Podcast: Navarrete-Wilson, Serrano-Cruz made it a great fight weekend

Plus undercard breakdowns, heated debate, news of the week and celebrations of Oscar De La Hoya and Sugar Ray Leonard milestones

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Welcome to the Fight Freaks Unite recap podcast coming off a weekend that included two significant cards and both produced a sensational fight of the year contender in the main event. There was Emanuel Navarrete’s dramatic knockout of Liam Wilson to win the vacant WBO junior lightweight title on the Top Rank/ESPN card Friday night and Amanda Serrano’s bloody decision over Erika Cruz to become the undisputed women’s featherweight champion on the Matchroom Boxing/DAZN card. We did in-depth breakdowns of both fights and some of the undercard bouts, including full coverage of the Navarrete-Wilson “long count” and mouthpiece controversy — and it got heated! We also covered some notable news of the week and took time for some nostalgia.

Here’s what we discussed on this episode (in order):

• Full recap of Serrano’s historic victory over Cruz in an epic battle that was one of the bloodiest fights you’ll ever see and the in-ring announcement after the fight that Serrano will face undisputed lightweight champion Katie Taylor in a hugely anticipated rematch on May 20 in Taylor’s native Ireland.

• Full recap of the co-feature that saw Alycia Baumgardner unify all four women’s junior lightweight titles in a two-knockdown, unanimous decision over the vey tough Elhem Mekhaled to become the undisputed champion. We also discussed her next move, which could be a rematch with former unified titlist Mikaela Mayer.

• A breakdown of the undercard fight between junior welterweight Richardson Hitchins and John Bauza, who took a one-sided thrashing in a decision loss and my harsh takedown of the terrible job by Bauza’s corner, the referee and the New York State Athletic Commission for not stopping the fight.

• Full recap of all aspects of Navarrete-Wilson: the fantastic fight, the controversy, a heated argument over what happened and what should have been done. We also discussed Navarrete’s impending fight with Oscar Valdez and what should be next for Wilson after such an excellent showing.

• A look at the co-feature in which junior welterweight contender Arnold Barboza Jr. scored his biggest win against former titlist Jose Pedraza. We also chatted about other undercard fighters who won, including heavyweight Richard Torrez Jr., the improving middleweight Nico Ali Walsh and lightweight Emiliano Vargas.

• The announcement that Shakur Stevenson will make his official lightweight debut at home against Shuichiro Yoshino in a WBC lightweight title eliminator on April 8 and that arguably the two best prospects in boxing will be on the card in heavyweight Jared Anderson and lightweight Keyshawn Davis.

• My reporting on the return of light heavyweight contender Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez on March 18 and the scheduled purse bid for a WBC cruiserweight title eliminator between Sergey Kovalev and Thabiso Mchunu.

• Conversation about the underrated career of Hall of Famer Oscar De La Hoya on the occasion of his 50th birthday on Saturday.

• An appreciation of Sugar Ray Leonard on the occasion of the 46th anniversary of his pro debut on Sunday.

• The 80th anniversary of Jake LaMotta’s lone victory in six fights against fellow all-time legend Sugar Ray Robinson and a quick story about the first time I met LaMotta.

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.

Navarrete-Wilson photo: Mikey Williams/Top Rank

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