bout. It could have been, I mean, it is two undefeated champions at 130 pounds.

Oscar Valdez, the Mexican brawler turned into crafty pot shotter, still aggressive fighter against Shakur Stevenson, both two division champions. Stevenson thought for a long time Valdez was ducking and they finally got it done. And boy, boy, I mean, you know, the feels we got from Taylor surround, do we get those same feels in this main event? No, you would have been let down if you watch both back to back and didn't know the storylines

and just wanted entertainment. But Stevenson said it best himself afterwards when teed up by Bernardo Asuna, the next great boxing superstar was born tonight. Only, you know. Stop sitting on your aeroplane points and get big savings so you can be somewhere you actually want to be like on a beach. Right now, you can save up to 25% in AeroPlan points when you book a trip to one of 180 plus Air Canada destinations worldwide. So stop sitting on your next trip and start saving on one. Don't miss out. Your chance to save in points ends February 23rd. Book at aircanada.com. Conditions apply. You know, he didn't pop out of the womb fully formed.

You know, if you'd been watching him win the silver medal at the 2016 Olympics, you know, put on flashes of brilliance as a pro, but, you know, sometimes some snoozers. But the eye of the tiger's there now for Shakur Stevenson. And I think he found it in that in that jamel herring one-sided beat down stoppage to win his title his wbo crown coming in so he comes in with that belt valdez comes in with the wbc we knew that shakur was a wide

betting favorite because the skills are so damn sublime but even what he did in winning a wide unanimous decision against valdez it's like again I predicted it would be easy god I predicted he'd stop him and yet even watching it play out as easy as it was I'm still somehow even more impressed than I thought I'd be coming in and it's it you're not going to see me jumping up and down I told you so or getting all giddy and dancing maybe I maybe I saved all that for uh for, for, for, for the first fight, you know, the Taylor Serrano brawl. And I, and I, you know, again, poor words based on a women's fight, but shot my load as a fan, if you will, of excitement, but watching this surgical dismantling from this 24 year old softball,

you don't see talents like this, um, every every day every year and has sure up to this point he's now 18 and 0 9 ko's has shaker stevenson showed us everything that he's about meaning you know a battle-tested chin the ability to come back from behind and all that he hasn't had to do that yet so you're going to still have some critics that are going to say until I see that, right? Until I see that. But what have we seen? I mean, Oscar Valdez is no slow footed, slow handed brawler, right? He's made that evolution. He's quick. He's got Eddie Reynoso in his corner. He had nothing. He had nothing for Shakur Stevenson. It began and ended with Stevenson's control of distance, which was brilliant. His balance, his ability for not being known as a puncher, just nine knockouts in 18 fights, his ability like Floyd, to be fair, to sting you. And he's not a big puncher, but he's

quick and he's accurate. And there's combinations and there's uppercuts and there's perfect placement that even when Valdez was committed to standing behind the high guard, Stevenson's lighting him up through and around that high guard so often that those red blotches are popping out early. Stevenson was so on point on this night that even as Valdez is mounting up these desperate attempts at just trying to get inside. And there was a few things, by the way, I like what Valdez did. Obviously, Eddie Reynoso's a genius. But, you know, the lead double right hands to try to get across in the southpaw, a couple of things you like, but they're so few and far between. And Stevenson was having such incredible success picking him apart,

cutting him below his right eye after round five, that he started to not only control that distance perfectly, but get closer. And once Shakur Stevenson smelled blood, and I really thought it began after round six. Once he started to smell blood, it's like he's getting closer and closer and Valdez is just not doing anything to discipline him, to get him to take a backward step. And, you know, for those single placement shots, I thought that's a good puncher. I mean, sent Miguel Burchell to, to,

you know, the deep down darkness to the point where he may have forever changed Burchell's career. We just saw Burchell get hammered out by Nakatia. Shakur just, I mean, he's just closing in and everything he got hit with, it was like,

shake it off. Nothing there. This kid's a problem. This kid's real. And like, shake it off nothing there this kid's a problem this kid's real and like do you realize how Floyd Mayweather was so so I mean just say it BC so fucking great that we don't compare him to others we don't you know the next time somebody comes up okay maybe Adrian Broner willed it upon himself maybe when Spence first out, even though Spence is a different game than Floyd, we were like, oh God, this guy especially could be, but we don't do that a lot. Like for as great as Terrence Crawford is. And

he's arguably the best boxer in the world. Seriously. Terrence Crawford freaking great. Nobody's like comparing him to Floyd. Shakur Stevenson is the first guy I remember where we're like, oh, that there's some Floyd there. You got some Floyd on you. And only that pressure is not going to be too much for you to handle. Now, he's a southpaw. He's different than Floyd. And as I mentioned a lot in the show, if you watch it, he's much more comparable to the younger pretty boy Floyd of the lower weight classes. But Shakur Stevenson is, I mean, it's timed technique.

It's speed. It's just an IQ to know how to just adjust and pick you apart and avoid and come back. And, you know, he's got a little bit of nastiness to him. You know, not the same nastiness as the Terrence Bud Crawford. But yet again, they're in the same camp and they spar with each other all the time. And Shakur is like a mentor, you know, mentee to the mentor, but he's starting to learn that edge to him. And it was that same edge he used against Jamel Herring, who that was a tough fight for him as a title fight was the biggest fight. She occurs group. That's like his friend.

