NO HOLDS BARRED

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman comments on the fallout from Jarrell "Big Baby" Miller's reported positive PED test, previews the April 27 Regis Prograis-Kiryl Relikh World Boxing Super Series 140-pound tournament semifinal fight, speaks with amateur boxer Bruce Carrington, discusses the many woes from one of the worst weekends in televised boxing, and once again calls out the destructive role being played by the many mutually exclusive TV and streaming deals and paywalls that fleece the fans and keep top fighters from fighting one another.

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: Anthony Joshua, boxing, Bruce Carrington, Eddie Goldman, Jarrell Big Baby, No Holds Barred, Regis Prograis

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman previews the Claressa Shields-Christina Hammer women's middleweight unification fight.

On Saturday, April 13, the 24-year-old Shields (8-0, 2 KOs) of Flint, Michigan, USA, who holds the IBF, WBA, and WBC belts, faces the 28-year-old Hammer (24-0, 11 KOs) of Dortmund, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, who holds the WBO belt and is the WBC "Champion in Recess", never having lost that belt. The winner will be recognized as the undisputed women's middleweight champion of the world. Shields has also held the IBF and WBC super middleweight belts, and is a two-time Olympic gold medalist.

This fight will headline a card taking place at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and will be the main event of that card televised live in the U.S. on Showtime.

We spoke with both Claressa Shields and Christina Hammer at a February 26 news conference in New York. Both gave their views on what they each see as their advantages in this fight.

We also spoke with Jill Diamond of the WBC and World Boxing Cares on the advancement in recent years of women's boxing. And we discussed why this is an important fight and what to expect in it with our colleague Kristal Hart, who was shooting video for her show, the Kristal Hart Show.

(Photo of Claressa Shields and Christina Hammer from Marilyn Paulino/Salita Promotions.)

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, Christina Hammer, Claressa Shields, Eddie Goldman, Jill Diamond, Kristal Hart, No Holds Barred, women's

by Eddie Goldman

NEW YORK, April 1 -- At a hastily organized press conference at Yankee Stadium, the trio of top, undefeated heavyweight champion boxers, Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury, and Deontay Wilder, announced they had signed to fight in a round-robin tournament beginning next year to crown an undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. There will be at least three fights involving them, and perhaps more down the line.

The fights will take place in major stadiums around the world, including Yankee Stadium in New York, Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, and Wembley Stadium in London.

As for TV, all these fights will be shown for free on NBC in the U.S. and BBC in the U.K., plus on many other networks around the world, as well as being streamed.

"We got rid of all these promoters and networks who where holding back the biggest fights in the world," said Joshua, who holds the IBF, WBA, and WBO belts. "We just do not need them anymore, and negotiated this ourselves through our own managers and lawyers," he added.

"We don't need all these big dossers," said Fury, regarded by many as the lineal heavyweight champion. "They are all a bunch of bloody parasites. The Gypsy King will show the whole world who is really the best!"

"I've said all along that there has to be one face, one champion, one man in the heavyweight division. And now I can show all of you that it is me, and only me," said Wilder, who holds the WBC title. "Bomb squad!"

A worldwide media tour, in which all media will be guaranteed to get one-on-one interviews with all three fighters, will be announced shortly.

Said journalist Eddie Goldman, who played a key role on Twitter in urging the fighters to set up this tournament, "This may just be an April Fool's gag, but any sport with proper governance would already have done exactly what is proposed here."

Labels: Anthony Joshua, April Fools, boxing, Deontay Wilder, Eddie Goldman, heavyweight, No Holds Barred, Tyson Fury

By Eddie Goldman

The Mexican food served to the media at the Feb. 27 press conference at Manhattan's Hard Rock Cafe for the "Canelo" Alvarez-Danny Jacobs fight was of such a top quality that it didn't even upset my fragile stomach, which sometimes rebels against anything other than water and green tea. For most of the presser, however, that was the high point for me.

