TJ Rives:
That’s true. Would BetUS have a line? I would put that, right now, because I put it out there, at plus 200 on BetUS, that we will see the fleece at some… Although, it is summertime. I didn’t say when, I said, we would.
Dan Rafael:
It’s air conditioned in my house. It’s air conditioned.
TJ Rives:
Yeah, I said we would at some point, so we’ll go forward from that. Anyway, if you’re just finding the show, thank you. We do have a live chat going on, our BetUS folks, Alejandro, Francisco and everybody at BetUS, will feed us some live questions as we go, so an opportunity for Q & A in a little bit. We’ll see some of those, we’ll get some feedback. In particular, the odds, you see the odds scrolling on the bottom of the screen here from our friends at BetUS for the fights and the big fight card from Premier Boxing Champions and Showtime.
TJ Rives:
Dan, let’s not waste any time, let’s get right to it. Our guys are ready to go, and I think our audience, the savages, as I like to say, the savages are ready to go. They want to know, for free, worth every penny that you’re paying for it, what our thoughts are on these fights. So let’s begin at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. This is coming up Saturday night, Showtime Boxing, Premier Boxing Champions pay per view, Gervonta Davis and Rolando Romero.
TJ Rives:
This is a lightweight bout, with Gervonta Davis being an unbeaten, three division world champion. Romero, an unbeaten fighter, not as good competition on his resume as Davis. Interesting on the odds, Dan Rafael, that Gervonta Davis minus 400 to get the KO, but plus 550 to have this one go the distance. Our over-under is six and a half rounds. There’s a lot of intrigue on Romero, and whether he is crazy just because he’s crazy, or as you have suggested in print, is he crazy like a fox and maybe going to pull an upset. So Dan, as we bring it back on screen, we see the odds right there, what are your thoughts on Davis and Romero Saturday night in New York to start us off?
Dan Rafael:
Well, first and foremost, I think, TJ, not a secret here, however long this fight lasts, I think it’s going to be exciting. These are two offensive minded fighters, they don’t particularly care for each other, they both have hugely high knockout percentages, they both have made entertaining fights and I don’t see how it cannot be interesting again, for as long as it lasts. Tank Davis is a knockout specialist. He’s a capable boxer, but if you look at his record, most of his wins are by knockouts. Rolly Romero, same situation there. Just like you mentioned in the intro though, far less of a degree of top opposition compared to Gervonta Davis.
Dan Rafael:
But the interesting thing is, you talk about is Rolly Romero crazy or crazy like a fox? That was in reference to his stated prediction for this fight, all through the promotion, that he’s going after a first round knockout and he will end Gervonta Davis in the first round. Now, most of the time, TJ, you hear people talk about predictions like that, you think, “Well, it’s pre-fight hype, they’re just listening to their own voice, they’re trying to drum up interest in the event, and they’re trying to pump themselves up at the same time,” and it’s usually anything other than the reality. But Rolly Romero is just crazy enough where he might actually just go to the center of the ring and stand there and start throwing bombs from the get go, and just try to get him out of there.
Dan Rafael:
Because frankly, that’s his best way to win this fight, is by a knockout. He’s not going to be able to match Gervonta Davis, in my opinion anyway, skill for skill, tactic for tactic, going deep into a fight and then winning a decision. I just don’t see him being able to outbox him or out slug him, unless he lands the big haymaker, the big, giant knockout punch, which Tank Davis, so far, has avoided throughout his career, because he is undefeated and hasn’t ever really been in that kind of difficult situation. So he might just go there and try to bomb him out of there, and that’s the intrigue of the fight. Is Rolly going to go for it? How aggressive is Tank going to be, because he’s a very aggressive fighter? And that’s what makes it interesting.
TJ Rives:
Okay. And so a couple of things that crop up here. Davis is 26 and 0, Gervonta Davis, 24 knockouts, as you mentioned. However, his last fight was a decision win over Isaac Cruz of Mexico, back in December. We should say these two guys were supposed to have fought in December. Rolly Romero had trouble out of the ring, had accusations of sexual assault. He was eventually cleared of those, but it pulled him from the pay per view back in December, so this fight is now delayed until Memorial Day weekend, that they’re fighting. But when Davis fought the replacement, Cruz, the fight went the distance. Davis’ previous fight before that, with Mario Barrios, went 11 rounds, so he’s gone a little longer in the last couple of fights, but I think you and I might be in agreement, this is going to be fireworks, potentially early, one way or the other. That’s what we’re saying here on BetUS, if you’re looking at how to short term invest on this fight, right?
Dan Rafael:
Yeah. Now, a couple things about the fights that you mentioned. First of all, the Mario Barrios fight, that went into the 11th round, that was Tank Davis moving from 135 pound lightweight division into the 140 pound junior welterweight division, and was taking on a taller, larger guy. So the fact that it went, not the distance, but went further into the fight, into the 11th round, was not totally a shock to me to be honest, because Barrios has shown a good chin and he’s a capable fighter also, so the fact that it took him that long to knock him out was not a surprise.
