The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Boxing with Chris Mannix - Ebanie Bridges

Episode Date: December 9, 2023

Joining Mannix on this bonus episode is Ebanie Bridges, the 118-pound women’s champion (3:00). Bridges unpacks her journey in boxing, from her early days in Australia (where women’s boxing was banned for many years) to getting promoters to take her seriously to winning a world title. Later, Keith Idec is back to talk PBC’s new deal, the Hall of Fame inductees and more. (28:00) #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Andrew Ruiz is the heavyweight champion. Hosted by S.I's Chris Mannix. That was my moment. Now with interviews, analysis, and everything going on in the world of boxing. When you have talent, you are given another chance. Here's Chris Mannix. All right, as promised, a special bonus episode of the podcast. I am in San Francisco for the Regis Progray, Devin Haney, 140-pound title fight.

It is going to be a great fight. it is going to be a great event. The crowd is expected to exceed 18,000 a sellout crowd at the Chase Center. You guys know from listening to this podcast, this is one of those fights that I am really into, and I'm excited that it's here that we're going to get to see these two stars

go at it on Saturday night. It is going to be a great event, and one of the fighters on this card is Ebony Bridges. If you know boxing and no women's boxing, Ebony Bridges over the last couple of years has really started to make her name for herself, mostly in the UK. She is 118 pound champion. She's had some big fights, big wins over in the UK. She is in the U.S. defending her title on this card. It's her second time fighting in the U.S.

I sit down with Ebony and kind of talk about her journey, how for such a long time, she wasn't taken seriously as a fighter. Now she is. Now she's got some goals. We'll get into all that more. Great conversation with Ebony Bridges. A little bit later on, Keith Ideck is back this time in person. I sit down to talk about the big news of the week. That is PBC signing a deal with Amazon. What does it mean? How much money is involved? How much promotion is Amazon going to put into it?

Keith and I get into all that we know about this deal a little bit later in the show. We also talk about the Hall of Fame honorees being unveiled this week. You've got Ricky Hatton going in the Hall of Fame. You've got Ivan Calderon going in the Hall of Fame. You have got Diego Corrales going in the Hall of Fame. So you've got some names. Some of them I don't really agree with. And Keith and I have a good back and forth about which fighters are really Hall of Fame worthy

and what the criteria should be when voting for the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Stick around. Great conversation with Keith Ideck later in the show. First, as promised, Ebony Bridges, here's my conversation with the 118 pound champion. All right, Ebony Bridges is the IBF 118 pound champion. On Saturday, she will make the second defense of her Bantamweight title. and Ebony, I was going to say, like, welcome to the U.S.,

but this is actually your second fight in the U.S. And I got to begin there, because how does Ebony Bridges of Australia wind up in Hammond, Indiana, on a club show? Okay, we'll get to who we're pointing to you right there. But like that, when I'm searching your box wreck,

I'm like, how the fuck is Ebony Bridges in Hammond, Indiana? And what is she doing on this show? I'm pretty sure it was Gary. No. Look, because that was when I first signed with Split Tea, you know, and they had a lot of female fighters because it was Brian Cohen, who manages a lot of female fighters.

And he was putting on, well, he, there was a promoter that he, obviously he had to end up saving his show because it was a wild, it was like Wild Wild Wild West. But no, the main event was Mary McGee. She just won her title. There was a lot of women on that car. Yeah, there was, exactly. It was like almost an all-female.

I think there was like me one maybe one male couple of them yeah couple of men two like like lower down but there was like I think it was like two title female title fights you know and like it was like my first year of boxing I was like this is mega because these girls I looked up to like you know like Christina Ligendow like been around forever these world champions and I'm fighting on their card it was it was it was a wow it was a wild wild west out there and Gary but no it was um it was good um obviously I had a good win and that was my you know a little filling out in America.

Tough way to get introduced to America. Oh, yeah. It was good. And it was actually like almost the first time I'd seen snow, too. It started snowing now. I was like, wow. Tough way. They could at least put you in New York. It really slipped. That's, that was wild. Hammond, Indiana, right there, fourth or fifth.

When you think back to where you were in your career back then, to where you are right now. I mean, how different is it feel? Yeah, it's crazy. It's, um, it's, um, it's, Yeah, it's wild. Like, you know, I, um, at that point of time I was building in America, you know, um, like I was out here at the fight, it's getting, you know, my name out here in America. And obviously that's why I signed with an American management and, you know, all fought in America. And then it was like, after that, COVID hit.

And then it was like, well, I've just had like, like, finally kind of like broke it into America, you know, dealt my little fight in America and whatever. And then COVID hit. And, um, I think that's when it all changed a lot for women in world. But me. And I got, I just got online, didn't I? And I just, um, started pulling. put my name out there in the UK.

And I remember going to, straight after this fight, this fight in Indiana. I went home and then I was like, I need to go back. Like I was home for like 10 days. I went back for the Fury Wilder fight too. And I've been to a few fights in Vegas, but this was because it was wild. I mean, it's Fury.

It was all the British and, you know, and I was like, wow, they said, there are different kind of fans. And I remember being there and going, man, I need to be fighting with these kind of fans and in this kind of atmosphere. So then I was like, all right, I'm about to go attack the UK market. And so that's what I did. And I would never have expected it. I just wanted to fight in the arena with those fans.

I didn't expect them to be my fans, you know? So, yeah, amazing. You know, you've talked about your boxing journey in the past. But, you know, when you were coming up, boxing was banned for women, right, in Australia. Yeah, yeah, when I was younger, yeah, exactly. So when I was younger, I did martial arts. I started martial arts when I was five and I did karate, I did kickboxing training in my teens,

but it was illegal, yeah, for combat sports until 2008. And then, yeah, it was like, so it was never really like a career thought or option, really. It was just like I enjoy training. I liked fighting, get a bit of fight in the street, you know, get my taste in the street. Yeah, it wasn't really a thing where I thought that I'd be able to do. So I did card gelling.

And you, I saw you said somewhere, you want to be a ring card girl. I was, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was, I was a ring card girl for, like, all through my 20s. Like, I started, I did, obviously when I was 18, because you don't do that when you're underage, but I did, because back then we used to walk around G-strings. It was like, it was like a strip show. I started off with, like, a nice dress, and then I'd, like, get down the shorts and the little cropped up, and then I'd be, like, by the main events, I was in the G-string. But, you know, it was, I enjoyed it. I loved being ring-side at the fights and getting paid.

Sometimes I get paid probably more than the fighters on the show, you know. I really enjoyed that. And then that was while I was bodybuilding. And then when I finished bodybuilding, I was like, what am I going to do? And by that time, boxing and combat sports, the band had been lifted. And I thought, well, I really like a punch of people in the head. I like the fights. So let's do this.

