The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Boxing with Chris Mannix - Teofimo retiring?

Episode Date: June 14, 2023

Joining Chris this week is Chris Algieri to talk about the Spence-Crawford press conference and how it got us ready for that fight. the upcoming fight with Regis Prograis, and if Teofimo Lopez is actually going to retire. Later, Regis sits with Chris to discuss his fight, and if Devin Haney could move up in weight to fight him. All that and more! #Volume #herdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Andrew Ruiz is the. 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 Manix. This is Boxing with Chris Manix, part of the Volume Sports Podcast Network. Let me first start by apologizing for the show posting a little later than usual on Wednesday.

had some travel issues coming back from Denver from the NBA finals on Tuesday. But it did give me time to watch the press conference for Errol Spence and Terrence Crawford. The first time these two have been face to face since the announcement of the July 29th fight. Here's a little bit of the interaction from that press conference. Yes, once again, I will be the first male boxer to actually capture the Walterweight champion in two divisions. and that would solidify me as the greatest fighter of this era. Definitely not, man. I'm not going to lie.

So I rank out the best matchmakers in the business. You ain't fought nobody, man. You haven't beat anybody on disputed at 140. Who you fought at 135 and who you fought at 147? Even you fought Sean Porter, even Sean Porter said... What did I do to Sean Porter that you could do? Sean Porter even said he did not train like you should. He didn't do the things.

His daddy told him to do. What are he talking about? Even his daddy said it. Even his daddy said it. You butt hurt that I got the stop. Even his daddy said it. You butt hurt. Even Calhbrook, he was already broken.

So was he broken when you fought? No, he wasn't broken. How come he? I broke the other eye. He came off. I broke. I broke. He came off and stopped.

That's how I got broke. He came off and stopped. What does it matter? He came off a stoppage and then he fought you months. What does it matter? What does it matter? So was he broken or not? No, he wasn't broken.

No, he wasn't broken. Yeah, you're right. You're right. What are you talking about? I had the same surgery he had, and what happened? So what they say about you then? You fight me then? I'm going to break that line. So what they say? So I'm broken then, right? Well, you're broken. You're going to be broken in July 29. Yeah, we're going to see.

You're going to be broken. That begs the question, Aaron. I'm ready for that. I'm so ready for that fight. Bring on July 29th. Well, we have a great show this week. Chris Algerie, former Junior Walter Way title holder. He will be joining me on the call in New Orleans. this week when Regis Progray defends his 140-pound title against Daniel Lito Zaria. Going to get his thoughts on that fight. Also, an excellent past weekend in boxing where Jaime Mungia passed his first real test against Sergei Derivanchenko and Teufi Mo Lopez rose from the proverbial ashes to batter Josh

Taylor and win a second title in a second weight class in what was a one-sided fight. A little bit later on, Regis Progrey himself. will join me to talk about his fight. Also want to get his take on Teofimo's performance. And if Devin Haney could move up to fight him, could move up and wait to fight him in his next fight. But first, as promised, Chris Algeri, the former 140-pound title holder,

he'll be pulling double duty this week. It could be on ProBox TV on Wednesday night and Saturday on DeZone. He joins me on the show. Chris, I don't know how much of the Spence Crawford highlights you caught on social media. but any takeaways from the first time these two guys came face to face. Yeah, I mean, I take away that they both have a lot of respect for each other.

They're both professionals. They're both media trained. They're doing their little proverbial jabs back and forth, getting people a little, a little interested, but it's been very respectful. I think that's understood where these guys are at in their careers and the magnitude of this fight. And I think it's good. I think it's a good thing. It's more of a throwback.

It's a throwback type fight. and I think the way they're treating each other in these press conferences more of a throwback where they're showing each other respect, but they're still got their little clever digs in there. So I like the promotion so far. I was interested to see how physically they look very similar. Terence Crawford at this point is now a full-fledged welterweight. He is a 147. And I look at Spence, and he was a little bit taller than Crawford, but then I look down,

he's wearing kind of shoes a little lifted him. So when these guys meet on Fight Night, they're going to look a lot. more, you know, lots more similar physically than maybe they would have a couple of years ago. I mean, do you look at that as being a factor that Crawford's had this many years to become a real welterweight? Oh, absolutely. I mean, two years ago, you asked me this, I was all Spence. Now I really don't have an answer who's going to win this fight because I just didn't think Crawford was a full-grown welterweight at that time. And Spence is huge for the weight class. I mean, he's bigger than literally everybody. But Crawford has fully grown into the weight class. I believe he walks around

between 175 and 180. He's posted photos like that. I've heard people tell, tell me that from inside. So he, yeah, he's a true well to wait. He is 100% knockout percentage at wealth to wait,

although not fighting the same caliber of guys, but still, that's, that's impressive nonetheless. But yeah, now this is, this is a pickum fight, especially when you look in hindsight with Spence

and his two car accident and a torn retina. It's definitely brought down the physical differences between the two to near, I mean, I would say, that he said equal levels. If somebody brought up Danny Garcia or Lee, no, somebody brought up Spentz, or Crawford's counterpunching to Spence.

And he mentioned Danny Garcia and how he handled Garcia's counterpunching. It feels like there are two different types of counterpunchers, though, right? Like Danny fires off with that left hook and picked up a lot of knockouts at 140. But above 140, Danny has not been the same type of fighter. Crawford, his counterpunches come from everywhere. I mean, it just seems like you have to be on the alert of every angle

he might throw them from. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, Danny's a very tricky counterpuncher. He throws punches with you. He's got a great chin. That's one of the reasons why he was always such a good counterpunch because he doesn't mind getting clipped a little bit if he's going to crack you with his shot, even if you're a bigger puncher. So, yeah, different in that sense where Danny's more punching with you, whereas Crawford will set up the counterpunches. He'll bait you. He'll pull you in, he'll let you reach, and then he'll pull out and he's got those super long reach. He's, you know, he's listed at two inches shorter than Spence, but he has a two inch reach advantage. The guy has extremely long arms related to his height. So he's very much a bait and pull kind of counterpuncher differently than Danny,

who's a punch with you guy. I mean, actually, Danny has a really short reach, which is why he's actually pretty good at punching in the middle. So very, very different types of counterpunches physically and stylistically. Oh, it's going to be great, though. It's going to be great to see that fight. I mean, although it's funny. Like, I see on social media where people are like,

this will settle the argument over who is the number one pound for pound fighter in all of boxing. And I'm thinking to myself, well, right around that time, we've got Stephen Fulton and Oya Inouye, fighting at 122. And the winner of that fight, especially if it's in a way, probably has a pretty good case as well. So unfortunately, nothing will get settled when it comes to the pound-for-pound debate, which is... Well, I don't think anything will ever get settled when it comes to pound-pound-pound, because it's just such a debatable hot topic.

And that's the whole point of why we like it, because we can just go back and forth all day forever, no matter what. Yes, you're either a genius or a moron when it comes to pound-for-pound rankings. That's boxing. Just the way it goes. All right. Let's start with last weekend in New York. Teafima Lopez. It is third fight at 140 pounds taking on Josh Taylor, who was once the undisputed champion

at 140. He had one belt because he vacated the other three. I saw some of the official predictions, Chris, going into that fight. And I didn't see anyone outside of like, yeah, I saw Breadman Edwards, maybe a couple of other people that picked Teofimo Lopez to win. And a lot of that wasn't, it wasn't due to Teofimo's talent, but I think a lot of people were looking at the headspace that, Teofima was in going into that fight.

They saw some of the interviews that he had done, specifically one he did days before the fight with Mark Krigal, where it seemed like he was just all over the place. There was a lot going on in his life, and I figured, and many figured, that would impact him in the ring. Then he goes out and he dominates. Forget the 2115, 113 scorecards. Those were ridiculous. And we're going to get to that in a minute.

