NO HOLDS BARRED

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman discusses the recent fights of top ten pound-for-pound fighters Naoya Inoue and Terence Crawford, who both formerly fought on HBO in the U.S., as well as the critical success of the World Boxing Super Series. Also previewed is Crawford's next fight, on October 13 against Jose Benavidez Jr., which will air on ESPN in the U.S. We spoke with Crawford on last week's media conference call.

(Photo of Naoya Inoue knockout of Juan Carlos Payano by Naoki Fukuda/World Boxing Super Series.)

You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link does not 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 sponsored by:

The Catch Wrestling Alliance, resurrecting and promoting the sport of authentic catch-as-catch-can wrestling. The Catch Wrestling Alliance provides tournaments, seminars, and training as well as education about catch wrestling. Join the movement and keep real wrestling alive. For more information, go to CatchWrestlingAlliance.com.

Skullz Double-End Bags, the perfect bag for your combat sports training. Skullz Double-End Bags provide a realistic striking target, and help improve timing, distance, and hand and eye coordination. Hang it and hit it right out of the box! No pump required. For more information, go to SkullzDeBags.com.

Labels: boxing, DAZN, Eddie Goldman, ESPN, HBO, Monster, Naoya Inoue, No Holds Barred, Terence Crawford, World Boxing Super Series

By Eddie Goldman

This is shaping up to be one of the most important weeks for boxing this year, and surprisingly so during the hot and sweaty summer months we are enduring in the Northern Hemisphere of our struggling planet Earth.

This Saturday, July 21, at the Olimpiyskiy Stadium in Moscow, Russia, another potential fight of the year candidate will take place, the cruiserweight finals of the World Boxing Super Series. In it, the WBC and WBO champion, Oleksandr Usyk of Ukraine, with a record of 14-0 and 11 KOs, will face the WBA and IBF champion, Murat Gassiev of Russia, with a record of 26-0 and 19 KOs. Two undefeated champions, all four major belts on the line, and the winners earning their place in the finals by triumphing thus far in this eight-man tournament. Plus, each of their semifinal fights, where Usyk got a majority decision over previously unbeaten Mairis Briedis in January, and Gassiev stopped previously unbeaten Yunier Dorticos in the 12th round in February, with each victor having two of those major belts with their wins, were, in my opinion, leading candidates for fight of the year so far in 2018.

Since this was one of the rare times that boxing behaved like a real sport, it was no coincidence that the American TV networks passed on showing this tournament. Instead they fed us, and increasingly made us pay extra for, their steady diet of purposeful mismatches, showcase fights, and recycling of faded former belt holders. Even this cruiserweight final, which will be shown in numerous countries, has no U.S. TV outlet just a few days before the fight. It thus is likely that the World Boxing Super Series, as they have done in the past, will stream this fight in the U.S., hopefully for free.

For the upcoming season two of the WBSS, however, what was essentially an American boycott of the product will end. The new streaming service DAZN, which launches in the U.S. this fall, has picked up the rights in a reported three-year deal. Along with everything else DAZN will be showing, including 32 shows from Matchroom Boxing, equally based in the U.S. and U.K. or nearby, this could quickly make DAZN the number one video source for boxing in America.

This Tuesday in New York, there will be a media event where the details of DAZN’s U.S. launch will be announced, including when it starts and how much it will cost. It has already been confirmed with Matchroom Boxing that both Anthony Joshua and Alexander Povetkin will be in attendance at the media event, which is also supposed to be live streamed.

With the announcement Monday that Joshua and Povetkin will be facing each other Sept. 22 in London’s Wembley Stadium in front of an expected crowd of 90,000 or so, and shown in the U.K. on Sky Sports Box Office, it thus seems quite likely that Tuesday will be the official announcement that the Joshua-Povetkin fight will headline the DAZN U.S. debut show. The only surprise would be if that were not the case.

While some “Make American Boxing Great Again” types are whining that Joshua is not next facing WBC champ Deontay Wilder of the U.S., this fight with Povetkin is the right fight at the right time for Joshua, and actually in many ways more important that a unification fight with Wilder.