They were a part of the same camp until, uh, until trainer Brian McIntyre actually kicked out Jamel Herring just recently, different soap opera for another day. But, um, you know, Shakur's got that edge and he came out against Jamal Herring with that. You know what? Like, I'm going to knock you the hell out. Like, I'm going to take you out of here. Edge. I saw that in this fight, you know, it wasn't as pronounced cause he had to respect what Valdez had.

But as soon as he realized this was going to be this type of night because Valdez just could not get inside on them. He could every time Valdez stepped forward to try to get inside, pieced up, pieced up with clean, fast, hard combinations. Um, you know, you saw Shakur Stevenson's confidence just go through the roof and it really, you know, after Valdez got cut in round five, round six, uh, it was the knockdown, the only knockdown of the fight where, uh, Shakur basically spun Valdez around trying to avoid punches and then caught him with a perfect clean sort of right hook uppercut, you know, hybrid shot, knocked him down. Valdez got up, shook it off. I wasn't, you know, disputed it a little bit, but I really feel like from that

point on you saw Shakur Stevenson just going after it. Didn't end up getting the stoppage, but I don't think you take anything away from him. I scored at 118 to 109, which is what, 10 rounds to two. Judges had it 117, 110, 118, 109, and 118, 109. I actually love seeing Shakur getting booed in Las Vegas because of the pro Mexican-American crowd for the native of Nogales, Mexico, Oscar Valdez, who I believe grew up in, uh, in Arizona. If I'm correct on that, you can dead wrong me on another Friday, but, uh, you know, the, the crowd's there to see the Mexican warrior and Shakur played with the booze, you know, had fun with it, taunted them

afterwards. I had them number nine pound for pound coming in. And I don't think a lot of other people did at that point. They needed to see more. I'd seen enough to know. I'd seen too much. I seen a lot in this fight. He's worthy right now at 24 to be in the middle of the top 10. And I got news for you.

Like in terms of fights, like I need to see now sometimes when there's fight, you're like, okay, someone asked you BC, you're a big boxing guy. Like what are, what's your shortlist? What fights do you need to fricking see right now? It's like, typically we lean into like commercial ones with that or we go, oh yeah, well, Spence Crawford, which is like the obvious answer.

And then fury for the undisputed title at heavyweight. Like those are like right now the two knee jerk gimmies. Unless you want to get a little creative and go, okay, you know, well, Geronimo Davis, Ryan Garcia. Yeah, right. Any of those elite lightweight young guys against elite lightweight young guys. But I got a new one for you. The next great fight you can make in boxing. That me, that for my love, for what gets me into it as a fan that you could

get me so damn hardcore excited that i'd think about renting an rv and drive into this thing it's shakur stevenson versus vasily lomachenko wow did you said that that fight or that orgasm along with me? Did you, you know, yes, Jake Hager, we're all rock hard with emotion. So, Lomachenko's 34, three-division champion, former

unified lightweight champion, just had a dismantling of the Japanese fighter, Nishioka, I believe is his name. And then, of course, turned down the chance to fight George Kambosis for three or four belts because he's part of the Ukraine conflict with Russia and he's on the front lines.

And shout out to Vasily Lomachenko. But Lomachenko still got it after that Teofimo Lopez loss. And he proved that last fight out. And he can still make 130 with ease if he wanted to move down and fight Chikor Stevenson for two belts to be the man of that division ring magazine champion all that I think he's still like 126 by the way but no one

there would fight him so he kept moving up or even if you wanted to do it at lightweight which I think you did probably be less likely with no title at stake all the titles are tied up right now in the George Cambosis, Devin Haney fight coming up on the zone. So, but if they end up, if this becomes the new target fight, and when I say target, I mean, Shakur takes a mandatory in between Lomachenko gets a comeback fight from, from, you know, being on the front lines there. And we build to this thing for

like first quarter, 2023. You at at that point it'd be 25 year old against 35 year old both in the top 10 pound for pound and it has that potential to be the the passing of the torch from the old you know wizard in lomachenko soft paw just dynamic as shit to the new one and shakur stevenson or it could be a humbling night for Shakur against a guy who's not fricking done yet. Either way, the skill involved in that fight, that's one of those where even if you can see the future and you say,

it's not going to live up to expectations, BC, it's not going to be exciting. It's going to be very, very much chess and point heavy and slow checkers with your grandma right like just slow as shit because she can't really see the color combos you're trying to be polite you're like nine years old you know and but it's slow right um i i'd still want to see it right now and i'd love it that's my shit okay luke thomas

likes to see you know know, grappling tournaments for jujitsu. Yeah, that's great. It's like, okay, what do you watch Cinemax B movies too, to get off? I mean, what are we doing here, bro? Right. I mean, what, you know, um, this is my type of chess and I love it, but to even include him in that conversation and say, this fight's viable. He's special. Shakur Stevenvenson is special grew up in the hard streets of newark yeah he had a hiccup outside the ring when he beat up those people in that parking garage but you know he seems to bounce back and he seems to be where he needs to be he's got andre ward as a big brother although i think it's weird that uh andre ward used to be