Dan Rafael:
In terms of the Isaac Cruz fight, that was the December fight, that was a short notice replacement. Cruz is a much different kind of style than Romero, different dimensions, that could have had something to do with it, where he was changing his plan, not on the fly, but closer to the fight. And Cruz is a tough guy, he’s got a good chin, as he has shown, and he’s been in some good fights, also. I’m not saying that Rolly Romero doesn’t have a good chin, but because of the fact that it’s going to be the kind of fight, I believe, where they’re just going to, at some point, be trading, that lends itself to leaving yourself open. When you’re throwing back, you leave yourself open for a bit. And so I understand why those last two Tank Davis fights, one going the distance, one going into round 11, I think this one reverts back more to the other kind of Tank Davis fights that we’re used to, which is knockouts in the first half of the fight.
TJ Rives:
All right, so why don’t we get into a couple of predictions. And again, we’ve got time, as you see on our rundown there, for some Q & A. And how about this, Dan Rafael? I’m already seeing chat questions.
Dan Rafael:
Good.
TJ Rives:
No one has yet asked about the fleece, or about some of the other inside jokes, about, what is it? Water pressure in the hotel room, the flow water pressure on the shower in the hotel, that’s apparently an inside joke from the Friday chat as well. I don’t see questions about those yet, but there are some other ones that are coming in.
TJ Rives:
Let’s get into the prediction mode, what you and I like to do on the BetUS line. Again, we saw the lines earlier, you and I are in agreement on this, that we believe it’s going to be a Gervonta Davis knockout, so we’re going to lock Dan in on the Davis knockout, minus 400 on the knockout. I’m more strong on the better odds, Dan here, the better value of the underplay, that the under is minus 130. You’re having to lay more on the Davis knockout, so I’m more on the underplay under six and a half, but I believe you’re in agreement too. Whatever’s happening here is happening before the sixth round, right? So you’re just as well take the underplay as well as the knockout, correct?
Dan Rafael:
Yeah, I think that the fight is going to lend itself to a shootout. I mean, again, I don’t know if Rolly Romero’s going to literally do what he said, which is just go right after him, guns blazing in round one and try to knock him out of there and just sell out right away. But it’s not going to take long, I don’t think, before this thing really comes to a heated confrontation, let’s say, and they do start to get in there and mix it up.
Dan Rafael:
If you get in there and you mix it up with guys who are as good punchers as these two guys are, who don’t have bad chins, necessarily, but there’s always been questions, Rolly talks about how he dropped Tank in sparring, and Tank has dropped so many of his opponents, that they both have good power. And if they land, man, someone’s going to get hurt and someone’s going to go down, I feel. That’s why you and I are in agreement, good, exciting, explosive fight, but we’re not going to see this going into the second half of the fight, into the late, deep rounds that it’s going to happen, and we’re going to see an explosion and it’s going to probably be in the first several rounds of the match.
TJ Rives:
So to your point, we’re going to lock Dan in as well on the under. We both love the under because it’s a better value play here. So Dan and I both agree, Gervonta Davis. Rolly Romero ain’t seeing the seventh round, one way or the other, especially if Romero comes right at him. Again, he’s a very flamboyant guy. I just saw the video a little while ago with the weigh in they’re doing outside of the Barclays Center in New York, and Romero was trying to jump in, what a surprise, and throw punches at the end of the weigh in, when Davis was on the scale. Somebody didn’t tell Rolly that the bell hadn’t rung yet, it’s not the first round of the fight yet.
TJ Rives:
That’s not uncommon, Dan, seen that a thousand times too, where the guys try to sell the pay per view, but Rolly may be a little more genuine with that than some others, so there’s some dislike. Again, officially, Dan and I are both on the under. Dan also likes the Davis play by knockout. I’m going to go a little safer with the value play of just the under in this one, with what we’re doing on the Davis Romero odds as we talk to his…
TJ Rives:
By the way, I should make mention too, because some people on social media were pointing this out. Last week, on our inaugural show, we actually were predicting, and our friends at BetUS were putting specific rounds. I have said, and Dan agrees with me, “Guys, hang on here. If we’re picking an exact round of a knockout, the equivalent is like picking the exact score of a baseball game.” Like, Dan’s a big New York Yankee guy, so that would be like the Yankees are playing my Tampa Bay Rays, Champa Bay Rays this weekend. That would be like if you’re asking Dan and me to pick the exact score, that Dan thinks the Yankees are going to win six to three, not just win the game. Or the NFL-
Dan Rafael:
Ten nothing.
TJ Rives:
Yeah, right. In the NFL it’s, instead of picking the spread, you’re picking an exact score, like my Buccaneers would beat your Giants 23 to 20. So we’re not going to be that specific. Go ahead.
Dan Rafael:
When I’m picking the round, first of all, that’s what, as covering boxing as long as I’ve done this, people ask your pick. You usually say what the round is. You’re not necessarily expected to get it exactly, but when I say KO5, KO6, KO7,
TJ Rives:
Sure.
