Boxing Clever
Well that was a rather uneventful week wasn’t it?
OK. I would like to start off by saying how well Dereck Chisora did against Vitali Klitchko on Saturday night. I said last week that he would leave everything in the ring, and he did just that. He put in a performance to be proud of. He bulled forward, stinging Vitali to the body and doing something that nobody had done since 2003. He actually took rounds off the great man and made him look human. His in-ring performance was something all British boxing fans should be proud of.
Sadly, this will not be what the week was remembered for. It was a week that disgraced the sport, plain and simple, and the stain will take a long time to be removed.
Let’s start off with Dereck Chisora, Those who have not been on vacation to Mars will know about his litany of shocking acts, before and after the fight. Slapping, spitting and fighting at the press conference. A week that should have announced him as a big player on the world scene, could lead to him having his licence revoked. Triumph could turn into disaster.
Let us take a look at the man in general. Here is a guy who has bitten an opponent in the ring, kissed an opponent on the lips at a weigh in and has been convicted of an assaulting a woman. There is something very wrong with this man. He is either really bad, or he is deranged. Take your pick.
Still, it was this loose screw that made the fight interesting. You knew full well that he wasn’t going to take a backward step from the mighty Vitali. Here was someone who didn’t, or couldn’t feel fear.
Looking back now, slapping Vitali at the weigh in seems tame. There were people who thought this was a great psychological triumph for Chisora. That this would infuriate Vitali and get him involved in a brawl These people failed to realise that Dereck wasn’t in charge of his actions, he never is.
There are no doubts that the Klitchko’s played on that. They are the cerebral assassins. Wlad getting him to unwrap his hands before the fight was, in my opinion, an attempt to wind him Chisora up. It worked. Dereck for a time refused to fight.
By now Chisora was on edge. He proceeded to spit water in Wlad’s face during the introductions. A disgusting act.
After the fight he squared up to Vitali. This was real car crash stuff. Chisora was looking a vile thug.
Then we had the scrap at the press conference between Chisora and Haye. This was caused by an ‘exchange of views’ between the pair. A volatile night finally blew up, bottles and tripods were used. Boxing hit the gutter.
After the incident Chisora threatened to ‘shoot David Haye’ and remarked his entourage was bigger than David’s. In a time where we are trying to get young kids away from gangs and gun crime, we have one of Britain’s top fighters acting like a member of the Crips.
Now I don’t believe for a minute that Chisora will really shoot David Haye. He has lost his temper. And when this kind of man loses his temper, he really loses it. But the man is now painted as the scum of the earth by those who want to hurt our industry. He is the ‘epitome of a sick art’
Let us move on to David Haye. Now David was there to cultivate interest in a match up with Vitali. Sadly for Haye his credibility is at an all time low after his pathetic showing against Wlad last year. His talk of bashing up the younger Klitchko proved to be just that, talk. He gave a performance so negative that it helped kill off Sky Box Office (maybe not a bad thing, that is a totally different argument.)
Now he was trying to talk his way into a big fight against the older brother. Sadly for Haye however, it seems that the Klits have realised that Haye has lost his golden boy status. Haye apparently wants a guaranteed purse, the Klitschko’s don’t think he will justify it. The fight doesn’t look like it will happen This was discussed at the press conference. Chisora, got involved, Haye called him a loser, Chisora stormed over and it all kicked off.
Now I have to be very careful here, I have no wish to get sued. What is apparent though is that David struck first, with a bottle in his hand. I have no idea whether he ‘bottled’ him. That will be for the courts and the BBBC to discuss. He later picked up a camera tripod and aimed it at Chisora’s trainer (hurting his own man, Adam Booth in the process)
Now I have never really been a big fan of Haye the trash talker. For me, he doesn’t deliver his lines well and he isn’t funny. He just comes across as insulting. But trash talking has become part of boxing. It gets the public interested. Look at Cleverley-Bellew or Groves-Degale. The fact they hated each other got the public interested, when normally the fights would pass under the radar. Fighters have a history of getting in each others faces. It very rarely escalates to this level of violence.
Many people are saying David acted in self defence. That he was being threatened and his actions were justified. On the flip side, brilliant journalist Terry Dooley has pointed out that Wlad may well have been intimidated when Haye got in his face a few years ago. What Wlad didn’t do was throw Haye down the stairs. That is because Wlad knows how to conduct himself in public. Haye started the violence, there is no doubt about that. He took it from a traditional face off into the world of thuggery. He too has damaged the sport.
It certainly has garnered interest in a fight between the pair. Bad blood sells, and this has got people talking. But as an industry we need to take a step back and realise that this has damaged the sport long term. People who have been waiting to jump on the sport now get the opportunity. TV and radio stations discuss whether it should be banned.
After the riots in the Summer, boxing was very well thought of. People talked about the sport as a place where people learn discipline, where kids can get off the street. Now many parents will see those words as hollow. Many will turn away from sending their children to the gym. ‘Where is the honour and respect?’ they will ask. This could have a damaging long term effect on the sport. When you look at it like that, the ‘well, it promotes a Haye v Chisora fight well’ argument seems a bit pathetic doesn’t it?
This is why both parties need to be heavily reprimanded. A message needs to go out that this is unacceptable. Not only to the fighters, to the general public also.
There are many people who want to kill the industry, let’s not give them any ammunition.
I would like to end with a man who is a credit to the sport. Jason Booth. He is the epitome of what the game is about, honour and courage. He has come through personal demons and boxing has helped him do that.
On Saturday night he was beaten by young prospect Kid Galahad on points. It seems father time is catching up with Jason. He has moved from a champion into a stepping stone for the rising stars of the sport. None of us want to see that. He has given us so much, we will never forget him.
I for one hope he calls it a day. He has nothing else to prove. Thank you Jason. For everything.
That is all for this week. My final thoughts are a reminder to us all never to forget what boxing does for society, and the honourable people who make it happen. For every moron like Chisora or Haye, there are hundreds of Jason Booth’s.
And as long as that is the case, it will be a sport I am proud to be part of.
