Big Dog Lukie Boxing Podcast

This week was the classic week of great fights for hardcore fight fans, but might have been overlooked by others. 

Notable results are: 
Ekow Essuman defeats former undisputed champion Josh Taylor...we make sense of this.

Heavyweight Moses Itauma knocked out Mike Balogun. Is Itauma the next great heavyweight?

Angelo Leo made the first defense of his IBF featherweight title against Tomoki Kameda, traveling to Japan to do so. 

On Thursday, DAZN featured a card headlined by Jonny Mansour, who went six rounds for the first time in his career, defeating Christian Avalos. Featherweight Vic Pasillas stopped Carlos Jackson in the co-feature, and Jose Ramirez knocked out Jessie Mandapat.

Terri Harper and Maxi Hughes also won this week. 

This week....

Wednesday on DAZN, Eduardo Nunez will face Masanori Rikiihsi for the vacant IBF junior lightweight title.

Friday on DAZN, Darius Fulghum vs. Bektemir Melikuziev, will do battle in a WBA super middleweight title eliminator. Other notables on this card include, middleweight fight between Eric Priest and Luis Arias, 2024 U.S. super heavyweight Olympian Joshua Edwards, welterweight Cayden Griffiths, and junior middleweight Grant Flores.

Also on Friday on DAZN, Manuel Gallegos will rematch Khalil Coe in a light heavyweight main event. Gallegos stopped Coe in their last bout, and now they rematch in Mexico, where Gallegos is from. The co-feature is junior featherweight Murodjon Akhmadaliev.

Saturday on Prime Video, Caleb Plant will face Armando Resendiz. This will be the super middleweight Plant's first fight of 2025. The co-feature is Jermall Charlo vs. Thomas LaManna in a super middleweight bout. Interesting undercard bouts, a middleweight fight between Yoenli Hernandez vs. Kyrone Davis, a breakout fight between Isaac Lucero vs. Omar Valenzuela at junior middleweight, as well as lightweight Curmel Moton in action, and super middleweight John Easter.

Former beltholder Julio Cesar Martinez returns to Mexico. 

All of this, plus your questions and Dakota. 

Timestamps
0:00 Ekow Essuman upsets Josh Taylor
12:15 Moses Itauma 
17:50 Angelo Leo- Tomoki Kameda
23:00 Eduardo Nunez-Masanori Rikiihsi 
28:30 Manuel Gallegos-Khalil Coe II
34:35 Caleb Plant-Armando Resendiz
40:20 Yoenli Hernandez-Kyrone Davis
44:28 Julio Cesar Martinez returns
47:30 Darius Fulghum-Bektemir Melikuziev

A preview of this week's fights

Listen to the full show at http://lukieboxing.substack.com

A preview of this week's fights

Listen to the full show at http://lukieboxing.substack.com

In this episode, Dakota returns after two weeks off from the show. 

We get his take on the cards that started May from Times Square, Ryan Garcia-Rolando Romero, Canelo Alvarez-William Scull, and Naoya Inoue-Ramon Cardenas. We then jump into this week’s show in which heavyweight Dave Allen stops Johnny Fisher. Could a trilogy happen?

The undercard was very regional, but Kieron Conway continues to have “John Ryder vibes”, George Liddard is climbing the ranks and Shannon Ryan is a tricky fighter to judge, we will explain.

Sam Goodman defeated Cesar Vaca Espinoza in the middle of the week. It was his first fight of 2025. 

Also, Serhii Bohachuk returned defeating Mykal Fox, but it was hard than many expected and it took place at middleweight. Omar Trinidad also picked up a victory on this card. 

This week, we preview the return of Josh Taylor against Ekow Essuman. Also, heavyweight Moses Itauma vs. Mike Balogun will be the co-feature. 

Terri Harper-Natalie Zimmermann will happen with Harper’s WBO women’s lightweight belt on the line, the co-feature on this card will be Maxi Hughes taking on Archie Sharp in a lightweight bout. 

Angelo Leo looks to defend his IBF featherweight title against Tomoki Kameda in Japan. 

Timestamps
0:00 Emanuel Navarrete-Charly Suarez
21:00 undercard
28:00 Anthony Cacace-Leigh Wood results
31:35 ProBox TV
34:40 Serhii Bohachuk-Myke Fox Preview
39:48 Fisher-Allen II

In this podcast, Lukie is all by himself as Dakota is away being an adult. 

