The Ariel Helwani Show - Ariel x Ade, episode 32: Oscar De La Hoya on 'lame' Canelo-Crawford faceoff, Brian Norman Jr. talks brutal knockout, more

Episode Date: June 24, 2025

Ariel Helwani and Ade Oladipo start with their reaction to the theatrics from Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford on their press tour (04:00), the rumored Jarrell Miller vs. Jared Anderson fight, and pitch their dream fights on the first Zuffa boxing card. Then, the duo discusses the announced Riyad Season card headlined by Moses Itauma vs. Dillian Whyte before being joined by WBO welterweight champion Brian Norman Jr. (22:51) after his brutal KO win over Jin Sasaki to talk winning in Japan, Manny Pacquiao’s return, and what’s next for him.Next up, Oscar De La Hoya calls in ahead of the MVP and Golden Boy co-promoted Jake Paul vs. Julio César Chávez Jr. fight to break down the card, give his insight into Canelo-Crawford, and more (41:37).After briefly previewing Paul vs. Chávez Jr. (55:06), Ariel and Ade give their take on Galal Yafai’s shocking loss to Francisco Rodríguez Jr. (1:02:47) and look ahead to the weekend’s slate of fights (1:06:36), before landing the Parting Shots (1:10:14)

Hello and welcome to a brand new edition of Ariel and Ade right here on the undisputed global home of boxing, DAZN. That's the zone. I'm Ariel Hawani inside our beautiful New York City studio. It is a freaking scorching day outside. It is a hundred degrees outside in New York City. Ah, you know yourself, I love it. The action going to be heating up.

That's what people say in the TV business. It's hot outside, but the action is getting hotter inside. And that's the case this Saturday on Dazon Pay-Per-View, the return of Jake Paul against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. But right now, Dazon, if I'm being 100% honest with all of you, is sort of at the epicenter of all things sport. We know about the boxing, we know about the combat sports, but what about this Club World Cup?

And my friend and yours at the forefront of it all, the presenter, the face of it all, dare I say, the one and only Ade Oladipo, joining us in between matches, I think. He's so busy right now. He's got to squeeze us in. Hello, my friend. How are you? Just, you know, just busy trying to juggle, you know, boxing and soccer.

This is the dream, is it not? Is this not the dream? This is it. This is it. This is like the biggest dream. I love boxing. I love many sports, right? But football for a Brit is just like, it's number one. It's by a country mile. So yeah, and to get to cover so many sort of big teams as well, to get to talk about Messi,

which is just sensational. So yeah, this is it. This is everything to me. Shout out to Inter Miami doing their thing. Yeah, they did. Advancing. Can I tell you something funny? They're into the last 16.

Can I tell you something funny? Go ahead. I was at the American dream mall, which is across the street from MetLife stadium yesterday. Uh, if you must know my boys, they were going to summer camp and we usually have a nice little tradition of going out for dinner the night before. And all of a sudden I see an influx of people wearing red jerseys walking around the mall. This is now like seven 30, eight o'clock local time. I'm like, what's going on here?

Is there a match tonight? And I'm like, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. sudden I see an influx of people wearing red jerseys walking around the mall. This is now like seven 30, eight o'clock local time. I'm like, what's going on here? Is there a match tonight? And lo and behold, 9 PM kickoff, which is very rare on the East coast. It's a, it's FC Porto against Al Ali, the Egyptian side, and we have a brief moment where like, should

we go, should we not go, should we go, should we not go in the end, we decide not to go because they've gotten a leave in the morning, but it ended up being an all time classic four, four, an unbelievable match. So I kind of wish that we went, but there's a buzz here in the area and I feel like it's only getting bigger as we head into the knockout stages.

I'm pumped. I'm into it. I'm watching. I'm enjoying your coverage. I'm enjoying Dazone's coverage. The app, here I am shilling for Dazone, but the app, the upgrade has been great. I like when you turn it on and goes Dazone. It's fantastic.

The gold, the gold swat is pretty cool isn't it? It's great. It's great. I'm loving it. So I hope you are enjoying it as well. And I hope that you're able to, uh, keep up with the world of boxing. Cause I know that you're very busy these days focusing on the world of football because my friend, there's a lot going on in the world of boxing.

Shall we get into it? By the way, later in the program back end, hall of fame promoter, hall of fame fighter, Olympic gold medalist, the one and only the golden boy, Oscar De La Hoya will join us to of course, talk about the, uh, the co-pro this weekend. That's what we say in the business, we call it

a co-pro between MVP and golden boy in, Anaheim I shall be there I'm looking forward to it Jake Paul of course against Julio Cesar Chavez junior you got Zerdo Ramirez on there you got a nice little tasty one between Floyd Schofield and Tevin Farmer forward to that as well that's going under the radar that's a really good fight going under the radar yes and we will talk about all of that. And then some prior to Oscar De La Hoya, we're gonna be joined by Brian Norman Jr.

who may have scored one of the knockouts of the weekend, maybe of the year over in Japan. What a great performance for him. So looking forward to that chat in about 15 minutes time. But let's talk about the little, the three leg media tour that both Canelo Alvarez and Terrence Crawford and others have been on. It started last Thursday in Riyadh, no Dana White in attendance, we'll get to him in a moment, but we got the first face off between the two. Technically it was the

second if we count the face off in the ring after William Scull fight back in early May. And so here it is, the face-off in Riyadh, pretty cordial. And I don't know about you, I know some people like fireworks, I know some people like, you know, the theatrics. Just seeing these two guys face to face is good enough for me. Like they're larger than life, they're icons. I'm cool with this. What about you, for the first leg? Yeah, yeah, for the first one, I don't mind it. I don't mind it. These two don't talk trash, but we know they deliver in the ring. If it's two fighters that are known for trash talking and all of a sudden they press the pause button on the trash talking, then yeah, I'm like, Oh,

what's going on? But Terran Crawford certainly does not talk trash. Canelo does a little bit when you antagonize him, i.e. Caleb Plant and Belanga. But most times he doesn't really talk trash either. But I think we both know these guys will deliver. I've said sometimes you do need an antagonizer, sometimes it can get a bit boring, but with these two, that's the exception to the rule. But I do think Canelo has turned into the antagonizer in the last couple of meetings between these two, or at least in the rooftop thing with Shaq and Tom Brady a few months ago. I think a lot of people assume that's now,

it was ages ago. But I feel like Canelo has decided to play the hill here, which I don't mind either. Okay, we'll get to that little interaction in a second. But for me, I couldn't agree more. I do like heat, I do like trash talk, I do like the theatrics if they are authentic, if they feel real, but when you have icons,

when you have Hall of Famers, when you have legends, you almost don't need it. The fact that this fight is even happening, the fact that you have two guys who are fighting in different area codes, different weight classes, multiple weight classes apart, the fact that it's even happening on this type of stage is good enough for me.

That being said, following the press conference, a photo was posted on social media of them enjoying a meal with Turkey I'll Shake. There they are. And a lot of people didn't like this, right? A lot of people said, this is a little too cordial for me. Now others say, I don't care, may the best man win. They're two legends, all good.

Others say, no, like I want to at least suspend disbelief and kind of believe that they hate each other, or at least that there's some kind of friction. Where do you fall in that argument? I'm definitely with that it's too cordial. Just because I've never seen it before. Most times, and you know, I've been public to sport for 10 years, I've been a boxing fan for the last,

what, nearly 30 years. I've never seen two guys are about to duke it out, have dinner with each other. It might happen behind closed doors, but I've never seen it. So it's kind of weird, especially for a fight of this magnitude. And I can tell you now, I've been around Terence Crawford a few times. He ain't comfortable. He ain't comfortable sitting in there eating in front of Canelo. And I don't know if Canelo is either.

But again, ultimately, when you remove all that stuff away from it, these guys are going to fight. They're going to deliver. They're going to try and hit each other as hard as they possibly can. But it was kind of weird. Let's not play games. It was a bit weird seeing them sort of break bread before they break bread, if you like. Two days later, they're now in New York city, fanatics fest Sunday afternoon.

And, uh, I did see Jake Paul and some other people say, wait a second. You brought out all the big names, all the particulars, everyone's sitting there. And then you bring out Dana White. Like he's the star of the show. Truth be told, that's how they do it in the UFC. All the fighters come up and then Dana White comes up. So they're stealing sort of the playbook that they've used for the UFC events, Nick Khan is there, etc. But then this time when they face off, now there's theatrics, now there's pushing and shoving, now we get some kind of friction between the two of them. Here it

is, in case you missed it, you've got the two of them going face to face. What did you make of this? 48 hours removed from them having a little hummus together? This I liked. This I liked. This is almost a case of the switch has been turned. Okay, like playtime is now over. And a lot of people are saying it's a bit WWE antics. It's not.

