The Ariel Helwani Show - Inside Boxing | Oleksandr Usyk to fight kickboxer Rico Verhoeven

Episode Date: March 1, 2026

Inside Boxing is back with the latest from the heavyweight division, as Oleksandr Usyk announced a fight with kickboxing legend, Rico Verhoeven, despite Verhoeven only having one professional boxing match (01:47).  Is the fight really warranted? Should Usyk have fought mandatory challenger Agit Kabayel (16:10)? Next, the attention moves to the thrilling Emanuel Navarrete vs. Eduardo Nunez unification fight, as well as a full fight card recap (33:23).

Welcome in everybody. It is another edition of Inside Boxing Live. It's Dan Kenobio. It's Chris Algeri. We're presented by PPPV.com in association with the on-ground combat sports network, Yahoo Sports. PPPV.com is your home for all live boxing events. Big news coming next weekend. I think you know what it is, Thurman and Fondora, getting in the ring at the end of March.

PPPB.com will be carrying that fight. And we will be in that live interactive chat, subscribe. uh to their social media and you don't ever have to go in there in order for you just go fight by fight that's the bad beauty of pb.com just go fight by fight no subscription stream it everywhere uh go follow them on our socials ppv dot com is the place to be i'm coming to you from upstate new york verona new york worked a manny pack a promotions card last night got it was on the mic I got my play-by-play duties going. Watched a great fight last night on the zone at the bar.

Navarette becomes a unified champ at 130 pounds. We got news in the boxing kickboxing world. So Chris Algeria is happy, former kickboxing world champion, former boxing champion on a short list there. It's time to say hello to our wonderful co-host, Chris Algeria. Hello, sir. What's going on, Dan? Glad to hear that you're up bright and early in Verona.

you didn't get snowed in. Yes, it is early. We are recording quite early, but that's what we do around here to bring you the best news possible. I want to start with this Alexander Ussick news. We've heard this rumor for a while. He's going to be fighting a kickbox.

He's going to be fighting Rico Verhoeven. Who is Rico Verhoeven? Because boxing fans don't know. MMA fans don't really know. Kickboxing fans, no. Not a lot of kickboxing fans out there. No offense to you, Chris Eljuri. But Alexander Usoc will be.

B fighting RICO Virhoeven in a boxing match from the pyramids in Egypt, a wild, wild fight announcement. When it came true, you were like, I can't believe this is true, because we heard the rumors for a while, but it's happening. Well, so originally it was supposed to be Anthony Joshua, RICO Van Hervin. Hervin, we're supposed to fight, Rico, well, supposed to fight Anthony Joshua. I had heard that even prior to the Jake Paul fight. So I had a little birdie in my ear telling me back in like November that Rico was going to fight Anthony Joshua in like February.

You know, everyone was assuming that Anthony was going to beat Jake and do it quite easily. So they were like, all right, they're going to make the Rico fight. And obviously the tragedy that happened to Anthony Joshua at the Jake Paul fight, I thought that that Rico was out of the picture now. But apparently not because Usik is now fighting Rico. For those you don't know, Rico is the goat. He is the heavyweight goat of kickboxing. So we're getting a goat versus goat matchup at the moment. Rico is, he has been champion for so long and has had epic fights over and over and over the years.

This one, everyone you could possibly fight, most of them multiple times, kind of similar to Usik. So they're very similar in terms of how they come up. And actually, the more I think about it, the more he really is like Usik. He's not a big puncher. He's very, very smart. He's super tough. He always finds a way to win. He's not a big knockout guy, but he gets him sometimes.

He's huge, very, very big. He's over 250, 260. So, yeah, it's an interesting matchup and one that literally, even myself knowing that Rico was going to be potentially fighting a heavyweight champion or a former heavyweight champion in Anthony Joshua, nowhere in my head, but I think they could possibly be fighting Olegander Usik, who's the current champ like this? It's not like Anthony Joshua was like, you know,

coming off the couch and going to fight some kickboxer, go make some money. This is the current heavyweight boxing champion fighting the man, the goat of kickboxing heavyweights. We said something there, Chris, before you said, if you don't know anything about Rico Rare, Herbin, here's the 4-1-1. That's the problem. No one knows who this guy is because it's not in Ganu fighting Fury where everyone knew who Ghana was.

It kind of still is regarded as one of the best MMA heavyweights in the world because the MMA heavyweight scene is is is not what it used to be. Rico Veer Hervin, no offense to him. Like these are amazing accolades. I looked at some of these stats and I'm like blown away by to have that much dominance in a sport like kickboxing where, you know, there could be just one bad night or there is a lot of. I got from what I watched in kickboxing, there is a lot of parody.

And he was dominated it. I mean, there's no doubt about that. I'm not saying anything negative here about Rico. Guys is a stud and he's getting his payday and he's getting, it's almost seems like it's the final part of. of his career gets to fight a champ at Usu, but I just don't understand this fight. Usik versus Vera Hoven.

I don't like it. I don't like the fight. I just don't understand it. It's not the crossovers that we've seen in the past. I think we have crossover fatigue. This guy has one boxing match in his career, and now he's going up against Usik from the pyramids. I understand Usik has every right to have a fight like this.

He's beat everyone, he's beat him twice, even. But at this stage in your career, there are other contenders out there that Usoc wants to fight. I still hope he fights a Cabell, still hope he fights a Fabio Wardley, or should he beat Dubois. But just from a competitive standpoint, we've seen this way too many times in the last couple of years. Usook's going to win.

He's going to win in a dominant fashion. I just don't understand what the point of this fight is, besides Ring Magazine and Sela showing off. Look, we can do. It seems like a political thing, because I've already seen the Egypt Boxing Commission. post something with Turkey to bring boxing to Egypt and it just has all the wrong thing. It doesn't feel like a merit-based type of fight of someone of Usik's caliber.

