Boxing with Chris MannixBoxing with Chris Mannix - Boxing Boogeymen
Joining Mannix this week is former junior middleweight champion and DAZN broadcaster Sergio Mora. Mannix and Mora discuss a big Tank Davis-Frank Martin fight, David Benavidez's move to 175-pounds, Adrien Broner's loss and why Sergio ranks Subriel Matias as one of the most avoided fighters in boxing. Later, Benavidez joins to talk his move to 175, his feelings towards Canelo, why he thinks he will be even better at light heavyweight and more. ReplyForwardAdd reaction. #Volume #Herd
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We are back boxing with Chris Mannix, part of the Volume Sports podcast Network. On to welcome in everyone that's listening on the podcast Beat. If you are not a subscriber, get over to the box with Chris Mannox Beat. Hit that subscribe button. Make sure you get this pod in your feed. Every single week, We've got a great show for you. This week, I am down in Puerto Rico for the Suprio Mattias Liam Paro one hundred and forty pound title fight. That's a fight you can watch Saturday on his own. I will be on the call for that fight. Sergio Mora, my broadcast partner, he will join me there and he will join me in just a few minutes. Sergio and I get into all the news of the week, from the Tank Davis Frank Martin fight to some of the consternation if you will, that Tank Davis has about the way he's being promoted. We also talk about David Benavitez fighting on that undercard. The latest with Ryan Garcia. We look back on another disappointing performance by Adrian Bronner, and I asked Sergio why on social media this week he named Supril Mattias as one of the top five boogeymen in all of boxing. Kind of a hot take there from Sergio that we unpack here on the show. A little bit later, David Benavidez will join me. Benavidez, of course, the former super middleweight champion, who has given up the pursuit for now at least of a fight against Canelo Alvarez, in favor of chasing one hundred and seventy five pound title. That campaign begins on Saturday against Alexender Vostik. I talked to David about what went into that decision, how he feels about all this Canelo stuff that's out there, and how he thinks his body, his speed, his power are all going to adjust to one hundred and seventy five pounds. Stick around for that great conversation, as always with David Benavidez. Before we get to them, though, I did want to weigh in briefly on the reports that are out there about Saudi Arabia kind of forming a boxing league. Now, this is something that has been in the water supply for several months now. A lot of people in boxing believed that this was ultimately the end goal for Turkey Ala Chic and Saudi Arabian officials to consolidate the boxing promoters, to consolidate the boxing talent and put it all kind of under one umbrella. Obviously, I think it's a good idea if it can happen, because the less entities there are in boxing, the better fights were going to get. Like, there's a reason UFC is as popular as it is. It's because it's effectively a monopoly. It has ninety percent of the market share. It can make big fights whenever it wants to because it's the UFC. I don't know that boxing can ever become the UFC, even with the the Saudi influence and the Saudi money. But bringing Matchroom and Golden Boy and Queensberry and Top Rank and PBC kind of under one umbrella, if they can get it done, it's only gonna benefit boxing overall. I also think one big benefit is you get rid of the sanctioning bodies. I'm sorry, we don't need sanctioning bodies. Sanctioning bodies and their belts do more harm than good, the interim titles, the bad mandatories, the unforced mandatories, all the goofiness. Look in my conversation with Benavetez coming up in a few minutes, one thing I asked him was aren't you a little bit pissed off that the WBC, over the course of almost two years didn't order a mandatory fight between you and Canelo. He might not have taken it, but the WBC should have at least ordered it. But they didn't because like all sanctioning bodies, they create rules and then they don't follow them. So if a new Saudi league can squeeze out the sanctioning bodies and make one belt or two belts or whatever it is, and can eliminate the interim titles, the super champions, the champions in recess, the champions emeritus, whatever the hell else is out there, that is only going to be a benefit for boxing. Streamlining it, making people understand it, making people know who's a title holder who's not. That is big for the sports. So I love that potential as well. Stay locked in on this feed. We're gonna do more on the Saudi impact and what they might be planning a little bit later in this week, and I have another guest on a little bit later in the week to talk about that. But look, it's exciting, there's no question about that. If you can just make these fights between you know, fighters that are currently fighting under rival promoters umbrella, and you can do it without an eighteen month dragout or a three year dragout, and and make them when these guys are in their prime, and then maybe make two or three of these fights. It's only gonna benefit boxing short and long term. So we'll talk more about it for sure a little bit later in the week, but when we come back, I will be joined by my broadcast partner and the former junior middleweight champion of the world, Sergio Moral. So you know what I like about you is that you are transparently ridiculous. Like I saw your tweet this week about how you have been looking forward to this Zone show with Supril Mattias and Liam Paro. You could not give a damn about Suprial Mattias or Liam Paromy.
We called the Paro fight against Montana Love. You're telling me he didn't upset Montana Love, he didn't turn heads, he didn't shock everybody. The kids, likable, he's popular. He's one of these road warriors from Australia. Mattias twenty and oh twenty knockouts, and it just happened to be in the beautiful littery of Puerto Rico.
If this fight was in Minneapolis, Minnesota, you would not have tweeted one word of it. You got to Puerto Rico on Tuesday. The fight's not till Saturday. You got here on Tuesday.
Yeah, but they need me for press conferences. Press conference is Thursday, and the you know, the Zone Boxing show they need they need the Latin snake here. You know, me and Claudia are doing some things in Spanish, so yeah, you know, busy, busy schedule, Manix.
Some people got to work around here.
Sergia the former junior middleweight champion, his own broadcasters here and we are in Puerto Rico. Are we in San Juan? Technically No, we're not technical, just outside.
Saying outside it. Yeah, you can walk there. I was walking the beaches right now.
The super real Matias Liam Paro one hundred and forty pound title fight is on Saturday live on his own. We're gonna get to that and get to a few other things that are happening this weekend, and we'll start, I guess with the big fight in Las Vegas that's also happening on Saturday night. Tak Davis one hundred and thirty five pound champion. He will defend his title against Frank Martin. You know Sergia a couple of years ago, you know, after the Frank Martin Michelle Rivera fight. I would have been really excited about this bye. But Frank Martin's last time out didn't look all that great. There's a lot of complicating factors with Frank Martin right now. He's trained by Derek James, he's promoted by Errol Spence. Derek James Spence are suing each other at the moment. Uh, this just feels like a bad matchup for Frank Martin. But let's just ask you that first. How do you see Davis against Martin?
I mean, stylistically, it's gonna be a difficult fight for Tank Davis looks similar to when Frank when a Tank Davis fought what's that guy's name? The other Dominican Hector Luis Garcia, another South Paul who's a little taller or similar size to Martin. He's gonna look similar to that, where he's gonna have to be patient.
Tank. You know, you can't just go in there.
He's gonna have to respect the power, you know, the size advantage to reach and the skill Frank Martin has is very disciplined, you know, especially behind that jab. And like I said, lefty versus Lefty, you know, it could either be a sloppy fight or a patient, calculated fight.
I think it's gonna be the latter.
But yeah, I just don't think Martin has the the one the resume. I don't think he has a power, and I just don't think he has enough to get the respect of Tank Davis, who will die seckted them slowly, just like you did Garcia, and it.
