The Ariel Helwani Show - Inside Boxing | William Zepeda steamrolls Lamont Roach, Keyshawn Davis turns down Devin Haney

Episode Date: August 2, 2026

Dan Canobbio and guest Naji Grampus open the show discussing William Zepeda’s massive win over Lamont Roach to capture the vacant WBC lightweight title (01:30).  The co-main event saw Raymond Muratalla successfully defend his IBF lightweight title against Robson Conceicao (29:406).  In other news, Keyshawn Davis turned down $2.13M to fight Devin Haney, leaving the entire boxing world shaking their heads (44:01). 

Hi, everyone, welcome back. It's another episode of Inside Boxing. We're presented by ppv.com on Crown. Yahoo Sports. Chris Alger is on vacation in the Florida Keys, living it up, sending me a lot of photos. Looks like he's having a great time, but fear not, we have to bring you the boxing news.

And I brought my guy, Najee, Grandpa's of Cigar Talk. Najee, hello, my friend. We tried to do this a few weeks ago, guys, and we had an epic, epic technology failure. It was a great podcast. And I think we'll do another great one here today reacting to a big night of fights and some news. Najee, what's up, my man? Yo, Dan, what's up, my man?

Yo, listen, I blame Verizon for our missed episode, bro. That was terrible. We had a great episode. A little bit of technical difficulties. But listen, we're here. Great night of boxing. I want to salute your co-host as well. Chris, he's probably somewhere with his feet in the sand living it up.

But, man, happy to be here, bro. Yeah, man. It was a great weekend of fights. We have some news to get to. Obviously, this Keishon Davis news, no longer will be fighting Devin Haney. That fight was, we thought, was going to be made for about a day or two before that blew up with Keishon Davis declining, the $2.13 million to get to that.

A big night of fights over on DeZone, another TNT rollout. We saw Williams Zapata with one of the best performances of the year. Absolutely blitzes, steam rolls. Lamont Roach in this one, unanimous decision win, scores of 117, 111, 111, 118, 110. It was that type of fight thing. The judges got it right. There was open scoring in this one, but there was no controversy because after the fourth round, it was somewhat close.

After the eighth round, we kind of saw what was happening here. And by the 11th and 12th round, it was a formality that Williams Zeta was going to get his hand raised and become the most, the newest, I should say, WBC lightweight champion. belt to ass, as the kids like to say. It was just a beatdown. I mean, Roach kind of, they had no excuses afterwards. But man, William Zepeda, we've seen him do this before. He had the hiccup with Chaucor Stevenson, which was a good performance from him,

which is not enough to show you how good Chaucor is. Unreal performance from Williams of Peta in this one to get his hand raised. Just, man, it was great. Man, yeah, listen, this dude Williams of Pater, when they say BuzzSaw, like this is the prototype. This is the guy that means buzz saw. He's coming nonstop. What, he threw 900 punches, I think, in the fight. It was like high 800 something.

850. 850. Like, dude, it's just hard to deal with that level of volume. Like, straight up, right? Like, a guy like Lamont Roach who is not known to be an outside fighter, right? Like, his best range is mid-range and inside. And if you're going to be at the mid-range and inside, you have to have the special weave abilities that we saw

Shikor Stevenson have to even try to evade a lot of those punches. I think Lamont did a really good job the first four to five rounds doing that, landing some counter shots, but ultimately, listen, the guy's gas tank mixed with throwing all of these angles, this guy shooting from everywhere. It's hard to see

when the shots are busting from every angle. So listen, I mean, Zepeda's a hard, he's a guy at 135 that needs like, you know, he means something to the division. He's like one of the guys that I feel like this fight is stamped him as he is a big power player at 135. How did you, how did you see it? Oh, absolutely. I totally agree with you. It was hard to, it's hard to disagree. It's hard not to sing his praises today. It was that type of one-sided beat down. And Roach afterwards,

got to give him a lot of credit for taking these fights. This is his third straight, like, main event, third straight, big-time fight will take on all comers. And afterwards, no excuses said to Chris Mannix, you know what? Like, I thought he was a one-trick pony, but he actually used his feet in this fight. He stepped back and Niels was able to deliver some shots. He got out of range. I wasn't able to counter because he stepped out of the pocket, William Sepeda. So to me, that says that he went back to the drawing board after the Shakur Stevenson lost and got better and improved and got a title shot. Yes, we're seeing this in boxing a lot now coming off of a loss, getting a title shot, but it's not like the most egregious title shot we've ever seen. And he's like,

William Spadeo was a championship. Right. He's a championship level fighter. So I loved what I saw from Sepater in terms of making the adjustments and learning from the Chkor fight. He even said that in the post-fight interview where, you know, Chacore is just too good. Like, I just hit my cap to him and, you know, take that loss on the chin. We threw 884 punches. I didn't want a short chain shift here. 884, okay. Not 850.

He outlanded Roach by 60 plus punches. By the ninth round, Lamont Roach had already absorbed a career high in punches landed on him in the ninth round. and which has had a long, a long career. But, I mean, that was unbelievable stuff from Sepeda. And absolutely, you take a look at 135.

He is definitely a major player. He's got the WBC strap. It's a fun division with a lot of turnover now. We'll get to that in just a second. But, you know, you have guys like Abdullah Mason that were in the crowd. I think that would be an unreal fight. I don't want to get too far ahead yet,

but I just want to talk about what, uh, what Sepeda did in that ring last night in terms of just the volume. you. Like, you just don't see that in boxing that often anymore. Guys throw them the 40s and 50s now. That's become commonplace. So when you see a guy averaging 70 plus at the championship level and not lowering that number, like, I picked Roach to win. So did Algeri. Like, we kind of slept a little bit on Zepeda. And I, Hey, I got you guys there. I picked Zepeda. Okay. Good for you. That's great. That's a good pick

by you. Like, I feel like a lot of people were sleeping on Zepeda. Yeah, I mean, I think so. A lot of people did sleep on them. And I guess I understand why. I feel like when you're doing the homework, everybody sort of compared the Tevin Farmer fight. But the one thing I saw was Tevin Farmer's range is a lot different than Lamont. I think Tevin Farmer fought on the outside with the long jab. So every time the Pater was trying to come in,

Tevin's either using lateral movement, moving his feet. Lamont doesn't really, not that he can't. He doesn't really like to move his feet that much. Lamont is more like a stationary plodder. He'll kind of plot and trot forward. and trot backwards, but he doesn't really move his feet. So I had a feeling just at the range and utilizing the feet, Tevin made it look a bit easier than I think it really is.

But I agree with you, Dan. Listen, I want to see the fight. I want to see when Tank comes back and gets it together. I want to see Tank and Zapata, man. I feel like that is a barn burner. That's one of those ones like those contrast and styles put together. That's one of the ones we need, man. We're talking Tank already.

We're eight minutes into the pile. We're talking to take. It's hard to, like, I love Tank Davis. I don't know. I know you guys have your beef. I don't know if Tank is on Team Cigar Talk. But I just, it's hard to put Tank in any of these equations because he hasn't fought in 17 months. But he's so damn good and he's so, he's still relevant.

Because I see people were treating me last night, like, oh, tank, let's put throw Tank into the mix here, 135. Like, he's not fighting this year. I think that's been established. like, you know, Al told that to Haney, Bill Haney. He's not fighting this year. But I do love, like, that's the thing with Zepeda is when you have a fighter like Zapato who throws 80, 90 punches around. Styles make fights.

We know this. Like, he brings his style to the table here. So therefore, he's going to make really fun fights with Abdullah Mason, who's also a, has a similar style, doesn't throw as many punches, but goes for the knockout as a come-forward fighter. You throw in, like, a Murataya, if he does stay at 135, has a different type of style that would make for a great fight. with William Zapata.

You have Lucas Body and you have Floyd Schofield fighting for what we think will be the WBA title at some point this year. Also, good mix of styles there too. That's what you get with Zapata when you have someone that throws 80, 90 punches around as an absolute force, is you're going to have some really intriguing dance partners. I agree. Tank probably is the best one. I just don't know. He's just a question mark.

