The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Boxing with Chris Mannix - Francis Ngannou leaving UFC & potential Tyson Fury fight

Episode Date: January 20, 2023

Chris is joined by Keith Idec and the MMA legend Daniel Cormier. Chris and Keith dive into the latest with Ryan Garcia and Tank Davis, what's next for GGG, and is Conor Benn innocent, he thinks so. Latest Daniel Cormier stops by to talk about Francis Ngannou leaving UFC and what he might be able to expect in the boxing world. #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Hosted by S.I's Chris Manix. 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 Manix. All right. Keith Ideck is my. guest this week boxing scene boxing scene.com i deck boxing on twitter friend of the podcast and keith

what a week we have here we have some news on ryan garcia to discuss we have one of boxing's most popular young fighters now a free agent you've got connor ben talking like a man on the comeback trail and a potential mega fight that could happen this spring over in Asia. But Keith, you know what we have to start with. The real story this week. It's Stverne Gidre Fight Week, baby. We are back. Heavyweight boxing is back and Don King is bringing to us back in Florida with a heavyweight

showdown, headlined by Jonathan Gidry, former heavyweight title holder, Bermaine, Keith, are you giddy? for Giddry. And it's only 20 bucks, Chris. Only $20. What a, what a, while the Giants and Eagles are playing on Saturday night, I mean,

don't you just feel tempted to flunk down 20 bucks to watch boxers that no one cares about? Can I just, what's your sense of what Don King is doing? Like, he keeps doing these small paper views, which have to be financial disasters. I mean,

this is a guy that for decades, put on some of the biggest events in boxing history. I mean, what gives here? It is odd. I don't really know why he remains in boxing in any capacity. He certainly doesn't need the money, and he's not making any money off of these fights. At least the last time he did one of these, Chris,

at least it was Trevor Bryan who had a ridiculous title that should not exist, but it was technically it was a heavyweight title, and he fought Daniel Dubois. So that's one thing. What they're doing Saturday night, I don't quite understand other than, keeping their fighters active that he has under contract. But putting these fights on pay-per-view is just,

I'd really like to have the heads examined of anyone who pays $20. Look, if someone in your family is fighting, okay, I'll give you a pass for paying $20 to watch that. Otherwise, I don't get it, you know, because it only encourages him to do more of this. I mean, the last one with, you know, Daniel Dubois and Trevor Bryan, they had to pay real money to Daniel Dubois.

for that point and he didn't yeah i know but like you theoretically like i guess he did he finally make good on that wasn't that the latest that he did i believe so but but i just remember him trying to say that frank warren owed him money from like yeah that was kind of shady what does it have to do with daniel dubois you know nothing him getting just saying frank warren owes me money so get the rest of your your pay from frank which is pretty shitty thing to do to a fighter i just like i mean these are seven-figure purses that are theoretically being paid and i don't know where the money's coming from. It just feels like, you know, he's just digging deep into whatever personal wealth he has left and, and putting into these horrible shows, which I can't

imagine more than a couple hundred people at most are watching. So it's happening this weekend. So if you're up for a little boxing, Guidry Stevern on pay-per-view. Real quick, Keith, off the top. By now, everybody knows what's happening with Francis Nagano in the UFC. The former UFC champion is now a free agent and could be looking to get into boxing. Keith, I get into this more with Daniel Du Bois, or Daniel Cormier, got David Dubois on my brain, Daniel Cormier later in the show. But are you anticipating seeing Francis Nagano

in a boxing ring later this year? It certainly seems like that's what he wants, right? Chris, because he was, as far as I know, he was offered a substantial sum of money to remain with UFC, as part of a long-term contract more than they pay. generally, I think it was $8 million per fight or something like that, I read. So he really wanted to break away from UFC. He really wants to try boxing.

These crossover fights have done well. Of course, when it was Floyd Mayweather and Connor McGregor, those are two huge stars. I don't know, you know, Francis Ngano was obviously a big star in UFC, but I don't know how easy it would be for him to fight the types of heavyweights and boxing that he wants to I'll say it's certainly Tyson Fury, but is Tyson Fury going to take a risk against a guy who's not a boxer? I'm not saying it's a huge risk because he's a much better boxer. But the one thing that I've always heard about in Ghana, and I don't follow UFC very closely, Chris, but he's a huge puncher. So even if it were an exhibition, are you going to get in the ring with a guy like that and risk everything that you've worked for your whole life?

When if you're, let's just use Tyson Fury as an example, he's making enormous amounts of money to fight real boxers and fights that might be less dangerous. Dillian White fight is a perfect example. He made his purse, his official purse with $32 million. Is he going to make more than that to fight Francis and God? I don't know. Who's putting up that? I guess the difference of opinion that we have on this, Keith, is I think Francis Nagano is zero threat to Tyson Fury.

I mean, if Tyson Fury can go, whoever number of rounds, 30 plus rounds with Deonté Wilder, he's not going to have a problem with Francis DeGano. For Chris Nagano, big MMA puncher. I'll give him that. But I've watched some of his stuff. He gasses out after a couple of rounds. you know, he's wild with his shots. I mean, Fury toys with him, in my opinion. That, that to me feels inevitable. Like, if Fury can beat Usik in the spring, summertime,

in the UK, Francis Nagatu, sell out Wembley Stadium, make a boatload of money and have an easy night's work. Well, who's putting up the money and why? Oh, the Saudi Arabian government is a comment round. That guy's, I guess, but I don't say there's not saying there would be, Chris, there would be, but I, but you're talking about, my guess is Francis Inganu is, is not doing this because he wants to make around the same amount of money he could have made to stay in UFC. He wants to make much more. Yeah, but like I think there is that money there. I think whatever gate you get at a Wembley plus pay-per-view, plus international rights, like you, there's probably 10 million in for Francis Nagano and 30 million in it for Tyson Fury and, and Tyson Fury is not going to get touched in a

situation. He's just not. We've seen this too many times with UFC. see guys. And yeah, you know, you can give him the proverbial puncher's chance, but I think he has even less of a puncher's chance than some boxing punchers, if that makes any sense. I just don't see it. So I do think it's inevitable, though. I think, I think Fury wants it and Gano wants it. And I think come summertime, we're going to see those two in a boxing ring, probably over in the UK. All right. So the real news this week, the big news in boxing is that Golden Boy has finally received a contract for Ryan Garcia to fight. Gervante Davis.

