UFC x Boxing: Ryan, Dustin, Boots, Zayas, Eddie

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Transcript

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Do you think Ryan Garcia will knock out Connor Ben? Paula Malinaji has already predicted that's what's gonna happen. Here's my big question: which Ryan Garcia are we gonna see in the ring? Is it the one that faced Roli Romero, or will it be the guy who faced Devin Haney and Mario Barrios? I feel that if we get the highly prepared Ryan Garcia with his head screwed on straight at his bot at his absolute best, then yes, he's capable of knocking out Connor Ben. But if there's any little flaw in Ryan's preparation, or if he's not quite up for the Connor Ben fight, or he's overestimated Connor Ben, then the pressure and durability of Connor Ben could take over. Connor Ben does not have the speed, he probably doesn't have the technical skill that Ryan Garcia has, but Ryan does have several fatal technical flaws. And if Ben can weather the Ryan Garcia storm and keep his head about him, he just might be able to take advantage of Ryan's flaws. Let me know how you think Connor Ben does versus Ryan Garcia. I look forward to that in the comments. Thank you. Let's all wish Dustin Poirier the best as he seeks assistance. I'm sure you've all heard by now that he was arrested for public drunkenness. I guess he got too inebriated on an airplane flight and then was arrested upon landing at the uh at the airport. So it's not easy sometimes retiring from from fighting for MMA fighters or for boxing fighters. Maybe they miss the limelight, maybe they miss just the constant daily and weekly and monthly routine that they must adhere to. Suddenly, all that pressure and that really tight structure is removed from their life, and maybe that's just too much freedom on their hands, and they now have a little too much money. So, but I don't want to pour salt in anybody's wounds. I don't think that's right. So I just say wishing Dustin Poirier all the best as he seeks help to work through this new part of his life as a retired MMA fighter. Best of wishes to you, Dustin. Jeron Boots Ennis versus Xander Zayas. Teddy Atlas says that he thinks everybody is underestimating Zayas. I disagree. I think Zayas, I couldn't even believe that his title fight was a title fight. I was watching it and just felt that the level of boxing was so low. You know, Xander Zayas fought, no offense to this fellow, but he's basically an unknown in the to the boxing world. And but furthermore, Zayas did not look that skillful beating this guy. To me, Xander Zayas just showed me advanced amateur boxing skills, even though he then became, I think, one of the youngest boxing world champions ever. Now, Jeron Boots Ennis, on the other hand, no matter who he's fighting, he almost always looks super impressive. He's incredibly athletic, athletically gifted, but on top of that, Boots Ennis has a real eye in the ring. He knows how to read a fighter, and once he gets a read on him, he can figure out how to set that fighter up for that brutal KO, athletically explosive combination that gets his opponents out of there. And I feel like that's exactly what Xander Zayas is missing. Not so much the natural athleticism, but really more the ability to switch up tempos, to switch up strategies quickly, and to set somebody up for a vicious KO. I have to admit, I actually did not want to like Duran Boots Ennis based on what I thought were rather silly ring outfits, but that's just a bias on my part. And once I watched him actually perform in the ring, I was impressed. Xanderzias, on the other hand, is going to have to put on a much more higher level performance in the ring. He's gonna have to show me more variation in terms of tempo combinations and how he sets up his KO combinations in order for me to be impressed. So we'll see how this plays out Saturday. Who are you guys betting on? Xander Zayas versus Jeron Bootzenis? Let me know in the comments. Thank you. I am very confused by the four nominees for the SB Fighter of the Year for 2026. Every year, ES gets to nominate combat sports athletes and the public gets to vote on their favorite. Now, originally they put both boxing and MMA together and then they split it up for a little bit where the MMA athletes were put in a separate category from boxers, and now they've reverted to putting them back in the same category. So if you have not yet heard, hold on to your horses because here are the four nominees for Best Fighter 2026: Justin Gagey, Terrence Crawford, Clarissa Shields, Gabriella Fondora. Okay, here's my first question. Are they obligated to do two men and two women? If that's the case, then I can understand why Laressa and Gabriella's