Teofimo dominated really from start to finish in that fight. What was your takeaways from watching that Teofima win over Josh Taylor? So I was ringside that night. I was in New York City to watch a fight. I've always been a big Teofo MoFa. I love calling his fights. I've called a lot of his fights for top rank on the international broadcast. And I've been involved in fight weeks with Teo and his family and his career and his team.

And he's like that. And the bigger the stakes for the fight, the more erratic he can be in terms of his emotions and the way and things he says. I remember leading up to the Lomachenko fight, and I'm like, and that was the first time I'd ever seen him really be that kind of manic up and down. I was like, man, this is not a good sign. And then he goes out and he puts on a super discipline performance for 12 rounds against one of the toughest styles you could ever fight in Vasily Lomachenko and gets to win that night.

And he just did it again. I don't think I'm ever going to, you know, doubt Piafamo again. Because I had Taylor close in this fight leading into it. My prediction was Taylor, but I had always said it was kind of a, take him a fight because you never know which guy's going to show up with both of them because both of them have been spectacular and and put up duds before but yeah and i don't think taylor put up a dud i think tayo just put on such a masterful performance he stayed ahead of him all night long um had a great game plan executed perfectly looked good at the weight first time i've seen him look that powerful

and explosive um his gas tank looked really good he's been known to tire in fights before like namely the cambosis fight not this one he was he was explosive in round 12 he almost got a knock down or stoppage in round 12. He looked phenomenal all night long. I'm very excited for him to be at 140 with some of those other names. But yeah, I don't think we can, I don't think we can go based on his mental anymore. I think the kid just thrives in chaos. So when he's up and down, he's got someone really dangerous in front of him. He just knows how to dial it in and stay disciplined because that was what was lacking in the Cambosis fight. And that was not lacking at all on Saturday night. I think part of it too was I was at the fight against Pedro Campa, his first fight at one

And that was okay. He did what he had to do against camp. You were sitting right behind me. Yeah, I do think he got, and you were there too. And I think he got hit maybe a little bit too much in that fight. It made me wonder how he would handle bigger punchers at 140. I was at the Sandor-Martine fight. And look, I've seen enough of San Bernardine to know it's challenging to fight that guy.

There isn't a fighter at 140 that's going to look great going up against Sandra-Martine. But he was knocked down in that fight, at least once, could have been twice. So I don't think he had momentum going into that fight. But something just, a switch was flipped in Teofima Lopez. Stylistically, did you see a different fighter than the guy you saw against Kampa and against Sando Martine? No, because everything he does, he does well.

And even in those fights where he fell short, it's his discipline. It's just his ability to not get frustrated. In the Sandor-Martine fight, because, you know, obviously he's a, he's a frustrating fighter, but also he didn't feel the danger. He wasn't as cautious defensively. Same thing with Pedro Kampa. Like you said, he got hit too much in that fight. Because he wasn't worried.

When he's got a dangerous guy in front of him, like a Josh Taylor, when he's got a Lomachenko, I think he really dials in. He needs to have his back against the wall to perform his best. And especially, like you said, the momentum was not on his side. But he has been busy at 40. He had three fights within a year. Taylor obviously hadn't fought in 16 months and really had fought once in three years. And I think that was the major difference.

Staea Femel just found a groove, fell into it pretty early. And he was smart. He knew enough about Taylor to know that he was dangerous. So we stayed switched on and dialed in all night long. So you're sitting there watching that fight ringside. What is going through your mind when you hear Steve Gray and Joseph Pasquale scored 115, 113 for Lopez? Effectively, he needed Lopez being the 12th round to win that fight,

or it would have been a majority draw? I gave Taylor two rounds. I'm watching his fight. It was a second round. I'm like, oh, man, Taylor found his rhythm. And he finds his rhythm.

He's a, it's a thing of beauty to watch him work. And he just, like I said, he just stayed ahead all night long. He was landing the bigger shots. He was faster. He was more explosive.

He was controlling where the fight was fought in the ring, which is what ring general, generalship is. When Taylor did land, and he did land some big shots. He walked right through them. Theo Fimo was unfazed by any of the clean shots that Taylor landed. And actually,

Taylor was hurt several times, head and body. that were visibly shaken by some of his shots. So I don't know how you could find that many rounds to give to Taylor, but the official judges always do. They always find some way, somehow. I was in the room as well. I don't know what they were seeing.

I hope the New York State Athletic Commission looks hard at that because, I mean, can you imagine, can you imagine? They won't. You're right. Maybe I'm just being optimistic. Could you imagine, though, the, I mean, what would have gone on in that arena if Teofima had taken the 12th round off, which he very easily could. I mean, in his corner, he probably thought, what was it, Benoit Rousseau, who had at 1711,

ringside, I saw Max Kellerman, Mark Kregel. They had about 1810, I think. He could have easily just said, look, I'm going to, you know, be defensive in this 12th round. If he did, you know, Taylor goes home with his belt. Like, it's crazy. Like, it's just, this kind of stuff, it just happens way too often. I want to give credit to Teofimo's dad, too, in this fight. I thought he had a good game plan coming in.

I thought the counterpunching of Teofimo was sharp. The body attacks early from Teofimo were sharp. I mean, my feelings on Teofimo Senior have kind of ebbed and flowed over the last couple of years. I thought he had a great game plan against Lomachenko, but I don't think he's been the best guide in the corner of his son over the last couple of years, specifically with what happened in the Cambosis fight. How much credit do you give Teofimo Senior for how that fight played out? I've always given him credit because, you know, he gets his son in tip-top shape.

He's, you know, he's obviously very, very skilled. His boxing IQ is very high. His ability to pull the trigger on, you know, when he needs to is there. And I agree. The Cambosis was a disaster from top to bottom, from the strategy, from the mindset, from how everything happened, from the, you know, what he was going into the ring in terms of health-wise and being out of the ring all that time because of that whole triller mess and all those different things.

So there was a lot of things going against him that night that I think a lot of people have forgotten about. But listen, that was the worst night he could possibly have. And I think if they fought 100 times, Teo wins 99 of them. It's just one of those things. But no, I give a lot of credit to Senior. I think he does a really good job with his son. He knows him better than anyone, obviously.

And I think he also knows that poking the bear is a good thing. Getting Teo to be uncomfortable so he can feel that, that fight or flight and dial in to be his best. Yeah, I mean, in the two biggest fights of Teafima Lopez's career, Teafimo Senior has put together two game plans that have worked. His game plan against Lomachenko worked. His game plan against Josh Taylor worked. Now, Teafimo had to go out and execute it,

and he deserves the most credit. But, you know, if we're going to beat up on Senior for some of his flaws, some of the issues he's had the last couple of years, he was on point, just like his son, in that fight on Saturday night. After the fight, Teofimo, did not call out any of the big names in the division. He didn't call out anyone. Take a listen. I'm going to be announcing my retirement to the sport of boxing. Blood, sweat and tears I've done for the sport at a young age, at 25 years young.

I believe in the first male, really, to become a two-time on the speed of world champion. I'm very grateful for it. In the four-belt era, yes. Right now, I'm just really really. thinking about, you know, I have a lot of ideas. I have a lot of things in mind for the sport of boxing. I really can't do that if I'm always in the gym, training and preparing for another upcoming fight or about. So I'm really just focusing right now on that task right now. So, Chris, this was met with widespread skepticism, to say the least, the idea that Teofimo is going

to retire. What did you make of his post-fight claims that he was done with the sport? my initial thought was smart very very smart he's got a new marketing and and negotiating chip that he can use now but in hindsight looking back at it especially based on some of the things that he said it was immediately post-fight i've been there post-fight interviews are really hard especially when you have a tough fight and maybe that fight wasn't so tough physically but it was very tough emotionally spiritually mentally i've been in fights with that i had fights where people thought it was very easy i won you know nine out of ten rounds, but I'm emotionally spiritually exhausted because I had to be so dialed in all night long. And he said, he's like, I'm tired, man.

