The Ariel Helwani Show - Inside Boxing | Daniel Dubois beats Fabio Wardley in all-time classic, Zak Chelli upsets David Morrell

Episode Date: May 11, 2026

We open the show recapping Daniel Dubois' late stoppage of Fabio Wardley to capture the WBO heavyweight title in an all-time thriller of a fight. Is a trilogy with Oleksandr Usyk, a rematch with Wardley, or perhaps a Moses Itauma showdown next for Dubois? Also on the card, David Morrell was upset by massive underdog Zak Chelli (02:55). To end the show, Chris Algieri details IBF featherweight champion Angelo Leo and Ra’eese Aleem’s fight being canceled over Aleem missing weight by 2.8 pounds (33:23).

Everyone, welcome back. It's another episode of Inside Boxing, presented by ppV.com, an association with uncrowned in Yahoo Sports. Dan Cunobio, it's the champ. Chris Algeri, we're coming to you on Sunday, May 10th, Mother's Day, literally ducked out from a family function. The entire family's upstairs. My parents' house right now in the company box headquarters.

Chris had a travel morning coming from Atlanta. So the podcast life never stops. We're always going to bring you this show because it was a great weekend of boxing. Chris, I kind of know how you're doing because you were sitting on that tarmac for about two hours. But are you feeling a little bit better on this Sunday morning? Listen, I love Atlanta. I love the boxing culture in Atlanta. The Atlanta airport is the bane of my existence.

I always have issues when I'm coming through that airport. It's a hub. It's such a busy airport, but I sat on that tarmac for two hours. The flight is an hour and 20 minutes to South Florida. I set on the termite longer than I was in the air. So I had to get up early. I worked late. I had to get up early.

This weekend was a wild weekend in terms of production-wise, like behind the scenes kind of stuff. Inside boxing, that's by you guys tune in. We'll get into a little bit of that. But yeah, I'm a little tired. And it's Mother's Day, which is a heavy day for me. So I'm going chasing.

I hear you. Shout out to all the mothers. out there that all the wives too that allow you allow you that listen to this show to watch this show watch boxing on the weekends or the boxing moms out there that took their kids to the gym and all that shout to moms in general if you're not affiliated with boxing it's a very special day uh everyone out there dan let me tell you though i had a lot of people in atlanta grab me and say they listen to our show religiously religiously like they were like bro We love what you do.

You and Dan are the best. I tune in every single show. I had half a dozen people, at least, at least half a dozen guys grab me and be like, yo, I listen to you again. That's amazing. Because there's nothing better because I always said this once when we did one of our lives. I was like, I think no one listens. I think me and you were just talking to each other, but then you go out into the, yeah. Talking to the void.

And you meet the people that listen to the show and they tell you how they listen to it, when they listen to it, how much they love it. Awesome. Love that. They quote us. It's crazy. They quote the funny things we say. It's mostly the dumb shit that you say. But yes, they do. Shout to everyone that listens. And Happy Mother's Day out there.

Let's get into it. It was an unbelievable heavyweight fight. Quite arguably one of the best heavyweight fights ever. It's in the discussion because of the brutality and just the back and forth of this of it. Daniel Dubois stops Fabio Wardley in the 11th. round. DuBois was down on the very first punch of the fight from Wardley. He was also down in the third round, but he had amazing recovery powers. He took a knee in the third round, which you famously did against Ruzon-Provartnikov, which saved you, and it also saved Daniel

Dubois. He got behind his jab. He landed a shit ton of jabs. We talked about that on the last episode. And then it was just a straight-up just warfare, brutality towards the end. I was watching it through my fingers. I don't know how Wardley took some of these shots. His face is bad. We'll talk about him in a second. Danny Dubois is now a two-time heavyweight champion. Guys got an unbelievable resume now, stacking up wins, stopping guys. Daniel Jubal, he's the guy.

What a freaking win. What a fight. An unbelievable heavyweight fight. Dan, I didn't even warn you about this. We're going to do a new segment. We're going to do a new part of the show. What he got? From now on, when a title change his hands, I'm wearing that belt for the rest of the show.

WBO Strap. I got my little miniatures. You got all of them? Really? Where'd you get those? So whenever, whenever I ordered them a while ago. They got stuck in Jersey when I was living up there. But I have them now down to South Florida.

So now whenever we do our shows and when title changes hands, I am wearing said belt, that was one, for the rest of the show. So like you said, Dana Dubois, two-time world champion, that is rarefied air. especially in the heavyweight division very few guys would be able to win another title especially if they're losing it the way that they need to why did. I mean but honestly Dan this fight

this is why boxing will never die this is fight of the year type fight and heavyweight and heavyweight you got two guys who are brutal punchers we expected a war we expected the fight to go

not this long I didn't expect I mean, eight and a half was the over-under for Vegas. So they knew this fight was going to be explosive. These guys won 11 rounds. We had multiple knockdowns. Wardley, like you said, comes out of the gate, firing, dude. Firing. I actually had a little break while I was on the air

and I was able to watch the beginning of the fight. And I'm like, Wardley drops him in the first 15 seconds of the fight. And I didn't put in my bet. I was like, oh, no, I didn't put in my bet. Good thing I didn't because my bet was Warren. I mean, first part of the fight. So. So I'm like, oh, this fight's over.