Now, the problem, it's not the caliber. That's the problem. The problem is that Usik is the current champ and currently should be fighting other contenders. This, to me, it kind of signals me. This switched me off a little bit where I was like, oh, I don't think Usik wants to fight real guys anymore. He's looking for the big paydays. He's looking for the events kinds of fights. I think this is part of his victory lap before he calls it.

Because you've got, like you mentioned Aga Cabell. He's a great contender, a great opportunity, a great chance to go to Germany and fight in front of his insane crowd and defend against a top undefeated guy. Get another scalp to put on your already crazy illustrious resume. You're beating the guys coming up. And if you have that in front of you and then you end up going this way, like you said, it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense unless this is the route that Usik is going to take for his victory lap, which is very, very possible because like you said, I mean, it's not really fair. He's still a top flight guy.

It's not like Anthony. If Anthony Joshua was fighting, it would make more sense. I get it. Anthony's probably never going to be heavyweight champion again. And he's trying to make as much money as possible fighting the Jake Pauls, fighting the Angano's fighting Riko Verhoeven. Like, I get that. But not Usik.

Usik is a current champion. He should be fighting the next contenders. Because then what? The belts just wait. They're just going to wait for him to have this fight. And then, you know, the buildup when the fight is. And then the recovery afterwards, I don't like it either, Dan. The belts have been waiting.

That's the thing. Usick is either he vacates the belts and then Wardley and Parker fight for them. Not like they didn't fight for the belts, but the winner of that fight got elevated. And now Wardley is it. WBO champion. But yeah, the belts do wait. And the WBC, if you look at the signage on the poster, it said WBC world title. But now, apparently, if you go to Chris Manix's last tweet, Suleiman says they're creating some belt, of course, some Egyptian belt. But he didn't say that the WBC would be on the line. So there's still some clarification needed there, because that's what

really set me off. That's what really set off, like you. That's what set off a lot of boxing fans, is we're going to allow Rico Verhoven to jump the line. the guy has one boxing fight and it was multiple, multiple years ago, and he's going to fight for the world title, a kickboxer at the age of 36, 37 years old. So that doesn't make sense. So hopefully the WBC does the right thing and doesn't sanction this as a world title fight. Another thing that's interesting too there is if you take a look, the WBA, I believe, is not on the line in this.

The IBF is not on the line in this. The WBC just wanted their name on that poster, despite Ring Magazine, despite Sela, despite Zufa, despite TKO, they're all in that same group, trying to actively put them out of business. But WBC is like, we got to be part of this. We got to make our Egyptian belt. The Egyptian belt's not on the line. And we got to get that sanctioning fee. That's part of it.

It's always down to the money. So like as a boxing fan now, you're looking at fight posters and you're seeing who's the promoter here, what's going on, what belts are on the line. That's what we have to wade through now as. as boxing fans. But yeah, just to go back to, like what you said there, yeah, like with the competition aspect, like Cabell is definitely deserving. He's the interim champ at WBC. He's the number one mandatory.

And I have people in my mention saying, you know what, Dan, like, who is he beat? Like, he can wait. You know, like, Ussick deserves this. Usik deserves. Yes, he does deserve. Every other fighter in the current day today is doing these types of fights. Joshua's fighting Jake Paul. Like you said, Joshua wasn't the reigning heavyweight champion and has

had some losses on his docket there. Fury when he fought in Gano. That pissed people off. But WBC title wasn't on the line. And that's what started this whole thing. But going back, but where did they find? Like, what's the fascination with Rico Verahoven? I just don't get that. Like, you know what I mean? Like, why him? Why are they, why were they trying to put him with Joshua? It's like I said, he is the goat. He is the best kickboxing heavyweight who's ever lived. Like, he's, he's on a ridiculously long reign. Um, but, but, I mean, your question is really, since when does anyone care? Because it's kickboxing.

I'm coming from kickboxing. I'm a two-time world champion kickboxing. No one ever mentioned that in boxing. No one ever cared about that until I became boxing champion. It doesn't carry over. They're different sports. And even though they're both combat sports, there's no carryover. It's not like, all right, well, he's that good at this.

He's going to be, no, they're completely different sports. I had to learn how to box. I wasn't a boxer. I was a kickboxer. I had to learn a long. the way. And it took me 20 professional fights, boxing fights, to earn a world title. This guy's getting in his second show shot. But the only reason this is happening is because of the world we live in where Turkey was willing to pay for these things. That's the only reason this is happening.

So I don't know who's involved with Rico Verhoeven and in terms of his management and finding him this opportunity. Because like I said, like I said, this isn't out of nowhere. This was talked about in October and November of last year for Rico and Anthony Joshua. And it's just so happened that is falling into Ussick's lap now because obviously Anthony Joshua is not active at the moment. So I'm not sure who Rico has on his team that is in the ear of Turkey making this this crossover fight. But listen, if you get if you get Turkey's attention, he'll make things happen. So somebody did. The Turkey's into the spectacles. I mean, we've heard about, We're going to do fights from crazy scenes.

They did the Times Square one. Yeah, we did the Times Square one, which ended up being a complete dud. Now we're going to do a fight here at the pyramids. And there's no confirmation of where it's actually going to be. Is it going to be the pyramids in the background? It's going to be an awesome scene. That's what I said in my initial video that I put out on Friday. The scenes are going to be epic.

There's no doubt about that. It's just what we've seen this before. We've ready, like the novelty has kind of worn off when it comes to these crossover fights and putting them in these exotic locations and all that. But going over to who is Rico Verhoeven, and you talk about how he's the goat, and you're like, all right, look at this guy. He's a absolute beast,

and he's been a heavyweight champion for a long time. But I'm looking at his stats here, and like 16 knockouts in his 54 wins. He has a 29% knockout ratio. Five of his last six fights have all gone the distance. Like, it's not like he's dropping fools left and right, and he's stopping guys. When they go put together the montage of the highlight reel,

Ring Magazine and all those guys put together the high road, they're going to have to search back pretty far to find a stoppage win in there. So it's not like he is this knockout type of fighter. Am I wrong there? Because I believe it's been a while. In his defense, kickboxing world championship,

this style of kickboxing are five rounds. So the rounds aren't long. It's not like a 12-rounder. It's not a 10-rounder. They're five-round fights. You know, they're fast-paced. they're very explosive. Some of his last couple of been three.

