The Ariel Helwani Show - Inside Boxing | Oleksandr Usyk stops Rico Verhoeven, Frank Sanchez ices Richard Torrez, full weekend results

Episode Date: May 24, 2026

Dan Canobbio and Chris Algieri open the show discussing Oleksandr Usyk’s late-round stoppage of Rico Verhoeven, including the controversy, Verhoeven’s outstanding performance, and whether Usyk has finally lost a step. Will we see a rematch or will Usyk finally face Agit Kabayel (00:28)? Frank Sanchez scored an emphatic knockout over Richard Torrez that left the boxing world stunned. With the win, Sanchez became the mandatory for Usyk’s IBF belt. Where does Torrez go from here (34:30)? The boys also break down the rest of the main card, which saw Hamzah Sheeraz capture his first world title against an overmatched Alem Begic and Jack Catterall’s dominant win over Shakhram Giyasov, which lines up some big future fights (44:28). Finally, on Friday night, fast-rising prospect Amari Jones scored a quick knockout of Vincenzo Gualtieri, which puts him one step closer to a middleweight title shot (52:32).

Welcome back, everyone. It's another episode of Inside Boxing, presented by PPPV.com, an association with uncrowned Yahoo Sports. I'm Dan Kinobio. He's the champ, Chris Algeri, boxing, and kickboxing, which will be a big part of today's show. We just watched Alexander Usook stop recover hoover in the 11th round of controversial stoppage because this is boxing.

We can't have anything be clean. We can't have anything be nice. How are you, Chris? Did you watch that? Did you watch it? This is why we can't have nice things, Dan. Because boxing loves to shoot itself on the foot. Give itself black eyes.

That's what boxing does. Did it again yesterday, but what you do? And yes, I did watch it. I didn't watch it live. I was working for Pro Box, but I caught the last five rounds last night in between shows, and then I rewatched the entire event this morning. So I'm raring to go.

I got a lot of takes, a lot of technical analysis. There are so many takes. My walkout song was don't sweat the technique for a reason, man. I'm, I sweat the technique. I love that because you bring that side of the game to this podcast with the technique. The takes on Twitter I'm seeing are just out of control when it comes to this fight, Ucic, where boxing stands, MMA versus boxing, kickboxing versus boxing. It's crazy because when a fight ends like that, a fight of that stature ends how it did.

There's going to generate a lot of us. That's great because everyone's talking about the sport. But it's always the same thing. Like we're not talking about an amazing night. We're not talking about an unbelievable venue, which was the pyramids, which looked awesome. We're talking about more boxing is going to boxing. He's going to shoot itself in the foot. This, that, and the other.

But I want to start the show off by saying, first and foremost, major props to Riko Verhoeven. No one had him doing what he did in that fight. He pushed Usig back. He had a perfect game plan, him and Peter Fury. He took big shots. He landed big shots. good for him unreal game plan first and foremost. Second, Ussick looked bad.

He came in a career high, 233 pounds. His footwork was off whether he didn't train hard, whether he got old overnight or both. Usik had a bad night, but he still has that clutch gene, Chris. He still was able to turn it on the 11th round, drop Verhoven badly. And if it went to the 12th, he probably would have stopped him. Which brings me to my last point of this,

of my initial thoughts here is we were robbed of so many different outcomes. We were robbed of a potential Ussic definitive knockout, which would have been amazing. And most importantly, we were potentially robbed of Rico Verhoeven painting one of the greatest upsets in the history of sports. Because if you would have went to distance, who knows what would have happened here. So we're left with the whole boxing's going to boxing. Is it corrupt? The referee was he told what to do? It was just an unfortunate and unfortunate series of events.

but once again, this is just the sport that we love. Yes, Rico is the man. He made kickboxing look good. That's my sport where I originally came from. Rico's my guy. He, man, no one expected. I didn't expect that. Even though I love Rico and I think he's,

I know he's a goat, and he is the goat in heavyweight kickboxing. But yeah, I mean, listen, he really showed out. But to your point, because I was, you know, when you're watching it during when it's live, the sensationalism of everything creeps into your rational thought and your perceptions

which I think we saw a lot of that even on the broadcast but yeah RICO is the absolute man he deserves all the credit in the world he came in fantastic shape he had a good game plan he's listen the guy was locked in and ready throughout

and to go into your second pro fight and second pro boxing match against the goat of boxing a living legend and to go from fighting five-rounders to 12, I mean, all the credit in the world. And also just the way he handled himself all week and afterwards. I mean, just an absolute spokesman for sporting.

I mean, absolute legend in the ring, absolute legend outside of the ring. That's the kind of guy like, if you're raising kids, you're like, that's what you want your kids to be like. That's who you want them to look up to because the man is just all class. Oh, my God, yeah. I mean, even afterwards, he could have jumped up.

up and down. He could have been knocking people out in the ring because he was, he was, of a big moment was taken away from him. Martial artists are different, man. We came up a different way. And I, you know, I heard Sergio Muro talking about seeing both the fighters all week. And he's like, yeah, Usik is an intimidating, scary looking guy. He looks like a fighter. When he's not smiling, you just look at him. You're like, okay, that's a serious guy. He's like, and then Rico, he was like, he, you know, he obviously looks like an athlete. He's a big man, but like, ah, he's got a different presence to him. He's like, he, he, he, he, he doesn't look like a fighter. I think he looks like a fighter,

but it's just a little different. When you come from a martial arts background, the level of respect and the way you carry yourself is very, very different. You know, I came from that as well. I think a lot of people probably could notice that during my career, because it's just, there's a different level of respect when you come up in martial arts gyms and you come up through kickboxing. It's just, it's a different culture. Yeah, 100%. It was more pride and all that. I think Rico made a lot of fans. Yeah. On Saturday night.

Just to rewind a little bit, I know everyone has probably watched the fight or seen it by now, but we're still going to go through it. Verhoven comes out real hot. He's pumping that jab. He's pushing Ussick back. I noticed Uc, you know, he's 233 pounds career high. They had to wear shirts during the way in. I don't know what that is about.

Is that an Egyptian thing? I would have maybe saw that on Friday. I don't know. He looked fleshy in the midsection. No, no question about it. Everybody got in the ring and that sure was off and his emperor gear was off. I was like, damn, he, like, I know 233. That's his career high.

But like, right, but what is it? 233 like muscle? Is it like, no, it was. Was it purposeful? Did he gain the weight because Rico was big? Rico's a big guy. So. Right. And then revisionist history, we're going to say no.

He was fleshy and this is why he looked the way he did. Okay. So Verhoeven comes out and he's pumping the jab and he's looking great and he's smother. And he's smothering Ousek. He's pushing Ousek back on his back foot. We haven't seen that in a long time. Usually we see these guys play the faint game with Usook, the hand-to-hand combo.

He was bringing a different approach to it. And he's won the first round, won the second round, starting to build up a case here. I didn't have it as wide as Coppager did. I didn't have as wide as some of unboxing Twitter did. I think once again, where you see a guy that's a massive underdog, looking better than he should.

