The Ariel Helwani Show - Inside Boxing | Tyson Fury victorious in return, eyes clash with Anthony Joshua, Conor Benn looks shaky against Regis Prograis

Episode Date: April 12, 2026

Dan Canobbio and Chris Algieri are back breaking down Tyson Fury's win over Arslanbek Makhmudov and whether we will finally see the Anthony Joshua fight. Joshua was ringside for the win, but did not enter the ring or accept the fight which leads to even more speculation (03:18). Conor Benn got a win over Regis Prograis -- but did not look good -- raising even more questions about his future in the sport. Could a fight with Ryan Garcia be next for Benn? Should Benn take an easier route or "cash out" against a notable champion at welterweight (30:03)?

Okay, everyone, welcome back. It's another episode of Inside Boxing. We're presented by PPPV.com in association with Yahoo Sports and Uncrowned. I'm Dan Kenobio. He's the champ, Chris Algerico. Follow ppv.com. Got a big one coming up. May 2nd, Benavides versus Zerto, quickly approaching.

We're less than a month away from that one. Streaming on PPP.com, live interactive chat, fight week content. They are a proposition sponsor, and they allow us to do two episodes a week. Now, Chris, let's get it going. Let's get it started. We had one heck of a Saturday over on Netflix. Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, Connor, Ben versus Regis Progray. A lot of fallout from that, but first I ask, as always, how are you, my friend?

I'm good, I'm good. I literally just came from the airport, got in from Philadelphia last night. I had two shows this weekend, Friday and Saturday night, back-to-back on Pro Box TV. So I am very low on sleep today. So I got a nice big. Watch out. Airport coffee. Watch out everyone.

Yes. Chris is underslept. On a warpath. On a warpath. Yeah, Friday, I saw you were in Newark. Shakur Stevenson joined the set. Did he ask about me? He did not.

He did not. Oh, shit. But everything was cool. Everything was copacetic. We were cordial. It was cool. I mean, here's another problem with me. The problem is with you.

Well, he did once tweet. How does Chris Algerie have a job? Oh, that's real. Ah, but yeah, that's true. That's true, which was very funny because I have a lot of reasons. I have a lot of reasons to have a very good job. Very funny because you never said anything bad about it. Well, that's it.

I just saw him sit down. I was like, all right, this guy, it's good to see him in Newark. That's where he wants to fight next, he said. He was supporting a fighter on the card. Yeah, Manny Chance. Manny, Emmanuel Chance. He had a tough fight that night, but he got the split decision win. Very, very tight, very close fight.

A little controversial. Started out really strong, looked really, really good. You know, for the first round, Shakur was on the call with us, and then he kind of went and just went to his, you know, enjoying the rest of the fight. But, man, it got rough. How about Saturday night, Boardwalk Hall? How does that place look at these days? Packed to the gills.

It wasn't the big, big room. It was a smaller room, but it was packed. That was a good turnout. We had a lot of local Jersey guys fighting, really, really good co-made event with Jan Marcos, versus Dwight Fleming Jr. Bad-ass fight. Both guys dropped you. They've dropped each other

in back-to-back rounds. Super tight, highly contested, high boxing IQ type fight. Really, really good. If you guys didn't see that, go check it on on... And Milnecki. On ProBox TV, YouTube.

Yes, and Milnicki was in the co-main, put on a shutout performance against a tough Mexican guy with some pop. But Melnick, you look good, man, for a really disciplined fight. Couldn't get the guy out of there. He was super tough,

but he was very comprehensive in the way that he performed. Love that. Back-to-back fight nights. Love that as well. So it was very busy boxing weekend. We start over in UK heavyweight division. Tyson Fury defeats Arslanbeck Machmedoff. And the initial thoughts on Fury's performance, I thought he looked fine. I didn't think he looked great. I didn't think he looked poor. We talked about his decline on the last episode. Didn't exactly see that. Granted, he's been out of the ring for 16 months. He's 37. years old. I thought the reflexes looked good. I thought the jab looked good. Not much power on those shots. A few defensive lapses where he was coming straight back. But all in all, I thought, okay, this looks like a pretty good version of Tyson Fury, good enough to compete with some of the best heavyweights in the world. Who will he compete against? We'll get there in a second. But I wanted your initial thoughts first. I thought he looked okay. Like not great, not horrible. Yeah, I'm surprised. I was

wondering what you were going to say about it because we didn't talk about this. prior to the show. I actually just watched the fight this morning because I was calling fights last night while he was fighting, so I didn't get to watch it live. And I agree with your assessment. I think, I don't think he looked bad. I think he had a guy in front of him who was very strong for a very rough, crude fight. But as the fight wore on, you got to see why Tyson Fury is Tyson Fury. He was pumping that jab. He had a very good lead hand. He was switching between Orthodox and South Paul pretty seamlessly. Yeah. defensive lapses.

He got, you got, you got, you got, clip with some shots that you probably wouldn't have when he,

when he's really locked in. But I think that was a good fight for him to bust the rust off. He got, he got the rounds in. He had a guy in front of him who was tough and durable.

But yeah, no, the power wasn't really there. But, I mean, Tyson was never really known for his power. He would set down here and there, but I thought his boxing skills

is reactivity, pretty good for a 37-year-old has been off, off the couch. But, yeah, that was a good bust off the rust-type performance. And I think it's actually

He's retired. He's past it. Oh. I don't think so. I think that was the kind of fight that he needed. He's still so gritty, man. The inside work, he'll grab you and hit you and punch on the inside. Yeah, I didn't, I wasn't, I wasn't very critical of the performance.

Macwoodov was the perfect opponent. Yeah. Stirty, tall, big, menacing looking for all the promos. Physical. But man, that guy. He's just so limited and he just came out like a bowl in the china shop first three or four rounds just storming at Fury with no real plan. And Fury, it took him, you know, three or four rounds to kind of get used to that.

