George Groves: Dubois can HURT Usyk in Rematch

In an exclusive interview with CasinoBeats, ex-world champion George Groves weighed in on all things boxing, saying Daniel Dubois can HURT Oleksandr Usyk when the pair meet next month. He also had his say on Canelo vs Crawford and much more…

Question: Let’s have an update on your protege, Lucas Roehrig? How’s he getting on and when’s his next fight? 

George Groves: He’s a great lad, boxed in Newcastle just at the start of month and it was another good win, solid performance. He was gonna be out this weekend as well, but he has a little niggle with his hand, a few things. So we said let’s just have a rest. 

But he’s had a great start to his career. He’s now 5-0, from his first fight in December, almost a bout a month. So he’s hit the ground running and everyone’s excited about him. I’m very excited about him. He’s doing okay. 

Q: Do you have to rein him in a bit? Does he want to fight any bigger names and you have to almost hold him back a bit? 

A: He doesn’t always express that to me. He’s sometimes quite reserved. I think he’s always worried I’m gonna ask him to do lots but he backs himself entirely and we’re just enjoying the journey. And I told him that’s what to do right now, just enjoy the journey. He’s been sparring with some great guys. You’ve got to be patient and ambitious, it’s a fine line. 

Q: Do you see a bit of yourself in him? How did you feel in those early stages of your career before you stepped up to world level? 

A: I mean I had an instant rival in James DeGale, who was the Olympic champion when I turned pro. So I was itching to progress. I felt like I need to be not just one step ahead of DeGale, I need to be multiple steps ahead of DeGale. And I used that as a motivation. A lot of the time I wanted to push on, I always wanted to be in tests and show people that I mean business. And it served me well. It served him well as well. So, you know, I won a domestic title, a Commonwealth title after nine fights. I think he wins a British title after pretty much the same amount of time. Then we were on a collision course not long after that.

Q: Do you think Lucas needs someone like that (James DeGale) to push him along? 

A: Yeah. A natural rival could be someone like Tino Bellot. They’re both cruiserweight, never boxed each other, but both turned pro at the same time. They haven’t sparred since. So maybe we can get some technical rounds in together. But that hasn’t happened. And I think it’s already there. But we’ve got Pat Brown too. There’s Aloys Junior who’s flying, he’s already up to almost championship distance and has some real good wins on his record. And he’s only 21 years old, so the cruiserweight division is really promising. In a few years time, you’re going to get some real quality actually fighting each other. Because let’s get it straight, before it wasn’t that long ago where there wasn’t an awful lot of quality in the cruiserweight division. There was Enzo Maccarinelli who was a really good fighter. David Haye was a really good fighter and they fought each other and then Haye went up. There’s plenty of cruiserweights coming up though and the future is promising! 

Q: Let’s talk hypothetical bouts now, who would win out of Ricky Hatton and Amir Khan? 

A: Best for best, I can’t see Hatton getting beat. Amir Khan had lightning, fast hands, like ridiculously fast hands. Very fast feet. And when he first burst on the scene at 17, winning the silver at the Olympics, that style of fighting was perfect for the amateur game, whereas point scoring, it was sort of fencing in and out. And to his credit, worked really hard to settle in as a pro and had tremendous success. But Ricky Hatton was like a little pro fighter from the get go. Amazingly brought on, developed and then when he finally broke through beating Kostya Tszyu, he was a real force. He takes a little bit of stick sometimes for the Mayweather fight because he gets beat and he gets stopped, but Ricky Hatton at that point was very difficult to beat. And of course, Mayweather was incredibly difficult to beat. I think if those two fought, I think Hatton would be able to chop him down. Catch him and the vulnerability to Khan would always be a question mark, I’d go with Hatton. I think he could stop him. He’d hurt to the body and then just put his shots together so well, so clever and relentless, like he would press you with his feet, march you down, but great head movement. The odd one would go through, but then once he got into range, he put his shots together really well.

I think he probably would stop Khan. 

Q: How about Duke McKenzie Vs The Monster Naoya Inoue? 

A: I think it’s hard to go against Naoya Inoue. If he hits you, it’s over. Duke Mackenzie went through many World Champions, exceptional fighter. He was a professional a little bit before my time, so lots of the fights that I’ve seen of his have been on reruns. I haven’t seen him in a while. Very clever boxer. At the moment it’s hard to go against Inoue, maybe because of the recency bias. Yes he showed that a bit of vulnerability, but he’s not a Wladimir Klitschko who gets dropped, gets up, but he doesn’t win. Inoue gets up and gets the job done. 

Q: Do you think Manny Pacquiao would have a chance against Inoue?  