And when I heard him say that and with the way he said it too, I felt there. I was like, yeah, no, I get it. You deserve to be tired. Your training camps are long and hard. That fight was grueling in terms of what you had to do and what you had to prepare him, who you had in front of you. So I think a lot of it was just him as usual wearing his heart on his sleeve and be like, man, I'm not getting paid enough of this.

This is way too much work. This is way too hard. Other guys are getting paid for fighting lesser opponents that I'm fighting these killers. and I'm still getting raked over the coals on the media and whatnot. But then I think in hindsight, he stuck to it because he goes, oh, wait, he saw what I saw and goes, oh, this is a good marketing chip. I can make some more now because I said one of the issues is money. This is going to help we get paid more.

So let's go with it. Well, you're right. It immediately went from, I'm retired, to give me $100 million. So he went rocketing to the top, asking for a nine-figure payday. When he said he made a million dollars, I think top rank would push back on that and say they paid him more than a million dollars, but it still was surprising, you know, I mean, that's a fight that, you know, did almost a million viewers on ESPN. And it was a big time fight, big time promotion. You would expect him to make more money. I don't, look, I don't think he's retired.

I think there's too many big names in the 140-pound division for him to fight. And even if he wants to look down a division for a guy that might come up, look, I wouldn't mind seeing a Cambosos is going to fight Maxi Hughes in July. If Teofimo can't make a big fight with Devin Haney, because Devin Haney is going to have some options, if he can't get a unification fight, either with Regis Progray, Subreal Matias, Roli Romero. Cambosis, too, is kind of marketable. You know, Cambosis is coming off back-to-back loss in Devin Haney, but if he goes out there

and takes care of business against Maxi Hughes, you know the build-up for that fight is going to be pretty interesting. Both those guys really can't stand each other. I think that's a reasonable fight for Teafimo. And if he's on his game, it's probably the least dangerous of the fights for him when you consider what the other options are out there. Yeah. And it's twofold because Cambosa is like, I already beat the guy. So maybe I can do it again.

I can find lightning a ball again. And if he's realistic about his skill set and style matching up with guys like Tank and Shikor Stevenson, and obviously Devon Haney, we've, we've, we've, We've answered that over and over. We've answered that in 24 rounds. So, you know, if he was realistic with how he matches up with those other guys at lightweight, this would be the best fight for him to move up to fight to, to fight Teo again. Teo has a lot to gain by winning that fight and shutting up the haters. And it's probably the most money that Cambosis could make unless he fights those other guys

where he doesn't really, in my book, doesn't really stand a chance. Yeah, I think if you're Cambosis, look, he's fighting for an IBO title in, in July. But he's kind of being lined up for a shot at the IBF version of the 135 pound title, assuming Devin Haney vacates these belts as many people expect. And look, if he gets that title, there's some money in it, but it also is a pathway towards Shakur Stevenson. That's a fight. I think he has no chance of winning. So if you're if you're Cambosis, you probably got to be looking at the financials here and say, look, if you offer me enough money, I'll go up to 140 and fight Teufi Mo Lopez in a rematch. It's got to be about the money at this point for George

Cambososus. This version of Teofimo, like, where do you put in? Like, let's assume Devin Haynes at 140 for his next fight. You've got Regis Prograde there. You've got Subreal Matias there. You've got Ryan Garcia moving up there. Roller Romero has a belt. Like, where do you rank Teafimo right now? This version of them that we saw against Josh Taylor among the guys at 140. So prior to the Cambosis fight, I was super bullish on Teofamo. I thought that he was the most physically gifted and talented of the crew. I also saw that he had a very high boxing IQ, was able to execute his explosion, his boxing ability, his defense, which is very often overlooked because he's been hit in fights, but it's mostly because he just allows it. If he doesn't want to get hit,

like we saw on Saturday night, he really doesn't have to. He is that good. When he's dialed in and at his best, I can see him beating all of those guys. He really is that talented. We just haven't seen that in a number of years. Good thing is, is young. He's very young. And he hasn't, other than the Cambosis fight, he hasn't taken that much damage in his career. He's been in some good fights. He's, he's had a very good roster of guys that he's fought. Even, even the guys that a lot of maybe casuals might not know, like the Nakatani fight. Like, Nakatani was a tough, tough guy. And prior to the multiple stoppages he had since then, it was very, very good. Um, so yeah, I think that that version fares really well, even at 140 with all those guys and even like a 35 founders who were

coming up. Yeah, you know who, you know, it was a big winner in the Teafima fight outside of Teofima and everybody connected to him. I thought Devin Haney had to have been happy after that win. Because now Devin Haney has at least two realistic options for his immediate future. I mean, before the Teofimo Taylor fight, if Taylor had won, I don't think Devin Haney was going to fight Josh Taylor. I just don't think that was in the cards. It wasn't enough money in it for that to happen. But with Tea Fima winning, all of a sudden, Teafema versus Devin Haney, who've got a history,

who talked a lot to each other back when they were both at 135, that's a pretty marketable fight. On the other side, a fight that we're going to talk about in a minute, Regis Pro Gray's there at 140 before the Teofimo stuff. It seemed like a pretty good possibility that Devin Haney could move up, resign with Matchroom, and wind up fighting Regis Pro Gray before the end of the year. These two pathways for Devin Haney. I mean, obviously money's going to talk because Devin Haney is going to look for the biggest payday. But what's the best pathway for him? What's the best option for Devin Haney if he, to borrow a LeBron phrase, takes his talents to 140? Yeah, I think that realistically, if you were to sign with Matchroom, he gets the winner of the Montana Love Kitchens fight.

That makes sense. I like that fight. It's a good entry into 140. It's a good, you know, signing back with Matchroom. And then from there, look for the Progray fight. I think the more time, Progray's 35 years old. He's not getting younger. He is becoming more physical as we're seeing that.

He looked very strong against Lomachenko. And then I think as he moves up and weight 140, he'll be more physical even then. I'm not sure how much power he's going to have and it really was a power puncher. But yeah, I think that's probably the most realistic pathway and that of least resistance. And then it lines up for, you know, listen, the landscape changes so fast. We've already, we're already looking at six, seven, eight months in advance if we're going with the Hitchens love winner versus and then the pro gray fight. So what happens after that, everything could be upside down by then. Yeah, I think, I'm just fascinated by Teofima versus Hamel.

I think that would be a great buildup. I think it's a great style fight, you know, and if you're devaney. I think it's one of the tougher fights for Teo, actually. Yeah. You think he's a tough style. Yeah. Just because of styles. He's a very, I get, I get raked over the coals on a social media all time because I talk about

how, how, how Haney matches up with these guys. And people, just understand, when you have someone who's long, controls the distance, has a great jab, a speed and endurance, and Haynie's got a great gas tank. When you got a guy in front of you like that, if you've never box, you've never been in the ring with a guy like that. I'm telling you, it's a nightmare to fight those kind of guys. Because Haney doesn't care. He'll win by this much every round.

