NO HOLDS BARRED

(Photo by Keisha Morrisey)

On this audio edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman discusses the parallels between the cases of boxer Kelly Pavlik and mixed martial arts fighter and kickboxer Alistair Overeem.

Kelly Pavlik, the former middleweight champion, had been scheduled for a tune-up fight on August 6, but pulled out of the fight just days before it was supposed to occur. While speculation ran rampant about the reasons for his withdrawal, especially since Pavlik had recently been in rehab for alcoholism, a very sober Pavlik argued in an interview with MaxBoxing that he was being used as a "puppet" by his promoter, Top Rank.

Alistair Overeem, the heavyweight champion of both Strikeforce and Dream, and the 2010 K-1 World Grand Prix champion, had been scheduled to fight in the second round of the Strikeforce Grand Prix heavyweight tournament. When he learned that this card would take place on September 10, he said in an interview on HDNet that he requested a postponement of about a month so he could heal from a rib injury, which he also documented. His request was not only rejected, but he was then dropped from the tournament, and then cut entirely by Strikeforce. Three other members of his Golden Glory team were also cut by Strikeforce right after he was.

We draw the parallels between these two cases, even though these two fighters compete in different sports, are at different stages of their careers, and are facing different specific issues. We address the failure of most of the media to report the side of the fighters in cases like this, the lack of adequate representation for fighters, and much more.

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