Munguia vs Coria | The Best Boxing Picks, Predictions & Odds

TJ Reeves:

All right, so plenty to get to and cover. I would love to tell the audience that we’ve got fights of massive magnitude, world championship fights. We don’t really have that. We do have a couple of interesting names including one of the top middleweights in terms of contenders, the number one middleweight in the WBO. He’s in the top five in a couple of other organizations. Jaime Munguia is in action in Mexico in a main event. We’re going to talk about that fight. We’ve got some other fight news out of the ring. We got a fight card in England of interest including a light heavyweight that’s got a lot of relevance because he may be getting a unified light heavyweight title shot coming up by the name of Anthony Yarde. So a lot to get to here on the program in terms of those two fight cards, but a lot of news outside the ring as well Dan.

So we’ve got a lot to cover here on the program. Let me say to the audience, thank you for finding us. A lot of you have done so on BetUS and the Live Boxing show. Mondays at 1:00 or I’m sorry, on Fridays at 1:00 Eastern Time. Thank you for doing that. Hit that like button down there, make sure you’re subscribing, make sure you’re sharing it out. More and more of you will find us that way and as the live audience grows here, we love that we’ve even got time for questions and answers as the show goes on here as well. Get those in the Q&A down below in the live chat and we will get to those in a few moments.

All right, so we did not have the best of weeks, brother Rafael last week on the program in particular for a couple of different reasons. We did not get a knockout in one of the fights with Janibek that we thought we were going to get. We also didn’t get the Montana Love win last week, the W-I-N, him winning because both of us had something different. He actually got disqualified in his main event fight with Stevie Spark of Australia in Cleveland. So that cost us a little bit. Still though overall in the show, take a look. We are both above 500. You’re still making money off the show, which that is a good thing here to this point in time. If you’ve been wagering with us on the BetUS Boxing Show, we’re still picking it what, almost 30 above 500 on the correct selections. So we look to change some of that here on the program today.

Why don’t we get into it and we get into it. First with the Jaime Munguia main event, Zanfer Promotions. This is Guadalajara, Mexico coming up on Saturday night. Munguia again, the number one ranked WBO middleweight, undefeated, former WBO Junior middleweight, 154 pound world champion. So Dan, he is fighting a fellow Mexican contender, not a great household name. This is a fight Munguia is supposed to win. Fill in the blanks a little more for us on this main event coming Saturday night.

Dan Rafael:

Well, you’re being awfully generous TJ, when you refer to his opponent of Gonzalo Coria as a contender because he’s anything but a contender. I’m sure he works hard. I’m sure he is a nice guy. He’s 21 and five. He’s lost when he stepped up against halfway decent opposition. To use the world Wrestling Entertainment parlance, this is a squash match, big time.

Just listen, we talk about lots of times, the upsets happen, anything can happen when the bell rings and guys start throwing punches. But this would be such a gargantuan upset. I would honestly tell you that if Coria wins this fight, I would view it as probably the upset of the year. He has absolutely no business in the ring with Jaime Munguia, who’s making a track record, frankly over the last few years, just fighting one lesser opponent after another. You can put that on him, his management, maybe the promoters he’s co-promoted by Zanfer and Golden Boy.

And so this is, frankly, this is an embarrassing main event for DAZ to have on. I don’t really quite get the point. They talk about stepping Jaime Munguia up every time he fights. This fight’s going to get me ready for that big world championship fight. This fight’s going to get me ready for the big one. That’s the same tune we’ve been hearing for about the last 7, 8, 9 fights. At 154 he won a world title. He defended it several times against some okay opponents. I mean he beat Liam Smith for example, former champion, good fighter, still a contender to this day. But since he’s been as a middleweight, it’s been just one woeful matchup after another and this is another one of them.

So the obvious point here, unless there’s something crazy happens, Jaime Munguia should win this fight relatively easily. To me it’s not a matter of if he knocks out Coria, it’s just when. And I actually said this to you the other day, and I said this to one of the people that’s involved with the fight. I said, this is how bad this matchup was. If you’re making a main event on a major broadcast platform, and I’ve personally never heard of the opponent, that’s really, really hard to do. I’ve heard of everybody.

And so when I said that, somebody else, when I told them that, they said, “No, no, you’ve heard of this guy.” I said, “I have? What do you mean?” He says, “Don’t you remember like in 2020, Coria got knocked out in the second round on one of the top rank shows in the MGM bubble in two rounds against Janibek?” Oh yeah.

