The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Boxing with Chris Mannix - A Teofimo-Taylor Crossroads

Episode Date: June 7, 2023

Chris is joined by a friend of the podcast and longtime boxing writer Keith Idec to dive into the Gervonta Davis phone call from jail, the latest news with Canelo, and preview the two big fights coming up this weekend. #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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podcast. A lot to get into this week. It's been a busy week in the world of boxing. We've got two fights coming up this weekend on both coasts. You've got Josh Taylor going up against Teafima Lopez and 140-pound title fight. Out west, you have Jaime Mungia, making his return going up against Sergei Derevanchenko. So we're going to talk about that. We've got a little bit of news on Canelo Alvarez, and we've got some news maybe on Devin Haney, who could be coming closer to making a decision about what to do next in his career.

So we'll get into that as well. Joining me to break it all down, senior writer, boxing scene.com, good friend of the podcast, Keith Ideck, who will be in New York, ready to rock and roll for Josh Taylor, Tiafima Lopez. What's your excitement level, Keith, for that fight? Chris, I'm actually very much looking forward to this fight because when I go back and forth in my mind, I'm like, I could see Tiafimo winning. And from everyone I've spoken to, and I'm sure the same applies to you, some people are picking Taylor. Some people who are picking Tiafimo, you can make arguments on both sides of it.

And it really is, you know, Taylor is the betting favorite slightly. But it's really a fight you could see going either way. And whenever you get one of those types of fights, particularly with types of personalities we have involved in here, Tiafino-Lopez, first and foremost, you know, it's a fight to look forward to. It's not commercially, it's not the biggest fight, you know, because it's only at the theater. And it's not as big a fight as we've seen over the last couple of months. But it's a meaningful fight and a true pick-em fight, I think. And I think there's a lot of interest in it, especially among the hardcore boxing fans. Oh, it definitely is.

And you're right, it is the kind of fight that can go either way. I want to get into that later in the show. I want to begin, though, Keith, with a only-in-boxing type of moment. So I'm just on social media this week, scrolling through my timeline, and I come across an audio recording. And in the title of the audio recording, it says something to the extent of Giovante Davis goes on Instagram live from jail. Jervante Davis, of course, fresh off his big win against Ryan Garcia.

back in April. He was sentenced to 90 days of home confinement. This was in connection to a hit and run. Jervante was part of a couple of years ago. The judge said she wasn't going to send Jervante Davis to jail, but she did make him agree to do his home confinement in the Baltimore area, staying at the house of his longtime trainer, Calvin Ford. Fast forward a few weeks. The judge finds out Jervante is not at Calvin Ford's house.

Instead, he is at the four seasons, at a home. purchased a luxurious home we just purchased this in the Baltimore area and the judge has Gervante taken to custody and told to finish out the rest of his sentence in a local jail. Now, for some reason, Givante thought it was a good idea to have someone put his comments on this on Instagram Live. Keith, I want to play these comments in their entirety to give some people some context here. Man, I just want to say to let the people know that this judge is crazy, bro. This is the judge.

She knocked me up because basically I bought a property. I get everything in my power to listen to my lawyers. It has 60 seconds remaining. The home potential. I listened to everybody to the key. She's mad that I bought a property. That's why I'm sitting in jail. She said that I shouldn't.

She wanted me in my apartment. A one-bed apartment, you know what I mean, I couldn't even, you know what I mean, uh, take that, you know what I mean? She wanted me stay in a one-bed apartment and had my kids and nothing to come with me and things like that. I just want to spread, you know, spread light on this situation, because she took into advantage of me. She said, you have 30 seconds your name. And she's, she's throwing stuff that's not right to me. I put it though she, she, she, I don't know if she's a bad judge or not, but the thing that she's doing right now is not right. You know what I mean? I think that's why I mean the shit and think on this situation. So, Keith, we've become used to seeing and hearing some bizarre things in boxing.

That one was right up there to have Gervante dialing in from jail to, you know, express frustration at the judge for locking him up. When the reality, at least in my mind, is that the judge in this case did Gervante Davis a favor. There were a lot of people that followed that case that believed the judge was going to give Gervante Davis jail time. When there was a plea agreement last year, there was

no jail time, and that was why the judge threw it out or one of the reasons they threw it out in the first place. This judge agrees to give him home confinement, but does say you can't go to Florida, where Gervante lives part of the time. You can't stay anywhere but Calvin Ford's home. And Gervante agrees to it,

and then subsequently does exactly not that. So I guess when you saw this this audio recording come across your timeline, what was your reaction to it? That's not usually what you make your only phone call from jail for. I would say that. I've known people in jail. I've visited people in jail in my lifetime. And that generally is not how it goes. You know, it's the new age that we live in, Chris, right? But someone recording for Instagram live on the other end of the phone is a new one, even for boxing. I think he would have been much better served to just be quiet, serve the rest of his time in jail, and be thankful that this sentence was what it was.

Because when he was sentenced back in May, Chris, I kind of had an idea from his side of it that they had agreed to this home confinement, that that's what he was going to get. And I thought he was pretty fortunate because the judge, in my opinion, kind of delivered mixed messages during the sentencing, because she admonished him for not really showing a type of remorse she wanted to see for causing this. Judge does not like Jervante Davis. I think that's, or at least does not like what Jervante Davis did and how he responded to this incident. That's pretty clear. Right. Chris, and so I was sort of confused because she was harsh on him in what she said. But what she did, I thought, sort of let him off a little bit easy. And then she gave him this opportunity to serve the time at Calvin Ford's house. His attorney said something to the effect

during that hearing on Thursday in which he was taking to jail after that, he said something to the effect that they were caught off guard that he was ordered to serve his time in Baltimore because he doesn't own a residence or rent a residence in Baltimore. He lived in Florida and I'm sure he has places elsewhere, but he did not live in Baltimore anymore. So he said they were caught off guard by that. This is all his fault. This is the attorney taking all the blame publicly.

And he said that once they were told he had to serve the time in Baltimore, they just kind of said, okay, well, he'll just stay at Calvin's house. That's the way it sounded to me. Like they kind of just made that up on the fly. And then Jeremy Davis has the security team, which I totally understand. I'm sure when he goes back to Baltimore, he could be a target for whatever. I completely understand that and the need for security. But that's all sort of your problem, meaning Giovante Davis's problem.

You cause this accident. You put yourself in this predicament. And if it requires you and several members of your security team to jam yourselves into Calvin Ford's house for 90 days, well, the alternative is going to jail, which is much more unpleasant. So you should have just, I mean, it was pretty brazen for him just to say, you know what, I'm just going to go stay at the four seasons and then buy a $3.4 million house, which was publicized. There are several websites that cover insane. Right. So it wasn't really hard to follow what he was doing. He purchased a $3.4 million waterfront condo.