Dan Rafael:
Basically, what you’re doing is, if somebody’s boxing betting, they’re looking at what the over-under is maybe and they’re seeing where I line up in terms of what that number is. But definitely, I do like Tank Davis by the knockout. I mean, if you want, we can dispense with the round prediction, fair enough. But I do like the under, and I do think it’s a knockout.
TJ Rives:
And just for looking, if you were picking a specific round, which we are not, Gervonta Davis, by the way, he is plus 1000 to win in the first round. If you think it’s a first round knockout and you want to bet that. It drops to plus 900 in the second round and then sliding scale down to plus 800, plus 750 and so on, so just on the specific round, that is much harder to predict than the actual knockout or not, decision or not, or the over-under, as we go along.
TJ Rives:
And we’re going to have more fights, Dan. We should say this, just in general terms, on the BetUS Boxing Show, where it may be more of a 50/50 fight. I don’t think this is as much of a 50/50 fight. I think Davis wins, but we will have some fights here coming soon where you and I disagree. It’s more of a 50/50 fight, and then the odds will be better on knockout or on going the distance. In this case, if you think Romero can hang in, there’s a lot of value on this being a distance fight with the over, or on Davis winning by decision, there’s more value on the plus side with that, just while we share the odds a little bit.
TJ Rives:
Okay, again, we’re going to get to your questions on the Q & A. I think we thoroughly covered Gervonta Davis to win. We both think win and win early on that one. On the undercard, the co-feature fight involves a middleweight contender under the Premier Boxing Champions umbrella by the name of Erislandy Lara. Lara, a Cuban defector who has fought in the United States for a long time, Dan is very familiar with him, fighting a guy out of Ireland, Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan, and look at the disparity in the odds. Lara heavily favored, -225 to win by a knockout. A Spike O’Sullivan KO would pay plus 1400, and if he somehow gets it to the distance, gets the route, it would be plus 1800, with an over-under of seven and a half rounds on that one. So, kind of interesting, Dan Rafael, on that situation there.
TJ Rives:
What do you think? What are your thoughts on Lara? It’s a middleweight contender bout. Lara still looking to get into championship contention again. What are your thoughts?
Dan Rafael:
He’s defending his secondary title for the first time. He’s the WBA regular champion, the real champion in that weight class is… The WBA, unfortunately for a long time, has had multiple champions in each division. They’re trying to trim that down. He has their secondary version of it. The real, quote unquote, WBA champion is Triple G Gennady Golovkin, but the bottom line with Erislandy Lara is, he moved up to the middleweight division about a year ago and won this belt against Thomas LaManna by a first round knockout. Prior to that, he had been, for many years, one of the best fighters and held titles in the 154 pound junior middleweight division.
Dan Rafael:
And look, he’s a very skilled fighter, was a topnotch amateur. He is getting a little bit older now, but he’s still a very talented fighter. Maybe has slowed down a little bit from the standpoint of not being able to out slick everybody the way he once did, so he’s forced to sort of stand and trade a little bit more than he once did, hence, the reason why he was in the fight of the year, a few years ago against Jarett Hurd, which was just an all out action fight. But when he doesn’t have to have that skilled guy in front of him or another guy that’s fresh, he can really run circles around you and make you look foolish. And Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan is a hard nosed fighter. He is a veteran. He’s been in with a lot of good guys, but every time he’s stepped up to that next level, he’s been wiped out, mostly by knockout.
Dan Rafael:
He’s been beaten by the likes of David Lemieux in the first round. Of course, only last week in the slug fest against David Benavidez, where he got stopped. O’Sullivan has also lost to the likes of Chris Eubank Jr and Billy Joe Saunders. The point is when he steps up in class, it’s not a good look for him.
Dan Rafael:
And Lara should handle him. Let’s be honest about it. This is a showcase fight for Erislandy Lara. It would be, in my mind, a huge upset if Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan gets the victory. And again, if you want to really be honest about it, it’s kind of a mismatch and Erislandy Lara should win this fight. He should look great doing it, if he’s got anything left. Again, he’s coming off the year layoff. He’s fighting in a heavier weight class than he’s normally fought in, but he’s a talented guy and Spike O’Sullivan just isn’t at that level. He doesn’t make bad fights, but he’s not at that talent level, and this is a big time Erislandy Lara win, and like I said, maybe upset of the year, caliber upset, if O’Sullivan get the victory.
TJ Rives:
Lara should be focused, and again here, we’re helping you with your betting advice for the Saturday night pay per view. This is the co-feature fight. Dan, where do we think this fight will come on the timeline? I always love you get these questions, because it’s a triple header on that fight card. This one come in, what? Probably 10:00 Eastern time? Something like that? Lara, O’Sullivan?
Dan Rafael:
Like all these major pay per views, it’s a four fight card, so it’s not a triple header. It’s four fights.
TJ Rives:
It’s four.
Dan Rafael:
This is the co-feature, so you’re going to start at 9:00 Eastern time. There’ll be two fights and then will be this fight, so it’s impossible to say the exact time. Just sit back and enjoy the show, TJ.
TJ Rives:
All right. Be calm on that. And the Davis fight will not happen before 11:00?
Dan Rafael:
Most likely.