TJ Reeves:

Oh yeah he did. Okay, yeah. Okay.

Dan Rafael:

So if you have to have your memory jogged about that opponent and the only thing that you recollect is he got smashed by Janibek, and now two years later he’s fighting, for no apparent reason, Jaime Munguia, that’s a problem. So I think it’s a squash match. I not only would it be highly shocking if Munguia didn’t win, I think it’d be even frankly almost a shocking if he didn’t get the knockout.

TJ Reeves:

All right. So we should share with the audience that typically we show you boxing odds at the moment as we do this live on Friday, not Monday, live on Friday at one Eastern time. the odds are not there any longer for the moment on the BetUS line. They were because you and I were going over these on our Big Fight Weekend podcast, the audio podcast, they were at 10,000 to one for Munguia to win. $100 to win $1. Munguia was -700 to win by knockout. Heavily favored obviously to score the knockout.

I think the most intriguing part of this is does he do it quickly? We saw that question come up there a second ago in the live chat. Is it on the over/under that was there, the over/under was listed at three and a half rounds. Is this a quick squash? Is Munguia maybe going to have some trouble getting him out of there? You mentioned Coria got knocked out in just two rounds by the WBO middleweight champ who we saw last weekend, Janibek Alimkhanuly. So that’s the real debate here. Not that Munguia will win and will win by knockout. It is when, W-H-E-N is that knockout coming, right?

Dan Rafael:

Yeah, I mean that’s what it’s about. I mean we thought the same thing last week between Janibek and Denzel Bentley. Everybody thought that it was going to be a quick knockout. I think the reason for that was because in his previous fight, Janibek had fought another British fighter, Danny Dignum, he blew him out in two rounds and I think a lot of people thought Denzel Bentley was cut from that same cloth as Danny Dignum. To his credit he showed he wasn’t, and he hung in there and actually fought well in the middle rounds and won some rounds and ended up losing what was a clear decision. But he went the 12 round distance and actually elevated himself by lasting 12 rounds and actually having some good portions of that fight. So his career will go on even if he didn’t win that title.

So now you come to this week and it’s another similar sort of on paper mismatch as it was with Bentley, and you just wonder if Coria can hang in there or he is going to get blown out early. So because I took the under last week on the Bentley fight and fell burned on it, and this one is even very similar, just one round different between, or at least I guess the official overrunner’s not up there anymore but it was three and a half. I kind of figure, you know what, he’s fighting a countryman, he’s going to try to put on a little bit of a show. Coria, whatever his failings are, he is still a professional, maybe he can hang in there for three, four rounds and it’s close.

So I picked the over on this, not with strong confidence but they do have 10 rounds to play with. Remember this is a 10 round fight, not a 12 round fight, non-title bout. So if you’re betting on the fight, if you’re fighting the line, I take the flyer on the over but honestly it’s the only place you can find any value in my mind because-

TJ Reeves:

Agreed.

Dan Rafael:

…this is Munguia across the board by pretty much anybody. It would be a gargantuan, gargantuan upset if he were to win the fight. Coria

TJ Reeves:

Ryan, I saw you put that comment up there with the clown emoji on what are you doing with a main event fight with a -10,000 line. We would agree on that. Just of a point of reference here. Three fights- Yeah, go ahead.

Dan Rafael:

Well I said we don’t make the fights, it’s that’s not our fault.

TJ Reeves:

That’s correct. We’re just talking about them. And again this guy is a championship caliber fighter, a former world champion at 154. So that’s why we’re bringing him up on the show. He’s the main event fighter. This just needed to be better competition.

Dan Rafael:

You should also let people know that in context, a couple of weeks ago at the WBO’s annual convention, he was formally installed as the WBO’s mandatory challenger at 160 pounds. So it was known ahead of time before the Janibek-Bentley fight that Janibek, or I guess Bentley if he had won, but that now the Janibek was the winner. His next fight is supposed to be, has been ordered to be a mandatory against Jaime Munguia if Munguia wins.

Now whether they the two sides get together and make the match remains to be seen. But the point is if Munguia wins this fight based on the WBO’s order, an organization that he has been loyal to, he’s next in line for Janibek to challenge for that title. Now he also is interested in fighting the unified champion Gennady Golovkin who holds two of the [inaudible 00:09:52].

TJ Reeves:

Of course.

Dan Rafael:

But that’s probably a little more complicated to get done even though they’ve been fighting on the same broadcaster, DAZN. But we’ll see. The point is though that if Jaime Munguia wins this fight, again as he should, I think we might finally at long last see him in a meaningful fight in the middleweight division.