I wish he was active because boxing is better when Tank Davis is in the game. Yeah, it's definitely a question mark. It is questionable. I guess I only say that because the contrast is the guy that throws the most punches versus the guy that throws the least punches, right? Like literally, statistically, that's where we are in the division. Tank is one of the lowest outputs, but because of his power and extreme accuracy, he's been able to get you out.

So that, like, you know, that contrast right there, I feel like creates one of those type of fights that's like, man, I need to see that. The blacks, the Mexicans, you know how that go every day. time is, you know what I'm saying? Every time that crowd gets together. Yeah, we need that. We need that. You know, Tank, it's one of the craziest stats in boxing. Tank throws the least amount of punch. Second least amount of punch is when he was active, only a big bang chang and had a 93% knockout rate. That's insane. When I told it to Tank, like, blew his mind. Like, he didn't even know that. Like, that, that's absolutely crazy. But yeah, Zepeda went in there and did the damn thing.

We had the open scoring, which did not become an issue in this fight. after the fourth round, it was 38, 38, twice, and then 39, 37, which I think was pretty on the mark. Like, Roach had success early because he was pot-shotting, and it took a little bit for Zepeda to get his engine going. Like, he threw where Zepeda didn't warm up until like the third round. So those first couple rounds, we saw Roach use that distance, pot-shot, get in and out, was landing clean, hard shots. And then Sipa just took over. And then he was getting out of range, which was the number. number one thing.

Like, you brought this up beautifully and so did Algeria last week. Like, people think of Roach as like some master boxer. Like, he's going to use his fees. He's going to go, oh, he's a guy that will stay in range. And I think he stood in range way too long. Like, I think he was way too stationary. At times, he was up against the ropes where he just allowed for Zepeda to just go off. And even if Zepeda wasn't landing everything, and he's giving that allusion to the judges,

you know, five, six, seven punch combinations. Are you kidding? I just think it was just too much. I think that simply was it. Like, I tweeted out after the fight. Like, he just beat his ass. Like, that's the analysis. Like, there was just, you didn't have to be a boxing expert to watch that fight and just be like,

Zepeda, just overwhelmed Roach to the point where Roach had no answers. Now, now where do you see? Are we going right to Tank here? I understand he is going to be brought up a lot in these discussions. He is Tank Davis, but we're going on 17 months without Tanking the ring. He, Al Heyman told Bill Haney that he's not going to be fighting this year. But I understand like why Tank's name will come up. Like he did not lose his belt inside of the ring, had to draw with Lamont Roach.

And he is Tank Davis. He is a ferocious, ferocious puncher. And styles make fights. You see a guy like William Zapato who throws 70, 80 punches around. You want to put him in there with someone that is a hard puncher. And we'll try to test the chin of Zapata. So I get that. I understand the tank talk, but I just don't know what he is.

is. He's such a question mark. Like, I want to see tank fight because I think boxing is better when he's involved in the sport. It's just like, it's hard to put him in that discussion. I do think there are other great fights to be made at 135 with Williams Zapata. And it's a division that's like ever changing between him and Mason sitting atop because I think Muratai is going to be gone. So yeah, yeah, I understand the tank. I understand tank, but I just have to like, we have to figure out what tank if he even wants to fight anymore. Well, listen, Dan, you're right. But if any, is the guy that's going to make you figure out if you still want this, it's Williams-Zapeda, right? We're going to figure out if Tank Davis gets in the ring with Williams-A-Pater,

he's either going to be the tank that we know or it's going to show that you ain't that guy anymore. Williams-A-Peda is that type of guy, that amount of pressure and ferociousness nonstop, round after round, round after round. It's just he's a guy that forces you to have to make a decision, right? Like, am I going to stand here and fight this guy and throw the leather to make him? stop coming or am I just going to try to back pedal, right? Like, he's a guy that I just feel like that style and those comparisons between those two tank and Zapata, man, that makes for a great fight. But let me ask you, Dan, where do you now have Zapata as far as the hierarchy at 135?

Like, is this guy, is he the guy? Like, where do you see him in your hierarchy? Are we keeping Murataya in the discussion? Yeah, let's just keep him in for sake of argument. Well, it's just, I honestly. it comes down to like what you prefer. I think a lot of fans like Williams of Peda's style.

And I think they like seeing a guy that's going to come in there or come forward for caution to the wind, throw a lot of punches. And he has been tested before. Like the former wins were good. Yes, Farmer got blown out by Schofield. That was like shocking to see. It just comes down to Mason.

Like, what do you think of Abdullah Mason right now? He was a little green in that fight. His last fight, why am I drawing a blank on who he fought in his last fight? He just fought. I wanted to say Robert Easter for some reason. Albert Bell. He kind of looks like...

Yeah. And I just saw Robert Easter on A.B. Stream. Yeah, so it comes down to Abdullah Mason and Zapater right now. And I have Muratai up there. It's just the thing. It's like they're all like good. But like no one is the clear cut top dog at 135. you're taking tank out of the discussion

and you're still thinking Shakur out of discussion whose last fight was at 140 and we don't know where he's going to campaign. I would say it's neck and neck between... I don't even know, dude. It's a three-headed monster right now, but Mar-Tai is gone. Moran-Tai is leaving that division.

So it's Mason and Zapata. Mason and Zapata is just an absolute shootout. I got people in my mention telling me that we can't do that yet. We can't do that yet for Abdullah. Like, dude, Addo's got a belt. like he's got a target on his back like you can't be you can't have a development while you're a champ you're right man i agree with that it is he's in a precarious position because again is the kid

is only what 21 years old right like he's not he's not close to me his prime both mentally and physically but at the same time like you said when you are a belt holder this is what comes with it so i would like to see that fight i do think that he probably would be best served with another fighter two under his belt before he takes that unification. However, his fight with Sam Noakes is great preparation for as a Peda. I mean, listen, the guys don't necessarily fight alike. Sam Noakes isn't throwing like, you know, 100 punches around. But that boy can crack.

Sam Noakes was throwing leather, and that was a real dog fight. And I think that that was the first time we got to see Abdullah, and Abdullah got to see himself and understand if it gets rough and rugged in them trenches, I'm a dog that's going to bite back. and he's going to need that against Williams of Pader for sure. For sure. I couldn't agree with you more about how's the Peta fights. He takes the fight out of you.

You could see Roach like fourth round on. Like the fight was just taken out of him. It was simple analysis. You don't have to be a boxing expert to know, to see what happened in that fight. He legitimately just overwhelmed Roach to the point where it took the fight right out of him. And like you're right. When you bring up Tank who has had questions about whether how long he wants to say in this game, like just questions about being in this game.

Like I would be shocked if Tank would take such a fight right away because it's a tough night in the office. It was talking about a guy. It's just it takes the fight right out of you. So I don't know. Like I want to say Mason's ready for that type of thing because he has a title. But you just never know. And top rank is phenomenal when it comes to developing fighters,

bringing them along. Best in the business for sure. Sure. So there are in a precarious position with Abdul Amin. It kind of reminds me of Mangia years and years ago when he burst onto the scene, won a title at 154 and was still considered a prospect, even though I think Mason is better than Mangia was at that time. But it's almost like he was learning on the fly, Mangia, while being a champion to the point where he relinquished belts to the point where he lost. And then he almost went backwards a little bit. I'm not saying that's going to happen to Mason, but you have to be very careful with him. But if you look at, if Mason wants to take like a voluntary defense. Like, you still have the Cardina fight. I don't know if Cordina can come over to the States. You have Alan Chavs, who is a beast who can just punch. Zapata's ranked third. You have Noakes, who we already fought. Albert Bell's sixth, who he already beat too. And then you're getting into past champs. So I don't know where Mason will go next. I don't know where Zepeda will go next either. I guess maybe look to that Lucas, Body and Floyd Schofield fight that's going to happen.

But that's, we don't even know when that's actually going to happen. That's another good one. That was ordered. Perce bid was actually ordered for that one over the weekend. Lucas Boddy and Floyd Schofield in the mix. Yeah, that's a good fight. I mean, I like that unification. Listen, again, if I'm Abdullah's handlers, I wait a couple of fights, man. Zepeda is no joke. Just to get your guy acclimated again, he's still young. He's a new champion. Get a couple other wins under your belt before going at a guy like Zapata. Not to say that he can't win, but again, tough night at the office for anybody. Yeah, champions right now on 35.