Clips him on the side of the head. Boom, he goes down. We know that there are questions about Dubois when it comes to his heart, comes to his psychology. But every once in a while, this guy shows up, the Ergovich fight, the Drummiller fight, and he's just, he's undeterred. That guy showed up again.

If that guy shows up consistently, I don't think anyone except for Usik beats him. Dubois's a nightmare. The jabs that he was like, landing. So let's let's let's talk strategy. Battering, Ram. Nuts and bolts. Let's talk X's and O's. So right away, you see Wardley come out and I saw the very first punch.

He actually, it wasn't the first punch of landing because he threw a wild overhand right right away. And I was like, whoa, this guy's, he's throwing heat right out the gate. And then the very next, very next punch he throws, I think is the one that that dropped them. So it wasn't the first punch he threw. First punch he landed, yeah, goes down. but from then on, as soon as duois got up, he did look nervous and concerned because the power was real. I don't think he's ever felt power like that that early.

The jab started working. And we spoke about this on our show. He just started putting that jab out there and he was cutting off Wardley's wild attempts all night long. And Wardley's tough as you could possibly be. His face was destroyed. He was getting cracked with hard shots. And I've heard from people who dealt with Dubois,

they say his jab is a battering ram. It is jarring. Every jab hits you, you feel it in your heels. And fighters will know what I mean. You can hit with a good jab. You feel it in your heels. It shoots all the way down,

like a kinetic chain, like a lightning bowl. And that's the way that Dubois punches. And we saw that because in between all those wild shots at Ward that was trying to land, it really his only game plan was on the right hand. But he did it with conviction. He did it with heart.

He did it with soul. But Dubois is just a more complete fighter. Great recap. Dubois landed 92 jabs. 43% jabs. He threw 211 of them. And you're right. I went on Twitter live because I just like, I have to just like call this somehow.

And I'm sitting there. I'm like, this guy's going to get back to the jab, Dubois. Every time he threw the jab, it seemed like it landed. And it looked like it pushed back. Wardley and then Worley had to reset his entire offense and Worley didn't have much of an offense. He brought up the, all you have was the right hand and it was throwing it crazy from the opening bell.

Questions about Wardley, about his stamina, about his game plan, questions about Wardley's corner, thought they should have stopped the fight of maybe two rounds earlier. We could debate that another time. But yeah, this is about Daniel Dubois, a great game plan, X's and O's, mentally overcoming a lot of things in his career to now be a two-due. time heavyweight champion. I mean, that's exceptional for Daniel Dubois. And look at his wins. Daniel Dubois has now stopped Fabio Wardley, Anthony Joshua, Philip Hergevick, Jarrell Miller. That's a heavy hitters list, and he stopped them all. On top of that, quick shout out to

Alexander Usik. How good is Alexander Usik? He beat Daniel Dubois twice. He stopped Daniel Dubois twice in addition to Joshua and Tyson Fury. So this heavyweight division, this heavyweight era that we're in, people are like, yeah, it wasn't the best heavyweight. 70s or better, 90s are better. So generating great fights.

This was a thriller. This was one, Frank Warren said it's the best heavyweight fight that he's ever put on. So those are my main takeaways. That Dubois fought a really smart fight, taking the knee early, hitting the top of the head. Something about, I think top of the head shots

on Dubois, or I think a lot of heavy weights are going to look at that because his chin is a lot stronger than the top of his head. Mentally, he got through it. He even said in the post-fight to echo your sentiments that he was a little nervous early on. He hadn't fought in a while. He was coming off of a loss. First punch that lands from Worley, he hits the canvas.

So he overcame that in the ring, in addition to all the crazy stuff. He was late to the fight. Did you see that? There was traffic. So I was working a show last night while this was all going on. I was on the mic at 5 p.m. So I was with our guy, Najee. I was with Brian Custer on the mic,

and we were all very much on our phones trying to watch. I had either his own broadcast on my phone watching it in between, in between the down times on our show. And Najee's really strong on Twitter. So he was catching all the recaps in terms of Chris Mannix was like, Dubois late. You got to be kidding. When I saw that, you got to be kidding me.