TJ Reeves:

All right and then we should make mention in his last three fights, Munguia’s unbeaten, he’s 40 and 0, he decisioned a veteran in Gabe Rosado over 12 rounds in November of last year. He then fought another American, Demetrius Ballard in Tijuana earlier this year in February. Knocked him out in the third round for what it’s worth. And then he fought an Irish fighter named Jimmy Kelly from the UK, not household names, we understand, he knocked him out in the fifth round. So take it for what it’s worth on the over/under play Dan that we’re talking about here. That’s the real debate. You were more inclined to look at that over. I would not be inclined here to mess with the over/under. I’m just looking for the knockout. There’s not a lot of value. You’re going to have to put more on it if you’re able to find the line there on the knockout.

So we’ll go ahead and we’ll lock this in. Dan and I are both on the KO for this one. We’re on the Munguia KO, which again you probably are looking at like -700, -600, something like that delay. And then Dan was on the over of three and a half rounds when there was an over/under line that was up on BetUS. He thinks it will go beyond that. I don’t know, this could be over in the first round. I don’t know for this on Saturday. You seem to be more confident that Coria at least as a veteran can hang in there.

Dan Rafael:

I’m not saying I’m confident that I would bet the house on it but…

TJ Reeves:

Right.

Dan Rafael:

Maybe making me pick, I like to pick the overrunners and I’ve done well on them. I mean not to toot my own horn, but I mean I’m doing a lot better with those picks than I’m not. I just sort of like maybe he hangs for a couple of rounds.

TJ Reeves:

Maybe and maybe Munguia carries it a little bit.

Dan Rafael:

I’ve got Denzel Bentley in the back of my mind I think is the issue here. I mean I know they’re different.

TJ Reeves:

Well yeah because let’s eliminate that just one more time. And I sat here, it was a foregone conclusion. That’s the phrase that I will use. Janibek’s going to knock him out. And Bentley was too tough and Janibek couldn’t knock him out. It took 12 rounds, it took the decision last week and you don’t know till they step through the ropes and we’ll see what happens for Munguia in that fight.

All right, fight number two and I promise we have some odds here. We have a little more competitive matchup. This is a headlining show in Telford, England. These are junior Featherweights here, Liam Davies, the Brit will take on Baluta here in the upcoming matchup and very interesting on the knockout prop for both here. The odds makers at BetUS believe this is a decision fight, a distance fight with an over/under of 10 and a half rounds. Both fighters on the +700 are better for a possible KO. Dan, get into that a little more. Liam Davies is the fan favorite from the UK. He’s the main event headliner here. Fill in some more about what we need to know about this matchup and then we’ll make some picks.

Dan Rafael:

Well yeah, first of all, he’s fighting in his hometown of Telford, England. So that’s the reason the fight is taking place there. Liam Davies is a British fighter on the rise, 12 and 0, not a big puncher, only five knockouts. Not a big resume but has fought some okay guys, in terms of the British level. They’re fighting for the European title, which is a big deal over there. It’s a viewed as a traditional title. Lots of all time greats have held it. It’s sort of the stepping stone to getting into an opportunity to fight for the world title. So it does have meaning as opposed to some of the regional belts that you see being fought for here in the United States. The European title has a long storied tradition and it’s important to the boxers that fight over there. So from that standpoint it’s a great opportunity for both of these guys. And Davies again, he is the up and coming guy.

And Baluta, I won’t say he’s like a total journeyman, he’s got some losses. He’s 15 and 3 but he has very few knockouts. But he’s been in with some good competition as probably the most prominent example was about two or three fights ago. He went the route against Michael Conlan, who is a well-known Irish fighter that was an Olympian, and who has been a contender, had an interim featherweight title for a bit and is on the cusp of fighting for a world title yet again. Has been in some bigger fights and he showed a pretty good, not only durability but also a good boxing ability in that fight. So that’s sort of like even though it was a loss, it was close, they called it a majority decision.

And so he is going to give the more up and comer in Davies to see if he can give him a bit of a test in this hometown. And so while Davies is the clear favorite and should be, to me the interesting part of what we were talking about as far as the picks and all is the fact that the odds look at this as a distance fight. Which is very obvious because if you look at the knockout punching power of both these guys, they’re good boxers but they don’t have a lot of knockouts. So to me, whoever you think is going to win the fight, it almost clearly is going 12 rounds.