You can tell Crawford wasn't happy with the push. Canelo's face. I think there's a screenshot of Canelo's face and you can tell that he's now serious. These guys know what's at stake here. For Canelo, I wouldn't say his legacy is at stake, but you can't lose to a guy jumping up two weight classes. For Crawford, that unbeaten record, he wants that to remain intact. So I think both guys, they know they're going to get paid, but I think both guys are understanding

what's coming September 13th. And now it's got serious. Like enough of the, okay, let's sit down and eat with each other and let's coming September 13th. And now it's got serious. Like enough of the, okay, let's sit down and eat with each other and let's do a Pierce Morgan, sit down and start talking about our family and wives and kids. No, no, no, we're gonna fight. And I think both of them now realize that.

Yeah, you're right about the Pierce stuff. Like having them sit together, like at least in the middle you have Pierce, a little more friction. Now here's the thing, I'll admit, when I saw this, I was like, hmm, I just saw the meeting together, they seemed fine two days ago, what changed, right?

Nothing was really said at the press conference to suggest that there's any sort of beef there. But then this clip came out, or I should say this whole interview came out, with Dana White, Shaquille O'Neal, and Tom Brady hosting a show that had Terrence and Canelo in the middle of it all. And it did seem like there was some genuine friction.

Now, important to note, as you just said, this was shot a few months ago, but what it did tell me was, okay, wait, maybe there is something there and maybe they've been forced to be, you know, all kumbaya, friendly, friendly, but maybe there isn't actual respect there. And maybe there is some sort of heat between the two of them. In case you missed it, it's a fascinating conversation between two

absolute legends kind of poking holes and especially Canelo being the instigator here at each other's resume. Here's the conversation that we're talking about. Don't get me wrong, okay? He's a good fighter, a great fighter. I always say before I see him calling me out and want the fight and everything I see before. I say before he's a great fighter. But if you look at his career, mention one elite fighter. Just mention me one elite fighter. So Postal wasn't elite? Who?

Victor Postal. Who's that guy? Oh, so he wasn't commercialized, He wasn't, he wasn't great. Ricky Burns wasn't elite. What? A 40 years old champion in that moment, beat Victor Postle in my gym. I saw that.

So, so Ricky Burns wasn't elite? Bon, Ricky Bon, doesn't elite. Okay. He's not elite. It's cool. Is there a champion? I'm going to fight another elite fighter in September. There is a champion with fighters, but elite fighters is different.

Way, way, way different. So I'm going to fight an elite fighter in September. Yeah. OK, we're going to find out. We're going to find out. And don't give me wrong. You're a great fighter. I know I'm great.

You're a great fighter. You're going to find out. I hope your uncle, your uncle, Turki Alashi, pay you enough money because you're gonna be the last That's maybe it may be Maybe I hope he pay you enough, but you know after fighters fight me. They never the same so I just hope Yeah, career continue. I look my career never say no Yo more of that man more of that right? No underrated crap talker more of that good

The best thing to ever happen to boxing is Canelo speaking English. I know. It's just changed the dynamic completely. Imagine that going through a translator. Nah, it doesn't work. It just loses it, it loses the fit, loses the buzz. I loved what he said.

Cause he is not actually, when he says name one elite fire, he's actually asking Shaq. Yeah. And then Crawford kind of jumps in and I'm sure that Crawford says Postal first. I'm like, surely he's going to say Spence or Porter. I'm like, why did you say Postal? It was so weird. I like Victor Postal.

Yeah. Like why Victor Postal? And by the way, Victor Postal, when Crawford fought him was unbeaten, came off the Lucas Matisse win, and maybe he was ascending to be an Elite fighter, but he certainly wasn't an Elite fighter. Um's just the way Canelo says, with the glasses, like, do you know my resume? And you just said, pick the postal? It's fantastic, dude. I love it. By the way, does he call Ricky, does he call him Ricky Bums? I wasn't sure if that was just me misunderstanding, but I thought maybe he was taking a shot at him as well. You're right though,

Spence should have been the first name and then like the conversation kind of ends right there. Yeah, first name. What I was dying to know was like, what is Tom Brady, Shaq and Dana White thinking at this point, because they're like, we can't, we don't know who these people are. You know what I mean?

Like, what does Tom Brady know about Victor Postel and then, and, and, and any of these dudes like that was reasonable. And Shaq doesn't know who Victor Postel is. No, no, no. He doesn't know. If they did, they would have chim dudes like Canelo's resume. And Shaq doesn't know who Victor Post is. No, no, no. He doesn't know. If they did, they would have chimed in. Sure.

They would have chimed in and said something. Yeah, I remember that fight. I remember. Yeah. No idea, no idea. But I loved it, I loved it. And Terrence Crawford felt uncomfortable in that situation because he kind of moves in his seat like this.

It is an uncomfortable situation because he knows he's arguing with someone or debating with someone who does have the resume, who has got those elite names from, I don't know, for the last 10 years. Canelo's only really fought elite names. And there's been some gimmies on there, but he's always fought elite after elite after elite. And that's the one thing that I've poked at Crawford.

And I don't necessarily agree, but you know, the casual fans will say, well, one second, who's the names? Where are the names? And I think that makes Crawford uncomfortable because I think Crawford has almost been bypassed to fight the elite. There was a time when he was supposed to fight Danny Garcia, couldn't get the fight. When he's supposed to fight Sean Porter, when Sean was in league, couldn't get the fight. Keith Furman couldn't get the fight. Errol when Errol was definitely in league, couldn't get the fight. So it's not Crawford's fault. It's the way boxing works. But I think that cut deep with Crawford.

I think it did. I love it. And I'm looking forward to the third leg. Some of these kind of fall flat after you get past the second leg. But I think now it's gotten a bit of a jolt. I am curious to start to see, you know, we're three months, a little less than three months away now. I've heard Turkey mention Big baby Miller and, and, and Jared Anderson.

That one, that one surprised that we haven't really seen. And then he's also said like, okay, we're going to put some other names, some younger talent on there. To me, you know how I feel about big baby. Like, I don't know if he's trustworthy. He's been put in some big spots before IE

Madison square garden against AJ, IE Portman road very recently. And he kind of drops the ball, right? He will sell the fight, but like, can you trust it? Do you want an incident on a stage like this? I don't know if it's worth, I don't know if the juice is worth the squeeze.

If he's that big of a deal to where you should put them. I like the Jared Anderson idea. He's obviously a big name in America. He needs to bounce back. He needs to get back on track. I don't know about that Jarell Miller one. I'm a little surprised that his name is being mentioned.

It's risky. I mean, you mentioned AJ, you mentioned Portman Road. I mean, you only have to go back a few months before Portman Road is supposed to fight Chisora. That too, yeah. And then that didn't happen. So that's three big ones that unfortunately have passed him by for whatever reasons.

He did put out on his Instagram, I think a couple of hours ago saying I'm now free. So I'm guessing that means free from Dimitri Solich. I know you had Dimitri on last week so we kind of wonder what's going to happen there. But I like Big Baby because he will sell it but you're right will he turn up to the dance? I mean you can do all the selling you want but will you turn up? But it's not a bad idea because those two both called Big Baby by the way have their issues. I mean I did can do all the selling you want, but will you turn up? But it's not a bad idea because those two, both called Big Baby by the way, have their issues. I mean, I did the Crawford-Madrinow press conference

and they're both on the table, both fought on that card. And those two were going at each other more than they were going at their opponents. So there's history there. It's a good fight, but will it happen? I don't know. If you could pick one fight out there, not like Tyson Fury versus AJ,

like one sort of attainable fight that you would love to see on a platform like this, on a stage like this, spotlight like this. What's the fight? I would go, I'd go Devon Haney, tear female. Really? Yeah, I'd go Devon Haney, tear female.

I liked that fight a lot. I think both of them at 140, probably, I know Devon's tried to jump to the 147 or he's had a 144 fight. I think you can make an argument and say they're number one and two at 140. And let's not forget, Devon's unbeaten. I mean, the Ryan Garcia thing turned into a no contest.

And Tierfimo has come off a really good win against Barboza. I think those two have some heat. And those two have had heat for five years. I know Ryan stepped into the fold and it was Ryan versus Devin. But really and truly, if you go back, it's been Devin versus Tia Fimo. They've squared up so many times and it hasn't happened.

And I feel like that could spark a little bit at a press conference. And I think both of those guys would be really good under the spotlight as well. Well, this is sort of like a business of boxing thing, but I think- Oh, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. I'll take it back, I'll take it back.

I just want it to come to my head. Boots, Virgil, or T's. Okay, so- Boots, Virgil, or T's. I was literally gonna say that. I've seen the reports of maybe it happening in October, but here's the thing. We're gonna learn a lot about who Zufa boxing is with this,

with this card, right? Because like, if you're talking about boots and Virgil Ortiz, like you're going to be working with Oscar De La Hoya and, uh, and Eddie, like, or are they just going to be doing, you know, are they just going to be having guys who are promotional free agents, i.e. a big baby Miller, maybe that explains it and not try to get these massive names because you know that those two guys, Crawford and Canelo are super expensive. Are they going to try to go with, for lack of a better word, less expensive, cheaper guys? I don't see them having the Eddie's of the world, certainly not the Oscars of the world,

given Dana's relationship with, with Oscar del Hoya, top ranked guys. I just don't see it happening. And so I wonder if it's going to be like a sort of top heavy card where it's like the two megastars and then other names, but not names like Boots and Ortiz. That one makes all the sense in the world. Obviously it would be incredible, but I don't know. I don't think it's gonna be like this collection

of promoters that we've seen in the past with some of these Riyadh cards. Yeah, that's a shame then, because as you say, with Riyadh season cards, we used to see all these promoters come together and put on the Super Bowl S cards. And this is this is Turkey's first venture with Netflix. So you'd expect to do a lot of Canelo Crawford to sell. But I mean, even when Jake Paul fought Mike Tyson, you had Taylor Serrano as the chief support.