I do want to salute Panda also, though, because Panda has done a great job of preparing Zepeda to be. And like you said earlier, Lamont said this. I think people have the notion that he's solely a come forward Mexican with no skills. We saw skills. He's taking angles. He's using the jab.

He's doing half stepbacks and trying to counter. I got to salute Coach Panda for what we saw as far as the skills are concerned from a broiler like Williams of Pied. 100%. And we see this often in boxing. Fighters get pigeonholed. And you hear a guy that throws 80 punch, you think he's a rock'em-sockham, rocky type. Like, caution to the wind, no defense, no real skills.

Give me a break. You have to have supreme skills to use angles like that, to step out of the pocket, step in, know when to step in and out. Like, Roach couldn't find them. I think that's another thing, too, is like, obviously, he's getting battered, 70, 80 punches around. And then on top of it, when Roach is like, all right, let me get back to my quick counter-rights, my chopping left hands, he's nowhere to be found Zepeda, because he's stepping out with

supreme footwork, and you have the God-given abilities in that motor. I want to see a drug test. I'm going to say it right now. I want to see a drug test because we've seen this time and time again, like where guys have unbelievable motors. I know there was probably drug testing in this one for sure. But, like, I thought of that, like, midway through the Fagas. They were like, how can they do this?

You know, Grisham's going on and on. Like, this is unbelievable. How does he have such a motor? He's barely, like, it's the eighth or ninth round, and he looks like it's the first round. Not saying he's on PEDs, but there is a PED problem in the sport. I wanted to be clean. Like, I want to believe what I saw was clean. But it does me, I did creep into my mind.

I'm not going to lie. I mean, I'm not mad at that take. I think looking at Zepeda, he's been consistent to me. It didn't feel like this kind of popped out of nowhere, like the stamina. I feel like I've been watching them for the last few years, and he's kind of always looked like this. So unless there's like, you know, unless there's some good masking agents going on, I don't know.

I think this guy, it feels legit. I hope it's legit. But listen, I'm impressed with Williams Zepater, man. And this was his arrival moment as a world champion to say, listen, that was Shakur Stevenson, and the rest of y'all ain't him. Yeah, I tweeted that out. How good is Shakur Stevenson? Yeah.

Because Shakur Stevenson did not allow William Sapata to land anything. I went back and looked at the stats. Like Zapata threw a lot of punches in that fight against Shakur. He just wasn't as accurate. He wasn't landing like he did on Roach. And the thing with Shakur, Shakur was like 50% of his total punches against Zapata. He stood there in the, like you're talking about that.

Like you have to have that supreme, like, dodging in and out. Like Roach didn't have that. Like Roach didn't. have that at all. I was kind of shocked by that. But Shakur has that in spades, and he's the best I think he's the best boxer in the game today. I would agree, man.

I mean, I think, and you know, that fight specifically, we saw Shakur fight a different fight than generally he does, right? Not to say he's a runner or a mover, but we see him like to circle the ring, keep the distance. Like in that fight, he was in the pocket, right? Like, he stood in the pocket, he counted off the ropes. He was at the ropes

a lot. It reminds me of that movie. You remember that movie Limitless where the guy takes the pill? I just watched it the other day. Yo, dude, that's what it's like, he's like seeing everything in slow motion. And I don't know, I guess that's like a gift or I don't know what it is. But again, is he has the ability to still be able to be in the pocket and evade punches by this much. And it's just, I don't know, it's just, is this different. So you're saying Shakur's on the limitless pills.

He's on PD. We got to test it for limitless. Yeah, that movie is amazing. The reason I watched, because Bill Simmons did his top 50 rewatchable movies of like the last like 20 years. And he had limitless, like way at the top of the list. And I was like, hey, what phenomenon. How to go back and watch a great movie, great movie. But yeah, Shakur, there are levels. That's just levels to boxing. And the triangle theory doesn't always work. I don't always subscribe to it. But this is a individual sport where it's a one-on-one

sport because I had people tweeting at me left and right. It's like, you can't give Shakur credit because Zapata didn't fight Shakur the same way he fought Roach. I could see. I could see. you where you're coming from but there, but why don't you think Zepeda fought that? Because Shakur, number one, took it away from him. And also, Zepeda learned from the Shakur fight. I can't just do the same thing over and over. I have to use angles. Maybe I throw, I don't throw a thousand punches. I throw 850. So I kind of come at you with a different type of artillery in there. So yeah, the triangle theory doesn't always work in boxing, but you can take a look at like, oh my God, look how

Shakur handled Zepeda and made him look like a puppy dog in their fight. Yeah, it was close-ish. That's the other thing too. It's like, 7-5, 8-4, no, that fight wasn't close if you go and watch it.

It's just that Zepeda did better than we thought, and he did better than a lot of previous Chacore opponents. Probably the best performance against Chacore. That's how we're judging Chichor. That's how good he is. It's like, we're looking at like almost

with moral victories. Sure. And I think that's, you know, I think that's fair. For a guy that hardly ever loses rounds to be in a fight where maybe you lost four rounds, maybe three, like, it's like, oh, wow, this guy did amazing because he actually won a couple of rounds, you know? So I'm not mad at it.

Yeah, I wouldn't mind seeing, like, a rematch down the road. Like, if Zepeda keeps, like, say Zepeda goes in and just cleans out 135. Like, he beats Abdullah, which would be unreal. Like, he beats the winner of Schofield and body. He takes on voluntary, and they would have to see each other again. Like, we would have to see that. But as for now, like Shakur is on another level. That's fine.

William Sepeda did his thing in there. It shows if you lose a fight, it's not the end of the world. Go back to the drawing board. Figure it out. Get better. Same thing for Roach, too. I'm not about to write Lamont Roadrobe. I still want to see him in some big fights.

He just came up short. And I want to ask you this. Like, do you think I ex this to Algeria last week? And he said not really. But like, do you think moving? Like 1.30 he fought at. Then 140, 135. His last fight was at 140 with Pippel.

Now it's at 1.35. He looked a little sluggish in there. I understand he didn't look good because Zepeda took it out of him. But I just felt like he was a little bit slower in the ring on Saturday night. Maybe a little bit. I can see where you're coming from. I do think that it just – Zapata is just a guy that depletes you, man.

He's going to take it out of you. The fight from him, number one. First of all. Zepeda is just – he started off good. I think he started off at that. But again, is that relentless pressure. and, you know, one of your guys, I got a shout out. Pauli, Pauli Malinagi.

He always likes to talk about... Don't say that. Don't put that on me. He's a friend of a friend. He's a friend of a friend. I'm from Queens, but the Brooklyn guy... You just say because I'm Italian? Do you just think I'm friends with Pauli Malinaghi?

No, I feel like you guys have done stuff. I feel like I've seen you guys do things before. We've worked together with MVP. He's an Algerian and him do ProBox, but it's fine. Yeah, I know him and Algeria do Probox, but I feel like I thought I saw you guys do something before. But anyway, like, I just feel like Pauli, like, he likes to say mental pressure, right? Right? You know, just the feet, the hands, and that starts to weigh on you round after round. So like you said earlier, Dan, I just think that he took the fight out of Lamont.

He took the stamina out of Lamont. Like, I do think that Lamont fighting against Tank, he has the luxury of being able to rest. Tank is a guy that doesn't throw, you know, all of these punches. He's trying to set up so I can sit here and think and be in my comfort zone and counter when I need to. And I could rest when I need to. And I think that to me is why he looked a lot different. yeah for sure there's a lot of things like you try to diagnose a loss and like what did he what did the loser do wrong like for for roach first and foremost was a pay this took the fight out of him but you got to think about attrition here you got to think about the three fights

different weight classes he broke his hand in the um pit bull fight am i making excuses for for roach but you just try to figure out what went wrong for him uh like he just didn't have it he just got taken out of him if i do still want to see him fight when 35, like, or, even a 1-40, too. Like, he'll still be around. It's just, it's just rough the boxing business because he should have won that tank fight. So he's the champion. I always talk about this on here, like the wood ifs of boxing because it's one night.