He just doesn't, he'll do enough just to win. Those guys are very difficult to get to. He doesn't like to get hit. He doesn't want to be in the fray. Guys who can control pace like that, very, very difficult style to overcome. And maybe he might not be the most dangerous guy in terms of getting knocked out or getting hurt, but he's a very dangerous guy in terms of winning rounds and winning a fight. Yeah, the only flaw I've ever seen in Devon's game comes when he just,

gets in his head he's a power puncher. Like, Devin is kind of obsessed with power. Like, he wants to be seen as... We all are. As the... It's boxing. Yeah. But he, look, I always said the Antonio Moran win was one of the worst things

going to happen to him. Because now every time I Devin Haney promo comes on, it shows the knockout of Moran, and you have to hear Todd Grisham go, fire in his eyes over and over again. It's, it created a reality that doesn't really exist. Devin Haney's a boxer. He's not a puncher. sure. So if he goes up to 140 and decides he wants to bang a little bit with Teofima Lopez, that could get him into trouble. But he is, I think, one of the most disciplined fighters I see

in boxing today. When his father and whoever his father brings in to work that camp, whether it's Ben Davidson or somebody else, gives him a game plan. He follows it to a T. He cannot be knocked off that game plan. And I think that's one of his best attributes. He's a brilliant boxer, but he follows that game plan right down the middle. So, So if he does that against Devin, against Teufi Malopez, if he does that against Regis Progray, he's going to have a lot of success in this new weight class. Also last weekend, I was ringside in Ontario where Jaime Mungia maintained his undefeated record, but man, he had to work for it in this one.

A super middleweight clash with Sergei Dervenchenko, unsurprisingly, turned into a war with Mungia needing a 12th round knockdown to pull out the victory. Let's start with Mungia. his performance. Were you impressed? Were you, you know, not impressed? What did you think of the way Mungia fought? I was impressed. I mean, he, listen, he's fighting a middleweight. They were both for the campaign at the first time 168 and they were bringing up Derevanchenko. Deravichenko's 37 years old. But Mungia looked, he looked the goods early on and he had to pull it out late. So I was impressed in terms of that. I've not really been that impressed with Mungia at all, you know, in recent years. But he is really young. He is

getting better. This was a step-up fight, even though it was very heavily favored in his favor, because, again, fighting a 37-year-old former true middleweight. But listen, Daravanchinco is one of those guys. He's the tough. I've sparred with Dervinchenko, I've been in camp with them before. He is the toughest rounds of sparring I've ever had. The guy is, he is a very, very difficult guy to deal with. He's physically strong. He's got great endurance. He throws a lot of punches. He's got sneaky power. So I'm not surprised that he was able to spine those holes with Mangea because Mugia because Mugia fights, he's got a style where he leaves a lot of

openings, he throws punches what I call are fat. They're kind of swinging and loopy. He finds, you know, he finds his home, obviously, and he's got, he's got power and endurance. He throws a lot of punches. But yeah, I don't, I don't, I was impressed with Mugia, but I was impressed with Daryvichenko, they can, going back to the well one more time.

He's, he's a hard luck guy. He's always right there with the tip top guys in the world. But, you know, at 37 years old, he's long in the tooth at this point. But, yeah, I think Mungia pulling it out the way he did dropping Daryvichenko to the body. It's pretty impressive. So, I mean, on a whole, great fight.

I was impressed. He had to dig deep. He showed a different layer to what he brings to the table. And he's going to need to have that with these guys, especially at 68. Oh, he's, Dervenchenko is the best 14 and 5 fighter in boxing history. Ever. He just is. Ever.

He makes you work every single time. And look, even though, I don't think that fight was a robbery. It was kind of along the same lines as his previous fights, whether it's Daniel Jacobs or Gennady Gilofkin, where there were enough swing rounds that it could have gone either way, but just a hard luck case with... Yeah, the only fight he wasn't in was Charlo. Yeah, that was a clean.

Every loss, he was absolutely right there. Yeah, no question. Even, you know, the people you know, whether it's Andre Ruggier, Keith Conley, they weren't screaming robbery after that fight. They knew how close it was, and that knocked down in the 12th ultimately made the difference. But that was almost a disaster for Hyman Mungu.

Go back and watch that fifth round. What was that round? Fifth. Fifth, Yeah, I remember watching. Like, if that round goes like three minutes and 15 seconds, I don't know what happens to Jaime Mungia in that fight. And I'd reported early in the fight that Mungia's team asked for late this fight to be changed

from a 12-round fight to a 10-round fight. And that screams that your guy is not in the kind of shape needed to be in a 10-round fight. Now, the irony of it all is that if it was 10 rounds, Daravanchenko would have won a decision. Like, Mungia, it turns out, actually needed those final two rounds, especially the 12th, to win this fight. So if you're Dervenchenko, you're probably waking up Monday morning going, damn, I could have made six figures and won the fight, six extra figures and won the fight. That's got to hurt a little bit. But I understood the strategy at the time.

It made sense to ask for the full 12 rounds. Where I give Mungia credit is how he dug deep. You know, we have not seen that yet from Hyman Mungia. But he did it kind of with Turiano Johnson in the middle stages of that fight where he landed that big uppercut that justifiably stopped the fight. And now he does it here against who I think is easily the best opponent of his career. And he digs deep and gets a stoppage in the 12th round. I don't really know what this means as far as Mungia's place among the top guys at 168. He's obviously done with 160 right now.

But he gets hit an awful lot, Chris. He gets hit. And as you mentioned, Derevanchenko, more of a middleweight, has fought above 160 before, but he's been largely a middleweight for his entire career. As I'm watching that fight unfold, part of me is wondering, like, what happens if he ever winds up in the ring with, like, David Benavides, if he ever gets an opportunity to fight Canelo Alvarez? Like, he's got a good chin, and he never went down in that fight.

But the fifth round was near disaster. there were a couple of moments in the early rounds where he took some big shots. What happens to him at this weight class when he gets hit with clean punches? I mean, I can remember as recently as like a couple of months ago where his team was negotiating a fight with Dmitri Bevel. Like, if that was Dmitri Beavle in the ring with him on Saturday, that wouldn't have made it past the fifth round. That might have made it past the fourth round. So as you kind of like zoom out on Mungia's career, like how does he match up? with those guys at 168 because he's undefeated.

He's marketable. There are about 8,000 people in Ontario on Saturday night. He's probably going to do a decent number in terms of viewership. But how does he match up with some of the guys he's going to have to face at 168? How about a David Morel? Oh, no, I don't want to see that. I mean, the way that kick and pull the trigger and throw tight, short, hard punches. Like I said, about he's got fat punches.

He throws them fat, meaning there's a lot of fat on there wide and there's a lot of openings. And Derevichenko is a very short, tight puncher. again, like you said, not a true 68er. These 68 first, they can pull the trigger and they got power. If they can punch in between those punches, the way that Dervenchenko was doing, and the way most Mugia's opponents have been able to do. And Mugian doesn't have that lights out power. He throws those big looping shots.

He lands them. Yeah, he hurts guys. He was able to get to the body of Dervincenko. But it's not the same kind of crunching power that you can see with some of these guys, like Benavides and David Morel and, you know, Canel Alvarez. yeah, I mean, they're going to have to really go back to a drawing board, work on that, that defensive, that defense part. Because you can't get hit that clean in these weight classes, but these guys have lights out power and one punch to chaos. You know what the fight to make is? And I'm addressing this to the audience, but specifically, I'm addressing this to your boy, Keith Conley, your longtime manager.

Edgar Burlanga against Hyman Mungia. Awesome fight. In September is awesome. Like that is a sold-out crowd in New York, in Southern California, in Vegas. It's incredibly marketable because Berlanga is all personality. Mexico versus Puerto Rico. You name it. It's got a high ceiling, whatever you want to talk about.