So you had something really big as the under. So I'd be shocked. I mean, I have seen Turkey kind of put out a tweet saying, fighters get in touch, put your videos below. And it wasn't necessarily a call to promote as a manager, it was to fighters. So I do wonder what you're saying has led to it where it's just a case of I'm dealing with the fighters as opposed to dealing with the managers and promoters. But Eddie did speak to us a couple of weeks ago, didn't he? When I asked him about, you know, Katie Taylor fighting on Netflix and she's a Dazon fight,

and he's like, well, you know, the offer was so big, we let her go. But I do wonder if the offers are so big to some of these fighters that Eddie, even though he doesn't really have a, sorry, Oscar, although, you know, there is a problem with Dana, we'll just let these fighters go to get the payday. No wonder.

I mentioned the top rank, and obviously Dana and Bob Arum have not been the best of friends. In that tweet, by the way, Turkey did mention pound for pound one of the most exciting fighters in the sport, the great Christian Mbili, who returned to action this weekend. Did you see him working the bag?

Did you see this footage? Have you ever seen anything as mesmerizing as Christian Mb Lee working the bag? This is sort of my- You've now sold me on him. This is my cue to play the footage of Christian B. Lee working the bag. I thought you were playing.

I start talking. I thought he was gonna let you guys. Yes, thank you. It's coming, it's coming. Look at this, look at this. Okay. Come on, man. Dude, he's ferocious, isn't he?

What is that? You know, I just want him to think. I think you just, by the way, has he ever got in touch with you? No. Like, promo? No? No. He probably doesn't know what he's doing. The amount of push you give him.

I know. Like, he's getting this call to be on his car because of you. Hopefully. But I hope he gets an opportunity because he deserves, he deserves a big one. Again, get past this weekend, then hopefully he's on the card. Cause I like him really.

And he's in a division where there are so many big names as well. So he shouldn't be fighting people we don't know. He should be fighting big names. By the way, speaking of Riyadh season cards, officially announced earlier today, their return to Riyadh on August 16th. What do you think? Moses Saitama against Dillion White, Nick Ball against Ray Ford. I know we spoke about some of these when they were sort of bandied about, but Moses versus

Dillion White is one of them. Nick Ball, I said Ray Ford versus Anthony Kakachi, Nick Ball versus Sam Goodman, Philip Hergovich on there against David Adelaide. Not a bad one. What do you say? Yeah, I have to be honest, surprised. There's a few that surprise me. Moses versus Dillion surprised me. Honestly, didn't see that coming from anywhere. Surprising because Moses is jumping up or because Dillion's taking the fight? Because Dillion's taking the fight.

Interesting. Because Dillion's taking the fight. Do you have anything else that's of interest? I mean, Dillion's, well, again, I mean, Eddie alluded to the fact that again, Eddie alluded to the fact that they were maybe thinking Dillion versus AJ. Dillion versus Joseph Parker, Dillion versus Derek Chisora. Dillion's in a great position, considering he hasn't done much in the last couple of years, he's in a great position that he's got about four or five names he can match up with because of the history of those fighters. Moses isn't one of those guys.

There's no history there This is the first time Dillion's almost being put out to be slayed right they want Moses to win Moses is the new kid on The block and didn't ever been in this position before so at 37 You know the check must have been very very good and sweet for Dillion to say okay Look, we'll fight Moses because D Dillian is a massive underdog, like, massive underdog. But I wish he could- On the flip side, I love it for Moses, right? What a name to have on the resume at this stage.

100%. Everyone in the UK, outside of boxing, knows who Dillian is. They don't quite know who Moses is yet. So if Moses were to fight Dillian and beat him like many think he will, all of a sudden, everyone's going to know who Moses is. So it's great matchmaking. Derrick Chisora actually said he turned down this fight as well, Derrick Chisora was off at the Moses fight.

He said he was off at two million and turned it down. Wow, for his last one. For his last one, he said, nope, I ain't doing that. I ain't fighting a 20 year old with fast hands and punch power on my last one. So he turned it down, which is interesting. I mean, I don't blame him. For last one. Why would you want to fight a guy like, uh, like, like, like Moses Saitama, but, uh, I would love to see it.

I think, I think he beats both of them at this stage. I think he beats a lot of the guys. We need to get Joseph Parker a fight. We need to get him a fight and preferably not against the likes of Dave Allen. With all due respect, not against the likes of Dave Allen. That's crazy talk. Let's see how this plays out, but all these fights are being made. All these heavyweight fights are being made and he's not a part of it.

It's madness. Uh, one guy who was in action, he was in the game, he was in the Not against Alexa Dave Allen. That's crazy talk. Let's see how this plays out. But all these fights are being made. All these heavyweight fights are being made. And he's not a part of it. It's madness. One guy who was in action this past weekend and who, I mean, just absolutely stole the show over in Japan was Brian Norman Jr. What a performance. What a freaking knockout.

He's kind enough to join us right now. Let us say hello to the man himself who is joining us after an incredible win. There he is. Hello, Brian. How are you? How y'all boys doing? We're doing great. And it's great to meet you. It's great to talk to you. Ade's giving you a little bit of a standing or a sitting ovation there. I'll do the same. How many times have you watched that knockout of Jin Sasaki? That was vicious, dare I say scary stuff, but at the same time, an absolute beautiful, beautiful shot.

Yeah, that's too many times to count, man. I done watched that fight so many times. That thing, that was legendary. That's going down in the history books, decades down the line. Y'all gonna say, y'all remember when that boy went and took your pan and took that boy's head off his shoulders?

So, I feel like I'm watching the spirit of the day. I love it. Can I just ask about the experience over there? Cause I saw a great clip of Bob Arum, your promoter walking into the locker room and telling you about the national anthems and everything like that. It's a little different.

The crowds a little different and you were fighting one of their own. Your experience over there in Japan, fighting a Japanese fighter and doing that over there. What was it all like for you? Oh, it was lovely actually. Coming into it, we heard a lot of Roma saying, it's bad, they treat you bad,

they try to mess with you on play games, but we had the best time ever. Everything was spot on down to the timing, like they are very, very, very punchful, they don't run on black people time, we all know how that go. Um, the crowd was a little bit different, but at the same time it was still amazing.

Like, uh, they was very reserved, but when action kick up, they get to clap it just a little bit more, but it was definitely a time, definitely an experience. And I would love to go back. Hey, uh, firstly, Ariel, did you laugh when he said black people time? Did you understand it, Ariel?

Did you get it? I mean, this feels like a trick question. This feels like a trick. Well, why don't you explain to us for those that may not be black. No, we just always turn up late. We just turn up late, saying, start at 11, we turn up at one in the morning.

That's what we do. Very likely. It's just a standard behavior. Brian, look look first I want to apologize to you to something I want to apologize now I did not know you were this young but when they said you know when everyone talks about the next big star of American boxing they need to put your name in that mix now because I thought okay Brian Norman maybe 25 24 24 with 28 fights and 22 knockouts. I mean, this is a resume we need to start speaking about. Do you think that people have been sleeping on you

a little bit, like myself included, and now need to start putting a bit more respect on the name? I mean, most definitely, but everything will happen in due time. As you see, you start to pay attention to it. Everybody else start to pay attention to it. So if I got to put somebody to sleep just to wake y'all up i will do that so um 24 years old the future is very bright i'm still doing what i'm supposed to do i'm still in the gym still working

hard still knocking names off the list so if you don't get behind me you're gonna get pushed down a lot of people now consider you number one in the welterweight division right boots has left the division we'll get to you know the potentials of that fight may be still happening down the line but now you're considered the man in the division that brings extra pressure is that something you like that extra pressure because now people are looking at you as the guy they're hunting as opposed to you being the hunter? I accept that with full grace. This is what I would have been putting myself in the mind state of since I was seven years old.

So I already was the best at 147. I don't care if anybody move up or come into the weight division. I'm still gonna be the best and I will always be the best. Whatever division I'm in, it's my division. When you saw Sasaki fall the way in which he did, and then there's some reports that he like, can't remember the last six weeks of his life,

how do you process that? You obviously are out there to win, you're trying to do the best that you can do, but then you want this to be a sport and for him to be okay, I presume. How do you process that information when you see it? And also just the sight of him on the canvas after the knockout.