So I know for some women, when they go to the gym, some trainers would be like, no, I'm good. I don't want to train you. Oh, yeah. You know, they have that attitude, that old school mindset. How was it for you early on? I did have that. Yeah, definitely had that. as an amateur I had that

not people want to take me seriously I was training in a little gym and just wouldn't take me seriously wouldn't give me time wouldn't do sparring no sparring oh you can't spy the boys I'm like well there's no girls to spa because like especially in Australia like when I turned pro there was like four other pros do you know and that's only a couple of years ago so it was really hard and then when I turned

pro I was looking for a pro coach and just coaches didn't want to invest because they're like I don't waste my time on a girl like money they're going to make fuck all money from us too it's a girl like no so um yeah it was it was quite hard but i'd gone back to my original amateur coach and he you know he was to take me on as a pro and thank god for him because he was the first guy that opened his doors to me and said yes i want to train you as an amateur like well and then i just

moved on from that for for a few fights and then i went back to him and um yeah it was great how hard was it early on to get taken seriously oh i mean i think for women in general but for me look at me you know what I mean? I'm like blonde, like big boobs. Like people, I walk into gym. Like, I remember, you know, the first day that I was in Vegas and I walked into, you know, the Mayweather gym. And I walked in, first thing, they didn't say hello.

The first thing they said to me, they looked me up and done, they said, oh, you can't train in here. And I was like, oh, no, you're too pretty to be in here. You know, I was just a joke, but it was like, that's what it's like. Do you know what I mean? Like, they look at me and they're like, oh, you can't be serious. Like, you know, I can't take you seriously? I still get it now, don't I?

like fans and people still think I'm just like some model like I'm a world champion so it's still tough you know for me for for for how it is but it's obviously a lot it's getting better um and I think that women's boxing has you know evolved exponentially in just the last couple of years yeah and look I was guilty early on of wondering if you were kind of a gimmick yeah coming in when you fought chan cordon yeah early on and pro at four or five fights on your resume at that point um here you come rolling in full of personality. Yeah. You know, I mean, caught that.

But, you know, my first reaction is, okay, like, here's an attractive woman they're bringing in for a side show. Yeah. But then you fought Shannon Gordon. Yeah. And even though you didn't get the win, you proved to me and to a lot of people, I'm sure that you could fight. Yeah.

Was that, even though that was a loss. Yeah. Was that a net positive for you? Oh, that was huge. Yeah, that was huge for me. And not only did I show that I could fight, I show that I got heart, which a lot of fighters don't have, you know, I think that proved a lot, you know, that I'm a I come to fight and I'm tough, I have skill, and I have heart.

And that's what people want to see. I mean, me as a boxing fan, my whole life have been a boxing fan. That's what you want to see. You want to see fighters that can dig deep. And I was so blessed and lucky that on that fight night, not only was I able to show that I can fight, but I was able to show that side of me, which some fighters never get to show you.

Not never, but it might take a while before they get tested like that to have to dig deep in that kind of situation. It was definitely a win for me for that. I think I became like the people's chance. even though not the world champion, you know, but I'm a strong believer in everything happens for a reason and how it should and my time was coming and here I am now. What doors did that open up for you? I know you got a matchroom deal shortly after that.

Was that the big one for you? Yeah, of course. Yeah. Look, it was always a question on everyone's lips, you know, Ken Shafat. Like I said, I built up a pretty big fan base over COVID just online, a huge fan base. and it was like they were just fans of Ebony Bridges like but they still hadn't really seen me fight so I think that um

solidified a lot of the fans that I already had to go yeah okay she's you know she's not only how she is like she's not cool and like all that she also she definitely can fight so I was glad to you know have that for my fans and then obviously a lot of haters and a lot of people that were disbeliefs I had so many people so many people like saying to me you know

you really change my mind like and that's this human nature to judge people and that's why I don't get upset about it you know like it's nature i get it i'm different i came in i'm different and i shook up the fucking world do you know and um but i'm glad that people were able to change their mind and i was able to do that and also i was able to get a lot more eyes on the sport um i think that's what did you know like edie herne like the world it opened up the world for me because before i was just a little fighter in in australia i had one fight in indiana you know and now i'm fighting in the world still still can go back to indiana yeah i should go about there take me about

when you got that matchroom deal, was that when you were able to kind of commit full-time? Because you were a math teacher, right? Still teaching back. What did that do for you in terms of being able to go all in? Yeah, definitely. Like, I just knew, well, I just knew after that fight with Shannon that I would get another world title fight.

And, you know, Eddie pretty much kind of promised me that as well with the deal. And it was like, you know, I can't be doing what I was doing. Like, I can't be teaching. Like, it's a hard work, you know. So I take my head off to all the girls that have been doing it for many. years. Pretty much it's impossible for before recently a female fighter to full-time box. It was always a side of a thing because it's impossible, but now thankfully we're able to do it. So I just had to make the choice and unfortunately I had to give up teaching, which I say unfortunately because

it's such a big passion for mine. I love teach, I love it. You know, I do miss the classroom all the time. But I thought, you know what, what do I want to achieve and what are my goals in life? And I thought this is what I want to do, you know. And so I did it. I think my last class was December 2021. That was my last teaching class. But it was a good move. You are, I think, a great example,

men's or women's of proving yourself and marketing yourself, right? Like you proved yourself in the ring in the Shannon Courtney fight and all the fights afterwards. But when you committed to the sport full time, you went all in. Like, you're from Australia, but like, what is the sock? Like, again, this is dumb. American speak. What's the soccer team

that you became a massive fan of? Yes. Like every time like you're on social media you're in your adopted hometown there. I mean you

really built yourself into something. Well I'm all in. I'm like I say I'm here to fuck spiders man like I'm here. I don't fuck about like when I do something

I'm all in you know and that's that's how I am I don't it's it's I'm all or nothing and so I had obviously that world title fight and then I realize I need to move to

I need to I can't You can't be boxing outside. I can't do all this traveling. I've been doing all this traveling, country hopping for every single fight. Imagine if I didn't have to country hop and I could just be here and move my life over there. It just made sense.