TJ Rives:
Even in the two hours, they’ll stretch. They’ll stretch on the Davis Romero for later in the night. One other point here, if we’re making the wagering, before we lock in the picks, Erislandy Lara does have the one round knockout of Thomas LaManna last year, not much of an opponent, but you look at the fights in and around that. He had another second round knockout, but in and around that, he’s had five other fights that have gone the distance, either at junior middle weight or middle weight. So you and I are kind of on board on the knockout here, but he’s had a lot of fights, Lara, that have gone the route. So that’s kind of curious here. That makes me a little unsure of that over-under at seven and a half rounds, on the BetUS line on taking Lara earlier in the fight. Any thought on this one from that standpoint about Lara fighting a lot of distance fights in the last two or three years of his career?
Dan Rafael:
Lara fights distance fights when he is in with top opposition. Lara gets knockouts when he is in with inferior opposition. He’s in with inferior opposition on Saturday, and Spike O’Sullivan is knocked out several times in his career. This fight ain’t going the distance in my opinion.
TJ Rives:
Okay. Let’s lock it in to that effect. Both of us here love Erislandy Lara to get the win by knockout, so again, you’re laying $2.25. That is what is supposed to happen. You’re laying $2.25 for every dollar that you’re betting. That’s what’s supposed to happen. But Dan even believes more so than I do. I think the veteran O’Sullivan, who’s what? 37 years old, can hang in there beyond that over-under where it is, at seven and a half rounds. Dan’s not so sure. We’re going to lock him in as well. He thinks he gets to O’Sullivan and gets to him quicker, and in fairness, as you mentioned in the step up in competition, he got knocked out quicker. You said that earlier. So Dan is also on the under here as well.
TJ Rives:
I was not as keen on taking the under, so Dan, on this fight, in the co-feature, Erislandy Lara, Spike O’Sullivan has two of his plays, which will be the knockout for Lara and the under. He likes both of those for what that is worth. How realistic, we know Canelo Alvarez announced this week, he’s fighting Gennady Golovkin. That fight will be at super middle weight, so no matter what happens, I can’t believe…
TJ Rives:
Okay, so let’s stop right here. Do we believe they would fight a fourth time if Golovkin were to beat him? I know that’s projecting way down the road, but my point is, for Lara or anybody else at middleweight waiting on Golovkin, you might be waiting a while, right? To get a chance at him in 2023.
Dan Rafael:
I don’t think Golovkin was fighting Lara anyway. Gennady is winding down his career. He’s 40 years old. This is the big fight he has wanted against Canelo. A fourth fight… I guess it depends on what happens in the third fight. You never say never. We did see a fourth fight, for example, between Pacquiao and Juan Manual Márquez. Back several years ago, we saw a fourth fight from a great trilogy, extending the trilogy between Raphael Márquez, Juan’s brother, and Israel Vázquez. But four fight series, they’re not common these days. I’d be surprised, frankly, at that point, but no one’s going to be waiting on Gennady Golovkin. Lara, at some point the WBA will order the fight to consolidate those titles, and it’ll be up to them to decide if they want. I’d be surprised if it actually happens. Somebody, eventually, you got to figure, will vacate.
Dan Rafael:
The main thing from Lara’s point of view is going into this fight against Spike O’Sullivan, as he talked about during the lead up. He understands he’s got to take care of his business Saturday with Spike O’Sullivan, but he has said he wants to fight the elite fighters in the middleweight division. He has a point when he says a lot of guys haven’t wanted to fight him, which is true, for a couple reasons. One, he’s a hard fight for anybody. He has been at the junior middleweight division. I suspect even in the middleweight division, even though he’s a little older now, he’s still a tough fight for anybody. He doesn’t bring a huge amount of money. He doesn’t bring a huge fan base, so you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place if you’re Lara, because you guys want to fight…
Dan Rafael:
They’ll fight hard fights, but they want it to produce either A, big money or B, big glory. Unfortunately for Lara, he doesn’t really produce either one of them. So if you’re going to get a fight with him, if you’re a big name, it’s going to probably be because you’re forced to do so. So he’s going to be in a little bit of a difficult situation if he wins. But as long as he leaves winning, he’s still going to be there pounding away to try to get those bigger fights, just how long he can go and who will finally be willing to fight him. The middleweight division is kind of petering out, let’s say, at the top level. Triple G is now taking the step up to super middleweight. Demetrius Andrade, who has one of the belts, he’s on the sideline at the moment for several months because of an injury, but he was planning on fighting his next bout in the super middleweight division.
Dan Rafael:
So a lot of those top names are not there anymore. Charlo has a fight coming up, but a lot of people think he’s going to move up. Maybe eventually have a fight with the super middleweight David Benavidez. Point is that the better names in the middleweight division are starting to clear out, so maybe it will open up the space for Lara to do something down the road.
TJ Rives:
Well put on all of that. We have fans that are watching. We’re not going to get to the full Q & A. You know what, why don’t we get to the full-
Dan Rafael:
Why don’t we get to a full?
