The Ariel Helwani Show - Inside Boxing | Pitbull Cruz calls out Ryan Garcia, Hamzah Sheeraz vacates title, voicemails

Episode Date: September 20, 2026

Dan Canobbio and Chris Algieri open the show reacting to Isaac 'Pitbull' Cruz’s ugly, foul-laden knockout win over Nestor Bravo (02:46).Referee Thomas Taylor played a big role in the fight and afterwards Cruz called out Ryan Garcia for a December fight. Will we see that next (13:49)?Hamzah Sheeraz has officially vacated his WBO super middleweight title after Queensberry Promotions won the purse bid for his fight against Janibek Alimkhanuly (21:15).We end the show with your voicemails, with topics ranging from PED usage in boxing, 'Boots' Ennis vs. Vergil Ortiz, to the latest on Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua (29:01).

Everyone, welcome back. There's another episode of Inside Boxing. We're presented by ppv.com in association with uncrown Yahoo Sports. Episode 5002 coming to you here on Sunday, September 20th, and I'm getting brutally framogged by Chris Algeria this morning. Listen, it was a Tom Selleck summer. Summer's over. Now I'm going, I'm paying homage to Robert Redford.

Guy was a fashion stud. just stud in general, so. Anyone below the age of 25 has no idea what you just said. Either one of them. Tom Selleck or Robert Rufford. There's just no. Robert Rattford. I know.

We're going. We're going. Our dad's favorite guys. But no, I like the old school guys. I like the old-fashioned style. The mustache has been very Tom Selleck. I've been saying it all summer.

It's a Tom Selleck summer. Short shorts, big, big caterpillar mustache. It's just, you know, it is what it is. the guy rules.

Also, have you seen those memes? I was going to say, he's, he's been a consistent summer meme. So I'm like, you know what? I'm going,

I'm going with it. Those memes are fun. I bet you, no one has an idea. That's what my dad looked like for the majority of the 80s. Your dad was an absolute,

it still is an absolute stud, but he was a, he was a very, very handsome put together man. He dressed cool, hung out with cool people, had an awesome mustache. Mustaches are back.

Mustaches are back. I remember when he came home from the gym, like, I would say mid-90s, um, shaved the mustache off. you were like, who was this guy? The whole, my younger brother sort of crying.

We didn't, like, this isn't our dad. Yeah, no. Like, you walked in the front door and without a mustache and we were like, because by the mid-90s, mustaches were gone. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was mid-90s, yeah, yeah. Because it was 80s was mustache season. My dad was a contractor, carpentry guy.

So we always had a beard. And he got a security job at one point, and he came home from work. And I hadn't, because he used to leave a fourth. 30 in the morning, so we never saw him. So then when he came home from work one day at 4 p.m., and he had shaved. And we were like, who is this man walking up? Yeah. And my dad was actually a good-looking guy.

Like, I mean, maybe that's not surprising, but he's always hiding behind a beard, but like you never saw it. And one day he came with his shaved face and he was thin back then. I was like, who is this dashing man walking up to our door to steal my mom? Love that. All right, mustache, dad talk over. Let's get in to the boxing. We got voicemails.

We got some Shiraz news. We have some fight news. Pitbull Cruz knocks out Nestor Bravo in an ugly, disgusting, foul-laden fight where it looked like Nestorravo wanted to quit. He wanted to get disqualified. Thomas Taylor stole the show. We'll have more on that. But Pitbull gets to win.

140 pounds. We saw what he did against Lamont, Roe. Rochery gets the draw. We saw what he did against Roley. We've seen what he did against, he has some big wins. He's just an up and down guy, gets the win, calls out Ryan Garcia afterwards. Ryan Garcia accepts it. He has a contract out there that seems to be a fight that could happen in December. I want to get all your thoughts here. But first and foremost, disgusting fight. Just nothing aesthetically pleasing about this fight besides the final leaping right hook from from Pitbull, which is a devastating punch for such a little guy.

There's nothing pretty about Pitbull Cruz and the way that he fights. He just, I'm not a fan. I'm sorry, I'm not a fan. I've said this before on air. I think he's super limited. He's 5'4 fighting at 140, which is crazy, or 5'3, and he's fighting 140. He is a bull in a china shop. if you can't do with his pressure, he beats you. If you can, you beat him. You said he has a bunch of good wins. He has a good win. Rolese is the only good win he really has the only good win he really has a damn ball who is a million years old. He knocked out Magdalena who's a million years old the time he fought him. He really does not have any good wins other than Roli. He took Tank to distance. Come on, man. That's a W good performance. He has a good win and he had a good performance against Tank.

knocking out, his wins, knocking out Rowley was, was devastating. Going to distance with tank. He's been in big fights

and he has knockouts and he gives off that impression. I'm not a big fan of him either. He gives off that impression. A lot of fans. Like you say, you're not a fan of him.

He has a lot of fans. I can't believe the amount of people that are in my mention saying, Dan, you're wrong. Dan, you're wrong. He's getting pushed like guys, certain guys do. Connor Ben was one of those guys.

They get pushed and they have a couple good wins here. He actually has less good wins and he does not have good wins. I mean, he's got rollies, which is looking more and more like an aberration than the reality, because, dude, he gets completely outboxed by Ryo.

Ryo gets beat up in his next fight. Ryo then moves down the 35. If you look at everything in totality, it's really not a whole lot to really look at. But he's got fans. And listen, when you have fans, people get pushed. I, you know, I reposted last night. people were saying their best Mexican fighters and they're putting him in the top five.

Like, I don't, I love Todd Grisham. He was going absolutely overboard afterwards. You know, the loop, the jumping right hand like Joe Frazier, the Mexican Mike Tyson. I was like, bro, come on. He fought a pro. Another fight sucked and you have to kind of shine it up. That was a, that was. He fought a Pro Box TV fighter, Gomez.

Oscar, what was his full name? Was it Oscar something, Gamas? Whatever. Celcito Gamas. The guy took the fight on like a day's notice. You know, his, uh, Fiero fell out, didn't make the weight. Gammes jumped up a weight class and went 10 rounds of them. Like, and I'm literally watching the fight.

