Beyond Boxing

Carl Froch started off as the hardcores’ spokesman, but he has slowly turned into another tool of the machine. Maybe it’s hard to leave the limelight after being such a great fighter, but surely integrity has to mean something The Conor Benn interview did everything it wasn’t meant to do but gave fans nothing of what they need. In doing that, they have shredded the. Skye and credibility of the Froch on Fighting channel.

The partnership between Queensberry Promotions and DAZN has been met with enthusiasm from boxing fans and industry insiders. Frank Warren, the head of Queensberry, expressed excitement about the collaboration, highlighting DAZN’s commitment to boxing and its ability to provide a one-stop platform for fans. The deal ensures that Queensberry’s fighters, including Tyson Fury, Moses Itauma, and Fabio Wardley, will now be showcased exclusively on DAZN. The move is seen as a major shift in boxing broadcasting, consolidating top-tier talent under DAZN’s umbrella alongside promotions like Matchroom and Golden Boy. Fans have welcomed the convenience of accessing multiple promotions in one place, while Warren emphasized the global reach this partnership offers.

We are seeing the early signs of a boxing recession. The money coming into the sport is falling and the sources of those funds are reducing. For too long, people took from boxing without putting in, and now people are seeing the result of that, with the talent pipeline looking weaker every year. maybe this is what boxing needs. Dance Under The lights Podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTFJgjTotZw&pp=ygUfZGFuY2luZyB1bmRlciB0aGUgbGlnaHRzIGJveGluZ9IHCQlRCQGHKiGM7w%3D%3D Sharp Betting Podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xbIXpXsGjw&t=1s

The Saudi-backed boxing league faces an uphill battle to succeed. What can Dana White do that Al Haymon, with a stable of generational talents, plus $500m in capital do? It feels like Turlki Alalshaikh is now serious about making a profit from boxing, so expect purses to fall but activity levels are about to rise.

EGGSELENCE OF EGGSECUTION by Highfield Boxing

BEYOND BOXING EP250 - DIMITRY BETTERS ARTUR by Highfield Boxing

We have a rematch that might be the end of one elite career. Both Beterbiev and Bivol had to dig deep into their reserves of courage and heart to survive. Have they got enough left to go again? This Saturday we will find out.

Boxing such a cruel sport. Due to the nature of the sport it’s very important to get your first step perfect. Too many times we see boxers get their start in the game completely wrong and they never get that moment back, and they never get the momentum back, which means they never fulfil their potential. If you are a boxer, be very careful about making that first move because you never get a second chance.

Derek Chisora is proof that Boxing is really about hard men. Hard durable men last the longest in the world of Boxing and it’s good to see him have this Indian summer to his career.

Who is Conor Benn really and does he even know? Sometimes it is easier not to pretend and I’m trying to be Nigel Benn II, maybe Conor is hurting his career. April 26th will tell us a lot more.

Does boxing really need its own Oscars night? Have they really given the fans all they want? or, is this another chance for more back-slapping? these sort of events are great for the camera and microphone jockeys and not that great for the fans. But...when you are a promoter with your own show on the same night, where should you be?

IF WE CAN DO 300 TICKETS WE'LL DO A LIVE SHOW I promise, there is really good boxing content in this episode, when you get to it. It was good to finally get back with the guys and record. We give our take on the last year in boxing, and in life, picking up on the bigger themes that are shaping boxing as a sport. There's more we could have covered, but there are only so many hours in the day. Enjoy this episode and if you like it, please share and subscribe.

There are three things that make a boxer elite: The ability to control any opponent and take away their strengths The ability to impose your will on your opponent and The focus required to do those two consistently for 12 rounds. On Saturday night, one man did it, and rightly won, and the other just couldn't. These fights are always about the finest f margins and Usyk had all of those.

A short discussion on what both Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk have to do to win on Saturday night. Honest views from a podcast that cares.

The more I've read and listened to info on the Conor Benn saga the more I think this is a cover up about the failings at UKAD. Nobody has challenged the validity of the VADA tests and now that the process is over, Conor Benn is unwilling to talk on the subject. It feels like UKAD need him to be silent, more than he needs to share his side of the story. There are huge issues here that need clarifying.

If we didn't have Frank Warren domestic boxing in the UK would be fried. How did it get so bad? As fans we either get historic fight cards, or really bad fight cards, with no in-between. What we saw this weekend was a dark omen for what is to come if we don't start addressing things now.

