Podcast: Recapping Lopez-Gonzalez card; interview with Lubin
Plus: Zepeda mows down Gesta; news of the week; big fight anniversaries on Mexican Independence Day weekend
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There were various cards and we recapped the two most notable, the Top Rank/ESPN show on Friday night headlined by Luis Alberto Lopez’s decision over Joet Gonzalez to retain the IBF featherweight title and the Golden Boy/DAZN card on Saturday night topped by lightweight contender William Zepeda’s dominating sixth-round knockout of Mercito Gesta. There is also my interview with junior middleweight contender Erickson Lubin, who will face Jesus Ramos Jr. on the Canelo Alvarez-Jermell Charlo pay-per-view card on Sept. 30. We also went over several news items and looked back on a variety of fights whose anniversaries fall on the Mexican Independence Day weekend.
Here’s what we discussed on this episode (in order):
New York Giants finally score and make a fourth-quarter comeback to win!
Recap of Lopez’s win over Gonzalez, the scoring, the action, might we see Lopez vs. Robeisy Ramirez in a unification fight next year and more.
A breakdown of what you need to know about the Lopez-Gonzalez undercard, including the superb performances from junior middleweight prospect Xander Zayas and lightweight prospect Emiliano Vargas.
Recap of Zepeda’s overwhelming performance against Gesta, his massive punch output and where he falls among the top lightweight contenders.
My interview with Lubin. We discussed several topics, including his desire to fight Ramos; what a win would do for his career; reflection on his two defeats to Charlo and Sebastian Fundora; embracing his underdog status; his thoughts on the Canelo-Charlo main event.
Announcement that Emanuel Navarrete will defend the WBO junior lightweight title against Robson Conceicao on Nov. 16 in the co-feature of the Shakur Stevenson-Edwin De Los Santos vacant WBC lightweight title bout.
News that WBA light heavyweight titlist Dmitry Bivol is penciled in to return on Dec. 2 and who he and his team are looking at as a possible opponent.
The talks to make a junior bantamweight unification fight between Juan Francisco Estrada and Kazuto Ioka.
Promoter Don King’s announcement that former four-division titlist Adrien Broner will be back in welterweight action on Nov. 4.
Ringside memories of the hugely significant Canelo Alvarez-Gennadiy Golovkin trilogy, of which all three bouts took place on Mexican Independence Day weekend at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in 2017, 2018 and 2022.
Memories on the 24th anniversary of the mega welterweight unification fight between Oscar De La Hoya and Felix Trinidad, both of whom were undefeated and in their prime going into what would become a tremendously controversial result.
Some other fights that took place on the Mexican holiday weekend, such as Bernard Hopkins-De La Hoya, Julio Cesar Chavez-Meldrick Taylor II and De La Hoya-Chavez II.
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.
Lubin photo: Esther Lin/Showtime
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