Effectively, wow…I simply by some means managed to regain my composure after sitting by the GREATEST BOXING CARD within the historical past of all humanity– and I do know it was the GREATEST BOXING CARD within the historical past of all humanity as a result of the DAZN broadcast crew and all the paid and unpaid Saudi boxing operatives within the media stored telling us that it was.
In actuality, Saudi Arabia’s “The Final Crescendo” was an excellent card with seven noteworthy fights and an eye-rolling “that is the most effective card ever” propaganda push that type of took away from folks accepting it as an excellent card. Notice to Saudi figurehead Turki Alalshikh: Not all the things you do needs to be shoved into our faces as “The most effective factor ever.”
All of the extreme shilling for the Saudi boxing takeover is no surprise. A lot of the media swine will promote out for a pleasant media buffet. It’s not stunning in any respect to see a few of these guys shed their tattered vestments of journalistic integrity for the billion-bucks Saudis like they have been frantically tearing off a flaming leisure go well with.
It’s a little disappointing to see that habits, nonetheless, in a few the media folks I’ve come to love and respect over time. If we’ve misplaced the few good ones left, we’ve misplaced all hope for boxing media as a complete. Oh properly…
For sure, from this darkish pit of the boxing underground, I, personally, nonetheless refuse to normalize, legitimize, or assist to normalize and legitimize this takeover that may, in the end, cripple boxing and adversely have an effect on all the things from fighter security to the in-ring high quality of the game.
However my job IS to report on boxing. I kinda-sorta have to observe these items and discuss it. So, listed here are my notes from this GREATEST BOXING CARD EVER:
– If I have been to level to 1 second in time that capsulizes my mistrust of this complete Saudi push, it’s the 48-hour interval between Martin Bakole being named because the alternative opponent for Joseph Parker and a fat-bellied, off form Bakole being knocked out in two rounds.
It’s grotesque that Bakole, who was again at dwelling within the Congo on Thursday when he signed on to face Parker, missed the occasion’s day-before weigh-in as a result of he was nonetheless on his 9+ hour flight to get to Riyadh. No coaching camp. No actual medical checks. No actual PED testing. No time to even ditch the jet lag.
Neglect the after-the-fact storytelling about how Bakole actually was coaching and even the tall story of a 310 lb. “official” weight. The floppy intestine and man-titties informed the story of a man who, actually, was at dwelling, chilling with snacks on a Thursday afternoon, then jetted over to Saudi Arabia to face a world class heavyweight on Saturday.
Bakole, as heavy-handed and warrior-minded as he’s, by no means had an opportunity. Issues may’ve been quite a bit worse than the clumsy fall he took after being banged on the highest of the top.
And all of that is, exactly, the issue in coping with people who find themselves past any jurisdiction and who supply no transparency, haven’t any accountability, and throw round cash to show their whims into actuality.
There are presupposed to be some adults within the room to guard fighters from their very own combating instincts and from their administration’s instincts to take advantage of them for a payday.
What occurred Saturday was an actual disservice to Bakole in so some ways. This was 100% about defending the occasion over the fighter. It ought to function a short open window into the soul of Turki Alalshikh and the Saudi boxing initiative.
The place was the fee? Is there even a fee in any respect?
And, additionally, disgrace on the boxing media for not speaking about how shitty this complete setup was. As an alternative, they talked up the “ain’t he courageous” narrative, whereas all of the whereas understanding how irresponsible and harmful this situation was.
– One other transient open window into the boxing soul of Turki and Saudi boxing got here through the Carlos Adames-Hamzah Sheeraz WBC middleweight title struggle.
Within the latter phases of the bout, a involved and angry-perturbed Turki can be captured strolling over to the Sheeraz nook and informing the fighter’s crew, a number of occasions, that Sheeraz was down by two rounds, whereas encouraging the fighter to be extra aggressive.
