The Ariel Helwani Show - Inside Boxing | Ryan Garcia DOMINATES Mario Barrios to win first world title

Episode Date: February 22, 2026

Inside Boxing is here, reacting to Ryan Garcia's massive win (Garcia is now a legit world champion) over Mario Barrios and how he was able to completely disarm Barrios (2:37). Plus, Garcia's father and head coach had some words for Chris Algeri and his "corny ass partner" for picking against his son (12:07). The duo dives into what could be next for Garcia, from a showdown with Shakur Stevenson to highly anticipated rematches with Devin Haney or Rolly Romero (18:21). On to the news of Richardson Hitchins pulling out of his title fight vs. Oscar Duarte with an undisclosed illness. Was this because of the IBF's strict rehydration clause (25:56)? Stevenson had a lot to say about a potential clash with Garcia, alluding to the fact he believed Garcia is on performance-enhancing drugs (35:54). The discussion moves onto the undercard that saw Gary Russell defeat Andy Hiraoka and Frank Martin and Nahir Albright fight to a draw (41:11). The guys turn their attention to arguably the most shocking story in boxing: Conor Benn signing with Zuffa Boxing and what it could mean for the new promotional outfit, as well as Matchroom's Eddie Hearn (48:57). And finally, it looks like Floyd Mayweather will officially come out of retirement to continue his professional career in 2026 at the age of 49 (1:01:58).

All right, everyone, welcome in. It is another episode of Inside Boxing Live. We're presented by PPPV.com. It's Dan Cardobio. It's the former world champion, Chris Algeri, and we're ready to go. PPP.com is our prepresenting sponsor. Go and follow them on all socials, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, everywhere. We've got some big time fight announcements with PPP.com.

We'll be heading out to Vegas shortly. And as you know, on Fight Week, we get a popping with PPP.com. Live interactive chat. You can stream the fights. your phone, tablet, big screen TV, you can watch it on an airplane, you can watch it anywhere. PPPV.com, never ask you for a subscription to fight to fight. Won't lock you in on that.

So shout out to ppv.com, our proud presenting sponsor. This is episode one of inside box. Did I say inside boxing live? I think you might have. Oh, God. I just, I'm thinking of so many things. This is not inside boxing live, guys. This is inside boxing.

Inside boxing. No more live. It is the first episode under the uncrowned banner. Yahoo Sports, our friend Ariel Hawanning, we dropped the live, and it's just muscle memory. 450 plus episodes of Inside Boxing Lives got me saying that. But it's a new era, Chris. How are you, my friend? I am great.

I'm excited for this new era, episode one. So at least now I can say I was in the very first episode of Inside Boxing. Because Inside Boxing Live, that wasn't the case. You brought me on a couple hundred in. So now I am a I'm a day one guy. You can get the episodes on our regular feeds. Everything's going to stay the same. But you can now get it over on Ariel Hawani Show feed, which is a lot of subscribers.

So whoever's watching for the first time, that is Chris Algeri, former world champion 140 pounds, former kickboxing world champion for Manny Packiel, Mir Khan, Errol Spence, Connor, Ben, and then some. I'm Dan Kenobio. I am from the boxing world family of CompuBox. been following the sport since a child since birth and work in the boxing media industry. So that's how you get to know us for all of our new listeners. All of our existing listeners, you guys are, you know us by now. I'm Cornball Dan, according to Henry Garcia. And that's a piece of shit, Chris Algerie.

Yep. Great, great shot out there by a longtime listener of the show, Mr. Garcia, obviously watches and listens to our show quite a bit. We want to address that right away. Ryan Garcia gets a huge win over Mario Barrett's dominating performance just looked unreal. And let's just start there. Well, we'll get to the Henry Garcia stuff too, but Henry Garcia did call us out afterwards. Is a fan of the podcast. Love that.

Like and subscribe, Henry. Yep. Yeah, that was some good stuff. But, yeah, Ryan Garcia with a unanimous decision win over Barrios, drops them in the first minute of the first round with a right hand. the right hand of Ryan Garcia, the jab of Ryan Garcia, the defense, the boxing abilities. This guy, who was that? What were we watching Saturday night? We watched Ryan live up to his potential.

That's what we saw. We saw him. He always had all of that stuff. He just went to the left hook. He made it seem like he was the one-trick pony. But we always talk about his vast amateur background. The guy is not a YouTuber turned boxer. He was a high level international amateur turned pro.

And honestly, I think he just used to rely on his talent so much. We didn't get to see the actual skill set. Last night we saw the skill set on display with the physicality, the speed, both hands, the jab. You mentioned it. The right hand, the left hook. I mean, we need that guy to show up every time. Whatever he did in preparation for this fight physically, mentally, psychologically, he needs to do that every time. Because that guy who fought last night is a world beater.

best to think Chris you would attest this more than anyone like you get out the physical skills you have good coaching you have all of that but how much of the sport is mental like how much is it about putting together great camp after great camp after great camp having your personal life in order uh especially when you're making tons of money in your celebrity that's what we have rang garcia like the the gifts are always there there's a reason why you chose him for ring a cue over mario berris and you brought up a very good point there he's not a streamer turned boxer he's not a misfits guy. He's not a YouTuber that's that boxes. This guy has been boxing since he was six, seven, eight years old. That's why Henry was so upset with us. That was his coach growing up.

But for him to put it all together is what we saw on Saturday night when he defeated Mary Barrios. Also, Barrios just offered nothing. Zero game plan, flat-footed, just zero defense, like, no jab. I got putrid, putrid performance from Barrios. slow feet, slow punches, no head movement. I just stayed right on the line. Show toughness, but that's about it. That's the only really positive thing you could say about Barros' performance last night. He's just a tough guy who's getting hit with some big bombs by Ryan all night long.

But that's it, man. But back to Ryan real quick, because obviously this is all about Ryan. In terms of what is most important for me from this fight is that he got over the hump. and that hump is performing on the world stage. He had been to the world stage a few times, but he always seemed to falter. And he couldn't get over that hump. He couldn't get the title fight. He couldn't get the win in the big fight.

The Javante Davis fight, even the Devin Haney fight, he didn't get the win that night, even though he likes to say he beat Haney's ass. But that was still a very, very close fight. But he got over the hump. He was on the world stage. Everybody was tuned in. The world was watching. And he put on a masterful performance.

That, again, that guy, that guy, that guy, guy shows up, he's a problem for everybody. And the sport of boxing needs that version of Ryan Garcia. I said this in the last episode. I know we picked Barrios to win. We're going to eat some crow on that, but that's fine. We do a lot of episodes. We do a lot of predictions. We put our predictions out there. I clip out our predictions and I put them on social media. I'm not afraid to be wrong. And I'm not afraid to put our picks out there. Betts all that. I thought Barrios was going to win. I did not think Ryan Garcia would be able to put together that performance that we saw on Saturday night. In this sport, we go off previous performances.

And if you go of previous performances, Ryan looked awful against Roli-Ramara. Before that, it's a PED, suspension, blew past the weight. You can't properly judge him on that fight with Devin Haney. Before that, some up and down performances. Barrios did not look great in his previous performances, but it looked a lot better than Ryan ever did

in some of his past performances. So that went into our pick there. But Ryan Garcia is now a world champion. We thought we would go his whole career without ever saying that sentence. So it was pretty cool to see that. And I don't want to hear everyone knocking Barrios. Yes, he wasn't probably one of the weaker champions.

