Full Transcript for Boxing with Chris Mannix - Details on AJ-Ngannou in SAUDI

down, AJ busted him up, broke his nose, made his corner quit after the fifth round. 00:06:46 Speaker 2: Anthony Joshua not gonna say it. Okay, we'll say it. 00:06:50 Speaker 1: He is a composed and ferocious finisher and he is a hitter. So a guyk in Ganu who again acquitted himself incredibly well, but one who doesn't have a lot of a boxing experience. I just think that this version of AJ, with Ben Davison in his corner, with Lee Wiley working with. 00:07:10 Speaker 2: Them, they're gonna have a great game plan. 00:07:13 Speaker 1: And this version of AJ is going to set a trap that in Ghanho's going to walk into, and he's gonna walk into a big right hand and he's not gonna have been hit by the kind of power that a boxer like Anthony Joshua possesses. 00:07:28 Speaker 2: So this is a big win for AJ in my mind. 00:07:32 Speaker 1: He is able to get an incredibly lucrative fight. It is a less risky fight than what Wilder looked like before the fight with Joseph Parker, and he's able to keep his career moving no breaks. Fights in December, fights again in March. If he wins, he can probably fight again as early as the summer. Big win for Anthony Joshua. At the same time, huge win for France and Ganho. I mean Ghanu. You know a lot of people, myself included, believe that France and Ganu in boxing was going to be a one off. 00:08:07 Speaker 2: Just has been a one. 00:08:08 Speaker 1: Off for a lot of these guys. One off at least so far for Connor McGregor, one off for Nate Diez. 00:08:15 Speaker 2: I thought Francon Ghana would be one and done. 00:08:17 Speaker 1: But because he performed so well, he gave himself the opportunity to be in this type of fight because you can sell it right like the sell is to a degree. Can Nghanu knock out Aj? He knocked down Fury? Can he knock out AJ? But it's also can Aj do what Tyson Fury? Could Tyson Fury beat in Ghanu? Can AJ knock him out? So In Ganu's performance put himself in this position and he is going to make a pile of money to fight Anthony Joshua. 00:08:49 Speaker 2: So in two boxing matches. 00:08:52 Speaker 1: In Ghanu is going to make way more money than he would have made fighting in UFC, So all that talk about Francis fumbling the bag and losing out on the kind of paydays he would have made in UFC. H He hasn't even made an appearance yet in PFL. 00:09:09 Speaker 2: He may never make an appearance in PFL. He may never fight mixed martial arts again. 00:09:13 Speaker 1: And he's made so much money and will make so much money in boxing in two fights that we may never see France and Ghanu back in the NMA world. But big win for in Ghanu too, just getting this opportunity and getting this type of payday over in Saudi Rabis. So both these guys are big winners. They're headlining what will be a big event. Now for the undercard, I have been told that Jay Lee Jeong is going to be on the undercard, most likely in the. 00:09:41 Speaker 2: Co made event. Now. 00:09:42 Speaker 1: Jeong had a fantastic

twenty twenty three. He was Sports Illustrates twenty twenty three Breakout Boxer of the Year because with two wins over Joe Joyce, he revived his career. At forty years old, he is a top five heavyweight once again. So he put him self into this position and now here he is set to appear on this card in Riadde, Saudi Arampia. Now who is he going to face? Well, Jeong wants all the smoke. He wants to fight anybody and everybody. But the guy Jeong and his team really want to fight is Deontay Wilder. And I've been told that the people in Saudi Arabia, the deal makers over there, they want that fight too. My initial reaction to hearing about a Jean Wilder fight, what is that line from Rocky two? What they say to Apollo Creed his trainer. 00:10:39 Speaker 2: Is all wrong for his baby. 00:10:40 Speaker 1: That's how I what I feel Malik Scott should say to Deontay Wilder if this is brought up to him in a serious way, because j Lee Jong is all wrong for Deontay Wilder. Jay Lee Jeong is a big, sturdy, granite chinned, hard hitting Southpaw with a ton of confidence. The hiccups that Jay Lee Jeong has had in his career have come when he's had some weird medical experiences in Florida before the Jerry Forest fight, and then he had that razor close loss to Philip Pergovitch back when Philip Parergovich was the boogeyman of the heavyweight division, so since then he has been fantastic. Those knockouts of Joe Joyce were really impressive. So if I'm Deontay Wilder, I think twice about getting in the ring with Jay Lee Jong. 00:11:34 Speaker 2: As a fan, I'd love to see it. 00:11:37 Speaker 1: That's a fun fight, especially if Wilder is a different fighter, sits down as punch is more, gets into a firefight, tests the chin of Jeong. 00:11:47 Speaker 2: But Jeong is relentless and he can crack. 