And I thought that's probably what he needed. You know, if you take a lot of time off, you can attest to this way better than I. I've never been in the ring. If you were going to take it a long time off and you have a guy that's just going to rush right at you, you have no time to really think. It's trial by fire right away. And I think Fury could have easily folded early on or had some issues early on, especially defensively, as those reflexes are going,

gave her the stats last week where he's getting hit with over 45% of his power shots in his last three fights, not the case in this fight. But I thought Makanov was the perfect opponent rushing forward, no real plan, and was going to at least try to bring the fight to Fury, but it did take him a few rounds to settle in. Fury landed 46% of his power shots. Makadov never landed more than eight punches in any round. So the defense was there. I think that was more along the lines of Makwadov, just not really.

being a creative offensive fighter or a talented offensive fighter. But the reflexes were there for Fury. I think that... I think more importantly, the psychology is still there for Fury. He's still in there, you know, grinding and figuring out ways to win rounds. And I think that's really important

for an older fighter. He's still got a lot of fight in him. And I think that's the main thing I took away from this fight. It's like, no, this guy can still compete. He still has that it factor. In terms of his, you know, his skills, what he's known for at his best,

Yeah, we're not going to expect the best at him at 37. But I think in terms of the psychology of a fighter, he still got that. Right, so we just get right into the meaty part. Let's go. You watched it. You watched the end, right? The end of the post-fight. No, I just watched the actual fight fight fight.

So you didn't see any of the Joshua stuff. I saw clips of it. I saw clips and highlights of it, but, I mean, I saw it. You got the gist. Yeah, yeah. I mean, come on. That's what this fight's about, right? This is what we're all here for.

We're all here for the Fury AJ. Well, are we, though? That's the thing. So Joshua, it was pretty crazy scene after the fight, and I was wondering how it was going to play out. So Joshua doesn't go into the ring after the fight, and I think Turkey and Fury looked absolutely foolish, because Turkey T's the big announcement.

The biggest fight in British history is going to come later on this evening. And it turns out the fight with AJ isn't signed, so there's no stare down after. just fury yelling awkwardly down at a Joshua who just sitting there chilling like, I'm not going in the ring. I'm not doing anything you say. I don't have to. I didn't sign anything.

The fight is still being negotiated. I'm not going to go into the ring and risk any negotiation leverage that I have just because Turkey said so. I just can't believe that they didn't have something signed, sealed, and delivered on such a grand stage. They were just going to go off of Turkey saying, no, no, it's going to happen. What do you mean you can't believe? What do you mean you can't believe that's what I have?

Of course, this is, you know, the way things have gone. with this, of course. You know, big promises, the delivery isn't always there. You can't just force people to do things anymore, especially a guy like AJ, man. AJ is, I think the power dynamic has changed quite a bit. And AJ, being a businessman, did a really good job of, like you said, not giving up any leverage in terms of negotiating.

If deal's not in place, I'm not going to go do this pony show is, you know, I'm going to sit right here, look cool, give Tyson the finger. He did look cool. He always looks cool. I'm the landlord. What a line. I'm the landlord. You do what I say.

AJ rolls. Big sausage. It was just like, it was a good moment. But what I said, I can't believe. I say, I can believe it because Turkey has done a lot of great for the sport, but he still has not figured out how to announce a fight properly. He gets excited. He gets very excited.

He gets excited. He's like a fan. I get it. He grabs the mic from the presenter earlier before the Ben fight. I'm going to bring a big fight. I have the biggest fight in British box. Obviously, we know what it's Fury in Joshua. So I'm expecting, okay, you remember when Golofkin and Canello had a fight ready to go,

and they had everything signed, sealed and delivered. They got into the ring afterward. Max was in the middle. And we had a presentation, a video, and then we had a date and we had a stare down, all tidied up. HBO, here we go, Triple G versus Canel. You would think a fight of this magnitude with Netflix involved. Turkey, aerial finances should be fine.

With him teasing it is we were going to get a concrete fight announcement. But we're not. Because nothing's concrete about this. I think a year ago, even if there wasn't a deal, I think AJ and Eddie would have been okay with that. Okay, yeah, we're going to get there. We'll figure out the deal. But now, again, the power dynamic has changed.

And the lines have been drawn in the sand in terms of where everyone stands. So now it gets a little nasty with negotiating. and you've got to figure these things out. So you can't force the issue anymore with the way that these power brokers are operating. So I think that was a good move by Eddie, good move by AJ. Not a great move by Turkey to try and push it through, you know, at that time, like live. But I still think the fight happens. I still think it happens.

I still think it comes through. And that big announcement is pending just not going to be as soon as we thought or as soon as Turkey thought. Do you think it will happen? I do. Because I see some chatter out there. You know, I think AJ's more out than in. This was his chance to get inside of that ring. I agree that him not going in was the right move.

Do you think A.J. Fury happens second half of 2026. I do. I do think that happens. I think it happens in the fall. So no tune-up fight for AJ then. I don't think he needs one. He basically had his tune-up fight, which was Jake Paul. That was his tune-up match.

but I think you should go right into it. I don't think he should risk any other fights leading up to that. There's just too much money to be made. I think now the fight is a negotiating table. The fight now is getting the contract situated. But I do think this fight happens. I do think it happens this year. Yes, I agree.

I think it happens. The thing now is if AJ is going to take that tuna. Like, I don't think he needs a tune-up. But you're right. Like, I thought that Fury looked just good enough. AJ looked. He knocked the rust off in the Jake fight, but the thing is, is that the car accident, which he alluded to on the broadcast.

But, you know, also at the same time, he's at the fight. He's ringside. He's showing up last week. He was at Chisora and Wilder. He's now back into the public eye. And yes, I will give him the benefit of the doubt. He is dealing with a lot of trauma four months ago. But he wouldn't put himself in that position that he was.

in yesterday, ringside if he wasn't serious about this fight. So I see some using that excuse. So I can't believe Turkey and Fury would have put AJ in that position given what he's been going through. It's like, no, bro, it's fair game. He showed up for that reason or showed up for some type of altercation after the fight. I thought it would be more of a buttoned up thing, but apparently it's not. But even just his presence, his presence speaks volumes.

And he doesn't have to say or do anything, just being there. You see him the whole telecasts. AJ was prominent. So, you know, that matters too. But also in another, another thought about AJ and where he's at mentally based on, you know, the tragedy that he's experienced. You know, he lost team members. Yes, they were like friends, very, very close friends and, quote unquote, like family type guys. But it's part of his team.

So boxing is always going to remind him of his friends, you know. So I think getting around the scene, one either shows that, yes, he's looking to move forward. he's back in the boxing scene, he's back in the public eye, he can do it without the team members, or he's testing himself to say, all right, how do these emotions come up when I am in this scenario once again? When I'm put back into the situation where I normally have my friends with me, I normally have my team with me, how do I feel, how do I operate? So I think he's still working through that. Again, this is all speculation.