I mean, it would be a pretty big coincidence for him to have just purchased that at the time when he's serving that. He was almost begging them to catch him doing what he was doing. And I don't really think the judge had much recourse but to do what she did the other day. And I mean, you would hope he learns an invaluable lesson from this. But based on what he said during that Instagram live. feed from jail, it sure doesn't seem like that's going to be the case. This is a legal proceeding. You cannot agree to do something and have a judge sign off on it and then do something

different. It's as simple as that. I agree with you. I thought the judge, her words were harsher than her original sentence. She clearly had issue with Jervantes' behavior in this hit and run. But I thought gave him a little bit of a break saying you serve these 90 days at home in the Baltimore area at Calvin Ford's residence. Like for Gervante to talk about security, for him to talk about not being able to see his

kids, like, okay, well, the alternative is you can do all 90 days in a safe place in the jail that he's locked up in right now. Don't agree to it. Don't say you can do it. I just, I was flabbergasted that this whole thing played out the way it did. All he had to do was spend 90 days, you know, living in Calvin Ford's house. You know, he can't train. Obviously, the judge said that.

Couldn't go anywhere. you're in a room with your trainer. You can probably do some things, watch film with them, get better some way. Instead, he brazenly disregarded the judge's instructions, and now here he is right now. Let's look at this from a boxing perspective, Keith. Presumely he's going to be locked up for the remainder of his sentence, whatever that may be, six weeks, two months left in this sentence. How do you think that impacts Jervantes' rest of 2023? I know there are people out there clamoring for a Devin Haney fight. I have not heard anything. about anything substantive happening behind the scenes, you know, regarding Devin Haney and

Gervante Davis. What do you think this means for the rest of the year for Gervante? I don't think him serving, whether he served it at Calvin Ford's house or he served it in jail. I don't think it's really going to impact his schedule all that much, Chris, for the remainder of 2023, because the reason that they really made an effort for him to fight twice before they knew he was going to be sentenced was for this very purpose because the big chunk of the year would be taken out of his schedule by serving the sentence. So let's just say he comes out, whatever the math adds up to, the first week of August or whatever he gets out, assuming he doesn't do anything else. And there is, he isn't impacted it in any way further with this sentence. You know, he's got

five months left of the year. And he will fight before the end of the year, I believe, who he's going to fight. Who knows at this point. But, I don't think it's going to be Devin Haney because, as you said, Chris, it seems like Haney will have some real options, some profitable options at 140 pounds. He really does kill himself to get down to 135. There are good opponents for him, you know, whether it's pro gray, if Tiofimo Lopez wins on Saturday night, a great alternative for him. So, you know, Davis will fight before the end of the year and he'll come out and he'll come out of jail in the beginning of August. and then he'll just be free to, you know, to train to get back in shape, to get back in fighting shape, and then going to training camp for one last fight in 2023.

You know, covering the NBA, I've been dealing with the John Morant situation a lot, and something that's come up frequently with John Morant is John Morant needs better friends. John Morant needs different people around him. Whoever agreed to putting this Javante call on Instagram live, on social media, that ain't your friend. That call did nothing for you. You know, complaining about the judge does nothing for you.

You agree to terms, you follow terms, or else exactly what happens or what happened happens. You wind up in jail for the duration of your sentence. I don't know who Jervante fights either. I agree with you, Devin Haney, who we're going to talk about in a minute, most likely ticketed for 135 pounds. But he has had two fights this year. It's more than most guys can say in a calendar year. All right, let's talk about a couple of the fights happening this weekend. The one you're attending in New York, Josh Taylor, against Teifima Lopez.

for the WBO version of the 140 pound title. Keith, this fight is fascinating for a number of reasons because two years ago, this fight would have been electric. This fight would have been, you know, must see pound for pound type fight because you would have had Josh Taylor as the undisputed 140 pound champion. Teifima Lopez, if you go back around mid-2021, as the undisputed 135 pound champion. This would have been a great fight. Fast forward those two years, and Josh Taylor had the lackluster performance against Jack Catterall. He dropped three of his belts.

Teofima Lopez is 2 and O since moving up to 140 pounds, but the Sando-Martine fight wasn't great, and I can never really get past that camera shot of Teofimo where you can read his lips where says, do I still got it? So these are all kind of variables in all this. What do you make of this fight now? Like, is this still a high-level fight between two guys that should be considered at or near the top of the weight class? You know, Chris, I think it would, some of the shine is off of the fight, obviously, as you mentioned. But I think because both guys' reputations are tarnished to some degree with what's happened to both of them over the last couple of years, I still think it's, you know, a really fascinating fight. If one of them were diminished product, like let's say it was just Josh Taylor and not. Tiafima Lopez. I think we might look at it a little differently, but they both have so much to prove

going into this fight because, you know, I thought Tiafima Lopez eaped out the decision against Sandor Martine, but it was a very close fight, and he really was knockdown twice. He only got, Martin only got credit for one of those knockdowns, but there really should have been two knockdowns counted for him. You know, Taylor's fight was very close with Jack Caterall. I mean, you know, he got knocked down and then Taylor got a point deducted for hitting him behind his head. very close fight that could have gone either way. So they're both coming off of fights in which they won debatable decisions, right? You know, they both were knocked down in those fights.

So again, it's a really fascinating clash here because it's a matter really, I think what it boils down to, Chris, is who has more left? Tiafimo Lopez, who's 25 years old, seven years younger than Josh. It's crazy that we're talking about that. What does Dea Femmo have left? I mean, it's it really, especially where he was, as you said, two years ago. I mean, we're, we, I think it was this week two years ago when his fight against George Camposus was postponed when he got COVID. I think it was like the, uh, the first week of June. Yeah, it was June.

It was supposed to be in Florida then. Yeah. Right. Right. So, you know, so that's two years ago. He loses the titles to Campbosis. He comes back and fights twice at 140 pounds. And that hasn't looked particularly great.

But as you said, Chris, he's still only 25 years. old. And it's not like he's been beaten up badly in any of these fights. I mean, the Cambosis fight was a rough fight, obviously, but he's not 35 years old. He's 25 years old. So if he can get himself together from maybe more so from a mental standpoint than a physical standpoint, because he does, you know, he has, T.A. Females has had some issues and he's got some things going on in his personal life with getting divorced and everything. It hasn't been an easy road for him. But he's a very, very talented guy. He's an explosive fighter. And, you know, you could see him catching Josh Taylor in an exchange and knocking him out.

You could also see Josh Taylor knocking Tiofima Lopez out. I mean, it's a really, really intriguing fight. And look, you know, people have criticized Taylor for not going through with the Caterall rematch, but this was mandated by the WBO because Tiofima Lopez. Because Bob asked. Well, you know, WBO stands for what Bob orders. or box circles or whatever, but it's a much bigger fight, right? I mean, I think people, of course.

Interested in him fighting Tiafima Lopez then in fighting Caterall again. And one thing as it relates to both Caterall and Sandoor Martine, Chris, I think it's time to give both of those guys credit as well. I mean, because as Josh Taylor, an elite level fighter, Tiafimo Lopez, elite level fighter as well, but those guys are both very, you know, Sandor Martine beat whatever the excuse was. He beat Mikey Garcia. And then he almost

Fimo Lopez. Maybe Sandoor Martinez is just damn good. And same principle applies to Jack Catterol, who hadn't fought the highest level of opposition for the most part. Mostly domestically, he had fought, or exclusively domestically, before he fought Taylor the first time.

