00:00All right, Canelo Alvarez coming off of another win this weekend as he beat Edgar Berlanga.
00:14And so my question is, who should he fight next?
00:18But before we get into that, I do want to get back to, I don't know if I'm saying this
00:24right, but Sakuragi himself is in the chat.
00:27But what year did you watch HBO Boxing for the first time?
00:30So I grew up, you can probably tell from the CFL talk we just had, I grew up in Saskatchewan,
00:37and small town Saskatchewan.
00:39We did not have access to HBO.
00:41So my first HBO was probably 2009 when I moved to Toronto from Calgary.
00:50When I lived out here the first time I was with a roommate and I didn't have a ton of
00:55say over the cable things.
00:58I was moving in his place.
01:00It's not like he was weird, it was his place.
01:03But neither here nor there.
01:05So anyway, yeah, 2009 when I moved out to Toronto.
01:09Had HBO as part of the TV package.
01:12And so got to watch all of that stuff.
01:14And so that is in the Mayweather Pacquiao kind of time there.
01:20But also, it was like Super Channel or something like that in Canada.
01:26But it was the Showtime fights, but those were the Showtime fights.
01:34And so between all of those it was like Andre Ward and the Super 6 series and stuff like
01:39that.
01:40So that was kind of my introduction to HBO Boxing for real for real, aside from just
01:44like different clips that you would see.
01:45But yeah, Sakuragi saying 2002 was his time watching HBO Lennox Lewis against Mike Tyson.
01:53Manny Pacquiao fought on the undercard.
01:56That is an excellent time, for sure, in the world of HBO Boxing.
01:59And I really do wish it was back.
02:00I know I did this rant on the weekend.
02:03But when we ordered it, it was, we couldn't order, there was an issue with DAZN, so we
02:10couldn't get the DAZN broadcast, so we just ordered it on the cable pay-per-view.
02:14And that, I'm led to believe, is the Amazon product.
02:18Moro Ranallo was phenomenal, as always.
02:21The rest of the broadcast was just horrendous.
02:24The color commentators, it didn't feel like they had a real mesh with Moro all that well.
02:29There were some pretty obvious audio issues.
02:32They just had to restart an interview with Canelo Alvarez at one point, which is just
02:37like they missed an edit.
02:39But still, when you have that many eyeballs, and you have Canelo Alvarez, like, the biggest
02:45star in the sport, and you are putting on his pay-per-view, I don't care that Amazon's
02:51the B-team.
02:52That needs to be better.
02:53And so it did, to the point earlier.
02:57It did make me long for the days of HBO.
02:59And yes, like, Moro, amazing.
03:02But like, the Lampley, and Kellerman, and all of those guys, and that era.
03:07It made me long for that coverage, because it was just all so tight, always.
03:11And like, DAZN, it hasn't really had that feel, ever, to me.
03:15And Amazon certainly didn't.
03:18And so that was just, it was a frustration.
03:19Like if you're going to, we're already kind of in agreement that Canelo against Berlonga
03:25isn't really a $90 fight.
03:27At least give me $90 for the production value.
03:30But they didn't even give me that.
03:31So that was a bit frustrating.
03:32Anyway, fights to make, coming out of Canelo Alvarez and Berlonga.
03:36For Canelo, I, it just, it has to be David Benavidez next.
03:40It just, it simply has to be.
03:42That there is no other fight you can make, and still convince me that Canelo is trying
03:49to be a competitive boxer in 2024, or 2025, when the next fight is going to be.
03:54There is only one.
03:55It can only be David Benavidez.
03:58I know there's been some talk that he is paying very close attention to the Better
04:02Be A Vival fight that is coming up next month.
04:04Don't.
04:05I mean, I'll watch it.
04:06It's probably going to be a fun fight.
04:07But don't.
04:08Don't.
04:09Don't do that.
04:10Don't do that.
04:11Um.
04:12Benavidez, for so long, has earned this title shot, and earned this opportunity of this
04:16big statement.
04:17I think this has to be Canelo.
04:19Um.
04:20Canelo's next fight.
04:21And if it's not, again, I don't think this is going to do irreparable damage to
04:24his legacy, or anything like that.
04:26But it's just going to get a lot of groans from the boxing watching community.
04:31In terms of Berlonga, uh, I do think that he deserves another good stage.
04:36I thought that, like, while one-sided, but he at least had a bit of a decent showing
04:41of himself.
04:42And so, why not look to the same card?
04:44Caleb Plant.
04:45Let's go.
04:46Um.
04:47Both guys, I think, would fight in a really interesting way.
04:49Both guys fought this weekend, so there is some buzz on their names anyway.
04:53Um.
04:54Plant seemed to get quite a bit of fan support.
04:56So I think that this is a fight that you could make, and a fight that would get a lot of
04:59people very excited.
05:00Um.
05:01And so, an interesting bout, so to speak, for that one.
05:05So those, those are the fights I would make, coming out of the Canelo pay-per-view here
05:10this weekend.
05:11Um.
05:12Sakuragi himself.
05:13Uh.
05:14Jim Lampley, Roy Jones Jr., George Foreman, Emanuel Stewart, Max Kellerman, and Larry
05:18Merchant.
05:19Legendary.
05:20Yeah.
05:21Oh, going to Larry Merchant's, um, scorecard.
05:22He's like, let me tell you, Jim!
05:25Um.
05:26And he goes into it.
05:27Um.
05:28George Foreman, before he was like, hot take guy, um, I thought he was one of the best
05:32in boxing.
05:33Um.
05:34I do think that he kind of got into a little bit more of the hot take-y stuff as things
05:37kind of went along, and he kind of learned how to play that.
05:40But I do think that he is a very smart analyst when it comes to the sport.
05:44Emanuel Stewart, obviously amazing.
05:45Roy Jones Jr.'s fun.
05:47Um.
05:48George Foreman, legend.
05:49Like, all of those, that whole time, just, just spectacular.
05:53And just the whole presentation, right?
05:55And even some of the shoulder programming, right?
05:57Like the, the, um, HBO 24-7.
06:00I'll still watch some of those, for fights that happened a decade ago.
06:02Because it's just so well done.
06:04And there's a lot of properties now that try to match what those guys did, but it just
06:09doesn't compare to the HBO 24-7.
06:12And NOTHING, um, production-wise, has compared to what HBO was able to do with the, like
06:20the, um, Sakuragi said, the following.
06:23It's a presentation of HBO sports.
06:26And you have, like, some big knockouts that are happening, and then a, yeah, at the end
06:30of the thing.
06:31And it just, it's all, it's so professional.
06:34And so very, very well done.
06:35So yeah, I, maybe I'm romanticizing it a little bit, but, um, Sakuragi, you definitely got
06:40me in the feels with that one, because that was something we were talking about when I
06:44was watching it.
06:45Um, my favorite, Larry mentioned it online, I wish I was 50 years younger, I would kick
06:49your ass.
06:50Oh, that was amazing!
06:51When he got into it.
06:52You don't know shit about boxing!
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