Just a quick thread on home town fighters being put in unnecessary risk because there's a financial investment in them. Here is a few incidents that were virtually criminal that I remember. 1) Nathan Cleverly - I don't know how many remember the Kovalev fight but I remember at one point Cleverly was dropped heavily and Terry O'Connor virtually carried him to sit down in his corner because he was all over the place and incapable of doing it himself. 2) Nick Blackwell - The fateful fight where he received a TBI and was put in a coma against CEJ should have been stopped far earlier than it was. Eubank Jr opened an uncanny can of whoop ass from round one. Shockingly Blackwell was ahead on the cards even though he didn't win a round. This fight was promoted by Blackwell's promoter Hennessey at a time Eubank Jr was a free agent. Blackwell's corner stopped this not the referee. 3) Josue Vargas - I hope I'm getting the name right here but he's the Porto Rican fighter who lost to Jose Zepeda. He fought a journeyman who's first name was Dakota in his following fight. The ringside doctors had to run onto the ring to stop it because the referee was allowing it to continue when Vargas was badly disoriented and confused. 4) Denis Lebedev - Lebedev was a true warrior of a boxer and on a good run at cruiserweight. Fighting on a home show in Russia he was hopelessly outclassed by the giant former welterweight Guillermo Jones. He ended up having to quit on his knees after being dropped a good few times and his head swelling to virtually twice it's original size. Any decent referee should have stopped it 4 rounds earlier. Anyway just a thread from a different angle, we all know how A-side fighters benefit from all the dodgey decisions, I was just thinking about how they are also put in unnecessary danger quite often too.
