AIR DATE:
EPISODE: Episode 8
Holly discusses the upcoming boxing this weekend headlined by Dmitry Bivol vs. Gilberto Ramirez.
The matches on this card include:
Title fight: Dmitry Bivol vs. Gilberto Ramirez, 12 rounds, for Bivol’s WBA light heavyweight title.
Title fight: Chantelle Cameron vs. Jessica McCaskill, 10 rounds, for the undisputed junior welterweight title.
Title fight: Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov vs. Zelfa Barrett, 12 rounds, for the vacant IBF junior lightweight title.
Galal Yafai vs. Gohan Rodriguez Garcia, 10 rounds, flyweights.
Khalid Yafai vs. Jerald Paclar, 10 rounds, bantamweights.
On Talkin’ Fight with Holly Donovan, you’ll hear everything you need to know about upcoming fights, whispers, and gossip from London. Join Holly every Friday while she previews the weekend’s boxing events.
@WomeninBoxing @WorldOfWomensBoxing @TeamGB
#boxing #boxinglife #boxingnews #boxinghype #boxinggirl #boxingworld #boxingfans #boxing #boxingislife #boxingnight #ukboxing #boxingtalk #professionalboxing #womenboxing
Transcribed:
Foreign [, Music ] welcome to talk and fight with me, holly Donovan.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
I will be previewing the fight night that is happening in Abu Dhabi tomorrow, night firework night 5th of November live on design across the world um.
It’S a massive fight, so um, I’m gon na, go through probably the top four fights and give you some ideas about the fighters on them.
Couple on the undercard as well.
It’S going to be really action-packed, I’m very excited.
I know I say this every week, I’m like oh I’m dead, excited about this one um genuinely really excited.
We’Ve been spoiled for amazing fight nights, lately um.
So if you like the preview or the show please hit like Please Subscribe, it helps us out and we’re very appreciative and but without further Ado, let’s begin the show.
So tomorrow night uh we will be seeing uh, Dimitri bival versus zerdo, Ramirez and they’ve got amazing.
Uh co-headline as well in Chantal Cameron and Jessica mccaskill, and we’re all also saying Return of the yaphy brothers, which is pretty cool and but first up, let’s start at the top.
Shall we so Dimitri Bibble versus Ramirez? Please, can you go to the next uh picture and we should have a little close-up of these two all right, so Dimitri riddle, um.
He is the current WBA like heavyweight title, holder, um and he kind of flew into Fame.
I would say um in his last fight where he beat a canoe, Canelo Alvarez now um.
That was a crazy fight where everyone was on the Canelo train um.
He had decided to go up to like heavyweight and he saw Dimitri bivol as his first Target.
His first belt that he could get probably easily, I think, is what he was thinking.
However, in the ring, Dimitri bevel had very different ideas and Canelo did everything he possibly could to try and get at him um, but Dimitri’s ring IQ and defense was just so good.
It was almost like Canelo.
Couldn’T he just couldn’t get to him, and people argue, though, that obviously Canelo isn’t naturally a light heavyweight and Dimitri River was much bigger.
He is much bigger um, so this time he’s going to have an opponent which is more matched, however canelo’s amazing.
So does that mean that Dimitri battle was even better um? He has had 20 fights, he is undefeated and 11 of those have come with KO and he is Korean Russian uh.
He has quite a cool story, so I’m going to tell you a little bit of a little bit of it right now um.
So he is a son of two farmers.
His dad is from Kyrgyzstan and his mum is actually Korean and his childhood was spent like working in the farm in the fields in Kyrgyzstan, and he comes from a really uh poor family, but they were determined to give Dimitri as many opportunities as possible.
Um and his first fighting, I guess you’d call: it began with uh wushu, martial arts um, so Dimitri River was sent there when he was only six um, but he didn’t like it and he didn’t like kicking.
So they sent him to boxing instead and that’s where they saw that he was.
He was a natural, basically straight away and therefore his mom and dad just poured their heart and soul into it.
Um but because times were hard – and I mean there are stories where Dimitri Vivo, when he was little, he used to to train in ballet shoes because you couldn’t afford proper equipment.