After a series of mostly cliched speeches, special access given to the fighters mainly to those who dutifully repeat publicists' taking points, and a nervous building staff who wanted us all out so they could set up the joint for the paying tourists, I did score one meaningful interview. I had wanted to ask Canelo's promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, if he is actually running for president (of the United States, not Golden Boy Promotions). I always like getting quotes from his partner at Golden Boy, Bernard "The Executioner/Alien" Hopkins, a former undisputed middleweight world champion who knows a thing or million about the division in which this unification fight is being be held. I did briefly speak with the Tecate girl extraordinaire Janira Kremets, who was rushing out and deferred doing an interview but did take a selfie with me that somehow did not come out on my new super-duper smartphone (she wrote me that we will get one next time). It was only at the very end of this event, after almost everyone had left, that I cornered the one person who seemingly never tires of doing interviews, Matchroom Boxing's Eddie Hearn, who promotes Jacobs.

I learned a long time ago that if you plan to ask some tough and maybe irritating questions of an interviewee whom you respect, it is best to start with something light, both to break the ice and establish a rapport. When Hearn was introduced during the formal proceedings, he had been booed, mainly by the fans, mostly pro-Canelo, who had been allowed to witness this gathering in the balcony. That gave me my lead-in, as in the short time I knew I had I wanted to dive right into the ongoing and ugly heavyweight stalemate involving non-fights between any two of the trio of Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder, and Tyson Fury.

"Real quick, we gotta go, we gotta get out of here," he said, for an interview that flew by in about five minutes.

After looking down at his shoes earlier for some unclear reason, I had noticed that he was wearing a pair of quite shiny wing tips. So I cracked that this was the reason he got booed by the fans, that he was wearing wing tips in New York.

"What's wing tips?" He asked. I told him his shoes, and he actually apologized, saying, "Oh right, OK, sorry about that."

Now it was on to the serious stuff.

I noted, as many already know, that Canelo had two close fights with Gennady Golovkin that went to decisions. Their first fight was a draw, in which most people seemed to think that Golovkin deserved to win. Their rematch went to Canelo, and while a closer fight, opinions were divided all over the map. And when Golovkin fought Jacobs in another very close fight, Golovkin got the nod while many thought that Jacobs deserved to win.

Thus I asked, since these three are all excellent fighters and there seems a reasonable chance that Canelo-Jacobs also goes to a decision, if it is close but Jacobs deserves to win, can he get the decision in Las Vegas on Cinco De Mayo weekend, over the fan favorite there Canelo?

He replied: "I think we're up against it and I think we know that. I think it's our quest and priority to make sure that we make people aware of that, and we put pressure on the (Nevada) commission to accept a suitable panel. I also think sometimes it can work against you, i.e. Canelo, in that everybody's talking about it. Everyone's talking about the Triple G fight, that he got those decisions, and maybe this one is a close one and he doesn't get the decision. But we realize we are effectively going into enemy territory, and that's part of Danny Jacobs's game plan, to make sure that he wins the fight convincingly. You what, Eddie? Sometimes you can win the fight and the world knows you won the fight, but you don't get the decision. But the world will know. So we will see."

And we shall. Now it was on to the heavyweights, in the time remaining before the crew picked us up and deposited us, or at least the few working media types left there, onto Broadway.

The political situation with the top three heavyweights is that they all are tied to rival networks with exclusive deals, or so it seems anyway. Joshua is with the DAZN streaming service in the US and Sky Sports Box Office pay-per-view in the UK. Tyson Fury just signed with ESPN in the US and is still with BT Sport and its pay-per-view arm in the UK. Deontay Wilder, an Al Haymon and PBC fighter, has been with Showtime, with his fight with Fury on Showtime pay-per-view, and PBC also on Fox. PBC also recently started a deal with ITV in the UK, although Wilder has been quoted as claiming that he is now a network free agent. With all these competing networks, how, I asked, can a fight involving Anthony Joshua, who is promoted by Eddie Hearn's Matchroom Boxing, be made in the US?

And then came a very revealing reply that some, especially paying DAZN subscribers, might not approve of:

"I'll stop you there, Eddie, because you confuse me. That shows you how confusing it is. The simple answer is, a fight with Wilder and Joshua, I believe, is now very easy to make because Wilder doesn't have an agreement with any broadcaster. I think the Fury fight with ESPN, one thing for sure, he will box on ESPN. That is the contract.

