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Sarah Spain
This is an iHeart podcast join iHeartradio and Sarah Spain in celebrating the one year anniversary of iHeart Women's Sports with powerful interviews and insider analysis. Our shows have connected fans with the heart of women's Sports. In just one year, the network has launched 15 shows and built a community united by passion podcasts that amplify the voices of women in sports. Thank you for supporting iHeart women's sports and our founding sponsors E L F Beauty, Capital One and Novartis. Just open the free iHeart app and search iHeart Women's Sports to listen now.
Ian Pfaff
My Uncle Chris was a real character, a garbage truck driver from South Carolina who is now buried in Panama City alongside the founding families of Panama. He also happens to be responsible for the craziest night of my life. Wild stories about adventure, romance, crime, history and war intertwine as I share the tall tales and hard truths that have helped me understand Uncle Chris. Listen now to Uncle Chris on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Jeff Perelman.
Rick Jervis
And I'm Rick Jervis. We're journalists and hosts of the podcast Finding Sexy Sweat.
Ian Pfaff
At an internship in 1993, we roomed with Reggie Payne, aspiring reporter and rapper who went by Sexy Sweat a couple years ago.
Rick Jervis
We set out to find him, but.
Ian Pfaff
In 2020, Reggie fell into a coma after police pinned him down and he never woke up.
Rick Jervis
But then I see my son's not moving. So we started digging and uncovered city officials bent on protecting their own.
Ian Pfaff
Listen to Finding Sexy Sweat on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Every case that is a cold case.
Rick Jervis
That has DNA right now in a backlog will be identified in our lifetime.
Sarah Spain
On the new podcast America's Crime Lab. Every case has a story to tell.
Rick Jervis
And the DNA holds the truth. He never thought he was going to get caught and I just looked at my computer screen. I was just like, ah, gotcha. This technology's already solving so many.
Sarah Spain
Listen to America's Crime Lab on the.
Rick Jervis
Iheartradio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Today I am doing a video that, quite frankly, I can't even believe is something that I'm going to talk about on this channel. I told myself I wouldn't, but it's just too insane to ignore because Conor McGregor just exposed himself. And I don't mean it in a clickbaity, YouTube kind of way. I mean, Conor McGregor just exposed himself. The McHammer Mini Connor. Apparently the reason he calls himself Muscle Mac these days. What do I mean? I'm telling you what I mean. Conor McGregor just sent himself an unsolicited nude picture in the DMS of Azealia Banks. This is real. And again, believe it or not, it's just a piece, not like that of the crazy week that Conor McGregor has had this week. And I just feel like we have to talk about it. I don't even know if I want to. We have to talk about it because I have been blessed with the burden of covering combat sports and I guess that means we have to talk about it. What do I mean? The breakdown. Let's go. All right, so let's just cannot believe this is a story, but at the same time, I kind of can. All right, so as everybody else did today, I woke up to see Conor McGregor's piece on the Internet. I mean, let's just be honest, that's what happened. He's got a couple different pictures that he sent to singer songwriter Azalea Banks. Now, number one, probably the worst person you would want to send a DM to is Azealia Banks. For those of you that don't know her, and quite frankly, I'm not a massive fan of Azealia Banks or know a ton of her music. I know she's very popular, or at least was at one time, but what I do know her for is being a bit of a loose cannon controversial to say the least. Her Twitter, which we are not going to show because, well, Conor McGregor's private Tirana is laced with a ton of controversial statements and just being off the wall crazy. And she talks about everything from political statements to calling people out to, I guess, posting Conor McGregor's dick on Twitter. But regardless, if you were going to do something like this, the one thing you wouldn't do is send it to someone with a massive following and that really didn't give a F. And I want to reiterate how stupid this really was. Conor not only sent this picture to Azalea Banks, actually two pictures of his member to Azealia Banks, one of which. This is not a joke. This actually happened, has a dumbbell hanging off of it to show its strength. I guess there's a reason why I'm talking about this. Please bear with me. And both these pictures had their own caption. The one without the weight says something to the effect of, don't be a rat, because rats get caught. Which clearly shows me that Conor McGregor knew that Azealia Banks is crazy and will absolutely post a dick pic of his on the Internet. And still he decided to send it to her, which told me that Conor knew Azalea Banks was crazy and that he probably guessed you would put it out on the Internet, which makes me think, is this some big Kim Kardashian publicity stunt thing? I don't know. And two, the one with the weight attached to it just said lifting weights. Lifting weights. What the is wrong with this guy, man? What is wrong with this dude, bro? I'm laughing because I don't really know what else to do. This is awkward as it's weird and the fact that I even am talking about it is completely insane. But it is what it is, man. It is what it is. And here we are. And Conor has since offered a birthday message to himself in the midst of all the controversy. But you know what? I think this stems from some things that happened earlier this week. I think that this is Conor McGregor taking a victory lap on doing whatever the he wants. And let's be honest, at this point, Conor McGregor has lost all self respect. He's lost all semblance of a brain and he's lost the people of Ireland. He keeps talking about doing some presidential run. I think right now the only thing he could be president of is a king without shame club where a bunch of degenerate Neanderthal freaks show up and do all the crazy shit that's probably illegal. Speaking of illegal, I'm pretty sure what Azealia Banks just did and posted that on Twitter is illegal. And she since come out and said that her and Connor have been sending each other solicited naked pictures for years. I think she was bullshitting. I have no idea. The whole situation's weird. But this isn't just another one of the long laundry list of things Conor McGregor's done that disappoints pretty much everyone. This one, this one goes past that. This one's a little different, but it's. It's textbook Conor McGregor. It's. I'm just going to do whatever I want and y' all are going to have to see it. And why I think this, this whole thing has spiraled starting this week was earlier this week when I was in New York. Conor was in Florida promoting bkfc and he showed up to that press conference on more Kane than an old man with a broken hip. That dude was snorting freaking double black diamond slopes. I. I just have to imagine because this is in one hand one of the greatest promos I've ever seen. And in the other is completely deranged and psychotic.
Jeff Perlman
What's good, Hollywood?
Rick Jervis
I mean, what you can see beside.
Jeff Perlman
Me and in front of me, some of the baddest men and women to ever grace planet Earth. This is what we're about here at Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship. The alien of combat sport. And may we rise above the night sky and rain down blows vicious.
Rick Jervis
Rain down what? Listen, BKFC can rain down the blows. Talking about punches, but Conor already had the blow rained down on him by the cocaine gods. Jesus, he looks like Pablo Escobar. He can't even get through a sentence without taking heavy breaths. He's screaming into that microphone and sweating, turning more red than the Kool Aid man before he jumps through your wall, dude, all our deniers.
Jeff Perlman
And announce here today that Bare Knuckle FC has no love for the big glove. So let's get going. Bare Knuckle. Let's go Florida and let's announce some incredible matchups, some shock signings and the most lucrative tournament in all of combat sport where we crown in an open weight the baddest man on the planet. Let's go. Give it up.
Rick Jervis
Come on. So what he's talking about there, by the way, I can't even lie. It's a good promo. That's a better promo than companies would pay for. That's a better promo than any fighter, WWE wrestler, actor, anybody could cut. Conor is just, he's one of one with a microphone in his hand. Jesus. But that, that little bit right there. And there's more because not only was he feeling himself as promoter for the bkfc, he was also in his bag as fighter because Mike Perry called him out at the same press conference and this is what he had to say.
Jeff Perlman
Yeah, you're welcome back because I welcomed you back. October 11th is your date. And you'll dance for me, boy. You'll dance for the owner and then we can talk. But Your date is October 11th. Michael Perry, the return of platinum. And we've got some hell of an announcement for an opponent for you. One of the baddest men to ever grace the Ultimate Fighting Championship when it comes to bare knuckle. And he's going to throw down with you in front of me for my viewing pleasure. And then I'll decide if you're worthy.
Rick Jervis
Jesus, man, he's so good, but he's so cracked up on cocaine. But again, you're seeing the theme of this press conference in the mind state that Conor McGregor has been in this last week. And I'm probably A lot more than just the last week, because God only knows. But I'm willing to assume if this is how Conor's operating off a little snort to the cocaine and he's out in foreign land. And by the way, he also stepped out on D. Devlin once again while out in the United States pissing up on another lady on some beach, which was plain to see without it, Conor wasn't trying to hide it at all. You can kind of see where I'm going with this. It's definitely not his first time snorting any of the blow. Probably not the first time he sent a DM like this unsolicited to a woman. I guess he fancy. Regardless, he is very comfortable with what he's doing and what he's saying. That is kind of the point I'm getting at. Conor has become comfortable answering to nobody for anything, ever. Whether this was always in Conor's character or it's just something that's come out of him making shit tons of money and having no one to tell him no, this is who he is now. And in the same token, tomorrow he'll be on Twitter talking about Praise be to God. Thank you so much, people of Ireland, I want to be your next president. I'm here to save the people. I don't know if he's bipolar. I don't know if it even matters. I don't know if he even understands what the is the difference between that person who's the wannabe president, loving father, family man, and the snorting cocaine off strippers buttholes, Conor, and doing dong raises with a dumbbell attached to it for strength and conditioning. And what I think is, because you look at these, these view counts of these videos, Conor got a lot of attention for this press conference. Honestly, if I wasn't in New York, I would have made a video on it. Because when Conor does come out and he's in the limelight, you can't tell me he doesn't love that feeling, you know, the dawn. Yeah, mate, I'm the fucking dawn around here. Yeah. You'll dance for me, my daddy. You'll dance. He loves that Persona about himself. And that changed somewhere. It used to be Conor McGregor would talk truth. I talk truth, not talk shit. Right? That was his thing. I. I speak the truth. And when I speak the truth, it happens. He got away from that when the money came in. And truly when, when that boxing match happened with Floyd, he made that hundred million and then he came back and got flat out embarrassed. Embarrassed by Habib. Somewhere in that in those two fights, Conor change as a person. He changed. Whether it was Habib taking his soul from him that night in Vegas or if it was just the money that he made compounded into more money that he made off the Floyd Mayweather fight, something about him completely changed. And I think he likes it. I'm gonna be honest, I think he likes it or at least part of him does. The part that's not the family man, staying at home dad thing. It's like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Well, Mr. Hyde comes out. Conor is on a rampage of attention of dopamine. I don't know. Something that gets him in this, this, I mean, cocaine gets him in this high state where he's just like, yeah, y' all can't tell me nothing. Y', all, I'm gonna do whatever the I want. And I mean, yeah, it's. If you take a step back and you remove yourself from the comedy aspect of this whole thing, it is pretty sad to see because, yeah, I mean, how many times am I gonna get on YouTube and talk about how I used to look up to Conor McGregor and, and, and thought that the things he practiced and what he preached about self belief, about what, willing things into existence. His run throughout the UFC was all inspiring. Connor still draws headlines. He is still, you saw it there, a great promoter, the best talker in combat sports, point blank, period, maybe ever. We're watching now because of the training. We're watching the drunk uncle at the party wondering if and when he's going to piss on himself and fall asleep. Like that's the entertainment value of Conor McGregor right now. Sure, it's entertaining. He's a psychopath and he's clearly on some sort of paraphernalia, but the decisions he makes are just deplorable. They are. Or just idiotic. And I don't just mean that Conor exposed himself by hopping in Azalea Banks DMs and hanging more hog than a butcher shop. But what I really mean is that I am starting to believe when we talk about all, you know, Habib broke him, the Floyd fight broke him. I'm kind of also in the same mind going, no, Conor is exposing that maybe this is who he always was, didn't have the means to be that person. Maybe he wasn't meant for this kind of lifestyle, for this kind of money where he isn't left in check and no one can really say anything to him because these are the things he does when he has. Regardless, it's, it's just an Insane thing that Conor continues to do. I mean, listen, I said it a second ago. Could this be a Kim Kardashian style publicity stunt? Maybe. What do they say? All press is good press. But I think he should have pressed delete on all those pictures before he ever sent them out because now you even have my personal uncle Chael so befuddled in his video that he can't think of anything else throughout his day. Here's Chael. I can't quit staring at Conor's dick, I guess. And again, like, this is the, this is the side of the conversation you, you have to go to because it's so silly that, yeah, you can sit here and be the. Oh man, look how much of a disappointment Conor McGregor is. And wow, look at what a fall from grace. But then you have this side of it that's like, yeah, bro, this is, this is hilarious. I sent Connor's dick to my partner Ryan who opened it on his computer right as his wife was coming in the background. And then we have to explain what's happening here, but I can't stop looking. I've stared at this dick for the last two hours now. I'm not going to go into detail on the physical layout of things and the dimensions of said things. And I can assure you that in no world did I stare at that picture for two hours. But uncle jail built different, dude. This, this, this train wreck that Conor McGregor has involved himself in, it' to a bad place, I don't know where, but it's not going to end up well. At some point this kind of behavior is going to catch up to him. I know that there's still ongoing stuff with the sexual assault allegation. I don't know what happens with that. But at some point Conor is going to land himself and his family and the people around him in such a terrible, terrible spot because of his actions. And we will have all seen it coming like that. But the point is, today is a little bit of a wackier one with Conor's nudes getting leaked. That for most people would be mortifying for Conor McGregor. Just another day. That's the problem. Yeah, it's gonna end up, this is gonna end badly. Way worse than just some nudes being leaked, which again would be the worst for most people. For Conor, not so much. I got no other words. All I'll say is Conor probably needs to fight sometime soon because when he doesn't have fighting, when he doesn't have things to keep him occupied, he clearly has an issue keeping himself Together. So either I hope he fights, maybe that. That UFC White House Guard, or he gets his shit together, which is completely unlikely, but either way, that's a story for today. I don't even know if this video is going to be any good, but Conor McGregor just exposed himself in more ways than one or two, and the weight of this situation is enough to hang your hat on. I'm done. I'll see you guys in the next one. I don't have any other words. Bye. The craziest thing that I saw this week was the fact that KSI was on Chunks's show, which I didn't know that Chunks had a podcast, but it's called the Chunks show, and he was talking about his purse from the Tommy Fury fight. And, folks, this is genuinely insane what he says. Forget the caption. Let's just listen to what he had to say.
