International boxing is looking more and more like some kind of absurd comedy. The all-British heavyweight showdown between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury, finally made official two days ago after years of delay compared with when fans would ideally have wanted to see it, is already in danger of falling through.
As far as can reasonably be reconstructed from the fragmented and sometimes contradictory reports circulating online, the key issue at the heart of the latest in the countless controversies surrounding the organization of the fight concerns Dana White’s potential involvement as one of the event’s promoters.
The UFC boss, who is trying to establish himself in the boxing world and would like to sweep aside the existing promoters and organizations, pushed very hard in recent months to move the fight from the United Kingdom to New York. He ultimately lost that battle, however, due to the firm stance taken by Eddie Hearn and Anthony Joshua, who were determined to keep the event on British soil.
White, though, has not stopped fighting for a leading role in the event, and the first promotional announcements released by Netflix appeared to confirm a victory for him on that front, as they listed him among the promoters. Eddie Hearn immediately hit back, publishing a video in which, using decidedly unfriendly words toward his rival, he stressed that White’s categorical exclusion is explicitly written into the contracts and that Netflix had evidently not been informed of the actual situation.
That set off a domino effect. The Ring’s American journalist Mike Coppinger, widely known for his close alignment with Saudi official Turki Alalshikh, whom he rarely misses an opportunity to praise in an overt and often undignified manner, began claiming that the fight is in danger of being cancelled and could be replaced by other matchups.
Making the whole situation even more surreal are the potential replacement fights suggested by Coppinger: Crawford vs Garcia, Benavidez vs Fury and Opetaia vs Wilder. These matchups are so strange that they sound completely made up, an impression further reinforced by the reaction of Terence Crawford himself, who publicly asked Coppinger where he had heard such reports, adding that he knew nothing about them.
Meanwhile, Turki Alalshikh has limited himself to posting on his social media accounts a photograph showing him alongside Dana White and Nick Khan, the heads of TKO Promotions, seemingly underlining his intention to back the American promoter in the battle currently unfolding. Tyson Fury appears to be on the same wavelength, openly attacking Hearn and Joshua, accusing them of trying to pull out of the fight and explicitly supporting White and his involvement.
The impression of this writer is that what we are witnessing is a desperate attempt to put pressure on Eddie Hearn so that he agrees to give up some of the clauses contained in the contract that has already been signed, threatening to blow up the entire deal and portray him as the guilty party should he refuse. All of this is being carried out with the support of compliant media outlets, used as a weapon to back the Matchroom Boxing chief into a corner.
We will now have to see what developments come next. Netflix’s reaction will be particularly worth monitoring, as the company risks suffering a spectacular public-relations boomerang if the fight, already announced with great fanfare, ends up not taking place after all.