So of course, at first, you know, the timing of the knockout, I was excited about it. You know, of course, got me another knockout under my name. I'm raising my hands up, I'm happy. I bow down to him. And I go to take my gloves off and I see he's still laying down. Okay, we take the gloves off and everything they slide the stretcher in

there. All right, this game's serious. I'm waiting on him to wake up. He's not waking up. So we get to the back, they say he had went to the hospital. Now news, it's just getting worse and worse and worse. Then we find out about the month and a half memory loss. Oh Lord, I don't know what's going on. It's only getting worse. I didn't know the knockout was that dramatic, but I'm thinking back on it, how hard his head, the back of his head hit the ground. Yeah.

Yeah, that was kind of vicious. So I'm happy that currently today he is doing just fine. He is doing wonderful. We actually DM'd each other the day after the fight. Oh wow, nice. He's checking us on each other. So no, we cool. Everything's solid and shoot, that my dog. I love to hear that. day after the fight. Oh wow. Nice. He's checking up on each other. So, no, we cool.

Everything's solid and shoot, that my dog. I love to hear that. And by the way, that photo of you sort of bowing down to him and showing him respect reminds me of a very famous MMA photo. There was a fighter named Mayhem Miller doing the same to a legend named Kazushi Sakuraba. And I love the sportsmanship and respect that you showed to him. I was going to ask you, I know you said you DM'd right after the fight. Is there any sort of update on how he's doing now?

Like is he out of the hospital? Is he okay? Is he, you know, are there no sort of like long-term effects from the knockout? Will he be able to fight again? Dude, my boy back at Ben is man, he back doing his thing. He said he trying to beat me again. Kind of a fact.

He sent me a video of him doing 20 rounds of sparring just a few minutes ago. So I think he doing all right. I want to clear something up, Brian. Let's clear up this boots situation. Obviously, you know, Eddie, Eddie likes to talk and Eddie said months ago that you and your team or your dad turned the fight down. Can we clear up forever for now? Like, let's just end it. What happened with the negotiations to fight Boots? All right, so you sit here and tell me if this makes sense.

I got to fight with Jen Sasaki coming up. Everybody know about this. You come out and try to make me sign a contract before I even fight. Now we've seen what happened with Kale Plant when he was supposed to fight Charlo, and they made like a little pre-fight contract type thing. Kale Plant lost, his eyes wasn't on the prize. He was focused on three steps down the line instead of what's in front of him.

We've seen what happened when Ron Garcia's and Devin Henning were supposed to have a rematch, and they signed a contract beforehand, and Ron Garcia's eyes wasn't on the prize. So why would I go out here and make the same mistake? So I said, okay, cool. I do want to fight him. But can we talk about all of this literally after the fight?

I fight June 19th. We don't even have to wait until June 20th. We can start talking literally after that final bell rings but for some reason twice on fight week Eddie Hearn came out and then the day before my fight boots come out saying they move it up and wait I thought we were supposed to fight after this so how am I over here ducking a fight and stuff and he the one that moved up ever so quick why you had to do it on my fight week you can't wait till the week after a a month after anything. I don't know if y'all remember,

in that post-conference on his last fight, he said how easy he made 147, how good he felt, and how this and how that. What happened? Another thing, his doctor said he only performed at 30 or 40%. First of all, what doctor and what test do you take to say you only perform at 30 or 40 percent?

Think about that. And also, he came out with a whole percentage as well, only 30 or 40 percent. Do you take a blood test? What you miss is some vitamins or something? Take a multivitamin, you all right. What tests are they taking to let you know you're only performing at 30 or 40%? Stuffing and adding up brother.

And then you don't want to fight to you because you don't want to look bad. You don't want to fight Virgil because you ain't at 154 yet, but now you're at 154 and come on now, is it me or is it them? Why are they playing fun of the games? Why something always going down with them?

Why can't they get no big fight? What's going on with them? But yeah, I'm the one on the end that's gotta see him bite all the bullets. It's all cool. I'm gonna keep knocking everybody's head off and letting all y'all boys know. See, this is good. You've explained it now because again, you know what Twitter fingers are like. People online talking nonsense.

I think the way you've explained it for me is perfect. I think it's perfect. Is there a part of you that is disappointed because it's a massive fight in the states, whether the fight happens in Philly or anywhere, it's a big fight. Are you disappointed that it's like, you know, not going to happen because he has moved up? I think it still will happen in the future, just not currently. But of course, I am slightly disappointed by that. But my career goes on, I still got business to attend to, so the Norman show, the Norman experience is still in rotation.

Well, I was on social media over the last day or so, and I did see this tweet from Bill Haney, who wrote, I'm on my job looking for this tough guy named Brian Norman Jr. If you see him or his dad, tell them Devin Haney is looking for this tough guy named Brian Norman Jr. If you see him or his dad, tell them Devin Haney is looking for them. And then I saw your reply saying that you're happy to pull up on them. And so what do you make of this tweet from Bill Haney, which came out yesterday night? I mean, I see Bill Haney, he trying to run the same play like he did with everybody else.

That boy's a Twitter freak, that boy's social media. I ain't gonna finish that phrase. He loves the social media things. He likes to play it with social media. Me, I'm just straight up about mine. He made plenty of tweets even after that. I made my one little statement, hey if you trying to get down with it, but what's up with it? I'm right here for it. And that's it. That's that right there in the dust. So if they trying to make something happen, I'm here for it. He like calling the son D-bo Haney,

but don't forget what D-bo got hit with. That boy got hit with a brick. And we see what happened when I hit these folks. I got something special in these gloves. And so if it was up to you, if you could dictate your future, your next fight in particular, who's it against? Preferably I'd say the winner of the WBC fight that's coming up with Mario

Bari and Manny Pacquiao. Of course, that's a way much bigger fight, but I'd say Devin Haney after that. Oh, you know, the thing is you're in a division now where there are so many big names, right? I mean, there's a guy in the UK, I'll have to bring up his name just because, you know, a few months ago he put on, I thought, an incredible fight in front of 60,000. Conor Ben, I mean, is that even in the radar? I mean, are you thinking Conor Ben or are you thinking any title fights because you mentioned Baris and Pacquiao? I am definitely thinking about Conor Ben as well. Like you just said, the great performance

he just, the great fight he just had with U-Bank of course it was at 157 so if he come back down to 47 I would love to go to the UK and go over there as well once again I am a world champion so I would love to go over there and have another country under my belt. What's it like for you now Brian because again I mean Ariel mentioned that that knockout went viral right I mean there'll be some that youout went viral, right? I mean, there'll be some that, you know, knew of you, but maybe not to this extent. Have you noticed sort of new media? Obviously, you're on our show with us.

Have you noticed all the noise? I definitely noticed all the noise. Of course, you can't block all of this out, but I don't necessarily pay attention to all of this because this is what messes fighters up. People get caught up in all of this. Oh snap, my name buzzing. Oh snap, they think I'm the best.

They think I'm this. But why are you all of this? It's because all the time you put into the gym, all the study you've been doing, all the hard work and taking care of yourself that you've been putting in, the time that you've been putting in. So of course all of this is a blessing, but I gotta still stay on my job,

stay on my mission and do my part. By the way, you mentioned the Barrios-Pacquiao fight that's going down in July. I mean, the thought of you at 24, the way in which you hit going up against Amani Pacquiao is a little bit terrifying. I'm not gonna lie. How do you feel about him coming back at his age

against the champion Mario Barrios? You said what? I'd be terrified about that? No, no, the thought of you going in there against Pacquiao at his age is terrifying because I'm worried about what you may do. Just given the age gap, it doesn't seem like it would make a lot of sense for him

if he somehow won that fight. I mean, of course I'm a great fighter, but don't forget, this still is the legendary man in Pacquiao. We can't just sit here and try to downplay him like he is nobody. Don't forget, way back when the legendary Manny Pacquiao. We can't just sit here and try to downplay him like he is nobody. Don't forget, way back when y'all tried to downplay Roberto Duran when he knocked out Aran Barkley.

And, you know, it's just history will forever repeat itself, so you can't necessarily knock down a legend. George Foreman came back. That's true. Roberto Duran came back. Ray Leonard, 175, came back. So it true. First of all, Duran came back Ray Linda at 175 came back So it's still possible. You think he wins you think he wins? Why can't he no, no, I just your expert opinion. Are you picking him versus bar? Yeah, I can't sure

He's still in the back. Yeah. All right. Will you be there watching? Oh I can't guarantee that one. Okay. Well, you've been busy as of late, traveling a lot. Congrats on an incredible knockout, an incredible win and all your success. By the way, we have a website here called Uncrowned. You are on our top 25 under 25 combat sports athletes.

We came out with this list just a couple of months ago. I'm sure this was one of the great ones. Where is he? Where is he? What number? Am I number one? If you want, you're putting me on the spot here for the exact number. Am I number one?

I don't like you with that. What number is he, Ariel? Don't lie, Eva, don't lie. I'm gonna go on the website right now. I don't wanna get the wrong one. He's gotta be in the top 10, surely. Okay, are you ready for it? Yeah.

Nah, I don't have it. Oh, here it is, here it is. Here it is. Okay, Brian, if you're not number one, are we in trouble? We shall see. Go ahead. Number nine. Nine's okay. Nine's okay.