You start to rack up rounds. Like I didn't have it quite. Overperforming when the expectation is not what is happening, it's very easy to give a guy rounds. Yeah, I totally agree. Yeah, so like, I think heading into the 11th, I said I had Rico maybe up by two rounds. The open scoring had it even. WBC all of a sudden is going to do open scoring. 76, 76, no.

Even heading into the 11th round, no. I think Verhoeven had a slight edge, but not some runaway thing like Cobbacher had or some runaway thing that we saw on boxing Twitter. Then the 11th round comes, and Usik finds it like he usually does in these late rounds. And he goes in, he lands a massive series of shots, an uppercut, right-hand uppercut that drops Verhoeven almost through the ropes. But he gets up, Rico, and he looks somewhat okay. He doesn't look completely out, mouthpiece out, saves him some more time.

As he's walking over to get the mouthpiece in, he is on really bad legs. he looks bad. Final 10 seconds, Florifa Musick, they stopped the fight after the bell. And I know the referee is not supposed to take into account how much time is left in a round. We've seen that Richard Steele, Medrick Teryl, one of the most infamous stoppages ever. He has said, you can't take into account of much time. You just have to say, if a fighter lands a shot at the end of the fight, you know, it could kill them, it could hurt them. I just have to look up for fighter safety. I guess that's what the referee was. was looking at, I don't know. But he stops the fight after the bell, which is crazy, and the fight over.

Would Usik have stopped him in the 12th? It was looking that way. But I thought Verhoeven, and I think you would agree, had every right to go out on his shield and maybe see that 12th round. And he said that. He said that. Rico's a warrior. And listen, I'll say this too coming from kickboxing.

Kickboxers get knocked out. Like a lot of heavy weight. That's why Rico is so. so incredible because being undefeated for 11, 11 years. Heavyweight kickboxing, those guys knocked each other out all the time. Those K-1 guys, like it was back and forth. They go out on their shield and they want to. Enrico was robbed of that.

Or, like you said, the other options that could have, the other outcomes that could have come from this fight, because you don't know. You can't just like, oh, he was going to stop in the next round? You don't know that. You can't say that. Yes, was he on his way? Was he hurt?

Yes, was he building a really strong case that Usoc had figured him out? Yes. I actually think the end came at the end of round 10 when Usoc finally. put some numbers together. And you could see Rico, you know, he had a little knot growing on his cheek from one of those left hands. And he looked, he looked tired. The gas tank was dwindling in those last rounds, those eight, nine, and then ten is where Usoc, you know, powered through. But 11, Rico was having a pretty decent round. He was, he was handling it. He was staying, avoiding the big shots. But at the very end of that round, that uppercut that Usoc was looking

for all night long, finally lands. Mouthpiece flies out, goes down. Ultimately, bad stoppage. had stoppage. That fight should have been given the grace to continue fighting, to go to his corner, try to reset, and go out there in the 12th round of fight. Now, in terms of what was happening score-wise, I had Rico up 6-5. Fair. At the-oh, it ended in the 11th. So I gave Rico six rounds. So six, excuse me, six-four. And then that round would have made it actually even because of the knockdown. It would have been, it would have been six-five with the knockdown. So we would have had an even score. But yes, I had RICO ahead.

I had RICO winning six rounds, which means he was in draw territory, potentially getting, if he wins a 12th round, he wins a fight. But it was impressive for him to knock six rounds down and put them in the books. Because first three, he looked really good. The third was a little close, but I get easily, I gave him the third. I gave him one through three. Fourth, Ucic looks like he started to come on. It looked like the beginning of the end right there.

And then RICO regrouped and changed his style up. You know, he is two things about Rico. One, he's a great athlete, no question. You got a guy who is as big as he is, who has a gas tankly he has, comes in fantastic shape. But two, he had a really good game plan. And this is something I didn't really see anybody talk about. He actually fought like a little man. He crouched me.

He didn't give a lot of area to hit. He kept his head moving the entire time. He had that TikTok style. He had kind of like an awkward movement. He was, you know, rotating those hands a lot. But his reaction, his reactions. were good. Even though those hands were opening, you could kind of read that. He would catch things. He wasn't getting hit super clean, especially early on. And the real difference, what really gave

Usik the issue was his offbeat rhythm. Whenever, Usuk's a rhythm fighter. Once he finds his rhythm, he's a nightmare. And he's just, just, Bing, Bing, Bing, Bing, Bing, Bing. We've seen him do that to all these heavyweights. And especially when it gets later as the guys start to slow down. And that was really what happened here. Rico had a good game plan. He was pop shot. He was landing in the counter right hands. Whenever Usset got any kind of rhythm, he smothers, grabs him, pushes him, uses that physical side, push him against the ropes,

lean on him, slap with both hands, you know, just keep the hands moving. Very, very smart tactic. Fault like a little man on the outside, felt like a big man on the inside. Beautiful, beautiful game plan, strategically super smart. And it almost worked.

But for me, I think it was just, it was the conditioning. Going 12 is like nothing else in the world. And, you know, he's got all these, all these kickboxing fights. He's done three-man tournaments where you have to fight three fights back to back to back. Still, it's three-three rounds,

so it's nine minutes with breaks in between those fights. Twelve rounds straight is the hardest sporting event possible. Twelve round championship level is the hardest thing you could ever do in sports at all, ever. And Rico did damn good, man, but I think at the end of the day, once the gas tank started to deplete and you saw him wilt and he didn't have that continuous motion going and that physicality going, that's where Usik was able to pick it up, find the spots, find the holes, and do the damage that he did.

Yeah, I know there's a lot. We'll get to Usik in a second because there's a lot to unpack there. But I do want to give Reuven his just due. And if you go back to list our last episode, neither of us picked Rico to win. But the thing I pride myself on this show, and I think you do too, is we look at it from both sides. And you talked about that rhythm or the herky jerky style of Rehoven. Or when we watch a boxer fight. someone that isn't a boxer.

And it takes him a while to get used to. We did talk about that on the last episode, and Uc definitely did struggle with that. One of the judges had it, 96-94 RICO, which would have been what we saw. Two of the judges had it even. Bruvin landed 38% of his power shots. That's the third highest percentage ever on an Ucic opponent.

That's crazy. Like this guy, he can't, came in here and defied the odds. Like, we're sitting there watching, I'm driving to my brother's apartment and watching on my phone. I wasn't driving. I was in the passenger seat because I put out a video. I looked like I was driving. I was not driving and making a video at the same time.

It was like one of those moments, like, where are you type of moment that was starting to mount here. You know, it would have been bigger than Buster Douglas. You know, Buster Douglas was a boxer. He was a damn good boxer before he said to the good one, too. People forget that. He was a damn good fighter. And Rehovans won professional boxing fight. He had an unbelievable kickboxing career.

And there's a lot of that being talked about right now, like the revisionist history of it. You know, it was like, it was never this great. You know, please don't ever put him in the same disguise. He's 39 years old. He still looked good at the end of the fight. Like, he still was able to find something late in this fight. Berhoven wasn't just, like, pushed around,

and the referees jumped in. He was down first and almost through the ropes and was visibly hurt and was, and when he spit out the mouthpiece, which... And he was starting to get lumped up too, because those shots were getting through. Bro, he looked terrible, but... Like, like, physically, he was looking like he was getting, he was beat up. And the mouthpiece thing was on purpose. I mean, we don't know for sure, but...