All my fans, all my sponsors, my promoters, all my fights that are overseas. So I had to make that big decision, had to make those sacrifices, had to break out with my boyfriend of 10 years, you know, and make that move and leave my family because I have a dream and a goal that I want to achieve. And for me, it's bigger than just being undisputed

being a world champion. For me, I'm only a sport for a short time because unfortunately I'm old and I started late. But for me, boxing and boxing in general is just a vehicle for me to use to push my message and my real purpose. And my real purpose and what I want to do in life is to inspire people, is to help people be motivated to people believe in themselves. That's why I became a teacher. So I could go in a classroom and get kids and teach them to believe in themselves and that they can do things if they try and inspire the classroom. And now I'm able to do that such a bigger platform because that's really ideally what it's all about for me when I finish boxing a couple of years like it's that's what I want to do I want to continue to

inspire continue to help people motivate people and see people that you know if you put your mind to something you can do it but if you want to do anything in the world you can do it even if you're old you know it too great the the perception of you changed after the Shannon Courtney fight it changed again I think after you won that first world title yes what did that do for you yeah well I think winning my worry world title what that did was um it showed that i'm world level you know it proved to people that i am world level you know um because not i didn't fight for a vacant title you know i didn't just fight some newbie world world champion you know i fought the longest reigning world champion in the

division you know and um for me i think that's um that was a big thing for me because that was a goal that i i set for myself from when i was an amateur i want to be a well i want to be a world champion like you know and I just knew it was possible and I believed in myself so that was really very exciting for me and I think it showed a lot of other people okay all right all right all right she can scrap but she can she can also beat beat that level of fight you defended that title once and you're fighting again spent about a year yeah minus a day your last fight I mean that's is that disappointing yeah extremely disappointing yeah yeah look I was out I had an injury I broke my hand As we know, I had surgery in my hand, a pretty big, deep surgery.

And I needed, like, that took six months to recover. I would have liked to be out sooner. I wanted to be out sooner. There was, I was meant to be out sooner, but that fell through. And it just so happens that it's like this. You know, everything happens for a reason. And I'm sure, you know, the high power or whatever, you know, has made it for this night. And I'm looking forward to showing what I've been.

I've been working with a new coach. You know, I've been with Dave Coldwell and what we've been. been doing I'm really excited about and I am feeling very confident and hoping that everything I've been doing in the gym and inspiring comes out Saturday night because if it does, mate, you thought I was exciting before. You mentioned you're working with Dave now. You won a world title and you defended it. Why did you feel the need to make a change?

A few reasons. I wanted to move up north, which is, you know, where I've always wanted to be, where the football team is. you know and I just thought rather than doing the move halfway through when I'm trying to be undisputed and all that kind of stuff do it now it's a good time to move and um settle in a place um when I have I knew I had a really big 20 24 and also I needed a coach that I felt could bring a lot more to my to my my game I needed I needed to learn I wanted to learn um and I like to I'm quite technical as in my mind, maybe too much, I think a lot. But I wanted a coach that could teach me and break it down

and be quite technical with me, because we all know all that heart. We all know I can dig deep and I can get fit, you know what I mean? But I wanted to fine-tune myself. I wanted to get really fine-tuned because I feel like for my goals that I needed that little bit more. So yeah, that's what I did. You're someone that, I'm guessing,

your income outside the ring exceeds your income in the ring. It's just hazard and a guest there. Hazardering guests there. How do you stay motivated then to do this, to fight if you're making all this money, doing other things? You know, it's funny says because it was only, what, 10 days ago where I was like, when I didn't have an opponent still and the second one fell, third one fell through. I was like, why the fuck am I doing this? Like, what the fuck?

Like, I don't need the money, you know? And it's so heartbreaking. Boxing is a fucking brutal sport, man. not even in the ring. The ring is easy, the fun part, it's the outside of the ring. But why am I put myself through this shit? Like, you know, no, the roller coaster of boxing. And, you know, I took breath and I'm like, you know why?

Because I said when I started boxing that I want to be a world champion, then when I became a world champion, it lasted about a, not even a day that I was happy. And I was like, okay, now what? And I decided that I wanted to be undisputed. And for me, I never started boxing for the money. If I did, then I would never have started. Because when I started boxing, you know, I was getting off at $4 grand for a world title fight. You know, this is only four years ago.

The girls weren't even getting five grand. Like, you know what I mean? So I never did it for the money. Money had never been my motivation for boxing. I do believe that I need to get paid what I'm worth. I think that's very important that I get paid what I'm worth. But it's still not, it's not that I'm doing it because I need money. The money doesn't, money's never motivated me.

It's always been very intrinsic for me. And that is achieving the goal that I set, which I said after I won my world title, was to become undisputed. So no matter what, like every goal that I said, every heartbreak, every speed hump, every blocked road, I've overcome it and I achieve it. I've never achieved anything that I said I would do. I mean, I've always achieved everything that I said I will. So I just got to keep pushing if I was to quit or stop, then I've let myself down.

So is that the end game for you to become undisputed at 118? Are there big, is there big fights out there you'd like to be in? What's your mentality? Yeah, definitely. I think, well, you know, obviously that is the next. the, I say the next goal would be definitely that. You know, there's always goals. Like I said, I was satisfied for not even a day when I will become a world champion.

And that's no offense to world champions, but I'm just one of those people that are like, okay, done that tick right now what? Like, I'm never satisfied. So I know that when I become undisputed, as much as I'm going to be, yes, I'm satisfied, it's going to be straight away, what now? And it is going to be big fights. There are big fights out there for me. I mean, you know, like I can go up and down, wait, no problem.

But while at the moment I'm at 118, I'm going to stick at this, and I'm going to clear out this division. and then of course, you know, big fights, I'm a big name, you know, and there's other big names where us together could be great fights. So I think there's always going to be that. And that's when I think we talk more about money. And I think that's where money will be even more important to me because I'm like, well, now I'm after money because I've already ticked off these,

the intrinsic goals. Do you know what I mean? So now it's about big money fights and the name fights. So it's a little bit of a different motivation. It's going to be a great crowd. I'm getting older. You're money dogs. It should be, I mean, you should, when you're, there's only a handful of big names in women's boxing, who are the money women in multiple weight classes, and you're one of them.

Exactly, yeah. Set a goal for sure to become undisputed, but money fights. Oh, 100%. Whether or 126, 150, wherever you can go. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Is the big fight. I mean, yeah, most definitely, I can go down for sure.

You know, I don't cut too hard. I might have to, like, remove something. I can definitely go down or arm up, you know, it's not a problem for me. You're going to get a, there's going to be a great crowd at the chasing, which, is beyond shocking to me. I know this market really. I'm shocked. Oh, really?

I'm shocked that San Francisco is going to put 19,000 fans for a boxing match. Yeah, because it's boxing right. It's not a big boxing town. It is a very wealthy town. And maybe they're looking at this saying, look, it's a fun event that we can go to that's not professional basketball. But it's going to be a great crowd. I think the crowd is going to like how you fight because you're a very entertaining fighter.

Hammond, Indiana, San Francisco, is the U.S. on your radar again? Yeah, you know, look, I'm from when I've, first signed with Eddie. And before that, but what I said to Eddie is I'm, I came out of Australia. I don't want to be in Australia. I'm global. I'm global.

