Boxing with Chris Mannix - Canelo-Munguia is Here

Joining Mannix on this episode is veteran boxing trainer Joe Goossen. Mannix and Goossen discuss everything going on with Ryan Garcia, why Goossen believes boxing should bring back same day weigh-ins, an all action clash between Canelo Alvarez and Jaime Munguia and more; later, Edgar Berlanga joins to discuss his chances of landing a Canelo fight and why he believes he is up for that level of challenge. #Volume #Herd

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
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Is this is boxing with Chris.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Manning, Somebody punch him in the face. Empty Joshua is
a composed and ferocious finisher.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Watch this ear wads. This is a heavyweight posted by
SI's Chris mann X. That was my moments now with interviews,
analysis and everything going on in the world of boxing.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
When you have talent, you are given another chance.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
Here's Chris Mannix.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
And we are back Boxing with Chris Mannix, part of
the Volume Sports podcast network. Third show, this week's second
one from Las Vegas. As always, want to welcome in
all the subscribers to the podcast speed. If you are
not a subscriber, get over to the Boxing with Chris
Mannix feed, hit that subscribe button. Make sure you get
all our pods in your feed every single week. And

(02:46):
just a reminder, we will have one more podcast on
Sunday that will recap the big event at T Mobile Arena,
Canelo Alvarez, Jimi Mungee, all the super middleweight belts on
the line. Shout out to all the pot cast listeners
that I have run into in Vegas. There have been
more than a dozen of you that I bumped into
over the last couple of days. Love catching up with you,

(03:09):
love talk talking boxing. Thank you and everyone for listening
every single week. So I am just back in my
hotel room after being at the Alvarez Mungia wigh and
no drama at the way and both these guys came
in under one hundred and sixty eight pounds limit. There's
obviously a healthy amount of respect, even a friendliness between

(03:32):
Canelo and Mungia. We'll see how that manifested itself on
fight night, but no drama there. Oscar de la Hoya
showed up continuing to antagonize Canelo Alvarez with a T
shirt that read eat more meat across the front with
a big T bone steak on the top of it,
and that was obviously a reference to the positive test

(03:54):
that Canelo attributed to tainted meatback in twenty eighteen. But
they didn't have any kind of confrontation. There was nothing
dramatic going on at the way In on Friday. The
only interesting moment came when Ryan Garcia popped into the
media area and he had a chance to catch up
with Arijuana. He was doing some reporting down there for

(04:17):
de Own and look Ryan was and it continues to
be pretty upset about the results of this positive drug
test that had him test positive for Austrey. Now we
went through this in the last podcast. If you haven't
go back and listen, Lance Pugmeyer, longtime investigative journalist. He
sat down with me and we kind of peeled back

(04:37):
all the layers we could with what we know from
that positive test. But Ryan, he was pretty heated and
he has decided that this is a conspiracy that traces
back to Victor Kanti. Now, Victor Kanti is of course
the former Balco head. He was involved with Barry Bonds,
he was involved with doping and Olympic athlete like he

(05:00):
has been involved with some bad stuff over the years.
He has reinvented himself over the last decade and a
half as a whistleblower of sorts, as an advocate for
clean sports, and he works with a number of athletes,
including Devin Haines to So Ryan's opinion is that Victor Conti,
who has some loose ties to VADA, he worked early

(05:21):
on with Margaret Goodman, who is the doctor in charge
over there at VODA, made some introductions for them as
they were just getting into drug testing, and does direct
his athletes to VADA right and is a public advocate
for VADA being the best testing system in the sport.
But Victor Conti doesn't do the drug testing for VADA.

(05:44):
It doesn't really have anything to do with that. I
take it back, doesn't have anything to do with that.
So Ryan's accusations, there's just not a lot of foundation.
There not a lot of evidence there that is going
to make that hold up, at least not up until
this point. Remember these tests they are taken at the time,

(06:06):
and these tests were taken on the nineteenth and the twentieth,
the day before the day of the fight against Devin Hat.
They're a shipped off to a lab in Salt Lake City,
the same lab that all the drug testing agency uses,
whether it's WADA, Drug Free, Sport Vada, they effectively all
use the same lab that's out there to test these results.
And there's really no evidence that Victor Conti has anything

(06:28):
to do with it. And as I said on the
desone broadcast, I am not a fan of people like
Victor Kanti, people like Memo Haredia, people that have been
associated with doping in the past, having any place in
professional sports. And look, the reality is, besides boxing, they don't,
or some other combat sports they don't. You don't see

(06:50):
Victor Conti associated with NBA players or NFL players. It's
usually just boxers. And that's because boxing is kind of
the wild West. So while I'm not a fan of
Victor Kanti, I don't see the connection aside from his
past with performance enhancing drugs and his current connection with

(07:11):
Devin Haney. So Ryan was upset, which I by the way,
I understand. If I was accused of something and I
believed I was innocent, I would scream from the heavens
that I didn't do it.

Speaker 4 (07:22):
I would.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
I would be furious you could not silence me if
if I didn't do something. So the outrage from Ryan
I understand and I respect. I just think he's gonna
have to do more to prove his innocence. If these
results stand, If it is shown that austereen was in

(07:44):
his system, that the other metabolite from testosterone, which we
still have some questions about, was in his system, he's
gonna have to show whether it's through supplements. And look
that something Ryan said in that interview. He said that
he's having experts examine these supplements that he has been

(08:05):
taking and all the supplelance he has been taking. And look,
I think that's a positive step. I think that's the
right thing to do for Ryan Garcia. He's got to
figure out how it came to be that that stuff
was in a system, because I think that will go
a long way towards you know, I'm not gonna say
clearing him, but providing some mitigation here, providing an explanation
for how they got into his system. So we were

(08:28):
still a long way towards the end of the story, weeks,
if not months before we get the full picture of
exactly what did or did not happen with Ryan's drug test.
But he's here, He's in Las Vegas, and he was
understandably upset about all the events over the last couple
of days. So as for this show, good one. Joe Goosen,

(08:51):
longtime boxing trainer, actually the former trainer for Ryan Garcia.
He's also on the Amazon version of this broadcast on
saturd Night. He joins me for a long interview about
a lot of different topics. We talked about fighters making
weights on the same day of the fight. Joe has
been a longtime advocate for bringing back same day weighans.

(09:14):
He explains his reasoning behind that. We also talked about
Ryan and covered in a lot of different ways. We
talked about it from the perspective of the drug test,
the behavior that seems to have changed since Ryan was
in Joe Goosen's gym. We also, of course get into
Canelo against Mungia, which is the big fight this weekend.
A little bit later on Edgar Berlanga, the super middleweight

(09:37):
contender and number one challenger, mandatory contender, mandatory challenger. I'm
saying one of those wrong number one contender for the
WBA belt owned by Canelo Alvarez. There's a decent chance
that if Canelo beats Mungia, we get Canelo against Berlanga
in September of this year. I thought. I talked to
Edgar about that possibility, about his last fight and about

(10:02):
why he believes that even with a rather thin resume,
he is ready for a fight like Canelo Alvas. Stick
around for that. Joe Goosen Edgar Berlanga both coming up
next here on the show. What is always good to
catch up with Joe Goosen, longtime trainer, broadcaster, once again
working with Amazon for this HIMAMONGI at Canelo Alvarez fight

(10:26):
Saturday at the MGM. Good to have you back in
the mix again, Joe. You with Fox they dipped out
now Amazon.

Speaker 4 (10:33):
I'm like al Pacino was lying in the Godfather, just
when I thought I was gonna get out there, pull
me backes. No, No, I'm very happy and honored and
thankful quite honestly that I've I've got the work. I
like it. Although you know, my mainstay and my first

(10:54):
love is the gym. You know, I've been in there
since god knows what of many years. But this is
kind of the icing on the cake. And and I
am in all of my years, I've really never broken
in a associate trainer per se now Ricky Funz, who

(11:17):
runs the gym and is my family. Okay, Ricky does
his own thing, but I broke in this young kid,
Jonathan Wally, who has picked up a lot of slack
for me. He started at eighteen. He's thirty now, so
he's been with me twelve years. He's a big, strong kid,
very smart, has great rapport with the fighters because he

(11:41):
fought amateur as well. And he was quite good to
tell you the truth. But you know, it takes a
certain mindset, dedication and timing to have all that work
for you. But the timing worked out well for us
meeting each other when he was eighteen, came out to
my gym, and I'm very thankful to have Jonathan Wally.
He does a great job and he's one of the

(12:04):
few guys I would actually put any of my fighters
in their hands. I just don't do that. I you know,
you always think that you're gonna that, you know, if
you want to done right, do it yourself right, and
it's hard to find somebody that you're going to hold
to that highest standard. And Jonathan has really been the

(12:24):
guy for me. And I'm just so yes, I'm still
doing the gym. I'm more selective than ever, and I'm
I'm giving Jonathan some projects that if if they are fruitful,
I'm going to be very very proud, and I'm I'm
I got a lot of confidence in him. So that's

(12:45):
kind of where I'm at right now.