There was some anxiety, Keith, last week after Golden Boy didn't get a contract. You had Oscar Delahoya publicly threatening to move on. If he didn't get one by Monday, kind of an empty threat there. But it eventually came in on Tuesday. And I was told the contract looks pretty good. They're going to go back to PPC with some edits,

but there's no reason to believe this contract isn't in line with what Golden Boy was expecting. And we already know most of the terms, including financial and the network arrangement have been agreed to. Keith, are we all systems go now for Garcia Tank on April 15th? I don't know about the April 15th part. And I've said that all along just because he has this trial coming up next month. I think they will fight. Both fighters, to their credit, completely committed to the fight, they've pushed for it throughout this entire process.

They want the fight, which is great. So we will see the fight. I just, I can't say with any certainty, and I don't know how anyone could, Chris, at this point, that they're fighting April 15th or May, whatever, because you don't know what kind of punishment Giovante Davis is going to come away from this trial with. So until you know that,

until you know whether he has to do some home confinement or some actual jail time, and how that will impact his training camp and when he's able to train properly for the fight, how could we know when the fight will be? So you just have to, I understand everyone's impatient and they want to know right away and blah, blah, blah. The trial is supposed to start February 15. It's not supposed to be all that long of a trial.

So maybe by February 18th or whenever, we'll know and we'll know what he can do and when he can do it. I think the next fight for Ryan Garcia and Jermante Davis will be fighting each other where is still, one is still to be determined. Yeah, and to clarify the trial situation, a judge has already rejected a plea deal that would have afforded Gervante Davis no jail time. Some home confinement, I believe, were in the original plea terms, but the judge rejected it in large part because this judge did not believe it was significant enough. So that gives you some reason for pause, as you point out, that April 15th could be a movable date. Let me ask you two questions, though, about, let me stick with the schedule there for a second. This PBC schedule, I'm not quite wrapping my head around yet. We both know that promoters do not want to do and oftentimes refuse to do paper views in the same month, right?

Because you want to get in that a different cable billing cycle and you want to space things out a little bit to give yourself a best chance at maximum revenue. We know we've got Benavides plant. That's a pay-per-view on March 25th. you've got Spence tweeting out he's going to go in April, although I've been told that Spence could get bumped to May if Davis Garcia goes in mid-April. I still don't know what's happening with Deonti Wilder. Is he going to fight Andy Ruiz?

Is he going to fight somebody else? It just seems like PBC right now has a lot of pay-per-view-level shows or at least what they deem pay-per-view level shows bunched into that, you know, couple of months, few months on the calendar. How do you think all that kind of, of shakes out. There probably will be four of them, as you just mentioned, Chris, because if there are fights release, there will be four pay-per-views, perhaps over a four-month span,

which no one wants to hear, obviously, but that's the way it's going to shake out, just because of circumstance, right? You know, Spence and Thurman were supposed to have fought, you know, they would have fought next month if everything went according to the plan. So, yeah, but everything is these are all movable parts now because we don't really know what's going on with Chervante Davis, right? So, yeah, Spence could fight in May. Spence could fight in April. Who knows? We don't know that yet. And look, the way it goes with Spence, I don't know, something else could happen where he gets pushed back again. I mean, between contract negotiations and car accidents and detached retinas. I mean, a lot of this is bad

luck, unfortunately, for Aral Spence. But it always seems to be something. So, you know, but I do think we'll get, you know, probably four paper, PBC paper review fights within, say, a four to five months span, which is not ideal. But that's probably the way it's going to shake out. So you hear all the time, and it's something I agree with, that Tank versus Ryan Garcia is the most marketable fight that you can make in U.S. boxing, more marketable than Spence Thurman, maybe even more marketable than Spence Crawford, certainly more marketable than some of the other pay reviews that PBC is looking at. do in the next few months. I find myself wondering, Keith, what that means at this point. I don't know what the tank, Hector Luis Garcia fight did. There have been some numbers floated out there on the internet that are relatively low.

Usually, if it does well, you see some attempts to leak some numbers out there that are pretty good. But as you kind of look ahead to Ryan Garcia and Tank Davis, do you think that's the kind of fight that breaks through, kind of all the piracy that breaks through, you know, kind of the, the numbness people have at this point to buying pay-per-views. Like, is that a fight that breaks through all that? I think as it relates to piracy, Chris,

the people who are pirating these streams, they're going to do it no matter what the fight is because they pay for it, or they can't pay, whatever the case. I mean, they're going to find a way to get it for free, which is unfortunate and ravages the business, but that's the way. And in some, if you're doing a pay-per-view

every other, you know, every four weeks, well, that's asking a lot of people to pay somewhere between $70 and $85 every four weeks. You're not building boxing pay-per-views into your budget if you have a family and, you know, or whatever your expenses are. So, but piracy is a huge problem. So, no, I think it'll do a higher buy rate because there's much more interest, not only within the boxing sphere, but also outside of boxing. So it'll do a good number, I believe, but probably a higher number based on their fan bases, probably a higher number than Spence Crawford, if that fight ever comes together,

as we've discussed on the podcast before. But it's going to draw a lot of attention because people are excited about this fight and have wanted to see it for a long time and credit again to both guys for making sure that the fight happened and not allowing all of the nonsense that tends to get in the way

from allowing big fights to happen. Yeah, I do think you're going to have a lot of the fans that either buy a pay-per-view or don't buy Cros, or Spence, sorry, you're all over the place, Tank versus Ryan. I think you'll have the buyers that wouldn't necessarily pirate it, go out and get it, the more casual fans that have an interest in that fight, which will increase the buy rate. I just don't know what that number is going to look like. I don't know what they're anticipating for a fight like that. Is it north of $300,000? I would assume so. Is it 500,000?

That's pretty high. Anything over 500,000, you'd have to be ecstatic about. I don't know. I don't know what they deem successful with something like that based on what they're paying these two guys. But, you know, pay-per-view is an interesting place right now, I think, where, you know, piracy ain't going away. And it doesn't seem like boxing has found a solution to stop it. You know, they've tried, but it hasn't really worked out. So we'll see what happens with that one.

