The Ariel Helwani Show - Inside Boxing | Vasiliy Lomachenko ends retirement, Keyshawn Davis returns against Nahir Albright, latest at heavyweight

Episode Date: May 14, 2026

Dan Canobbio and Chris Algieri kick off the show discussing Ring Magazine’s report of Vasiliy Lomachenko coming out of retirement for “massive fights. Could it be a Shakur Stevenson showdown or perhaps a fight with Gervonta Davis? Why is Lomachenko returning; money grab or does he legitimately want to achieve more (09:53)? Keyshawn Davis returns to the ring against Nahir Albright in a fight that Davis admits he did not even want. Who could Davis fight next if he is victorious (33:50)? Lastly, top-rated heavyweight Filip Hrgovic takes on upset-minded Dave Allen this weekend in the UK which leads to a broader discussion around the heavyweight division – could we see Hrgovic in the ring with phenom Moses Itauma this summer (48:48)?

And welcome back. It's another episode of Inside Boxing, represented by ppv.com, an association with Uncrowned and the Yahoo Sports Network. I'm Dan Cunabio. He is Chris Algeria coming to you from Manhattan Beach, California. I'm here for this Netflix MMA card on Saturday night, which should be pretty damn interesting. So I had a pretty interesting last couple of days out here. Chris is home. I want to be in my bed, but I'm happy. happy to be out here, bringing you another great episode of inside boxing. Dan, you got a, you got to strike with Iron's hot. You got a big, M.A. fight this weekend. Very, very cool. Netflix, big deal. Gina Carrano. Ronda Rousey.

Got Diaz. He got, yeah, it's, it's fun, man. Enjoy it. Enjoy it. Francis and Ghanis. Francis, who I thought we were going to see in a boxing ring. We've seen him back in an MA cage. That's a, that's a little.

surprising, but nonetheless, I'll be watching. You'll be on TV. It's a good thing. Yeah. I think there's like some type of live watch party that I'll be doing Saturday night. We're working out the details there. Could be, could have a very big co-host. The last couple of days have been crazy. There's a golf course attached to this hotel. I was going to say, explain this house situation. I keep seeing it on on, on the socials. We'll get to that. I don't, I can't, I'm not getting my, I'm not understanding. That's, Okay. We'll get to that.

We'll get to that. I'm going chronological order. I get here. It's a very nice hotel in Manhattan Beach. For those you who don't know, Manhattan Beach. Awesome. Oh, it's awesome. There's a par three golf course attached to the hotel.

So obviously, me and three of the guys of MVP, we had a moment on Tuesday to play real quick. Go out there, par three, about 140 yards, grab my six iron. Go up there, strike it. Ball, an inch over the cup. I missed a whole one by that much. An inch. I would have been, I probably would have quit this job.

Going right to the PJ. Anyone and everyone. Or just telling everyone and everyone. Because that was, there was Tuesday and then Tuesday night, I go to the Dodger game with our uncrowned friends. Ariel Hulani. Can't say I'm not jealous.

That sounds like a, like a fun time. That was great. Casey, who edits our podcast, wonderful people, you know, all,

True. The Frank was not there or audio guy. That really pissed me off because the only reason I came was to see Frank didn't show up. So that was Tuesday was a jam-packed day of a lot of activities. Getting the Dodger Stadium was not easy from Manhattan Beach. No, getting a Dodger Stadium was not easy from Dodge Stadium parking lot. It's not easy no matter what. There's always traffic in every direction at all times. Horrible. Horrible. When I got there, Ice Cube bobblehead night, sold the to a guy for 50 bucks. I was going to say, did you get one and you sold it? You're, you're a... Yeah, I don't give a shit about Ice Cube. He's not a Yankee?

He's a freaking Dodger. It's a guy goes, yo, I'll give you $50 for that bobblehead. I said, here. The guy zeld me and everything. Boom, gone. And yesterday was the house. Everything so far sound really good. You just miss a hole in one.

You go to a Dodger game with a bunch of cool colleagues. You sell a bobblehead for 50 bucks that you got for free. This is all shaking out to be a really good week. Okay, now we're going to the fight house, which that's what the question gets wacky and wild. We have this MVP fight house

that they put together all these influencers, streamers. There's a kid who's 19 who sells mortgages and has like a million followers. There's a guy, Doug Baldwin,

who just blew up in the last week who makes these crazy videos wearing a Paranger belt. There's all sorts of characters at this house. None of which, like, no fighting, no anything,

had never been to a fight. A few of them have. And we did a 12-hour stream yesterday and there's just a camera guy just following you at all times he's got a backpack on it's going out to kick it's it's 12 straight hours of us going to the house on unbelievable house on manhattan beach uh walking along the beach going to get sandwiches getting in the van going to the open workout hanging out the open workout i nailed the three in front of everyone i'm kind of an athletic guy um that's it's very clear on this trip home one nailed the three on the stream

12 hours of streaming. I wanted to say one thing about the streaming life. It looks easy. It's kind of hard. It's a lot of being on. It's a lot of thinking about what you're going to say. It's a lot of, if I say the wrong thing, that could be the end of me. But some people might like it.

Well, apparently in terms of the comments, yeah, they probably would like to get rid of you. Yeah, I know. That streamer life is an entirely different organism. I did an MMA show, and I was calling with some streamers. It was like a charity thing for Wendell. Warriors or veterans or something like that. It was veterans. But yeah, yeah, I had to make sure every room I walked into.

I was like, oh, we are we on this thing? Because I don't want to be on it. Get me, get me into a different room. You don't need to be seeing me eat my food before I going out. You know, I was going in spurts. Yeah, because you can, you're not, you're not. You're not, you're not, the camera's not on you. I'm not the main attraction.

They're not, I'm not the main attraction. There's, I know who's the star. There's a couple stars of this thing. I'm not the main attraction. I'm not, you know, I am on the flyer next to Jake and I'm next to area, but I'm not the main attraction. So I'd go out to the beach and I just, you know, put some music on sit by the beach. I go outside. I walk around and then I snipe into the house, say a few lines, you know, rip off a few jokes, leave again, come back in, snipe in.