I'm no idea how a man feels about a situation, but to your point, he's still showing up. And wherever AJ goes, people are going to notice, you know, and I think that matters. So obviously you say it's negotiation thing. That's that's the, which is like the part of boxing that all fans just can't stand anymore. There's some that still enjoy this, but can't stand. Look, I'm curious about this negotiation because for a while, I thought, all right, it's definitely Fury, who's the A side of this, he's had all the belts, he's been the man. You know, Joshua had lost to Ruiz, and he then lost to Usik, and then Fury goes on to lose to Usik. Both guys can put asses in seats.

Both guys have done massive stadium fights. Who is like the driving force here? Who is the A-Side in Fury, Joshua? I think it's A.J. I think it's A.J. He's been in the bigger events in recent time. You know, that Jake Paul fight was huge. I think he got a lot of really good fanfare from that coming to America,

getting a lot of attention. You hear nothing about good things about A.J. You know, he hasn't left, you know, the news minute in a long time. And Fury, you know, he disappeared for a bit. And Fury is a guy who always kind of stayed relevant even when he wasn't fighting, having TV shows about his family and saying wild things. And he's been kind of quiet, more quiet than we're used to dealing with Fury. So I do think AJ is probably in the driver's seat at this point. I'm sure Eddie and his negotiating power is going to treat it as such.

But at the end of the day, for these guys, the only thing that really matters is the money. the split the money how much is involved who's getting paid what because listen you got to do it in wembley it's a huge fight it's two UK heavyweights two of the best guys in history really two of the best british heavy weights in history both of these guys so it has to be over there and then you know in terms of you know broadcasting i feel like that stuff's all kind of worked out um who walks first who's this and that gloves that that that's that's not that's not critical money is money is money is money is I think it's 50-50. I think it was ever a 50-50 money split.

This is a 50-50 fight because it comes down to very minute differences in their popularity, accomplishments, live gates and all that. So I think if there was ever a 50-50 type of money split, this would be it. Yeah, you're right. Who gets top billing on the poster and stuff. Like that will get sorted out. I'm pretty excited for it. I'm not going to lie because, see, obviously it's becoming 10.

years too late and shout out to Carl Frotch, who was at the desk for Netflix. This might be his last time working for Netflix because he was way too honest the entire night. He just was straight. They're all, they go to the desk and they're all trying to hype up Fury AJ. And they're going around the table. Lila Ali says from Spiel, some like, you know, whatever, admit nothing. Lennox Lewis once again says, you know, yeah, I'm excited for it. And then they come to Frotch. He's like, nah, it's fight's like 10 years too late. He's like, I'm not that excited for it. And there was like a silence on the set and it was like so refreshing because yes that's 100% correct the fight is 10 years too late i think we all can agree on that or set five years too late whatever it's too

late but if they can ever just they're getting the last bit out of the you know ringing the towel out because fury looked okay and joshua we're basing Joshua off of a freaking jake paul fight but his popularity his relevance especially here in the states like he's still relevant Yes. More so now than forever, because over here... More so than ever, I believe. I agree. But here's the thing, like, in terms of it inside of the ring, Fury just got 12 rounds with a decent top 20-ish heavyweight. What are we basing AJ off of six rounds with Jake Paul? Yeah.

And then absolutely iced by Dubois before that took a long time off. And a lot of people didn't think AJ looked that great against Paul either. So there's always that as well. So who's the edge going to inside of the ring? Because I think you look at the power, you think, oh, right, Josh was still got power. He's so menacing Fury's dancing around in the ring, but still sharp. Who's got more left than the tank right now? AJ or Fury?

Honestly, this fight comes down to chin for me. Who can take whose punch? Who can deliver the heavy artillery? AJ's the better puncher. AJ is one of the best, still to this day, one of the best heavyweight punchers in the game. but can he get it to Tyson Fury who when he's on he's he's hard to hit he's reactive he's tall he's long he fights from a long outer range position but even even Joshua Joshua who you know has been stopped recently and you know pretty badly too it's all relative right

if you're not a huge puncher Tyson's not but if the guy's chin is not great it equals out So it's going to be who can land that shot and hurt the other guy and go with it from that. They might hurt each other. It's, this is, I like this fight. I know, you know, Frotch is speaking the truth and he always does. But at the same time, I'm still excited for the fight because I think they're both past it enough, you know, in equal senses that it's still a good competitive fight. And I really don't know how the fight goes. And that's another reason why I'm excited about it.

I don't know who wins this fight. I love that. It's, you know, it's 10 years too late for sure. But this is when it has to happen. It has to happen this year. This is it. These things, it's like meteors. I mean, I don't know if that's even the right analogy.

No, it's horrible. Meteor? It's like, yeah, I don't know where that. It's, it's, uh. Dan, did you, did you, did you, did you work two fights this weekend and just fly in? No, I'm just dumb. Yeah. I actually had a lot of sleep and had a very, what I'm trying to say is like, it's got to be perfect time.

Meteors is just not even close. It has to be perfect timing. Like, we're just. still somewhat relevant on these two guys. Like any further, it's done. It's like... Like you say, if it's going to happen next year, no.

Yeah, no. No, it's got to happen now. It's here. It's in this little box, and it's still, there's still people trying to peek in the box. Meteors. Yeah, this can get stale real quick. This can get stale real quick. If we see this a year from right now, it's going to lose a lot, a lot

of the luster. I think you got a strike. You got to get it now. And that's why I don't think AJ should take a tune-up. I think he should go right in. Because God forbid, he takes a tune-up and just doesn't look okay. It doesn't look great. Then you've got two mediocre performances coming together and it's like, yeah, I'm not as excited. I mean, people will still tune in, of course. The UK fans, of course, are going to show up. I don't think, the gate kills no matter what. But in terms of global interest, yeah, it's got to happen now. And on Netflix. Well, I wonder what the, I wonder what the Netflix announced that it's

happening. That's awesome. They put out a tweet, this autumn, only on Netflix. A.J. is Fury. I'm like, you guys, was this like pre-written? Was this then, and some intern not knowing that they hit send on it because did you watch AJ because he did not move? That's one of those things with the producers. That gets, that's on the screen and they're like, no, no, no, damn it. Too late. They sent it out. It's out there. I wonder if Turkey's really putting the pressure on or they went, Netflix went to Turkey and the powers that sell a. It could be Netflix. It could be, we're seeing these streaming networks putting pressure on fights happening. It could

be Netflix. Well, dude, they invested in this fury. This was not a good card. This was the worst card of the Netflix boxing era. It just wasn't competitive. We'll get to the Ben Fight next. And they were just slop. It wasn't up to the standards that we've seen out of Netflix.

