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Visit CareerBuilder dot com. Has your jury reached a verdict? The presiding juror isn't here. She went to get a haircut, not just any haircuts, supercuts. She's back there was no weight on the app, and there's the Supercuts right around the corner. And yes, the jury has reached a herd. It's not just any haircut, it's Supercuts. Boxing with Chris Mannox is presented by Fan Duel Sportsbook. There's no better place to bet the action than on Fan Duel Sportsbook. During the football season, I bet on Fan Duel as often and as comfortably as I possibly can. It is America's number one sports book. It's easy to use, it's safe and secure. There are fast payouts in as quick as two hours. So many bet types, same game parlay bets, live betting, player props, futures, and so much more. If you are new, just download the Fan Duel Sportsbook app to get started right now. Sign up with a promo code boxing so they know I sent you. This is Boxing with Chris mann Oh, somebody hunch him in the face. Anthy Joshua is a composed and ferocious finisher. What's this? Hosted by Sis Chris Mannix. That was my moments now with interviews, analysis and everything going on in the world of boxing. When you have talent, you are given another chance. Here's Chris Mannix. Welcome back. To another episode of Boxing with Chris Mannix, part of the Volume Sports podcast Network. We've got a good show for you this week. Corey Erdman is here Boxing Scene dot Com, ESPN broadcaster works a little bit with us over at the Zone. He is here to run through all the news of the week with me, from Joe Smith's win this past weekend to Gary Russell Junior's fight this coming weekend too. What do we make of the April thirtieth competing big fights Oscar Valdez, Shakor Stevenson, Katie Taylor, Amanda Serrano run through all that much more with Corey Urbant. A little bit later, Gary Russell Junior himself he joins me talk about his two year layoff, what it's been like to train basically without his father for this fight, and are we ever going to see an active version of Gary Russell Jr. As always, best way to support this podcast get over to Apple Podcasts, post a comment, leave a rating. It's simple, it's easy, it's free. It's the best way to make sure that we keep doing this podcast week after week. That's it, all right, Onto the show, all right, Corey Erdman is here. One of my favorite guys. In boxing does a great job over at Boxing Scene dot Com does a great work as a broadcast or for ESPN pay per views other outlets. Invaluable resource for us over at the Zone as well. Corey, what's up man, how's Canada this time? It's very snowy. We had like a serious blizzard, like two full feet of snow the other day. So I'm locked in in every sense of the word, basically, both due to COVID and doe to snow. Yeah, you know, I'm in the Northeast and we have a producer over at the Zone named Bob I'm sure you're familiar with it, also lives in Canada, who like sends me all these pictures of his car, like buried in snow, Like I give a shit, like sending me all these things like six in a row, like check out my car, check out my driveway. I'm like, Bob, stop stop sending me this stuff right now, Chris, I thought for sure you were going to be in San Juan right now for the Demetrius Andreid purse bid, but which which got delayed by the way, right before we came on the air. That's great, Like I love this, Like I saw that too before we started recording the Android Jennebec. I'm gonna use his first name here because I'm Butcher's last. Uh. The Andreid Jennebeck purse bid delayed until January twenty eighth because of a COVID outbreak in Puerto Rico. Do these people not know about virtual purse bids? Like you can do that? Like It's like you can maintain the integrity of a purse bid without having it in person. It's like one of the last like remnants of old boxing, Like you have to physically be there to hand an envelope to somebody to paco put in Puerto Rico and to get a purse bit done like that? Also, does the WBO think the pandemic's gonna end in a week? Like? What do they think the situation's gonna be like in seven days? And I was actually looking it was a purse bit I was interested in, as I'm sure you were as markers. I don't really know what Andreid's gonna do as we record this. I've reached out to him a couple of times to see what the plan is. Doesn't sound like he's moving to one sixty eight, Yet it also doesn't sound like there's been any negotiations between Top Rank and match Room for a deal here. So I don't know what's gonna happen with Andrew I personally, and I've said this on this podcast before, I think Andrew should make one more run at one sixty, take this fight, give himself some flexibility if he wins, and look at Mungia, you know, Charlo seems more like than not we're going to see him fight Canello at least the way it's trending at the momentum. Golofkin, guys like that. So even get one big fight at one sixty before making the jump to one sixty eight. One thing I will say, and if people probably wouldn't know about this unless they were in attendance, you can never say that Demitris Andreid isn't trying to campaign for this fight, like so during Tafimo in George Cambosis and I don't even know if you would have noticed this because you were on the call and probably otherwise focused on things during that cards. At some point Andreid takes the microphone from DJ Dubs like the house DJ for Matt Room And this is like right before the main event. I want to say and just starts. Can't like cutting a promo like a WWE style promo to the audience at MSG about why he should fight Canelo and how they should all be beating the drum for him to get this fight, and cameras didn't capture. No one ever talked about this, but it was a thing that happened where Demitris Andreid literally held courts at Madison Square Garden begging for this fight. I mean, he's done a lot to try and get it. He's been a title holder one fifty four when Canello was down there. He's been a champen at one sixty when Cannello was there. Politics haven't been involved. I don't want to get into Demitrius Andrea. Well, we'll save that conversation for another day because I'm sure we'll have something to talk about the next couple of weeks once this middleweight belt is resolved. Also saw up this week, And I don't get too deep into this, but like seventy five bucks for Keith Thurman and Mario Barrios, like people listening to this, I know we're gonna be like mannix Is. You know he's a zone guy. You know he's a PBC hater, you know Thurman, I'm not. I'm gonna talk to Keith for this podcast as well. I'll be a buyer of that pay per view. I'll write about it, I'm sure, because I've got interest in Keith. But like, are you fucking kidding me? Like seventy five dollars for Thurman Barrios, Like this is this is a problem in boxing where you're gonna get like fifty thousand hardcore fans that buy this, and maybe that's enough to cover the expenses associated with Thurman Barrios, But what does that do for either guy like Keith Thurman, you know, rocketed to the top in part, you know, four years ago, five years ago now, in part because he got two titles, but also he was fighting on CBS, like he was viewed by like I think at one point was like five million people one of those fights, whether it was Garcia or Sean Porter, like he was a visible guy. And to put Thurman Barrios on pay per view and Corey not even it's not even like the end of the year where it's like, all right, budgets are gone and Fox and Showtime you can't spend It's the first real card of twenty twenty two and it's gonna be on pay per view, Like what are we doing? Why are we Well, you know, the one of the five most common topics in the world right now is inflation, right, and it seems like it's hit boxing pay per views as well, you know, like that number has steadily gone up over the years, from thirty nine to forty nine, and now it's like we've just hit the point where if there's a marquee fighter involved in the fight, it's seventy plus dollars no matter what. And I for most people, how are they going to afford that? After they ordered Trevor Bryan Jonathan Guidry there the weekend before. Who has that kind of spending cash? Yeah, I forgot about Trevor Bryant did. Like it's also like, you know, pick them if that fight actually happens, like that card even goes off, like you know, oh, there's no guarantee that there's no guarantee that's