Nine's cool. And by the way, that includes MMA and pro wrestling, all combat sports. I mean, I still feel like I'm number one. I mean, who made the list? Okay. Well, the top 10, if you must know, is number one. I mean, who made the list? Okay. Well, the top 10, if you, if you must know is uh, number, Moses Atama. Who made the list? Oh, it was a group of people. It was like literally 25 people,

25 people who work on the site from all different, uh, combat sports writers coming together. Moses Atama was number one. What location are they in? Like what region of the map? Oh, everywhere. I would say predominantly U. US, if I'm being 100% honest. Cool, cool, cool. So we gonna meet up in the middle at Texas. We need to spar everybody. Okay, all right.

I need to learn everybody something. I love it. I love it, Brian. You're a great character and a better fighter. Congratulations on the win. Appreciate your time. Looking forward to the next one. I appreciate you, brother.

All right, there he is. Brian Norman Jr., the WBO welterweight champion. Oh, what a great character he is. Brian Norman jr. The WBO welterweight champion Oh, what a great character he is. He speaks really well. By the way speaking of great characters. Let's roll into our next guest How about this we go from perhaps the future to at one time the man and now one of the best promoters in the game The one and only the golden boy himself is kind enough to join us. Okay, that was my great intro and now he's not available. I want to go. No, I'm kidding. Brian Norman Jr. by the way. Brian was just nervous that he was going to be in a robe. Is he dressed? I hope so.

We know Oscar's dressed before he comes on. Have you seen his latest clapback? It's not so much a clapback. It's more of a prediction, right? I saw that the pants with the sock in it and everything. I was like, what's happening? What are you talking about? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Watch it people, go over, make your own opinion. Just go and watch it on his Instagram. I think we have it even if you, I don't know.

Yeah, go on, go on, play it. And let's get voting. Let's see what people in the comment section say. Sock or no sock? Oh gosh. Wait, wait, wait, it's great promotion with the balloons and the exploding faces. In case you were wondering who are top, uh, top 10 under 25, since you put me on the spot there,

Moses Atama number one. Okay. Roxanne Perez, number two pro wrestling superstar. We included everything. 23 by the way, Atama 20, uh, Abdullah Mason, number three. Oh, okay. Okay. That's very high. Muhammad Makayev, uh, 24, number four, the, uh, now former UFC fighter, uh, Gabriella Fundora, number five, 22, Raul Rosas Jr. UFC superstar, just 20 years old. Number six, Diego Pacheco, number seven, 24 familiar with him.

Uh, Javon Evans, wrestling 20, number eight, Brian Norman, number nine. And we'll round it out with number 10, Nick Wayne, uh, number 11 is Joshua van. Honestly, if we were doing, if we were doing the rankings right now, Norman probably moves up. And that's, that's good for Norman. Norman, Norman, it makes me just think that all those guys that were so young and now old, like so Haney Garcia, all of them were, what was this prospects? It was, it's top 25 under 25.

Okay. So these guys is Ryan and all Ryan Devon, she could all over 25. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Ryan Garcia young pops, Ryan Garcia, what is Ryan Garcia now? Ryan Devon should go all over 25. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and Ryan Garcia young pops, Ryan Garcia. What is Ryan Garcia now? Ryan Garcia. How's Devon? Ryan Garcia is 26. Okay. Okay. Doesn't make the cut. Just

Devon Aney. Yeah, Devon. How's Devon? 26. And they're getting old. Oh, and they're getting old, right? You're right. They are getting old. Who would you like to see him fight next? Who? Brian. Brian Norman. Barrios. If Barrios wins, I don't want to see Pacquiao. If Barrios wins, then it makes sense. Brian Norman hit like a truck, fast, big fight Pacquiao, who really is not even a 147 guy. Pacquiao is like 140, really.

So yeah, Barrios, or maybe even Stan Jonas. Conor Ben would be war. So he's got names, he's got names there. Ryan Devon, he's in a really good position, Ryan Norman. Top break just needs to push him correctly because they've got someone there. Like I did, that's the first time me really listening to him speak.

He's a good talker. Oh, he's great. He's very entertaining. All right, well another person who's a great talker is a Hall of Famer, a legendary Olympic gold medalist, now Hall of Fame promoter, the one and only Oscar De La Hoya. The golden boy, kind enough to join us on this Tuesday evening, a big week for him.

Hello, Oscar, how are you? In the car, where Kind enough to join us on this Tuesday evening, a big week for him. Hello, Oscar, how are you? In the car, where are you headed to, Oscar? To film another video? What are we doing on this Tuesday evening? I just got out of the spa with my lady Holly. I got a lymph node massage on my face. Love it.

And my neck. So getting ready for fight week here. Jake Paul, Julio Caesar Chavez Jr. So we're off Fight Week here. Jake Paul, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. So we're off to the races. So I'm looking forward to it, man. Adé actually wanted to ask you a question about your latest video. Did you want to ask him about it? Firstly, I'm happy that he's not wearing a robe. And we're just asking about the stock placement as well. That's what we're asking.

I said there's no, I don't know what he's talking about. What do you think? Yeah, I have no clue what you're talking about. What's up? Oscar, this is tremendous. Your promotion, your social media is of like, who's behind all of this, Oscar? This, the clap bags, who's doing all of this?

Because you've really taken it up a notch. There's a thousand people behind it, Ariel. A thousand people. Now it's only me and Holly who are coming up with ideas to promote. I mean, nowadays you have to get the attention of these young kids and just think outside the box and get the views. And that's exactly what we're doing. So, I don't know how many views this thing got, but a lot of people are talking about Jake Paul

and Chavez Jr. The undercard is incredible. So I'm gonna keep doing my thing, whatever it takes to get their names out there. So can I ask about you coming together with MVP to put on this card? Because there's obviously a bunch of great Golden Boy fighters, but Jake at the top of the bill.

Initially, when you were approached about doing this, what were your thoughts and can you tell us now as we approach Fight Week and of course Fight Night how the partnership has been so far? Yeah, the partnership first of all has been incredible. It's been amazing. You know, working with Natisa and you know, obviously Jake Paul is the head guy there for MVP has been amazing and you know, they know how to do it They really do and I'm really excited because the only reason I got involved with this is because he's fighting a real fighter

Now we go Caesar Chavez went 12 rounds with with with Canelo He is an ex world champion world champion in boxing. So this is a real legit fight. I'm looking forward to it. I'm obviously questioning what Chavez Jr. will we see? Will he be in great shape? Will he not be in shape? Will he make weight? Will he do a lot of questions behind it?

But ultimately you have to tell yourself, Jake Paul, congratulations. This is a real first legitimate world champion fighter you're fighting. Okay, Oscar, you know the boxing game better than all of us, right? I mean, better than anyone. You're a Hall of Fame promoter, you're a Hall of Fame fighter, Olympic gold medalist, etc. If Jake does get past Julio Seiza's champion, say he stops him, for example, where does this Jake sort of steamship go to? Like, Jake thinks he can win a world title.

Do you think he could? You know, there's always a belt somewhere, but do you think he could potentially do something in this game? I think he can win a world title. It's obviously going to take time. That's all it is going to take is time and experience. So, facing Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., world champion, 12 rounds with Canelo, is experience for him. If he passed

that test, let's say he knocks him out in the later rounds. Obviously, it'll be a huge confident boost for Jake Paul and it'll silence a lot of doubters, not all of them, but it'll silence a lot of doubters and he can move on to the next challenge. And then that next challenge is possibly a top 10 in the world. Yeah, yeah. I want to talk about the Chief Support, your guys, Zoto Ramirez. I was in Riyadh to see him put on, I thought, a fantastic performance against Chris Billim Smith. It's now Dorotekis, but you know the one we want, the one we want to see is Zerdo versus Jai to determine who is the best Cruiserweight

in the world. Would there have been any conversation if Zerdo gets past Dorotekis with no injuries that we get a Jai superfight? Yeah, look, we're waiting for obviously this Saturday. This Saturday is going to be very, very important for a lot of fighters. For Jake Paul, who's on the card, obviously, for Kit Austin, who's facing Tevin Farmer, and Surdo versus Tortico. So it's a very, very, and we can't forget Kuriel, Raul Kuriel was fighting for the number one position. I believe it's for the WBA title.