It was on the undercard of Pacquiao and Barrios. And we were on the call or on the, uh, on the live chat. And I'm like, I'm not impressed with this guy at all. Like this kid Gomez is like, he's not even a, he's not even a top level pro box TV guy. And he was like neck and neck with him. Yeah, losing every round. But like, again, jumped away class the day before. wasn't getting, you know, handed, handily.

And I was like, what are we talking about this guy? I mean, he's, I don't know. Mexican fans will get at me in the comments, but I don't care. Go ahead because. We can't agree that he is a, he is a action fighter. He's a pressure fighter. Shot out of a cannon every round. We can't agree on that.

And there is a market for that. And there is a void in boxing when it comes to pressure fighters. So I will give him that. As for the fight, and Nestor Bravo, I don't know what was going on with him. He had like an existential crisis inside of that ring. It looked like he wanted a way out. He was fouling. He was hitting low.

He didn't want to be there. And I can't believe they actually booked him for this main event because I called a bunch of his fights, one for MVP in particular, against Will Madera. And they made him, they brought him in there to look great, Nestor. Big time, Puerto Rican fan base in Orlando, where we did the fight. and he just stunk it up. And he was just so ordinary in there. And I was just, like, shocked that this is what DeZone picked up and this is what PBC was putting forth. The whole card got absolutely snake bitten with Jesus Ramos falling ill, quote unquote,

with food poisoning and missing his fight. And now he's being rumored to potentially fight Virgil Ortiz at the end of the year. So I don't know how sick he really got. But the card fell apart and it wasn't a great offering from PBC or the zone last night. So horrible fight. there. Nestor Bravo looking terrible. Let's get to the main event. Thomas Taylor. The main event. Goodness gracious. This guy was all over the place. He's stepping in. He at one point told Nestor Bravo, you don't get paid if you get disqualified. I've never heard

that in all my years of watching boxing. Did you see that part? I did not hear that part, but wow. Here it is. I have it right here. Check this out. Does Nestervo speak English? I don't know. It might not. If you get disqualified, is that true? You get to scrawlify? You don't get paid? No, no, you get paid.

So what was he? Is he trying to, usually threaten them there? Yeah. Yeah, he's trying to speak to what would get him to actually fight because the guy was not. Okay, then check this out. Have you ever seen this in boxing, Thomas Taylor? Yeah, that was aggressive.

That was aggressive. One more, one more time. He said he was done. He said he was done. He's done. in with you. He shoved him to the corner like he was a child that it was, they were on a road trip and the kid was just acting up in the back seat. I'll turn this car right around. I, uh, I love Thomas Taylor. I was just with him in San Diego last week. He, he worked a show in ProBox TV in San Diego

on Friday night and then worked the Ryan Garcia fight on Saturday in Vegas the very next day. He's a top ref today. Top ref today. No, no question. With that being said, do you think he went a little too far or given the circumstances of the fight, he had to do those things? A little bit of both. A little bit from column A, a little bit from column B. I think he needed to, and I've seen Thomas do this before. He's, I've seen him affect fights in a good way. We had a fight on ProBox TV back in Thunder Studios a couple years ago. And I can't remember who exactly it was. It was a good fight, but there was some fouling going on and he just wouldn't allow it. He wouldn't allow it. It made for a much better fight. It was a lot of holding. And he was

being very same same way, very verbal, very physical. And he was like, listen, dude, like, you got a fight. Like, he was literally like talking to him just like that. Like, hey man, like, I don't want to have to take points. Like, you got to fight. And it made for a much better fight. I think with refs, you can do too much for sure. And we often see that. We're like, all right, this guy's just taking a million points. He's trying to put himself into everything. And you can see a guy like Thomas Taylor who's putting himself in there, but not trying to take point. He's not trying to affect the score. He's trying to affect the actual activity, the action. And I think that, you know, well, you're watching last line. Like you said, it was an ugly, ugly

fight. Nobody wanted, nobody wanted that fight. And I think Taylor was trying to make a better fight out of a bad situation. Yeah, he just went a little overboard. The shoving, I think that's a little excessive. The, the, you don't really hear the refs talk too much. And, and I will say this, Steve Smogers. Steve Smoger used to talk a lot. He reffed a number of my fights. Come on. Yeah, I saw Jack last week, too, in San Diego. But, yeah. Jack Reese, we did the Jack Reese show. Thomas Taylor's getting a little bit to that level. Like, I see him Hollywood. I made a whole highlight reel, by the way, for the last, the hour before this podcast, I found myself.

Sunday mornings with Dan. Dicing. Sunday morning, I'm sitting there having my coffee, and I'm making a Thomas Taylor highlight reel. I'm like, what is my career? but he's the American Gladiator referee. So he's got a little bit of Hollywood in him, this Thomas Taylor. He's loving the spotlight. Guy's a slide, man.

Jack, tan guy. Jack and tan. Hey, I'm going to slide myself in this fight a little bit. You know, it is entertainment after all. He's, we're trying to entertain the fans. His ref outfit fits him better than anyone else's. Like, he's the guy, the guy. He's pretty jack.

He's got a little swagger to him. Tane guy. I saw him in San Diego, too, at the Steakhouse at the Pajanga Resort. He was having a grand old time. the steakhouse. I mean, you're allowed to enjoy yourself there. But I will say this. He was saying at one point, like, dude, I got to take a point. Like, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're giving me no choice. Like, he didn't want to. Yes. But bravo, like, I'm not going to bear the lead here. Bravo's was, was fouling was insane. It was so, it was egregious. And pit bull, too.