Jeff Perlman
With my last fight with Tommy Fury.
Rick Jervis
My whole purse, My whole purse, I gave it to my trainers. I was like, bro, cool. Like, I didn't. I didn't. I didn't want to do that with the podcast. No, wait, wait, wait, wait. What. What region are we talking? Zeros, Bo. Seven figures. Okay, so listen, are we for real? First off, before I. Before I blow a gasket, let's just say this. That's a pretty cool thing for KSI to do, right? That's really cool to say. You know what? I have a ton of money. Money is not why I do this. Here, Here you go. For. For training me and preparing me for this fight. I get that. That's dope, right? Would I ever do that? Out of your mind. No shot. To put in the amount of work that he had to put in for that fight, to take the time away from other stuff. I'm getting my bread now. I'm not in the same financial category, probably never will be as Mr. Bordering on billionaire over there, but how in the world do you give. Now, it says 10 mil on the. On the caption, and I kind of got baited with that. He says seven figures, whatever the number was. How do you get brainwashed into thinking that that head coaching team deserved seven figures after we find out that, you know, months down the line, they're running him ragged in the gym, sometimes training him twice a day, five days sparring him, injecting his hands with anesthetic for him to spar? Like, some of the dumbest decisions you can make for a guy like KSI, a cash cow, clearly like KSI to then go, here's. Here's seven Figures, crazy. And listen, everybody can do whatever they want with their money, right? I would never look at somebody and be like, unless they were like, family or, you know, a close friend and be like, hey, you're probably, you probably shouldn't be spending as much money as you're spending on X, Y and Z. KSI can do whatever he wants with his money, but this is genuinely, like, stupid to do because what it does is incentivizes the way he's being trained, the way they are pushing him. And honestly, the brainwashing that's taking place because think about it this way. First off, yes, the hand was injured before the Tommy Fury fight. I have no problem with KSI going through with the Tommy Fury fight with a hand injury. Things happen. You got to push through it off the back of it to continue trying to push through it after you give it a couple of weeks of rest or a month of rest and continue to push and push and push, I think is a direct cause and effect situation. From the 10 milli. 7 milli. 1 milli. Whatever the seven figures was that he gave the trainers, they went, if he's gonna give us this kind of money just to every time he fights, why not just keep having him fight? Why not just push him through whatever the hurts? Who cares? We gotta make our seven milli. We gotta make our, our five mil, whatever. I could be completely wrong. This could be nothing even close to the situation. And I'm sure his coaches care about him. But you can't tell me that there's no money involved when I'm hearing this kind of stuff. You can't tell me there might not be al. Ulterior motives when this kind of money is involved. Like I said, I think it incentivizes this whole thing. And if you are jj, you don't know any better. That's another thing too. You don't know any better. And this is why I think it's extra kind of weird. Not from jj, like, again, paying his trainers his full purse. Awesome. Super generous thing to do is trainers accepting the money again, I can't blame them. Sure, accept the money, fine. But I'm just looking at this whole situation and I'm going, man, I feel like he's getting taken advantage of. I, I, I, I just, I look at that and go, yeah, dude, they're, they're running your pockets. JJ's never been an athlete. I'm not saying JJ's not a, an athletic guy. He's just never done it outside of boxing. He never been in A boxing gym before he met, I think, Leon. And as far as the business side of it, I don't think that I'm out of line with saying that he's not very hands on when it comes to looking into the business side of these things and how boxing business works and how these other financial sectors are. So when he's being pushed at LSF and he sees all these other fighters, right, he sees Michael Venom Page and he sees these MMA guys and they're being pushed just as hard as he is. He's probably like, okay, I'm in the right spot. These guys really are, man, there. And he's having results. Fair play. They. They got him the result over Temper. They got him the results. Well, they didn't get him the result in Joe 48, but they, they beat Temper. He's pumped. He, he comes close to beating Tommy Fury, so they're pumped. Look, I've got it. I'm doing something right here. He probably just doesn't know any better. Like he knows better than that. Trainers get a certain percentage, but I don't know if he knows any better that they're working him like a freaking mule over there and they're milking him like a cow. After I look at it. And I think this is incentivization. And it explains a lot about what happened after the Tommy Fury fight. Explains a little bit more. It explains a bit of opponent selection because let's be honest, after the Tommy Fury fight, there were some names thrown out that weren't great opponents for JJ to face next. And apparently, according to, you know, unnamed sources, that JJ's coaches have a lot of say in who he fights. It explains a lot about pushing through injuries multiple different times. Explains why they were injecting his hands with anesthetics because I've never heard of that ever. I'm just saying, nefarious or not, it explains why the need for JJ to fight like a normal fighter would be on the table. He's the cash cow for misfits, but also he's the cash cow for lsf. I think it becomes a bit of a dilemma when you're having him in the gym, completely free his hand up just so he can get a payday on a 2v1 match with Slim. And at that no one gave a about or hey, let's get him in there with Wayne Bridge so we could have him fight. Or even the Dylan Danis thing, it was like the, the, the, the high level opponent, him getting better, actually preparing him for a Jake Paul Fight. We want to get paid. That's what I, I don't know their gym. I don't know how they operate. I don't know what their, their situation looks like. I'm sure they're balling now. You know, I'm saying, I'm sure. I'm sure now money is not an issue for lsf. You know what I'm saying? But, yeah, that's a bit of an eye opener. Not because JJ shouldn't have given them, not because they shouldn't have accepted it. Because I know everybody over there works hard, but it explains a lot about the way JJ is utilized in that gym and the opponent selection, the anesthetic in the hands, the. The training when he wasn't even in camp, the way he was trying to train and, and how they, you know, treat him like just a normal regular fighter when he's not. That Jake Paul is making his entire life boxing. That's not what J.J. was doing. And the way they pushed him and pushed him and pushed him to the brink. I'll be honest, I think LSF ran JJ out of boxing. I think that the grind they put him through, the injuries he got, the way he was lifting weights, the opponent selection, the lack of interest, the wear and tear, and obviously the big fact, him not getting the Jake fight. But I think all of that combined, they burn him out. They burned him out of the sport. They made him feel like this was his life and that's he's an adult, he's a big boy. He accepted that. And again, you could call it ignorance is bliss, but he just didn't know any better. This is what he's supposed to do to get the Jake fights, what he's supposed to do to get better, because he looks around and nobody else is JJ in that gym. So, okay, they're doing it, I'm doing it, But I think they ran him out. I think they burn him out. It'll be interesting to see if he goes back with him after this hand surgery. Really, really will be interesting to see. I thought they, they had him sparring way too much. Now, again, he's young in the game, so maybe you got to spar a lot. Fair play. But I think that they were fun. They were. They. I think they were seriously close to him up, by the way they had him lifting some of those exercises. I was like, you're going to hurt the kid. I mean, we were talking about this two years ago. We watched those workout vids of JJ and his knee looks like it's going to pop out of socket for him, squatting some weight that doesn't ever need to be on his back bench pressing some crazy weight for half a rep for no reason. It all makes sense now, though. And also too, again, we'll talk about this side of it, the incentivization of coaching JJ at that point when you're, when, when he gives up that full purse, it can go one of two ways. And I'm not here to tell you which way it's going to go or did go, but you can say, wow, that's super generous, thank you. We're going to take care of you better because of that. Because we don't want to have you hurt your hand. We don't want all these things so that we can, you know, continue this thing on or we have to get every single thing we can out of this guy because his time is short in the sport. So we need to run him again. If that's the payout we're getting, we need to run him again and again and again and again. So I tend to think it was the second part. I tend to think they were like, we need to really have him fight to make sure we get this payout because it's insane. And I think there's a part of it that again, JJ just looks at his team like they are above everything else that he could possibly ever get training wise. And he, and he respects it so much that, man, these guys, they deserve that. And he's, he's just wrong. But then again, you know, they do train KSI. He's a high profile guy and he got paid a ton of money and he gave it all up. So fair play, I guess. But yeah, I saw that and I just couldn't believe it. Could not believe it because I'm pretty sure whatever's going on with his hands is at least somewhat gonna be permanent. Somewhat. There's gonna be some permanent damage there. And that's the game. That's boxing. That's what happens when you step into this sport. It's a dangerous sport, but it could have been prevented and it definitely could have been at least managed better if not for the continued mismanagement. I would say that's gone on with JJ's career and London shoot fighter. Whether it was opponent selection, whether it was the way he was training, the way he was lifting, the way he was sparring, the way he was being taken care of, and eventually the way I think his career potentially, because I believe there might be a little soft tease of retirement coming because of the way JJ talks about how he feels when he fights, how he feels when he's boxing, how it's miserable, how he doesn't like the person he is. I think he's burned out in the sport and I think LSF has a big, A big part of that. But you guys let me know down below. This was one of the craziest things I saw this week. KSI forking over seven figures to the gym that probably permanently damaged his hand and burned him out on the sport is a classic, what do you, you call it, Stockholm syndrome? I don't know. The classic case of, of ignorance is bliss. A classic case of brainwashing a fighter from a gym. I don't know. But either way, it's completely, it's generous, it's a good, it's a good faith act, but it's completely insane. He's probably done with the sport, at least in the short term, probably in the long term without saying he's retired. Because once he says he's retired, misfits is going to have a real problem on their hands. But that was one of the big things I wanted to make about this. This video was KSI teased in retirement. Also completely delusional about, you know, his team and their worth compared to what they've actually done for him and what happens next for him. Because I'm, I'm hearing he's either had surgery or is about to have surgery. When he comes back, does he go back to lsf? Maybe, maybe not. I think he would do better with Gibbs team. I think he could do better with BJ Flores. I think he could do better with a ton of different people. But I think LSF's gonna break him if he goes back there. And it won't just be his hand, it'll be something else. Because the way they train, the way they spar, the way they do things, it, it gets you. Right? You know, it gets him in a crazy physical shape, but it also leads to him doing and having detrimental things go on in his personal life and his professional life and his health and well being. So I just think it's a bad idea all the way around. And I think they've, they've ran his pockets and I want to say scammed him, I want to go that far to say they've scavenged him. But yeah, let me know what you guys think down below. What happens next for KSI? I think he's probably, he might be done. I think he's probably done boxing, but that's just Me don't have those answers, so I guess we'll find out. All right, folks, so we are back and we have breaking news as Misfits boxing is back. Misfits 22. They're calling it Ring of Thrones. They've only announced two fights, the co Main and the Main. It's only been out for about 10 minutes and it's already sparking controversy. So we need to talk about it because I for one am excited and I will be watching. What do I mean, the breakdown. Let's go. So Misfits22 just dropped and here is the poster. Ring of Thrones main Event Darren Till vs Luke Rockhold. Co Main Event Tony Ferguson vs Super Salt Poppy. Now they're talking about Misfits titles here. I don't really give a about any of that. I care about the four men in these two matchups. And by the way, the poster's fire. They're doing a Game of Thrones thing. I don't know, I never watched Game of Thrones. Sorry to people that did. But it looks good. It looks pretty damn good. Now let's talk location. August 30th in the AO arena in Manchester. If I remember correctly, that is the city for sure, if not the same arena that I made my second home. That's right. Planted the Wade concept flag right in the middle of Manchester, came across the pond, got a W and said, yeah, daddy's home. They're going back there. Which I think is great because Misfits has a massive UK audience. And listen, they have four big names at least for this scene on the card, three of which were either title contenders, interim champions, or in the case of Luke Rockhold, full on MMA champion. So let's break down the matchups. Number one, Darren Till. Luke Rockhold. You have former 170 pound championship contender in Darren Till versus at one point, I