You know, I already was building my name in America before I even started building it in the UK. So that's, you know, I've got a big following in Mexico. You know, my third bee is following online is in Brazil. Like, I want to be global. I'm global. You know, I'm mainstream. And that's what I want.

I don't want to just be people to be, I've got more than just boxing fans. You've got fans outside of boxing and that's really important for me with building a brand and having a life. after boxing. You know, it's about being mainstream. It's about being global. It's about being a face recognized, not just in boxing, but in the world.

And, you know, I would love to fight in America again. I'd like to fight in Mexico or fight wherever, you know. I just want to give everyone a little bit of the blonde bomber. You know, I think everyone deserves to see a bit of a blonde bomber. Well, I'm glad you get to see a bigger American city, for at least briefly. It's too bad you're going to be out of here quickly. You should go to Napa or something like that. Do some kind of.

Some Michael Tras. Some kind of tour of this side of America. But good luck on Saturday, and I appreciate your time. No, thank you so much. I appreciate it. And when we come back, my conversation with Keith Ideck. 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, Cliver 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 Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away,

such as the biology of Ton Tons and Wants and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to stuff to blow your mind on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right. Well, I think this is unprecedented. The same guest back just days after his last appearance.

But that's what we have here with Keith Idex, senior writer, boxing scene.com. Joining me in San Francisco, where the Devin Haney. Regis Progray fight is just days away. Well, when this comes out, it will be the day of the Haney Progray fight. Keith, you just came from the press conference, which I'll give it to these two guys, man. They're selling this fight. Like, they are doing everything they can to sell this fight. Anything stand out from the presser?

I'll give Devin Haney's team an A for creativity because they had members of his team, including a few little kids, so I'm assuming are related to Devin Haney. handing out posters that they had captured the Rougaroo, and they put him in some New Orleans jail of some sort. So it was cute. It was something that it was like a fun thing that they tried to do. And look, I mean, they're doing different things to try to promote the fight. The tickets are selling well.

They price the tickets smartly. I'm sure that's helped. But if they've somehow tapped into another market here, Chris, and San Francisco could somehow be a place where you have, not every other month or anything, but if you have a couple of real fight cards here at the Chase Center, a couple times a year, maybe three times a year. I mean, that's a smashing success for boxing.

So, look, they put up on the zone today when they were streaming the press conference, you know, there was a lot of colorful language that I won't repeat on this podcast because I certainly shouldn't. And they put up some kind of, like, disclaimer, we apologize if anyone's offended. Oh, they always do that. And I'm like, if you're watching a boxing press conference, you're not easily offended. And if you're a little kid, you shouldn't be watching a boxing press conference in the middle of the afternoon anyway. It went on a little too long and they started repeating themselves, like promising to knock each other out and all that kind of stuff.

I'm going to hurt you. I'm going to hurt you. Right. I mean, how many times can Regis repeat that? But what else was he supposed to do? No one told them to wrap it up. It's time to go. You know, there's a lot of back and forth between Bill Haney and Regis's strength and conditioning coach.

And it was fine. I love that they keep putting the strength and conditioning coach up there. Like he's not the trainer. He's not. Julian Chua are the trainers for Regis Brograin. And this guy keeps getting up there. But I think that he's enjoying the notoriety, obviously. And he's saying things to try to get Bill under Bill's skin.

Somehow they apparently found out that, and I don't know if this is true, so please don't hold me to this, but they found out that he was some sort of male stripper. And when I say that Devin Haney referred to him as stripper, 74 times during this press conference. I don't think I'm exaggerating at all. He literally said stripper, stripper, stripper, like 16 times in a row. I don't know that that's all that much of an insult. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, but you got to love boxing where there's, you can just say, no fact checking whatsoever. It's like when Regis was like, Devin lost a fight in Mexico. It's like, you can just throw that out there. And that becomes accepted by some people. And became a storyline. And people are asking about it.

And Devin's like, this is not true. He's making this up. And I know people who told him about it. And And, you know, the strength and conditioning coach didn't deny that he was, and all the power to him, if he, whatever, who cares. But that was some of the tamer stuff that was set on the stage today. And it did, you know, got a little heated, but I think a lot of it was almost tongue-in-cheek. I mean, I'm expecting a good fight, an interesting, entertaining fight. And, but they saw, they did their, they went out of their way to sell the fight properly today. Or I don't know about properly.

They went over the top a little bit, obviously. But it was interesting, and it just dragged on a little bit too long while they were actually on the stage. You know, the undercard fighters were pretty tame. I mean, there were some back and forth between Montana Love and Liam Parrow, which I think is a pretty interesting fight in a 140-pound division, which is a co-feature. But, you know, as boxing press conferences go, Chris, I was at the Mike Tyson-Lennix Lewis press conference in January of 2002. Everything pales in comparison to that. So I'm not surprised.

by anything that I see at a boxing press conference at this point. When you have Mike at the front of the stage saying all the absolutely bat-shit things that he said that afternoon to Scoop Malinowski and various other people in the crowd, it's all pretty tame from there. Before we move on, this main event is shaping up to be pretty competitive one. So then you start to look at who the judges are for this fight. And when I looked at that list, I didn't see kind of the traditional top-tier guys. I usually look for Steve Weisville on a card like this. Didn't see him on there. A Dave Moretti type.

David Sutherland. Some of the guys you see on the top tier events. Not the A team of judges. Do you look and see these judges and do you wonder like, A, is this going to be a factor in a fight like this? Chris, I'm familiar with some of their work, but they're not judges who typically judge fights at this level. Now, in one way, you would have to commend the California State Athletic Commission for giving their judges. two of them are from California. Ray Dinesco and Fernando Villarreal are from California. So they're given their guys who've paid their dues, so to speak, on undercard fights and everything,

their opportunities, which is the way it should go in some cases. Mike Ross from Florida, also relatively inexperienced at the top level. So there aren't any scorecards that I can remember, and I did do some research on it when I found out who the judges were, that I could really remember. I remember Ray Dinesco, he did one of the biggest fights in California. recently, which was Errol Spence Jr. and Sean Porter, he actually scored that fight 116, 111 for Errol Spence Jr, which I thought was probably a fair score. You know, Sean Porter got knocked down and I believe it was the 11th round of that fight,

so that's where the other point comes in. I didn't think that was off, and that's the highest profile fight he's done. Villarreal has been a little wider, maybe on a couple of cards, than I thought it should have been, but nothing egregious. Mike Ross, again, inexperienced, but it's worth looking at going into this fight because if you're Regis Progray, I spoke to him yesterday before the press conference and he said that he was not, he thought that he could win a wide decision if it goes to the scorecards because he's going to be so dominant that it won't matter. But if I'm Regis Progray, I lost a majority decision to Josh Taylor. It wasn't Josh Taylor's hometown, but it was in the UK. Josh Taylor's from Scotland. He lost a majority decision in that fight. One of the judges had it 117, 112, wider than it was, obviously. And then he fought in his hometown in his last fight. It was his hometown, and he lost 114, 113 on Craig Metcalf's scorecard. And then, of course, Devin Haney, in a very competitive fight, won the Vasily Lomachenko fight on all three scorecards.