Speaker 2 (12:47):
We're back, We're back here in Vegas. What kind of
memories does Vegas bring up for you in terms of,
you know, the fights that you have worked over the years.

Speaker 4 (12:56):
Yeah, well, Vegas started for me long before where I
got another five bill I don't always say long before,
but you know, me and my buddies used to drive here.
Was so cheap back in the day. There were very
few hotels. A handful of hotels. You know at the
turn of the seventies, right there is seventy seventy one
when we jump in my VW square back and shower

(13:17):
at the local high school and then hopefully meet some
friendlies and you know is that.

Speaker 2 (13:23):
We're calling him friendlies?

Speaker 4 (13:24):
Yeah, and maybe share a room or so, because you know,
we didn't have any money of course, and then you
know they it was just a blast Vegas. So you know,
I've been coming here for a long time now. Insofar
as working, I did do my first the kid I
was telling me about Randy Shields as an amateur, he
did a big tournament here in seventy one. I told

(13:47):
you I started with him in seventy and it was
at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the old one not
standing anymore, and it was a huge tournament and we
had a blast. It was my first time ever in Vegas.
So my first time here actually was I want to say,
for a boxing match amateur. And then after that I go, oh,

(14:09):
this is a good place to go. Me and my
body as would come here, and then soon thereafter in
the seventies we would come up every so often. Randy Shields,
who I told you I worked with, would have a
fight here, but most of them were out of LA
and then my brother and I Dan, we started ten

(14:32):
Goose Boxing as a business in eighty eighty one ish
and very soon thereafter we're we were spending a lot
of time here in the eighties, early eighties all the
way through, and we aligned ourselves with Top Rank. We
signed Mike Nunn out of the eighty four Olympics that

(14:52):
were held in Los Angeles, same Olympics Tyson was on,
and he was an alternate Mike Tyson like we were
an alternate Mike None. But they both made their mark
in boxing. So we had we had several fighters. I

(15:13):
want to say that I had an NABF championship fight
here in eighty three with a Lonzos strong bow. I
may be wrong about that date, but Michael Nunn for
sure when we signed with Top Rank. So we signed
with Tom Rank in eighty four and then None did
a lot of fights. They were promoting out of the
show Boat back then, and I don't even know if

(15:35):
that's still standing.

Speaker 2 (15:36):
I'm sure I don't think it could be.

Speaker 4 (15:39):
Name is It was on the outskirts of town.

Speaker 2 (15:41):
Okay, maybe Old Vegas down there, Yeah, Fremont Street area. Perhaps, well, I.

Speaker 4 (15:47):
Was staying at the show boat. Dan was, of course
at the MGM.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
Of course he was in a sweet no less exactly exactly.

Speaker 4 (15:55):
So it's funny because I got to bring up this
one line Steve Springer, the former writer of the LA
great great writer. So so we're standing in front of
the MGM and it was me Non Springer, Dan, and
so Dan I said to Dan, I said, Dan, why
do my Mike Nunn and I have to go back

(16:16):
to the show Boat and you're gonna stay here at
the MGM. He goes, peace, I want you close to
the situation. Steve Springer goes, what does that mean? I go,
thank you, Steve. I don't know what that means either,
But that was a Dan is you know, I want
you there close to the situation, whatever that situation might be.
So yeah, he was good like that, and so we

(16:39):
had a great time. We Mike None did a lot
of fights here. We spent He became champion at the
Caesar's Palace in July. I want to say twenty eighth
of eighty eight fifteen round fight, second I think the
second to the last fifteen round fight between the BA

(17:00):
ABC and finally none was the IBF champ. I think
the last fifteen round fight was Piez and Calvin Grove
maybe a couple of months after that, and those are
same day weigh ins and fifteen round fights.

Speaker 2 (17:18):
I know you are one of the strongest advocates for
same day weigh ins. We've had this conversation in the past. Yes, yeah,
I am polarizing position though. I mean I meet as
many people that think it's terrible for a fighter to
weigh in on the same day as well do people.

Speaker 4 (17:34):
I guess we then those people really don't care about
all the amateurs around the world that weigh in the
same day, sometimes two times a day or more. Okay,
they seem to come out just fine, okay, and their
children and teenagers and they do it to this day.
They win it. Here's here's the ius. You know, there's

(17:57):
certain points that you'd have to make to make my
case for this, but it would force people that are
basically let's just say you are a forty pounder, but
you know that you can starve yourself, which is not
good for two three days, eat literally nothing, so you

(18:20):
could be the bigger guy at thirty five. Okay, So
now you go, well, I can eat three four meals.
I can drink what I want on Friday and then
maybe go up from thirty five to fifty and then
I can eat breakfast. The next day, I can eat lunch.

(18:41):
I'm not going to fight. Until you could have six
meals and tons of liquids. You could be twenty pounds
heavier the next day. Now that isn't very safe, especially
if the other guy is a legit thirty five pounder,
so he doesn't have to starve himself. He has fluid

(19:01):
and food in him, and he is a legitimate thirty
five pounder, and he might go up seven eight pounds. Okay, Now,
if you had to weigh in the day, if you
had to fight the day you weighed in that guy
who was really hurting himself his brain, his body and

(19:23):
everything else. And then eventually the other guy, because he's
gonna have anywhere from ten to fifteen pounds against a
legitimate thirty five pounder, now he's gonna be instead of
thirty five, he could be fifty five or more easily more,
you could be sixty. See. So what the same day

(19:47):
weighans did. It forced you into the division you belonged in. Okay, okay.
And so now what you do. You go, oh, okay, Oh,
now I can eat. I can lose that couple of pounds.
I gotta lose the last week. I don't have to
lose twelve pounds in three days or more, which is

(20:12):
really detrimental to the body, very stressful to the body
and brain quite frankly. And what you're gonna do is
you're gonna move up. You're going to weigh in the
day of the fight at let's say noon or earlier.
Now you're gonna be able to have a nice breakfast
and a light lunch. You don't want to go into
the ring feeling heavy. Anyway. You talk to any fighter

(20:34):
that overeats the day of the fight, and they go,
it's the worst mistake I ever made. So it forces
you to fight at the weight you belong at. There's
not a disparity in weights between the two men. They're
gonna pretty much eat the same amount of food and
weigh the same amount that evening. Okay, So there was

(20:59):
a reason why it worked for so many years, okay,
decades upon decades it And to show you how ill
thought out this was, They've got to make rules to
combat The rules they instituted for the before the day

(21:21):
before the fight weigh in, which is what, Oh, now
there's got to be Oh, you can't come in any
heavier than this after the way you know there's a
weight limit and there's a yeah, because you wouldn't need
all of those rules and the weight limit the next day,
you know where they have to reweigh you, because you

(21:43):
wouldn't be dealing with guys that were starving themselves, hurting
their bodies and then gaining twenty five pounds later and
fighting a little legitima, go which one is more safe?
You weigh in the day of the fight, You move
up and wait to the weight you the division you
belong in. You eat a little food, you drink a
little liquids. You're fine because you haven't starved yourself for

(22:05):
a week, three four days. I've seen it, had to
do it, and yeah, it's safer all the way around.
It's safer. It's not detrimental, like that's that horrific weight
loss where these guys are suffering and I mean suffering, okay,
and you know, yeah, I am a proponent for same

(22:30):
day weighans.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
The IBF has that ten pound rehydration clause in fights
that involve one of their titles. Do you think that's
a decent compromise?

Speaker 4 (22:42):
You know, no, no, no, no no, because now you
had to make a new rule. What's the next rule? Okay,
to combat the bad ruling in the first place. Okay.
It's a cascading effect of you know, should have just
left it alone. It's like, why don't we just you know, look,

(23:04):
fifteen rounds and the same day weigh ins were perfect
for a championship fight. Okay. I've seen a lot of
people go ten rounds, some not very talented people, okay,
and as well as twelve those used to be state titles.
Twelve rounds. Okay, you fought for the state title, it

(23:25):
was twelve rounds, two rounds more than a ten round
Let me just tell you something. The last three rounds
is like playoff anything, playoff baseball. That last couple series
of playoffs is where you know it proves your metal,
and the last three rounds there really proves a championship medal.

(23:48):
And the other thing, I think it's more dangerous to
have twelve round fights. Oh I see the arch eyebrow.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
I mean I would think the more rounds, the more dangerous.

Speaker 4 (23:57):
Now well, now, okay, let's see. Here's here what you
have to do in a twelve round fight. You can't
lose any rounds. You can't lose the first two rounds,
three rounds. Now you're really playing catch up in a
fifteen round fight. So what a twelve round fight makes
you do? It makes you fight harder, faster, and sooner
with maybe a guy that's a real puncher across the

(24:18):
ring from you where you're the boxer, maybe not as
big a puncher, but you're savvier, your slicker, and you
know what, Now that makes you have to go out
and challenge him sooner, putting you in harm's way. Okay, now,
I say, take a look at the Leonard Hearns fight.
Fifteen round fight. Leonard did very little. You could lose

(24:42):
five rounds. He didn't catch Hearns until the sixth round.
He threw a nice left uppercut. And what did he do?
He turned the fight around. Hearn started boxing and actually
winning the fight six through ten. Okay, So what it does?
It forces you to fight more and take more punches
and then take chances you wouldn't normally take if you

(25:03):
could have the feeling out period like all the champs did.
They took the first couple three rounds. Sometimes the fans
would start booing because they weren't engaging quickly. They would
build into it was a nice momentum. It would build
into a fight, and then boy, after five rounds, now
you go. Now you got your ten round fight, okay,

(25:23):
which adds up to be fifteen. And it was the
perfect distance, just like ninety feet to first base is
the perfect distance.

