The Ariel Helwani Show - Inside Boxing | Abdullas Mason stops Albert Bell, Bruce Carrington wins, open scoring debate

Episode Date: July 5, 2026

Dan Canobbio and Chris Algieri open the show breaking down Abdullah Mason’s somewhat controversial stoppage of Albert Bell. Who should Mason fight next and is he the true future of boxing (2:56)? Bruce Carrington picked up a hard-fought decision win over Rene Palacios that left the crowd and audience wanting more (25:38). At age 29 and with a world championship belt, where does ‘Shu Shu’ go from here? This fight also spawned an open scoring debate, as official scores were read after the fourth and eighth rounds (32:24). Finally, this was TNT Sports first foray into boxing and the production was outstanding with Terence Crawford, Tim Bradley and Shawn Porter at the host desk offering their thoughts throughout the night (46:25).

Hi, everyone, welcome back. It's another episode of Inside Boxing, presented by ppv.com on Crown Yahoo Sports. Dan Kenobio, Chris, Algeri, the champ, and our appendages are all intact. Fireworks show 4th of July, Joey Chestnut, big time boxing, Cleveland, USA, football, Argentina, football. This is a great time to be alive. Yes, no doubt about that. Life is life in right now, and it's very enjoyable. So I had a rough night because I got, you know, I got two pit bulls.

I think everyone who follows us knows my dogs, but fireworks not good, man, not good. Makes for a tough night. So I didn't have a great night's sleep last night. I'm a little tired. Did not mess with any fireworks, obviously got all my fingers. Did barbecue quite a bit. Had a couple glizzies yesterday. I had a couple hot dogs.

68? So after watching Joey Chessna do it, he? does. It's basically a commercial for hot dogs. Like, I finish that. Most people think it's gross. I finish that. I'm like, I want a hot dog. That, this is, yeah. So the only time I really have our hot dogs is on these kind of American holidays, but especially on Fourth of July because of the Nathan's hot dog eating contest, which I literally, I love it so much. I think it's a big deal. It's a, I won 20 bucks. It's just a slice of Americana. But, buddy, no, no, no, we bet numbers. How much?

money he was going to get a buddy of mine down here in south florida um he likes to he likes to throw a little bit of the the mullah on uh on events to make it a little little nicer so he bet that he was originally he was like he's gonna break his record he's getting over 80 i'm like dude no what i'm not taking your money like that i'm like i say i say he doesn't get over 70 and he's like no way he's definitely getting over 70 so we picked the number he picks 73 i pick 65 whoever's closest to the pin wins. That's what I won. Yeah, it's like,

what's it go? Price is right. Yes. Well, no, price is right, because if you go over your don't, if it's over, you're done, whatever, but basically closer to the pin. Wrong, wrong show. Whoever was in striking distance, got it, yeah.

Yeah, he's, he's not that guy anymore in terms of like 80 plus Joey Chessnut. He's more, he's still an unbelievable freak of nature. 68 is insane, but he's still lapping the

opponent. It was also 100 degrees leaving him in the dust. Everyone was getting cooked out there. That was like... Disgusting. Yeah, that's horrible. Disgusting. New York right now. It's disgusting. There were big fireworks in Cleveland, Ohio. We will start there.

Abdullah Mason stops Albert Bell in the 12th round. Somewhat controversial, we will get to that. A tale of two fights, Chris. First six rounds, I thought were controlled all by Albert Bell. I seen 6-0 by some respected boxing people. 5-1, 4-2.

I was in the 5-1 category. I was like, damn, Bell's length is awkwardness, the maybe the pressure of fighting at home for Mason, sparring partner, all that stuff came into focus big time. It was first five or six rounds. I'm like, damn, Mason's in some serious troll. He doesn't have to turn this on. And boy, did he ever.

Seventh round on, second half of fight. A whole different fight. Mason starts going to the body, starts upping up his, uh, production in, in, in volume,

10th round comes around. He's hammering Mason. He's hammering Bell to the body. Uh, Bell got hit, and he says he couldn't breathe through his nose. And then he's getting hit with body shots. The end was near.

And the end came in the 12th round, uh, with an onslaught right out of the gates, right out of the bell. First bell rings. Five seconds. Five seconds in the corner. That was amazing.

Yeah. That was so great. he goes down bell he gets up another onslaught but no real punches landed mark nelson the referee stops the fight without even a punch being landed in that second exchange without even a count for albert bell he must have saw something that we didn't see was mason going to win that fight regardless yes because all the judges had him way up we'll get to that too i believe that there was an early stoppage it was like kind of delaying the inevitable i'm upset we had to talk about an early stoppage or that type of stuff because I thought it was an unbelievable performance by Mason

in the second half. Gets the win, but it's boxing, so it comes with a whole other sidebars here. Couple things. One, last show we spoke about how difficult Albert Bell was going to be. And that first six rounds didn't surprise me one bit. Because when I had heard about their sparring sessions, Albert Bell got the better of it. I had heard, you know, just seeing Albert Bell in the way that he fights, I know he's a very, very difficult guy.

He's extremely capable. I knew this is going to be a really, really tough fight. But again, and I had said this before, sparring is different. Big gloves and head gear. Make those gloves eight ounces. You take the headgear off. The power starts to make a big difference. So you can have a guy who's long and can box,

and he's going to give you hell no matter what when he's in the gym. But on fight night, when you get popped in your nose, just like Bell did, and he busts his nose, he's bleeding, and he can hit in those body shots, you know, it starts to wear on you. Twelve rounds is a very long time. granted, Bell was scheduled to fight Andy Cruz, but Dan, do you know when that fight was supposed to be? How many weeks?