The main topic is Emanuel Navarrete-Charly Suarez and the WBO junior lightweight title fight. It was confusing and we talk about it.

Other stuff, Raymond Muratalla wins the interim IBF lightweight title over Zaur Abdullaev. I will talk about a few notable insights including Giovani Santillan, Andres Cortes and Alan Garcia. 

Also, Anthony Cacace stopped Leigh Wood...I will talk about this for a little bit, but not too much. 

On Friday, Dainier Pero survived a knockdown to win a heavyweight main event. 

I will also talk about this week's fight action, with the most marquee bout being Serhii Bohachuk-Myke Fox which will broadcast on UFC Fight Pass.

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The big fight of the week will be 360 Promotions' card on UFC Fight Pass between junior middleweight contender Serhii Bohachuk-Myke Fox on Saturday at the Commerce Casino in Commerce, California. 

I am joined by veteran reporter Miguel Maravilla for this episode to preview the card. 

Listen to the full show at http://lukieboxing.substack.com

Lubin-Holmes

Saturday, 3:30 PM PST on ProBox TV (ProBox TV’s YouTube channel)

Junior middleweight Erickson Lubin will face Ardreal Holmes in an IBF title eliminator. What is at stake? Simple – a fight against the current titleholder, Bakhram Murtazaliev.

Stylistically, it is an interesting fight. Lubin is a puncher with a good amateur pedigree, but both of his losses have come by way of knockout. Holmes is a pure boxer who has never lost. An interesting bout that is flying under the radar.

Undercard:

Welterweight Nicklaus Flaz has rebuilt himself on ProBox TV and fights a veteran from my area, Alan Sanchez. Flaz is inching toward a title opportunity, and facing a quality veteran like Sanchez will help.

Darrelle Valsaint, better known as ‘Blast’, takes on Rodolfo Orozco in a junior middleweight bout. Valsaint is a solid fighter, and I am eager to see how he looks as he moves up in competition.

Light heavyweight Najee Lopez will face Juan Gerardo Osuna. I see a ton of potential in Lopez, albeit he has had a rough ride so far. He has been dropped in a fight and had a fight that was a little too close for comfort. He beat Lenin Castillo to start the year, and should follow that up with another good performance.

Junior lightweight Dominic Valle is another promising ProBox TV contender, he faces Brandon Valdes as he looks to get closer to 10-round fights.

Top Rank card, Saturday

Saturday, prelims 2:30 PM PST (on ESPN+), main card 7:00 PM PST (ESPN)

Saturday on ESPN, Emanuel Navarrete will look to defend his WBO junior lightweight title against Charly Suarez.

This fight is a good one, but also a confusing one. Suarez is 36 and has fought no one at Navarrete’s level. Navarrete got schooled when he moved up to lightweight, but stopped Oscar Valdez in their rematch to regain a title.

Navarrete is one of the most inconsistent fighters in the sport, and because of that, it is hard to look at his fights and understand what you will see. More than likely, it will be a good action fight as both seem content to throw a lot of punches.

What happens, who knows?

Undercard:

Raymond Muratalla will face Zaur Abdullaev for the vacant IBF interim lightweight title. Muratalla is someone I have been high on and has some of the traits that made Mikey Garcia a great fighter. Abdullaev was stopped by Devin Haney during his run to the top of the sport, but he has a nice win streak. The winner will be in line to fight Vasyl Lomachenko if he returns to the sport, or a good fight at lightweight against a lot of emerging titleholders and contenders.

Junior lightweight Andres Cortes is a trash-talker who is capable of delivering knockouts. He is also coming off a career-worst performance against Abraham Nova and a long lay-off. Against Salvador Jimenez, we should see Cortes return to form, but we will watch to make sure a pattern isn’t emerging.

Welterweight Giovani Santillan will face Angel Beltran. Santillan has been solid since his knockout loss to Brian Norman Jr., and Beltran is a limited slugger but provides some danger. Santilan needs to stand out to make progress up in the division, as he runs the risk at this point of being a test for an up-and-coming fighter like Delante “Tiger” Johnson.

Albert “Chop Chop” Gonzalez returns a month after his last fight against Jose Guardado. Gonzalez’s last performance was not what he hoped for, a close fight against spoiler Dana Coolwell. Gonzalez looked to get a big push in 2025 and needs a star-like performance on this card.