TJ Reeves:

All right? Right. Again, Davies’s -200 on the money line. So the odds makers on BetUS are viewing this and I looked at it a couple of other places too and he’s something like -250 or -175 a couple of other places. Yeah, they’re viewing this as a 50/50 fight, 2 to 2, I mean 1.75 to 1 to win for Davies.

Dan Rafael:

And for no other reason Davies being at home, you give them the extra edge. It’s almost like in a football game if it’s all things, even usually the home team gets an extra couple of points on the line. But they only have about what five knock, five, six knockouts combined between them. So you’re looking probably at a longer type of fight. And Davies is probably the better technical boxer and Baluta it’ll will be there to kind of fight with the guy. Is it the most rousing fight in the world? No, I mean for those who are interested to watch it is actually available in the United States on ESPN+ as a live stream on Saturday afternoon American time. And it’s the BT sport fight in the UK.

I’m kind of hopeful it’ll be a little bit competitive though. Baluta is not a guy that, I mean he may lose but he gives a good effort. I mean I’m thinking of the Colin fight which I watched, and again he lost that fight but it was competitive and he never backed down from the guy and it was a pretty solid fight. And we’ll see if Davies can take the next step. Because this is the kind of guy, if you’re Liam Davies and you have aspirations of being a world champion and you’re now in a European title fight, this is the kind of fight you need to, not only do you need to kind of win obviously, but you want to shine, you want to look good to move into that next level of contention. And this is an opportunity for him in front of the home crowd to boot

TJ Reeves:

And we believe that he will do so. We’re both taking kind of the easier or safer play, which is a Davies decision. Again, he’s only got five knockouts in 12 fights, so we’ll lock that in. We’ll both lay the 140 on the Davies decision here for this one and by extension we will both take the over on the 10 and a half rounds. Again, you’ve got to lay more there, but you can oftentimes parlay that, pair it up if you believe it’s going to be a decision fight and make a little more money on the bet.

We’ll get to your questions in the Q&A. We will talk some about Tank Davis and Ryan Garcia who have confirmed as lightweights unbeaten, two of the stars of the sport in the smaller weight classes. They’ve confirmed they’re going to fight each other. Dan and I will talk about that in a couple of moments here on the live show.

One more on that card in Telford, England again is the light heavyweight contender Anthony Yarde, former world title Challenger lost to Sergei Kovalev in a hard fought fight in Russia back two or three years ago. So Yarde is still a contender. He’s the co-feature fighter. Dan give me a little more on this again. ESPN+ will Televise Saturday afternoon in the US but he’s a fighter keeping an eye on because…

Dan Rafael:

Because he is, as you mentioned, he is a good light heavyweight contender. He is 22 and 2, most of wins by knockout, but this is the “tuneup fight” for him, which means that if he wins, he’s already locked in as the mandatory challenger for the three belt world champion Artur Beterbiev. That deal is done, they are going to fight on January 28th, will also be an ESPN+ event here in the United States. They’ll fight in London but he’s got to do his job to win this fight and not get injured, and he will have that matched. This is sort of like his tuneup to get ready for that fight and it’ll be his second title opportunity. As you mentioned, he did get knocked out but gave a great effort. He got knocked on the 11th round by Sergey Kovalev in Russia in 2019. But again, he gave Kovalev, he pushed him as hard as possible. He’s got a loss since then. It was a split decision to his countryman. Lyndon Arthur. He avenged that loss and now is now back in position to challenge for the world title.

Obviously Beterbiev if you’re familiar with him. He’s the only fighter in boxing who has won every one of his fights and done so all by knockout. So he is got a 100% knockout percentage, he’s a top pound for pound level fighter. He is coming off a devastating second round knockout of Joe Smith in a unification fight that took place this past summer. So obviously we’ll get to that fight. Hopefully in January we’ll do this on the show. But looking ahead at the moment, Anthony Yarde, who’s a good puncher, is going to be the big underdog. But on this fight in the tuneup, he’s the big favorite to take care of business and move into that title opportunity.

TJ Reeves:

And you see on that comment there off the Big Fight we can’t handle that Yarde is a fan favorite and it is expected that Beterbiev will fight him in England. So that will be some drama if and when that fight happens Dan.

Dan Rafael:

That fight’s going to take place in London at the, which is obviously can be Yarde’s backyard. But Beterbiev’s never, I mean he’s fought in Canada where he lives. He’s Russian by birth, but he’s been fighting out of Canada and also many fights in the United States for his entire career. But he’s not in any way have a problem of going over it to fight in the UK whatsoever. And it’ll be a good, all as a mandatory fight it’s not half bad. I mean would we rather see as fans a unification for the undisputed title between Beterbiev and Dimitry Bivol? Of course, but hopefully if whoever wins that fight in January, that fight could get made. We’ll see.