July 18th. That's two weeks away. A guy like Albert Bell, just like Abdullah Mason, I'm sure they stay in shape, year round, they stay in the gym, but two weeks matters. And 12-rounders, every day matters. So I kind of think that the fall-off and the second half of the fight partly is due to that.

You know, he came in on short notice. He was supposed to fight in two weeks, so timing everything, making the weights a little different, especially for a tall guy like that. So a lot of factors there, but at the end of the day, Delamason is the truth. I mean, his ability to make adjustments, his gas tank and the way that he ratchets up every ride. He did that in the Nokes fight, too. He kept ratcheting up. To the point where you're like, all right, he's topped out here.

He's in full gear. Nope, finds another gear. It's wildly impressive to watch him do that. And his corner was not happy. of what was going on. They were pushing him. They were yelling at him. And he was very aware, very mature. And yeah, this kid is not only the truth. He is one of the most exciting fighters in the world.

It doesn't matter who he's fighting. Albert Bell makes fights not exciting. Abdullah Mason is, can't miss. Can't miss entertainment. Yeah, one thing we didn't touch on the last episode, I apologize everyone for missing this. Albert Bell had never fought a 12-round fight before. Yeah, and short notice. I mean, he- That's crazy. So when he got to the 11th rounds? You know, Andy Cruz, that's a huge fight.

I don't think that was 12 rounds either, but so. But like you think, like, all right, 33-year-old who's been in the top 10 for quite a while. Now, he had to have fought at least one 12- or never went more than 10 rounds or even less than that. I don't know the official thing there, but it had never been in a 12-round fight until 11th round was new waters to him. And it showed, yeah, he did slow down because he's just never been there. And also, Mason just took it out of him. The bodywork from the 7th round on. Brutal.

It was staggering. and coming. And you're right. You're right. talking about the gas tank. Love what I saw from his corner. He just got the full package, Mason. He just looks. He has the it factor. When he walked out into that ring, he just looks at number one. He obviously can fight his ass off and he can step on the gas pedal. And it was a pretty putrid card leading up to that. You know, Shishu Karrington did not perform. Tiger Johnson did not excite the crowd. Scrooter Davis did disappoint. needed something here. It was great theater. The first six rounds going to the Challenger,

and then, oh my God, this young prodigy has to step on the gas pedal, and he does in front of 10,000 fans at home. Everything that comes along with that, amazing, amazing, amazing stuff. To the scorecards, kind of a moot point, because I can't believe some of these cards, man. Carl Morrady posted the scorecards from top rank. All three judges had Mason up comfortably heading into the 12th round. 106, 103. 107, 102, twice. Home cooking.

So it didn't matter. The fight was stopped early. Home cooking. Bro, 3-3 after 6, one of the judges. Two of the judges had it 4-2. Bell didn't get hit for six rounds. What are we doing? I had the stats.

Bell outlanded Mason 56, 58 to 46, first six. He out threw him by 85. punches. 5-1-4-2. I had a 5-1. It was my, that's what I thought for the first six. I saw Lou Gebel.

I had a 5-1. You're very rarely going to see that. 5-1 is, that's where I was looking at. I was like, damn, this is one of the more, like, it's just obvious to me. And it's never, boxing is never like that. Like, the more clear-cut, like, Bell was doing just enough. He wasn't outlanding him by 20-plus punches and completely clowning. Mason in there. That's how Bell fights though.

He was just doing just enough, right? No, he wins by margins. That's what both us. He fights on the margins. He fights on the margins. And he's willing to do that. And with his stature and his physique, everything looks bigger and better. When you're a guy controlling the center of the ring,

he's a very good ring general. He lands very sharp, clean punches. He can see almost amateurish, where you want to make sure everyone sees it and kind of set the tone, and then you're willing to win on that. He's not going to come forward. He's not going to track you down.

He's not going to beat your body. up and slow you down the way Mason does. It was very amateur versus pro in the way that this fight was contested. But listen, for six rounds, amateurs are a nightmare to do with. You got a guy who's touching you and he's boxing you from a length, just exactly

the way Bell did. But at the end of the day, this is why championship fights are four to 12 rounds, because those last two rounds make a huge difference. Those last six rounds, everything happens in the second half of a fight. So that's where champions are made, and Abdullah Mason is a true champion. And unfortunately,

Bell as good as he is, probably never going to be world champion. It was awesome. Him, probably not. He's good, not great. He's outstanding, but he's not that next level, not that next tier. He put up a great fight. This was an awesome replacement opponent. This could have been so much worse. This could have been... What's what I mean? Like, this could have been... Not even that, like, in terms of, like, the other opponents... It would have been a showcase for Abdullah, which isn't the worst thing. What are the other names they were throwing out that they wanted? Damn it, damn it, damn it. It wasn't, Bell, wasn't the first choice.

Wow. There was another name out there. I don't know why it slipped me. Put it in the comments. It was a notable name, but it wasn't a big time, like someone of Bell's stature. I love what Bell said after the fight, TNT. I'll get to that in a second, too. I thought their production, their pregame was awesome.

They had Mason on the desk afterwards, and he said, you know what? I did spar with Bell a lot, and I did not show him in the ring what I showed him in sparring. I changed it up off timing, different speeds. I knew 12 rounds was going to get to him because I knew that he'd never been there. I have, even though it's just once, it's still one more time than him. That's what I mean with Mason, man. It's like, man, the sport is in good hands. Like, I was a little nervous because I've said this numerous times in the show.

Like, we root for the sport. Obviously, I want to see just, you know, things be justified. If Bell deserved to win, of course, it would have been an awesome upset and all that. But there's, like, also a part of me that's like, I really, we really. We really need Mason to keep winning. We really need Mason to keep fighting. We need to keep winning. We need to keep shining.