Like this guy is either partying and someone did correct me. He did. Well, he said he was going to party. He said he was going to be a bigger party. He partied before the Joshua fight. I did not know when he won that one because we all dragged him when he partied before the Usook fight. I guess that's what he does. He likes the party before the fight. There was traffic. He shut up late. I just remember seeing that tweet come along. I'm like, you got to be kidding me. But then he went in there and he did the damn thing. And the knee was huge, taking a knee in the third round. And then he just got behind that jab. And it's that simple. We talked about on the last episode. It was a key to victory. And also throwing, I mean, the right hand.

are just just unbelievable stuff if there's ever like a moral loser here or a hard luck loser or a what's the right term I'm looking for there's a lot of people tweeting about worldly about how tough he is I want to watch him fight again he took some insane punishment in this fight never went down never went down he's still never been down the ropes did save him a bunch of times I thought howard foster a referee had an awful night yet again he's the worst referee in all of boxing He stopped the round with 10 seconds to go when they were rumbling. I think it was like the fifth or sixth round. He thought he heard the bell.

He could have stopped it. If Ben Davidson wasn't going to stop it, I thought it should have been stopped in like the eighth round. It went on for two and a half more rounds. Where, like... Ultimately, it didn't make a difference, obviously, and it would have saved Wardley from taking more damage. I did see that he said that he was talking to his mom.

He was like, I'm okay, I'm good. Say that now. He looked... Yeah. It's a very good point. He looked, he was beaten. He was beaten that night, last night. He was beaten.

He got hurt a lot. His face was destroyed. But I didn't get the sense of a guy who had his career beaten out of him. Right. That's yet to be seen. But I didn't get that sense. Sometimes you can see it. You can see the fighting spirit, the soul of a fighter leave.

I didn't see that. He was trying to fight the whole time. He was trying to land the right hand. He just ran out of everything. He just, he had no, he had no more options. He ran out of gas. He ran out of stamina. He ran out of chin.

He let everything ran out. Still didn't go down. He saw us the heart of, of a guy who's going to fight. I think Wardley's going to be okay after this. You have to be seen because you never know, because the damage is damage and, you know, whatever. But I don't know.

I got the sense that the fight wasn't beat, the spirit wasn't beaten out. No, I agree. His legs looked on. I think. Yeah. His legs looked pretty good up until like midway through the ninth. The ninth round was epic stuff.

The last minute of the ninth. But he kept damn. Yes, that's the thing. And that's the why I believe that Davidson let it go on because he's thinking of the Justin Justice Hooney fight. He's down the cards and he finds something in the 10th round. He's thinking of the Parker fight. Even, even me in my career, I wasn't a puncher, but I always went down throwing. I tried that.

I was always, like Spence dropped me. I was throwing. Ben stopped me. I was throwing. I was always trying to land. I never, like, you know, when a fighter is like that, that spirit doesn't leave you. And that's what we did. Wow on your shield.

Yeah, we're going to, we're going to, he's going to be out for a while. We're talking about a rematch. Like, there's a rematch clause. Like, he'd be smart to sit out for several months. Like, not just like a six months, like a nose. His face is like pretty much opened up. Everything. He stills, he had a scab on his nose before the fight.

The ninth round, the last minute of the ninth round was, halacious back and forth even when Wardley had his back on the ropes and look like he was about to get stopped. He threw an uppercut that stopped to Woff for a second. And then Darren Barker it reminded me of Gotti Ward. I remember in the ninth round when

Lampley said when Lampley said imagine you bought a ticket. So Barker didn't exactly say that. I don't know if he was channeling his inner Lampley but Barker said something along the lines of if you bought a ticket to this fight or if you bought a pay-per-view, if you bought this on pay-per-view, in that ninth

round was like it was epic stuff and i'm sitting there watching it like this is brutal and my dad i was talking to him he's upstairs uh he was talking about um you know he's seen every fight in the last 40 years he said that he the last three rounds made him uncomfortable and there's not a lot of fights uh that he watches where he feels that way where it just got i saw that sentiment echoed on twitter a lot too it's like people were this is starting to not even look like a sport uh he was just beaten down on on wardly so up. I think it could have stopped early. But it's easier for us to say and hearsay or after the fact. I thought, yeah, you let your guy fight to live to fight another day.

But Wardley, I think the worst thing that had happened to Worley in this fight was landing that first overhand right because then he didn't stop throwing it. No, the worst, the worst thing. On top of that. But like him landing that right, the first punch and then knocking him down. And then after that, he kept doing the same, that probably was his game plan. But also you saw a lot of success with it. It ended up being his downfall, or one of the reasons of his downfall,

because he fell in love with that overhand right and he was winging it, and he emptied his gas tank super early in this fight. A couple things. I'm going to go back a little bit before, but before I get to what you're just talking about. You mentioned the Gotti Ward. I was at Gotti Ward 1, which is very rare. I went to most people were not at the fight.

They didn't, they did not expect it to be the fight that it was. and I was there at that fight and I was sick to my stomach with the violence. It was that kind of fight. And it was the kind of fight where you're watching round nine and I was a huge Gotti fan. I thought he was going to go out there and smoke ward. But it became a fight, a dog fight.

