The Boxing thread

[leighton]

How weird

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/45309430

Its strange to see it happen and in a way i respect the fighter for walking out on the fight. If he feels he isnt getting paid right who are we to argue with the guy. These guys go in there in the hardest business to make money. I look at the journeymen and they make little to fuck all money yet there in the ring to get beaten up its not great but they should be looked after as much as the main guys money wise.
I know in the past even some of the big UK fighters under Warren were not getting paid or there was delays in them getting there fee from him the biggest promotor in the UK at the time which was wrong but they still boxed on. More do this and make a stand then maybe these promotors will pay them what they deserve.

 

[Metalartin]

How weird

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/45309430

The promoters are saying he signed a contract and agreed to the terms of the fight, legally they have a point but I hope they don't go after him. The promoters know a lot of these fighters will take what they can get and that's why they get away with taking the piss with their offers. I suppose it would be better if they included what he was offered in the contract, it can be assumed it was a pisstake offer but as seen with so many B-Side boxers wanting the same as the A-Side boxers these days, some fighters are unrealistic in their expectations.

 

[ono]

Im not Furys biggest fan dont care too much about the heavyweight division as it is poor. Saying all that his 2 comeback fights yeah they were 2 bums but the 1 thing that will benefit him the most out of those 2 fights is getting rid of the ring rust. Last fight he won on points and for me he didnt have the extra gear to go up and put away the lad. Thats 2 fights in nearly 3 years not active enough. Thats just what i think that division is bog standard no wonder AJ is dominating it.

The problem is, getting the rounds in is all well and good, but there's a huge difference between fighting at your own pace and fighting at somebody else's. Against Pianeta, he could do as he pleased and pace himself however he likes. Against Wilder, he will be on the back foot and will come under much more pressure than he did in the Wlad fight purely because Wilder is more aggressive and much less methodical. The way in which Fury responds to pressure tells me which way this will go and it won't end pretty (if it happens).

 

[ono]

Makes a mockery of rankings. How the hell do you fight 2 bums then get a world title shot. I thought you had to be in the top ten of the organisations rankings. Whyte fought a WBC final eliminator 2 fights ago against Browne.

He did but the WBC have put themselves in a strange situation where Breazeale is the mandatory, even though Whyte should be. The WBC are in Wilder's pocket anyway so Wilder will most likely beat Fury, rematch Ortiz (fuck knows why but he's already mentioned it), fight Breazeale and then fight Joshua. He has little interest in the Joshua fight right now and to be honest, I don't think Hearn is overly desperate for the Wilder fight yet, especially with the Whyte rematch on the horizon. Would not shock me if Joshua went Povetkin, Whyte, Fury, Wilder.

 

[ono]

Cause Joshua is a shit house haha

Not quite.

People have started blaming Joshua because Wilder made a very public offer of $50m to Hearn for the Joshua fight. Hearn responded saying he was interested and could he see a contract or arrange a meeting. This was flat out refused on the grounds that Hearn had to publicly accept the fight before seeing a contract or meeting. Obviously Hearn refused to do so. It later transpired that BT Sport were financing the $50m and the fight was to be on BT Sport. Joshua is very publicly under contract with Sky and therefore cannot fight on BT until he is a free agent (which is currently 2021). This explains why Finkel refused to meet Eddie or send a contract.

Hearn made Finkel (Wilder's promoter) and offer of $15m in June which was publicly accepted by Wilder and Finkel. When Hearn sent out the contract, Finkel stalled on signing because "there was no date or venue in the contract". Initially, the plan was for the fight to be 22nd Sep but because Finkel/Wilder took too long to respond to Hearn's very first offer (back in April), they lost the US PPV date because of the GGG - Canelo PPV on the 15th. So, due to the delay, no date or venue had been finalised by Hearn at the point of the contract being sent but it was very obvious that the venue would be Cardiff (it has a roof) and the date would be sometime in Oct/Nov. It's very interesting to note that the Fury-Wilder fight also has no date or venue either, but suddenly that's no longer an issue for Wilder. They also had no issue in sending Fury a contract without him first agreeing to the fight. How weird.

So, the reason behind Finkel stalling is that Hearn was already on his 4th or 5th extension request with the WBA as they had called the Povetkin mandatory in April (so he had 1 month to make the fight). Hearn had been requesting extensions all throughout May and June while he waited for Finkel. Finkel then went public and did an interview with ESPN where he stated that he would need an additional 4 or so days to send the contract back (even though he was more or less happy with it). At this point, the WBA stepped in and ordered the Povetkin fight. A a day or two before the WBA ordered the Povetkin fight, Wilder tweeted a message to the WBA demanding that they strip Joshua of his belt. Now, why would you do that if you had a genuine intention to fight him next? Surely you would want all the belts to be on the line?