So we did have some surprising news this week, Keith. Bigger Burlanga, the undefeated super middleweight contender, he has parted ways with top rank. Some of the shine, of course, has come off Berlanga. He had a whole bunch of first round knockouts early in his career. He's won all his fights since that knockout streak ended, but he was knocked down in one of them. In his last fight against Romer and Gullo. He bit him, which led to a multi-month suspension. But Berlanga is a proven ticket seller, and guys like that are not usually released

by their promoters. So, Keith, let's start here. What's your understanding of what happened with Edgar Berlanga and Top Rang? Well, ultimately, they just couldn't come to an understanding

or an agreement, Chris, on what he should be paid, the types of fights that he should be in in 2020, whether he should be in main events or co-features and that was viewed from their standpoint

as a step backward because he has headlined ESPN shows at the theater. And they were trying to build toward him, I don't know, about selling out, Madison Square Garden, but being able to do a substantial gate at Madison, the big room at Madison

Square Garden. And this went on for several months. He was suspended for six months, as you well know, Chris, he tried to bite Angulo on his shoulder in his last fight, so he couldn't fight for, from basically mid-June until mid-December anyway. So during that time, they had a couple of face-to-face meetings in which Berlanga was involved. His manager, Keith Kosh. Connolly was there, his dad and a trainer also there. And the top rank brass was there. And there were times when it looked like they were going to figure it out. And then there were times when they were at odds and they were not going to figure it out.

And ultimately, he was able to buy himself out of the contract. He felt, him and his team kind of felt like top rank didn't believe in him. You could argue on the flip side that he had been. given them much reason to believe in in him being more than what he is now, based on the way he performed against Alexis Angulo and Steve Rolls. He won those fights. I mean, there was no two ways about that. It was just the way he looked, and then how would you step him up from there

that they really couldn't come to an agreement on? And frankly, they wanted him to fight Jesse Hart three times. And that name kept coming up. Now, Jesse Hart's a solid fighter. who's done well in his career, he was very competitive in those two super middleweight title fights against Goberto Ramirez. He's not an elite level fighter, and there was a refusal on the side of Berlangos to fight him. So it was frustrating for top rank because they felt like if you're not going to fight Jesse Hart and prove yourself against a guy who frankly is a back end of that. He's not even in that.

He's fought at light, heavyweight and everything, and now he would move back down to 168 for that fight. But if you're not going to fight Jesse Hart and you're utterly refusing to do that, well, you're going to disagree. You know, but I see it from Berlangus standpoint. You know, he is a ticket seller. He's a commodity. But some of the shine has come off him since he's gone to distance in these last four fights and hasn't looked particularly great. He got knocked down in the fight against Cossaris on the Wilder Fury undercard. He did fight through a torn biceps for seven rounds of that fight.

So, like, well, you know, that's tough. He was able to do that. And it was a flash knockdown. He got up. He won the fight convincingly. But, you know, they just didn't see the type of progress in him that they had hoped to see. And frankly, they did not want to pay him the type of money that he was, that he thought he should command based on his popularity and his ability to sell tickets. And they decided to go their separate ways.

The Jesse Hart thing was strange. I mean, I had people, as I'm sure you did from Berlanga's team. calling to say it's not about Jesse Hart. He would have fought Jesse Hart, but, you know, I've heard the same things you have that Top Rank has repeatedly tried to make a fight between Berlanga and Jesse Hart, and it hasn't come together for whatever reason. And on paper, doesn't that fight make a lot of sense? Like, you know, Jesse Hart, if he can make 168, I have some skepticism of that. But if Jesse Hart could make 168 again and be there for that fight, that's a good next step type of fight.

A former world title challenger who's a known commodity because of the fights he had with Gilberto Ramirez because of the fight he had with Joe Smith. Didn't win any of those fights, but it was competitive

and at least in the two Ramirez fights and wound up on, you know, nationally televised kind of platforms. It just, do you think it was the money for that or they just don't believe he's ready or you can win that kind of fight? Yeah. But again, if you don't believe that he can win against Jesse at this point in Jesse Hart's career,

well, you're going to come to an impasse because that's a type of guy that he should be. You know, and they wouldn't fight him. So I know Berlanga has said that he would fight him. And, you know, the fighters always, for the most part, the fighters aren't shying away from challenges. I'm sure he feels like he can beat Jesse Hart. But from a business standpoint, they wouldn't do it. And again, they just decided that they wanted different things and they wanted to go about the rest of his career in the foreseeable future in different ways. And he was able to buy himself out of the contract.

So he'll have some options because there are a lot of super middle weights with PBC. There are less super middle weights with Eddie Hearn. But Keith Connolly, Jim Belangas manager has a good working relationship with Eddie Hearn. Also has a good working relationship with Al Heyman. so he'll have some options, but you're going to have to fight somebody eventually, you know. And Ngulo was a big puncher, but, you know, was dominated by David Benavides.

You know, he's going to have to, he's ranked fourth by, I think, three of the four major sanctioning organizations. So he's a highly ranked fighter and everything. But look, if he goes and signs with PBC, Chris, you put him in the ring with Plant Benavides, David Morel, Charlo, if he moved up, I don't see him winning any of those fights, do you? No, I think he'd be an underdog based on what I've seen of his last few fights.

You know, and that kind of brings me to the next point, and you kind of touched on the options there. There is PBC, there is matchroom. Keith Conley, his manager is steering the ship now. I think Golden Boy is kind of a dark horse in all this. And maybe you can do this via matchroom as well. but, you know, I'm sure there'd be strong interest in Jaime Mungia versus Edgar Berlanga. Like, we're going to get to Jaime Mungia later in the show. But, you know, Mungia Berlanga is a potential fun fight. And if you're Buranga, you know, I think you'd probably take that because there's probably

considerable money in that fight. And you should feel you can be competitive against Mungia, who has not been tested either at this point. And a smaller guy moving up, you know, he's not. Belanga's a big guy. so um so yeah i mean that why not right i mean ultimately he wants to fight canello now no one would tell you with a straight face that they think edgar belanga will beat canelo alvarez but he's a marketable guy he's popular um not he's not Miguel coto popular you know he he's developing a fan base

and he is very he has a big social media presence and all that and people have reacted entertainers and athletes have responded to him knocking people out. It doesn't knock people out anymore, exactly. But he is popular, and he's a real confident kid, and the Puerto Rican fans have responded to him. Look, if Canello were looking for a fight where he would be heavily favored to win beyond John Ryder, Burlingo would be someone that he would be heavily favored to beat,

and he's undefeated, and he's ranked fourth by three of the four seconds. organization. So I'm not saying that fight should happen. I'm just saying that if Canello were looking to come back from wrist surgery against someone that he would be heavily favored to be and is undefeated and all the things that I just said, well, Berlanga would be that type of guy, wherever that's worth. I hope not. I don't know. Yeah, I'm not saying we should want it. That might be the end of Berlanga's career at that point. But yeah, it's an interesting possibility. if he ever aligned himself with Matrim. I do think, and you've probably heard the exact same things.