First off, Joshua, 28 years old and from the U.K., and with a record of 21-0 with 20 KOs, holds the WBA, WBO, and IBF belts. His goal, obviously, is to become undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, a distinction not achieved since Lennon Lewis did it a generation ago. Povetkin, who turns 39 on Sept. 2, and from Russia, has a record of 34-1 with 24 KOs. Both Joshua and Povetkin have been Olympic gold medalists. Povetkin is the WBA mandatory challenger for Joshua, and also the WBO number one contender, and thus maybe a mandatory there as well, although alphabet soup sanctioning bodies work in mysterious ways.

If Joshua wants to become undisputed heavyweight champion, he must juggle the requirements of these various outfits to retain all the belts. That means occasionally at least fighting one of their mandatories. If, as he is favored to do, Joshua defeats Povetkin, then he can face Wilder at a later date for all four major belts. And that fight then would be massive as well.

But there is more to this fight than simply satisfying the need to face some mandatory challenger deemed worthy by a sanctioning body. Povetkin, though aging, is a legitimate heavyweight contender, and a dangerous one at that. Among the fighters whom Povetkin has defeated are Chris Byrd, Eddie Chambers, Ruslan Chagaev for the WBA belt in 2011, Marco Huck, Manuel Charr, Carlos Takam, Mike Perez, Mariusz Wach, Johann Duhaupas, and Christian Hammer. In his most recent fight, on March 31 of this year, he knocked David Price out cold in the fifth round. Of course, Povetkin had himself been knocked down in the third round and Price has a history of being knocked out. While Povetkin has certainly slowed a bit with age, this was a scary knockout and still showed that he has power.

Povetkin’s only defeat was a lopsided decision loss in 2013 to a still-dangerous Wladimir Klitschko, in which Povetkin hit the canvas four times. But even then, five years ago, Klitschko, who was in those days winning most of his fights by knockout or TKO, could not stop Povetkin.

Now compare that with the list of opponents Wilder has defeated. His best win was also in March of this year, when he stopped Luis “King Kong” Ortiz. Before that, his opponents comprise a list of has-beens, never-wases, and never-will-bes, carefully handpicked by his advisor Al Haymon and the suits at his main TV network, Showtime. His only value is that he holds the one piece of the puzzle missing for Joshua to claim to be undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. Yes, Wilder has a powerful right hand, but his boxing skills are so laughable that he has earned an unofficial nickname of “Windmill”.

Only some Americans have drunk the Wilder Kool-Aid and passionately want a Joshua-Wilder fight. That will likely come one day, as it is certain to be a big money fight, but it is also a fight that Joshua really doesn’t need except for winning that additional belt. Wilder is not a big draw either on TV or in arenas, be they in his home state of Alabama or in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, where he has failed to sell the place out in his three appearances there.

Povetkin is more of an international star anyway. Many of his earlier fights have been in Germany, with his more recent ones being in Russia and his last one, with Price, as a co-main event on the Joshua-Joseph Parker card in Cardiff, Wales.

So Joshua fighting Povetkin next makes sense in more ways than one. Of course, Joshua is younger, stronger, more agile, and more powerful than Povetkin, and expected to win. But at this point, there is no one in the heavyweight division who could conquer the popular and charismatic Joshua.

If Joshua gets past Povetkin, there is also no urgency for him to take on Wilder next. Some in the dwindling American boxing media might howl, but most of them know as much about boxing as the author of “Howl”, the late Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. If you’re not familiar with that poem, you can look it up online if you really want to, as I won’t distract you with it.

Lurking somewhat out of the shadows nowadays is former heavyweight champ, and still undefeated, and still, surprisingly, listed as just 29 years old, Tyson Fury. His comeback fight, after a two and a half year layoff due to a drug suspension and major physical and mental problems, in June was a complete farce, where he faced cruiserweight Sefer Seferi. The most notable moments were both men dancing the Ali Shuffle, and Fury stopping to look at a real fight in the crowd during the second round. Seferi quit after four, and before even anything resembling a sparring session had commenced.

