Podcast: Deontay Wilder interview; recap of Catterall's win over Taylor

Plus: Quick KOs for Mbilli, Okolie; news of the week; ringside memories

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We recapped three notable fights from the weekend, most significantly junior welterweight Jack Catterall avenging a massively controversial loss to Josh Taylor two years ago. There is also my in-depth interview with former WBC heavyweight titleholder Deontay Wilder, who is in dire need of a win as he prepares to face Zhilei Zhang in the main event of the “5 vs. 5” card on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. We also covered news of the week and looked back on the anniversary of a significant fight I was ringside for.

Here is what’s on the show (in order):

• Recap of Catterall’s unanimous decision win over Taylor to even the score in their rivalry fight. We went over it all — the action, the stakes, the scoring, Taylor promoter Bob Arum’s in-ring meltdown after the fight and what might be next. We also went over the knockout wins by cruiserweight Cheavon Clarke and welterweight Paddy Donovan on the undercard.

• Recap of super middleweight Christian Mbilli’s 40-second body-shot KO of Mark Heffron that propelled him into a much bigger fight in August.

• Recap Lawrence Okolie’s three-knockdown destruction of Lukasz Rozanski in the first round to win the WBC bridgerweight title on Friday night in Poland.

• My interview with Wilder. We covered a variety of topics, including: his thoughts on Oleksandr Usyk’s win over Wilder’s old rival Tyson Fury for the undisputed title; what went wrong in his December loss to Joseph Parker; lamenting his long layoff; thoughts on if he is a shot fighter; dealing with the loss to Parker and thoughts on retirement; getting his hunger to fight again; seeing the fight with Anthony Joshua slip away when he lost to Parker; his scouting report on Zhang; his historic right hand versus Zhang’s powerful left; revealing details of a phone call he had with Wladimir Klitschko after losing to Parker that was a big inspiration; his appreciation for Turki Alalshikh; after years of being rivals being promoted by Eddie Hearn for this fight and even being the captain of his “5 vs. 5” team; and more.

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• The IBF ordering newly crowned junior lightweight titlist Anthony Cacace to make his mandatory defense against Eduardo Nunez.

• My reporting on talks for a possible super middleweight fight between Daniel Jacobs and Shane Mosley Jr. on the Nate Diaz-Jorge Masvidal pay-per-view July 6.

• Julio Cesar Martinez vacating the WBC flyweight title to move up in weight.

• Ringside memories on the 12th anniversary of Carl Froch’s fifth-round knockout of Lucian Bute to win IBF super middleweight in front of an electric hometown crowd in Nottingham, England, that was as good as any atmosphere I’ve ever been in for a fight.

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.

Wilder photo: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing

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