Yeah, so that's like a normal fight. Like a non-title fights, normally three. These are, this is, this is elbows, knees, you know, low kicks. They're brutal. So they're not long fights. They're not 10-rounders. So in his defense, not getting the knockouts, isn't super indicative of him not having power.

But he's just, like I said, from the top, he's not a knockout guy. He is a tactician. He's very smart. He's super tough. and he hasn't lost in like 10 or 11 years, something like that, which is crazy in kickboxing. These guys knock each other's heads off all the time.

So for him to have this rain in such a sport where champions knock each other out all the time is pretty ridiculous and never, it's really never happened. So he's beaten all the greats, you know, the Botaharis of the world. He'd be Peter Arts, who was like a legend from the olden times,

the early 2000s. He's beaten, I said Barari already Who's the, oh, Peter Ars, I said. Oh, Daniel Gita, Golkan Saki, Gokan Saki is another fantastic old legendary guy. You know, he's

beaten all the greats of recent memory, but yeah, he's not a he's not a knockout guy. And you mentioned the highlights. Are they going to show them kicking? It's going to be going to go as whole kickboxing. So like, are you going to try and get clips of him punching each other? They're just boxing

without kicks? Or are we going to show clips a guy kickboxing getting ready for a boxing fight. It's madness. It's going to be a very weird lead-up. Very, very weird. Well, the lead-ups already been weird because you have Coppinger going out there and trying to pump this up because this is a ring magazine fight. It has a ring magazine on there. So Coppager's going to go on Twitter and he's going to start saying, hey, listen, Usik has circled the block twice. He's beaten all the top heavyways. He deserves to have a little fun. Turkey retweets it. this is not fun.

This is a dangerous fight. Khabitjur replies, oh yes, it is a dangerous fight. It is a dangerous fight. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to tweet that. So they're already like,

the messaging is already off here. I was drunk because we don't know what. Oh, and it's not fun. Very dangerous. Very dangerous. But yeah, the messaging is already off here

because it's like, all right, kickboxer, a big bruising guy, peel it back a little bit, hasn't had a knockouts in a couple years. It's a technical type of fighter.

you got to go back a while for some big highlight, real knockout. So that's the part that doesn't make any sense to me when this fight gets made. And that's something that they're going to have to worry about when it comes to marketing it. And I just don't think fans care. That's the main thing. I just don't think fans care about this type of fight. Yes, Usook deserves it. Rico deserves a nice payday.

But I think fans are exhausted. They're exhausted with these types of fights, especially when there's some pretty good heavyweight fights out there for Usoc still to do. And going back to Ustik here, what's the end of his career here? Because if he fights Rico Verhoeven, gets to win, and then from here he goes and fights Cabell, then all right, everyone would be quiet because then, you know, that's fine. I think fans would be happy with that. I think we'd be, okay, listen, he went and did his thing, got his big payout. Now he goes and satisfies his mandatory, then whatever you want to do from here on and out, that's fine.

If he's going to go and fight Wilder after Verhoven, if Wilder, if Wilder, he's going to go and Beach Chisora. So we're looking at his final two fights as a unified heavyweight champion, Rico Verhoven and then Deonté Wilder. Then we can start questioning Ussick. So these questions come for everyone because Usook's like the guy. Everyone loves Usook and he can't do any wrong. But he's been moving weird.

Let's be honest. He's been moving a little weird the last 18, 18 months, Usook. Well, Dan, I think when we talked about the Wilder fight, you know, a lot of people didn't like it. I did. I like the closed circle aspect of it. You know, like the closed, the close. circuit of all those heavyweights of that one era. He was the only one he really hadn't

beaten. He'd beaten everyone else twice. So I wasn't mad at that, but that to me looked like a spectacle-type fight. That was like, that was us giving him his grace as being an undefeated champion. You can fight whoever. You want to fight. You want to close that loop in your in your timeline. Go for it, man. We'll give you this pass. This is a bridge too far for me. Listen, I'm the kickboxing guy. I want the kickboxers to get paid. I want RICO's a great guy. I'm happy he's getting this opportunity. But for a boxing fan, I'm, I don't know. It's weird.

Like you said, Ussick's moving weird. But like I think, I mean, I think this is the end of Ussick's reign as as a true heavyweight champion. I think he's just going to go and make money, which is fine. If you want to go do that, give up the belts, go make your money, do your world tour. Go fight kickboxers and MMA guys and badminton players, whatever you want. I don't care. If you want to go do that and make a ton of money, I got no problem with that.

Just don't hold the belts hostage because there are a lot of other top contenders all over the world that I would love fight for these belts. And I would like these other guys, you know, a bunch of them to become champions. You know, when you have a unified champion, you have an undisputed, you know, all those guys are sitting there chomping a bit for their opportunity, but there's not any opportunities to become a world champion. So, yeah, it's funny. The more I think about this, I'm like, man, I loved it because it's kickboxing getting a shine and people are going to going to be more aware of kickboxing now, but I think you're right. I don't think fans really care. Oh, they don't. They don't. Like I said before, they're, they're exhausted. We've seen this play out way too many times. It started with Mayweather and McGregor. And then that was in 2017. And we're in