Speaker 2 (25:31):
So same day weighans and fifteen round fights. That is
all I explained. I just explained to you why though,
I just don't say it, you know, Oh, I know,
you know.

Speaker 4 (25:42):
No, I'm not. I'm to anybody who might be listening.
I'm not saying this hap has I mean, I've thought
this out. I've seen the difference. I've seen the people
missing weights for titles, oh just last week or so right, okay,
because some people don't belong at that weight. You know,

(26:02):
you go from twenty three to twenty five, the advancement
in your body, it gets stronger, bigger, more. I mean
it happened to me. I know the difference between me
at twenty two and twenty five, okay, and the weight
difference and I was always one that watched my weight

(26:23):
and took care of myself. I had an easy time
doing it, you know. So I'm just saying that, look
the proofs of the pudding. You have more people missing
weights for titles than I ever saw on same day
weigh ins, because again, you were fighting at the weight
you belonged at.

Speaker 2 (26:44):
Yeah, and I mean people the public sees the ceremonial
way and often they don't see how sickly some of
these guys look at the actual way in which occurs
hours earlier.

Speaker 4 (26:55):
So you never saw that before. I never saw that
that was different.

Speaker 2 (26:59):
So we're here for I Nello against Mungia, big event
on Saturday. But Joe, what everybody's been talking about the
last couple of days is what's going on with Ryan
Garcia and everything that's been happening in his life. You
trained him for over a year. I'm just curious. You're
what have you been maybe what's been going maybe two years? Yeah, Well,
what's been your reaction to everything that's been going on

(27:21):
the last couple of days?

Speaker 4 (27:22):
Well, before I address that, let me let me just
say something if I might. Number one, Ryan was out
at my gym and he was seventeen. Okay, I love
Ryan Garcia.

Speaker 2 (27:32):
One of the earliest fans of him. I remember talking
to you years ago for a profile on him, and
you thought he was going to be great.

Speaker 4 (27:39):
I knew he was going to be great. I I
hustled up a guy to put some big money into
a managerial contract when he was seventeen, before he was
even a pro I knew where it was all gonna go.
I had talked to some pretty important people about him,
and they they listen, you know, they trusted my judge him.
But things happened, and that contract that I offered, and

(28:03):
it was good money. It was a lot of perks, okay,
and he was seventeen. He wasn't even a proll yet.
So yes, I saw the handwriting on the wall. And
that's not just because I imagine it. I saw him
in action, and I saw what he was doing to
pros and grown men in my gym, and I'm going, okay,

(28:24):
this is special. Now that being said, I used to
give Ryan ride Holmes. He lived with his sister right
there in North Hollywood, with his his little brother, and
so you know, we always had a good time. We
always laughed a lot because he was funny. He was

(28:45):
personable and intelligent and great and athletic and powerful. He
had it all. I mean, look look at the look
at the following. He's got okay, but you could see
this before any of that really manifested itself if you
knew what you're looking at. And so I always had
a great relationship with Ryan. And you know, then he

(29:08):
signed with Oscar and went through an X amount of
fights and then gave me a call a couple of
years back, you know, as a grown man. And you know,
I was always thankful for that that he put his
trust in me, and we had a great time for

(29:28):
those two years together. We had a good, fun, clean
time together. You know, he knew what he was doing
when he hired me, in other words, who he was getting.
He was getting an old school kind of you know,
old general, and he knew it was going to be serious.
If he was going to hire me, it was going
to be serious. And I would say it was one

(29:49):
hundred percent serious. He dedicated, worked hard, just great. What
an athlete. So you know, Ryan is very close to
my heart. I really really love the kid. He's he's
he's so much fun. Yeah, I mean, if you wanted
to hang with somebody. Ryan would be one of the
great guys to hang with just me. Okay, So I

(30:13):
I relate to Ryan a lot, and I just my
heart breaks for him for any any negative thing that
befalls him. He's he's a good kid. He's not a
bad person at all. And you hate to see bad
things happen to good people. And that's pretty much how

(30:35):
I feel about Ryan and what I see going on here.
He's he's capable of great things. Yeah, I mean, I
think we think we saw that the other night. He's
so capable and and and I hope whatever. I don't know.
I mean I heard about what's going on. I know

(30:56):
none of the details because I'm not that typy. I'm
really not digging into that stuff. I don't I'm not
on social media. I don't have any accounts. I don't
go on anything. I read my morning news like old school,
you know, out of a newspaper, and I sit in
the backyard, I read my I have a cup of coffee.
I really don't involve myself in a lot of drama.

(31:18):
I got enough drama in my own life. You know,
I've got wife of close to fifty years. I've got grant,
I got a ten grandkids, one great grandkid. I got
my hands full, you know, And I got my gym,
and I got my fighters, and and my my close
friends that I've had since before high school that I

(31:40):
talked to regularly. And so I really don't have time
for other people's drama, you know. And so but you know,
it's it's it's almost impossible not hearing about what happened recently.
It is the boxing business. So, like I said, it,
it's something that I really don't like happening to people

(32:06):
that I love.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
I'll ask you this, did it stun you? Did it
surprise you? When it was revealed that there was a
substance in him?

Speaker 4 (32:15):
Well, I can tell you this. I saw nothing of
the sort, nothing that would have ever led me to
believe Ryan. First off, Ryan's put together already. I don't
see the need for He's built naturally really well. Okay,
he's proportioned really well, had to toe, so he's got

(32:38):
the perfect boxers build, you know, very well proportioned and
evenly distributed, broad shoulders. He's just it was I never
saw anything that would lead me to believe that that
was a possibility, you know, he's he's actually very conscious

(33:04):
or conscientious about his his look, you know. And so yeah,
I mean it's I've never seen anything that would lead
me in that. I've never suspected anything like that. I
was with him a lot every day. I was a
hands on guy. I'd meet him in the morning when

(33:26):
we were in Coronado every day to run I was
down there, and then the gym we'd go on weekends,
we'd go on our day off or our week you know,
we'd go out to eat, you know, just the small
group of us. We had a great time. It was
really a very team concept type of thing, and it
was very well regulated. And yeah, you know, so I

(33:53):
like I said to me, I never saw anything that
would ever lead me to believe anything nefarious like that.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
What do you think about the other stuff? And I
know you're not, as you said, not on social media
every day. But while Ryan never never should say. While
Ryan has always been big personality, something has changed over
the last few months that have made it even bigger
and taken it to some darker places in some circumstances

(34:22):
where he's out there publicly saying stuff like I drink
every day, I smoke every day, maybe some of it's trolling,
maybe some of it's not. There was video of him
during the fight week in New York out of a
club on at least on a Monday, and he said,
he mean not a couple of days during that week.
That doesn't strike me as the kind of guy he
was when he was around you, when he was around

(34:43):
Eddie renosso before that. It just seems like something has
changed in his world that's changed his behavior.

Speaker 4 (34:52):
Yeah. You know, people get older, they experience things I
want to experience, other things. They get new friends and

(35:13):
new associates, and you know, look, Ryan's a charismatic guy.
Very people want to be around them, male and female. Okay,
And I think that would explain some of this. He's

(35:33):
in demand. I know, he's got a lot of people
that look. I mean, I think he was his greatest
promoter was Ryan Garcia. I mean that takes a lot
of intelligence and savvy and charm. He figured it out

(35:56):
before anybody that goes to show you the i Q
on this kid. He's having fun. He's twenty five. I've
had fighters that could burn the candle at both ends
and that come and kick your ass the next day at.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
Will I could probably think of a couple that have
been in your camp that have done that, Dagon Carralis
perhaps being one of them.

Speaker 4 (36:18):
No one, Diego was with me. He didn't, Okay, no, no, no,
he was. He was like when Ryan was with me.
Ryan was really a dedicated Dan And I suppose he
still is in a way that maybe not everyone understands.

(36:39):
But I certainly had fighters that were you know, oh,
believe me. I can tell you the stories guys that
were contenders, champions. Look, they're in their twenties. I was
in my twenties. I worked in nightclubs when I was young.
I could stay up for two days ago. I hang
with it being a bit a bang and not feel

(36:59):
a damn thing. And you know, Rinse wash Rin's repeat.
You know, so he's he's he's at the peak of
his you know, physical wellbeing, and you feel like you're
gonna live forever at twenty five. I know I did. So. Look,

(37:22):
it's not the end of the world, you know.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
So you were what when you watched that fight against
Devin Haney. And we'll put aside for a second. The
stuff has happened in the aftermath, which Ryan obviously has
to address. The positive test and all those things. But
when you watch that fight, what did you make of
the way Ryan fought and how he was able to
do what he did to a guy that many believed

(37:46):
was a top ten pounder pound guy.

