Beyond Boxing

In a week where everyone in boxing had their say about everything, Terence Crawford goes on Joe Rogan to really speak his mind and in doing so, gave guidance to all the young boxers out there.

We need more guys to speak out, like Carl Froch is, about the boxing Deep State.

We give Frank Warren and Eddie Hearn a hard time, but they really are swimming in shallow waters when it comes to talent. That isn't their fault.

The reality is that our system isn't set up for success and if anything, the obsession with Team GB has set our boxing back twenty years.

It was a holiday snap shared on Insta. It was the body hair patterns in that picture that made me suspicious.

Now, it's a failed drug test that has proved me right. I didn't want to be right though.

Alycia Baumgardner was born genetically gifted, hat her confidence wasn't high enough to see that is the tragedy here. There is a chance she would have been good enough anyway.

Now, her career has a blemish on it, which we didn't need.

It is tricky to be balanced about AJ. On one hand, he gives us a great KO and worthy of highlight reel status. On the other hand... it is Robert Helenius.

The reality is somewhere in the middle. We have a good heavyweight, but one that is some way off greatness. But, we should enjoy him while we can because what comes after is worse.

We need more detail before we can comment fully on Dillian Whyte. What we can say is that boxing is a mess right now.

However you slice it, Dillian needs better people, processes and systems around him so he can prepare for fights like an elite athlete.

Overall, the sport needs to deal with the doping crisis before boxing become a niche sport like bodybuilding and powerlifting.

Thanks to Greg Hackett for the intro - https://www.youtube.com/@ghbtv.9586

In a week where boxing delivered, we crowned two kings in Terence Crawford and Naoya Inoue. they stand atop the sport now as the leaders of this era.

Having said that, nothing should be taken away from their dance partners. In a sport where we demand the best fight the best, we cannot disrespect those that gave their all and came up short.

This is a week where our sport showed it best side.

This is the week boxing gives us a genuine superfight.

One man has risen through the weights to challenge for Welterweight supremacy against a man who has been unstoppable at the weight.

Who will win?

This is the week where boxing will show what makes it the best spectacle and sport on the planet. Two fights that will dictate the order of the P4P list happen this week.

Both fights are impossible to call, but this is what we crave as fans. This is the start for a good 8 weeks for boxing fans, so let us enjoy it while we have it.

We can be too down as boxing fans sometimes.

2023 has given us some epic events and good fights that we were struggling to get before. It is up to us to appreciate them and appreciate the sport we love so much because we are entering a busy and hopefully, entertaining period for boxing.

We get 4 heavyweight fights, and maybe a fifth, involving all the main actors in this saga.

Yet, between all ten, we don’t get one fifth that we really wanted.

If we waited this long, maybe we are destined to never get them, or get them too late.

But, we all hope Daniel Dubois can pull off the upset because that might change the dynamics.