TJ Reeves:

All right, good enough. Let’s get to your questions and answers now that we’ve given you some gambling thoughts and see what some of you guys think. And I promise we’ll get to Gervonta Davis and Tank Garcia. In fact, Ryan already wants to ask about this. It looks like that Gervonta Tank Davis will be fighting in January. He did announce, “Hey, I’m fighting Ryan Garcia, but I’m fighting January 7th first.” That’s interesting. And Ryan wants to know any idea who else is on the card and who might the opponent. It’s going to be an easy opponent you would think for Davis.

Dan Rafael:

There’s no doubt. I mean, like you said, the way that this was rolled out the other day, yesterday was done very poorly in my opinion as somebody that’s watched rollouts of major fights for a very long time. But to put it in an nutshell, here is the plan. Gervonta Davis, who has not fought since May of this year in that spectacular knockout against Rollie Romero that took place in Brooklyn, he is going to come back and fight on January 7th in a tuneup fight. It’ll probably be a Showtime pay-per-view even though it won’t be a top level opponent. The fight is supposed to take place in Washington DC. Tank Davis is from Baltimore where he is done very well selling tickets.

Baltimore’s only about an hour away. He has not fought here as a main event ever in, and I live in the DC area that’s why I say here. So I’ll go to that fight. And the idea is look good in that fight. And then Ryan Garcia may take an interim fight, that has not yet been determined. And if Tank wins and if Ryan takes his tuneup and he wins and there’s no injuries, they’re supposed to fight each other on Showtime pay-per-view. On April 15th in a very big fight, they agreed to a catch weight of 136 pounds, which is a significant because it’s one pound over the lightweight limit, which means it would not be for Davis’s second tier title.

So it would be, in my estimation, pretty much the biggest non-title fight we’ve seen in a number of years. Title or no title, it’s still a great matchup. Look, Ryan has fought most of his career as a lightweight. He has had his last two fights in the junior welter weight division as comfortable there. Did not want to come all the way back down to lightweight. Davis has fought obviously for recent years as a lightweight. He did take one step up to Junior Welterweight where he scored a knockout victory against Mario Barrios to win a secondary title, which he then vacated. So he’s going to be in the 140 pound weight class in the not too distant future.

So they’re fighting one pound over. Big deal, no title. I couldn’t care less. I’m just interested to see the fight. But there’s other things that have to take place before we see the match. Everybody got all super excited, deal’s done, it’s all… A, it’s not signed, no papers are done yet. That’s important. Two, there is the question of the interim fight. So Tank is going to fight. He’s got to win and not get injured. Ryan Garcia may fight, if he does, he’s got to win and not get injured.

And there’s also the other thing that nobody really wants to talk about and they want to kind of just sort of look over their shoulder and forget it’s there is that Tank Davis faces a serious criminal trial for an alleged hit and run incident that he faces 14 charges on from something that occurred in November of 2020 in his hometown of Baltimore. Was supposed to be in December. It has been postponed. Now that trial is supposed to begin in mid-February. Hence the reason why he’s so anxious to get back in the ring in January because he can take care of that fight, get his payday, then go to the trial and then theoretically if all goes well and he’s either not convicted or if he is convicted but he doesn’t get a big sentence or if he does some kind of plea agreement, whatever, that would still pave the way for him to have the April fight against Ryan Garcia.

So there’s a lot of things that have to take place before we see this fight. But the most important thing in terms of if all that stuff works out, the sides are in agreement, they’ve agreed to the per split, they’ve agreed to the weight, they’ve agreed to all those type of particulars. There was obviously significant teeth gnashing over who’s going to broadcast this fight. There was a big battle between Showtime, which is the Gervanta Davis broadcaster and DAZN, which has been the Ryan Garcia broadcaster. They worked it out, it’s going to be a Showtime pay-per-view, you’ll be able to buy it on DAZN even though you’ll be buying the Showtime broadcast. So there was a lot of complicated things that went into making this fight really super difficult to do. They’ve done it, but they got to get through these other hurdles still.

TJ Reeves:

Agreed. The tentative date is April 15th, right? You’re reporting that’s the tentative date, it could move off of that maybe later.

Dan Rafael:

Any fight can move. TJ. That’s the date that’s locked in for.