Speaker 4 (37:48):
Okay, I'm not even gonna address the fight yet before
I tell you this, okay, because before the fight, I
don't I don't like going on record about picking winners
and losers because of what I do, Okay, And I

(38:09):
don't want to run into that next guy. Go hey, man,
you pick the you know, and I've got to ask
him questions for an upcoming you know.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
I want to get that all the time. Joe, exactly,
I know, you.

Speaker 4 (38:18):
See, And Chris, that's why I really I you know,
I'm I'm like.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
We live in a gambling company world, Joe, And.

Speaker 4 (38:28):
Look I try. Here's the thing. I work with fighters.
I may work with that kid one day, you never know.
I've worked with fighters that have left and come back
more than once. Okay, you know, the old grass is
greener on the other side. Sometimes then sometimes they figure
it out and they realize, you know, who's in their
corner through thick and thin. So here's what I said

(38:55):
before the fight. To two people off the record. One
was reporter and one wasn't. Because here there were they
were really the only people that were with me at
a certain time and place where I felt comfortable talking.

(39:15):
I know we weren't being retarded. And all I said
was this, I said, Devin Haney is the perfect opponent
for Ryan. Well, why is that? Well? Number one, he's
a right hander. Okay, no right hander is beating them

(39:35):
ever in the pros. It's number one. Number two. He'll
keep his distance from you. He's not like a pitbull
who's going to pressure you and try to get nose
to nose with you. So he's a right hander that'll
keep his distance from you. He's not a knockout puncher. Well,

(39:58):
there was three three good things for right there. So
right hander, he'll keep his distance. He's not a knockout puncher,
and he's got a certain set of punches he throws.
And that's it. Perfect guy for Ryan. Ryan fought Devin
Haney six times in the amateurs. The last one he

(40:22):
beat him, and that's the important one. What was the
last what happened the last time I fought you? I
beat you? Okay, So that's important. That's good for your confidence.
So all the things right hander, distance, not a big puncher,
limited variety of punches. It's perfect guy for Ryan because

(40:45):
all Ryan has to do is to hit you with
that left hook. And I'm going to tell you something
right now, Chris, and I said it before when I
was working with him. I don't know of everyone to
believe me, he is the hardest puncher per square inch
of anybody I've ever worked with. It is mind boggling,

(41:07):
how the velocity, the shortness of it when he wants
to be like when he pulled out of that little
clench with the right hand, that short you don't you know? Yeah,
when he hits things in the gym besides people, when
he hits instruments of technique, whether it's the fierce reflex

(41:33):
bag which his father owns a company, which is a
great teaching too, I really like it, the heavy bag.
The speed, I don't care what it is. You're mesmerized
by the speed and power. He generates so much power
within such a short stroke. It's frightening. It's frightening. I

(41:58):
don't know who could actually. I think he's going to
come into a face where nobody's going to get out
of there conscious if you're a right hander, especially.

Speaker 2 (42:10):
It's funny. A lot of the criticism of Devin after
the fact was about his chin. Doesn't have a chin.
My takeaway from watching that fight was shit, he's got
a great chiin He got up like the first one
Joe round in the first round, you didn't go down
and that was clean.

Speaker 4 (42:28):
And that's when you're cold too. I don't care. You
can warm up all your head isn't your head isn't
used to it yet. Okay, you get hit like that
from Ryan Garcia in the first round and get up. No,
my hat is off to listen. I none of this
is is meant to diminish Devin Haney is a fighter.

(42:49):
I just think that much of Ryan Garcia. I always have.
I've always said, I've always said it, and he is.
He's very smart. He look I guarantee you Ryan or
seead devised exactly what he did in the ring. He
did what he was gonna do, what he decided to do. Period.

Speaker 2 (43:07):
He sets traps, as you well know, ye for opponents,
and I think Devin in the second half of that
fight walked into a few of them.

Speaker 4 (43:14):
He had no kind a lull.

Speaker 2 (43:15):
Devin to sleep in a way in those early rounds.

Speaker 4 (43:18):
I just don't think. Yeah, no, I agree with that.
I mean, but the fight was over after the first
round in my mind. You look, it's like getting hit
by a car. Okay, you yeah, you can walk away. Everybody,
just limp a little bit. You're gonna feel the effects
of that, that little car jolt you got for the

(43:41):
rest of the day. And that punched that he got
hit within the first round, that just doesn't go away.
That It's like a video game. You know, you're at
one hundred percent power and lowser down to like forty
real quick. You know. Yeah, that's what happened. So he
was he was running on a depleted power source Devin

(44:03):
for the rest of that fight, and give him credit
for making it through. I mean, he took some hillacious
left hooks from Ryan. I've seen guys in the gym, tough, tough,
good guys, headgear, big gloves, get just couldn't they They're done.

(44:24):
They're done after they get hit with one of those.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
By my count, he ate five clean left hooks, went
down on three of them, stayed up on two. That
is remarkable to stay up and get up on the
three got knocked down. I think Devin showed he had
heart in that fight, metal in that fight.

Speaker 4 (44:43):
Percent agreed. Look aren't you a little surprised it actually
made it to the final bell shocked shot? Yea.

Speaker 2 (44:51):
I think the seventh round knockdown. The first knockdown was
so early in the round that you like, there's no
ways getting out of here. And then you know, you
got the ten to eleventh round when Ryan was kind
of looking at the corner at Bill sort of doing
that whole Lomachenko things and stop the fight. At that point,
you know what kind of wounded duck is in front
of you. I was shocked that Devin made it over

(45:13):
and was competitive. You know, he was competitive early and
then I thought he won a couple of rounds.

Speaker 4 (45:18):
Oh la, Look, look you can make the case he
won two through two.

Speaker 2 (45:24):
Three, six, maybe at least two through five, six, then
maybe eight, and then twelve was kind of a toss
up like it.

Speaker 4 (45:30):
He was no, no, Look, Devin, these guys are champions
for a reason. And you talked to any champion and
they'll tell you, I don't care which champion talked to you.
They go, they're all good. They're all good. Once you
get at that level. They're all good. They can they
can take it better, they can dish it out better.
They're a little their defense is a little bit because

(45:52):
you can't get there unless a lot of working parts
are really in order, Okay, And that's how you get there,
and then to stay there, that's the trick, you know.
And and so Haney's got those qualities, championship and champion qualities.

(46:14):
And you know, look, I mean, you haven't seen the
last Devn Haney in no way, no way, I mean
one law. I mean, hell, who didn't lose all Lee lost,
Duran lost, Leonard lost.

Speaker 2 (46:27):
You go down the list, Sugar Robinson at nineteen losses, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (46:30):
I mean, I mean, come on, it's it's yeah, most
of those came later on.

Speaker 2 (46:34):
And but Sugar, I mean, didn't Sugar Robinson fought Jake
Lamont like three times in a month or.

Speaker 4 (46:39):
There may a couple of that. Insane to even think about.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
Incredible, incredible these are and these are long fights too, like.

Speaker 4 (46:44):
Yeah, yeah, wild, so no, no, it's true. And you know,
one loss is not the end of the world. It
really isn't. And especially when you're as dedicated Devin Haney
is a dedicated. You do not sustain that assault unless
you have worked your butt off, because your legs want

(47:07):
to disconnect from the from the shot that the brain
takes and they just want to stop working for you.
And you know a lot of guys will just be
unconscious from it, and a lot of guys will be
staggered by it, and a lot of guys will go
down from it. It's like having just somebody, you know,
pull the rope out from underneath you. And you know,

(47:29):
give Devin Hainey credit. He really showed his his his
worth as a champion.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
You know. The weight obviously was a big story going
into the fight, Ryan coming in three plus pounds heavier
and on the broadcast early one thing I brought up
was the second fight between Diego and Jose Luis Castillo
where Castillo came in what was it, three and a
half pounds overweight for that fight. How much of a

(47:58):
difference do you think that makes on fight night, the
three plus pounds that you don't cut.

Speaker 4 (48:04):
Well, it makes. The difference it makes is that you
don't have to cut it. Okay, it's not so much
that you because after the wan they're both going to
be heavy, but it's it's not having to lose that
three point three and the strain on your body. Okay,

(48:29):
So if you don't have to lose through, you didn't.
If you looked at Hannie, Hanny looked very drawn.

Speaker 2 (48:36):
It takes a lot to him to get down in
exactly to work exactly naturally a big guy.

Speaker 4 (48:42):
Which is why I say, sometimes you wouldn't do that,
not sometimes you wouldn't do that. If you had to
fight the same day.

Speaker 5 (48:51):
He might be a junior middleweight exactly my point. This
is what I'm saying, they kill themselves. He didn't look good,
He did not look physically good making one forty okay,
Ryan didn't make it, which means he didn't have to
end up looking like Devin Hani Okay, which means you
didn't have to debilitate your metabolism in your body and

(49:15):
your brain.