And I was like, oh no, I'm watching my hero lose. And then the ninth round, I was like, please stop the fight. I don't want to see this man get hit anymore. and then he shored himself up and came back and kept fighting and then had two more great fights with him and then one title after that would you look at Bronco and then that kept going like so I'm never going to say

because I'm a fighter like you're like oh this should stop there earlier I'm like I don't know because I didn't get anything from Wardley where he was like you know like I don't know I'm I'm he didn't actually I just think he wasn't going to win and there were They were praying for that stoppage.

No, listen. Dan, you can never tell me in a fuck. Packout. I put many pack yow. This is you. I was getting, I was down. Your corner is supposed to see that. It's supposed to be the voice of reason.

I have, I have pleaded with my corner in multiple fights. What's a while they did too, and Breeland didn't listen. Then Breelan got fired. So if my corner didn't want to stop me in the Ruslan fight, but the doctors did. And I was pleading with them not to. If that doctor had done what they probably would have done for anyone else, I'm not a world champion.

You know, like, I had to plead hard. I was fighting in the corner as much as I was turned around for these guys not to tell my face was falling apart. But also, like, I had a similar situation in the Pacquayal fight. They wanted to stop the fight. I got dropped a bunch of times. I was down. And there was no way for me to win.

I didn't care. I wanted to finish the fight. And I think Wardley wanted to too, but also he believes in his punch. I wasn't a puncher. I didn't have that. Hell Mary. But in terms of what you were saying about, not even just how the fight ended, but Wardley's ability to possibly pull that out of the fire, he always has that.

he came out flinging that right hand. He had that in his head, like, I can still hurt this guy. I've heard him. Put him down twice. Put him down twice. Dropped him with a clunker on the top of the head. And then he took a knee when I hit him. So even when you're battering me along the ropes in round 10 or 11.

I know. I kind of thought Worley would land something. And I think the last... Anthony Joshua almost did it. Anthony Joshua was getting battered by battered by Dubois and lands a right hand that wobbles him. And he takes him back. Dubois a beast, man.

And this guy really is scary. He's scary. He finds him to throwback. He can drop him into any era. And now, you know, he was left for dead a few years ago after the Parker. He's got a little like Penny Norton in him. Like he's just like he's big, strong. Did you see that after he won?

It reminded me like he was getting sworn by his team getting hugged. He was just standing there. It kind of looked like back in the day. Like the celebration was really cool. And him afterwards was awesome. Like the amount of respect to have for each other. And like, we talked all week about Dubois. He's a horrible interview.

He's walking out of radio. He doesn't give you. Who cares? Because after the fight, he kept it so brief and he just kept it 100. And it was just like, we're warriors. Fabi Wally's a warrior. I came through at battle aversity. I tested myself.

I won. Great heavyweight fight. Hope you were all entertained. Amazing. It's all we have to hear. Oh, we have to hear from this guy. So he's now a two-time heavyweight champion. So what is next for Daniel Dubois?

There was a rematch clause. I'd be shocked to see that exercise given the beating that Worley took. If it's going to be a rematch, it's going to be not for a while. There's the Alexander Usik trilogy that no one really wants to see. And the most intriguing option for Daniel Dubois out there is Moses Atalma. He is promoted by Queensberry Promotions and Frank Warren. Will Frank Warren put Moses Atalma in the ring with Daniel Dubois? I don't think that's the fight.

It's juicy. People like it because it's not Ussick and it's not a rematch. It's something fresh. I'm going to throw someone completely in the mix out of nowhere because I literally just saw the man last night in ATL. Deonté Wilder. I want Deonté Wilder and Daniel Dubois. I think that fight makes too much sense. You got two dangerous guys.

And I think Wilder asserted himself that he's back. Bomb Squad's back. He fought Chazora in a way that we're like, Oh, this guy can still throw the right hand. This guy still has a little bit of that edge to him, even though he was fighting apparently a guy who's his friend, and I wanted more from that fight, but I saw enough. I saw enough that he could still pull the trigger.

If he can pull the trigger, he can beat almost anyone in the world. And we've seen Dubois go down. We saw him go down twice with right hands over the weekend. We've seen him go down, obviously, against Usik. We've seen him get stopped. Deonté Wilder is always a danger. If this guy lands a chopping right hand, this guy lands a long right hand,

Kesslin is any right hand. There's a good chance to Wai gets hurt. I don't hate it. And he goes down. I actually like, I think there's a perfect passageway for Deonté Wilder to step into another world title fight

that actually makes sense. Because we're not forced, I don't think that fight's for sure. No, it's the Joshua Fury fight is happening. I mean, they're signed that on the dotted lines. They even reiterated it again today. So it's not like Fury is going to just like rip up a contract

or change the plans and be like, I want Du Bois now. No, Fury is fighting AJ. So that, That's gone. Wilder versus Fury or AJ kind of felt like a pipe dream. Wilder versus any of the, of the, well, it seemed for it. I don't hate it. I don't hate it. I don't think Atama's going to happen next because I just think that's malpractice. It's just they're not going to do that. It's just they're not going to throw him in there with Dubois. It just doesn't make sense business wise. And I think Atama would have a lot of success, but it would be a heck of a fight.

