Podcast: Recapping the great Navarrete-Valdez battle; AJ's KO

Plus: Rodriguez's bantamweight title win; news of the week; anniversaries involving Salvador Sanchez and Pernell Whitaker

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There were three notable cards on Saturday and we recapped and discussed them all: Emanuel Navarrete’s rock ‘em, rock ‘em decision win over Oscar Valdez to retain the WBO junior lightweight title in a fight of the year candidate that headlined the Top Rank/ESPN card; heavyweight star Anthony Joshua’s KO of the year candidate against Robert Helenius that topped the Matchroom Boxing/DAZN show; and Emmanuel Rodriguez’s shutout of Melvin Lopez to win the vacant IBF bantamweight title in the PBC/Showtime headliner. We also discussed some news items from the week and looked back on a pair of notable anniversaries involving legends Salvador Sanchez and Pernell Whitaker.

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

• Quality banter and skipping birthday parties of your kids’ friends.

• Recap of the action-packed Navarrete-Valdez slugfest with Mexican legends Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales watching at ringside.

• Recap of Joshua’s big knockout of late replacement Helenius, including thoughts on his performance and future.

• Recap of two heavyweight bouts from the Joshua-Helenius undercard: Derek Chisora’s decision over Gerald Washington in a fight between faded former title challengers, and IBF mandatory challenger Filip Hrgovic’s 12th-round knockout of Demsey McKean.

• Recap of the poor fight between Rodriguez and Lopez, the state of the bantamweight division, and some chat about the early KO wins on the undercard by junior welterweight Gary Antuanne Russell and welterweight Gabriel Maestre.

• Matchroom Boxing’s announcement of four events in the United States and Mexico through the end of the year and what we think of them.

• The two-city media tour that will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday to promote the Canelo Alvarez-Jermell Charlo undisputed super middleweight championship fight.

• Memories on the 41st anniversary of the untimely death at age 23 of the all-time great featherweight champion Salvador Sanchez.

• Memories on the 33rd anniversary of when the late, great Pernell Whitaker scored a rare first-round knockout of Juan Nazario to become the undisputed lightweight champion in the main event of a star-studded HBO tripleheader that also included Meldrick Taylor and Hector Camacho.

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.

Navarrete-Valdez photo: Mikey Williams/Top Rank

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