26. We're nine years removed from that fight. We've seen more crossover type fights. We know how this is going to end. Does Rico Verhoeven have any shot to beat Alexander Usik in this fight? No. No. If it was Anthony Joshua, I would, I would be like, maybe. Usik, no. He doesn't get hit. He doesn't get hit. And you're taking away some of his main weapons. It's kickboxing. It's, it's taken away half of his weapons. So, and he's not a big puncher. Yes, he's a big guy. He's a very big guy. He's tall. He's big. He's heavy. He's going to be, he's going to have the size advantage for sure on, on Usik. He's not. He's not a big puncher. He's a big guy. He's a very big guy. He's a very big guy. He's tall. He's big. He's big he's heavy. He's going to be, he's going to have the size advantage for sure on Usick. He's. He's super tough and scrappy and tricky, all of that. But it's, it's Alexander Usik. If it was anybody else, I would be like, yeah, you know, there's a shot. It's heavyweight. It's anything can happen. One punch is one punch in the heavyweight division, but it's Usik. The guy is a wizard. Nobody hits him. He makes the same moves work on absolutely everybody. The guy has been

undefeated for so long. He's not going to get upset by a guy coming and having a second professional boxing fight. I don't care how many kickboxing fights he has. It's, it's Alexander Usik. No, doesn't have a chance. Yeah, you take a look at the Fury in Ghana, no one was given Ingano a chance. Go back and watch our podcast that we, funny enough, did with Ariel Hohani, where Ariel came on and said, guys, I'm telling you, Ngano's got a shot. Don't write them off. And we're like, no, all highbrow, because we're from the boxing world. There's no way our guy Fury is going to let a novice like Ngano come in and get embarrassed like that. Next thing you know, Fury is on the canvas. And people are making a claim that Ingano should have won that

fight. If Ussick doesn't train hard, you know, like the same old things we say, about who sick every fight, Chris. The same old things we say about it. Hey, man, he's getting up there and age. Those legs can give out. This is a fighter that depends on his legs and it depends on his movement. Could get old overnight. Doesn't train hard. Maybe he has, you know, it's not taking it. He's looking at the pyramids and being a tourist. Next thing you know, Rico comes in, lands a one-hater quitter and another black guy for boxing. You're saying that can't happen, right? No, I mean, Rico's not young either. Rico's 36, 37. It's not like. Now he's old. In this young stud, I mean, the guy is a stud.

Don't get me wrong. But, and to your point about the knockouts, like, Inganu is the most devastating heavyweight puncher in the MMA division in the MMA world, in the heavyweight division, excuse me. So Rico, not a big puncher. Used to five rounders, no kicks now. And he's, his kicks are his best weapon, better weapons than his hands. I mean, he can box, absolutely. He can punch, sure.

But again, it's Usick. It's not like, it's not Tyson Fury. Tyson Fury has ups and downs. Tyson Fury has never had a down. He's always up. He always finds a way to win. He's always on. He's always in great shape.

He prepares for everything super hard. He has that Eastern European mindset. Those kind of guys, they don't cut corners. It's not Tyson Fury who knows, getting rid of everything around if I was probably partying and getting drunk. And I mean, we saw videos of that, you know, and hanging out of pubs at night. That's not, that's not Usick. Usook is a completely different animal.

And again, if it was anybody else, I would give Rico his flowers. He has an opportunity as a chance, but it's Olexander Usoc. I don't even know if the competition matters anymore. Like, I don't know if that's even the thing. It's all about grabbing attention. It's the event. We're seeing this in combat sports. This has been the craziest stretch of fight announcements that I can remember in recent times.

Ronda Rousey, Gina Karano, Mayweather, Pachial 2, Pachiaruzlan Pravanov, Mayweather versus Tyson. Now we have Usek versus a kickbox. are from the pyramids. Just a little kicker. Hey, we're going to do this fight in the middle of the desert in Egypt. I like that part. I like the pyramid.

That part's sick. No hate there. That part. I want to see what that visually looked like. Of course, we're going to be watching. And everyone's going to be watching. I don't know if it's a pay-per-view. I don't know if it's part of the zone.

My guess it's my big. I'm going to be cheering for Rico, dude. I'm a kick-box star. I'm going to be cheering for Rico. That's awesome. Well, here's another thing. I thought you were going to come on here. I was fully anticipating you saying Rico's got a shot because you because you're kickboxing background.

You're non-biased boxing journalists, so you're not going to do that. Right. No, and I hear this a lot. You know, like, oh, you're unbiased or like, oh, you don't, you know, given like Henry, Henry Garcia saying, oh, you don't support myself. I'm not here to support anybody. I'm here to, I'm here to call what I see. And, yeah, it's just, it's a bridge too far for Rico to jump up to the highest level in the land

and the toughest guy who's been dominant. But the idea, you know, you got two dominant champions that nobody can beat. And they've beaten everybody. Everyone else has fallen to them. They have beaten everybody. They've wiped out the landscape. So they meet each other. So I get that part of it.

But again, the fans aren't going to understand that. They're not going to know who, they're not going to know how good Rico is. And again, I don't think they're going to care. Boxing fans don't care. They don't care about other sports. Boxing fans are hardcore. They are locked in. You know, I'm a boxing fan.

I'm a kickboxing fan. I love kickboxing. To this day, I think it's the most entertaining fight sport because of how short and explosive it is. But in terms of, you know, just because I love the sport, because I love Vrico, I'm just going to pick them. No, that's not, that's not how this works. I love that.

But to like the sheer madness of combat sports right now with these announcements and the craziness. I mean, I can't remember a crazier time where it's, doesn't matter what the how the outcome of the fight it's about attention it's about grabbing attention it's about the marketing aspect it's about putting forward some type of image it's about some political stuff now too because you know the minute they announced this fight in egypt you go to turkey's page and you see him linking up with some type of Egyptian fight commission to bring fights to Egypt from here on out there's a little bit of that going on with this you know because

you know the fight game is different than any other sports or you can make these side deals you could make these spectacles these one-offs like Gina Carano versus ronda rousey where everyone's going to make a bunch of money in one night and then you move on that's the crazy part and i think fans are just like what the heck is going on where we're seeing mayweather still in the news packie still in the news rousey still in the news these are names from 10 15 20 years ago and now they're still relevant off of name recognition where the fights don't matter. It doesn't matter how this fight's going to play out.