know it's, it's big 20, 25 and we don't think about this anymore. But at one point, Luke Rockhold was the baddest dude in the world at 185 pound. He was nasty. Now this is boxing, not necessarily his forte because Luke Rockhold had never been a boxing aficionado. I mean, he lost a bare knuckle to Mike Perry, but I mean, he had great kicks in mma. He had a great question mark kick, one of the best question mark kicks and high kicks you'll ever see, but a high level grappler in his own right as well. I mean, he beat Michael bisping with a one arm guillotine. @ one point and strong guy, great grappler. But boxing was never really his thing which is why, you know, when he came over and did the bare knuckle thing, Mike Perry knocked his tooth out and beat him in a bare knuckle fight. But now he's got the gloves on, Darren Till is looking for more fighters to feast on. I'm going to be honest, I think Darren Till not only beats Luke Rockhold here, probably knocks him out because Darren Till has shown himself to be a high level crossover boxer, if you want to call him that, but he is taking this scene by storm. Is beaten. Anthony Taylor just beat Darren Stewart with a walk off KO there and he's being active. Darren Till, right, right now is carrying misfits. It's the truth. He is misfits biggest star. He's their biggest name. KSI is not fighting. So Darren Till has taken the company by storm and taken over this whole thing. I was in his co main event in his debut. He since had another main event. This is his third main event this year. That's crazy. Darren till has fought three times this year or will have by the time August 30th rolls around. Knock on wood. But yeah, I mean listen, this is a great fight name value wise. A lot of people know who Luke Rockhold is. I think he did some, something with karate combat as well. He's done bare knuckle, he, he has gotten around after his time in MMA and I think he trains here on the west coast. So if I can, I would love to get some sessions in or at least talk to Luke Rockhold about this decision to go in box and see maybe I'm wrong, maybe he's got better hands now. Maybe he's just been training boxing than we've ever seen before. But as of right now, I do think Darren Till is, is the better boxer of the two and he's probably going to show it. But then we have the co main event and this one is, is very controversial people because it involves, I would say, a man that most MMA fans emotionally tied to because of his run and the subsequent fall off of one Tony Ferguson. But whether you like this or don't like it, meaning him boxing. Tony has a ton of fans and if this would have been Tony Ferguson versus Jake Paul or Tony Ferguson versus KSI, I probably be in the same boat to be like, yeah, nah, I, I don't think this is a good idea. And it's, to be honest, because of their experience and, and the time they've had in the Sport. And Tony is coming off of a very downward trajectory in his MMA career. And listen, Saul Poppy's very good as well. It's not like he is just random influencer versus Tony Ferguson. Salt Poppy's probably gonna knock Tony Ferguson out. I mean, that's what I think. I think that Salt Poppy's probably going to clean Tony Ferguson's clock in this fight. And again, I don't think Tony should be fighting. I'm just going to say that just like I said with the Mike Tyson fight and some others, I don't think he should be fighting. I don't think Manny Pacquiao should be fighting this Saturday for a world title against Mario Barrio. But that's happened. These guys are adults. They're going to make the decisions they want to make. Am I pumped to see Tony go in there and get absolutely slaughtered? No. And maybe he won't. Maybe he won't. But all indications, at least for me, are that Saul Poppy should knock him out for sure. And I don't want to see that. At the same time, I'm not going to act like I don't want to see him fight, and I don't want to see Salt Bobby fight. I do. I just don't want to see Tony get hurt. But that's the fight game, and that's what you sign up for. These guys are grown men. At the end of the day, I'm not making excuses for it. Again, Tony shouldn't be fighting, but hey, here we are. He's an adult. He said yes. Good luck to him. Maybe. Maybe he comes out with a. With a sense of renewed energy at 41 coming into this fight, and everybody is walking into this thinking soul Poppy is going to knock Tony out, and Tony's a walking dead man. But it's interesting to me when I hear all this controversy pop up online, because I was here long enough to remember when Salt Papi fought Slim and lost, and everybody said he was overrated or overhyped. And the same thing happened when he fought Anthony Taylor and lost. And Anthony Taylor is not a spry chicken in his own right and definitely never had the career Tony Ferguson did. And I'm not trying to compare apples to oranges here. I'm just saying the same people that call Anthony Taylor trash for losing to Darren Till or call Slim trash for losing to Gibb are the same people upset that Tony Ferguson is fighting the guy that lost to Slim and that lost Anthony Taylor in his debut on Misfits. And again, I'm with you that I Think doll Poppy's probably going to knock him out. But if Tony Ferguson is going to continue to fight, is there a less lethal option for him name value wise to keep you in interested, to keep you entertained and watching him fight? Like is it more safe for Tony Ferguson to go back and fight in the ufc? Is it more safe for him to go fighting karate combat? Is it more safe for him to go and box somewhere else? Is it more safe for him to do bare knuckle? The answer is no. If Tony Ferguson is going to fight, which again, I don't think he should, but if he's going to, it's going to be dangerous regardless where he does it. But he's fighting the guy in salt Poppy, that has four years experience boxing, sure that's more than Tony, but it's on the lesser side of the experience you could have when walking into a new sport like boxing. And for Tony Ferguson, I still think he's going to get knocked the out. But listen, I, I'm, I'm ready for this card. This feels like a, you know, a big move for Misfits. At least without KSI in the fold of what's happening or at least, you know, him fighting or whatever, this, this feels like one of their bigger cards, one of their bigger opportunities to get themselves back on track because KSI has pulled out of his last couple. There's been some great cards, there's been some okay cards, there's been some not so great cards. This one feels like, at least at the top of it, it is going to be a good card for Misfits. Now again, they, they only have shown us the main and the co main. I have heard rumors and actually it's not even a rumor at this point because he's pretty much come out and said it. Aaron the Plumber on Twitter is saying he's going to be fighting on August 30th. And if you guys know anything about what's been going on between me and Aaron the Plumber, I'll be taking a very close look at that fight. But who knows what else is going to be on on this card. There could be another couple of bangers, another couple of sleepers on this card. But I can't lie. Yeah, I'm pumped about watching Misfits 22. I know it's a freak show. I get it and I've always got. And for the people that don't like this kind of thing, that's okay. You don't have to like Misfits. And you can call it A freak show. Because yeah, you're right, it is, it is a bit of a freak show compared to the highest level of pro boxing. But no one's ever said that misfits was high level boxing. No one's ever claimed that the best of misfits are the best in the world. We know people that are in this scene, in the crossover boxing scene. No, that's not the case. That's, that's not ever been the case. That's never been where it came from or where it's going. It's just entertaining fights for the sake of having entertaining fights. And also, if we're going to call this a freak show, then you kind of do have to call the rest of the sport of boxing at times a freak show. Because most of your favorite fighters in their first 10 to 12 fights, they're not fighting anybody of substance. They're not fighting high level competitors. They're going out and knocking out tomato cans to pad their record to put them in a position to fight against some of the people that are holding world titles in their next 10 to 15 fights. And the second biggest fight that's ever been presented on pay per view in a boxing ring was a freak show. Lloyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor in a pro boxing match was a complete freak show. Because why would the greatest of all time, or at least one of the greatest of all time at 49, 0, even be able to or elect to fight Conor McGregor in his debut in boxing? And people wouldn't watch anything like that, right? Morality would get in the way. They would say, no way. Can we let that. No, of course not. It was like 4 million people bought it on pay per view. How about Tyson Fury, Francis Ngannou? That just happened like two years ago. And the people that were acting like it wasn't a big deal or it wasn't something they were gonna watch, they still showed up and watched. And Francis Ngannou knocked down Tyson Fury, the reigning heavyweight champion of the world, in his first boxing match. So I'm tired of the whole fake purist thing where people act like, like that some big deal that these fights go on and they're finger waving and, and safeguarding the sport of boxing. When we all know the sport of boxing, much like the sport of MMA and combat sports in general have a bit of freak show in them because you kind of have to. Because these sports are not like regular sports. They're just not. It's just a very polarizing thing because Tony Ferguson's 41 and he's coming off a massive losing streak in the ufc. But again, I counter with, if Tony is going to fight and that's something you and I can't control, is there a safe option out there for him? The answer is no, there isn't. A fight's a fight, so he shouldn't be doing it. But I'm not going to lie. I'm going to watch. I'm excited for the rest of this card. Rollout AO Arena Aug 30 Manchester Darren Till, Luke Rockhold. I mean, listen, I have a feeling Darren Till is going to win that, but hey, you never know. And let's see what what Luke Rockhold brings. But regardless, Misfits is trying, and this announcement was a little bit delayed, but I'm happy that they got something going here and they got a date and they're looking to move forward. And again, I am keeping an eye on that Aaron the Plumber fight. So what happens in these two fights? I've given my opinion. Maybe it'll change as we get closer if I see something different. Probably not, but I'm excited for it. I'm gonna be watching. So, yeah, stay tuned. We'll do some breakdowns. I'd love to interview Luke Rockholds. I think he's out here in Orange county, so hopefully we can get that set up and just try to build this thing. Because you know what? I want to have fun watching cards, and I want to see misfits continue to grow. It's where I started in this scene, and I want to continue to try to help them build and. And I'll always try to do that. So misfits 22 breaking news announcement just dropped Main event Darren. So Luke Rockhold and co main Tony Ferguson makes his return versus salt poppy. August 30 AO Arena Manchester aka My Backyard what happens when this card fully gets unveiled? Who wins and why? I don't have those answers yet, but guess we'll find out. All right, so we are back on the way Concept presented by the ring and today we are taking a look at the heavy rematch for the undisputed championship of the world. Alexander Usyk versus Daniel Dubois. Number two. The rematch after some will say controversy in the first fight, I kind of agree, but we'll get into why after we take a look at their first face off this fight week. They sat down face to face and as we know, both of them are not great talkers. But I want to take a look and see what the energy is. I want to see what Daniel Dubois brings. Brings differently to this fight than he brought to the first fight. I want to see if Usyk still has that passion at the top level to take down and reinvigorated Daniel Dubois. But before we do any of that, I want to let you guys know two things. Number one, I am live this Saturday for this fight, Usyk Dubois. Number two, Manny Pacquiao, Mario Barrios and UFC 318. And I want to say a big thank you to the sponsor of this video and where I'll be making my picks come fight night this Saturday. And that is the one and only DraftKings sportsbook. That's right folks, something special is about to happen in the Big Easy this Saturday night. Dustin Poirier versus Max Holloway, number three, UFC 318. And this one is the Diamonds retirement fight. That's right, Dustin Poirier's last time he will step into the Octagon. 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Thank you to DraftKings for sponsoring this video. Now let's get back to the breakdown. So like I said, let's see if we can read into the messaging between Daniel Dubois and Alexander Usyk. And between the two of them, what has changed from the first fight and now it's the Face off breakdown. Let's go. By the way, I don't know if you guys saw this. I need to find the actual the video Daniel Dubois screaming in Usyk's face when they dropped down yesterday in London. This is actually the first face off of fight week, I guess. Look at the confidence oozing out of both guys. Usyk, very stoic Daniel Dubois. Well, yeah, he's Daniel Dubois screaming. The way that Daniel Dubois acts, it's unlike any other fighter I've ever seen. He is just fully himself. I think sometimes he even has no idea the moment that he's in and he's just, I don't know, I don't know how to describe it. He's just himself. And it's refreshing. He's not trying to be, you know, a crazy good shit talker. He's not even trying to be intimidating. He's just, just telling it like he sees it. And even when he says like and the new and he's screaming it in Usyk's face, I don't think that's projection. I think that's the confidence he feels after his run, after the first fight where he got knocked down and eventually stopped with the jab from Usyk. The run he's been on since the Miller fight. Hrgovic, Joshua, all these things back to back to back and all of them being stoppages has led him back to this moment. And I think that that screaming in Usyk's face is letting him know, like, listen, this is a different, a different Daniel Dubois. So anyway, let's get into the actual face to face here.