But he's pretty damn good, too. So there's no shame in those two fights, I don't think. You know, maybe more so has been made of those narrow wins than should have been. I defy any top guy at 140 to fight Sander Martinez and look good. You may beat him, but you're going to look terrible.

He's just that kind of fighter. He's elusive. He's in shape. He moves a lot. You're not going to look good against Santa Martina. I don't care if it's Regis Progrey. Subriol-Matias. It doesn't matter.

You'll look bad against Sandra Martine. The Taylor stuff, a couple things strike me. The Caterall fight was ugly, but he's had one fight in two years, and that was the Caterall fight. And he didn't look good in it. He's also made noise in the past about moving up to 147 pounds. think he's staying at 140 largely out of necessity like money the money's at 140 right now for josh taylor i wonder physically he's going to be the same fighter we saw in the world boxing super

series because he's a tall guy and getting down to 140 has got to be a challenge whereas taffima lopez uh 140 certainly a better fit for him physically he's had he's been more active at two fights in what the last eight months so he's coming in sharpish uh but the question as you pointed out with Lopez is, you know, what, where is he at mentally? Like, some of the things he said, Keith, over the last couple of months, crazy, you know, talking about top rank's commitment to black fighters. I mean, okay. And he's not backed down from that one bit. In fact, he's doubled down on that in a number of interviews. The family dynamic there, not just his divorce, which he's been very open about and how it's impacted him. But, you know, you got his dad, you know, in his

corner and his dad's had a lot of success with him, but some of the shines come off that relationship as well. You know, how productive is that professionally for Teofimo Lopez? I think it's a fascinating fight because to your point, like there's no outcome I wouldn't believe. Like, you know, Josh Taylor stopping Teofimo can believe that. Josh can crack. Teofimo stopping Taylor can believe that.

You know, Teofimo can crack. Either one of these guys winning by decision, very believable. Both these guys have been the distance in big fights before. So, you know, it's probably as fascinating as it would have been two years ago, but for a very different reasons. Two years ago, it would have been just a monster fight. Now, it's a big fight, but not a, not for the same, not for the same reasons. On the subject of this fight, Teofima has had some sharp things to say about Top Rank, the way they promoted him over the last year. What's your understanding of the relationship between Teofimo and Top Rank beyond this

fight? Well, he has fights left on his contract, if that's what you mean. He does. But, you know, he said some things that have definitely irritated the brass at top rank. They're not happy about it. And they've had a good relationship in the past. And obviously they've treated him well from a financial perspective or gotten him the right fights. I mean, he was probably

underpaid. Not probably. He was underpaid for the first Tiafima Lopez. The Lomachenko, yeah. The Lomachenko fight. He was underpaid for that fight. But that's not top rank's fault. I mean, that's, you know, if he's got to, he should pick that fight with someone else, basically.

paid him and and it is what it is but but he has made a lot of money fighting for top rank and they've gotten them good fights and they've gotten them great exposure on ESPN well you know if you're advising Tiafima Lopez of course he would like he kind of looks at it like I'm an open book and I have flaws and I just kind of say what I say some of the things he obviously just should not even if he believes these things he should not have said them publicly I kind of feel for him Chris in the sense that I do believe deep down Tiefa Mópez is a good kid he's a lot of pressure on him at a young age and that comes with the territory. I mean, no one's going to feel sorry for any of these guys making enormous sums of money and fighting

on huge platforms and, you know, kind of being as open as he is, you know, to all these YouTube channels and any other reporter in boxing for the most part. He has not done a lot of press going into this fight, which maybe is a good sign that he's been more focused on just, you know, the training aspect of everything and not doing too much, you know, too many interviews and that kind of thing. We'll get access to him, you know, later this week. at the press conference and everything. But I think he's a good kid and I think his heart's in the right place for the most part. But he has said some things that are just,

you certainly would not advise someone to say. And there's been backlash and understandably so. So he has to deal with those consequences. And again, he's going through things in his personal life with a divorce. And, you know, he's not really with his son now.

And obviously that's going to affect anyone. So he's got a lot of things going on in the background. But that has been the case many times for Tiafima Lopez. This is not new for him. You know, maybe the exact circumstances are somewhat new, but he's had a lot of turmoil in his life. I mean, he's been open about that, about, you know, the family dynamic, all that. So if anyone could fight through those distractions, he's, except for the Cambosis fight, which was a physical issue as well, he's fought through those and fought at a high level. So if you were going to put money on someone that could do it, he would be someone that you would because he's proven that he could do that in the past.

we'll see what happened Saturday night. But there's a lot going on in the background as it relates to Teofima Lopez. Who do you think has more at stake in this fight? For Teofima, it would be, a loss would be his second in the last four fights. Josh Taylor has not lost, but a lot of people probably thought he did against Caterall. And this would be, you know, another poor performance on his resume if he does. It would depend on how the fight goes to, Chris. Like if it was a, you know, if it was an all-action fight of the year type of, Josh Taylor happened to get knocked. out. I mean, it's not good, but it's not catastrophic. I would say Lopez, maybe. They both obviously have a lot at stake, Chris, right? Because this is the last title that Josh Taylor owns. I know he wants to move up to welterweight. I don't know how he would fare against some of the bigger fighters in that division, whereas at 140, he's a bigger fighter and has some physical advantages over some of his opponents. And a lot of good names for him at 140 if he wins the fight. Who knows with Regis program,

with having just signed a three-fight deal with Matrim and his own, whether that's something that could happen in the foreseeable future. But I would say if I had to pick between the two who has more at stake, I would just say Lopez, because this would then be his second loss in his last four fights, you know, a debatable win in his last fight against Sandor-Martin. And while he was only going to turn 26 years old next month, you know, he would go from being, you know, the unified lightweight, undefeated lightweight champion to having two losses on his record. And, and, and, You don't know what the big fights are for him thereafter. Yeah, I tend to agree.

I think how the fight plays out obviously matters. But for Teofimo, I also am not sure how he'd take a loss, you know, like what that would do to him. He just seems to have a lot going on right now inside his head. And if he winds up getting outclassed, like, what would that do for his confidence? What would that mean for him going forward? So for Teofima Lopez, he probably needs this a lot more. I think if Taylor loses, he's going to go up one, or the other. I agree with you. I don't know what's there for him and how effective he'd be.

I'm kind of envisioning him against, you know, guys like, not that these fights are makeable at the moment, but guys like Boots Ennis, you know, guys like Virgil Ortiz, Amontas, Stanionis, the next level of welterweights that are waiting for the Crawford Spence fight to play itself out. I wouldn't favor Taylor in any of those fights, but he's talented and he's proven that, you know, in this way class, maybe he can do it in the other. But I think for Teofimo, this is massive. This is a big opportunity and a big moment for Teofiima Lopez in his career. Out in California, Keith, where I will be on Saturday, you've got Jaime Mungia putting his undefeated record on the line against Sergei Derevanchanko.

