*** Official ESB Petition to the BBBoC and Frank Maloney ***

OK - having tonight witnessed the worst, most boring, most..... well, generally shite Friday Fight Night in recent times..... it is time for someone to take a stand.

Why the hell are Olympic medallists being matched with some of the most basic, unskilled, fighters from Eastern Europe - with seemingly no attention being paid to their records, their background, their actual ability to fight?

We keep hearing about how the British Board are the world leaders in Health and Safety, yet every week, we see human punchbags being bashed around the ring until the referees decide that enough is enough and stop the contest.

Frank Maloney's interview after the Jeffries and Price fights was absolutely pathetic. It's not good enough to simply say ''Well, he had quite a good record, 3 wins and 2 losses'' - against what, can I ask?

Not only are you putting the health and safety of these young 'athletes' at risk, you are also conning the public, and grossly mismanaging the career of your fighter. As Ian Darke correctly said, is this ''Low risk, or no risk?''

I am aware from the latest edition of Boxing Monthly that Phillippe Fondu is a great friend of yours, and that it is cheaper to employ these fighters than to draft in British opposition - but please, show some morals..... or is that too much to ask.

This joke has been going on long enough.

No more bums from Eastern Europe.

Rant over.

 

Too many bums period. Whether their Eurobums or Afrobums its just pathetic. As far as I'm concerned there is no way you should be putting any guy with 5 times as many losses as wins anywhere near a good prospect.

They should start on guys with Even records. The only time they shoud be below that is if they are last minute replacements and there is no other option or if they are PROVEN to have outstanding defence and durability, like the guy Bellew just fought.

The thing that really pisses me off is the fact these top amateurs fought the best in the world. Suddenly they take the headguard and pillows off and they have to fight rank opponents? Give us a break!

 

Pro Boxing is a brutal business...it's all about the greenback...£££...$$$...€€€...¥¥¥...£££...:yep

 

I wish we'd see more of the promoters have the confidence in their fighter that Gamboa's people had. That's what it should be like, this guy was a great amateur so why put bums infront of him?

He never fought a guy that was on a losing record, he's fought 2 unbeaten guys and and 3 guys with just the one defeat. Basically he's fought winners and thats important, people that come to win.

Now he's on 16 fights and on the verge of the big time.

 

People slate warren but malonry and hennesey at 10x worse in grtting crap opponents for there prospects. If Hayemaker were about Price would be fighting for a british title in 3 months time

 

I just feel sorry for the fighters...... both the prospects and the ones being launched into kingdom come every week.

Jeffries has gotten to 5-0..... and to be perfectly frank, hasn't beaten anybody that Billy or Ernie Smith wouldn't have beaten pretty handily.

I'm as big a Warren critic as anybody on here, but Frankie Gavin already has a win over Steve Saville, Bellew has beaten a guy that has recently gone ten with a world champion, whilst Saunders, despite his weight issues, has clearly beaten Lee Noble and Alex Spitko.

Sort it out, Maloney.

 

Gamboa turned pro at 25/26 in a lighter division where age catches up with fighters early, I guarantee he wouldn't have be matched as he has been if his handlers thought they had a couple more years to play with. He's 27/28 now and in position to make his move on the big time, thats why he was matched as he was. Age.

Besides, none of our guys is a Yourgis Gamboa......

 

Come the week of the card Maloney, Fat Mick and Uncle Fwank must have charter aircraft fueled up and ready to go at Riga airport. The number of unskilled, unschooled fighters emerging out of Eastern Europe is a ****ing joke. The BBBofC can stop this by refusing to sanction fights that include these puddings, enough is enough.

I say it quite often, but very rarely mean it, but tonight I can say without fear of contradiction that I would have lasted significantly longer than the waste of skin that was facing David Price...a man of that skill level, and in that shape should not be allowed to fight on a professional card in this country...even Price sounded embarrassed in the post fight interview.

 

Maybe Frankie Gavin is in his own way? He certainly has that kind of pedigree.

He looked bored as **** in that fight where I got ripped off. Why don't they just put him in with a Ted Bami?

 

Some of the fights made are absolutely pathetic and so easy that the fighter coming up will struggle to learn anything.

However,I do sympathise for promoters as It must be a tricky job to match prospects up correctly. They dont want their fighter being involved in too many wars before hitting the bigtime and they dont want to risk the fighters '0' as,at the moment,in the sport of boxing this means too much to fans,promoters and fighters.

Full credit to the likes of David Haye who's career path is something I totally respect and feel it would serve as a decent template for other fighters progressing through the ranks.

 

Lets be honest, to one extent or another most "prospects"are matched with very iffy opponents in their first year as a pro. Its when that continues too far into the 2nd year that I have a real problem with it.

 

I know that sometimes fighters have to be protected from themselves but you are spot on, if Gavin feels that he can do the job, why not? The worst that can happen is that he gets beat...so what, it happens to the vast majority of fighters at sometime in their career, so why not early doors when at least they may actually learn something from a defeat.

 

Gaz, the keyword here is "matched"...none of our prospects are actually "matched" properly, they are sent in against easy meat, they learn nothing by fighting stiffs...what happens in 20 fights time when they are put under pressure by a class operator, they don't know what to do because they have never had to get on the back foot, it really is pathetic.

 

If you match up the Olympians or other leading prospects that have been facing joke opponents..... with fighters within the lower half of a Boxing News/Boxing Monthly (or even Boxrec) top 10 - I'd guess they would fair favourably.

Frankie Gavin - in a strong division mind - Boxrec's UK 6-10......

Barnes, Wright, Rees, Lynes & Steve Williams

Bellew is already the #2 in the UK - other than Cleverly and Oakey..... who could actually give him an argument?

Those two are pretty bad examples, because they have been in with better guys than Price, Jeffries etc, but the theme can be established.

 

How much are these guys making for Warren, Maloney and Hennessy? Not that much, surely. They aren't stars and nobody is that interested in them at the moment. People are interested when they see them in a fight that actually looks worthwhile. So the risk of putting them in with a decent fighter is not a big one, they are hardly risking cash cows, they should just be doing what is neccessary to progress the fighters.

Khan lost when he was a much bigger star and they rebuilt him.

We're hardly asking for them to be in with a Prescott either, just put them in with winners at domestic level. Key word being winners, guys with proven records that might have come up short a few times. And I don't count a guy like Saville as that, he's just a half decent journeyman.