5 vs 5 Card

Co-promoted since 2019.

 

Epic Fight Promo in 4K

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A lot of interviews to watch.

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On holiday and cba looking this up properly, can someone please list the announced fights, thanks in advance

 

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  • Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol; For the IBF, WBA, WBO and WBC light heavyweight titles.
  • Daniel Dubois vs. Filip Hrgovic; Heavyweight
  • Zhilei Zhang vs. Deontay Wilder; Heavyweight
  • Nick Ball vs. Ray Ford; For Ford's WBA world featherweight title
  • Hamzah Sheeraz vs. Austin ‘Ammo’ Williams; Middleweight
  • Willy Hutchinson vs. Craig ‘Spider’ Richard; Light heavyweight

 

Given that Hrgovic is a hot standby for the Usyk fight if Fury pulls out again.

Does anyone know if there is a substitute for Hrgovic in case he does fight Usyk?

 

Hear Anthony Joshua is spending 2 weeks in a dark room waiting on the call.

 

Did they announce the ‘captains’?

 

Sheeraz and Wilder.

 

I genuinely dislike this format putting the promoters front and centre. I know that's kind of how the sport has become over the past few years and how the promoters drive a lot of the discussion ("promotion" indeed) - but even Queensberry's official video is headlined "Wilder can't stand Eddie Hearn". Who cares?

And you can see how the wind's blowing when Frank muttered something like "we both hate Ben Shalom" when an interviewer was teasing them a little bit about his old rivalry with Eddie disappearing.

 

With Bivol and Beterbiev headlining it's a good card but I'll be glad when this bubble bursts and the Saudis lose interest the atmosphere is terrible you can only hear anything when the main event starts.We Need some big fights back in the UK in stadiums packed full of fans you can't beat those cards for me and this cocksucking oooh his excellency makes me want to vomit tbh.

 

No lover of Saudi. But this bit in bold is not true, and anyone saying stuff like this has such selective memories.

Look at a big UK card - say Joshua Usyk at Spurs, or Fury Whyte at Wembley. The undercards are largely ignored by the fans and the arena is nearly always a long way from full. It's not too much different to Saudi.

Dreadful atmosphere at Wembley for a cracking bout in Ball vs Lowe:

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We all know that the UK casuals only turn out for the main event or for their favourite fighter, when the atmosphere is usually cracking. Many on here have mentioned that a lot of fans at the Prograis v Taylor event left after Chisora v Price.

So much fair criticism to give Saudi Arabia that there's no need to make stuff up. Let's not romanticise UK boxing fans. Compared to most shows in the US, we're casuals.

 

Agree with this, have done since it was announced. I like the card and matchups, but the promotional element is a gimmick.

Let's face it though, Bivol v Beterbiev is a tough PPV sell for casuals in the UK, especially on Champions League final night. This cuts through much more.

The best thing about the Saudi takeover is that promoters are working together more - but it only works if *all* promoters are invited. I hope we see some Golden Boy and Boxxer fighters involved going forward, as we've already seen Top Rank, Wasserman, Matchroom and Queensberry.

 

Going off on a tangent

I'm wondering if these women fights being sandwiched in these days is due to the un esg fund which I recently found out is funding allot of the madness going on these days.

 

If wilder turns up and throws punches he will take Zhang out early.

Isn't that Ford fella the bloke who recently pulled a rabbit out of the hat?

Ball can definitely smash him.

Anyone asked Eddie if he still doesn't rate wilder the ****.

 

Totally agree with this. Said many times on here, casuals don't care about undercards - they might justify the PPV to a minority but most people are paying for the main event and might dip in and out of the rest. Understand this is different and the undisputed will be a tough sell but gimmicking up a promotional rivalry seems like an unnecessary sideshow. Throwing Wilder in as a ringer for Matchroom just shows how daft the whole thing is.

And again yesterday Hearn was critical of Top Rank for no apparent reason other than "they don't like me". Warren is saying the right things, that the 5v5 format could be turned into a more long term thing, with other promoters, countries, etc, but that seems far-fetched. Short term it just seems like a way for two promoters to push themselves at the expense of their rivals.