Um whole communities would club together to share cars to take him to events.
Um is this really really sweet story actually, but Demetrius said that he felt a lot of pressure as a child to become really good and that that’s why he trained so hard to thank his parents for for putting so much into him really and in 2002, his Family actually sold everything they had in Kyrgyzstan.
They just gave up the farm everything they had and they moved to Russia purely to give Dimitri better boxing opportunities.
They saw something so bright in him.
Um they moved into a flat.
Nine people apparently lived in a two-bedroom flat, and but that’s when people started winning amateur titles and showing everyone that it was absolutely worth it and in 2014 he went pro um now.
This is quite cool.
It only took him 18 months and seven fights to become world champion um.
So hopefully that gives you an idea of just how good Dimitri vivald is um.
Now he lives with his wife and two sons um, and this is quite a cool story as well uh.
He went away before went away to do a boxing camp and when he he came back, his youngest son had like learned how to speak.
He’D learned how to crawl and basically learn a whole bunch of things and Dimitri River was like well.
He can do that and he can learn how to speak.
I’M going to learn English, so he was inspired by his baby son to learn English and if you see now he does quite good interviews um in English and he’s done a really good job.
Now, uh boxing wise, I mean his defense is incredible.
Uh his ringcraft is amazing, he’s a really classical boxer.
Um he’s really really hard to hit as Canelo found um.
What I also like about him is that he’s really respectful uh.
There isn’t a lot of beef in this.
He hasn’t been, throwing any insults, because that’s just not what Dimitri bevel does he’s really respectful and he wants to show his craft within the ring um some big fan of them um.
Now he is against uh zerdo Ramirez, who will be a really good opponent, and this will be a good fight and zerda Ramirez is very different to Canelo.
Obviously he’s a natural light.
Heavy um also he’s a South poor um.
In fact, zerdo means Lefty.
So that’s where he got his little nickname um tell you a bit about Ramirez.
He has an amazing story as well um, so he started work at the age of 12 on a building site.
He used to carry massive 25 five kilogram sacks on like each shoulder and that probably explains how he looks right now.
He was obviously in weight.
Training from a very young age, um really really strong, and he comes from Mexico and from a very poor Village.
In Mexico, where gang culture is absolutely Rife, and so zerdo was brought up with this being a very normalized thing for him and when he was 12 he actually witnessed his first uh murder.
It was a stabbing um, but to him like I say this was just a normal thing and he spent most of his life kind of juggling or trying to get away from being in trouble uh or getting into the gangs with fighting for a boxing career um.
So he continued in construction and working against construction, but he was encouraged to go to boxing boxing clubs and he went at 12 years old and similar to bivol actually, and there are stories where he used to box in sandals.
Because again, there wasn’t any equipment and there are also stories where, when he was young, he he said he carried a knife at the age of 12, because that was a normal thing and they went around with a mantra which was kill or be killed.
Um.
So he’s really really tough person from a very very young age and a lot of his friends uh.
He saw them killed or go to jail um, but when he was in the boxing training uh, he made friends with her was noticed by his trainer called zapari.
And now he saw potential in zerdo and wanted to keep him out of trouble and he said, come on: let’s, let’s go and and fight in the amateurs.
Let’S get you a couple of medals to which that I replied.
While medals can’t feed my family, he can’t eat them, so he carried on working in construction and juggling when he was 18.
He was in a car crash because he was drunk and it was a near-death experience.
So zerda Ramirez literally nearly died on that day and um.
Zapari said no, that’s enough! I’M having you out of there come and live with me.
He took him in at the age um of 18 and he said, come and live with me um.
I will do everything for you, but uh.
You have to train full time and there’s a curfew, so you can’t go out.
He was actually taken out away.
He couldn’t join those gangs.
He had to remain out of trouble um and in return, so Perry would train him and help his career by this time.
He was already a pro and he was 6-0, and so this was an amazing film for him and he put everything into it.
Trained every single day, um and just Rose to the top, really really quickly um.
He was the first Mexican to get a world title at 168 pounds which is a super middleweight, um and uh.
