Punches and Punchlines
Punches and Punchlines
From Mayer’s Masterclass To Ortiz’s Ruthless KO: A Weekend Of Boxing And Beer
Snow fell, beers cracked, and the fights finally delivered. After a quiet stretch and messy streaming news, we packed a cabin weekend with live cards and walked away with big opinions: a heavyweight slugfest that ended in controversy, a masterclass from a pound-for-pound technician moving up in weight, and a welterweight statement so violent it might have reset the division’s pecking order.
We start with Fabio Wardley vs Joseph Parker, a back-and-forth brawl that flipped in the 11th when the ref waved it off. Was it an early stoppage or a necessary save? Either way, Parker’s grit and Wardley’s persistence set the table for a rematch, while the conversation inevitably turned to Oleksandr Usyk and the gulf separating him from most heavyweights. From chaos to craft, Mikaela Mayer put on a clinic against Mary Spencer at 154, running the show with a piston jab and a punishing left hook. The power won’t blow you away, but the control, defense, and footwork echo a Mayweather-style mastery that secures rounds and belts.
On ProBox, Katsuma Akatsugi stole the show with a ruthless body-attack tutorial—multiple liver knockdowns without a single head-drop finish. Then Tiger Johnson announced himself at 147 with sharper leverage and real power, the kind that translates beyond prospect talk. The weekend peaked when Vergil Ortiz Jr. dismantled Erickson Lubin inside two rounds, a smart stoppage that left no doubt. With Jaron “Boots” Ennis looming, we map a clean path: Boots vs Ortiz, Johnson vs Rashidi Ellis, winners meet, losers regroup, and the welterweight picture finally gets clarity.
If you crave honest breakdowns, matchmaking you can actually root for, and a little humor to cut the tension, hit play now. Subscribe, share with a fight friend, and drop your take on the Wardley–Parker stoppage—too soon, or just right?
Welcome back, everybody. It's been a long time. In case you forgot, it's me, Fritz, uh, along with the uh the brains behind the operation, my buddy Franco here. We got a lot to cover. We've been away for a little bit, but we had uh some stuff we were excited about. Michaela Mayer won a belt in uh a new division. Fabio Wardley knocked out Joseph Parker. We got to see highlights of our guy Rashidi Ellis in uh Eukinsville, uh Connecticut. And then we just came off of a weekend uh fishing and football and beer. And the beauty of that is Friday night and Saturday night, there was live fights for us to watch as we watched the snowfall uh way too early in November. So I got some excitement to chat about, Franco, and I'm looking forward to hearing what you thought.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, there's been a whole lot of not a lot of boxing, which like that can't help the sport, and especially with the channels and the streaming services, some of them going under, ones that have been around for decades, disappearing, like over the last couple years, it's become hard to keep up with stuff. And then for there to be periods where there's just nothing exciting. I know DZone has their new subscription package that they're they're trying to come out with, where it's like 12 pay-per-views, but when all the pay-per-views are within a one-month period, two-month period, kind of sucks. Like they they really need to figure out how to spread it out. But I also think having one body doing it, like UFC, is not the answer. You need that competition to make it make it more fun and to make it exciting. But luckily, we did get some boxing this weekend. We also got snow on the drive home, which yeah, holy cow, I was I was driving on the lake side of Michigan to get home, uh, like along St. Joseph and all of that stuff. And I, you know, you always hear about Lake Effect snow around Chicago. Uh, I'd never realized how crazy it really can get. That was that was an exciting drive home, but uh got home safely after a very fun weekend up at your cabin. Uh boxing, football, beer, fishing. Uh, my first northern that was pretty great. Uh, what what more could you ask for? The Bears won. Uh, it was it was fun, it was a fun weekend, and the boxing was fun.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and uh just speaking of competition before we get a little far away from that, Pro Box TV. I just switched uh streaming providers, and they have a live channel on my new streaming service, so that was nice. That's why we were able to watch the Pro Box TV card with Tiger Johnson at the top. That was a lot of fun on that Friday, and going home Monday was no better. I ended up in in the snow as well, and it was crazy that for a couple miles before the toll, it started to back up. And then I don't know if you've ever been test like Railcat Stadium. Yeah, um, sun was shining, not a drop of snow on the road. It was like nothing ever happened. It was so crazy to just go from you know being in a snow globe going five miles an hour to tearing past plead bill at 80. It was uh it was it was certainly interesting, but uh let's get back into the boxing. Are you ready to break it down, Franco? Yeah, let's do this. You tell us all the time you can't play boxing, we prove them wrong every episode with our segment called Playing Boxing. Let's go chronologically here, Franco. Now, Fabio Wardley took on Joseph Parker, and Parker was the mandatory for Usik when he came back, but he put his interim title on the line, and now Fabio Wardley is the mandatory. I hope it doesn't play out that way. I hope that Wardley gives Parker the rematch that he deserves because this was TKO 11, okay? And even from just watching the highlights, there was plenty of times where Wardley was in trouble as well, and the ref let it go on. Don't get me wrong, Parker was certainly in trouble in that 11. I thought it might have been stopped a little too quick, but I'm also not