I don't know, because he dropped the mouthpiece earlier. I think it was an ill-fitting mouthpiece, which is a real shame. Because he got hit with an uppercut a few rounds earlier. the mouthpiece came out. You don't think it was to buy more time? I think the corner, the way they put it in, maybe that little fumble, that was a little bit of that, which is fine. That's part of the sport. A good corner will do that. I don't know, dude, you got hit with an uppercut. You got hit with an uppercut. You have an ill-fitting

mouthpiece that falls out. A mouthpiece should never fall out, guys. Moutpieces are supposed to be hard to take out. You literally have to, like, get your fingernail under a will-fitting mouthpiece and pull it out of a guy's mouth. That's what a mouthpiece should be like. When he got hit with that uppercut, I believe it might have been the eighth round, or maybe a little early in that, and hit the floor. I was like, oh, it's not a good sign. So I don't know. I don't think it was on purpose.

I think you got hit with another uppercut. It was a beautiful right uppercut, the lead hand from Usik along as, once again, RICO was fighting in that crouch. That uppercut was there all night. And Usoc was looking for it all night. You just couldn't find it until Rico slowed down a little. They said he was fighting like Jim Carrey, me, myself, and Irene. Yeah.

But the minute he stopped doing that is when he got in trouble. Well, you know what's funny. People forget about this. Like, older versions of fighters fought like that. You'd look at the Rocky Marciano's. They come in in a crouch position. They fight out of that position. They keep that constant movement.

He had a lot of that. And that's what I mean by making himself small. He's a big guy, very, very tall. When he stands up straight, he looks considerably taller than when he fought. He's making himself small on the inside, on the outside, excuse me, when he was boxing. So that was part of it. And Usuk was looking for that uppercut all night long because it was there. You got a guy who was heavy over that front foot.

The uppercuts are there. The issue was that RICO. kept his head moving constantly. He was always moving that head, always rolling, slipping, sliding, and he was very switched on. Once he slowed down and he was getting a little tired later on, that was the difference. That's when Usuk was able to time him. Well, let's get to the stoppage.

You said before bad stoppage, I agree. Everything I was taught about boxing and I've heard about boxing from my dad, from you, from everyone, is that the referee is not supposed to take it to account how much time is left in a round. We heard the clap. That's a misconception. People really don't think that. Everyone says that.

The ref has to know what time. It doesn't matter. That's not his job. No, the referee is supposed to. One of the referees main jobs is to look out for the safety of the fighters. And if he feels like a fighter is getting pummeled and no longer defending himself, which Rehoeven was throwing back, he needs to stop the fight no matter what. One second left in the fight.

One second left in a round, first round, whatever. Mark Leicin, who's had some questionable. refereeing moments decided he was going to stop that fight with what they say is one second left to go in the 11th round in a fight where it was basically even in one of the biggest boxing upsets potentially of all time. Once again, referee not supposed to think of those things, not supposed to think of the stakes or where we are. He's supposed to just keep laser-focused on Verhoeven. That being said, yeah, he almost went flying through the ropes. Like I said, When he got up, he looked okay, Verhoeven.

Like, he was throwing back in some of those exchanges. Then he comes to him into the last 10 seconds with the Anusik, credit to him, onslaught. And they stopped the fight there with 259. But if you look at it, Chris, the bell rang and there was two seconds after, that's when they stopped it. And Verhoven, as of this morning, Sunday after the fight, is filing a protest or some type of whatever. They stopped the fight after the round. This is where the controversy is. Like that was a bad stoppage.

It's plain and simple. Like they should have went to the 12th and we could have seen how this fight was going to play out. Was it going to play out with an emphatic knockout by Usik? Was it going to play out with Verhoven doing what he's done his entire career is just still somehow standing and winning?

Somehow we were deprived of that moment. For what reason now? Was it because where they told, there was a referee told, any moment close, stop the fight so Ussick can win because we want Usook to keep winning. This is a bad look for boxing. This is when you get into that territory of corruption rigged, fixed that you see from everyone on Twitter. You know, Dave Portnoy chimes in, a mainstream voice.

Boxing is rigged. Bill Simmons, boxing is like this is box. You know, when it gets into that territory now, where we're like, we're going to have this conversation. Well, it was the same thing that happened with Ingano and Tyson Fury. Most people thought Ingano won that fight. and then he ends up not getting it. And people look at it, oh, man, of course. They're not going to let this guy come to your hometown and take it,

or your home game or home sport and take it. So you get those questions. This is another reason why I don't like open scoring. Because it just, it adds more controversy. Because like you just said, was the ref thinking about the scores? Was the ref, he's not supposed to, of course? Was he thinking that this was the opportunity to end this fight? And our guy, the boxer, can win.

Yeah, there's, of course, controversy It's boxing. You know, there's always drama around these fights and these kinds of fights, and especially with Usook, because of the way Usoc fights, like, he always has to come back and find a way at the end. He's, he is that guy. He is the Jordan three-pointer, you know, like, he's just that guy at the, he's the buzzer-beater, and he's still got that.

At 39, which he certainly looked 39, and was fighting like a 39-year-old, but he still has that desire to find the. that last shot and to hit the buzzer beater. The guy is special for sure. But yeah, there's going to be controversy swarling. I think this is ultimately, ultimately, in hindsight, looking back, it's going to be a good thing for Rico. Because people are, there's going to be an argument now like,

dude, you got robbed. Because if he goes out in the 12th round and then just get stopped, we don't say that. We're like, hey, good job, man. You won more rounds than I expected. You know, he ended up getting you late, but hell of a job. But now it's like, you know, you should have won that fight. You were ahead.

You know, I wasn't saying that. And Rico handed it with such grace and honor that it also is going to help him. So in hindsight, this is really going to help Rico. On top of that, he's going to get another big fight and a huge payday. You know, you heard turkey in the ring afterwards. He's like, I want to rematch. Yeah, we'll get to that too. No one thought about that.

Like, Rico's going to get another huge bag. It's great. They bungled that post fight. They're very bad at that ring. That was bad. They're so bad at the post fights. They're great at staging. these events.

Who's the ring guy with the hat and the shirt? Yeah, with his back to the camera talking. What was that, bro? Oh, man. Like, you guys are putting so much money into these events, and that was an amazing event. Like, you pulled it off. Like, it went mainstream, like the visuals of this.

Like, what you wanted to accomplish was, look what we can do. Look at these visuals. Look at the pyramids in the back. They accomplished that. Everything they wanted to do with Times Square, and that being a, big time blew up in their face or we're going to put a fight at Alcatraz we're going to do it all those ended up not happening they pulled it off with this well they did the Times Square one was was pretty similar yeah but they put up that wall and fans yeah it didn't look it didn't have that visual

yeah the way they promoted it was you can just walk up Times Square bring your whole family you're gonna watch a great nine to fights last I know the city did step in put that wall up whatever not talking about that but they pulled they pulled it off it was an amazing visual amazing event it It looked awesome. Even the hardest turkey ring hater was like, holy shit. Like this props to them. This looks sick. Right.