I think it feels like John Ryder, somewhere overseas in May is like the most likely option at this point for Canelo. Might be in the UK. I think the Middle East has a presence there. And it seems like we're trending, at least in that direction. Chris, can I just say something? What is this? And I don't, I'm not directing this at you.

I understand why Eddie Hearn wants him to fight John Ryder because he has John Ryder. Who cares about Canelo Averaz fighting John Ryder? Nobody put it on the moon. Who cares? I think it's where you can get the most money, frankly. I mean, I think if you go to the Middle East, you can take some of that Abu Dhabi money that Eddie is pocketing in 2023 and put that towards it.

In the UK, maybe, you know, first time there, you can make some money as an attraction. I just, I think in the U.S. is a tough sell, especially for the money Canello commands every single fight. It's a very, very, it's a probably the toughest sell he's had since like Rocky Fielding. maybe even tougher, given that he's coming off kind of a lackluster 2022. Yeah, I mean, John Ryder's British, but he's not a star. Yeah.

He is from England. Okay. If the fight's going to be in England, fine, but this has been going on for a couple years now that he's going to fight John Ryder. He's going to fight John Ryder. John Ryder, John Ryder, you remember at the Saunders fight where John Ryder was there in case Billy Joe Saunders like up and left. Like he was the backup for Billy Joe Saunders.

Yeah. A couple of years ago when Connell was going to fight Saunders. That was mostly because in case Billy Joe just went crazy and left, they were to plug John Ryder. So John Ryder is just kind of hanging around the hotel the entire week. He wasn't even fighting. Like he wasn't given like a fight to take. He was just there in case Billy Joe went off the grid for whatever reason.

And I don't have anything against John Ryder. It seems like a nice guy. And he, you know, he just won a couple of fights. And, you know, the Jacobs fight was a close. It's not anything. But this insistence on him fighting John Ryder at some point is baffling. We talk about mandatory, right? Kinell has got to do his mandatory.

Otherwise, these sanctioning bonds are going to strip him. Keith, they're going to strip him. Who cares about that belt away? It's about any of that. He's Kenella Alvarez. I'm being facetious. No, I know. But fight whoever you want.

You are still a cash cow in boxing. Yeah. Who wants. Yeah, exactly. Let's talk about Gannadi Gala. Speaking of Canelo, Triple G has not fought since losing that decision to Canello in September. We know he wasn't thinking about retiring after that fight. He was quick to tell me that in the ring. He is still, of course, the unified middleweight champion. But Keith, we haven't heard much

from his camp in the last couple of months. What do we know right now about the future of Triple G? I know he's going to continue fighting, like you said, Chris, but I think it's going to be difficult for him to command the type of money that he's that he you know i know he didn't quite make as much as he had hoped in his deal with the zone or that he felt he was owed but he made a lot of money and and it's going to be hard to get another broadcast partner to pay him that type of money when he's 40 going on 41 um and coming off of what was a decisive defeat to uh canelo alvarez in his last fight um so i don't know it's it's tricky because he does have the middleweight you know three middleweight titles i guess, but, you know, it's going to be hard for him to command the type of money that he wants,

and that's why we haven't heard much since the Canello fight, which is, I guess, four months ago now. So I don't know what he does. You know, it certainly doesn't seem possible for him to go back to the zone based on the way their relationship ended, you know, and some of the things that he said, certainly doesn't seem interested in that. But maybe if he finds that he doesn't have the type of interest that he thought he would, maybe he would go back to the zone.

But then he's going to have to fight some of the people that for whatever reason did not want to fight him or he didn't want to fight. Well, Andrade's gone, so that doesn't matter. Much to your dismay, Andrade is gone. But so I don't know. It's a great question. But, you know, there are appealing middleweight fights for him.

But will he be paid what he wants to be paid for those types of fights? Yeah, and at some point his mandatories are going to come due, right? He's got an IBF mandatory, and that's one of the few sanctioning bodies that presumably will enforce it. The WBA belt, I mean, I guess at some point they're going to call for him to fight Erislandi Lara for that title. Neither of those fights are going to generate any kind of purse of significance for Golofkin. Like those are very, very, I mean, not bad fights like in the ring necessarily, but they're not. revenue drivers. It's going to be a tough sell on a pay-per-view or any of their platform to do those fights. To me, Keith, I think he's got to find a way to get in the ring with Mungia to bring Mungia back into this conversation.

I know that Golden Boy has reached out to Golofkin's team. Right now, there doesn't seem to be a lot of interest. And I can't quite figure out why. Because to me, it's kind of coin flippy with Mungia and Golofkin at this point. But it's not like Mungia is like this world beater. Like he's available to be hit. And if Golofkin can still hit, he has a chance to have success in a fight like that. It would be a fight. I know DeZone would be extremely interested in putting on, either on the platform or on pay-per-view. And it would probably generate the highest payday for Ganadi at this time. Unless, I mean, unless there's a deal with PBC for Jamal Charlo, I haven't heard much about that.

That generates more. I just, I don't know why Golofkin would want that fight over a Mungia fight at this point. doesn't really register with me there. So I guess for me, I just don't know why he's not running towards a Mungia fight. Maybe it's his issues with his own. Maybe it's his issues, I don't know,

dealing with Matchroom in the past, though Maturem wouldn't necessarily have to be involved with Mungia. But that's a fight that doesn't, that just make a lot of sense for Gannadi Galacca at this stage? It does. And, you know, six years after it was supposed to happen. And Bob Bennett put the kibosh. It's a story.

There's a story right there. We're still talking about it, you know? But yeah, look, I'll be happy if Jaime Mungia fights anyone who will put up some resistance in 2023. Let's just, whether it's Gullochin or someone else. Did you see, did you see this, you know, Eric Gomez over at Golden Boy put out there that Mungia and Fernando Beltrown are interested in fighting Dmitri Bebel. I called some guys in Bebel's team and let's just say they were very enthusiastic about the idea of fighting Jaime Mungiya. I think they would go to his backyard in Mexico to fight Jaime Mungia. D'emitri Bebole has no problems fighting Jaime Mungia.