Speaker 4 (49:16):
Okay. You were able to keep the fluids in you
and the food and you didn't have to do the
two to three day starvation diet. So oh, I'm sure
he had a certain point he was, you know, worrying,
trying to cut and then at a certain point you
go there's no way, there's just no way.

Speaker 2 (49:38):
Did you train Diego for that rematch right with Castillo
with uh huh, what do you think back in that fight?

Speaker 4 (49:48):
Now? Were you talking about the one where they didn't fight?

Speaker 2 (49:50):
Oh, they did fight. We got that was.

Speaker 4 (49:52):
The third because the second one we chose not to fight.

Speaker 2 (49:59):
Okay, but there was the whatever but that, yeah, you
didn't that fight didn't happen, the one where you got
knocked out the fourth round, right where Castillo came into
that fight three plus pounds heavier. Yeah, And I mean
when you think back on it now, would you do anything?
Do you have any regrets about going forward.

Speaker 4 (50:15):
With that or having you got to remember, I'm I'm
not the final word on There's a lot of people
involved in in in that hole, you know. So look,
I mean Diego wanted to fight regardless, and a lot

(50:37):
of other players that were involved in that wanted that
fight to happen. You know, at a certain point, there's
no turning back, you know. So yeah, though those are
things that again, trying to make weight at a at

(51:01):
a at a weight you don't belong and then screwing
everything up, okay, which is what happened in that fight
with Corral and then you're in there with a guy
that didn't have to, you know, suffer, right, we suffered,
they didn't, So yeah, it's it's debilitating to lose that weight.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
We're here, obviously, in the press center for Canelo against Mungia.
Canelo undisputed super middleweight. I'm a undefeated, uh, but maybe
a little untested at the elite level at one sixty eight.
When you start kind of studying this fight, what are
some of the big talking points that stand out to
you early on?

Speaker 4 (51:48):
Well, you know, Mungia is a big, strong guy, that's true,
and he's a hard hitter, and he's got experience. He's
got forty three fights under his belt. Okay, But he
also made a switch in trainers too, So what was

(52:08):
he looking to do? What was the rationale for switching trainers? Do?
Do you have an answer to that?

Speaker 1 (52:14):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (52:14):
Well, I think part of it was the circumstances that
Eric Morales was dealing with in Tijuana. I believe he's
running for mayor of Tijuana and just didn't have the
same amount of time to work with Hime. I also
think that maybe he was looking for a little more
balanced approach to training. I mean, he and Eric were

(52:36):
your best defense is your offense. I think with Freddie
there's been more of a an effort to be a
more complete fighter.

Speaker 4 (52:44):
Okay, see, so this is what I actually talked to
Mungia about in a fighter interview. Was and let's face it,
I think it's obvious if you looked at a few
of his fights de Revan Chang in particular, which was
his latest toughest fight. Right, well, you did the flaws

(53:08):
were then they become a parent And I asked Timy,
I said, Jimi, hit are you addressing I think the
most obvious thing right now going in this fight against
Canelo is shoring up your defense. Your offense is there,
but see, he swings so powerfully that things pull away.

(53:33):
So his right hand pulls away when he's digging to
that bot. See when he throws a one to two,
he's going to follow that with a liver shot and
then a hook. There's this pattern. He'll stick to a pattern,
but he throws it with such power that things start
flying apart defensively, you know, and then sometimes when you

(53:57):
reach for things and it's a little bit longer hooked
to the bottom, it's only natural that the right hand
is going to pull away low or you know, maybe
not pairing the jab so much. You've got that right
hand over there when you're jabbing next to the side
of your head and you leave the middle open for
the opponent's chab. He got hit with that a lot

(54:18):
by derevn Chenko. He got hit with right hands over
low left hands. He got hit with a variety of bunches. Okay,
it with pretty much everything else. Okay, but you know what,
he takes it, and then he gets buzzed and he
comes back. You know, he's kind of a freak that way.
And then he comes back and you know, then you

(54:40):
got to start questioning yourself. Man, I've hit this guy
with everything. He's coming back and now he's murdering me
to the body with that left hook, and now you
got de revn Chenko on his hands and knees from
that liver shot in the twelfth round. I think it
was yeah. And you know, so he's got guts, he's
got hard, he's determined, he hits hard. He's big, he's

(55:04):
a legit sixty eight pounder, he's got forty three fights,
he's got that experience, and so I think we've kind
of summed up Jimimoongia as best we can, right. And
on the other hand, you've got Canelo, who's we got
sixty what four fights right now, sixty two and.

Speaker 2 (55:27):
Two, got a draw at the Galofkin draw mixed in there.

Speaker 4 (55:30):
Maybe sixty Yeah, so sixty two to two and one.
It's a hell of a record, a lot of exactly Now,
most of the guys that I grew up with in
the sixties and seventies, they all had at least sixty
five fights, seventy eighty ninety fights, Okay, so you know
they were and they were still fighting great, but they

(55:51):
fought a lot of four rounders, six rounders, eight rounders.
You know, you just didn't get a title shot at
twenty fights, Okay, you were just coming out of your
four six, eight rounders. Yeah, So you know, Canelo's got
a lot of experience, is he is? He is? I

(56:16):
don't you know. I think he's very selective about what
he does right now in the ring. He's not in
any rush. Although you know, if you start moving away
from him a lot, he's gonna step it up a
little bit more. If you're not moving too much and
holding your ground, well, he'll he'll, he'll, he'll figure you out.

(56:38):
He'll even maybe give you a few rounds until he
starts picking you apart. And then he's very he's very
very smart that way. Then he he starts finding openings
and making openings by doing certain things. He'll touch you here,

(56:58):
touch you there, keep touching his hand and then comes
somewhere else with it when you think it's going back
to where he's been touching you. So he's very smart,
and then he's very powerful. So you know, when you
see de revan Chenko hitting Mungia and doing causing some damage,

(57:20):
then you ask yourself, what if that was Canlo's right hand,
you know, if he hits you cleanly, So you know,
these are the questions. Yeah, and there's a reason why.
You know. Look, we talked about betting favorites. I mean,

(57:41):
look at the last one or the numbers were way off,
weren't they. Well in this one, in the Canalo fight
here with Mungia, I think Canelo's minus five point fifty
sounds about right, and I think that's reasonable. You know,

(58:02):
he should be the favorite. So but I don't underestimate
Mungia's power and his heart and his determination and his youth. See,
so he's got some good things going for him as well.

Speaker 2 (58:16):
I think the Canelos a different fighter than the guy
that kind of dominated boxing from twenty eighteen to twenty
twenty one. To my eyes, he doesn't he doesn't throw
the kind of combination.

Speaker 4 (58:29):
No, he doesn't he used to. If you looked at
my notes as I viewed film, it would say he's
throwing one and two shots at a time. You're exactly right.

Speaker 2 (58:41):
And I think defensively he's a different fighter too. At
his best against like Daniel Jacobs and the second fight
against Galofkin, I thought he slipped punches a lot more
or rolled with punches more. Now he seems more willing
to either parry them or let you punch into his gloves. Right,

(59:01):
that's the case.

Speaker 4 (59:02):
And but see that comes with the experience, because what
happens is is that you know what it's all about,
you know what you can get away with, and you
know that you can actually let a guy shoot off
some steam, wear himself out a little bit by you
not wearing yourself out, and he's you know this is

(59:22):
this is true what you point out, and it's accurate
and it's insightful, and but you know it, with experience
comes some benefits, and one of them is how to
survive relaxed and you know, in front of a guy
without having to exert a lot of your own energy,

(59:43):
waiting for him to slow down, then looking for the
opportunities and capitalizing. Look, he'll be more than happy to
land one or two great shots every couple arounds.

Speaker 2 (59:52):
So that's the question I have, Like, can Mungia take
those shots? Because pretty much every fight I've called that
he's been in, he's been either hurt, wobbled, or backed up.
And these punchers are not what Canelo is. Canelo can
still hit like a mule, Yes, that force behind You

(01:00:15):
know what happens in the third or fourth round.

Speaker 4 (01:00:18):
When one thing that Canelo does is he really drops
his knuckles and nice. See that's a that's something you
learn by hitting the heavy bag a lot and having
be instructed that way. Because I've I've been curd a
lot of fighters and great fighters that don't really do that,
have dropped their hand in and hit just the knuckles

(01:00:42):
on the bag, not the flat hand. No, I always say,
what do you not want to go get hit with
on the hand? Yeah, those things right there, the knuckles.

Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
Gloffian used to be pretty good at that exactly.