But then it comes after the fight. And how are you not on the same page? Like Rehovon standing there, Ussick standing there. Rojofin hasn't even spoken yet. Reno comes in, but is back to the camera, like you said, and is talking about Kabael Usoc. Turkey cuts off Rino and goes, wait, no, no, no.

Rematch, Rearok. Oven in Holland, but it's up to Usyk. Ousik's standing there. Doesn't know what to say. I'll fight both of them, which is just like an Usoc thing. Yeah. So clearly they had this idea like Cabell is going to come in no matter what. Like Usook's going to win.

Cabell's going to come in the ring. We're going to make this Cabell Usoc fight once and for all. They didn't adjust on the fly to like, what a fair oven wins? So there is a rebound. I do credit Turkey for coming in. So wait a second. Which also adds to the controversy, Dan. if you really think about it.

I don't necessarily want to see a rematch between Ussick and Virov. At least not next. I think Cabell Usook next. Give us that fight. He's been the freaking mandatory for years now. I never liked this Veroven fight. I thought it was a circus fight. Even if Verhoven fought better than we thought,

it still was a circus fight. Don't want to see it again. But if I have to see it, let it be down the road a little bit. Let Verhoven get another fight either in MMA or boxing, wherever. Get your bag. Usik fight. Kabeel.

Better shape, take it more serious. Whatever the case. You go to Germany, fight in one of those stadiums. Yes, that's the fight next. I understand. You want to see a right-wronged with the Verhoeven thing. I want the Uysock fight. Enough with these freaking side shows that create these types of ridiculous moments.

Let's go back to a little bit of normality here, which the ring clearly wanted. They were trying to jam that Kabeel fight right in there, after the shoehorned in after the fight. even when it didn't really make sense according to the script. Yeah, well, that's the script. There's definitely a script. I don't care what you say.

There's a script. Yeah, this is not WWE. We are, this is a sport. Guys actually do fight. We don't know what's going to happen. And it is the theater of the unexpected. That is what boxing is. And like you said, you know, dealing with that on the fly when they weren't expecting

that was not handled properly. Would you say this more of a script now than ever considering, like, we're getting these big fights and because of the money that's in it. But like, well, no, we've seen this before. Turkey, Turkey has done this many, many times. There are certain fights that he wants, and he tends to put, you know, that word that we use way too much, puts the cart before the horse, but this is a sport and things happen. So, you know, this is, this is a sport and things happen. You know, it's not, it's not rigged. But yes, there are,

there is a timeline and a script written by the guys who, the powers that be. And you've seen, you've seen the veil get pulled away yesterday in that post-fight interview. And now you kind of look at this and you're like, uh-uh. And that's when the conspiracy minds will start putting their, putting their thoughts together on the Twitter box. What makes more money? Verhoven rematch or Ussick fighting Cabell in Germany or one of those big stadiums? I think Cabell. Listen, you're going to put a ton of people in there.

I don't know, I mean, if you put it, like I'm thinking about it, you put it in Holland. Are they going to be able to do the number? Do they have a venue for that? Rico is super popular, of course, from his kickboxing, and will bring, over a lot of crossover eyes. I think if you put it in a non-fake arena, like they built that thing yesterday for that event, I believe. And it was pretty full, but it wasn't like a traditional arena.

I think how even Sergio was saying he was like, yeah, he was walking around Cairo and he was like, yeah, people aren't really that interested in this. This fight is for us. He's like, these people are here trying to make a living. But yeah, if you put it in a real arena, I don't know. I agree with you. I don't want to see the rematch.

I understand, you know, the possible desire for that because of how Rico performed and how it ended was controversial. But, yeah, let's go back to ranked fighters fighting for titles the way that it's supposed to be. And Kabayel is waiting for a while. And Kabayal's good, man. It's a real fight. I think boxing people will be a lot more interested in that. To Usik. And we talked about this in the last episode and we always mentioning it.

Like, will he get old overnight? we didn't see anything in previous fights. No one saw anything in previous fights to suggest that. No one saw anything in previous fights or anything to suggest that he would come in not taking the fight serious or not training hard. We don't know if he didn't train hard. We can just go by our eyes. I think he trained hard. I think he came in shape.

I just think he's older. You know, the body, that's it, man. Age is real. He's 39. He's 39. It's 39. This is what 39-year-old boxers look like. Most 39-year-old fighters don't, aren't fighting still.

Especially at a high level. Give me a break. I understand, like, there's people out there that just were looking for guys' downfall or there's fighters out there that believe he was too overrated. Or there's boxing fans of a certain age that say, you know what, this heavyweight division is not as good as what I saw in the 90s. Stop putting Ussick in the same discussions as Holyfield, Beau, Lewis, Ali, whoever the case may be.

Like, we're seeing that because, like, U.S. is great. We've been over this numerous times. He went in there and beat everyone he was supposed to beat of this era, and he did it emphatically. He finally has his first, is that a word? No, twice. No, emphatically, he was good, but I'm saying he beat everybody twice. Right. Like, the vision wasn't great, but he went and said, you know what, I'll make up for it by beating them twice. So he has his first rough patch. He has his first hiccup, literally. Has he ever looked that bad? Like, I'd have to go back and go back into his career. Maybe, like, the first

Bredis fight? And he didn't look bad. Bredis is just awesome. That was a great fight. I would say the Chisora fight. I think that was a fight where you can look back and be like... His first real heavyweight test. Yeah. Usoc struggled and Chisora brought a little bit of the game plan out that I'm sure Rico watched. Now, a big man who's

aggressive can give him issues because there's, he's hard at a time a guy who's mulling like that. And Chazora is a great muller. He's really good at that. He's big. He's strong and he can punch. I think that's the way to beat Ossick, dude. Yeah.

Rico's not a puncher the way that Chisora is. But like I said, he fought like a little man trying to score points on the outside and a big man on the inside. And I think that was a really smart tactic. Yo, Rico knows what he is and he knows what he's not. He's not a one punch guy. He knows that. He didn't fight like that. He didn't fight like a big man in the outside trying to land a big killer right hand.

He wasn't Lennox Lewis out there. He was Rico Verhoven and he made it work. And that's, again, tactically, such a brilliant move. But also, when you make a strategy being able to execute the strategy, Rico did. Rico is that kind of guy. Rico's a real champion. He's been doing this a long time. So his ability to execute the strategy against possibly stylistically the most difficult

heavyweight we've ever seen. Super, super impressive. I mean, we're going to glaze Rico all day today. I can't help it. It's right. I mean, you got to give the guy his props. I mean, he won over so many fans. He can go.

He was supposed to fight. I'm not supposed to, but he was very close to. doing the MMA event with Inganu. He was supposed to fight Joshua. And I heard the Joshua fight was like

Oh, that was it. Joshua got the accident and then it postponed everything. Remember when you say, hey, maybe if it was Joshua, I would give Verhoven more of a shot.