But a Joshua-Fury fight, with all the expected clowning and jabbering leading up to it, would likely break all U.K. records for a boxing event and would also be a humongous worldwide spectacle. If Fury could in his next fight, in August against the faded Francesco Pianeta, demonstrate that at least he can still fight on a more or less decent level, then a cashout fight with Joshua may not be far off. Joshua has to get Fury before Fury possibly self-destructs again, an unwelcome but far from remote occurrence.

Joshua has also made clear on many occasions that he wants to fight all over the world, including in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Already opponents are building, or perhaps padding, their records to be in place for those paydays. Where does that leave Wilder, and a fight for Joshua in the U.S.? Take a number, and be seated, please.

THe world of boxing in 2018 appears to be rapidly changing. Europe and mainly the U.K. are the main centers of world boxing and home to many of the most important and lucrative fights. DAZN in the U.S. could, if their streaming doesn’t suck, become more popular for boxing than Showtime, HBO, and ESPN. And New York, where the American headquarters of both DAZN and Matchroom Boxing USA are, could regain its status as the U.S. capital of boxing from Las Vegas, where the casinos seems to be otherwise focused.

It’s an exciting time for boxing, both in and out of the ring. Now, oh promoters, networks, managers, and fighters, don’t screw it up.

Labels: Alexander Povetkin, Anthony Joshua, DAZN, Eddie Goldman, No Holds Barred, World Boxing Super Series

by Eddie Goldman

For those folks interested in real boxing who are fortunate enough to be spared from all this devastation and tragedy going on around the world, Saturday, September 9, is a busy day.

The World Boxing Super Series has its first card Saturday, featuring the current WBO cruiserweight champion, Oleksandr Usyk, against a former champion, Marko Huck. This fight, the opening round of this event's eight-man cruiserweight tournament, takes place at the Max-Schmeling-Halle in Berlin.

While the World Boxing Super Series just recently signed TV deals with networks in several European countries, including Germany and Russia, this fight will not be televised live in the U.K. or at all in the U.S.

The U.S. will host one of the strongest cards of the year, however, as three major fights in the talented super flyweight division take place at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.

Headlining this card, which has been dubbed "SuperFly", will be a rematch of a March fight between Wisaksil Wangek AKA Srisaket Sor Rungvisai of Thailand and Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez of Nicaragua. In their first fight, Rungvisai won a controversial majority decision, handing Chocolatito his first loss and capturing his WBC belt. In a battle of two exciting Mexican fighters, former WBA 108-pound champion Juan Francisco Estrada will face Carlos Cuadras, with the winner likely getting a title shot at the Rungvisai-Chocolatito victor. This fight could also be a show stealer. And in his first fight outside his home country, the unbeaten 24-year-old phenom Naoya Inoue of Japan will defend his WBO belt against American Antonio Nieves.

The "SuperFly" card will be shown on HBO in the U.S., WOWOW in Japan, and Sky Sports in the U.K.

I have already discussed these cards and other topics more in depth, including the TV situation, here:

No Holds Barred: A Sweet But Dysfunctional September for Boxing

Joshua-Pulev, Golovkin-Canelo, World Boxing Super Series, Parker-Fury TV News

So please be safe, and watch as many of these fights as you can. And remember, Mens sana in corpore sano.

(Photo of Usyk and Huck from World Boxing Super Series. Photo of "SuperFly" final press conference from Tom Hogan, K2 Promotions.)

Labels: Chocolatito, Eddie Goldman, Marko Huck, Naoya Inoue, No Holds Barred, Oleksandr Usyk, Rungvisai, SuperFly, TV, World Boxing Super Series

by Eddie Goldman

As a follow-up to my latest show, "No Holds Barred: A Sweet But Dysfunctional September for Boxing", which was posted early Monday, September 4, as anticipated there has been a flurry of announcements Tuesday, September 5. Most of these seem to be quite late in coming.

One of the worst kept secrets in boxing was that on Saturday, October 28, heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua will defend his belts against his IBF mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev. That fight has now been officially announced. Joshua had wanted to have a rematch with Wladimir Klitschko, whom he defeated on April 29 in a classic fight by 11th-round TKO, but the 41-year-old Klitschko decided to retire instead.