happening. Oh, Box can be so stupid. And just again for the record, like I will you know, we're gonna clobber the hymen Mungia Demetri's Ballard fight later. So like I have no problem hitting things and they need to be hit, but seventy five dollars for Thurman Barrios is ridiculous. It's absolutely this is like again, this is another topic I don't want to get too deep into, but it's like all the you know, Jake Paul's bad for boxing. Now everybody's shut up and pay seventy five bucks for Thurman Barrios and go watch Mungia Ballard? Like what are we doing? What are we doing here? Yeah, this is a great sport, man, Why are we just we just give the most self inflicted wounds of any sport that's out there. It's just unbelievable. Yeah, and listen me. And I'm not the the PBC accountant. Maybe that number is what they need in order to make this profitable. I don't know, but but in a general sense, this is a guy who I think a lot of casual fans have kind of forgotten about, right, Like he's he's been out of the spot and a half years for two and a half years, and you're right, like Keith Thurman, I'm pretty sure was a part of the most watched boxing match in like modern history, you know, of the last ten fifteen years because it was on Fox and it was one of the premiers of PBC, So there's people that would care about him. But I think if I were doing it, and again I don't know what the finances are, if I were doing it, I would have given him some kind of reintroduction that were very easily accessible and then move him back to pay per view and perhaps in a better fight. I mean, look, he wins, and there's a chance Terrence Crawford could be out there waiting for him, and that's a big fight, but like to make that fight even bigger. Don't you want to be visible in a fight against a Mario Barrios. I don't get it. I'm gonna I was gonna say, like, I'll have to think about it further. I'm not gonna think about another second. Like I'm done thinking about that right now. It's just it's just maddening, man, It's just maddening because that's a pretty good, uh, pretty good Fox fight, pretty good Showtime fight. Uh you know, any any PBC platform, it's just not the right one. Well, and we're mad on other people's behalf because we can write these things off. Yes, Like I'm not gonna it's not coming out for you at all, like right, like the listeners out there, like you know, if you pay per view has its its place like Fury Wilder. Absolutely, I've yet to hear one person complain about the cost of Fury Wilder. Thurman Barrios. I'm guessing there'll be a few people complaining after that. All right, let's move on. Let's look back this past weekend before and move forward. Joe Smith he wins his first title defense, beating Steve Jaffard by knockout. No surprise there. Jaffard an unknown fighter, good story one eighteen fights in a row after losing his first two, but it was not in the league of Joe Smith, and Joe eventual knocked him out. It kind of put Joe back in the discussion for the next big fight. Now, the natural fight to make is Joe Smith against Archer better By, which would be for three versions of one hundred and seventy five pound title. But I guess Corey, there's an outside chance that Canelo Alvarez could look Joe Smiths way and say, you know what, if I'm going to campaign at one hundred and seventy five pounds a fight against Joe Smith in New York City. That makes some sense to me. So give me your thoughts on are you Are you interested in seeing a matchup between Smith and Canello. Yeah, And I think if you're Joe Smith or anyone in that weight neighborhood, you always have to put that caveat out there, like I would like these fights with the people in my division, but if Cannello comes calling, I'm ready for that. I think it's important for fighters in and around there to make that distinction, to say those things in the media because that's the most profitable fight you could possibly get. As far as whether I'm interested in it, yeah, I think that Joe Smith is one of those I'm just throwing a number up. There may be seven or eight guys that are realistic that I think are both acceptable opponents for Canelo and ones that I would at least be intrigued to see, you know, Like there's obviously Jamal, there's better BFU, there's there's Andreide Shirt throw Joe Smith in there, any of the cruiserweights, I guess I'm fine with as well. The triple G rematch, Like there's a handful of guys and whoever Canelo chooses. I'm totally fine with it, and we can debate which one is the bigger fight. But a lot of that I think is kind of pointless because I think Canello is the draw no matter who he's facing. Like he puts seventy thousand in the stadium against Billy Joe Saunders within the United States, is Billy Joe Saunders like an appreciably bigger star sitting there the ringside cory that was like ninety nine point nine five percent Canello fans then, like Tyson Fury, and like the guys that came with him right now Joe Smith, Like there's a lot of members of the local sixty six union and they're all gonna buy tickets, so he's got some fans, so he brings a few more to the table. But by and large, it's about like what would be a challenging fight for Canello and what interests me and I do put Joe Smith in that category. I think that would be a lot of fun. I just you know, I was talking to Sergio more about this recently, like can we go back to a day maybe this day never really existed, just kind of existed in my mind where guys like earned these opportunities, like Caleb Plant last year didn't really earn an opportunity against Canelo. We had a belt and Canello wanted all four of those super middleweight titles, so Caleb Plant protected that belt for a while and got the fight and got the pay day. Good for him, like a great business move. But the fight played out the way I thought it would because Caleb Plant never been in with anybody close to Canello, so the guys were looking at right now. I mean Joe Smith, his biggest fight to date was a very lopside of decision defeat to Dmitri Beevil. Landed one good punch in that fight, hurt Beevill, no question, but then got blown out basically in that fight. I'm not sure Joe Smith ever beats Demitri Beevle by the way, like it's just not a good matchup for him styleistically. And you got Jamal Charlo who has fought nobody at middleweight over the last five years, not like last five months, five years, where his best win is Sergey Derevinchenko, who is a far cry really from the guy that went to war with Daniel Jacobs and Ganadi Golofkin in those previous fights. You know, people on Twitter killed me for this because, yeah, Golofkin has been inactive, but he's the only guy that's earned a fight against Knello. And he did that based on twenty four razor thin rounds that he had with Canello. Like, he's the only guy that we know. You know, we'll go in there and give Connello a reasonably competitive fight. Now, it may not be as competitive as the first two because Golopkin's now forty, he's only fought a couple of times in the last three years, but he's still the guy that's earned that payday. And like, I'm just and Joe Smith too, Like Joe beat flassof good, you get a title, beat Jaffrard, not his fall, Callum Johnson bowed out. I get that, But like, how about Joe Smith fights Better Beef and then the winner fights Canello. That's a big fight, and the winner of that fight will have absolutely earned the opportunity. I do think, to be clear, I do think better BF has earned the right as well. I mean better beat Vostick to claim that unified title, and then he beat Marcus Brown badly, and Marcus Brown is a pretty good fighter, So I think Better be in that category as well. But everybody else it's like they're just like they're almost begging for this opportunity to fight Canello and not going out there and earning it. Yeah, And I think some of that is Some of that is the times and that fighters just fight less frequently than they did back in you know that the time that you're dreaming of in the past. I'm just looking at two core like, how about two Like how about three times a year? Is that asking a lot? Like a lot of these guys are fighting once. I think one of the issues is because of Canello moving up and down and wait, it's given so many people hope that they're kind of they've a lot of people have just been holding out and Canello is the one guy that can really make you life changing money in one night for anyone that isn't heavyweight in