But he still had a title and he still held that belt for a very, very long time. So it is a win for Ryan. And absolutely. But going over to the stats to show the domination of this fight for Ryan Garcia, just some numbers that I didn't think would ever see there from Ryan. Ryan landed 103 power shots after landing just 18 against. Roley Romero, Ryan's 82 jabs landed, where career high, most ever landed on Mario Barrios. Garcia outlanded Barrios in 10 of the 12 rounds.

He threw more punches. He landed more punches. That's what to come down to me was the right hand. And obviously, we talk about the left hand. The left hand of Ryan Garcia is one of the best punches in all of boxing. But I don't think Barrios was ready for the right. And he got hit with it in the first round and touched the canvas, look, And how many times have you told me this, Chris, you get hit with a shot early on in the fight, and you never recover. And I think that was the case in this fight. But first off, the game plan of Ryan and then now he has a right hand. Now he's a two-handed fighter.

Well, he's always had the right hand, and I think I brought it up on... Not to this extent, though. No, no. The real key here is not so much the right hand, because he's always had the right hand. If you remember the Tank Davis fight, Tank was worried about the right hand because he was using it well against the South Paul Ryan was. And he throws that whipping, looping right hand behind guys' guards, and it's a hard shot. He can punch with both hands. The difference was the jab.

He just set it up. He stepped over the line with the jab behind that jab, and Barrios just didn't see the shot coming. The first one was a beautiful one too, and then he threw that looping one around. I don't think Barrios saw either punch. One, because of the jab, and then two, he just, he earmucked himself and then got clipped.

But yeah, the jab was really the story of the fight for me. Ryan showed a very excellent jab. He used it to deliver his power punches. That's what it's for. You know, some people have jabs. They're just very disruptive, and they stop the action. They stop the foe.

They control the distance. control the pace, but then guys don't follow up with combinations. Ryan actually followed up with combinations and let his power shots go behind the jet. Yeah, I mean, that was, he just had everything working. Like, his movement was outstanding. He was patient. You know, he was landing, those shots were- Slip and sliding at times.

Going underneath shots. The Dorte fight, too. Like, when I went back and watched that again, like, he didn't get a lot of credit for the Dwarte fight because we're still judging him off with the Javanta fight and everyone, the jury was still out on him. but the way he was moving in the d'worte fight i was like all right he can box and you know he was he just didn't jab as much in the torte fight or as much in his career than he did on on saturday night perfect uh foil for him was was barrios and barrios was not jabbing whatsoever uh he just

had nothing when you he was afraid to throw those jab because he was afraid to get countered uh his like his legs looked like he had nothing there and ryan took advantage of it i mean he did what he was supposed to do. Like, well, I'm not going to sit here and said that Ryan didn't go in there and put together a great performance and put together a great, uh,

game plan because he absolutely did. And I got, I'm seeing a lot of that today. Like, Ryan's acting all, oh, his chest out because he beat, uh,

Mario Barrios. Like, no, man, like he's a, one of world title. Yeah, he's a world champion.

No, it's a huge deal. And, and, you know, he, of course he's going to go out there and, and,

and, and, and King Kong is way all the way until, uh, while people are listening, he's got the world's ear. So you might as well go for it. But yeah, no, this is a big deal. This is a culmination of his entire career.

Winning a world title is an amazing, amazing experience and fee. It's really hard to do. It's really, really hard to do. Ryan has been, this is fourth way class. This was this, third attempt, fourth attempt at a world title. Because, hey, is it the second? Oh, Haney. No, the belt wasn't on the line against Haney.

Right, right. Third. Um, Javons, the title was third, third attempt at a world title. Um, yeah,

it's, it's, that's, that's a big deal. And, and he deserves to be happy, especially off of that performance. I don't,

yeah, everyone going like, ah, well, Barrios was the weakest link. It doesn't matter. So it's a world champion. And he,

he got the victory and dominated. Even as, as not as bad as Barrios has looked, he still got a draw with, with, man, he's still got a draw with Ramos. He didn't win around against Ryan.

No, it was a complete shutout. I, that was, I did not have that in the bingo card. I did not have Ryan wide decision. Like I thought for sure it would be a close fight. I thought Barrios would be able to eke it out in the final three rounds.

But it's good for boxing. It's good for the sport. Ryan Garcia being a world champion. Ryan Garcia winning. Ryan Garcia being on top. It's good for the sport of boxing, especially here in the U.S. where we desperately need stars.

And we'll talk about in a second where we think he'll go from here. But that was some good stuff. And I guess it is time now to play a very, special video here. After the fight, Henry Garcia. To the haters, because I got to let this off my chest, because I won't be

able to sleep. But Chris Algeria, a piece of shit. Okay? I'm sorry. You and your corny-ass partner, okay? Not believing in my son. What are we doing? That's amazing.

I'm the corny-ass partner, right? Not Paul. He's talking about me. It's got to be you. It's got to be you. I mean, maybe Pauley, but Nepali was picking Ryan to win for this one. So it wasn't, I don't think it was Ryan. So yeah, you're the Cornieus partner. Bro, he's, first off, thanks for watching. Yes, thank you. Thank you. Longtime listener. Second off, I'm very happy we could provide the team with motivation. That was bulletin board material. They had us up in the locker. They probably played that before Ryan's walkout. That's great. Ryan is, the kid never ceases to amaze me. Like, I picked him to, dominate rollies. And then he goes out there and puts up that performance. I went to bat for him when he fought Chavontas saying he didn't quit.

And then he came out and said like, I could have got up. I was like, oh, dude, come on. I picked Haney to beat him. And then he goes out there and does what he did with Haney. Pick Barriers to beat him. Then he goes out there and does what he does the barriers. So from now on, whatever I say for Ryan, go the opposite if you're a betting man. Because I am not able to pin this kid down for what he's going to do.

I mean, who can. Corny-ass partner. I don't want to have a name, dude. you'll get there you'll get there sorry corny ass partner yeah Ryan kind of laughed it off if you look watch the video Ryan kind of laughs it off like his dad I mean you used use these things you you watch he's being a dad he's being he's being a dad listen Henry Garcia I didn't not think he was was capable of drawing up a game plan to to do this I was wrong Henry Garcia you are a good trainer you know your son better than anyone you're undefeated

with your son they obviously drill drill drill right hand right hand, right hands. No one really saw that comment as much as we talked about it. And we said, yeah, Ryan does have a right hand as well. And the jab as well. So great game plan from Henry. I will tip my cap to you. I would say, you know what? Yeah. I was wrong.

If that was really the question, it wasn't so much could Henry come up with the game plan? It was just can Ryan execute? I think the problem the issue with Ryan in the past is execution. I don't know. I think obviously he's gotten very far with his son. You know, everything they've done from the amateurs up until, you know, majority of their pro career, you know, they've been able to do it.

And just fathers and sons have a different kind of connection when it comes to this sport. So I don't think it was that. It was just more Ryan being able to do it under the lights on the big show. And last night he did it. We'll just look at it like once again, how we handicap this sport and how we look at fights and how we think they're going to play at. You go off past performances and you go off corner. And what have you done for me lately?