Snipe in, and then that old man status. Like, kind of like, you know, towards the end of your career, you weren't throwing a hundred punches around. Actually, I was. Kind of were. But yeah, you were. This is not a bad example. Some fighters that go in there, like, pack you out, he stopped throwing 70 around. He's down 40. He became, he became, he, he became, I got to know my limitations. You know, he became a sniper. I come in, I say a joke, I come in a nil3, I'm in and out. You know what I mean?

Today is going to be kind of crazy because Rampage Jackson is showing up to the house. He's all over kicked these days. I can't, I can't scroll. Bro, he's the number five streeter in the world. Good for him. Good for him. Yeah. He's kind of sad. Kind of.

Like, a lot of his videos are him. It's him usually big dogging people and attacking people and making people feel stupid and almost slapping people. So, yeah, yeah, that's, have fun, Dan. He's been doing a lot. lot with Adrian Brunner. Dean the Great. Yeah, Adrian Brunner has seen better days. Yeah, man, I actually feel for him. I hope whatever he's going through, he's figuring out, and this can help him kind of kick him along because apparently he's been in a bad way financially, but now apparently he's making some money on kick. Yeah, this could be the beginning of something good for him or the beginning

of the end. We don't know how this is going to play out. But yeah, today should be interesting. We got the press conferences. Obviously, I'm here for MVP in their MMA stuff. It's cool to be part of the MMA world, much different than the boxing world, but still combat nonetheless. They still have their open workouts. We have a press conference. We have a way in. Same skeleton. It is hand-to-hand. Yeah. Same skeleton. I'm really looking forward to this Nate Diaz versus Nick Mike Perry fight. I think it's going to be a banger. Yeah. And right now on Fandle, you can get Perry minus 2.30 favorite, but the bet I like here is the fight to end via

TKO or KO plus 150. So what does that make D.S. in terms of the underoff? What's his line? I don't have it right in front of me, but he is, it's not that wide. It's the closest line of all the fights.

In Gano's a minus 2,000 favorite. Rousey's a big favorite. Because I can see Nick catching him a submission. I don't think Nick is going to try and stand the whole time with Perry Nate, excuse me. I don't think Nate is going to stand try and stand the whole time. He's going to stand some because he's just a dog. But Perry's tough

on the feet, especially with the hands. Perry's 34. Yeah, it's a big difference too. Youngest guy in the main car. He's not young? Man. 34, he's been around for a while. Nate is 41. I just met him for the first time. I thought he was my age. Did you see Nate? He rolled up to the

workout yesterday, lit up a joint, tried to fight the cameraman. Yeah, not like... Play fight. Not like an aggressive way. It was like playing with the camera against, Shadowbox, smoked a blunt, dapped up Michael Irving, and then left.

That's awesome. He's beloved here. He's beloved in California. Southern California, he's the man. I think he's the man everywhere, but the whole rolling up and rolling up a joint or lighting up a joint, that's, I mean, doesn't,

then you do that at the press conference and pretty much, that's his whole thing at this point. Yeah. That's just, that's, but he could also still, But, again, I would not be surprised if he pulls the submission out on Saturday because he's still a very dangerous guy. Yeah, I think Rousey's going to win.

I think she's going to win by submission, which is minus 210 on Fendl, which I think it's like stealing. I think it's going to be really quick. Yeah. Yeah, and then Nate and Mike, I think will be one of the better fights in the main card. Ingano should stop Lin's, I'm Jr. D' Santos opening up the card. What a noggin that guy's got. Big nugget. He's a, he's a killer, man.

He is, who's he fighting? Yeah. Good question. I don't have that in front of me. I'm going to do my homework for that. I'm going to do my homework for that. Listen, this is a boxing podcast, and there's some people right now listening like, Dan, Chris,

can you guys please get to the boxing? This is a boxing pod. So in between all the streaming yesterday, I did put together some notes for our episode today, and I'm very excited to do that. Some news that came out of kind of left field, Vasily Lomachenko, according to Ring Magazine, is coming out of retirement.

He is 38 years old. He last fought in May, 2024, when he stopped George Cambosos. He apparently waited out his top rank deal. Apparently, it ended that day. And then the report went out. So he sent sent on that text right at the stroke of midnight when that top rank contract expired. He's coming off some injuries, obviously up there in age, but still look good when he was

able to stop George Camposos in 2024. A lot of questions about this. I would say, Chris, I'm mildly. excited about Vasily Lomachenko coming back to boxing. Yeah, I'm more than mildly excited, but I am not surprised at all, at all, not even a little bit. Because the amount of money that's going around, the name recognition that he has, the fact that he went out on a high, on a high note, he's a guy who's stayed in shape his whole life. I'm sure he's still in pretty good shape.

This doesn't surprise me one bit. It makes a ton of sense. do we see him still stay? Do we see him exit on a win? I don't know about that, but we're going to see him fight on. And in his Lomanchanko, he's the Matrix. He's one of the most entertaining fighters in recent memory

in terms of my eyes, of my generation. He's a special, special talent. I put him up there with guys in terms of being different, like a Nazim Ahmed, like a Roy Jones Jr. Guys, you just can't mimic. Guys that you watch your stuff, even many pack out. He's on that level as well.

You can't mimic the way that those guys fight, and Lomachenko's one of those guys. So him coming back to the sport, pretty cool. He's also something of a lightning rod in the boxing world. I know that you're not as online as I am, but I'm sure you hear some of the things. There are a lot of people out there that believe he was a creation of HBO. Obviously, damn good fighter.

We're not going to sit here and say he wasn't. He's a two-time gold medalist. One of the best amateur fighters ever, won a world title in his, what, second fight? And had an unbelievable second or third fight. Within five fights, the guy was a world champion fighting top opposition. But there are some people out there that I believe, oh, this guy was a creation of HBO marketing. Later on ESPN marketing, he was pushed way more than some other fighters at top rank because of his sublime skills and his whatever, whatever the case may be.

He was more marketable than some of the other fighters at top rank. So, and especially later on in his career when he dropped those close decisions to Femot Devin Haney. You know, he's look at him. He's overrated. I don't care that he's back. He's one of the most overrated, overhyped fighters. This is some of the things that I see. I don't necessarily agree with that.

