Podcast: Recap of Inoue-Cardenas, which saved the boxing weekend
Canelo-Scull abomination, Times Square snoozers; news of the week
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.
It was a huge boxing weekend with major shows spread over three days — the Naoya Inoue-Ramon Cardenas event on Sunday, the Canelo Alvarez-William Scull pay-per-view on Saturday and the Ryan Garcia-Rolando Romero pay-per-view on Friday — and we recapped the good, the bad and the ugly of it all. We also went over news of the week. And our nostalgia segment is available on the Big Fight Weekend YouTube channel, so please subscribe and check it out.
Here is what’s on the show (in order):
Recap of the Top Rank ESPN card in Las Vegas, where Inoue survived a knockdown and knocked out Ramon Cardenas in a terrific fight to retain the undisputed junior featherweight title and WBO featherweight titlist Rafael Espinoza stopped Edward Vazquez to salvage an otherwise terrible fight weekend.
Recap of the abysmal Ring magazine DAZN PPV card in New York’s Times Square, where Romero outpointed Garcia in a major upset to win the WBA “regular” welterweight title in an awful fight; Devin Haney outpointed Jose Ramirez as they both moved up to welterweight and put on one of the worst fights in recent history; and Teofimo Lopez looked good retaining the lineal/WBO junior welterweight title against Arnold Barboza Jr., who did nothing for 12 rounds.
I am in my 26th year of full-time boxing coverage. Take advantage of that experience by upgrading to a paid subscription for full access to all posts and comments — and support independent journalism.
Recap of the Riyadh Season DAZN PPV card in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where Alvarez once again became the undisputed super middleweight champion in a decision over William Scull, who ran for 12 rounds in an absolutely horrific fight as well as the post-fight announcement of Canelo-Terence Crawford.
Recap of the undercard, including WBC cruiserweight titlist Badou Jack’s close decision over Noel Mikaelian; super middleweight Jaime Munguia’s decision over Bruno Surace to avenge a huge upset KO loss; and heavyweights Efe Ajagba and Martin Bakole fighting to a very questionable draw.
Anthony Joshua’s announcement that he will have elbow surgery and be sideline for the next 6-8 weeks.
The WBO stripping Sebastian Fundora of its junior middleweight world title on Thursday for failing to comply with its order of a mandatory defense against Xander Zayas.
The nostalgia segment is available on the YouTube channel, which I hope you will subscribe to as we will be increasing the content. It’s ringside memories on the 18th anniversary of when Floyd Mayweather moved up to junior middleweight and won a split decision over Oscar De La Hoya to win the WBC title in an absolutely mega fight that at the time was the biggest money fight in history. Watch the video here:
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.
Inoue photo: Mikey Williams/Top Rank
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
Cardenas gave us his best and earned is purse, many others though deserved to have their part of the purse cut by a large amount.
I’m scared to listen to this : )