What have you done for me lately? track records Ryan Garcia we just went over that what have you done for you what's his track record not great as of late Henry Garcia doesn't train any other fighters doesn't really have a track record as a trainer go to the other side Joe Kusin

and Bob Santos in his corner so obviously you're going to go edge that corner for over there so yeah I mean we were that's how we were looking at this fight that's how a lot of people looking at this fight we thought that Ryan would have a tougher

time. We thought he would go in there and fight better than he did against Roley. But another thing, too, it's like Ryan was saying, oh, he's in the best shape of my life, the best camp of my life, never been more focused. We've heard fighters say that as well. We have to see it happen in the ring. So, like, I didn't exactly believe Ryan when he was saying those things. I guess he looked in better shape, but like, I just didn't believe it heading into the Barrios fight. And he proved a lot of people wrong, not just us. He proved a lot of people wrong with how he won that fight. Even if you were picking Ryan to win this fight. I guarantee there's not many people out there that saw a 12-0-11-1 dominant performance like that. No, I think that that was probably the least likely outcome.

And even like we know, we were speaking off air. Like I know our official picks on here were, you know, for Barrios. But I was saying I could see Ryan knocking him out early and I can see barrios, you know, squeaking it out late. I did not think Ryan was going to right there and absolutely dominate for 12 rounds and look phenomenal in the 12 round as well. He just, I don't know, he showed a lot. He showed how much depth he actually has as a fighter, and that's why now he's a champion. He has entered the room as a world champion in the history books. And with that kind of performance, it really is eye-opening to see what this guy can do now.

Yes, what can he do now? Ryan Garcia, with the right hand to go along with the left hook, the jabbing abilities, the in and outs, the focus, more importantly, can this guy go on a run at Walter Reed against some of the biggest names? why not? I mean, I think you said it immediately after. I mean, the Devin Haney rematch is just so, that thing is, that's like a succulent thing. It's so, it's so juicy that fight. Like, it's like, it's right there. There's a narrative that history. They have the bad blood. They'll be able to sell it great. That fight is that it's just seems like a no-brainer. But then you got your core Stevenson or who, you know, who's getting talked to on the telecast and calling him out and saying, I'd love to fight him. He's like, oh, would you fight him? He's like, yeah, absolutely. You've got the Connor Benz of the world who, you know, we're going to get into that. a little bit later, has been calling out Ryan for a while. Ryan said he'd love to go over there and fight him. There's just a lot of big fights out there for Ryan in the Worldweight Division, which is now hot again.

It wasn't. It was super cold. It's hot now. So perfect timing. It is hot. The champions right now, Ryan Garcia is the WBC champion at 147. Devin Haney, WBO. WBA's Roley, Romero, and IBF is Lewis Crocker.

Real quick, I forgot. I forgot Roli. There's a great storyline there, too. He can avenge the loss. I can't believe about that. I forgot the Roli fight because that's there too. I know, Roli, because he hasn't fought since that fight, Roli. And he hasn't been doing a lot of media Roli for considering where he's just kind of doing his own thing, Raleigh.

He's maturing, but he's a WBA champion right now, Roli Romero. When it comes to what Ryan's going to do next, there's a lot of options out there, like you just said, a lot of compelling math jumps. the Shakur-Stevenson Ryan Garcia-Fight is it just doesn't appeal to me because of the catchweight because Shakur-Stevenson is adamant that they're going to have to fight at 143-144. I don't want to watch a weight-drained Ryan Garcia fight Shakur-Stevenson

in what is already a lopsided match on paper. If Shakur's going to go fight Ryan Garcia and he's calling him out and he's clearly what he wants, then I want to see it at full 147. Yeah, I 100% agree. I don't want to see Ryan fight under 147 again. I don't want to see him trying to whittle himself down. He's got the frame for it.

Even at Weltoe, he's still tall for a welterweight. He was a little shorter than Barris. Varus is really tall. But in terms of the good weight that he's put on, you know, the musculature, the way he's filled out, I don't want to see him under 47. I can see him at 54. He has enough power. He's fast enough and he's putting on good quality muscle. I agree with you 100%.

Seeing him weight drained against your core, it just, it'll taint the result. Yeah, like that's not being talked about. Obviously, like their ring is pushing it. Secor wants it so bad because he sees a guy that he can beat in dollar signs. And especially now, Ryan is bigger than ever. But I just can't get past the wait because that's the next thing we're going to discuss. Like obviously everyone's excited about, oh, Shakur versus Ryan because Shakur just won over Tiofimo. Ryan just won here, back to back months.

It's the hot fight right now. Then once we peel that back and that dies down a little bit, we get into the negotiations for this fight. and Shakur is adamant that the fight has to be at 144 pounds. And Ryan Garcia has trouble with the weight. Yes, he made the weight for this one, but he's notoriously been a guy that's blown past weight and had trouble making the way. He's huge. So, okay, so he comes in at 144 that put a rehydration close.

I rather than put a rehydration clause, even though I hate those, and I know you do too. Make 147 and then say Ryan can't come in the next day or next morning higher than 157. I rather see that than 144. Yeah, if it took that to get over the line, yes. But again, I don't like that either. No, I don't like you. I'm just, let it be clear. I hate that as well.

I love the idea of, you know, think about this. Chaucor Stevenson moved up from 135 to, in his first fight at 140. He went for the big dog in the division, and that was Tiefima Lopez, and he dominated him. Now, imagine he moves up from 140 to 147. First fight of 47 goes right at Ryan Garcia for a world title. Like, I mean, the storyline is so good there that I think the catchweed kind of, like I said, it taints it. I don't think it's necessary. It does. Go be a welterweight champ.

If you win. Did big bro, Terrence Crawford, do a catchweight with Canelo? Do you do a rehydration close with Cannell? No, he fought about 168. Great point. So let's see that, Shakur. I like the fight. Don't get me wrong.

Like, we have to make these big fights. We have to keep this train roll. We need to see these big fights. It's so important for boxing right now. Shakur versus Ron Garcia would be electric. I mean, people would be tuning in. It would captivate the regular sports fans. the casuals and and and the the the hardcores but like the the weight issue is going to be a

big time problem and that's when I see a hold up there to me Ryan Garcia Devin Haney too that's the fight that was the fight last year until Ryan lost to Ralee you have a the built in animosity you have the the built in drama now they're both champions unified welterweight championship rematch with all the the drama, Ryan versus Haney, that to me, that's the fight. I agree. And I said that before this fight. If Ryan is to win this fight against Mario Barrios, the Haney fight is the no-brainer next choice. I mean, there's just everything you just said. You've got all the built-in drama. You've got the bad blood. Now you're unifying titles in the way class that hasn't been unified since Terrence

Crawford left a couple years ago. Yeah, it's just got everything. And also, they're both going to make boatloads of money in that fight. It's just the buildup to that, I mean, Is there a bigger, a fight that can happen in American soil? Is there a bigger American fight? Well, hopefully it does happen on American soil, not Saudi Arabia. I think Saudi is getting a little bit better. I think Saudi is getting a little bit better with that in terms of where they're placed in these fights. But to answer you a question, is there a bigger fight?