Ousick's going to wash this guy probably. And that's it. I mean, we wipe our hands and we move on to the next fight. Yeah, yeah, you're absolutely right. The way the fight turns out doesn't matter. Like you mentioned, the Ronda Rousey fight. I don't think that's going to last more than two minutes. That's going to be a 90-second fight.

I think if they fought in their primes, I think Ronda would have washed Gina because they're just from different errors. Like, Ronda was much more the closer to. the modern era and she was she's even an error behind the girls right now so i wouldn't want to see her at fight the top flight girls now either but like there's there's there's different eras especially in mama because ms so young and it's such a short timeline you've seen the progression we've all seen it we've lived through the progression of all those guys you know of seeing those guys come up the randy contours you know vittor belfort and vittuart vittu actually lanced at a

bunch of errors he was actually able to cross through a bunch of them but like you know randy goutor he couldn't compete now you know the guys are just is different. They're, they're, they've gotten much better. And, uh, I think the same thing with, with, with, with, with Rousey and, and Gina. Gina's like, the first wave of the female fighters, where they, they, they stood up and kicked and punched and it was more kickboxing and she was good at that. Uh, but even her, she got, she got crushed when she stepped up to the, the, the higher, higher level with the cyborgs of the world. Um, and even, even Rhonda, Rhonda, Rhonda got chewed up by the new era, you know, Holly Holm knocked her out. Um, and then, uh, Nunez knocked her out.

Nunes is a beast. So it's, it's, um, that's another one. Like you said, it's, it's, it's more the spectacle. It's more the lead up. It's more trying to get crossover appeal, which I like. I like that part. You're getting crossover appeal. Maybe we get some new fans over. Maybe not. Um, but you're, you're, you're, you're right. It's all about creating bigger and more grandiose events where why don't we just put on great fights? Because we have so many good fighters out there. So many good champions. And we've, we've been doing that, actually. I think a lot of a lot of that has actually happened in recent years, especially because of Turkey and Riyadh and being able to put these fights together.

You know, I always bring up that Bivol better be a fight. Without Turkey Al-L-Sheek, that fight would have never happened. There was nothing to finance what those guys deserve to fight each other. And we got two great fights out of it. And hardcores love that fight, that fight. Hardcores wanted that fight. It was a dream matchup. And without Turkey, without his influence, that fight would have never happened. So, you know, we should always be thankful for, for the great fights that have been provided to us. But, um, but the guy likes events.

He likes spectacles. He likes surprises. So we got another surprise. I guess we should just enjoy and watch and let these guys make boatloads of money. Like I said last week, they just like, but Ben and program, you're like, there's something about them just feeding this to us saying, no, you're going to watch this and no, you're going to like it. You have no choice.

That's what you act as a combat fan, combat sports fan. That's what it is. is. But another thing too, like Furiousic, I feel like wouldn't have happened or would have took a lot longer to happen without the involvement of Saudi and them just being like, we don't really care if we lose money on this. But yeah, I don't know. I don't know if the fans necessarily want to be involved in this. I thought that maybe the crossover fights were done, but they're not. They are here to stay, especially with the involvement of Netflix now and Netflix being in the market now for these types of fights, not an Usik-Virhoven. But I think,

Maybe if Netflix was presented to this fight, they might have been interested in it. I wouldn't be shocked if Usik shopped it around because a couple months ago, it was reported that him in Turkey had some type of falling out. But they're right back together. Sela, this is a Sella event with Uc and all that. But yeah, crazy times in the combat sports world. We're still seeing crossovers nine years after Mayweather McGregor. And I don't see it changing.

but in a perfect world, a healthy combat sports world, like you said, we get the better Biavs and Bivalls, we get the meritocracy in the sport. We're still going to have these side shows because these sideshows have been a part of the sport going back hundreds of years, even 50 years. You know, Muhammad Ali went and fought Ioka and fought in all sorts of exhibition fights, but he also defended his title. That's another thing, too. If you go back and look at that run that, I'll have.

Ali was fighting in exhibitions while defending his heavyweight title. And that's the problem here in Lanz with this type of fight. Ussick is the reigning heavyweight champion of the world. And there's Agat Kavail. There's the Wardley Dubois winner. There's Moses Hatama coming up the ranks. There are options for Ucic to get in there with. You maintain that you think he's done.

So in your opinion, Ussick's not going to fight Kabeel. He's not going to fight Wardley. this is it for Usik, that's what you think? I'm not saying that is definitive, but it's just that, that's what kind of, that's a light bulb that goes off in my head when I hear this fight. I'm not saying that that's the case, but you can make a real argument for it.

And I would not be surprised at all to hear that Usik is not going to take on top contenders after this fight or he relinquishes his bells or retires or anything like that. Because at this point, like, why are you doing this? Why is Usik doing this? It's money, right? it's money. You're doing it for money. So if you're doing it for money now, then the belts don't even matter anymore. Like if you're not going to go, you know, you're not going to go defend your, the titles, I guess these young, hungry guys coming up. Because that gets old, man. You're at the top of the mountain. Everyone keeps coming up trying to kind of smash and grab your your belts.

Fending those guys off is, it wears on you. He's, he's been up there a long time. He's been under siege by all these young guys. And eventually they're going to topple you. You're going to lose. It's just the way. the world works. Father time is undefeated and you got all these young hungry guys coming up. And it's the heavyweight division. Somebody's going to get him eventually. So I think, you know, he's taking exit stage left. And I'm going to go grab a boltload of him off, stop out of the bank on the way to retirement. And this could be that. But Usik also, when you talk about moving weird, the guy, you can, he's really hard to figure out what's going on up there. He's a little bit of a crazy like a fox, that guy.