Should enter on the same time nine ten rounds.
I think the best case scenario is Frank Manin goes a distance, but I just don't see him pulling off a decision.
Yeah. The the best win of Martin's career at this point was the Rivera winning. Before that, he had some good wins. He beat Romero Duno, he beat Jackson Marinez. Then he goes out and is in a prospect versus prospect matchup with Rivert and he completely outclasses and wins wide on all three scorecards. Then you fast forward to July of last year and he fights our time for a tortiani and I'm going to try to say that right Terrible gave him my best shot, but he has kind of a lackluster type performance where he escaped with the a narrow decision. And you know that it's been almost a year now. I know that Tank has been off for just as long, actually longer than Frank Martin. But I just think he's more used to that type of layoff. He's more used to this type of fight. And again, I gotta believe that there's there's something to training with a trainer who is suing your promoter, right like that. The dynamic of that is just a little crazy to me.
Yeah that I can only imagine how that that camp is, you know. But you know, there's always a little havoc in every camp and every team, you know, but you know, we we we fight through that because we've been with each other so long. I mean, the chemistry is not always going to be perfect, and you just got to get past it, you know, and understand that business comes first, uh before friendship and relationships and if you can compartmentalize that, which I think they can.
They've been doing it for a long time.
I mean, Frank Martin has had a success, successful amateur career, successful professional career.
He's the goods.
Now he needs to do it on I don't even want to say the championship level, because I still don't consider Tank a legitimate, you know, one forty or one thirty five champion.
We know the champions are there, but.
He's officially a champion now though he got you know, kind of the email upgrade.
He got the email off he got upgraded. Oh great, Okay, so bacon champion gotcha?
All right?
Like I said, I still don't, but I think he's still but I think he's a star. He's the man to beat and he's the all eyes are on him. He's the number one guy at one thirty five or even one forty, depends what he fights someone forty, but at won thirty five, he's a man. And I can understand why he's getting upset or frustrated at his promoter for the fight not being as big as it should. You know, I totally get it. The promotion has been lacking, the advertisement has been lacking. I mean there's a lot of there's a lot of promoters that are looking right now at Tank Davis, who's a star, a pay per view star, and one of the biggest attractions and punchers in boxing.
They're licking their lips saying, Hey, They're like Shook Knight at the at the source of Wars.
Hey, man, you ain't happy, Come over the death row, Come over here the match from Come over your doss, Golden Boy.
Come.
Promoters are gonna want to suit him, you know, because they want to show him and give him the big stage and roll out the red carpet from for this fight against marn There's no car, there's no attention.
Well, let's talk about you said, Tank is pissed off about the lack of promotion about this body blew off the Grand Arrivals, that sort of ceremonial media event that starts fight week. Does he have a you kind of answer this question, but does he have a point? Like does he have reason to be upset? Like ever since kind of Amazon got into the boxing game, we haven't seen them commit a lot of resources to promoting these events. Now, a lot of times these events get promoted a lot during fight week and I'm sure we'll see kind of a ramp up for it as well. But to his point, there really hasn't been a lot of mainstream interest in this fight. There hasn't been a lot of mainstream boxing coverage of at least not as much as it should be. Look, this is a big card, like, you know, it's Tank, it's Frank Martin, it's David Benavidez. We're gonna get to in a minute taking on Alexander Vostik, Like this is a pretty significant card, even one that's on pay per view. Does he have a point that this should be promoted.
More, and especially on a on a big boxing weekend where we have you know, we have Matias Paro and then across the pond, you know you have uh what is Smith and React Pork React Pork Chris Bill Smith. And it's a it's a rematch, an exciting fight. I watched that yesterday. It's a good fight. I'm glad they're having a rematch to better wait five years later. But uh yeah, so there should be more be more emphasis on everything that Tank is and uh David Benavitez too. I mean, Benavidez isn't gonna sell you know, you have to you have to cross promote, you have to be more than just one one side of the audience. You know, Tank has that East Coast you know audience. David Benavidez has a West Coast audience. I think you gotta you gotta promote to both man the Spanish market, the Mexican the Latino market, the black market, and you know, the everything.
You know.
I think that's where they're going wrong. And yeah, I haven't seen commercial on Amazon. I mean, if you're gonna, if you're gonna have that big of a of a of a partner, you know, to advertise, and they're not doing it.
Kind of a disrespect to the promotion.
So Tank is going to be thirty years old in November, and he's unquestionably a star in this game. He sells out arenas all across the country, he drives pay per views, but his resume remains relatively thin compared to his peers. His biggest win was the knockout against Ryan Garcia, which was more of a big win on a popularity level than it was a notable win. Well, yeah, for a boxer, this Frank Martin fight is fine, but nobody thinks Frank Martin is among the elite at one hundred and thirty five pounds. You've got Chaquarze Stevenson out there, Sergio. He's going to fight July sixth, and that is the last fight of his deal with Top Rank. He's going to be a free agent. If there was ever a time for Tank Davis to fight Chaquore Stephenson, it would be now right. And to me, if that fight's going to happen, it's going to be on Tank Davis to make it. I think Or will make it. I don't think Shakor is going to hold out for every last dollar. I think Chakur knows he's the B side in that fight.
Uh.
If Tank wants it, he can have it. I'm of the opinion that if he gets through this fight unscathed before the end of the year, he's got to get in the ring with Chakor Stevenson.
He's not gonna fight chir Course Stevenson. No one's gonna fight Course Stephenson. He's everything wrong that every He's gonna make everyone look bad. Chakour is gonna keep uh beating the guys that put in front of him, making seven figure, seven figure pay days, and he's gonna do it on his terms. He's not gonna Tank's not gonna fight him, all right, So get that out of your mind.
I think a fight.
That's more makeable if it's at one thirty five is a Williams a paida fight or a rematch with Pitt Bull Cruise or if he moves up to one forty HAINI makes a lot of sense. A rematch with Garcia makes a lot of sense. There's a lot of big promotional uh uh, successful promotions you can make with all those fights I just mentioned. I just thought, think, of course, Stevenson is going to sell on pay per view, sell tickets wherever they put that fight. Of course, Stevenson just one of those guys that is that damn good, that damn talented, but he doesn't put butts in seats.
I think you're wrong. I think a fight with Tank and Chiquor sells out every arena in every major city, exactly.
Like Frank Martin and Tank Davis exactly. As far as the the attention, march.
Court's an Olympic silver medalist. He's been on the big stage for like six years. Now, what are you talking about? It's a much bigger fight.
Than biggest fight Schakour, what's the biggest.
Fight blanking on his resume? Two division title holder?
Though it's point exactly mister sports illustrated. So there you go, there you go, and can you imagine to a casual fan that you're trying to sell that to me?
Jamel Herring was a good win for him.
Good He has good wins. He just doesn't have great wins.
Because nobody will fight him.
Hey, Davis doesn't have great wins either. He has he has, he has a solid resume, but not on a championship level.
But he's a puncher. That's something that Shakour is not.
So when you're knocking out guys, well, you know, it doesn't matter who they put in front of. You're knocking him out. And he's exciting to watch. So Tank is gonna be popular because of the power that that that little ora that he brings at Mike Tyson, you know, mystique.