So a lot's at stake. I think that Sordo Ramirez winning on Saturday just gives them options. Options to fight Obatai or options to fight, options to fight, to fight Obatai or options to fight, let's say a Benavides in a super fight here in the US. So there's good options for him. We'll just have to wait and see what happens. One thing about Golden Boy is that we don't like to plan

ahead before he takes care of business on Saturday night. You mentioned the kid Austin fight against Tevin Farmer. That to me is like the sneaky fight on the card. We were talking about it earlier and I feel like perhaps the guy with the most pressure on his shoulders even more so than Julio at this point is kid Austin Floyd Schofield because of everything that happened in Riyadh a few months ago and it feels like a lot of his momentum has stopped. You win against a vet likelike farmer. You remind everyone that you are someone that needs to be talked about. What do you feel about how this fight is going to go? What are you thinking right now? What are you

sensing? Oh, you hit it on the nails head, Ariel. I think that this is a sleeper fight. I think that a lot of people watching live and on pay-per-view are going to be very, very surprised of what type of fight is going to unfold. Tevin Farmer is going to be in his face and Kidd Austin, he's a young, hungry lion who is right there. He cracked top five. He's ready to fight for the world title, but he has to go up against Tevin Farmer, who's crafty, who will make you look bad who can take your punch

Who has a lot of conditioning? So this is a real real this is the first real test for for for kid Austin But if kid Austin wins if kid Austin knocks them out, let's say we have a star in our hands That's exactly what I'm gonna predict. We have a star in Kid Austin. I love that. You know, a couple of days ago I saw Jake a little critical of the Canelo Crawford press conferences. In particular, the fact that all the fighters were up there and then Dana White came out and you know, maybe some other people were calling it the question the pushing and the shoving. You know the game, you know the promotional game. What have you made of their two leg tour so far that will culminate this Friday in Las Vegas with the third leg?

Look, I mean, I think I really do think the fight. I mean, look, the fight can go either way, guys. Either either Crawford, either Crawford gets on his bicycle because Canelo hits too hard, just like we saw with Skull. Or, or there's another scenario that can happen where Crawford can make the Canelo look bad, just like Mayweather did, okay. And just took them to school without running. Um, or, or, or we'll see, you know, Canelo just annihilate him, uh, because of the weight.

You have to remember that, uh, that Crawford is a 47 pounder or 54 pounder Coming and Canelo has fought at he's probably weighed 200 pounds in the ring at one point So and it makes a huge difference guys one pound two pounds three pounds makes a huge huge difference So especially at the elite level, so I think I think it's a great fight I Just think that the press conferences were freaking lame. Why why? Just because it was all staged. I mean that mean come on guys look if you want to see Canelo pissed off Take a look at my press conference With with Munguia and Canelo, that's Canelo pissed off.

No, you're right. You mentioned Munguia there, Oscar. Obviously, look, we know Munguia is currently going through his own situation. Boxing has had a problem with performance and arts and drugs for so many years. And I've always felt like it's never really dealt with the issue. You've always been very open and vocalized about it. What does boxing need to do to stop this issue? Because it's happening far too many times now with big name boxers.

Just have to crack down. Crack down on the look, Jaime Munguia, who knows what he's going to get, you know, if he's going to get a year suspension or six months or whatever, but you have to crack down. You have to be firm because look, again, guys, we don't, you know, we, the fighters don't swing a baseball bat. They don't throw a football. They know we're, we're punching each other. So it's a very dangerous sport and we have to crack down, meaning just stay firm and give these guys, you know, suspend them, suspend them for as long as you have to. You have to send the message.

You know, I mean, I thought we had sent the message when Canelo got popped twice. But you know, these fighters are wanting advantages. Who knows what they're taking? Who knows what type of advantage they want? But it's wrong. It's very wrong because again, in boxing, you're hitting somebody, they're smashing somebody's head in. So very dangerous. Yeah. Final one for me, Golden Boy have so many fantastic fighters. I think the prize position is Ryan Garcia, who I think is an incredible fighter, incredible person outside the ring as well.

He's injured as we speak. We want to see him in the ring again very soon. Is there a chance we see him in the ring before the end of the year? Yeah, there could be a chance. He did get surgery. He had a little problem with his shoulder, but he's doing great.

He's doing fine from what I hear. We are going to see him end of the year. Yeah, and we're not sure yet. I mean, it could be it could be a pit bull, for instance. It could be the rematch with the rematch with the Rollies, which I would love to see. So there's a there's a lot of good options out there for Ryan. I think that he was going through a lot. I mean, you have to literally consider that past year, what he went through was just, I mean, I couldn't go through it.

It was just difficult. His life was just difficult at that time. So I'm hoping he gets his stuff together. I'm hoping that he stays focused because he loves boxing. He loves what he does. He knows his talents, his ambition, he wants to be multi-world champion. So look, we're with him 1000%

and I'm gonna support him 1000% and whenever he's ready to be back, I'll be there with him. Two last quick ones. Turkey today tweeting out to any youngsters out there, hey, if you wanna be on my undercard on September 13th, hit us up. Will any Golden Boy fighters be on this card at Allegiant Stadium?

Yeah, if Turkey if Turkey and you know his people Call us we have tons of great prospects You know that we can that we can showcase on on this fantastic card, but it's up to it's up to his excellency It's up to you know, the people running the ring there. And so yeah, we're obviously open to anything. Are you down with Manny Pacquiao fighting? Are you comfortable with this? Do you think it's a good idea?

You know what? I learned that you can never tell a fighter whether he has to retire or not. He has to make that decision on his own. I think that if Manny Pacquiao wants to come back and fight and he feels it in his gut, he feels it in his heart, in his body, why not just go for it? Just be careful. You're facing a young guy who is probably half your age, who is coming with everything, who's gonna try to make a point off your name. So we can feel great inside the gym,

we can feel amazing throwing punches on pads and in sparring, but when it comes to that first bout in a real fight, it's a whole different story when you're 40-something years old. By the way, the prediction video yesterday, does that take the spot of Clap Back Thursday? Are we still getting a Clap Back Thursday video? No, we need a Clap Back.

What does that mean? Yeah, we're getting a hard Clap Back this Thursday. Oh wow. I mean, I have probably the best one yet. Can we get a tease? Best one yet. Can we get a tease? This Thursday.

No, sorry, no tease, not on your platform, sorry. No, it's gonna be amazing. It's gonna be. Can we get a tease? Sorry, no tease, not on your platform, sorry. It's gonna be amazing. But you are gonna see the predictions, yes, very often. Okay, can't wait, thank you. That's a great tease. Thank you, Oscar. Good luck this weekend.

We're looking forward to it. Love your show, man. Thank you. Thank you so much. There he is, the great Oscar De La Hoya, kind enough to join us. So let us talk a little more about what's happening this weekend. I spoke to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. last week on the show

and he talks about being sober for 18 months. He talks about being the one to retire. Jake, we've kind of heard this before, but you look at him from afar and say, okay, does he have one last run? And even, you know, him at 40 or 39, whatever it is, can he beat this version of Jake Paul? Jake appears to be in great shape. Jake has some big fights planned for the back end of the year.

What are you expected to see out of these two? If I'm being a thousand percent honest, the last time we saw Julio against Uriah Hall on the undercard of the Perry, Jake Paul fight, he didn't, he didn't blow my socks off. He obviously wasn't the top choice, but he's saying all the right things. His dad's by his side. What are you expecting to see out of these two? the undercard of the Perry-Jake-Paul fight. He didn't blow my socks off. He obviously wasn't the top choice, but he's saying all the right things. His dad's by his side. What are you expecting to see this weekend?

I'm hoping to see Julio Cesar Chavez that's been training for three or four months and is in shape and is prideful. That's what I'm hoping, because if he's not those things, he's gonna get knocked out. But this is the guy that's been boxing since he was knee high against a guy that's been boxing for five years. Like, Bullion says that Chavez should have way more in his tool bag to get the job done against Jake. That's not me sort of discrediting Jake, but

that's just a fact. He's a former world champion. I know these things are nearly a decade ago, but they must count for something. And even in his defeats, I mean, there was a time when you couldn't even knock down or even stumble Julio Cesar Chavez. He had that chin. So hopefully that's still there, that granite chin. But I don't know, man. I want to sell it. I want to say he's going to go in there and he's going to... But he's let me down so many times.

And I think Oscar alluded to it. We wait to see what version of him is going to turn up. Because even in his biggest nights, this guy didn't train. In his biggest nights, didn't train. And you always see that image of his dad ringside just shaking his head like, oh, here we go. So this is getting embarrassing. And I just hope that he's doing it for his dad, for his mech, for Mexico, but more for himself. Hopefully he doesn't embarrass himself. And if he doesn't, and if he's trained, he's gonna be a problem.

But I don't believe those two things. So, you know, it's interesting because in a weird way, I almost feel like he has more to prove in this fight than Jake, because he's talking to me about wanting to fight Zerto or Opat talking to me about wanting to fight Zerto or opa tie a necks like wanting to make a run at cruiserweight If you want to do anything remotely close to that, you have to be Jake Paul, right? We kind of know who Jake is right now and each and every time, you know

We maybe find a little bit more about him But if Julio is looking at this is not just like one last payday, but one last run He's got a show with I mean, first of all, like one last payday, but one last run, he's got to show us, I mean, first of all, he's got to win, but he's got to like win spectacularly, right? Because I think a lot of people like you, as far as like, you know, the, the, the MMA fans are concerned, they remember the Anderson silver fight. He did not look good in that fight. He looked awful in that fight.

It didn't even look like he trained for that fight. And then even the Uriah Hall fight didn't look tremendous in that victory as well. He's got to really show us something that he deserves to be in these spots altogether, regardless of the opponent, let alone a Zerto or a Jaya Pataya. So I actually think that there's more on him to prove in this fight than Jake, if you get what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, of course.

