Podcast: Previewing Bivol-Ramirez and a deep dive on Spence-Crawford implosion
Plus: Morrell-Yerbossynuly preview; Plant-Benavidez deal; recapping Teraji-Kyoguchi
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.
There are two notable cards on Saturday, a Matchroom Boxing show on DAZN from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates headlined by the long-awaited fight between light heavyweight titlist Dmitry Bivol and formidable mandatory challenger Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez in an outstanding fight on paper and the PBC tripleheader on Showtime from Minneapolis topped by David Morrell defending his secondary super middleweight belt against mandatory challenger Aidos Yerbossynuly. We previewed both shows and discussed a lot more.
Here is what’s on the show (in order):
We recapped the significant fight that took place Tuesday in Saitama, Japan, where Kenshiro Teraji scored two knockdowns and stopped Japanese countryman Hiroto Kyoguchi in the seventh round to unify junior flyweight titles.
The Japanese card streamed on ESPN+ at 4:30 a.m. and led to some discussion on how boxing fans today have it way better than from years past in terms of access to bouts and full cards from around the world.
Deep dive on the implosion of the Errol Spence Jr.-Terence Crawford undisputed welterweight title fight based on Crawford’s lengthy Instagram video, in which he gave his side of the story, as well as the two fighters duking it out on Twitter on Thursday. That led to conversation about Crawford’s fight with David Avanesyan and the hard road it faces to be commercially viable as well as the prospect of Spence facing Keith Thurman next.
The announcement on Thursday from super middleweight rivals Caleb Plant and David Benavidez that they have signed to meet each other in the ring next and our thoughts on it likely being a pay-per-view.
We preview Bivol-Ramirez and also discuss the two world title bouts on the undercard: Chantelle Cameron vs. Jessica McCaskill for Cameron’s unified women’s junior welterweight title and Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov vs. Zelfa Barrett for the vacant IBF junior lightweight title.
We preview Morrell-Yerbossynuly and chat about two middleweight undercard bouts, Jeison Rosario vs. Brian Mendoza and Fiodor Czerkaszyn vs. Nathaniel Gallimore.
Listen, rate and subscribe here and enjoy!
Bivol-Ramirez photo: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing
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
So, which PPV does more buys: MarvNation card on 11/26 or BLK Prime on 12/10?