Which Matchroom fighters do you support?

Let's not hope so. I can well imagine Shanny and Babic in a co feature on a major DAZN UK PPV Card in the near future.

 

Joshua Buatsi
Felix Cash
Joe Cordina
Chris Billam Smith
Scott Fitzgerald (if he ever fights again)
John Ryder

Someone beat me to it, but also applies to me despite not buying into the narrative Matchroom have constantly pursued around him- Anthony Joshua is a fighter I generally like and support. He certainly has his faults but he also typically does not get the credit he deserves on here.

 

I have to admit, I was expecting a better stable when they left for DAZN, maybe since the last of the golden generation have retired there isn't as much to get excited about in the UK, maybe because their rivals are getting stronger... probably a combination of those things.

 

All of them, till I don't.

 

After a series of higher profile, household names retired the 2016 Rio Olympians were meant to take their spot and effectively be the next generation of Matchroom champions.

It just hasn't happened.

Fowler has turned out to be British level no more, Buatsi while a special talent hardly ever fights and is close to being written off by most at this stage, Josh Kelly despite the talent has been a disaster for a variety of reasons, Joe Cordina is 30 and who knows what the future hold for him, Okolie has won a world title which was a vacant belt against a very faded former champion but is no fan favorite and the unification fights are no where to be found...

 

I don't view a promotional biased for boxers like some. However I do watch the look out for the following MR boxers when on:

- Usyk
- Whyte
- AJ
- Bivol
- Okolie
- Benn
- Smith brothers
- Cheeseman
- Cash
- Cordina
- CBS
- Parker
- Taylor
- Babic
- Wardley

 

It's a well known fact that every fighter Matchroom sign gets a crash course in how to act like an absolute whopper once they step through the doors at Hearn HQ.

 

Definitely Scott Fitzgerald - everyone loves a redemption story. I like Johnny Fisher, he seems a good guy. I'd probably like Dillian Whyte a lot more if it wasn't for weirdos like Aydamn.

I like Eddie Hearn, he's a good character and entertaining. I think there's a fair bit of anti-Matchroom sentiment on here and that's partly down to the Matchroom FC types. This is a boxing forum for 'real' boxing fans - so I think lots of us (myself included) look down our noses at the sorts you see on Twitter commenting on Michael Benson threads.

The phenomenon in the last few years of people essentially "supporting" Matchroom like a football team is bizarre. Hearn has helped to enable this with the narratives he spreads on YouTube channels. That's not to say Warren/Arum etc don't or can't do this - but they're nowhere near as new media savvy as Hearn so can't do it as effectively.

One of the smaller things that got on my wick was Matchroom quite clearly getting Michael Buffer on board to essentially spread propaganda on Twitter. I remember after Fury Wilder 1, buffer was saying how Joshua is the only of the top heavyweights with a "perfect" record.. then a few months later (post Ruiz 2) that Joshua had "beaten every fighter he's ever faced". Neither of those things were untrue, but something clearly so manufactured for the purposes of good PR just cheapens the sport.

I've veered off the topic a fair bit, but this thread got me thinking about the reasons for the anti-MR sentiment on here. Think it's an interesting discussion point.

 

Buffer is a sellout. He MC’s at some terrible ‘celeb’ events these days. About time he called it a day as he can’t even pronounce fighters names right these days.

I think everyone likes Fitzgerald as he comes across down to earth and doesn’t put on an act like 99% of Matchroom fighters but that’s also probably to his detriment as far as Matchroom are concerned as they much prefer the scripted crap that Joshua, Fowler, Benn, Buatsi etc come out with so they tended not to push Fitzgerald as much.

Speaking of Fitz - any update on how he’s doing? @Oreet Cha!

I think Matchroom FC will die down now with the exception of @Mitch87 as Hearn isn’t on Sky every 5 minutes pushing his nonsense.

 

Agree on Joshua too. Comes across a nice bloke but he's had that many people in his ear from early (Hearn, Sky, his marketing team, his entourage, McCracken etc) he just comes across a very confused individual these days.

 

It's interesting isn't it - Sky/Matchroom seemed to actively court those sort of personalities. Those willing to toe the line but quite often lacking self awareness. Why they continue to use Bellew will forever remain a mystery to me. Interestingly I think they completely misjudged Anthony Fowler, he's obviously no world beater but I think they thought he could be. His personality was far too irritating even for Matchroom FC types to get on board with.

Buffer is a complete sell out. He's basically 'rent an opinion' these days - he's also been fairly prolific at posting the standard woke/democrat politics whilst Trump was in office, just because it's the "right" opinion for celebs to hold.

 

I don't think he is a "nice" bloke necessarily. Especially not in his earlier years.. although he seems to have matured recently. I agree he does seem confused these days.

I reckon that within the next 10 years, Hearn and Fury will go on a tour doing talks and question and answer events together. It would've been really interesting to see them work together had Fury signed with Matchroom, just to see how it would have panned out.

 

Drug dealers are vermin, the manufactured 'Humble One' persona is completely fake along with all Earn claims that Joshua was an elite Heavyweight boxer.

The boxers now it, Earn knows it and finally the cohort of PPV Mugths seen it twice v Rice Pudding Jnr and Usyk.

 

Yeah, I've never really warmed to him. I still remember the Eddie Chambers thing a few years ago which was very tidily swept under the carpet.

 

Plus don't buy out of 'their' shops during a BLM speech - anybody else standing on a soapbox stating don't buy out of Asian shops etc would have been arrested on the spot.

No time for drug dealing racists.