TJ Rives:
Why don’t we get to the full Q & A? We have got a fan that has posted, and I’ve now seen this on YouTube who is posting under the handle, AaronRod, like he’s Aaron Rogers. I don’t think it’s the Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers, but this guy’s wanting us to believe, at least make believe, that it is. Aaron Rogers, by the way, is getting ready to golf with Tom Brady midweek next week in a made for television golf event. He and Brady against Josh Allen, the Bills quarterback and Patrick Mahomes, the Chiefs quarterback playing in Vegas for a whole bunch of money for charity, et cetera. But we don’t know. Maybe Aaron Rogers is watching us.
TJ Rives:
Anyway, the guy under the handle, AaronRod asks, “Hey, you’re talking about the under.” He wants to know, “Hey, what about parlaying the under for both of these fights together? How confident are you?” I’m not as confident for the viewer that Lara, O. Sullivan will go below the seven and a half rounds. I’m more confident that Davis, Romero will. Your thought, Dan, on putting both fights together in a parlay where the odds go way up, for both fights to be an under that we’ve been talking about. What is your thought?
Dan Rafael:
I mean, if you really want to make some money, then that’s probably what you have to do, but I’m sort of in your line of thinking. I mean, even though I did take the under on the Lara fight against O’Sullivan, I’m much more confident in the Tank Davis fight being the under, than in the Lara O’Sullivan fight. But I do see both of them ending in the knockout and it’s called gambling, so you got to take a gamble.
TJ Rives:
This is why it’s called gambling. And we see the emoji from the guy, or the profile pic from the guy that says he’s AaronRod.
Dan Rafael:
How cool would that be if it was actually was Aaron Rodgers? That would be cool.
TJ Rives:
It could be. He may be checking in from Vegas, trying to get down on the boxing pay per view. Other questions and answers, we’re going to get to. Our guys are feeding some of these. Frank wants to know, “Any thoughts on Eduardo Ramirez versus Luis Melendez?” This is also on the undercard. Oh, look at these guys at BetUs. I got it right on the screen. You can read it right there-
Dan Rafael:
I see it.
TJ Rives:
… from Frank. He says, “I like Melendez by the KO.” Danny, enlighten us a little more. This is an undercard fight, a little under the radar. Maybe you’re going to get good value on that. What is your thought?
Dan Rafael:
That’s interesting. First of all, Eduardo Ramirez and Luis Melendez, that is the opener of the pay view. They will fight in the junior lightweight division. And I actually disagree with what the viewer put in there. I like that Eduardo Ramirez in this fight, he’s a more experienced fighter. He’s got a couple of losses, whereas Melendez just has one loss believe Melendez’s record is 17 and one. And Ramirez has a few more fights. He’s like 26 and two with a draw or something like that. He’s fought better opposition. I felt like this was sort of what I called a placeholder fight for him, not an easy fight, but the kind of fight where he’s in with a solid opponent in Melendez. But if he wins, he gets… I call it, keep the chains moving, move himself closer to an elimination fight, a bigger name, maybe a possible world title fight, potentially.
Dan Rafael:
Whereas Melendez, he’s got the one loss, hasn’t had that level of opposition. Probably his best win, I think was probably the eight round decision he won not that long ago against Thomas Mattice, who was being built up as a prospect. He had been on Showbox a couple of times, which is Showtime’s prospect oriented series. So I find it interesting. Someone’s paying that close attention to that fight and likes Melendez. Listen, not out of the realm of possibility. I think when the match makers put the show together, they were trying at least to make a competitive fight for the other card. I do think it’s competitive, but in the end, I like Ramirez in this fight based on the level of opposition, based on how he’s looked in recent fights, but it wouldn’t be considered that big of an upset, I guess, if Melendez ended up winning the match.
TJ Rives:
And the reason he’s looking at that knockout prop is it’s plus 325 for Melendez. So he’s making three and a quarter on every dollar he’s betting there, seeing the value in that, as opposed to the favorite. In this case, Eduardo Ramirez is minus 450 to get the win plus 325 just to win. I don’t even know what the knockout prop would be. I’m trying to look here. The knockout prop for Melendez to win is plus 850, hello, eight. Yeah, eight and a half bucks for every buck. You bet you put a hundred bucks down. You’re going to win $850. If he gets the knockout on an undercard fight. That’s the bet us lines that we’re talking about here while that’s there. And again, for the audience, those undercard fights are very interesting. Guys, trying to prove something they’re on a pay per view. They’ve got a chance to do that.
TJ Rives:
By the way, we’ll take a couple of more chat questions before we’re done. I got a couple for Dan that may not necessarily be boxing, just for fun and just for hilarity. But if you’ve got some boxing chat questions, put them in the YouTube chat. Again, we’re here Mondays live at one Eastern time, all through the duration all through the summer, through the rest of the year. They’re going to see us at 1:00 Eastern time, my friend.
Dan Rafael:
Fridays, not Mondays.