Lightweight Alan Garcia will face Cristian Medina Garcia, it is his second fight since his knockout loss. Garcia is a solid fighter. I know nothing about Sebastian Hernandez, but he fights Azat Hovhannisyan in a junior featherweight bout, and Hovhannisyan often finds himself in Fight-of-the-Year-type fights.

Junior welterweight Sammy Contreras will return after his pro debut in March, and recent Top Rank signee women’s junior bantamweight Perla Bazaldua will have her first fight with Top Rank.

Other notable bouts:

Friday on DAZN, Heavyweight Dainier Pero will face Cesar Navarro. Bob Santos, Pero’s trainer, believes that Pero is right there in terms of the top up-and-comers at heavyweight. Pero will be the main event.

Lightweight Corey Marksman will face Tayden Beltran, a local California fighter getting a shot at a 50-50 fight. Marksman is someone MVP has developed well so far.

Junior lightweight Kaipo Gallegos faces Pedro Castaneda, a fighter with the same record as himself. Other fighters you might want to be aware of are women’s bantamweight Nat Dove will be in action, bantamweight Alexander Gueche, and the return of Jeremy Adorno are all in developmental-type bouts.

Friday also on DAZN, Fresh off his OTX junior middleweight tournament win, Andreas Katzourakis will face unbeaten Roberto Cruz. Katzourkis has had a lot of tough fights, but also faced plenty of stiff opposition for a fighter at 15-0 mark in his career. The co-feature will see Texan Breyon Gorham against Luis Feliciano. Gorham has a bit of hype behind him, and Feliciano is still a fighter that I believe could contend, one day. This is a crossroads bout for both.

Junior welterweight Giovanni Marquez, who is also the son of Raul Marquez, will be in action, as will the Lugo brothers, both Nathan and Elijah, who are known for their power-punching style.

Not sure if Andy Dominguez vs. Nelvis Rodriguez will be televised, but the flyweight Dominguez is a very good fighter, who is continuing to take good fights.

A notable undercard fight features Yoel Angeloni vs. William Davis in the welterweight division. Angeloni has struggled to gain momentum so far, and Davis is a decent club-level fighter.

On Saturday, DAZN will telecast Anthony Cacace vs. Leigh Wood in a junior lightweight bout. Cacace defeated Joe Cordina, won the IBF title, and disappeared. Now that title is vacant, and he is fighting Wood, who has had his fair share of entertaining bouts over the past few years, but also has disappeared.

On the undercard, a featherweight bout between Liam Davies and Kurt Walker stands out as a fight of consequence. With a win, one of the fighters vaults up to contender status, in my eyes.

Junior welterweight Sam Noakes will fight on the card. He is a prospect with the potential of contending for a title.

ESPN+ will telecast on Saturday a WBC welterweight eliminator between Souleymane Cissokho and Egidijus Kavaliauskas. The winner will be next in line to face current titleholder Mario Barrios. Nico Ali Walsh also fights on this card.

For the super hardcore fight fans, Fernando Martinez will rematch Kazuto Ioka as Martinez put his WBA junior bantamweight title on the line. The winner could fight Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez later this year.

This week I preview the upcoming fights by myself. 

The fights I talk about both happen on Saturday including Emanuel Navarrete vs Charly Suarez on ESPN, and a junior middleweight eliminator fight Erickson Lubin vs Ardreal Holmes.

Full show at http://lukieboxing.substack.com

Fighter of the Month: Jaron Ennis

Ennis defeated Eimantas Stanionis. The fight was seen as

Honorable Mention: Chris Eubank Jr

Fight of the Month: Chris Eubank Jr-Conor Benn

A fight that overperformed. It had a lot of hype as it was an extension of their father’s feuds, and it lived up to all the hype (and hope).

Honorable Mention: Antonio Moran-Mykquan Williams

Knockout of the Month: Stephan Shaw KO1 Raphael Akpejiori

A brutal one-punch KO that could be in the conversation as one of the best of the year. Shaw is a talented heavyweight who has fallen on hard times.

Honorable Mention: Janibek Alimkhanuly TKO5 Anauel Ngamissengue

Breakout Fighter of the Month: Antonio Moran

Moran defeated Mykquan Williams, a solid up-and-comer. Moran continues to serve as a veteran opponent capable of pulling off upsets.

Round of the Month: Chris Eubank Jr-Conor Benn, Round 12

Both were exhausted, but they didn’t care. They put it on the line, and it was one of the best moments in 2025, so far.