the co-manager of shakur and just, I guess they, they ended that, that official title, even though there's still sort of big brother mentor thing going on there. So now Ward's not only back on the broadcast, but scoring it, but another topic for another death. I thought he did a decent job there scoring. It was an easy fight to score, but, um, you know, Shakur's got James Prince as his manager. He's well-connected ESPN top rank promoting him. He's going to go to the moon and the fact that he can move up to lightweight whenever he wants, and if he can make those fights against any of those young guys, the Ryan Garcia's Devin Haney's tail, Fimo still, you know, Gervonta, heck any of them, Roley Romero. I mean, any of them.

And the fact that we know that, you know, at just 24, Stevenson eventually wants to move up to welterweight. I mean, we're looking at another Floyd or Pernell Whitaker here, if he can keep staying on that and improve, you know? And for anyone saying, well, what about, you know, he doesn't have big power and, you know, do we know if he has a great chin? Well, look, we said the same thing about Floyd and Pernell Whitaker, to be fair, right?

And Shakur looks to be that that type of ilk and it's going to be really fun watching him continue to have probably be avoided by a lot of guys but continue to just be a nightmare a style nightmare for people um what a master class performance and I guess you could have been bored by it, you know, I mean, especially coming off the women's brawl before that. But this was just some some like, damn. Like, he's not just, you know, you know, that line I love, right? Larry Merchant, HBO, after Manny Pacquiao knocked out Miguel Cotto in the 12th round, you know, we knew Pacquiao was great. He's better than we thought he was. I mean, it's one of the, it's a,

it's just one of those merchant old man, sort of just little quibs and it's just beautiful. I think she cares a little bit better than even I thought. I'm the guy telling you he's the next pound for pound King. So, um, wow. Uh, and then to shoot your shot at the end and, and your post-fight interview by, you know, by asking your baby mama to marry you right there.

It's a pretty badass move. It's a pretty badass move. You know, he doesn't care if you like him or not. He'll play the villain. He'll play the aggressor. He can go backwards. He can go forward. I mean, this kid is something to watch and luckily even at 130 like i said you look ahead at the weight classes above him a lot of stars and there are a lot of young stars a lot of great fights we could we could be making with shaker stevenson in the next few years and you know that espn hype machine which can really annoy you if you're a serious

boxing fan because they just beat the dead horse on things um you know they spent a lot of time the last few years telling telling us all that you know lomachenko and then teo fimo and then bud crawford the next big thing you know teo fimo had a hiccup we'll see what happens next crawford's still coming into the huge fight, but they're just going to slide Shakur right in there and tell you the same thing, only they're going to be right. By the way, speaking of Terrence Crawford, just real quick, I saw Mike Coppinger was at the fight tonight.

Crawford was there. He walked Shakur to the ring in Las Vegas. He said he interviewed Crawfordford Coppinger did quickly here's what Coppinger said I don't want any warm-up fight or tune-up fight because by the way there were some low-level online rumors that Keith Thurman could be getting a pay-per-view against Crawford next to set up the Spence fight he's like no I want Spence now and then oh by the way I'm gonna move up to 154 and fuck up Jermell Charles. Wow.

That's a cigarette behind the factory. And try to think about what that's going to be like. Yes. All right. Great night. Great night for boxing. And she said yes, by the way. Chris Stevens is going to get married.

Shout out to him. But that's where we're at. Morning Combat. You can like us and follow us here at these stream heads right here. We're going to be back Monday morning. Luke Thomas and myself, Brian Campbell, looking at spinning the weekend forward, setting the stage for what should be a big week. And by the way, Luke and I, Luke and BC, right? Making it look easy.

Going to be back in the Jersey City bomb shelter later this week. Filming some MK. Filming some bonus projects. Filming some live fight, post-fight reaction Saturday night in the studio. So get ready for a lot of that. It'll look just like this, but much more professional. I'm Brian Campbell. And I approve this instant reaction. It was really just just me telling you about my sport and how great it is.

Right. You know, like ask me about Herbalife. Right. You ever see those bumper stickers? Hey, I'm a fan. Ask me about boxing. Fucking great. Right. I mean, right now it ask me about boxing. Fucking great, right? I mean, right now it's great, right? You know, it's like we all, like you ever bring a girlfriend to like an extended family party, you know, and you're like, there's uncle, I don't even want to say the name because I have a lot of these uncles, but you know,

there's uncle, you know, Bob. And she's like, man, uncle Bob's so funny, right? Like we should hang out with him. And you're like, you know, that like, man, Uncle Bob's so funny, right? We should hang out with him. I respect it, but Uncle Bob's going to have his shirt off and is possibly going to say the N-word within an hour. It's like, no, no, Bob, no, no. That's boxing to the two outsiders, except for right now, Uncle Bob, he's still got his underwear on. I'm going to leave you with that

and uh yeah inside i looked inside the box right step three you know but and it's it's pretty damn good right now i'm gonna savor this flavor and i got uh i got two others for you we out yeah