No Holds Barred: Is Anthony Joshua Boxing's Next Superstar?

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with boxers Anthony Joshua and Dominic Breazeale, and Stephen Espinoza, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Showtime Sports, and Eddie Hearn, President of Matchroom Sports, about the June 25 Joshua-Breazeale fight and the future of boxing and the heavyweight division.

The fight between the IBF champ Joshua (16-0, 16 KOs) and the challenger Breazeale (17-0, 15 KOs) headlines a card at The O2 in London, which will be shown live on Sky Sports Box Office in the U.K. and on Showtime in the U.S.

While both fighters are thus far unbeaten as pros, the 2012 Olympic gold medalist Joshua is a big favorite in this fight. Joshua is viewed by many as the heir apparent to the title of world heavyweight champion, and as the next major international superstar in boxing.

We spoke with them on a media conference call Wednesday.

With all the hype and prognostications about his future, Anthony Joshua is trying to stay focused on one thing: boxing.

"I only see great things if I stay locked away in the gym," he said.

For his part, Dominic Breazeale is not intimidated by the hoopla surrounding his opponent.

"It's great," he said. "All the distractions are on Anthony. It's something he's got to deal with."

And we discussed when Anthony Joshua might fight in America, his new deal with Showtime, and more.

(Photos by Lawrence Lustig.)

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No Holds Barred: Charles Martin, Anthony Joshua, The Unpredictable Heavyweights

(Photo of Charles Martin and Anthony Joshua by Lawrence Lustig)

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with unbeaten heavyweight boxers Charles Martin and Anthony Joshua, who face each other this Saturday, April 9.

Martin (23-0-1, 21 KOs), who is 29 years old, will make the first defense of his IBF title when he faces Joshua (15-0, 15 KOs), 26, at the O2 Arena in London, England. Although he holds the belt, Martin, from Carson, California, in the U.S., is the underdog against Joshua, a 2012 Olympic gold medalist who is from Watford, Hertfordshire, U.K.

This fight will be shown live in the U.K. on Sky Sports Box Office and live in the U.S. on Showtime.

We spoke with both Charles Martin and Anthony Joshua on a media conference call Monday.

On that call, Joshua predicted that he would win by a knockout by the sixth round, while a confident Martin dismissed Joshua as being "green" and inexperienced.

In a year when heavyweight boxing has yielded a series of unpredictable results and developments, we shall see Saturday if the local hero and favorite Joshua wins and fulfills the predictions of many that he is the future of the heavyweight division, or if the underdog and unexpected champion Martin retains his belt and proves the pundits and oddsmakers wrong.

You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link doesn't work, please try another.

Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes.

You can also listen to No Holds Barred via Stitcher through iOS or Android devices or on the web here.

The PodOmatic Podcast Player app is available for free, both for Android at Google Play, and for iOS on the App Store.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", which is also available on iTunes by composer Ian Snow.

No Holds Barred is free to listen to and is sponsored by:

The Frank Gotch World Catch Wrestling Tournament. On Sunday, July 3, 2016, catch wrestlers from all around the world will compete in Humboldt, Iowa, the hometown of the legendary world champion wrestler Frank Gotch. Organized by the Catch Wrestling Alliance and co-sponsored by IAWrestle, the Frank Gotch Statue Committee, and the Frank Gotch Kids Wrestling Club, the event will take place at Humboldt High School. For more information, go to CatchWrestlingAlliance.com.

The North American Catch Wrestling Association, a grassroots organization designed to help rebuild the sport of catch-as-catch-can-wrestling. For more information, go to their Facebook page at facebook.com/NorthAmericanCatchWrestlingAssociation.

BJJ Eastern Europe, for the latest Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu news, articles, interviews, competition calendar, European belt rankings, academy directory, and more. For more information, go to BJJEE.com.

The National Registry for Wrestling, whose mission is to increase wrestling's fanbase, to build a registry of all wrestling fans, to serve as a connecting point for all wrestling fans, and to provide TV and Internet listings for wrestling. For more information, go to NR4W.com.

No Holds Barred: Danny Garcia, Robert Guerrero, Why Boxing Needs Tournaments Now

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman discusses this coming Saturday's welterweight title fight between Danny Garcia and Robert Guerrero, and the urgent need for tournaments in boxing, particularly in the welterweight and heavyweight divisions.

This Saturday, January 23, Danny Garcia (31-0, 18 KOs) faces Robert Guerrero (33-3-1, 18 KOs) for the vacant WBC welterweight title. This fight takes place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, and will be televised live in the U.S. on Fox in English and Fox Deportes in Spanish. This will be the first time the Premier Boxing Champions series (PBC) airs on the Fox network.

We spoke with both Danny Garcia and Robert Guerrero on their January 7 media conference call to get their views on how this fight will go, including their predictions.

With the retirement of Floyd Mayweather and the loss by Wladimir Klitschko to Tyson Fury, both the welterweight and heavyweight divisions are wide open right now. Yet boxing's Wild West anarchy of rival and uncooperative TV networks, promoters, and sanctioning bodies make it very difficult if not impossible for one fighter in each division to emerge as the universally-recognized champion. We discuss why tournaments are especially important now, why the PBC in particular needs to feature them in order to build up stars and bolster mediocre ratings, the reaction to this past Saturday's Wilder-Szpilka and Martin-Glazkov heavyweight title fights, and much more.