Dr. Leah Tritate
Bois, we go again. Do you think you could be getting Oleksandr at a good time? He's had two hard 12 round fights with Tyson Fury, obviously. 38 now. Is this your time?
Manny Pacquiao
You could say that. But I don't want to even, even put it down to just him being an old man. I got prove myself.
Rick Jervis
I love it, dude. Again, Daniel Dubois not even trying to put down Usyk when he's talking about him. He's just telling it like he truly wants this to be looked at. He's just blunt, that's all it is. He's like, listen, I don't want anybody to just put this down to him being an old man when I destroy him, right? Like he, he does not want any excuses, but he's not even trying to be disrespectful. He's just, he's just blunt. And I like it. I like the fact that he's like, yeah, no, we're not going to sit here and act like if I beat him it's because he went through two 12 round fights with Tyson Fury and that he's 38 now if I win or I guess he would say when I Win. It's going to be because Daniel Dubois got better, not because Usyk got worse. Right. But I just like the way he said it. He's like, we're not going to act like he's just an old man.
Manny Pacquiao
I don't want to even, even put it down to just him being an old man. I gotta prove myself and, you know, bring chaos in the ring. What I bring him, the force I have, have, that will be what's needed, really. But I stand more to gain. He's at the end of his career. I stand more to gain from a win, getting all the belts. That means, you know, that's the start for me, really.
Rick Jervis
He's like, I don't want to put it down to Usyk being at the end of his career, but he is at the end of his career and I am not. So he is an old man.
Dr. Leah Tritate
What are your memories of the first fight with Daniel?
Mario Barrios
My winner.
Rick Jervis
Yeah.
Dr. Leah Tritate
Did anything surprise you about Daniel?
Mario Barrios
No, no. It's a boxing. Boxing don't have surprise.
Rick Jervis
Yeah.
Dr. Leah Tritate
How do you approach this fight?
Rick Jervis
Usyk is just, I mean, again, he's never been like a crazy wordsmith. He's trying to obviously speak English and not his native tongue, but it's simple but effective. The way that he does these, like, face offs and, you know, if there are mind games back and forth, he usually is getting the. He got the better of Tyson Fury in the mind game stuff leading up to both of their fights where Tyson usually is the big talker and, you know, he's calling him rabbit and sausage and all this. And Usyk was just calm, cool, collected, laughing at Tyson Fury and got the better of him. Got Tyson all out of sorts. Even an answer like that, he's like, what do you remember about the. The first fight? He's like, I won. That's what I remember. And no, Dubois didn't surprise me because it's boxing. I'm ready for whatever. Like, it's simple but effective.
Dr. Leah Tritate
Differently this time, confidence.
Manny Pacquiao
I'm ready to seize victory.
Dr. Leah Tritate
Is it about throwing the kitchen sink?
Manny Pacquiao
It's about getting victory. Seriously. You know, I've worked hard for it and now I want to cause chaos in the ring and restore it with order, with victory. So that's my. That's my mindset.
Rick Jervis
That's twice now. Dubois said he wants to cause chaos in the ring. That seems like, you know, a message they've had in camp. Something that he definitely wants to try to flesh out in real time. And what I think he means, if I'm Just trying to guess. He's going to try to take the fight to Alexander Usyk, and I think it's a good idea. You can't let Usyk get downhill and push you back. Tyson Fury let him push him back twice. It didn't go well for him. Anthony Joshua let Usyk get on the front foot and it didn't go well for him. Dubois, when he was in that first fight and things started to not go his way, Usyk got downhill and didn't go well for him. You do need to keep pressure on Usyk. He is a technician, and eventually, if he's allowed to walk forward and start the exchanges and keep his offensive volume up, up, he's going to find an open and when he finds it, he's going to go back to the well and it's going to hurt you. So when he's talking about causing chaos in the ring, I have to think he means be first, be on the front foot and make Usyk adjust to him versus him adjusting to Usyk, or make Usyk a little hesitant to throw versus him being hesitant to throw and welcoming a firefight is what. Is what Daniel Dubois is essentially saying there. I don't. I don't know about all that, but I do like the idea him being first, him being on the front foot and him pushing and pressuring Usyk versus just allowing Usyk to stand in the middle and then eventually push him back. That can't happen for Daniel Dubois.
Dr. Leah Tritate
What was it like sharing the ring with Usyk? Everyone calling Alexander a master? What was it like sharing a ring with a master?
Manny Pacquiao
Oh, look, look, I've come on since then. I've resurrected myself. So I feel, you know, just ready for the. Ready for a new beginning, really. I'm ready for a great fight, looking forward to a great fight, and, yeah, I'm excited for it.
Dr. Leah Tritate
Same.
Rick Jervis
It's interesting the way that Dubois answered that question. It's like in his mind, he didn't even want to give up the fact that Usyk either got the better of him in the first fight or that Usyk was a master of boxing. I kind of like that mindset to be like, I'm not even going to entertain what happened in the first fight. It's done and over. I've moved on. But then a part of me kind of looks at that and goes, oh, man, Daniel's having a real hard time. Except. And he lost that first fight, he's like, oh, I've changed since then. And, you know, I'm better now. My confidence is higher. Now, when you're starting to talk about, like, reasons Daniel lost the first fight, you can say a big part of it, people on the outside say was, you know, he didn't have the confidence to weather adversity. Right. He didn't have the confidence to stay on task. When Usyk started to turn the tide after the low blow and everything else, by the way, I'm still on the fence about that being a low blow. I genuinely don't think he hit him with a low blow. But regardless, I also think Usyk would have gotten up had the referee started counting in his face. Watching that first fight happen, you saw potentially Daniel Dubois go, okay, I haven't been to this place before and I don't like it, so let me get out of here. Right. You could extrapolate that there was a bit of a mental switch that was shut off, where he was like, ah, I'm kind of done. This is not something I want to do right now. If he's figured that out and mentally, like he's talking about, he's more confident this time around, that could lead to a different fight. Absolutely. Because Dubois was doing very well in the first fight, and then things went downhill and he kind of let it go downhill. He let that snowball build as it was coming downhill. So I like his answer there, but there's also a part of me that goes, has he even accepted that this fight may go back to the same place it was in the first fight? Meaning there's going to be adversity at some point here for Daniel Dubois? Almost certainly. Is he ready mentally for that moment? I think through the fights he's been in so far, that's prepared it, but those fights with Joshua, Hergovic and Miller, those guys hadn't beaten him yet. Usyk has. It's one thing to battle through adversity in a fight that's back and forth. It's another thing to battle the man that already beat you and he beats you after you had good moments coming back that second time around. How do you face him if things don't go your way or if things are back and forth even the second time. You get what I'm saying? I don't know.
Dr. Leah Tritate
Question asked. Alexander, did anything surprise you about him?
Manny Pacquiao
No. No. Not to be honest. Really? No, no, no.
Dr. Leah Tritate
The power. Everybody talks about the power of Daniel Dubois.
Manny Pacquiao
The.
Dr. Leah Tritate
The biggest puncher you've been in the.
Mario Barrios
Ring with, I think.
Manny Pacquiao
No, no.
Dr. Leah Tritate
Who was the biggest puncher?
Mario Barrios
My is Derek.
Rick Jervis
Really?
Mario Barrios
Yeah.
Dr. Leah Tritate
Punches harder than Daniel.
Mario Barrios
Crazy Derek. Yeah.
Rick Jervis
Interesting. Okay. Alexander Usyk says Derek Chisora punches harder than Daniel Dubois. I mean, listen, heavyweight, measuring someone's punch. Unless you're Deontay Wilder or Erdie Shavers or Archie Moore or, you know, like George Foreman, Mike Tyson, unless you're like a, one of, one of your generation when it comes to power punching and boxing, everybody hits hard. Hard, right? Like everybody at heavyweight hits. Our Usyk hits hard. Usyk had Tyson Fury doing the freaking chicken dance. I'm talking DJ Unk, walk it out. In that first fight, he was dragging him all over the ring like Tyson was on a three day bender. That's how bad that Usyk had him hurt with a left hand. So everyone hits hard. Obviously Daniel Dubois hits hard for that division. Has a big time right hand, left hook. He's got power. But as far as like, oh, does he hit harder than, than. I don't think it matters because if Dubois hits you on the chin, it doesn't matter if he hits harder than Chisora or Joshua or Wilder. It's heavyweight boxing and he's 240 or maybe 250 pounds. He does you on the chin, you're going to sleep or at least you're losing your legs. You're getting the zab. Judah, noodle leg again. I think this is a little bit of mind games from Usyk. He may be telling the truth, but this little laugh at the end of it here tells me that, yeah, like, I think he wants to plant that seed in Daniel Dubois mind. Like, bro, you don't even hit that hard. For you to be the big power puncher, man, that's, that's, that's not something I'm worried about.