Now, the query is whether or not Turki accessed the official scorecards for that information or if he was counting on the foolish Ring Journal AI decide’s tally or, possibly, even Chris Mannix’s DAZN scorecard. It doesn’t actually matter, though getting his arms on the official scorecards to see who’s successful can be particularly unethical.
What actually issues is that the Turki-favored Sheeraz, who was named a Riyadh Season ambassador and would’ve been the Saudis’ first Riyadh Season-“created” Muslim world champ, was clearly given favourite son remedy by the occasion organizer, and aggressively so.
BTW, Adames must accept a draw on this bout he clearly received.
– Within the GREATEST BOXING CARD EVER’s major occasion, Dmitry Bivol avenged his factors loss to Artur Beterbiev to seize all 4 acknowledged world gentle heavyweight titles.
Bivol-Beterbiev 2 was a greater struggle than the primary, principally as a result of one of many fighters (Bivol) truly made changes and confirmed a capability to adapt. The Bivol win means we’re going to see a Half 3, in all probability in October’s Riyadh Season present.
– In the meantime, David Benavidez, who was flown out by Turki to be at ringside to presumably arrange a shot on the winner of Bivol-Beterbiev, should preserve ready. His massive shot at unified champ standing has up to now eluded him in two completely different weight lessons.
– WBC light-weight champ Shakur Stevenson was presupposed to ship a showcase efficiency in opposition to late alternative Josh Padley. As an alternative, the story of the struggle turned Padley’s toughness as he lasted practically 9 full rounds in opposition to the infinitely extra gifted Stevenson, with out the advantage of a coaching camp or a lot time to arrange.
I’m positive the cash is nice for Shakur, but when the objective was to spice up his profile by signing with Matchroom Boxing, the technique has not paid off in any respect. Enjoying to an detached crowd on the opposite facet of the planet, buried on an undercard (albeit on the GREATEST BOXING CARD EVER), is not any option to develop his star. With no massive fights on the horizon and an iffy likelihood of the William Zepeda struggle occurring, this cope with Eddie Hearn (and Turki) appears to be like to be nothing greater than a profession pause and some empty paydays.
– In an fascinating facet observe, Turki needed to transfer this GREATEST BOXING CARD EVER to a smaller venue, per Boxingscene (in a narrative that was later deleted), to “promote higher ambiance.” The present was switched from the 26,000-capacity Kingdom Enviornment to the smaller Venue Riyadh, which holds 8,000 folks. And, per Turki interview through the “Final Crescendo” telecast, 7,000 folks have been in attendance, which suggests they didn’t even promote out the smaller venue.
Did the boxing world not know that this was the GREATEST BOXING CARD EVER?
– There was different stuff that occurred through the present in different fights, however you will discover struggle outcomes at FightNews. I’ve neither the time nor the inclination to pour over the present, past the low-lights.
– Individuals have been accusing me of being biased in opposition to Turki and the Saudis and all I can say to that is– hell yeah I’m biased. I’m biased to this in the way in which I’m biased in opposition to the Klan or in the way in which I’m biased in opposition to consuming bleach. And, no, after all I received’t “simply give them an opportunity.”
Why would I not be biased once I completely know that sending boxing to the Center East, on the expense of the US and UK struggle scenes, will harm the game in so some ways? Why would I not be biased when it’s so overwhelmingly evident that ceding management to a murderous monarchy– exterior of any jurisdiction and any diploma of accountability– is a really, very unhealthy thought?
When you nonetheless don’t imagine me about the place that is all headed, we obtained a small glimpse of it on Saturday with some free-and-loose play with fighter security and a few not-so-subtle rule-bending favoritism. Count on extra and worse to return.
As for the media…
What can I say? You guys actually and really do not give a flying fuck about something aside from your individual grift. Generally I believe to myself that possibly I’m too exhausting on the media, however then one thing at all times comes alongside to remind me that I’m not exhausting sufficient on them.
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