NO HOLDS BARRED

SecondsOut Radio with Eddie Goldman

On this week's edition of SecondsOut Radio, host Eddie Goldman begins by commenting on yet another woeful heavyweight title fight, this past Saturday's 11th-round knockout by IBF-WBO champ Wladimir Klitschko over Tony Thompson in Hamburg, Germany, and the state of the heavyweight division.

The subject of the actions and inactions of ringside physicians once again came to the fore during the June 28 Humberto Soto-Francisco Lorenzo 130-pound title fight, which was held in Las Vegas, Nevada. After Lorenzo had been knocked down in the fourth round and then took a knee after a barrage of punches by Soto, he was struck in the back of the head, while still down, by Soto. The fight was over, but the ringside officials took several minutes to discuss the impact of that foul by Soto, and to decide whether to award a TKO victory to Soto or to disqualify him for the foul. While all this was going on, Lorenzo was lying on the canvas, bleeding and hurt, by legal and/or illegal blows.

Dr. Margaret Goodman, a neurologist and former chairman of the Medical Advisory Board of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, is a long-time fighter for the health and safety of boxers. Now, she is speaking out in criticism of the failures of the ringside physicians in the Soto-Lorenzo fight, as well as in the July 5 Kendall Holt-Ricardo Torres fight, also held in Las Vegas. In the latter fight, Holt was knocked down twice in the early seconds of the first round, but rallied to knock Torres out cold, all in just 61 seconds.

Dr. Goodman has also written an article entitled "A Barely Noticed Death" for an upcoming edition of The Ring. This piece focuses on the death on March 19 of this year of journeyman boxer Rafael Ortiz, who had last fought March 8 in the state of Washington, and the disgracefully inadequate prefight and postfight medical examinations he received.

This week we spoke at length with Dr. Margaret Goodman about these medical failures, and what we can do to fight for fighter safety.

It is free to listen to SecondsOut Radio, but you must register to gain access to it. Just click here, and listen, learn, and enjoy.

Labels: boxing, Eddie Goldman, Francisco Lorenzo, Humberto Soto, Kendall Holt, Margaret Goodman, Nevada Athletic Commission, Rafael Ortiz, Ricardo Torres, SecondsOut Radio

SecondsOut Radio with Eddie Goldman

On this week's edition of SecondsOut Radio, host Eddie Goldman begins by commenting on this past Saturday's thrilling fight between Kendall Holt (24-2, 13 KOs) and Ricardo Torres (32-2, 28 KOs). After being dropped twice, Holt rallied to knock out Torres in just 61 seconds of the first round to capture the WBO junior welterweight title from Torres. This fight, held in Las Vegas, Nevada, and shown live in the U.S. on Showtime, will be replayed Tuesday, July 8, at 10 p.m. ET/PT, on SHO2.

Next, the annual meeting of the Association of Boxing Commissions (ABC) took place this past weekend in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The ABC is comprised of the athletic commissions in the U.S. and Canada, including in their tribal communities, and Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Nick Lembo, counsel for the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board, attended this meeting. We had a lengthy interview with him about what the ABC is and is not doing to deal with the many controversies which continue to arise in the sport of boxing.

It is free to listen to SecondsOut Radio, but you must register to gain access to it. Just click here, and listen, learn, and enjoy.

Labels: Association of Boxing Commissions, boxing, Eddie Goldman, Kendall Holt, Montreal, New Jersey State Athletic Control Board, Nick Lembo, Ricardo Torres, SecondsOut Radio, Showtime

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman begins by commenting on the discussion we had on the most recent edition of this show with the award-winning boxing writer and author, Thomas Hauser of SecondsOut.com, about his views on UFC and the mixed martial arts. While we obviously disagreed with most of his views on MMA, we comment on the need to establish the positive social benefits of legalizing and sanctioning MMA. This is not only not done by most of the supporters of MMA, but many of the major MMA promotions actually promote anti-social values and bad sportsmanship.

Next, we preview the much-anticipated rematch between WBO junior welterweight champion Ricardo Torres (32-1, 28 KOs) and challenger Kendall Holt (23-2, 12 KOs). Their first bout, held Sept. 1, 2007, in Torres's hometown of Barranquilla, Colombia, ended with a controversial 11th-round TKO win for Torres. This fight was clearly marred by a wildly unruly crowd, which repeatedly soaked the ring with debris and liquids, even hitting Holt and a cornerman with beer cans.

The Torres-Holt rematch takes place this Saturday night, July 5, at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. It will be televised live in the U.S. on Showtime. It is the most important fight being held this weekend, and should be an energetic, exciting scrap.

On a media teleconference call this week, we spoke with both Ricardo Torres and Kendall Holt about their first fight and what to expect in this one. We also got the comments of promoter Bob Arum about the continuing controversies in boxing, including the much-discussed disqualification last week of Humberto Soto in his fight with Francisco Lorenzo.

We next had a lengthy interview with Nick Lembo, counsel for the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board, and a longtime supporter of mixed martial arts. He is attending the annual meeting of the Association of Boxing Commissions (ABC), which is going on this weekend in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. MMA is a major topic at this meeting.

Among the topics we discussed were: what the ABC is doing to educate various commissions about regulating MMA in their jurisdictions, why the New York legislature did not recently approve the legalization of the sport, the need for the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act to be extended to MMA, why MMA promoters should work together like even boxing promoters often do, UFC contracts, the establishment by the ABC of an official MMA record keeper, federal ID cards for MMA fighters, clarifications of the MMA unified rules, guidelines for amateur MMA, the ABC deciding to make discussion about MMA a regular part of their agenda along with boxing, and more.

You can listen to No Holds Barred here or here. Just press the play button on the player.

The show is in MP3 format, so may take some time to download.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", by musician Ian Carpenter.

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

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Labels: Association of Boxing Commissions, Bob Arum, boxing, Boxing Standard, Eddie Goldman, Kendall Holt, mixed martial arts, MMA, Nick Lembo, No Holds Barred, Ricardo Torres, Showtime, UFC