But he's likable, you know, once he starts smiling, you know. So he's gonna be a star no matter who he fights.
But you have to have a good b side, And like what I just said earlier, when you cross promote with different cultures. That's when it's a big fight. I mean, think about the biggest fights in history. You know, if you go back to like Larry Holmes and when he fought uh, the gentleman Jerry Corey, huge fight.
Corey wasn't on his level.
There was a huge fight Oscar de la Joya Floyd Mayweather, huge fight, two different cultures. You know, Mayweather beat him easily. That's what your That's what I mean. Look at Rocky and Drago for good.
All right, that's not a real fight. Okay, you lose you know what I'm trying to say that, you lose me when you say that, Frank in terms of mainstream appeal, as on the same level as Chakoris. Not Shaquor has done good numbers on ESPN. Chakor is a far more well known commodity than Frank Martin is. If those two got together, they would sell out a building in a hot minute. Maybe it doesn't do a million pay per view buys, but it does, like, yes, it does, if it's promoted properly, of course it does. That is a big fight. That's gonna that's gonna fight that that tank Davis frankly needs like you mentioned Pitbull Cruise, and if I was going to make the most likely options list for Tank after this fight, Pittbull would probably be at the top right like he's he's fighting, hold on, He's fighting on August third. He's gonna defend his title. If he does successfully, there will be buzz for a rematch with Tank at one. It would give chance a Tank a chance to become a real two division world champion. It would sell a lot of tickets because frankly, Pitbull Cruise saws way more tickets than I thought he did, so UH would be up pretty because he.
Brings the Mexican audience.
They'd love to see a little pit pull, aggressive fighter that gave hell to Tank Davis and he always comes to fight. This guy's a power punching a little menace, a record machine. People want to see that. People don't want to see a guy bouncing around the ring.
Wait, so you want to see the rematch between east Side Cruise and Tank Davis more than you want to see Shakrgan's Tank day.
No, no, no, I didn't say that because I'm a boxer.
I'm talking about for the casual fan, Maatics, the casual fan that's gonna pay for the pay per view.
They're not gonna pay for schir Corse Stevenson.
I'm gonna pay for Schirquart Stevenson because I think he's one of the best boxers, pure boxers in boxing, and I think he's one of the most avoided for good reason, because he's that damn skilled. I just don't think skills sells in pay per view, and skills don't put butts in seats because they're not gonna go out there and look for the knockout. That's all I'm saying. Look, I had that type of style, not on the same level as the brilliant Stevenson, but I wasn't a puncher, you know, so I had to make punchers look bad by moving. That's what Stevenson does. The only difference is Stevenson has that Olympic pedigree, that silver medal. He's a champion on the championship level. He can he can turn it on and put it on another gear whenever he wants, but he doesn't, and that's the knock on him. And I just don't think people are gonna want to pay for a guy that can win on three gears only.
I don't know if if top rank is quote not in the way anymore after July sixth, and Shaquur's a free agent. If you're not gonna make that fight now, you're never gonna make it. And that to me is the kind of legacy defining fight that Tank Davis needs. He can make a pile of money fighting anybody wants. But November, he's turning thirty, and is the number of signature wins that he has you can count on a couple of fingers. He does not have even one. I guess the Petraza fight back at one thirty was a good win, but a marquee statement win.
I got a name for you that's going to cross everything that I just mentioned, and it's a legitimate name and threat and champion Tank versus Loman Chankle.
What's the difference between Loma Chanko and Shakur.
Loma's been on the on the bigger thing.
Loma Chanko is a bigger draw than Shakur.
I think he's more and well known. He's been in big he's been in bigger fights.
He's been in bigger fights. Yeah, but I think you're dramatically underestimating, Like the not not that Kor's the most popular guy in boxing, but he's pretty well known at this point.
That's why you couldn't name the Championseues beat.
Well when you're avoided as much as he is. That's why, right, let's move on. Also on this card is David Benavidez, who has given up the pursuit of Canelo Alvarez for now in pursuit of a title. At one seventy five, he'll take on Alexander Vosti. Vostav, of course, known as the former title holder, lost his belt in a fight against Archer better Biev. He's been on the comeback trail a couple of fights into it, and now he takes on David Benavidez ser Jio. David Benavitez is a big guy generally. Do you think his style, his power is going to be the same at one seventy five as it was at one sixty eight.
I think his speed would carry over. I think his size would be uh will be fine. I don't think his power is going to be enough whenever you're dealing with a fighter like better Biev who's knocking out everybody at that wave division. Whenever you're dealing with a with a brilliant mastermind boxer like Bevo, it's not gonna be enough. So the speed's in to carry, the size is in the carry, but the power isn't. So the guys that he's normally you know, beaten down at one sixty eight, he's not going to be able to beat down like that at one seventy five. Benavide is not a one punch knockout artist. He puts you down with speed, and at one sixty eight it's hard to see speed like that. He reminds me of a super middleweight dar O Corals, you know, short shoulders, long arms, and he peppers you in a little in a little square right in front of you, and he goes from up to bottom, you know, and uh and and he just he surprises guys with with that handspeed for as big as he is. So I think he'll be able to compete with everyone else in the top ten at one seventy five. But those guys that I just mentioned, those big dogs, better be of Bevil.
No, I don't think he's ever gonna be able to, you know, knock them guys over.
Why not?
Like I just told you, he doesn't have the size. He doesn't. He's not out Jeb Bevil.
What do you mean does have the size? He's like six foot three like between him.
Be No, he's not, just like you're not six foot three, Okay.
I am six foot three. Between Benavidez and Gilberto Ramirez where the two guys I never fathom get it all the way up, all the way down to one sixty eight. Benavitez is huge, right, He's the Mexican monster. That's in part because he is a big guy. I could never understand how he made one sixty eight as often as he did. In fact, he lost his title once on the scale because he wasn't disciplined enough to make one sixty eight. Going up seven pounds. I think he's only gonna make him better. It's gonna make him less fatigued in these fights because he's not cutting as much weight, and I think he's got plenty of size and plenty of power to do similar damage in that weight class. I don't know how you look at him and say he he's not big enough to meet your people A big guy. No, He's talked about going back down to one sixty eight if Canelo would give him a chance down there. We're not talking about huge, massive super middleweights that Benavitez would be competing against.
BEEVI has the If you look at him in person, you'll see the mass difference, the shoulder sized difference. Benavitez is not a big, a big guy. I don't know what your.
Six foot two box wreck as him listed at six.
I've called one of his fights before I've sized them up.
I've stood next to him many right now, especially when he's making weight, he doesn't look I mean.
I don't shrink in height when you're making When we.
Rehydrate, then he maybe looks a little bit bigger. But he's soft. Even at one sixty eight, at when he's in peak shape, he looks soft. He doesn't have a six pack. He's soft. Can you imagine him going up ten pounds to one seventy five, He's gonna be softer. He's gonna be softer, you know.
So.
No, I just don't think he beats the big dogs, but he competes with the rest.
That's to answer your question.
No, Benavitez won't beat a better bee of or a bevil, but he can maybe pick up a vacant strap if it's released by one of them, two monsters.