I think Mungia would be all for it. I think Golden Boy would be all for it. I'm not convinced Berlanga and his team would be. off for it. What I'm hoping happens, Chris, and we're going to get to this in just a moment, is that Canello picks either Jamal Charlo or Badu Jack for his next fight, which would take the possibility of Berlanga facing Canelo in September off the table. If that's on the table, I understand. That's a lottery ticket for Edgar Berlanga. You've got to pursue that as long as you can. But if Canello chooses another path, I, I, Berlanga, I don't want to see him.

him in against a lesser-tiered 168-pounder because he's trying to buy this time until May of 2023 to maybe get a fight against Canelo Alvarez. I think Berlanga versus Mungia is a coin flip at this point. Both these guys have talent. Both these guys have flaws. Both these guys have power. Like that to me is a natural fight to make. It's a fight I know. I know DeZone would put up money for, they want to see that fight happen. I guess my question is like, do you think Berlanga would do it? Like, do you think, and fighters always want to do it, but it's like, do you think the people around him would view that as too big a risk with what could be on the table in 2024?

I think a lot of it's going to depend on what happens with Quigley next week with Berlanga. If he looks spectacular, they're going to push hard for the Canel fight. If the Canel fight does not materialize, like you said, he ends up going to Batoo Jack, route he goes charlo route i think he's actually going to go the bad to jack route but whatever either that's really that's another conversation um i think that that fight becomes very very good and that that makes a lot of sense because it's a winnable fight for edgar yeah the way they match up and honestly i mean dervichenko could be a sparring partner for edgar to help him prepare to get ready for for mungia it makes a lot of sense that fight and if it makes money it makes dollars it makes sense and

you know i think waiting around like you said for a may fight with Canello that may never materialize, probably not the best idea. So I like, I like what you're thinking, Chris. I like that mentality of getting that Mogiya fight coming to September. It's a massive selling fight. But if the Canella fight doesn't materialize, yeah, I mean, that's the next biggest fight that can happen. Yeah. Look, if he struggles with quickly, it's probably a different conversation.

Everything, everything's off. Everything's off the table. Look, I love Jason quickly. I've admired his career from afar for a long time. but I was there ringside in New Hampshire when Demetrius Andrade walk right through him. And Demetrius Andrade is 160-pounder.

Edgar Berlanga, you know, should look impressive in this fight. And if he gets Canelo, great. More power to him. I don't, it's not, I don't do that as a competitive fight at this point because I think Canelo's on a different level. But if you get offered the fight, you take it.

That's a lottery ticket. Hell, yeah. You take that fight. If it's not, I mean, would be really frustrating to see Berlango walk away from that fight because it's a politically a very easy fight

to put together. And the winner of that fight I mean the winner of that fight would have a mandate or as much of a mandate as anyone outside of David Benavides to fight Canelo Alvarez. Like they would have the popularity. They would have you know, that's not a decision

fight. And if it is, it's like an absolute war over 12 rounds. They would have the bounce that comes with it. I mean, that's, I mean, look, I'm going to be there, you know, with, you know, calling that fight, ringside. And you better believe that's going to come up post-fighted if Burlanga wins, you know, will he take a fight against Jaime Mungia? I just hope it happens. You look at the potential calendar in the fall.

You can't name me three or four fights better in the second half of 2023. That would be better than Berlanga, Jaime Munga. Like, it's just an incredible. Yeah, you make that fight. This year, this year's been going great for fights. We've had an awesome, awesome year. Really, really good year. If we can close halfway as good as we've started, I mean, this is one of the best boxing years in recent memory.

But, yeah, I think we should send this video to Berlangus team with you talking about it because you're selling. You're selling it pretty hard. Well, we'll just hop on our phones here and I'll put you on a group chat with Keith Conley. And we'll send him that note and say, here's our take on all this. A couple of things before I let you go. We got Regis Prograde this weekend in New Orleans. He's going to face Zaria. Zaria, one loss.

Arnold Barbosa, that went to a decision. You've started to look at Zaria a little bit. How much of a threat do you think he is to Regis Probrey? I mean, he can punch. So there's always that. I called the fight against Barbosa with Zaria. You know, he's taken the fight on somewhat short notice. I mean, we'll learn more after fighting meetings in terms of how his camp was what he's

getting ready for in terms of leading into this fight. But he's tall. So he's got that height, that size. And he can legitimately punch. I watched him live knockout Kano, who was. was normally a very durable guy and he iced him early. And it was a scary knockout, actually. So the guy does have real power. He can punch. You know, we saw in the Barbosa fight, he can be outboxed, though. He can be neutralized. But, you know, he's got an opportunity in front of him. He's got a guy

in Progrey. And Progray is super talented out. He's got a good punch. But he's been hit and he gets hit. You know, he's not, he's willing to get in there and get touched a little bit. When you got a guy who's got power is there's always an option or, you know, to have a real fight. But we'll see. I don't really, I don't see him beating ProGre. I think ProGray still has the goods, even in his advanced age. Because, yeah, you know, Progras hasn't been in tough fights in recent years. So I think he's even younger than his chronological age. But yeah, I think it could be, interesting because like I said, the guy does have power. And he's, he's got a good size of the weight class. You were once a title holder in this weight class. What's the fighter opinion of Regis

program? Because the media take is that he has been avoided, that nobody wants to get in with this awkward hard-hitting Southpaw. It's why he was kind of in that boxing wilderness for the last three and a half years. What's your take on the talent level, everything with Regis Progrey? Definitely a talented guy. I think a lot of fighters are going to say he's not going to agree so much with the media in terms of he's the most avoiding guy or something like that. I think he's been really smart as a businessman.

His team has moved him really, really well. He hasn't been in like a major fight against anyone dangerous since Taylor. And he's made a ton of money. So anytime you can make money, fight. being guys that aren't that dangerous. It's a smart move. And I don't, I don't knock you at all.

So, you know, and he's been jumping around from, you know, promotions to promotions and, and all that. But, yeah, no,

I think he's been, he's been moved quite well. He had a really tough upbringing. He had to come up in the ranks and on, on low level shows in New York. And, you know, the talent was there,

but he wasn't, he didn't turn into the, you know, the, the, what's his nickname, the Rougaroo, you know, and until he got a little more shy and for a better opposition.

Once he got into that tournament, then you really saw him step up and, you know, became a world champion and beat some really, really tough guys. And then he got stopped by, stopped in his tracks and got knocked out by Taylor. And it meant a good fight, but Taylor turned out to be the goods as well. But since then, he hasn't really been any real dangerous fights, but he's always performed. And he's always done what he's needed to do with the guys that were in front of him. So there's a lot to say for that, too.

But we got to see him in big fights if we can really say that he is that level of guy, you know, that they're talking about. out in terms of being so avoided. Yeah, and we've, you know, Teafimo, at least theoretically, is out there. We've talked about Devin Haney being out there. The fight I want for Regis's program, though, was Super Real Matias, which is a absolute war in the ring. I mean, and I hope, I hope Matias doesn't price himself out in this situation.

I've heard he wants a lot of money to sign with someone. He's got a title, so that's, you know, his leverage. But he's got a new ticket. Yeah, but he fought just once in 2021. once in 2022. He has one fight in 23 and nothing scheduled. He's 31 years old and these are some prime years for Subriam-Matis. He's got some offers out there. I just hope he takes one sooner rather than later. And we're not talking about him going into 2024, potentially getting a fight. But that against Regis, that is a absolute war. Last thing for you, we talked a little bit about

Canello. It seems like his options have come down to two opponents, or at least there are two leaders in the clubhouse. ESPN reporting that Canello is choosing between Badu Jack, who has a title at Cruiserweight. We've seen Canello flirt with a move up to the cruiserweight division in the past, and Jamal Charlo, who still has, somewhat inexplicably, a middleweight title despite being off for the last two years. What do you think the right fight is for Canello among those two guys? The right fight or the fight that's probably going to happen? Let's go both. The fights is probably going to happen. I think it's the Badu Jack fight. You think, like, tell me about that. Tell me, tell me why you think that's going to happen,

because I'm always skeptical of these Saudi deals until they actually happen. It seems like going back to Pachial like Amir Khan, you know, a decade and a half ago. We're always talking about the Middle East getting into the mix and making big fights happen. They've done that. I mean, Anthony Joshua has fought there. Eddie Hearns made a couple of deals with the Middle East, but I, I'm always skeptical about these deals being closed until they're actually closed. Well, I saw in BaduJack's last fight when he beat the cruiserweight, and I'm watching this, and I tweeted it. I go, Canola beats both these guys. Don't be surprised if Connell moves up, because they're slow.