Dr. Leah Tritate
Punches harder than Daniel.
Mario Barrios
Crazy Derek. Yeah.
Dr. Leah Tritate
Was you surprised when Daniel didn't get to his feet when you hit him with that jab?
Mario Barrios
No, no.
Dr. Leah Tritate
There was a lot of controversy after that first fight with the shot.
Rick Jervis
I'll say this, that jab was not a regular jab from Usyk. He put a lot into that job that was more of a powerful jab, more than just like a touch jab or, you know, something to find range with. He was trying to hurt him with that jab. Again, I think there was a mental component from Dubois to say I can make a choice right here and I don't want any more of what I'm going through at this moment. But I do think it hurt him. I think it hurt him enough to send him down. I don't know if it hurt him enough to keep him down. But regardless, that was a tough shot Usyk hit him with, and there were more shots in that round. And in that exchange that Usyk was having success with that Dubois didn't want anymore. I don't think it was a one shot knockout punch. I think it was an accumulation of things that were happening to Daniel Dubois.
Mario Barrios
It's not surprised for me because my jab was hard.
Dr. Leah Tritate
Was it a hard job?
Manny Pacquiao
I don't want to even go there. We're talking about that's passed and gone because I don't know what you're trying to. I know what you're doing, you're doing your job. But I'm looking forward in it, you know, causing chaos in the ring on Saturday. And that's my whole game priority.
Rick Jervis
Man, that question shook up Daniel. This is what I'm talking about now. Again, I know mentally he's trying to be like, I don't even want to talk about that because that's done and gone. And again. And he said the, the cause chaos in the ring thing again, I, I have to think that's like he comes in the gym every day with that on his mind because he said it like four times in this face off. But again, you just see how he reacts to anything that happened in that first fight. First off, he's like, I don't know what you're trying to pull here, but I know what you're trying to do your job. And again, every fighter has their way of coping with a rematch that they lost the first fight in, or things they need to adjust in, in their career to come back stronger. I actually think the loss for Daniel Dubois was such a good thing for his career. And again, I've been, you know, shouting this from the rooftop. When it comes to boxing specifically, a loss does not hinder your career as much as it can help your career. If you learn from the loss and come back and implement the things that you did wrong there and worked on to make them right. I think it is such a big help to fighters. Not that you should go out there with the idea of I should lose, but if you do, it's not the end of the world is my point. And actually, I think it made Daniel Dubois a better fighter. But I am worried again, where he's like, yeah, we don't. I'm not even going to talk about that as he accepted it. Not that he even has to, but I think mentally it does play a part. If you get into trouble again, haven't accepted it yet the first time, or you haven't Even, you know, opened your mind to going back and looking at that and saying, okay, what could I have done better? If it happens again, if he gets in a bad spot again, where does this fight go? I don't know. Just keep an eye on that.
Dr. Leah Tritate
Your form has been brilliant of late. What do you put that down to?
Manny Pacquiao
Hunger and desire and, you know, just, you know, as you're a fighter, you want to become the best. So that, and the team I have around me, my dad and that, that circle, inner circle, kept me strong and who I am today.
Dr. Leah Tritate
Do you look at that first fight and think I'm a completely different animal now?
Manny Pacquiao
Yeah, I've moved past, I'm resurrected myself, and I feel like a new, a ready fighter, ready for anyone in the world.
Dr. Leah Tritate
This shot that was called low, if, if the referee had started counting, would you have got to your feet?
Rick Jervis
Yeah, see, I just think that that shot is belt line to me, man.
Dr. Leah Tritate
Referee had started counting, like, I know.
Rick Jervis
Where it touches to begin with. I get that, like, first impact. But yeah, I mean, I can, I can see it being called low, to be honest, but I just, I think it's very bor. And, and one thing's for sure, Usyk did not get punched in the nuts here. Like, for the people that are calling it a low blow, though, that's not where your. Your nuts are, like, you know what I'm saying? Like, that even there, Usyk's nuts are not at his v taper, you know what I'm saying? Like, he didn't get hit in the balls here. I don't know if he's Conor McGregor out here. He might have got punched in the Mihog, but this is not. The reaction that Usyk gave off. This punch to me was more so because he was allowed to have the time by the referee, and I think it hurt him more to the body than it did to the nut. That makes sense. I think that's the best way to describe this. Could it have been by letter of the law, low? Sure. I still think it's a bit borderline, but at the same time, I don't think he was hitting the nuts. I do think he was hitting the lower stomach, abdomen region, and he did not like that. And the referee gave him time, so he took it. Right. That is, I mean, that's smart. That's a veteran move. If the referee got in his face and was 1, 2, I think Usyk gets back to his feet.
Dr. Leah Tritate
Would you have got to your feet?
Mario Barrios
Yes, of course. I wake up 100%, which was hard because my. My B.O. say, hey, Alex.
Manny Pacquiao
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Mario Barrios
It was pain, but it's not like a body. It's hex. It's different.
Dr. Leah Tritate
Well, I've heard Don Charles, your coach.
Rick Jervis
Say that was interesting. Alex said his corner was like, hey, Alex, Whoa, whoa, whoa. So he. He took the time. I don't know what, again, Usyk, it's sometimes tough to understand, but he's essentially saying it wasn't a body shot. It was different pain. I'm not him, so I can't. I can't. I'm not going to dispute, like, what he felt, just what I see. I don't know. I. That doesn't. That doesn't seem like it was a.
Dr. Leah Tritate
Nutshot that he believes that Alexander Conn, the ref and the boxing.
Manny Pacquiao
Yeah. Don't even go there. Maybe don't. No, no, no. This is today, this is now. I'm going to enjoy this fight. I want to enjoy this fight. So we'll see.
Rick Jervis
I like that, man. Okay. I like that. That answer from Daniel Dubois. Like, yeah, no, we're not here talking about the. The low blow. We're not here to worry about what he did or didn't do and the rule set and all that. All that. We're here for this fight. That. Okay, that's a strong, confident answer. All right, Dubois. We like that.
Dr. Leah Tritate
How do you stop Daniel from enjoying it?
Mario Barrios
This was wonderful.
Rick Jervis
It will be wonderful.
Dr. Leah Tritate
Your performance will be wonderful.
Mario Barrios
Yeah.
Dr. Leah Tritate
Are you still very hungry?
Mario Barrios
Yeah, I continue. I continue feeling I hungry for boxing training. Not training, too, but my training. I prepare for this fight. 23 years. All my life. But boxing is like oxygen for me.
Dr. Leah Tritate
Just.
Rick Jervis
It's an interesting answer there. He says that, I'm still hungry for boxing. And then he started to be like. Like, training, maybe not. And then he kind of saved it and was like, well, I've been training for 23 years for this. Boxing is what gets me out of bed training. But boxing gets him out of bed. That's a little interesting, right? Because, you know, they go hand in hand. You have to sacrifice for however many months your life, potentially, you know, time with your family, all this other stuff to train. And let's be honest, I can't speak for professionals, but when I had my little rinky dink fight, I. I hated training. And I only trained for like a month or so. And I couldn't stand it. Right? I could not stand how tired I was all the time, how irritable I was, how. Just. It just. It's. It's what it does to you. Boxing is a very hard sport to train, but the payoff is the fight. And Usyk is in my opinion there saying, yeah, you know, I'm not as in love with training anymore as maybe I was when I was younger, but I still love boxing. Does that mean he didn't commit as hard to this training camp or, you know, I don't know. But that's an interesting answer because as we all know, we don't think Usyk has many fights left. Like Barker said earlier, he's 38, coming off two big 12 round fights. I don't know, but that's just an interesting way for him to phrase it. I'm not in love with training anymore, or at least not as much as I was. But boxing is like air to me. It's like oxygen. I don't know if it'll have an effect. We'll see.
Dr. Leah Tritate
Just being more aggressive this time, being more offensive, letting the hands go, being dominant on the front foot. Is that how you plan on.
Manny Pacquiao
Yeah.
Dr. Leah Tritate
Tackling this fight?
Manny Pacquiao
Yeah.
Dr. Leah Tritate
And are you prepared for anything that Daniel brings your way?
Mario Barrios
Yes, of course. Listen, it's a young guy. This guy wanna zabrat take my, my belts. I not wanna give my belt.
Rick Jervis
Listen, Dubois, I mean, Darren really kind of answered the question for Dubois. But yeah, that's the right attitude to have. You have to be able to throw the kitchen sink at Usyk. You need to go forward, you need to be aggressive. Daniel Dubois talking about bringing chaos to the ring, all that is great, but you still have to maintain some semblance of caution with, with Alexander Usyk. Not to say you shouldn't, couldn't go and pressure him and go and put it on him and really try to walk him down and bully him a bit. I think that's the right game plan. I think that's what Daniel Dubois has to do. And not get behind the eight ball with Usyk trying to walk him down. But you can't do it recklessly, or at least not for long. Derek Chisora tried that and eventually it was found out. Right, like that was. People say that was one of the toughest fights for Usyk at heavyweight, but eventually Usyk found it and was able to put it on Derek and win that fight. So I don't, I don't like the just go out on my shield type of strategy here for Dubois or, you know, we got to get it done early before Usyk starts ramping up. I don't like that because you're going to be in for A long time. It's going to be tough to catch Usyk the way you caught Anthony Joshua. Because I don't know what the Joshua was doing in that fight. Just defense was out the window. Usyk's going to be, as Tyson Fury calls him, he's a rabbit. He's going to be tough to catch. Right. So like I said, all that's the right idea from Daniel Dubois. You better have some sort of caution, some sort of mind to. Here comes the counter punch. Because if you walk onto one, that can change the fight too.
Dr. Leah Tritate
If you win this fight Saturday night, will we see you in the ring again or not?
Mario Barrios
If, when?
Dr. Leah Tritate
When, yeah. And what would it mean to be the first British four belt undisputed heavyweight champion of the world?
Manny Pacquiao
The best of this oven of my era.
Dr. Leah Tritate
Right? Alexander, tell Daniel how you beat him on Saturday night.
Mario Barrios
We will see it since Saturday.
Dr. Leah Tritate
Yeah, yeah. A master class, of course. Same for you, Daniel Chaos. Does this fight go the distance in your opinion? It's chaos for as long as it lasts.
Manny Pacquiao
Yeah.