No, there isn't. I think Ryan Garcia-Haney is bigger than Boots and Virgil, which, who knows with that fight? That fight is. I agree. And who knows that that fight's ever going to happen. It's bigger because these are bigger names and they've had their first fight. that first fight was huge and then you have a PED suspension

in the lawsuit and now Haney has come back and won twice over Ramirez and then over Norman Garcia coming up his bestman so it's legit again it's it's legit again because it wasn't as legit like say

we rewind to May and Haney wins his fight over Ramirez and he's a track star he's running did that look great Ryan say Ryan eeked out that win over Roli in a putrid fight and did not look good. Now we're making this rematch,

Devin versus Ryan, based off those performances. It's still big, but not as big as it is right now. No, they're both riding super high. Devin is the man at 47 now. After he beat Norman, because everybody was looking at Norman,

like he was this absolute world beater, and then Devin went out there and drops him and dominates the fight and looks great doing it. So then Haiti then becomes the guy to beat at 147. Ryan now, off of this amazing performance where he put everything together and reached his true potential is a real player. He's not just a big money tag. He's a real champion. So yeah, no, I agree. This is this is this is this big as this fight could possibly be. And the time is now, man. This is this is the

same thing with the boots and the Virgil talk. We're like, you know, like this is such a good fight, but we don't need it to marinate. We don't need it to wait. We need it now. We need it when they're in their primes. And that's how I feel about, about Ryan and Devin. We need it. now. Oh man, I'm getting excited thinking about if Virgil and Boots do find a way to fight. Let me get that in like May or June. Ryan Haney in the fall or winter in the U.S. And we're back. The U.S. boxing scene is back. Took a couple of years off with these Saudi fights and these guys not fighting each other. There's also Roli Romero. So Ryan Garcia versus Roli Romero is also intriguing.

It would be a rematch just like the Haney fight. It would be a unification, just like the Haney fight that has a storyline. Roli dropped Ryan. I like that fight too. But we're not hearing much about Roli. Roli wasn't even in attendance. Ryan Garcia seems to be fixated on fighting Haney or Shakur. But a Ryan Raleigh fight, once again, I would gladly watch that as well. If we had to wait to get the Ryan Haney fight because Ryan was going to fight Ralee, I'd be okay with that. I think that would be, it would give, it would give an opportunity to make the fight even bigger. Because then you, you beat someone who already beat you. You're also getting another title.

So then it would be unification once again. Then there would be three belts on the line when, if, when Haney and Ryan were to step in. So that would be my only, that would be my only acceptable other fight than Ryan and Devin right now. And then there's Lewis Crocker. Hey, listen, it's not a bad time to be most, not. If they had time to be Lewis Crocker, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, collar signs attached to that belt. There really is, but he's got the IBF.

No, it's also attached to that belt. Rehydration clause, 10 pounds. Yes. Yes. No, boy, no. Hitchens. What, what's talking Hitchens really quick? What happened there?

Perfect segue. We'll get back to Ryan in a second, but now that we have it here. So Hitchens makes the weight, uh, 140, but supposedly makes the second day weighing under 150. I think, 148. is being reported, then falls ill, says he was food poisoning or something. This is what his team is saying. Out of the fight with Dwarte. Big time, bummer.

But we see Coppager tweet that these second-day Wayans are really harmful. You know, Hitchens look terrible the next day against Lemos when he had to make the weight, insinuating that, you know, he's not sick. Insinuating that, yeah, he, no, insinuating that the reason why he's sick or not out of that fight is weight related. Because I don't think he was sick. I don't think he was, I don't think he had food poison. I think he had a really hard time making both weights. And now he's out of the fight.

And who knows what's next for Hitchens. Yeah, he, he doesn't. He's big for the weight class. He has a hard cut every time to make 140. And he's actually said that in the past. So it's, uh, it's probably apt for Coppenter to make that assumption that maybe it's not

sickness as much as it's weight related. Um, but yeah, it's kind of like a weight making sickness is what it is. I mean, you get, you feel, you feel terrible when you, when you, hard cut, it'll take more than 24 hours to recover. Sometimes you have a really hard cut. And it seems like that's, that's probably the case. And yeah, I don't like the second day way. And we've talked about this ad nauseum on this show about the IBF. And also the fact that it's,

you know, just up a standard plus 10 pounds across all the weight classes doesn't make any sense. It should be 10%. 10% would be, I think, within a safety window that would be okay. So, yeah, if we're falling out of fights the day of because of this same-day way in, I mean, why? It's the only organization that does it. You've got guys who are literally going out there and saying, I don't want to fight for the IBF because I don't want to deal with the second-day weighing. We've had guys say that. It's hurting their brand and their business. So I say we abolished it altogether, but that's just, that's my two cents on that.

I know where you stand on this, but I'm also seeing a lot of fans and, media say we need to do, we need to add this 10 pound rehydration clause to all organizations, because what it indicates is that guys are not fighting at their natural weight. If you are having issues making 10 pounds the next day, if you're blowing up more than 10 pounds the following day, then you shouldn't be fighting in that weight class. What do you think of that? That's someone who is, only people who have not cut weight would say that. And I understand where they're coming from, but I just don't think it's realistic. You'd have to, that would be a sweeping change that would change the entire sport in every

weight class because, again, you'd have guys that, it's similar to like when the UFC really did, they were really buckled down on drug testing. You saw everybody go up and wait. Everybody was like, oh, okay, can't use drugs anymore. Let's, everybody, everybody starts going up a weight class because they, you know, drugs help be cut too. So that's what people don't realize. So, yeah, that would be a sweeping change to the sport.

And I just don't think we, there's enough, there's enough. unity in the sport to have a unilateral unilateral movement like that where all across the board, everybody's going to do it. I mean, that's the problem with boxing is we don't have a unified union that can decrees something like that. We have so many fractured. No, it's never going to happen. We have so many fractured

rulemaking agencies that it's just, it's too hard to organize all that. How about this, the weight bullying term? I hate it. I think it's stupid. And I think anyone who knows about weight cutting understands that that's not really a real thing. If you can do it, if you can make, if you can make the weight and go out there and perform, How are you bullying? You're just either you're disciplined enough to do things properly nutrition-wise or you have the right team around you or just your bodies are different.

Everyone's ability to do that. Some people just are not very good at cutting weight and they don't respond well to the weight to the rehydration. Other guys do it fantastically. Some guys cut a ton of weight. You never hear anything about it. Yeah, I don't like the term weight bully. But then in terms of how much weight you should put on the next day. Like we've seen guys balloon 20 pounds, 25 pounds.

HBO would put the next day weight on the tail of tape. They don't do that anymore. What's the proper amount of weight then? If 10 is too, it's too little. And would you say 15, 20, or does it depend on the fighters and how they react? So if we're going to get science sequel real quick, so there has been a study or some studies that have taken weight-making data from mostly UFC and MMA guys, but also some boxing guys and boxers across the board.

And generally, so there's a range. It's a bell curve in terms of success rate and the amount of weight gained. So the people who don't gain a lot of weight aren't as successful. And then the guys who gain a good amount of a certain amount of weight, there is a success. And then the guys who blow past and gain a lot of weight actually fall off in terms of their performance. And it's usually around 8 to 10% of the weight class. So like I said about the IBF, the 10% clause. So say, for example, the 140, that would be a plus 14 pound,

would be 10%. So that would be the upper range. So if you came in at 140 and the next day you're 154, that's the upper range of actually being beneficial for you size-wise. So probably closer to 51 or 150, so a 10 or 11 or 12-pound weight gain for 140-pounder is probably about right. And my buddy, Dr. Corey Peacock, is one of the head researchers that was involved in that study. And they found that. It was very interesting because the guys who gained more than 10% actually had a had a fall in performance. Oh, wow. I mean, I think of Devin Haney when he fought Lomachenko.