Oh, I got flamed online for that one, boy, geez. Rehovon versus Joshua right now? How are you looking at that fight? Verhoven's legit. My only... I know I said there was no chance

Rico wins. And I still kind of believe to that. I know he overperformed. He did really well, but, you know, the ending happened kind of the way that it was meant to be, but except for the stoppage, obviously. Right. But Rico is that level of guy. He's an athlete.

He's a champion, just like I was saying that. And in my whole point, it was like, if it wasn't Usek, the most difficult style of, you know, heavyweight we've ever seen, yeah, I actually give Rico a shot to beat some of these top heavyweighs because he is that good. And we saw that. He actually, he actually is. So if it is Usoc versus Kek. Cabell next with Usik that we just saw, you know, a little bit of a decline, footwork, decline

in a lot of different areas. Cabell can mall. Calabiel can get on the inside and hammer to the body. Big strong guy. I got to see that fight. Yeah, that's the fight. Dude, that's the next fight. And you and I have been talking about that for months.

I like Cabell. I really like Cabell. He's a good body puncher. He's aggressive. He's a good finisher. He's obviously super popular in Germany. Yeah, that's the fight to be next. earned his spot. He deserves to be there. He's got really, really good wins.

Yeah, so we'll see what happens. This is all going to play out. Verhoeven can go to MMA and fight on on Netflix and the MVP against Inganu. And Gano already quote tweeted Jake Paul suggesting that. He can stay in boxing. I'd love to see Angano and Rico box. Box. That's a scenario. That could be an MVP. The options are there for Rico. His phone's going to be ringing for many different opportunities. Peter Fury's phone's going to be rigging for many different opportunities. Excuse me. Coaching.

Training. I saw a lot of things like if Tyson Fury kept Peter Fury instead of his dad, who knows where we're great game plan. Awesome, awesome stuff from Verhoeven. Ussick still showed that he's got that game changing power late and he's a 39 year old man. So he's not

invincible. I was into Usoc. He never was, though. He never was invincible because I've been saying this about him forever. Like, I've seen him struggle in every weight class. I've seen him struggle in the amateurs. I've seen him struggle in the carousal weight. I've seen him struggle early in his heavyweight. That's just the way he is. The guy is so good at operating on the brink of failure, but always winning, always getting over the hump, man. He's, he's an incredible athlete. He should be studied psychologically for what an athlete who operates the way he does time and time again. Amazing. One last thing. Anyone that, like, I'm seeing a lot of this too, like, you guys meet this crazy. and then he could compete or be with like an Ali or an all-time great. I've had this discussion with Najee on the show. He's pumping chest out today big time because he has said that Ussick is overrated,

which I don't believe in. I mean, there's no doubt that Usoc would have, he would have lined up good with some guys from the 60s, 70s, and 80s because they weren't that big heavyweights back then. And just skill-wise. He was never like an all-time great. Like he's never in that discussion. He's the best of this era, which puts him in the room with some of the other guys. That's just how it is.

And you can't use that last fight at age 39 against him. At least I don't think. You can't put his greatness into question because of a 39-year-old fight against a guy who brought an awkward and good game plan. People want to do that, though. They want to erase everything. Of course they will. Boxing is always what have you done for me lately. And then he goes out, and if he goes out there in his next fight and he handles Kabayel, which I still think he will.

will. You know, then it's going to be like, oh, well, there it is. We're back. We six back. He just had a bad night. Yeah. So I hope that's the case. I hope Caval is next.

We see who's the better man there. Verhoeven gets another crazy bag, which he deserves. He'll probably get two. Whatever the case may be for Verhoven. And then you want to make that fight again. It's still there. People will still remember the heat that is here today. Rest of the card, Frank Sanchez,

Isis, Richard Torres in two rounds, knocks him out cold. Sanchez is now the IBF mandatory to Usik. Sanchez, a guy who was bested by Cabell, by the way, I mentioned he has good wins on there. Sanchez looked good. He had a very good game plan, and I think we had a little bit of an exposed moment for Torres. You know, he's got that frenetic, harky-jurkey style,

and he comes in from that Southpaw stance. but I never noticed how much he squares up. He falls forward with that back foot and gets into square position, which Sanchez did his homework. He was just waiting at the right hand all night long. Every time, if you watch the fight back, every time Torres threw his left.

Sanchez came over the top with his right. Lent had a good one in the first round over the top. And then again, when I was mentioned the squaring up, Torres right before the finish, he throws the left hook and his left foot falls to the inside, squares up, and gets clipped with that shot that hit on the weird side of the head. And those,

those can really rock you. Obviously, they did. But it was, it was the difference was Sanchez did not bust position. Torres fights guys like he shot out of a cannon. He backs guys up. He gets guys,

what is going on with this head movement? And then they're overwhelmed. Sanchez, stay cool, calm, the whole time. He had a game play. He's like,

all right, when you throw that left hand, I'm going to throw my right hand. And then if you, if you dip that way, I'm going to throw that right hand. But if you watch his feet, very good base.

And we talked about his knee surgery. I didn't see any of that. His legs looked good. He looked good. No brace. His legs looked strong. His stance was great. Never busted position.

Was just waiting with that right hand. And the guy can punch. I mean, so yeah, great game plan, good execution by Sanchez, but also a lot of mistakes made by Torres there. Just all those things I mentioned. Yeah. Revising his history here on our part. And he has been knocked out before, Jololov, not in the amateurs. Iced them.

Yeah, Sanchez, it wasn't even that. cleaning of a shot to the naked eye. It was like top of the head grazing. It wasn't like on the chin. It's a weird shot because it's like a right hand that hits on this side of the head that would be that way. It's so compact.

Those kind of shots, it's funny. So there's certain points where you get hit where they cause knockouts or guys to get hurt. Sometimes it's not even so much like you're getting hit on the chin where your head will spin. Sometimes it's that your neck will get hit

and it drives in. If you notice where he was, he was down and it was a driving shot that went into his neck. That can shut you off too, and obviously it did. You got shut off indeed. And, you know, is this too much too soon for Torres? Top end would never put him in here with someone they don't think he can beat. All that was the discussion before, and I thought Torres was going to win.

I did too. But also we talked more basing it on the knee of Sanchez, because Sanchez is very good. But when you got a guy who's 33, he just had multiple knee surgeries and a fight gets pushed off and pushed off. I mean, but it's hard not to be like, okay, well, Torres should be the favorite,

which Vegas had him as well. Vegas had them as a big favorite. Yep. Minus 430, Torres heading into this fight. And you can only go based on what, the last things you've seen in the ring.