Like, so many things can change the domino effect. Like, if Roach had gotten his hand raised against tank, he's the money man. He's the champ at 135. But from there, he has a draw. He has to go into that pit bull fire. Another draw. Doesn't get, doesn't get the title there or the interim title. Now he has a chance to fight for the WBB.

title had to deal with everything he did in the last couple of fights. I understand got paid handsomely for that and runs into a buzzsaw that is William Sepeda. So in those three fights, zero wins for Lamont Roach. Yeah, he made a lot of money. He got his name up there and built a better profile for himself. But no wins. That's absolutely nuts. That is crazy when you think about it like that.

I know that's what happened, but it sounds crazy when you say it like that. But he's got to get in the win column. I don't know where it's at 35, 40. Take one of those guys that you could just get back in the win column before going back into one of those big fights, man. Just get back in the win column first. 100%. He'll rebuild.

He's got a good team. So shout out to Lamont Roach, a good dude as well. Champions 135, got Sepato, WBC, Murataya, IBF. That's going to become vacant because Mattire has said he's going off to 140 unless there's, like, a huge fight. And none of these are, like, crazy big fights. Abdullah Mason is the WBO champion. We just talked about him. Then we got this Schofield body purse bid.

Hopefully we get that in the next couple of months. So it's a fun weight class. It's always been one of the best weight classes in boxing. And now we have the resurgence of Zapata, Mason's a phenom, and some good bit players in there. Like Schofield's a hard puncher. Crazy-ass dad. Dude needs to just stop tweeting. AI now.

Now we've got AI training montages. And he tweets on his son's account too. So it's like, it's kind of weird. But I met, I don't know, have you ever interviewed them? You ever have a run in with them? Yeah, I've interviewed those guys a few times. Yeah, I sat down with them before the farmer fight for MVP. It's definitely like, interesting.

Like I want Floyd Jr. to be free. I want him to say what he wants to say. Yeah, yeah. Just keeping it like that? Yeah, yeah. I think we all can see it. Like we all can. Listen, boxing's father and son, I'm not about to step in the way between a father or son

and their bond and trying to make money and navigate this crazy sport that is boxing. But that is some strange stuff coming from that tour. I agree. I mean, listen, it seems like that's the remote. They get it. We don't get it, but they get it. So, you know, I guess more power to you. I just want to see these fights. So hopefully

him and Lucas' body, we can get that and that building mason unification. Body can crack. He put Sylvie in the graveyard, man. That was bad. That was, that was. Body can definitely crack. So that's a good fight. I like I've been around him quite a bit with MVP.

He can definitely hit hard and he's been chomping at the bit to fight Schofield because this fight has been with tank being out of the picture, this fight has been brewing for a while with the purse bids and all that, which we'll get to the second. All right. Speaking of Raymond Murataya, he won the co-main event against Robson-Cun-Saisal. It was a meh type of fight. I kind of thought it would be that. Like, Kinsea, like we've seen this guy on the world stage or the top, title fights numerous times now over the years. Like, I was surprised that Marataya would even fight Conceisa.

I'm surprised. Cansa got this fight. But as we know where Muratai, he's in like a transition here. Like, we know that he's not long for 135, didn't want to kind of risk. It takes a solid pro and can say Sal. Murataya gets the win. There really wasn't a single moment from this fight. Like I almost was flipping back to the Yankee game and had my eye on the Maritai fight as well.

You know what I mean? like we kind of knew this going in, and then it played out how we thought. Now Murataya should go to 140, where he doesn't have to deal with the IBF rehydration clause. I think that played a huge role in this fight with him looking a little sluggish and not having that game-changing power. And I think Bradley had a great point, too. It's like, he said like, Murataya is a knockout puncher, yes, but once the last time he got a knockout. Like, I think he was killing himself to get to 135 and then killing himself the next day with this 10-day rehydration clause, which I think is one of the dumbest rules in all of boxing.

Yeah. No, I agree. I mean, I, It definitely wasn't the most entertaining fight. Robson-Caseau is always in fights like that. I think that's his MO. I think he's a fighter with a style that makes it just, you know, not entertaining. He's going to muck it up. He'll stay in. He'll clinch you.

He does those things, right? We've seen him do that in both those Shaki Foster fights. We've seen it multiple times over with Concei Sal. Even the Navarate fight to a degree, you know, outside of those knockdowns early, you know, he kind of made it a stinky fight. later as well. So I think that's Concecia's MO. But Morataya did what he needed to do. Clearly, like you said, the weight was playing a factor. You can see the size was, like you can see the size difference already in both guys, right? Like Morataya is definitely a bigger 135 pounder.

So I'm not mad at him going to 140. And I like that he took accountability for his performance. I think that was the first thing he said on the mic was, how did you like your performance? You know what? I didn't like it. This wasn't a good performance. And, you know, I like the accountability. So, I don't know, 140's kind of getting a little hot now, man. A lot of things happen in that 40. Yeah, you got Gary Antoine Russell champion WBC, correct? You got Poelho versus Dalton Smith winner.

Yep. You got Isaq Cruz there. Issaq? I mean, is Chicoor there? I like Tito Mercado. Chikor's still there. Tito Mercado. I like that guy.

Miliano? You know, it's a couple names, man. We got some upcoming names. Adam Azim, Sandoor Martine, the spoiler. Super Matias, I'm not, like, going to write him off 100%. Like, he's still, like, going to be in fun fights. Mercado is a name. You've got to keep an eye on.

Just sign with Salida. He's a good fighter. Puello and Dalton Smith are fighting in October. That was been delayed at 140. Even the Japanese guy, Herioka, that fought... Oh, yeah. He's good. I like him, too.

He came off of, like, an all-night flight. right, red eye, worst travel ever and still a really good fight. Where are you putting Kishon? Is Kichon, I know we'll get to him in a second, and he's like, I was just going to destroy him in like a couple minutes here. But you put him at 140, you put him at 147. I'm just waiting for the topic so we can, like this. Yeah, we'll get to it.

Man. Get to it now. No, I mean, let me, let me just get it. 140, 147. I mean, this guy, he's got to make up his mind. He's got to make up his mind. What do you want to do? What do you want to do? Is it 40? Is it 47? Is it big fights? Is it not? What do you want to do? Yeah. I think it's time to sit down and have a real talk conversation with

yourself. What do you want to do? And I think that filters all the way. Obviously, we're going to talk about it, but even down to the weight class, right? He missed weight in the last fight. So again, what do you want to do? I don't know where he is. I'm not sure he knows where he is, but he needs to figure it out because he is an elite talent, but he has to figure these things out, man. Yeah, same thing with Shakur. I'm just talking about the weight. Chacore knows where he is, but

that's a whole different story. Actually, I had Shakur on live, on a live stream. He pulled up yesterday. He says I'm still a 135-pounder, according to him, in his mind, that's what he said. He's fine. I mean, you could campaign at both. It's perfect, because you can find the best opportunities.

We'll see that. We'll see there. Charles Conwell, TKO 9, Paul Kroll, like Conwell a lot, had that hiccup in his last fight, but up until then he was banging on the door for a title shot. Still think he's top 10 talent at 154, towards the back.

What I want to see here from Conwell is will they put him in there with Virgil? And I understand that Conwell, it would be speeding up the process for him, but you might never get an opportunity like that. Like Virgil, I don't think it's getting right into that boots fight. I think that is not going to happen right

away. So Virgil's going to look for, I wouldn't even say a tune-up fight, because Conmel is not a tune-up fight, but you got to fight someone with a pulse, and you got to fight someone in the top 10, I think, if you're Virgil Ortiz, you're ranked number two by the ring and you're looked at as one of the best. I want to say, I'm curious if they would make that type of fight. I'm curious if Conwell would accept it right now because you might not get that again. But I liked, first and foremost, I liked what I saw from him in the ring. Yeah, I liked it too, man. Salute Charles Conwell, bad news. I'm happy that he finally got back in the wind column after his hiccup. And you can feel the relief from him, right? He was like,

I'm back. He kept saying that, like, I think he just felt the relief of finally getting back in the win column. I do agree with you, Dan. I do think that fight is possible. Virgil Ortiz and Charles Comwell. However, Charles, don't take that fight, bad news. That's bad news. Bad news. Don't you take that fight? Listen, they're sending you to the slaughterhouse. Don't you take that fight. I'm telling it like this. No, listen, man, come on, man. Virgil is coming in there. Virgil had a lot of animosity pent up from the Virgil. He's going to come out there like a raging bull and you just came off another loss. That's going to drop your stock even further.