one to complain. You know, I'd rather have it stopped a second too early than a second too late. If the guy hangs in there and takes one too many punches, you know, we don't even get to chat about the possibility of a rematch. We would just be saying, Oh, why didn't that ref stop it? So the ref did stop and step in there and stop the fight, but even up to that point, it was a complete slug fest and a back and forth that I think if I read the scorecards right, Wardley needed that knockout to win because Parker was ahead by a couple rounds going into that 11th, just the back and forth and two giant dudes just wailing on each other was so fun. And I love Joseph Parker just for the heart that he shows in the ring, and that he doesn't shy away from any fight. He's like, No, give it to me. I'm I'm a heavyweight, I'm the best, I'll fight the best. He's not, you know, waiting going, Well, I'm the mandatory, so I don't want to miss my shot at that. Now it cost him in this one, but I think in the meantime, while he's waiting for Usick to heal from his surgery, why not make some money? And now maybe he can get two paychecks by fighting Wardley twice.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, from what I saw with this fight, I really think that stoppage was bad. It was like a million missed punches, they weren't even landing. Now, did Parker look exhausted? Yeah, he looked like it was the 11th round, like he looked very, very tired. But as you would really, I think the biggest takeaway from this is that neither one of these two dudes should be fighting Usyk. Usyk is on such a hot a completely other level that I can't see either one of these guys being able to beat Usyk. And is Usyk one of the greats? Yes, but he's also the current champ, and he's getting older in age, so like somebody needs to be able to step it up. I I really think that the stoppage was kind of embarrassing. It was missed punches, like the final punch before the ref said, you know what, this is too much, wasn't even close to landing. Like, there was uh there was space between the glove and and his face. Uh was he exhausted? Yes, but a lot of guys are. Imagine some of like the moments from boxing matches in the past. You wouldn't have even gotten Tyson Fury versus Deontay Wilder, where Fury comes back from the dead, because this ref would have stopped it before he even hit the mat. And Fury made it all the way to the end. I agree that you know, better assessment.
SPEAKER_00:Well, the the 12th count, the 12 count helped him in that one.
SPEAKER_02:Well, yeah, that too.
SPEAKER_00:That was just because I would have won money had he stayed down.
SPEAKER_02:But it I don't know, it's like this kind of stuff is the stuff that builds up towards, like, you know, and and this goes for any sport. When referees make themselves known too much in any sport, they're not doing a good job. It's like a case for the robots to come in, and we're gonna eventually have Terminator in the middle of there deciding whether or not somebody lives or dies. Now, I agree that you know, better a second too early than a second too late. I think we still had another four minutes, like the rest of this round plus the next round, and then he, you know, and then he might have been in trouble. But this stoppage was kind of a bummer. And is Joseph Parker a bummer? Yeah, and is Joseph Parker gonna beat Usyk? I don't think so. Like, I'm not giving money for that. And I mean, then you are gonna see somebody die, like that's almost irresponsible to put him in the ring with Usik.
SPEAKER_00:I don't think so, but I also didn't think he was going to beat uh Deontay Wilder. You know, there's true a lot of people that I underestimated Joseph Parker with, and he's come out on top quite a bit. The dude is a really good boxer, and I'd like to see him get his shot at Usyk. I'll still be rooting Usick in that fight. Yeah. And if you're gonna be that exhausted with Wardly, nobody's conditioning or anything matches up with Usyk. So that's kind of unfair to say, well, like, well, you're not as good as him, so you can't fight him. The only way to find out is to get in the ring with him. And I definitely think that it's gonna be all Usyk, but uh before that happens, I want to see a Wardley versus Parker rematch and let it go the 12 or an actual 10 count and not stopped on its feet. So yeah, I agree. Now the fight that did go the distance was Michaela Mayer versus Mary Spencer, and now Mary Spencer was had titles at 154, and this was on the new home of Top Rank. I guess they're looking for a permanent home, but this was on like free, like tubi or something like that. It was called Top Rank Classics, and I got to watch that. Such a fun fight, Michaela Mayer had the jab and the left hook just going. Uh it seemed like at will she could just land that left hook. And Mary Spencer was able to land a really good right throughout this fight, it just was not enough to have her even close to winning. It was pretty much all Mayer throughout this fight. And for a woman that fought at 130 for a long time to just skip 35 and 40 because nobody was gonna fight her at those weight classes because all the belts were tied up, and she went right to 147 and once the belts there, now she's unified champ at 147 and 154. I thought she looked really comfortable at 154. I just love watching her fight, like she really has almost no holes in her game. She has power, but not knockout power. That's what I would say. Yep, is her power. She has the power that makes people a little less willing to throw caution to the wind, you know, where they're they're not quite as aggressive in the later rounds because they've eaten that hook enough times and they're like, uh, maybe I should try something different, you know. But just a wonderful form performance by Michaela Mayer. And Mary Spencer is a really good boxer. Michaela was just clearly the better boxer in this fight.