I just don't think that's next. Don't want to see the Usook fight. I think we all can agree there. I would be open to the rematch, but that's going to be months and months and months away. And it might just go the same exact way, unless wordly change. just some things up, learns how to throw a left hook, increases, or it fixes his gas tank. I actually don't think goes to say. Why, what do you think? I think that Wardley learned a tremendous amount from this. As long as he's not damaged physically and psychologically, and he might be damaged physically.

I don't think he was damaged psychologically. I mean, there's always PTSD as an issue, but, like, I don't get that from his psychology. Some fighters just don't get affected by that. Like, it never bothered me. I don't see that from him. Just the competitiveness in him is not going to be, I don't think it's going to be an issue. But I do believe that the skill gap is his issue.

And he's built, again, I keep going referring to myself. Like, I had to learn on the job. And I think Wardley's in that position as well because I started so late to the boxing. And Wardley is the same kind of way. But I was a very athletic guy. Wardley is a very athletic guy. But he can punch. I wasn't a puncher.

I had to learn the skills. I think he might skip. a little beats because of his power, which I think we saw early in the fight when he was just like, he's like, Wilder had a lot of deficiencies too, and he made up for it with the great equalizer. He isn't,

he isn't, because Wardley is just an athlete. Wow. Did he play wide receiver? But he had the right hand. Yeah, he was an athlete too, but Wardley's like a,

I don't know, man. I don't see a lot of it. To sum it all up, you would, if you could rank it next, you would have, for Dubois, you would have Wilder,

rematch with Wardley. Talma, the Ousik. Yes. I don't think Ousick can be. It turns like what you would want to see next. What I would want to see next would be wilder. Is there any of the names we're forgetting? If he be's Wilder, which I would favor Dubois,

and then rematch it Wardley. And I don't know he wins that fight. And the winner of that. I bet Cabell is going to fight. I don't think they're going to move Cabell off to Usik. He's been waiting and Yeah. They're going to fight.

Frank Warren has been pretty adamant about that. So I would like to see Cabell mix it up with Dubois. I would like to see. So I believe Ussick beats Cabell. I would like to see Cabell and Atalma at some point, at some point after he's already lost to Usik. I think

there's opportunities for Atalma. to fight guys like Richard Torres. I like that fight a lot. I've said it a few times. Jared Anderson. I like that fight a lot. Torres is fighting next two weeks on the pyramid fight. You know another thing, too?

Good for him. Also, Jololov had a walk over the weekend. That guy is regretting. I did not because it was on the air, which is, I'm going to blame his opposition. I think if you put him in with top flight guys, I blame that and I blame him doing the, I know he's making a lot of money in wherever he's from.

I forgot. Don't quote me on that. He's, Joe, Cossackston? No. I know he's making a lot of money there by doing the amateur stuff and like, kind of going back and forth,

but it's ultimately, I've said this many times, it's ultimately a crush to his development as a heavyweight boxer. And he looks so pedestrian in the last couple of outings. Yeah, I definitely want to see Dubois. Dubois is the guy now. I mean,

one of the guys, to heavyweight. He's it got a heavyweight strap. WBO strapped with some really good fights out there for him. So we'll keep an eye on that. And I'm just thinking, I was watching this Dubois-Wordley fight. A real fight. 18,000 people in attendance, you know, a sellout, great promotion, great fight. And then in two weeks, we're going to watch Ucic fight, uh, Veerhoven.

I'm like, oh, that's just like, I wish, I wish that fight wasn't happening. Oh, we have a great, we have a grace period because we just saw a fantastic heavyweight all time. This is an all-time fight. Definitely. I was going to, like, are we being hyperbolic here? Are we being prisoners of the moment? I don't think so. No, no, no, not at all.

Not at all. This was an edge of your seat, dangerous fight with two serious killers and an upset and a change of the hands in terms of the belt. This is an all-time fight. This is why boxing will never die. This fight is why boxing will never die. I had friends texting me, and they're like, they come from the M.A. world, and they're like, there is nothing.

heavyweight boxing. They're like, oh, M.A. I stayed up and watched the Strickland fight because I've been watching more in Memeca because it's so much easier to watch now at Paramount. So I like Shiggin. That fight was so mediocre. Yeah. And I like Shemai's too.