I think he's somewhere in the middle. He's had a lot of accomplishments. Didn't reach the lofty, lofty goal that he had is undisputed at lightweight. And that's only because of that really, really close fight with Devin Haney. But he's damn good. But he's also a lightning rod. And that's a good thing in boxing because more people are going to want to get eyeballs on you. But I couldn't agree with you more that this is, he doesn't want to fight with top brick anymore,

because top rank is attached to Zom. And we know that there's now an amazing amount of Saudi money in the sport, which is essentially now Zufa. So I'd not be surprised if this is a Zufa signing, a Turkey Al-Sheikh shining, a Riyadh signing, whatever you want to do. It's not going to be top rank, obviously. So he only wants massive fights to it in this fall. Chikor Stevenson retweeted it with a fire emoji. That's the fight. I believe they should be targeting.

But is it going to be at 135 or is it going to be at 140? Well, it should be at 135, but it probably won't. It will probably be at 140. It depends on where, like I said earlier about, you know, this guy stays in shape. It depends on what kind of shape he really stayed in. He's a small guy. That's what I mean. Like, he should be fighting at 130, but there's no.

No one at 130. No one. Listen, no, there's guys, but not at the level that he's talking about. Navarante, for, yeah, I, let's give, let's give some, some props to the 30-pounders. But you know, yeah, let me rephrase it. There's no massive fights at 130. So it's got to be a 35, which is why he was fighting at 35 to begin with, because he still could have made 1-130 then. And if, so who's going to force that 35?

Would it be Shakur? No, he doesn't have to force anything. You can, you know, he. he would... It could be at 140 for the ring belt on a ring card. If Choucour wants to be more... You know, just fight up 40.

But does Loma take that? I don't know. It depends who's going to have the negotiating power there. You're the guy who's coming back, but you do have the name. But Chikor is riding as high as he's ever ridden. That's what I mean. There's going to be a lot of negotiating power. The leverage there is probably going to be towards Chacor, I would think.

Should be. Even though Loma is this name coming out of retirement, but he's still coming out of retirement. I'd like it to be at 35. It should be a 35. But I'm not sure that's going to happen. So then we could see Shakur-Stev versus Lomachenko at 140 pounds. So now we're pushing Lomachenko to 140 when he's a guy that should be fighting at 130.

But he's up there in age. I'm not going to say he's going to look horrible one for you. We're not looking at a guy that's coming back to reclaim all these titles. I look at it as a money thing. and let me just make some more money off of my name. I don't think he needs the money. I haven't seen anything out there saying that he's struggling in that way. He is a very prideful guy that it has told you time in and again that he doesn't fight for money.

He fights for the accolades. And I kind of believe that from him. But I'm just curious what his motivation is to come back at this point. Is it strictly money? Because that's not the best thing for a fighter to come back for. Does he want to try to knock off an Ayesha-Corp-Stevenson? Because I honestly don't think he could win that fight. So I'm just curious if it's just curious.

just a money thing, then, you know, I'm not going to fault him because every fighter is going to do that and deserves to do that, especially when you have the name of Liffisirio-Olachenko. And even if it is just a money thing, there's nothing wrong with that. We're prize fighters. We're talking astronomical money, guys. You know, people are like, ah, doing it for the money. Yeah, okay. We're talking, we're talking seven figures. We're not talking six. We're not, we're talking eight figures. Eight figures is, is life-changing generational money. And just, And just because of timing, you missed this window, which is open now. We don't know how long it's going to be open for.

Makes total sense. If I was younger, I would do it too. I'm not. I'm not in the age range that it's worth it for me to come back and do it. But for Lomachenko, who retired pretty recently, came off a big, a loss and has the name that he has. Yeah, I think it's a no-brainer. Yeah, he's 38. He's not like, you know, like a 42, 43-year-old guy that's trying to get back in there.

I'm just curious because he's also, he's been linked to Jarvanta Davis. That fight was like basically done before he just abruptly retired. So I wonder, I mean, we're just assuming that it's ring. We're assuming that it's Ufa. We're assuming that it's Shakur Stevenson. We just know it's not going to be the top rank thing. I would say, I would put it at like 15% that he would go and fight

for Jvanta Davis under a PBC fight. Yeah. 15 is even generous. I don't see that. I don't see it going any other way with Zufa because of the amount of, if you're noticing all these big signings that are happening, they're big, they're really big. And the money's the money that's being thrown out, it's huge. So why go anywhere else in pigeonhole yourself?

What's going to be the end of your career anywhere else, except for, you know, where the big money's at. And like I said, but this window's open now. We don't know, you never know how long this window is going to be open. Every once in a while, we get this big fish who comes in, you know, at one point, it was PBC and it was Al, and there was big money attached to it. and then it dwindled down and became another promoters. Match room, when they first came to the U.S., the billion-dollar deal, same situation. And now you have Zufa coming in.

I think Zufa's probably got more legs than they have, obviously deeper wallets, and the money that's throwing out is a lot bigger. But again, you still don't know how long it's going to last, and everything can change. The world is a bit in turmoil at the moment, so a lot of things can change really fast. So might as well go where the money's at, baby, because we are prize fighters. So would you agree that Javanta is very,

very low on that list. I think we're going to get Javanta back. I do think we're going to get him back at some point. I just don't know when in the foreseeable future that happens. I would actually like a... I think it's a more winnable fight for Loma

over Javanta, considering his time off out of the rings. No question. Size matters. They're way closer in size. Both inactive. Javanta has coming off. That's what I mean. It's still a big money fight for

Loma, if he wants to go that route, but it's not as big as the Zufu offer. Mentally, because Lomachenko is no Moshchenko, mentally, Shikor is a much more difficult fight. It's hard to break. I've never seen Shikor break. Never seen Shikor bend. We've seen Shikor bent. We've seen Javanta break. We've seen him bend.

At least bend. And that's where Loma has his best asset is the psychological advantage that he takes advantage of guys. So, yeah, I agree with you. That's way more winnable. winnable of a fight against Chautonta than Chacore. Those are the two massive fights because I'm only coming back for massive fights. So I think of Chacore.

I think of Javanta, even though he's not an active fighter, but he still is a big name. There's Keishon Davis who's fighting this weekend at 140. I don't think that's likely. There's Richardson Hitchens at 140 who would be a nightmare for him. And also not a massive fight. At 135, that's not going to... That's correct. You're right.