So the WBA called the mandatory but then Wilder and Finkel went public saying that Joshua and Hearn had wasted their time, how they had sent a contract without a date/venue etc, how the money was shit (even though it x8 his highest ever payday and they had also publicly accepted the terms and money anyway).

Now, Hearn being the clever twat that he is, didn't bite at all. He just improved his offer to $15m plus $5m for Wilder to fight any top 15 ranked fighter to stay busy until April. This was flat out rejected by Wilder who had now decided that he was worth 50/50. Bearing in mind, Wilder generates a tenth of the interest Joshua does, earns a tenth of the money , has fought much weaker opposition and only holds 1 belt, that demand is laughable.

Anyway, Hearn signed his side of the contract and sent it to Finkel and he now has until December to respond. Once again, in a shameless attempt to try and paint a picture of Joshua not wanting the fight, Finkel drew everyone's attention to the fact that only Hearn signed the contract (and not Joshua) before later admitting that Joshua doesn't sign contract and that Hearn's signature is all that is required.

Frank Warren then basically lifted the further by declaring that they have been negotiating the Wilder fight since June......which by my reckoning is around the time when Wilder/Finkel starting deliberately sabotaging the Joshua fight. Afterall, why fight in a 50/50 fight when you can build your profile hugely by beating an inactive Tyson Fury.

 

[leighton]

The problem is, getting the rounds in is all well and good, but there's a huge difference between fighting at your own pace and fighting at somebody else's. Against Pianeta, he could do as he pleased and pace himself however he likes. Against Wilder, he will be on the back foot and will come under much more pressure than he did in the Wlad fight purely because Wilder is more aggressive and much less methodical. The way in which Fury responds to pressure tells me which way this will go and it won't end pretty (if it happens).

1 thing we know about Fury he can take a punch his chin is durable. Maybe the best in the heavyweight division. Against Wilder if and its a big IF it happens how will Wilder react to Furys tatics and antics in the build up to the fight and during the fight. Fury will make the fight his own and will take it into the trenches. Wilder we havnt seen tested. I thought Otiz would of tested him more than he did. Fury wont give a fuck and will go for it. I honestly think it goes to the cards the fight.

 

[Maly]

1 thing we know about Fury he can take a punch his chin is durable. Maybe the best in the heavyweight division. Against Wilder if and its a big IF it happens how will Wilder react to Furys tatics and antics in the build up to the fight and during the fight. Fury will make the fight his own and will take it into the trenches. Wilder we havnt seen tested. I thought Otiz would of tested him more than he did. Fury wont give a fuck and will go for it. I honestly think it goes to the cards the fight.

I do enjoy reading your comments about boxing as you seem an avid fan and speak sense, but what makes you think Fury has a decent chin? He’s been put on his arse before now by a cruiser who isn’t even a big puncher!!! I think he’s evasive, but defo ain’t got a great chin. Can’t see anything other than a Wilder win

 

[peoffrey]

What channel for Liam Williams at the weekend anyone? I can’t find it in the schedules.

 

[Metalartin]

Not quite.

People have started blaming Joshua because Wilder made a very public offer of $50m to Hearn for the Joshua fight. Hearn responded saying he was interested and could he see a contract or arrange a meeting. This was flat out refused on the grounds that Hearn had to publicly accept the fight before seeing a contract or meeting. Obviously Hearn refused to do so. It later transpired that BT Sport were financing the $50m and the fight was to be on BT Sport. Joshua is very publicly under contract with Sky and therefore cannot fight on BT until he is a free agent (which is currently 2021). This explains why Finkel refused to meet Eddie or send a contract.

Hearn made Finkel (Wilder's promoter) and offer of $15m in June which was publicly accepted by Wilder and Finkel. When Hearn sent out the contract, Finkel stalled on signing because "there was no date or venue in the contract". Initially, the plan was for the fight to be 22nd Sep but because Finkel/Wilder took too long to respond to Hearn's very first offer (back in April), they lost the US PPV date because of the GGG - Canelo PPV on the 15th. So, due to the delay, no date or venue had been finalised by Hearn at the point of the contract being sent but it was very obvious that the venue would be Cardiff (it has a roof) and the date would be sometime in Oct/Nov. It's very interesting to note that the Fury-Wilder fight also has no date or venue either, but suddenly that's no longer an issue for Wilder. They also had no issue in sending Fury a contract without him first agreeing to the fight. How weird.