I found that a bit interesting that for some reason Mungia is expressing interest in a B-Beeble fight. I mean, the guy doesn't want to fight anyone, and now he wants to move up, I guess, kind of sort of. Two-way classes. To fight a guy who beat Canelo-Alvarez. Come on. Stop it. Really. I mean, Chris, that's who he wants.

wants to fight, seriously, the guy who won nine rounds against Canello? We're supposed to believe that? No, no, I don't. I'm just saying that Beowles team is very, very interested, if that's for real. Wouldn't you be? Yes. Yes, I would. They made it clear to me they have not booked any fights for the first half of

20, 23 yet. If I'm in Mungia, is for real, they're in. Who else does Mungia want to fight? Does he want to fight better if he be jarred next week? I mean, fury, I don't know. For Anthony Yard. I don't even want to talk about it to the yard this week, but I already feel sympathy for Anthony Yard.

Something's probably going to happen. Not going to go well for him. That fight over in the U.K., and I want to talk about something else over in the UK for a minute. Connor Ben, who has become a boxing pariah after flunking a pair of drug test in advance of the fight against Chris Eubank Jr. He is apparently ready to move on.

Ben has been active on social media lately, posting training videos, teasing and return. On Instagram this week, he wrote, thank God for science without really providing any scientific evidence that anything about his positive tests for a female fertility drug is really anything but an attempt to get away with a performance enhancer. He's not really fooling anyone, Keith, including Eubank, who had this to say about Ben this week. He's just pissing people off at this point. No, it's right. The science, thank God for science, and I'm innocent, and I can't wait to show it. Just shut up until you actually have some solid,

real things to show people and tell people. You know, all this cryptic bullshit is, you know, it's just annoying people, especially me. No science is going to save him. No science is going to get the fans that he's lost back on his side, you know, whatever, whatever he's got planned and whatever excuses he's got made up, it's too late. All right.

So, Keith, what, what do you make of Connor Ben's declaration that he has been vindicated? Well, he's been saying for more than a month now that he has, quote, unquote, proven his innocence. To whom? How? He just keeps saying it, so he's just speaking it into existence. I don't know. But like no one believes this until we get some,

some, you know, concrete information from VADA or the British Boxing Board of Control or someone in some position of authority, let him say whatever he wants, who cares? But this is not going away. And him continuing to say that he has proven his innocence, and this is all behind him now, is I don't know what he's trying to do, but it's not working. so and no one believes him it is pretty wild i mean he he has handled this keith about as poorly as you possibly could um if he had just said look i don't know how that got into my system i don't take drugs but it is what it is i'll take whatever punishment's coming to me and then i'm going to try

to get my career back on track and prove to people that i am a clean athlete he probably could have at least started the process of putting this behind him, but he has just continue to stay out there and say, I didn't do anything. And science will set me free. And everybody knows that I'm going to, I'm fine. It's just, it's wild. Like, he's becoming one of those crazy criminals. Like, he's, to put it into modern day political sphere, he's like the George Santos of boxing at this point. Like, he's just, he's just making stuff up. That might be a little strong, but I've been, But you know what I mean? Like it's like,

like, but, but yeah, I've got the, how many times have you heard Keith and like, I've got the evidence and I'm going to show it and never, never, never gets shown,

ever. And you keep saying odd things like the testing has proven to be wrong and, but there's no, he provides no evidence. I, like you said, he's handled this poorly, you know,

I don't know what his punishment ultimately is going to be, but let's just let him take that punishment. and then fight whenever he's allowed to fight. He will be allowed to fight. I mean, Dorel Miller's fighting. Right. There's not a bigger cheater in the history of boxing than Jarrell Miller, and he's fought.

So eventually, however long his suspension might be or whatever, he's still relatively young. So he'll be able to come back from it, and hopefully he learned his lesson. He's not admitting to anything, of course. And look, I don't know why he's going about it in the way that he is, but he's been advised poorly, I guess I would say. Yeah, Eddie Hearn said he's going to fight in the spring.

I'm very curious to see where he fights in the spring, if he fights in the spring. Because I can't imagine that, you know, four or five months after this positive test, that the British Boxing Board of Control is going to license him. Similarly, I don't see a credible state in the U.S. licensing him. You may have to go and use, you know, may have to go to Saudi Arabia, frankly, or to some country in the Middle East to get him back into the ring. And even that presents problems if you're kind of going around, you know, some of these, some of these boards of control, some of these commissions. So I don't know how this all plays out. I mean, I have a hard time believing we're going to

see him back in the ring in the spring or even the first half of 2023. That's just my, my gut feeling on this. A big fight that was revealed this week over at boxing scene, Stephen Fulton, Neoya, in a way, 122 pounds unified championship fight. That is happening over in Japan. I say it's happening, Keith, but I mean, how sure are we? A fight like this, of this magnitude, a kind of fight we don't get a lot in boxing. How sure are we that this fight is going to take place? Well, I've been told that the contracts have been exchanged.

That happened yesterday, I believe. And my coworker, you know, Jake Donovan's been on top. of the story. You know, the contracts were exchanged yesterday. It is happening. And credit to Stephen Fulton, who was for a while looking like he was going to go into a rematch with Brandon Figuero, which is a fight people wanted to see again. Their first fight was one of the best action fights of 2021. There was some controversy. I thought Fulton won the fight, but there was some controversy regarding the scoring. It's a fight people wanted to see again. It's not a mega a fight or anything like that, but it's a very good fight. People wanted to see it would have happened

at 126 this time. But Fulton, I can't give Stephen Fulton enough credit for doing what he's doing, because the safer thing to do would have been to fight Figueroa again. Now, of course, that's a fight he could have lost. The first fight was very competitive. And he would have been paid well for it, but he's going to be paid a lot of money. But he's going over to Japan. Now, yes, in a way is moving up from 118 to 122. That's Stephen Fulton's weight class. But he's one of the biggest punchers in boxing. He's widely regarded as one of the two or three best pound for pound fighters in the world for the last four or five years.

He's fighting him in Japan. Everything is stacked. He's fighting a puncher who's considered one of the best fighters on Earth. In Japan, the deck is stacked completely against Stephen Fulton. He said, I don't care. This is who I'm fighting. Go make it happen. And for the people who are constantly criticizing the PBC or Al Haman for protecting his fighters

or not working with other promoters, they did not, well, Stephen Fulton primarily deserves the most credit because he put this. I know behind the scenes, he pushed for this fight to happen. He didn't want to, ultimately, did not want to hear about any other fights. He wanted this fight, knows it's a mega fight. There was a sacrifice on the side of PBC and they had to let their fighter go do what he really wanted. but the fight is going to be streamed probably on ESPN plus in the United States. It's not going to be on Showtime, which has televised a lot of Fulton's fights in the last few years. It takes them off the hook financially to some degree because they don't have to pay for the fight. But in a way, such a huge star over there and does such big gates and has huge television and streaming deals over there.