Yeah. that's another thing too what they do are these ring they are Zufa's not are they recognizing yeah so I had a long conversation

about this with a couple guys and some managers there's different rungs and how they were signed certain guys that are getting signed are going to be able to fight pretty much sure if they want it's not like the league guys

like Ben's not a league guy Hitchens isn't a league guy you know you know but right you talked to I just saw Lance write a story on it there's different rules it's a multi

multi-tiered system and I don't don't want to hear anyone to bring up Naya Inouye's name when it comes to Shikor. Because I saw a few rumblings of that. I'm like, what do we do? 130? So like 38-year-old Flomacheco's boiling down to 130 and then Inouye is going to shoot up to 130 from 122. If Turkey, if the bag is big enough, I mean, we're living in this world.

I don't know if Iowa does that. I don't know if I would, because he's not. Yeah, you know, he's making just enough money on zone. What is just enough? The guy is making boatloads. You know, that last fight was ridiculous. Just enough. Ridiculous pay to his last fight.

But also, he's another one. Like Lomachenko says he doesn't do it for the money. Naya, he doesn't do it for the money. He's a goddamn warrior king. That's all he cares about. So, yeah, that's, that's his role. He's not, he's not here, he's not an entrepreneur. He is a, he is a fighter.

And I don't know, I think that's, I think it's an unrealistic thing for him to think he could just jump, you know, to go. But then again, you got an opportunity to fight a legend. Yeah, see, there's that. I'm just curious, like, is Loma coming back to, like, get a crazy big win? Like, Sugar Ray Lanner came back and beat Marvin Hagler. I mean, that would be the goal, everything. Obviously, never going to be that. I think so.

I think it's a little bit of both. I think he wants to obviously make a bag, and he also has a lot of pride. We know that about Vizalia Lomachenko. So if you could do that, but with the Chikor fight. A rematch with Tio. It certainly could happen under Zufa banner because I believe Zufa will be signing Tijuana soon and potentially Devin Haney.

Rematch with Tio, that's a big fight. And that's one that Loma could win. I'm not saying he would. You know, obviously Tio won the first fight. I think he's the only guy who, like, hands down beat Loma. Yeah, that's very realistic. And Loma being the guy that he is, we talk about,

he doesn't do it for the money. What is he doing this for? To get that lick back. Oh, that's it. That's what's happening. All right. So there's four now. There's four names in this.

There's Chaucor Stevenson. There is Jervanta Davis. And there, no, it's three names. And then there's T. Fima Lopez. I would rank it that way. Yeah, I think it's Shakur. I think Shakur, sending out that fire emoji

is letting everyone know what his next fight's going to be. And it's for the, at 140, for the, ring magazine title. You're saying you think it's going to be that, but like, what's the incentive for Loma there? To knock off pound for pound top five guy who no one else could beat? I mean, he's not going to be undisputed. So I think he needs to rearrange his goals and say I just beat the best.

This is the best win of my career. What does he? What? It came to 38 years old. What does, what is Loma seeing in in Chikor in Chikor style? No, no, no. Green. What is he seeing in Chikor's style where he goes, you know what?

Like how jinky packed you out, watch Barrios and go, you know what? You know what, Pop? You can beat that guy. What does Loma see in Chikor style where he looks at that and goes? I can take advantage of this. I don't think Loma's wife is seeing that. I'm sure she knows her boxing. I'm sure she does too.

I'm more. Because he'd be a big favorite, Chikor. I'd say three to one favorite. in that fight. All right. That's one of the biggest news stories of the week in the boxing world. We have some fights this weekend. We have Keishon Davis versus Nahir Albright.

It is Top Rank's first show on DeZone. This is a rematch from 2023, which is a majority decision win for Keishon Davis that later got changed to a no decision. After a failed drug test for marijuana, which is insane that we're doing that still. This is 2026. Nate Diaz has been smoking pot. all over California and all over the place. This was in Texas, though, where they don't mess around.

Albright then went on and beat Kelvin Davis in June 2025. It was a little bit of a grudge match before the Davis brothers allegedly jumped him in the dressing room backstage. That was a big to do. That was probably the worst week of Keishon Davis' life between missing weight, getting kicked out of his hometown arena after jumping an opponent of his brother. It was horrible. Arbright then came back and fought to a draw with Frank Martin. That was in February of this year.

And then he sang after, which was kind of cool. I liked that. There's a lot of things here. He's a big time favorite in this fight. Kishon Davis, a minus 1450 favorite. He told our friend Sean Zettel that he didn't even want to fight Albright. I wanted to fight someone tougher, which isn't the best selling point for this fight. Yeah, Kishon, he's a little raw in his marketing.

in the way that he's a little too, too honest, I should say. I do too, but... I'm sure top-ranked people were like, what the hell? You got a cell fight. And I think that's something that you learn as you go. He's still just like, he's got the warrior hat on, the warrior helmet. He's just, you know, I was like, ah, this guy ain't it.

Watch what I do to him kind of thing. Because that's kind of the mentality he brings to it. He hasn't learned the finer things of like how Floyd Mayer that would say everybody he fights is great. Because then once he dominates him, it's like, yeah, well, the guy was great. We all agreed. We agreed. We agreed. He was great. Well, I smoked him. What do you think about me? kind of thing.

Or if you tell everybody that they suck and then you beat them, it doesn't make you look as good. But Kishon's young, he can learn this. But I will say this about the Nahir al-Bai fight. This is a sneaky good fight.

The first fight was the toughest fight Kishon's ever had as a pro. A lot of people forget that. They forget. It was a majority decision. It probably wasn't really that close, but Nahir had really good

close to that fight. He clipped, he clipped Kishon with a good right hand that had him thinking twice a little bit. and the last couple rounds you could you could have given tonight here and made the fight pretty pretty close one of the judges had it a draw i didn't have it that close but this was the toughest fight of young kishan's career so this is not a walkover by any means good a point uh he out albright outlanded davis 38 to 33 over the final three rounds davis there you go davis um outlanded albright

in this fight you know um albert threw more punches i mean it's just kind of like kind of like kind of feels like a little bit of a manufactured type of fight, manufactured type of beef here with the brothers in Albright and then Davis going back to Virginia in the same arena. Can maybe exercise some of those demons there because I do agree that was the low point of his career. I can't even debate that. So now they're kind of drumming up something here with Albright. And I agree with Davis.