He maybe comes back and he fights Aga Cabell. Maybe he wants one more big show, one more big, maybe I'm not done. Maybe he just does it just to make me sound stupid. I don't know, but he might come back and fight again. But I don't know. The first thing I heard, I thought in my head when this happened is like, all right, Ousek's out of the running of fighting the top flight guys coming up. And he's going to go grab that money.

Time will tell. I hope so. I hope this isn't the last thing we see of Usoc is fighting a kickboxer in Egypt. Because I still want to watch. As a boxing fan, he has a lot of greatness left in him, and I still want to see him fight. some of the top contenders now. It's just weird to have the criticize the guy.

Because like I said, he's been Teflon for years. Like there's nothing you could say about Usik over the years to criticize this guy. He was going into fighters' backyards. He was defeating champions, defeating them twice. Like with leaving no doubt, great guy out of the ring, no troubles, like great interviews, good personality. He's got everything. But of course, they're going to go that route.

And of course, if you're going to be dangled that much money, you're going to be dangled that much money you're going to take it i get that but the jury's still out on how we see the end of usick's career uh does he fight some of the contenders or does he keep going if he does this and then fights a wilder at the end of the year then yeah the criticisms criticisms are going to get even louder if he fights a cabal or awardly then we're going to be yeah well ozick's back maybe so we'll we'll have to keep that in mind wild times let's head over to um a big time fight card from glendale Arizona, maybe card of the year. This card was loaded, some really good fights.

You saw Emmanuel Navarrete stopped Sugar Nunez late stoppage. Navarete is now a unified champion at 130 pounds. The guy, you just can't write this dude off. He is a whirlwind in there. And we've heard about good Navarite and bad Navarete.

Saturday night against Sugar Nunes. That was the good, neverette. That could have been the best performance of his career. I mean, totally dominant. He looked fresh. He looked young. He didn't look like the guy we've seen recently, honestly. He hasn't looked really great in his last couple of fights.

But he looked, he looked good. He looked strong. He looked durable. He was hard to hit. Everything. He was flowing. He was flowing. And I think Sugar Nunes is going to look back on this fight and realize that he made a real mistake in terms of game plan.

He showed Navarthe way too much respect. Gave him the first four rounds. They hug before the fight. What was that? They touched gloves after every round. He didn't fight for the first three rounds. He looked like he was just trying to evade. Nunes is not like a mover and a make-a-miss kind of guy.

He's to come forward banging out Mexican. He just didn't fight like that. I was like, all right, maybe he's just trying to take the old guy late. And he's going to come up. Nope. No, round five came. And he tried to turn it on. And Navarrete they just ratcheted up one more.

Boom, up, up, up. Every time Nunes tried to step up and put the pressure, Navarra, they just cranked it up more and just control the pace. controlled the space. Even off the ropes was landing beautiful combinations, cracking with both hands. You know, bad cut early on. I think it was like the third or fourth round.

He got a little cut on his eye and just got worse and worse. And then the eye was completely shut by the time they stopped it. I think they stopped it a little early. I could have seen a couple rounds. But honestly, it didn't really matter because Nunez had nothing going and wasn't winning any rounds. But Navarete, man, looked like a world beater once again. the outlands nunez 182 to 114 landed 48% of his power shots now I'd say 40% total punches and now he's a unified champion at 130 pounds o's shaki foster was ringside for this fight that's a unification that I would like to see both fighters are under the top rank banner that it's not the whole broadcast thing but it's it could be made foster versus Navarrete could be made.

Jazza Dickens is the WBA champion. Who has a fight upcoming against Anthony, the name that I never could pronounce. Kacacci. There you go. And that's 130 pounds. Yeah, Navarete, man, he got a nutritionist, Chris. This is a big, from now we're going from kickboxing,

your former world, to the nutrition world. It took him until 10 years into his career and multiple weight issues. Hey, I'm going to hire a nutritionist, and then he has the best performance of his career. Shout out food. Shout out food. But we talked about this fight last week. We were kind of previewing it. We touched on it, and I was worried because of the weight, right?

Because Navarate hasn't fallen in a while. He has a lot of trouble making weight, especially 1.30. So I was going to be able to tell, like, on the scale, what kind of Navarete we were going to get. He came in underweight. This guy never comes in underweight. He came in like a pound of a half. of under. I saw that. I was like, oh, okay. This, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this guy's really taking this seriously. And listen, he's 31 years old. So he's not like an old man. Um, but, you know, he's, he's, he's had a very long career and, um,

we got, we got a, we got a lot left in this guy. Um, but yeah, I, I, once I saw that he came in underweight for a guy who normally struggles. He struggled to make 35, you know, when he went up. And 35 is just not a good weight class for him. So now that he's at 1.30, he looks comfortable. He looked younger. You know, nutrition, man. Go food.

Here's the thing, like, with the nutrition. And like, what's the range of, like, price for it? Like, can you give me a ballpark figure when you hire nutritionists, how much that is? Well, it depends. It depends on the service. So if it's, if it's someone who's going to be writing up meal plans and sending them to you, you know, it's pretty low dollar value. But if you got, if you got that plus a chef, you know, you can, you don't have to have

them to be the same person, but oftentimes a lot of nutritionists, nutritionists do both that they will actually make the meal plan and then they'll actually come and cook the food and live with you in camp and just prepare your meals each, you know, every day. That's obviously how much heftier price. I've done everything you can do. I've done just meal plants for people. I've done meal plan plus chef. I've done meal plan where I've actually been actually cooking the food, preparing the food.

So it's a wide, wide range of pricing because if you're a nutritionist in camp, who's also the chef, you're looking at two months and you're there every day. And it's all day, every day. And or you could have guys that hire you just for the fight week to help you make the weight. So yeah, it just depends on what kind of services provided in terms of the money. but it can get pretty expensive. I made a lot of money when I was when I was in Tritian, especially when I was doing the full gamut.