Now, if this fight was taking place in 2018, this fight would be a monster. That would be when Derevanchenko was a rising guy in the middleweight division, set to take on Daniel Jacobs, set to take on. Ganadi Golofkin, all the top guys at 160. But it's 2023. Mungia is very much in its prime. Derevanchenko is very much not. I think the question people are wondering is,

is this a step-up fight for Jaime Mungia? It's not the big fight that people have been clamoring for. It's not Jermal-Charlo. It's not Gennady Golofkin. It's not David Benavides. But to you, is this a, step-up kind of fight that puts Mungia in any risk? Well, yes, Chris, because even though this is a diminished Derevianchenko,

when you look at the level of opponents that Jaime Mungia has been fighting the last couple of years for the most part, yes, it's a step-up. But I don't know what Derevianchenko has left. I was at his last fight when he fought in October on the Deonté Wilder undercard. He looked okay. I mean, he certainly didn't look like the guy who fought Gannati Gullovkin once upon a time. And he's even said this is kind of the, he didn't use this, this phrase, but kind of the end of the road for me at the top level, basically going into this fight. You know, if he pulls off an upset on Saturday, he'll get another big fight.

But at least, at least Mungi is fighting someone that people respect, you know, it's, it's not like Dregnchenko's coming off five straight losses or something like that. But the level of guy that he has fought the last couple of years has really drawn the ire for the most part of boxing fans. You know, I'm sure he has his supporters about Mexican fans and all, but like people are tired of seeing him get into the ring with wildly overmatched opponents. It got to the, it was farcical at a degree. At a certain point, Chris, it's just like you have to fight somebody. You can't spend all this time calling out Charlo and all the rest of the guy, Golovkin and all the rest of the guys.

Well, Keith, let's look at, I mean, let's look at the last few opponents. I mean, Gabe Rosado in 2021, okay, Gabe had just knocked back to Mir Malacuzzi about. I don't have a problem with that. But then Demetrius Ballard? No. Jimmy Kelly? No. Gonzalo Correa?

No. Like these are, for the most part, barely sea level opponents. Right. The last one was particularly egregious because he had been blown out by Janubec. Al-Mhano. So, yeah, that was particularly bad. But so in that respect, at least he's fighting someone that people have seen fight at a high level. And we don't know what Derevianchenko has left because he hasn't thought.

someone as good as Belongia in quite, you know, in a while. So, so we'll see. And it's a new weight class, too. Like, you know, I was in my opinion, Keith, that I thought that, I thought Derevanchenko should have dropped down. I know it's difficult. He's kind of a thick guy, but he's a shorter guy. I thought if he was going to make one more career move to try to salvage something out of

his remaining years, it was down at 154. I know his team tried to talk to him about it. They tried to get him to see the merits in it. But Derevanchenko decided not to. He's going up to 168. He was undersized at one. He's going to be severely undersized at 168. I know Mungia has been a 160 for most of the last few years, but he's massive.

Like he is going to be 175, 180 come fight night. And there's going to be just a significant size gap between these two fighters. Yeah, and that's probably his greatest disadvantage going into the fight, Chris, meaning Derevichenko. He was a small middleweight. I mean, he's a pretty short guy. Like you said, stout and put together and everything, but a smallish middleweight who, yeah, Keith Connolly and other people involved in his career did try to convince him to go fight at 154 after he lost a couple of fights.

He's an older guy. Maybe he just thought he couldn't put his body through that to get down to 154. And he's making a decent person, everything to fight Mungia. He's not a 68-pounder. I mean, that's, again, probably his greatest disadvantage going to the fight. Yeah, no question. For Mungia, I feel like you and I have this conversation once every few months. like when will Mungia fight a top guy?

I believe Mungia's team when they said they tried to make a fight with Golochkin. I think that's more about Golochkin than it is Mungi at this point. I don't think Gailovkin, at least not now, is looking in the direction of Hyman Mugia. I'm not sure he's looking in any direction at this point. But, you know, we can go back to Demetrius Andrade. You know, in all the years they spent avoiding him. Jamal Charlo blame on both sides for that not fight happening a year or so ago because, you know, there was a deal supposedly struck and they couldn't agree on the television side of it.

But, you know, he's not running to fight Janubek. That's a fight that could be available to him at 160. It sounds like he's done at 160. He was fighting this fight as a full-fledged 168. Barring something huge, I don't think we're going to see Jaime Mungia back at 100. and 60 pounds, maybe ever. And, you know, I look at the undercard of this fight, Keith, and I see Shane Mosley Jr. on there.

And that to me sounds like they're setting up Shane Mosley Jr. to face Hyman Mungia later this year. That's a fight that was offered to Moseley at one point, you know, maybe a year ago. And seeing him on the undercard tells me they're going to put Mungia and Moseley in together, which is not a terrible fight. But once again, it is not that big fight that we're looking. looking for Jaime Mungia to get into. Well, Chris, I spoke to Shane Mosley, Jr. a few days ago, and I did ask him exactly that.

Did he think Mungia was a potential opponent for him if they both win on Saturday? And he said no, because he considers himself a middleweight. He said, I'm not fighting at 168 pounds. So maybe not. You know, maybe he's just negotiating or whatever, but he said, look, if Mungia is a 68 pounder, then that's not for me because I see myself as a 60 pounder. he actually said he wants and you don't hear many guys saying this he said he wants to fight Janubek that's what Mosley said that when I asked him specifically who do you want to fight

if you win if you beat Demetrius Ballard on Saturday night and his answer was Janinebeca Alam Hanelah that's who he wants to fight so but he said you know some of the guys who've turned down the fight have have made it known that top rank wasn't quite offering the kind of money that they thought the fight was worth so that obviously will come into play from a financial perspective. So I don't know who Mangia moves up to 168. We all know who the kingpin is at 168 pounds. Golden Boy, I don't foresee making a fight with Canelo Alvarez anytime soon. And Canello has

other options, you know, with various promoters and platforms and such that he could explore. So I don't see him fighting Mungia either. So who would Mungia? I mean, let's just say that Benavides doesn't fight that doesn't fight Canello and Canela fight someone else in September. Is Mungia going to fight David Benavides? I highly doubt it.

Or David Morel highly doubt that too. So I don't know who he fought. That's a great question. But I mean, look, this is a baby step fighting Derevianchanco, who he said is a really just a 60, a smallish 60-pounder to begin with. But at least it's some sort of progress

in the type of opponent. The thing that always makes me laugh about this, Chris, and always is sort of perplexing, is this is a guy who five years ago was willing to fight to fight Gannati Gullifton on short notice. And now we can't. It's bizarre, right?

It's crazy. And on Moseley, I think money will talk, honestly. I think if, like, mostly, and maybe it was because the fight at that point was going to be at 160, but Moseley was willing to fight Mungia a year ago if the money was right. I feel like the same thing is going to be true,

regardless of weight. I think if they offer him, right contract, he'll move up. Because for Shane Mosley, there's not a lot of great options either. You know, it's not like he's got this line of guys way to fight him. If he looks good against Demetrius Ballard, something tells me there'll be an offer on the table for him to fight Mungia. And I think if the money's right, he's going to take it.