"Could we box on another platform? Yes we could. Do we want to box on DAZN? Absolutely, with Joshua. So anything's possible, but it's also very, very difficult. But I think right now the easiest fight to make is Joshua against Wilder."

DAZN has proudly advertised that the pay-per-view era has come and gone, so how, I wondered, could Joshua fight on US pay-per-view?

He replied, "Joshua is on a fight-by-fight deal with DAZN. Now, they also have a first-last matching option on it, which effectively has him locked under their control. They are not a restrictive company who would say, 'No, Joshua, you cannot fight Deontay Wilder. We are stopping you from doing that.' But at the same time, they want Joshua on DAZN. Deontay Wilder doesn't have a broadcaster, doesn't have a network. So I believe that's a fight that could be easy to make.

"Would Joshua fight Tyson Fury on ESPN pay-per-view? Not ideally. Could he? Yes. Let's see the money, ultimately, because I believe DAZN will pay more than both of those two. But it's very, very difficult, and we've seen disappointment for the fans because Tyson Fury has ducked the Wilder fight."

And what about the possibility of a TV-streaming share of the broadcast, like, even though I didn't mention it, DAZN does in some countries and does in the US with some Bellator MMA shows which are also on the Paramount Network. I did, as the pace of our discussion was rapidly increasing, mention the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight which was shared by Showtime and HBO, obviously not the best example.

"How can you do that when DAZN is 9.99 a month for subscribers, and Showtime want a hundred dollars for your money? So which platform do you think people are going to buy on?" he said with a laugh.

"Showtime will look at it and say, 'Well, we can't do that.' It's a hundred dollars on Showtime. It's 9.99 on DAZN."

So I went to some of the possibilities I had originally intended to, mentioning regular Showtime or free over the air on Fox. That elicited a concise answer.

"Can't create the money. Can't create the money."

With so many options seeming to be unrealistic, or the money men unwilling to agree to, how likely is it that any of these are going to happen, I asked?

"Wilder-Joshua. Wilder-Joshua can be made today," he repeated.

And is there any actual progress to making such a fight, which would be to unify all the major heavyweight belts and to crown -- drum roll and trumpets, please -- an undisputed heavyweight champion of the world?

"We have to talk. We have to talk. It's, it's eight, nine, ten emails, it's phone calls, it's public pleading, to talk to them. If they don't want to talk, they don't want to make the fight. If they don't want to talk, they can't want to make the fight. And if they don't want to make the fight, what can we do?"

He continued, "We're the only heavyweight in that top three right now who has a date confirmed, who has tickets on sale, who has a deal in place to be done. So we have to worry about our own business, and right now, June the first, Madison Square Garden, Anthony Joshua against Big Baby Miller."

Since we were in New York, New York, land of Shelly Finkel, will he be meeting with him while he is still in New York?

"I've asked for a meeting. I asked for a meeting last week, he said he was out of the country. I asked for a meeting this week and he hasn't even come back. I asked for a meeting this week with myself and (DAZN head) John Skipper. They have an obligation to look at opportunities for Deontay Wilder, and now they're not doing it."

It was finally time to go, and I reiterated, perhaps in a futile effort, that I hope these fights get made.

"We'll see. It's boxing, Eddie."

by Eddie Goldman

My latest piece, called "Why Anthony Joshua vs. Jarrell Miller Matters", is up. It was written before the Fury-ESPN-Top Rank deal was announced, and before Tuesday's trashy Joshua-Miller press conference, but has lots of analysis you won't see in the shill media. It can be read at https://hannibalboxing.com/why-anthony-joshua-vs-jarrell-miller-matters.