boxing, and so I think that has had an effect on the choices that fighters have made. Now, you know, we're not Joe Smith, for all we know is not really in the conversation for this anyway. So some of this is just kind of theoretical, but it is. Yeah, it's yeah, I agree better BF if you're a unified champion, if you're the lineal champion, has better BF is he has earned the right, by I think any definition, to get that fight. But yeah, I think that Canello basically being an option for anyone from fifty four now to cruiser weight, Yeah, has probably slowed some people's process because they want to be marketable enough in case they get that unicorn phone call that's going to give them five million dollars and change the rest of their lives. And to a degree, I can't blame fighters if they have kind of pump the brakes a little bit in anticipation of that, I can't blame them for it. I in a weird way now, and I was kind of I've been pretty cool on the Canelo cruiserweight stuff like it. Just it doesn't interest me all that much because it would be kind of you know, Terry picking a fifth title. I mean, he's going up and wait, but he'd be looking for just a chance to you know, just add that that belt to his resume. I'd rather Canelo now take that fight, um, and then say to Smith and better be off, you two fight, and say to Charlo and Benavidez, you two fight, and ye know, whoever looks the best coming out of that, we'll fight in a blockbuster showdown in September. You know, I don't expect that to happen, but you know, I mean, I like the scenario where Cannello becomes the commissioner of boxing where he can just kind of like it, well, kills me, what kills all that? Like? So for months, you know, I was operator of the belief that it would be Golofkin Marada in December, and I believe it still believe Golopkin beats up Marada. And if Golopkin had two titles in December, it would have set up May pretty perfectly. Like you know, the money would have to be worked out and have to be significant, but you know, Golofkin Canello three still a marketable, mainstream fight. Golofkin pushing that fight back now till I've been told at least March, maybe even April to fight Marada. That shelves that plan. So now you know, it's looking more and more like it's going to be Charlo, which is fine, Charlos undefeated, he can sell the fight. It'll do a good number on pay per view. But I mean, I don't have any optimism he's gonna win, and that's largely because I haven't seen him beat anybody at one sixty year above that's even close to Canelo's level. Yeah, I'm a little I mean, I've thought for a little while that of the reasonable opponents for Canelo that Jamal, just looking at his style and what he brings to the table, has one of the better chances to beat Canelo of his reasonable opponents, because of his adaptability, because of his jab, because of his ability to CounterPunch with power, and people people in Charlo's, people close to Charlov told me, like, don't look at the Montiel fight, like he fights Cannelo is gonna get up for that, Like he might really get up for that fight. But in addition to not facing quality opponents the last five years, he has been inactive. He's only fought once a year last two years. So, like that factor is the mean, while Canello was out there running through the middleweight division eleven months, like he's sharp, and I'm not sure like if you if this had been like, you know, like four years ago, you know, when Charlo moved up to middleweight, when he fought cora Abov, and I forget who else was there. Brandon Adams kind of be in the mix if he had taken this fight like three years ago, I might have understood that a little bit, but now I don't know. It's meant if you believe that Charlo is going to be a better version of the guy that we saw against Montiel, which was not a great version of Charlo. That's also what's scary about Cannello. And we don't often see this when a fighter has reached the pinnacle of the sport in terms of it's like being it's it's high, it's biggest draw. Usually when guys get to that point, they're kind of in the autumn of their career because by the time you get to that point, like it just takes that long to get to that point of marketability and notoriety that you're kind of on the down swing. What's scary about Cannello is that I think you can make the argument that he's still an improving fighter. Every time that we've seen Canello over the last a little while, it seems like Cannelo has been a little bit better. And so this is not a situation where Canelo's up there and he's getting a little bit older, and there are these guys waiting to pick him off at the right time. I don't know that that's the case. To your point, there's a possibility that Jamal maybe hasn't improved, but Canelo is, and that's that's bad timing. That's that's that's a bad proposition for everyone that's in this Canelo neighborhood hoping for that fight. Yeah. Yeah, we'll see what happens. He's probably gonna make a decision sometime the next couple of weeks. And you know, listening to some of the interviews Eddie Hearne has done and talking to some people in Cannelo's orbit, it does seem to me like they're trending in that Charlot direction at this time. All right, let's talk about the fight coming up this weekend. Gary Russell Jr. Remember him. He is back back again for the first time since February of twenty twenty, making what has been over the last six years something of his annual in ring appearance defending the WBC title. He has been champion Corey since two thy fifteen. He has defended that belt five times since then. This will be his sixth World title defense. I talked to Gary this week. I've got a soft spot for Gary Russells. Like I like Gary russell I just I don't understand like to I don't understand why he doesn't push to be more active, like when we talked, and I'm sure you've heard the same things. He's kind of put it on other fighters, Like he said, like Leo Santa Cruz didn't want to fight me. Were at one twenty six. I tried to get a fight with Devin Haney last year. That didn't work out, okay. At the same time, like he's just hand of hanging out, like I asked him, like what he does with all his time. He's like, oh, I go to the gym. I'm like, all right, well that's like two hours a day. Like what else? Like I go hunting. I go hunting in my back, like in my yard. Like he's so he's out there, you know, with his rifle and I don't know, I don't know what they're hunting down in the mid Atlantic area, but he's hunting. But he hasn't you know, he stayed at one twenty six. He hasn't made really any effort to seek out a lot of different opponents, there's been opportunities a popular guy like he had one loss to Basili Lamachenko. Um, he's an entertaining guy. He's got the Olympic background or the amateur background. I don't know, I'd like I guess the question is like, is it too late for Gary Russell? Like at thirty three years old? Has he missed his opportunity to become the star we kind of thought he was on his way to becoming back in twenty fifteen. So I think there's two ways to kind of attack that question. One is, will get because of how he's handled his career, how his career has been handled, will Gary Russell ever be as good as he could have possibly been? And I think the answer is no, because I think during your prime athletic years, I do think it benefits fighters. It's up to a certain point to be as active as possible, and Gary has missed out on those prime years, So I don't think that Gary will probably ever realize exactly how good he could possibly be. And then the other way to attack that question is will he accomplish as much as he could have possibly in his career? And the answer to that is also no, because he's wasted, you know, five six even years of his career for the most part, and a lot of big fights have passed him up or he hasn't been able to go and get them. So I think in a general sense, no, but I do think that there still is time for him to be, you know, the best one hundred and twenty six pounder in the world. Some might argue that on talent alone, he currently is. But if he gets what he wants, and if we've heard this many times, if he gets what he wants and he fights three times this year or two times this year, whatever, that is still possible. So I think it not everything is lost for Gary Russell. If he can now pick it up. I think he could potentially take over a division and that's a great