TJ Reeves:

Okay. And again-

Dan Rafael:

In Las Vegas they say.

TJ Reeves:

It is also up in the air whether Garcia would fight again before April 15th. Davis is already committed and locked into fighting someone on the 7th of January on pay-per-view. Garcia at the moment not locked in to one of those. But still you would think, what do I know? You would think he would want to get a tuneup fight in as well if he could, depending on when it is. You don’t want to have, as we talked about previously on our podcast, again, we’re plugging the Big Fight Weekend podcast. You don’t want to have the tuneup fight like in mid-February then be trying to fight Gervanta Davis six or seven weeks later. That would make no sense. So if you can’t do it quickly, if you’re Garcia, maybe he just waits, right? Maybe he just trains and waits.

Dan Rafael:

Listen, because they haven’t laid out what the broadcast plans are. The Tank David January 7th fight almost certainly will be a pay-per-view, although they have not said it will be. And one of the people I spoke to at Showtime said it was still up in the air. But I’m going to assume that’s going to be a pay-per-view. Ryan Garcia, if he takes an interim fight it’s not known if it’s going to be a regular DAZN show or if it’s going to be a pay-per-view. If it was a regular DAZN show, they could maybe have them fight back to back weekends.

One thing that they’re going to want to do, whoever the broadcasters involved are, they’re not going to want to have one of these guys fighting on a big weekend that’s, January’s got a lot of football stuff. They’re going to want to stay away from those conference championship games. They’re certainly not going to want to go on the same weekend I don’t think as the Super Bowl. There is that weekend between the conference championships and the Super Bowl that sometimes is appealing. But there’s so many things that have to take place that we’re getting a little bit ahead of ourselves. But the bottom line is Tank’s supposedly going to fight January 7th. Ryan May fight in January, perhaps in early February, and then theoretically they’ll fight in April. And also as we mentioned, there’s the not so small detail of Gervanta Davis’s criminal trial he faces.

TJ Reeves:

Right again, multiple people injured in a hit and run, 13 criminal charges. How will it be worked out?

Dan Rafael:

14.

TJ Reeves:

14 criminal, I mean, how will it be worked out? Will it be a plea agreement? Will it be jail time? Will it go to a jury trial? Could he be convicted there for even worse than a plea agreement? We don’t know. All of that’s an unknown for 2023. One other interesting thing and we’ll get to a couple of other Q&A questions. If you’ve got them, if you’re watching us live, 1:00 Eastern time here on Friday, get a Q&A question in here because we’re open for that in the live chat. I see the Savage is still asking a couple things. We’ll get a couple questions up maybe here before we’re done. Interesting that Gervanta Davis is the favorite on the preliminary BetUS line. There is a BetUS line that has Davis -220 on the money line has Garcia +180. There might be some activity and some line movement on Ryan Garcia to win in that fight. Any curious thought on that, just a preliminary line?

Dan Rafael:

Sure. I mean Tank being the favorite doesn’t surprise me. They both are good fighters obviously, they both have big fan bases. I think most people view Davis as, they’re both good punchers, but that he’s got more of that just devastating kind of punching power. Whereas Ryan is more of a snappy puncher. And Tank has had, I think even though he hasn’t been fighting great opposition, I think it’s fair to say that Tank’s opposition has been at least a little bit better than Ryan’s. And really this is what they both have wanted. They now have an elite opponent to find out really what they’re all about. They’ve already spent the last several years feasting on regular level guys or maybe good solid contenders, but they’ve yet to face that other big name. When Gervanta Davis was fighting as a junior lightweight when he first won his first world title and at that time became the youngest active champion in boxing, he took out a very good, an undefeated Jose Pedraze who’s still going strong as a good contender in the Junior Welterweight division.

But the big wins have been few and far between. He’s got good names on his record like a Gamboa, like a Leo Santa Cruz. But guys who are out gunned who are much smaller, et cetera or issues are coming off long layoffs or whatever. And Ryan’s got some good solid wins on his record also against Luke Campbell for example. But then people remember that even though he knocked Luke out in a spectacular fashion, Luke knocked him down. So both guys have sort of things you can look at that gives you pause and says, well I like this guy instead. But Davis being the favorite coming out of the gate. It does make sense to me, but I do think that by the time this fight rolls around, if we get it come April, that there will be deviations in movement on that line for sure.

