Podcast: Beterbiev-Bivol card recap; DAZN's shameful bait-and-switch
Podcast: Beterbiev-Bivol card recap; DAZN's shameful bait-and-switch
Plus: thoughts on the world title results from Japan; news of the week; fight anniversary memories, including Mike Tyson
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There was one huge show and also several title fights in Japan over the weekend and we recapped and discussed them, including the big fight on Saturday — Artur Beterbiev’s majority decision win over Dmitry Bivol to become the undisputed light heavyweight champion. I also have my say on the disgraceful behavior of DAZN and its last-minute bait-and-switch of having announced the undercard being free to subscribers but making it a pay-per-view at the last minute. There is also news of the week and anniversary fight memories in our nostalgia segment.
Here is what’s on the show (in order):
Recap of Beterbiev-Bivol, including the history Beterbiev made in the majority decision win; the fight action; the scoring controversy; the prospects of there being an immediate rematch.
Recap of the undercard, including heavyweight Fabio Wardley’s surprising first-round destruction of Frazer Clarke in their rematch; cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia’s one-sided knockout of Jack Massey; middleweight Chris Eubank Jr.’s easy knockout of Kamil Szeremeta to set up a mega fight with Conor Benn; Skye Nicolson’s rout of Raven Chapman to retain the WBC women’s featherweight title; and light heavyweight Ben Whittaker’s rough night in a fifth-round technical split decision draw with Liam Cameron.
My blistering commentary on DAZN’s wretched behavior of switching the Beterbiev-Bivol undercard from an event free to subscribers in the U.S. and Canada (since it didn’t have rights to the main event in either country) to a pay-per-view at the last minute — after even promoting it was free to subscribers on a prospect card it streamed the night before.
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Recap of the Teiken Promotions card on Sunday that included four world title bouts, including Seiya Tsutsumi’s exciting decision win over Takuma Inoue to claim the WBA bantamweight title and Kenshiro Teraji’s move up in weight to score an impressive 11th-round knockout of Cristofer Rosales to win the vacant WBC flyweight belt.
Recap of Masamichi Yabuki’s ninth-round knockout of Sivenathi Nontshinga in an excellent performance to win the IBF junior flyweight title and become a two-time titleholder.
The deal being made for the rematch between WBO featherweight titlist Rafael Espinoza and former titlist Robeisy Ramirez, who will meet Dec. 7 on ESPN in the co-feature of the Emanuel Navarrete-Oscar Valdez WBO junior lightweight title rematch.
Heavily hyped Top Rank featherweight prospect Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington being added to the undercard of the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul show on Netflix.
Memories on the 23rd anniversary of when Mike Tyson traveled to Denmark and knocked out national hero Brian Nielsen in the seventh round to set up the long-awaited championship shot at Lennox Lewis.
Ringside memories on the 12th anniversary of when Nonito Donaire, in midst of his fighter of the year campaign, knocked out former titlist Toshiaki Nishioka to retain the WBO junior featherweight title and in the junior welterweight opener Brandon Rios stopped Mike Alvarado in the seventh round of a WBO title eliminator in a sensational fight of the year contender the first fight of their trilogy.
Please give it a listen! Also: rate, review, subscribe and enjoy!
We bring you the preview each Friday and the weekend recap each Monday. Let me know what you think of the podcast by leaving your comments.
Beterbiev-Bivol photo: Mikey Williams/Top Rank
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