Mm-hmm. 35. 35. What would you say he was on fight night? 55? I think there was reports. He was like... 60?

Yeah, 55. That's like closer to... That's 25 pounds. Yeah, it's wild. But so again, so Devin, for whatever reason, physiologically, is able to carry the weight after a way in like that, and had great endurance, too. like endurance was a major part of that fight. Like in the 12th round, he was still fighting hard.

And actually, I thought he won the 12th round, which got him the victory. Yeah, some people can just do that. Some people just don't like, Lomacheco, for example, he doesn't blow him. He never blew up. You know, he's a small 35-pounder. And then him, for example, in that fight, he was probably in the ring like 1-44, you know, and gained like 8 or 9 pounds. And that's why they looked at a couple of different weight classes when they fought.

Listen, I have fighter safety super important. and I'm going to take your words that the rehydration clauses are terrible, I never had to make weight, but, you know, this is also a business. You know, this is also a sport. You know, we are seeing fights fall out now because of this clause. And this was a big fight. Hitchin-Swarty was a reason why a lot of people were ordering this pay-per-view. And a lot of people told me in the mentions and on social media,

once this fight fell out, they were like, all right, I'm not ordering the fight anymore. Or super bummed out, lost a lot of enthusiasm for the car. card. It's harmful. The IBF thing, it's harmful to the fighters in their bodies, and it's harmful to the sport and the business. I'm sure the promoters are like, what the hell? What's going on? IBF, Darrell People's, what's to deal with this, this, there's weight clause. And for Hitchens, I mean, this guy talks a lot. We know he is a big time yapper. He's on Twitter constantly calling everyone out under the sun, had a lot to say about Torto. Had a lot to say about everyone. David Haney. He brings up names on fight weeks when he's fighting other opponents,

and then he can't make the weight, and he's not fighting. So it does not make him look good either, but all around, bad, bad situation and something that they need to take a look at. Yeah, absolutely. And I was really looking forward to this fight. And it was a fight that, you know, it was such a great support. Yeah, it was a great support for the card because it was an excellent fight that really mattered too. Like the invocations of the 140-pound division was really on display that that because you also had Horroca and Russell, Gary Antoine Russell fighting. So, like, 140 was, was on notice, you know. And so that fight falling through, especially so late, is really upsetting.

And yeah, Duarte has got to be absolutely gutted. He looked so dialed in. He looked so locked in all week. The way that he was staring at Hitchens, like he was food at the press conference, he looked super intense. And I know training camp and Robert Garcia's camp is ridiculously. hard and I've heard that kid works really hard as well. So yeah, it's a real shame for him.

It's a shame for us. It's a shame for Hitchens too. It's a shame that he didn't get a chance to go out there and perform. You know, again, when you talk all that talk, you want to go to back it up and he wasn't able to. We need to stop saying he was scared. I know Dwarthe is going to say that because it's like- Oscar came out right away saying that.

Oscar shouldn't be saying that because he's a fighter. Fighters aren't scared. You guys have no fear ever. Like the promoters are the ones that get in the way of these fights happening in the politics. The fighters are not scared. Hitchens didn't pull out of this fight because he was scared of Torte. He pulled out of the fight because something happened with the weight and his body wasn't reacting properly. That's what this was. Yeah, 100%.

This is, this is, he wouldn't have pulled out of the fight unless he absolutely had to because, listen, if you don't, guys, if we don't fight, we don't get paid. This is, this is our job. This is prize fighting. If you pull out, you don't get paid, you know, so it had to have been him thinking that he was really in grave danger and physical danger, medical danger, because his body wasn't reacting. And that's a scary thing. And listen, even we're back, we're going to bring it back to Ryan, because this is a Ryan-centric show. Ryan said that his body was not reacting during camp and his last fight as well when he fought rollies. He was just, he was saying that his body just was not reacting the way that it should have. That's, that's a, that's a scary thing for a fighter.

When your body is your tool, and if it's not responding, that's a scary place to be, especially in a sport where literally your life is on the line each different time. Did you catch your core in the post-fight show on the zone? They teed them up. like, hey, what you think of that, what you think of that Ryan performance? He goes, first he goes, was Vada involved in this fight? It has a sly smile on his face, insinuating that Ryan was on the juice. And he also said, he also said, he also said he looked like, and Chacour said, he's like, he looked like he did against Devin Haney, which is another underhanded jab. Yeah, they went to him in like the eighth or ninth round when Ryan was running away with it.

And Chacour, I think, first off, Chacore did a phenomenal job as a commentator up on the stage. spot on his scorecards his his analysis post-fight post-fight he was on point with the albright uh performance against frank martin and then having him afterwards to weigh in on ryan was brilliant um yeah he said during the fight he looking like he did against devon haney and like i think mannicks either didn't pick up on it or couldn't really ask a follow-up because they had to get back to the action that was a little he planted a little seed there then afterwards up on the stage the post-fight show he just straight up was like was vada involved in this fight and devon hayney goes on twitter and says ryan on that juice or off that juice or

you know so those questions are going to follow ryan g Garcia for the rest of his career because you look as bad as you did in your last fight against roly when you were clearly not on the peds and then you looked like you did against haney where you were massive and look how big he was bigger against haney at 143 or whatever than he was against a barriers and look like a totally different guy yeah but those p ed allegations are going to constantly follow Ryan Grissy. For what I've heard and what everything I've seen, the Vado was part of this buildup. Yeah, I'm sure it was. But because actually, I think this is, this is kind of a, this was getting brought up during

the camp because he was posting pictures and he looked that he was in phenomenal shape. He was actually training. So a lot of people like, oh, you know, the Vodan. And I think he was posting his, his actually Avato results. So Vado was definitely involved. But this just shows you how we haven't seen Ryan at his best. Either he was trying to cut way too much weight, or he just wasn't. in training because now we see the result when he trains and is in a weight class that he belongs in, he looks as good as he did last night. I didn't expect him to have the endurance that he had for a 12-round hard fought fight and he did. And again, so it's like you start to think, it's like,

wow, is this guy really that talented that he hasn't even been training for these huge fights or has he been so weight drained that it's really taken a piece of his performance away because this guy looked like the total package. Yeah, he probably did. He righted a lot of wrongs, probably in the lead-up in terms of diet and training, where in the past he was drinking during fights. He was doing, God knows what. He wasn't taking it serious. So in his first true fight at 147,

well, no, the Raleigh fight was, but he wasn't taking training series in that one. But yeah, he was like the motor. I was really surprised by that. He did taper off, though, in the second half of the fight, Ryan. Like, I thought he could have got Barrios out of there. And Ryan even said it himself as a one knock on my performances was,

I want to go for the knockout, which is something to Ryan always goes for to his detriment sometimes. He did taper off, but you could just see his body language, like, in the corner in like the 10th, 11th, 12th round, he was like smashing his gloves together. You know, he was like chomping at the bit. He was like running out of the corner where Barrios on the other side was just looking lumped up and was like could barely get off the stool and head over there. But yeah, I was very surprised with the energy level from Ryan and throughout the 12 rounds.