But that's how all the main events are. They were standing there in close range, not throwing any heat. Javs, little pitty pat jabs, take down defense. I get it. It was a good. Strickland performed better than people thought he would. that happens in boxing all the time. Then you give him way more credit.

Chimaya, this is on an MMA podcast. Jamaya had a bad weight cut. But to your point, yes, to go from watching Wardley and DuBois throwing on an epic heavyweight fight to the main event of the UFC,

which is like a very popular sport, let's be honest. I'm just sitting there like kind of salty, not trying to be that guy to compare MMA to boxing all the time, but I'm like, this is the best you guys can offer right now? I'm never salty because I'm always like,

no, no, this is just a better sport. There's no question. There's no question in my mind at any point in the history of the world. Has MMA been better than boxing? Right. When done right. I always say that. Hands down.

I'm not saying best combat sport. I'm saying best sport. You can't get better. You've never been to a big fight out there. People listen, you've got to make sure you get out there. The scenes before a big fight is out of a movie. Like both guys making their ring walk. That ring is empty.

The lights, the music. Michael Buffer. Then they get in the ring and they throw down in epic, epic fights. We've seen some of the movies like that. One guy gets their hand right. as they hug after it's just like it takes your breath away so i imagine everyone that was there on a saturday night at the copper box 18 000 that's amazing and they did it all without uh you know any turkey involvement in saudi and that became the thing because remember when the fight

frank warren oh he's the heavy way g you guys the gangster um man you remember the ring put out that that weird statement saying that the fight was having trouble selling and they're having issues And no, that was ridiculous. It was propaganda. A fight did fine. In fact, it did great. It was one of the biggest indoor attendance for all sorts of records. And it was an awesome fight.

So, yes, when boxing is done correctly, best sport entire world. David, hands down. David Morel, oof, upset by Zach Shelley. Morel was a minus 2,000 favorite. Chelly is a 28-year-old school teacher from Fulham, UK, with three losses on his do docket. This was shocking to see. Morrell back-to-back fights with Benavides

and Katyev. Many thought he lost to Katteev took a pretty good beating in the Benavitas fight. Didn't look good against Hot Rod. Hasn't look good at 175 compared to 168. Back to the drawing. I don't even know what's next for David Moran, but this was a shocking upset.

David Morel is unfortunately falling into the cautionary tale. He is fastly becoming the cautionary tail. of how not to maneuver a talent. Taking tip-top flight competition, David Benavides right away. He fought really good fighters on the way up also.

But then right to like, David Benavides is going to go down in history as like a pound-for-pound guy. So catching him early, in hindsight, it's going to look better. But then they're going right into a guy like Katiev, who failed a drug test right before the fight, by the way. Decides to fight him anyway.

Gets dropped, is in a war, shows just massive toughness and ability and just grinds it out and pulls out a close fight. And then also, this is another one. And this is, I think a lot of people who don't know the sport and are not fighters are going to overlook this. He had a fight scheduled. Psychology. What do you do? What do you do? Not even psychology.

Over training. what do you do you take time off restart camp and go back to you or do you try and get a quick bag real quick and jump into a fight you got to get that back you got want your trainers paid you want to get paid your team wants to get paid i don't i don't i don't think so i don't think so i don't think it's the right thing but like you had what some guys take the fight and others don't no no no no no no i've been in this situation dan i'm telling you right now at low level i was in this situation Do you ever feel a responsibility, like you have so many other people depending on you? No.

My responsibility is to myself. I'm going to pay my team. They're going to get paid. But if I lose, nobody gets paid. If I lose, the potential of their bag. The gravy train diminishes greatly. David Burrell's gravy train's over. He has regrets.

That's another thing, too. I think anyone could have beat him on this night. I bet you Ben Whitaker is kicking himself for not taking this fight because he. but he was winning the fight I thought he looked horrible and he just couldn't but he was still winning the fight against a guy who's minus 2,000 favorite

Morel so I'm surprised I mean we've we've seen we've seen minus a lot from like like a Lamont Roche versus yeah Gervanta like that he was a I wonder what happens now with this the mandatory

situation 175 like well if Benavita doesn't get Bivall because I it's kind of looking like Bivel and Better Piff might tangle with a different billionaire backing it, a Russian billionaire. That might happen. Yeah, I think so, too. So that Benavitas might look to Calum Smith.

I don't think we're going to see David Benavides at 175 if it's not Bivel. Yeah, we talked about that last week with the Cruiserweight versus 175 debate. Which, which in that case, if I say that, we might never see David Benavitas as 75 ever again. It's definitely, he started following us on Instagram. And he definitely saw our video about us, you saying that. And you weren't throwing shade. It was a compliment. Not at all.

But he looked so damn good at Cruiserweight. Yeah. That he may never go down there. I said I didn't like what he said. Yeah. So, I mean, it's an option now. Colin Smith's an obstacle. He's not fighting David Morell.

