I do not get the obsession with this fight, avenysyan is a former world title challenger holding the European belt hostage. He needs to go back to his level instead of beating up prospects. People just want benn to get fed to the wolves so that they can be proven right. I personally want to see benn take more learning fights so that there is no excuses when he steps up. He barely had any amateur experience afterall.
Hooker was a WBO belt holder in the division below. He’s nowhere to be seen in the Welterweight rankings. He’s also an unknown to the casuals with less than 10k Twitter followers, just like Avanesyan. So you’re right that he’s lower risk, but not much reward either. At least Avanesyan is a solid name on the resume. It will catapult him up the rankings if he were to win, and at least prove to the boxing world that he’s willing to test himself against a live body. It’s not like people are expecting Benn to jump in with Crawford or Spence - or even the other prospects Ortiz or Ennis. Benn is quite high in most of the org rankings now so he needs to fight those who are around him, and he’d probably go in as slight favourite against Avanesyan too. If Benn wants someone with name recognition why doesn’t he go for Mikey Garcia? Smaller guy who’s on the slide, former world champ, and is a DAZN fighter. You’d think Benn would be targeting Danny Garcia too if he’s to try and bridge the gap between European and World level, although that’s probably a step too far right now for mismatchroom. Khan stepped in with a prime Danny Garcia and it didn’t do his profile much harm after getting banjoed.
Boring. Although it would be a good fight Warren is simply trying to promote his man off the back of Hearn as he is incapable of promoting and building a fighter's stock in this day and age. Wheel out prospect vs 20 foreign journeymen while making outlandish claims until either a WBO shot against a fighter that should never be near a world title or a jump up in class that's a step too far... see Yarde, Archie Sharp, Dennis Mccan, Zak Parker, Dubois.....
It’s because before Kelly v Avanesyan, Hearn was saying if Kelly won then he’d be fighting Benn, huge fight etc, so he clearly had no qualms putting Benn in with the winner if the outcome had been different. Avanesyan wins and they won’t go anywhere near it but would have if Kelly had won... I know Benn v Kelly would have been a bigger fight but they’ve clearly seen what Avanesyan did to Kelly and ran a mile.
They did run a mile and admitted it. Absolutely nobody bar the purest hardcore boxing fans know who Avenasyan is. It’s not a big fight, there’s not a big reward, the only people who benefit from it are Warren (shock) and the anti matchroom trolls who can then laugh at Benn’s demise. Brother is a much bigger fight in terms of profile and finances.
The big question I’d ask is why didn’t Frank go after Ortiz Jr? He was clearly available to fight as seen by him taking on McKinson next (reportedly). David is 3 with WBC and Ortiz jr is 1, he’s also 1 with WBO and DA is 6, 2 with WBA and DA is 12 and 4 with IBF and DA is 11. Do they have any world title aspirations for Avenasyan or was the whole purpose of signing him to posture and try and ruin a matchroom prospect?
It's very clear why they didn't take that route. Ortiz would beat Ava quite comfortably and we all know it. Truth is Ava is much closer to Benns ability than he is to Ortiz. From a fans POV I would be far more interested in seeing Ava fight Benn as it's a good evenly matched fight.
And therein lies the definition of professional boxing being entertainment business more than sport. We're not even talking about big names wanting paid properly to risk fighting each other - these are nobodies in the grand scheme of boxing history, with their promoters behaving like it's Lewis and Tyson never managing to agree terms. Ridiculous. (Edit: see also Khan vs Brook - "finally, it's on" etc)
While Ava is a rightful favourite here this one definitely isn't a given for him. He might need a Frampton v Alejandro Gonzalez type performance where he looks more beatable and this gets the fight over the line
Ortiz chose to go the WBO route. It makes sense... Stanionis has agreed to step aside to let Spence and Ugas fight before he fights the winner, so Ortiz would have to sit it out for 2 more fights before fighting for the WBC belt. He’s ranked #1 with the WBO so he can fight a weaker mandatory early 2022 then fight for the world title summer 2022, which ties in with Crawford’s next planned fight date as he had a tough fight in November 21.
I'd love to see that fight. Warren should be doing more with Avanysian in his own right, though. He has a really appealing story to tell and the team around him are very likeable. More people should have heard of him but Frank doesn't seem to do storytelling.
I’m not necessarily team Eddie blindly. Just think if one side has clearly stated they are not interested then why bother. Why not actually promote the fighter you have and build him up.
Yeah 100% but it’s both sides. Avenasyan and Warren are literally cherry picking Conor Benn, they’re doing exactly what they’re criticising Benn for! They know Benn has got profile, they know he’s a big money fight, they think it’s relatively low risk so they’re cherry picking him. They’re not out chasing fighters ahead of Avenasyan in rankings or trying to manoeuvre a world title shot they’re literally cherry picking Benn for a payday.