We need to keep, you know, TNT, Bleach Report, House of Highlights, to keep promoting him. Very, very needed in this sport. And I feel good about him as a potential face of one of the many faces of boxing. Couldn't agree more. I love everything about the kid, him and his family. I've been around them quite a bit from Top Rank. And they're just all class, very mature. Three and O on the night.

All. the masons. Two KOs, one decision. But yes. And a title coming home. So, yes. I mean, like you said, the sport's in good hands if he is the next torchbearer of our sport. No question.

And but also to your point, last week, honestly, it might have been better for Xander's, for the sport if Zander's eyes had won. But the right guy won. And the sport moves on and regardless the sport is good. And we're in a good place. We're in a really good place. It's a really good thing that that Boots is that guy, and people are recognizing his ability. It's really good that a guy like Abdullah Mason is overachieving each and every step up.

Because this was another overachievement in my book. The Sam Noakes fight was an overachievement because, like, I thought he's going to go out there and just handle that guy. And they gets into an absolute blood and guts war and pulls it out. Wow, the kids got it. Then this one, absolute chess match, figures it out, pulls it out. Um, no, boxing's in good hands with a young man like that. And his ability to fight, speak, look, all of it.

Like you said, him going to the desk and being like, I had to show him something different than we were sparring. That show such maturity. The maturity of that. He just turned 22. He was 21, two months ago. Just turned 22 in April. It's crazy. Yeah, it's crazy.

Um, his ability to adapt, that's what Crawford was most impressed with. Um, you know, The king of adaptability, which is Crawford. Exactly. That part was cool. Right. Plan A wasn't working. Let's move to Plan B.

Plan B was the body work. Plan B was mixing it up a little more with Mason. From the eighth round on, Mason outlanded Bell, 57 to 16. That's crazy. Like, Bell completely shut down after that sixth or seventh round. It was definitely a tale of two fights. The bodywork for Mason was exquisite. Brutal.

He threw everything hard. He threw everything hard. What's one? No, I want to get your thoughts on that. Is that good or a bad thing? Because I figure he, first couple rounds he was loading up, and he was looking for that spectacular hometown knockout. The one knock, there's a few knocks, but the one knock on Mason was like, okay, first

he throws everything kind of the same speed. Like a pitcher that just only throws 101. Where's the change up? Yeah, I was impressed because he did it for 12 rounds. Because he's 22. He kept ratching it up. Yes, the need for changeups are definitely there. Especially with a guy like Bell,

who is hard to hit, fights at range, wants to slow the pace down, make it a single digits connect kind of round each and every round and win by margins. You've got to be able to mix it up a little bit, but he was just dogged about.

He's like, nah, I'm just going to throw hard. So if you hit me twice, I'll hit you once. I'm going to win on the exchange because I'm hitting harder. But also I'm going to break you down, body-wise, and I'm going to get you later on.

And he certainly did. It worked out. But that's the thing about Mason. There's room for improvement because he is 22. It's only a second fight for a second world title fight. And he's going to have many defenses, however many weight classes he's in. And we're going to see him improve each and time out. We have. So there's room for improvement, but they strike me as the kind of team that's going to go back and look at this and be like, all right, we got to change things up a little bit.

Which is good. Yeah, so like Noakes wasn't the same type of fighter as Bell. Noakes is a little more of a rumbler. So Mason did get hit a lot in that fight. Mason did not get touched all that much in this fight. We just gave you it. He only got hit 16 times from the eighth round on. So it's a totally different type of fight.

I wouldn't necessarily say, oh, wow, Mason learned from that last fight to not stay in the pocket so long. It was a totally different type of fighter he was in there. That's the one thing with Mason that we thought heading in. It's like, all right, he sticks in the pocket too long, just like with Boots. Boots gets touched by Zai. us. Everyone freaks out, but he's a Seek and Destroyer type of fighter. Same thing with Mason. So like,

I can't tell from that performance whether that will be something that will come up for Mason in the future in terms of staying in the pockets on getting hit when he doesn't have to. Did you see anything in there that would give you pause from Mason? Those first six rounds, do you chalk that

up to tricky style, hometown jitters, first defense, a little bit of everything? I'm going to chalk it up to Bell, because again, we spoke about it last show. Bell was a really tough ask. The height, the physicality, the boxing ability, but also

familiarity, the fact that they've spent time sparring together. I fought sparring partners. It sucks. Because a lot of it in the beginning, it's like you fall into rhythms that you've had in the gym, even though yeah, it's very, very different, but like it doesn't matter. It still happens. And I think that was part of it too. I think there was a little bit of a rhythm that happened in the beginning that they were familiar with based on their time spent that they the gym. Did you notice when the fight first started? Bell touched

Abdullah's father, like on his shoulder, really long, long cause. And then, and then Mason went to his coach. Because obviously, this is, this is, I'm not saying we're not the same team, but there's a lot of familiarity there. And I think, I think that was part of what happened in those first six rounds. But then, I'm going to, I'm going to bring, I'm going to bring it up again. Bell taking this fight two weeks prior to when he was supposed to fight. When you're making wait for a world title fight, your first 12 rounder, makes a difference. It makes a difference. Bell's very, very good. And he showed that. He showed that at least for the first six. So I think that there was a couple things, but nothing gives me pause

because his ability to adjust is a powerful tool. And I always say that's what separates champions from contenders. And Mason has that already. So I am, I'm very bullish on Abdullah. So am I. I mean, he, you could probably throw him in there just about anyone. at lightweight and feel good about it. Will top rank do that? They are one of the best when it comes to bringing along prospects. He's no longer a prospect. This guy is a world champion.

Same thing with Xander. When you have two belts, you have a target on your bag. So, yeah, it was a little ridiculous to fight boots, but no, because you got two belts. And the only thing ridiculous about the boots fight is that he chose to fight when he didn't have to. In fact that he fought boots, you know, whatever. You're supposed to fight guys like that.

