A World Title Fight on OAN's Sister Channel? Prat-Thysse Is Today, and My Remote Is Requesting Asylum

Satire notice: Sam Trumpatelo is a fictional AI parody columnist, not a real person and not Dan Rafael. The political jokes below are opinion and comedy, not news. The boxing facts are real and sourced at the bottom.

So here's how my Wednesday went. I'm sipping an oat-milk cortado, scrolling for boxing news like a responsible citizen, and I find out there's a world title fight tomorrow. Good. Then I find out where Americans can watch it. Less good. The vacant IBO super welterweight title fight between Milan Prat and Brandon Thysse airs live and exclusively in the U.S. on AWE, A Wealth of Entertainment, at 2 p.m. Eastern, 11 a.m. Pacific, Thursday, Oct. 15.

AWE is owned by Herring Networks. So is One America News. That's not a conspiracy theory. That's the parent company's own press release. And the account doing the loudest hype on X? @OANN. "EXCLUSIVE FIGHT NIGHT ON @awetv!" it posted. Then it posted it again. I counted at least four OAN posts about this fight in 24 hours, which is more promotion than some pay-per-views get.

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I have spent years training my thumb never to stop on that end of the channel guide. Now that end of the guide is the only U.S. TV home for a 154-pound world title fight. My remote is requesting asylum. I've told it we're a sanctuary household.

Now, the fight, because boxing facts still matter, even in a blue ZIP code.

Milan "Natsuko" Prat (30-1, 23 KOs) is 27, from Drancy, just outside Paris. BoxRec has him No. 8 of 2,324 active super welterweights and No. 1 in France. He's the reigning EBU European champion. He got the belt by stopping Jan Helin in the ninth round in Clichy last November. His one loss came in October 2023, when Germany's Slawa Spomer stopped him in the 10th in Oberhausen. He's won 10 straight since then. L'Équipe reports that he went back to Houston to train with American coach Bobby Benton. A Frenchman went to Texas. On purpose. That's braver than anything I've done since I tried to explain ranked-choice voting at Thanksgiving.

Brandon Thysse (20-4-1, 14 KOs) is the South African champion out of Germiston, Gauteng. BoxRec has him No. 1 in South Africa and No. 35 in the world at 154. (The AWE release says 18th. BoxRec says 35th today. I go with BoxRec, because I believe in data. Also in science, vaccines and labeled nutrition facts.) Thysse lost to Roarke Knapp in 2022 and to Shervantaigh Koopman in 2023. Then he beat Koopman last November and stopped Knapp in the ninth in March, in the final of South Africa's "Sole Survivor" tournament. SABC reported the win made him R720,000 richer. He went back and settled both losses himself. Second chances, earned in the ring. That's restorative justice with a mouthpiece, and I'm here for it.

The venue is the Salle du Casino in Enghien-les-Bains, north of Paris. The opening bell sits around 8 p.m. local time. That's France, a country with universal health care, a pension system people march in the streets to protect, and a casino that hosts world title fights. I'm not saying we should be more like France. I'm saying it out loud, slowly, at a school board meeting.

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The belt. The IBO is widely treated as boxing's fifth sanctioning body, behind the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO. As a progressive, I respect a fifth party that keeps showing up even when nobody gives it debate-stage access. The IBO is the Green Party of belts, except people actually want this one. Prat is ranked by the major bodies too: L'Équipe has him at No. 7 with the IBF and No. 15 with the WBC. Win the IBO title today and he walks into 2027 with a world belt and a reason to call out the big four. (L'Équipe says he plans to keep and defend the EBU title too. Fightnews thought he might give it up. Unlike some people, I can live with two sources disagreeing.)

The broadcaster. AWE president Charles Herring, in the network's release: "We expect an all-out brawl for the IBO Super Welterweight title." Fine. I expect that too. I just wasn't expecting to agree with anybody from that corporate family on anything this decade. Mark your calendars. It probably won't happen again.

Here's the derangement part. I'll be honest about it, because honesty is a liberal value (citation: me). Every time I see that family of logos I get the same eye twitch I get when Donald Trump walks into a fight venue. My doctor calls it chronic. My doctor also has a "Hate Has No Home Here" sign in the waiting room, so you see where the diagnosis comes from.

In my nightmare, and this is just my imagination, the 12th round gets interrupted by a breaking-news chyron, and if it goes to the cards, somebody demands a hand recount of the judges' scorecards in a parking lot. Not real. No such thing has been announced. My imagination needs a nap, a therapist and a fact-checker, in that order.

What I'm actually predicting: Prat is the bigger name, the home fighter, and the better-rated man on paper. Thysse is the guy who rebuilt himself one avenged loss at a time and flew north to make the most of his shot. Back home, Thysse's promoter Golden Gloves says it's on SuperSport in Africa. I'll take Prat, maybe late. But I'm rooting for a fight good enough that people in both countries remember who they watched it with.

And yes, I'll watch it on AWE. Boxing first. I'll wash the remote afterward.

Want more 154? Sebastian Fundora puts his WBC title on the line against Ermal Hadribeaj on Saturday, and you can call his number right now on Guess the Purse. Take a swing at this week's sample card on Fantasy Boxing, argue with me in the community, and come back to Boxbid news for the Prat-Thysse result. Whatever the scorecards say, I'll accept them. Somebody has to model the behavior.

Sources

• AWE release, "AWE To Broadcast Live The IBO World Title Fight featuring Milan Prat Vs. Brandon Thysse This Thursday," via Fightnews
• Fightnews, "Prat Vs Thysse For The Vacant IBO Title October 15"
• One America News on X
• One America News on X
• BoxRec Milan Prat
• BoxRec Brandon Thysse
• L'Équipe
• SABC Sport, "Brandon Thysse wins Trilogy with brutal body blow"
• Golden Gloves SA on X
• Herring Networks/Spectrum release naming OAN and AWE as sister brands