It’S amazing because when people say to him, oh what what would you have been if this hadn’t happened? If they’ve already hadn’t have taken you in – and he said, I’d probably be a Hitman, because that was just a normal, a normal thing.
Um boxing style, I mean he is volume puncher he throws out punches.
So is he going to be able to land anyone bevel we’re going to see tomorrow night and The Bookies have bevel as a favorite uh? I probably would have a nod to him as well, but I do think this is going to be an amazing fight.
I mean zerda: Ramirez has had 44 fights, he’s totally undefeated and he’s had 30 Knockouts um, so you can see that kill or be killed, mentality for sure um.
So yeah, absolutely incredible.
I’M really excited to see what happens here.
I think I think it will go the the full 12 rounds, but I think Liverpool will win on points just because he’s a magician in the womb and okay.
So, let’s go to our next fight, which is got a new little picture for you um.
It should be there we go, we’ve got a Chantal Cameron and we’ve got Jessica.
Mccaskill.
I’Ve chosen that picture because Jessica mccaskill she posed like this.
For all of these photos, um and people said to her.
Why are you so angry in your photos? Why do you want to be so angry as she said, because on Saturday night I bring mass destruction, um that’s direct quotes, so she is absolutely up for it and not being funny.
She looks absolutely terrifying, then, if I could, I would not gon na um.
So let’s talk about these guys, this is for the Undisputed super light work belt.
So all of the belts on the line here, two of them Chantelle Cameron already has two of them – are vacated um, so they’re vacant belts.
Everything is up for grabs, Jessica.
Mccaskill is already a two-way under sorry, a two-way world champion and she’s already Undisputed in the weight category above so she’s come down to have this fight against Chantelle Cameron and Chantal.
Let’S, let’s chat about her first because she is the current champ uh in this way and she is 16-0, so she’s totally undefeated, half of those have been KO so 8kos now Chantal.
I know I say this every week, I’m like I love her.
I love her um.
I really do love Chantelle um, there’s a nice story for myself here when I was starting out um.
She was the first uh boxer world champion boxer to to.
Let me talk to her and to let me interview her um.
She believed in me and and I believe in her she came to the time of day and I will always be grateful because I wouldn’t be doing this show right now today, if it wasn’t for Chantal Cameron um.
So thank you Chantelle, like I’m, I’m so on your side like you, please win it um.
So let’s talk about her there’s a great interview actually just gon na bloom in on trumpet Hill um.
If you go on the fight to fight with Holly Donovan, you will actually see uh the full interview with me and Chantal Cameron where she talks about how she got into boxing her career other things she fights for the things she wants to do with women’s boxing And really interesting, so please check that out as well.
If you want to know more about Chantelle, and so she began with kickboxing, because there were way more females in the kickboxing um Club.
So she went there because she felt more comfortable.
It was just.
It was just simple for her and, however, the kickboxing place was quite far away.
She had to travel quite a long way.
She didn’t want to travel and there was a boxing gym that was much closer, so she decided one day to check out the boxing gym.
She went in and she was completely overwhelmed, absolutely uh hated everything about it, loads and loads of blokes everywhere she felt incredibly uncomfortable.
She left she didn’t go back for three months.
She was pretty much like nah.
No, I’m not having that.
Can you believe that two-time world champion she’s like nope, not going back there and I’ve just had a question that who are you picking to win? I’M gon na say Chantal.
She is the favorite in the bookies as well um.
However, it’s going to be a really tough, matchup and and I’ll explain why um once uh she finally went back after three months.
She went finally went back to the boxing gym and she had to full on earn respect, so she was fighting in the corner.
She was doing all her drills, all her skipping, eventually the coach, let her do pads with him and that’s when he started to see.
Okay, this girl’s got potential and she said she had to beat quite a few boys up before she got respect, but she did totally get it um and she also says that she loves being hit in the face and makes her feel alive, which is quite funny Because Jessica mccaskill said something quite similar as well, so because it’s a real robust up here and she went to the amateurs joined tgb, she said it was like being wrapped in Cotton wool.
Everything was really lovely um and in 2017 she decided to go pro but very quickly realized that Pro was a whole different game.
It was a business.