That was supposed to be to fight. Morel stepped in with this, this stay busy fight. He loses to a massive underdog. Good card, though, over in the UK. That was a really good card. over to the card you were calling. What the hell happened with this one? Reis Aleem comes in 2.8 overweight, fight canceled.

Can you give us some insight on what the heck happened with this? I was a big time bummer. Yeah, good fight, big time bummer. It was very excited for the fight, actually. I've called Leo's last five out of six fights live for the actual promotion. I didn't call the Japanese fight. I called it from the ProBox Studios, but it wasn't the live call for, you know, the actual production. But I've called five other fights for him.

And so I know him very, very well. I like him. I respect him. I know all about him and his team. And Ray Salim got to interview him a couple weeks ago. Looked to be in fantastic shape. Was very excited for this opportunity. 35 years old.

Understood this was his last shot. Trains with Bones Adams, who's a very good friend of mine. I've known Bones for many, many years. Actually, sparred with Bones a couple of, about 14 years ago when he was trying to make a comeback. him and I were joking about that over some beers after after Friday night. But yeah, so this was a bit of a disaster. You know, we got to the show. The weigh in comes over 2.8 pounds over, which is a lot.

Guys, at home, people are like, oh, it's only three pounds. No, no, no, no. It's three pounds at the end of a weight cut with the other guy who made the weight and did those three pounds. Angelo has to make weight at 26 now. He is a full-grown featherweight. I saw him at the way in it. He is drawn. He struggles to make 126 as all the champions do at 120s.

You have to. It no longer becomes a competitive advantage at the highest level. It becomes leveling the playing field because everyone is so goddamn big. Everyone cuts weight. Everyone is big. Rafael Spinoza is gigantic. If you're not cutting weight to make 26, you're not beating that guy. You're in a different world than him.

He's my size. It's crazy. He's eye-to-eye with me, Rafael Espinoza. We're talking about 126-pounders. So Angelo-Lio has put on the proper lean tissue to be a real 26-pounder. The guy struggles to make the weight. It's not an easy cut. And a lean coming in at almost three pounds over is a big deal.

And for what I understood and I heard from his team, he was 2.8 over and dry. So it just wasn't coming off. So unfortunately, Atlanta, you don't only get one hour, not two hours, like a lot of the other states to make the weight. So when I heard that, I was like, well, he's not making it. Three pounds, you're not doing three pounds in an hour at the end of a weight cut. So I said it right away. I'm the fight's not happening unless Angelo just wants to fight. So a lien comes back after the hour break.

He took off 0.8, which I was surprised even did that. So he's still two pounds over the featherweight limit. title would not be on the line if they were to fight if Leo decided that he was going to fight anyway and Leo and his team decided with health concerns to not take the fight. They got paid regardless

because the IBF rule is if you make the weight you get paid. Did they get paid? What's that? There was like a confusion out there. Lance Pugmire's there's like a lot of finger pointing on who should be paying Leo. You called Brandon Gibbons. Gibbons said call Salida. Leo told us on air live last night he got paid. All right, great.

That's awesome. This is great. I think this is a great example. Yeah. We've seen, how many times have you seen this, Chris, where they find a middle ground,

they accept more money, the fight goes on, the guy doesn't really get penalized for missing the weight. We've seen guys to come in on purpose as a strategy. I think this shows like there should be more harsher penalties if you don't make the weight.

Alim doesn't get paid, correct? No, absolutely not. He doesn't get his title shot. He's also never getting a shot ever again. No, this is his last shot, and he's been complaining about, when am I going to get my shot at 35 years old? And whatever, body betrayed him or who knows what the real reason is.

So I do have some, I do have some tea. Okay, so this is, I don't think this is out of anywhere. The hotel had major issues the night before the way in. There was a flooding situation on a couple floors. They had to cut off the water. So Alim was unable to do his tub sweats the night before. So there is actually...

Are you buying that? Well, I know for sure that the hotel did. No, I know. I know that it happened. But are you saying, is that a big time to turn of making weight? That is a big obstacle? there is no reason he couldn't book another hotel. I've done that with fighters.

I've done that with fighters. This is your fence. I've done that with fighters. I've come into a hotel. They didn't have a tub. The water didn't get hot enough. We booked the hotel across the street. Literally, literally.

Like $89 a night. Literally. Or you go to a gym with a song. You can make the weight. It's your last shot. A million hotels where you guys were staying. But also three pounds is a lot. That's a lot.

But still, you could have got closer. Who knows? If it was a pound, do you think if it was a pound? Do you think Leo would have went through with the fight? No. Or was it just, it just was a matter of... You know why, Dan? And this is another caveat because of the situation.

This is a unique situation. Leo hasn't fought in a year. The kid wants to fight. He trained for two months. He trained for two months. He's fantastic. He looked awesome on the scale. He looked as strong as I've ever seen him.

