Podcast: David Benavidez interview; Pacheco shines in KO victory
Plus: Big wins by Ball, Azim; news of the week; trio of anniversaries
A note to Fight Freaks Unite readers: I created Fight Freaks Unite in January 2021 and eight months later it also became available for paid subscriptions for additional content — and as a way to help keep this newsletter going and for readers to support independent journalism. If you haven’t upgraded to a paid subscription please consider it. If you have already, I truly appreciate it! Also, consider a gift subscription for the Fight Freak in your life.
We recapped and discussed various fights from the weekend: super middleweight up-and-comer Diego Pacheco’s competitive and exciting knockout of Mercelo Coceres; Nick Ball’s wide decision over Isaac Dogboe in a WBC featherweight final eliminator; junior welterweight prospect Adam Azim’s knockout of Franck Petitjean to win the European title; and Carlos Cuadras’ entertaining decision over Pedro Guevara to win the vacant WBC interim junior bantamweight title. There is also my interview with WBC interim super middleweight titleholder David Benavidez ahead of his very interesting fight with Demetrius Andrade in a Showtime PPV main event on Saturday night. And, of course, we covered and opined on various news items of the week and shared memories on the anniversaries of three significant fights.
Here’s what we discussed on this episode (in order):
Recap of Pacheco’s impressive KO of Coceres and what his future looks like.
Recap of Ball’s career-best win over Dogboe that positions him for a world title shot in 2024.
Recap of Azim’s dominating performance in his biggest fight so far.
Recap of Cuadras’ decision over Guevara in a fight part of a card in Uzbekistan that took place in conjunction with the WBC annual convention.
My interview with Benavidez in which we covered many topics: fighting an undefeated opponent in Andrade; would this be Benavidez’s biggest win; his path to victory against an opponent with a much different style than his own; the respect shown between he and Andrade during the lead up to the fight, which is the opposite to the lead up to his last fight against Caleb Plant; fighting on the same card with older brother Jose Jr., who meets Jermall Charlo in the co-feature; what happened with the initial plan to fight David Morrell this fall; can the winner get a fight with Canelo Alvarez next; more.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum’s comments, per BoxingScene, that Shakur Stevenson entered his fight with Edwin De Los Santos, which turned out to be one of the worst fights in recent memory, with an injured shoulder that almost caused him to pull out of the bout.
Top Rank’s signing of WBC junior lightweight titlist O’Shaquie Foster to a multi-fight promotional contract. Good signing? What might be in store for him?
Thoughts on the WBC’s decision to rank Francis Ngannou No. 10 in the new rankings done at its annual convention.
Memories on the 33rd anniversary of the epic first battle between Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn — one of the great all-British fights of all time.
Ringside memories on the 17th anniversary of when Manny Pacquiao demolished Erik Morales in their third fight to complete their sensational trilogy.
Ringside memories on the seventh anniversary of the first pound-for-pound showdown between unified light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev and unified super middleweight champion Andre Ward, a fight many of us believe Kovalev deserved to win.
Please give it a listen! Also: rate, review, subscribe and enjoy!
We will be bringing you the weekend recap each Monday. Let me know what you think of the podcast by leaving your comments.
Benavidez photo: Victor Ren/Showtime
Please upgrade your subscription here: https://danrafael.substack.com/subscribe
Thank you so much for your support of Fight Freaks Unite!
Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danrafael1/
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DanRafael1
Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DanRafaelBoxing
Agree with dan. Like getting the Sky feed on peacock. No awkward silent breaks(espn+) plus what would U S commentators know about these fighter’s anyway. Subscription was about to expire. Might have to keep it.