Podcast: Tszyu interview; Joshua-Ngannou, 'Knockout Chaos' recaps
Plus: News on Canelo, Crawford, more; big 'what if' moments
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 was one major card over the weekend and it was a huge one, the “Knockout Chaos” event headlined by heavyweight star Anthony Joshua against Francis Ngannou in Saudi Arabia, and we discussed all. There is also my one-on-interview with Tim Tszyu, the WBO junior middleweight titleholder, who is preparing to face Keith Thurman in the main event of the first PBC pay-per-view with Amazon Prime Video, news of the week and a fun discussion of big “what if” moments in boxing.
Here is what’s on the show (in order):
Recap of Joshua’s massive second-round knockout of Ngannou: How it happened; what it means; how bad did Joshua’s easy win make Tyson Fury look; what’s next; much more.
Recap of the rest of the card: Joseph Parker big won over Zhilei Zhang to claim the WBO interim heavyweight title; the draw between WBC featherweight titlist Rey Vargas and Nick Ball; and Israil Madrimov fifth-round knockout of Magomed Kurbanov to win the vacant WBA junior middleweight title.
Discussion of how hugely important activity is for fighters to have an optimal performance as evidenced by Joshua and Parker, both of whom were very active over the past year, and the absurd length of the pay-per-view because of the ridiculous dead time between fights.
My interview with Tszyu ahead of his March 30 fight with Thurman. We covered a bunch of topics: thoughts about his first Las Vegas fight and headlining the first PBC/Amazon card; his reasons for leaving Australia to fight exclusively in the United States for now; being unable to reschedule the fight with Jermell Charlo; thoughts on facing an older, smaller, inactive Thurman; is it a goal to be the first person to knock out Thurman; is there any disappointment that Tszyu is not defending his title; thoughts on a possible fight with Terence Crawford; the switch from PBC’s plans for him to fight Erickson Lubin to Thurman; more.
Please upgrade to a paid subscription for full access to all posts and comments — and also help support independent journalism
Announcement that Canelo Alvarez has returned to PBC on a new one-fight deal to face Jaime Munguia on May 4 and details on how it came to be shortly after they had split after having completed one fight of a three-fight deal.
Discussion of Crawford’s return to possibly face middleweight Chris Eubank Jr.
The problems finalizing a third fight between undisputed women’s junior welterweight champion Katie Taylor and former champion Chantelle Cameron.
We decided to have some fun with a topic spurred on by Top Rank’s social media post asking fans to “tell us the biggest what if moment in boxing?” So we offered up a few of ours. Here is just one example: What if referee Joe Cortez had stopped Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez in the first round of their first fight following Marquez getting dropped for the third time? How would that have changed their careers and the sport, which obviously wouldn’t have gotten a legendary four-fight series.
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.
Tszyu photo: Esther Lin/PBC
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