The Joshua-Pulev fight will take place at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, and will be shown live in the U.K. on Sky Sports Box Office. Joshua is also contracted to fight on Showtime in the U.S. There was no accompanying announcement about this, so we shall see if they show this fight, and either live or on tape-delay.

While the September 16 Golovkin-Canelo fight was long ago announced as being shown on HBO pay-per-view in the U.S., details of how to watch it in the U.K. on BoxNation have just come out.

From BoxNation:

"'Canelo' Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin on September 16th is exclusively live in the U.K. and Ireland on BoxNation Box Office from just £16.95/€21.95.

"BoxNation's current paying subscribers, and any new customers that wish to subscribe instead of buying it via Box Office, will get the fight as part of their monthly subscription at no extra cost."

The World Boxing Super Series has finally announced a U.K. TV deal, just four days before their first card takes place. These fights will be on ITV, both free-to-air and pay-per-view. But there still is no word on if they will get a TV deal in the U.S.

From the World Boxing Super Series press release:

"MP & Silva are delighted to announce a media rights agreement with ITV to showcase the inaugural 2017/18 season of the World Boxing Super Series starting September 9. ITV will exclusively cover 16 elite boxers competing across 14 different Fight Nights all over the world to see who will claim the Muhammad Ali Trophy.

"The Super Middleweight and Cruiserweight tournaments will be shown on a combination of ITV's free-to-air and pay-per-view platforms with the second Quarter-Final Fight Night featuring Callum Smith vs. Erik Skoglund from Liverpool's Echo Arena to be shown live on ITV4 on September 16.

"The World Boxing Super Series will be of more particular interest to the British audience this season with Chris Eubank Jr. fighting Turkish Avni Yildirim and the all British duel between George Groves and Jamie Cox at The SSE Arena, Wembley in October both being shown on ITV Box Office."

And in an announcement which already has earned the wrath of many fans online, the September 23 fight between WBO heavyweight champ Joseph Parker and Hughie Fury in Manchester, U.K., will be shown in the U.K. and Ireland as a YouTube pay-per-view. Again, there has been no announcement about showing this fight in the U.S.

From the Hennessy Sports press release:

"The blockbuster WBO World Heavyweight Championship title fight between Joseph Parker and Hughie Fury on Saturday 23rd September at the Manchester Arena will be shown exclusively live in the UK and Ireland on YouTube (www.youtube.com/parkerfury) on a pay-per-view basis with further countries to be announced shortly.

"A portion of the undercard will also be streamed for free before the big fight, this is also available live on www.youtube.com/parkerfury. Watch this event anywhere online or on your smart TV, game console, PC, Mac, mobile, tablet and more for a special advance purchase offer price of only £9.99 in the UK and €11.99 in the Republic of Ireland until midnight on Sunday 17th September.*

"youtube.com/parkerfury is the home of Hennessy Sports YouTube Channel which is called The Boxing Channel presented by Hennessy Sports.

"*£14.99 in the UK and €16.99 in the R.O.I from Monday 18th September."

Overall this still seems like a pretty dysfunctional way to get fans to watch boxing. All this reliance on pay-per-view is far inferior to how most other major sports popularize their events through free TV and streaming.

Labels: Anthony Joshua, boxing, Canelo, Golovkin, Hughie Fury, Joseph Parker, Kubrat Pulev, streaming, TV, World Boxing Super Series

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman discusses the many important and anticipated fights scheduled for this September, including the September 16 Golovkin-Canelo showdown, the World Boxing Super Series tournaments at cruiserweight and super middleweight starting September 9, and the "SuperFly" card also on September 9 featuring three fights involving the top fighters in the 115-pound division. But also discussed are the problems surrounding the lack of wide TV coverage for these and many other fights, including the pitfalls of pay-per-view, the absence of U.S. and U.K. TV for the World Boxing Super Series, the poor marketing of the "SuperFly" card which should be one of the best this year, why boxing must be seen as a TV sport, and much more.

(Poster from WBC.)

