Podcast: Garcia-Benavidez card preview, news of the week, Vergil Ortiz Jr. interview
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On this week’s weekend podcast (in order):
Formal announcement of unified junior lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson’s Sept. 23 hometown defense in Newark, New Jersey, against Robson Conceicao being announced and thoughts.
Anthony Joshua, who recently signed a huge worldwide deal with DAZN, will nonetheless have his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk on Sky Sports Boxing Office in the U.K. Huh? We explain in a spirited discussion what that’s all about and then we cover the Usyk-Joshua II undercard.
My exclusive interview with welterweight contender Vergil Ortiz Jr., who will face Michael McKinson on Aug. 6 in the main event of a Golden Boy card on DAZN. We covered a number of topics, including the medical issue partly responsible for keeping Ortiz out of the ring for the past year; the implosion of a fight with David Avanesyan, who was supposed to be the opponent; Ortiz names his ideal next opponent; the expectations after being the 2019 prospect of the year; how he thinks he stacks up with Conor Benn and Jaron Ennis, the two other top welterweight up-and-comers; Ortiz’s thoughts on the proposed Errol Spence Jr.-Terrence Crawford undisputed welterweight title fight.
Full preview of Saturday’s Showtime tripleheader: Danny Garcia’s return and move up to junior middleweight to face Jose Benavidez Jr., heavyweight Adam Kownacki’s return from two losses to face Ali Eren Demirezen and junior welterweight up-and-comer Gary Antuanne Russell taking on two-division titlist Rances Barthelemy.
Listen, rate and subscribe here and enjoy!
Garcia-Benavidez photo: Amanda Westcott/Showtime
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