You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link doesn't work, please try another.

Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes.

You can also listen to No Holds Barred via Stitcher through iOS or Android devices or on the web, at http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/no-holds-barred-with-eddie-goldman.

The PodOmatic Podcast Player for iOS is available for free on the App Store.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", which is also available on iTunes by composer Ian Snow.

No Holds Barred is free to listen to and is sponsored by:

The North American Catch Wrestling Association, a grassroots organization designed to help rebuild the sport of catch-as-catch-can-wrestling. For more information, go to their Facebook page at facebook.com/NorthAmericanCatchWrestlingAssociation.

The National Registry for Wrestling, whose mission is to increase wrestling's fanbase, to build a registry of all wrestling fans, to serve as a connecting point for all wrestling fans, and to provide TV and Internet listings for wrestling. For more information, go to NR4W.com.

No Holds Barred: Bermane Stiverne, Deontay Wilder, Don King, Eric Gomez Conference Call

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman presents the media conference call with WBC heavyweight champ Berman Stiverne, unbeaten challenger and 2008 Olympic bronze medalist Deontay Wilder, Stiverne's promoter Don King, and Eric Gomez, Senior Vice President of Golden Boy Promotions, which promotes Wilder. The subject was the January 17 Stiverne-Wilder heavyweight title fight.

Stiverne (24-1-1, 21 KOs), born in Haiti, living for many years in Canada, and now based in Las Vegas, Nevada, will be making the first defense of his belt. He won that title, then vacant, with a sixth-round TKO over Chris Arreola on May 10, 2014.

Wilder (32-0, 32 KOs), from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, has scored a KO or TKO in all of his pro fights, but has been criticized for not facing top contenders -- until now.

This fight will take place Saturday, January 17, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, and will be televised live in the U.S. on Showtime, in Canada on the Fight Network, and in the U.K. on BoxNation.

Bermane Stiverne, Deontay Wilder, Don King, Eric Gomez, and several others involved in this fight were on the December 18 media conference call. Here we present the complete and unedited audio of it.

Stiverne, the less talkative of the two fighters, said, "Don't blink." The flashier Wilder, though as confident of victory as Stiverne, agreed with him on one thing, that this will be a short fight which will be ended by a knockout. The ever-quotable Don King promised that this fight will help the cause of "world peace". King also denounced the failure of grand juries to indict anyone for the deaths of Mike Brown and Eric Garner as "a tragedy".

You can play or download No Holds Barred here and here. If one link doesn't work, please try another.

No Holds Barred is also available on mobile phones and iPads through Stitcher.

Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", which is also available on iTunes by composer Ian Snow.

No Holds Barred is free to listen to and is sponsored by:

American Top Team. Whether you're a beginner or a champion, train with the champions in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, boxing, wrestling, grappling, and mixed martial arts at American Top Team. Check out their web site at AmericanTopTeam.com.

Defense Soap, an effective, deep penetrating body soap with natural antifungal, antiviral, and antibacterial soap ingredients. Defense Soap is the best cleansing body soap for men and women athletes who are involved in contact sports such as MMA, wrestling, grappling, jiu-jitsu, and judo, to help their antifungal, anti-ringworm, anti-jock itch strategy. Check out their web site, at DefenseSoap.com.

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No Holds Barred: Charles Farrell Reviews Klitschko-Chagaev Fight and Awful State of Heavyweight Boxing

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman speaks with our colleague and correspondent, Charles Farrell.

In a spirited and lengthy discussion, we review Wladimir Klitschko's predictable TKO victory over Ruslan Chagaev on Saturday, June 20, in Germany in a fight for several alphabet heavyweight belts. We critique this fight and the performance of both fighters, as well as the entire woeful heavyweight division.

We also discuss the disgraceful state of boxing journalism today, and why we do not take seriously what we read in The Ring magazine, including their recognition of Wladimir Klitschko as their "heavyweight champion of the world". And we lament the danger both to fighter safety and public health that this fight entailed, since Chagaev had tested positive for the hepatitis B antigen, and would not have been allowed to fight in many countries.

But we also explain why we do see hope for boxing in many other weight divisions, and especially outside the U.S.

You can play or download No Holds Barred here. You can also download No Holds Barred here. If one link does not work, please try another. The show is in MP3 format, so may take some time to download.

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Blues for My Baby

“But baby, why won’t you get it on with me? You know I’ve loved you forever.”

“I told you before, get lost, creep. You’re just not my type.”

“But I’ve worshipped you for years, gone all over the world to see you, and not given up on you when everyone else said you were no good.”

“Maybe I am no good, or just no good for you.”

“I can’t believe that, I don’t believe that, I won’t believe that!”

“Believe what you want, sucker, but you ain’t right for me, and vice versa.”

“Please don’t talk like that, baby.”

“I’ll talk any way I damn please. And stop with the baby stuff. I told you, I ain’t your damn baby.”

That was our conversation yesterday. I hope it is not our last, but you never know. I just don’t know what to do or where to go next.

My baby’s name: The Heavyweight Division. Have any of you seen where she’s gone?