It's like on the balls of his feet, you know, bouncing up and down in championship rounds. And everything he throws is hard. That's really tiring. Everything he throws is hard. His jab is a battering ram. You know, he wings the right hook. He wings that right hand. And he's very twitchy.

So he's got that start-stop explosiveness. That's so hard to carry for 12 rounds. And yeah, he tape it off a little bit. But honestly, I think that's a good thing. Twelve rounds is a very long time, very long time to be super explosive the whole time. And also to your point, like you said, like he's always, going for that knockout and sometimes as to his detriment. I actually talked about this in an

article what I was taking talking about his his false and I was like one of it. I was like I think his boxing IQ is actually very high. I just think that he gets so blood thirsty for knockouts that he puts himself in bad position or okay hit with stuff he shouldn't get hit with so many people were talking about like the fact that we were talking about how his defense is actually

good. So many people were like his defense isn't good. Chris's categories Chris's categories lights up the internet. Yeah. Pisses everybody. off. Which is crazy because on the back end, you look back, you're like, oh, he's right about all of that. The IQ, the defense, everything was there.

Ryan is, he does have all that stuff. We just never saw him do it. That was the problem. They finally put it all together. Yeah, his defense was really good on Saturday night too, and he held Barrios to, I think Barros, I think Barrett's only over 43 power shots in the entire fight. And he's always had good defense. But when you think of Ryan, you think of him getting tagged by Giovanta.

You think of him getting dropped by Roley. You don't think of him as. a boxer. You don't think of them as a defensive guy. Yeah, of course. So yeah, he does have good defense, does have good ring on cue, power, speed. Put it all together against Mario Barrios and it's good for the sport. Co-made event was Gary Antoine Russell against Andy Hiroca. It wasn't as good of a fight as I thought it would be. It was a lot of fouling. It was a lot of an up and down performance. Heroka did nothing for the first five, six rounds of the fight, and then stepped on the gas pedal.

Gary cruised in the first couple rounds, and then Heroka came on. But Russell wins, 117, 110 is two wide. 116, 112, 111, because of the point deduction in 10th round. Do you see that lobe? That was a taint shot, dude. Never good punch in your taint? That was like up and under. That was ridiculous.

That's one of the most blatant bad row lobe. I've ever seen. He went beyond the sack and went right to the taint and like, bah, it almost lifted him off the ground. And also, cups don't get that far around. Like, it's, so it's, people don't understand. I think a lot of people who have never worn a cup or been in a guise. It's a hip protector. And you've got a leather padding that goes up above to your navel.

And that protects your hip bones. Because getting punched your hip bones really, really painful and dangerous. And then it goes around and wraps around over, over your groin. And it tucks on it under. But then, you know, you're not supposed to get. hitting your back anyway. So there's no protection behind you. So if you go up and under that way, there's nothing protecting you. That was nasty. That was a really nasty low blow. Heroka got a point taken off of that. But Russell outlands Hiroka 60 to 36 in the first five

rounds. Heroka didn't land a single body shot in the first four rounds, then landed 20 body shots in the fifth round alone. That's nuts because the body shots were a major weapon for Heroka down the stretch. Like he was like tagging Russell. Russell's super tough, man, because he was getting clocked with body shots for the whole second half of the fight. It just, we got news that Heroka came from Japan on Thursday for fight week because of visa issues. I think that really took the air out of this fight because this could have been a really good fight. And it wasn't a bad fight, but it wasn't that thrilling.

But you see how- To me, it took the air out of what I thought it was going to be heading in. Like, I didn't think Heroka had any shot. but it didn't affect his performance whatsoever, Heroku. It did, though. Someone said on the live that Heroku was jet lag for the first five rounds. Yeah, that's pretty funny. But I think it did because either one of two things either happened.

One, it's kind of that. It's kind of true. He had to get his legs underneath him and warm up for those first couple rounds and then finish strong. Or he had it in his mind that he was like, I need to take it easy early because 12 rounds is a long time. And I'm going to need a late rush. So it could have changed his. actual execution of his game plan. But regardless, it did take the air out of the fight altogether.

Yeah, I couldn't believe. It was the tale of two fights. Russell early, just looking athletic, looking in and out, also coming off of a really long layoff too, like of his own. So was Heroka, besides the jet lag. He hadn't fought since 2024. Then Heroka outlanded Russell over the last six rounds. So it was all Russell first, all Heroka.

second half of the fight. Maybe that's what I'd be sort of scoring like we did. Like I'm pretty sure all the job. I haven't had the scorecard, but I would not be shocked if all the judges gave Russell the first five rounds and then gave Heroka a bunch of those middle rounds and Russell late. Over to Russell, though, he continues to be an enigma. Like, he loses to Puello and we're okay. We take a step back on the Gary, Anton Russell, hype train. Comes back with that unbelievable Valenzuela performance.

And then this one here, I mean, he got hit a lot. He wasn't able to figure out the herky jerkiness of Heroka. So I got to cool the Jets a little bit on Gary Anton Russell. If we got to win. But I got to cool the Jets a tiny bit on Russell. Or is Heroka that good? Because a lot of questions about Heroka. There was a lot of people that, I know you saw this as well,

people were, that was the sexy pick you said, was Heroka, because Heroka is good. We just haven't really seen him on the world stage all that much. I guess that's yet to be seen. We're not really going to know. Between those performances that you said from Gary, it's like poor performance against Pueyo, great performance against Ryo,

and this one's kind of in the middle. But is it more Russell, or is it the fact that Heroka is, is that tricky of a guy? Both. Yeah. Unfortunately, yet, that is the right answer. But Russell wins.

I thought he won the fight, narrowly. So you win in advance in this sport. Win in advance. He called for unifications afterwards. Shakur said he has sports. Bard, Gary and Torn Russell more than any other fighter in the world. Interesting. I would love to watch that fight.

Some of the other, Dalton Smith at 140. Who are the other champs? You know, get Lamont Roach and he's not a champ, but get him in the mix there too. A lot of options for Gary and Tony Russell. Frank Martin, I hear Albright fight to a draw. Scrappy little, scrappy little fight. Albright is just fits. He is just trouble.

He is trouble. He is trouble. He's not just, he's good. He's really good. He's sneaky. He's tricky. He's very crafty, extremely savvy pro. He's one of those guys. You got to look past the numbers and look at his record. You see all the guys that he's fought at every level. You know, from right in the beginning of his career, he was fighting like tough local guys. Like I know pretty much all the guys on his record because it's just like there were guys that just came up locally in the Northeast area. And listen, the kick and fight. And he's big for the way, class. He's tall. He's long. He's wide. He uses it well. Frank Martin, new to the weight class, pretty small for 140, I think, even though he's a really muscular guy. But entertaining fight. You had to really watch it, though. There's a lot of tricky things going on. It was a good fight and I was fine with the draw. And another thing with Frank Martin too, it's like, yeah, like we were coming off the Rancis fight, the Bartholomey knockout. And everyone was pumping up a Martin and then he goes in there and we've got to pump the brace a little bit of Martin, but also gave Albright his props too. Who's just a really, really good B side now, 140, which is a really good weight goes.