TJ Rives:
Friday, I’m sorry, Fridays. Not on Monday. Monday, you’re not going to find us at 1:00. I don’t know what Dan’s doing Monday at 1:00. Fridays at 1:00 you will find us in advance of the fight. Thank you for the correction. Fridays at 1:00 we are live. If you’re seeing us later on, just know that’s when we are here for the live chat and for the live questions. If you have some of those, certainly we can answer some on social media later, but we love the live questions. So if you’ve got a couple of more live ones, we’re still here, we’re still hanging here. Another fight on the undercard is Jesus Ramos. That is the third fight down. Second to last fight. Before the main event Ramos fighting Luke Santamaria, you mentioned this. Ramos heavily favored. He’s a 12 to one favorite to win the fight. I don’t know, from a gambling standpoint, if you’re very interested in this, but Ramos is a prospect. These are junior middle weights, right? 154 pounds. Tell me more Dan Rafael.
Dan Rafael:
Well, to me, this is my favorite fight on the undercard, because I think that Jesus Ramos is one of the very best prospects in boxing. 21 years old, undefeated, been an excellent up and coming fighter. And he’s taken on Luke Santamaria, who has been the upset specialist. There’s been people who’ve bet on him in recent fights. Who’ve made good coin because he’s pulled upsets. His most recent upset came against drum roll, Abel Ramos, which is Jesus Ramos’ uncle. So this is like not only is it a fight for, for Jesus Ramos to continue to make his bones and prove himself and rise the ladder as a prospect taken on a solid veteran, but he is doing it to try to reclaim the family name, if you will, in a little revenge fight, because Santamaria scored the upset decision over his uncle, Abel in the last fight on the card they were on together, not that long ago.
Dan Rafael:
So it’s an interesting point because Santamaria, he’s upset guys like Michael Fox. He upset Devon Alexander, who’s a former two division world champion. He has pulled those kinds of upsets. And so now what’s he going to do with the prospect? Now I do think that Ramos wins and restores the family name, if you will, and does so impressively. But Santamaria is no joke. He’s no slouch. He’s there to fight and he’s going to give him, I think, a tough fight.
TJ Rives:
Okay. So we’ll keep an eye on that one, one more interesting… I’ve not asked you about this. You’ve covered many a fight in the Barclays Center. Again, Premier Boxing Champions, Showtime, Premier Boxing Champions, and Fox have had a lot of different championship fight cards in that venue. Dan, share for the audience, what it’s like to be in there in Brooklyn. And we are told for whatever it’s worth that there, there have been some brisk ticket sales. There could be a real atmosphere for, for Gervonta Davis. We don’t know that for sure, but what’s it like in that venue in New York? You’ve been there.
Dan Rafael:
Well, a couple things about that. Before this show earlier this morning, I actually spoke to somebody I’ve known for many years that works at Barclays Center just to check in. And they were telling me just in all the years, they have done this since Barclays opened, that person has been there for many years. This is going to be the gate record for the Barclays Center for a boxing event. They’re going to have, if not a clean sellout, be around 18,000, certainly awfully close to it. Look, this is going to-
TJ Rives:
Can I interrupt you? Does that surprise you, that he sold tickets that well, Davis is from Baltimore, he’s fought some in Baltimore. He’s fought some in Atlanta. He’s fought some in Vegas or California. Does it surprise you? He did that well with a New York audience. I see you shaking your head, “no.”
Dan Rafael:
It doesn’t surprise me at all. Because number one, there’ll be busloads of people that come from Baltimore. It’s not that long of a trip. Number two, he has fought in Brooklyn a few times in the past and always drawn good crowds. And he is one of the biggest attractions in boxing, certainly in the United States. And also the other thing about it is there has been a lack of boxing in New York City since the pandemic, there’s been a couple of events, some smaller shows. There was obviously the big card at Madison Square Garden a few weeks ago with the women with Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano, but Barclays Center. This is going to be their 40th boxing card. They have been one of the biggest players in the sport over the last 10 years in the entire world, in terms of hosting big time boxing matches.
Dan Rafael:
And they haven’t had any since like the week before the pandemic started in March of 2020, other than a short notice kind of club card that Triller put on that really didn’t create the kind of attention. But in terms of a championship level event, they went from having cards on a regular basis to not having any for over two years. I think there’s been a pent up demand. You mentioned what’s it like there? And this is their 40th event. I won’t be ringside this weekend, but I’ve probably been to about 34 of those 40 shows in Barclays Center.
TJ Rives:
Wow.
Dan Rafael:
To me, it’s one of my favorite buildings to cover a fight in. They do a great job with it. They’ve got a tremendous facility. They’ve brought in good fights. They have knowledgeable fans. The staff that’s there, they do a great job to try to accommodate everybody in terms of the media. That’s where I come from, as far as what I do when I’m there.
Dan Rafael:
It’s just a first class facility and they’ve brought in first class fights. And if you’re the kind of person that wants to go see big time boxing on that list, on your bucket list, you want to see a big time fight in Las Vegas at a place like MGM Grand or Mandalay Bay. You want to see fight a big time fight in New York City for obviously for historical reasons, Madison Square Garden. But you need to have Barclays Center on that bucket list also because it’s one of the premier venues in the whole world for boxing events. And I’m so thrilled that they have big time boxing back this weekend because it’s been too long. I mean, the last fight they had, like I said was March 8th, I think March 7th, of 2020, literally like a week before everything shut down, I was there.