So, the reason behind Finkel stalling is that Hearn was already on his 4th or 5th extension request with the WBA as they had called the Povetkin mandatory in April (so he had 1 month to make the fight). Hearn had been requesting extensions all throughout May and June while he waited for Finkel. Finkel then went public and did an interview with ESPN where he stated that he would need an additional 4 or so days to send the contract back (even though he was more or less happy with it). At this point, the WBA stepped in and ordered the Povetkin fight. A a day or two before the WBA ordered the Povetkin fight, Wilder tweeted a message to the WBA demanding that they strip Joshua of his belt. Now, why would you do that if you had a genuine intention to fight him next? Surely you would want all the belts to be on the line?

So the WBA called the mandatory but then Wilder and Finkel went public saying that Joshua and Hearn had wasted their time, how they had sent a contract without a date/venue etc, how the money was shit (even though it x8 his highest ever payday and they had also publicly accepted the terms and money anyway).

Now, Hearn being the clever twat that he is, didn't bite at all. He just improved his offer to $15m plus $5m for Wilder to fight any top 15 ranked fighter to stay busy until April. This was flat out rejected by Wilder who had now decided that he was worth 50/50. Bearing in mind, Wilder generates a tenth of the interest Joshua does, earns a tenth of the money , has fought much weaker opposition and only holds 1 belt, that demand is laughable.

Anyway, Hearn signed his side of the contract and sent it to Finkel and he now has until December to respond. Once again, in a shameless attempt to try and paint a picture of Joshua not wanting the fight, Finkel drew everyone's attention to the fact that only Hearn signed the contract (and not Joshua) before later admitting that Joshua doesn't sign contract and that Hearn's signature is all that is required.

Frank Warren then basically lifted the further by declaring that they have been negotiating the Wilder fight since June......which by my reckoning is around the time when Wilder/Finkel starting deliberately sabotaging the Joshua fight. Afterall, why fight in a 50/50 fight when you can build your profile hugely by beating an inactive Tyson Fury.

Spot on, that's exactly how I see it, Finkel's only consistency has been in his ability to contradict himself.

Hearn was also right in highlighting the way both Wilder and Fury have been trying to raise their own profiles by damaging AJ's very publicly via social media. Is there another example of Finkel doing business this way? You know via social media from start to finish? It's certainly not how they chose to do the Fury negotiations. I have my doubts that the fight will even happen this year if ever. Fury is a long way of being ready even by his own standards, his normal fighting shape doesn't really compare well with the top athletes in the sport to begin with but he really let himself go during that lay off.

I found it really suspect how Fury was phoning in that US based youtube boxing channel(I forgot the channel name) when they had Wilder on there talking about how AJ was ducking him. He was kissing so much arse during that phone in and that's so out of character for Fury "Don't fight AJ before I can get to him, you'll take my 50million". The way he also came out and said "Finkel and Wilder were very easy to deal with and business was straight forward, Finkel's a nice man" and so on, was far too obvious.

In general the way both their camps have been acting out of character suggests to me that the waves Hearn and AJ have been making recently in their respective fields has a few people rattled and has seen them forge alliances which wouldn't have happened otherwise.

 

[leighton]

I do enjoy reading your comments about boxing as you seem an avid fan and speak sense, but what makes you think Fury has a decent chin? He’s been put on his arse before now by a cruiser who isn’t even a big puncher!!! I think he’s evasive, but defo ain’t got a great chin. Can’t see anything other than a Wilder win

The Klitschko fight showed me that he took all of what Klitschko had. Also add in the fights with Dereck Chisora too his chin is durable. You call it right about him being evasive hard to hit at times is always great for a fighter and when in trouble he can smoother opponents work too. I just think with Wilder he is at times too wild and that will be easy for Fury. He will be evasive as you say. When Wilder lands Fury will smoother him hold him and slow him down. I think the fight happens in the US it will go to the cards and it could go either way. I just wont write him off. IF Tyson has the hunger still burning he will want to be undisputed champion again and he has done it once gets a win over Wilder sets up the AJ fight and he could do it again.

As for this weekend i be more interested to see how Amir Khan gets on. In a must win fight. As if he wants a fight against a aging Manny Pacaquiao then he needs this win big time. He still has the hand speed and is exciting to watch.