Ringside Report’s Fight Report of Recent Results and Upcoming Bouts Around The World

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

As easy as 1, 2, 3 or A, B, C here we have what happened, what is about to happen and what is due to happen in the boxing world from the perspective of a fan with a laptop, in the heart of Scotland. Three fights, all being talked about and talked up and not all for obvious reasons.

Flash Back – Ringside Report’s Rear View Mirror – one fight from the week past from a Scottish angle (Look it up on a map…)

UK – biggest and most notable – what should be the biggest news in the UK boxing scene

Saturday 8th October

“At the 02 Arena, London the fight everyone wants to see at catchweight, Chris Eubank Jr against Connor Benn.”

And then… it didn’t happen…

The fall out from this has been catastrophic. Here are the facts as we know them.

Connor Benn had a drug test which returned a trace finding for a substance banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). This was communicated to the Benn camp, the Eubank camp, and the British Boxing Board of Control (BBB of C), at the same time and immediately after being found.

Under the rules of the BBB of C, the two fighters were being tested by the UK Anti-Doping Agency (UKAD), as they do not recognize WADA. Having taken both legal and medical advice, the Benn camp and the Eubank camp decided that the fight was OK to proceed.

This happened around two weeks before the fight was due to take place.

The day before the weigh in a national newspaper – the Daily Mail – published the story of a failed drugs test, after the BBB of C had written to both camps to say that they were removing their sanctioning of the fight as it was “not in the interests of boxing”. It took around 24 hours for the promoters to then cancel the fight and the undercard as they believed that the BBB of C could not cancel a fight which had not returned a failed drugs test under their rules, and they had not suspended Conor Benn.

Since then, there has been, in common parlance, a pile on of pundits, ex boxers, current fighters and commentators offering their opinions. The bottom line for most of those with an opinion is that, anyone guilty of taking a Performance Enhancing Drug (PED) should be banned for life, that Benn appears to be most likely guilty of doing so and that the promoters were negligent in not abandoning their card earlier especially as they had this absurd policy of asking the fighters if they were OK with the fight going ahead.

There is apparently a UKAD investigation into Benn as they cannot unknow what they now know. That shall take its time to be completed but, in the meantime, Benn is not suspended but is cleared to fight. He passed every single UKAD test in the run up to the fight.

My View

People should be innocent until proven guilty and there is a lot of information unknown. Once that information is uncovered, that is the time to make judgments and not before. The fighters on the undercard have been given new dates for their fights and have readjusted themselves to take account of that. If Benn has taken a substance by mistake or it has been an honest imbibing of a banned substance, then a ban should happen. If he is able to prove his innocence, then a lot of people will be cracking open the humble pie.

If it is proven that he has been taking a PED a larger ban should follow. I am not in favor of lifetime bans partly due to the nature of the sport. Someone in boxing transgressing? As if. It ought, however, to be a clean sport and if this test has uncovered a practice that deserves to be exposed it has been good for boxing. What happens next is far too important for it to be developed into click bait and sound bites. Any boxer looking to cheat to get on, may need help. Should we provide that help or turn our backs?

Fast Forward – the week to come as viewed from one side of the Atlantic
UK – biggest and most notable – what should be the biggest news in the UK boxing scene
Saturday 15th October

“There is only one fight we are all talking about, and it is self-styled GWOAT Claressa Shields taking on Savannah Marshall for all the belts at middleweight.”

There was only one fight we were all talking about, and it was self-styled GWOAT Claressa Shields taking on Savannah Marshall for all the belts at middleweight at the 02 Arena, London in early

September and then it got postponed because of the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

But this weekend we get the contest. And what a cracker…

Claressa Shields, three weight world champion, twice fully unified in the four-belt era and simultaneous middleweight and light middleweight champion and double Olympic Gold medalist has lost once in a boxing ring. It was in the amateurs at the 2012 World Championships against Savannah Marshall. Marshall holds the WBO belt. Shields holds all the rest. Marshall is English, Shields is American. Marshall is shy and retiring, Shields is anything but…

To add to the number of belts in the ring, the WBC has announced they have created an Elizabethan Belt, clearly as part of the context of her death postponing the fight. This is a brash and tacky move which is more Shields like than British stiff upper lip but adds to the whole circus of the event. Boxxer and Sky who are promoting the event are talking it up as the biggest women’s boxing fight in history. Bigger than Katie Taylor headlining Madison Square Gardens? Possibly in terms of its significance. The fact is that Shields and Marshall don’t like each other and our joy has been unconfined in the build-up; they have a little less of it to spare.

My view

The fact is that this clash of styles – the brash Yank and the demure Englishwoman – will have a new chapter come Sunday morning. As a fan of Marshall, I favor her. Shields is too brash for these islands and does not have the charm of a Tyson Fury or Prince Naseem Hamed. Though many people have taken to her, and the venue has sold out, the majority want the quiet one to roar and take all the belts. The question many have raised is whether, as a Brit, she will channel the British spirit of a Tyson Fury against Deontay Wilder or an AJ versus Oleksandr Usyk? I hope for the former.
This evening’s card is also the very first all-female boxing card in the UK to headline a TV broadcast and is stacked with great contests, none as feisty as this one though.

Future History – and the week to follow…

UK – biggest and most notable – what should be the biggest news in the UK boxing scene

Saturday 22nd October

In Frankfurt, Germany, the IBO light heavyweight belt is on the line between Leon Bunn and Padraig McCrory.