They were supposed to fight the best guys around. But he chose. He didn't have to. He snuck in there. Did have two belts, though. So, like, you know, you want to unify and all that. I get that. That's last week.

Now we're on to this week. Will Top Rank move towards a unification with Mason? Will they look at Raymond Murataya? The rest of it is pretty vacant. We'll have a better idea after the Schofield fight. If he fights Lucas Bowdo, they have a better idea for this Roach Zepeda fight. obviously Tank Davis is out there.

I don't know what the heck he is doing. But do you see top rank moving Mason into unifications or will they maybe even try to get Cordina back on the line, try to get him back to the States, maybe go over to the UK? Where do you see top rank moving Mason? How fast do you think it should move? It's going to depend on the contract that they had with Cordina. Because like you said, they might revisit that depending on the deal they have with Eddie and match room. because Cordina, I believe, is a matchroom fighter.

At least he was. So they might have a clause where, you know, it wasn't, you know, it was kind of out of their hands in terms of the visa situation. So maybe that, but do they move forward towards unifications? Yes, maybe not next, which is why Cordina might fill the gap, getting a former world champion, a guy who's been 12 before, unlike Bell. Very possible, but so I spoke to Robert Garcia this week about Murtagia. And Murtagia is not, he doesn't want to fight at 135.

He's doing this last fight with Konsei Sal. Hopson Konseil. But if it's unification, they don't have to do the second day weighing. So he's more willing to do a unification that way because they have the second day weighing. But regardless, he doesn't really want to fight a 35. But if he had an opportunity to fight like a Shakur, if he had an opportunity to fight even an Abdullah, I think they try and hang around, whether it's good for them or not. So that's on the docket there. Tank, I'm not even going to speak about it because I just, there's too many question

marks. And I don't know where he reenters the fray. Is he going to be at that upper tier level? He's not even worth. He's not even worth. Whatever. How about Mason versus the winner of Roach Zapata? Love that.

I think that's a logical next step. I think Mason is the favorite in either one. I think Roach is a much tougher fight. but the Zepeda fight is a very fun fight. That's a very, very fun fight. That's going to be a shootout. That's a complete shootout. I think the Roach fight, they're going to match wits.

It's going to be a physically physical fight, but it's going to be smart fight. A lot of IQ. I think Zepeda is going to be an absolute war of attrition. But I favor Mason and both. Yeah, I would too just have the raw ability and what he showed in this fight too with the clutch team. And trajectory. And getting him out of their trajectory. and all that. But man, I think Roach would present a lot of problems for Mason, where he's got a little

more pop than Bell. He stays in the pocket at times. He can move as well. We talked about this, but Roach, too, like, he probably should move a little more, but it really isn't just his game. Like, he will stand in trade with Mason. And Zapata, obviously, he's going to throw 80, 90 punches around, we think. And he did that against Chakor. He still threw a lot of punches against Chacour. Different fighters, though, Mason and Chacore. Chacore, too. We don't know what, we don't know what weight he is at. If he's at one third, he was commenting all night on this fight and gave Mason all his props. So did Haney, sort of Ryan Garcia. It seems like the fighters, all the boxers out there don't have a problem with him. I don't know if there's real jealousy. They're

just very supportive of Mason, which was kind of nice to see when it's usually claws out on Twitter. It's rare. It's rare. But I think he's a respectful, humble guy. And I think with his family, and he's young, I think there's a lot of part. They must know that he's the truth. They must just think he's the truth. Well, I think it's pretty obvious. He's the future. He is. He is the truth. He is the future. So a lot of big fights at 135 for Mason. I would not be shocked that they revisit the Cordina fight. I know Cordina got in some trouble over on his side of the pond. Yeah, but it was silly. It was silly. Something at a gas station? I saw a video. It looked like a guy, a guy picked a fight with him and he blasted him. Like,

I got no issue with that. This guy looked like he was, I mean, the thing was on video for behind the guy who was coming, and it looked like this guy was looking for a lawsuit, and he just, like, literally walked into it. With a crossing the street, not anything, and just literally just walks right into him, and it gives him, like, a boom, and it looked like Cordino's like, oh, what's up, and I don't know what the guy said, and then Cordino blasted him. I got no problem with that. All right.

U.S. whatever, had a problem with it. So, who knows, Mason, they didn't want him in here. They didn't want them in the States, but they'll have. revisit it. I think they'll revisit Cordina and then they'll look at the winner of Roach and Sepeda, which is August 1st or second. That's the next TNT, DeZone fight night, which you're going to do one a month for the next year. And then we figure out Lucas Body, it has been ordered to fight Floyd Schofield. I believe they have a certain amount of time to make that fight. That'll be for the vacant WBA as Tank is champ in recess. WBC, up for grabs. Is that

it. Mason's got the WBO. It's a lot of shifting parts at welter rate, but I think Mason, just from fighting more at the weight and just simply fighting and being active and looking good, got the leg up on all those guys. Would you agree? Yeah, and just, I mean, he's 22. Just getting physically, he looks like a baby. He's got a baby face. I don't even know if he can grow facial hair yet. His hair line. It looks C-NGI. Yeah, he's, he's developing as a, as a human, being at this point. As a human adult, he's still, you know, like, that's, that's what's scary about him, like, the maturity of, of, of, of where he's going. But also the weight class, where's he going to end up? He's 22, finding at 35, like, I seem like he makes the weight,

he makes the weight, he looks good at the weight, like he looks like a real 35-pounder, which means he probably struggles a little bit, but doesn't seem like he struggles much. He's obviously very disciplined, but 40, 47, like, yeah, we're going to, we're going to, he's a multi-division guy. no question. Awesome. Great stuff. Saved a card last night.