But again, I just go back to I can't commend Stephen Fulton enough for doing what he's doing. year. I couldn't agree more. You know, I expected in a way to go for a big fight in his first fight at 122. I just always kind of guessed it would be M.J. Aquedaliav. Akhmadaliev is dealing with an injury or coming off an injury. He's also got like 97 mandatories that he's got to deal with to keep his titles. But I just kind of assume because Akhmadaliev really has no fan base and has no network necessarily full-throated behind him, that he would be the guy to go over to Japan. When this was first reported, I was shocked.

I was shocked. Not just that Stephen Fulton was going to do this fight, but because, like you said, he was going to go to Japan. He was going to do it on a different network. He is going into hostile territory there. He's going to make a lot of money to do it. Like, he'll get paid for this fight.

But to do something like this, you just don't see it enough in boxing. And this is the kind of fight, Keith. I don't know how you feel about this. Like, I tweeted something like this out on Thursday that very, you don't see too much of a shakeup in the pound for pound rankings too often. It usually takes like a beevil-canello level event to really change the pound-for-pound rankings.

This fight, I think, is going to do it. Because if Inouye wins and beat Stephen Fulton in his first fight at 122, he is going to have a compelling case to be the number one pound-for-pound fighter in all of boxing. If Fulton wins, I don't know. I don't have him in my top 10 right now. He's kind of in that 10 to 15 range on my list. But if he wins, not only do I think he's top 10, I think he's top 5. Like you beat a legitimate top 5 pound for pound guy and you're undefeated and you're fighting, you know, on enemy territory.

You deserve that kind of bump in these pound for pound rankings. And one thing about Stephen Fulton, like a lot of guys say they want all the smoke. Like Stephen Fulton really seems to be that guy. you look at some of the fighters he's faced the number of undefeated fighters he's faced you know a couple of fights ago for the world title angelo leo undefeated he fights brandon figaroa undefeated at that time and now he's going to go over and take on maybe pound for pound the biggest puncher in all of boxing in japan it is you know i just like want to clap like bravo stephen fulton for doing this because look win or lose i i get he's going to gain something out of this from me like he loses

He goes up to 1-26. I don't think he loses much in terms of status. He wins. All of a sudden, he's a big deal with a chance to make a lot more money down the line. Right. And even if he loses, as you said, Chris, he comes back to the PBC and the Figueroa fight is still there for him. Yeah.

You know, he can, you know, he can fight Figueroa again at 126. That's a fight that people want to see. There are plenty of options for him in the PBC universe if he loses the fight. If he wins the fight, his whole career changes, his whole life changes. You know, so again, you know, I know we're just repeating ourselves here, but because it's so uncommon, based on what he's doing, particularly for a BBC fighter, to leave the BBC universe for this fight on a different network in a different country against a murderous puncher. I mean, wow, you know? So, you know, kudos to him. It's a, you know, it's a, you know,

to be a very tough fight for him to win because he's not a big puncher and he's a great boxer and he's a tough guy he's a tough guy has a world of confidence but it's a very difficult fight even though in a way is moving up four pounds from 118 to 122 so um you know very much looking forward to that fight whether it's you know six o'clock in the morning seven o'clock in the morning whatever it might be just an excellent excellent fight and and hopefully with him doing what he's doing which are Avanti Davis saying, I'm fighting Ryan Garcia. I don't care what anyone else wants. You know, and fighting what was not an easy fight against Hector,

Luis Garcia as what was support, you know, a tune-up per se. You know, maybe this will inspire some of the other PBC fighters to do things outside of the realm of what mostly has been done over the last few years. Yeah, PBC or any fighter, you know, if you, if there's a fight, want, you've got power. Like, you can push for it. Look what Stephen Fulton just did. Look what Giovante Davis and Ryan Garcia just did.

Like, it can be done. There can be cross-promotional events that can get done. Real quick, do you have any reaction to Adrian Broner versus Hank Lundy on Paperview in February? Replacing Ivan Redcatch. Do you have any reaction to, uh, are you more excited about that or Gidre Steverne? I'll put it that way. It looks like Gidreis DeVern is going to happen. I'm still not convinced Bruner and Hank Lundy is going.

How are they selling tickets to that? I don't know. Geez, there's so many things working against them there. I like, and I know you've probably got, you know, being in the Philly area, you've met Hank Lundy a bunch of times. I like Hank Lundy a lot. Like he is a really like. Yeah, Hammering, Hank.

I saw him. I went down to do a story on Broner in Colorado before. for his fight against Marcos Maidana. And Hank Lundy was his sparring partner for that fight. And it was the most bizarre sparring session I've ever seen because Mike Stafford, the trainer for Adrian Broner, just let them do like 18-minute rounds. So all they're doing in the ring is like wailing away at each other

and talking shit the entire time. He's like, yeah, yeah, I hooked up with you a girl. I hooked up with your girl. I hooked up with your mom. Hooked up with your mom. It was wild watching those two kind of go back and forth. So, you know, there'll definitely be some trash talk before the fight. But, you know, Hank Glundee's lost like, what, three fights or something in a row, four out of five, something like that.

And Broner. I'm not defending the fight. I'm not supporting it in any way. But he actually gave Jose Zepeda a tougher fight than people realized when it was two, I think it was two fights before Zepeda fought Regis Prograde. but it was Zepeda's first fight after the Baranjic fight, which was a knockdown, dragout fight in a year. And I wondered, was it a reflection of Zepeda not having anything left or Hank Lundy having more left than people realized?

But again, putting that on pay-per-view is just nuts. And I don't know that it's going to happen for a variety of reasons. First, I know Broner's training. Well, he trained, he put in an entire training camp, And then the Sunday or Monday, but I think it was the Monday of Fight Week, withdrew from the fight against Omar Figueroa Jr. Five months ago, and he said he wasn't in the right headspace to, I mean, there's so many things working against this that may lead to it not happening.

And let's just hope it doesn't, honestly. Yeah, I saw, you mentioned this a Peta fight. I saw Lundy fight Alex Martin in Texas that was on an undercard. and he was not competitive in that fight. Alex Martin's kind of a fringy guy who fought Michael McKinsey a couple fights before that. It was, yeah, that's fresh in my mind. And he lost another fight after that to another kind of lesser tier guy.