Pitbull was not the cleanest fighter either. No, no, he's not. So it was just an ugly fight that Taylor had to take over. I just thought it was funny though. I've never seen a fighter, uh, I never seen a referee threatened fighters pay shove him that was all that was a lot but I guess like if without that it might have got even more out of control but at least Pitbull got him out of there he gets the knockout

and it wasn't it didn't go to like to the you know the score cards for it was that was the saving grace of this entire weekend this entire card that fell apart for PVC yeah pit bull likes ugly fights he fights ugly and like you said when there are knockouts because he does knock guys out

it's like all right well at least at least we got that ending but like like said the gama's fight when you when you don't have the knockout it's like this leaves you it's like every round looks the same pit bull has there's no nuance to his style he's he's shot out of a cannon and he either gets you or he doesn't and when he doesn't it's pitiful but when he does he sees he's hammering with both hands and he did get him out of there and like you said nessa bravo probably didn't deserve the shot certainly didn't deserve the shot he literally got this off of that blistering knockout that he had. I think it was a matchroom card.

Where, you know, he crushed a guy along the ropes. But otherwise, yeah, he's been pedestrian in the rest of his career. I can't believe the amount of people that think Pitbull Cruz has any shot against Ryan Garcia. Pitbull is a 5'4 lightweight. He's undersized at 140. Now he's going to go up to 147? I think he's cannon fodder. for Ryan Garcia. I think Ryan Garcia is licking his chops. I just think he has

so many fans, and I can't believe the amount of people that are in my mention saying, oh, Pitbull's going to knock him out. Ryan has a glass chin. Look at Pitbull did to Rollies, and Rollies beat Ryan, the triangle theory and all that. Like, I think Ryan blasts him out of there. I know he's never been knocked down or never been stopped Pitbull, but I think Ryan will do the same thing he'd do a bent, like literally put his hand out and find the range and then just light him up. I want to see it. I think it's a fun fight. But there's no doubt in my mind that Ryan wins.

The fact that Ryan is calling this fight out when he's got a gigantic looming fight in May with Tio shows you what he thinks about Cruz in terms of what he can do with him. I don't think he knocks him out like Ben. Cruz is a much better fighter than Ben. But, and he's very durable, and he showed a really good shin.

He went 12 with Tank. You know, Grant, the Tank heard his hand. It doesn't matter. Tank can punch at both hands. And I watched that. Does he stop him, though, in your opinion? He might not. He might not.

Okay, then it actually is a tough fight. I don't think Cruz touches him, though. Ryan, I don't think he touches Ryan. Ryan's not easy to hit. And he's very long. He's very tall. He uses range really well, and he evades very easily. Yeah, I...

Dude, the size is just staggering. Like, 147, we're talking about for... For people's two weight glasses, you know, removed from where he should be. Yeah, he's super small. You said he's 5'4. I think you're giving him, you're giving him some, some centimeters. What is he 5'5 foot then? He's probably 5.3, honestly.

He's 54 on dating apps, 5, 5 foot in real life. Yeah, 5, 2 and a half in real life, 5 2 and 3 quarters. Yeah, I'm 59, 9. Yeah, you're 5, exactly, you're 59. 510 on dating apps. Yeah, and I'm 6'5. but too on dating apps. I've actually never been on a dating app ever

in my entire life. Good. It's horrible. Probably doesn't surprise you, but. It's a hellscape. I'm deleting them all. Good. Good. It's better for your soul. Anyway, yeah, no, I don't think I don't think it's a really good fight. Unless, again, like you said, if Ryan

does to him what he did to Ben, he's able to blast him out and catch him but a shot and hurt him, I just don't know that he does. It turns into, it devolves into an ugly fight. if Ryan can't starch him. Which I don't know if he does. And there's that theory out there that there's a theory out there that Ryan wants to get that December fight in. Under Golden Boy, he has one fight left with Golden Boy,

and then he's a free agent for the T.O. fight, free agent for any... I don't know if that's a theory or a smart move. It's not even a theory. It's like, all right, that is the way you should move. We'll see if Golden Boy goes for it because they're not dumb. Yeah. They would understand the situation there, too. They might want to wait around and...

Do we possibly? Do we possibly get Cruz Ryan in May in the Big May card? That would suck. If Ryan doesn't go the Zoufah Rao or Oscar or De La Jolla or Golden Boy, excuse me, blocks the interim fight and it's going to be a Golden Boy fight. Do we get that? That would be unfortunate. I think a lot of things would have to go wrong. Like I'm not told that Ryan wants to fight in December.

I saw the way box. Yeah, like things could devolve so fast, and we haven't heard Oscar say a single word about Ryan Garcia. Very weird. Nothing afterwards. Like, nothing. Like, hey, my fighter won.

Look how goody. Nothing. It's not said anything afterwards, so I have no idea where they stand there. Yeah, but I would think things would have to go terribly wrong for that to happen where we pushed that fight all the way to May. As a December, I don't know, it was like poo-pooing on the fight, as a December kind of tune-up for Ryan Garcia,

which is crazy to say because he's not the most... I mean, this guy is a good fighter, but he's not, you know, Floyd Mayweather here. It's a fine fight, and I would like to see if Golden Boy would allow, where it would end up. I don't think Ryan fights before that. That's another thing, too, is like,

he's really going to do that. I know Ryan says a lot of things and just get excited. He also said it three days after blasting out Ben. Like, it's a different thing. Now we're, you know, a week removed. We're still saying it. He put out a tweet last night on, you know,

Pitbull. Like, I've tried to fight you numerous times. The contract is out there. If you don't accept it now, you're never going to fight me. I feel like Ryan called out Benavitas after one of his last fights. Like, that's just, that's just what he does. He stays, he stays in your mentions. I don't think he'll do a December fight.

I would be shocked. I would be pleasantly surprised to be fights in December because that's three fights. And that's what you kind of have to do. Like, why not? Like, grab the bull by the horns here. Like, Canello fought four times that one year, and he was just everywhere. Like, he was just, we were just inundated with Cannella. So Ryan didn't have any scratches, didn't really get touched in the Ben fight.

And it comes back in December. And he does beat Pitbull Cruz, whether it's a dominating 12-round decision or he stops him. His stock is going to be even higher. And he's everywhere. And then that Tio fight is even bigger. So it's a risky move from Ryan, but he likes to take risks. It's not going to be Cruz. It's not going to be Cruz.

It would not be Chris. I would be shy. I hope we're wrong. I was talking to Robert Garcia and Rocha. who just beat J.C. Ramirez. If there was a... That seems like a... Easy fight to make.