I wouldn't mind seeing it against Janubek. He's probably as good or better than some of the guys that Janibek has fought over the last year. So I think it'll probably come down to which promotional outfit makes the best offer. But with Mungia, you know, let's assume he wins this fight against Derevanchenko. he's 42 and no. Let's assume he fights Mosley and beats him. He's 43 and 0.

We're talking about a guy that's going to get close to 50 wins without a big fight, you know, in his future. It's obvious in his future. That's just wrong. I mean, that just deserves criticism. It does. And it's frustrating. It really is because I've said this before.

You know, we talk about these opponents, whether it's Charlo or Golofkin. I would favor Mungia, maybe, against Charlo, at least at this point. I think it's a 50-50 fight against Golofkin. I think Mungia's made a lot of great strides. I think he's become a much better offensive fighter over the last few years. Eric Morales has contributed to that.

And not a great defensive fighter, but when you have that kind of offense, sometimes offense is your best defense. So him not getting these fights and taking these fights, he's doing himself a disservice because I think he wins a lot of them. Or at the very least, he's highly competitive in a lot of them. Also, don't forget, he's got a great choice. in. Like, you know, he can take a punch. So it just, it, it is frustrating to not see him in

these type of events. It just is. He's, he's a talented guy. And we shouldn't be talking about Mungia at 25, 26 years old, 41, 42 and O, not being in a marquee fight. It just. And that's the other point, Chris, he's still a very young guy for, you know, so it's not like he's, you know, it's like he's 30 and he hasn't flown anybody. I think he's 26. You know, he's young, but they got to fight somebody here at some point. Let's see how he looks against Dredmichanko on Saturday night and go from there. But I don't know, man. It's just a perplexing route that he has taken over the last few years.

And I know it frustrates a lot of people, a lot of fans who want to see him. Because as you said, he's a very good offensive fighter. He fights in an entertaining way, you know, obviously not Peril-Wittaker from a defensive standpoint. Maybe he has made some strides in that area. but that's what makes him fun to watch. You know, so we want to see him in the type of fights. Look, him against Canello would be a great, you know, there would be so many storylines there.

You know, it's another Mexican against Mexican. You know, you'd have Golden Boy trying to knock off Canelo and not, but it's just from a business perspective. I don't see that happening. But that would be a fun fight, you know, and it would give Canello another option if he would entertain the possibility. Yeah, it would happen, or at least be a possibility if Oscar would just stop, just stay off social media and stop getting into it with other fighters, including your own

fighter. I mean, not to make this about Oscar, because I wasn't planning on talking about him today, but I've often said and still say that if Oscar Delahoya woke up tomorrow and said, I want to be the most powerful promoter in boxing, he still could. There still is a legion of fighters out there that look at him as no pun intended. the gold standard in boxing, that still see his fights on YouTube, that still are in awe sometimes in his presence. But, you know, he has been continuing to needle Canelo Alvarez when he has to know to make big fights happen with Canelo, you've got to, if not make peace, just ease off

a little bit. And now you see him out there with Ryan Garcia. Like, what are you doing? Why are you tweeting at Ryan Garcia? why are you poking the star of your stable and criticizing him for decisions that, quite frankly, you were a part of? Like, Oscar can blame, you know, Lupe Valencia for convincing Ryan Garcia to, you know, take that rehydration clause.

But during flight week, I didn't hear Golden Boy, you know, complaining about it. I didn't hear Oscar complaining about it all that much. So. Oh, Chris, he did. He wasn't. All right. I mean, but like the kind of. way he's doing right now he's like not not saying right shouldn't have taken it right like i don't

think he ever i don't recall him saying ryan should not take this fight no no not no he never said that um look these things would be better obviously handled behind closed doors whatever issues he has with ryan garcia there's no behind closed doors with canelo because they don't communicate with each other at all yeah but yeah obviously just stay social media not just for oscar de la hoya but for countless people that we know and random anonymous people on on the platform and stuff know, you just get off of, you're not, you're not a 12 year old, you know, get off, get off of there and it handled the business behind closed doors, but they, they've taken, you know, they can't help themselves to some degree. But to your point about Oscar is like,

whatever people think of Oscar, you know, some of the things that have happened in his personal life or some of the things that he's done as a promoter, one thing you can't dispute is he was a, he was a Hall of Fame fire who fought everybody and was a tough SOB when he fought. And And people still have respect for that as they should. A ton of respect. And Golden Boy, for whatever flaws they may have, they have continued to identify and develop some very good fighters. I mean, Ryan Garcia is one of the biggest stars in boxing. Virgil Ortiz, who's got a big fight on July 8th against Amostanionis, he wins that fight.

He goes to that next level. You know, they've got guys in their stable, top level guys. I don't know what Floyd's going to turn out being, but he wins that fight. He has that kind of potential at 135 pounds. So they've done a nice job building out a stable of fighters. But it doesn't do the company any favors when you're publicly warring with your biggest star. It happened with Canello. Now it's happening with Ryan Garcia.

You know, if Oscar would just stop and focus on the business side of it, he would still be, he would be the most powerful promoter in boxing. I really believe that because of his ability. to attract fighters into his orbit and eventually maybe into that Golden Boy stable. Hell, you saw Terrence Crawford meeting with him, you know? And if Crawford and Spence didn't come together, there was a pretty good chance that Crawford would have done business with Golden Boy, whether involving Alexis Rocha, maybe Virgil Ortiz or somebody else.

It's all there. All the pieces are there. They just have to not tweet about them on a regular basis. We've talked about Canello a couple of times here. The news this week around Canelo involves David Benavides, where Samson Lukowitz, the promoter for Benavides, who was also backed by Al-Haman and by PBC. He came out and said that they have presented Canelo Alvarez, specifically his manager, trainer, Eddie Rinoza, with a lucrative offer to fight David Benavides in the fall.

I was subsequently told that that offer had a guarantee of around $40 million and some incentives, you know, whether it's the gate or pay-per-view upside, that could push it to the neighborhood of $50 million. Seems like a pretty good offer for Canelo to fight David Benavides. From what you understand of the situation, what do you think the chances are now that we get Canelo against Benavides in the fall? It's hard to say, Chris, because I don't know how much money he would be offered to fight. We spoke about this.

I think the last time I was on the podcast, and Edgar Berlanga has a fight coming up, whether people want to hear about it or not. Edgar Berlanga is a potential opponent for Canelo. as soon in September all of a sudden, because if they can't make this Bibol fight, and maybe the way that they're negotiated, if, you know, Badeem Kornilov basically said these negotiations have been a joke, I think. The word he used was a joke. Yeah, and it's not there.

