This is not anything new, given that him and Bellew managed to fleece the mugz not once but TWICE! Then there was the Fraudley Farce. Haye COULD have been a great, but he was more interested in the coin
Covid has changed the landscape of life in general, boxing is suffering as a consequence. However, it has became an embarrassing circus. MMA/UFC fighters taking on boxers, lack of top quality fights, the inactivity of many elite boxers, the continuing PED issues, the often abysmal scoring at top level events, etc. I'm no expert, but politics & money are having too much influence, more than ever before.
Now this is just a bit more open thing. Pro boxing is at first business and only just a bit about piece of sport. Just a little bit. Now we had saw how MMA guy with 0 pro boxing fights under belt had earned record high purse for pro debut. We had saw how good sales might be with YT star vs out of retirement grappler, former MMA guy for boxing match. Why not, with the same so called real boxers too it always had been: better sales is better. If people are willing to watch and pay for ppvs and tickets, then everything is done correctly. Money is earned and this is main goal for all prize fighting. It is like in cinema: better is to show film with higher interest in community: more tickets and for better price might be sold. If you have cinema with 1000 places, ofc you will prefer to sell all 1000 tickets for 20 bucks each rather than maybe 800 tickets for 15 bucks each. The same is with prizefighting. Sales = everything. $.
Not so much on this occasion The promotion he fought for are however He just pocketed a mill for a sparring session Can't blame him
Things are a mess for sure. It wasnt all that long ago that MMA was viewed as a freakshow and had to fight for legitimacy as a real sport while boxing was already establishment accepted. Now if anything MMA looks like the more serious sport and boxing is a total ****ing circus.
I called it. Yet again I called it. Boxing's credibility was already at an all time low as it is but after last night its reputation and credibility has been utterly destroyed and is completely unsalvageable now.
The judging in boxing has been suspect since the beginning of the sport and definitely needs to be dealt with. However, what I think is hurting the sport more than anything at this moment is the fact that they are labeling these BS matches as boxing matches when it is totally not true. There should be a disclaimer before each one of those types of matches takes place stating that this is merely a form of entertainment and not a legitimate boxing match. They got legitimate promotors and commentators involved in that BS and giving it an air of legitimacy. The judges shouldn't be allowed to get emotionally involved in the fight. They should be secluded in a soundproof room with just the fight ( no sound) A wall to wall big screen showing just the ring and the fighters. Kinda harsh but we gotta do something.
It's really the opposite of that. It's fans that are too emotionally invested in fighters to score mtaches properly. Judges are emotionless and do not score matches with pre-conceived biases going in like fans do. That's why so many fans object to judges cards so often, because fans are too emotionally invested and carry their biases into their scoring.
I totally disagree that judges are emotionless simply for the fact that they are human beings. While so many fans object to the judges cards, there are just as many that condone them so that is a wash. If we take the crowd out of it for the judges then we will have a starting point. It can always be reversed if it doesn't show improvement. All I know is that the status quo is not working.
Crowd reactions are organic reactions to what occurred in the ring. To turn judging into a sterile emotionless exercise is, first, inconsistent with boxing history, and second, takes away the vantage points judges have at ringside which allows each judge to have a unique and direct view of the action. What you are suggesting with putting judges into a sound proof room takes them away from where they need to be which is at ringside, and further it limits all judges to each viewing the match from the same angle through a TV camera instead of each having their own unique an direct view of the action at ringside. What you're suggesting just is not feasible. Now of course judges are human beings and may not be completely emotionless, but they are far less emotional than fans, that's for sure. And they carry far less biases than fans do. One of the big problems with how fans view and score matches is that they can't see a lot of the punches and how they landed clearly due to the camera angles from TV broadcasts. Judges can see the punches and how they land much clearer and that's a big disconnect between the fans and the judges. We're seeing matches through our TVs from a different perspective than the judges at ringside are. The judges at ringside have a much clearer perspective than watching a match on TV.