Yeah. It's a golden boy. Same side. Oscar gets paid on both ends, both fighters. If there is going to be an interim fight where he satisfies his contract, which... That's by Ryan, by the way, by the fighter. Promoters love to go, oh, no, no, no. You owe me another fight?

Oh, no, no. There's trolling time. Oh, no, no, remember that time? Well, there's some reporting out there. I don't know how accurate it is that he has a... Like, he's got one left with Golden Boy, but there's also a DeZone, another one with the, he has to fight on DeZone. So that could be a, you know, Tio fight could end up on the zone. Yeah.

Well, Tio is a DeZone fighter, which makes the May card for Zufa difficult as well. But we'll get more to that as we get closer to it. But in terms of the interim fight, if there's going to be an interim fight, the only fight that I think makes sense would be the Rocha fight. And that's the only realistic fight. It's not going to be a cruise. Because even with, Cruz is a big fight. You mentioned how many people are fans of his, and he did the Roach fight. Huge fight.

It's almost too big for December throw in. It honestly will sell more tickets than Tio, which is crazy. It won't get as many views in terms of the global, but like ticket-wise, gate-wise, it's a much bigger fight. Tio doesn't sell like that. Cruz does, and Ryan does. That's a really, really big fight. No way that happens as an interim fight between now and May. It might end up on May because, again, you got a Mexican.

you got a Mexican-American and a Mexican native, that might be the May fight. Cruel will go up in a way, too. He'll go up to 47. He'll be the smallest 47-pounder of all time, and he'll do it. The money would be astronomical. It's crazy.

Let's head over to some other news that happened this weekend. Hamza Shiraz has vacated his 168-pound WBO belt. He'll not be fighting Janubeck, turned down what is over 750,000. not to defend his belt, not to fight Janubek, not to be a champion anymore. $750,000, not enough. For Hamza, Shiraz, the second time, he, there it is. There's Chris's WBO belt, belts matter. Chris will tell you that in just a second.

But now for Shiraz, he has ducked Janibek twice. I have people tell me, Dan, He's not fighting Janibik because Janibik is a drug cheat, and he's not going to give him that opportunity. That's not why, guys. It went to Perspid. He saw the money for this fight, $750,000. Compared it to some of the astronomical overpays he has gotten from Turkey in the past

and said $750K is not enough. I'm going to give up my belt, and I'll go find an easier fight for more money from my buddy Turkey. And this is one of the sadder things. that we're currently seeing in boxing, these inflated purses from Turkey for a guy in Shiraz who got a gift decision against Carlos Adamas, got a gift opportunity against Edgar Balanga for big money. Not to mention one of the easiest paths to a belt

that vacated title shot against a complete nobody in Bejerk. And then he defends it against a guy, I forgot his name, no disrespect to him. Another gifted opportunity. And now he turns out of the title shot against Jadabeck. 750,000, not enough, Chris. What world are we living in? We live in a world where guys don't care about belts.

They care about money. And it's a real shame. I like Shiraz. I like the way he fights. I've said that many, many times. I thought he was a guy who could potentially take over the division until that last fight where he looked very mediocre. And I just don't like the way.

he's moving. I don't like this whole narrative. I don't like giving up belts. Guys like Marvin Hagler and Bernard Hopkins are like beside themselves watching the current crop of fighters who call people out on Twitter and then don't fight them,

who get called out on Twitter and don't fight them, who give up their belts, who avoid tough fights, who will go to the, you know, the purses as a reason for not fighting. We live in an era where these guys, these fighters, don't act like fighters. They act like businessmen.

And they think they're businessmen. And you're not. You're fighters, dude. You're not as smart as you think. Go out there, go fight. Do what you're here to do. I don't know, man. Just the honor, the respect for the sport, the respect for these belts is gone.

These fighters, they don't have, honor. Honor, honor is gone. There's no honor in our society anymore. There's no honor in our boxing anymore. It's a real shame. It's one of the reasons why guys like Pitbull have so much fanfare. We've talked to, you know, we're poo-pooing him earlier about why people like him so much. The guy will fight. He'll fight everybody.

And he goes out there and he fights. We have a whole generation of kids who don't want to fight. And it's disgusting. And again, this is why the Mexicans are taking over again, because these guys will fight. Ryan Garcia, he's a Mexican-American. He will fight everyone. He's willing to fight everyone. Granted, he makes tons of money.

But you got a guy like Isaac Pimple Cruz, who will fight everybody, you've got these Mexican fighters. I talk to Robert Garcia all the time and his whole roster of fighters that he has cars. He was like, I tell him who they're fighting. He's like, they don't even ask. Okay, we fight. You catch losses. It happens. You get back to it.

Too many guys protecting their O's and not respecting the hardware is upsetting to the guys in the past, the champions of the past, the greats, the legends. And it's a real shame. 750,000, not enough for Shiraz to defend his title. 2.1 million, not enough for Kishon Davis to fight Devin Haney from the first title fight at 147 for him. Not enough. No, you know what it is? It's not enough for that guy.

You're forgetting that part. It's not enough for that guy. Yeah, but we're seeing it now multiple times, and it's a pattern that I don't think. is good for boxing and it's something that we saw when Turkey came in. We thought this is great. We're getting fights we've never seen before. We're getting fights that we've always wanted. He's paying these guys, but there's always going to be something lingering. It's always going to be a lingering problem. The lingering problem is fighters like Shiraz believe that they're entitled to way more than their worth. He does not have a huge fan base. He is not a household name.

He was getting inflated purses from Turkey. So now when a purse bid comes around and we get his real market value, which is $750,000, which is just not bad. It's not like astronomical, it's not bad at all. He turns it down. He goes, no what? I'll vacate my belt. I can maybe get in line to fight Canelo. I can maybe get in line for a bigger fight.

I can maybe get on this AJ and Fury card and make more money and give up my belt. From a business standpoint, I somewhat understand it, but you're a champion. Like, you have that belt. And let's be honest here. Like, it's two separate things. Janibik popping and getting a title shot in his first fight back is so wrong. We've been over that numerous times. This is like a completely messed up situation.

