Category: Boxing

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Boxing was made great by a series of super fights throughout the ages. Mohammed Ali took on Sonny Liston twice, “Smokin’ Joe” Frazier in Manilla, and George Foreman in Zaire. After that, Tommy Hearns and Marvin Hagler faced off, as did Arturo Gatti and Mickey Ward. Let’s not forget about Jake LaMotta and Sugar Ray Robinson.  

Unfortunately for the sport, mega-fights have been hard to come by in recent years. Currently, there’s one that stands out from the crowd – Anthony Joshua Vs Tyson Fury. Both are British and world champions, giving the bout extra spice. However, the obstacles appear to be getting in the way, and they’re quite significant.  

Deontay Wilder & Oleksandr Usyk  

Wilder and Usyk are the respective opponents for Fury and Joshua after Deontay Wilder refused to step aside for the two to meet. Everyone understands the American’s punching power, even if his boxing ability isn’t as strong as Fury’s. The boxing betting ranks the champ as the 3/10 favourite after the Brit knocked him out in their last fight, but it only takes one punch to upset the apple cart. 

Usyk, on the other hand, is somewhat of an unknown quantity. The Ukrainian swept the cruiserweight division when he KOed Tony Bellew, becoming the first cruiserweight in history to hold all four major world championship belts. Again, Joshua is the favourite for their September bout at 4/11.  

However, the odds distort the threat the Ukrainian poses because he’s relatively untried at heavyweight. If he can bring power to the table while keeping his speed, Joshua may struggle to hold on to his titles. Both men will need strong performances if they plan on meeting at some point in 2022.  

The Venue  

The fight is between two British fighters who will potentially hold all the major championship belts in the division. Logically, it makes sense for the matchup to take place in the UK. Joshua, for example, has fought most of his opponents in London. Plus, Wembley Stadium and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium have massive capacities, and the demand will be huge.  

But, the word at the moment is that Saudi Arabia will get the first crack of the whip should the fight go ahead. After all, the original contest was due to take place in the kingdom before Wilder won his arbitration case. As a result, Eddie Hearn may feel as if he owes the Saudis one. 

Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury have finalised the date for their undisputed heavyweight championship clash and will meet in a specially-created stadium ?

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) May 13, 2021

That will leave the British boxing fans devastated. One of the biggest fights in the sport’s history between two Brits should happen on these shores, yet it looks as if it isn’t going to be the case.  

Father Time  

Something that’s out of everyone’s control is time. If Fury and Joshua were in their early or mid-20s, it may be easier to relax and accept the fact that they will touch gloves eventually. Unfortunately, the fighters are in their 30s.  

They will only get older the longer the saga continues, with Fury potentially turning 34 by the time the fight takes place in 2022. The Gypsy King has already spoken about his desire to retire for the sake of his health, so it’s hard to see the boxer carrying on for too many more years.  

In any case, no one wants to watch fighters who are past their primes. We watched Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao and it was a damp squib compared to what it may have been.  

For the sake of the sport, we should cross out fingers and hope that these two great champions get to square off in the ring. It will be a massive disappointment if they don’t. 

Love him or loathe him, Floyd Mayweather is, in some regards, unrivaled in the world of boxing both in terms of his 50-0 record, defensive abilities, and his fight purses. As an undefeated fighter and with PPV audiences dying to either see his winning run continue, the dollar sums he was and indeed is able to command and draw in went up and up over the years. Even now when he’s effectively retired from professional boxing, he hasn’t exactly left the scene. A mismatched fight against social media star Logan Paul is imminent for instance, and should bring in the millions once more.

Nowadays Floyd Mayweather is more often found in a Las Vegas Casino than he is a boxing ring.No doubt he’s still in need of a rush and certainly falls into the category of having ‘money to burn’. It’s not in high risk credit card processing territory though because even in his advancing years – boxing-wise- he’s capable of bringing in big bucks. Let’s take a look at a few of his fights that effortlessly brought in the crowds and the $$$.

Mayweather vs Pacquiao drew in an astonishing £678M. The fight resulted in 4.6m PPV sales and a record gate. Fans had been hoping for the match up for half a decade and consequently it drew such interest that it was dubbed the Fight of the Century. Inevitably, considering the anticipation beforehand the fight didn’t quite live up to the hype. It was however still a masterclass by Mayweather earning a purse of £223.5m, with Pacquiao earning £122m for the fight.