I asked that because I'm interested in hiring you so I can fit into my suit pants. You can't afford me, Dan. You would do it for free, right? Because we're friends? No, absolutely not. So I go, I'm here at Turningston. I worked at Manny Packer promotion show last night. And like I said in last episode, I tried the suit on back at home.

It wasn't fitting. but I love the suit. So I don't have any other ones. So I wear it here and I'm like thinking, maybe it won't be as uncomfortable when I get here. Like, why I thought that. Yesterday I put the suit on to head down to the arena and I'm like, oh my God, like, I'm going to burst.

Like this button's going to fly off midfight and hit someone in the face in the ring. Type of thing. Could you still close the jacket? That's a big sign. Could you still close it? I don't mind that part. Like the jacket not being tight means that I'm working out. love that aspect. The waist, that's a problem. That means I got the gut. I got to get rid of this

gut. And the minute I sat down, I'm going to between us and all of our beautiful listeners, I unbuttoned. Top button was open. Dan, you turn into my dad. This is great. I called my dad on the drive down and he's like, you know, you could bring those pants to the tailor and they can And elastic to the waist. I was like, this is like Elvis's final days. We're going to get you Velcro shoes next. Only elastic waist from now on. So funny.

I got a few comments on Instagram. A few of our listeners that are loyal listeners that listen through the whole episode. A bunch of people were DM in me. Look, those pants suck a little tight, Dan. Pants look a little tight. Oh, you're not going to hear the end of it. That's amazing. We also had a fan came up to me yesterday, and he had like pictures.

I signed some. He's looking for your autograph. I signed some autographs last night. Nice. There you go, Dan. Getting some shine. I actually put on a suit that I wore for the Mani Pachiao Press Conference from 12 years ago. I wore it to one of the shows.

And it was actually was funny. It was the last time I did, because I called the Clarissa Fiat, obviously, in Detroit. It was the last time that I was there at the, what is that the arena there the turning stone no little caesars i was as where i was and i wore that suit so i mean you look like you're in good shape like i'm like i'm actually wearing the same suit i wore for the manny pack yall lead up so we got to get you in shape damn we got we got we got we got to we got to we got it's it's almost march we got a word springs around the corner we're getting cold the weather yeah the weather is getting wetter better in new york uh 50 degrees um

yeah but never they getting that nutritionist i mean that changes everything it just shows If you invest in your career, it's going to pay dividends. He gets the nutritionist. He trains hard. He becomes a unified champion now. Bigger fights now, more money. So, yeah, that's a great ringing endorsement for taking care of yourself. And now this guy could potentially fight Oshackie Foster.

I know Stephen Fulton is on Twitter calling for that fight, even though I don't think Fulton should get that one coming off of that performance. And I don't know if he can even make 1-30 anymore. I want to see Navarrete Foster. If we're talking meritocracy, it's a big theme of this episode. Oh, Shockey Foster, Navarrete, let's go. No brainer. No brainer.

I mean, they're the number one and number two. That's how it should be. And Foster was there for a reason. He knows the implications of making that fight. And stylistically, I like it. I would like to see, I rate Foster very high. I really like Shock. I think he's an excellent boxer.

I think he's very, very smart. I think he's been on the wrong end of a few dubious decisions that I didn't agree with. So I think he's a super high-level technician, which is what you're going to need to be if you're going to beat Navarete. Because Nevaredi is just he's a force, man. He comes just like you always said, the whirling derbys, both hands flying, hard shots, big stiff, long jab, uppercuts from out of nowhere all over the ring. And, you know, a shocky, again, sharp tactical, very, very, very, very. very smart in there. I think that that style mashup.

I think that's a fun thought experiment, think how these guys are going to line up with each other. So, yeah, that's the fight. Make it happen, Dan. Come on. Make a phone call. Well, we'll say much influence we have. Let me call Carl Marrii, get him on the horn.

Talked to him last night. He was happy with the event because the top rank guys did their thing. Oh, top rank guys. I mean, Bruce Guarantee talking about top rank guys have been shining. Shining. I mean, listen, we don't know. We don't talk about it so much on this show, but I talk about it with a lot of people in terms of the way that top rank develops talent. First of all, they have a great eye for talent, right?

They get guys early on and they understand, you know, what they're going to be. And then they build them the right way. And what I mean by building the right way is not just feeding them overdrivers so they can get their record nice. They pick and choose specific styles to test and make the shes. sharpening the blade. So when the time comes, those guys can shine in the big show. And we see it time and time again. They are the absolute best eye for talent and also development of talent once they do have

those young guys. I mean, Top Reich wrote the book. Top Rock wrote the book on promoting. Top Bank wrote the book on building prospects and developing into champions and long-time champions and actually building superstars. So hats off the top rank and their matchmakers because they've done a bang-up job with all their guys as usual. Yeah, Carrington, Xander Zias are winning belts.

And they don't have a broadcast home right now. But when they go on to these other networks and these other shows, they're winning these fights. And we've seen that coming to focus more with the five on five, putting Queensberry against matchroom. There's more emphasis on these stables and these promotions and how they work and how they foster their talent and how they bring them up the ranks. And there's no doubt about it.