I personally, if I'm Charles Conwell's people, I'm not taking that. I'll roll the dice and take my chances because I just think Virgil is going to come out as a madman possessed and you don't want those problems. You don't want those problems. Well, so virtual has been down before. I mean, he has. He's top three, 154. It hasn't fought in a while. I don't think it will happen next for a number of, like the boxing reasons what we've seen over the years.

But Conwell is at the back of the line again, unfortunately. Like, he's down towards the bottom. Like, they might offer, a golden boy might offer a crazy number. He is sign a golden boy. And he might, his team might say, all right, like you, like in anything in life, like you look at a number. everyone has a number. He looks at this number and says, do I take this now and fight Virgil

and maybe clip him and maybe he catch him? He's been out of the ring for a while. Then all of a sudden, I'm right back at the top, or do I fight for another two years plus, inch my way back up at 154, get an eliminator, you know, go through that whole process.

So that's the big thing of boxing. That's what makes it a very intriguing sport is because you have to make decisions like this. No schedule. We're not looking at September 1st, next week, week one of the NFL schedule, Conwell versus Virgil. No, you decide, you make a decision. So that's interesting to me.

Like, I'm curious with the conversations, if these conversations would happen, but Virgil and a Conwell. I mean, listen, I'm sure the conversations will happen, both being Golden Boyd Fighters, but listen, Dan, there was a game I used to play when I was a kid. It's called shoots and ladders. I don't know if you're familiar with this game, shoots and ladders, but there's like, you roll the dice, and sometimes you're like, you roll the dice, and sometimes you're end up on a ladder and you could go up and skip the levels.

And sometimes you end up on a shoot and you go all the way down. Virgil is a shoot. You will slide down the hill, man. It's not worth the risk. He's vulnerable though. Is he? Get him now. Get him now.

While he's vulnerable. Hasn't fought in like a year's coming. He can, you know, hasn't made the weight issues. I would favor Virgil, don't get me wrong. I think he's top two. I have him above Fondora, Virgil Larchie. Oh, wow. Okay. I'm not mad at that. It's interchangeable, but I think Virgil's just slightly better than Fondora, and I have Boots number one.

I think Boots will fight Josh Kelly. I agree. At the end of the year. I saw something that Kelly says, hey, my nose is healing. They know they want that paydays. My nose was broken in a million pieces last week. I don't let everyone know it's healing. And I will fight boots, and I will get that big time payday. So that's what I think's going to happen.

Like, I think Virgil is going to be in the market for, I don't want to say two and off fight because it comes off like disrespectful to Conwell. Because Conwell is one fight removed from being like in title shots. Yeah, but I agree. Virgil's got to fight. Like he's, I mean, he's got to fight someone. He's got to fight someone in the top 10. Like I do like to Middreamaw fight and I did like his fight with Boat Chuck. But, you know, you got to do something, Virgil to get the attention.

You know what I mean? Like that, that's true. I agree. Because he's got zero leverage right now in terms of the boots fight. And he's got no title, nothing. He's been out of the ring. So he got to do something. Not totally.

I agree. I mean, he definitely doesn't have the leverage. You got to take what you can get. I mean, for Virgil, Charles Conwell is ideal. For Charles Conwell, I... No, I get it, yeah, from his standpoint. Like, I think he'd probably take it, but it's up. His team has to step in and kind of, you know, talk it out, guys.

Talk it out over there in Ohio. like the Connoe team's got a good team. What else happened? Curiel, that was like a kind of a bad decision there, right? I wasn't fully tuned in. I was watching flipping back and forth. Gifted decisions just quitting Randall. Punched that's were close.

I don't know why quitting Randall. I saw you tweet that. This dude is the spoiler of spoilers. Like, no one ever looks good against quitting Randall. Dude, I'm telling you now, listen, if I'm the manager again, that's another guy. I'm not fighting. Quentin Randall, like, he, he just knows how to make you look bad. The guy has the long jab. He's going to clinch. He's going to muck it up. He has a good IQ. Listen, Quentin Randall, he's done this to everybody. Everyone he's fought. Brian Norman.

What's the other guy's name? I forget the other guy's name I'm thinking of, but he's fought a bunch of guys that are good fighters that he's just made look ordinary. And, I mean, that's what he does. I don't know if I, gave him the win per se. I think I maybe had Curiel by a round. Everyone wants to scream robbery. Yeah, no, but one judge had it 190. I'm like, dude, who is this? Who?

Patricia Morse-German, there's a horrible scar. Like, that's the stuff that pisses me off. Is the blatant just wrong now? That's a clean shutout. Like, it was not a that type of fight. That's insane. I'm going to do it. Or pretty damn close.

to find her on Instagram or Twitter or do what the Twitter fans do to me. And like, that was terrible. Like, that was- I'll do it. There's no way she's on Twitter. Come on, man. That was terrible. That was bad.

I remember one time I was at, in the lobby of a hotel, like, on a fight week, maybe in Orlando or something. I spotted a judge. And I was like, oh, you're the judge. And they got all, it was like, oh, he got all like, I was going to, like, attack him or something. Like, they don't want to, they don't want to have that discourse. There's very few judges that active judge.

that want to actually go through how they get to their scorecard. I think there's one retired judge now. I forgot his name, but he was writing stuff for boxing scene, and it found it to be super interesting, like inside the mind of a judge to get their thoughts. But, yeah, 100 to 90, no. Close fight, yes, the curiel blow weight and hard to take him serious. Yes, all the above. So that was the card.

I thought it was really good. I thought in terms of TNT coverage, I thought the desk was better. I think the guys are getting to know each other a little more. They're a little more loose as to be expected. Last month was their kind of first time working together. Crawford, I feel like he's getting his sea legs underneath them when it comes to being that guy and giving his opinions. And I think he's understanding when he speaks, like people listen and he's got a lot to say.

But I just like the TNT coverage. Like I like the fact that I put on my TV. I still have cable. I'm one of those weirdos. I still flipped through the channels. Dan, you're in the 90s, bro? You live in the 90s? I just have it.

I have everything. I write it off. But I just have like, I have it. I have cable. I'm one of the very few that has it. But I just like the fact that I hit 551 on my remote. There's TNT. There's boxing. Hit the last button. There's the Yankee game. I like boxing being on cable. I like it. I like it. I understand it's old school. But I just like the fact that TNT is doing this. And there seems like the next one's going to be Andy Ruiz, which it would be okay. but I think all on all the TNT production, the pre-fight show, post-fight show, love that to cover it. It just gives it an extra oomph that I feel like it's nice to have that as boxing fans. Yeah, I'm mad at it. Listen, I think if we could get more eyes, I'm not mad at it.

My only thing is I watched it on DeZone. I couldn't hear it. I couldn't hear anybody. I heard that no one could hear. I'm like, dude, we can't hear anything. So I don't know, man. Gotta get it together. That's why you got to get cable.

That's why you got to get the cable, baby. There's a spokesman for Tom Warner. Come back to cable. Everyone's eventually going to migrate back to cable. That's how it's going to work. All right, let's get to it. The main event of this podcast, and you know where we're headed. Kishon Davis declines the fight with Devon Haney.

Declines the $2.1 million purse. He wanted to net. $5 million after expenses and fees, according to reports. In these reports, says the top rank offered Hichon Davis $3 million before the Pursbid. Davis declined, went to Pursbid, probably knowing that he was going to get, or there was a chance that he was going to be below the $3 million. It ended up being below the $3 million at the 2.1.