career accomplishment. But no, I don't. I think there will always be a little bit of what if with Gary Russell. How good could he have been and how much could he have accomplished. I think that he's left a lot of that behind over the last couple of years. Yeah, there's no doubt above that. I do think the window, though, is still open, and it's open this year only because I see some opportunity there for Gary Russell, Like he's got this fight coming up against Mark mcsio. Gary's going through a lot right now with his father dealing with health issues. He's talking about having some kind of nagging injury going into this fight. I'm not sure how serious that is, so we'll see what happens this Saturday. But if he gets through this fight, like it's kind of like Leo Santa Cruz is gonna be there, Like Leo is going to fight at one thirty in a couple of weeks. He says he's gonna drop back down to one twenty six to reclaim his belt. Maybe he has to defend it against the winner of this upcoming fight between Leewood and Michael Conlin. Maybe he doesn't, but you know, it's a pretty easy PBC fight to make with or without that title to see Russell go up against Santa Cruz. And if I'm Russell, that's the fight I want. Like Leo is still a pretty big name, and if he gets a good win coming up this weekend, that'll help erase some of the the stench from what happened against Damonte Davis, Like that's a big win. And then like get creative out there, Like I would love to see Gary Russell before the end of the year face the winner of this pending fight between Kiko Martinez and Josh Warrington. Like how great would it be to see Gary Russell go to the UK to face Josh Warrington in his backyard? Like Russell he showed me Corey early in his career when he took that fight against Lomachenko that he wasn't going to shy away from challenges. That was like it was a purse big kind of situation anyway, right, because that's why Top Rank and PBC got together, but a mandatory situation. So so he's shown he's willing to kind of do what he has to do to make fights. But that would be like a great year, Like he fights on Saturday, he beat Santa Cruz in the summer, and he fights Josh Warrington the UK, Like, that's an awesome year for Gary Russell. That would give him huge momentum going into twenty twenty three where he could move up to one thirty and take on any of a number of those guys. Well and think about the other guys, the really exciting guys that one twenty two that could potentially come up and yeah, as you mentioned other names at one thirty, like on either side of twenty six or a lot of intriguing fights for Gary Russell. And I want to make this point too. I mean, number one, I want to make the distinction between what's happened with Gary Russell in the past as far as his inactivity, and what he's going through right now, because this is, you know, everything that's going on in his personal life. I think we set that that's a different thing from whatever has caused him to be inactive in the past. That's number one. But number two, the reason we're still talking about Gary Russell is because he's a special talent. Like there are certain fighters when you watch them, you can see that they have something different, and Gary Russell, when you watch him, you're like, oh, this guy is fifty percent faster than most people I've seen before. And so he you know, we're giving him this leeway and we care about seeing him again because I still believe him to be a special talent, Like I want to see Gary Russell more and more. This isn't This isn't a situation where some guys just holding a belt hostage, like I think that both you and fans out there they want to see Gary Russell because when we have seen him in the past, when he was on that run coming up on showtime, he looked like something that we don't often see. And I hope that whatever percentage of that Gary Russell is left in him, that we get to see him a little bit more often. I agree, I agree. All right, let's talk about George Cambosis. I'm getting a little cambosas weary, for lack of a better phrase, like, I'm not even sure where these negotiations are between Cambosis and other contenders out there. But you know, every time I scroll through the site that you write for Boxing Scene, it's like, Cambosa says this, Haney says this, Aram says this, Lomachenko wants this, and like, just everybody shut up and figure it out. Let's make a deal. It seems like it's down to Lomachenko or Devin Haney. You know, Lomachenko, from what I'm told from Cambosa's side, would be the easier fight to make because Lomachenko is not going to price himself out. He's not going to push back on a lot of the demands that Cambosa's side has. Meanwhile, though Haney, it seems like that's the fight they want, with Haney going down under to face Cambosis sometime in May. So as we sit here, Corey with what we know, like what is the right move for George Cambosa's I think the right move is the one that makes him the most money. And so I and I'm I'm just gonna get like I'm I'm guessing here. I think that Lomachenko and Top Rank and ESPN need this fight less than the Zone does. I think the Zone wants that you know, undisputed title on its network, and I think that they're probably willing maybe I'm guessing here, I would think that they're willing to pay a little bit more, put a little bit more out there to make it happen than ESPN did. Because Lomachenko is kind, He's an attraction all on his own. They can put him against anyone on ESPN, and he has a cachet all on his own. He doesn't need that Cambosis win or the belts to come with it. I think as desperately as Devin Haney does. I also think, and I'm not saying that this is necessarily the case. But I probably in Cambosis's mind, and probably if you were to pull most people in boxing, if you were if you were to say, okay, rank these lightweights Lomachenko, Davante Davis and Devin Haney. I think a lot of people would rank Devin Haney third. And so if you're Cambosis, you might think, okay, well, this is the fight that gives me potentially the most money. Devin has said that I'll agree to the demands, I'll go to Australia, I can make the stadium fight, and maybe this is the easiest fight for me. And again I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with that. It seems to me like Devin checks most of the boxes for Cambosis. That's my read on the situation. I don't know what you think, Yeah, I see something similar. I would add to that, like, if you're Cambosis and you're thinking long term, there are two things you have to remember. One is that at de Zone is trying to crack the Australian market as we speak, and you know, like whether you win or lose, they would like it if you They would probably like to use you in some capacity beyond you know, these fights with Devon Any and if you're affiliated with that quote side of the street, Ryan Garcia is out there too, and at some point Ryan Garcia might be looking for a marketable opponent, and whether as the undisputed champion or the former undisputed champion, Cambos would have some real marketability, whereas with you know, with Lomachenko, you would have probably two great fights if you get the rematch clause, you would probably have two really good fights that make you a lot of money. But then I don't think that top rank would be invested in you or they'd want to have anything to do with you, Whereas you know, with the Haney stuff, you'd probably be able to preserve a more longer term future. Yeah, well I hadn't really thought about it that way too, just the the future prospects. Yeah, if he goes to ESPN, they don't they don't need Camboss, like his top ranking to sign a co promotional deal with lou To to you know, hook him up for the future. Probably not, you know, they want that fight and they want his belts. Is Showtime gonna give cambosas a long term deal? Probably not. But the Zone good and they've shown already, I mean they will. I mean they were rolled out the carpet for him in Vegas for that Haney fight, and they had him in every possible broadcast role imaginable, Like they've shown him that if Cambosas went to the Zone and said all right, I'll do this, but I want a three fight deal, he'd probably get it. And so he does have to think and he's probably not going to think this way, but I think his management, but Peter Khan has to think down the road. What if he doesn't win, what happens to George then for his next two fights, and I think the