Galal Yafai shocked British boxing with a one-sided demolition of Sunny Edwards. The odd thing about the fight was how easy it was. At that level no boxer should be able to tee off with bagwork combinations. it was like watching somebody doing padwork on another human body. Hopefully, this is the springboard to success for Galal Yafai.

It's a worrying time when you see Eddie Hearn using the tactics he used to laugh at other promoters for using. But it goes to show how far the pendulum has swung away from Matchroom in the last 3 years. Also....NOBODY ASKED FOR CHISORA V WALLIN!!!!

For anyone that can help Christian Allcorn, you can contact him on Twitter - @ChristianAllco1 Or Linkedin -https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-allcorn-87057023/ Many will be disappointed with this fight, but I am proud of Mike Tyson. It takes real heart to wake up at 58 years old, as a millionaire, and find it in you to train for a fight. He may never be what he was, but that warrior spirit never leaves you. Only casual fans can be disappointed with what they saw. What did they expect a 58 year old man to do? As for Jake Paul, he cracked the boxing matrix - getting rich with no risk and no CTE. Netflix got 250m streams of fight that was pantomime, at best. Everyone is a winner.

6 1/2 years after Eddie Hearn, proclaimed DAZN was the home of Boxing. Frank Warren has made the zone, the whole of Boxing 6 1/2 years of tools and insults a decade of his integrity being questioned BoxNation being questioned, and now Frank Warren seems to be the senior partner in the Suzanne situation and look this has been for years in the making maybe a bit longer and you have to respect Frank Warren for playing the long game while Eddie Hearn was burning up his his capital looking for short-term returns, but the most exciting thing the thing that put a smile on my face is the realisation that that Matchroom

A decade ago a group of young boxes including Ohara Davies, Anthony Yarde, Craig Richards and a few others became the first bridge between conventional media and social media. They were the first generation that proved you could demonstrate marketability through social media and while many others had social media before nobody utilised social media in such an effective way. They were almost the influencers of their day, and you wonder if the opportunity been available a decade ago would these guys are promoted their own shows. Would they have become KSI of the Jake Paul’s of their era? As we sit on the verge of watching this generation slowly work their way out of Boxing it might be time to give them their 💐.

Be there for your people, with love, when they are winning and when they are losing.

When the two best fight to be #1 in their division, you expect it to be close. So, when it is close, you can’t be surprised at the result. Beterbiev and Bivol gave their best, and now, we should let them go their separate ways and allow the division to freshen up.

Beterbiev versus Bivol, is the Hardcore’s dream matchup, but this fight doesn’t seem to have gathered much traction in the mainstream media. Is this is down to the effect of Anthony Joshua versus Daniel Dubois, and the kind of emotional fatigue that boxing fans will have after such a big event? It poses a question, are we having too much boxing in a short space of time, and not giving fans the opportunity to appreciate what could be a historic era in Boxing?

With Anthony Joshua versus Daniel Dubois now complete. We have an opportunity to reflect on what was one of the most spectacular seven days in British boxing history, and the big winner in the last seven days have been Don Charles, with his reputation, greatly enhanced, and many of the things he’s been saying for years finally vindicated. For many others, it means a reassessment of careers and in the case of Josh Warrington, we get to say goodbye to a British boxing legend.

Wow! Just wow! These are the times you live boxing.

We’re so close to fight night, and this week has been a week or so many plot lines. From the status of Don Charles being debated to the tension between Willy Hutchinson and Joshua Buatsi, and the weigh-in on Friday was kind of a good moment to bring everything together. Fans were in good spirit. The promoters in good spirit. The boxers were clearly focused and energised, and it made for a great spectacle. Boxing wouldn’t get this kind of spectacle without the Saudi money being involved and at some point, we have to accept that their money is just as good as anyone’s money.

There is no question that Anthony Joshua is a massive favourite in this fight against Daniel Dubois. From his experience, power, size and strangely enough skill, he has a lot of things over Daniel, but the real test is whether he still has the desire in his mid thirties to to be the man in the division again. To do so he’ll have to stop Daniel Dubois in an emphatic performance in order for us to believe that he could beat Usyk or Tyson Fury. But, there are many ways that Joshua can win and in this episode, we will focus on some of the keys to victory for Anthony Joshua.

There is an argument to say that Daniel Dubois has not lived up to the potential he had as a as an 18 or 19-year-old making his way in the professional ranks. But, he has shown his resilience and ability to fight back from setbacks to finally become a world champion. On September 21 he has the opportunity to cement his reputation as a genuine world Champion by beating Joshua, easily his hardest challenge. Here’s how he can do it.

