Howard Clarke Interview - has an incurable brain disease.

Very sad.

 

No, the only justification for boxing in this time is, if a man is able to pass all the medical tests required, who are you to stop him?

It is sad what has happened to Clarke, and if his evidence is right, the BBB of C has to look at its medicals, and resolve the issues Howard brought up. But still there are many journeyman fighters who help keep this sport alive by fighting on short notice and giving prospects fights that help to improve them.

Remember for every winner there has to be a loser, if you ban all the fighters with losing records, you have no boxing, and I do not think even Howard Clarke wants that.

 

With some of the records from other journeymen, I am surprised there isnt more cases like Howard Clarke's.
I know I arent a boxer but cant for the life of me think why people would want to get in the ring when you have no chance of winnning and get smacked about the head for peanuts.
I used to do boxing but it was at a low amateur level but I just packed in when I knew I couldnt hack it.

 

i guess you had something else going for at the time...and as you say you were not succesful. imagine somebody who knows he was/is world class. also he clearly has a passion for the sport. he knows alot of people in the game and has previous conversations and connections with the people in the background.
vets call fighting adrug. and just like a drug the "just say no" slogan doesnt always strike a chord.

boxing needs a retirement fund and/or better pay per fight

 

atschNo its not matetrust me...

 

I'm the paying fan who doesn't want to watch an action replay of fighter A knocking **** out of fighter B in the away corner- sometimes 4-5 times in a row on the same bill. Journeyman are not nessacary for the survival of the sport, if anything they are detrimental to it.

Back in the golden era how many journeyman do you think there were? Those who traded on the reliability to lose effectively? MMA survives without journeyman. Whats wrong with putting an unbeaten youngster in with someone 4-2 or 6-3 or 9-5? Why put them in with someone 12-79-4? Whats the point? The matches are always boring and only very rarely do you see anything of note happen in these matches.

 

The only thing I can say positive about this is that his single win out of the 70 fights he had after Vargas was...... Ross Minter.

Its a sad story but there is such a fine line between saving a boxer from themselves and depriving a man of a living and doing what he wants. Having said that I dont think guys that havnt won a fight in the last 20 should be fighting.

I wish him well for the future and can only hope he's as comfortable as possible or that a treatment of some sort to perhaps at least halt the decline can be found.

 

I really don't know what to think about this. On the one hand we respect and pay tribute to boxers like Peter Buckley and Ernie Smith, then you read this. Maybe promoters should stop putting on shows of ten fights and more, with three or four of them invariably featuring a young unbeaten local winning 40-36 against a 15-80 journeyman. Who gains from that?

But I do think someone, somewhere should have stepped in when a former world-ranked fighter suddenly started losing 20-30 six rounders in a row.

 

Journeyman always have been and always will be needed if pro boxing is going to make commercial sense.

There were a hell of a lot more than there are today, because there were an awful lot more fighters.

I do not know what a MMA is!

The point is a prospect needs to learn. No matter how good you could go on to be, if you are matched too tough or too easily early, it will hurt your career. Fighting someone who probably is not going to beat you, but will take you six/eight rounds is part of how you learn the pro game.

 

Yes it is. Clarke was a top notch journeyman and would of been paid in that context, in proportion to the bill he is on.

I think people forget sometimes that outside the top .1% of fighters, boxing is a very poor sport in the monetary sense.

 

So sad in so many different ways.

I could start talking about this and that from what ive just read...but honestly i cant just at this minute gather all my thoughts.:-(..ugh.


I'll at least offer up a Prayer for him tonight...

 

No it really isn't. 500 pound is nowhere near the ammount he would earn. Most of his appearences came on big bills and he would have easily cleared at least £1000-£1500 after fee's. When he was fighting the likes of Paul Smith and Wayne Alexander, Farnell I bet he was earning well over £4,000-£5,000. Even the smaller bills the opponent gets the lions share of the purse. 800-900 for a 6 x 2's and usually more.

I know for a fact.

 

The point is a prospect needs to learn. No matter how good you could go on to be, if you are matched too tough or too easily early, it will hurt your career. Fighting someone who probably is not going to beat you, but will take you six/eight rounds is part of how you learn the pro game.



What do you think doing six/eight rounds in an empty arena is going to teach anybody- when they are sparring champions each day in their gyms? Journeyman are used for one reason, and one reason alone- to lose and build the prospects record so that they can challenge for bigger honours as soon as possible.

If you want to discuss further i'd suggest making another thread as this one really should be used to pay respects to Howard.