Even spectacle-wise, like, you may not have liked Joshua versus Jake. And you might not have liked Tyson versus Jake. But those were massive spectacles. It felt big. Right. Those are 30 million to 100 million range. This didn't feel big at all. This felt like, all right, we're going to invest in Fury.

We have his show coming out today, season two of keeping up with the Furies. So it seems like we're going to invest in Fury with the payoff being the Joshua fight coming at the end of the year. I think that's set. Well, Dan, I think this was supposed to be the Joshua fight with Fury. And I think that's what they were expecting or at least. Yeah, probably. And then obviously the tragedy that happened to Joshua and his team, and then, you know, Fury was going to be the guy anyway. Sorry, we put him back in. We put him back in with, you know,

with Machmedov, who again, we said for the look and feel was the right guy, especially after the result. And then even, you know, the undercard, Ben getting on there is essentially just a pissing contest with Dana and Eddie, you know, and some big money coming in from, from a third party to make that fight happen, you know, taking a 140-pounder, bumping him up 50, you know, 10 pounds and, you know, 37-year-old. Yeah, the card was was not. I don't think it was supposed to be that. This was supposed to be Fury and Joshua, but we're just

kicking it down the road a little bit, which is fine. Hopefully people aren't losing interest because this card wasn't that great, but I don't think that's the case. I think this is just going to build towards Joshua. It would have made a lot more sense if they could announce it that night. They could have had the face off. That would have been, that would have rounded out this show

properly. We see a lot of superfights go awry in the sport quite often. It could go off the rails, very quickly. The only thing I can see being an impediment here, besides AJ's psyche, if he actually wants this fight, because it's clearly on the balls in his court, is the networks. Once again, DeZone allowed Joshua to fight Jake Paul on Netflix. They took a fee from him. DeZone is heavily invested in Joshua. They want him on their air, especially now more than ever, because Joshua is a big star. DeZone has the ultimate plan. They're looking for subscribers.

This is what it is. Are they going to allow Anthony Joshua to fight consecutive fights, massive fights, on Netflix's platform, is the question. That depends how much the networks actually are battling each other. Are they head-to-head fighting? Is there a line drawn in the sand there? So in that case, Dan, that's a good point. So does the zone bring Joshua back with the tune-up?

And then they go for the Netflix fight? To get something out of it? Yes. One last something out of Joshua? Yes, they get a Joshua fight on. Like an obligation. They could have told them in the Jake fight. Yeah, we'll let you fight on Netflix, but you got to give us one after this.

So that, yeah. Not give us one. Come back to us where you belong. That brings another variable. Yeah, it's like, all right, yeah, you can go do that one, but your next one's got to be back here. You can't just run off and play with your new girlfriend, Netflix. You've got to come back to us and pay your dues here. And then we'll talk about the next one.

So that could be holding up the negotiating negotiating, negotiating and, you know, as well. Maybe they're still figuring out that end that's it. That's a good point, Dan. That's probably, that's probably it. But, yeah, I mean, that's, that's, that's, well, Netflix is going to throw around money. Netflix is going to just be, just tell the zone. Or here's 10 million.

Yeah, but how much money does the zone need? They need the star power. It's not just, it's not just the check. Yeah, they need, they need a reason for you to do that ultimate plan. Yeah. I mean, although I do, think they're doing a great job to zone. They, they're, they're, they're, yeah, I get it. But like, yeah.

In the subscription world we're living in, it's no longer about PPP buys. It's about how many people are going to fork out the $450 for the... Did you get the email? The Netflix went up? Did you get that? No, yeah. Maybe that was just me? I don't know.

My Netflix went up. I think everything is going. I mean, does it ever a streaming server that goes down in price? No, that's a good point. They're going up, up, up, up and away. Yeah. Like gas prices. Up and up and up.

Well, windows are coming down. Are they? They started coming down? Yeah. I check. I don't even look. I haven't looked in... Here's the thing with gas prices.

I know it sucks, but what are we going to do? That's always my argument. I see these gas prices, I'm like, no, I just put my card in and pay it. I got it. I got to do it. We got to do it. Yeah, so it was an interesting fight for Fury. One last thing.

We could get Mayweather Pacquiao and Fury Joshua in the same year. Only problem is that we're in the year 2026. Yeah. Ten years too late, 20 years too late. I mean, so when would have been ideal for Mayweather, Pac-Yow? 2011. They fought in 2015. So that would be, okay, so that one, so Joshua Fury is what, eight years too late?

Joshua Fury should happen in 2018. Yeah. So that one's eight years too late. And then Mayweather, Pac-Yow was like five years to late. Was five years too late. Now it's 15 years too late. Wow. That was in trouble.

too, by the way. That discussion is not going great either. You see these guys going back and forth. Pachial bought Mayweather's gym. That's, dude, that's... I was like, this is what the promotion is in 2026 for this fight. In 2015, when it was five years overdue, I was still jazzed up for that promotion because it was Mayweather and Pachia. Now it's so sad. It's an AI. I saw an AI picture of Mayweather sad in front of a gym with a bankrupt sign behind it. With Pachial, standing in front of it. I think this is all the work.

I think this is all the work. I think this fight happens. It happens in September. It happens at the sphere. Whatever they're going to do. I think this is all the work. You're telling me Mayweather didn't understand the contract that it was going to be a real fight. Of course he did.

There's no way. I'm not going to say the joke there. I know, the joke is obviously that he doesn't read. But it doesn't matter. He's got lawyers. He's got lawyers, dude. He's been doing it. Yeah, but he's in so many problems.

Did you ever think Mayweather would go broke, number one? I don't know if he's broke. That's one of the things that I don't believe either. Listen, Mayweather is very smart at marketing fights. He's one way or another. He's got a $7 million tax bill right now. That's a lot. That's a lot.

It's got the IRS, bro. Sell 10 watches. You may have beaten everyone in front of you, but you will not beat the IRS. Uncle Sam always gets paid. Uncle Sam is the only guy that could ever beat Floyd Mayweather. Or maybe. A 48-year-old Pachio. I mean, Pachial got beat on some taxes, too, in his day.