Been over that because I had a lot of people tweeting me. Dan, Janibek is like, are we not going to talk about that? Are we not going to address the fact that Janubek? Yes, we really addressed that weeks ago. It's horrible. It's two separate things. Like the Janubek situation sucks. Him testing positive or being suspended, going up to a new weight class game.

a title shot right away. Horrible. Talked about that numerous times on the show. Sharaz giving up his title and vacating and not accepting 750K. Not good for the sport. Like both things can be true here. They're not, you know, they can both be true at the same time. It's a bad situation. Don't see you get any better now. A lot of these fighters believing that they are worth way more than they are. And that has to do a turkey. Straight up has to do a turkey. He's giveeth and he taketh away. It's a great turkey. but we've had this happen before where the market gets blown up, and then you've got guys who were just demanding way too much of money.

We saw it with PBC when they first game. We saw it with match for them when they came in, and they're paying these exorbitant amounts. And guys get used to that. I remember even my friend, Jesse Vargas, going through that as well, because he got paid a lot to fight a couple different fights, and then he was looking for a specific amount of money for the next one. They were like, no, it's not there anymore, dude.

Not for who you are anymore. So you get that. But, dude, as soon as you, you said giving up his title. I was like, it hurt me. And I'm like, I'm wearing this thing for a reason. Like, the belts matter. Bels matter. Bels matter. Being a champion matters. And these guys, I'm wearing this thing over my heart right now because it matters. Like it's inside you. They're treating this like this actually is. This is a trinket. This is a mini belt, guys. It's not a real belt. My real belt's way bigger and way heavier. This is a trinket. Way cooler.

And these guys are treating this thing like a trinket. And it's a real shame because the The green is more important to them than the gold. And that sucks. Unreal. Unreal. All right. That's our news. Let's get to the voicemails.

Let's switch it up here. We have, I can't even believe this. Hamza Shah's cousin left us a voicemail, Chris. Hey, Dan and Chris. It's Dooley Shiraz, Hamza's blood cousin, relative, and close confidon. And I just wanted to clarify a few things about the former W. B-O champion because this has been a bit dirty business the last few weeks, right? You guys have seen it.

Obviously, he's stepped away. The man toward defense against Janibik, Alan Canuli, is not happening. And people are saying, yourselves included, that it's about the purse bid, the million dollars that Queensberry put up, just not enough for Hamza. And while it's true, my cousin deserves at least $3 billion per fight, I do think it's fair to reveal one of the other reasons why this fight is not occurring. Because Hamza Shiraz, my cousin, said that one of the stipulations was that Frank Warren of Queensberry had to spell Janibek Alam Canuli without looking it up.

Needed to spell a name, right? And Frank said that that's just simply not going to occur and he can't do it. In fact, when he tried to spell Janet Beck's name, all he could tell. put down on paper was meldonium, right? Crazy. So that's why this vice not occurring. It's not the purse bid. It's because Frank Warren can't spell

Janibak, Alan Canooley, and that's just a no-go for us of the Shiraz clan. Appreciate you guys. Talk soon. I mean, that's earth-breaking news. I can't argue with that. Right? I mean...

That was Shiraz's cousin. That was not been... Bane Davis. No, it was not, that was not Ben Davis. That was not Ben Davis. That was not Ben Davis at all. One of the best broadcasters out there. It's definitely not him.

That was definitely Shiraz's cousin. Definitely on Team Chiraz. Donnie Alvarez called us, Canelo's. Right, so. You remember that? We have a lot of cousins who watch our show, and I think they deliver the reports to the man upstairs. But yeah, that's interesting because I don't think I can spell a Lung Canouli either.

I can barely say it. I can't spell melodona. I can't pronounce melodone. But yeah. Is that the substance that Janibak was supposedly on? That is the substance, yes. All right. So that's why the fight ain't happened.

So let's take back our last segment. It is now void because we got the news. We got the news. Speaking of PDs, Chris. What's up, Dan? What's up, Chris? This is Alec calling from Los Angeles, California. My question is for Chris.

Chris, how difficult. is it for a boxer to dope? With Vada testing and everything, and also with your knowledge of nutrition and medicine, how difficult is it for somebody to truly hide that they are doping? And my last question is, have you ever fought a fighter that you knew was on something or had high suspicion that they were doping?

That's my question. Thanks, guys. Bye. friend obviously missed our last episode in the last four years. Good question. The initial question, I've been saying this few years. One of the reasons why I'm so adamant about the fact that our sport is lousy with drugs is it's not easy.

It's not hard at all to be. It's really not. I have been tested by everybody. Wada, Vada, Usada. I've been tested by all. Granada. Empanada. Empanada.

One of my favorites. And I vividly remember when I was. fighting Pachiao. That was my second tested camp, and it was all throughout camp. So I got tested all throughout camp for Ruslan, Pakiao, and Kahn. And I mean like seven weeks out showing up at the pool. I'm in the pool doing my laps for my Thursday workout, my Thursday morning workout, which is swim training during those camps.

And I had guys sitting at the end of my pool waiting for where the Pissk up. And a syringe ready to take my blood. And they were like, I was like, I came out. I was like, oh, hey, I'm like, can I finish? They're like, no, take your time. Do what you got to do. Okay. Boom.

I've been there. But then I've also had times where I was in Vegas and getting tested. And they called and said, hey, you were supposed to be here at this time. Camp changes, you know, you know, got to go sell the fight. Change. Got to go, you know, training opportunities happen. Training sessions get canceled. to go to the doctor, to go to the physical therapist,

to go to the massage, whatever. So we just didn't tell them, we didn't fill them in that that day's training got changed. Oh, hey, you know, like, you're supposed to be here at this time. Like, you told us you're going to be out. Ah, you know, again, things change. You guys come randomly.