So if Amrige's Progray, now maybe he's not going to verbalize it or admit it, I'd be concerned about it. You know, he is insistent that this is not a hometown fight for Devin Haney, and I get where he's coming from to some degree. but it is being billed as a hometown fight for Devin Haney. He is the favorite fighter. He's undefeated. He got the benefit of the doubt in his last fight, the biggest fight of his career. It's worth noting.

It's worth noting, and it should be a cause for concern for Regis Progrey. Can't go into a fight looking for knockouts because it often gets fighters in trouble when they really press for the knockout. But if I'm him, I'm a little uneasy. We talked about this in the last episode, so I encourage people to go back. and listen to a more detailed analysis of it. But Regis is his belief that he can outbox Devin Haney. How much that do you believe or how much that do you think is gamesmanship on the part of

pro grade to maybe get Devin thinking he's going to fight a particular way? Part gamesmanship, part ego maybe because he feels like, you know, hey, I'm a two-time world champion. People are kind of making it seem like I'm incapable of doing certain things in the ring. And obviously, Devin is the more proven boxer. I mean, he has boxed his way for the most part to his 30 and 0 record. So I think maybe part of him believes that. Again, from an ego standpoint, I mean, these fighters, you know, they don't take kindly to people criticizing them and telling them all the things that they can't do.

But I think we would all agree that Regis Progray is more puncher than boxer. Great chin. Always in good shape. Takes a great shot. If I were, you know, to bet my own money on it, I would say that Regis Progray would win by, if you're a good shape, if you're not. he wins, he would win by knockout. If Devin Haney wins, he would win by decision. I mean, that's conventional wisdom. I'm not breaking any news there, but, you know, that's the way we would have to look at it. Would I be surprised if it went to the cards and Regis Progray won a wide

decision? I would win a wide decision. I would too. I would too. I think Devon, Devin by decision, Regis by knockout is conventional wisdom, and I think that's a fair way to look at it. I'm very interested in what happens when Regis catches Devin for the first time, because Devin in every one of these main fights gets hit by something at some point. Linaris caught him in the 10th round. Lomachenko had two really big rounds against him in that fight. So what Regis can do if he hurts Devin, I think, is interesting. Yeah, and he's been caught clean by Southpaws.

And Southpaws who don't punch as hard as Regis' pro great, clearly. In different ways, too. When I watch back the Jojo Diaz fight, and I watched the Lomachenko fight, Lomachenko fight, Lomachenko was a lot of lead left hands. Jojo Diaz went around the guard, went to the body a lot against It's a handy. So look, it's a fascinating fight. It's why it's a great fight.

It's why we're both here and looking forward to seeing it on Saturday night. The reason I wanted to talk to you again, though, is we briefly touched on PBC's future in the last podcast, where I talked a little bit about how I was hearing Amazon, some kind of broader deal, unclear on exactly the mechanics. Well, before the pot even came out on Thursday, we had the announcement. Amazon Prime and PBC are going to partner up on a deal to do a BBC series. It is a multi-year agreement between Amazon and PBC. I was told it could be as many as 12 dates in 2024. Now, how that's divided up between paper views and traditional boxing shows, I don't know. I also don't know what Amazon's financial overlay is, which I think is an important part in all this.

But when you saw the announcement and what you've been able to glean up until this point, what's your take on this BBC Amazon deal? I'm glad it was finally announced because it's been rumored for a long time. A lot of people talking behind the scenes about it. PPC tends to take its sweet old time announcing anything. It's pretty sure they still haven't announced the final Showtime show officially, which is eight days from today. But it's good that they have at least one home for their fights next year,

but I don't think it's going to be able to service all of the fighters that they have. In fact, obviously it's not going to be able to service all the fighters that they have. And then how many of those dates are pay-per-view dates? Because the people who support this sport and continually either pay for pay-per-views or streaming services or network subscriptions, you can't keep coming to the same people month after month after month with pay-per-views. And obviously, BBC is not the only entity in the business. So there are going to be DeZone pay-per-views. And there's going to be an occasional top-rank pay-per-view with ESPN.

It's just too much at a certain point. In this case, you know, DeZone does offer. you the discount if you if you buy it through de zone it's $15 cheaper it's still $60 so um you know these these pbc pay-per-views typically are are no less than $70 oftentimes 75 sometimes 85 it's a lot of money so if you're a boxing fan look the networks change the streaming services change new entities enter the market and all that how much is it costing you to be a boxing fan is what i would want to know if I were a boxing fan, particularly as most people, you have children or budgets or mortgages or rent, whatever you have to tend to, boxing is low on that totem pole. And people,

unfortunately, who cared about this sport once upon a time, don't care about it anymore. And that's one of the reasons. They're not all people, obviously. It still has a niche audience, but they've lost a lot of fans because, frankly, it's very expensive to be a boxing fan. You can't just turn on the TV and see a high-quality fight. Like, you can turn it. turn on NBC, CBS, Fox, and watch, you know, the Eagles play the 49ers, et cetera. It's definitely challenging, and as you say, expensive. I mean, you're talking, you know, if you're a traditional boxing fan, you subscribe to Zone for 25 bucks a month, ESPN Plus for whatever it is,

15 bucks a month. At this point, on top of it, you're almost every month looking at at least one pay-per-view. So you're at 100 bucks a month easy, you know, as a boxing fan, if you want to get all of the top-tier content. Look, I like the Amazon deal for PBC because it is in a lot of homes. Most people that, most people on a day-to-day basis have Amazon. I mean, hell, I order, like, toilet paper off Amazon. I order Amazon as much as any person in the world.

Like, if I wake up on any given day and I need a toothbrush, I'm Amazoning it to my house. Some days I instigard it, but sometimes, most of the time. Every woman we know orders more on Amazon than you do. Come on. I don't know, man. That's what women do. I could show you, I have subscriptions on Amazon too. Let me reorder my Celsius.

Let me reorder my Somme, which is my sleep aid. Let me order everything. So people are going to have this. People are going to have access to it. The two things that we don't know, and one will probably never know and one we won't know until it actually happens. The first is, again, how much cash is Amazon putting at this? What is their investment going to look like? We've heard about, you know, sort of a couple of hours of,

of programming underneath the paper views to kind of put fighters on there. That's great. Are they going to do high-level showtime championship boxing levels, you know, events? I don't know the answer to that question. So seeing what Amazon's investment will be, I mean, I'm curiously that. I also want to see how they promote it, right? Like, you know, I don't, when I see like Amazon's in 160 million U.S. homes, that doesn't mean anything unless they're promoting it, right?

