Watching the aftermath of the big fight, which I gave 115-113 Beterbiev but could see that either way a draw etc. But I find Edward in particulars interviews to be beyond offensive. Let's be honest love or hate him he is a great promoter and self publicist, what he isn't is a great boxing brain or a judge. Beterbiev has put 30 years into this moment and 95%+ would say a hugely close fight go either way. For Edward to be so disparaging takes away from the event as a whole, the fight and the performance of both. Somebody needs to draw him in line, having AJ walk second v the champion, disrespecting a man who just Unified and getting Benn a banned drugs cheat into the ring are all hugely disrespectful to the fabric of the sport
All gone pear shaped for hearnz jnr. Eddie, benn jnr and bellew are widely seen as the biggest prats in boxing right now. I think it's because him and Benn are silver spoon brats so they don't know how to live with humility.
You're going on about "drugs cheat" Benn but you ignore the fact that Beterbiev is both a convicted and obvious doper.
I wouldn't worry about it. Boxing promotion is all theatrics to build interest and money in a fight / rematch/ etc, and to garner support for their guy. Truth, objectivity and a sense of proportion is the last thing you should ever expect to hear come out of a promoters mouth. It's all WWE bollocks that no serious boxing fan should pay attention to. To be honest, the shite that promoters regularly spout (especially at the top end of the sport), is not aimed at hardcore boxing fans. They know we will tune in regardless, and they know that we see through their crap. It is aimed at the casual fans as these are by far the biggest market in world boxing, and due to them knowing less about the sport, it's quite easily to build whatever narrative they want. I do wonder why so many long term boxing fans on this site, fans who know the sport well, spend so much energy on listening to what promoters say and then complaining about it. The best thing I ever did was to stop watching most of the build up to fights. It's all the same; both fighters say they will win (invariably by KO); both promoters will say their guy will win and overhype their resume and skill set; and at the weight in face off some words will be exchanged and a bit of shoving occurs to create fake beef. If by some miracle something different and interesting actually happens in the build up, you can find it on here / YouTube / media site, so you don't have to miss out. Failing that, I just ignore the pantomime shitefest and just tune into the fights.
I don't like the way the Turki Saudi cards are starting to have a bit too much of an "Eddie" feel to them. The women's bout and the Conor Benn nonsense last night, seemed a bit too "Matchroom". And why the hell Joshua gets a shot at Dubois next, I don't know.
Too much shyte in and out of the ring last night for me. Female fight - garbage The Fonz audition by Benn - garbage Music - garbage The trailer pre main event - garbage Saudi Anthem - garbage His excellency butt licking - garbage Whitakker getting away with a draw - garbage Turkey's speech - garbage Hearn's moaning - garbage No Russian Anthem - garbage Neymar in Turkey's ring - garbage On the plus side the final 4 fights were a very good watch.
Brick Top needs to start putting his stamp on the Saudi shows more. He should start calling everyone slags and suing random people. The show can end with a masked gunman coming out of the shadows and shooting him.
Couldn't agree more. You have a long list of shite things about yesterday's show and only two of them (Whitaker and women's fight) involved actual boxing. Turki really needs to cut the superfluous nonsense at his shows.
Its clear Turki wants to make these shows an event, if I'm honest even Liam Gallagher who I like just got in the way as a tv viewer, I don't know if it adds to the experience of being there. I would pay that price to get these fights made, but the 1 matchroom thing I think he does need to introduce is winner stays on, and creditble/exciting losers can have a slot early in show.
One more to add, when Eubank's opponent was starting his ringwalk there was a bunch of lads just strolling down the ramp in front of him as if he wasn't there! Bloke's about to go out there and risk his health and they were like 'Sorry, just gonna take a shortcut to my seat' Urgh.
