Podcast: Previewing Wood-Lara and breakdown of Gervonta Davis plea
Plus: A look at Nery-Hovhannisyan; Matchroom signing Berlanga; Canelo Super Bowl ad; Jermall Charlo's return; Ali-Spinks and Barrera-Morales 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.
There are two notable cards on Saturday, both on DAZN, with potentially very exciting main events and we previewed each: Leigh Wood’s featherweight title defense against Mauricio Lara in Nottingham, England on the Matchroom Boxing card and the junior featherweight eliminator between Luis Nery and Azat Hovhannisyan that tops the Golden Boy card in Pomona, California. We also went over a number of key news items of the week, including Gervonta Davis’ guilty plea to four counts in the hit-and-run case against him, and looked back on a pair of notable anniversaries of big fights.
Here is what’s on the show (in order):
Davis’ guilty plea, what it means for the possible Ryan Garcia fight and, with expertise from an attorney, what kind of sentence is he looking at.
Preview of Wood-Lara with what we expect and why.
Preview of Nery-Azat Hovhannisyan, also with what we expect and why.
Edgar Berlanga’s decision to sign with Matchroom Boxing over other offers he had and the notion the signing could lead to a fight with Canelo Alvarez.
Canelo starring in a Super Bowl Sunday TV commercial and that no other current fighter could do that.
Middleweight titlist Jermall Charlo announcing he will be back in June, which would end a two-year layoff and what we might expect in his return.
Announcement of the Kenshiro Teraji-Jonathan Gonzalez three-belt junior flyweight unification fight and the rest of the ESPN+ card.
Announcement of the David Benavidez-Caleb Plant Showtime PPV undercard thoughts on the lineup.
Memories on the 45th anniversary of Leon Spinks’ massive upset of Muhammad Ali to win the undisputed heavyweight title and 23rd anniversary of the epic first fight between Mexican legends Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera.
Listen, rate, subscribe and enjoy!
Wood-Lara 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