00:11:49 Speaker 1: That left hand of Jeong is the punch that closed and busted up the eye of Joe Joyce. The right hand of Jeong is what dropped and out Joyce in the rematch, So that's questionable. It's also possible that Jong fights somebody else on that card and the Wilder fights somebody else on that card. An interesting potential matchup. And I haven't heard this specifically, but it makes some sense. Wilder Philip Pergovich. Now'll explain why in the next couple of days, maybe as you're listening to this podcast, the IBF. 00:12:27 Speaker 2: Rankings are going to come out. 00:12:29 Speaker 1: And when the IBF rankings come out, Philip Pergovic and Anthony Joshua are going to be one two in those heavyweight rankings. That is going to entitle them to fight for a vacant title if and when the winner of Tyson Fury, alexand Uke Usik vacates that belt after their fight in February. That's the most likely outcome if Fury and Usik decide to fight for a second time, which is what the plan is at least for the moment. So here's why Herkovic Wilder makes sense. Joshua is gonna fight in Gandu, so that's squared away. If you're Hergovic and you get a big offer to fight Deontay Wilder, you want to jump on it right like you're getting Wilder seemingly at the exact right time, the very end of his career where he still has a name, but he doesn't have the same level of skill that he once had, and you're putting yourself on the same card once again as Anthony Joshua. 00:13:31 Speaker 2: So you've got Joshua fighting. 00:13:33 Speaker 1: In Ghanu in a non title fight, and you could do Hergovic Wilder in another non title fight, and if Wilder and Herkovic win, well you could do a fight between the two of them in the summer for the vacant IBF belt. Now you'd have to talk to the IBF, but given the fact that Hergovic has had to wait for so long for his IBF title shot, I would think the IBF would be amenable to allowing these two guys to fight non title fights out side of that situation and then agree to fight each other later on in the year. On the flip side, if Wilder for some reason beats Herkovic, all of a sudden, Wilder Joshua was back in play because Wilder just beat the number one contender for the IBF's heavyweight title, the undefeated Philip Hergovich. Now you get to the summertime and look, maybe a heavyweight title isn't on the line, but look, a heavyweight title was never going to. 00:14:26 Speaker 2: Be on the line for aj against Wilder. 00:14:28 Speaker 1: So it's a risk for Hergovich, of course, but he's gonna make a pile of money to do it, and ultimately that's kind of what it's all about. 00:14:37 Speaker 2: So look for that to at least be discussed. 00:14:41 Speaker 1: That's just be guessing at this point, but look for that to at least be discussed. I think it's gonna be some other names that are bandied about over the next couple of days. Eddie Hearn tweet out there's gonna be a press conference on January fifteenth. I'm sure we'll see some of the fights revealed on that date. But you know, once again, it's becoming clear that some of the biggest events in boxing, many of the biggest events in boxing are going to take place in Saudi Arabia because the Saudis are clearly invested in boxing. They want to do big time boxing, they want to make big events. And here we are, fresh off the Day of Reckoning in February, You've got the undisputed heavyweight Championship. In March, you've got this event headlined by Joshua and Ganu. At some point, I think we're going to get Archer better Biev against Dmitri Beevil. If better Beev beats Callum Smith, that's a huge fight for the undisputed light heavyweight championship. 00:15:38 Speaker 2: So you know, the Saudi interest is real. 00:15:41 Speaker 1: These fights taking place there are real, and it sure seems like, at least for the immediate future, that's where these big events are going to take place. So We'll see what happens as these fights come together. I'm sure we'll have a lot more to talk about when we get back on this podcast next week, and of course we'll talk more about virgin Lortes. By the way, before I go, Virgelrtiz is fighting at one fifties. I don't want to do this right now. Fighting at one fifty six. I don't even know what to make of that at the moment. All week, I thought he was fighting at one fifty four. This was his junior middleweight TV debut, it's his middleweight debut. Look, I get it, it's not a title fight. You can fight it as a catchweight. He's been off for a long time. But I kind of figured, in your first fight at your new weight class, a weight class that you're playing to campaign at, you know, for the foreseeable future, I would imagine, uh, you might wanna try to make that weight the first time. 00:16:39 Speaker 2: I don't know. 00:16:40 Speaker 1: That was strange to me to see the catchway. Apparently he was in the contract all along. But Virgin Lortis against Frederick Lawson Saturday Live on his own will be at one hundred and fifty six pounds. So we'll talk about that next week as well. Until then, enjoy the fights