Its a shameless piece of profiteering from Frank Warren, but my god it should be an entertaining fight. He has just announced that David Haye will fight Dereck Chisora on 14th July at West Ham Utd’s Upton Park stadium.
Neither fighter currently has a licence, with the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBOC) stripping Chisora of his following this pretty disgraceful behaviour in the build-up to and following his recent fight with Vitali Klitschko and Haye handing his back after announcing his retirement. Chisora has since appealed the decision and is awaiting a hearing, also scheduled for July.
The fight has been licensed by the Luxembourg Boxing Association, which begs the question..what is the point of the BBBOC‘s ruling? Warren, who manages Chisora, stated that there were a number of other boxing associations also willing to licence the fight. It seems kind of pointless banning a boxer if it is still possible for him to continue to fight in that country. Surely there should be some sort of legislation preventing an association without any link to either fighter allowing a fight in another country. This effectively removes the authority from the Board who are meant to control the sport in Britain.
The biggest question, however, should be whether, ethically, the fight should go ahead in the first place. Chisora had his licence withdrawn and rightly so. The BBBOC cited him as being not fit or proper to hold a licence. His actions at the last fight cast a shadow over boxing and made British boxing in particular a bit of a laughing stock. If Haye had still had his licence then I imagine he would probably have lost it too given his part in the incidents at the post-fight press conference.
Warren stated that Chisora will not have boxed for 6 months and therefore not been paid for 6 months. He said that if Chisora were a footballer he would have missed the equivalent of 24 matches. The thing is, he isn’t a footballer! His behaviour and his behaviour alone has gotten him into this situation. Should he be allowed to profit from his unprofessional and disrespectful actions, because that is essentially what he will be doing. Would there be as much hype about the fight if there had not been such a public bust-up between the pair?
Warren claims that he will not be accepting a fee for promoting the fight. What he fails to mention is that he is the majority shareholder of BoxNation, the TV station that will be airing the fight. The ethics aside and taking the two fighters on their merits it should actually be a good fight, as long as Haye manages to avoid breaking his toe! Both went the distance with Klitschko’s and if they actually remember to box each other then it should be an interesting spectacle.
The intense dislike between these two will just add a bit more spice. The inevitable trash-talk, which I enjoy immensely due to its entertainment factor, should reach a whole new level. It never fails to amuse me how much the boxers get wound up by what is obviously a tactic to wind them up. Perhaps this time Chisora won’t just threaten to shoot Haye, he will turn up to the weigh-in with an Ak-47! Perhaps Haye will hire a London billboard and depict himself chopping off Chisora’s head with a sword! Apparently the fighters and their entourage were separated by a 7-foot steel fence at the press conference. Let the fun begin!
I don’t believe this fight should go ahead, but I think it will good entertainment when it does.
This announcement now makes me wonder how genuine that post-Klitschko match brawl was. Hmmm, it couldn't possibly have been staged...or could it?? ;-)
ReplyDelete