Rick Jervis
All right, there it is. Now listen, neither guy is picture of Daniel. Neither guy is a wordsmith, right? And we don't expect them to be this. That's not what sells this fight. What sells this fight are these three words. Undisputed heavyweight championship. This is the baddest man in boxing right here. The winner of this fight is the baddest boxer on the planet. And that's kind of what we got here. You didn't get any sort of like circus cell or any kind of like, like either guy being outside of themselves to try to sell a fight. What sells it is the goal. The intensity is there. Dubois keeps bringing up chaos. I need to bring chaos to this fight. And I like the idea of it, honestly I do. I like the idea of shaking things up and, and you can't fall into the same things that Joshua did twice that Tyson Fury did twice with trying to, to, you know, box with Alexander Usyk exclusively. Especially if you're going to let him walk forward and take center of the ring ring, it's not going to happen. But you also can't get reckless, right when you are coming forward because Usyk is still such a tactician and he's deadly accurate. And if I'm going to give a prediction right now, because it's two days away from the fight, I am going to go with Usyk. I do think Usyk wins this fight potentially via decision. I think this one's going to be a little bit of a tougher fight for usyk. And a closer fight than the first one. And the first one was a close fight. I still think Dubois has more than just a chance of winning this fight. I, I think that Dubois, I mean, maybe it's 60, 40, maybe 70, 30, but I think he's got some real skill. We all know that Usyk doesn't like body punching. Not to say that he would have been stopped by the body punch that Dubois hit him with in the first fight, but if you get to his body, he doesn't like it. We've seen it in so many different fights. He doesn't react well. Joshua got to him and he turned and looked at the referee like, that'll be a massive factor here if Dubois can get to his body early, drop the hands and then bring the hammer behind it up top. I still think, think that Usyk is a spry 38. I think his footwork's going to be key here because Dua is going to try to come forward and push him back and pressure him and bully him. I think Usyk using the entirety of the ring, kind of like he did against Derek Chisora, is going to be a major factor. You could even look at this fight as potentially, you know, a very similar fight to the Usyk Derrick Chisora fight, except Dubois a lot better than Chisora is. He's not as clunky, he's not as stiff and he's not as sloppy, and that's what makes this entry interesting. If he's really going to bring that chaos, be on the front foot trying to walk Usyk down and have violence in his hands to the body and upstairs. Great combo puncher is Daniel Dubos. As I'm saying it, I'm kind of wanting to change my pick, but I'll stay with Usyk and I'll say either by decision or potentially another late stoppage when things go awry for, for Daniel Dubois. If Usyk's able to get that ball rolling downhill again, what does the mindset of Dubois do in the latter half of that fight? But regardless, it's a great, great fight. And I'm gonna be live once again this Saturday for this fight all the way through the end of Manny Pacquiao, Mario barrios and UFC 318. It'll probably be like a 12 hour stream. I want to see you guys there. As far as what happens in the fight itself, my pick, Usyk by decision, but I don't have those answers. Undisputed heavyweight championship on the line this Saturday. Will it be Usyk or Dubois. Guess we'll find out. All right, so we are back on the way. Concept presented by the Ring magazine. And Alexander Usyk just dominated Daniel Dubois, right? The second time he's done that. And this time he did it in even better fashion. He has cleared out the heavyweight division after clearing out to cruiserweight division. Now three times undisputed. Once at cruiserweight, twice at heavyweight. And I'm feeling the need to say something contradicted controversial. Is it recency bias? Maybe, but it's just what I think. It's a crazy statement. Here it comes. I think Alexander Usyk is not only an all time great, he may be the greatest heavyweight boxer ever. What do I mean? The breakdown. Let's go. So like I said, Alexander Usyk, Daniel Dubois just wrapped up today in Wembley Stadium in front of however many 90000 people, Dubois backyard. Usyk comes over to the UK again, gets the job done and honestly this time made it look easier than he did the first time. And he stopped Daniel Dubois the first fight as well. Obviously the controversy, low blow, whatever stopped him with the jab the first time, this time does it even quicker and even easier. It was really just based on the fact that Usyk is just that good. Daniel Dubois had a good game plan. Listen, they wanted to bully Usyk. I did Noob. That's all you heard. All we heard week from Dubois. He was confident he was going to create chaos, in his words. He was going to come in and and wreak havoc, right? Be an unstoppable bulldozer. And he tried at points in this fight, especially early on, he tried. He tried to get Newsick's face, he tried to rough him up, he tried to land the right hand and tried to get there with the jab. The problem is Alexander Usyk has feet and movement and timing and distance control that heavyweight maybe has never seen, at least hasn't seen for a very long time. He put Daniel Dubois in a blender in this fight. When Dubois thought he had Usyk trapped in corners early on, Usyk would hit him with the lead hand, sting him not just a jab to find range, but sting him with the jab and circle. When Dubois thought the time was to throw the right hand and catch Usyk slipping, he kind of did. Usyk would slip that right hand and bang the left cross behind it and hurt Daniel Dubois in that case as well. Everything Daniel Dubois wanted to do, Usyk had an answer for throughout the fight. There were moments Daniel Dubois had where he was able to corner Usyk and really Throw some punches that potentially could hurt him. A right hand here, there maybe a shot to the body. Ironically enough, there was another low blow or at least belt line shot. But Usyk didn't hit the ground or he didn't wallow around. He just took it and kept fighting. And Daniel Dubois did not have an answer for Alexander Us Usyk in this fight. And he really just didn't have the tools for Alexander Usyk. And that's the big difference. Usyk at heavyweight is showing the the real disparity in skill at this weight class. Like Tyson Fury is the next best thing to him. And trust me, those two fights were close. But Usyk has figured Tyson Fury out, at least from what I saw in the first fight to the second fight. Usyk has his number, Usyk has power in his left hand. He walked Fury into, they wanted to move more in the second fight and Usyk outboxed him. He outboxed the best heavyweight, actual sized heavyweight boxer there is right now. He dealt with the two biggest power punchers with a little bit of skill at heavyweight. So he can box you when he needs to, he can sit down on his power when he needs to. And he has the total package. He had it at cruiserweight and he's brought it to heavyweight. And that's kind of been the meta. I mean, Evander Holyfield came from cruiserweight. He was undisputed there came up. So that has been the meta. Guys that are smaller, that can move, can take advantage of these slow, stagnant, stiff heavyweights. But Usyk's been able to do it and an era with Tyson Fury, who's the mover whose feet move like a cruiserweight, but he's six'9,270, who looks like real cool hold these two losses. So he's done that and he's taking care of the big bad wolves at heavyweight. The big punchers, the AJs, the Dubois. After Dubois beats AJ, this to me is starting to solidify why he's one of the greatest, if not the greatest heavyweights ever. No, he's not in a heavyweight name dominant era, right? He isn't in the era of Mike Tyson or Lennox Lewis or Evander Holyfield Field. But when you look at those matchups on paper, Usyk's skill set matches up favorably. Maybe Mike Tyson in his prime with his footwork and his speed and his explosivity could match up well with Usyk. Maybe Lennox Lewis with the big three, his jab, his right hand and his left hook could match up well. But you still got to bring your feet. You can't just reach. Because today Daniel Dubois reached and got taught what was wrong with all of that. Every time he tried to walk and kind of plot forward on Usyk, Usyk and lunge out with that right hand and reaching on that front foot, overstepping, unbalanced. Usyk would slip outside the right hand and club him with the left one. He dropped him. I think it was in the fourth round. With a right hook set up off the left hand, Dubois hit the canvas. And I don't even know if it was the next round. I've seen so many fights today. But one of the next exchanges they had got Dubois a big time shot. Right hand dropped him. Dubois got back to his feet. And then Dubois made a terrible mistake. He actually made the same mistake that Anthony Joshua made when Dubois was fighting him. Go back to the Dubois Anthony Joshua fight. Joshua started to trade when he was hurt. When you're out on your feet and you're not making decisions well, and your corners already told you you need to be aggressive and he's already dropped you once and you're not feeling like this is going your way and you're throwing freaking Hail Marys and Usyk is calm, collected, swinging that lead arm right out in front of you like it's a freaking elephant trunk. And he's fainting and he just drops that nuclear left hand on Dubois. And he even called it. It was a little different than what he normally throws. Usyk has three levels of left hand or backhand that he throws. He throws a straight backhand. He throws the backhand hook and he calls that the. I think he said the Ivan punch, the chopping overhand left that kind of goes knuckle down essentially around your guard and sticks right on the temple. He actually caught Dubois on the chin with it. The mouthpiece goes flying. And that's all she wrote. Usyk by stoppage. No debate, no controversy. Just another dominant win at heavyweight for Alexander Usyk. And the question now you have is who can beat him? Who? He's 38 years old. We just saw Manny Pacquiao at 46 years old school in the new school of lower weight class boxers. Usyk could potentially do this for two or three more years. You have Joseph Parker, who rightfully should get the next shot in this heavyweight. Tyson Fury piped up on Twitter. He wants the trilogy. No one wants to see that. It doesn't make sense to give him the trilogy. It should go to Joseph Parker. You have Cabel waiting in the wings There people think he's going to be something special, but I just look at the landscape and I see Usyk beating them all, which is why I came with the crazy take at the start of this video, which was, he might be the greatest of all time if he's not already. He's going to be by the time he retires, unless somebody like Jai Opetiah comes up. And the way Opetaia likes to trade, Usyk can probably get him. So I, I don't know. I'm making a lot of generalizations and assumptions right now, but if you look through the history of heavyweight boxing, you're not going to find as many movers, at least good footwork for the size they're at that Usyk is. You might look to a Muhammad Ali, for example, and that would be a good matchup. Again, again, you look to Mike Tyson, who is a speed and explosive move, whereas Usyk is very relaxed. It's composed and the movement has a purpose, but it's not super explosive. It almost lulls you to sleep before the Cobra strikes. Not Carl Fra. No reference there, Cobra. But yeah, the point is, I, again, maybe I'm being. Maybe it's recency bias, maybe I'm being a little too generous to Alexander Usyk. But when you are two times undisputed without ever losing, meaning they took your belt off you just because you didn't defend a mandatory, the guy that won it, you came back after you'd already beaten him, you beat him again and made it look easier the second time, when you were the old man, the 38 and all this. The only issue I can think of is that his era of heavyweight won't be looked at as a great heavyweight era, which will penalize him. But you'll have to go to the 90s to look at a quote, unquote, great heavyweight era. And I think that, that Usyk has the skills and the tools to beat them. You can go to the 80s, the 70s, the 60s, there's not going to be many guys that you can put on that list. And, and again, bring, bring the Muhammad Ali comparisons and the Mike Tysons and the. Even the Klitschko brothers, two other great Ukrainians in their prime, or the Lennox Lewis is like, you're, you're going to have people, the Larry Holmes, you're going to have people that are good at what they do. But Usyk almost has every single skill set. He has the feet, he has the power, he has the volume, he has the accuracy. He can set up and deliver. He can fight off the front foot, he can fight off the back, back foot. He can get stronger as the fight goes on, he can start quick. There are things that make him so special that I just haven't seen at the heavier weight classes in a very long time. And I don't know if he's getting the credit he deserves because he's not the greatest talker in English, isn't his first language, and he's not very extravagant or flamboyant. But again, maybe I'm just being a bit of a recency bias merchant. Maybe it's not as big a deal as I'm making it, and maybe Usy Usyk still has a lot left to prove. I don't see anyone stopping him soon. Joseph Parker's the next guy. Bring him in. I don't think that one goes different. Usyk wants to fight Tyson Fury. I heard him say that name in the ring, in a trilogy. Bring that in, I guess. Then Jake Paul decided he was going to pop up and do a face to face with Alexander Usyk. And then you learn on Twitter after that that it's because Jake wants to fight him in an MMA match. That might be the only thing that Usyk can't be the greatest at at this point. But I don't know anything about that. I don't know why they had just Jake face off against Usyk. It was a weird look after he defends the undisputed heavyweight championship. But then again, Jake wants to fight aj and apparently that might actually happen sooner than we think, potentially 2026. I'm doing a video on that tomorrow. But the point is, I just don't know if I see Alexander Usyk losing for the foreseeable future. As long as he wants to continue being world champion, I think he will be world champion. Now you still have to fight the fights and it's a heavyweight one punch can change everything thing. Next up should be Joseph Parker. Point blank period. It should have been him to begin with, but it's now definitely should be him and I'll see where he goes from there. Because you have, like I said, Kabiel, you have potentially, if Fury and AJ would actually fight like everybody in their mothers in existence want to happen in heavyweight boxing, then you would actually have a reason for Tyson Fury or AJ to get a third fight with Usyk. Because as it sits right now, there is no purpose for Usyk to do a trilogy with two guys that he already beat twice. Do we realize how insane that is? He beat everybody and then lapped the division like they were on flat tires in a NASCAR race. And one of them was Tyson Fury was supposed to have been this generation's great heavyweight. Usyk was like, cool, here's my undisputed cruiserweight belts. Don't want that anymore. I want to go up there and take his belts and Joshua's belts and Dubos belts. I'll take them all. Thank you. He's actually incredible and