Beyond Boxing

What is going on with our promoters? It seems like chaos in the worlds of Hearn, Warren, and Shalom.

It’s a great soap opera for men that like to be the little spoon, I guess. However, it doesn’t help make the sport stronger.

The sad bit is, now that Eddie and Frank are forced to be cool, Eddie has taken to bully Ben Shalom.

Yes…this is really how a middle-aged man is behaving.

Before anything, a few ‘thank yous:’

Alfie Warren - @alfieRwarren

Warren Boxing Management - @warrenboxingmanagment

Hannah Rankin - @team_rankin

Rival Boxing Gym - @rivalboxinggymkingsx

Amy Andrew - @amyandrewboxing

Human Hussain - @numan007hussain

Masood Abdulah - @mas_masood1

Steve Broughton - @sb_boxing_

We are in the era of boxing where we have media created personalities that seem to be everywhere in the sport.

media personalities that end up training fighters, managing fighters, and promoting fighters, without them having worked their way up the ladder.

With Alfie Warren you have someone who is really from the sport, his bloodline is boxing. Boxing is what he knows and through that he’s been able to come up the right way and now with his brothers and Warren Boxing Management, they have an opportunity to show the public what they can do.

Hopefully, you enjoy the first outside recording in over 300 episodes.

The world needs more superheroes…

It’s very rare that you get a British title fight where two men leave everything in the ring, where two men go to places they’ve never been before, and where they find out things about themselves that they never knew.

It is so rare to see that Sunday’s fight between Fabio Wardley and Frazer Clarke, even though it ended is a draw, elevated both men to a new level of love and affection from the boxing fans and hopefully, to a new level commercially.

If only we had more of these fights in the United Kingdom, because we’ve got enough names and enough talent to do so.

If only we were able to get more of these fights on television more more often we could grow the sport of boxing to a new level. 

At some point, British boxing has to address its issues around doping.

Doping in Boxing has massively watered down the credibility of the sport and left us in a position where we don’t believe results anymore.

We don’t believe fighters are clean and we don’t believe our boxes are competing with honour.

UKAD and the British Boxing Board of Control won their appeal against the National Anti-Doping Panel, which means one of two things is true:

1. Conor Benn will hold his hands up and take his punishment then we can move on or

2. The Board. will simply say he is not welcome back in a British ring.

However it goes, we need a line drawn under the situation as fast as possible. 

What do you do if you’re Canelo?

Do you chase legacy or do you chase money, or do you chase safety?

It seems clear that Canelo is at the point in his career where he is chasing safety in terms of safe paydays and low risk fights, as if he’s built his legacy and has nothing further to prove.

But, is this good for boxing when the main man in the sport, the money man in the sport, is not really trying to elevate anybody else and what future is there for boxing if the superstars are not prepared to give opportunities to up-and-coming stars?

For as long as the Saudi Arabia money flows into boxing Frank Warren won’t put any of his A team in a UK ring.

So, what we going to get on TNT sport and in UK venues will be Frank’s B team, and on Saturday we got a glimpse of that and based on Saturday it’s not too promising.

Nathan Heaney showed that, without enough of those serious fights against your rivals, it becomes harder and harder to defend your title .

Credit to Brad Paul’s for a hell of a performance but he also suffers from the lack of big fight experience, but he is slowly building that up and hopefully both men are better for this experience.

You can define being a professional as, the ability to do what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, in the way that it needs to be done.

Anthony Joshua is the best example of being a professional from rarely being out of shape to very rarely being out the gym, he stays focused on his craft in a way that many of his rivals do not.

What we saw against Francis Ngannou was the ultimate professional performance and maybe this marks the changing of the public’s relationship with Anthony Joshua and maybe this is the moment when Anthony Joshua becomes a national treasure.

Why is boxing on the decline in the West?

Part of it has to be the lack of genuinely competitive and interesting 'big men.' It seems that there is a dearth of real talent in the bigger weight classes, allowing other nations to dominate.

In the UK is it a question or 'rubbish in, rubbish out' as many speculate?

In this episode I give a quick(ish) rundown of the things I missed between episodes 199 and 200.

Boxing is in a perilous place right now, but the promoters are happy to ignore that as they do their pilgrimage to the bottomless pit of money.

It cannot last forever and when it ends, will that be boxing done?

It is incredible that this version of the pod has made it to 200. 100% of that is down to you guys. You are the best audience anyone could hope for.

As a group we punch well above our weight and we will only get stronger.

There are also others I need to thank for where the podcast is today:

Martin and Andi – No idea why Andi hasn’t just changed it to ‘Y’ already, but these two are the reason I’m doing this.

Riku – Always being a voice of reason and a genius when it comes to the art of communication.

Greg Hackett – Added so much value with his USA perspective on boxing and his really simply but powerful way of explaining boxing.

Umar Sadiq – Through the pod we got to witness how cruel boxing can be. But, it was also goo to know the Umar is enjoying his new life in Los Angeles.

Isaac Chamberlain – It is so good to see him up where he belongs. Few have worked as hard as he has to get there.

Donnall Smith – a man who gave a lot in his episodes. He still has his greatest nights ahead of him.

Denzel Bentley – One of the classiest men in boxing. A man who I still believe will be a world champion.

Larry Olubamiwo – The man, the episode…then the other episode.

Shakiba Moghadam – An incredible woman who has done incredible things, and continues to do so.

Dan Azeez – The man that climbed the mountain, and will do so again. One of the sport’s true gentlemen.

There are so many others that support behind the scenes and I would run out of characters thanking them all, but they are so important in keeping me where I am in terms of the podcast and in terms of life.

It’s been a hell of a ride and we are finished yet.