I don't understand the not big enough. He's one of the strongest guys, was one of the strongest guys at super middleweight. He won. He's won twenty four of his twenty eight fights by knockout. No, he doesn't have the same kind of one punch knockout power that some of these other guys have. But he beat the but Jesus out of Caleb Plant last year. He beat the daylights a Demetrius Andreid. Last year, he beat two guys that were among the top fighters in that weight class, and he beat them going away. I mean the Caleb Plant fight, that one of those score cards a little bit too close. The Android fight that was, you know, after the first couple of rounds, that was lopsided. I just think he's got more than enough strength, more than enough speed. He's gonna throw a ton of punches when you're in the ring with him, so you're gonna have to compete with that. H Does he have the chin to hold up to a better BF shots. I don't know the answer to that. He has been knocked down before. But we just saw be Ball fight a couple of weeks so I picked up his first knockout in six years. Like his power ain't what it used to be. So I think he's got a great chance. In fact, if better Biev is not able to go in October because of injury reasons, I want Benavitez to step right in there. I want to see Benavitez against Beebel in Saudi Arabia October of this year.
I would love to see that fight.
But him moving up to one seventy five is gonna look similar to when Sula Ramirez moved up to one seventy five. He was knocking everyone out. I won sixty eight, became a champion, but I don't want seventy five.
Well, he did.
His first five fights were decisions. Look it up.
Oh my god, No they weren't.
No, he wasn't knocking him out at want seventy five?
Do you do any prep work for this show? But your memory you don't? Okay, So look it up.
I'm looking it up. Who seventy five?
Uh knocked out Tommy Carpency first?
His first three fights? Did you can knock out?
Actually? He knocked out everybody. Sergia won seventy five. He moved up, he knocks out Tarmy Carpency, knocks out Alfonso Lopez, he knocks out Sullivan Brera, he knocks out Yenesky Gonzales, he knocks out Don mcdominic, Bosel. He goes this, says you with Joe Smith, that cruiserweight, so literally every fight that he had at one seventy five he won by knockout. Do you do any research before you prepare to come on the air? But not Joe Smith at one ninety something, he didn't look. I think, I think you're dead wrong. I think do you think Bettaby has stops Vostik? Yes, but the hell that's a former champion at what's seventy five?
Vot got He got retired because he got beaten down, got one loss, and I got so surprised because he has so much left in the tank. But when you get beaten down like that, you get shell shocked, you know, and then the inactivity you start questioning yourself. So yes, I think he stopped someone like Vastik. I just don't think he can he can hurt or or get the respect or the power with everyone else as far as better be than Bebo, I just don't see it.
You called all of those Zerda Ramira's fights. You were there when he knocked out Dominic Bosel in southern California. You were there when he stopped Unski Gonzalz. How do you do you not remember these things?
Because I have pugilistic dementia and you have a computer.
In front of you, and I don't.
I just look, but I knew he had won those fights by knockout. Anyway, all right, more serious topic. We saw Ryan Garcia get into some trouble this past weekend. He was arrested at a Los Angeles hotel for allegedly vandalizing the hotel room. According to reports, there's about fifteen thousand dollars worth of damage. When Ryan wouldn't pay, he was arrested by the Los Angeles area Police departments. You know, there was a statement that was put out by members of Ryan's legal team that said he was going through some stuff right now, which is the most obvious statement you could possibly make. Your reaction, I guess, to the recent developments with Ryan Garcia.
I think my reaction is just like everyone else were concerned. You know, we're concerned with not only the stability the mental health of Ryan Garcia. But now you know the physical health, you know, because he's drinking a lot, he's doing god knows what else he's doing. You know, he takes prescription medication, he smokes weed. I mean, this is a cry for help, in my opinion, I've been twenty five years old, manx, I want the contender. When I was twenty five years old, and I got seven figures in my bank account. When I was, you know, twenty five years old, I had, you know, the face recognition when I was faced, you know, twenty five, I got the invice of the Playboy Mansion.
I know what it is on a smaller scale, a lot smaller, because I'm nowhere near as Hansome as Ryan.
I'm not even sure it was a smaller scale though, because how many people talk about money back then. Money yes, but twenty million for his fight with Tank, but visibility, visibility yes.
And I was, you know, I was in these in these Playboy Mansion parties. I was, you know, the in Hollywood scenes, I was in Vegas, I was, I was doing all that, man. And it takes its toll on you because you got everyone telling you how great you are and no one telling you how real you are, you know, keeping you grounded, because even the team that's supposed to keep you grounding, they're, you know, writing your coattails and the gravy train with you. They're they're experiencing that life as well. So they're not gonna tell you, hey, man, let's go to that Playboy mentioned party, but you gotta wake up in the morning and train. It's not like that, man. So Ryan Garcia has the wrong people in his corner, even his father.
Man.
I mean, I hate to say it, but his father seems like a cheerleader as well. So I just think he really needs an honest voice. And it's not gonna be his family. Who is it gonna be a therapist, a medical doctor.
He has to get the respect.
Out of somebody that's been through there, been there, done that, and tell him. Tell him, look, man, you're gonna lose it all. You will lose it all, not only because you know you'll lose it inside the ring, you'll lose it outside of the.
Ring in legal, you know, in the legal, hiring lawyers and stuff like that.
Gambling, you know, you see him on his Instagram gambling twenty thousand and a hand.
That is ridiculous. Who are you to be doing that? It's gonna go fast.
You will to do two thousands the tax man, I.
Lost a thousand yesterday. Did you know there's a casino here.
Yes, it's called the Sheridan Casino.
I lost.
I'm down eight hundred man, so yes, but that's neither here or there. I need to redulky and go back tonight. But yeah, man, I've been there with Ryan Garcia on a smaller scale. And but I had people like my brothers, you know, I had people like my my, my coach John to get in my here coach Dean, and you know they they will have a little bit of fun with me. But it's like, all right, man, you got to get to work now. Hey, you're getting carried away now. Hey man, you only got seven weeks to prepare. Hey, you better be you know, you got to put some some fear into him and and and and Ryan Garcia talks about the fear of God, but then he lives another lifestyle. So it's hypocritical and people don't like that.
Man. His own fans.
Are are are are are turning against him because if you're gonna be holier, then now you're gonna act like it, man, you're gonna act like it. So he has the world and the palm of his hand, and it's slipping away with the decisions he's making, and it will cost him and not not maybe it will cost him, and it's costing him already.
