Podcast: Recapping and opinions on a busy weekend topped by Wilder's huge KO

Plant-Dirrell, Haney-Kambosos II, Shields-Marshall, Mayer-Baumgardner

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Welcome to the Fight Freaks Unite recap podcast coming off a very busy boxing weekend that had three big shows on three continents: Deontay Wilder-Robert Helenius in Brooklyn, New York (where I traveled), Devin Haney-George Kambosos Jr. II in Melbourne, Australia, and Claressa Shields-Savannah Marshall in London. We went over all it.

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

• Former heavyweight titleholder Wilder’s return to the ring a year after a loss to champion Tyson Fury in their trilogy fight to score a massive first-round KO of Helenius and where he goes now: Andy Ruiz Jr.? A shot at unified titleholder Oleksandr Usyk? Something else?

• Caleb Plant’s knockout of the year contender against fellow former super middleweight titlist Anthony Dirrell in an otherwise terrible fight in the Wilder-Helenius co-feature. What’s the big fight next for Plant? Does Dirrell retire? And what about Plant’s poor sportsmanship while Dirrell was down on the mat and in distress?

• With Wilder and Plant both scoring KO of the year contenders a little history on a great card from 24 years ago that also produced two KO of the year candidates.

• Some discussion on the two other fights on the Wilder-Helenius PPV: heavyweight Frank Sanchez’s knockout of Carlos Negron and Emmanuel Rodriguez’s dominating technical decision over Gary Antonio Russell in their bantamweight title eliminator.

• Undisputed lightweight champion Haney’s second thorough domination of Kambosos in their rematch.

• A detailed look at Alycia Baumgardner’s win over Mikaela Mayer to unify three women’s junior lightweight titles and what the difference was.

• Shields’s historic victory over Marshall in a terrific action battle.

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.

Wilder photo: Stephanie Trapp/PBC

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