Brought some excitement to the crowd. Because Shushu-Carrington wins, but doesn't do it in spectacular fashion. I was very disappointed with that performance from Shushu, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, 111. You lost all your bets, too. Well, I'm used to that. I'm disappointed myself every Sunday. Well, he should have gotten him out of there. Oh, yeah.

I don't think so. Well, I would have lost it anyway. I would have lost it anyway. I would have lost both of my bets because I had a Mason decision. If I don't do parleyes. Well, this is what I said on the Fandle video. These are good individually. There's value here individually.

If you want to up the ante, you parlay. That's what parleyes are all about. Yeah. So, so would have not won. But anyway, Carrington gets the decision win. Does it look great? I am kind of jumping off of the shoe-shoe-ch-Carrington. train. I was never really on it to begin with. I thought he was kind of a little bit of a creation

from top rank. Great kid. Great on the mic. Hasn't fought anybody. Gets that title over Castro, who was inactive for a long time, gets the stoppage win there in his last fight. And I just like, I never really was a true believer in Carrington, but I think he laid an egg last night. I think he could have got a spectacular stoppage. I know Bradley almost fell asleep. They showed him sleeping during the fight. I was a little disrespectful, but Tim Bradley's going to do stuff like that. Yeah,

I just wasn't that impressed with Karen. And I think he could have made a big time statement on Saturday. As much as I love the kid, I obviously know I'm from New York. And he actually came up to me after, it was right after the Pacquiao fight that I had lost in 2014. And I was at the Barclays Center. I forgot who I was there.

Dude, how old was he? Oh, he's 29. So he was like teenager? Yeah, but that was like 12, 13 years. That was 11 years ago, 10, 11, 12 years ago. So, yeah, he was 17. He was still a teenager. And he runs up to me and grabs, like, hey, champ, champ, man, man.

And I was bummed. I was, like, super bummed. Like, I couldn't hide it. It was my first loss. I lost to Paciow. I was embarrassed. But, like, I forgot why I had to be at the fight, but I had to be there for some reason. And that's when I had one of the most brilliant lines anyone's ever given me in the sport of boxing.

He was Paul I'm Anagee. And he goes, hey, champ. In this sport, you got to have thick skin and a short memory. It's all good. And I was like, shit, that's, that's a really good line. And I've been using that ever since. But I still, I was still upset. I couldn't, I couldn't take it off my face. And then, uh, shushu ran up to me outside the Barclay Center. It was like, hey, champ, jam, jam, jam, and it was like, I didn't know who he was. I wasn't following the amateurs at that time. Um, you know, he was obviously very well known, but he was just such a good kid.

He was excited. He was, like, he had, he had that twinkle in his eye like he was going to be what he is right now. Um, so been a big, big, big fan of him, of course. But yeah, no, I wasn't really on that train either that he's going to be the guy at 1-26 because it's just such a deep division. It's not a knock on him. The division is crazy deep and there's some really difficult champions to do it. But I will say this about Randy Panosios. He's a pro box TV fighter. He called out Sulaiman Sagawa, who was very, very tough, gave Shushu Olegan handle in the Guard a couple years ago. And he saw him beat up one of the guys on Pro Box and goes, I want to fight that guy. And we're out there and I called the fight, he fought his ass off.

He's super tough, super durable. He can punch a little bit. throws a lot of punches, and we saw that. And apparently he's durable. No, I've never seen him get hurt. He's never been down. He's never been stopped. That was his first loss.

So you got to kind of, because you don't know what Palacios is. So, you know, maybe that guy's actually really, really good in his world class. But he controlled it, though. He controlled the fight. 116, 112. I had 117, 117, 117. 11 was more in line when I saw. He out landed him. He out through him. Control the beginning of the fight.

There was never really, there was the moment towards the end of the fight. It was a body shot by Policios that certainly stung. Yeah, he even admitted it afterwards, Carrington. Listen, Karen's a great kid. He's literally one of the best guys in the sport. I've had great conversations with them. He's just a positive outlook on everything. And I think you said it perfectly. It's just in comparison to the other champions in the weight class. And this is what it's all about. Once you have that belt, you have more. pressure, you have more expectations, we can sit here and pick apart and criticize you. It comes with the territory. You're a world champ. And there's other champions in this division.

Raphael Espinoza, I think handles Bruce quite easily. Absolutely nightmare. Figueroa, Angelou, those guys are tough as Nails battle-tested. Freaks of nature, Espinoza. You got Figueroa extremely battle-tested. And you have Angel Leo who has also been through everything. And a two-division world champion, by the way. I think we'll forget that. He was a world champion at 22. And now he was a 20-champion 26 and he knocked Vanado Lopez fucking dead who can really fight that was a good one

need to get more active but yes I just don't see it with Carrington I just don't he's just doesn't he's undersized he doesn't have the pop he still he came in like 125 he came in like a full pound under the weight that was weird that's what it is that's what is

with Karen doesn't get to win he gets the hit behind the head wouldn't have mattered referee called it a slip which was wrong but it did hit him behind a head which is an illegal punch, an illegal punch that causes a knockdown. That shouldn't count as a knockdown. Am I crazy? No, but there are... There's been worse calls on knockdowns. Yes, it was a punch high in the head. You'd have to really look to see if it was more behind, because essentially it's your ears. You're supposed to, you're supposed to bisect by the ears, which is weird, because everyone's ears are

different. So it's a weird rule. You're supposed to bisect what's illegal is in front of the ears and was illegal is behind the ears. Was that punch behind the ears? Probably. Look, Yeah. So. But the referee called it a slip, which was the wrong call, but it didn't, was not a

ruled a knockdown. I don't think an illegal punch that causes a knockdown should be ruled as a knockdown. Right. It's illegal. But a lot of times, like, Sergio said it too. He's like, well, it wasn't, it wasn't Palacios's fault. It was Carrington dipping his head to try and go under the shot that got clipped. Regardless.