Does a promoter have the right to recoup their investment costs from the fighters? Matchroom have spent a lot of money promoting Joe and get him to world title status and it looks like now Eddie is in for a cash out mode and Joe Cordina, while not necessarily happy with it, has to accept that this is just how it works in boxing.

This is a great opportunity to shake off some ring rust, and kind of feel my way back into recording. Boxing is in a really interesting place. There’s a lot less money in boxing than there used to be and as such, you have more people chasing less money and we are starting to see the effect of that on both international and domestic boxing.

In August 2024 everybody is an expert on gender. Everyone is quick to the label someone as trans when we don’t even have a workable definition of gender for sport. We lack a workable test with workable thresholds. People talk about these matters like XX versus XY is that simple when, as a human race, we haven’t gender tested at scale ever and now were literally about to start gender testing women just to prove they are women. Is there anything more degrading than that? Deep down a lot of the men defending women in this case do so because of a sexist view of how fragile women are.

While there is juice in the lemon we will keep on squeezing. I guess that’s the philosophy of boxing for where we are in 2024. As long as these ageing stars can give us entertaining fights they will keep creating entertaining fights because the new generation it doesn’t seem that there up there yet and so I can understand the value in a Joe Joyce versus Derek Chisora.

Is Boxing in South London working? Now, we have seen so many boxers from south London Chamberlain, Riakporhe, Azeez, Bentley, Cheeseman all winning titles, but we’ve never felt confident that, at the top level, we had guys that can do it. In fact we haven’t had a guy we felt confident a boxer could dominate since David Haye. Is that a sign that is the problems run deep in South London Boxing, I think so.

So the Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney saga continues. It now looks like both guys could be on the shelf for a whole year with Ryan Garcia serving a drug ban and Devin Haney, seemingly needing to get his whole life correct before he boxes again. The sum total of it is, in the 140 pound division we’ve got chaos where we thought we were getting close to order and so for the next year we are going to get inundated with flights that we didn’t ask for but we’re going to get anyway.

Boxing is such a hard way to make money, but it’s an even harder way to build a singular proposition. What Turki is proposing to do in buying up promotional companies to create a boxing league is commercial madness. It taps into the ongoing boxing saga of finding rich men and separating them from their money. The shameful thing is that people don’t see it coming. Boxing is so good at massaging egos, boosting peoples self-esteem, and then making them pay for the pleasure.

A man should be able to have a beer in peace without the media watching and reporting on it, but when it comes to Tyson Fury and his history with substance abuse and depression, it’s always a worry to his fans and those that care about him. When you dig deeper, and you look below the surface. You remember that this is the guy who, as much as he tells you that he’s a fighting man in his heart and soul he’s not a born fighter. He’s a guy that had to learn how to be a fighter and that can play well for the public, but in reality, if that’s not who you are it could cause problems for you further down the line.

Top-level, Boxing is a rough rough spot. The one thing you should never do is deviate from who you actually are in a boxing ring. On Saturday. We saw Deontay Wilder, try and be somebody he’s not. Now, the real questions to ask did that win over Robert Helenius and the effect it had on him post fight, did that change his outlook on knockouts or was the Tyson Fury fight so traumatic to him that he’s never been the same? Maybe we will never know the answers, but the question do need to be asked

The waiting is over we finally get Matchroom versus Queensbury five versus five supposedly the best versus the best If we are being honest, we know there is a large amount of politics at play here and if you’re being transparent Eddie has probably sent the B team out and Frank has sent his A team. As great a card as this is we don’t feel that it’s as competitive as it would’ve been four years ago when there was supposedly real animosity between Matchroom and Queensbury this feels like forced niceness and the fans we have to ask whether they are being taken for a ride.

I was wrong about Usyk I can hold my hands up. I was 100% wrong about the man. He showed on Saturday night what it is to be truly elite In a fight that was going against him for the first seven rounds, for him to turn it around, shows the mark of the man and shows why he’s a champion. We have to see him as a great now.

We're finally here. We finally get one face, one king of boxing. Now will it be Tyson Fury or Oleksandr Usyk? I don't think the answer is obvious, but I hope the analysis here helps.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget how dangerous boxing is. No parent should ever have to bury their child and this weekend was a reminder that for all the things we say, all the issues we talk about in boxing, boxer safety should always, and I mean always, remain top of that list. We may not be where we want to be but we are further ahead than we were a decade ago. However, that doesn’t ease the pain for the family of Sherifdeen Lawal. That doesn’t ease the pain for those who trained with him those who fought against him and those that knew him more widely. These events are heartbreaking because we promise to keep your kids safe in our sport and when we can’t it hurts. RIP SHERIFDEEN LAWAL. 