I mean, he's come from boxing royalty. Again, he's a former world champion, not to just repeat what I said. And I mean, he's come from boxing royalty. Again, he's a former world champion, not to just repeat what I said. And I mean, for him to call out Zerdo and Jaak Patel, I mean, he doesn't just need to beat Jake, he needs to embarrass Jake. He needs to maybe even stop Jake. He's a million miles away from that, but it's there. But I do wonder, I mean, everyone seems to do this, all these boxers when it comes to the end. I mean, John T. Wilder is an example. Like right at the end, you're like, okay, I need to do this and do this.

Well, no, no, you had the opportunity when you were younger. My concern is he's 40. My concern is how hard are you training? But I remember watching the press conference and it was the first time I've actually seen Julio saying, our champion, show some emotion. And he's going back and forth with Jake. And I'm like, okay, maybe he's finally gonna get ready for one and maybe he's finally gonna train

and show us what he can do. Cause I did predict that when this fight was first announced, I was like, okay, if Chavez trains, he beats Jake. I just don't know if he's been training. That's my only concern. If he has been training, Ari, I'm telling you now, he's gonna cause Jake a problem, a big problem. And how seriously the training is if he truly is, you know, clean and all this stuff.

Um, you mentioned Schofield and Farmer to me, that's a fascinating fight. I really think that Schofield has a lot to prove here, right? And it is a completely different regard. He's trying to start his career as opposed to Julio, but that was a disaster a couple of months ago in, in, in Riyadh for him. And remember, initially he was supposed to fight H2O Silve on the Netflix card. And then that fight falls through and then H2O gets knocked out by Lucas Boddy on the Mike Perry card and he loses his opportunity to fight on the Netflix.

I'm sorry. Like the whole thing has kind of been a very forgettable year for the two of them for different reasons, but I want to say, and farmers crafty man, farmers tough. Like this is a, this is not a cakewalk for him, right? This is not like a cupcake fight. He's a big name, but he's in for a fight here. This is by far, as Oscar said, the toughest fight of his career.

Yeah, I know people sort of in boxing that think this is bad matchmaking, like really bad matchmaking. They think Tevin Farmer could be too wily, too veteran, too experienced. And this is a Farmer who, I mean, maybe beat Zapata first time round. But there's an argument watching it back. Like you could score that to Farmer. Second time round, I thought Zapata maybe nicked it by a couple of rounds, but that's where Farmer is. Zapata's fine, Shakur Stevenson. Zapata's one of

the best lightweights in the world. Farmer went life and death with Zapata for what? 24 rounds, or what? Was one of them a 10 rounder? More than 20 rounds, put it that way. With all due respect to Schofield, he's not the Pader. So if you're a farmer, you're taking a step down to fight Schofield. Although I think Schofield's got all the talent in the world, the fact is he didn't fight Shakur. The fact is you didn't fight H.G. or Sylve. So we don't know where you are right now. I know exactly where Tevin Farmer is. And Tevin Farmer wants to run. He wants more fights.

He knows he wins this one. He stays collecting those checks in big money fights. So Tevin Farmer is a very, very dangerous opponent. And I don't know if the risk is worth the reward here. I think this matchmaking could come back to buy someone in the backside. Cause I think Farmer could nick this one. True or false, if Zerto wins,

we finally get him versus Opataya end of this year, early next year. Their next fights will be against each other. False. Golly, oh my God. False. That is- Dude, you heard Oscar.

He was very non-committal. When I asked him the question, he didn't seem to me, I thought I was asking the most obvious layup question in the world. Like, yeah, of course. I mean, there didn't seem to me, I thought I was asking the most obvious layup question in the world. Like, yeah, of course. I mean, there didn't seem to be anything. It was like, I heard Benavides and I'm like,

what was that? I just said, Oppa Tyra and you mentioned a 175 guy. So I don't believe, I don't believe that is the next- There's like one glamor fight at Cruiserweight right now and that's it. And for some reason it's not being made. No, it's honestly, it's kind of crazy. I don't know, I don't get it.

But I mean, Zerdo is not scared of Oppotai. I want people to throw that nonsense away. Zerdo is a fantastic fighter. I was there when he beat Chris Billingsmith and he looked really, really good. And yes, Jai Oppotai is killing people and you know how much I love Jai, but the guy that he's destroying,

Zerdo would destroy as well. So I don't mean to privatize killing people, you know how much I love Jai, but the guy that he's destroying, Zerda would destroy as well. So I don't understand, unless maybe it comes down to money, which is always the case sometimes, maybe they're waiting for Turkey to kind of bankroll this one, because it's not really without Turkey's influence, it's not really a pay-per-view fight,

and they're both gonna want pay-per-view type money, so maybe they're waiting for that, but I don't think it happens next. You mentioned a questionable matchmaking and that made me think of this past weekend. That made me think of Galagia-Fy's loss. And there's been a lot of people in the aftermath saying, what's going on here? Why do they keep doing this?

And I don't even know what that really means. Eddie has told us time and again that he's trying to put on the best fights possible, but here you have someone like Francisco Rodriguez coming over, veteran. It's another Mexican fighter who goes in there and seems to blow up some big plans for a matchroom fighter. Was this bad matchmaking or was it just, hey, if you can't beat someone like him, you don't deserve the limelight? He looked so good against Sonny Edwards a few months ago, and then this comes in and just ruins all their big plans for Galagyify.

I don't think it is bad matchmaking. I know people will say, you know, it's a Mexican coming over, but ultimately the prize on the line here was a world title fight in Asia. And so this was the final step. And the final step to a world title fight should be a tough fight. Galagher fights an unbeaten fighter in an Olympic gold medalist. And as you say, it's coming off a really good win against Sonny Edwards. It's good matchmaking. Ultimately though, he's in there against a whirlwind, honestly, a machine. Rodriguez, look, everyone knew Rodriguez was good. I think we all knew that just from the Nakatani fight. In Nakat to pound for pound and that's the last time Rodriguez lost. And, you know,

Nakatani didn't blow him away. He won on points, but he didn't blow him away. So we knew how good Rodriguez is. I think we just all fought. And to an extent, some still believe that Galau was an elite fighter. And you learn from it. You learn from it. The only issue Galau has is that he's not young. Galau's at 32, 33. So you can't go back to the drawing board too far because, you know, by the time you get back from the drawing board, you're going to be 34. So they do need to figure things out. It gets hit too much, but I like Galau.

I do like him. Um, and look, it happens in these smaller weight classes. Everyone seems to be everyone. So there's no shame in losing to Rodriguez. You know what the, um what the fight and the results sort of reminded me of? I know it wasn't the first fight that I'm gonna mention wasn't a main event, but it sort of reminded me.

And then it gets a little bit weird. Couple of years ago, 2023, Ireland, Gary Cully against Jose Felix Jr. We're over there, you were there as well. There was a lot of talk about Cully. I know he's not from the UK, he's from Ireland. And then here comes this Mexican fighter, just sort of a veteran, but there to be an opponent and he ruins all the plans. Right.

And now here you have a similar situation. You know, what's crazy about that. I was thinking about this and then I was looking it up and seeing if there are any more similarities when Jose Felix Jr. Beat Gary Cully, he improved his pro record to 46-1. Francisco on Saturday with his win over Galagher Fi improved to 46-1! That's kind of crazy, is it not? That's kind of weird.

That, dude, that's very weird. Dude, that is very, very weird. I guess the biggest issue with Galagherui as well is that because not many boxing fans know who these lower weight class guys are, it just looks like you lost to a, not a journeyman, but you lost to a veteran. When reading truly Francisco Rodriguez is maybe top five, top six in that weight class around the world. But Eddie doesn't have a great record with these Mexicans.

I remember Mariso Lara coming in. No one knew who Lara was. And he was doing a pad work out, everyone laughed. And then he destroyed Josh Warrenton. And we're like, oh, what's going on here? So, but it is what it is. I mean, you can't keep sort of shielding these guys away from these top opponents. You just need to know. You need to know, are they ready to take on world champions? Are they ready to conquer the world? And now Eddie knows, but the best thing is now Galel knows. So it's back to the drawing board, but Rob McCracken and work on a few things and come again.

Okay, so we look ahead to this weekend. Over in Quebec, we've got the return of the great Christian Mbili. Over in Wichita on Friday, we have the return of the great Deontay Wilder. We spoke to him a couple months ago. We spoke about him last week on the program. And then over in Anaheim,

you've got Jake Paul versus Julio Cesar. Best fighter of the weekend. Best fighter of the weekend. Who are you most looking for? I know you're gonna try to squeeze in some fights, some fighting actions, some fighters, all that stuff in between all your football duties, but what's the one boxing related fight,

there's a ton going on this weekend that you're most looking forward to? There's those that are clearly gonna give me my papers and fire me. Uh-oh. But I wanna see what Wilder's up to. Yeah. I'm so invested in Dylanty Wilder and the story.