TJ Reeves:

All right. A fan question watching us, A fan named Niro Ngencia I think I have on that, wants to know about Andrew Tate and Jake Paul. This is being rumored in the UK. Andrew Tate is a kickboxer. I just looked while we were finishing up there. He’s a kickboxer 35 years of age. That name is being kicked around with Jake Paul, but Dan fill in the gaps. Jake Paul, who beat Anderson Silva back last month in a pay-per-view, has had a few fights. Jake Paul is still stirring up that he wants to fight Tommy Fury again. Why, I have no idea when he’s been left holding the bag twice, but he’s stirring up that he would come to England to fight him. I guess in the British tabloid media they’re kicking around that this guy Andrew Tate might fight him. That’s what Niro Ngencia, if I have it correct, is asking about. Any quick thought?

Dan Rafael:

They’re kicking around him fighting a kickboxer, right? Right, is that what you…

TJ Reeves:

Very nice. Well played.

Dan Rafael:

I mean obviously I have no idea about that because Jake Paul will make a decision who he wants to fight next. He just fought a couple of weeks ago. I have zero clue and frankly don’t care.

TJ Reeves:

But legitimacy of the opponent is now beginning to become a concern in fighting a boxer. At least Tommy Fury has had previously 8, 10 professional fights and has some amateur background. As opposed to fighting a kickboxer that most of us have not heard of in the United States.

Dan Rafael:

DJ we’ve got so many great fighters in boxing. Are we going to really spend our time talking about?

TJ Reeves:

I agree.

Dan Rafael:

Come on.

TJ Reeves:

I agree. All right, so if somebody else has another question along those lines, hit them up. Yes. So we have a lot of different people watching from a lot of different directions. We still got another couple of minutes here before we’re done and before we’re good. By the way, there is a positive update. We were talking, you were writing about this week on your Substack. We were talking about it as well on the podcast. Again, search wherever you get podcast for the Big Fight Weekend podcast, that Aidos Yerbossynuly, the Kazakhstan fighter that was seriously injured two weekends ago is improving. Dan, give us the quick update on what you’ve learned with that.

Dan Rafael:

Yeah, I was writing about it this other just the other day that there after a couple of weeks really with kind of a news blackout, let’s say, where it was sort of just wait and see because he was in a medically induced coma and you can’t rush that. You just got to let the play out and let the doctors do their job. But as I brought to my attention by people in the know that he has made improvement, they took him out of the coma, he’s been able to talk to some degree, to walk around a little bit. I don’t know what to what level, but well enough, I am told to be taken out of the intensive care unit and moved into a regular hospital bed. Which means that that’s obviously a lot better than being in a coma. That that’s a big improvement. And that in the next time period, whenever it may be, but probably sooner than later to continue the healing process, they’ll move him to a rehab facility. And I know I probably speak for boxing fans everywhere, which I don’t make a habit of doing, but I’m sure everybody wishes him well and continue improvement and good luck with everything.

TJ Reeves:

And in your reporting, we’re not doctors, we’re just playing them on BetUS and the boxing show here on a Friday, if you’re able to get up and move around even with assistance or a walker and take some steps, that is tremendous from where he was and a good sign. It’s not everything, but that’s a good sign for Yerbossynuly, the fighter that was seriously injured in the Super Middleweight bout with David Morrell. And we should make mention again, Morrell obviously affected by this, lives in the Minneapolis area where Yerbossynuly remains hospitalized. He’s been to visit him, and maybe even on multiple occasions, we don’t know that, but at least once he’s been to visit him and these are good signs from what we’re hearing.

Dan Rafael:

Oh, no doubt. I mean, I don’t know if he was able to actually visit with the fighter, but what was said to me was that he definitely went to the hospital to at least see and support the team that he had there with him. And I guess some of his family members have made the trip from Kazakhstan. So look, Dave Morrell showed class. I mean even in the ring after the knockout, just the type of guy he is, he was helping him when he got up from the knockout, him and the referee helping walk him across the ring to a stool to get medical attention. So you know, don’t see a lot of guys do that. So good credit to David Merrell. I mean he scored a great win, but he showed some humanity and some compassion afterwards.

TJ Reeves:

I will ask one more question and then we’ll get to our best bets here in just a second. We do have Regis Prograis, by the way, as the guest on the Big Fight Weekend podcast. Dan talked to him at length. Prograis challenging next weekend for the WBC 140 pound title, fighting Jose Zepeda. Interesting. The line is already out for that. This is more for the show next week for Thanksgiving weekend. Interesting. Zepeda is +300, Prograis -400, 4 to 1 on an advanced line there. Does that surprise you? Not that you have to make a pick. Does that surprise you? Prograis favorite 4 to 1.