the Zone probably provides the best options for him then certainly better I would think, than than ESPN and Showtime do. Right now, Yeah, I would agree with that, all right, keeping it with the Zone. They have a fight coming up in February with him Mungghee returning against Demetrius Ballard. You know, Corey, I've tried to be patient with himI McGee and I've actually defended him at multiple multiple times when he moved up to one sixty because Hime was a title holder at one fifty four, but he was always kind of a raw guy. At one fifty four, he won the title by just like it was like Cosmo Cramer against the smaller guys with against Sadamali, like he was just so much bigger than than Saddam Ali, Like he just ran him over in that fight. Defended against some decent guys, but like look bad in some of those defenses, Like Dennis Hogan was a very close fight. So when he even went up to one sixty, I didn't blame him for not running into a fight with Demetrius Andre Like he was the WBO, you know, one fifty four, he could have made himself mandatory at one sixty, Andrea was clamoring to fight him. I didn't blame for holding off. But we are now four fights into his middle rate weight run, and he's gonna step in against a Demetrius Ballard who has really not done anything to earn this type of opportunity. Ballard fought on the undercard of Mungia's last fight against Gabe Risotto and looked average against Paul Valenzuela, who in his next fight out was just absolutely slaughtered by Ali Akhamedov. So like, take that what it's worth. On Valezuela. So are we we at the point where we should be criticizing Mungia for you know, his choice of opponents as we head into twenty twenty two, his what third year now as a middleweight. Yeah, this is where this is where you and I actually sometimes disagree. I think that I have a longer leash for fighters as far as when I will blame them further opposition or their choices that maybe you do. And with Mungia, I can see it both ways. Like remember when he was twenty years old or whatever, he wanted to step in and face Triple G on short notice when he was a kid, and and that you know, I always have that in the back of my mind because he showed me then, like this guy is willing to fight whoever. I don't think he's a raid of anyone. And to this day, he's still trying to get a fight with Triple G. As far fetched as that may or may not be, he's still talking about it. So if he wants to fight Triple G, I think he's probably willing to fight other guys. At the same time. You know, you and I have spent time with himie in the past, and we've talked to him, and one thing that I've always noticed about him is that, yes, he trains really hard, he takes the sport seriously. He kills himself to make weight. But he's never struck me as a guy that really loves boxing. He's told me like he doesn't watch boxing outside, like I don't. I don't know that there's a lot of desperation in Himie Mounghia. I think that there's still that twenty five year old in him who's just like at you know, fight whoever you tell me to fight. And I also do think too that we have to understand that, you know, he's a twenty five year old who's in a position with Golden Boy where you know, they're probably promising him, Hey, get through this fight and we'll get you the next one. And and I think that the attitude that I've seen with him just as a pin is to be accepting of that, and maybe that's worked to his detriment at this point. Maybe it's getting to the point where he's gonna have to change that and say, all right, enough of this, enough of the Demedri's Ballard's, I need someone bigger than this. But that doesn't seem like his attitude in the past. You know, you got the wrong Demetrius in this fight. But yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. I look, I've talked to this in the podcast before, and I had Eric Gomez on from Golden Boy, and like Gomez said, they're open to the idea of fighting Andreid. I think they should have done it now, Like Andrea's out there looking for a major fight, and you know, like from what I've seen from Mungia, like that's a fifty fifty sixty forty type of fight maybe if you want to favor Andreid there, Like Mungie has gotten really good, like he's he's a good fighter, Like you know, he wasn't able to put down and out gave Risotto, but he just overwhelms you with punches. Like to beat him Mungia, you have to match that punch output. That's never really been Demetrius Android's bag. Like he's not a super high volume puncher. He's accurate, he's slick, he's tough to hit at times, but Mungia just hits you with waves and he's got a chin like he can take some shots, Like he's taking some pretty good punches over his last few fights. So like, you know, I know they're chasing Golofkin, but like does that ever really work, like, you know whatever, something like how many times we've seen Fighter X chasing Fighter Ye, it never really worked out. Like It's the same thing we talked about earlier, earning opportunities, Like Mungia, you go out there, you beat to Metrius Andreid, Gloftin' is gonna come to you like you're gonna have another piece of that title and Goloptin's gonna want it and he's gonna come to you looking for that opportunity. So, you know, I'm a little disappointed that we're not getting Mungia against Andreid this year, especially when Andreid's out there, as we talked about, kind of wondering what's next for him if he has to go into another mandatory situation. Yeah, And it's disappointing too because I feel like I feel like Mugia has found his sweet spot stylistically too. Remember the Dennis Hogan fight and he was he was working with a different coach and they were they were trying to force this sort of defensive jabber mentality on him. Morales. Morales has been the right guy for him, just exactly. You know, just throw that defense out the windows. All offense, all the time. And that's what worked when when he was twenty something years old, he was a force of nature. You know, he was just this this, this kid. It was a youthful exuberance and the same motor that we see now he's got the best motor in one hundred and sixty pound division, you know. And that's and going back to to bring it back to the first topic, we saw Joe Smith make that adapt that adaptation as well. Around the Dmitri Bival fight. He was averaging way under the light heavyweight limit or the light heavyweight average excuse me, in terms of punch out, but using like the forty punches per round territory over his last couple of fights season like the eighty punches per round territory. And it's it's good when you see fighters who were established and at a high level still able to make changes to their game. And we've seen that with both Mungia and Joe Smith, where if they had stayed acting in the ring the way that they were before that we might not be talking to the about them at all right now. But they made changes to their game and I like. I like when that's the case because often we think of fighters once we see them at a high level, like they're a finished product, you know. And that works in other sports, like you can look at analytics and baseball and you can say, Okay, reasonably, this guy's going to get roughly this number of hits. That's what they are. In boxing, you do have the opportunity to change your game, and both Mungia and Smith have done that, and they put themselves in good opportunities to do it. But in Mungia's case, I think, yeah, he needs different fights to get where he wants to go. He's a good fighter. I just want to have a chance to show it. And and android fight would be very easy to make. And hopefully that if a Gloffing fight doesn't happen, I hope the Andreid fight happens in the first quarter or first half of twenty twenty two. All right, let's finish looking at the April thirtieth. Let's call it the situation evolving on April thirtieth, where you've got Shakor Stevenson, Oscar Valdez excellent one hundred and thirty pound unification fight, two of the top guys in that way class that is tentatively scheduled to be out in Las Vegas. On the same night, you have what is being billed as the biggest fight in women's boxing history between Katie Taylor and a man Is Serranto. Now, normally I think promoters are very prone to hyperbole, but I can kind of buy into that, Corey, that that's the biggest fight in women's boxing history. You've got the undisputed championship on the line, two top three pound for pound