Labels: Anthony Joshua, boxing, DAZN, Deontay Wilder, Eddie Goldman, Jarrell Big Baby Miller, No Holds Barred, Tyson Fury

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman discusses the new Tyson Fury-ESPN-Top Rank agreement, what it says about and means for boxing and its TV and streaming deals, why not to expect the Fury-Wilder rematch any time soon, and why now the June 1 fight at Madison Square Garden between WBA super, IBF, and WBO heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua of the U.K. (22-0, 21 KOs) and challenger Jarrell "Big Baby" Miller of the U.S. (23-0-1, 20 KOs), which will be on DAZN in the U.S. and Sky Sports Box Office in the U.K., is the biggest fight in heavyweight boxing.

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: Anthony Joshua, boxing, DAZN, Deontay Wilder, Eddie Goldman, ESPN, Jarrell Big Baby Miller, No Holds Barred, Showtime, Top Rank, Tyson Fury

by Eddie Goldman

Early Tuesday morning Feb. 5 (or late Monday night Feb. 4), I was a guest on "Sports Qualified" on WBAI 99.5 FM in New York, hosted by M.Saidia McLaughlin, along with boxing writer Distinio Lois, Jr., discussing boxing, the Super Bowl, and more. You can download the whole show at
http://nuarchive.wbai.org/mp3/wbai_190205_000000sport.mp3.

Labels: boxing, Distinio Lois, Eddie Goldman, Jr., M.Saidia McLaughlin, No Holds Barred, WBAI

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman presents the second part of our two-part interview with former MMA fighter and pro wrestler Angel Amoroso.

We spoke with her Sunday, January 27, in New York.

In part two of this interview, we discussed: more on the early history of women's MMA; the role of pioneer fighter Becky Levi; working together on the wrestling scenes in the fantasy short film "Marquis de Slime"; dominatrix wrestling at the old Hellfire Club in New York and how this was "more ridiculous than ECW"; the importance of social media and how Angel and I re-connected after many years; worked and strange fights in early women's MMA; and much more.

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: Angel Amoroso, Eddie Goldman, MMA, No Holds Barred, pro wrestling

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with former MMA fighter and pro wrestler Angel Amoroso.

We spoke with her Sunday in New York. This is the first of a two-part interview.

Angel Amoroso is one of first people I interviewed in person, sometime in the early 1990s at a time neither of us can recall. She was then performing in ECW pro wrestling, but it was not long after that both of us exited that scene. She would then continue as a mixed martial arts fighter, as well as running her own business in what is sometimes known as apartment wrestling.

In part one of this interview, we discussed moving over from pro wrestling to MMA, changes in MMA over the years, the important roles played by John Perretti and Phyllis Lee in MMA, Angel's crazy experience in her 1998 MMA fight with Yumiko Hotta in L-1 in Japan, the issue of trans fighters in MMA, the devolution of today's MMA into "junior boxing", the use of MMA and martial arts techniques as self-defense, and much more, with much more to come in part two.

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: Angel Amoroso, Eddie Goldman, MMA, No Holds Barred, pro wrestling

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman discussed the upcoming fights with WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman, and Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix finalists Ryan Bader and Fedor Emelianenko. Also discussed is the latest development in the Russian state-sponsored doping scandal and how the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is handling it.

For an analysis of Saturday's Manny Pacquiao-Adrien Broner fight, make sure to read my debut article on Hannibal Boxing, called The Long Con: Manny Pacquiao and Adrien Broner.

Keith Thurman (28-0, 22 KOs) returns to action Saturday, January 26, after a 22-month layoff due to injuries, against journeyman Josesito Lopez (36-7, 19 KOs), on a PBC card at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. It will be televised live in the U.S. on Fox and in Spanish on Fox Deportes, and in the U.K. on ITV4.

We spoke with Keith Thurman on Tuesday's media conference call.

Also on Saturday, January 26, Bellator MMA has a card at The Forum in Inglewood, California, which will be shown in the U.S. live on TV on the Paramount Network and streamed on DAZN.

We spoke with both heavyweight tournament finalists, the legendary Fedor Emelianenko, and current Bellator light heavyweight champion Ryan Bader, on last week's media conference call.

Last not far from least, we got a question in on the WADA media conference call announcing the next steps in dealing with the Russian state-sponsored doping program.

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.