The old heads who say boxing is dying? Brendan Schaub thinks they should shut up.
"Boxing's never been better: the welterweight division … heavyweight's stacked," the former UFC fighter turned Showtime analyst (and standup comedian) told "Outside the Cage."
"It's a good time to be a boxing fan."
Case in point, in that stacked heavyweight division: Saturday night's pay-per-view megabout between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury. The 6-foot-7 Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) is defending his WBC title against the 6-foot-9 Fury (27-0, 19 KOs) at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
The British-born Fury stunningly beat Wladimir Klitschko in November 2015 then had a layoff of more than two and a half years as he battled mental health issues, abused drugs and alcohol and watched his weight balloon. Wilder, fighting out of Tuscaloosa, Ala., is a slight betting favorite.
The speculation is the winner will face undefeated WBA heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua, also of Great Britain, in a blockbuster unification bout.
"Wilder (is) emerging as the biggest name in boxing," Schaub said. "In order to become that name he has to get through the likes of Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua."
Warning: brief graphic language
The opinionated Schaub also touched on Golden Boy Promotions' MMA experiment headlined by Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell; when we can expect to see Conor McGregor-Nate Diaz III; who's next to try to beat the undefeated Khabib Nurmagomedov; and who are the best-looking MMA fighters right now (hint: one is fighting for the featherweight title at UFC 231).
Schaub will be performing at Gotham Comedy Club this weekend and has a Showtime comedy special coming in 2019.
Additional fight notes:
- Rachael Ostovich is back on to fight Paige VanZant in the inaugural "UFC on ESPN+" card. Ostovich briefly was pulled off card due to injuries suffered in alleged domestic violence incident. UFC on ESPN+ 1 is Jan. 19 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
- Former ONE Welterweight Champion Ben Askren set to make his UFC debut versus former UFC welterweight champ Robbie Lawler at UFC 233 on Jan. 26 in Anaheim, Calif.
- Israel Adesanya aka "The Last Stylebender," a rising star in the middleweight division, is scheduled to fight legendary Anderson Silva at UFC 234 on Feb. 9 in Melbourne, Australia.
- Bellator welterweights Michael "Venom" Page and Paul Daley are finally scheduled to fight Feb. 16 at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut.
Follow Pete Hoffman, Ike Feldman and "Outside the Cage" on Twitter for all your MMA and UFC coverage. Listen to their weekly "Outside the Cage" podcast. Next live post-fight show is Dec. 9 after UFC 231 from 12am-2am EST on CBS Sports Radio.