There was no more cotton wool um she signed to Cyclone Productions.
She couldn’t talk too much about it because she didn’t want to get into trouble, but essentially they did not treat her well.
She had four week camps.
As you know, that’s not good enough.
It’S not long enough! Um! She was put on the sidelines.
Uh wasn’t enough attention always waiting for a pronounce and Paul Chantelle was just so frustrated and she did get signed to match room though Eddie Hearn took over that’s when things started to to come for her still a lot of frustration waiting for fights, but she did Manage to get her first uh World Championship, that was um lightweight belts, um, but again she didn’t want to wait for opponents, even though she was a world champion in that weight category, it would have meant waiting for Katie, Taylor, um and obviously we all know that Katie Taylor’s got a massive queue of people wanting to fight her always had always will um, so she decided she would vacate the belts move up a weight category.
She was like, let’s give other people an opportunity, I’m going to try my hand at super lightweight, and so here she is, it’s super lightweight.
She won uh, two belts.
Her last fight was against Mary McGee super easy.
It’S just business really goes in, gets the job done.
She trains with Jamie Moore, um, you’ll, know him.
He trained brilliant Fighters.
Like Carl Frampton.
I know he trains uh Jack Hatboro.
I think he had Tyson Fury for a bit as well um, so she’s in a really great stable as well um.
Now she has always been frustrated waiting for fights in this weight category as well.
She really wanted uh to fight uh Kaylee Reese, who had the other two uh super lightweight belts which are now vacated, but she was signed out because of health problems um and then I’ve just heard.
I heard this this morning.
I’M not sure it was totally true, but apparently she’s got a massive part in a True Detective season: four um so she’s just ditch boxing and she’s she’s off being an actor um, so yeah, okay, which leaves the door open for her to fight Jessica mccaskill.
So, let’s go on to Jessica.
She is a two-weight world champion, like I said earlier, she’s already Undisputed in the weight category higher um.
She has had uh 12 wins um, two losses, but one was ages ago and the other one was to Katie Taylor in 2017.
.
We’Ll let her off that one um she’s had five Kos, um and uh you’ll, probably know her because of the big upset she had against uh Cecilia Brickhouse who’s, an amazing uh fighter.
No one thought she’d beat her, but she did about twice and she became Undisputed and has since made three defenses and so she’s, really tough she’s been proving herself.
She has a great story as well.
She was actually homeless as a child.
She comes from Chicago.
She actually lived with her family in the back of a church and she has spent her whole life fighting for for better really and she fell into boxing totally by chance.
She actually preferred team sports like uh, cheerleading and basketball, and things like that, but when she first went to a boxing club, she absolutely loved it um.
She said when she got hit in the face.
She was like, oh that wasn’t that bad.
I could do this um and quite enjoyed it just like jazz or Cameron um so carried on from there, and something really interesting about her as well.
Um is that she she’s also an investment banker, and she has it as a full-time job.
So in the morning she goes to a run.
Then she signs on does her Investment, Banking job um, and then she has two more uh training sessions that day so we’re talking about a really hard worker here who absolutely goes through really really long days and Incredibly determined um.
When people have said to our, you know why Investment Banking, she said well in some ways it’s similar because they’re both really male dominated um.
You know boxing and Investment Banking she’s, just fighting against a man all the time um.
So she is a pressure fighter.
She has an engine like no other.
She really can carry on and she’s engaged to her trainer as well, which I think is a lovely relationship and if she wins tomorrow night, she is going to be two-way world champion Undisputed in two weights.
So this is very exciting um, it’s a really close fight here I mean bookies.
Have it at like 60 40.
, some of them a lot closer.
That’S to Chantal Cameron, I’m going to say Chantelle, because I love Chantelle.
She believed in me, I believe in her and let’s now go on to the third fight, so next photo please thank you.
Eric Eric’s, our producer he’s awesome, um, okay, so uh.
Let’S chat about this one interesting, I know that we’ve got Joe Cordina in the middle of that photo you’re, probably like what three people.
Why? Because um zelfer Barrett um he’s against uh shavkat rakamov, and this is for the vacant super featherweight belt.