Dan Rafael:
That was the fight between the heavyweights Adam Kownacki from Brooklyn and Robert Helenius in their first fight. And then, then there was no boxing there for quite a long time because of the pandemic and everything was shut. And now they’re back in business. And by the way, after this show, it’s not going to be a surprise. If we seen other boxing events show up there, perhaps in July or August, I’ve heard there’s definitely going to be more events there. Certainly one more this summer. So it’s good if you’re a boxing fan, certainly if you’re in the New York area.
TJ Rives:
Again, Gervonta Davis has been a draw all over the place. And that’s impressive that he’s selling that many tickets in New York for the event. And again, it’s a Saturday night of Memorial Day weekend, final few minutes here on the BetUS boxing show again, I’ll say it again. Fridays 1:00 Eastern time is where we’re here, but before we’re done, let’s just have a little fun. I don’t think you and I specifically got into this. We also do a bunch of work on Big Fight Weekend. The Big Fight Weekend website, the Big Fight Weekend podcast, the audio podcast available wherever you get podcasts, Big Fight Weekend podcast. By the way, Showtime boxing analyst, Raul Marquez is on the podcast, giving us some insight. He’s there on the broadcast. He’s on the Spanish broadcast of Davis Romero for Saturday night, but Raul’s a former world champion. He’s got some great insight.
TJ Rives:
We had a blast on that audio podcast, go check it out, including me interviewing Raul while he’s in the Louis Vuiton store in New York. And this is verified because I saw him on video and Dan, you don’t know this in the update, but they were showing his shoes that he bought on the Showtime weigh-in live show that they were doing on their YouTube channel. I saw the shoes. And so we put that out on social media. Anyway, hear the interview with Ralph Marquez and check it out on the Big Fight Weekend podcast, in addition to us previewing this. But on the podcast, I did not ask you this. So we got Memorial Day. We grill out, we love hot dogs. It seems to be a tradition. Ketchup on a hot dog. Yes or no. I won’t change your opinion. Yes or no.
Dan Rafael:
No, absolutely. Absolutely yes.
TJ Rives:
Ketchup on a hot dog is blasphemy, brother. I don’t know if it’s just a Southern thing. Ketchup is like-
Dan Rafael:
I’m not… Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I’m not-
TJ Rives:
…it’s not a hamburger.
Dan Rafael:
Look, I live in Virginia.
TJ Rives:
Yes.
Dan Rafael:
I’ve lived here for 20 years, but I am not a Southern person.
TJ Rives:
I understand.
Dan Rafael:
I live in the Washington DC suburbs, which is basically like the north. I am from upstate New York, the Albany area. I’ve lived there my whole life. And I grew up going to see family and friends in New York City. We would go to Yankee games or Met games. Ketchup on the hot dog.
TJ Rives:
Ketchup all the time?
Dan Rafael:
I mean, I know people put mustard on a hot dog, but I hate mustard. So I would-
TJ Rives:
Mustard is fantastic. Mustard has to be on a hot dog. You can have ketchup-
Dan Rafael:
I don’t really even like hot dogs. So it’s not even a thing for me.
TJ Rives:
I understand. But ketchup on your eggs? You eat eggs? Ketchup up on your eggs?
Dan Rafael:
No, not really. No, no.
TJ Rives:
Disgusting.
Dan Rafael:
Yeah.
TJ Rives:
People that put Tabasco on the eggs. Disgusting. What’s wrong with you people?
Dan Rafael:
I’m not big into eggs either though. So it’s alright.
TJ Rives:
By the way, while we’re here with the audience, this is right now, let me do the math, the 57th anniversary earlier this week of Muhammad Ali. And was it really a punch in the rematch with Sonny Liston? Epic fight for the greatest of all time, most controversial moment in the ring of his career. Was it a punch or not? One time question to you on the Friday chat, since this is the anniversary week, do you believe that was a legitimate punch and a legitimate knockout, or do you believe all these years later, what the conspiratorialists have said for decades, that was not a real punch. It was a decent punch, but not a real punch. And that was a dive. That was a fake knockout by Sonny Liston, James Sonny Liston, that night in Maine 57 years ago. What say you Dan Rafael before we leave?
Dan Rafael:
I was actually asked that exact question on social media the other day, because I had posted some photos from my boxing collection, which I love to do, of some cards I have, graded cards, stickers of Ali and Liston. And I was asked that question. Now I, for a long time thought it was a dive and then he took the thing and he just threw the fight. I’ve went back and I’ve watched it a few times. I’ve watched documentaries on Sonny Liston, a great one that Showtime did not that long ago and I’ve read about it and I’ve watched it again and I’ve changed my thought about it. I understand that it’s easy to say he took a dive. He did have mob connections, et cetera. But the more I think about it, the more I’ve watched it, the more I’ve studied it, the more I’ve read about it. I actually think it was a short punch that he caught him and he knocked him out.
TJ Rives:
You can look at the video every which way.
Dan Rafael:
The Zapruder film.