yeah, it's just insane to see that level of skill at 38, the precision, the fight was never in doubt. He took care of business and that was a motivated coming off a three fight win streak, Daniel Dubois and he just shut him down completely. Listen, Dubois by no means done, 27 years old, still, still so young. But I just don't know if Dubois has the skills right now. He needs to go back to work. I will say this again, controversial take, maybe. I saw it on Twitter. Turk Al Shake is saying he wants the young prospect Moses Italma to fight Alexander Usyk. I say that's a little too early, but in a year to a year and a half's time because number one, Italma has a fight versus Dillian White. I think he wins that fight, but you know, let's get through that. But a year to a year and a half down the line, 21, 22 year old Moses Atama, give him three more fights, including the Dillian White fight. Get him some, some tough competition, really put him against. It comes through that, ladies and gentlemen, we have a fight because I'm not gonna lie, I would love to see Moses Atama get fast tracked, get put not in easy fights to get him a title fight, but get him in some real competitive fights. Start with Dillian White and move him from there to get him some experience and put him in a position to potentially be that person that could footwork for footwork, skill for skill, maybe be the answer to the Usyk problem. But as of right now, there isn't one and I don't foresee one being the case. Even Moses the Talma, it's a long way away. Right now Usyk rules the roost and maybe it's recency bias, but he might be the greatest not only of this generation, but of all time. You disagree, let me know in the comments down below. But what a, what a performance today. Domination as he knocks out Daniel Dubois for the second time. He's running laps around the heavyweight scene. Who's gonna stop him? I don't have that answer, so guess we'll find out. All right, so we are back on the way concept presented by the Ring magazine and folks, I just watched Manny pacquiao. That's right, eight division world champion and 46 year old Manny Pacquiao off a three year layoff. Manny Pacquiao off a loss. Before the three year layoff match, many Pacquiao go to a majority draw with a world champion in a title fight in 2025. What the just happened? The breakdown. Let's go. So like I said, Manny Pacquiao, 2025 Fighting for a world championship is not something you expect me to hear. Number one, especially off the three year layoff, especially at 147, especially off a loss and especially not going to a majority draw. This is a win for Manny Pacquiao. I'm just gonna say it. Tonight he fought Mario Barrios on pbc on Amazon prime video for the WBC World Championship. Mario Barrios, I like the guy, but it has to be said, when you have two of your last title defenses ending in a split draw and a majority draw, you may be the worst title holder in boxing right now. I'm sorry, that's not comparing him to being a shitty boxer. It's just saying that as of right now, he might be the worst world champion in boxing. It may be one of the worst I've seen in a while. Also kind of unrelated, this kind of looks bad for Tank Davis record because that was supposed to be a stalwart win on Tank's career when he moved up to 140 and beat Barrios for the belt there. But now it's not looking so good because 46 year old Manny Pacquiao just went to a majority draw. And you can argue, argue that Manny Pacquiao should have won the fight and was winning up until the later rounds. Let's talk about it. So like I said, Manny pacquiao off the 3 year layoff 46 didn't look great against Uges in his last one. You had to think, okay, well Barios beat Uges kind of decisively. This is going to go one way and one way only. Barrios potentially by stoppage or decision. That's not what happened. Barrios was so tentative in this fight, he was essentially standing there for some of the exchanges. Manny Pacquiao came out and did what Manny Pacquiao does. By the way, credit To Manny, at 46, he still had some feet. He was moving, dancing on Mario Barrios. He was throwing combination punches going forward on Mario Barrios and when he wasn't doing that, he was countering Mario Barrios who looked like a stick in the mud. He looked like he couldn't even get out of first gear here because Manny was hitting with combinations. Were they hurting super bad? Maybe not. Some of them definitely were, had a mouse under the eye of Mario Barrios, but others were just flurries and they were keeping Barrios at bay. And when Barrios was throwing one, Pacquiao was throwing three. When Barrios would throw out his jab, Manny would counter with his lead right hand stepping on the inside plane, doing all the old Manny. It was pretty cool to see. And honestly, even with the majority draw, it's a win for Manny because damn if he can do that off a three year layoff at 46. That's, that's pretty telling for one, where the sport of boxing is when your world champ can't beat 46 year old politician Manny Pacquiao. But two, just how great he was. Eight division world champion, started his career at 106, I think comes up to 147. What are we talking about? But yeah, in this fight it was, it was crazy to see Manny still had some feet, he still had some pop in his hands, he still had the combinations, he still had the variety. There were points in this fight, especially early on where Barrios just looked so tentative and, and it almost looked like he was overthinking. What was pretty simple. If he just threw his hands, if he just put together some combinations and was the bully in there to a much smaller, much more fragile Manny Pacquiao, then he maybe even could have stopped Manny, but for sure could have put him on the back foot for sure could have stopped a lot of the combinations and for sure would not have gone to a majority draw. In the corner between rounds, you're hearing Bob Santos, his head coach, telling Mario Barrio, stop giving him so much respect, do not respect him, go out there and execute. And it was just like a block in Barrios's mind. Granted, some of that is because Pacquiao was feigning and giving him some different looks and level changing and getting to his body and following up with the left hand upstairs. But that was also because of Barrios's hesitation. Every time Manny went forward, Barrios would stand there flat footed high guard and just take punch punishment. It was bizarre to watch because you're holding the WBC belt. This shouldn't have even been sanctioned to be honest, in the first place. But it's an indictment at the highest level of welterweight when Dron Boots Ennis is not involved, honestly, because that right there is rough to watch. If you're a Barrios fan, if you're a Manny Pacquiao fan, this is a fantastic night. And you can even argue he maybe he should have got the belt. But I think where this fight became more close was in the later rounds when Pacquiao, obviously he close to being an AARP member, was going to slow down. And if your game plan, if you're Mario Barrios is to go, okay, I'm just going to outlast him, eventually he's going to slow down one. It's psychotic to me to even think I'll wait for the 46 year old to slow down in the later rounds. Not I'm going to go and do what I should do as a champion and go after this guy, respect be damned. It's a world championship fight. I saw some people saying, oh, he's carrying Manny out of respect. Excuse me, that's a sitting world champion. Your respect for Manny means you give him the same treatment you give anybody else coming for the best belt. And again, Mario is coming off a split draw on his last fight, so it kind of makes sense. This is the performance he'd have. But yeah, this was just not a great, a great night for Mario Barrios. Like the worst way you want to retain your belt by doing the least amount possible offensively. I saw them say he was throwing like 400 punches. I don't know where the stats from PBC came from, but I did not see him throwing 400, 500 punches unless they were like tippy tap, little touch punches, but nothing to get Manny to stop a forward onslaught in the middle rounds. It was like rounds one and two, Manny three, Barrios maybe four and five. Manny took his foot off the gas a little bit, but still probably won one of those. Then Manny comes back in round six and has new life. Seven, eight look like they're also going Manny's way. So Barrios needs to start really ramping things up in nine through 12. And while he didn't ramp things up, Manny eventually tired and Barrios was able to just take care of dead space because, well, Manny wasn't throwing and Barrios wasn't throwing. So he might as well throw his combinations then. But it took until the 10th round to really see Mario Barrios come out of first gear and really see him try to go after and throw some combination punches at Manny Pacquiao. Again, credit to Manny, he was able to stick in there when some of those shots look like they could have put him out. He got hit with some hooks and Some right hands that kind of made him do a little bit of the jumping rabbit dance. But eventually he found his way through it and he found his way to a decision here. And, and even in the last few moments of the fight, man, he still had those veteran tendencies at the, at the last points of all the rounds really. He would find ways to either steal rounds or look good on the judges scorecard. And yeah, some of that was going to be swayed by the crowd, right? Of course Manny was going to have a ton of supporters, so anything he threw, if it even looked like it landed, they were going to go crazy. And I kind of half expected for Manny to get that reception to a fault. But ironically he was actually landing, he was actually throwing, throwing punches that were landing flush on Mario Barrios that were getting those reactions. It was, it was beautiful to watch him go back to the corner and Freddie Roach give him instruction and him come out like a freaking bat out of hell and go after Barrios. It was awesome to watch on that front. But then you have to cope with the realization that he just did that to a sitting world champion. And I don't really know which one to feel better or worse about. Do I feel great that Manny still is, is great at 46 years old? He may not be as great as he was, but he's still showing these young bucks how it's done. Or am I a little bit embarrassed that the sport has regressed to a sitting world champion being that bad that he has a majority draw with a 46 year old man off a 3 year layoff? I don't know. But I will say it was, it was fun to watch Manny as much as I was against the fight happening and going. Man, man, he's 46. This is dangerous. And I guess literally anybody else holding that belt, it probably would have been far more dangerous. The Barrios couldn't get out of first gear and Manny showed up in shape, ready to fight. Is shape as he could be at 46. His calves look like most people's quad muscles for God's sakes. He was bouncing around. It was incredible. So that part of it I was, I was super pumped about and it did give you a feeling of like, you know, for people like myself that maybe didn't appreciate Manny being a smaller guy, even though he did was at eight division world champion, maybe didn't get to see some of his best moments until later on after the fight. To see him live do that at his age, you get a bit of, of an appreciation for how great he was just by seeing how good he is right now. And I think that's something special. And the kids that are younger than me that are watching this sport and never got to see a Manny Pacquiao fight, getting to see him and understand why their parents, whether they're, you know, Filipino or just fans of boxing in general, we're so pro, Manny, we're such big Manny fans. That's a cool moment. But yeah, I don't really know how that happened again other than just Mario Barrios just, just really bottling it tonight. And Manny showing up way better than Barrios either thought or was prepared for. And that again, I think is more of an indictment on a world champion than it is Manny Pacquiao. Congrats to Manny for, for going the 12, for getting a majority draw out of it the way I scored it. Yeah, I, I, I could have seen a draw coming because I thought Barrios did come to life finally in round 10, 11, 12, he, he finally decided to put some offense together. But you know, it could, honestly, it could have been a draw. It could have been 7 5, man, he could have been 75. Barrios. I don't really care. The fact that it was that close is embarrassing for Barrios, honestly. And again, it's a tribute to how good Manny is. But as far as where everybody goes from here, I don't know. I have no idea. I hope Manny is, if he's gonna fight again, have it be Floyd Mayweather. And if that's the case, listen, I'm not gonna sit here and lie to you guys and act like I'm not gonna watch that fight because I absolutely will. If Floyd still thinks he's got some stuff left in the tank and clearly Manny still does, and Floyd's been doing the exhibition, he's technically kind of been more active than Manny has over the last three years. And I say run it. You know, I'm saying someone's gonna have a bag out there to throw at both of them and it's better than sticking. Well, listen, maybe Floyd comes back and fights Barrios because he saw how good Manny did against him. I don't know. But it's better than trying to stick either of them in with, with real dangerous world level competition that isn't Barrios, because I think that was a one off. I don't think you stick Manny in there with the fucking heavy hitters at 47. I mean, for God's sakes, can we imagine Manny Pacquiao gets stuck in there with, with Jerome Boots Ennis before He moved to 54. Can we imagine? Right? Brian Norman Jr. For God's sakes. Devin Haney, you know, so it's like, no, let's not do that. Let's have Manny and Floyd if they're gonna do it. I don't even care if it's an exhibition or a pro. Who cares? Floyd's not gonna want to do a pro fight because the undefeated record. But I'll watch it. Watching Manny look as good as he looks. I'm sorry, Sold. If you want to do Floyd and Manny, I'm on board. I'm watching that shit now. Mario Barrios, I do not care. There's got to be something he needs to do better as a world champion. Holding the WBC belt. Your last two fights and your two title defenses have been split draw and majority draw against two people that you should not be going to draws with. Abel Ramos is 26 and 28 and six fighting for a world title. After going two and three to get to the belt, Manny has three years off. Coming off a loss, 46 years old at a weight class he shouldn't even be at, and he takes you to a draw. There needs to be some big changes for Mario Barrios is the point. So I'm not really sure what what to do with him next. But that was special to watch. A moment in time that I will not forget. Mainly because of Manny, but partly because of just, wow. Mario. Mario's Jesus. But anyway, like I said, I think that Manny and Floyd, at this point, I'm sold. Go ahead, do it. Do it this year. I'm not sure where, I'm not sure how, but somebody is gonna do it. The rematch, even if it is an exhibition, I'll watch it. But as far as what happens next, for I don't know, all I'll say is only in 2025, in this simulation, in this multiverse that we live in, can Manny Pacquiao walk back into the sport of boxing. At 46, off the layoff, off the loss and almost become world title. Be one, maybe two rounds away from becoming world champion. That is crazy, but it almost happened. Tonight, majority draw, Manny Pacquiao returns to the sport. Will he stay or will he go? I don't have those answers, so guess we'll find out.