I think he needs to step away from boxing for a while, and he's probably going to be forced away from boxing in the next couple of weeks and months. I was in New York this past weekend for the Top Rank show Xander Zias Shushu Carrington, and while I was there, I was talking to some people that are in and around the New York State Athletic Commission, and there's a pretty strong consensus that at a bare minimum, the result of the Haini fight is going to get overturned to a no contest and Ryan Garcia will be slapped with a six month suspension. That's the bare minimum. I think there's a decent chance it could be longer than a six month suspension. I don't think it's going to be a disqualification, that's what a Han's team is pushing for, but I think it will be overturned to a no contest. Look, Sergio, we were around Ryan Garcia in twenty twenty one when he had to step away from the game because of mental health issues, Like we didn't even see that it happened in real time. That was stuff that was happening with Ryan Garcia privately. Right now, he just seems like a guy that is completely unraveling. And when you see him as active as he is on social media, constantly pushing tweets out there, sometimes these tweets make absolutely no sense. You just want you wonder like where does this end? Like where does when does the crash really come? And you're seeing some small crashes right like you're seeing little things happen like this arrest, Like does there have to be something bigger? And look, I know I know that Ryan is going through some other stuff in his personal life. His mom, Lisa, was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. We obviously hope for the best with her, but that that's got a weigh on him as well. He's got some personal stuff as well in his own life life with his ex wife. There's just a lot going on with Ryan Garcia right now. But before he even thinks about getting in the ring, putting past, like when he's allowed to get back in the ring before he thinks about getting back in the ring. He's got to get his mind right. He has got to get his focus back, or else this could end with something a lot worse than an arrest.
You know, Man, the Greeks you used to say, I think it was Aristotle. I don't know if he was Greek, but they used to say, if you want to punish him, man, make his dreams come true.
You know.
So for Ryan Garcia, all his dreams came true. You know, he fought the biggest fights. He made a boatload of money. His face is plastered everywhere. Everyone knows his name. He's super popular on social media. But it's a gift and a curse, and it's turning against him now. So everything that made him, you know, as popular and as rich as he is now it's turning against him. So you live by social media, you're gonna die by social media. And this kid is not How can I say this without being disrespectful. You could tell he's a smart kid, he just doesn't articulate his intelligence. Well, you could tell that he's gifted. You could tell that he's talented, but he has he's emotionally immature. I think that's what's happening here, and he needs to grow up and he needs a solid figure that he respects and a voice that just slaps some sense into him, because it's gonna end bad, man, It's gonna end bad.
It could end up in a way like the next guy I want to talk about. That's Adrian Broner, who we saw this past weekend on a low level Don King's show in southern California going up against Blair Cobbs. I don't want to disrespect the show was actually like the show going into it. I mean Michael Hunter against cash Is Chaney. I was at in that big win by Michael Hunter, right yeah, and then you have Blair Cobbs against Adrian bron Or. Adrian Broner gets knocked down in the second round, lose a tooth when he gets knocked down, which I haven't seen too often before, and loses once again. You know, it was kind of a typical Adrian Broner fight where he didn't let his hands go and that ultimately cost him. Like all of his losses over the last few years and even some of his wins have been as a result of him not being willing to let his hands go sir, do I watch that fight and look, he made the weight at one forty seven. It didn't look like he was in good shape. He didn't anything like the Adrian Broner we saw fighting at what one thirty, one thirty five, one forty and even when he won a belt at one forty seven. I said a couple of weeks ago before that fight that if Broner lost to Blair Cobbs, then that would be the end for Adrian Broner. He's been on social media saying it's not over, I'll be back. But he's thirty four years old, Sergio. And if you can't beat Blair Cobbs at thirty four years old at welterweight, I don't know who you're beating. And he's never shown the kind of discipline you need to succeed at the highest level. So a lot do you feel any any any differently? Is this is this? And should this be the end for Adrian Broner?
Uh, it's not gonna be the end because he needs money, so he's gonna be one of these uh, these tragic you know, boxing figures that made a lot of money, and Adrian Broner did make a lot of money without him, and and and you know in fights where he got overpaid and he got accustomed to that money. He thought he was always gonna be rolling in and then you know, his his his his baby, mama's came asking for money, child support, legal issues, alcohol and drugs, and and and spending money and and buying everything. Think it's never gonna run out, And he ran out. So he's gonna be fighting again, You'll see. And the thing about Adrian Broner is that he's not getting knocked out. Chris Man, He's never been knocked out. He's got a so and he's always in a fight. So no matter if he's fighting Bakyaw or Mikey Garcia or Madonna, the guy could take a while up, he could take a punch, He's gonna keep coming.
So watching Blair Cobs put him down like that in the second.
Round was because he's already thirty four and it passed his good good days. But he still has the name, he still talks a lot of shit. He can still market himself. But he's gonna he's gonna keep fighting because he needs money. It ain't gonna be a big name, it's gonna be another small show.
Probably on Don King.
You know, Don King will give him another slot and he'll probably be against another Blair Cops type opponent, maybe an Alexis Roacher or something like that.
You know somewhere, someone.
That's probably gonna beat him again. Adrian Berner, it's sad man what happened to him? Because you know he had all the talent, but he's lazy.
So what's drilled down on that? Adrian Broner is a four division world champion. You can never take that away from him. That is on his resume forever. But if you examine his resume, it's not as impressive as it ultimately looks. You look at some of the wins he had in world title fights. Twenty eleven, he beats Vicente Rodriguez, that was a very average fighter. Twenty twelve, he beats Antonio DeMarco. That was a good win, one hundred and thirty five pounds. That might be the best win of Adrian Broner's career. Twenty thirteen, he goes up to one forty seven fights. Pauli Malanaji gets a split decision win there. Polly towards the end at that point of his career not really a welterweight either, but you give him credit for winning that fight. And then twenty fifteen he gets a piece of the one hundred and forty pound crown, a vacant belt when he beats Kabib Akaverdev in a fight in Cincinnati, Ohio's hometown. So he's got the four titles. And he beat Ashley Theofan as well after that. So he's got four division titles, but none of them came against Marquis guys, and really only one was super impressive, that was the DeMarco win. So you talk about his skill set like, was he ever really good or was he the most carefully and well matched fighter of the algame and era?
No, Adrian Broner was damn good. He was damn good. He just wasn't great. He came short against great fighters. He was exciting, he talked a smack, he had a good backing. I mean, look, even in his last fight, Rick Ross Is, you know, walking him out to the ring. So he's still popular even at this stage of his career. You know, so he's a bad guy. People are gonna pay for the bad guy, you know that, and the bad guys always gonna come up short. But people are gonna want to pay to see that. Adrian Broner has never stylistically as a boxer. Watching him, he's just lazy man. He just doesn't move his feet. He thinks he can avoid every shot with his upper body doing that shoulder roll, and he doesn't punch enough. So that's why he gets outworked by all these fighters, even fighters like Malonaje. We talked about Malonaji. Malonaji is tough as nails. He could take a big punch. He's been in there with some great fighters, and malon Naji was giving him issues.
You know.
So Adrian Broner on the elite level wasn't great, nowhere near it, but on a smaller scale against so smaller champions, and he's a champion. I mean, he's always gonna be down in history as a champion. And is he the worst four division champion in boxing? Probably, but he's still a four division champion, right, so you still got to put some some kind of respect on those accolades. But yeah, if you dissect it, it's disappointing. Adrian Broner could have been a lot more, a lot more if he was just have more discipline and.