TJ Rives:
It is like the Zapruder film of boxing and Ali’s kind of throwing a short right. It clearly does clip Liston on the chin. The problem I have, and again, we’re describing it, just go and look, he’s floundering around like he was hit with a baseball bat, speaking of baseball. And that’s what’s dubious to me, starts to get up and then, oh, he falls over again.
Dan Rafael:
Whatever the real deal is with that, it did create one of the most iconic images in boxing history of-
TJ Rives:
Oh my Lord, yeah.
Dan Rafael:
Great Ali standing over Sonny Liston with the knockout, not 10 feet from where I’m sitting right now, hanging on the wall is a beautiful photo of that. A giant photo signed by Muhammad Ali of that picture, that I have hanging on the wall.
TJ Rives:
Iconic.
Dan Rafael:
Here’s a great trivia for that.
TJ Rives:
Please.
Dan Rafael:
There are a couple angles of that picture, but the one, that’s one of the famous angles of it. If you see, Ali is standing… You can see him standing over and listen with his arm, mouth cocked, like he wants to throw a punch and you can see some of the crowd behind Ali to his right, to his left, sort of between his legs. And if you look between his legs, you see somebody who’s just shocked by what he’s seeing, mouth open, like, “Oh my God.” And that is a young Larry Merchant, the great HBO broadcaster and one of my dear, dear friends.
TJ Rives:
Yeah, he was there that night and you’re right. You can see it in that photo. And he is an iconic boxing broadcasting figure in the United States for 40 plus years on HBO Boxing. And Larry Merchant was there that night in the tiny town of Lewiston, Maine, where they held that controversial rematch and Ali won on a first round punch that is still debated just like we did here to this day. We’re going to get to the best bits in a second. Somebody, though, is backing you in the live chat here on the Friday afternoon BetUS boxing show. Tan Lee, do we have this guys up on the screen? Tan Lee is saying “yes” to Dan Rafael. Ketchup on a hot dog. You have a believer. You have a convertee.
Dan Rafael:
There we go. Not exactly boxing related, but it’s-
TJ Rives:
Onions on hot dogs and food. You’re fine with onions?
Dan Rafael:
Onions. Yes. In general, not on hot dogs.
TJ Rives:
Not on hot dogs. Sauerkraut. I’m not a kraut guy. I’ve said that many places.
Dan Rafael:
I’m not either. Forget about that.
TJ Rives:
Not a kraut guy, but a ketchup, yes. Tan is backing you there in the live chat.
Dan Rafael:
Are we going to have a podcast about condiments? Is that what we’re going to do?
TJ Rives:
We should. And I’m glad you said condiments. All right. On the best bets as we move along on the BetUS Boxing Show with Dan and my predictions. So Dan is going for the buffet on both of the fights. You look at the undercard fight, Erislandy Lara. We both believe that he’s going to win by knockout. Dan is a little more bullish on earlier. So he is also going to make an official play on the under of seven and a half rounds. We both like the Lara knockout in the co-feature fight minus 225. Again, you get better value on the under.
TJ Rives:
I’m a little dubious on whether the veteran O’Sullivan will make this go longer for the main event. Gervonta Davis and Rolly Romero were both in agreement that the fight goes less than seven rounds. Dan says go ahead and bet and bet a bunch if you’re going to win something on Davis by knockout. I don’t like the value of the knockout as much there at minus 400. We both love the minus 130 on the underplay. So Dan is going both unders in these two fights Saturday night, Showtime pay perview. We’ve touted it a bunch, worth the money. Here to watch Gervonta Davis. We both say one more time, probably fireworks in the first round with he and Rolly Romero. I would be surprised if the first round is not action packed, correct Dan? One more time.
Dan Rafael:
I think the whole fight’s action packed for as long as it lasts.
TJ Rives:
All right. We’ll find out on that. Did you have fun? I think that’s a full show. We covered everything including ketchup on hot dogs. Are we good for a Friday on the BetUS show? Bueno, all right. Nice job by our guys at BetUs. Alejandro, Francisco, everybody. Natalie, thank you for the support. Again, Fridays, Fridays at 1:00 eastern time, we’re here with the live chat. The audience will grow. Next week, Dan, as you know, we’ve got a huge pay per view in Australia, lightweight undisputed, world title fight George Kambosos of Australia, Devin Haney of the United States go for all four belts in the lightweight division. We are here to preview it next Friday on BetUS-
Dan Rafael:
And the best part about it-
TJ Rives:
Have a great Memorial Day weekend. Anything else, brother?
Dan Rafael:
The best part about that fight, it’s pay perview in Australia, but here in the United States of America, it’s live on ESPN.
TJ Rives:
We love that. For next week’s Saturday night in the US Sunday afternoon, live in Australia. We’ll be talking all about that next Friday. Dan, have a great weekend. Great stuff, my friend.
Dan Rafael:
You too, TJ. Good to talk to you, my man.
TJ Rives:
And we thank you for watching the BetUS Boxing Show. Don’t forget to check out our sportsbook website.
BetUS Sportsbook & Casino
Average rating: 0 reviews
