Friday, March 18, 2016
No Holds Barred: Andre Ward, Sullivan Barrera, Abel Sanchez
On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman previews the March 26 fight between Andre Ward and Sullivan Barrera.
Still one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world, the 32-year-old Ward (28-0, 15 KOs) will face a fellow undefeated fighter, the 34-year-old Sullivan Barrera (17-0, 12 KOs), who is originally from Cuba. This light heavyweight fight takes place Saturday, March 26, at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California, which is Ward's hometown. It will be televised live in the U.S. on HBO and live in the U.K. on BoxNation.
The winner is in line to get a title shot later this year against the consensus best light heavyweight in boxing today, the WBA/IBF/WBO champion Sergey Kovalev (29-0-1, 26 KOs).
We spoke with Andre Ward and Sullivan Barrera, as well as Abel Sanchez, who trains Barrera, on recent media conference calls.
Ward promised that he is "prepared for war." Barrera, unbeaten like Ward but not as well known or having faced a fighter of Ward's caliber, said that up until now "I haven't had the opportunity" to demonstrate that he is a great boxer.
You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link doesn't work, please try another.
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: Abel Sanchez, Andre Ward, boxing, Eddie Goldman, No Holds Barred, Sullivan Barrera
Monday, March 04, 2013
No Holds Barred: Bernard Hopkins, Tavoris Cloud, Don King, and Reflections on Real Steel
The Cloud-Hopkins fight takes place Saturday, March 9, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, and will be televised live in the U.S. on HBO.
In "Real Steel", set in the year 2020, robot boxing has replaced human boxing and, apparently, MMA. This film was just repeated on Showtime in the U.S. on Saturday, March 2 -- right before the live Showtime boxing card headlined by the wild Abril-Bogere fight.
The film "Real Steel" is loosely based on the 1956 short story "Steel" by Richard Matheson, which was made into a 1963 episode of "The Twilight Zone" TV series starring Lee Marvin. In both the short story and the TV show, boxing had been banned; the movie is more ambiguous about the future legal status of the human fighting sports. In the U.S., the debut show of the Robot Combat League on the Syfy network last Tuesday, February 26, featuring 12 eight-foot robot boxers in a tournament format, drew over 1.35 million viewers, with a total of nine weekly episodes already filmed.
Even before all this buzz about robot fighting, boxing has long been a largely tragic sport. It is a slowly dying sport that is killing its own people, but which we still sometimes love. Therein lies the degree of sadness with which we approach it, especially when a 48-year-old fighter is involved.
We spoke with Bernard Hopkins, Tavoris Cloud, Cloud's new trainer Abel Sanchez, and Cloud's promoter, the one and only Don King, about this fight on a media conference call this past Wednesday.
"It's going to be a barnburner on March the 9th," promised Don King on this conference call. "Get ready. We coming. We coming to Brooklyn. And no one could be prouder. And if you cannot hear us, we'll say it a little louder."
We shall see whose barn burns down Saturday night.
You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link doesn't work, please try another.
No Holds Barred is also available on mobile phones and iPads through Stitcher.
Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes.
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:
ONE Fighting Championship. ONE FC is Asia's largest and most prestigious mixed martial arts event. ONE FC features the best Asian fighters and has initiated the ONE Asia Partnership Network, which includes most of the major MMA promotions and MMA gyms in Asia. For more information, go to their web site, at ONEFC.com.
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American Top Team. Whether you're a beginner or a champion, train with the champions in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, boxing, wrestling, grappling, and mixed martial arts at American Top Team. Check out their web site at http://americantopteam.com/.
Labels: Abel Sanchez, Bernard Hopkins, boxing, Don King, Eddie Goldman, fighting, MMA, No Holds Barred, Real Steel, Robot Combat League, Tavoris Cloud
