Artur Beterbiev versus Dmitrii Bivol and reflections on boxing

After two years away from both writing and boxing for the most part i’ve decided to return on the cusp of one of the greatest fights of the last decade. I won’t bore you with why I think one or the other wins as everybody else has been saying their piece for weeks now and i’m to rusty to give much of an informed opinion. What I will say is that boxing is both finally living up to its potential and killing its future at the same time. This might sound ridicolous, after all the best are fighting the best now right? so how could any of this be negative you say. It all comes down to where the fights are taking place and how that is effecting the sport elsewhere. Saudi Arabia paying all of these fighters huge amounts of money is great for the current fan as we get to see the fights we’ve been wanting but what happens when they get bored and no longer cough up the cash? Now that fighters are used to being payed retirement checks for these fights they arn’t going to take hugely reduced purses for risky fights and we revert back to fights not being made and most likely regressing from where we were at before the Saudi involvement. The other major problem for boxing is that fights that would normally have occurred in the UK, USA etc have been exported to a country the fighters have no connection to and very few of their fans can realistically go to just to attend a boxing match. The Wardley versus Clarke fight is one of the best examples of this, The first fight headlined the O2 Arena in front of a great crowd and was one of the highlights of British boxing this year. A rematch in the UK would have drawn a good crowd and provided other fighters a card to fight on as well as keeping professional boxing alive and thriving in the UK, a region which has started to struggle in more recent years. The fight instead has been shipped to Saudi Arabia for seemingly no real reason. Neither of the fighters have any connection to Saudi, they arn’t highly ranked contenders at heavyweight and aside from British fight fans and some international boxing fanatics nobody has heard of them let alone cares about them fighting. The British title being fought for far outside of the British Isles is also something to question however one i’m not particularly bothered by as this specific title (heavyweight) has been fought over in Australia albeit more than a century ago. Boxing will have to be careful with just how many fights get sold to the Saudi’s as while its very lucrative for everyone involved now it could lead to a rapid decline in interest in boxing in various countries around the world as they are deprived of access to good local fights.

Aside from that one negative thought thats been circling in my head I am looking forward to this fight like I haven’t looked forward to one in years. This feels like the ending to a decades long story between two great Russian amateurs turned pro’s who are finishing off their careers with a fights that neither could walk away from. This should be a classic which people look back on for decades to come and when it comes down to it i’m just glad to be back to watch it!