Dan Rafael:

I feel like it’s definitely appropriate that Regis Prograis is the favorite. I had not known that line yet. I didn’t know it was up yet. That feels a little bit wide to me. I expect that that would narrow at least a little bit between now and when we do next week’s show. But that’s a really good fight. I’m very much looking forward to that matchup. Two quality fighters in that weight class. Regis has been a world champion. Zepeda has fought for the title. They both make good fights. Regis’s fight against Josh Taylor to Unify, which is his only lost, Regis’s only lost, was a tremendous battle. Zepeda was in the fight of the year a couple of years ago in a just massive shootout with Ivan Baranchyk, who was also part of that tournament that I mentioned, was also a former world champion.

This is a class fight. They’re fighting for the vacant WBC 140 pound title that Josh Taylor vacated because he is going towards the direction next year in January or February of fighting a rematch against Jack Catterall, left that belt vacant. And sometimes when you see these vacant title fights, it’s a top guy against a guy you never heard of. This is a very quality matchup to fill that vacancy. And that’s the fight that’s November 26th. I’m looking very much forward to talking about it on next week’s show.

TJ Reeves:

Yep, no doubt. And again, you’ll hear more from Prograis if you find the podcast. I’m plugging the podcast [inaudible 00:34:18] like a carnival barker.

Dan Rafael:

By the way, Regis Prograis is a terrific interview.

TJ Reeves:

Yes he is.

Dan Rafael:

You don’t have to really ask him much to get him going. He’s a really well-spoken, he has a lot of interesting things to say, and as I have said before, it kind of wears his heart on his sleeve and it’s always a good listen.

TJ Reeves:

He is a Cajun, a Cajun, Louisiana, also based in Texas, but loves Louisiana sports, loves his New Orleans Saints, et cetera. So you’ll get all that on that interview.

All right, let’s look at the best bets. Here’s what we have again, Jaime Munguia, number one world ranked contender by the WBO in the middleweight division is in action Saturday night in Guadalajara. We both believe knockout. Again, if you can find and over/under, we saw an over/under line on BetUS that’s not there at the moment while we’re doing the live show, of three and a half, Dan thinks it may go a little longer.

I’m not sure. Liam Davies is the British junior featherweight headliner, and we both believe he will win by decision in this 12 round fight with Baluta coming on Saturday afternoon US time. So you see you’re not getting great value in and of itself on the over, better on the decision, but you might as well take both. That’s what we’re saying here for a Friday.

So there’s little betting advice to head towards the weekend, brother Rafael, anything else in closing as we come to the end of another Friday edition of the show?

Dan Rafael:

Not a big weekend for fights, but it’s going to pick up next week. We got some good matchups coming up and then we’re into the holiday season. Hope everybody enjoys.

TJ Reeves:

Yeah, no doubt. We’re going to get plenty to go for Thanksgiving. It’ll be Thanksgiving before we’re back here. We’re both looking forward to eating lots. Quick dessert checklist. Pumpkin pie fan. Thumbs up, thumbs down.

Dan Rafael:

I’d rather eat vomit.

TJ Reeves:

Ooh, bad. Pecan pie. pecan pie. Thumbs up.

Dan Rafael:

Thumb thumbs up. Yes. Two thumbs up.

TJ Reeves:

Thumbs up. Pecan pie. Yes. Pumpkin pie. No.

Dan Rafael:

The worst.

TJ Reeves:

All right, fair enough. On the desserts. Now you know what to get us. If you’re ever getting us desserts.

Dan Rafael:

What’s with, what’s about the, I mean the pumpkin pie, pumpkin spice, pumpkin latte. I can’t stand that stuff.

TJ Reeves:

Yeah, pumpkin is pumpkin. Agreed with you. On that note, have a great weekend, Dan Rafael. We appreciate it as always. Have a great Thanksgiving with you, the family. We thank you sir.

Dan Rafael:

Thank you TJ.

TJ Reeves:

And Antonio and everybody at BetUS. Great job with the show hanging in there with us. We thank all the peeps for watching as well. Happy Thanksgiving from us. We won’t be back on the BetUS boxing show before it is Thanksgiving. We’ll be back though next weekend, but before the Prograis-Zepeda world title fight and all the other action. Don’t forget to check out our sportsbook website. Thank you for watching us here. Hit the light button, share it out. It’s the BetUS Boxing Show. Bye.