This is not who we want to see him in there with. No offense to here, Robert, and happy for him. Seems like a great guy, a great kid. and he's a, I think he's a nurse on the side, and he's fighting at the same time, and he's got some great wins to get these paydays. But we wanted, you know, Kishar Davis was bringing up pretty much every name under the sun, besides Chaucor Stevenson, because that's his buddy. He's brought up Connor Ben.

He's brought up fighting T. Afima. He's brought up fighting anyone at 140 now, and he's looked phenomenal in that last win. He's just probably one of the best fighters today that needs to get back into the line line. He's not getting, he's 27 years old, which is kind of shocking. Because you think of Kishan Davis, you're like, all right, this guy's right out of the Olympics, and he's still a kid, and he's that guy that's smiling, and he's going to make a run. 27. Like, this is where he needs to really get serious here.

So I could kind of understand where he's coming from, where it's like, you know what, this isn't exactly the name I want. But he's back with top rank, and they're back on the zone, and there seems to be a little more stability with top rank and who they're putting in the ring with. I agree to a point, but I'm also going to push back a little bit because of, you know, where he's at. Because you look at the fighters that he's fought as a other cool fight, they're not above Nahir.

Because the Nihir he fought, you know, five, five fights ago is a different guy than he is now. This guy beat his brother. He, for all intents of purposes, be Frank Martin. Got a draw. Frank Martin's former World Champion 135 is, you know, that's a big win. He's a different guy now. He's entered a different sphere and based on the fact that he actually gave Kishon

trouble. I actually think it's a good fight. But in terms of, you know, the guys that Kishon has been calling out. I want to see him in with those guys too. I actually think he beats most of those guys that he mentions. He is that good. But he hasn't crossed over that threshold yet. So this fight doesn't, it doesn't throw me off because of the quote-unquote level of the guy. Because Germain Ortiz, like, is Germain really that much ahead of Albright? I don't know. But can you do what you did to Germain to Albright? We'll see. You know, Brancheck, I don't think that, I didn't really

think that much of Berensh to begin with. Lamos, forget him. He's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he has turned into it. Bump. Missed weight. And Medueno, who we just saw get destroyed by that new Argentinian kid, you know, he went to distance with him. He said he was super strong. Padraza was old and long in the tooth by the time he beat him. So I don't know.

I think this is actually a good logical step if he's not over that threshold yet. Because. Yeah, it's almost like Keishan, you've got to, you know, make right this wrong. Not necessarily the fight because I thought he won. Yeah, I thought he won going over. way. Yeah, everything around it. Like, all right, the cloud over this fight is a no decision, the cloud over that, the fact that what happened last time, and now we're going to go right back there. Then after this, we'll get it. That's like a top rank thing. You got to prove yourself.

You know, they kind of like, yeah, and now top rank is, this is the first fight under the zone, and they got some stability. That's the word that I've heard from a lot of tap break people when I saw them at the boots and the boots and Zias press conference. So, I mean, now they're back. They got a network or streaming service or a broadcaster in Dazon, and it's not, all right, Kishon's going to go fight on a ring card where it's kind of out of their decision-making, and it's kind of like a licensing thing. So now they got keys. They ring them in a little bit, and you're going to fight Albright.

You're going to get this win, and then you can look to some of the names at 140, and it's not going to be Chaucor's to use as we know that. Dalton Smith, Aberuelo, D'Lon Smith, Cuirolo, Donald Smith, got hurt. Hitchens. I don't see Kishon calling out Hitch. It's just a weird position that he's in Davis because these are fights that want to see him in, but he's got his sight sets on like bigger. He wants to just be, well, so kind of like jump the line a little bit, even though I think he's like one of the most talented fighters. I love the way he fights. I love that killer mentality he had in the 11th and 12th round. And in that last fight, um,

against Jermaine Ortiz. But got to win this one first. Big time favorite. about crossing that threshold. He hasn't done that yet. And like if you're going to have a fight before you cross over the threshold, I think this is worthy because it is, it's not an easy fight. This is one of the tougher fights you can get with a guy who isn't super well known. Yeah. He's a spoiler. He's a banana peel for 100%. They ask his brother. He beat, he literally beat his brother. So, you know, and that wasn't supposed to happen. This, this, this, this, the, you're can fight. So, yeah, I know, and I agree with you. I agree with him. I want to see him in with those big names. But, you know, top rank has a certain way of operative.

operating, which annoys a lot of fighters sometimes because they want to be at the tip top all the time. But, you know, their system works, put it that way. I'm curious how it's going to look. I don't think anything's going to look different on the broadcast in terms of like how top rank being on the zone. It's not going to have that ESPN look to it. It's not going to have Joe Tessator. It's not going to happen on a Rosuna. I believe it's going to be the same crew from the zone of a Todd Grishamannix and Sergio Mora. with that. So that's a little interesting nugget here is with Top Brink on the Zone, how it looks and the presentation of it.

A promoter that has been attached to basically two networks for the last 30, 40 years, HBO, then ESPN. So now they're in the streaming era. Bob Aram did a story with Lance Pugmire that, you know, it's funny because he called it Dead Zone. And he's talked so much shit about the Zone. And now here they are. getting into his own premiere. The classic generational gap, right?

And I think, Dan, we do it too. Like, new things come along. We're like, ah, and then we're like, yeah. Streaming. Okay, streaming's it. It's the classic generational gap that, that occurs with these technological advances

that are happening. Yeah, you can't, you know, like when my dad or my dad's friends, you know, they were asking about the last couple of fights and I told them it was going to be on a streaming platform, they were like, Dazzin? What the hell is that?

But it's, it's, It's the future, man. It's where we're at. And that's just the way it is. And Bob's not dumb. Bob's also, as long as he's been in this game and obviously he's in his 90s, as old as he is, no disrespect. He's actually pretty flexible and he's adaptable, which is amazing, which is why he's still around. So he's adapting.