Like on Thursday nights, or really Thursday all day, you go on Amazon.com right at the top, you see Thursday night football. Here's this event. That is tremendous exposure for Thursday night football and probably a big reason why they are doing the kind of numbers that you're doing. On the flip side of that, Amazon, if you remember, was for a while, over a year doing these sports talk shows, right? Like Bonjour Sports Talk and Carrie Champion had a show on there. Other people had shows. you couldn't find them like you needed like an extra search engine

to find some of that stuff. They weren't promoted at all on Amazon. So if PBC is promoted and their events are promoted more like Thursday night football, phenomenal. They're going to, you know, expand the audience and do really good numbers. If you have to search for it,

that makes it exponentially more challenging. So that's the big question to me. Like how, not just the financial investment from Amazon, but like how much do they care? I mean, like, how much do they want to push boxing as a premier reason to have it? Like, they'll be watching the numbers. Like, these tech companies, they're only doing deals that help them overall, that make them healthier as a company.

But I'm curious to see, like, where they place PBC on that platform, because that'll tell me a lot about their investment in the sport. Yeah, that's the most important part of all this, Chris, is, you know, obviously the boxing fans are going to gravitate toward Amazon Prime because they want to watch boxing. You know, the boxing nuts, the boxing sickos are going to go there. And most people have an Amazon Prime membership, you know, getting all these packages delivered and all this stuff. Not, you know, maybe you watch the Thursday night football or whatever.

But for the most part, the people who are on Amazon could not care less about boxing. So if you're going to grow the sports fan base through this deal, like you said, you have to let people know that it's there. And maybe some people who are marginally interested in boxing might take. take a look and like what they see if you're putting on entertaining fights. In those cases, it almost doesn't matter who the fighters are. I mean, to boxing fans, to hardcore boxing fans and people like us who cover the sport, the matchups matter. But to someone coming into it with virtually no knowledge of boxing and giving it a shot,

they don't know the difference between the fighters. So if you just put on good entertaining fights, maybe you do attract some new boxing fans who start watching the sport regularly. It's hard. It's hard. And, like, you know what I mean? I don't know. I mean, because they were, well, the viewership was higher, but some people will tell you well.

It's always by comparison, right? Like, yes, a show on Fox did 1.1 million viewers, but if you put anything on Fox, it's going to do a certain number. If you put an infomercial on the same time slot, people make that argument. And oftentimes they would intentionally program the shows longer because they knew people would tune in for the local news at 10 o'clock. Like, they would put a three-fight block on that started. at 8 o'clock, knowing full well, that it was going to go well beyond 10 o'clock. And then you would see a spike in the viewership, not only because it was time for the main event, but because people nationally were tuning in for their local news.

And it gave a boost to the ratings. Now, you can't really quantify it, but that's clearly what they were doing. And it did boost of the viewers. That's why Toprak is doing their show. The Heism show. No, I get it. Yeah. Maybe some people, again, if you tune in for the local news and you liked what you saw from

Fighter X and Fighter Y on Fox, maybe you would watch it the next time. I mean, that you're trying to draw, you're trying to bring in new fans, which if you have to trick them into it, so be it. But the point is that this sport needs to grow its fan base, and it almost incessantly does things to turn people away from it. So this is an opportunity on a platform this enormous with this much reach that has this much financial backing to not do that. So hopefully they'll make the types of fights that are on.

the platform because you're not going to get people who subscribe to Amazon Prime primarily for, you know, to buy whatever maybe to watch an NFL game here and there. I don't think those people are suddenly going to pay $75 to watch two guys they've never heard of box. But they might watch it if it's on there and there's nothing and they feel like there's nothing else on and give it a shot. Yeah. I think the matchups are, I do think the matchups are going to matter because what we've seen in the last five, six years is it doesn't matter the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the. The. size of the audience of the platform. If you put something on there that's pedestrian,

people aren't going to, they're just not going to watch it. Like, you know, that's one of the big reasons showtime is out of boxing, which is one of the big reasons, HBO went out of boxing, was that the higher-ups of those companies looked at the numbers that were not getting the return on our investment.

We could put, we could commit more resources to, another season of billions, or we can put more resources to another episode of Game of Thrones, like rather than doing boxing. It's all about the results there. So I hope that when Amazon does, non-paper-view events.

The paper-view is going to do fine. PBC's got some great fighters for pay-per-view. Tank Davis is going to do well. Canelo Alvarez is going to do well. If Terrence Crawford just multi-fights on the platform, that's going to do well. Even David Benavides, I think, is growing his brand. And it's like we'll start doing even better numbers. But like these mid-level shows, I just hope they're good.

I hope they're competitive. I hope, you know, if you do Benevitas against Jamal-Charlo, I hope that's a, if that fight ever actually happened, I hope that is a regular Amazon show. right? Like that's expensive, but like as a pay-per-view, I don't know, I don't know what that does on that type of thing. I mean, that's the biggest thing, Chris. I think they need to cut the number of paper views, and they never do that. Yeah. Right? I mean, they just don't do it. So I don't have any faith that that is going to be the way that they move forward here.

But it would be a pleasant surprise if that's what they do. If you do four pay-per-views a year instead of seven or eight, some guys are too expensive. I get it. You know, they expect a certain amount of money. But as we discussed during the last podcast, particularly BBC fighters in this new world in 2024, they're going to have to accept less money or they're not going to fight. Yeah. And they already weren't fighting that often anyway. So. Well, imagine if you're a BBC guy who you know that Al Heyman doesn't value all that much.

And maybe you don't have, you know, a contract on paper. You're going to have to go fight. Some of these guys are fighting on club shows. Prospects. Yeah. Of course. Yeah, because you want to stay active. And in the developmental phase of your career, you have to.

to fight. It's not like, if you're Jamal Charlo and you fight twice a year or in his case, once every five years, okay, I mean, you're making a lot of money and, you know, your brand is established and everything if you're a young fighter, like Jaliel Hackett's a good example, fought last week on DeZone on the Red Owl Boxing

series. You know, these guys are 19, 20 years old. They need to fight. You got to fight five times a year for the most part. You've got to find a way to do it. Look, bottom lines, Amazon has the potential to be a great deal. It also has the potential to be inconsequential. It could be just more of the same. So we'll see how they operated at the start of 2024.

Last thing for you, since we recorded the last episode, we have the Hall of Fame results that are out. And I want to give a first shout to my man, Ivan Calderon. I've been voting for Ivan Calderon for years, Keith. Years. Back in the day, you remember this. In the 90s, it was like death taxes and Ivan Calderon by decision, man. He was consistent.