Speaker 4 (01:00:52):
That's because Abel Sanchez was his trainer, and Abel's old
school that way. He's a heavy bag guy, and he's
a he's a body cushy, which I am too, you know.
I like I always say, if you had to keep
one thing on the floor, what would it be. Would
it be a speed bag? Would it be a double
end bag. Would it be a weave bag? Would it

(01:01:13):
be the jump robe? Would it be uh, the upperinget? No,
it would be a heavy bag because it's the closest
thing to a human being, you know, in wait right,
and it develops stamina if you hit it a lot.
See a lot of guys don't hit the heavy bag
a lot, But I always say, you want to punch

(01:01:34):
hard and well in the later rounds. Hit the heavy
bag ten rounds every day, okay, and just don't play
with it. Find a pocket and drill it as hard
as you can without losing your defense. Learn how to
keep your defense tight while dropping in bam hard shots
one after another. And believe me, guys will be surprised

(01:01:54):
because a lot of guys wear out six seven eighth
round and you're still digging knuckles into them like You're
getting that heavy bag on their arms or wherever and
they feel it. Okay, and this is how you win
fights in the late rounds. I'm not just saying the
heavy bag. There's a combination of things. Okay. I use
everything on the floor, but I never neglect the heavy

(01:02:14):
bag because it's like it weighs a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:02:20):
Well, Joe, glad to have you back on air, Man,
And if you feel someone over your shoulder on fight night,
it's just me looking at your notes, Joe.

Speaker 4 (01:02:29):
If you can read my chicken scratch, then you know
what you deserve a.

Speaker 2 (01:02:34):
Gold medal, Joe, appreciate your time man now.

Speaker 4 (01:02:36):
And Chris, by the way, just lastly, your year. I
want to say this because you're a credit to the game.
You're really you love the game. That's the only way
you can be a credit game is by loving it.
And I know you love it and you do your
homework much more than I do. I can tell you
that you know, and I want to tell you how
much I appreciate you and thank you for having me
on your show.

Speaker 2 (01:02:55):
Appreciate Joe, you got it. And when we come back
my conversation Edgar Berlanga, all right, Edgar Berlanga joins me
now super middleweight contender. Uh And as we discussed earlier,
petty thief uh still ows six hundred dollars. Now that
you're down to me, look at you're making nice purses.
You could at least stop mooching free meals off men.

Speaker 6 (01:03:15):
All Right, got you, I got you next time.

Speaker 2 (01:03:17):
Yeah, I bet you do. Yeah, I bet you do.
Edgar and his intripid manager Keith Conley like to charge
meals to my room at hotels and his manager always
says is gonna pay me back and never actually does.
But good to see him, man, Good to see here.
And now you're number one contender for the belts that
are on the line on Saturday night. That was mide

(01:03:38):
official by the w B A see in the last
couple of weeks. That feels like a pretty big moment
for you.

Speaker 7 (01:03:43):
Yeah, I'm excited, man. You know, it's really a dream
come true, you know, just team just to even be
at this level. You know, I gotta thank God, my
Lord and Savior man, because without him, I wouldn't be here.
You know, this is this is a this is a
big thing happening now. You know, you know Conelo knows
it we know it. You know, it's gonna be a big,
a big thing, a big fight that could possibly made

(01:04:05):
this year. You know, I feel like it's gonna be
one of the biggest fights. But despite you know, Ryan
Gosia and you know in the in the Devil Hany
fight being big, but between me and him and people,
is gonna be something crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:04:16):
We're sitting here now in the press center for the
Canelo when Maggia fight just days away, sitting right in
front of a digital poster of Canelo and Mungia, and
there was some talk that maybe it would be your
face on that poster as early as today or tomorrow
when that fight actually happens. That didn't materialize Canelo with
that direction? Is it anyway bittersweet kind of being here? Uh,

(01:04:39):
you know, knowing you're in line for that shot, but
you were reasonably close to getting it.

Speaker 7 (01:04:45):
Yeah, I mean I kind of knew it wasn't gonna happen,
just for the simple fact that I just came off
my fight. You know, Remember he fought in General, so
he had that he had a long time to you know,
to get ready in prep and you know, and obviously
negotiate the fight with him but with me and I
just and then I got I got cut too with
the head butt, So that was another thing that would
have been too much of a rush, you know. I

(01:05:05):
feel like it would have happened too quick, you know.
And I feel like for me and him, we need
at least like four months to marinate the fight, but
also like promote the shit out of it and really
do a good job with it.

Speaker 4 (01:05:14):
You know.

Speaker 7 (01:05:14):
It happened so fast. And not saying that they didn't
did a good job promoting it, but I feel like
it just this fight happened so fast of announcing it
that they didn't get the it didn't get the right promotion.

Speaker 6 (01:05:24):
To need it, you know.

Speaker 7 (01:05:25):
And with us, I know that we're going to have
that time, you know. And I know you know, the
promotion for that fight is going to be crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:05:31):
When you talk to your manager Keith Conley and your
promoter Eddie Hearn about how realistic it is that that
fight will be next for you, what are they telling you.

Speaker 7 (01:05:42):
It's looking like ninety nine point nine percent it's gonna happen.
You know. I spoke with kind of those people's you know,
they interested, they want to fight, you know, we want
to fight, So it's about I guess it's just about him.
Just you know, he got to win this weekend and
that's it, you know, and the fighter's own. You know,
it makes sense. He knows in me sense, you know
right now he's in a be in a weight division

(01:06:04):
that if you really look at everybody that's in the
weight division, there's only about three of us that actually
like megastars. You know, you got me, you got Mugar,
and then you got Benevidas that moved up to one
seventy five that actually, like I'm making noise, like a
really make notes, and then you got you know, Charlie.
But y'allo's like going through his little situations. You know,
Plant already got two l's. But you're talking about undefeated guys.

(01:06:25):
You know, superstars in the sport that got countries behind them.
Is Me, Mugi and Benevitez. If you really think about it,
you know so kind of little knows those are the
big fights to be made right now. You get what
I'm saying, especially me for September, but not only like
you know, you got a I could be a legend
in my in my country man, for real, like you know,
me being the first male guy fighter to win multiple

(01:06:47):
world championship championships undisputed. It is different, bro, It's like
Amanda Sronald did it. But it's not like I keep saying,
it's not a bigger impact as if you know, like
a male guy. You know what I'm saying, a male
fighter will.

Speaker 2 (01:06:59):
Do it if you do it by going through a
Canelo alpha resum.

Speaker 7 (01:07:02):
Yeah, exactly about who you fight too, exactly now only
just exactly now only just like taking the the you know,
the victory. But it's like what you just said is
about beating I'm beating a fucking legend, bro, you know,
and I'm being the guy that had the crown at
one sixty eight, and you know I'm going in there,
you know, and I'm putting it on the line for myself.
You know, I know that this is this doesn't mean
a lot, you know what I'm saying for me, for

(01:07:23):
my family and just for my status, you know, for
my last name.

Speaker 6 (01:07:27):
You know, you see he has his last name Canelo.

Speaker 7 (01:07:29):
I got my last name, but Longa, So I want
to put my last name on top of the world.

Speaker 6 (01:07:34):
You know, when did you.

Speaker 2 (01:07:34):
Start thinking about the possibility of fighting Canalo You've been
kind of been the same weight class as him for
a few years now. He's been collecting those belts over
the last few years. When did you start to think
like this, this could be real. I want to fight
this guy.

Speaker 6 (01:07:47):
Bro.

Speaker 7 (01:07:47):
When I before I wasn't even pro, like me seeing
him and I already knew I was going to meet
up with him, and I've seen what he did to Takoto,
I was like, oh, yeah, I gotta get I gotta
get I gotta get back for sure, for shore, Like
for sure, I gotta get back, you know. And yeah,
Like when then when I turned pro and I started
knocking like my first four fights, I already knew, I said,
We was already talking about it, like yo, in the future,

(01:08:07):
We're gonna this fight is gonna be you know what's
so crazy, bro? This ship is so crazy. I had
a dream. I had a dream. Two dreams were kind
of I had two dreams. The first dream I had
was last year. This was like around November, and that
the dream I had a dream that I fought and
he came to my fight, and he he was at

(01:08:28):
my fight and I was on top of the ropes celebrating.
I just knocked the guy out and he was pointing
at me, telling tell Eddie and my dream, that's the
guy that's that that's the guy that's gonna, that's gonna,
that's gonna that's gonna fight me. That this is the
this is the guy right here. And he just kept
pointing at me, and I looked at him and he
told me. He was like that me and him is

(01:08:49):
gonna make history.

Speaker 4 (01:08:50):
Mhm.

Speaker 6 (01:08:51):
It's like I swear in front of Jesus. I had
that dream.

Speaker 7 (01:08:55):
He came out, he started showing me poorners like in
the dream. He started showing me, but I gotta do
more movement. I got to use my legs a little
bit more. But he said everything else is fantastic. And
then the second dream I had was like a month
ago I had when him he was uh. We was
at a fight and it was weird. He was fighting.
He was main event, I was co main event, and

(01:09:16):
he was in the stands for some reason. And I
seen him and I wanted to go up to him,
but I was like, nah, I was like, fucking let
me go up to him. And I and I went
up to him and I saluted him and I said,
I spoke to him and I went in his here
and I said, we.

Speaker 6 (01:09:27):
Got to make this fight happen.

Speaker 7 (01:09:29):
I said, you know, this fight is going to be
something amazing for the sport and it's gonna be history
for me and you.