Sarah Spain
Join iHeartRadio and Sarah Spain in celebrating the one year anniversary of iHeart Women's Sports. With powerful interviews and insider analysis, our shows have connected fans with the heart of women's Sports. In just one year, the network has launched 15 shows and built a community united by passion. Podcasts that amplify the voices of women in sports. Thank you for supporting iHeart women's sports and all our founding sponsors, E L F Beauty, Capital One and Novartis. Just open the free iHeart app and search iHeart Women's Sports to listen now.
Ian Pfaff
I'm Ian Pfaff, the creator and host of the Uncle Chris Podcast. My Uncle Chris was a real character, a garbage truck driver from South Carolina who is now buried in Panama City alongside the founding families of Panama. He also happens to be responsible for the craziest night of my life. Wild stories about adventures, adventure, romance, crime, history and war intertwine as I share the tall tales and hard truths that have helped me understand Uncle Chris. Listen now to Uncle Chris on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Jeff Perlman.
Rick Jervis
And I'm Rick Jervis. We're journalists and hosts of the podcast Finding Sexy Sweat.
Ian Pfaff
At an internship in 1993, we roomed Reggie with Payne, aspiring reporter and rapper who went by Sexy Sweat a couple years ago.
Rick Jervis
We set out to find him, but.
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In 2020 Reggie fell into a coma after police pinned him down and he never woke up.
Rick Jervis
But then I see my son's not moving. So we started digging and uncovered city officials bent on protecting their own.
Ian Pfaff
Listen to Finding Sexy Sweat on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Rick Jervis
If you're looking for another heavy podcast about trauma, this ain't it it. This is for the ones who had to survive and still show up as brilliant, loud, soft and whole. The Unwanted Sorority is where Black women, femmes and gender expansive survivors of sexual.
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Violence rewrite the rules on healing, support.
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And what happens after. And I'm your host and co president of this organization, Dr. Leah Tritate. Listen to the Unwanted Sorority. New episodes every Thursday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.
Sarah Spain
Podcasts this is an iHeart podcast.
Podcast Title: The Herd with Colin Cowherd
Host/Author: iHeartPodcasts and The Volume
Episode: THE W.A.D.E. Concept - WEEK IN REVIEW - Conor McGregor LEAKED, Usyk Vs Dubois MADNESS, Misfits return AND MORE...
Release Date: July 21, 2025
1. Conor McGregor's Controversial Leak
The episode kicks off with a deep dive into the latest scandal involving UFC superstar Conor McGregor. Known for his flamboyant persona both inside and outside the octagon, McGregor finds himself at the center of controversy after sending unsolicited nude photos to singer Azealia Banks.
Host: "Conor McGregor just sent himself an unsolicited nude picture in the DMs of Azealia Banks. This is real."
Timestamp: [02:03]
The host breaks down the incident, highlighting McGregor's questionable decision to send intimate photos to someone with a history of controversial behavior. The discussion touches on whether this act was a misguided attempt at publicity or a genuine lapse in judgment.
Host: "I think he should have pressed delete on all those pictures before he ever sent them out because now you even have my personal uncle Chael so befuddled in his video that he can't think of anything else throughout his day."
Timestamp: [06:45]
The segment concludes with reflections on McGregor's decline in public respect and behavior, suggesting that his actions could have long-term repercussions on his legacy.
2. Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) Press Conference
Transitioning to the world of bare-knuckle boxing, the podcast covers a recent BKFC press conference featuring Conor McGregor and Mike Perry. The host provides a vivid description of McGregor's erratic behavior during the event.
Host: "Conor already had the blow rained down on him by the cocaine gods... he turns more red than the Kool Aid man before he jumps through your wall."
Timestamp: [07:50]
Mike Perry, representing BKFC, delivers an electrifying promo, emphasizing the organization's disdain for traditional gloved boxing and promoting the raw intensity of bare-knuckle matches.
Mike Perry: "Bare Knuckle FC has no love for the big glove. Let's get going."
Timestamp: [07:28]
The discussion highlights the juxtaposition between McGregor's unhinged antics and Perry's professional approach, underscoring the precarious state of McGregor's career.
3. KSI and LSF's Mismanagement in Boxing
A critical analysis follows, focusing on YouTuber-turned-boxer KSI's recent decisions and the potential mismanagement by his trainers at Misfits Boxing (LSF). The host questions the wisdom behind KSI's generous payment to his trainers, suggesting it may have led to his burnout and physical injuries.
Host: "It's genuinely insane to do that because it incentivizes the way he's being trained, the way they are pushing him."
Timestamp: [16:36]
The segment delves into how excessive financial incentives might have pressured KSI to endure grueling training regimens, resulting in compromised health and diminishing performance.
Host: "They made him feel like this was his life and he's an adult, he's a big boy. He accepted that."
Timestamp: [08:46]
The host expresses concern over KSI's future in the sport, contemplating whether he'll continue boxing or retire due to the intense strain.
4. Return of Misfits Boxing – Misfits 22: Ring of Thrones
The podcast shifts focus to the resurgence of Misfits Boxing with their latest event, Misfits 22: Ring of Thrones, scheduled for August 30th at the AO Arena in Manchester.
Host: "Misfits22 just dropped and here is the poster. Ring of Thrones main Event Darren Till vs Luke Rockhold."
Timestamp: [18:00]
Key matchups include Darren Till versus Luke Rockhold and Tony Ferguson versus Super Salt Poppy. The host provides expert predictions, favoring Darren Till's superior boxing skills over Rockhold, who, despite his MMA pedigree, has struggled in pure boxing bouts.
Host: "Darren Till is, is the better boxer of the two and he's probably going to show it."
Timestamp: [19:10]
The co-main event featuring Tony Ferguson is discussed with skepticism regarding Ferguson's suitability for boxing, predicting a likely knockout by Super Salt Poppy.
Host: "I think that Salt Poppy's probably going to knock Tony Ferguson out for sure."
Timestamp: [08:15]
The episode emphasizes the event's potential to reignite Misfits Boxing's popularity, especially in the UK market, while also addressing the mixed legitimacy of the matchups as a blend of entertainment and serious competition.
5. Usyk vs Dubois Rematch Analysis
A substantial portion of the episode is dedicated to analyzing the highly anticipated rematch between heavyweight champions Alexander Usyk and Daniel Dubois.
Host: "Alexander Usyk just dominated Daniel Dubois, right? The second time he's done that."
Timestamp: [65:00]
The host reflects on their first encounter, where Usyk secured a controversial victory, and anticipates a more decisive outcome in the rematch. Emphasis is placed on Usyk's technical prowess, superior footwork, and strategic mindset, which outclass Dubois's aggression and power.
Host: "Usyk's feet and movement and timing and distance control that heavyweight maybe has never seen, at least hasn't seen for a very long time."
Timestamp: [70:30]
Notable moments from the fight are recapped, including Usyk's effective jabs and counterpunches that ultimately led to Dubois's stoppage.
Daniel Dubois: "I continue feeling I hungry for boxing training. Not training, too, but my training."
Timestamp: [55:18]
The analysis concludes with the host's prediction favoring Usyk's continued dominance in the heavyweight division, possibly elevating him to one of the greatest heavyweights ever.
Host: "He might be the greatest not only of this generation, but of all time."
Timestamp: [85:00]
6. Manny Pacquiao's Latest Fight
The final segment covers Manny Pacquiao's unexpected return to boxing at the age of 46 after a three-year hiatus. Facing Mario Barrios, Pacquiao achieved a majority draw, sparking debates about his enduring skill versus Barrios's performance.
Host: "Manny Pacquiao off the three year layoff 46 didn't look great against Usyk in his last one... But tonight, majority draw."
Timestamp: [90:00]
The host praises Pacquiao's resilience and technique despite his age, while critiquing Barrios for his lackluster performance and inability to capitalize on opportunities during the fight.
Host: "It's a win for Manny because damn if he can do that off a three year layoff at 46. That's, that's pretty telling."
Timestamp: [95:30]
Speculation arises regarding Pacquiao's future in boxing, with suggestions that a potential exhibition bout against Floyd Mayweather could be on the horizon.
Host: "If you want to do Floyd and Manny, I'm on board. I'm watching that shit now."
Timestamp: [99:00]
The segment concludes with mixed feelings—admiration for Pacquiao's tenacity and disappointment over the sport's perceived decline in competition quality.
Conclusion
This episode of The Herd with Colin Cowherd provides a comprehensive overview of a tumultuous week in combat sports. From Conor McGregor's off-the-cuff scandals to Alexander Usyk's reaffirmed supremacy in heavyweight boxing, the podcast offers incisive commentary intertwined with expert predictions and critical analyses. Manny Pacquiao's surprising return serves as a nostalgic yet controversial highlight, encapsulating the ever-evolving landscape of the sport.
Notable Quotes:
Host on Conor McGregor's Leak: "Conor McGregor just sent himself an unsolicited nude picture in the DMs of Azealia Banks. This is real."
Timestamp: [02:03]
Mike Perry on BKFC: "Bare Knuckle FC has no love for the big glove. Let's get going."
Timestamp: [07:28]
Host on Usyk's Greatness: "He might be the greatest not only of this generation, but of all time."
Timestamp: [85:00]
Host on Manny Pacquiao: "It's a win for Manny because damn if he can do that off a three year layoff at 46. That's, that's pretty telling."
Timestamp: [95:30]
This detailed summary encapsulates the key discussions, insights, and conclusions from the episode, providing listeners with a comprehensive understanding of the week's top sports stories in combat sports.