And the last thing we see in the ring when it comes to surgery. Exactly. The, yeah, surgery, bad knee, Issy 33 is the older Caval beat him. Taurus ascending

also hasn't fought anyone of Sanchez's ilk. Sanchez did it. Knocked them out emphatically is now the IBF mandatory to Usik. And I don't think we're going to see Sanchez Usik anytime soon. So that's a whole ball of yarn that I don't really care to get into. But it was an awesome knockout. Shocking early on in the card, which it was a few shocking early knockouts,

which made this one of the longest shows of the year. Hour-long fill. Multiple hour-long fills, bro. A lot of fill. multiple part of the reason was that because that was not expected I thought that was going to be a good fight

I thought that was going to be I thought we were going to get rounds but you know when you get a shocker like that it's like oof that's tough because I didn't expect much from the other fights either Shiraz I didn't expect you know that fight to go very long

and I'm sure people were banking on that too Gia Solvin and cat Caterall you expected that to go the distance and go rounds but I thought this one was going to go rounds too and it did not I don't under like

I used to get the HBO days of a fill and telling a fighter when he's coming in the ring, network obligations, you have to start at this time, we have to get off the air at this time. I thought when we entered the streaming world, there wasn't going to be any more of that. I think I was excited for that when the zone came into boxing. It's like, oh, wow, no, like, local news after the fight or no, like, we got to get to the movie. There's no time constraints. We don't have to be in or out. There's no movie on HBO that we have to be off the air before. So I was like, wow, this is great. Remember that when Saturday night, HBO would release the new release into the catalog?

That was a big night. Saturday night. 8 p.m. or afterwards was a big, big movie. I thought that was going to be gone. I thought that was gone. It went the other way. It's getting worse. It's getting, I don't know if they're telling the fighters, this is the time you're starting. I think it's that.

Because I've been around enough these MVP shows in big time fights now where I know the arrival. You're walking at 815. Yes, and I know the arrival thing. I get the schedule like Ronda Rousey's cars picking her up at this time, and it's not changing. And this is when she's getting to the room. This is when she's going to walk no matter what. So then it's up to the production team to figure out how they're going to keep everyone entertained and ready for the fight.

I don't know. There's got to be some type of middle ground here because that was one of the worst viewing experiences. And it was just like pronounced because there was two really long fills. I don't know if they were an hour, but they were definitely over a half hour. Where you're going back from Aday, who's a great guy and a great broadcaster, but he's putting a really bad spot, having asked these ridiculous questions, and we're going to coverage. We're going, like, it was just, it was crazy, man. It was crazy. Even Jake Paul was tweeting about it.

Like, but MVP had a lot in their Netflix card had some big fills, too. It's just not realistic. What other sport does this? Like, it was almost a five, six hour card. And the Sanchez fight was over in two rounds. Hamza, Shiraz Blitz's, uh, Bejik. in two rounds. So that's four rounds on the undercar,

and then the 12 with Catterall. I don't know, man. It was a really, really tough kind of watch. I don't know we're kind of complaining a little bit here, but I want it to be great. Like, I want it to be a good viewing experience.

I don't want anything during a fight night where fans are like deterred from watching again. Well, I didn't watch it live because I was, like I said, I was on the mic working, working fights. But, so I don't know,

I don't know how the experience was of watching this, this card. Not good. I like cards that move fast. If guy gets, if there's a knockout, right, bring out the next fight.

Let's, let's get it going and be ready. Because I remember when I was fighting on local circuits before TV, that's how they operate. If the fight ends, you're going. There is no walk time. We got fans who bought tickets to be here.

And that's how we make our money. We're not on TV. It's a dark show. And we just got to keep the people who are in here, you know, entertain. So they bring the fights out, bring the fights out. I remember, you know, being wrapped,

you know, getting finished wrapped and they're like, all right, that was a first round knockout. You gotta get out there. No warm up. All right, glove gets on and we're walking to the ring. I don't expect that. That happened to me in my pro debut in boxing, actually. I was in the back. My hands weren't wrapped. And my coach wrapped, tied my glove way too tight.

My right hand was completely asleep before the first round, before the first round started in my pro debut in boxing because of that being rushing. So yeah, that's the worst case the other way. No, we don't want that. But I think, what a show like this where you've got. all this production value and you got a big lead-up, you can make video montage, not montage, but video segments that you can put in to keep people at home, entertain, the people that are there, it's kind of, they kind of got to sit there, Chris. They did a standing segment with the

heads, and then they went to a video. Yeah, but it's too much. You should have, you should have it set. And a worst-case scenario, and I've seen production sheets on how they do this. They have fill, they have things to interject, but you can still keep the fights moving. Like, you've A set time. Okay, if that was a first round knockout, cool. We have a five minute video. We're going to show the five minute video. We're going to talk for five minutes. And then they're in the ring. What about another fight? What about swing bout? I love swing bouts. Swing bouts. That's like a, dude, they don't do those anymore. I argue with- Just action. Like even if it's like a pros, maybe it's like a squash match, just anything. Yeah, I don't understand. I don't understand. I think when you have such a produced card like this where it's like it's set. This is this guy, this guy, this is the running order. They don't like to throw in a fight like that. But I agree. I think four-round. Boutes. Yeah. For people who don't know, a swing bout is, you got guys that are available to fight. They don't know if they're going to be just thrown in at any point or they're going to be the back end of the show.

On the ass end of the show, when the lights go off basically. That's nuts. Those, that sucks. Because then those guys, you got to be wrapped the whole time. The biggest fight ever. You're sitting there wrapped in the back like, I don't know what I'm going to fight. It's a very difficult place to be in. But also, you get opportunities.

to get on TV when you were supposed to be on TV. So there is a benefit. Bring back swing bets. Benavitas, a PBC does them. The Benavita's fight ended against Zerto, and the crowd was electrified and we're clearing out. And then the ring announcer is like, we got one more fight. And here comes to a kid making his debut.

I don't think, like, 15 minutes is, I think there's a sweet spot. Like, you don't want to rush the fighters, but you also don't want to wait an hour because there's got to be something in the middle. The reason why there was such a big fill was because Hamza Shiraz blitzed Alan Bejik in two rounds. He wins the WBO title. Bejik, that was one of the worst title challengers ever. This is one of the major arguments for governing bodies and these titles. How do you sanction this guy for a world title fight?

And it's a real shame. Because Hamza Shiraz is super legit and deserves to be a world champion. But he deserves to. He deserves to win it in a way that you feel proud about it. That was a sparring session. They looked like they picked that guy at. He was proud either. No.

He just walked the guy down and beat him up. Like it was there was nothing to write home about. Like winning your title, man, is such a moment. You only get your first title, you only get one. One, you only get one first title. And that moment, dude, and that was taken from Shiraz because of the opposition in front of him. Listen, if he was fighting like a stud and knocks about in the first round, that's awesome. That happens.

That wasn't this. They look like they picked this guy out of like a equinox group class. I'm like, all right, you get in there. You're fighting for a world title against one of the baddest guys around. They went down the lid. This wasn't the WBO's top guy, but he was in the top five. And this is not, I like the WBO, but this was a ringing endorsement for what Zuf was trying to do. Yeah, yeah.

Absolutely. And it wasn't, Sharaas was supposed to fight Mungi. He was supposed to fight Rzendez. He was supposed to do a bunch of different things. supposed to fight a different opponent for the WBO. They go down the list to the next contender that's available and willing and that was Bejik who's 39 years old

unbeaten but untested, unproved. So don't make it a title fight. Sorry. Sorry, it's not a title fight. It's not a worthy opponent. The positive to come out of it is that Shiraz did what he's supposed to do. He's now the champion. He's one of the top guys at 168 belt or no belt.