Speaker 6 (01:09:33):
And he was like, he said, oh, I said. When
I started talking to him in Mexican, I was.

Speaker 7 (01:09:37):
Like, ma'm on, come wrong, I got wrong, and he
started laughing.

Speaker 6 (01:09:42):
He was like, no, no, he said, when you want
to do it?

Speaker 7 (01:09:44):
He told me you want to do August or September
because you know August is uh the Saudist is trying
to show. He was like, we want to do August September.
I was like, let's do August and he was like, no, no, no,
let's do September. I don't want to do it in August.

Speaker 6 (01:09:57):
Let's do in September. I was like, let's do September.

Speaker 2 (01:09:59):
You gotta do Mexican. It is the weekend.

Speaker 4 (01:10:01):
Yeah, but so.

Speaker 6 (01:10:02):
That's what he was saying. He was, let's do it,
Let's do it September. I was, let's do it. But yeah,
it was those and it's crazy, bro. Look now i'm here.

Speaker 2 (01:10:09):
How would you approach a promotion for a fight with
we've seen Mangia pretty much be as respectful as humanly possible,
just basically.

Speaker 7 (01:10:18):
Now, I'm respectful, bro, Like you know me for many
years now, you know, you know I never came out
of character, nobody, but you promote like sometimes and I
gotta and I got to promote the fight. But I
already know how how I'm promote the fight through the artists.

Speaker 6 (01:10:31):
You know. I got a gang, hey, I got Mike
tode Wers, I got.

Speaker 7 (01:10:34):
All these like you probably don't know these guys, well,
you know, I got on well, I got bad bunny like.
I got all these guys to really like push the
fuck out of this fight for me, you know. And
these are guys, I got millions of followers, bro, Like
if you if you probably like at all the following up,
it's probably like over billion a billion followers, you know.
And and they already spoke to them. Like I was
in a big concert this past weekend on Saturday, I

(01:10:55):
went to Alex Sensation concert in Jersey, had all the
stars they and they put me on the stage. It
was twenty thousand people. They put me on the stage.
He had Sensation said that Belanga is gonna be September
twenty thousand people was going fucking crazy. Bro. I got
the video on my phone and when it was screaming,
right when they said my name the Puerto Rican Champion

(01:11:16):
for Puerto Rico, Bro, I felt twenty.

Speaker 6 (01:11:18):
Thousand people like I felt that energy.

Speaker 7 (01:11:20):
Bro.

Speaker 6 (01:11:20):
My body got hot and.

Speaker 7 (01:11:22):
I said, Yo, this shit is gonna happen, man, Like
this is crazy, bro, Like we're here now, you know.
So that fighter is gonna promote it by itself, but
I'm gonna definitely have like all the artists like really
backing it up, you know what I'm saying it to
making this event like.

Speaker 6 (01:11:34):
Like a concert.

Speaker 2 (01:11:35):
You know, I remember your your last fight. I turned around.
I didn't even see him there, but I turned around
and I see Fat Joe sitting right behind me. Yeah, okay,
all right.

Speaker 7 (01:11:43):
And I had a lot of other like celebs that
was there that, you know, Spanish superstars that you don't
even know that was it.

Speaker 6 (01:11:49):
We seen you dead?

Speaker 7 (01:11:49):
You know. I had Lou walked me out. He's fucking
he came and walked the streets of Puerto Rico, you know.
So yeah, man, it's gonna be It's gonna be something crazy.
I already got who I want to walk out. You know,
I want fact, I want bad Bunny to woke me out.
I want to Mark Anthony sing the national anthem, so
you know this is I know, I want to make
this something.

Speaker 2 (01:12:06):
I'm a white guy from Boston, so like you get,
like Donnie Walberg.

Speaker 6 (01:12:11):
Cool, I probably woke out with Donald Trump.

Speaker 2 (01:12:14):
That'll make a statement. That's for sure. To get there,
Canel's got to win, and if nothing else, I think
he's gonna be an entertaining fight between these two guys.
I don't think Munkey and knows how to take a
step backward. I think he's a come forward fighter. What
do you think of this fight? How do you how
does this play fight play out? In your mind?

Speaker 6 (01:12:30):
It's a tough fight for both fighters.

Speaker 7 (01:12:32):
Man, you know you got mo gear that throws a
fucking a hell of a punch, and he throws a
lot of fucking He's his punch count is crazy, around.

Speaker 2 (01:12:39):
Almost double the number of punches thrown in Canelo. Yeah,
for sure, forty I think is the number.

Speaker 7 (01:12:44):
But the thing is that what Canelo's precise with his punches.
You know he knows where to punch you at. You
see how he punched on on on Charlo. You know,
he hit him right on the spot and dropped him.
So that's like for that, right, So you got our
So I say, Canelo could probably knock him out if
he lands a shot on his chin. And if he

(01:13:08):
doesn't land, he's gonna be in for the long night
because Mongea is not gonna stop. He's a machine. You know,
He's gonna keep going and going and going and going
on and stop. So I'm leaning on Canelo. Obviously, I
think Conelo's gonna win. But yeah, Mongi is a beast too.

Speaker 2 (01:13:23):
And you were kind of preparing for the possibility that
you're gonna face Mongia months ago. I mean that was
in discussions, like as you were kind of watching him,
what were you thinking about the best way to fight him?
And when he's when a guy's throwing that many punches
at you, what's the best counter attack?

Speaker 7 (01:13:38):
First of all, you know, one thing he wasn't doing.
We wasn't gonna run or move around the ring.

Speaker 6 (01:13:42):
You know.

Speaker 7 (01:13:43):
My main thing was just, you know, to have a
good job. You know, we gotta watch with his left
hooks he got he has great left hooks to the body,
to the left hook to the body and to the top.
So he throws a lot of punches, but you just
gotta have your IQ on point. You have to have
my job what I had have been in his face
all night, you know, and and Matt him you know,
he's throwing all those punchers. You know, my conditioning would
have had to been at an all time high, you know,

(01:14:05):
to be able to go twelve rounds. I know that
fight would not go twelve rounds with one GIL because
I'm just I'm a type of fighter that when I
step in there with with guys that's like at that level,
my IQ like goes up, you know what I'm saying,
Like it's you know how you got that? You know
how you got that thing when you when you fight
out like you when you're playing if you ever played basketball,
he plays basketball like with a.

Speaker 6 (01:14:24):
Regular guy, like you're taking it cool.

Speaker 7 (01:14:26):
But then when you got got when you got a
guy in there that's elite, Yeah, yeah, your IQ everything
goes up. You start like you start going crazy. And
that's that's me, you know, Like I always been like that,
Like not saying that I took any of the fighters
that I fought lightly, but you know, you know how
it is, bro like you stepping in there with one
of these guys. Bro, my mindset, everything is gonna go
shoot through the roof.

Speaker 6 (01:14:45):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 7 (01:14:46):
You see what I did to McCorvey. I was already
on mccorby, Like I knew McCorvey was dangerous. He his
fucking hard. Yeah, I felt his shots in the fight,
you know, And I was like, now, yeah, I can't
get hit when I can't get hit, and I gotta
be I gotta all smart this motherfucker. And that's what happened.
I just all smarter him.

Speaker 2 (01:15:01):
So that was basically, is that what makes you believe
that you can win a fight like that, that your
game elevates based in the competition, because you know, if
that fight gets made, the story is going to be
he's not ready, He's not ready, He's not ready. Why
do you believe you are ready?

Speaker 7 (01:15:16):
Because I already know myself, Like, look so Pidrick, right.
They was looking at all my old fights, right, and
they thought I was going to fight the same fight
I was with quickly and with all these guys. But
like I said, I knew that the competition was stepping up.
I knew maccory was on the field. I know he
had the IBO light heavyweight world title, a ZO plus
seventy five. I knew he was knocking things out, you
know what I'm saying. I know he had a hammer.

(01:15:37):
They called him the Hammer. I knew he had a hammer.
So my IQ just went to the to the next level.
And then you know, just me just in a gym
too with Mark for right, my coach, just working and
working on fundamentals on on IQ, on the basics, you know,
and his coach came to me and was like, yo, bro,
y'all did like magic or something, and I was started laughing.

Speaker 6 (01:15:56):
I was like, what you mean, I did magic.

Speaker 7 (01:15:58):
He's like, Bro, everything we was practicing on you didn't
do nothing that you did any of your fights, any
of your fights. You gonna make no mistakes the ship that.
He was like, Bro, we was watching you day in
and day out, like studying every move everything he was doing.
He said, you didn't look nothing like that. How you
look your last couple of fights. I said, Bro, It's
just it's just me. Bro, Like if I step up another,
if I step up again, it's kind of my shit's

(01:16:21):
gonna go even more like boom, my shit's gonna fuck him.
That's why I'm like, let everybody. Let Vegas put me
as down the dog. Let all these motherfuckers hate on me.
Let them say I'm not ready, Let them say all
this ship. But the night of the fight, they're gonna see.