More hunger well, discipline's the keyword, right, Like he was never a disciplined guy outside the ring. He didn't take his craft as seriously as he should and ultimately cost him. You mentioned some of those step up fights, Like when he fought in these step up fights, more often than not, he lost pretty wide. I mean, he got beat badly by Marcos Madonna, he got beat clean by Sean Porter, he got beat pretty wide by Mikey Garcia. Manny Pacquiao beat him pretty wide. Now after the fact, just like he did with Blair Cobbs, Berner was like, I did lose that fight. No way, I lost that fight. But it's pretty clear to everybody that he did. He lost all those fights, and it was largely due to a lack of punch out butts. He's winless in four of his last six fights. If you could point to the same exact thing, every single time he does let his hands go. Maybe that's because he doesn't want to get hit anymore. Maybe he never did. But you know, when you're not willing to throw punches at an elite level, you're not gonna beat any of these top tier guys. So I look, I think there was talent there, No doubt about it, but I do think the matchmaking for him was brilliant. He was put in with the exact right type of guys that he could beat, and every time he stepped up, it generally speaking, didn't go his way. All right, last thing for you, we are in Puerto Rico and we've got a big show this weekend. I saw you, Sergio Mora on Twitter, just burping out another terrible take. You said Boxing's five boogeymen in a way agreed better beev sure, Benavitez just trashed him, but okay, Jana Beek not so much. And super Il Mattias as one of Boxing's by boogeyman. You had eighty replies to that, most of them telling you you're an idiot and that you should put other people in that list. Why do you put super al Matias on your list of boogeymen?
Because Mattias is knocking out everyone they put it from in front of him. He's one of the handful of guys that has one hundred percent knockout ratio, all right, So that's scary power, all right, when you're knocking out everybody that's one two.
He's a world champion now.
He's he's he's NonStop aggression. He's always looking to beat you down. And the main thing why I say the word boogeyman is because his last five opponents there were winners. They were undefeated guys, you know, so there were guys that are want to Yeah, so there were winners, and he beat them down. He made them I don't want to say quit, submit. He made them submit either the corner stopped it, the referee stopped it, the doctor stopped it, or the look in his eyes were pleading for someone to stop it. This dude's a monster, all right. Subrel Matthias is a fucking monster. He belongs in the boogeyman list. Now I'm not talking about greatness and pound four pound level championship like like Terrence Cross, you know a boogeyman type. No, Crawford is pound for pound number one. He's no boogeyman because everyone wants that paycheck. Cannelo is you know a paycheck. All these guys are names. I'm talking about the lack of name, the lack of marketability and popularity and all the power and dangerous skill they bring to the table. That's a boogeyman. Where it's a lot more risk than reward, and no one wants to mention your name. And even though you're a champion. That's why I put Janabik there. He's a unified champion. Yet fighters who are looking to become champion don't mention his name. That's a boogeyman. But Matias is gonna be on the same page, watch and learn if he gets past Paro, which is gonna be a tough fight, by the way, But if he does get past Paro, Mattias and a loaded division with a lot of loaded names, people are gonna not mention his name for good reason. Boogieyman and uh Benevite is Mexican monster.
Mike Tyson named them that. You're telling me that Mike Tyson wasn't Boogeyman in his day.
Absolutely Boogeyman recognized Boogeyman, all right.
So I don't know what it is.
Anytime you put a list out there, and you know that's more than anybody, people are gonna shit on it because they have their don't take that's my list and I'm sticking to.
It, Okay, But you look at your list of the five Boogieman In a way, undefeated better bev undefeated, Benevetez undefeated, janebec undefeated. Mattias not a defeated. He was out boxed and knocked down. I know you've watched that fight. At this point, you've been doing your prep for the show.
Uh.
When Petrosananian is out boxing you and putting you down, doesn't that take some of the shine off you?
He never went down. The Ropes album up one and.
Two, which is the same. It's a knockdown.
He didn't go down.
It's a countdown. Well incorrect the words Chris Mann stop, it's a knight. It's considered a knocked down. He didn't go down.
Think so Ticeon Fury didn't go down either, Apples and Orange.
This guy, he never went down, just like Jakelmatta never put me down.
Ray.
Yeah. So these are these are.
Names I'm sticking sticking by because their champions are doing on the championship level. Man, And and if people aren't gonna mention your name, they want that title shot.
What the hell? What? What what are we doing here? What are we doing here? Not fighting for a championship? And it's there for you.
Jenna Beck is calling all these fighters and no one's looking this way, Mattias is gonna be in the same boat.
Uh okay, But talk to me about talk to me about the Ananion fight then, because that stands out. Look, he avenged that loss then was back.
He avenged it. He made him quit, he made him, he made him resign.
But did that fight expose anything in Matias to you?
Well, I can't wait to talk in the fighter meetings. But I was going through some old interviews on Matias and he was saying he was on vacation when he got that call, smoking weed.
Okay, so he was.
He was living anyway, so he was enjoying his life outside of boxing when he got the call, and then he had a five or six week camp.
So yeah, everybody always say that though, like every time somebody loses, and how many fighter means have you've been in with guys where it's like, what happened in that last fight? All I got out three weeks? Notice I was out of shap blah blah blah. Like I hear that all the time, and I almost never believe it. It neither to you. By the way, I don't think you really talking about.
I've been part of it. Yes, of course, I believe.
It, but he's as a viable excuse. I bet he's won some fights where if he would have came.
Back, if he would have came back and struggled in the rematch, and Utter said, but he did not because he took it serious, and he took this guy serious.
So no, I believe everything he says.
And I can't wait to watch this guy fight in person because every time I do watch his fights and commentaries, like hear his shots. I love hearing that when a boxer normally it's a it's it's a champion. Andalys saying you could hear the thud and his punches. That's a scary part. You know, the punches all sound different. No heaviness sounds like a thud. Man, it hits you anywhere. And that's what I can't wait to hear and see from this killer in Matias man and and and look, Paulo is not gonna stand in front of him, so Matia's gonna have to show.
More than in front of him.
He's not. He's not. Paul's gonna give him a difficult fight.
That's this is gonna be a difficult fight, and it might be a close fight until it's not because I I just think if if Paul comes to win, which he is, he's probably gonna get stopped late. But I won't be surprised if Parlo takes some early rounds and make it really difficult for Matias to have to come back from behind to do something special.
The Ergashev fight was really impressive because Ergushev came into that fight undefeated, and I know I still have the text messages. You thought Ergyshev was gonna win after the first round. You thought Ergasrhev was gonna rock and roll right through super heal Matias. But one thing, like Mattias, it was almost a Mohammed Ali type ropodope right like he was just letting Ergashev unload everything he had over the first two rounds, and then he picked up the pace and beat him down. Look. I don't like to use the word quit either often with fighters, but you could see the look of nomas on the face of Ergashev in the corner after what that fifth or sixth round when he finally said no, That was him basically saying I don't want to do this anymore. This guy's too strong, too tough, hits too hard. I threw everything at him and I couldn't knock him out. And that was an undefeated, heavy handed one hundred and forty pounder. Parter was gonna have some kind of game bet, have some kind of good tactical game plan here, because you're not gonna be able to hurt Matias. I'm gonna be able to knock out Matias. You better have a game plan to win, you know, win seven of the twelve rounds on the scorecards, because otherwise it could be a short night for you.