His previous high for a fight purse-wise was $1 million. $1. Fans are not happy. I'm frustrated. I know you're frustrated. I don't understand Keishon Davis's thought process in this scenario. I get it. You ask, you have a value. All fighters believe what they're worse. Doesn't mean you're going to get it. I think he should have rolled the dice here. Two million is a nice payday. Roll the dice. Try to beat Devin Haney. If you beat him, you're in the driver's seat. Even if you lose a close decision, you're in really good shape. But now you're nothing. You don't have any fight. You don't have two million dollars. You were, quote, gifted this opportunity by the WBO. You never fought at 147. You had two fights at

140. It's just a puzzling, puzzling decision from Team Davis. And I don't like to use the word duck, but it's hard not to say that this was a duck. Well, listen, I like to use the word duck. And that is the only word that suffices for what we just saw. That is the quintessential definition of ducking. Look, Kishon is an amazing talent. No one's denied that. I thought he actually had a good shot at being able to beat Devin the Dream Haney. However, there's a difference. Devin Haney is running to the smoke, and I got to give him and bill credit for that. These guys are definitely willing to get in the ring with everybody. Now, like you said, I think Keyshon made a bad business decision, which ironically is, you know, his nickname is the businessman, right? I don't know what happened with this, but it's puzzling

for a few reasons. Number one, you got an offer for $3 million from top rank, right? This is, these are the reports. You got a $3 million offer. And for whatever reason, you feel like you're, you know, you deserve more money. I'm not mad at that. Whatever rationale, you want for making more money, cool. Okay. Now, here's what I don't understand. Right now, the landscape is different to where every single promoter that matters is a dezone promoter.

They're under the DeZone banner. That's top rank. That's match room. That's Salida Promotions. That's PBC now. Everybody who's everybody is there with the exception of Zoufa boxing and MVP. I was fortunate enough to have Gustavo, president of the WBO,

Gustavo Olivier on my show. He said that Zufa is not allowed to bid because they didn't comply with the regulations of the WBO. So now that leaves Zufa's out the game. Now, from a business standpoint, I just want the fans to think about this. And let's rationalize this as fans. DeZone is the ones that give the money

to the promoter to promote these fights. Why would they internally let each promoter bid themselves up when they have to fuck the bill. That doesn't make sense. That the zone would be the guys to say, listen, you guys are all in house. This is the one bid and no one else will bid. Right. That's why there's only two bidders. Exactly. So it's like I don't understand where they even thought that like this would come in where people are, you know, and if you wanted more than $3 million, that assumes someone's going to bid over $12 billion, right? Because that would make 25%. Yeah. Right. So you think someone's something.

somebody's going to come in and offer, what, 15 million for this fight? Like, the math ain't mathing, brother. I don't understand it. And it's very disappointing because Kishon Davis is an amazing talent, but I was very disappointed, Dan. Like, are you disappointed? How do you feel just about Kishon's career at this point, though? Like, his career.

I mean, it's hard to defend him. Like, I loved his performances and his last couple times out. I love that it goes for the knockout. He's just visceral in there. He reminds me of Terrence Crawford in terms of I'm not happy with a decision. I want to take it away from you. He did that against Jermaine Ortiz and some other fights too. Love this guy inside of the ring.

But you have to question these outside of the ring decisions and whether it's blowing the weight, whether it's what happened in Norfolk in his homecoming fight, getting into a brawl backstage with your brother's opponent after blowing the weight and ruining the entire event that was built around you. He had the run in with the weed, whatever. I don't put much thought into that, but you have to throw it in there as well.

Has mental health issues, not knocking him for that. But all these things start to add up and you start to look at a fighter who's not reliable. In boxing, you've got to be reliable. You got to know that you're going to do your job. You've got to know that you're going to make weight. You got to know that you're going to show up. You got to know that you're going to do media. You got to know that you're going to take fights when they come your way.

Like Top Rank has to be just beyond pissed when it comes to dealing with Kishon Davis. Like I said, a little video I put out there. He's not exactly a household. name. He is clearly the B-side in his fight against Devin Haney. He's had a couple nice wins. He's got 15 pro fights. He's fought at 140 twice. He's never fought at 147. This was already a gift title shot from the WBO and it's still two million. And on top of it, you turn down three. We see this a lot in boxing. Like we see these negotiations and we don't know exactly what's going on behind closed doors and we speculate. We choose sides.

as fans, it's part of being a fan, as part of following the sport of boxing. But for this one, like, it's just so cut and dry where it's like you just have to criticize them. Like, you have, we just, we see the figures. It's a purse bid. Like, perspids are cut and dry. It's 75% to the champion, which is Devin Haney.

25% goes to the mandatory. And in this case, it was Keishon Davis. It didn't even have to go to Perspid. Like, I'm surprised. I couldn't believe that we were still, having this person. When they delayed it a few days, I was like, all right, they're clear going to come to an agreement. Like, you know, if he's probably, you know, get more than, get more than two million, like maybe three, a little bit more than three, and be happy, and let's, let's pencil in a fight date,

and let's, let's get hyped for a big fight, but I just don't know, like Jay Prince, like, I can't believe it from him. Because this guy has been around for a really long time, and he's, he's made some good decisions, and he's guided a lot of careers in this sport, but this is a bad one. There's no defending this move from Keeshaun Davis. Like, not at all. I mean, listen, I think Qishon owes his fans an apology, to be honest, because, again, is let's put it in the context. Even before we got up until this Pursuit moment,

Kishon was making content, right? Like, he went to the Friday House of California. That was great. Yo, he's like, you know, Debo got knocked out by a brick. I got bricks in my hands, and he was doing all the stuff. He's calling out, Devin. He's doing lives. like everything building up to the moment which I loved.

Regardless, win or lose, it's like, yo, you're building the fight. You believe in yourself. You believe you can beat this guy. And he made it clear that when I beat Devin Haney, I'm going to be the face of boxing. That's what he said. So for me, it's like you got your fans. Everyone's riled up. Everyone's going for you.

For you to pull a move like that, I understand rolling the dice, right? Like, I'm not against you rolling the dice. But if the dice doesn't roll in your favor, you don't leave the game. brother, you don't leave the game. You don't get up from the craps table because the dice didn't go your way. You got to sit that and you got to eat that. And you go in there and show them why you are worth the amount that you think that you are worth. I just feel like, listen, the guy, he owes an apology to a few people. I think the fans are one of them. And the other person to me is Shakur Stevenson. I think Shakur Stevenson made it clear and a lot of people didn't

like it. I was one of them. I thought Shakor should have took the, you know, took the fight when he had the chance at the 144 when people are talking. But he said, you know what, this is my brother and I don't want to step on his toes. If he has the opportunity to go get the fight, let him go get the fight. So it's like now if you don't take the fight, now Shakur might not be able to get the fight. It's like, dude, this is just, I just think it was a blunder, man. It was a big missed opportunity. And you don't know if opportunities like this are just going to come around often.

You can't take it for granted that an opportunity like this is going to come knocking again. So that was a big missed opportunity. and I hope Qishon can rebound from this. It's definitely a career hit because he's an amazing talent, man. Pro, another career hit. Like, how many career hits can you take? And he's not a kid. Like, he's, what is he, 27?

He's going on 28. He's not a kid. He's not, where do you think this puts his career? Like, do you think he can rebound from this? Is this something that this is a reboundable situation? Yes, because, obviously he's going to get another fight. Like, I see people who is like, oh, have fun fighting Frank Martin in Norfolk for 300 300 K.

Like there will be those types of opportunities, but who knows? Like, he's taking a calculated risk that maybe he signs with Zufa. Maybe he fights out, the rest of his top rank contract, and he goes to Zufa where the path of least resistance right now for the most amount of money. You've got to think about that too. I also know how boxing contracts work, where if you become a world titleist, they can add more fights onto your contract, extensions. Like that's that's something you has to keep an eye on too.

Like I'm sure he has reasons for why he did this. I would love to hear them. I would love to know if it was his decision. Was it his team's decision? Like we have Chris, obviously, he's the co-host of the show, and I've asked them numerous times. Like who ultimately makes the decisions on who are you going to fight next? And Chris always said, I do.