Brian Norman is also on this card. He returned. So the first time since the Devon Hian, he lost, got a trainer and running shields. Good, good. Yeah, Brian Norman. Norman? Who is he there for? First fight without his dad in his corner, or I don't know, early on in his career,

but first time in a while. He's hired Ronnie Shields. He's facing Josh Wagner, who's a 19-2 welterweight from Ontario, Canada. Another wide, wide favorite is Norman. And I wonder how Norman can bounce back because he's still ranked pretty highly. Ring Magazine has him number two at welterweight,

which couldn't be argued. He got undressed in that Devin Haney fight. It was a lot of hype heading into it, a lot of chatter, and he got knocked down, and then he got pretty thoroughly handled there. So a humbling experience that had him fire his dad as trainer, which I kind of like the move. I think that's a really hard thing to do.

But I'm still hot in Norman. I think he's still got that power, and he's still young. Like, he was the under 25? Yeah, he was the youngest world champion for a little bit. bit there. So yeah, he's, I'm also still very high on him. I think, I think he has a lot left to get to the sport. I think that taking some time is not a bad idea from his, you know, from that loss to Haney that we were talking about. So he's coming back six months later. I think that's enough time to kind of chill, relax, understand that you lost your title.

And now it's time to get back on the horse and, and make some noise. What can we expect with Shields? You know, I don't know. Shields is a good offensive coach. But Norman, I don't think offense is really the issue with him. I think him it's more about getting a little more consistent with the jab. Because Norman, one thing about Norman, yes, he has power. He can punch. He's got very good timing.

Very, very good timing. He's very good at punching with you and finding the big shot. That's one of the best things that has been most impressed about watching him as he's ascended to the point where he's been recently. Because before that, I didn't see a whole lot of all that. I just saw I'm kind of dealing with guys that he should be beating. but once he stepped up to the highest level, you saw that world-class timing was there, and he has good power.

But there's gaps, and that's where Haney was able to fill in the time and take control of the fight. At the highest level, you can't have gaps like that. You can't just wait and look for openings and use your good timing to land guys, because they'll use all beat rhythm, just like Devin did.

So I would like to see him have a little bit more of an established jab. And that's something we could see with Ronnie, if Ronnie has enough time to put in the time to get him to utilize that jab offensively, I think it's there. Yeah, I'll be watching. I'll see what Norman's guy, because I still think he can make noise at Walterweight. It's a very, very top-heavy weight class that has Ryan Garcia as a champion.

Devin Haney still doesn't have anything on the docket here. We're into May. And Devin Haney has no fights. It's absolutely crazy. Stanion is still wing third, crazy. Roley, number five, and in the bottom half is a lot of names that we're not 100, boxing fans aren't 100% familiar with. So I think Norman can make some noise. And that is on DeZone this Saturday, also on DeZone this Saturday.

Philip Hergevik is fighting Dave Allen. They're calling it Dave versus Goliath. I don't understand this fight whatsoever. Is this just to stay busy, like, let's make Hergavik look good before he fights Moses Atama? this summer, it's just mind-boggling that Dave Allen is getting into the ring with... I got some behind-the-scenes info. It's not really behind the scenes. If you look into the details are there.

Ergovich is a Keith Connolly disciple, and David Allen is loved by Eddie Hearn. So you've got a little bit of a little fight on the way out of the door. But Eddie's going to go home unhappy. He's not going to go home saying, we got Connolly, we got him. He's getting his guy paid. He's getting David Allen a good payday. Yeah.

And listen, the guy, it's wild. The guy pulls off the win. Now you double. You know, you got your guy a fight. You're going to get him another payday, and he gets the win. But yeah, yeah, he's probably not going to get the win, but you're getting your guy paid. You're getting, like, would you see David Allen being in this level of fight at this point? Otherwise, no.

No. Exactly. That's what I mean. So you're getting a guy an opportunity to get paid on a big show. And David Allen's a guy. kind of guy. He looks like he's there for a good time. You know, like he's, he's having, he's having, he's a wildman. He's got, he's a wild man. He told Ariel Hawani that he pisses in the sink. Yeah, that, what, what was the context of that? Just like, a daily,

pisses in the sink, daily? What are we doing here? I don't know. I don't think I've ever pissed to the sink. I've definitely pissed in some sinks. One of the greatest feelings. Not on, not on a regular, not on a regular occurrence. Put that on a t-shirt, clip that out. Clip that out. Yeah, that was kind of, crazy to see Dave Allen say, I piss and sinks. And I think it was the same day or the day before an Ariel Hawanish show. You had Daniel Du Bois saying literally nothing. It just shows the spectrum of heavyweight boxing. Spectrum. The absolute spectrum. Key word spectrum. Dave Allen is a plus 630 underdog on Fandle. Phil Pergavik minus 1250. I was expecting that to be much wider.

So that's interesting. Heavyweight division, I feel like it's, it's, it's, The headlines that are coming out of the heavyweight division are pretty wild between Dave Allen pissing and sinks. And then you have Andy Ruiz saying that he has respect for Jake Paul, but he would knock him out inside of three rounds. Okay. We have, what are we going for there with Andy Ruiz? That's probably a shot at Joshua. We have a fight. Right.

We have Anthony Joshua coming back in July against a kickboxer to set up the fight with Tyson Fury. We have Alexan Dupian from Jersey. Is he? That guy's a kickboxer. Prang? Oh, I didn't know that. Another kickboxer? Yeah.

Another kickboxer. I mean, I think he's a, like, he has a kickboxing background. He's not as, like, a veerhofer. No, right. I know that. He's started off as a kickboxer like yourself. Yeah, he's like, he's like 20. That's a big time.

He has a pro. Yeah. Boxer. Yeah. And then you have Alexander Usik next weekend. We'll be fighting from the pyramids. Against another kickboxer. against Rick Giverhoeven, which has zero buzz.

That fight has no buzz whatsoever. I just think no one cares. I just, it's, we want us to use it with the bigger names. And, like, there are a lot of great heavyway fights to be made right now. We just saw Fabio Wardley and Daniel Dubois. Like, the heavyweight division will never die. And when it's great, it can carry the sport. And I wanted to bring us up with Hergevick.