No, he's gonna have to he's gonna have to move. Man, if he stands in front of him, it's gonna be He's gonna be bad news. Because Matias doesn't have to hit you solid, like he proved in his last couple of fights. You know, he can glaze you, glance you with the shot and you're gonna get rock You're gonna get hurt, and it keeps you hurt because he has you know, he throws eighty punches around and those are power punches. That's a boogeyman if I had never seen one man, I mean, and he has that tall, lanky body power, you know, kind of like you know, uh, you know, like I'm not gonna say Thomas Hearns, but like a Kelly Pavlick, you know, tall, long arms, lanky, skinny, but he has that power. You know, it's a scary power. I Felix Trinidad is fellow Puerto Rican, you know, a skinny, skinny fighter. You know, he didn't look intimidating, he didn't look too muscular. He was knocking everyone's lights out. So yeah, mixed between Trinidad and pablic is what I see when when I see uh Matias. But it's high praise. Still needs to do it against the big names. But for right now, twenty and oh twenty knockouts and he overcame his first defeat by knockout.
Hey, he's a good.
This is an IBF title fights, which means there's a second day weigh in for both Mattias and Power or the IBF right now the only sanctioning body that does second day weig This has been a source of controversy Sergio for weeks and months now is we talk more and more about weight and rehydration as a fighter, How do you feel about the second day weigh in?
I don't like it.
I fought for the IBF title when I thought Daniel Jacobs and I hated it.
You always have it in the back of your mind.
You can't just eat and drink and be at peace after weighing because you're thinking about, Okay, I had two glasses of gettorad. Now you gotta go to the scale. I'm gonna go eat my meal. You gotta go to the scale. I gotta go walk off my food. Go to the scale. It's a pain in the ass because you're gonna go over ten pounds. Every fighter in this IBF weigh in the rehydration, they go over the pounds. Now they just have to taper themselves before they go to sleep. So if they're like eleven pounds over good, eleven and a half good, maybe even twelve, you're good because that's gonna be waterweight. You already made the weight. So those two pounds are gonna be hard to come off. But it's still a pain in the ass. They have to get up and be worried about the damn weight.
You already made weight. It shouldn't be. It's a terrible, terrible thing. Some people like it.
I personally, isn't the counterpoint to that like, if you rehydrate more than ten pounds and twenty four hours, you shouldn't be fighting it that weight anyway.
Nonsense.
My skinny ass always rehydrated to eleven to twelve pounds when I was in my greatest shape, So no, that's nonsense, man. And what was I put in the weight? You can even tell when I gained the weight or rehydrated up.
In no world is it healthy to gain more than ten pounds in a day. Like.
That's not a hit water weight, man, it's waterweight. You don't understand when you when you're cutting weight, it's all liquid. It's not food.
We've got burger king weight.
That's that's different. But see liquid weight.
Man, you can lose four pounds in one hour when you're when you're hydrated. When you're dehydrated and cutting weight and you're you're doing it the wrong way, you can't even lose one pound. But when you're when you're full of when you're full of energy and water and you're in good shape. Believe me, man, three pounds is nothing to lose.
It it's pretty easy.
You can ask any boxers so that that ten pound weigh and I hate it because it just doesn't let you focus on the task in hand.
Which is the fight that you're going to have.
You're still thinking about that damn weight the scale the following day, so you're worried about the scale, and you're worried about your opponent, and you're worried about losing a chance to win a belt. It's too much, too much stress going into a fight.
All right.
Last thing for you. I made appearance this week on Bill Simmons podcast and he had some words for you on this show. I want you to take a listen.
What do you want to plug boy podcasts?
It's illustrated What's illustrated Boxing with Chris Mannix where this kind of conversation Bill, you get every single week on the pod with me and Sergio Mora.
Mostly to Sergio could sell your jokes like twenty percent better. I'm leaving this in the pod. Hey, Sergio, Sergio be a better teammate sometimes I don't know. Somebody's got to say it right, Come on, Sergio. It's a give and take business, all right. Chris Mag's good to see you.
So we've got a show on Saturday. Sergio, are you going to lighten up and roll with the jokes a little more.
I roll with punches. I don't roll with jokes. Chris Mannix, you come at me, I'm coming at you twice as hard.
Go back to the beach and when we come back. My conversation with David Benavitez. All right, David Benavidez, two time super middleweight champion. On Saturday, he will move up to light heavyweight take on oligend to Vaste because he campaigns for new belts in a new weight class. So, David, is it is it kind of bittersweet to be moving up to one seventy five and you accomplished a lot at one sixty eight two times, you know, champion, nobody took the belts off you. But you know you're moving up to one seventy five without getting that one big fight you were looking for.
Yes, I guess you could say that. Like I said, I'm not gonna wait for anybody to make any fight happen. I've been waiting long enough. It's been three years, and this has been a fight that everybody's want been, the whole world of boxing wants to see. So since we couldn't make that happen, we're doing the next best team going up to one seventy five and campaigning there.
So you're a big guy anyway. But has it been nice this week not having to worry about those extra seven pounds? No?
Yeah, definitely.
This has probably been the most favorite thing about my about my camp so far, that I'm going to lose the extra seven pounds and I feel great, man, I feel strong, fast, and ready to rock and roll this Saturday.
So take me through kind of this decision to move up to one seventy five at Deface Bostic beat Android. Last year, you had a Fighter of the Year, had a campaign with two big wins in your weight class. What got you to this point that you made the decision to move up.
Just basically frustration, just you know, a fight that I was promised that was going to happen that never happened, you know, just me. And it's not like me asking for something to night and earn. I rightfully earned it, you know. I fought for the interim title, fought two great fighters at one sixty eight, and it was just it just looked like it, you know, the fight wasn't gonna happen, and it showed a Canelo show that there was no interest for him making a fight. So, like I said, I don't want to worry about one fighter too much, So I went to go and make my own lane. And that one seventy five, I feel great, I feel strong, and I definitely do feel like I could take over the whole weight class.
That win over Android was definitive. That was an undefeated former title holder at one sixty and you beat him comprehensively. Did you believe after that kind of win that you were going to get that Canelo fight?
I felt like it was gonna happen because you know, you got two great performances back to back. Why wouldn't it happen, and especially if people want to see it, you know, I thought it was gonna happen. But like I said, Cornelo has his own agendas. He wants to do his own things and you know, get suffice that he wants to get. So I'm not gonna be waiting for another fighter. And like I said, now we're here find out one seventy five, and this is gonna put me in the spot to fight, you know, for the world titles.
That won seventy five, all of them.
So I'm I me know, I really don't feel like I lose anything, I feel like, you know, I even I gain more experiences coming up to one seventy five. This is a weight class I've been wanting to fight out for a long long time, and I feel like this is going to be the best half of my career at this weight class.
We just saw the IBF order Canelo to face William Skull, who no boxing fan could pick out of a lineup. You're a two time WBC one hundred and sixty eight pound title holder. Is there any frustration on your part that the WBC didn't do what the IBF did and order you as is mandatory.
Yeah, definitely, because they should have been in the would have been ordered to have mandate it. I see a lot of people saying that why didn't I activate my my I forgot what that phrase is called.
Why didn't I activate my number one contender spot? You know? But I didn't think like I had to do that. I had. I didn't feel like I had to do a press conference to say.
You know what, I'm gonna activate my number one spot and now it's gonna be time for me to fight for the title. I thought, once you win the title eliminator and the WBC in from title.