But I've seen, listen, I've seen that knockdown called on a lot of people. That knockdown has been called on me. I've been hit with shots that ding me out of the back of the head. I went down and they called at a knockdown. But it depends on the ref. It's their discretion. It's Harvey Doc, and that one, Mark Nelson in the main event, had a tough one, Harvey Doc, one of the better refs.

One of the most consistent. And now we get to... Because you know why? Harvey was a fighter. Harvey used to box. New York guy. I like Harvey Doc. I don't mind him at all.

Tough job refereeing. Now we get to the... probably the most interesting part of the Carrington fight was the podcast that broke out during it. All around open scoring. There was open scoring using the Carrington police shows fight. They announced it in the fourth round at the end of the eighth round.

Very awkwardly, as the next round is going on, like a minute in, Jimmy Lennon reads it out. I don't know if the fighters could hear it. Dude, it was like dystopian. It was like Jimmy Lennon, like, after four rounds, everybody, Carrington is up 4-0. Yes, my eyes.

That's what I saw. After eight rounds, Carrington is also up like 79, 773. But he says it about a minute into the following rounds. Around five, a minute in is when Lenin makes this announcement. There's no way the fighters can hear that. If they do hear it. Right. You're a fighter.

You can't hear it? And are you also, like, at that point, then... Shit. Yes. A thousand percent. It's one of the reasons why me as a fighter thinks open scoring is so fucking stupid. it's going to change the fight and not in a good way. Let's talk about it because I had to be few tweets like, Dan, what does Chris think about open scoring?

I personally don't like open scoring because I don't like anything that encourages a fighter coasting if they're winning the fight. Are there other aspects to it that are positive or can be looked at as a good thing? That, for me, overrules everything. Why don't you like it? Because it can affect the flow of the fight and more negative than positive. Positive could be like, oh no, I'm down. I got to go out there and go to work. But a guy like Palacios, you're like, I'm down that much.

I'm down at the four. I thought I won that round. All right, all right, I got to pick it up. All right, I picked it up. Now, hey, I'm that much behind? What am I doing? Now I got to go out there and fight recklessly. It can affect the fight.

I don't want, you don't want outside influences affecting you. It's not the way a fight is supposed to be fought. You're supposed to feel the energy, the aura. You're supposed to trust that the judges, which is, problem. So it's the trust that the judge are doing their thing. Fight your fight. And then if you don't get the knockout, you think you did enough, you felt the aura, you feel the end. That's the thing. People who don't have never fought at a high level will never, will never understand this. No offense, Dan. But like, you're in a ring with somebody.

None taken. You can feel their energy. You can feel their aura. Like, I'm whipping your ass right now. Whether it really looks like it, I know your aura is hurt. I know it's like a video game with the hit hit points. Like I know I got better. My aura is above yours. I know you're getting your ass kick, even though you're trying not to and playing poker. Part of it's playing poker, man. And when you got those scores coming out mid-round, it's a distraction.

And it's going to change the way you fight. And the fact that, like, we didn't come up. like this. It's not like we've been doing this our whole career. We're going to do this in title fights. Now the first time we've ever had open scoring is a title fight? Nonsense. Absolutely nonsense. WBC used it in this fight.

Why? It was not used in the main event because it was WBO. I don't know. WBC does... Arbitrarily... Things just... Yes, they do things to say, look, we did it. We have a 250 belt. We have the... whenever they were going to use six judges, we have an AI, this. WBC just throws shit out there just to say, hey, we're doing stuff.

So they throw this in there. Like, Cleveland Commission never really uses. It was only Texas for years past. I remember some, like, Delahoya fights, some Canela fights in the past had open scoring. Yeah, to me, it's like, I wanted to ask this to you. Like, if you're losing a fight, you just talked about how you know when you're kicking someone's ass.

If you're losing a fight, don't you know you're losing? Like, you need the scores to be read out? Or is it more of a thing where, like, you just never know what the judges? Well, that's what I meant about the, like, Palacios, where, like, he thought he was way more in that fight than the scores were giving him. So, like, that can, like, that can either spur you want, on or really just put you like, oh, I'm not supposed to win this fight. Like, obviously, like, you know, like, nothing I do is getting recognized at this point.

And then again, it changes the way you fight. Now you get more reckless. Now you get hit with a shot. Now you get knocked out. I just, I don't think it's necessary at all. Do your job. Go out there and fight. Try to get the knockout.

If not, dominate the space. We all know how, what winning is. Just go out there and do that. I know the judges are crazy. But the only good thing about this is it puts a little more, it puts a little more highlight on the judges. if you have a score, that's crazy. I heard that, too. I got a lot of tweets about that.

But what does that change? But you know how that's going to hurt the judging? Because now the judges have a name attached to it during the fight. And if one judge has a 4-0 and the other guy has a 0-4, I'm going to be less aggressive on my scores now. It's changing. They didn't say who has what, though. Okay, but we're going to be, we got one guy who's wide.

They just read the scores out. So the judges are going to be less aggressive on their score cards now. They're going to give more like, Well, that was a close one. I'm going to go this way. Oh, yeah, they might say, like, wait, if he has it four, and I have it... Right. Three, like, two, two.

Because the judges would never know what the other judges are scoring. That's part of the sport. Yeah. It's a multifaceted debate. It's bad all around. It's bad all around. I think it's bad, but there are, like, certain things, like, they brought, okay, this is where I got to, like, the podcast part. Like, they went to the desk, and they went right to Porter.