So I'm not expecting a ton in this fight from Hank Lundy. I guess my bigger issue is like, if you're BLK Prime and you're paying Adrian Bruner a bunch of money and you're going to pay Hank Lundy a little bit of money, like, what's the plan? Somebody please outline the plan for me. Tell me how this works. if Broner's out there saying they're going to let me fight anybody, you know, over the next year,

like, how does this work? I don't get it. It's boxing, so we see stuff like this happen periodically, but like this is the boxing equivalent of lighting money on fire. I just don't, I don't understand the strategy with these types of events. I just don't. The strategy would appear to be losing money. Yes.

If that's the strategy, it is an excellent one, excellent one at this. point. Keith, you enjoy Gidre Steverne on Saturday night. I know he'll be ringside in Florida. You're at your hotel room right now. Second of him. Yeah, good stuff. 20 bucks. Keith, appreciate it, man. Good to talk to you.

Same here, Chris. Take care. When we come back, my conversation with Daniel Cormier. 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, 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 you're saying. Yep, that's me. Clifford 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. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars. 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 taun tons 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. Well, if you've been watching the NFL playoffs from the sidelines, there's still time to get in the game with Fandul, America's number one sportsbook. New customers. Bet this Sunday's conference championship games with $150 in bonus bets

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win or lose with promo code boxing. Make every moment more with Fandul, official sportsbook partner of the NFL. All right, here we go again. It feels like every few years we see a top-level MMA fighter a popular M. May fighter, believe he can make it in boxing. A few years ago, it was Connor McGregor. The last couple of years, we have seen Ben Ascran and Tyron Woodley get into the ring.

Now we have Francis Nagano. Francis Nagano is the former UFC heavyweight champion. He has been released from any UFC contractual obligations. this according to Dana White. He is free and clear to sign with any promotional entity that he wants, be it Bellator, PFL, someplace overseas. But Nagano, he seems interested in getting into boxing and following a number of elite MMA guys down that path.

To talk about that, I want to bring in Daniel Cormier, the two-division former UFC world champion. He is a UFC broadcaster. his podcast, DCMMA, and his YouTube page are available on the Volume Sports Network. DC, good to talk to you, man. Thanks for having me. So I wanted to get your perspective on this because you've followed Francis Nagano for the entirety of his UFC career. Nagano clearly seems motivated to get into boxing.

Here's what he said on Tuesday during an appearance with Ariel Hawani. What is your prediction? I think everyone wants to know, all right, because when you fight, it's going to be one of the biggest stories of the year. What is your gut saying? Like, do you think we see France going to compete in anything? July, June, May. What are you feeling at this point? Hopefully, somewhere, the latest will be July, I would say so.

Okay. Hopefully. So at least twice a year, twice this year. Okay. And what is your gut telling you, leaning boxing or MMA in this fight before July? What are you thinking? My gut, I would say boxing. Boxing. Okay. And a pro boxing bout? Yeah. Yeah, pro boxing. Wow. And do you know where? I really want to show that. No yet.

Okay. And you don't know with who. But I'm going to find out. I'm working on it. I'm on it right now. Okay. So let's jump right in. What do you make? of Francis Nagano looking to get into boxing? I think that it's interesting because he's got so much power. Obviously, he has that intrigue of being a UFC heavyweight champion, right? You've seen him knock people out with so many different ways,

and you wonder, allowed if that power translates for the boxing. Obviously, he is going to be wearing much bigger gloves. He wears 10-ounce gloves as an heavyweight boxer, opposed to 4-ounce gloves that we wear in the UFC. So there's a lot of intrigue in regards to him making a jump. But what makes it more interesting for me is that he is going into the U.S., going into boxing, he's going into boxing, but with the belt and also big name opponents already on the radar. Because generally a guy with that level of experience in boxing would not be talking about Tyson Fury or Deonté Wilden.

It would be talking about guys more on the club level. This guy's talking about world champions that's only due to the fact that he was a world champion in the UFC. So as I mentioned at the top, we have seen this story before. We have seen former UFC fighters get into boxing, whether it is McGregor or Woodley or anybody else that has tried to make that leap. And it hasn't been successful. Quite frankly, it's been pretty bad, the end results. Knockout for Connor McGregor. knockout for Tyron Woodley in his last fight against Jake Paul.

Is there anything about Francis de Gano, about his skill set, the way that he fights, that makes you believe he will be more successful than others when getting into boxing? Not necessarily, you know, Mannix, because here's the deal. He's a bit wild, but he possesses such power that it's the ultimate equalizer, right? Even in the Cyril-Gon fight, you saw the last time, he was getting beat in the striking, he ended up pivoting and using his wrestling. But to me, and it would be less skill,

but it's Deonté Wilder. Wilder is a guy that has a ton of power, but he does a lot of things technically not the right way, but if he can hit you, he can put you out. We saw him get out classed by Tyson Fury up until getting those knockdowns at the end of the fight,

salvaging the fight the way he did. Second fight, he got outclassed and lost in the way that he lost. And the last time they fought, he lost, but he fought violently in the regard. to landing. Even though they come from odd angles, that's Francis. Francis will hit you from different angles and because he possesses all that power, he can hurt you. But to me, he's no fury. He's no like fugilistic specialist. He's a guy that has big power that if he lands, he can hurt you.

If you were advising him, what would you tell him about going into boxing? I think the biggest fight right now, right? Because another party said today, he turned away an $8 million contract in a fight in the UFC. So obviously in boxing, he's getting a bigger payday. But the big payday only comes when you're standing across from the biggest, most dangerous guy in the world. They're not going to pay him $10 million to fight some random guy. They're paying him $10 million to fight Deonté Wilder

to fight Tyson Fury. Are those guys at that level because they bring in the eyeballs and the intrigue of the fight? So take the biggest fight right now. do you think there's any risk to him doing that not just in the fight because look Francis de gano is a phenomenal m-ma fighter but if he goes up against tyson fury that is going to end horribly for him it just is he's going to get i think Tyson toys with him and i think he eventually stops him it's not disrespectful i don't think to say that because if Tyson

fury ever stepped into the cage he would get worked over equally as bad it's just it's a different it's a different type of combat sports so like for nagano like you like If he does that, let's say in July, with Tyson Fury maybe reigning as the undisputed heavyweight champion, is there a downside for him as far as the rest of his career goes? You know, what's the craziest thing about Francis's situation is that if Francis goes out there and fights Tyson, Fierry gets knocked out, makes $15, $20 million. There are still so many organizations that would line up to have him fighting their heavyweight divisions. MMA organizations, right?