All in all, pretty good card. The Duarte Hitchens fight falling out took away from this. and that became a big bummer, but decent, decent stuff. Beck bully fight was fun. Beck bully is always fun. I kind of was in and out of that. I was cooking a little bit, getting ready for the live, and I missed that one.

She was fun. It was entertaining. Joshua Edwards, way early on the night, fighting the balding mullet Italian guy from Canada. I didn't see that now. Oh, my God. This guy was amazing. I don't have his name, but he just was like really kind of out of shape looking.

Harry, hairy, hairy, man. chest full of hair. Balding mullet. Balding mullet. And he was going there to lose. He was facing Joshua Edwards, up and coming heavyweight. They go the distance.

Like he didn't win a single minute of the fight, the Canadian guy. But I got to pull up a picture of this guy. His physique, I didn't, like, there was tweets like, I didn't know they made humans like this anymore. Bro, look at this guy. Oh, wow.

That's wrong cats. He's a throwback. He has a throwback guy from, wow. And they interviewed him after. They, I love Maddox interviewed him after, and he went on a spiel. I'm not like these other Canadians sit on their couch, a bunch of haters. They call himself the real life Rocky. I love this guy.

Get him, get him a reality show. I got to get his name. Bring him back. Unreal. Good stuff. All right. Let's head over to some other news. that broke the boxing world on Friday.

Connor Ben signs with Zufa boxing, a complete shocker. I didn't know Ben's contract was up with matchroom. I didn't know he was a free agent. I did not think he would ever do something like this. I didn't know he was on Zufa's radar. But man, the ramifications are so juicy and there's just so many layers.

I hate this phrase. A lot to unpack here, but there is a lot to unpack. If you go to the Hearn, Dana White rivalry, you know, Eddie Hearn and Connor Ben seem like more than just a working relationship. They seem like legit friends. And Hearn is really hurt and upset over this. The business ramifications, what does this mean for Zufa? They're going to enter the UK market.

$15 million is being reported for one fight. It's not a bit of a deal. This is like a one-off? I mean, it's insane. There's not many things that like your jaw drops and you look at your phone and like, is this fake? I thought it was fake at first, but it's real. It's really happening. Yeah, that, you know, you and I were speaking about this, you know, a lot on Friday when it first broke.

We were like, we literally was like, this can't be real. And sure enough, it is. Big implications in a lot of different ways. I mean, got to love the Dana White, Eddie Hearn, high school, high school, you know, relationship that they're having now fighting each other and, you know, fighting over a girl. you know, it's kind of kind of attitude that they're having. But yeah, I don't know where this goes exactly. Obviously, this is a big play by Zufa to say, hey, listen, we can get big guys too. And we have enough money to get that.

So other fighters are going to look at that and like, well, you know, at a different tier, right? Because Ben's not a champion, but he's at a very high tier in terms of one earning potential and potentially being a world champion one day. So that grab shows other fighters that are around that level. like, oh, wow, they're getting guys like this now. This is different than what we kind of expected or thought they were up to at this point. So I think it's more of using him as a lure. It works out great for him because that money is huge and that money's not going to be like that.

It's not going to stay like that. Eight-figure deals for one fight. That's normally is going to be very, very rare. And I think moving forward, it will be too. Because that's just, there's no business model that can support that. So it is. It's bait. It's bait for other fighters.

What it is is bait. Zufu wants to get into the UK market. They want to get that Sky Sports deal. So how do you do that? You need a star. You need a star from the UK. And outside of Anthony Joshua and Katie Taylor, Connor Ben is the third biggest name in the UK right now.

He becomes a free agent. You sign him. You bring him over to London. You bring him over to the UK. Now you have your Sky Sports broadcast deal. So the 15 million is absurd, but it's 15 million. It's an investment. It's an investment to expand Zufa's footprint in the box world and enter the UK, enter Eddie Hearn's backyard.

That explains the 15 million. Is Conner Ben worth 15 million in the open market? Absolutely not. So that's what that was, a business play. And he's also is, he's not a world-class fighter. We've seen him struggle and we know what Conner Ben is at this point. but every fighter from 147 to 154 even to 160 is calling out this guy's name he's linked to ryan garcia schauchampus and devon hayney all these guys he's a hot commodity and zufa has him now

then you throw in the fact that this was eddie's guy like the two differences of eddie on friday when that interview or thursday when that interview dropped to the down and out interview like this is real life this is like Vince McMahon would say say, let's turn it down a little bit. This storyline is too fake. But it's real. And this is why I say that boxing is in one of the most interesting and craziest times right now with all these promoters and all those business stuff and the rewriting legislation. And it's great for the fighters.

A beneficiary of this is Connor Ben. Right place, right time for that guy. 15 million bucks? Like, you're telling me you wouldn't leave Eddie Hearn for 15 million? Well, that's what even what Dana was saying was like, Dana's like, I thought this guy was your friend. You should be happy for him. You're making, you know, you're making this life-changing money.

And Dana says, I don't know how true this is. Dana said that Eddie had a right of first refusal. He could match it, right? So, but apparently then Eddie comes and he said that, you know, Ben didn't answer the phone call or the lawyers or whatever. So I don't know who to believe here. And I don't think we're ever going to get the truth. But, yeah, it's, it's, it's, yeah.

Eddie is like, he legitimately is hurt by this. It's a guy that he's taken up from the very beginning and stuck by him through all the drug scandal stuff for two years and had to go up there and talk about him each and every time. And I think that's a big part of it too that that Eddie does feel so scorned because he bent over backwards, you know, during that time and it supported him. So, but this is, this is boxing, man. Boxers, promoters, fighters, business, business wins the day. I'm not about to feel bad for Eddie Hearn. And most people, that's, most people are going to say that are going to think. I'm not about to feel bad for any boxing promoter or anyone in this business.

It's the most cutthroat business in all of sports. But I think Eddie knows how to act. I think Eddie knows how to play this. He knows how to manipulate the media. And he says, if I come in with this interview and I show that I'm heartbroken, I'm distraught, I'm loyal. Because he has to save face. And he has to, you know, now think about his company and future fighters. So if you're a future fighter right there, if you're a fighter signed a match room,

you're like, wow, this guy really rides for me. This guy will go to the depths of hell to defend me, find me fights, champion me, defend me. So that's what I think that was. I also think he was hurt, too. We are human beings. I do think he was hurt because I do think, you know, he really rode hard for Ben. I mean, he put his reputation on line, put his name on the line, put their business on the line,

because those were some serious allegations and some serious stuff that was against Ben in that one. So I think there's a lot of things. I think there's some pageantry here with Eddie, you know, apparently he knew on last week. So when he did that fiery interview, he kind of, and that explains why he was so. You alluded to that, too. Yeah, you alluded to that. You were spot on with that. But that he was so fired up.

He was charged up. I was just like, ah, I mean, just called out his dad and his family. But yeah, I guess it was. It was over the top, you know, his response. Think about it. If you're Eddie, it's like the news is about to break that Ben is going to Zufu. You know this, the rest of the world does it. And then this guy that's taking it is.

is calling you a nepo baby, all these names. So, of course she's going to freak out. But yeah, I put two and two together there, but I never thought that Ben would do this. Like, it's wild. This is not on anyone's bingo card.

