Yep think he will do. I don't think Tyan will go as far as doubling down on what Umar said because I think it's too taboo even for him.
I know this has been asked a, thousand times but why did kugan buy Helder out? Also, what happened to Sonny? With regards to Fowler. Hardly a high profile boxer with a big following who pulls in huge views.
The whole schtick of a boxing interviewer is to be rat- and weasel-like enough to fool boxers into liking you and so giving you their time. He has blown his cover and exposed his true rodent nature by insulting boxers and people's hometowns behind the scenes, whilst ingratiating himself to them when face-to-face. Any boxer being intervewed by him might be reminded of this, which could directly impact his ability to do his job.
Everyone saying we’ve all said daft things isn’t getting the point. If you’re a bricklayer in London for example then it doesn’t affect your job but this guys job will require him to go to hostile environments in Liverpool and also he’s probably not going to be able to interview Fury, Brook or Hearn to name a few. Sure forgive the lad but can he still do his job effectively is the question
This content is protected Seems genuine. Has taken some amount of responsibility for it. Also after what he has said, not sure he could have said much more. Kugan should have him really grafting behind the scenes to see how dedicated he really is
Give the guy a break I say, we have all at some point in our lives fcuked up. It's what you do afterwards that can make you a better person in your life, although it is easy to forget our own wrong doings and totally jump on somebody else's. I'm all for giving anybody a second chance.
If I had to guess, IFL/Kugan have taken some advice, maybe from Matchroom or a comms professional, they've certainly handled it by the book. The initial text apology was prompt, comprehensive and crucially bought some time. Umar's personal video apology was delayed long enough to allow the initial furore to die down, there's no equivocation over individual posts but the point about his age at the time is in there, which is fair enough. At the end he's 'taking some time' again, priceless in these situations, so I think this is a suspension/holiday time to allow the story to die down and then they'll bring him back. Others may disagree but I think this is to their credit, rather than just dumping someone because they're in the eye of the storm, if they've done a good job during their time with you then a decent organisation will try to retain them if it's possible. Umar should be ok on return as long as there's not long term reputational damage to IFL or MTK or blowback to anyone else in which case he'll be quietly let go at a later date. I don't think that will happen and I certainly hope Liverpool based boxers don't feel pressurised to boycott his interviews. He's made a full apology and the Hillsborough cause is far better served by using these events as a way of educating people about the tragedy, because as this thread shows there's still a lot of ignorance out there and a lot of people who've believed the lies that were spread to shield those involved in the disaster and the cover-up. Overall for a small operation they've handled this much better than a lot of larger companies I could think of. I'm almost certain one of them will be reading this thread whilst trying to take the temperature of the boxing community so kudos to you guys for the way you've handled it. One suggestion I would make, is that although you'll desperately want this story to die down, you have a chance to get on the right side of it. Next time there's a Liverpool show in the offing, get Umar down to Liverpool with his video camera and get him to talk to Bellew, Fowler, Price etc and make contact with the Hillsborough Families support group and / or HJC and give them a platform to let ordinary boxing fans know about what happened and why people kept on for all those years. Educate some others along with yourself and have some good come out of this.
That's a very good post. Lots of good points there, especially about the PR response. Interestingly this was pretty much the opposite of how Matchroom handled the Anthony Joshua 'superior' issue - which was quite a similar thing. They just buried that under the carpet and hid behind the 'hacked' excuse. It worked to an extent, only boxing fans who follow the sport and social media very closely seem aware of it.
Of course he's sorry, always are when we get caught out for shat aren't we Do views change from 17,18,19 to early 20's...? Nah, you need a whole lot more growing and open mindedness as an individual over more time than that to change such **** views as that lad had/has. I'm all for second chances but lessons need to be learned here. For me, Has to be sacked.
I added a para after submitting. Bad habit that... PR and Comms are dark arts quite often. That story was potential poison to one of the world's most valuable sporting brands. They managed to kill it, which was as big a victory as Ruiz 2 in terms of preserving AJ's brand appeal. That wasn't an avenue open in this instance. This wasn't a private message from an account which may or may not be directly operated by the guy concerned, so there's no plausible deniability even if you wanted to try it on. I'm sure he's learned a very hard lesson and I don't think depriving him of his livelihood would achieve anything other than sparking off more bigotry from those who would blame it all on scousers complaining. He was a tit on social media. Most people do that and it never comes back to haunt them. He's just happened to be in a job where that's not the case. Unless everyone's social media back catalogue is spotless I think it's better his apology stands and people move on, although hopefully not before those who were reading his previous comments and nodding in agreement think on and do a bit of research into what actually happened, because the lesson of Hillsborough and how the organs of the state betrayed the people they were supposed to serve is one that everyone should be aware of, otherwise it will happen again.
When I was a late teen I did stupid things that I wouldn't do now, none of it I'm proud of, some of it I feel was justified but I would go about it in a different way now if I could. If some of the things I did back then were dug up and pinned on me now it would be an unfair representation of the person I am today.