There's a lot of different things. He can wait for Canello, who Canelo is fighting in Billy in September, so that would be next May. You can fight Mungia, which would be a unification bout, and a really good fight. Or is that third option of fighting, you know, a voluntary

defense, another guy at 168 for Shras. I think put him and Mungia together on the undercard of Canelo and First the world. Yeah. I mean, especially if you're trying to set up, which it seems like

it seems like Turkey wants, he really wants, Shiraz and Canello, put him on the same card, old school. Put him on the same card. Double feature. Yeah, Canello is the main event. We got a good co-made event

that we can put them both in the ring afterwards. Again, we're assuming Canella wins the fight, which is not a foregone conclusion by any means. But also, if it's when Billy and Billy Shiraz, next, why not? Put him on the card.

Yeah, I agree there. Because I don't think Cannella's like a lock, lock, to beat him Billy. He's going to be the favorite. We've seen this happen. I could think of Caleb Point when he had the IB F title and Canello is going for undisputed and he sat out for a really long time. He ultimately cashed in his lottery ticket, which was a fight with Canello, but he waited a long time.

Hopefully that's not the case for Chiraz. I don't think it will be, but I know Turkey wants Sharaas Canello. I don't think he's going to set out for a year because Canellas has a schedule. We know what his schedule is. It's September or May. Like they did flirt with, oh, he's going to fight in February as well, in addition, on this new deal. That's not happening. So Canell is fighting in Billy in September And then he's going to fight again in May And that's the end of his deal The first deal with

Turkey in all of them So I hope it's Sharaas Mungia That's an awesome fight I think that's Top four guys fighting Dukin and out And Canell and Billy It's a nice little tournament

Going on here at 168 But Shiraz looked awesome Benjik Thank you for your time Caterall Back to the drawing board for him Katerall looked awesome Awesome. Jack Cattlewell dropped GSOF early.

Look really sharp. It becomes the regular WBA champ because on Friday, the WBA elevated Raleigh to Super WBO champ once again. Hufel guys are laughing because between the WBO and now the WBA doing this. They elevated Roli. They pretty much elevated Roli for avoiding GOSO, for avoiding his mandatory. I can't make any sense of this. Roley has been a champion, and he hasn't fought in over a year. But you know what I mean?

They put him in a better spot for not fulfilling his mandatory. He should have fought Jesus off. I think he could have beat him. Yeah, no, I think so. And we mentioned that Caterall will look awesome. Caterall did what Caterall does. Caterall look like Caterall. Caterall is one of the most consistent operators in the game.

He's very good. He's not great. He's very good. Super solid. Good technical fighter, physically strong. great gas tank, knows how to fight, knows what he is, knows what he isn't. Good performance, very good. Giosov to me looked like a guy who's been waiting too long for his shot.

He looked flat. Giosov, good fighter, mind you, in the past, did not look good. He used to have really good feet. He was so flat-footed, so flat-footed. And the style matchup without those feet, because he throws those looping right hands. He almost never throws a straight right hand. He loops that thing. It's a good shot.

He actually rocked Caterall with it in the very first round. he hit him with the right hand and then get dropped moments later. But when you got two guys like that, Caterall throw straight punches. He's got no fat on that left hand. He gets his head off line. When you got a guy with a looping shot, you're going to beat him every time. If you're not having, if you're not on that pendulum swing, what GSOV used to have, he was flat-footed and just looking to load up with the right hand.

Caterall has beaten him to the punch all night long. Heard him multiple times just by good technique. Straight fundamentals. Lined him up. Straight right hand, it's going to beat the looping shot. Good win for Caterall. Cat is in a really good place, man. He's got these round-lawful of three good wins in a row.

He's operating very consistently, which is big. So I'm happy for him. He seems like a good dude, too. And Giosov? I don't think we're ever seeing that guy again, bud. He was waiting around for a long time, and it might have been waited too long. He might be overdone. Once again, revision is history here, but Roley, he's been out of the ring for over a year.

It was May, right? May of last year. May of 25. year and they could was he avoiding giosov because he didn't think he could beat him was the pbc not doing it because it wasn't going to make any money they couldn't put roly on one of these cards just like they put catterall on this card like roly could have gotten this fight against giosov anytime the last 12 months even before that and probably would have won it because gosl was this boogie man and he's got no one to blame but himself roly because he's

I'm going to retire, this boxing game sucks. He ran away from his mandatory that he could have beat. Take care of him, and then you would have been in a way better spot now. I don't know. Is he fight Caterall? Does Haney fight Caterall, which has been discussed numerous times? I can see Haney and Caterall. I wouldn't mind seeing Roli and Caterall.

Cattle will might get him. Like I said, Caterall is super fundamental and he's consistent. And one thing about Roles is, as good as he is at times, he's not consistent. And I think it's a real fight. But what are these guys looking for? Like something like Roy? You're looking for the biggest fight possible? Or are you trying to get in the ring?

Like defend your title? I think Roley is just looking for the biggest fights possible. Like he sees himself at a certain level. He doesn't want to take a fight like a GSI. Absolutely. And listen, he's been there. He's been to the top and he's upset the Apple cart. But it gets to a point where if you're waiting too long, man.

Like GSO, if you're waiting too long, you get stale. And it wasn't even really GSO's fault that he's waiting, although he could have pushed harder for those mandatories, I believe. Taking step aside money is a problem. You see it time and time again. It's a, yeah, it's a gift and a curse because you made money. What are we doing this for? We're doing this for titles?

Are we doing this just for money? Guess what? Get a title, get your defenses, you'll make money. Yeah. Guys are trying to do both. Friday night, you were in San Jose, which is kind of funny because you went in and you went out. You sniped in, you sniped out. You called the fight on the zone.

didn't get a ton of, whatever. It was good fight. Amari Jones. He wins. What can you tell us about this guy? Because middleweight is not been good division, but he's now inching closer to title contention. I was watching him all week, getting ready for the fight.

Good athlete, former football player, good amateur pedigree, super sharp, good size of the weight class. He's tall, he's long. I was so impressed with him seeing him live. This kid has ice in his veins. Cold-blooded, calculated clinical. And he's fighting a former world champion.

Gualtieri is not, was never that guy, right? He won a title. He got blasted out by Janubeck. But he's been, had a couple good wins. Regardless, he's a difficult guy to deal with. He's got a little herky jerky, he's awkward. Jones had him dead to rights almost immediately. It was very impressive.

He was in the corner and coaches were like Virgil Hunter as a coach, which also tells you a lot about what level, Amar Jones is that because Virgil at this at this stage of his career only works with you if you are the goods and guess what? Amari Jones is the goods. This was a coming out party. Tough weekend. You get lost in the mat and the model of it all. But people who are paying attention, this kid's the goods. And he went out there. Virgil was great in between the first round he's like, or maybe it wasn't Virgil's thing. It might have been his father. But somebody in the corner was like, all right, he showed you all you got, all he's got. Get out there and handle business. That's exactly what he did. Dominant, dominant performance. It's a nice knockout. Just looked worlds, worlds better than Gualtieri, who was a former world champion. So the level's there. This kid is here to stay. Yeah, and he's promoted by Oscar and Golden Boy.