Now this belt is the one that Joe Cordina won earlier this year due to the middle um.
Now he had this incredible knockout over um, Kenichi or gawa watch it.
If you haven’t seen it it’s on YouTube, it’s absolutely brilliant! This one is an amazing knockout.
He won that world title but immediately afterwards got hand, injury, um and when he went into camp for this fight, that was supposed to be against rakimov.
He broke his hand in the first bar and was then signed out for a further six months.
Now he had already been given time um from uh the the governing uh the board to uh get better.
So he had already been said.
Okay, you can have a few months um, you can keep the belt for a few months.
Let’S see if you get better, he didn’t get better in time, so he had to vacate the belt.
However, both zelfa Barra and Shout Out rakimov have signed contracts that whoever wins this fight tomorrow night will then fight Joe Cordina next.
So he will get a chance to get uh his belt back, because my god did he win it.
Well, so well, we’ll see it means it’s.
Alpha.
Barrack gets an opportunity.
He is 29 he’s from Manchester uh.
He has won 28 fights, he’s won, uh lost one, but it was quite a while ago, 16 Kos and he is on a nine fight, winning streak, which is pretty cool um.
So this is for the super featherweight title.
As I said, um he’s from a super boxing family uh.
He his uncle is Uncle Pat sorry, Pat para Uncle Pat Barrett um.
He challenged for the world’s weight title um.
Then his cousin is also Lyndon Arthur.
He probably know me was the Commonwealth heavyweight champion, and so he comes from that family uh.
He used to be ringside for Ricky hatton’s fights, which is pretty cool um, so he went pro in 2014 uh.
You might know him because he beats uh Kiko Martinez, um back in February 2021 um now we know Keegan Martinez because he had the epic win last weekend, um over Jordan.
Gill, like my God, was he brilliant he’s really come back, so this just shows his Alpha.
Barra is a decent fighter, he’s really good.
If he can beat Kiko Martinez, then I think we’re in for a treat tomorrow, night um.
Now he is against uh rakimov, who has won 16 fights he’s undefeated.
He drew one of them um.
It’S not this photo by the way it’s the photo just before, and rakimoff has had 13 Ko’s areas um, so Rockwell has had 13 Kos he’s on the left with the black girl and he the draw he had was uh two fights ago.
So he’s coming off the back of two wins now so back in it.
He was actually the former super featherweight champion from 2017 to 2019.
um.
So he’s a big deal as well.
Uh he uh was an amateur won, a lot of national championships.
He had his debut at the age of 21.
and he won his world title in his 11th fight uh his tough fighter.
He leads, with his right hand, he’s one of those pressure Fighters.
Again, we’ve got a lot of those tomorrow.
Night um comes forward a lot, so this is very interesting who’s going to win this one and I’m going to say self a barrel, it’s going to win that, but I think it’s going to be exciting either way so so tune in um.
Now, let’s go to the next uh picture, so you saw a little glimpse of this earlier.
He got a little got a little forward.
Uh forward excitement there should be coming should be coming next picture next picture there you go all right, so we have Galleria Phi wearing the belt okay um and he is against Gohan Garcia.
Now this is cool.
Goliathi is someone to watch uh he’s from massive boxing family I’m going to talk about his older brother in a minute because he is also on this same card um now galau is uh the Tokyo Olympic Golden Boy, one gold, um, he’s very, very impressive, he’s 29 And they are fast tracking him, like he wouldn’t believe and in his first pro fight so his debut fight, he won the vacant International Flyway and he won it in the fifth round in a TKO then in his second ever Pro fight.
Obviously it was his defense uh of this though um and he won, and this time he won with a TKO in round two um he’s a South ball he’s come forward.
He I mean he doesn’t have to defend because he just goes for it.
It’S just he’s a massive attacking Fighter um.
So let’s hope that uh Gohan Garcia is going to be a slightly uh, better and more durable opponent for him uh.
This fight was supposed to be on the 8th of October on the benue bank card, but obviously we don’t have enough um, so they’ve been pushed to this card instead, but they were told straight away um, so hopefully they’ve had time to adjust and get ready for This one so again he’s defending that International flyweight title is galau um Gohan, Garcia uh.