SPEAKER_02:You know, the only thing with this fight, well, two things. First, I'm gonna say this as an insult and as a compliment. Michaela Mayer reminds me of Floyd Mayweather Jr., technically, almost perfect. Her footwork is great, the way that she defends is great. She throws good, clean punches that land and they get her points. But to not knock out Mary Spencer, like she doesn't have that power, but she has everything else, and it kind of reminds me of Mayweather Jr., where he's gonna go in there and he's gonna win. She does the same thing, she goes in and technically she's so good. Is she always perfect? No, but I feel like whatever was going on, she's fixed it. Like, she looked good in this, she looked clean, very technically sound. Also, props to Mary Spencer, she's almost the same age as me. She's like 40 years old, but then so that's the other thing, and I complain about this all the time. All the greats are getting older, so I don't know if like 40 is the new 30 or what's going on, but like all these boxers, ooh, sick Canelo. Like, well, actually, I don't even know how old Canelo is now. We'll just pretend he's 60. But like all these great boxers. Uh, what what's our girl from here in Chicago who was the champ? Jessica McCaskill. Thank you. McCaskell was up there in age. Like a lot of these really good boxers, they're a little bit older. We don't have these like late 20-something B noms coming through and just cleaning house and then holding it down as like a dynasty. It's not it's not really happening anymore.
SPEAKER_00:So well, there's I think there's people coming, you know. It's just top of the card right now is the people that have been on top for quite a while. It it only takes a weekend to change it, you know. Like Bam Rodriguez is sure, you know, a top pound for pound guy. Tiger Johnson, which we watched in one of the cards, is as a young dude and was just destroying in that fight. So, I mean, there is that next batch coming, they're just not at the top of the card right now. I need them to be done, which is fine. That's kind of how the system works, you know. You you get to be where you're the draw, and then you're on top.
SPEAKER_02:I just worry that if it takes too long, you end up with another triple G situation where they're like by the time they're finally getting their spotlight, it's it's too late. Like they should have had it way before, should have gotten their shots, but instead, it's like working their way through the system for forever, and then they're too old by the time they get up there.
SPEAKER_00:Well, that's I mean, that story is always gonna play out too, you know. Like the newest version of that is Alim Kanooli, where he's the middleweight champ, undefeated from Kazakhstan, too, you know, but already getting up there in age, and people don't want to fight him. You know, do you remember Demetrius Andrade when he was the WBO champ at 160? He's like, Oh, nobody wants to fight me, so I just have to fight my mandatories. As soon as Canoe was his mandatory, he's like, Oh, I can't I can't get to 60 anymore. I'm gonna have to move up to 168. It's like, all right, like you're uh you know, you change her tune pretty quick there.