And I've seen him sort of do the rounds in his interviews and he's so passionate and he's so energetic. And you just wonder if there's one more run. And the thing, the reason I'm really invested because if there is one more run that equals fights against guys over here, Chazora, AJ, Bukoli, in Garnu. So I want to see if Wilder can pull the trigger. And then as you know, Wilder will grab the mic and it will scream bomb squad and it will call someone out.

So I'm really invested in John T. Wildwin. And I hope that it's not one of those nights where you wish that it never happened. But I've got this weird feeling that something might go array there, but I'm hoping Wada gets the job done. I'm looking forward to that. That's on Friday, by the way.

So it's not going head to head with the Dazone pay-per-view card, which of course is this Saturday. Once again, it's Jake Paul at the Honda Center, which is a venue that has hosted some legendary fights, in particular over in the world of UFC. Of course, who could forget about a year ago, the legendary boxing match between one Nathan Diaz and Jorge Malzvedal happened in that very venue as well. Was that a year ago? That was a year ago. Yeah, it was July 5th. Wow, dude. Crazy.

Time flies. Time is flying. You work in this, right? You're working this, Jay Paul. I will be there. I will be there with the great Kate Scott. I was told Ida was gonna be there, but alas. I was saying, sorry, dude, you know what I mean?

Club World Cup. You know what I mean? I'm doing, in Club World Cup, I think it'll be, what will it be? The last 16 games, quarterfinals, I don't know what it'll be, but they, obviously they need the big dog. And I'm not thinking.

Can't be both places. Are you doing another game tonight? I'm doing a game like in about three hours, I'm doing Chelsea versus Esperance through Tunis. Wait a second. The winner goes through to the last 16. That's 1 a.m. kickoff? No, so it'll be 2 a.m. kickoff,

but we go on air at 1 a.m. Golly, are you exhausted? No, not at all. I mean, I've been talking boxing with you. This is fun. This ain't work. I know. And then I've been talking football with Obi McHale,

which is work. But no, it's gonna be easy. I'm looking forward to it. By the way, if you haven't checked out the new app and the way everything is laid out, it's really good stuff. So again, the Club World Cup underway, it culminates in mid July, right right here in the Tri-State

area. I do have some good news and some bad news. There's a ton coming up on Dazon over the next few days. In fact, next weekend, Jack Cattarall returning against Harlem U-Bank. So there's a lot to look forward to. And then we roll right into July, a very busy following week with the card here in New York, actually two cards in New York. You've got the Taylor Serrano card and then of course the, the one at Louis Armstrong Stadium. And then we get into July 19th with Pacquiao and Barrios

and of course Usyk and Dubois. I do have the bad news that we're off next week. But we'll be back, yes, in, in, in honor of Canada Day. It's in my contract that cannot work on July 1st. But we will be back the following week, which is in fact my birthday. So unlike you, I do work on my birthday. So it all kind of, it all kind of evens out. That being said, before we go, we do have to offer our parting shot. And because we're off next week, Ade,

I thought I'd supersize it just a little bit. What do you think of this? I think it's Dana White announcing John Jones retirement. Don't get me started. Don't get me started. I've had enough of that. No, we're going to go back to the Rodriguez versus Yafai or should I say Yafai versus Rodriguez card. There were a couple of bangers. Did you work that card by the way? I didn't, no I didn't. I didn't. You're too busy.

What about Connor Walker? What about Connor Walker? Dude. You see this one? Dude, I mean this guy just fights. This guy is like old school throwback. I'm gonna get hit, but I'm gonna hit you harder than you hit me.

And that's the school motto and I love it. We had Sam Jones in studio a couple of weeks ago and he was speaking very, very highly of him. Do we have the Conor Walker knockout? It's coming. It's coming. It'll be here. Any minute.

There it is. There you go. There you go. The slow-mo is gnarly. But here you go. What do you think of Conor Walker? What kind of ceiling does he have? Fun fight ceiling. Fun fights. I mean, if you're talking sort of going to that world level,

no, because he's going to be in wars. But one thing he will do, I don't care who you are, he's going to give you a few rounds. But when he gets to that real high ceiling, obviously, I think even he would admit that he's maybe lacking in certain departments, but he will be in fun fights. But he's the guy that should be on every card if possible, because you know what you're getting. And he's got a good fan base as well. Okay, number two, number two parting shot. Again, we're making up for lost time. Any predictions? Any predictions? What about 18 year old Tia Aitin? Oh yeah, aye. Yo.

You know, Eddie is so excited about her. And I like this because I've been quite critical 18 year old Tia Aitin. Oh yeah, hey. Yo, what about this? Eddie is so excited about her. And I like this because I've been quite critical. Like what's going on? Like is Jake Bould is taking all the female fighters? Are we gonna not, are we stop promoting female fighters? And then she comes along and that girl that she blasted out has never been stopped before.

So that's a bit of a statement. Only 18, but they're already putting too much pressure. They're already saying things like the next KT 10, I'm like slow down. Oh, look at that. Look at that. Look at that. Oh, to be fair, she got up there, didn't she?

But okay, I can take more. Yeah. Man, a name to remember, just 18 years young with that kind of power. Wow. Supremely impressive stuff. Okay, that's number two. We could have picked some others from this card as well.

But you know, each and every week, it seems like you want a BKFC knockout, and I let you down. Shout out to the son of the late Tommy Morrison. You know this man. And of course, you know, the great Tommy Morrison Morrison he picked up a big win on Saturday look at this oh my god thank god i thought it was gonna hit him when he was down he pulled that last one right dude thank god he pulled it but i love the way this guy is like it's okay he's a bit too much for me yeah like we're fine we're not we're not we're not trying to get up we're not trying to get up you're gonna you're gonna make me go back and watch Rocky 5 for no reason. Yeah. Yeah. Shout out to Tommy. Hey, shout out to Andrej Arlovski and Jessica I. They won their BKFC debut.

The former UFC fighters, Andrej Arlovski. By the way, I've been told from sources that Dave Feldman, the founder of BKFC, is itching to be on this program because he wants to convert you into a fan. And so in July, he's gonna come on and he's gonna make the case, all right? It's a difficult job, difficult job. I think we're winning you over. Difficult job.

I think slowly but surely. I mean, unless he wants to make me an ambassador and, you know, send something in for the bank account, but no, it's a difficult job. You can be bought, clearly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've got houses to build in Nigeria. I can be bought.

Oh, and by the way, be or miss, if I don't congratulate your sister, I understand that she was named one of the top Nigerian sports TV personalities. Is that it? Is that the prestigious honor? She was. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And she's like a news anchor that maybe just talks a bit of sports at the end of the news. And I'm like, one second, her brother, me, actually does talk sports for a living.

And I didn't make the top 10. But you don't reside in Nigeria. So nor does she. She lives about 10 minutes from my house. Wait, who does she work for? Channels TV. But is that a Nigerian channel or a UK channel? It is a Nigerian channel or a UK channel? It is a Nigerian channel, but before you say anything,

there are a few people that work for UK channels that are on the list of world. So you feel slighted. Yeah, I'm not feeling, I am slighted. Well, instead of you being like, you know what? Not only should I be in the nomination, I didn't win it. Not only should I be in the nomination, I didn't win it. Well, you could have said like, you know what?

I feel some sort of way, but I'm happy for my sister. I'm proud of her. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I actually, on the Instagram, I was like, where am I? I actually said on the Instagram, where am I? And I emoji, that was going on. I didn't even know she was in the biz. Older sister, younger sister. Younger sister by three years.

Following in your footsteps, fight fan? No, I followed her. I followed her. Oh, wow. Yeah, well, I'm proud of her. She's doing really well. Oh, there it is. There's what I was looking for. Fight fan. Took a while followed her. I followed her. Wow. No, what? I'm proud of her. She's doing really well. Oh, there it is.

There's what I was looking for. Fight fan? It took two minutes. No. Okay. Not really. All right, so you don't have to be worried about her taking your time. Football fan?

No, not really. Okay. Was she the one that went to Portland, Mer? That's my point. That's my point. Did she go to Portland, Mer? No, she went the one that- Okay, that was the other sister.

Yeah, I've got three sisters. Golly, look at you, any brothers? Two brothers. Wow, we're learning so much about Ada here. Wait, three sister, six kids? Six kids, yeah. God bless the old Adidas. God bless the mom, man.

God bless the mom. Where does Victor fall in the family tree? Well, Victor's my cousin on my dad's side. Victor on the D3. Yeah, yeah's my cousin on my dad's side. Victor, I need you to be here. I always use that one. Of course. Anyway, this has been great. Thank you so much, Ade. Thank you, of course, to Brian Norman Jr. Love that one. And thank you very much to Oscar Delahoye. No, no more parting shots. I'm done. I'm all parting shot out again off next weekend back in two weeks. God knows what we'll have to talk about after a one week hiatus. Ade very busy doing his thing.

I'm off to Anaheim as well. We'll see you out there. Enjoy all the action whether it's boxing, bare knuckle, kickboxing, football, all the action on the zone. And most importantly, thank you so much for watching another week of the program. Thank you again, Adé, much love my brother, I'll talk to you in two weeks. Enjoy the fights my friends! Until then, good night.