Speaker 2 (01:16:34):
Before I let you go. You mentioned how big a
fight the Garcia Hainy fight was obviously been kind of
tarnished over the last twenty four hours with the news
of that positive test. As a fighter, Like what goes
through your mind when you read news like that and
see news like that?

Speaker 7 (01:16:49):
It was sad, man, because I'm not gonna lie. I
see like Ryan, Ryan was enjoying himself. He was going crazy,
I'm not gonna lie, bro, Like we need we need
stuff like that, Like you have artists right that, Like
I know right and know it's a big, big, big,
big big land artist. He watched boxing because of me, right,
But now he's he told me, yo, bro ever since

(01:17:09):
I watched that fight and all that ship he was doing,
now he's actually tuned into boxing. And that was coming
from his mouth over FaceTime with him, and I said,
he said, Bro, I watched you.

Speaker 6 (01:17:19):
I always watch a fight. You know what I'm saying.
You're my brother. So I'm always watching a fight, but
I wasn't in tune with boxing like that.

Speaker 7 (01:17:24):
When I see that motherfucker that niggas, He's like that
dude is fucking crazy.

Speaker 6 (01:17:29):
Be on the stage. He's doing this. Do you know
what I'm saying?

Speaker 7 (01:17:33):
Trolling he made, He made a big guy like that
and the land in the street fall in love with boxing.
He's like, you're not, I'm gonna start watching boxing because
this ship is exciting. And I was like, damn, that's crazy, bro,
Like it is he he you know, people, he actually
did a huge impact. And you know what I'm saying
for for doing all the trolling and everything. But going
back to what you were saying, it's sad, you know

(01:17:53):
what I'm saying, Like.

Speaker 2 (01:17:55):
I hope, Yeah, it's the positive test. Is the positive test.
We don't know yet how much you know their trace elements?
Is there a significant amount? We don't know the quantity
of the banded substance. We just know it's there, so
there's something that's there. And look, if you're and I've
talked to Bill Haney about this, I've talked to Devin briefly.
You know, people around him like they're devastated by all this.

(01:18:15):
I mean, that's that's what the biggest concern is. It's
a fighter in the ring man like you. You're you
guys risk your lives every time.

Speaker 7 (01:18:21):
If you're gonna beat me, be you know, beat me squhere,
don't come three pounds over, don't you know, don't stop
you know, you don't got to use band substance to
be that. Then that goes to show what type of
fight I am. You know, I'm that dangerous that you
have to do all this techniques to try and beat me.
You know, I'm just sad because I grew up with
both of them.

Speaker 6 (01:18:38):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 7 (01:18:39):
In the amateurs, we use all national tournaments together. We
want national together, so you know, just me seeing it,
I'm like, damn bro. And then especially I was going
for Devin too, you know what I'm saying. I was
arguing about the Mexican that was there. It was like me, nah,
like it was going crazy.

Speaker 6 (01:18:57):
I'm like, yo, like oh.

Speaker 2 (01:18:59):
But you know even still even going down three times,
he almost pulled it out.

Speaker 6 (01:19:02):
Yeah, bro, he would have kept that job in his face.

Speaker 7 (01:19:05):
Bro, Like how he was remember like after the first
round and he started keeping that job in his face.

Speaker 2 (01:19:10):
He got a little bit lazy.

Speaker 6 (01:19:12):
Yeah, he slept on him too much.

Speaker 4 (01:19:13):
Boy.

Speaker 7 (01:19:14):
It was like too too much. Bro, it was too much.
He slept on him kills, yeah, man. And with that
with Ryan, Bro, you gotta be alert, just like Tank.
He like Tank was the blueprint of being Ryan. You
know what I'm saying. Like he was dodging all the
left hooks, you know what I'm saying. He kept throwing
a left houck. Obviously at some point, right, certain fighters
are gonna stay the same. Yeah, you got certain fighters

(01:19:35):
like me that'll keep like I'm like a sponge in
the sport, bro. So I'm gonna keep elevating my game.
I'm gonna keep learning, I'm gonna keep doing different things.

Speaker 6 (01:19:42):
So whatever.

Speaker 7 (01:19:43):
So if you see me my last fight, don't expect
that for me to be for that to be me
in my next fight, you know I'm saying, because I'm gonna
keep elevating my game each and every fight. And certain
fighters they just stay stuck with the same moves, They
do the same shit. They don't change nothing. They do
the same head with the same combos, the same repetition,
the same everything. The left hook, and I'm like, damn,

(01:20:05):
I already seen when Ryan was like Ryan couldn't land
the left hook no more, and like for two or
three rounds, he was just running around the ring and
everybody was like, but.

Speaker 6 (01:20:13):
That's a tactic he was for his last fight. He
slept them. He sleeps you.

Speaker 7 (01:20:17):
He moves around, moves around, have you running after him,
and then he sleeps with them.

Speaker 6 (01:20:21):
When he stops, he shoots the left hook.

Speaker 7 (01:20:24):
You're not united expecting it because it's a trap because
he just had you running around chasing him after the
ring three three rounds.

Speaker 6 (01:20:30):
That's what he did. What's the the guy?

Speaker 4 (01:20:32):
He thought?

Speaker 7 (01:20:33):
Uh he did that to running doing shoulder road, doing
the shoulder road, playing around, playing around.

Speaker 2 (01:20:40):
I don't know what that was. That was a shoulder
roll or I don't know what. I don't know what
that defense was.

Speaker 6 (01:20:44):
I don't know, but that's what I'm saying. It gets
people frustrated. People see that, what are you doing?

Speaker 7 (01:20:48):
And they get people fustered out their game And like
he did, capt moving around, capt moving on, slept them
and as soon as he went boom landed the hook.

Speaker 6 (01:20:56):
It was over.

Speaker 2 (01:20:57):
Fight over, you know, and people people criticized people criticized
Devon's chin after that. I actually think the opposite. I
think the man got up from three left hooks and
took two others. Like, that's not a guy with a weach,
namely one fighter that Ryan's fought that got up from
that shot, like Francisco, I remember being to that fight.
Took one of them and was asleep, like Devin got up.

Speaker 6 (01:21:17):
That's no t You took him about a chin. That's
a chin.

Speaker 7 (01:21:21):
He has a chin, like you said, getting knocked down
three times and then getting up and still fighting, still
buying down on your.

Speaker 6 (01:21:27):
Mouth pieces and finishing the fight.

Speaker 7 (01:21:29):
He has a chin, and he has hard and bulls,
you know, like when you said a guy that got
hit with a left hook like that the first round,
he probably would have.

Speaker 6 (01:21:34):
Been out cold. That was a clean you know, and
he stood in there.

Speaker 7 (01:21:38):
He went to the storm and kept it, you know,
and kept it and kept it a hunting and just
kept you know, kept doing what he did. But yeah, Bro,
I don't know, Bro, I just look at boxes my IQ.
Bro is just crazy. But I already I already seen it, yo, bro,
when I seen him running. When I see him running,
and I'm from and I'm seeing him run and run
for two rounds and everybody's.

Speaker 6 (01:21:57):
Like boo boo. I'm like, oh my god, you Pops.
I'm like, yo, he's setting him up, Pops. I'm selling you,
he's setting him up, Pops.

Speaker 7 (01:22:04):
He's setting this kid up. He's gonna set him up.
He's in a run one one one, and by the
third round or fourth round, he's gonna fucking throw that
left hook.

Speaker 2 (01:22:11):
Lulls you to sleep.

Speaker 7 (01:22:14):
You're chasing somebody for three rounds that the guy don't
want to throw. Nobody's running after him and trying to
hit him. That ship throws a game on, you know,
and then you go and you go into sleep mode.
Then it's like a and then boom he's and then
boom that that lightning left.

Speaker 2 (01:22:25):
All it takes. That's all it takes. Well, I hope
it all kind of We'll see how it all plays out,
you know, the substances and whatever that toppen, because I mean,
you know, New York is not gonna play around with
with that, you know, if that turns out to be legit.

Speaker 6 (01:22:38):
Yeah, well, Ron, you got to be like, you got
to find that kid.

Speaker 7 (01:22:40):
You gotta be on point from one too round twelve
now because he has fast hands.

Speaker 6 (01:22:44):
You know what.

Speaker 2 (01:22:44):
That's that's definitely God given. That's that's for sure.

Speaker 4 (01:22:46):
Egga.

Speaker 2 (01:22:47):
Good to see out here in Vegas.

Speaker 4 (01:22:48):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:22:48):
Hopefully four months from now. That's uh, your face up
there on the poster. This poster is everywhere, man, These
posters are on every single wall of every single part
of this Orrist casino.

Speaker 6 (01:22:59):
Yeah, for sure, it's crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:23:00):
It's crazy. We'll goo to see it man. Likewise, that's
it for this week's episode. My thanks to Joe Goosen
and Edgar Berlanga for joining the show. As always, subscribe, rate,
review this podcast on Apple, podcast, Spotify, wherever you download podcasts,
and I'll see you on Sunday nights.

Speaker 3 (01:23:19):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 4 (01:23:20):
I go sleep