They're big and they're slow, and they don't have a lot of power. They're not true cruiserweight. Badu Jack's not a true cruiserweight. He's blown up to there, and he's older. And Canella's advantage, though, he's his speed. That's why he's done so well moving up and weight. The guys get slower. They're getting bigger, but everybody's got good enough defense.

He's durable enough. but his speed is the real difference and his ability to pull the trigger. Listen, for legacy, you go up and you get to become a cruiserweight Mexican cruiserweight champion of the world. There's a lot of upside in terms of looking on history books back, you know, in hindsight, right now it's going to get raked over the cold as it should. It's a stupid fight, especially if they make him, if they make Badu Jack sweat down to a lower weight and still have a title, which is absolutely inside. I heard that yesterday, which is mind-blowing to me. I think that's what's going to come down to. I think that's what's going to come down to.

How low will Batu Jack be willing to go? Because I don't think Kenela will fight him. He shouldn't have to come back at all. It's a cruiserweight fight. How are you going to make a catchweight for a title fight? That's insane to me. You can't do that. It takes the legitimacy.

It illegitimidizes that fight. I mean, don't don't even do that. But the Charlo fight, people will be excited for, I think, a little bit, even though Charlo has been so inactive. But it's someone that is dangerous. It's someone that's been talked about for a long time. So I want to see that fight. I really want to see the Benavita's fight.

But obviously that's not really even on the table anymore, unfortunately. I think Benadides is very, very, very talented. And he's going to be around for a long time in these divisions wreaking havoc. I think if Canelo is smart, he should have took that fight and get it early. Because I think there's still a chance to beat him before he really becomes the monster that I think he's going to be. But I mean, do you know, do it every once. Yeah, he can do whatever he wants because wherever he goes, there's $30, $40 million in it for him. Look, he's been, in my mind, any criticism of Canello over the last couple of years but unwarranted because he's fought title holders.

You know, he took the fight with Gennady Golofkin, which is the biggest money fight out there for him. But his kind of indifference to David Benavides is interesting. I mean, if the offer that was coming from PBC is true. And I reported there was around a 40 million guarantee with the possibility via gate and paper views that could get up to $50 million. If that's true, like, do we? Is Canello now open for criticism for not fighting the most marketable fight against the top guy out there? Yeah, especially the fight makes sense. It's a blockbuster.

And if there's money there too, and it's the fight that makes the most sense, I mean, what are we doing here? He just came off fighting a guy that on the global stage, no one really cared about. John Wright is a tough guy. I didn't think it was a great opponent because he's going to be tough. And actually, you can all do better than I expected. But, yeah, you can't. keep treading water. When you're, when you're the face of boxing, you can't take those kind of fights. You have to be in super fights back to back to back. I understand coming off injury,

hand surgery, you fight a John Ryder, cool, get it. But now your next fight has to be massive. And the David Bini Bidiv site makes the most sense and is a massive, massive fight. And especially if the money's right too, what are we doing? There's no excuse. You don't like the guy or you think he's going to beat you. So what, what are we doing? I don't know. I think that fight needs to happen, needs to happen. Otherwise, there should be criticism. Yeah, Benavides aside, will tell you, and this is all one-sided, that, you know, they think that Canello doesn't like how big Benavides gets after the way in, like how much he rehydrates to. And it does feel like in a way Canello's entering kind of the Mayweather stage of his career.

And Mayweather, when he hit his early to mid-30s, started being, he wasn't cherry-pick, because he fought good guys, but he was selective with when and who he fought. And maybe that's what Canello is doing now. Maybe that's what he's looking at, you know, a fight with Jamal Charler. We can make $30, $35 million. Not as much danger as a fight with David Benavides, Badojack. Maybe he can make $60 million. God knows what kind of money's out there for him in that fight.

You can't really fault him for that. If you have a chance, when look, you're already a Hall of Famer. You're the Undisputed champion at 168. your bona fides, your credentials speak for themselves. If you have a chance to cash in on equal or bigger paydays to fight lesser opponents, you're probably going to do it. You're probably going to do it. And I mean, I give credit David Benavides.

It sounds like he's pivoting right to David Morel, which is good for him. Bad ass. I mean, good for him because David Morel has no fan base. He's a tough guy, and you and I know how good he is, but nobody else knows how good he is. and David Benavides seems willing to go out there and fight that guy. So I give Benavides a lot of credit, but it sounds like he's going to have to wait a while before he gets an opportunity to fight Connell. In fact, David Benavitas might decide he's done at 168 because he's a big guy and cutting down weight has got to be challenging for him. Yeah, I don't, if Benavitas doesn't get Canello this year, I don't think he ever gets him.

I just, I think that'll be off the table because he's getting better. He's getting bigger. He's growing into himself in terms of physical maturity. You know, you mentioned that Canello is entering like his Floyd Mayweather stage. You know, I think of like Julio Cesar Chavez senior stage, you know, later on. He still fought the young tough guys. Like he fought Oscar de la Jolla. Like that was like his David Venevita.

You know, he fought him. Listen, he lost. Goal, came back, fought him again, lost again. We don't knock Chavez for that. You know, listen, he fought really a superstar in the making, you know, at the end of your career. Like, we don't knock those guys for taking those chances. Alexis Hargweil losing to, to, um, to, um, um, Oh, my God.

I keep him drawing a blank ground. Alexis Argya. Aaron Pryor, the Hawk. He lost him twice. Do we knock Alexis Uruguayo for that? No. He was in his third weight class, trying to be great, like going for it. You know, later in his career, a higher weight class against, which turned out to be another living legend.

You know, now rest in peace legend. But, yeah, I don't know. Listen, I'm a fighter at heart. And, like, I hate the protecting your owes or protecting your wins. loss, go fight. We don't, in history books don't look back at losses the way that people do now. And I think that's when you're thinking about legacy, take the big fights, make the big fights. You know, if I'm going to lose, lose to the best.

Yeah. Look, if I'm David Benavides, one pathway I'd look at is I'd fight David Morel, I'd beat him, and I'd move up to 175 and fight Dimitri Beevil. Because if you go up and fight Demetri Beaville and find a way to beat him, all of a sudden, you can look at Canelo and be like, well, you wouldn't fight David Morel when. he was a secondary title holder at 168. You couldn't get a deal done to fight a rematch with Bevo and you couldn't beat him the first time.

Well, I'm going to go up and I'm going to beat him. That might be his pathway to getting a Canelo fight, but it doesn't sound like, he just doesn't sound like his interest. I mean, again, we don't know what the numbers really were. We know what Benavis side is saying that they were, but it doesn't sound like that fight's going to happen anytime soon. That's for sure. Chris Algerie can catch him on Wednesday night on ProBox TV.