I think they just I thought they just gave it to you automatically.
But since this is not happening with the WBC, you know, at least the IVF is doing something right.
Yeah.
I don't think there's a button you push that activates your your number one contender status. Did I'm just curious. Did you ever get an explanation? I mean, you are a Mexican American fighter. At Canelo Benavidez fight is one of the biggest fights that can be made in boxing. The WBC could have played a role in that. Did you ever get an explanation, whether it's from Mauricio or somebody else, about why they didn't push that button?
To be honest with you, I didn't. I never got any explanation from nobody. And but like I said, I'm not gonna you know, I'm not gonna right about anything now this time. I'm at one seventy five and I feel it strong here. There's a lot of great fights to be made here. We're just ready to keep it going.
Yeah, and to your credit, David, you never do cry or wait around. I mean, you beat Caleb Plant last year. I think you'd take on Demetrius Andrea, a guy that nobody wanted to face. So you you talk to talk about keeping it moving, and then you you walk the walk. But as we're as we're kind of here now, as you're out of one hundred and sixty eight pound weight class, is it a surprise to you that we have not gotten that fight two years ago when you were kind of banging on the doorstep, did you believe then that eventually it would have happened.
Yeah, I definitely thought it was going to happen at some point, and I still believe it may It may still happen at some point. I just feel like it's too big of a table, too big of a fight to leave on the table like that. And like I said, I just feel like Canelos getting the easier fights. He's picking off the easier fights one by one and then he's waiting for the big fight. As when this fight is going to happen.
I don't know when is going to happen, But I definitely do believe in my heart is going to happen one hundred percent. I just don't know when.
Now, do you believe as I do that when Canelo's out there saying I want one hundred million, one hundred and fifty million, two hundred million. He's talking to one guy, David. He's talking to one guy, and that's the guy over there running boxing in Saudi Arabia, Turkey ala Chik. Do you do you believe that? Do you believe he's sending a message that if a boxing powerbroker like Turkey ala Chik wants to see that fight, he's got to come to the table with a pile of money.
I definitely do feel like that's what he's doing, is throwing his price out there. But also, like another thing that people don't talk about, you know, Canelos actually thank me because I don't see him asking those numbers for anybody else around. I'm not seeing him asking that for Terrence Crawford, Dmitri Beebl, Edgar Berlanga, anybody, you know, if anybody his last fight, well, he made thirty million, and I'm not saying nothing about that. That's a lot of money. But he's not asking hundred and fifty two hundred million like he is for me. So as for him saying that I bring nothing to the table, that's a whole lie.
You know.
That's why he's asking those big numbers for me because he knows this is a big fight.
No, no question, you bring the most to the table of anybody at one sixty eight, even at one seventy five. I mean we've seen Canelo versus Beebel. Your numbers would be a lot better, Uh, at one seventy five or one sixty eight. Talk to me about one seventy five though, I mean, I know you've only it's a training camp, but do you feel any different at this weight you know, not having to go through what you have to go through to make one sixty eight.
Yeah, to be honest with you, surprisingly, I feel faster at this weight class. I think this is just a more natural weight class. I should have been at this whole time. You know, I spent ten years at one sixty eight. I won three titles. Are you know I did everything else was supposed to do. You know, we're waiting for that big fight. But now I feel like, really, I feel like I get more out of my workouts.
I feel stronger.
I pushed through the whole workout, and I just feel really good man, And I'm just very excited to perform for all my fans.
June fifteenth, Yeah, it's.
It's almost been shocking over the years, you and Zerda Ramirez. I never understood ho you squeeze down to one sixty eight all those years. Man, you're big guys and you made it. To your credit, you made that weight. It's impressive, but I couldn't believe that you're able to do it so Vastik, you know, experienced guy, former world champion. Was this the kind of test you were looking for in your first fight to kind of see what you're made of at this weight class?
Yeah, To be honest with you, I'm just looking for the best fights. It doesn't matter. It does I'm not coming into this weight class scene. Oh ye, I'm gonna just test the waters first. I just told them to give me the best fight you could possibly make happen, and I just want to I just want to keep the rhythm going, you know, from the last coming up from one sixty eight, having two great fights, and now coming up to one seventy five. I just want to fight the best in the world, and I'm definitely gonna show everybody that I am the best in the world.
You're a main eventer, you're a headliner. What was your reaction when they said we can do this fight, but it as the co main event on Tank Davis Frank Martin.
I had no problem with it. I was actually hoping something like this would happen. It was my I had a thought that it would. You know, it would be a cool thing if it happened a couple of years ago, but because we both became main event fighters, you know, I didn't think it was ever gonna happen.
So when they get it gave me the call.
I think in February about this fight, I'm like, oh man, this is gonna be This is gonna be a treat for the fans.
So that's that's where I'm at this point. I don't really care about being the cole Man event.
I know him a main even fighter, but you know, sometimes you have to make that sacrifice for the fans, and the fans are really going to be the ones who're gonna win. This is probably gonna be the biggest event PBC this whole year, so I'm very excited to be a part of this.
You know, I was in Saudi Arabia a couple of weeks ago now and Turkey Alaschick announced the better be a Bevil fight for October, and look, I think a lot of us, probably you hope that happens too. It's a great fight. We want to see an undispeeded champion at one seventy five, but we don't know about Better Beef. Like Better Bv's health is a big mystery if he can't go in October, Are you, David Benavidez ready to step in and fight Dmitri Bevio one hundred percent.
I'll definitely be ready to fight to meet with Bebo by October.
What did you think of Beebo's performance last time out?
I thought it was a good performance.
I feel like he was getting caught in the first couple of rounds and he was getting that jab kept landing on him all night until you know, Biebo ended up finding you know, his rhythm. But Biebo is a great fighter, you know, I have nothing bad to say about him. Is a great fighter, and as you can see, you know, once he turns it up, he doesn't he doesn't stop until you're finished. And it definitely would be a great fight, especially since I know him personally. We had a lot of great sparing wars together, so it definitely would be a hell of a fight.
Do you think he's changed it all as a fighter of the last couple of years. We know the knockouts haven't come for him quite as frequently. But do you see a different fighter than maybe the one you sparred with years ago?
To be honest to you, I see him slowing down a little bit.
But when once these types of fights get ready or get made happen, I gotta always think that the best Dmitri b wall is gonna come out, even with all his under buzznik, I'm preparing for the best, all this under busnick there is, And that's just the way I prepare for the fights. I feel like me just you know, thinking in that terms. That's how I prepare for the best, the best of the best, and that's how I come one hundred percent prepared.
I like how you keep it moving, David. You don't wait around for anybody. Gets back on track. On the fifteenth of June, Amazon Prime pay per View, David Benavidez Auxitivevostak terrific card from Las Vegas. They have a good catch up man, look forward to watching you on Saturday.
Yes, sir, take care of brother.
That's it for this week's episode. My thanks to Sergio Mora and David Benavidez for joining the show. As always, subscribe, rate, review this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you download podcasts. And if you are looking for Sergio Mora, I think you can find him just outside at the beach.
Chris maddox is Thomas in San Juan, Puerto Rico. You know why, I said to Mendivo Podcast