A: Lots of the Pacquiao that I watched was when he was a bit bigger at Welterweight. And I just think about the fact that he was fighting like a bantamweight when he was a welterweight and hitting like a cruiserweight, on his day would’ve been a nightmare to box for anyone. It just shows you the class of someone like Juan Marquez to deal with him. But yeah, I’d have to go back and watch. Pacquiao is that freak and he’s coming back isn’t he.  

Q: And finally, what about Anthony Joshua and David Haye? 

A: Haye had fights with Tyson Fury set up time and time again, but they fell through. Haye probably peaked in 2011 when he lost to Klitschko and it was 2012 when Joshua wins at the Olympics. I think Haye is very underrated now and with time, we look past his achievements, to go up from cruiserweight to beat Nikolai Valuev at heavyweight and he never had a long reign. He had a couple of fights. There was John Ruiz, there was Audley Harrison. And then he lost to Klitschko and then after that loss to Klitschko, he fought Derek Chisora and not much else after that. But I was in the gym with Haye. I remember doing a sort of jab spar with Haye and I had a lightning fast jab. I had really good reactions. And I couldn’t land a glove on him. And he could jab, shove my teeth outta my head. And it was the most frustrating thing ever, and heavyweights shouldn’t be able to do that. So I think on his day, he was so fast, so powerful. If he hit you, he could get rid of you.

Same could easily be said with Joshua if he would’ve caught Haye. I think it would be a shootout. I think Haye was a lot better fighter than Anthony Joshua was. Haye was a gifted amateur. He won a silver at the World Championships, always had to work around injuries.

And maybe at times his mindset coming through as a pro, he was very interested in becoming famous and not living the life as such. I think he was an exceptional boxer and it’s a 50-50 fight. What a great fight would’ve been, wouldn’t it? And I’ve seen the spars with him and Deontay Wilder and Wilder is wild and I’ve seen the fights, I’ve seen him spar Carlos Takam and loads of other really good quality heavyweights in his prime and he would handle almost all of them. Such incredible talent. Maybe I’ve seen much more Haye than Joshua. So maybe I’ve got a bit of bias there as well. 

Q: Did you catch any of the boxing over the weekend? Galal Yafai suffered a major setback when losing to Francisco Rodriguez Jr in Birmingham..I think Eddie Hearn was reluctant to let him take the fight as he knew it would be dangerous.

A: Galal is one of our best fighters, certainly. He’s had less than 10 bouts and he’s world champion and Olympic champion and he’s had to travel away from home in a really, really tough fight. So this could have always happened at some point. And he faces someone who might have his number. And that’s why sometimes maybe the Mexicans in particular have an advantage over other fighters around the world at these lighter weights is that they still had bundles and bundles of fights. Like it would be impossible for garia I to have that many fights if he’d only operated in the UK. There’s not enough people. And you’d be treading water not having a fight. He’s progressed, obviously he’s world champion after a handful of fights. And recently against Sonny Edwards, Sonny just wanted to quit, well pretty much did. Galal comes from a very talented family. The three brothers, all good fighters. So I’d like to come back and see him rebuild, and get back to winning ways. 

Q: Tensions were high between Canelo and Terence Crawford in their press conference. Crawford said he doesn’t need a warm up fight at the weight…

A:  I don’t think a warmup fight at the weight would be the right thing for Crawford right now. Because he’s such an experienced fighter. Sometimes you just need a fight. You need to be under the lights. You have to go through the process of the changing rooms, the ring walk and everything else. Sometimes you can see fighters are a bit rusty, aren’t they? And the ring rust, whether that exists or not, but some things are at play there. I don’t think he does need one.I think if anything, it might even work against him if he’s in there with a bigger guy. He was in there with Israil Madrimov wasn’t he, a bigger guy, not as big as Canelo, but a bigger guy. He would’ve felt the difference in fighting a bigger chap. And having to adjust to it. It’s gonna be all new kettle fish when he moves up to fight Canelo. Who exactly is a warm up fight for Canelo? 

And there’s weight divisions for a reason, the punch power and the punch resistance just aren’t the same as you go through the divisions. So it’ll be fascinating just to see when that first bell goes, if Crawford comes out and lands a really good shot and it just bounces off Canelo. And Canelo went up to light heavyweight and fought Dmitry Bivol and it felt like the shots were just bouncing off Bivol, no fuss at all. Whereas other guys, when Canelo breaks him down, if he can’t just wipe them out, he breaks them down.

Q: Do you think this is one of the biggest fights in recent years? Where would you rank it? 

A:  I’m not sure because obviously it’s Crawford, is he pound for pound number one? He’s got to be in many people’s eyes there or thereabouts. Canelo’s been at the top for so long and hasn’t done anything wrong. He’s still saying that he can pick someone else to go in front of him. So it is pound for pound, vs pound for pound. But I feel like the weight, because the weight’s so different, I was more excited I think with  GGG vs Canelo than I was this one. But that’s just because I thought that was an incredible fight. Then obviously we’ve had Oleksandr Usyk vs Fury, maybe it is though.