This is, this is a, a completely out of left field move. And it does. It does have big implications that ripples through the sport. And if they did it on fight week of a big,

you know, the big fight, obviously. But, yes, this is, this is going to be a weird, weird one to see how this all shakes out.

Chris, you're a fighter. and you have had promoters, you have gone through litigation with promoters, you have changed promoters. Like, there's no loyalty in this game. You want loyalty to get a dog.

Famous thing. Yeah, no. I mean, and especially for fighters, we have such a small window to make money. You can't knock a fighter for doing something like this.

That's going to affect his bottom line, his family, his future. And, uh, this is a life changing deal. Like, you know,

and, and yeah, I mean, promoters careers are decades. Fighters careers are, you're lucky if you get a decade, you know. Well, that's what Oscar said, which I found, like, come on, Oscar, you don't have to say it like that. He's like, Eddie, don't worry about it. Stop crying. We're going to be here forever.

That's what he said. It's so funny to see Eddie and Oscar, like, buddying up. Yeah, there's no way Eddie watched that interview. It was like, I don't want to hear it from Oscar now. Easy for you to say to get over it. But even Oscar was like, listen, we're promoters. We're going to be here long after these fighters. Fighters come and go.

It's true. That's why I don't feel that bad. It's amazing to watch, like, as a fan and as someone in the media to like watch us all play out. But it just goes to our main point. If you've been following along and we've been on top of the Zupa stuff, they're not going anywhere, guys. They're going to pay over, over market value for some of these guys.

And I saw that, I don't know this is for sure, but I saw something out there that now if you signed to Zufa, you're going to be able to fight on ring cards and react cards. So then, again, the rules are changing. So now you're not just stuck in the talent pool. No, it's a turkey thing. Yeah. Yeah. This is a way to get the name out there, Zufa.

They made huge headlines. They're just going to sign Andy Ruiz next. Not that that's huge. I think they did already. Was that announced? I think so. I think that's out already. I mean, we knew that.

We knew that coming forward because we had heard that there is a former world champion and American heavyweight. We're all like, well, that list is two people. So it's obviously, it's not wild. It's anywhere. Yeah, but Zufa's not going anywhere. They're making big moves. This was a shot across the bow.

Nick Kahn, Eddie, Nick Kahn, Dana White, Turkey. It's a turkey move. This was a turkey, you know. Turkey likes surprises. He loves surprises. And now he's going to funnel these guys, funnel Zupin fighters to the ring events and the re-ad cards. And then until there's, you know,

There's nothing left until it's just Zupa. But who do you think Ben fights? Like $15 million, obviously it's convoluted because it means more than just a $15 million fight. It has to do with the rights in the business side of things. But they did talk about Zufu, doing two or three big fights a year, like mega events. Like, I don't know if Ben is a mega event type of guy, but if you put them in there with some of these other big names like Devin Haney, then yeah, that is a big fight overseas. Like, it's not going to be at the apex. He's going to be fighting over in UK. I don't know who Ben fights.

I mean, for $15 million, I really don't know. But whoever it is, they're going to get a big bag, too. But, I mean, they obviously seem like they're trying to target like a Ryan Garcia. You know, that would be big enough. That would make sense. But he's locked up with Golden Boy. He can say he's a free agent. He's not a free agent. Right.

And Haney, he's even said, Ben's even said, you don't want to fight a guy like Haney who thinks he's to run all night. So, I mean, is Crocker, you know, get to get his title fight against Crocker? Is that, that's not a, that's a crocker with Matron? Hmm. I think, yeah, I guess you're right. Yeah. That's not, that's not going to happen.

Right. Yeah, I don't know. The 15 million attachment, like, it's huge. So it means, like, oh, that indicates there's going to be a big fight. And, like, and Zufa has said we want big fights. Like, he's not, this isn't like a signing to have him fight the apex, like the Opatio one. No. This is a different rung. This is like another level above.

So I'm curious who they're going to find for him. Could it be like a domestic type of fight that Ben should win? I mean, they only have him for one fight. Zufa does. But where does Ben go after is this one fight? Like it's like, is he to go back to Eddie? No. That seems to be quite strained.

You know, he's not going to go to top rank. He's not going to go to Deloese. He's going to stick with Turkey. He's going to stick with Turkey. Exactly. It's now, it's now a turkey. It's a web now. It's now a Zufa, Riyadh, Sala, Turkey, Webb.

I mean, he's always, he's always won. It's just showing itself to be that. Now they have a promoter. Now they're a promoter. Like, they would never up a promoter. Now they have Zufa. Yeah, they used to use Eddie for his promotion. They used to use Matchroom and Eddie.

And now, like, now they've got their own. It is interesting to watch them say all this stuff, though, like, who's the other guy? Frank Smith. Didn't even go, oh, this was always Connor, Benz. mentality. Yeah. Really, bro? I mean, he said that he...

He said he'd been on and off with him over the years, you know, from that, I know that interview you were talking about. Yeah, but he never has said that. And Eddie, you know, I didn't think he'd do. Like, come on. It's just social now that they aren't doing business anymore, now they're going to smirks his name. That's just shows you what promoters are.

Yeah, and I love the fact that they both were like, well, I'm not going to talk bad about. I'm not going to slag them off, you know, and then, and then they kind of are. Yeah. Then they kind of do. What a wild time. in boxing. An absolute wild start to the year. We're entering March and we've had some big fights. We've had Zufa really put their foot down and merely make a stamp so far. Floyd Mayweather

coming out of retirement to fight professionally was announced on Friday night. Like dude, I was sitting on my couch Friday. It was like, it was like, it was like I'm going to have a nice little quiet day. And I see the Ben news. Obviously you have to react to that. And then I refreshed my email and I got a press release to Floyd, maybe it's coming out of retirement. And I'm thinking ahead, like, refreshing your email as a boxing media member, you're liable to see anything. Don't do it right before bed.

That's one thing. Do not check your email right before bed when you're- Or Twitter or just firing up Twitter or firing over your email. Like, we'll have to get into that on a later episode. Save some more for later on in the week with this Floyd Mayweather stuff and where Ryan goes from here. The great thing is we have tons of content always. The boxing is so wild right now,

where there's always things we're also to talk about. It's absolutely nuts. And the uncrowned era of inside boxing has begun. I appreciate any new listeners. Any new listeners, any new watchers are day ones and our rider dies. We love you as well. The response from the announcement was phenomenal. It's really awesome to see our best boxing community.

And the response to Henry Garcia, too. I go look in the comments. A lot of people coming to our friends. defense. I'm not surprised. I've seen Chris come out of retirement, fight Henry and Ryan in the same night. I've seen, I saw a guy, like, I don't understand it. Dan and Chris, I've always been there for Ryan and supported him and said he's good and never been personal. These guys are too sensitive. So it's sensitive. Listen, it's when it's your kid and you're being a dad, he's not being a dad. He's not being a dad. I totally get it. I think it's funny. I think it's, I think it's hilarious.

but also it is a good pop for the for the pod so thank you for sagerie piece of shit and his corny ass partner dan canobio signing off for inside bossy want to keep your hands up at all times protect yourselves at all times stay out of those dms see you on thursday