names are nominated. If not, then I think that's a little bit of an insult to some of the male fighters. Now I get it, I'm female and I'm supposed to always be saying, hey, let's give women a chance, but let's not give women a gratuitous chance. And that's what this is if they're just throwing two female names in there to make the gesture of trying to appear inclusive. If there is a female fighter out there who does as just as spectacular performance as Terrence and Justin have, then I think they deserve to be on that very short list. And while Clarissa Shields and Gabriella Fandora are indeed world champions, they're unified world champions, they've won their last few matches via knockout. Look at the performances on their face. Like just go look at the actual fights. There's no way, they're no way near as close as Justin Gagey versus Ilya Tapuria or Terrence Crawford versus Canelo Alvarez. The level of competition that Clarissa and Gabriella have been matched against, they're always fighting B-side fighters. They're fighting layups. So yes, they've accomplished great things, but the actual performances fall short because there's just not anybody that they've been thrown in there who can challenge them on the same level that Terrence has been challenged, and on the same level that Justin Gagey has been challenged. And for that matter, on the same level that many male boxers or MMA fighters have been challenged. Now here's my other question about the nominees. Is Terrence Crawford beat Canelo Alvarez in 2025? So why is he on the list for 2026? I'm a little confused about that. And he's since declared that he's retired. So are we throwing him on this short list because we didn't throw him any flowers while he was still active? That's another social gesture, or whatever you want to call it. I really don't feel that these SP nominations are actually looking at combat sport athletes' performances on their face value. In order for a fighter to have a terrific performance, it has to be a competitive matchup, number one. There has it has to be compelling. And in my opinion, the fighter has to step outside themselves in that moment because they are challenged so much, and that's what makes it a great fight. No, I'm not asking for a fighter to get beat up in order to put on a great performance. I'm asking for a valid competitive fight at a world-class level. That's the only type of performance I feel that deserves to be nominated for an ESPY fighter of the year. What do you guys think of these four fighters who've been nominated? Justin Gagey, Terrence Crawford, Clarissa Shields, and Gabriella Fondora. Let me know your opinion about that in the comments. Thank you. Eddie Hearn just can't stop counting other people's money. He recently said that he feels like Sugarshan O'Malley should grow a pair and demand more than the $600,000 he was paid for his fight at the White House. First of all, Eddie, why didn't your dad teach you that it's in poor taste to count other people's money? And it's also completely irrelevant because what's acceptable to you may not be acceptable to somebody else, and vice versa. You don't know what bills they have to pay, so you can't tell them they should demand more money. Furthermore, Eddie, did you even watch that fight that Sugarshawn was in, so-called fight? That was just unbearable to watch Sugashan in there with Ayman's Zahabi, mainly because Ayman was so awkward and so uncoordinated and just fundamentally flawed. Basically, Sugashawn O'Malley got paid $600,000 to get in the cage and get a fairly straightforward knockout win. It was a gift-wrapped package. It's hard to see it as anything more than that. It really was not a fight. And unfortunately for us the spectators, it wasn't entertaining. And on top of that, Shugashon O'Malley, I think, is doing fairly well for himself financially. He started a number of businesses and he's built his personal brand because the UFC invested so much in him. Putting his name and face out there, doing all those promos, like the UFC embedded, they are the ones who got Sugarshawn O'Malley to be a known entity. And that's why Sugarshawn O'Malley is able to capitalize on his, in quotations, brand. The dollar value that the UFC invests in their fighters far exceeds what they could ever pay them in a purse. On top of that, don't forget that a purse is taxable income. So why would you demand a bigger purse? That doesn't make sense. A fighter should figure out how to leverage whatever publicity they've gotten from the UFC to build on other businesses outside of the UFC. And I think successful fighters have done that. Bottom line, AD Hearn, you grew up a little rich kid. Please stop counting other people's money. Thank you very much.