Look great. One, Alim is tough. It's a very hard fight. It was never going to be an easy fight. Number two, bro, Naya Inouyea Inouye. The winner of this fight is very... very much in the sweepstakes for an Iowa in a way. Are you going to take a risk and fight a guy who didn't make weight who's very, very good?

No. And you're going to get paid. Did he say that or he just is just the assumption on your own? He did not say that to me. I spoke about it. Angel is a friend of mine. I speak to him personally. He did not.

But he's thinking that. No, how could he not be thinking that? Of course. It's the Super Bowl. That's the winning lottery ticket. Very smart move. And this was not a big money fight. It really wasn't.

No, I like it because everyone came out. I mean, obviously we wanted to see the fight. But if we're not going to get the fight, like Leo got paid, Alim got really, made an example of where fighters need to rethink this now. It's a shame. He's a strategy. He's a good guy, man. It's a shame.

Who, Alim? Yeah, he is. Yeah, it sucks. I know he was getting ostracized because he made some comments a few months ago or a year ago. He kind of should. He said he was the black Charlie Kirk. I don't know what that even means. I don't know anything about that.

Yeah, that came up and like, I saw some tweets like, oh, he got karma or I wasn't, am I getting involved in that stuff? But I just see a guy that finally gets a shot. 35 years old title shot comes, when you see the three pounds, it's almost like, oh my God, that's like Regis.

That's like you made a decision or like he just stopped even trying. But, you know, now you have this inside information about the bass and 35 too. Trying to make 126. Not easy. Unfortunate.

Unfortunate fights did still go on like that too. Main event still went through. Yeah, we moved the card up. It actually turned out to be a pretty decent card in the zone. Nice. I mean, the main event was the whole show. That was such a good fight.

But we did have a T-F overall who is a legit blue chip prospect. Yeah, swaggy too. A guy can dress. He is a character, man. So I've called his last two fights in a row. His fighter meeting.

The one in Detroit. What was he wearing in Detroit? I remember. Well, he's, he's like a real, like he's, he's developing himself into trying to be a fashion icon. Like, if you talked to him, like he was,

he was way over my head. I'm not, listen, I'm into, I'm into somewhat fashion. This guy, he was naming names and designers, and he designs. Nagey up on any of it? Naji's a record executive.

I did not know that. It's in the music world, Naji. It comes from the music world. Oh, okay. Naji is cool guy. First time I ever actually... He's a good for you. First time I ever met him.

I know. He was a good guy. He was very good on the mic as well. Very, very good. Very well prepared, very professional. Way taller than I expected. Apparently he's a basketball player. Did not know that.

I'm not normally the shortest guy on a broadcast. I'm usually the tallest guy, actually. Except when I work with Todd Grisham. But regardless, the fight with the Teef. So, Atif is an extremely, extremely interesting human being outside of the ring. Obviously, he's very, very good. Super high-level amateur. Dude, he's a 6'4-Southball from Philly who can punch.

So what was he? 168? 75. Nice. Absolute nightmare. 75's got some stuff boiling underneath. You know who is there? Nachie Lopez.

Was he? Who was watching it? Tev. Mahi, Ben Whitaker, this. David Morel now getting, getting upset. We got, you know, a new guy. Interesting times, my friends. All right, that's our episode.

Let me get back to my family. Yeah, my family just showed up, so I got to go. We got pasta, we got sushi up there. Well, we're doing Italian, too. Were you doing sushi? Pasta is funny. Yeah, you know what? Pasta is sushi?

Okay. No, family group chat. We always do, we always do Italian. When family group chat, my mom goes, we're going to order from Mamalises, give them a pop here. Semmerich. I'm the leases. Phenomenal.

My brother, one brother goes, we always do Italian. Gets just ridiculed in the chat. Like, what do you mean? What do you want? My mom says, we'll get sushi too. Oh, he's saying, we always do Italian, like, let's do something different. Let's do something different. Let's do something different.

And then that was like, you might as well said, I want out of the family. Yeah, yeah, you're gone. You're gone. Don't even come. So we did. Don't even come. My mom did appease him. We have sushi up there.

I'm going to eat some of that. Watch the Knicks. Tell them to eat it in the other room. He probably will have to. Knicks are up 17 right now as we record. We're going to sweep the Sixers. So can I wear my next jersey with the Algeria on the back? Yeah, bro.

Next show. I almost wore it. That show will be Thursday from L.A. I'll be in L.A. for the MVP MMA event. We got Kishon Davis fighting this weekend. We'll preview that. Chris will have another belt. If there's no belt on the line.

No, no other line. But if there is, this is going to have to cover. This is Thomas to Daniel Dubois, two-time world champion now. New WBOO world champion. Have been new segment for our division Heavyweight division is Booming boxing booming hot fire Hot right now

Check yourselves at all time Keep your hands up at all time Sailors DMC next time