You'll be down in Florida doing that. and a hop a flight to New Orleans where he's going to be on the call with me for the Regis Progray, Danielito Zaria. Chris, always a pleasure, my man. Thanks for taking the time to join me. Anytime, buddy. Anytime. See you in a couple of days. And when we come back,

my conversation with Regis Progrey. 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 at 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 which I'm 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. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs?

Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to? to do a little kill. Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it.

Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84's big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS. on the table right now.

Thank you for finishing that sentence. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, Regis Progray is the WBC 140 pound champion on Saturday. He will make the first defense of his title.

where he takes on Danielito Zaria. That's a fight you can watch exclusively on DeZone. It is down in New Orleans where Regis is right now. And Regis, you have been all over New Orleans over the last couple of days. You're doing an awful lot of running. I got to tell you that. Following your social media, you're running a lot. What's the deal with that?

Of course, it's a part of training. It's a part of boxing train. That's what we do. Boxes, if you're a boxing, you don't run, that's something wrong with you, you know? So that's just a part of training. You know, the only thing here is just we, you know, We're doing it special events. We're doing with people in New Orleans.

We're downtown. So we run all around downtown, uptown, through a French quarter by Cafe Dumont, on Canal Street, by the casino. We run all these places. But, you know, as a boxer, that's what you do. That's what you do. You run. You are New Orleans born, raised before Hurricane Katrina. What does it mean to you being back in New Orleans?

And when you go on these runs and you're around people in this city, what kind of memories is it bring back? it just it's just give me energy that's the thing all this stuff give me energy like you know like the thing is like all these are my actually my people like you know so it's not it's it's it's a it's a big deal you know to the to new walls and stuff like that but all the people new is a real small city and everybody is kind of connected in some type of way so most likely everybody that's going to be at the smoothie king is connected to me some type of way you know so um it just but you know to answer you a question it just give me energy it gives me um you know i

I just love being around my people and, you know, it gives me, I, you know, focus and it gives me energy to go out there and do what I do. And, and not just energy, but just, um, like, inspiration and motivation to go out there and just have fun. What was life like for you back then kind of growing up in, in the area you grew up in New Orleans? Um, I think typical, well, when I say typical, well, I can't say typical because, um, I guess it's not typical. You know, we grew up on the streets and stuff like that. And when I, I don't want people to say like streets. I don't want people to think bad because typically when you say streets,

people think like bad. Like it was, but it was just kind of normal to us. You know, like how we grew up, how everybody was raised. Like we grew up like wandering around the streets, having fun playing,

like me and all my pies, we play sports. Obviously, we got in trouble, you know, in chasing after the girls, just all that type of stuff. I left when I was,

when I was 16. That's when the storm hit. So, you know, I was already a teenager and having fun. I was in the 11th grade already. So, but yeah, I mean, typically just like the people, the, the lifestyle here in New Orleans is, like, what people say out here is, like, live your time easy.

Like, the only thing you have on this earth is time. So let's do it easy. You know what I'm saying? And that's how it is. They say let the good times roll. And that's really like, like with a lot of people out here, they live by that. Like, you can just feel the culture out here, how people just, they love life. And they, you know, they might not be as successful, but they really enjoy their life.

They have fun every single day of their life, you know. So that's why, you know, I mean, for me, that's why I love the city. That's how we grew up. That's how I was raised. And obviously, you know, I moved to Texas because of boxing. That's literally the only reason. Well, Hurricane Katrina brought me to Texas. But I stayed, I had an option to go back when I was like around 20 or something, like in 20,

and I was like, nah, man, I need to stay because of boxing. And, you know, that was the best decision I ever made because, you know, I'm here right now. If I would have stayed, if I would have came back to New Orleans when I was like around 20 years old, I wouldn't be where I'm young right now. You know, like so I'm glad that I made that decision. And now I get to show people, you know, like you can have, you can have the heart. New Orleans can be in your heart, you know, but if you want to do something special, you might have to move away. And that's exactly what I did. I did something special.

I moved away and now I came back and, you know, and it's like I never left. And even your boxing nickname, Rougaroo, that has its roots in New Orleans, right? Yeah, yeah. It's like a, it's like a, it's like a, it's like a, they said like the boogey man of like Louisiana, the swamps of Louisiana, like a wellwolf bookie man type of thing in the swarst of Louisiana. And that came from, they come from your grandfather. Is that correct? No, actually. So at the time it was my, it was my, it was my dad and my manager, my coach at the time.

And I think I had like four fights. And it was like they needed me a Nick. they needed a nickname for me and they were throwing out all kinds of names and none of them. I didn't like none of them. I was like, man, hell, no, all these names, that's whack, girl. So, anyways, my daddy was like, Rougaroo and like my manager at the time, he was like, that's it. And I was like, I was like, honestly, I'm beyond social, I didn't even know what it was at the time.

I was like, man, what the hell is a Ruber? I don't know what that is. So, you know, there was like, that's it. And, you know, it stuck. And then I had my tent fight, I fought in Houston and I came out with a mask. And, you know, that was my first time ever coming out with a mask. And I came out, like, I always liked to come out with no shirt on. Like, Mike Tyson is my favorite fight.

So I always wanted to come out with no shirt on with the black trunks. And I came out with the black trunks with no shirt with the mask on. And people went crazy. And I was like, all right, that's it. It just stuck with me. All right. What was the backup nickname? What was the one that could have been?

It wasn't. Man, they had, like, Nolan knuckles. They had, my coach was like, I don't know. It was, um, Preston City Crusher. I was like, bro, hell, no, that's lame. Bro, like, nah, we can't do that. My coach was like, rifle, Regis. I was like, bro, no, no, we can't do that, bro.

Nah, that's all. We're not doing that at all. So I'm glad that the Rougu-Roo did it, and the Rook-Roo, it stuck. I'm so calling you Rifle Regis on Saturday. You know that's coming. You were originally scheduled to face Liam Paro in this fight, undefeated fighter from Australia. He had to back out pretty quickly because of an injury.

Now you're facing Zerisier. Zaria, as you've been preparing for this fight, how much, if at all, of an adjustment has that been? The only adjustment is, you know, switch from a left-handed sparring or the right-handed spore. That's the main thing. Obviously, you know, I've been doing it for a long time, so I do have experience. And, you know, you just have to, like, different angles and different punches work on different people. So as a Southpaw, you know, you have to throw your jab a different way. You have to throw your left-hand a different way.

You have through your hooks, different ways. And same thing for the right-hand. It's just different, but, you know, trade had been the same. You know, I've been training all for this. I can't, you know, I never slacked enough like that. So that's all. Just change up the sparring. Zaria has one loss on his resume, and that was to Arnold Barbosa, somebody that you've engaged

with on social media. It was originally possible that you were going to face Barbosa for this fight. Is it in your mind at all entering the ring? Like, look, Barbosa beat him, but I'm going to beat him worse. I'm going to do something a little bit different. Of course, that's definitely in my mind to be, like, it's just like you always competing in boxing. You have to, you know, you're only as good as your last fight.

So for me, I have to go out there and I have to shine. You know, Barbosa beat them. It's like, all right, I got to beat them. You know, I have to beat them worse than Barbosa did. That's just something that you, that's something that I have to do, you know. It's just because everybody will compare you. If I do worse, Barbosa, oh, man, Barbosa's better than you. That's just how it is in boxing store.

I have to go out there and I have to shine even more. You are now a key player in what I think is one of the best divisions, maybe the best division right now, or at least it could be, in all of boxing. We had Taefima Lopez pick up a belt last weekend against Josh Taylor. I know you watched that fight. Were you surprised by how it played out? For sure. Definitely was surprised, for sure.