One of the best little men in all the boxing multi-division world title holder. I was thrilled to see him get in. I thought he deserved it. I don't know if this is a hot take, but I didn't vote for Ricky Hatton. I didn't vote for Michael Moore. I'm blanking. I didn't vote for Diego Corrales either.

Like, how did you feel about the guys that got into the Hall of Fame? I wouldn't say it's, well, in some ways, star-studded because Ricky Hatton was a big star. It's name-studied. Yeah, I don't know. Right. But Ricky Hatton did have a huge win.

I'm not saying one win gets you in the Hall of Fame necessarily, But he was in some very big fights, and of course, he lost those fights by knockout. Badly. No, of course. But Ricky, you know, was a, you know, before boxing really, when I say took off. I mean, the way that it was five, six years ago in the UK, Ricky Hatton was a huge star there. And, you know, in the early 2000s, mid-2000s and everything. So big star, obviously.

I mean, you could quibble over anyone's resume, I suppose. And some of it is the impact that they had on. But it's not strictly, the way people vote, Chris, you know this as well as I do. It's not strictly, was this guy the best technically sound fighter or did he have five, you know, it's subjective or three or two or one. You know, they look at it. It's very subjective. And people look at it like, well, Ricky Hatton was an enormous star.

He packed arena as an angle and he was a credit to the sport. How do you feel about that? I don't vote for guys like that. Like, how do you feel about that being a criteria for a ball? I could see it going both ways because, look, I'm from New Jersey. But see, this is why I'm glad you brought up Arturo Gatti. Sorry, I'm jumping your play there, but you're going to bring up Arturo Gatti. I think, like, Gadi and Hatton to me have similarities, right, where they're both big stars, fun action fighters, but when it comes to accomplishments, not as much. I feel like Gadi got that one slot, right? Where it's like he's the guy, and like Tyson was kind of the same way, quite frankly, where Tyson was a massive attraction. But if you look at the quality wins for Mike Tyson, he didn't, he was more accomplished in the heavyweight championship belts. that he won, but in terms of quality wins, a lot of them weren't there. Some guys just transcend.

Tyson did. I thought Gotti did. I don't know that. Maybe it's something in the U.S. I don't know that Hatton did. Like if Mike Tyson's not, and I understand what you're saying in terms of the quality of some of his wins, but he's the youngest heavyweight champion ever.

He was a phenomenon unlike anything we've ever seen. Like I'm not quibbling with Tyson. No, but what I'm saying, Chris, to your point, you know, the person's impact on the sport, And Mike Tyson, of course, did some horrible things and went to prison and all. I'm not glossing over that. But the impact that he had on boxing and still has, you're at fights. No one.

I mean, no one gets the reaction that Mike Tyson gets when he walks into an arena. And I'm talking about, like, you know, if Denzel Washington walks into the building or Mark, whatever, name a star, you know, rap star, pick whoever, 50 cent, whoever you want, no one gets the reaction in a boxing arena like Mike Tyson. So going back to what you're saying about Arturo Gaddi, multi-division world champion, he was a rock star in New Jersey, you know, did all this great business down at Boardwalk Hall and everything. Floyd was he the, right. Floyd Mayweather's first pay-per-view fight was against Arturo Gaddy.

And he was considered, while an overwhelming favorite, and the people at main events who promoted Arturo Gaddy did not want that fight. They wanted it from a financial standpoint, but knew that Arturo Gaddi would lose that fight. But they did it because Arturo Gaddi made it, you know, five plus million dollars to do it. But Floyd Mayweather, as you said, had to come to him. That's how big Arturo Gaddy was at the time. So he had such an impact on the sport that I think, you know, is in many cases more important than, of course he was not a, he wasn't Pernell Whitaker.

He wasn't a technician. He wasn't the most technically sound fighter. But he had a very positive impact on the sport. was a multi, you know, multiple world titles. I mean, so, you know, it's a subject. No one sends you the ballot and says, this is the criteria for it. So you're kind of left on your own to what's important to you, which you may value, I don't mean you specifically, but anyone might value more than the next guy.

I just needed one more, like high-quality win. He had the zoo fight, he beat the zoo fight. The zoo fight was a huge win, though. It was a huge win. Absolutely. He beat, no, Castillo. Castillo, he beat Castillo. So he had a couple of wins like that, but then he goes to, he fights Pachial and gets flattened.

He fights Floyd eventually gets flattened. But he was, I'm not saying Floyd was the biggest guy, but he wasn't a welterweight either, really. No. No. Packer was bad, though. Right. Packia was a smaller guy, and obviously. He came in talking about how big he was.

I remember Freddie Roach being like, we know we're the bigger puncher in that fight. Right. And plus, you know, Ricky didn't live the cleanest life. He lived like a rock star too, and he'd be the first one to tell you that. I think about this because you start thinking about future Hall of Fame ballots. And when these guys start coming up, their accomplishments are not going to be great. Because in today's era, they're just not fighting, and they're kind of doing more cherry-picking than maybe ever before. Here's a good example.

Devin Haney's 25 years old, right? Let's just say he wins tomorrow night. I'm not sure that he's going to. But let's see he beats Regis Progray. He'll have gone to... Now, I understand that George Cambosis is not a Hall of Fame fighter, but he did beat Tiafima Lopez, whatever was wrong with Tiafima Lopez that night. George Campos has pulled off a huge upset, had three of the lightweight titles.

He went there twice and dominated him. Whatever we think of the decision against Lomachenko, he beat one of the best fighters this entire generation. And then if he goes and beats Regis Progray, who's only lost a majority decision to an eventual undisputed champion, that's a whole thing. That's a whole thing resume. He's 25 years old. I'm with you.

I'm with you on that one. He'll become as accomplished as some of these other. guys have been been accomplished. Michael Moore, too, like great at light heavyweight at the one win over Holyfield, best known perhaps for getting knocked up by George Foreman at the very end. How did you feel about him? Look, very good heavyweight champion, talented guy. The one thing that surprised me with Michael Moore wasn't beloved, certainly not beloved by the media, and he got in, you know, so credit to him. He won, like, what was it? He was undefeated. He was undefeated that light heavy and he won like all of them by knockout.

Like he was, he was, but he didn't fight anybody at that point. The guys weren't there, wasn't available. I think it was up to heavyweight. The Holyfield win was great. It's kind of like with, with Hatton, resume-wise, in that, like, he had that one great win. Like, Holyfield was a great win. But is that enough to make you a Hall of Fame.

Or Diego Corrales is another one that's kind of along those lines. Like, fun, fun fighter. You're right about Moore's resume. But if you're Moore, well, Mike Tyson lost multiple times. He didn't beat Holyfield, and he's in the Hall of Fame. So you could look at that. No, I know, I know, but I'm just saying there are arguments to be made on both sides. The Corrales one I thought was interesting.