And Porter liked it. Bradley liked it and Mora hates it so then I'm thinking all right that's fine that's just going to be a 20 second little thing like why Bradley hates it

more they go back to the booth Mora says a line but it just went on kept going back and forth it turned into a whole debate for about two minutes of the round and it wasn't the most exciting fight so it was like kind of okay

I'm more about let's just show the fight and let's not get into arguments for two minutes during a round. But then they go back to it, and they're still later in the fight, and then you have Bradley. This is crazy. Bradley is, I don't know,

what you're talking about, Mora and Manix, blah, blah, blah. He's like up there on the perch at the host desk, and they're almost getting combative. So it was almost like the host desk versus the broadcast booth. When we're all essentially on the same team,

this is all T&T to zone presentation. But, you know, Bradley's going to be controversial. He's going to be. disruptive, he's going to be, he wants to get argumentative. He was just calling him by the way, and Mora, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know what you're watching. And Manix, what makes you think your scorecard is the end-all be-all when it comes to, you know, when they put it out there.

It was a little much, once again, horrible fight and it added for some like added entertainment. In studio drama for. In studio drama. Ultimately, don't like open scoring. There was a few points brought up from. Bradley who liked it. And he talked about the fact in every other sport, you know the score. Boxing, you don't know the score.

You have no idea. That's not true. In objectively scored sports, you know the score. This is a subjective scoring, like in the Olympics with gymnastics. That is a subjective score given at the end of the competition. It's not dirt. This is not an objective score. Right.

And then that's what I heard from the, you know, that were against. It was like this boxing, first of all, what you just said, number one. Number two, boxing is unlike any of the sport. And this guy on Twitter, his name is Coposo, one of the best follows in all of combat sports. People with the show probably already follow him. He made a good point. It's like, I almost don't want to watch a robbery unfold in real time.

I don't want to know that I'm getting robbed as a fan. Like, when it comes at the end, that's when there's debate. It's almost like, it changes the viewing experience. Changes the viewing experience. It's like, he said he doesn't even think fans. fans understand how much the suspense adds to it, the fact that you don't know the score. And every other sport, you know every single aspect that's going on. I mean, timeouts you have, what's the score?

You know, half time's coming up, this, that, and the other. Boxing, this is why it's so debatable. It's like, we don't know what's going to happen at the end. It takes a little bit of the, it pulls the air out of the room. You know what I mean? When it's after the eighth round, then either one judge has it completely off or one of them has it, like, completely wide. And then I'm sorry, the next four rounds are kind of just like a foregone conclusion. Another point. Boxing is a combat sport. We are mimicking war. There's no scorecard in war. We don't know who's winning until the fight's over until the war end. The battle ends. And then the dust settles and the winner's still standing. That is what this is. This is a combat sport. We are mimicking war. You don't know who's winning in war until it's over.

Yeah, it's true. You have an idea. You have people putting out wrong. wrong information. I feel like I'm winning. I feel like I'm winning. I'm doing enough. But then at the end of the day, there's a whole other battalion, you know,

flanking us. Oh, shit. You know? Fucking egg. Except on a landmine. Whoops. Bam. Carrington gets the win.

Don't think he could stand up to the Espinos, the Figueroas, the Lios. We just talked about what we think Top Brink will do with Mason. What's Top Rink going to do with Carrington? Because he's 29 years old.

He is a ring ambassador. He's out there in interviews. He's everywhere. There's three other champs out there. One of which, 100%. But my point is he's out there. He's asking for big fights. He's calling out in a way.

I love how he's going right past the other champs and looking for Inouye. Espinoza is a top rank fighter. Carrington is a top rank fighter. He's called him out too. But I don't know how much they... Do, okay. I don't see...

I don't know what top rank's going to do. They're going to have to feed him to someone soon because you can't hold that belt forever. I think they are going to... going to kick the can down the road a little bit and maybe wait for the Inouye fight. It's a very... I don't like that plan. It's a very...

Very seable. What's to say, Inouye's going to choose that? Because he's a good entry into 126. He's a smaller. He's one of the smallest guys. Because 26, Espinoza is gigantic. You're not going right into Espinosa. As good as Inouye is, I don't see him picking Espinosa as the first guy he goes at 126.

Maybe I'm wrong because these Japanese guys, they move down. different, but I don't see him going right to, right to that. Espinosa, he's, he's got pound for pound ceiling. Like, he's, he's, never at day vibes. Yeah, he's, he's phenomenal. And with his stature and the way he's able to, to, any way he fights, yeah, he, he's, he's knocking on the door. I don't think he goes right to that fight. But even Angel Leo, who's a former 122 pound world champion, he's a really solid 26 pounder. I was at the way in for him and Alim, and he looked strong. When I think of Leo, I think of he's huge in my mind for some reason.

You know what I mean? He plays bigger than he is. He's got a... Yeah, he's not a big guy. He's not tall, like an Espinosa, but he's got a lot of muscle on him. He's developed himself into a real 26 pattern. He's done it the right way. He's done a slow.

It's probably because of that big stoppage he had. Stays in my mind. That big knockout stays with me. Bro, he's gotten way bigger since then. I'm telling you. I'm around the guy physically. He's a big... He's a real 20s.

26-pounder. So Carrington, they find these types of opponents for Carrington until they hope, Inouye, move. First of all, Inouye beats Bam, and then Inouye moves to 126, and Inouye chooses Karenton. The landscape changes a lot, man. Landscape changes a lot. So. But if he was to fight, if Carrington was to fight one of the other champions, where do you see it going? Esfinoza, Figuero or Leo? I would say probably Leo, because Leo is a Pro Box TV guy and, oh, no, Figaro, actually, Figaro. Well, no, because of the PBC. Heroes, like, PBC. Yeah, I think Leo because... Like, Espinoza's top rank. I know, but I don't... I don't see them doing that.

