‘Atmosphere’ at Beterbiev-Bivol fight

Yeah, that’s an extreme comparison of course but a fight of this magnitude deserves a crowd that are a bit more interested and vocal. Everything I’ve seen of Saudi-hosted events is that they are highly manufactured but they can’t manufacture atmosphere. I wasn’t sure if it was just me thinking this so I’m interested to see that lots of people feel the same.

 

That’s a good point and I think that could partially explain it but I think it maybe runs a bit deeper than that. Or at least I assume it does, because as a point of comparison, track and field events in the diamond league are brilliantly supported by European crowds who are super knowledgeable of what they are watching and are not massively pissed up whereas those same events in the Middle East tend to lack atmosphere.