Don't really know where you're going to come. I know I was supposed to tell you, but I didn't. Okay, I can be there and, you know, after I finish this up in two hours. Okay. I didn't see him for probably three or four hours. You could do a lot in three or four hours, guys. You could get a blood transfusion in that time

if you really needed to. So you could just not be where you're supposed to be. Oh, no, they're here. Okay, all right, boom. This is literally exactly what Lance Armstrong used to do. He used to do it in a van. Like, he'd be on the road. You know, I'm not in the place supposed to be, whatever.

They would take this blood out of his body in the van. Like, they'd run a bunch of saline through him so he could lower, Guys, it's not that hard. So you're saying there's ways like that, where you can just buy time. And also, I've heard you say this numerous times where the masks for the drugs are way ahead of the actual drugs. Well, I think it's an arms race all the time. I think the drugs that are coming out versus the testing that's out there.

It's always an arms race to see who can be better and who faster. But also, guys, it's the off-season drugs. Not enough attention is given to the off-season drugs. The training effect. The training effect, exactly. If I am on drugs for nine months out of the year and my training window is three months and I'm clean by the time I get into my training window, that's what when Ben failed for Clomid before the U-Bank fight, he failed way before the fight. The fight was supposed to be in September.

He failed in like June. And the news came out that week just to be a little more devastating. Exactly. People don't realize that that actually has. He actually failed months prior. And that's where, you know, when you see fighters disappear and you can't find him, you know, and like, oh, what are they? They're cleaning out. They're getting the drugs out of their system.

They're avoiding the testing because the training effect is there. If I have been Superman for nine months training like Ivan Drago, literally, Ivan Drago was sitting there taking drugs too in a movie, if remember, in the training sequences. And then, you know, come fight camp. Now I'm in peak fight shape to begin fight camp. I have three months now to essentially clean out. and work on my skills as a boxer to get ready for fight night and quote unquote make weight.

That's another thing I wouldn't talk about. I was thinking about this the other day. When guys are like, oh, yeah, like steroids, though. Like, you got to make weight. It's going to add muscle. Like, they don't look like they're on steroids. Guys, it's to preserve muscle mass while you're eating nothing.

Eating nothing. You're hypoloric. You got guys who, Ben was saying, he was eating 1,000 calories a day. It's killing my hormones. Yeah. Then you take drugs. I'm not saying he did.

I'm just saying that's what you do. Oh, my hormones, my hormones are crushed from taking in 1,000 calories a day and burning 4,000. How can that, that doesn't add up. Yeah, you do drugs. You do drugs. You take testosterone. It preserves your muscle tissue. That's why you can cut all that weight.

I tell a lot of time, guys take drugs not to be bigger and stronger necessarily. They do it for the training effect, but also to make weight. That's why we're seeing so much bigger guys now at these weight classes. They're able to severely, severely. under-eat and over-trained, but with the drug effect, they're able to keep their muscle mass and still be still be an athlete. So it's very, it's, it's, it's a complicated science. It certainly is a science, as we've seen. And in terms of me fighting fighters, I've been on that, yeah, I mean, two, two of them have failed on record. Khan, Amir Khan failed, not when we fought, obviously, afterwards, when he fought

Kellbrook and Conor Ben obviously failed afterwards but you know so and I remember fighting guys in the lower levels that are 100% I was like in the ring with them I'm like oh this guy's juice to the gills damn you could feel it that must be an unbelievably weird dynamic yeah yeah I mean I had fought guys who were juiced in the kickboxing I had fought guys used earlier in my in my pro boxing career um they just feel it's got to feel awesome to beat them they feel different yes and no you're just mad because they're they're cheating and they're they're You're playing with your life and your career. But yeah, no, they just feel different.

You can, you can tell. So did it, did it ever cross your mind to try PDDs? No. And I had, I had team members reach out to me and be like, hey, God, you know, this guy you're fighting is on. And I'm like, I'll do more push-ups. I'll be fine. But I was, you know, I was young and dumb. And I was like, yeah, I'll do it.

But also I was like, and I thought, it came up again later in my. career because I fought to all I was 38 years old. I was super old fighting. You know, even when I fought, I was two months shy being 38. And I understood that taking drugs would have extended my career and probably

made me a few more million dollars. Yeah, it's like why majority of the baseball players. Yeah. And I get it. But my strength coach, actually, Jake Benachi, I'm going to give him a shout out, a huge boxing fan, historian, boxing historian, really.

He said to me, he goes, we were talking about, he goes, he's like, if you had ever done anything and if you had ever, you know, got caught,

he was like, it would completely destroy your credibility in absolutely everything you do, and it would not be, it would never have been worth, you know, the rest of your career would suffer.

And he was dead on. You would have so many, you had the million. Yeah. These guys make these decisions. I think a lot of these fighters that take, they do have a conscious.

They're not just absolute sociopaths. They weigh everything. But for you, like you maybe would have made like three, four, million more, right? But then you're like,

all right, so I can't do my, you know, go to all the retreats you go to, you know, you wouldn't be in the community. Maybe you still could even, considering today you would become an advocate for why you shouldn't do PEDs. So I really don't think there's any disadvantage to

taking them these days, whether it's a slap on the wrist that fighters get now with the penalties, title shots, or fighters are getting title shots coming off of PEDs, they're getting more money. the bell's coming back because Put the bell back on

Because again It's over my heart And the ethics Of being a fighter The integrity The honor No this is to be a fighter The honor of being a fighter

Is gone And you mentioned like Oh these guys are sociopaths I'm thinking about the future But like yeah but bro Like I would never I sleep great at night I know I did everything right

You know my career didn't pan out The way that I expected to Like my career didn't pan out the way It should have I'm better than even what I accomplished. But I sleep well at night because I know I did everything right and I know I did everything clean. And I'll never, ever have to question that. And no one will ever have to question me.

Let's go to the next one. Hey, Dan. Hey, Chris. This is John from MKE. My question is, is Boots versus Ortiz cooked or dead in the water? Or is it going to be like Maypack where both fellows fight way past their problem? Thank you, sir, and have a good day. I don't think it's cooked.

I don't think any fight is going to linger as long as Mayweather Pachial did because of the business structure now, everything with the zone all being under one roof. And for the most part, every fight can get made a lot quicker. With that being said, I think it's dead for the next year, maybe a year and a half. And by that point, they'll still be around 30. I think they'll fight at 160. I don't think it's going to happen at 154. I think it's going to happen at 160. Boots is going to clear out 154, that's what he's at least attempting to do.