Obviously, there looks like they're lining up Hergevick for Atama, which is great. That's the fight. Out of the three I wanted to see, remember we talking about this last couple episodes ago. It was either I wanted to see Bricoli, Jir Lijang, or Hergavik. Hergavik, I think, being the toughest of those assignments. And that could be Atalma's next fight, and it could be as early as August. So I like that aspect of it. I like that, too. I don't like when they start talking about it a whole lot before they fight.

Like, can you just wait two days? I mean, it's the fights right here. No. Because we've seen this. We've seen this time and time again, especially recently. Let's not put the cart before the horse, but yeah, I mean, more than likely, Ergovich does what he's supposed to do this weekend. And then the Talmud fight makes too much sense. Yeah, the Atama was supposed to fight the same night as Joshua.

They're moving that to early August. But that's like an old promoter's trick. It's like, yeah, Hergivik Allen is a washout on paper. It should be a one side of a fight. But don't worry, we're going to dangle Hergavik versus Mosis the Talmud next. Again, have him blow guys out. Bring back to Mike Tyson effect. He's blowing guys out anyway.

I agree. Just put him in. I agree. They're not doing that. They're treating Atama like just like every other heavyweight. Every other heavyweight now. He's on that two-fight plan. It's no difference.

Like those days were so far over, even though I think it would benefit Atama so much. He just wiped out Germain Franklin. I don't think he even got touched in that fight. And that was what last month or March? And now he's going to have nothing until all. August. Like, that's crazy to me. It's just nuts. But I don't know who we see Dubois within next. There was some pushback on your idea of Wilder. I know you don't check the comments, but they're like, oh, Chris, you're crazy, man. Chris, you cry. I agree with you all the time,

Chris, but not this time. Deontal Wilder will get destroyed by Fabio Ward. Fabio Wardley came out and throwing the most wild white hands possible. And it worked. So it's, it, Deiante Wilder ever had a shot, that would be the one. I'm doing this for Deiante as a, as a, get the veteran a shot. Why not? Because I don't want to see, I just don't want to see Ussick and Dubois again, at all, at all. No, wants to see that. Okay, so where does DeWa go?

The rematch of Wardley is there, but. What about Dubois Parker? I saw that Parker's name thrown in there. That was like a fight that we were supposed to get, and then he loses to Wardley, and then he tests positive for cocaine and then we never hear from Parker again. Like, what's that, what's going on with that? Which the problem of every fight involving Parker is,

the market ability of it. Is there a desire for that fight? He just doesn't move the needle. Unfortunately, I love Joseph Parker. Yeah, but I think Dubois is now a name now. He should be. He can carry it. Like, that could do 15 to 20,000 in an arena in the UK.

Parker's not a nobody. So my point still stands. If you're the name, if you're the guy, wouldn't you want to pick a guy like Wilder? Huge name, huge profile, and you're gonna win, most likely. There's a chance, he's dangerous for sure. But like, I don't know.

Has Frank Warren been on the record saying anything about a Deonté Wilder fight? Because I think Frank would fancy. I get you guys in the comments. You don't like it. You don't, but I'm talking realistically from a business standpoint, why the fight makes sense. It's not the best fight. The best fight is to have a rematch awardly, obviously, but I don't want that right away either.

Oh, my God. I typed in Frank Warren, Daniel Dubois, Deonté Wilder into the search engine. Frank Warren claims he would pit Daniel DuBois against Deonté Wilder by years end. Only problem, Chris, this was written May 4th, 2020. Just rehash it. Unreal. And this was during COVID, too. Like, yeah, I think we can get 5,000 fans if we could seat them, you know, socially distance them.

That was in 2020? So at what point of the trilogy was Deonti at that point? Was he passed to Tyson? He had not yet fought the third fight. That was a very dangerous. He wasn't really beat. Even though he just got destroyed by Tyson. He's still because he.

It was still, it was just, we were just starting to cease like, all right, he's still like, Fury just wrecked him again. Well, no, no, no. No, no. Well, that's probably the most... The second one he blew through. He didn't recommend the first. When we were all like, oh, wow, okay. Maybe he just had his number.

And then we're going to the third one, like, eh, he's probably got his number. But then Wilder drops him a couple times. You're like, oh, okay, this guy's still dangerous. And didn't Wilder... No, I was between the first and the second fight, where Wilder beat Luis Ortiz, which was quite possibly one of the dumber assignments

to put Wilder in there with Luis Ortiz with the Fury fight. Second fight already agreed to. Because that's second. Fury fight was one of the, on paper was one of the bigger marketed heavyweight fights. Because the first one was pretty epic, Wilder and Fury coming off the canvas. The Undertaker. Fury's come back.

The amount of money in marketing that was put into that second Wilder Fury fight, I think it was on ESPN, right? Or Fox, and there was a Super Bowl halftime commercial for it. There was a giant push. I think it did 800,000 buys, which they were not happy with, which I feel like today would be celebrated. Different times. Times, time's shame. But I think it didn't even break even in terms of the fight there.

Yeah, so the heavyweight division is always going to be fun, whether it's his headlines of Dave Allen fighting Hergevik, Moses Atama lurking. Daniel Du Bois kind of established himself as the legitimate next guy. I think Du Bois versus Atalma, I think that's the next one that fans are going to like underground push for. We're not going to get it anytime soon. Yeah. Whether Dubois has the title or not,

because you might not have it. This heavyweight division is very explosive. I think a real question is you have to follow the big fish. Where does Usig go after this event against Verhoven? I would think I would like that because those people are pushing back, like, oh, Cabiel deserves a shot with Dubois. Yeah, but he's probably going to get Usik, which is a better opportunity for him, obviously.

bigger money. So, yeah, because if Ussick doesn't hit Cabell, I like Cabell and Dubois. Yeah, I like that fight. But I don't even think about that fight because I think of Cabell. He's so in that lane. I'm fighting music next. His promoters push it for it, WBC. He's got that whole, we've got the sanctioning bodies behind him.

He has his promoter pushing for it. And he also has Turkey is now interested in staging that fight. Because I'm just really worried that we're going to get to Wausick again. And I just, I just, I just, really, I don't, I don't, I don't care for the buildup of that. I don't care for the fight. I don't think it's going to be any different whatsoever. I, I, I, I, no, there's no appetite for that fight. But when the guy has a belt and you got a guy like Usik who's like, well, there's a belt out there, I'm going to go get it.