SPEAKER_02:Now, also, I will say Mary Spencer for being 40, amazing shape. Yeah, like not like physically, ooh la la, but like physical, like athletic shape. This woman was shredded, looked amazing, like good for her.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, and her stamina didn't didn't falter, you know what I mean. She was ready for a title fight, and it it just didn't work out her way this night, but she was ready, you know. There was nothing that was unprepared about Mary Spencer. Yeah, on that card was Sergei Lipinets. I was watching the highlights of that. I don't even remember who he fought, doesn't matter. I remember Sergei Lipinets a few years back being like a really good 140 boxer. That guy is gone, you know. It almost reminded me of watching Ivan Baranchek after he fought Sapeta. We were like, all right, this is where his comeback starts. And you're like, oh no, he he's already done. You know what I mean? Lipinets wasn't as fast as a falloff as that, but it's not the same boxer that I used to like. It's not the same boxer that fought Mikey Garcia. He's on his way down, so uh, I'm glad he got the payday, but uh it was uh it was not good.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, luckily that fight did not have the referee from uh from the first fight we talked about because it would have gotten stopped. Uh he was getting beat around the ring. Uh that ref would have just stepped in and stopped it. But then on the other hand, maybe Lipinets wouldn't look like uh not chunk. What was uh the hey you guys from Goonies? Right. Sloth. Sloth, thank you. Yeah, he ended up looking like sloth by the end of this thing.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it was uh it was sad for a boxer that I was like, Oh, this is a fun, yeah. I it was one of those names that when I'd seen on a card, I'm like, oh, that's gonna be a fun undercard fight, you know. And then it's I thought that even on the Michaela Mayor, and I was like, Oh, I'm wrong about that now. That's it's no longer fun. Um, then the boxing we watched together on that Friday night, Tiger Johnson is taking on Nicholas Vlaz as the main event on that. And here's what I'll say about that Pro Box TV card, all the stuff leading up to it was entertaining, it was good, close fights. There were some of them that were not awesome, but there were some that were really good. Like your guy, let me see. How do I skip to say his name? Akitsugi.
SPEAKER_02:Um, oh the American Japanese Mexican.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, where I was like, Did Franco make uh a boxer like weird science style, where he hooked up, you know, like his old G.I. Joe doll to the uh to the Time magazine and uh started the you know the electricity. It was crazy that a Japanese fighter, he has the Mexican flag on his shorts. I was like, Oh, this guy was made for Franco, so it was great. You have do you have a new favorite boxer, Franco?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it was it was pretty cool. I I noticed on his trunks he had a uh Mexican flag and a Japanese flag. He was born in Japan, he has a Japanese name, so I just assumed it was a Japanese boxer. I saw that Mexican flag and started googling him, and then I was like, Oh, this is this is great. And then the the deeper I dove down the rabbit hole, uh, the the more excited I got for it. So it was um pretty, pretty great. Uh, he was fighting against uh Astro Labia and just beat the hell out of him.
SPEAKER_00:It was great. Um, and here's what was fun about watching that fight it ends up in a knockout, you know. Akatsugi wins by knockout. Not once was it a knockdown to the head, it was I think five body shot knockdowns that the ref just finally was like, All right, you've had enough. I do bet that dude, if this was four days ago, three days ago, he is still shitting blood. Like it was he was landing so clean right on the liver that there's no way that his insides are not just killing him right now.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, uh, I think my favorite thing about uh Katsuma is that his nickname is in Spanish. Uh, it's El Cuete Hapon Haponicito, which means the little Japanese firecracker. What more could you want? Like it's yeah, perfect chef's kid. Dude is not big, he's like five's six, he's a he's a little guy like me. Uh made me like him even more. So, yeah, only 14 and oh, but uh I see him going undefeated for an entire career. Speaking of Floyd Mayweather Jr., this is our new Floyd Mayweather Jr. He's going uh 100 over his career, it's gonna be great to watch.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and then uh Tiger Johnson was on the main event taking on Nicholas Flause. Now, Tiger Johnson, we got to know from being over there on top rank. I don't remember him showing this much power at 140. So maybe it was time for him to move up because he looked like just strong and ready to go. The whole Pro Box team, you know, announcers was was really high on Nicholas Flaws going into it. Now I really high that that they had seen him fight quite a bit. All right. Now you watch a guy that you've covered quite a bit, I get it that you're gonna be like, all right, we know it. But this ended in the third round. It really tiger Johnson was just way too much for him, and and if he's gonna carry this kind of power at uh at 147, I think he's gonna be a fun dude to watch. I mean, he was already a fun fighter, you know, plenty of amateur background, was an Olympian, has absolutely fast hands, but it looks like that seven more pounds really gave him some extra pop, and it was fun to watch. It was a nice cap, you know, to a really fun card. This was uh like the nice cherry on top. We were like, all right, we get to see knockouts in the main event and co-main event. We see one where the guy had his head bashed in in the main event, yeah, and we see the guy in the co-main event. Now he needs help on and off the toilet. Uh, so it was kind of a great mix.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, uh, it looked like neon material was on sale wherever they both made their trunks because they had neon like hot, hot neon pink and like 80s, uh like turquoise teal blue. They had bright neon boots on. Uh, it was it was pretty ridiculous. And the knockout, the knockout really was the cherry on top. I think the thing that was most impressive was the power, like the power behind Tiger Johnson's punches were just on a whole other level. It started from the jump. Like, I was expecting more from Floss with the way they hyped him up, but once Johnson started landing his jabs just feeling out, and you could see how much they were hurting, it was like, Oh, this is only a matter of time. Because yeah, Tiger Johnson looked amazing in this fight. I hope whatever he did in his training camp, I hope he keeps doing it. Keep this party going, keep doing whatever you ate, keep eating that until your next fight. It looked awesome, and it was enough to get me excited to see him again.