women, both who are very visible, going at it. It's gonna be fought, probably in the big room at Maddses Square Garden. Let's start here. You look at these two events, what's the bigger one. It's Taylor Serrano. It's Taylor Serran, I mean both because of its its historical precedent. I mean, not only are these you know, two of the three top pound for pound women in the sport right now, but by the time they retire, this is probably a matchup of two of the greatest women's boxers ever. You know, nothing that Shakur involved Is could do could match up to that kind of mystique and the historical precedents on the side of Taylor and Serrano and just generally like those fights don't happen that often, and we have to take that into consideration. And also stylistically, I think it would be a tremendous fight, and I think people and even if you want to look at it from a marketing perspective, I think people consistently undersell Katie Taylor in terms of how popular she This is not too many boxers can say that they are a national hero, and Katie Taylor is one of them. And I think that sometimes even her own promoters kind of undersell that she's always in the co feature slot and it's like Connor Ben above her. But Katie Taylor is a legitimate draw, and if you put that in Madison Square Garden, it's going to be a massive event. And we know that Jake Paul is going to be attached to it in some fashion, and particularly if he fights on the undercar, that's that's just that's a bigger event than Shakur and Valdez in every metric. I would say, even if you want to see Shakur and volved As fighting more than you want to see Katie and Amanda Serran fight, I think you have to concede that Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano is the bigger fight. Yeah, it's just a landmark event for women's boxing, and women's boxing is in a pretty good place right now. Like I just did my Pound for Pond list over at SI dot com, and like, in addition to like ranking the top pound for Pond women, like most of these women have kind of big fights ahead of them, And we talked about Taylor Serrano. At some point this year, we're going to get Claressa Shields against Savannah Marshall, which has the built in storyline of Savannah Marshall being the last woman boxer to beat Claressa Shields, she did back in the amateur ranks in twenty twelve. Savannah Marshall also, I mean, I don't know like how powerful she is, but she's got like nine knockouts and eleven fights, so like that's that's not nothing like that, that's real. That's that kind of power that she's showcasing out there. You gon't even the smaller weights like Sinisa Estrada's knocking women out at one oh five. She's got maybe a fight rematch with Marlon A Sparza that would do you know, headlining type of business in southern California, Like we're this could be the year Cory where like we have a lot more women's boxing main events on UH networks, whether it's Showtime, Fox, to Zone, whatever it may be. Um, you know, before it sometimes was like the aberration, like everyone Claressa headlined, and it was like women women's boxing headlining a Showtime card, It's a big deal. It's less of a big deal now because these are good fights, like these are all I just named three of them. You can probably name two more that are you know, high level fights worthy of of headlining big time events. Yeah, and of course we have that kind of informal turner and that was going on at one forty as well. Yeah, yeah, the other with Jessica McCaskill lurking out Dasco and I gotta see too. There are no better online feuds than in women's boxing right now. The Caaba Mayer and Alicia Baumgartner, Claressa and Miguel is just throwing like Michael Marrie's taking the shotgun out of him and everyone. She had to Katie Taylory on the Yeah, didn't didn't really adapt to the pro style, lover but didn't adapt to the pro style. McCaskill and Rick Romos are calling out everybody all day like they in terms of building fights through just trash talk, women's boxing is blowing men's boxing out of the water, and they're making their intent is very clear, and everyone's agreeing here. No one's like, God, fight someone else and then come up, you know, like the people who should be fighting one another are calling one another route. It's entertaining, and then those fights are actually happening. It like, women's boxing is what boxing should be, just on a on a broader, a broader sense. What we're seeing right now is the way that we would like the sport to function, and it's it's great to watch. You know what. Let me ask you this, Are you a proponent of three minute rounds in women's boxing? Yes? I am, because I feel like people who are opposing it are generally doing it as a way to keep women's box to purses down. The people who are saying no, no, no, no, it should be two minutes, sometimes they'll argue, oh, well, if it's during this, they won't get paid more. Well, then you're the one that's paying them. It's in always this built in thing that is holding women, but it's always the excuse while they don't get paid more because they only fight two minute rounds and the junk science that the WBCs floated out there about they're just they're basically googling stuff. And yeah, exactly, so I think that Listen, even if you find two minute rounds entertaining, women should have the choice to fight three minute rounds if they want, because I know it is the main tactic right now that is being utilized to pay women less, and that needs to be eliminated straight out. I agree, and look, one of the in addition to keeping the pay down, one of the things I think that's keeping women's boxing from being more entertaining and having more knockouts is not having that extra minute. Like we've probably both seen several fights where one woman had another woman hurt and the bell ranked and the two minutes, like if she had an extra thirty seconds. I go back to I always bring this up, but Amanda Serranto Heather Hardy MSG first round, Amanda Serranto, I had Heather Hardy badly hurt and the bell ranked, and that first round at two minutes if she had an extra thirty seconds. Heather Hardy was done in that fight, so like, and that's the kind of thing that gives you a spring, Like you get that highlight, real knockout, you get you know, on social media on TV, you're all over the place with that type of performance instead of instead usually get these decisions, which you know, while productive, I don't have the same effect. So more money, more knockouts, that's the thing that's gonna take women's box the next level in my mind. Yeah, I agree, you know. I mean, I hate like getting on the air and saying like, I'll tell you what I want. I want women to get knocked out more often. But I mean it'll tell you that someone was say, yeah, like Claress has done. I don't know. I don't know where she stands this now. Claress has gone back and forth, and there's a couple of times in my conversation. I know Senisastrada's is a big fan of but she talked about that on his zone a few times. I think her next fight's actually gonna be with three minute rounds unification fight at one oh five aol into Sparza. She's been for it in the past as well, So there's a movement for it amongst some women. I just think you need to have all of the women get on board because I guess and I'm just sorry they can just decide, right, Like if if two women agree to have three minute rounds, like, there's nothing stopping them from it at this point, yeah, unless I believe, and the WBC just will not sanction. So if you're a WBC title holder, I just think they won't allow it, but it will they do it for the franchise title. What if the franchise time friend, Yeah, maybe maybe they changed the rules, but commissions don't care. Commissions will make oh they'll make it three minutes. They don't care. And and yeah, to your point, I mean, like these the social media highlight reels for the majority of fans or what they watch more than actual fights, and the more that we can give them that said, hey, look at this spectacular woman. You want to you want to see her fight? That that helps you know, Like it's I'm not saying again, I'm not gonna be like, ah, I would like to see people get knocked up more often because I care about fighters safety, But the reality is that that's what people tune in to see that's what the sport is so and and women deserve the agency to have to take the same risks that men do and then as a result of