Right. Him coming out as, like, the moneyman of this is actually hilarious because the only reason he's fighting right now is because he's lost a large chunk of his net worth as well. Did he? Again, I don't follow these guys. Why else are they fighting? I mean, Pachial fought Barrios to try to be a world champion, and he fought a real fight. And I know Mabweather is doing these exhibitions. He thought him to make money, number one.

Yeah, well. Like I said, it's the quickest way to, you can make up 20 million to one night. It's insane. Where else can you do that in life? Nowhere. Only in boxing. Maybe it's like a concert, even if you're a musical artist, you can't make that in one night. You make it in a tour.

You can do it. You can work. Yeah. Well, if you factor in the fight camps, so it's not just one night. It's never one night. It's like two months. It's two months of work, but it's one night of performing. and you get your big, big-ass check.

But that's a crazy thing to think about is getting Mayweather, Pachial, September, AJ Joshua, that's the same person, AJ Fury. November? October or November, both on Netflix. That'd be Netflix would be so happy with that. They got their MMA card,

they got Mayweather, Pachia, and they got Fury and AJ. That's a big fall. It's a big fall, big autumn. It's a Netflix-y type of fall. we'll see what happens we'll see what goes on there i think we're going to hear more from eddie herne speaking of eddie herne he was ringside for the co-main event connor ben defeats rhesus progrey and an uninspiring effort from ben a pedestrian

performance i said afterwards ben could not get regis out of there who admitted to having several injuries 140 pounder blown up to 150 it was all there for connor ben to have a spectacular knockout, and he once again could not get the job done. That is zero knockouts for Ben since 2022. He is just average. He is just mediocre. Everyone could see it now.

If there was ever someone on the fence about what Connor Ben could be, get off the fence. He's domestic level with a name. He has not beat a notable fighter under the age of 35. yet. Prograde was 37. And you're on that list, buddy. I was just shy of 38. Ubank was 35 and very weight drained. His best performance of his entire career was the second Ubank fight and Ubank.Bank. In hindsight, everyone was saying, oh, Ubank looked dead on the weight. You know, excuse excuse, then you see him how Ben performed this week this weekend. And you're like, oh, yeah, no, Ubank, you know, really, really, really shot, you know, on the weight. He just, he did.

Roscoe was 26, but. but guys got five lost. I said, yeah, I said notable class level fighters, and Orozco's not. Oroasto got stopped on a Pro Box TV card, his next fight. So, and, you know, Dobson lost his next two fights, again, to a former Pro Box TV guy. So the level of guys that are notable,

even worth writing down, were over the age of 35. And listen, got to be some buyers or more, some that 15 million. Because that did not help the brand, that did not help the ring, that did not help Zufa. That was a not, that was a really poor performance. And listen, right away, ProGray didn't look like he was going to make out of the first round.

Every punch that touched him, even on his gloves, looked to wobble his legs. He just, he was not reacting well to punches, which we've seen from ProGray recently. You know, he went to war and got hurt by Jojo Diaz, who's a former 130-pounder. He got dropped by Devin Haney by a straight right hand. He got dropped by Jack Cattle, I think twice, you know, not punchers. And they were able to put him down. and put him down. Ben hasn't scored a knockout in four years. Ben scored two knockdowns in the 12th round against Eubanks Jr. in the 12th round.

It's a corpse. Yeah, basically at that point. Yeah, any question about his level, any question about his punching power, any question about anything, I mean, I think it's pretty obvious now, you know, what you're dealing with with Ben. And again, I mean, where he goes from here, I know we came out calling Ryan Garcia out from their others. Everyone's licking their shops. Everybody was quoting, was commenting on it. Shakur's like, if I went to distance with this guy, I would be embarrassed. Give me a fucking break. You know, who else called him out?

Ryan, I mean... Play with him. Yeah, no. No. I mean, but also, one thing about, you know, he didn't look strong. He didn't look powerful. He didn't look, even look physically strong. He didn't look like he was overpowering. He was bigger than the, than probably wasn't overpowering him at all. Didn't look powerful, the punches that he did land. But also, just he's degraded. The movement, the elbows were flaring, the jumping up and down, the diving in. The degradation of skills was really on display. Maybe it was the nerves of the event.

Maybe he was trying to live up to the 15 mil. Maybe it was being inactive. Maybe it was the weight. I mean, he did not look good making the weight all week. But he got better as the fight went on. But yeah, the skill set was just not there. The one positive I would say is he did go to the body. He made an adjustment, like halfway through the fight.

I started really focusing on the body. 60% of his landed shots were body shots. He only landed 32% of his overall punches. And you're right, a lot of wasted movement. A lot of herky, jerky, where it was almost like, dude, slow down. Yeah. Like, you look, like, you're wild in there. Set up a shot.

Zero creative, like, zero creative. No deception, no creativity. No continuity in anything he was doing. There was no. building on anything he was doing. It was just exploding. You know, the head clashes was mostly because of him diving in and Pro Gray being a pro and knew how to put his head in position when you got a guy diving in him and he's a shorter guy. So generally, taller guys get, take the worst of it when it comes to head butts because the guy's head is lower,

hits your eyebrows, you know, so he got cut over both eyes. I would say the saving grace for him is that he dealt with the adversity of the cuts and didn't seem to really bother him if you were going to look at anything that was positive from this, but, I mean, you mentioned the body punches. I thought the second half of the fight, Progray was just really just on his last leg, and Ben couldn't put anything together to get him out of there, but was in control easily toward the end of the fight. Oh, yeah, he landed 47% of his power shots, Progray. And how many did he throw?

He wasn't very busy. It wasn't busy. It was like the lower, lower output, higher percentage. That's a pretty good percentage. And after the fight... I was saying he old manned it. He old manned it very well. Yeah, grit, Gile.

I think program came out of this looking great. He retires after the fight. Smart move. Wish you would have had a more of a better moment. Could have done it in the ring. For some reason, Netflix decided not to give Connor Ben a post-fight interview, which is just stunning to me. The guy, like, the whole point of Connor Ben is to hear him speak and have him call people

out and get upset and get triggered as a fan by the people he's going to call out afterwards. or maybe assess his performance. I would have loved to have heard him be either delusional, either figure, say, like, maybe something about how that fight went. Nothing. Netflix decided not to give him a post-fight interview, which I found just insane. Yeah, and you get to see that because I was on my way to the arena.