I mean, I think most of the world was surprised. I thought Josh Taylor was just going to whoop him. and he made Josh Taylor look average. You know, he didn't make him look like the undisputed, the former undisputed champion. So he made him look average. So, I mean, he definitely surprised me for sure. What, when you watched Teo in fight against Taylor,

what was different about him? And we saw him lose the Cambosis, beat Pedro Campa, and then, you know, got knocked down maybe twice by Sandor Martine. Did you see anything different in him in that fight? I just think the styles, I think, yeah, Stiles just make fights and it looked like he definitely was more focused. He know Josh Taylor was, you know, was good and then he had to get back.

He just had to get back to boxing. I think that on some of those, he strayed away from his gameplay. He straight over from who he really was. And, you know, he is like he went back. He went back to his gameplay. He went back to boxing being like a real boxer punching. And, you know, that's what got into success. Yeah, I didn't expect him to do that.

but I did feel like people were over-rating his poor performance against Sando-Martine because Sando-Martine makes everybody look kind of awful. That's just kind of how he fights. He's a tricky, tricky fighter. And, you know, Teo looked more like the guy we saw at 135 than that fighter. Do you think he retires? No, obviously, hell, no. No, no.

You know what, man? He need to come over to Metro and get paid. That's what we need to do. You know, he said he retire. They gave him $1 million for this fight. That is insane. That's like, bro, they feed them breadcrumbs, basically, to the birds. You know, if they give you $1 million for that fight, it's true, man.

Like, they need to pay him with his work. Like, they gave him a million dollars for that. That's just, that's terrible. So I definitely don't think he retires. I think, you know, it's on his mind right now. But, you know, money is always the biggest motivated. So I think that, you know, if he faces me or Devin or Ryan, or, you know, somebody big, he'll come back.

And I know all of those fights are big fights, you know. So I think his next fight will be, you know, his biggest purse he ever got by far. So I think, yeah, I don't think he's a turn. I think that's all bullshit. Yeah, you mentioned Devin Haney, too. And it surprised me the last couple of weeks to see Devin Haney on social media talking about you. I don't know if he's still coming to your fight, but he said he was thinking about it. And you said you'd set him up with some tickets for that fight.

What did you make of, you know, Devin Haney fresh off that win over facility Lomachenko, kind of immediately looking at you potentially for his next fight? That's cool. I mean, I think he has to do something big because, you know, a lot of people, you know, people are saying that Loma really beat him, you know. So it's like he had, Devin has to do something big, basically. He has to, you know, he'll have to fight me. He'll have to either have to fight Shakur.

He'll have to fight Loma rematch. He has to do something because his last fight, you know, people was questioning it. You know, now, is it, is it a robbery? It wasn't a robbery, but it was a close fight. And people are questioning if he really beat Loma or not. So he has to do something big. So is he going to come to 140? Is he going to, you know, I think that for me, I will think that, you know,

if he doesn't come up to one four, obviously I would love that fight. But if he doesn't, he would have to rematch Loma. You got to give him a rematch. If not, you got to go see Shakur. Or you got to go see, you know, Javent. Well, Javent has a situation. But, you know, Shakur is there, too. So he has to do something big next fight because, you know, if he goes out and, you know, fights, you know, or whoever, nobody, then, you know, people just don't, they're going to look at him a certain way.

So, yeah, I think he has to either come up to 140 and fight me. Long marim match, Shakur. You know, Devin has maintained a good relationship with Eddie Hearn, who is now your promoter over at Matchroom. Have you discussed how realistic that might be with Eddie? you know, a matchup with you and Devin Haney? Oh, well, yeah, when I met with Eddie, the first time, he said, yeah, that could be a possibility. You know, he was like, yeah, obviously Devin is at 35. He's still got to take care of business, but after that, you know, he might be coming through 140 and then that could be a fight for me.

So, yeah, that already came out of his mother already. He told me that way before. So I guess he, you know, he already putting those things, he already put those puzzle pieces together. Just speaks it into existence. The last thing I want to ask, Reed, is like, you are, now that are affiliated with matchroom, you've got, you know, the people behind you that you need going into this stage of your career, there are options out there for you. If I give you these three names that are out there, Teafima Lopez, Devin Haney, and Subriel Matias, if you could rank them in order of the guys you'd like to face, how would you rank them? Oh, man, it's, that's, that's good um probably i'll probably want to fight teo first teo definitely teo first teo just he got a

belt at 140 um you know it's a big fight he got a belt at 140 devon too devon is you know he's coming up but he has a big name that'll be big money and then of course um matia's because he has a belt too so if i can get those three that'll be man that'll be perfect Does a rematch with Josh Taylor have any appeal to you anymore now that Taylor's lost to Lopez? Yes, still. I still want it. That's something I still want, honestly. Listen, I still wanted to fight. People, I mean, Bronner just fought the other night. He just fought the other night. And I still wanted to fight Broner, you know, because that's somebody I want to fight for years. Obviously, you know, he didn't look that good, but that's somebody I wanted to fight for years. Josh Taylor is somebody I still want to fight. So, you know, I don't care if he loses 10 more times.

It's somebody I still want to fight. It's just like, I have to get that. You know, same thing with the Verona thing. So, you know, I know people look at it like, oh, he's this, he's that. But that's still somebody that I personally want to fight myself. So, you know, I still, for me, yeah, I definitely still do want to fight, Josh. It's got to be pretty exciting for you at this point. You're beginning with Zaria, but like we just talked about like seven or eight guys.

And, you know, these guys got to fight each other. There's no choice. And that's what you've been calling for since, you know, 2019. You've been looking to get all these guys in the ring. Like, is it an exciting time in your mind to be in this position? It's definitely exciting. You know, it's really, like, it's so excited that I can't let it get to me. That's the thing.

It's really, really excited. I just can't let it creep in my mind because after, you know, I still have to Saturday night. I still have to fight. So after that, then, you know, I think maybe things start creeping in my mind. But right now it's just like, yeah, all those things, out of the, but I still have to stay focused on the task at hand. You know, I still have somebody in front of him. I still have to get past him.

And, you know, for me, I think the fight is going to be harder than most people say just because people say it's going to be easier. That's why. So in me, in my mind, I have to, you know, I have to make it harder to what people say because, you know, people think it's going to be easy fighting. The fight is never easy. So I have to get past that first and then after I can, you know, then I can think about the other stuff. Well, Regis Progray, rifle Regis, the Cresus. city crusher, Ruburu, whatever you want, whatever you want, call him.

He's back on Saturday against Daniel Lito Zaria live on DeZone, the Smoothie King Center, in his hometown of New Orleans. Regis, always good to catch up, man, and we will see you on Saturday night. Yeah, see you Saturday. All right, time now for this week's picks and one big fight this weekend that is down in New Orleans where Regis Progray will defend his 140-pound title against Danielita Zaria. Progray is a big-time favorite in this one. minus 1600 for Regis Progray.

That is not a number you can make a lot of money on. But I'm pretty confident in Regis Progray winning. He's fighting in his hometown. He's relatively sharp, you know, coming off a win over Jose Zapata late last year. So I like Progrey's chances against Daniel Lito Zaria. I do think it's going to be a firefight, though. Zaria's got some real power, and we know Progray has power. And he has it at the highest level.

So if you want to try to make it. a little more money. Go with Regis Progray by knockout or technical knockout that is at minus 380 right now over at Fanduil. Still not great odds, a lot better than the minus 1600. So I'm taking Regis Progray to win and Regis Progray to win by knockout. I'm getting back on track after Teofima Lopez killed me. Help himself, but killed me with the bet last weekend. But Regis Progray to win, Regis Progray to win by knockout. Those are my. picks for the week. That's it for this week's episode.

My thanks to Chris Algeri and Regis Progray for joining the show. As always, subscribe, rate, review this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you download podcasts. And I'll see you next week. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel 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, helps

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