And it's felt like it was going this direction for weeks now, but the money's just not there for a Bivel fight. And I think for the first time, Team Bivel is realizing that that's the reality in the situation. right so if he's not going to fight bivol i mean it's going to be it's going to be it's going to be edgar berlanga or or david bernavitans and if the zone is willing to pony up the money and that you know they can make that fight happen i think he's personally i think he'll fight berlanga before he fights benavitas because you're not going to do that in reverse probably so you know because he'd have to switch platforms and all the you know all the stuff that's involved in that and it's a much tougher fight and certainly it would appear that way

that it's a much tougher fight. But I think if Berlanga, this is not going to convince people that it should happen. No, it won't. If people are, if people do not want to hear the case, Redger Berlanga, hit that fast forward button on the podcast right now.

Go ahead. No, what I'm saying is no matter what, how he, now, if he somehow struggles with Jason Quigley, well, then I would assume it's off the table, but I don't foresee him struggling with Jason Quigley,

who's not a 68-pounder and was blown out by Demetrius Andrade and give 15 other reasons why that fight should not be much of a fight for Edgar Blanca. But if he looks impressive, they'll hang their hats on that and say, okay, well, he's coming off a great win. You know, he's a big puncher still and blah, blah, all the things that they're, and, you know, whether anyone likes it or not, it might be forced fed to the public. And if they put it on pay-per-view, good luck. But I honest, if I had to bet my own money on who I think he will fight and

September based on the things that I have heard and over the last few weeks, my money would probably go on Burlanga. So why do you think that is? Because I agree with you. And I was in Mexico for the Canelo John Ryder fight. And I was talking to people in and around Canello's orbit. And we were, you know, everybody kind of assumed that John Ryder would get beat one way and the other.

So we're talking about who we would fight next. And it seemed like it was either going to be Benavides or Bevo. And Bevo, the push for a Bevo fight, I can understand. Canello is a proud guy. He wants to get a rematch. He wants to avenge that loss. But the disinterest in a Benavides fight was a little perplexing because regardless of what the final terms are on an offer from Benevides, it's going to be big.

It's going to be $35, $40, $45 million guaranteed for Canelo Alvarez to get in the ring with David Benavides. And as good as Benavides is, and as sharp as he looked against Caleb Plain. If those two fought in September, I would make Conello a favor in that fight. So I don't really understand why Canello, the people on his team, whomever, don't seem to be all that interested in a fight with David Benavides. Do you have any idea of why they don't seem inclined to move forward with that? No, I don't, Chris. Other than maybe in the back of their minds, they're just saying, well, Berlan.

is going to be a pretty easy fight for us, and we'll take the money for that and then and then revisit the Benavides thing thereafter. Because let's just say he fights and say he fights Berlang in September, he beats Berlanga, then he won't fight again until May. And then you have all this time to revisit it and the money presumably would still be there for a Benavides fight. Now, the only thing that becomes problematic for Benavides, he's now fought on pay-per-view and they want to keep him on that platform. Well, you can't just throw him. You know, he can't fight David Lemieux in a Showtime pay-per-view event or, you know, pick some of the guys that he's beaten over the course of the last few years. I mean, the plant fight, you know, they had this bad blood and plant had fought on pay-per-view against Canello and the fight did very well. Okay, so you can do that.

But, you know, even Morel, which would be a very difficult fight and maybe a fight that Benevitas would not win. So it's dangerous in that respect. commercially, it's not a huge fight because I think it does less. sell on pay-per-view, hard sell. But it would be on paper view. But at least that's an opponent you could put on the platform because, you know, even though he only has nine fights, people consider him an elite level talent. So you're in a, so Benavides is then in sort of a predicament in terms of who he would,

because he's certainly not going to wait for Canelo until May because he, you know, he fought this past March. So, uh, so it becomes problematic on the PBC, uh, Benavita side of it as well. But I don't know, Chris. I mean, there's a lot of money there. And I'm not saying. You know, Canello's fought a lot of top-level guys. I'm not saying he's certainly not saying he's afraid to fight Benavita,

but it's a tough fight. It's a huge, you know, much bigger guy who's got a great chin and keep. And he has some vulnerability and some flaws that Canello could exploit. And as you said, Canello will probably be the betting favorite if they make the fight. But I don't know, I think maybe if I had to give an answer related to that, I think maybe it will just be they want to see what happens with Berlanga here. And they would prefer to take that fight next. for less money, but still a lot of money.

Yeah. And then... Yeah, you make the good point that, you know, Berlanga would be there. If he knocks out Jason quickly in two rounds, he's going to be there. And it's at the very least, a mainstream marketable fight. Maybe the boxing purists, don't... Not maybe. They will turn on it because everybody in that boxing bubble wants to see Canelo against

David Benavita, as you and I probably included. but, you know, the Benavides, it feels like, we'll be there in six months, eight months, whenever. Whereas, who knows, with, you know, a guy like Burlanga. You know, if he fought two or three times before then, he might get beat. He struggled in the past with some mid-level fighters. You can blame injuries and other things, of course. But, you know, it's a risk to let that Berlanga fight marinate almost a little too long. So I kind of agree with you.

I think if Burlanga looks great, good chance we see Canello against Burlanga. in September of this year. Last thing for you, Keith, you know, Devin Haney, who I think has gotten way too much flack for this Lomachenko stuff. Like, every time I open up social media and read a headline about Devin Haney,

Lomachenko, it's like Lomachenko robbed or Hatt. Hattner didn't deserve the decision. He should run it back. Like, it was a close fight. I scored it for Lomachenko, but had no problem with it being scored for Haney. The only issue I had was Dave Moretti scoring the 10th round.

for Haney. That didn't make any sense. But the scorecards in general were fine. Haney did good body work. I thought he won a lot of those early rounds. And those matter in a fight. Moreover, when you have two guys who are elite, these fights are going to be close. We're kind of accustomed to A side versus C side or A side versus D side and seeing wide scorecards. So we almost expect them instinctively. When you have two guys that are great, scorecards are going to be close. You're going to have Nip-and-tuck decisions. I mean, Canelo's had a bunch of them over his career. So, I find the blowback on Devin Haney crazy, but most in part because Devin Haney, really since 2021, has done nothing but fight the best that can be put in front of him.

Like, 2021, he's got Linares, he's got Jojo Diaz, back when Jojo was still kind of a hot property at that time or as hot as he could be. He goes over to Australia twice and beats George Campos, have gone disputed. In his first defense, he takes on Vasily Lomachenko, Like these are all things that Devin didn't have to do in his career. He did it. And I think he rightfully won these fights. Now, for whatever reason, Devin Haney's out there, you know, sniffing around matchroom again, talking about going to, you know, New Orleans to see Regis Progray fight, talking about taking on Progray, perhaps as early as his next fight.

