Anthony Joshua's heavyweight fight against Andy Ruiz Jr is pretty much a foregone conclusion, the Mexican-American has hardly trained, is heavier than he was previously and has been more keen on talking about his recently earned riches and the millions he will be earning for this fight so i fully expect Joshua to take back his belts.
The controversy is where the fight is being staged, Saudi Arabia, which is hardly a hotbed for boxing but with a purse of £100 million, and a payday for Joshua of £60m, you can understand why the fight is taking place there.
Joshua, usually a very cerebral man, has been accused of selling his soul to the Saudi's and even made a very strange quote about how the country was 'trying to do a good job politically' and how he wouldn't have any part of fighting in Saudi Arabia if he thought that he was part of a 'sportswash' Saudi propaganda machine using sport to gloss over its abysmal human rights record.
Joshua has not been paying much attention then recently as they have spent billions paying to host the Formula E motor racing, European Tour golf and the Spanish Super Cup football and hope to bid for Olympic and World Cup hosting rights.
Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, a hard faced businessman has little doubt about what is happening and shrugs it off but at least he is honest enough to say: 'Everyone’s coming and they’re all coming for one reason – they want the money'.
While it is doubtful that Joshua has been duped and is more likely holding his nose and pocketing the tainted Saudi Riyal, don't insult our intelligence that it is anything other than all about the money going into your bank account.
I hope he wins and goes on to have a long, and successful career but this is going to follow him around like a bad smell and has damaged his otherwise nice-guy image.
No comments:
Post a Comment