I was watching literally on my phone up so it was going. Also, they go to the desk, and they don't even discuss the fight. Zero comment. The fight just ended, and then they just moved on. I mean, it wasn't a very good fight, so. I was talking with texting with Ariel and he said that it potentially have a curfew. London has a very strict curfew. And they might have been running long, but you gave Richard Riacopor, who had a nice win, several-minute interview.

So you should have timed it out better where you want to hear from Ben. They were over time because the walks were all a little bit pushed back. And they also had a factor in that this whole whatever, Fury, Joshua post-fight was going to be at least 20 minutes. of whatever that was going to be. But listen, the guy's making $15 million. You can make him earn it. Make him earn it. Make him talk.

I understand this. You don't want to hear, like, when I posted it on Twitter, I can't believe no post it. And everyone was like, I don't want to hear from him anyway. I don't want to, he's going to just talk nonsense. That's the whole point. That's why you signed him. You didn't sign him because we have our next future champion. You signed him to generate social media buzz to call out Ryan Garcia, Devin Hayney,

They want the cringe. We live in a cringe. We live in a cringe society. We want the cringe. We need that. Where's the cringe? I was like, I couldn't believe it. I love to know the reasoning behind that.

It was just very, very odd. But along those same lines, Progray retires after the fight in the locker room. Maybe, you know, if they didn't have a curfew or time, whatever, he could have done that inside of the ring. I think he'd have been nice. He definitely deserves that two-time world champion. Yeah, yeah, yeah, because it was pretty clear. He made his mind up. He kind of knew he wasn't going to, if I lose, I'm retiring.

It came right away. It wasn't no, like, hey, I'm going to go back to the drawing board. I'm going to, you know, think about, he retired right away. But Progray tells Chris Mannix, the rumors about me being hurt were true. I was terrified. I didn't know if I was going to hold up. Injuries to my right hand, eye, rib, and jaw. Said as recently as Friday, he considered pulling out of the fight.

Yikes. I mean, a lot of those injuries, though, like, fighters always have those. Like, the eye is very scary, you know, the eye. But, like, hands, I mean, rarely go into a fight with both hands healthy ribs. He's sparring, you're getting ready for fights, you know, the older guy, that stuff. The eye is very scary, though, because your eyes are hard to fix and going blind. He didn't mention his legs. His legs looked.

His legs were. Yeah, it was, it was, that was, I was worried for him in the first round. He got hit with, very end he had with a little right hand that, like, really grazed him, like, almost hit, like, below his ear. And his legs really just, like, almost went out. He caught himself. He never went down. But, like, yeah, he got grazed, and those legs looked really bad in the first round. The first half of the fight, he looked very unsteady.

I can't believe I bet Ben knockout. Well, you were almost right in the first couple rounds. It looked like it. I would have won. I certainly looked like it. When I was watching the first round, I was like, I was like, oh, Progres on Lassen, his legs are all over the place. Getting hit with, like, getting nicked by shots and his legs are going.

I'm like, oh, but then. And then Ben is just so bad. It's just had no precision. He's not even a good watch. No. No, it wasn't even fun to watch. No. You got a guy who was every, he's literally like being taped.

He's put together but duct tape, Regis Progrey. And he's a smaller guy. Everything was on the side of a pro-grade knockout. I mean, excuse me, of a Connor Ben knockout. And he still couldn't do it. I mean, a week, a week really expecting him to make 47 again? Well, he said he made 149. And he said, I could have just done 147.

I don't know, dude. He didn't look very good at 5th, at 49. What do you? 49 and a half. That's still another, listen, two and a half pounds at the end of a weight cut. is really not fun. That's tough, man. That's another two and a half pounds to get down.

And obviously, I mean, it looked like it affected him because he did not look physically strong either. It wasn't even the power. You know, the power has always been questionable. But the physicality, like, he's been explosive. He's been physically strong, and he did not look strong in there. He just didn't, he looked like he was like a waif. He seemed like the weight really took that physicality at him.

Whatever promotion that has represented Connor Ben next, because he is a free agent, they need to run to Ryan Garcia or any of the other champions, Devin Haney, Roli, Romero, Lewis, Walker. Get that pay out. Cash this guy out immediately because. But no, it doesn't matter. The money's gone. You're not making that $15 million back.

And plus all the buildup from his entire career. But he's getting up that big. He's number one with the WBC, which in hindsight, he's even more ridiculous now. That's the number one ranked welter rate in the world, according to Maricio Sulemon. You're a joke, WBC. Wild. Your green belt is a joke. Because he is not number one.

Because the welterweight division is actually pretty decent now. Dude, Brian Norman, Devin Haney, Roley Romero, Ryan Garcia. Pacquiao. All of those guys beat that guy on Saturday. All of them. He's, yeah, you might say that he's not going to get that type of money. but he's in the position to land Ryan Garcia. Ryan Garcia, that should be the next fight for Ryan Garcia.

Oh, he definitely wants it. He's dancing around Haney. He's dancing around Haney. He's dancing around other opponents. This summer. Whoever's representing Ben, whether it's Zufa still, whether he makes a deal with PBC or makes a deal with whoever Ryan Garcia is aligned with or it's straight through Turkey.

Ryan versus Connor Ben, give me that in September. It's not going to be Haney, which I really want. Massive target on his back. Ah, Haney would be. That would be. Wonderful. But yeah, a massive target on his back. I mean, everyone is licking their chops anywhere near and around that weight class.

Because he does represent eyeballs. He represents money. And you could be the guy to ice Connor Ben. And may possibly end his career. Because he's already got a loss. He obviously lost at 160. But you beat him at 47. It's like, all right, dude, you're not becoming a world champion.

He's not doing anything at 54. Where does he go? He's in a bad place because if he doesn't see. Because he doesn't seem like he can make 47 healthfully, healthfully, and be productive. And at 54, I don't see anything. Eddie made a good point. He was like, he should go back to 160. He looked better at 60.

He looked more, you know, he's healthier or stronger. But let's see what happens when he fights a guy at 60 who's, you know, healthy. Eddie had a good, must have been just laughing. Oh, Eddie was, he kept it, he kept it professional, very professional. I kept going to him, enough to think was smart. You had Eddie, Joshua Eubank, Jr. Mm-hmm. Who hates Eddie Hearn.