I don't care who has it. I'll beat him 10 times. I don't, I don't think Usik is even that. I think Usik, I don't know, he says he wants to fight three more times, which I liked. So I would be shocked if Ousik wants to fight Dubois. I think you would want that fight with Cabell, something new, something fresh. Also, that fan base in Germany is amazing. What else is out there?

Oh, my God. Yeah, one of the best crowds of the year was Cabell's last night. So where does Dubois go? Wilder. Sorry, guys. Wilder or Parker. Yeah. Parker, is he still suspended?

How does that work? Dude, that's what I said. He tested positive for cocaine, and then the story just discused. beard. It's like there's nothing on it at all. Coming off of a suspension right into a title life opportunity, that doesn't look good. I mean, come on, it's happening so many times.

There's no rules in the sport. No scruples. It's nothing. F.A. Jagba, Richard Torres. Torres is fighting on that Egypt card. They're not fighting each other, right? Against them. No, he's fighting.

Torres is fighting Sanchez. I'm interested in Richard Torres. He's a dark horse. He's growing to me a lot. Yeah, he's a great interview. He's a great personality, and his fighting style is pretty exciting. He's just a little bit undersized. And, you know, just looking at his reach compared to some of these other heavy-weets, 76-inch reach.

He gets in. He's explosive, though. He gets any insight at that. He believes it, too. He believes in himself. He beats Sanchez. He's the IBF mandatory for Ussick. That's pretty awesome.

Not that I think he's going to get that fight, but he beats Sanchez, too. Richard Torres has no longer looked at as a, just like a flesh-in-up-pan. This win here, he's a legitimate heavyweight prospect. Who will get, he will get a title-shod of his career, I believe. Speaking of heavyweights, Jake Paul says he may never fight again. I didn't listen to the interview. I actually read part of it, but yeah, well, that, dude, that injury was no joke. And we spoke about that.

We spoke about the dangers of this sport. We spoke with the dangers of fighting in Anthony Joshua. It was one of the reasons that somebody who gave Jake respect for actually signing to fight him and stepping into the ring. But listen, that is a career ending, potentially, definitely altering injury. It's also could be potentially like life altering. You know, broken jaw is no joke. That is a very, very serious injury.

Yeah, and it didn't heal properly. He had to get a second procedure done. He told Arroyo Hawani that he had to, like, he has to get a tooth put in. It didn't seem like. Yeah, he didn't seem like, it didn't sound like he's fighting anytime soon. Like, he's not going to fight this year. I do think he will fight again, but just don't fight heavyweights. You went there, you went in the ring with Anthony Joshua.

You got all our respect. You got a lot of hate in the process. Just stop with the heavyweight. Go fight Conner, Gregor, please. Like, that's the fight. I've been saying it since day one. McGregor should be fighting in July. He's going up against the, who the heck is he fighting?

Who's he rumored to fight? The BMF guy that, you know, throws at Max Holloway. Oh. That's a tough fight. That's a really tough fight for McGregor. really tough. That's the rumor here in M.M. I'm M.A.

Dan this week. I would be very surprised that that happens. Or they're going to make Holloway go up like 25 pounds because McGregor is much bigger at this point. There's a theory out that that McGregor was never going to step into any fighting scenario again. He's been saying for five years. Chandler. He made poor Mikey Chandler chase him around the world for three and a half, four. years. Oh, man. That guy was, I respect that from Chandler. He stuck, he stuck to the bit.

All right, everyone. I'm going to have another day of streaming. I never felt more old than I did yesterday around these 20-year-olds streaming. Rampage is a lot older than me. So I'm, I won't be, and if Ariel Hwani shows up, he's then the oldest for sure. I was jealous of the Dodger game. I'm not jealous of the streaming situation, but, yeah. You know who's here? Gracie, a descendant of the Gracies. She is a very, very nice girl, and she does self-defense videos.

She's awesome. Cecilina Gracie. She, yeah, she's awesome. She's part of the fight house. She does these self-defense, she got like a million followers on Instagram. Obviously, you got the last name, but it puts out good content. Like how to, if you're a woman and you're getting attacked, how to get out of it. She put me in a chokehold yesterday.

And she probably would have ended your life if she really wanted to. I said, I was like, it was pretty easy at first. I was like, all right, go a little harder. And it was like, holy shit. And then she goes to like one of the guys. She's like, I kind of want to flip him, like, judo. Like you see the move that Rousey did? Hips off.

She's like, I could do that to you, to me. she's like, I could do that to you. Let's get a camera person. I just kind of drifted away from it. I was like, yeah, I don't feel like. I'm not making your highlight real tight, babe. Yeah, I just kind of drifted off and like got in the Uber and left and went to sleep. Yeah.

But maybe today, maybe today I get hip tossed by a Gracie. Like, who knows? All right, that's our episode. Enjoy your weekend, everybody. We'll try to come back on Sunday of an 8 a.m. flight. I landed in New York at 4.30. I don't know what condition. I'll be in by Sunday.

I have a rare weekend home, so I can actually do some yard work. You're going to be raring to go. I'm going to be dead. I'll carry the show. You might have to host Sunday. I mean, you do host now. You're all over boxing scene videos. It's just you now.

I mean, Polly's fighting this week, so we've got to give him his grace, give him his time. Bear knuckle Polly. Good luck to Paul. Fighting for the title this weekend. So I'll be, I'm going to be watching my fingers like through my fingers on this one. I hate watch my friends fight. That's how I watch. I know. That's how I watched your fights. That's how I watched Ryan the Flares fights, my buddy from Long Island, who fought in the UFC, pit in my stomach. But when they guys got that hand raised, there was nothing better. But during it, it was hell. Hell. Like your brother, when you beat a provogical.

My brother was like that every fight, though. He was in shambles, bro. He says it now. I mean, to this day, he was like, I was more nervous watching my brother fight than my son. Because his son, Michael is a very, very high level, national level amateur fighters. He fights toughest guys in the country. And he's like, that for him is easy. He's like, I've already been through it. I've already seen how bad it can be. It's like now I'm kind of desensitized. I love it. All right, everyone.

Have a great weekend. We'll come back to you on Sunday in some capacity. Keep your hands up at all times. Protect ourselves at all times. Stay out of those DMs.