I never thought, like, it took Corrales a while to get on the ballot, didn't it? Like, he was, like, you know, Corrales was for people, I hope you're familiar with Diego Corrales. Like, one of the more fun fighters at 1.30 in his time. I would say this, Chris. I don't care what Diego Corales did before or after May 2005. based on what he and Jose Luis Castillo gave to us in that fight, he deserves to be in, now I understand people who say,

hey, idiot, don't eat, it's one fight. It's not one fight. It's the fight. It's the best fight that has happened in my life that I've seen. I'm not saying it's the best fight ever. All I'm saying is in my time covering boxing, and again, I'm from New Jersey and Arturo, Grady is a god there and all that stuff. To me, Corralus Castillo is the fight.

Yeah. And he was, again, a world champion. It's not like he was, you know, obviously he lost to Floyd in his first big fight and all that. Oh, that was a beating. Yeah, it was. And he got beat up bad in that fight. And then, of course, died tragically on the two-year anniversary of his fight in a motorcycle accident. On a two-year anniversary of his fight with Castillo.

But, man, to give what they gave us that night. Amazing. I'm voting for Diego Corrales in that respect. I get what you're saying. I get what you're saying. Like, I've gone back and watched that final round of Krasn Castillo. I don't know how many times. Like Joe Goose hopped up on the apron going, got to knock him out. He's going, got to knock him out. I'm going to fucking get inside on him now. Like, I love everything about that final sequence. And like one thing I love about Castillo, no, or no, Corralis, no, no, quitting him whatsoever. How many times of Floyd knock him down five times? His father had to stop the fight. He kept getting up. No, I remember that fight on HBO. He's always a great what if, too, because he didn't, he, another like Haddon. He lived a life outside of the ring. Of course, lived recklessly, and that's how he died, unfortunately. Yeah, like, he was, like, that Floyd fight, you read the reports from back then, like, he was partying before, like, just not.

Whereas Floyd is, like, the most disciplined guy in the world. Like, it's just, like, I think, look, it's going to be a fun Hall of Fame induction because all three guys, these guys are, or at least two of them are or were, in the case of Corralis, like, larger than life kind of characters. It's just, like, I don't know if they fit the accomplishment criteria. And I wonder if we're, like, should we really be shifting away from that? Are we diminishing accomplishment over star power? The other thing as it relates to this, Chris, is the boxing Hall of Fame, the International Boxing Hall of Fame, is comparatively new as you, you know, in relation to the baseball Hall of Fame and the football Hall of Fame to a lesser degree. But the baseball Hall of Fame is the one with the highest standards. I feel like that's not the – and I'm not trying to diminish the Hall of Fame.

I'm just saying the voters – Well, they do – for people that don't know, they do that goofy thing where, like, three. guys got to get in every year. Like, even if, like, guys aren't, there's going to be years on the ballot where guys are not deserving. In baseball, if people don't get 75%, they don't get in. It's not the same in boxing, which I always thought is a major, and I'm sure you feel it's like, it's a major problem with that.

Right. No, I do. And, but the standards, my point overall is that the standards are lower for boxing to get into the International Boxing Hall of Fame than the baseball Hall of Fame, because it's all, you know, most of the baseball Hall of Fame is, it's driven by statistics. And, of course, you know, the way that the game. is analyzed now is very accomplishment driven in baseball right right and and they hold you know a lot of the voters obviously if a guy if they even suspect that a guy was on steroids or pedes i don't

really try i try to stay away from voting for right but there are guys but there are people who don't look at it that way and in here you would you would think in boxing where someone's life is literally at stake you would think if someone gets popped for pEDs that that would discount them on your ballot some people don't look at it that way i usually and and people can quibble with this. If a guy test positive once, on a Hall of Fame ballot, I give him a pass. I say something, I'll say maybe something crazy happened. Second time I'm done. I don't vote for anybody the second time, right? It's, again, very subjective. I don't, I don't fault anybody for ruling them out. I don't love people that vote anybody in. Like, I'm not going to vote for

a James Tony. I'm not going to vote for Antonio Tarver. Like, I just, I think there's, there's just too much evidence there that piles up. But, um, look, anyway, I'll be at the Hall of Fame ceremony for my man, Ivan Calderon. Because you better be there for Fred Sternberg, too, man. Come on. Come on. Come on. That's right. Congratulations.

I texted him as soon as I heard that he was in the Hall of Fame. Congratulations to PR Maven Fred Sternberg for somehow fooling somebody to get his ass into the Hall of Fame. All around. I do love the guys that get in that are like part of the good guy stuff and the outside of the modern category stuff. I love that. In the case of Fred, some people know who he is. Some people don't. I understand that.

But for those of us who cover boxing, I mean, he's an invaluable resource for us. And look, you know, he's obviously a very nice person, professionally and personally. I disagree.

I think he's horrible. But, you know, but he's also a creative PR guy who always thought outside of the box and did things that a lot of PR people, frankly, don't do.

And, you know, he was Manny Pachiao's PR guy for a long time and his work with a lot of, you know, worked at America Presents for a long time, and has worked in this business forever. Freddie Roach is one of his clients as well.

But, yeah, Fred's a, and these, to your point, people contribute to boxing in a variety of ways. It's not just the people who fight in the ring. You know, they're obviously promoters and managers and matchmakers and in Fred's case of publicists. So, you know, kudos to Fred, and I'm happy to see him get this honor for him and his family. I love, you know, Freddie Roach and these press releases Fred puts out there has some pretty compelling quotes. And you meet Freddie Roach and talk to Freddie Roach. She doesn't really sound like that. I think Freddie would be the first one to tell you if you asked him.

I don't really remember saying that, but he's fine with whatever Fred said out. Well, one of my first experiences with Fred Sternberg was when he was working probably with top rank with Kelly Pavlik. And I'd get these press releases that would quote Jack Lowe, Kelly Pavlick's trainer. And they would just be these gregarious statements coming from Jack Lowe. And then I started to do some stories on Kelly and I would spend some time with Jack Lowe. doesn't talk anything like that. I'm like, wait a minute. That was my first, like, Fred Sternberg

might be embellishing some quotes from some of these people. He's putting presents. And whenever you call, whenever you would say it to Fred, this really doesn't sound like someone. Oh, no, you know, he told me exactly. I was there. With a smile and a wink, you know. A wild car already said that, sitting right next to him.

All right. Keith, I appreciate your time. Yeah, you're welcome, man. No problem. That's it for this week's episode. My thanks to Ebony Bridges and Keith, I'd like 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. Thank you so much. I go sleep. 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 Acapella 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 I-Heart 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.

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