NO HOLDS BARRED

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman discusses this wild, busy weekend in boxing.

Welterweights Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter put on a fight of the year candidate at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, shown on CBS in the U.S. and Sky Sports in the U.K., with the unbeaten Thurman taking a unanimous decision and retaining his WBA belt.

IBF heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua, hoped by many to be the next big superstar in boxing, needed seven rounds to dispatch an overmatched but courageous Dominic Breazeale, in a fight at The O2 in London and shown live on Sky Sports Box Office in the U.K. and on Showtime in the U.S.

What these fights demonstrated about each of these fighters, what is next for them, the move towards unification tournaments in both the welterweight and heavyweight divisions, and more are discussed.

The plague of doping is a major issue in all sports these days, including boxing. Our colleague Chris Baldwin got comments from WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder about this issue this past week in Los Angeles. We also have an excerpt from the Joshua-Breazeale prefight conference call where Joshua and his promoter, Eddie Hearn, addressed this issue and called for lifetime bans for boxers who test positive for PEDs. We also comment on the WBC investigation into Alexander Povetkin's alleged use of the banned substance meldonium, the allegations which were just published that Tyson Fury used the steroid nandrolone last year, which he denies, and much, much more.

(Photo of Thurman and Porter from Tom Casino/Showtime, photo of Wilder and Arreola from Chris Baldwin.)

You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link doesn't work, please try another.

No Holds Barred is available at Google Play Music.

Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes.

You can also listen to No Holds Barred via Stitcher through iOS or Android devices or on the web here.

The PodOmatic Podcast Player app is available for free, both for Android at Google Play, and for iOS on the App Store.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", which is also available on iTunes by composer Ian Snow.

No Holds Barred is free to listen to and is sponsored by:

The Frank Gotch World Catch Wrestling Tournament. On Sunday, July 3, 2016, catch wrestlers from all around the world will compete in Humboldt, Iowa, the hometown of the legendary world champion wrestler Frank Gotch. Organized by the Catch Wrestling Alliance and co-sponsored by IAWrestle, the Frank Gotch Statue Committee, and the Frank Gotch Kids Wrestling Club, the event will take place at Humboldt High School. For more information, go to CatchWrestlingAlliance.com.

The North American Catch Wrestling Association, a grassroots organization designed to help rebuild the sport of catch-as-catch-can-wrestling. For more information, go to their Facebook page at facebook.com/NorthAmericanCatchWrestlingAssociation.

BJJ Eastern Europe, for the latest Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu news, articles, interviews, competition calendar, European belt rankings, academy directory, and more. For more information, go to BJJEE.com.

The National Registry for Wrestling, whose mission is to increase wrestling's fanbase, to build a registry of all wrestling fans, to serve as a connecting point for all wrestling fans, and to provide TV and Internet listings for wrestling. For more information, go to NR4W.com.

Labels: Anthony Joshua, boxing, Deontay Wilder, doping, Eddie Goldman, Eddie Hearn, Keith Thurman, No Holds Barred, Shawn Porter