He has won 12 fights, he has lost one and he’s got 1ko.
So that suggests to me he’s going to be better and hopefully we’re going to see slightly more of a fight and he’s rated 15th in the ibf.
However, I mean I’m just going to give this to Glau.
I think there’s no, no contest he’s going to win.
If you want to make an easy bet, there you go um.
We hope I’m not wrong.
Don’T hold me to that! Okay! Okay! Let’S talk about um, so the other person on this card is his older brother cow EFI.
So if you go to the next slide, we’ve got a nice little picture of him.
Uh he’s the older bro, so he is 33.
um.
Now he’s been gone or away from the sport for two and a half years um.
Now he was a world champion um and he had 27 fights, uh, sorry, 27 wins and only one loss.
That loss was in February 2020 and that was when he came away from the sport and stopped.
That fight was an epic fight to the amazing Roman uh.
Chocolatito Gonzalez, so he lost that fight.
It was his first ever career loss.
It was his sixth defense of his world title and he was Britain’s longest reigning world champion.
Um he’s incredible and he held that back from 2016 to 2020, so he had it for a whole four years, um he’s back now as bantamweight, so he’s moved up.
This is a good idea because he said that he would be really struggling uh where he was before actually prefer the way that was too light.
Now now he’s gone to Phantom.
Why he’s got more power? He feels confident.
I’M really excited to see him back.
It’S been a long time.
He said he had a year with absolutely no training at all.
He just came out of the sport and then he spent about a year and a half now getting himself back and preparing for tomorrow, night um.
I I think this is amazing.
I really hope that you go straight into where he was before, because he’s clearly a brilliant fighter that whole family is um.
He is against uh Gerald paclar, who has had he’s won 16 fights he’s lost five he’s from the Philippines.
I think this is going to be an easy win for cal, um and yeah it’d be really nice to see him back see if there’s any new things that he’s learned and and like I said, he’s an amazing fighter, so he’ll be a treat to watch and The last person I want to talk about actually is also on the card.
You’Ll know his dad.
Uh Campbell happened uh next picture, please, I think you’ve got a little picture of him and his dad Ricky there.
You go okay, so we all know Ricky hadn’t, multi-time world champion um he’s actually making a comeback soon as well um, but his son uh Campbell.
He is 8-0 um and he’s looking, obviously to become 9-0 tomorrow night uh he’s had two Kos um.
His debut was in 2021, so he’s still brand new um and it’s nice watching someone you know develop uh, I’m sure there’s a lot of pressure coming from that family and being the son of such a great um.
So I wish him well all the best.
I’Ve seen one fight.
I remember.
I think it was a couple of years ago where it was a bit dodgy and he got the win and I’m not entirely sure he should have done um.
However, I’m excited to see the new skills he’s bringing I mean.
If you’ve got Ricky Hatton in your corner, then you can’t really go wrong and so look out for him tomorrow night as well, also on this card and there’s actually quite a few new emirati Fighters, because obviously we’re in Abu Dhabi and they’re trying really hard to Bring it into uh, you know into the Limelight there, so hopefully you’re going to see some really new, interesting Fighters there too, and I’m excited for tomorrow night.
It’S one head of a card um tune in it’s on design, it’s available across the world um.
It’S at UK time, but that means, if you’re on the other side of the world, America, obviously you can just have it in the afternoon, have a great afternoon of boxing and please join me next week, where I will be previewing.
The fight in Manchester, from boxer and Sky Sports and Natasha Jonas is back.
Uh she’s got two belts: she’s going for a third against uh Mary Eve, declare and that’ll be a unification fight, obviously, for that third belt, and we’re also going to see a British clash between Dalton Smith and uh Cassie, Benjamin so um tune in next week and I’Ll preview – those, oh there’s a little poster – I forgot I’ve got that Lego, so I hope you enjoyed uh.
The show today, like I said, please hit like Please Subscribe, really appreciate data and I’ll look forward to seeing you same time next week on Holly from Talking fight with Holly Donovan at 2PM UK time I’ll see you soon have a lovely weekend.
Contact The Hosts