Heavyweight Boxing is on the plate in this latest Talk ‘n’ Shoot Podcast, as this past weekend’s boxing card at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn featured two world title fights in boxing’s “glamour” division. Since Tyson Fury defeated long-time champion Wladimir Klitschko last November, interest in the weight class has surged again. This past January 16th was a HUGE day for the weight class.
Host Miguel Iturrate is joined by former WBC World Light Heavyweight champion Montell Griffin to look back on this past weekend’s fights in this latst Talk ‘n’ Shoot Podcast.
[related_post_one]
Heavyweight Boxing – Hot Again
Brooklyn was ground zero for Heavyweight boxing this past weekend, as Heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and a slew of would-be contenders were all in attendance to watch Deontay Wilder take on Artur Szpilka. Number one contender Alexander Povetkin was in attendance, as was Dereck Chisora. Retired champions Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis were also in attendance at the Barclays Center.
Check out this Boxing Channel video where Deontay Wilder talks about fighting Alexander Povetkin.
Wilder scored a ninth round KO over the game Szpilka, landing one devastating punch that took the Polish fighter’s consciousness and sent him to the hospital for observations. But the long fight against the relative unknown still left Wilder with critics. Wilder, however, has now been world champion for over a year and the Szpilka fight was the third defense of the WBC World Heavyweight title.
The vacant IBF World title was on the line between unheralded Charles Martin and Vyacheslav Glazkov. The match was just getting started with the first serious exchanges in the third round when Glazkov went down two times from a hurt knee and could not continue. Martin is now the IBF World titleholder, but perhaps more importantly, he is still flying under the radar a bit since the fight this past weekend was not memorable. As for Glazkov, he was wholly unimpressive for what we did see. After all, he was rated as the number one contender by the IBF and the WBC and had his choice of belts and opponents. Though skilled, Glazkov was outweighed by 30 pounds and he could do nothing with Martin.
Today’s TnS guest Montell Griffin is not only a former boxing world champion who retired with a fine 50-8-1 pro record, he has been around boxing his whole life and is one of the most astute observers of the game today. Griffin’s father was one of the lead trainers for the United States Olympic team and Montell was there to take it all in as a child. After the death of his father while Griffin was just reaching his teenage years, he stayed away from boxing for more than five years. He had learned the art from his father when he was so young and Griffin stated “I didn’t even remember learning to box, I just knew it, it was there” upon his return. Griffin had a brief, successful amateur career that saw him represent the United States at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. Most recently, Griffin has been working at Sam Colonna’s gym in Chicago, and he has worked as a sparring partner for top ranked Light Heavyweight contender Andrzej Fonfara. At 45 years old, Griffin may stil lhave one comeback left in him.
[related_post_two]