Next up was what could be classed as Mayweather’s first ‘gimmicky’ fight, against Connor McGregor.  The fight earned £662.5m total (with a £223.5m purse for Mayweather, and £70m for McGregor) and surprisingly MMA superstar McGregor actually put up a better performance than most had anticipation. He certainly didn’t let himself down in what was dubbed ‘The Money Fight’ (how imaginative!). That said at no point did Mayweather actually look in trouble and as such it was something of an easy pay day for the fighter.

Third up and quite a drop was Mayweather vs Canelo, coming it at £214m. The Mexican fighter, who has been a world champion in four different weight classes (as has Mayweather), was a relative youngster when he fought Mayweather and so to an extent was schooled by him, in the fight held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Nowadays Canelo is a powerful force in boxing, as he recently demonstrated in his devastating win against the UK’s Billy Joe Saunders. Indeed the fighter hasn’t lost before or since his loss to Mayweather and so it would’ve been a fascinating match-up if they’d both been able to take each other in in their prime.

So all in all we certainly see that Floyd Mayweather is ‘Moneymaker’ by both name and nature. He’s not everyones cup of tea, with his brash and extravagant attitude on full display. At the same time though, it’s hard not to admire someone who has done it all, and essentially not put a foot wrong during their career.

 

If anyone ever asks you where the home of boxing is, or perhaps where some of the biggest fights have occurred, more often than not there will be one reply, Las Vegas. The bright lights of Vegas, Nevada have long been synonymous with both casinos and boxing. The former – casinos – is true to the point where even themed sites from other countries, such as the best online casinos australia seek to recreate that classic vegas feel. The latter – boxing – brings to mind classic moments from some of the most memorable match ups in boxing history.

One Vegas brawl that I remember staying up to watch in a bleary-eyed state was the bout between Floyd Mayweather andRicky Hatton. A true fan favourite, Hatton was accompanied to the MGM by thousands of British fans looking to support him against a boxing great. Unfortunately for him, the world stage proved to be a level too far compared to being a local legend on the domestic level.

In 2017 Mayweather (undefeated to this day) was back in Vegas, this time taking part in what was seen as a gimmick of sorts by some; a fight against former UFC champion Conor McGregor. Though he may have taken the fight on account that he was fighting someone with little boxing experience, McGregor actually put on a good performance. The bout is the second highest ‘boxing gate’ gross fight in Nevada to this day, bringing in $55 million+. The highest gross being Floyd Mayweather (again!) vs Manny Pacquiao in 2015, grossing $72 million.

We need look no further than Tyson Fury vs Deontay Wilder in February 2020 for the last pre-pandemic Vegas masterlcass in boxing. Off the back of the first epic match-up between the two, Fury showed exactly how it’s done at the MGM. Vegas is on another level with venues doubling as casinos and sports venues, though of course there are options like best payout nz casinos for online players too. We can’t all be lucky enough to be in Vegas 24/7! In any case, let’s hope it’s not long until the next epic boxing classic. It’s about time we had more top level sport to look forward to!

Born Cassius Marcellus Clay in Louisville, Kentucky, Muhammad Ali fought 61 times as a professional boxer, winning 56 times, including 37 by knockout. He first became world heavyweight champion in February, 1964, aged 22, when defeating Sonny Liston by technical knockout. He was stripped of the title in 1966 for refusing to be drafted into the U.S. Army, but regained it by knocking out George Foreman in the fabled ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ in Kinshasa, Zaire in 1974. Ali lost the title to Leon Spinks, by split decision, in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1978, but regained it, by unanimous decision, in a rematch in New Orleans, Louisiana later the same year.

In this day and age of course there is also a heavy focus on the betting interest perspective. With more and more sportsbook options out there, there’s no shortage of ways to ‘put your money where your mouth is’. Using a Caesars NY sportsbook promo code, or one of the other top offers out there can also give your bet a boost to tip the odds very much in your favor. Boxing has to be one of the prime opportunities to go for the big win, with so many types of bets (round betting, victory type: TKO, KO, Distance etc) and exciting upcoming fights to get involved in (Tyson Fury vs Dillion Whyte, Anthony Joshua vs Oleksandr Usyk 2). It’s a good time to be a boxing fan.

but back to Ali, and sside from Spinks, the other four men to beat Ali were, in chronological order, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, Larry Holmes and Trevor Berbick. Ali retired after the second Spinks fight, but attempted an ill-advised comeback in 1980, aged 38, only to lose, by technical knockout, to Larry Holmes after ten rounds in Las Vegas. The following year, Ali tried again, in a non-title fight against Trevor Berbick in Nassau, Bahamas, but lost by unanimous decision. He finally admitted defeat, saying, ‘Father Time has caught up with me. I’m finished.’