SPEAKER_00:And then on the other side of that coin where we had our fight Saturday, where we watched Virgil Ortiz versus Ericsson Lubin as the main event, everything on that undercard was very okay. Nothing I even want to cover. There was nothing that I was like, oh, I better make a note of this, other than the fact that uh we sat through quite a lot of okay to get to the main event when we were done watching some college football. But then when we definitely got fireworks in the main event, yeah, because virtual Ortiz just absolutely destroyed Ericsson Lubin. Erickson Lubin, yeah. It was you know, knockout in the first round. And I mean, it was scary for Lubin because I've seen Lubin fight before where you're just like, all right, this guy has some skill. He looked out of his depth in this one. It was a short night. He got uh, you know, quite the paycheck for being in there for less than a round.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and actually, I think it it might have gone to the second round, but not far into it. Uh, but either way, Virgil Ortiz Jr. looked awesome. And I thought it was this one was a good stoppage by the referee. Dude looked like he was about to die. Uh, Virgil Ortiz Jr. was picking him apart. This one was a good stoppage, I thought. But yeah, Virgil Ortiz Jr. looked like a uh like a for real badass in this fight. Uh now I think he got called out by boots, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, there was the chat in the ring afterwards, which always annoys me, so I had kind of shut it off before that. Uh, but you're absolutely correct. It was round two of 12 that it got stopped. I was I was checking the score, and it the first round was uh the only score in the book, so that's why I was going with one. But yeah, it was definitely KO2. So my apologies, listeners.
SPEAKER_02:But I I will say, Boots, I think that's a fun matchup. Uh without a doubt. I would definitely, especially with the way that this one went, Virgil Ortiz Jr. kind of showed he's for real. The power looked great, the speed looked great. He just he dominated in under two rounds. Like this fight was show so short, and especially with the undercard kind of sucking, like to get this and be like, All right, here we go, main event. Oh, it's over. Like, yeah, it was like lasting, you know, uh a minute on your prom night. It was um way too short, but uh still still glad that we got to watch.
SPEAKER_00:Well, here's what I want to do then, Franco, to uh put a nice little bow on this. I want to see Tiger Johnson take on our guy, Rashidi Ellis at 147. I want to see uh Boots versus Ortiz, all right, at 147, and then the winners face off against each other, and the losers face off against each other, and then the winner of the losers faces the winner of the other one. I just lined up three fights for everybody. There you go. You're welcome. But I will say this when we were talking about at the at the top of the show, we were saying there wasn't a lot going on, but we did uh find some stuff that we're genuinely excited about to talk about today. There is a lot of stuff coming up, uh, so we won't have as long of a hiatus. There's some fights this Friday or Saturday, the 15th. Rafael Espinoza versus Arnold Kagee. Rafael Espinoza is a super tall featherweight and just a fun dude to watch. So that's on that top rank classic that we talked about. It's on FUBO or uh not FUBO, but uh like 2B or whatever. Um, so uh and uh Richard Torres Jr.
SPEAKER_02:is gonna be on that card.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, so I'm definitely watching that one, and then there's a ton going on on the 22nd. So we'll probably be back with something uh covering those two weekends after that. So uh, like you said, there's the Benavidez, Brian Norman Junior, Bam Rodriguez, uh Abdullah Mason, Beetlemanki Jr., and a few others.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, just something I'm on there somewhere. Uh on the 22nd, Mizuki Haruta versus Gloria Gallardo. There is a female Japanese boxer. Oh I had no idea. Sign me up. Take all my money, UFC fight pass. I don't care that Dana White is Satan. Uh, I might have to give in for one night. Uh, that's that looks pretty amazing. Uh maybe we can find a bootleg because screw Dana White. I think I think I can bootleg that one.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, perfect. So now we got uh we got a lot to look forward to and we'll have a lot to cover for you. We definitely appreciate everybody uh tuning in and for subscribing. Thanks to Franco for doing all the work. And if you don't have anything else, Franco, I'm throwing in as hell.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you for listening to Punches and Punchlines. Make sure to like, subscribe, and follow. And we'll see you next week when we break down the best in boxing with a sense of humor.