So Ryan Garcia fails a drugs test. He failed for Ostarine and he failed for nandrolone and these are worrying substances because no boxers should really have them in the system. We’ve been through this so many times with boxers that it’s no longer a joke and everything that Larry said it’s turning out to be correct. Now that Boxing has a massive drug problem and this drug problem is allowed to happen because of the cracks between the lack of a governing body. weak sanctioning bodies, promoters and TV networks who all incentives to make sure that the show goes on regardless of failed drugs tests?.

As always, click the link for everything. https://linktr.ee/highfieldboxing We’ve all been able to witness the Ryan Garcia’s victory tour and as much fun as it has been and as interesting as it has been, I think we’re at the point now where those close to Ryan Garcia need to put their arms around him and bring him back down to earth, getting back in the gym and getting back training. The scandal around Team GB selecting Amy Broadhurst to represent them in the final Olympic qualifier might just be the biggest story in boxing this year.

When two people spend their formative years as rivals, it is hard to understand how intense a fight between them as men can be. Add to that, the eyes of the boxing world, and you have something that has the capacity to bend minds and upset odds. Ryan Garcia surprised the world in beating Devin Haney, despite the antics leading up to the fight. In truth, if someone was going to expose Haney for the man he is, it was always going to be Ryan Garcia.

We finally get the Queensberry v Matchroom clash we were promised in the pandemic – only took us one vaccine and 4 boosters to get there. As boxing fans, we should be happy that we have a big card, which has meaning, supported by 5 really strong fights. The only dark cloud is whether we are running this Saudi experiment at the expense of our domestic British boxing product. In terms of British boxing, the decline of London amateur boxing has been hard to take. We have become so smug, stealing ideas off the internet, and sharing clips of things we cannot do, or teach, that our boxers are suffering. Until we can bring hard work back into our gyms. Until our coaches can emphasise their own skills, we will remain behind the rest. We could learn a lot from The North right now.

What is going on with our promoters? It seems like chaos in the worlds of Hearn, Warren, and Shalom. It’s a great soap opera for men that like to be the little spoon, I guess. However, it doesn’t help make the sport stronger. The sad bit is, now that Eddie and Frank are forced to be cool, Eddie has taken to bully Ben Shalom. Yes…this is really how a middle-aged man is behaving.

Before anything, a few ‘thank yous:’ Alfie Warren - @alfieRwarren Warren Boxing Management - @warrenboxingmanagment Hannah Rankin - @team_rankin Rival Boxing Gym - @rivalboxinggymkingsx Amy Andrew - @amyandrewboxing Human Hussain - @numan007hussain Masood Abdulah - @mas_masood1 Steve Broughton - @sb_boxing_ We are in the era of boxing where we have media created personalities that seem to be everywhere in the sport. media personalities that end up training fighters, managing fighters, and promoting fighters, without them having worked their way up the ladder. With Alfie Warren you have someone who is really from the sport, his bloodline is boxing. Boxing is what he knows and through that he’s been able to come up the right way and now with his brothers and Warren Boxing Management, they have an opportunity to show the public what they can do. Hopefully, you enjoy the first outside recording in over 300 episodes.

The world needs more superheroes… It’s very rare that you get a British title fight where two men leave everything in the ring, where two men go to places they’ve never been before, and where they find out things about themselves that they never knew. It is so rare to see that Sunday’s fight between Fabio Wardley and Frazer Clarke, even though it ended is a draw, elevated both men to a new level of love and affection from the boxing fans and hopefully, to a new level commercially. If only we had more of these fights in the United Kingdom, because we’ve got enough names and enough talent to do so. If only we were able to get more of these fights on television more more often we could grow the sport of boxing to a new level. 

At some point, British boxing has to address its issues around doping. Doping in Boxing has massively watered down the credibility of the sport and left us in a position where we don’t believe results anymore. We don’t believe fighters are clean and we don’t believe our boxes are competing with honour. UKAD and the British Boxing Board of Control won their appeal against the National Anti-Doping Panel, which means one of two things is true: 1. Conor Benn will hold his hands up and take his punishment then we can move on or 2. The Board. will simply say he is not welcome back in a British ring. However it goes, we need a line drawn under the situation as fast as possible.