By: Sean Crose
By the time you read this the whole thing may be over and done with. Then again it may not be. There have been so many stumbling blocks on the way to a fight between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua that is hard to tell which ones are major and which ones are minor. This one no doubt is ridiculous no matter which way you look at it. The reason the fight may not be happening at the moment is because Dana White has been named as a promoter. Yet Eddie Hearn, the long time promoter of Joshua, has made his belief clear that Dana White isn’t supposed to be promoting the fight at all.
It’s all par for the course for contemporary boxing: the action is behind the scenes rather than in the ring. That’s a shame but I have to say this one situation is perfectly indicative of boxing today. And I say this without taking sides with either Hearn or White or Turki Alshikh, another the fights promoters, who happens to be aligned with White. The truth is this all seems to be an easy fix, though people have a knack of making simple things complicated. After all it’s more than hurt feelings that are at stake here. To some, it’s the future of the sport.
Or at least that’s how it’s being viewed I’m sure by Hearn. Dana White after all has come to boxing to possibly take the whole thing over. White, famous for the UFC, has coveted control of boxing or at least a great portion of the sport. That may be a great thing as White has a way of making UFC fighters fight. On the other hand he has a reputation of paying UFC fighters squat. It’s not going to be easy for him to force boxers to go at each other for a percentage of the kind of paychecks they’re used to.
You can’t knock the guy for trying however. White is about as bold and aggressive as they come. Don’t be fooled by the suave demeanor of Hearn however. You don’t get as far as the Englishman has gotten by being a pushover. That’s especially true in the United States, where Hearn has succeeded, albeit not without difficulty. But when all is said and done the truth is that this should not be a moment to discuss Hearn or White, it should be a moment to discuss Joshua and Fury the two men who are at least supposed to get in the ring this holiday season.
Fans particularly those in Britain have waited forever to see these two fight. In fact both Fury and Joshua are now past their primes and there’s no title involved except for when the WBA just decided to throw into the mix for no particular reason it seems other than to benefit the WBA. I used to be thrilled for this fight but now I’m not even sure it’s going to happen at all and some of the excitement is drained from my system. I’m sure I’m not alone.
It would remain interesting though if these two super sized Englishmen actually got to fight to see who the better man is. The fact that it may once more not happen on account of legalese or behind the scenes maneuverings just frustrates already frustrated fight fans further. Then again it’s been said that boxing truly doesn’t care about the fans. I suppose there’s no reason why the powers that be expect to lose them. Except they’ve already lost a lot of them here in the United States. I guess they can take the loss.