Q: Will they have trouble hyping up the fight?

A: I don’t think you always need to necessarily portray that you hate each other, for it to be a good fight. But you have to portray that, Ah, this means the world to me. And you are in my way. I’m gonna steamroll you. 

(Canello looks laid back these days)

A: He has been because he feels they’re not challenges. He likely would be more nervous in this fight than maybe a Bivol fight because he never thinks it’s okay to lose, but it’s not okay to lose to Crawford. Not when he’s so much smaller.

Q: Oleksandr Usyk has parted ways with his promoter Alex Krassyuk after 12 successful years together…Could this play a part in the Ukrainian’s bid to beat Daniel Dubois next month? 

A: Yeah, I saw that. Obviously Lomachenko has retired very recently. And Krassyuk has parted ways with Usyk. I think, where’s that come from? They parted ways amicably online. You know, from the statements that were made online, but does he think Usyk should just call it a day now? Pack it in, you’ve climbed Everest.

Is it down to money? Nine times outta ten when people part ways at the end it’s down to money. Is it down to circumstances in their country or family or does he just not wanna do it anymore? I don’t know. But if I’m Daniel Dubois, I’m buzzing about that. That’s a massive change. At best there’s a rift, there’s a problem, there’s stress. And if it’s the end, it’s all coming to the end now, at some point someone’s gonna get Usyk. If he carries on boxing, someone will get him. And maybe it’ll be Dan Dubois. He has a lot more chance than the first time they boxed. When the fight got made, I was thinking. Daniel Dubois is in good form, he’s feeling good. The link up with Don Charles has been incredible. Don Charles has just nurtured the best out of Daniel Dubois, got the best out him. And then I saw Usyk at the press conference and he was his same old self. He’s come out, he’s making jokes and they all seem very much about business. So I was thinking, all right, well, he doesn’t seem like he just can’t be bothered to retire, or he’s got a massive tax bill that he hasn’t budgeted for.I think he just, he still wants the box. Still thinks, I’m, I’m feeling good, I’m winning. 

You can see how to be Usyk. It’s just, can you do it? And if you are a big guy like Dan Dubois and you’re gonna start quick, he’s gotta be on it. Switched on like he was against Joshua. He’s gonna have to start quick. And the ifs or maybes is if he can land on Usykin those first few rounds, he’s in with a chance. And if he can land on him, can he sustain that attack and capitalize?. Usyk always takes a few rounds to settle in. And then he does have that incredible ability to get better after every interval.

That’s what boxing has. You have three minutes, then you get a rest and it’s like a clean break. You could be in a world of trouble. And then you go back, you get a minute refresh, boom, you come out and it could be a new fight. So Usyk, even when he has a bad round, he usually comes out and has a spectacular round next. He just keeps adding throughout a fight. But it takes time for him to get to that stage. And that’s how he beat Dubois the first time, in the end Dubois ran out steam and got stopped with a jab. Might happen again that way or maybe Dubois catches him, can hurt him to the body. He can definitely hurt Usyk to the body. Easier said than done though.

Q: Derek Chisora claims he was offered £2million to fight Moses Itauma but he turned it down, what do you make of that?

A: Derek has his 50th fight and he would definitely want to win it. Moses Ituama is flying. Is that a good fight for Chisora? It’s not. That’s why he’s been offered so much money for it. But hopefully Derek’s got plenty of money and he says he’s not in it for the money anymore. He’s in it for the feeling of the ring walk. You can see the people who are looking after Itauma are like, right, Derek Chisora, he’s been a great character for boxing. He’s got great support now. Loads of fans. And we can actually go and box and if Itauma says the right things after, we’ll piggyback and nick loads of Chisora fans. And Chisora will do the same. Chisora will big up this guy and tell everyone he’s the next coming.

I think it was wise. I always, as a fighter, I like hearing when people have turned down the money because it wasn’t the right reasons. It wasn’t a fight for them. The first thing you hear is a fighter. You hear about someone, you go how much? How much? And then until you hear the number you want to hear, alright then let’s do it. And then when you go, let’s do it, then you have to go to work. And then all of a sudden you’re like the money bar is up there, but then when you gotta do this, you’re like, oh, that money bar. Is that money bar worth it?  And then at one point you’re like, Ah, it’s not worth it anymore. 

Q: Dillian Whyte presumably heard the number that he thought makes it worth it because he is fighting Moses

A: He’s in it for paydays. He doesn’t have the credibility or the profile of Derek Chisora. His options ain’t the same. 

Q: He’s still looking for another fight with Anthony Joshua, isn’t he?

