Rematches, Eddie at the Black Forge & Jake Paul in the WBC rankings?
Yet another hilarious week in the world of combat sports!
Good evening all!
Here we are, half way through another week and it’s the first ever Wednesday newsletter landing in your inbox.
As I mentioned last week, Wednesday’s will be my opportunity to get creative.
There will be traditional long form interviews with fighters, trainers and media members.
Segments like ‘10 questions with’ - got a big one locked in for next week!
News reactions & a breakdown on new fights that have been made.
There has been so much gone on this week, that I thought the only place to start would be a RANT.
Jake Paul to become WBC champion?
Yes, you read that right.
After his assault on the world of professional boxing, Jake Paul has now aligned himself with the good, trustworthy people at the WBC and it looks like he is going to find his way into the WBC rankings sooner rather than later.
Everyone’s best friend, Mauricio Sulaiman has been circling around Jake Paul for a long time and it seems he has found his perfect opportunity to get Paul in the rankings and start claiming his nice 3%…
He was quoted earlier this week saying;
"Jake has dedication and respect to the sport and the WBC will not tolerate discrimination against anyone. He deserves the opportunities that any other boxer has. He demonstrated punching power and improved skills as well as a solid chin.”
First off, Jake Paul has been hit once as a ‘professional’ - we don’t know what his chin is like.
What he has done though, is prove that with money and a solid network, you can manipulate a broken sport maybe we should respect him for that.
He spotted an opportunity to infiltrate boxing and has done incredibly successfully.
He is earning huge amounts of money to fight non boxers.
It’s the perfect business.
Now, back to the original point, the WBC will rank Paul with a win over Tommy Fury, who is most famous for a stint on Love Island.
Fury is 8-0 (4KO) but in truth, his standard of opposition have been no better than Jake Paul’s and that is no slight on the away corner boxers he has fought.
But if by beating Fury, and for the record I think he will, the WBC deem that good enough to become one of the top 15 light heavyweight/cruiserweight in the world , isn’t that just proof of how bad the governing bodies of the sweet science have become?
For headlines (and a cushty little 3% of all future purses) they are willing to claim that a Disney star turned white collar boxer is one of the TOP 15 fighters in the world.
It’s pathetic but I expect it.
I don’t hate on Jake Paul.
I hate on the WBC.
They are a joke.
But do we really expect anything else?
P.s. When Jake Paul wins, he will box Badou Jack, probably for the WBC title.
No deal for Tommy’s big brother…
Sticking with the Fury’s…
Big Tyson, the heavyweight champion, is reportedly struggling to broker a deal with Saudi Arabia for his much anticipated unification clash with Oleksandr Usyk.
Usyk, who seems really concerned (see below), has reportedly signed his deal weeks ago.
Now, I really want to make a joke about this but I am beyond bored of these ‘discussions’ and feel like we have seen this all before.
I have no idea how anyone can fail to make a deal with the very same people who have bought any sporting event up for sale here we are..
My suspicion is these are delay tactics.
Fury knows the dangers of fighting Usyk, he wants the maximum he can get and fair play to him.
Some rumours are they may fight in Wembley, I can’t see it.
It doesn’t make sense or half as much money.
April 29th, Saudi Arabia, the heavyweight unification we have all waited for since 1999.
Ready or not, here comes the rematch!
Chris Eubank Jr has triggered his rematch with Liam Smith after losing inside four rounds last month and Liam Smith has politely agreed without hestiation.
I don’t actually mind this.
In truth, it’s the only fight for both men.
Liam Smith is in the form of his career, in an incredibly good position but who in the world makes him more money than Chris Eubank Jr?
Nobody.
He has the chance to make an incredible amount of money to face a guy he has already beat.
Chris Eubank Jr, not for the first time in his career, is stuck down a dead end.
He needs Smith.
But this time, he is the B side.
In all likelihood, he will fight in hostile territory, for less money and at a weight that will be even harder for him (157 or 158)
It’s a terrible situation for Eubank Jr but this is proof of what happens when your career isn’t guided properly.
I don’t rule him out, but he will need the performance of his career.
Can he do it with everything against him?
Now, the most entertaining story of the week.
Eddie Hearn, the richest promoter in the world, backed by the billion dollar monster that is DAZN, took a little trip to Ireland to meet another millionaire (billionaire?) to see if he can help with the costs of Katie Taylors next fight..
Make much sense to you?
Nah, me either.
But all jokes aside, if Eddie and Conor met with the intentions of Conor positively impacting Katie Taylor’s career, I am ALL for it.
I would love to see Katie go out with a win at Croke Park. She deserves it.
But, it has to raise questions?
When Eddie moved to DAZN, the sales pitch was more money, bigger boundaries, changing the game.
Understandably, if the numbers for Croke Park are correct (3x more than Wembley) then it is expensive, but isn’t that why he moved to DAZN?
It has to make business sense, I’m not stupid but if it was not worth it business wise, Eddie would shut the conversation down.
Instead he never.
He openly conversed with McGregor on twitter and has been quoted saying he needs a certain amount of money to ‘bridge the gap’
Begging or clever business?
At this point, I don’t even know.
Exciting fights being made
I will use this part of the week to inform you on big fights that have been made and we have had one confirmation this week in the UFC that has really got me going.
Jalin Turner vs Mateusz Gamrot - March 4th - UFC 285.
WHAT. A. FIGHT.
Originally slated to face Dan Hooker, this is an even harder fight for Jalin Turner but one that I think he is ready for.
I have said multiple times that I think he is a future title contender and this contest will give us all the answers we need.
Gamrot was riding an impressive win streak before running into Beneil Dariush last October but losing to Dariush is nothing to be ashamed of.
A motivated Gamrot looking to bounce back and colliding with a monster like Jalin Turner.
VIOLENCE IS COMING.
In boxing, there was one fight recently made that really stuck out to me.
Two undefeated former Olympians clashing it as always fun but stylistically, I think this one is fantastic.
I really rate Stanionis and I think he could get the job done here.
A lot of people are excited by Vergil Ortiz Jr but I am not as sold as some people.
Welterweight is slowly bubbling after being held stagnant by Crawford and Spence and this fight could kick start it all for us.
To conclude…
It’s been an eventful week in the world of combat sports but for every negative, there is a positive!
We have had some crazy news but also some great fights made, let’s hope the big fights continue!
I know some of you may wonder why I haven’t spoke about Dan Hooker but we have no context to his tweet’s yet and I don’t want to jump to any conclusions.
On Friday, we will have an extensive breakdown of Leigh Wood vs Mauricio Lara as well as Blanchfield vs Andrade in the UFC.
We will also introduce our first ever tracked picks, we found a few winners last week, let’s hope we can kick off with a big weekend.
Thanks for reading - catch you all on Friday!