And then Virgil has to get active again. And they will face off. And I don't think they'll face off after 30. That's just my humble, honest opinion. Dan, I have nothing to end. Well said. All right, on to the next. What's up, my young bloods.

It's Dildy from Arizona. Big fan of the show. I have a quick question. Genuinely curious about both of your takes. Who would have won if that fight went on against, or between Jake Paul and Javonte Davis. I was upset that the fight didn't happen. I thought it would have been very interesting,

so I'm curious about both your takes. Looking forward to hearing from me. You know what? I wouldn't say I was disappointed. It didn't happen because I wasn't the biggest fan of it. But there was a little part of me. It was like, what is this going to look like? How is this going to play out?

I was on record. I think we both were in agreement that Tank was going to. to stop Jake Paul. And I still will maintain that. No question. Jake,

Chavanto would have stopped him. Probably wouldn't have broke his jaw. Probably would have. Might have broke his ribs, though. Bodywork of tank, yes. We always talk about the what ifs. You know, boxing one night can change everything. One, you don't fight someone.

The butterfly effect, if you will, is staggering, like no other sport. So even in the Jake Paul world, Even in that world, that sub, you know, category of boxing. Jake fights tank. He doesn't fight Joshua. Doesn't break his jaw.

He might not ever fight again. There's people out there that are quite happy about that. It's just crazy how the dominoes fall in boxing. Peace. What's going on? This is Brother Joshua from Jersey. I want to give you guys a big shout out, man. I really enjoy your show.

You guys really, you give great insight. you tell it like it is. Here's my question. Maybe you guys could talk about this. I'm thinking about Benavides and Jay Overty. And tell me if I'm missing something, man, but I don't think – I think Benavides gets that. You know? Yeah, bro.

I think it's, um... Yeah, bro. I'm trying to stop him here. Benevitas does, I mean, he thinks it's 50-50, or a little bit... He's less than 50-50. He thinks it's more of 60-40 for Benavides. What do you think? I'm definitely...

So I did this on a boxing scene today with Robert Garcia and Pauli Malanagia and myself. We're talking about this fight. And Pauli's still sticking with Opitaya. He didn't think it was even a fight at one point, which I didn't either. I didn't think Benavita is because of real cruiserweight until I saw a real cruiserweight until I saw him B-Zerto and I was like, oh wow, okay, this might be, this might be a real guy now. And real fight now. And then I saw Opataya struggle with McAiland get rocked.

And I was like, yeah, I'm switching, I'm switching sides. I am, I'm 60-40, Benavitas, and I used to be 60-40, Opitaya, maybe even more. I might have been, I might have been 75-25, Obataya before. Now I've, I've flipped, I've flipped, I'm over, I'm 64 to still a close fight. I just think Benavides is an absolute monster, and I think his momentum is crazy. And, yes, Obataya is the true cruise way, but I think what I saw in the McAnalian fight from Obataya and the starting stops of his career are enough for Benavitas to be that guy. I've played devil's advocate here.

I also believe that Benavitas will win. I think it's going to be a much closer fight. I think once we settle down a little bit over what we saw from McIntyreux. Killian fight with Obataya. I mean, you get closer to that fight, we're going to, you know, come back down to Earth a little bit on it being a competitive, fun fight. I will say this, Benavides, outside of David Morel, and that win has not aged well, because Morel got upset by that massive underdog in his last fight. Benevetus has not fought a fighter in his prime, in their prime, I should say. You know, he fought older Vodzik.

He fought Caleb Plant, who was at the end. He fought some of those other, I mean, even his last fight with Zerto. Zerto was, you know, probably might never fight again, mostly because what he was in his face, but also because he was at the end of his rope, too. So I'm very curious to see. He's also coming up from 68, Zerto. He's not a real cruiserie.

There's still a big guy. For sure. Massive. I still want to see what Opataya, in his prime, can do landing a flush shot on Benavita's shit. Gotta see this fight. Very, very, very, very exciting fight. Something we got to see.

It's great. I don't think it's the shot. Hey, Dan, Chris. Go ahead. I was going to say, I don't think it's the shot from what I. I think it's his athleticism and his ability to actually fight and move on the... So I go back to me, the Bratis fight. He had two of them, 24 rounds, but then he spent with him.

And he got his draw broken, and he had the box, and he showed his lateral movement, and he did it for 12 rounds. That version worries me for Benavides. Right. Footwork, someone faster. Super athletic. And big. And in their prime.

That's what I'm saying. You got to see this one. This is Nick down in Texas here. What was thinking about this the other day here, about what's one current fighter that you still has one win away from being like a historically great? I think, of course, nowadays we have the common BAM versus Inouye fight. That's a big one that I think would change his trajectory. We also have Benavides, Opataya. But what are some of those fighters you feel are just one fight away from career defining and altering the way we view them?

You know, you look at guys like Boutts Ennis, Chaucor Stevenson, maybe not. fighting the elite of the elite outside of a, you know, a couple people. So I'm curious if they had the fight that we all want to see and they have that win, does it change that we view them all time? And what are those fights who we're looking for to kind of bring that fighter to the next level? You know, there's a lot of great talent, but there's a lack of matchmaking right now. And I'm curious. He just named like pretty much everyone I would say.

Like Benavides comes to mind. If Benavides beats Opataya, then he's a legitimate champ or cruiserweight after everything he did at 68 and 75. then he goes up to heavyweight. We could see that from Opataya. I believe, like, Ryan Garcia, if he beats Tiofimo Lopez, which would be a signature win for him,

kind of, like, changes the whole trajectory of his career. You don't think so? Not all time, no. I'm just coming to top of my head. Like, that definitely solidifies Ryan. That would be Ryan's best win. He beats Tiafimo Fairland Square. He's a legitimate champ of 147, all time, yeah.

But for him... I got one. Yes. Bam, beating Inouye. Obviously, that's... huge win. Is there any others? Like boots, maybe?