So let me ask you this. You know, what do you make of, you know, Devin's sort of interest right now in 140 and Regis Progray? And is that the right fight for him? makes his move to Junior Welterweight. I think it really depends, Chris, on what happens on Saturday night, because if Tiafimo Lopez wins this fight and there's no rematch clause in the contract or anything, so Tiafima Lopez would be free to do whatever he wants. I think that would then become an attractive option for Devin Haney, who's free from a

promotional standpoint and from a platform standpoint to do what he wants for his next fight. If I were advising Devin Haney and I had the option of fighting Tiafima Lopez for 140 pound title or Regis Progray, I would fight Tiafima Lopez. I'm not saying Lopez certainly is not an easy fight, but he's a contemporary. He's a rival of Devin Haney's. The fight would, maybe they would put it on pay-per-view, but it could be on ESPN as well, which would make it available to many more people. And the Progray fight is a less marketable fight and a very, very, very difficult fight in which Devin Haney could very well get knocked out. So I'm not saying He couldn't beat Regis Proreiber by outboxing him, but it's a very tough fight.

And I just think if Tiafima Lopez pulls this off on Saturday, that would be, if I'm Devin Haney, what I would be looking to do. And as it relates, Chris, to what you said, scoring boxing is such a subjective science as we well know. I know you do the scorecards under the zone broadcasts. And everybody agrees with me at all times. I've never had a single person disagree. So you know how that goes. But yeah, in the case of Loma and Haney, it was a very competitive close fight that could have gone either way. 1513, either way.

Draw both would have been acceptable, I thought. So, yeah, it's been a little. And look, if Dave Moretti hadn't fallen asleep in the 10th round, he would have had it 1513. I mean. Well, as it relates to Dave Moretti, if the Nevada State Athletic Commission appoints Dave Moretti to score the Errol Spence, Crawford fight, they should all be fired. And this isn't anything personal with Dave Moretti, but he's done egregious things in back-to-back fights now,

where you can't, you're, it's almost like you'd be spitting in the faces of boxing fans and people who are paying to follow this sport, like if they assign him to that fight. Absolutely. You have got to go out of state for that. I mean, you can go in-state with some of your best, but you want to see a name like Steve Weisfeld as part of that mix. want to see, you know, Zach Young, I think, is an excellent judge. You want to see him part

of that mix. You mentioned the judging and it kind of triggered something in my mind, something I saw this week. I saw Brian Campbell, our friend over at Showtime in CBS, tweeted out an interview that Mike Mazzuli did, the association, the director of the Association of Boxing Commissions, where, I don't know if you, I don't know if you saw this, but where he's basically saying that judges and referees, there's no reason to make them available after fights for comments. In part because when people want to talk to judges and referees, it's often for negative reasons.

I mean, come on. It's always for negative. It's always for negative reasons. But, Pete, as it always is. Like, when I cover the NBA, and the NBA makes their referees available to pool reporters, nobody has ever wanted to talk to an NBA referee, to say, great job.

That doesn't happen. You want to talk to a referee, or in this case, a judge or a boxing referee, because of a decision they made. Now, can you convince me that it's not appropriate to put a referee on camera immediately after a fight? Yeah, I can get on board with that. Things are a little bit hot.

Maybe you don't want to have Jim Gray, or, quite frankly, me with a microphone in front of a guy, questioning him immediately after. But boxing should do what sports like the NBA does and have a pool reporter. You should be able to ask all three judges and the referee questions about a ruling or a decision. That is not too much to ask, Keith. It's not. And when I was listening to Mike Missoulli kind of, I mean, he was kind of pleading for phone calls saying,

saying, can I talk to this referee because I want to tell him what a great job he did? It's just not how the business works. That's not how reporting works. You're not there to laud a guy for doing his job. You're there to question if you think something was done inappropriately. I don't know how you feel about the availability of referees and judges. I mean, my take is to have a pool reporter. I don't know if you have a different take on it,

but one way or the other, there should be accountability after crazy decisions. Because to my knowledge, we haven't heard from Tony Week. after that debacle involving Roller Romero and Ishmael Barroso. I haven't heard from members of Nevada Commission regarding that debacle. And it seems like everyone's ready to move on. Like Ryan Garcia is, you know, lobbying for a fight against Roli Romero. I saw O'Hara Davies tweeted recently like, those guys can go ahead and fight. I'll fight the next guy up in the WBA rankings.

Like we seem to have forgotten about that incident. And I just think there needs to be more accountability. What do you think? There certainly needs to be more accountability, Chris. And the real difference between boxing and the NBA, which you also cover, is, okay, say someone makes a bad call, even if it cost you a game in the NBA finals, which are ongoing right now. Well, Yokic is still going to make the same amount of money. Jimmy Butler is still going to make the same amount of money. Everyone's going to go home fat and happy in that respect.

Unhappy with the result in the controversial call, of course, but it's not affecting their livelihood. It affects history and maybe the result of that particular game. But it does not affect their livelihoods like it does in boxing. The lack of accountability for these types of decisions is disgusting because someone like Ismail Barroso is not going to get another title shot anytime soon. He looked like he was 86 years old. They say he's 40. I mean, all kidding aside, Chris, this guy's life has been negatively impacted by what happened

that night. And he may have gone on to get knocked out by Roli Romero in that fight because he was hurt earlier in the ninth round. But that should have been allowed to play out. Tony Weeks has not really, I don't know what he could say that's going to justify what he did because it was completely unjustifiable as far as I could tell. I mean, he wasn't getting hit and was throwing punches back and he stopped the fight at a very, very odd time. So the only thing that the only recourse they really have is that then just maybe not assign him to a higher profile. I'm not saying Tony Weeks or anyone else should never be used again, but get him in a room. And I know Larry Hazard in New Jersey does this with officials who make mistakes and says, well, why did you see this this way?

Why did you do this? And at least in private have some accountability for what they're doing. As it relates to what you're asking specifically about why they don't. make the officials available. If you can find the footage, there was a Showtime fight in January of last year, January of 2022. It was when Tug Nyambayar, I don't even remember who he fought exactly, but there was some bizarre call that Eddie Claudio made, I believe it was Eddie Claudio, it was the referee in that fight. And after the fight, he was interviewed on Showtime. I remember. And he, and what was unfolding

before our very eyes in the arena I was ringside for the fight on the big screen that all the people at the Borgata event center could see happening was the complete opposite of what the referee was saying that he was seeing not in real time on the video replay

that's why they don't put these guys in this position because you've got all these people screaming at you from ringside and you're in an impossible position because internally I'm sure he knew he made a mistake I'm sure Tony Weeks in a quiet moment, if you asked him, let's say, in hindsight, I shouldn't have stopped that fight. They know it, right?

So they don't want to put them in a position where they're then admitting the mistake. I'm not defending it. I'm saying they look at it like they're protecting their officials. But when are they going to protect the people whose livelihoods are impacted by these. Now, again, scoring boxing is subjective. And there are going to be some, you know, debates about what the scores should be and all that kind. I totally understand that. But in terms of stopping a fight that has no business being stopped, you can't justify it.

