He just came out with a towel around his neck and seemed like the most boring person in the world, right? Like, what, what wrestling had become in the mid-'80s was so much diff- I, I, I-- To this day, I cannot conceptualize how they were like, "This is going to be the guy."

Yeah, I, at that point, those types of wrestlers, you think, like, even Bruno Sammartino, who was obviously a, a gargantuan star, a-as a wrestler, you know, he's, he's a big hulking guy in, in blue trunks, um, who's, who's kinda the, the hero of the people.

Bob Backlund, uh, was an excellent amateur wrestler, a fantastic athlete, but kind of void of that bombast as well.

And you could see, like, the, the reference points for Hulk Hogan are basic.

They're Superstar Billy Graham and they're Dusty Rhodes.

So those people were starting to break through regionally and, and you're starting to see that type of character, uh, you know, the big, like, the screaming wrestler who's coming through your TV that just becomes the basic and, and baseline moving forward.

Uh, Hogan basically puts those two things together, and when he comes into WWF at that point, everything really does hinge on him being that star, and it, and it, and it does work.

[laughs]

versus the sumo wrestler,

right? Well, not sumo wrestler, but Antonio Inoki, the pro wrestler.

My bad.

I apologize for the sumo in front of that.

Yeah, put some respect on Antonio Inoki's name.

Of course you say that.

Right.

What do you think?

Right

... he's talks about making investments.

He talks about making money.

The things that Flo- and, and I, I, I don't think I'm doing any, like, extraordinary, uh, like, analysis of Floyd's brain in saying that the things that he cares about most are, uh, being the greatest boxer of all time and having a lot of money.

But he also knows that the w- the best way for him to make a lot of money is to box.

And the other thing that he cares about is, is being a record holder.

And so there's two things that I think are- that probably motivated Floyd, and this is just my speculation.

A big event can be big because of the way that it is promoted, and so Mayweather-Pacquiao still has a great opportunity to be a big thing.

But what is like, the first thing you think about when you know this fight is coming up is what, about this matchup?

Man, I, it, it's kinda bizarre that it's happening, um, a- and it, it's kind of a, a set of circumstances that, you know, with the injection of, of money and influence from Turki Alashik, it, it, it's, it's a fight that without this current boxing climate just never would have happened, because Terence Crawford, he's technically moving up two weight classes, but really moving up three weight classes.

He's only fought at 154 pounds one time and he's gonna be facing Canelo at 168, but it's one of those fights that boxing fans, or ca- more casual boxing fans, and I don't use that as a pejorative whatsoever, I don't care what level of fidelity you have to the sport, come and tune in whenever you want, but people see them on the pound for pound list and, and they argue about who's better, who's the best fighter in the world.

Is it Canelo? Is it Terence Crawford? Is it Naoya Inoue? And they wanna put these two in there together.

I- it's, it's bizarre that it's happening, uh, but it will probably...

It'll go a long way to kind of defining who is the best fighter of this particular era, and I think you have to put this era in a silo that doesn't include Floyd and doesn't include Manny, because if you do, they're kind of clearly ahead.

But for this modern era, this kind of defines who is the guy.

Wh- what, what is your read on all of this? Because one thing you and I talked about before the show that has to be remembered is, wild exhibition fights are not new, but they do feel very much of this time in a way that is not quite positive.