He also mentioned guys that are like super young and like have a lot of career left that are going to make it there anyway. I'm going to name a guy that's going to come out of nowhere that people line out. Daniel Dubois. He's a two-time heavyweight champion of the world. He's in a rare group. Winning the world title in the heavyweight division twice, very rarefied error. How many are there?

It's probably on one hand. Or maybe, maybe, it's less than a dozen guys have done that, less than 10 maybe. he's a chance to kind of like reigns supreme too yeah yeah Daniel Dubois is now that Atama is kind of I think Danny Dubois is one way

I think he beats Wardley we're looking about Daniel Dubois historically because he's obviously gonna keep going but then he's like a two he's also going to keep like he should be favored over Cabello

would you favor Dubois over Cabello I would I don't know who beats I don't know who beats Dubois after if he beats Wardley which you might not I definitely want to see

I'd like to see the rematch with Ergevich but he's already beat him, already stopped him. Yeah, I think, yeah, you're looking at a guy who's a two-time world heavyweight champion. He's beaten Hergovich, who's another world champion right now, currently. He's already beat him. He knocked out Anthony Joshua. Basically, he knocked out.

He could be undisputed. Yeah, yeah. He could become undisputed after this. Given the current landscape of heavyweight boxing and all the belts, dispersing and then all the guys kind of aging out. DuPois, if he beats Wardley, which I think he will.

It's not going to be easy. I ain't going to be an easy fight. I don't know if he beats Wardley this time. Hopefully by the time this episode comes out, we find out where Fury and Joshua is going to be. And my question for you guys is, Chris, when you fought both at home and away, and for Fury, Joshua,

do you think either location benefits one guy over the other? Like, do you think Joshua is saying, let's have the fight in Britain because I want to have my best performance, and he feels that like the crowd will get that out of him? I think that's part of his thought process, or, like, when it comes time to it, like, do they, it doesn't really matter for them once they step in the ring, like it's a ring is a ring, wherever, you know, no matter where it is. What do you guys think about? I think, yeah. Yeah, the location.

Unquestionably the location matters. I think Tyson is a lot more comfortable here in the States. He's fought here a few times. Joshua fighting in the garden. We've said this on the past show. He has demons there. The worst night of his life, well, other than the car accident, was at the garden. And I think that was a big point about trying to keep this fight in England.

Certainly the location matters. I think it affects both these guys. I think Tyson had an upper hand in having it in the States, and Joshua or Eddie took that away. Eddie's doing a really, really, really good job. Eddie is a good promoter. He cares about his fighters. He's especially Anjay. And he's fighting for his guys, Rice and using everything leverage that he can to make sure that his fighter has the best opportunity.

Yeah, it seems like Eddie was doing an interview yesterday on that zone card and said it's going to happen in the UK. It's going to happen in Cardiff. It's going to happen in December. he won. Eddie Hearn won the battle. It was Dana versus Eddie. Dana locked in and said, Eddie's not going to happen.

I know where it's going to be. I know where it's going to be the whole time. Okay. So you got to give, and you might not like Eddie Hearn. You really might not like him, but this dude went up against Turkey. You went up against TKO,

went up against Netflix, and he's going to win. He's going to get what they bargain for. And what they agreed to was a fight. The fight has to happen in the UK. They locked in. And that's what they're going to get. That's where the fight belongs.

Come on. It's so obvious. It's not belong at MSG. As much as I would like to be in my backyard and go to that, that doesn't, that should not be there. It should be, it really should be in London and Wembley, but we can't have everything. So it's going to be in Cardiff, which is in Wales. We should go. There's Algeria's in Wales.

We should go. All right. I got, I got family there. What's up? Shout out to the Welsh, the Welsh, Algeries. The Welsh boys in the house. So I looked at, I looked about. Algeris, there's only like 1,000 of us or 1,200 of us in the entire world.

And we have a bunch of whales. I would think more, what was your dad from? My dad's from Akri, Calabria. Yeah, we're southern Italian. Yeah, there's a lot of Algeria's in Akri. And then there's a bunch of the states, obviously. And, yeah, my mom sides down in Argentina, so we don't have Algerians down there. A lot of Kenobos, too.

There's a Mary Canobio in California. A lot of Canobos. More than, and is that soccer player? Yes. On what do you on? No, your name is not, Uruguay. Uruguay, yeah. Yeah, your name is more common than mine.

My name's pretty rare. That's crazy. Canobio is like, I feel like it's such a, people spell different. I spell one end, two Bs. I see a lot of two ends. You're probably still related, though. Like, it has to do with. with coming from...

That's Ellis Island shit, yeah, that's Ellis Island shit. Because we have Algeria us, we have Algeriaos, we have Algeri O's, we have... Yeah, we have... Jirios. That sounds like a lot of different. Yeah, Algerios. Oh, dude, that...

If you would have beat Pacquiao, you would have had Algerios. That's good. Chris, you just beat Manny Packiao. Where are you going? I'm going to Disney to celebrate the launching of Algirios. Algerio, things would be different, man. Things would be different.

All right, everyone. That was a great episode. Thank you for the voicemails. blows me away. We put out the bat signal on Twitter and socials, and then the calls come rolling in all weekend. And Dan has to sit through them, guys. I actually enjoy it. It's so much fun. It's just, like, great to hear from the community.

It's great to hear from everyone. Even Shiraz's cousin. What was his first name? It was just, uh, it's a good question. Here it is. Hey, Dan and Chris, it's Dooley Shiraz. Dolly. Dooley.

Dooley Shiraz. He must be from New York, Dooley. Dooley Shiraz. That's strange. You know, we're talking about families all over the place. You think Shiraz having family in New York? That doesn't surprise me at all. It doesn't surprise me at all.

It's a melting pot. We got a lot of, it's a very integrated state time. Dooley. All right, everyone. Have a great Sunday rest of your week. We'll be back Thursday, previewing and talking more boxing, hijinks. Keep your hands up at all times. Check yourselves at all times.

Don't get disqualified because you won't get paid. stay out of those DMs and go grab some Algerios