that get paid equally. By the way, to bring it full circle, there's an easy fix to this Top rank show Eddie her and match Room show. You have match rooms say to top rank, like, we will walk our main event no later than eleven o'clock. And you have top ranks say, just doing their fight out in Vegas, say we will walk our main event no earlier than midnight. And that's I would think I'd be fine with top ran because top rank Todd du Buff's got this weird thing. I've had this conversation with him where he just kind of believes that there's really no and I've heard him say something this effect like there's it's never too late to start an event. Base like if you start, like they don't mind starting like twelve thirty some of their main events, like they just believe the numbers backed them up on that one. So that should be fine. So Taylor Toronto start eleven, Shakoor Valdez starts at twelve, everybody wins Big letters exactly yeah, heyst we had Canelo sit on a couch for a little. Oh, we don't talk about that anymore. We're done with that. We're done. Let's well, we'll put a pin in that right now, Corey. Good stuff man. Always good to catch up with you. Thanks for Rod joining me. Thanks man when we come back. My conversation with Gary Russell. Millions of Americans are getting back to work. 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If your first bet does it win. Just sign up with the promo Code Boxing and you'll be able to bet on all the biggest boxing matches and UFC fights. Vanduel offers all your favorite bets choose from the money line, to the method of victory, to which round the fight will end, and so much more. You can even parlay different fight bets together. The bigger you parlay, the bigger your potential payout. Becomes Vanduel's America's number one sports book and is now live in New York. I am a part time New Yorker and I am excited about FanDuel being live in New York City. The app is so easy to use and when you win, you'll get paid in as little as two hours. To place your first bet, risk fret. Just sign up with the promo Code Boxing and make every fight night mean more with the FanDuel sports book app. All right. Gary Russell Jr. Is the WBC Featherweight Champion. On January twenty second, you will defend his title when it takes on Mark Bucksio. It's a fight you can see exclusively on showtime. Gary joins me here on the show. Gary, before we get into boxing, I was sorry to hear about the health problems of your father. First and foremost, how is he doing and how is your family doing with those issues? My father, he's he's doing the best city game, you know, as far as the family well, as good as we can possibly be at this point. You know, no silnder, no retreat, well progression by any means necessary, um things. Things hasn't been been good with my pops. Man, he has the diabetes, he's got the foot amputated, you know, and everything it's been it's been a it's been a little hass. It's been challenging, you know, but we one of those type of families that always kind of got in front of mud. Nothing never came easy to us. We always had to work for everything that we got, you know, and and you know he's grateful. Yeah. For people that don't know everything about your father, I mean, he's the boxing patriarch. Addition to being the patriarch and your family, like I mean, you know, training you, your brothers, what is he meant to you as a boxer over the years, Man, he's been a lot, he's been a last to me has been the fighter over the years. You know, uh, he he's been my only coach. A lot of these guys that's in the sport of boxing that's competing right now, Um, they already had they already had a product. You know, they had multiple coaches, They already had a somewhat of a foundation started. Even with the guy Mark Besio that I'm about to compete again, he had a foundation, you know, already somewhat developed. And then he linked up with Freddie Roach. You know, Freddie Roach is trying to make the best of what he can do with Mark. As far as my dad goes, he was the one that created this product. He's the one that created this monster. You know, it's very few people to create two Olympians and now the longest reigning world champion in the sport of boxing today. You know, we've never been touched by any other coach other than my father. I think that speaks volumes on his his skill setting, his him training. You know, as a coach, you know that's matters in the grand scheme of things. It's not important your father's health is first and foremost. But training for a big fight, a world title defense, do you feel as prepared as you possibly can be given what you've had to kind of navigate over the last couple of months. Um, not one hundred percent, But I've never been a one hundred percent in any of my fights, to be honest. But you know, it's always been something a tweaked hand, a shoulder or ankle or something. There's always been something, you know, I've never truly been a one hundred percent in any of my fights that I've competed in. But once again, no wine and no complaining. We're gonna make the best of whatever the situation is. I believe that my skill set is second to none, my speed, my ring generalship, in my boxing IQ. I think it plays a big, pick, big factor, you know, as well as the experience that I've accumulated over the years. You know, my level of competition that I've been beating against has been much higher than these guys that's supposed to be in the upper antelot in the sport. You know, you are a really interesting guy, Gary, because you're right, your skill set is high, your speed is incredible. You're a popular guy in terms of being in the ring. But since twenty fifteen, when you won that title. You've had five world title defenses, so I know it's kind of a broad question and probably has multiple answers, But why have you been as inactive as you've been Because my fuckers don't want to fight me. It's just that simple. It ain't got nothing to do with me. I'm one of them guys that's been willing to fight whenever, whoever, wherever. You know, it's been difficult to find a dance partner. Why is it that I've been a champion this long but I have Having a unification matters. That matters. You know, you have multiple guys that's been in the division that I've been competing against or competing there, and none of these guys want Leo Santa Cruz been in the same division with me for multiple years. You know it didn't happen. You have a Call Frampton, you have Lee Salesby. You know, you had all these guys that's supposed to have been doing something at the time, but I was competing, and none of these guys wouldn't have stepped in the ring against It's a reason for that. You know, you're obviously training all the time to stay in the kind of shapey to be in to be world champion. But like before COVID Gary, like I wanted to come down to your neck of the woods and just see what Gary Russell does like all the time, Like you get your one fight in the year, Like what do you do? What do you do? I'm still in the gym. I don't train as if I'm getting ready for an actual fight, but I'm still in the gym. I think it's a lifestyle for me. Boxing is something that I love, but it's definitely more sort of a lifestyle, you know. I would want for my friends, my family, you know, an et cetera. I would want for them to stay in a certain of conditioning in general. To ask people all the time, what if you had to run three miles to save your life, would you be able to do so? What would you be able to do? So? I'm one of the type of people that wants to always be physically fit enough to be able to do that. And because I have multiple children, I want to be able to do it with baggage and luggage, you know. And that matters to me, you know. And it's one thing to say, is another thing to live by example to actually show it you know, And that's that's where I am. If I get irritated, if I'm getting if things aren't going right in my day, but things not going right in my life, I balance the bullshit that goes on in my world with substance. You know, I'm going to go to the gym. The gym is my woo sawe, that's my woo sade, that's my safe place, you know. So I think that plays a big factor. Even when the conclusion of my career is open done with, I'm one of the type of guys that's there will be in the gym working out. I'm one of those guys that will still be trying to get a little bit of sparring in here and there if I can, um and and giving out some