He could fight Bellator. He can fight the PFL. He can fight in Russia. He can fight one of C. Bear knuckle boxing is obviously not. There are so many options for him. And I don't know if he's limited to one fight. You may have one big fight,

but then he may have some other boxing fights that he could potentially win. But I think it's, you got to cash in right now, man, because you did it for a reason. And that reason had to be to go fight one of the best boxers in the world. You know, one of my theories, D.C., is that it might benefit Nagano to go into another high-level MMA fight,

just to kind of reestablish his name, his credentials, because he was white-hot last January. He's still very well-known as we see with all the talk about him over the last, you know, a couple of days. But I think some of the buzz has gone off him a little bit. I think it might behoove him to step into the PFL or Bellator, or one of these other MMA entities and fight. But I guess the question would be,

is it too big a risk for him to do that? Like, how risky is it for a guy like Nagano to face one of the other top fighters in the other combats, mixed martial arts entities? I just think that if he was going to fight MMA, it was going to be in the UFC, right? You don't leave the UFC to fight MMA somewhere else. I think, so I don't, and even if he did,

there's not much risk in heavyweights around the world beating him. outside of the best guys in the world. Here's where the risk for me is in Francis's situation. Going and fighting some boxing dude that isn't the best in the world and losing to them. And then you lose out on the massive payday. That's where the danger is. The danger in him fighting another MMA organization is very, very small.

He's going to beat the vast majority of heavy weights in the world in a mixed martial arts competition. But I think that as you've seen the last couple of days, maybe his name isn't ringing bells for what he did inside the octagon, but the stance that he's taken on everything is making him still all very important to the landscape of mixed martial arts and non-combat sports in general. Yeah, I think it's a terrible idea to go fight like Otto Vallene or, you know, Luis Ortiz, like you don't run the risk of one of those guys.

Yeah, there's no upside to doing that. And I think everybody's kind of on the same page. Look, Fury, I think he'd run to that fight in the summertime. Like, if Fury winds up beating Usik, the last thing Fury wants to do after that is fight Deonti Wilder for the full time. He doesn't want to do that. He wants the 80,000 in Wembley and to make $30 million in a fight that presents virtually no risk to him. Minimal risk. Yeah, minimal risk.

Let me ask you one other thing. In your mind, does it diminish MMA fighters to have, you know, all this kind of keep happening, whether it's McGregor, Woodley, maybe Nagano, go into boxing and really just not be competitive in these fights? Is there a downside to MMA? I just think that I just think that I don't necessarily know because everybody goes into these fights with the understanding that these guys are up against it, right? So it's it's not as if the MMA guys like myself and the pundits are saying Francis and Godin is going to go and beat Tyson Fury.

You understand what it is. so when the result happens, if it happens in that way, it's kind of what was expected. But what happens if he wins? Then the whole world is on its axis, right? So I think Tyrone Woodley getting stopped the way that, when you're losing the YouTubers, that's a problem. But when you're losing the guys like Floyd Mayweather and Tyson's very,

isn't it crazy though, that Francis and Connor work themselves to be so valuable that in their pro-debues, they fought those guys. that's where the credit sits, right? And those guys building such a resume or having so much surrounding them that they get those level of fights in fight number one. I remember watching Connor walk to the ring to fight Floyd, and I thought to myself, wow, he actually did it.

Regardless of what happens, he actually, like he will fight against Floyd Mayweather into existence. And I feel the same way about Francis and Ghana. He did. And boxers love the passion of MMA fans, because even if there's like a 1% chance that their guy can win, MMA fans will throw 80 bucks down on the table, and they will buy that friggin fight.

No question. I was literally sitting there going, oh my God, the left hand's going to land on Floyd. No, like my best mind told me, my best mind's telling me, I've watched Floyd Mayer whether to beat the best boxes in the world.

But the whole time, every, I'm thinking every fight starts with kind of getting off the stool, and he's going to knock off Lloyd-Me with it. And then slowly you start to lose hope and realize he was never going to knock how Floyd-Mei with him, you know, but it is what it is. You know, like, we're very fickle. And we're very, like, gullible.

It's amazing. It's amazing. Daniel Cormier, check out his podcast on the YouTube page at DCMMA. Good to talk to DC. Appreciate your time, man. My man, thank you. Off to Brazil. You guys tune in to you have some 283 this weekend.

All right? When we come back, this week's picks brought to you by Fandul. Time now for this week's picks brought to you by our friends over at Fandul. I am 2 and 0 in 2023. It wasn't that hard, but I gave you Gervante Davis by knockout. I even put a little money on Hector Luis Garcia a couple of weeks ago. It was worth it. It was worth it.

For like six rounds, I was kind of tantalized by the possibility that he could win. But he didn't put most of my money on Gervantes and my knockout and that was the right thing to do. This week, the big fight is over in the UK. Chris Eubank Jr., Liam Smith, 160 pounds. Ubank Jr. is the favorite. Mine is 260. Liam Smith, almost a 2 to 1 underdog at plus 198. I like Eubank Jr. in this fight.

And that's tough to say because Eubank Jr. can be just so smarmy sometimes. But the key to this fight to me is the weight. At 154, Liam Smith is really good. He's not a journeyman, his level of bub journeyman. He beats a lot of journeyman. So at 154 against like an Anthony Fowler, at 154 against a Jesse Vargas, Liam Smith is good. Liam Smith can win.

At 160, I just think that's too high a weight class for him to successfully fight his style against someone, the talent level of Chris Eubank Jr. He's just not going to be able to bully him in the ring. And if he tries, Ubank's going to be as, as well, big or bigger. It's going to have good counters. I think Chris Eubank Jr. is going to win this fight. Method of victory. Ubank Jr. by decisions at plus 110. That's the bet I like as well. Eubank has a tendency to kind of showboat in the later rounds of fights. So if he's up, I think he's going to try to pick Liam Smith apart, maybe have a little bit of fun in the ring, try to do a little bit of

the Roy Jones, as Roy Jones is his trainer. So I like Chris Eumach Jr. by decision. So Chris Eubank Jr. to win, minus 260. You've got to have to bet big to make some money there. Chris Eubank, buy points or decision plus 110. That's where you can make a little bit of cash as well. Those are my picks brought to you by Vandul. Well, that's it for this week's episode. My thanks to Keith Ideck and Daniel Cormier for joining the show.

As always, subscribe, rate, review this podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you download podcast. And I'll see you next week. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy. On Humor Me with Robert Smygel and Friends, me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel,

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