NO HOLDS BARRED

NO HOLDS BARRED on PodOmatic

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman speaks with our colleague and correspondent, the award-winning boxing writer and musician Charles Farrell.

We began our lengthy discussion by focusing on the curious case of matchmaking in the title fight taking place May 26 in Shanghai, China, between the veteran WBC flyweight champion Daisuke Naito (34-2-3, 22 KOs) of Japan and the inexperienced Xiong Zhao Zhong (12-1-1, 8 KOs) of China. This is reported to be the first time a boxer from China will fight for a world belt from a major sanctioning body. Xiong, however, has only one win against a fighter with a winning record, who was just 1-0, and lost a regional light flyweight title fight in November to a 13-6 fighter. Nonetheless, once Naito agreed to fight in China, Xiong was given this world flyweight title shot. Welcome to the world of professional boxing, People's Republic of China!

We also discussed fights in Europe and America including the July 18 fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Juan Manuel Marquez in Las Vegas and their media tour this week, the June 13 welterweight fight in New York between Miguel Cotto and Joshua Clottey, the June 20 heavyweight fight in Germany between David Haye and Wladimir Klitschko, the little-anticipated May 30 heavyweight fight in Finland between Nikolai Valuev and Ruslan Chagaev, the May 16 fight in California between super middleweights Andre Ward and Edison Miranda, and more.

We also read an e-mail about the "One World Champion" video sent by none other than former heavyweight champion of the world, George Foreman. And we comment on the recent writing awards announced by the Boxing Writers Association of America, and how the woeful state of boxing journalism hurts the sport.

This will be the last edition of No Holds Barred until after the May 23 Art of War Fighting Championship mixed martial arts card in Beijing, China, which we will be attending, so now is a good time also to catch up on those episodes of the show where we discussed this important event.

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Labels: Art of War, boxing, Charles Farrell, China, Daisuke Naito, David Haye, Eddie Goldman, Floyd Mayweather, George Foreman, Klitschko, Marquez, No Holds Barred, One World Champion, WBC, Xiong Zhao Zhong