of these jews that I've gotten from the sport and trying to pass it on to that next generation. What are your your other interests though, Like I had heard once that I mean, do you run like buildings? Do you own buildings down in your area? Like? What what kind is what? Besides being in the gym, what occupies your time? Where you put your money? Your other interests? Well, I prefer that to elaborate on where I put my money, all right, the other other other things you do with your time, you know what I mean. Man, my babies, My babies. Um, and I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie COVID. When COVID hit, it showed me just how prepared I was for things like that. Why, Um, I'm one of them because I like to be self sufficient, you know, I'm one of the people, and I want my babies to be self sufficient. I don't want them to have to depend on society, you know. I wanted them to be able to use their wit. You know, they're smarts and the information that's been given to them, you know. Um. So it was so crazy that when it hit and everything happened, they were they couldn't get to the grocery stores and stuff like that. We had already started our own garden, you know, I had my babies. They had that. They got their own garden and everything. So they had watermelons, strawberries, mustard, greens, collar greens killed. You know what else do they have? Um, it was cucumbers, you know. So they was growing their own garden. I'm a hunter. I like the hunt. So even on Thanksgiving and stuff like that you know, instead of going to the grocery store to bout turkey. You know, I have I have turkey on my land, you know, so you know our hunt and the last Thanksgiving or to the turkeys that we ate with, turkeys that I actually harvest myself, curgus that I caught, or I of course really I didn't kill myself. Hell yeah, you know, I'd rather be self sufficient, you know. Um, and it goes. It showed me just how prepared we were for a situation like that. Um. I'm definitely a hunter. You know. It's deer is it's real indigenous to where we are. Um, they're all on my land and everything else, so you know, I'll hunt deer. Um. I got a couple couple of toys. Yeah, I had a couple of toys. But I like the hunt. Um. I like to spend time in my family. I prefer to put to give my my babies the information that they need that I feel as those in necessity for life. You know, that's the stuff that I honestly would like to do. You know, when I'm when I'm on my free time, you can catch me in the woods, you can catch me in the field, you can catch me hunting, you probably catch me doing some paintballing. We would go paintballing. You we'll go paintball and we go get them to go cauts, we'll go go cotton or in the ATVs, We'll definitely play around with the ATVs. I'm a man's man, you know, I'd ever do stuff like that. What would you say to other boxers? And we heard this from Devin Haney among others, that just don't believe you want to fight that. I believe you want to get your one fighting per year, collect a paycheck and be done with it. I don't pay with anyone else says any mind, you know, tell them and getting the ring and fighting, tell them to fight us. And that's so funny that you made that statement, because right when the pandemic hit, I was the one that was making a call, reaching out to Bill Haney, telling him let's make a fight happen. It's a whole pandemic going on. It'd be crazy if I move. Ain't nobody apparently at the time Devin Haney wasn't getting any fights. No one was really willing to step in the ring and unify the division or anything like that with me. So shit, why not let's make a fight happen. We could possibly make X amount of dollars. I was the one that was that was reaching out to them, trying to make a fight. It wasn't the other way around, you know, but it never realized into anything before I let you go. I mean, as we sit here talking right before your upcoming fight against Mexio, how likely is it that we're doing the same thing next year? I mean, do you believe that this is the year you get multiple fights in, you get a unification fight, maybe move up, I don't know, whatever it is. Do you believe this is a year that you're gonna fight multiple times? Matt? I hope, So. I hope so, I genuinely hope. So. I think the we got good chances at that. You know, the fact that we're competing in the first month of the year. You know, God willing, we don't have you know, we get out of injury free. You know, we never overlook anyone or underestimate anyone, but I willing to get through injury free. I believe that we should be able to circle back around to come the middle of the year and get a match in m and we should be able to finish the year how strong as well as will too, you know, So hopefully we can get three in this ship. I've been I've been willing to compete. It hasn't been because of me, you know, it's just been difficult to get someone else in the ring to compete against me. You're supposed to fort Ray Vagus. About a year ago, the WBC mandated him to be one of the challengers, and guess what happened? Nothing? He ended up fighting on Carnello's undercard, you know, So I'm not I don't know. And then one of the stories behind that was because he broke it. He had a broken leg. That's why he was off for X amount of time, and word around town was he just really wasn't feeling too confident. And it's getting back in the ring after a two year layoff fighting mister Gary Russell Jr. She could have been really true, you know. So I don't know. I don't cryd with spilled milk. I wish we can we can compete as more often or more frequent, but you know, hopefully we can make it happen in twenty twenty two. Twenty twenty one was a wild year for us, you know, so hopefully we can make up for it in twenty twenty two. I hope so as well. Gary, You're you're a lot of fun to watch in the ring. Thanks for joining me, man and my best of your family. Got to meet some of them at the twenty sixteen Olympics when your brother fought down there and uh down in Rio. So I hope everything works out for your dad, man, Man, thank you, Man. I appreciate it. Man. Some things in life, Man, it's inevitable. Man, So we don't cryd with spilled milk. Just like I tell everybody, life is like boxing. You gotta keep your chin down on your hands up and five when you gotta open it because life's gonna throw punches that from always shapes and form. You gotta. Gary appreciate your time, man. All right, you too, man, when we come back. This week's picks courtesy of Fan Duel. Okay, time now for this week's picks, brought to you by our friends over at fan Duel, and this week I am focused on Saturday's fight between Gary Russell Junior and Mark Megsio one hundred and twenty six pound world title fight taking place down in Atlantic City, now, normally I wouldn't have any hesitation in picking Gary Russell, but this is not a normal situation for Russell. For starters, he has not fought since February of twenty twice, almost two years. Russell has been out of the ring, and even though he's often been limited to one fight per year, that's a pretty long layoff for anyone, especially a boxer is now thirty three years old. During that same time, Megsio has fought three times, so he's going to be the sharper fighter when he gets into the ring. Russell has also had some outside the ring issues. His father, Gary Russell Senior, who's also his trainer, He has been dealing with some health issues to the point where Russell says he has basically been training himself for this fight. And on top of that, Russell has been kind of cryptic about an injury that he's been dealing with in the build up to this fight. I am going to pick the upset in this one. I'm taking Mark Megsio to win right now. Megsio is plus three hundred. He has never faced anyone on Russell's level, but he is pretty good. He's trained by Freddie Roach and I think he comes away with the upset. Now, how does he do it right? Now? The best odds are for Megsio by decision. They are plus seven fifty over at fan Duel, and even though he's got some pop, I think Magsio ultimately out boxes Gary Russell and wins this fight by decision. Megsio to win and to do it by decision. Those are my picks of the week, courtesy of Fandi. That's it for this week's episode. By thanks to Corey Erdman and Gary Russell would join the show. As always, subscribe, rate, review this podcast on Apple, podcast, Spotify, wherever you download podcast, and I'll see you next week.