You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link does not 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 sponsored by:

The Catch Wrestling Alliance, resurrecting and promoting the sport of authentic catch-as-catch-can wrestling. The Catch Wrestling Alliance provides tournaments, seminars, and training as well as education about catch wrestling. Join the movement and keep real wrestling alive. For more information, go to CatchWrestlingAlliance.com.

Skullz Double-End Bags, the perfect bag for your combat sports training. Skullz Double-End Bags provide a realistic striking target, and help improve timing, distance, and hand and eye coordination. Hang it and hit it right out of the box! No pump required. For more information, go to SkullzDeBags.com.

USA Combat Wrestling, the official U.S. governing body for combat wrestling and U.S. delegate of the International Combat Wrestling Federation (FICW), which was founded by the legendary wrestler Noriaki Kiguchi of Japan. For more information, go to CombatWrestling.us.

Labels: boxing, Canelo Alvarez, Eddie Goldman, Gennady Golovkin, GGG, No Holds Barred, September, SuperFly, World Boxing Super Series

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman reports from kickoff news conference of the newly-created World Boxing Super Series, which was held March 9 in New York.

The basic format of this ambitious project is to have two annual 16-man tournaments in different weight classes to crown winners of the Muhammad Ali Trophy, which was made with the support of the family of the late heavyweight champion and worldwide sports icon. They aim not to supplant the various sanctioning bodies and promoters, but to add this new tournament to the existing events held around the world in boxing, and to create "the greatest prize in boxing". Half of the fights are planned for Europe with the other half for the U.S.

No fighters were at this news conference, nor were the specific weight classes for the inaugural tournament mentioned, although they do plan a drawing for the tournaments and seeding at an event planned for June, with the first fights in September of this year.

The fighters, they said, will be chosen from among the top 15-ranked fighters in the four major sanctioning bodies. Those much-criticized rankings include many different levels of fighters, but the World Boxing Super Series organizers are hopeful that the total of $50 million U.S. dollars to be awarded in prize money to the fighters, with as much as $1 million for winners of the quarterfinals, will be enough to attract all but a handful of top tier fighters who already make that or more. This will also require the cooperation of various promoters and managers, which has often proved difficult to impossible, but again their hope is that money talks.

The four speakers at this news conference were:

-- Matthew Hooper, executive vice president of Modern Times Group (MTG), which is a major shareholder in Comosa AG, which owns the World Boxing Super Series. MTG is a major digital entertainment company based in Sweden, and is involved in TV, radio, online networks, gambling, and eSports.

-- Roberto Dalmiglio, Comosa's Head of Management Board, and group commercial director at media rights company MP & Silva, which is handling media rights outside of Scandinavia and the U.S. MP & Silva manages the sports TV rights for about 10,000 hours of programming to some 500 broadcasters globally, including the FIFA World Cup rights, senior European football leagues, Grand Slam tennis, motor racing, and more.

-- Kalle Sauerland, Comosa's Chief Boxing Officer, who is also a major boxing promoter with Sauerland Promotion, based in Europe.

-- Richard Schaefer, Comosa's Chairman of the Americas, and a long-time boxing promoter and now the chairman and CEO of Ringstar Sports.

To discuss all this, we spoke at this news conference with Kalle Sauerland. We also present the complete audio from the news conference itself, and discuss the prospects for the World Boxing Super Series to succeed.

You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link does not 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 sponsored by:

Skullz Double-End Bags, the perfect bag for your combat sports training. Skullz Double-End Bags provide a realistic striking target, and help improve timing, distance, and hand and eye coordination. Hang it and hit it right out of the box! No pump required. For more information, go to SkullzDeBags.com.

USA Combat Wrestling, the official U.S. governing body for combat wrestling and U.S. delegate of the International Combat Wrestling Federation (FICW), which was founded by the legendary wrestler Noriaki Kiguchi of Japan. For more information, go to CombatWrestling.us.

Labels: Comosa, Eddie Goldman, Kalle Sauerland, Matthew Hooper, MP & Silva, MTG, Muhammad Ali, No Holds Barred, Richard Schaefer, Roberto Dalmiglio, World Boxing Super Series