This content is protected Yet another small-hall show from Frank Warren to fill his dates. When will Mark Chamberlain fight Sam Noakes? It's been talked about for over a year now. Nice warm-up before the big rematch in Dublin between Chantelle Cameron and Katie Taylor.
This "marinating" of domestic fights used to wind me up as well; but I think Bentley-Sheeraz is a decent example of when it can actually make a fight bigger. Their respective headliners Nov 18 and Dec 2 will improve their profiles, making their eventual fight bigger, and though they aren't 50/50s we do get to enjoy decent fights in the meantime. As long as they keep winning, their rankings are also going to improve, so as well as making it for the British you might also get it as a final eliminator. More of an issue for QP fighters is putting them in title shots (invariably WBO) too early - they seem to evade European (Dubois) or even lower (Yarde) levels altogether.
Must be the visuals of a full Liverpool Arena with 8,000 paying punters in it last week that helps improve viewing experience.
The quality of Queensberry shows has been very poor this year in the UK. All their York Hall shows have been filled with prospects against journeymen apart from McCann vs Baluta. They've had about 6 of them this year which is almost half of their UK show quota. It's quite disappointing, especially since a lot of their shows have been clashing with Matchroom and Boxxer cards.
Not really the answer to my question Those mismatched fights could have taken place at the 02 would that be more acceptable to you?
I know - my point is that a lot of Queensberry shows have been extremely poor this year. I make the point that it's at York Hall to highlight how bad the card is that they have to go to York Hall instead of a bigger venue. Even their show on December 2 is below average with 4 fighters still yet to have opponents announced a month away from the card, and either way the Belfast card is much better. Hopefully Warren steps his game up in 2024 and delivers big fights for Yarde, Sheeraz, Bentley, Dubois etc.
Well look at it this way At least Queensberry are aware of the shows capacity and book it accordingly In 2023 he also got two of those fighters you mention big fights
The shows aren't fantastic by any means but they're really no worse than Yafai-Frank or Masoud-Sanmartin. It has to be said as well that all promoters, including MR, occasionally struggle to deliver for their fighters; Catterall has had two relative knockover fights that haven't put him any closer to a world title, Bivol has been on the shelf, Felix Cash is missing etc.
As a DAZN UK Mug Annual Subscriber, I have been very disappointed with the UK based content, particularly the two Joshua fights at the O2. Matchroom has been producing 99% turd in the UK for 3-4 years now and it makes no difference whether the shows are small hall or O2. In fact it is even more embarrassing in an empty O2 when in reality based on ability levels, both Joshua fights really should have been at the Copper Box or York Hall.
The two you mentioned were NxtGen shows and Matchroom's two smallest shows in the UK of the year. Queensberry have headlined with David Adeleye twice against European bums on short notice, the Hutchinson and Zorro double header, Zorro again, and now Chamberlain and Turner with opponents who had a few weeks notice. That is 5 shows. Completely different. Catterall got unlucky that Prograis was mandated to fight Prograis or Martin. He will be fighting Josh Taylor next... Bivol has had injuries and problems with his wife... Cash left the Matchroom gym...
I'll concede those five QP shows are/were pretty appalling. Recent reports are that he may be fighting Taylor February 10th, I'm not sure about "will". It's a good fight, will probably do the AO, but it's (a) at a catchweight bringing neither nearer to a world title and (b) he hasn't really built any profile since despite getting out twice. Though I will concede they've done a far better job with him than Boxxer did ... If they'd made Prograis-Catterall, then that would've wiped off their best US show to end the year (Prograis-Haney). I love Sunny-Bam but that alone as a proper US show in the latter half of the year isn't attracting the viewership outside diehards. Where is Munguia-Berlanga, for instance?