Oh, he sells tickets too, by the way. He's very popular. Oh, there was a crowd. Nice. It's great. Music to my ears. We need more young stars, especially Middlewoods. Yeah.

Good. Oscar did an interview with Chris Mannix and did not confirm Brian Garcia versus Connor Ben. Yeah, I'm hearing, I'm hearing, that's not a done deal. I heard it was a done deal. I heard it was done. And I was talking to Maddox, and Maddoch said, I heard the same thing.

He goes, but, oh, man. But he's like, that's why he said, he was like, I'm going to press Oscar. I'm not going to let him filibust and the answer around it. Yeah, he's like, I'm going to ask him live for real. And he did. He kept pushing it, but Oscar is savvy, very media savvy and doesn't have a direct answer for it.

So, yeah, that fight is certainly now, once again, back in question. That's what I said from the start. And Ryan, you want to say, I don't know shit respectfully. Like, we've seen this from you. Like, he gets excited. He wasn't just going to go on there and just, you know, look pretty and shadow box and do all that. And show off his nice, shiny belt.

Right. He was going to say something like that. And I hope it happens. I really do. I like Ryan versus Connor. I like the fight. But I just, there's so many things out there. There's so many politics and Zufa and, you know, Oscar said it has to happen on the zone.

There was a rumor out there that was maybe on Netflix. He hammered that part down. He didn't say yes, this fight's happening. He does what he usually does, ask you. He's not so fast. I'm in charge.

I choose your next fight, Ryan. I'm your promoter. They've done this song and dance so many damn times. That's why I was skeptical at first. Is it money? Is it because of the Zufa stuff? It's like we talked about the last episode with the belts and all that stuff.

I think it's a lot of everything. It's also just Ryan. This is always how Ryan, it's not, I'm not saying it's Ryan's fault, but I'm just saying everything around Ryan. It's always swirling. It's always a storm.

Nothing's ever easy because he is such a big star. And now he's a champion. It's probably, you would think we get easier? It's not. It's going to get harder to narrow this stuff down. Everybody's going to fight Pacchio? Yeah, dude.

You know, go, I'm telling you right now. People don't understand this. Like, we always like complain. Like, why aren't these fighters busier? Dude, negotiating these fights takes months. It's in, it's out. It's really, really difficult.

It's the worst part of the sport. The worst part of this sport happens in boardrooms and on phone calls and in emails. The ring is the best part, obviously. But, yeah, there's a lot of hoops to jump through in order to get to a world title fight. Well, it's now May 24th, and there's, like, outside of the Boots-Zey's fight, which I cannot wait for. I'm like a month away from that. Like, Devin Haney, no summer blockbuster fight.

Roli-Ramara, no summer blockbuster fight. Ryan Garcia, not looking for it. Like, it's May. Like, you have to announce these fights now. Yeah, they have to be at the finish one. Usually it's two months, at least. So there's going to be nothing in June and July and probably August for some of these, like, T.A. Fimo, nothing. Chacore.

Any rumors with Chacore? What the frig? Yeah, I haven't heard anything with Chacore. Devin, I've heard some rumblings. He might be going to Zoufa route just because there's not, like, a ton of options. But you know what I mean? Like, I hear all that stuff, too, but like, it's, we're in. June. Yeah, nothing's getting done. Penn is not going to paper. So what's happening after

Boots Zias in terms of marquee fights in this sport? We go on vacation? Fine with that. July is looking pretty open for me. We'll see. Something always, the thing with boxing is something, it always happened. Like, these guys will end up fighting. If it's in the fall, there's going to be back-to-back-to-back weekends, same night sometimes. So we will get these fights. It's just frustrating. That's also a good thing about having, you know, Turkey in the game because he will make things. And he loves, he loves surprises. He loves news. It could come out of nowhere at any time, which it's frustrating for us as, yeah, yeah.

And he pushes, he pushes fights through that he really wants. We don't know who's in the circle of trust anymore. Haney was in Egypt. That's nothing less thing. It was pretty cool seeing all the fighters. The one thing I'm jealous about the UFC is like they're very good since they're an organization to bring all their fighters together. showing them off all at once at events.

Like, this is our roster. This is our stars. Boxing never had that because it's been so fragmented, different promoters, different networks. The one cool thing about the ring and Turkey and all that is like they get them all together. And you see that video of them in front of the pyramids? Yep. It was like Usik, Joshua, Crawford, Canelo, all of them.

Rings side. How about Triple G sitting next to Canello chopping it? That was awesome. That was really true off our current and past star. cars. Triple G looks so retired and happy. You know, I see him down here. He lives down by me and Boka. So I've seen him. We've crossed each other running before. I'm running with a buddy of mine downtown Boko by the water. And I'm talking to my friend who's kind of blocking me from seeing the guy who's

coming. And like the very last second, I was like, I'm looking back. And I'm like, that look like triple G. Right. So then we go off on our long run. It was a long run. It was like a a 10-mile or that day. So like, you know, a good hour and a half later, coming back the same trail and then Triple G. Now I'm like, I can see him. I had a moment. I'm like, oh.

And I just go, Kennedy. And he's like, and he's after me, he looks for me a second. And he goes, oh, hey, Chris. And we were just chatting it up, you know, by the by the beach, both of us shirtless, uh, running, sweating, two former champs still staying in shape. And I was like, hey, you look good. He's like, oh, no, you look good. You can probably make heavyweight now.

There might not be any big fights this summer, Chris, but the Knicks, baby. The Knicks are going to the NBA finals. You think, they're up 3-0 when we record this. It's going to be a New York Knicks summer at MSG. I can't believe it. I can't believe it. We got a good Knicks team. How amazing is that?

I got to break out my jersey with my name on it. Got to break that out. You have to wear the next episode. They're on an unbelievable run. I wanted to wear it today, but we just had so much news with the RICO fight. So they got to win this next one, and then next shall I'll have it on. NBA Finals, the New York Knicks. Hell is freezing over.

I can't believe it. The last time they were in the NBA Finals was 1999. I was 12 years old. I had Ewing. I watched it. It was free well. Oh, Ewing, dude. Those are the days, man.

Yeah, I got this crazy Spurs bet with my buddy. It's not looking good. We put the future in a bet before the season. Spurs to win it all, $1,000 to win $41,000. That's insane. It reached its highest cash out. When the Spurs won game one, it reached, I think, 13,000. And me and my buddy were like, should we cash out, take the $13,000, go buy Nick's finals tickets and then go to like Montauk or something.

He's like, now let's keep riding it. Now I've lost two in a row of the Spurs. It's down to like $6,000 to cash out. Still pretty good. Yeah, it's still pretty good. Investment on $1,000. It's not bad. Not bad.

Not bad. All right. We'll see you guys later in the week. We'll break down some more hijinks. Let's go Knicks. Let's go boxing. Keep your hands up at all times. Protect yourself at all times.

Stay those DMs. We're out.