Yes. Yes, he does. What's the old... Famously. Enemy of my friend is my friend. My enemy... Yeah, enemy of my friend is my friend, yeah. That's what it was here.

Because, yeah, I hate you, Eddie, but you hate Connor Ben. And I hate Connor Ben. Let's have ourselves a hate watch. Let's light up a cigar. But I'll say this, though, even if Eddie did have... Ben still. He would be saying Ryan Garcia, you're next.

And they would make a boatload of money off of that. Is it out of sorts to even think that Eddie might sign Ben again and then make that fight? Is that a crazy thing? Well, one thing about these guys is they are businessmen first,

but this one does strike a little more to the personal side. They're arguing over, hey, I bought you a Rose Royce. No, you didn't. I bought you a house, Eddie says. No, I bought the house. Like, they're going deeper

than just the normal box. boxing stuff. No, nothing surprises me in the sport when it comes to the business side. I always say, if you're unhappy with your job or you're unhappy with any, just take their money. If you hate your job, take their money. Smile all the way to the bank. Right. Take their money. So if Eddie, if they come, I don't think they'd ever come back to him. I believe I saw something on Twitter where Dana White was asked to last night after the UFC event, you know, what's going on with Conner Ben. and he kind of intimated that he would be, they'd be signed long term.

I did hear some way off the record stuff about how the 15 million was front-loaded and it's really 15 million for two or three fights and they put up the 15 million up front so match room would have a harder time trying to match the rights to it. Sneaky. Heard that from a pretty...

Reputable source? Yeah, kind of like a lawyer in the boxing world. Don't give too much information, dude. Don't, don't out this. no, I'm not. Guy or lady. That's way off the record. But now on the record, because I said it on the podcast.

But I would expect Ben to be part of Zoufa. Yes. And as we've seen... That has been the expectation. Right. And as we've seen, Chris, if you're with Zufa, there's many tiers. And Ryan Garcia's last fight was a ring card promoted in unison with PBC and Sella and Riyadh. So Ryan Garcia versus Connor Bent can happen.

and if I'm Ryan Garcia, I'm pushing for that. If I'm Connor Ben's team, I'm running towards that. I've heard other things, but this could have changed because of Saturday in terms of what Ryan's doing next. I've heard other things. Was it Haney? I want Haney. I cannot divulge right now.

Well, come on, bro. But no, it's not Haney. Is it like a Golden Boy guy? No, I'm not giving any more information. I'm just saying it's not Haney. That's messed up, but things, things could have changed because of Saturday night. That was, as, as underwhelming as that fight was, there's ripples that are going to come through the sport because of it. Yeah, if I'm Devin Haney, I'm beating the door down to fight him.

There's no shot, Connor signs to fight Haiti. He's already said, oh, I'm out of fighting. He's going to run. Okay. But that's the reason. Yeah, that's the reason. That's why I wanted to hear him afterwards, just to hear him maybe come back down to Earth. Because off of that performance, how do you possibly bring up the name of Devin Haney,

Shakur Stevenson? Even Ryan Garcia, who you might not rate in the same level as those two I just named, I think would handle, I mean, potentially knock out Ben inside of eight rounds. Yeah, probably sooner. No, Ryan, yeah, Ryan, Ryan's levels, levels above. You know, he's, Ryan at this point is he's in that top rung of guys. I'm not saying he beats everybody. I honestly don't think he does, but he's in that top rung with those.

those top guys at Welterweight, the Haney's, the Ryan, the, even Brian Norman, I think he's still in the mix. Brian Norman and Ben, forget it.

That fight doesn't last either. Poor Lewis Crocker. Oh, he's another one. I bet you, Crocker would probably be the IBF champion. Yeah, yeah.

And they're like right there. That seems like an easy fight to make as well. Just the profile's not going to match what Ben is really looking for. No, no, I see, but there's a title.

There's a title. You want to be a champion? Well, I don't, like people were saying, I don't know if Conor Beck could be the Zufa champion. Even though he's not like a Zufa guy. Yeah, but they just signed a bunch of really tough guys.

Like Hitchens would box circles around. Yes, Hitchens. Honestly, I think he would... Julian Hammerhan? I was going to say, I think he struggles with Hammerhands. Tito Mercado apparently just left match for him. I bet you he's going to go to Zufa. You're not being that kid.

That kid's a stunt. Stanionis who hasn't fought in a year? That's actually a viable fight for Ben. Why would he ever do that? do that. I mean, if you're in that Zufa play around.

He's going to go Ryan Garcia or bust. He's the number one WBC. They can justify it there. Ryan's the WBC champion. You've got to price them out. Haney is still a name, but he's not as big as a Ryan fight.

I wonder if they would do it over in the UK or that would be like a Vegas fight. At this point, Ryan could definitely force it to be in the States. That would be sick in September. Once again, this is if Haney, Ryan, doesn't happen, which I've been on, and I think you would agree. That's the fight we both want to see next for Haney and Ryan is that.

It's, it's one of the biggest American fights that can be made. It's. Yes. So if we can't get Haney, Ryan, I think a, I would, a consolidation would be Ryan Garcia splattering Connor Ben. Consolation. What do I say? Consolidation.

Consolidation. Consolidate it. Consolidate Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia, and Connor B. Ben into one fight. Between you and Polly, the corrections I have to make with the terms that are used. Yeah, that's not good. My nickname should be thesaurus. And Polly's still fighting.

Yes, yes. And Polly is getting very... God bless his soul. The fight soon. It's a month away, I think. All right, so I got to talk about Polly for a second. This guy, I love him to death. He goes on, despite our longstanding beef.

There's no beef. There's no beef. Squashed. We squashed. in Orlando at a steakhouse a couple years back, or CompuBox beef. So Polly doesn't really tweet as much as he used to. He used to tweet during while calling fights, famously.

While he worked at Showtime, the guy was all over Twitter. He hasn't tweeted, and his last tweet was March 16th, and then before that was February 22nd. I mean, that's once a month. This guy was averaging 10 tweets every five minutes in like 2020. So he tweets out, Connor Ben is not, Connor Ben is not only not a two-weight world champion.