The team works for me. I make my decision. They fall in line. Yes, they'll give me my brother, my trainer, my lawyer, we'll sit in a room and they'll all say their piece. I want to know how this went down. I want to know what his thinking was. Like the $5 million after expenses,

like this is another thing we're adding to the lexicon now of boxing, netting. Like what will be netting? Like we'll get paychecks. And that's wild to me. Like your previous high was a million and Top Bang was willing to go to three. Three million's a pretty good number for a guy with 15 fights fighting a Devin Haney. It's not the biggest fight either.

People were tweeting me saying, look at it from Kishan's standpoint. If this fight generates 50 million in revenue and you're only getting 2 million of it, how is that fair to Kishan? First of all, this fight's not going to generate 50 million. Yeah, that's how news flash. This ain't going to generate 50 million.

That's not that. It wouldn't even generate half of that. It's still going to generate a pretty good number. But two is not the end, though. I think it's got to be upside on the paper view. There's got to be gate numbers. Like there's ways I believe for Kishon to make some money on the,

on the back end. But this fight is not, it's not a huge fight. Like the economics of boxing were in place here with the purse. Like, Haney getting six. Go ahead. I was to say, Dan,

look, even if it's not, even if you don't have the upside, the upside is winning the fight against Devin Haney. What more upside do you need? That, all the money that you lost taking that risk, you would get multiple times over

if you beat Devin Haney or even possibly stopped Devin Haney. Not that I'm saying it would be a stoppage, but I'm just saying it's Kishon's a guy that gets a lot of stoppages, and he's known for that, and he goes for that. So I'm just saying is I just don't understand the thought process, you know, and I don't think you can blame the team. I think that you've got to take this one on the chin. This is your career. This is your decision to be made at the end of the day. You also campaigned for this fight.

Your team petitioned for you to be the mandatory. You asked for this. This is what you asked for. And now you're here. And then you back out. Nah, man. I'm very disappointed. Listen, I like D.

But I'm disappointed, man. Yeah, it's hard. It's hard to defend it. It's hard to rationalize it. It's hard to figure out why he would do that. I was excited. I mean, I was excited to pencil this into October or November. It's already a loaded schedule the last quarter of the year.

It was all gearing towards that. I was like, all right, this is fun. This is a new, fresh matchup that I didn't even think was possible because I didn't really think of Keith John Davis as a welter rate. Definitely think you'd get to the ring with Haney. We get kind of, you know, know, forced the hand a little bit with the purse bid, and that just blows up in our face as boxing fans. We can't have nice things. We can't do this. They're going to move on, too. There is no,

like, going back to the drawing board or going back to the negotiation table because it's a purse bid. What you do is you move on to the next highest ranked fighter. And I don't know if you saw this. As of today, like Richard Hitchens just got, is the number three with the WBO at Walter rate as of today. I think there's a guy that's ahead of him. His name is Brian Nortezons. Norman Jr. And he's asking for a rematch. I don't even, but he's asking for a rematch. And of course, I get why I don't want to see that. But I'm interested to see how the WBO handles this. Who will now enter that mandatory spot? I'm actually speaking to Gustavo Olivier on Monday on my podcast, Cigar Talk. Make sure y'all check that out. So I want to get some

clarity as to what's happening, who's coming up, and what that looks like for the WBO, man, because it seemed like Devin was with it. Hey, man, I got to buy it. to the Debo Haney now, Dan. I got to buy into the Debo now, man. I mean, you might have problems with Haney, how he fights. You might have problems with how he handled the Ryan Garcia incident. You've got to respect how this guy will just be willing to fight anyone. He's reliable.

He stays in shape. He stays out of trouble for the most part. He'll fight anyone. He's coming out looking great in all of this. He posted the Debo on his story. Got laugh out of me. I thought this guy is, this guy, I mean, you might not like Bill Haney, but the guy's just promoting his son.

he's a promoter doing what everyone else has done for the last 100 years in this sport. Haney's coming out looking great. I don't know where Haney goes from here. That's up to the WVO if they want to go that route again. I'm curious what Gustavo will do because you're looking at it right now. You got Norman is number one. I put that at like 0%. Like I don't see that happening again for that.

But then you have Hitchens at number three. You got Tiafimo in there. You got Pachio. Did you catch that last night? they texted our guy um shan gibbons yeah woody from toy story and he said uh no uh oh he didn't say no he said uh for the right price so you know packio's gonna price himself right out of that fight um hitchins his signed with zufa so we have a whole freaking ball of yarn there um barboza threw his hat to the mix i'm not really keen on seeing devon hainey versus barboza uh catarall i feel like isn't he he he's

He's not with the double. I like that fight. I like that Josh Cattleville fight. I agree. I don't think that will happen as far as the mandatory is concerned. I do like the Cattlell fight. But another fight I like, Rohan Polanco, the Dominican.

I like Rohan Pallanco a lot. Yeah, he's pretty good. Not in the WBO, but just in the ring rankings. I wonder if Haney just gets out of the purse bid. It gets out of the mandatory. I mean, he's going to sign with his own, right? I mean, that's what they're saying. He could.

The next part of this discussion is what's going on, Chachore Stevenson in this Devin Haney fight. Because now Shikor is beating the drum. He thinks now he's right back in. It's kind of weird. It's like Chacore and Kishan are such good friends. And I feel like in this scenario, they like actually like conspired together or like figured out together what we're going to do because it was either Devin was going to

fight Shakur or he was going to fight Kishon. I'm not saying that Shakur like blessed it and said, all right, Kishon, you can have this fight and all that. But it's all intertwined. And you have Shakur thinking he's going to fight DeVeyron. So then he goes and signs with Zufa. I think he's on an island right now. I don't like that Shakur going with them.

He says he can fight anyone and everyone out there. Even on DeZone, I don't know about that. I think DeZone and Zufa are in the middle of a war right now. So where does Devin Haney go from here? We've got to figure out. Where does Shakur Stevenson go from here? So I got to say it right now, does Shakur realize that he doesn't have any leverage anymore when it comes to a fight with Devin Haney?

He's talking about the 144 stipulation that Haney, loosely agreed to last month. But you have to understand in boxing, that's last month. Things change on a day-to-day basis. I don't think that 144 is still out there. I don't think Shakur has any leverage at all. I think Shakur needs Haney, more than Haney needs Shakur. Because I believe that Haney will sign with DeZone,

where all the fighters are right now and all the matchups are, Shakur is on an island by himself that is Zouffer right now. He can say, I'll go fight and ring. I'll go fight on DeZone cards, but we have to see if that's actually going to happen for Shakur. So I don't think Choucour has any leverage. I want to see Chacore versus Devin Haney. We think we would get that with now everyone playing nice under the DeZone banner.

But as we know in boxing, it just becomes obstacles. And now the Zufa with Chikor is an obstacle in terms of fighting Devin Haney. I totally agree, man. I definitely think that, you know, the Zufa versus DeZone rivalry is going to make it tougher to get these fights. I do believe that the 144 was in play when it was, as Jay Prince put it, the double-barrel shotgun was pointing at you, right? I think at that point, it made sense, right? It's like you either lose the belt and fight Kishon or you can fight Shakur at 144.

Now that that no longer exists, I do think that the 144 is no longer in play. I don't see this fight happening at 147 currently. So I don't know. I feel like both guys are going to have to move on. we'll revisit this conversation in another two to three fights like we always do. I don't see it happening. But as far as Shakur's next opponent, that's a good question. Like I said is, I had him on my live stream yesterday.

He made it clear. I am not fighting Rio Venezuela. Everybody keeps saying, El Ryo, I'm not fighting them. It's not happening. He made that clear. Who is he going to fight? That's a great question, Dan. I'm not sure right now, like what it'll look like.

Who's it going to be? Is it old Shockey Foster? You know, you just mentioned Manny Pachiao who is looking for a payday, you know, maybe Zufu will pay Manny Pacquow to get in there. You know what I mean?

I don't know, but I'm looking to see what option he has because also Lamont Roach, who was a potential option, lost last night, and that's out now as well. So I'm not sure exactly where he goes from here. I have to know what was in that contract. I said that right one he signed with Zufa, Chakor.

