The Aftermath

By Jamie Eskdale - 11/25/2013 - Comments

By Jamie Eskdale: What a week the boxing world has had. In one of the most turbulent weeks in recent memory boxing fans, specifically British boxing fans have had to put up with a lot.

First we had David Haye pulling out of the Tyson Fury fight for the second time citing a shoulder problem as the reason. Now if he has a busted shoulder then there’s not much anyone can do about it however this is David Haye who has a history of being injured at the most inconvenient of times.

Who can forget July 2009, he had signed to fight Wladimir Klitschko for his heavyweight titles only to pull out claiming a back injury and pop up 4 months later against Nikolai Valuev for his WBA title.
Fast forward to July 2011 and he eventually steps in against Wladimir Klitschko and is schooled over 12 rounds. In the post fight press conference he claimed a broken toe was the reason for his inept below par performance.

Then in the summer he announced he would be fighting Manuel Charr. Again he pulled out this time claiming a hand injury and here’s where it starts to get interesting.

He later announces he will be fighting Tyson Fury in a British domestic blockbuster. With absolutely no mention of Manuel Charr.
Peter fury later revealed that Haye was double dealing. Negotiating with the Fury camp while he had set up the Charr fight.

Now with the two pull outs from the Tyson Fury fights we hear murmurs from camp Haye about setting up a fight next year with one of the Klitschko brothers. This absolutely stinks, even if Haye’s shoulder injury is legit should he not have enough respect for Tyson Fury and the thousands of fans who had bought tickets, booked hotels and time off work to remain silent and let the dust settle?
Now putting all of that to one side for a moment have we seen any involvement from the British boxing board of control (bbboc), even a statement issued to promise an inquiry into what exactly is going on?

As far as I am concerned they should be all over this, leaving no stone unturned and getting to the truth for the fans and team Fury who have invested a lot into a training camp, media tour, interviews.

I don’t just mean money. I’m talking about hard graft, effort, blood sweat and tears into getting in shape for the biggest fight of the young mans life.

Now a Tyson Fury fan I am not but I believe he has been badly let down by the board of control in all of this.

And now we roll on to this past weekends events and another fighter let down, this time by bogus officiating.

Why oh why did referee halt the action when he did? I have just watched the finish several times whilst writing this and I can never be convinced the referee got that call right.

I know all the arguments for the call being right,
‘Better a fight being ended one punch too early than one punch too late.’ ‘Groves can live to fight another day.’

But in mines and lots of other peoples’ opinions none of these statements were applicable here.

Groves had Frochs’ number all night long and it was Groves first real crisis of the night and he should have been given every opportunity to get through it.

Again have the bbboc, the WBA or IBF issued any statements promising an inquiry or backing the decision or taking a stance at all? Not to my knowledge although I could be wrong.

It would seem the big winner in all of this is Eddie Hearn who holds all the cards for a rematch.

It seems these things are happening more readily in the UK and it is quickly gaining a reputation to rival Germany’s as a no go for a visiting fighter. Where a visiting fighter won’t get a fair shake and it is getting increasingly more difficult to defend.

It seems in Britain the refs are all too ready to end the fight ever so early. 3-4 unanswered punches and a fighter is in real danger of being stopped.

Later on we had the Bob Arum circus rolling into China with one of the poorest PPV cards in recent memory.

The jewel in his crown Manny Pacquaio was matched against Brandon Rios in nothing more than a PR exercise.

It is obviously quite clear why Rios was chosen. His face first came forward brawler style was tailor made for Pacquaio and he was nothing more than a sacrificial lamb who was hung out to dry.

Although it’s hard to feel sorry for him as he would’ve been paid handsomely but the deck was stacked against the kid from the word go.

All of this reinforces the point that the promoters and TV networks are the real government of world boxing and as long as there are dollar signs flashing, the myth that world boxing is healthy will continue to be perpetuated for a long time.



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