He's not even a one-weight world champion. Netflix trying to be taken seriously by the boxing mainstream and putting up a complete BS stats like this. It's exactly why they'll never be taken seriously. He then goes on Talk Sport with those guys over there. That's a pretty big. He was doing that prior to us going on air. I mean, screaming in the back.

He started slow. It was like a... Screaming in the Mount Mount Malinagi. He started calm. I was like, well, he's pretty calm. was very giving good analysis. Mount Vesuvius of Mount Malanaji. He was giving great analysis of fury, coherent, quiet,

wasn't cutting off the interviewer. I said, all right, this is actually cool because I'm actually hearing from Paul. And then he starts going off about this stat that Netflix supposedly put up about Ben being a two-time, a two-weight world champion. So I'm thinking in my head, like, there's no way.

I would have caught that too. And he's going crazy. And they're all, like, even the guys in the talk sport were like, I don't remember that. And Paul was like, I hope I'm wrong. So I went back to the broadcast on Netflix. You could just pull it right up. And they were talking about Nigel Ben. His father, famously, two-weight world champion, one of the best British fighters of all time.

That's the graphic. It's Nigel Ben, father, two-weight world champion. First one right there at the time. Paulie got a little hot. Because he said that, and I was like, they said that. I was watching it on my tablet in my room, and then I was watching it on my phone the last two rounds, whatever.

But I'm not looking at the graphics when I'm watching the fight, getting ready for a call a fight myself live. Polly obviously wasn't either because he didn't see what that actually said. But man, did that light him up? Yeah, he went off. This is so funny because it didn't happen.

Because he's crazy. He's getting ready for a fight. He's wild man. He is in full, feral mode for fight time, which, listen, we get like that. Yeah, he promoted, he plugged his fight to BKB. He's got a tough fight. Next month.

Got a tough fight. Really tough fight. Can't have it imagine. I think it's a six, six round or two, man. Six rounds of bare knuckle? Because it's a title fight. How many minutes is each round three? Six threes, man.

That's a long time. Ooh, baby. That's a lot. All right. Well, that is it for our episode. I am headed to Manhattan, New York City. Quick train ride for MVP fight week. Alicia Bumgardner steps into the ring.

Shadasia Green, a doubleheader on ESPN. Yeah, I was thinking about throwing some bets on that. I was thinking about it, but I don't know. That whole card, I was going to do a little parlay of all the ladies. But I don't know. But you bet women's boxing is a lot of chalk. Yeah, but like you can make, you can make little scrapes. Also, I made some good money on Fury going to distance with Macquar.

off, by the way. Damn it. Did you bet that? Yes, I did. Of course I did. Someone, a couple people tweeted at me. Both fights going to distance. Oh, big parlay.

Big parley. And then if you had Ben points, fury points, it was plus 1,400. Ooh, wow. I just thought Ben could have do it. You just let me down. You know what changed my mind, seeing Ben step on the scale. And we talked about that in the last five. Like, he just, he looked bad all week.

Even having the, it wasn't even the scale. When I saw him on Tuesday, and they had a, the press meeting on the top of the building where they were wearing parachute clothes for whatever reason. I'm looking at him like, that guy looks sucked out. And that's Tuesday of fight week. Wayans or Friday. That's when I thought, I was like, you know what, this could go to the distance. But you know what? You know what?

You know what made me think no? Because of how fragile Progray has looked his last couple of fights. Yes. That's what I was really, I was like, all right. It sounds like, ah, yes. Even if Ben is way drained, he's still going to be bigger. and Progray got dropped by Caterall and dropped by Haney.

And then Ben doesn't even put him down, which is, it just shows you, you know, what Ben is. But, and, and where he came from. But the, the Machbadov-Tyson fight, and I was, I don't know if I said this on this podcast, but I was definitely telling, telling my friends who were betting,

I was like, listen, when guys get older, the stoppages tend to go away. So I didn't. Especially Fury. It was not really a, no, it wasn't a big puncher anyway. And Mopanov, yeah, his chin's not great. He got knocked out by Guido Vianello.

You know, he got... See his neck? Yeah, he's a... He's a... He's a... He's a moose, man. He's a moose. But he's been stopped.

It's not like he's, like, super durable, you know? So, Cabayel knocked him out. Guido Villanello, who's not... I mean, I like Guido, but he's not at this level with these guys. He's not on the level of Tyson Fury. But still, I was like, I don't think Tyson stops him. And he didn't come even close to stopping him, so... No.

That was a good bet. I made nice money on that. I ever did that parlay with the two points. Good for you guys. I'm jealous. I think a Polly live bet the Ben decision after like three rounds. He was like, oh, no, which is a good one. Because you could see, you could see.

Once, like, Proger got out of like the danger zone of the first couple rounds, you're like, and you saw how ineffective Ben was. You're like, oh, this is probably going to go to this. Yeah, the Cuts come. Yeah, the Cuts definitely didn't help. But, yeah, that's a. Oh, also, Pontcher is going to be there this weekend with you over the MVP. Yeah. MVP's first show on ESPN.

Nice. It should be a pretty cool event. Friday night at 10.30 p.m. is to start, later start. That should be fun. I've been doing a lot of stuff with MVP this week. They got me up in the hotel, which is interesting. So I live on Long Island, but I'm going to be in the hotel all week because I don't want to go back and forth. Nice. Great. Yeah. I was like, 75 and sunny all week long.

Whoa. I'm having myself a New York. City Week. I'm going to go to Central Park. Let me go for a run in the park. No, I'm not going to do that. Yeah, I was going to say, you're not doing it. Drop three and a half pounds. Whoa. Since when? Last week.

Nice. Tread, incline treadmill. Fat burning. Okay. Fat burning mode. Zone 2? No sugar. We're doing zone 2? No sugar, no carbs, and then I don't eat until about noon. Simple. Nothing crazy. I mean, a little late in the season for your car. Cut, but okay, it's whatever.

No, I just want to buy for my next birthday, which is June 19. You got a nice pool where you live now, right? Yeah, pools aren't open yet, but they are putting out furniture. Yeah, but that's why the diet starts in February, not April, dude. I'll be good. I'll be good. I'll be fine. You're banking on the Canobio jeans, but listen, buddy, you're getting older, man.

You're getting older. It takes a little longer. Takes a little longer. Feeling like Connor been on the scale. I'm not ready for it. All right, we'll see you later in the week for another. episode of Inside Boxing alive uh check yourselves at all times keep your hands up at all time stay out those dms we're out