That top rank is on top right now with all these champions going on and great performances. We see another one from Navarrete on a matchroom card. We see Emiliano Vargas on the co-main event in a tough fight. The types of fights that you need when you're coming up and you're looked at as one of the best prospects in the sport, he defeats Augustine Quintana, who gave it everything cuts over the eyes. We were chatting throughout that fight about Vargas. How did you, how did you feel about that performance? Because I think he needed that. 100% needed that. I think that you saw right away. And I, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to pull back a little bit on the, on the top rank building and matchmaking because Vargas, Emiliano, I love the kid. I think he's

an absolute future bonafide star. But he was put in a little soft for my tasting. And it's kind of weird. Top rank usually makes tougher fights, you know, on the way up. But he's been put in pretty soft. This was a really tough fight. This was a big step-up fight. This could be Mark Castro not too long ago. Super tough. Very, very scrappy Argentine. Very confident. It was coming to win. Early on, this was looking like it was going to be very, very close. You know, I think even the, even the broadcasters, I think Manix had it, like, even after six or something like that, which very much was an evilly contested fight. But Miliano showed something special, man. He really picked it up as the fight wore on. And he said something. He's like, I'm a 10, 12-round fighter.

He showed that. He showed that. And I think that was a really good display on his part to buckle down and go to work. He did amazing body work early on, which paid off later on, because Kentana slowed down quite a bit. And then the eyes, man, just cut over both eyes. A couple headbts there and there, but also, Miliano was not missing. The jab was on point. He stayed in the pocket when he needed to.

Got hit with some stuff. That's fine. But yeah, I think that was the kind of fight he really needed because he had been in pretty soft. He's been in the deep water now because that guy, Cantana, you don't show up in top form, you're going to lose. So I definitely am proud of that kind of performance from Miliano because, like you said, he really needed that. Yeah, he's a different type of fighter than his dad.

And he was constantly being compared to his dad. You know, 17th fight, his dad was fighting Winky Right. But his dad will tell you, I was rushed. I was not ready for those types of fights, even though, you know, he usually won them and he was spectacular before, you know, he sputtered out. So, yeah, it's interesting to see how they go here with Vargas. Talk about top rank and how they're so good at bringing these guys up.

Helping. And then assessing as we go. That's very important because you can. build a fighter up and then they get to a certain level and then they lose a fight or they're not ready or have a shaky performance, then what? And I do think top rank is still good in that aspect where they can sit back now and say, okay, what's next for Vargas? Let's pump the brakes a little bit or let's accelerate here. Let's get him in there with a puncher. We'd like to see him in there with someone with a little more pop and see how he handles that. But he won. That's the main thing.

Vargas wins the fight. You survive in advance in his sport and he keeps his O and then we move on. to see what else is out there. We got guys calling him out. There's a guy here who fought last night, a local kid, Bryce Mills, who's 21 and one, good fighter. Yeah, yeah. A thousand fans.

And he's calling out Vargas after the fight. So Vargas has a target on his back. I mean, you do the bad money halftime show, and you got your famous dad, and you got a half a million followers on social media and TikTok. Yeah, it's good. We need that.

And then also on the card last night here in Turningstone was Carmel Moten, who is the Mayweather promotion. protege got to talk to him to fighter means get the star quality that kid just like he's got it and then he went in there he overmatched opponent but did what he was supposed to do body work quick hands uh 19 years old built like a grown man it's shocking to see but i would say you know the sports in good hands when you see some of these these upcoming prospects one more thing about um about vargas before i go on to that that motin um discussion but vargas i man uh a man uh uh a uh i uh i i have

I think he needs to realize, we mentioned that comparison with his father. He's not his dad, right? I think he's more of a boxer, and I think he needs to go that route. And like I said, I think he's been in a little bit soft with top rank, so he's getting used to knock on all these guys out. He showed last night that the power is not the same when he's fighting at someone who's there to win and is tougher. But his jab was great. His bodywork was good.

I think it's important to know what you are, but it's also important to know what you're not. And I think Emiliano, if he can go out there and use more of his boxing skills, like you said, against a puncher, you got to be careful. You got hit with some stuff that night with a guy who's not a puncher. So that development, making that decision in your head is like, yeah, you know what? I'm not going to knock everybody out. I need to know out of box and do it for 10, 12 rounds. But Moten, I saw that picture you post with him.

God, he looks so much more mature. He changed. It's crazy. It looks like a completely different guy. He looks like a grown man now. I always feel like he looked like a kid. Like he's like, then they're beating guys up and knocking him out. And he's like a little kid.

Now he looks like a running back. He really matured. He's got a high ceiling. He is just super athletic. He's got power. He's got the amateur pedigree. He's got the backing. He seems like he's a really like a nice, half-a-old kid.

Boxing needs more guys like that. Yeah, he might be a little undersized for welterweight, though. I mean. That's what he's fighting at welterweight? He's short. Wow. That's what the last night was at. Yeah, he made you look like a tall king.

I know. I love that. That's why I took the picture next to me. I'm short and I'm fat now. I'm just a short, fat approaching 40 guy now. It's a fire hydrant. Not where you want to be, guys. Approaching 40 now.

But I'm happy. I'm happy. I get to talk boxing every week with Chris Algeri and our beautiful listeners out there. Inside boxing can't be stopped, baby. All right. That's our episode. We'll be back on Thursday.

in preview mode. We're going to talk some more big-time fights. I'm sure there will be some type of crazy fight announcement this week, the way that we're going here. Yeah, it could be later on today, the way the boxing is going and all these crazy out-of-nowhere surprise announcements are coming. Can we stop with the surprise stuff? Everything is a surprise.

Everything is a surprise. That's just, that's just right down the middle. Tell us what's coming up. Well, Usik, Eusuk did the announcement for the announcement. He said, keep your eyes peeled for something big. I've done that. I hate that. I know you have.

I hate it. I hate that you do it. I hate when everybody does it. Don't worry. We got something big. We're going to announce it. Come on, man. Bill's hype, baby.

It's hype. You know, before we announced our partnership with Yahoo and Uncrowned, I said, we got a big announcement tomorrow. I said, fun announcement. And say big. Fun. But apparently it was leaking because people were sending messages that they knew exactly what to watch. First comment was welcome to Uncrown. Like, how the hell will this guy know that? Wild.

All right, everyone. Protect yourselves at all the time. Keep your hands up at all times. Stay out of those DMs. We'll be back later in the week.