Lewis Ritz, Josh Taylor, Matthias discussed on SI Boxing with Chris Mannix

Automatic TRANSCRIPT

Be pretty crazy. Yeah, I agree. And I quite frankly think Jake Paul would agree as well. All right, let's talk about the fight that you were supposed to be at this weekend, but we'll be covering for boxing scene remotely. A 140 pound fight Matthias versus Ponce, this has war written all over Keith. He got two guys that are just come forward, heavy handed kind of guys. It might not be the most technically most technical fight that's out there, but it feels like this has fight of the year contender kind of written all over it. What do you expecting in this matchup? You know, I spoke to both guys at length person and they said, both of them said the same thing. They expect a war, they expected. I think the words that Ponce used, which were translated to me, was going to be a high voltage affair and the fans are not going to be disappointed. I think they both expect that type of knock down drag out fight. A Subaru Matias is a guy who, you know, just comes forward he's a huge puncher, every fight that he has won as a professional has been won by knockout. He avenged his only loss to Petro Sena by just beating him down in the rematch last January. It was a competitive fight for much of it, but then he started beating him up and he knocked down a non in for the first time to non use career. And became the first opponent to stop him, he's a huge puncher. He comes to fight, you know, not much for defense that doesn't have the greatest jab. You know, but he's a huge puncher on say, you know, he looked great in that Lewis Ritz and fight. That's the biggest fight of his career. He went to Lewis Ritz's hometown, beat him up pretty badly, especially to the body, knocked him down three times in the tenth round and won that fight by TKO, and that's how he became the mandatory challenger for Josh Taylor's IVF title, which Taylor later gave up and then the IBS ordered him to fight Matthias for this vacant title. I think it's going to be a great fight. And it's under the radar because we didn't either guy is exactly a household name even among boxing fans, but people are well aware of Matthias because he's been fighting on PBC cards in recent years and he's Puerto Rican and it's kind of surprising that he hasn't become bigger because Puerto Ricans embrace all of their fighters and this guy can really really crack and he knocks people out. You would think he would be a bigger name than he is now, but maybe winning this title and getting into a bigger fight can do that for his career. But Ponce is going to be a I think Matthias is a four to one to favor it and he'd have to favor him to win the fight based on what he's done. Ponce hasn't fought the highest level of opposition. But again, that Lewis Ritz and fight and I'm not saying richins as good as Matthias certainly not to puncture that Matthias is, but to go to his hometown and do that to him was impressive, and that's been his toughest test to date. This is kind of a neutral territory, neither of them has anything to do with Minneapolis, Minnesota, which is the hometown of Jamal James who's fighting on the in the co feature. But I just think it's going to be an excellent fight. And that'd be great back to back weeks coming off of Nissan fight and of course the Lee wood, the dramatic ending to the laterally wood fight, because he built some momentum here in somewhat lower profile fights, but fights that fans will enjoy. That's a great fight. And to your point, in terms of bigger fights in the future, a lot at stake. I mean, a 140 is poised to become kind of a glamour division in boxing with the names that are in there already right now, whether it's Josh Taylor. Lopez reaches pro gray, of course, the title holder. But also with a 135 pounders, Devin Haney, Ryan García, they figured to be moving up before the end of the year. And if you can get one of those belts, the ibf belt, in this case, that's currency. Keith, that's like, you know, half a $1 million payday $1 million payday guaranteed in probably your next fight, whether it's in a unification fight or you're fighting against one of those top guys like a haney or Orion Garcia. So, you know, financially, if there's a lot at stake, I mean, both these guys want to become title holders, but I would think the money is in the future money is even more important at this point. Yeah, as much as we, you know, criticize there being for it and I guess 5 if you recognize the IBO, there are too many titles, but these titles are very valuable to the fighters because they'll make much more money by defending even if Subaru Matias loses what you say he wins on Saturday night and he goes and defends the title against a higher profile to whoever it might be. He's going to make a lot of money so these titles are very valuable to the guys and it's going to be a fun fight, like I said, Chris and I think you get some bang for your buck on Saturday night. Well, except Regis prograde was kind of like holding his title up going like does anybody want a title shot? Well, I don't know if I'd want to fight Regis program either if there were paths to a title like if you're too female Lopez and I'm not saying he couldn't beat Regis program, but you know there's been some slipping into your fema and his last fight he didn't look particularly good. But I would rather fight Josh Taylor and Lopez is willing to go over to the UK and do it. Even to Glasgow. So I've been told that that that's possible that that fight would be in the U.S. also. But whatever the case, if you're him, that's the higher profile fight and then maybe he would fight Regis program after that and the title unification fight, but pro bray is one of those it's not that there's no reward because he has one of the titles and people obviously know who Regis program is, but that's a tough fight, man. I mean, look what he just did to Jose zapata, who had no one at Zappa had been knocked down, you know, multiple times by Ivan barancik, but he got up and knocked him cold to win the fight. But no one had done that piece of paper. So, you know, program is still somewhat in the prime of his career. I believe he's 33. Man, it's going to be tough to get people to sign up to fight him, particularly when he's not with, you know, if he were with top rank in his fights to run ESPN, you're getting this great exposure, or if he was with PBC and the fights are on showtime, whatever the case might be, he's not even really affiliated with a promoter that has a TV deal in the U.S. and that last fight was an independent pay per view. You know, so unless someone's putting up a decent amount of money for you to go fight him, people are going to steer clear of him. Yeah, and not to make this about program, but I can understand his frustration. Like if he came within what a .2 points of beating Josh Taylor, a few years ago, he wins that fight, you know, he's on the path to undisputed, probably would be undisputed. At this point and a marquee guy with multiple options in terms of promoters and networks instead, he loses that fight in a close way and has been kind of in the boxing wilderness ever since. He gets the world title shot. He wins the world title, and now he's, he's still looking for something. I mean, I'd love to see a Jack Adderall fight get put together. That fight makes some sense. You could do it over in the UK. Has earned an opportunity at a world title shot in the aftermath of the Taylor fight and all the postponements for that. I don't know that it's doable. I know that they've explored it internally, you know, we'll see if the money is there for it, but that's a fight. I'd love to see put together over in the UK. It makes it makes a good amount of sense. Last thing for you Keith, you know, it seems like every week, two weeks, we wonder about the future of Gennady Golovkin. It was a couple of weeks ago. He vacated his IVF title at a 160 pounds. It sure sounds like or seems like that his WBA belt is going to go the same way. There is going to be at some point a purse bid calls for a purse bid for a fight against eris landy Lara, who is the secondary title holder. I don't think gallop did would shy away from that fight. He better pay him for that fight, and I don't think the money is out there for a showdown with our slendy Lara. Like what's your read on galav kin future? I mean, I talked about this with other people, you know, before we vacated IVF title now here we are and we could head into March with golovkin either about to be or being a non title holder. You

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