And then there's no mechanism for the guy who gets screwed to do anything. Now, he could, Ismao Barroso could go to the WBA and say, you know, you can order me a rematch, whether that will happen or not, as anyone's guess. It doesn't sound like it. So, and now he just goes home. This 40-year-old guy goes home. You know, he could have been crowned a champion. Let's just say he won that fight. He's in position for a big pay day.

else you say makes $500,000 or whatever it might be. He would have fought Ryan Garcia. Like Golden Boy would have gone after him to fight Ryan Garcia because that would have been a pathway to a winnable title and, you know, gotten some of Ryan Garcia's momentum back. I mean, I think Raleigh Romero is a more appealing option because you can probably put that fight on pay-per-view, smaller pay-per-view because Roli, if nothing else, can sell a fight. But Barroso probably would have gotten the opportunity that sounds like Roli is trending towards at the moment. I look, again, I don't know that it needs to be what happened in New Jersey where a referee is required to respond in real time. But at some point, there has to be a response. You know, the Nevada Commission knows to bring it back to Barroso.

The Nevada Commission knows, Tony Weeks knows there was a mistake made. It's, but it shouldn't have been stopped. I don't hear somebody admit it. I don't hear somebody say, we screwed up, you know. And whatever recourse there is after that, I don't know. Maybe that you leave that to WBA to order Barroso to fight for that title immediately. But I just wanted to hear some accountability, some ownership there, because right now there's none. And all we're hearing now to bring it back to that clip from Mike Missouli is that, you know, it should be more positive.

Like we should be, we shouldn't be so negative towards referees. Well, if you make a mistake, it's not Little League. Like, this is a profession. You're supposed to do your job. If you screw up, there's got to be some accountability for it. Particularly, as I said, Chris, because of the way it, impacts these guys' livelihoods from fight to fight. And there's also a defiance on the part sometimes, particularly in Nevada. And this is really going to be put to the test here when the officials

are named for this, you know, when the judges and the referee are named for this, Errol Spence Terrence Crawford, you know, is one, from a magnitude standpoint, is an enormous fight, you know, the biggest welterweight fight, maybe since, of course, Floyd and Pacquiao from a market standpoint was on another planet. But, you know, from a meaningful standpoint since Dale Hoy at Trinidad, maybe. I mean, it might be the most meaningful Walterway title fight since then. So what I don't want to see is them just saying, we don't care what Dave Moretti did on May 20th,

and we don't care what Dave Morady did on April 22nd. He's one of our best judges historically, and while that's true, look, and I understand you have to be careful of discriminating based on age and everything, but he is 78 years old. He's been judging professional fights since 1977, and he has made two pretty egregious mistakes and back-to-back high-profile fights that were four weeks apart. I don't want to hear from the Nevada Commission or anyone else that he let him take a break. I'm not saying he has to retire, but let him take a break.

Don't put Dave Moretti in the position where he's in the crosshairs like that. Don't put the commission where they're in the crosshairs. Like, just don't do it. You're inviting public criticism. And the last thing anyone needs from a fight of this magnitude on July 29th is to walk away from its complaining about the decision or the judges or the referee or whatever. Do everything you can to put your best three judges ringside, whether they're from New Jersey or Nevada or Bangladesh or wherever the hell you find them. Put the best three judges ringside, the best referee in the ring, and eliminate as much as human. possible except for human error because that happens obviously, but just put the best officials

in place for this fight. That's all, it's not too much to ask. I always thought the best judges came from Bangladesh personally. It's like this. It's a, I was trying to pick somewhere ridiculous, Zimbabwe, whatever. You know what I'm saying. Keith Ideck, not a friend of the Bangladeshi. That's how we'll put a button on this podcast. Follow Keith on Twitter at IDEC boxing. Check his stuff out over at boxing scene.com. He will be in New York. all week long, providing the best coverage for the Teafima Lopez, Josh Taylor, Jr. Welterweight title fight. Keith, always appreciate it, my friend. Thanks for joining me.

Same here, Chris. Thank you, man. And when we come back, I am getting back to my winning ways with this week's picks. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.

Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clever Taylor the 4th.

You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment,

and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to The Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs?

Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do a little kill? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack.

I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. so I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah.

For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, so I very recently finished moving. I mean, I guess you'd never really finish moving. because a lot of things associated with a move that take up your time from furniture delivery to taking out stuff that is already there to home repair, home remodeling.

I'm dealing with all that right now. The most invaluable resource I have had during this process is Angie. Angie's list, which many of you know, is now Angie, your home for everything home. Angie doesn't just get your home projects done. Angie gets them done well. With 20 plus years of experience, combined with new tools to simplify the process,

Angie makes completing your home projects incredibly easy. We're here for you every step of the way on your home ownership journey, helping with everything from a leaky faucet to a full kitchen renovation. The full bathroom renovation is where this has come up big for me. With over 220,000 pros in our network, Angie makes it easy to research, compare,

and higher pros to ensure, a job done well. Angie can help you get the best price for your project. Angie has projects that are priced up front and clearly lays out the cost before you buy. Angie has cost guides that tell you what others have paid for similar projects, both nationally and in your area. With Angie, you can request quotes from multiple pros in just a few taps. The pros in our network are locally based. The pros have been rated and reviewed by others in your area who have actually used their services. And just a few taps in the Angie app or clicks on the website, you can have Angie tackle your home service project from start to finish. Or you can research and connect

with local pros for your specific project. So download the free Angie mobile app today or visit Angie.com. That's A.N-G-I.com. All right, time now for this week's picks. And we have a really good fight in New York this weekend. Josh Taylor, Teofima Lopez, 140 pound title on the line. As you heard earlier in the show, this is a fight that could play out a lot of different ways. Both these guys have huge question marks. Josh Taylor has had one fight in the last two years and it was an uninspired decision win over Jack Catterall. Teofima Lopez has fought twice in the last eight, nine months, but he did not look great his last time out against Sandra Martine. There's a lot of questions about what's going on with Teafima Lopez.

behind the scene. As I sit here talking to you about this fight, I still don't know which way to go. But forced to make a call, I'm going to take Josh Taylor to win. Josh Taylor to win is at minus 196 right now over at Fandul. So he is a slight favorite going into this fight, Teofimo, plus 152. Method of victory, Josh Taylor by points or decisions at plus 165. I know that doesn't give you great odds, but I think Josh Taylor's skill set is a little bit more complete than Teofima Lopez.

I think he sat enough time to train for this fight. I think his game plan is going to be good. And again, I just, it's hard to know what's going on in the life of Teafema Lopez, in the mind of Teofima Lopez. Coming up, I looked at Teofima as one of the most talented guys in the lighter weight classes. I still think he's one of the most talented guys in the lighter weight classes. But forced to make a pick, I'm going to go with the guy that has. has a lot of quality wins at 140, that has a win over Regis Progray, that has a win,

albeit a contested one, over Jack Catterall. I am taking Josh Taylor to win by points or decision at plus 165. That's my pick. I'm sticking with it. I'm getting back on the right track this week. Take Josh Taylor by decision to win. That's it for this week's episode. My thanks to Keith Ideck for joining the show.

As always, subscribe, rate, review this podcast. on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you download podcasts. And I'll see you next week. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with. Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque.

Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying.

Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show. This is a place for raw, unfilled conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok.