Anybody else think the IBF ought to go the whole hog and merge with Matchroom? Kell Brook gets back-to-back mandatories that would shame a British title fight. Anthony Joshua takes their heavyweight title from a guy who made Bruce Seldon look like Joe Louis. Now they're sanctioning an absolutely horrific mismatch against a guy called Dominick Breazeale. Thanks to the Internet, the days are gone when Hearn and Sky could try and package Breazeale as some ''unbeaten KO artist from the states.'' A quick look on YouTube immdiately reveals a man who is nothing more than yet another lamb to the slaughter, another human sacrifice to the AJ PPV hype-train Sky have foisted on us.
The WBO and Frank are on the same level. So long as the mandatory gets enforced and Parker/Takam/Chisora/Pulev is made this year that's fine. Joshua was always going to have a soft first defence- my only issue is that Groves/Murray is put behind the PPV paywall to stack the undercard.
To be fair the IBF are enforcing all mandatories the only problem is their rankings are a complete joke. Hearn has seen what's happened with Brook, looked at the IBF Heavyweight rankings and thought we can hold this belt for quite a while without having fighting anybody that dangerous. That's why they steamed in and paid Charles Martin lots of money, they know long term make a bundle with morons paying £17 a pop on PPV to watch Joshua knock over bang average heavyweights. When a serious or dangerous mandatory comes up, Joshua will look to fight Haye or Fury because if they are going to take a risk they will do it for a huge amount of money. Same sort of thing will happen with Brook and Spence Jr, Brook hasn't got another mandatory until early 2017 so they will make another couple of really poor defences and move on to light middleweight lively when it's time for Spence. The IBF and their rankings are there to be abused and we will see lots more of this if for example they continue to rank the likes of Dan and Bizier as number 1 challengers at 147.
Spot on. That definitely looks to be the plan for Joshua. The Hearns really do think boxing fans are morons, and if this sells on PPV who can blame them?
:good exactly, if they are making money I don't see it changing any time soon. This is were this "hardcore" and "casual" argument starts, Hearn has mentioned it a few times now, they are selling events to casual fans and making a lot of money. Some of these events are now like WWE events, the fight is secondary to the event, TV cameras, screaming, shouting, loud music, laser lights, big screens and the mismatch they call the main event ends with a brutal KO and everybody goes home happy.
It's unfair to say it's just with Matchroom that the IBF rankings are poor. Anyone who saw Wade get splattered by GGG can testify to that
:good Looking forward to Groves v Murray. No issue with AJ taking an easy first defence but I wouldn't pay to see it
watch this video from about 30mins on good explanation on why you get the weak IBF challengers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY36o_VDBWo