I said, man, when is Zufa going to step in or when is Paramount plus the executives there say hey we keep signing these big names and why are they fighting on de zone why are they fighting on Netflix and look where Connor Ben versus Ryan Garcia ended up on on on paramount I don't know if they put their foot down or it's part of the deal out but I'm sure paramount's like we want to get a piece of this like yeah it's not the main driver the main driver is UFC I understand that boxing I was kind of like a throw in but none of these companies are in the business of losing money on these companies are in the business of saying, oh, whatever, go find on Netflix, go fight on DeZone.

There clearly is something brewing between DeZone and Paramount slash Zoufa. And is Shakur, now the person there that is in the middle of it? Is he going to suffer from this? Or is he going to benefit from it? I think he benefited in the terms of making a boatload of money. And he said himself that DeZone came in late and offered the similar amount of money that Zufa did, too. I'm just curious, when Shakur says, I can fight anyone under this deal. I can fight on the zone.

I can fight on the ring cards. I can fight anyone. There are no roadblocks. But are there, though? I don't 100% believe that because it's, we're seeing it. We're seeing lines drawn in the sand here. And he might have to fight a Rio Venezuela on a Paramount Plus when it comes down to it. That's the problem with Shakur.

I think he's on an island right now. It sucks because I just want to see him fight the best. I'm so tired of all this stuff. Listen, man, I do think that, I do believe him, though, And the reason I say that is there's a guy by the name of Turkey Alashik, and he makes things move, right? Like, he is a guy that obviously has a percentage in the Zufa business, is heavily invested in the Zufa business. But he also has pull at the zone. You know, so I think this guy, you know, at the old saying, this is America, baby, money talks.

And they got the money. So I just feel like at some point Zufa and company is going to be able to throw enough money around to maneuver, whether that's throw it at fighters to come over, whether that's throw it at DeZone to give you a really large license fee to allow this fight to happen on our platform. We'll pay you a big license fee to zone. You know, but I just think they have a war chest of money that they haven't really used yet. And I feel like in this sport, the person with the money generally makes the decision. So it's going to be interesting, though. I agree that, you know, Chacore right now was on an island. And right now, it is unclear where things are going to go. Yeah. We've seen this happen in the last two or three years. where all of a sudden overnight fights are made. Overnight hurdles are gone. Like negotiations that we think would take years are done in days because of the money that Turkey has to throw at this.

And we'll see because it's very intertwined. Because like you said, Turkey, 60% of Zufa is owned by Sela. And last I checked, 10% of the zone is owned by the PIF, the public interest fund over in Saudi Arabia. So it's very, very, very intertwined. Yeah, but Chakor has got the, he's sitting on the island. but he's got a lot of money over there. And it's interesting because he's going after Haney again.

And he's trying to tell him. But I don't think he understands. But he doesn't have that same leverage. Like, it's just clear. You can just see it. Like, Haney doesn't need Chaucor right now. And Chaucor did say, like, okay, like when someone said, you have no leverage, he replies because he's Shakur, and he's on Twitter, replies to everybody.

And says, yeah, maybe not, whatever. Yeah, I do have leverage because all right, just don't fight. I'm still going to make top. dollar and we don't get to see that fight like you can go that route but that's not great because we want to see you in big fights record yeah i agree i just think we're going to have to wait a couple of more fights until he feels like he's ready for 147 and respectfully i mean i do you know some people are saying that listen fight the guy at the weight that he's at you know we don't like catch weights and this and that and you know i respect that but at the same token he did

just move up to be fair his last fight right like he moved up that was his first fight at 40 i don't think it's commonplace in boxing where a guy that just moved up one fight, we're asking them to move up again at another weight class, right? So, I mean, I think he has the right to take his time. But conversely, Devin has the leverage. Devin is the champion. If he says, I'm only doing it at 47 now. He has the right to do so, and I respect it. So unfortunately... Benich, Coy doesn't care about the belts, though. Court doesn't care about the belts. He just said it yesterday. I'll fight a WBC champion, but I'll just, the belt won't be on the line. Like, he's really, he's really dug in on that when it comes to the Zufa, some of the things that they're talking about talking points and what they believe in.

Yeah. He gave up the WBC belt, because he didn't want to pay the sanctioning fees. Like, it comes from the Crawford tree, the lineage. Yeah. It's, they're all making the same decisions. They're all kind of moving the same ways. It just sucks. And, like, but I will say that, like, so you don't think that Chaucer should go to 147.

No, right now, no. If I was his management and team, no. I would say, like, we just went up to 40 for us to, like, take a, you know, and again, Devin Haney's a great fighter. That is a risk. Like, let's be clear, that is a risk to go up there and fight Devin at his weight. He looked amazing against Brian Norman Jr. at 147. I think I would take a couple of more fights if I was Shakur to get acclimated and used to the weight. But again, the other fight that, you know, we've been mentioning as ad nauseum. as boxing fans, which to me feels like there's a bit more reality to it now. Javante Tank Davis, man. Once again. Once again, all roads lead back to Tank. But why I'm saying this is

Tank versus. Shakur? Absolutely. The deal that we just saw that happened with PBC and DeZone, that means right now, we're in a space where we don't know. The Amazon Prime thing didn't seem to work out how everybody thought it would or wanted it to.

So right now, Tank is also, from what I gather, not a part of that deal. So Tank is right now sitting in a space where he's in limbo. Who knows? Maybe does he owe Amazon Prime another fight or two? Who knows? But I think that because Tank is in this limbo space, there's a guy named Dana White that's going to come crawling with a big bag of money attached to it and say, listen, I got a guy over here and I got some money.

What do you want to do? I do feel like that fight feels more viable than it ever. has. I don't think it'll happen next, but it does feel like something that can happen, and it doesn't feel like there are as many barriers as they once were. Yeah, that's next year. So maybe like Shakur, this is when you're the best, though, when you're the best, when you're the number, Numeru Roon, like Shakur wants to be. When you're in the top three, like, they move the goalpost. They have unbelievable expectations for you. Go to 147. You know, you just four to 140. It's T. Fima and shut him out. So that comes with the territory.

Do you think that did? Do you think he should go to 47 right now? I think it's, I understand that what, what Haynie is doing? Like, yeah, I, I agreed to 144 last month, but things have changed. Like, things have changed in a big way in terms of the business of it. No, I don't think he should go to it right just yet. I understand, oh, it's a few pounds. There's a few, it's not a few pounds.

Like, that's a big time difference. And, yes, Haynes' last fight was at 147, but his previous fight before that against Ramirez was at 144. So there are some grounds for why Haney did say yes initially. But it's all about leverage. It's all about the art of the deal. That's right. Interesting, interesting times for us boxing fans.

One thing we can 100% agree on, Kishan, why'd you do that, man? Dude, oh, my God. That was the biggest fumble since the Seahawks not giving it to Marshall Lidge in the Super Bowl of like the one-yard line. Unbelievable. I would like to hear what he has to say about it. I like to see where he goes next from here. I just want to see these guys fight. I want to see Haney fight. He hasn't fought this year. We're in August now. Come back to the drawing board. That's wild. One of the biggest stars in the sport is potentially not going to lease them up this year. That's really it. It's what we got this week. It should be another interesting one next week. What do you got lined up? I know you got cigar talk coming up with some big guests.

Yeah, man. Cigar Talk coming up. Tomorrow I have the WBO president, Gustavo Olivier on live. We're going to get all of these questions answered, man. What's happening in the WBO? Who is Devin fighting next? I mean, there's so much happening right now when the sport of boxing. And I'm just trying to get the news. So next is Gustavo.

I also just interviewed Abdilla Mason. I'll be publishing that later this week as well. So, man, stay tuned. Yeah, go follow cigar talk. There's a phenomenal job catching up with the biggest names in the sport. No internet issues. slight internet issues but you guys aren't going to see them we're going to edit them out solid solid run here we're going to have to have you on uh when chris decides to go on another

vacation because that's probably going to come soon the guy likes his vacations he deserves it chris will be back we will we will be back enjoy yourselves enjoy the end of the summer check yourselves at all times keep your hands up at all time say those dms we're out