I don't see them making that fight because they're gonna... You're gonna... Espinoza is gonna be a big favorite in that fight. And I think Leo... Leo's a worthy risk because he's co-promoted by top rank. He's a Pro-Box TV guy.

He's a Pro-Box TV and co-promoted with top rank. So if they can get Carrington to knock off Leo, because he's only a co-promotion. They have a full promotion on Carrington. If he's able to beat Leo, boom. All right, now we got a guy who's got two belts and he's fully promoted by my house. If Leo wins the fight, all right,

we got a guy we half promote, but at least he's got a piece of him who's a two belt champion. You go to Figueroa, you lose the fight, you completely lose the belt, which promoters don't like doing that. Yeah, Figueroa's on an island by himself. He hasn't fought since last year

when he got that big weight. Big ball. over Nick Ball. Yeah, no disrespect to Shushu. No, not at all. We love Shushu on the shelf. It's just we've got to use our eyes. I'm sure he wasn't really happy with that performance,

even though in the ring after he's saying, Fourth of Shoe, lie, come out to my parade. I'm having a parade in Brooklyn next week. They're going to honor me. He's doing Shoo Shoo Shoo things. He's really good at that. But I think he learned a lot in this fight. You see he hugged Palacios right afterwards.

It was like, man, good props, but also. So, like, I needed a fight like that. I needed, because he's been, the thing about Chushu, it's not who he beats, because he hasn't beat that many guys that are like you'd really, really consider a rate, but it's how he beats them. Even Castro. Castro's tough, solid, you know, good contender. But he knocks him out.

He does it in a highlight real fashion. It's like, you know, this fight was not that. This was a fight that very little highlights from the fight got, the highlights really are for Palacios hitting him with a body shower, whereas the leg had left the ground. But as a champion, you need to get through those kinds of. of fights. He's been through a tough 12-round fight where he did not dominate. He did not end the fight. He had to go 12. He did get hurt. There was an arguable knockdown in there. He had to deal with some stress, some resistance. I think it's going to be good for him in the long run. Finally, the TNT production,

I thought was outstanding. They did a little pregame show before the fight. It felt big. It amplified the event. It felt like it was a big time event. You had our guy on him left, go at the host desk, who did a phenomenal job. You had Bud. You had Porter. You had Tim Bradley. It was a big name. I feel like inside the NBA for boxing. I thought it was great. I thought they should definitely keep it going. From when I've heard, they're going to do it once a month for the next year at least.

So that part was pretty damn cool. I love that. It's good for boxing. The more boxing that is available for fans to ingest, the better. But they just take it from other sports. MLS does it. The soccer, the FIFA, they do the same thing. They get champions from the past, and they put them on a panel,

and they let them talk. And, you know, everybody does it. Basketball does it. boxing is doing the right thing, doing that, bringing these guys in. I think it's a really smart move, and I think the fact that we get this every month, it's awesome. Yeah, Bradley was the most comfortable. It's not shocking at all. He's so TV media trained.

He's made for TV. He sticks by his hot takes. He sticks by them, which I like, he doesn't waffle on them. Loves the hot takes. He wasn't afraid to go after the, you know, Sergio and Manix. It was a little awkward at times, but yeah, it's boxing. It's a contentious sport. All the media all beefs with each other, fight is beef with each other. It's a fight sport, but there's a lot of arguments and debates.

So that part was kind of cool. They kept going to them throughout the night and getting Bud's thoughts, like six round of the Mason fight. Even though Bud needs to work on a little more. He even said he was nervous at the open, which I thought was hilarious. This guy has fallen on the biggest stages beat Canel Alvarez. Errol Spence has been performing for 15 years on the biggest of stages, even longer than that. So I'm a little nervous. But it's Bud.

When Bud speaks, you listen, I think he will get better. But it just shows you how a hard TV is. People think it's easy, man. Even my friends who have watched me come up doing this for such a long time, they're like, ah, but you know what you're talking about. Like, nah, you got to study, dude. You got to watch tape. You got to get prepared.

You got to get prepared. You got to, that's another thing. There's such limited time. There's no, there's no, Donald Trump does the weave. You can't do that on TV if you're a broadcaster. You have to be concise and you have to be succinct. And those are the guys that you see make it to the top. Yeah, I loved it.

I thought the pregame show added a lot to it. When it came down to the broadcast, it was pretty much the same type of broadcasts we've seen. But with the zone, there were like commercial breaks because they had to throw it to commercial on T&T. The next one is the Peta and Roach in August, which will have the same type of format and the same type of presentation with the guys at the desk.

I don't know if they'll actually be there in the crowd or they'll be at the Atlanta studio, kind of like what inside the NBA did for years is they had this, they go half time or before the fight, they would go to the studio. I don't think it makes a difference. It doesn't make a difference.

But being there probably is cooler in terms of like getting the feel. I don't know. I think it looks better, more produced if it's in studio. You don't have to necessarily be there. You're at, you know, some diets above. And like, ES fan used to do that.

Yeah, I don't know. I guess both work. More energy, obviously, if you're in the room. So yeah, this gives and take on that one. Yeah. All in all great night of fights, Abdulman Mason, secures the win, gets the big time pop at home. It was great.

It was a good night. He saved the show, and we move on to the next one. On Thursday, we will have our mid-year award show. We do it every year. We're midway through the year. Oh, wow. We're mid-way already? I know.

We have to go back and look, Friday of the year, mid-fighter of the year and all that. So we'll have a new show for you on Thursday. Following weekend we're going to take off. I'm going to actually go on a vacation. A little bit. We'll go to Montauk. Not me. I'll be working.

I'll be working. Always work. Always work. All right, everyone. Keep your hands up at all times. Protect yourselves at all times. Stay out of those DMs. See you next time.