A: I think it’s a bit more to that because they were scheduled to fight again, weren’t they? Then Whyte tested positive for drugs. And Joshua isn’t a fan of that. Because you know when Big Baby Miller did that to him, he had Ruiz step in and he came unstuck. So Joshua doesn’t like last minute replacements. And he definitely doesn’t like drugs in the sport. 

Q: There’s rumors flying around that Dave Allen could fight Joe Parker, but Eddie Hearn wants Dave Allen to fight Jeamie TKV for the British heavyweight title.

A: They’re very different fights, aren’t they? Joseph Parker, one of the best heavyweights in the world right now. Dave Allen, really good win against Johnny Fisher, but does that mean you are ready for a Joseph Parker or maybe in this world of boxing with these heavyweights right now where, as I say, if you’re in form, you are in the picture. I didn’t realise that Dave Allen hadn’t won many belts or any belts. Last time he fought, he won a belt. And if he has the opportunity to win a British title against Jeamie TKV, a fight that he’d probably be really confident in. That’s not a bad shout. So you win that, the Parker fight’s there after. I think that’s not a bad shout from Eddie Hern. 

Q: Eubank Jr is back in the gym. It seems that the rematch with Conor Benn could be on the cards after all? Eddie Hearn says the contracts are signed! Sept 20 or OCT 4.

A: Yeah, it’s gonna happen apparently. As I said earlier, I like fighters who don’t just think about the money. Let’s equate all decisions and money ain’t number one on the list. But that’s not the case for Chris Eubank. And to his credit, if you are gonna linger in boxing as long as he has, you know, after getting beat by me and sort of not really going anywhere. He’s had COVID and he had a win or loss and loads of delays through Connor Benn’s situations. 

But he had that big win. As I said before, they’re gonna run it back…they completed the movie! We saw it all. There’s nothing else to see. They left it all in the ring. Connor wants to avenge his loss. But in terms of this,  it’s a fight for a fight’s sake. And it was entertainment more than sports. I can’t see any real new angles. I might be totally wrong in terms of the storyline that will be created. If they just want to see a punch up, see a fight, then they will, won’t they?

And maybe Conor Benn nicks the next one and maybe they do it a third time just for the sake of it. But then if they’re gonna ask me, is that gonna make you on your top Trilogy rivalries ever?  I’d be like, I dunno, I don’t get it. I don’t get it. Now there’s no more sport, like there’s no more boxing where you turn professional and then it’s like, what is my route to becoming the number one division? Rather than turn professional, what’s my route to get into an entertainment fight? Not a real sports fight, ’cause that’s what that is. It’s just an entertainment fight. 

But as I say, don’t begrudge anyone making money in the sport. Make money. If Eubank edges through this, 50-50 fight again, and then fights at Canelo or something, then good for him, he stayed in the sport. He lingered there long enough. He’s getting his paydays now.

Q: If Tyson Fury walked in the gym now and we had five minutes to convince him to un-retire himself, and come back to boxing, how would he get him back to boxing?

A: I don’t think you need to convince him. I think it’s done. He’s fighting Joshua. He’s gonna take his time right now, switch off from boxing for a bit. I’m almost certain that the fight is either signed, sealed, delivered and just not announced, or well on its way to being done. Joshua wouldn’t have a warmup fight. Those ships have sailed. They’ll just fight each other.

They’re both coming off losses, so neither of ’em are in particularly good form. Fury’s probably been in worse form than Joshua. Joshua got beat by Dubois. Up till then he was doing okay. Knocked out cage fighter. Fury had life and death with a cage fighter. So yeah, it’s two heavyweights and they are former World Champions, they want to roll around, have a little fight. Let them fight in a cage!

Q: Jake Paul and Chavez Jr. are fighting this weekend, not one for the purists, but one that you’ll be watching?

A: Yeah, if I’m awake. It’s on Netflix, isn’t it? And we don’t have to pay for it by all accounts. So good for Netflix for not, I don’t think I’ve ever done a PPV type event, I might be wrong, but they’re the only streaming site that hasn’t gone down that road that we always get promised. Just subscribe now and your pay-per-views are over. But we know that’s not the truth in boxing. You subscribe and then you get told, oh, well this one’s even better, you gotta pay for it. I don’t mind, as a fighter, you know, it keeps the general public fully aware that if anything’s deemed good, you gotta pay a little bit more. 

Chavez. I looked up Chavez again ’cause I remember Chavez before I’d even boxed for a world title Chavez was on everyone’s radar. Because you’re like, oh, that’s an easy fight for a big name. He’s the son of a legend. Doesn’t take his boxing that seriously. What’s my chance to get him? Froch, before he boxed me, he was talking about how he wanted to go to America and fight Chavez. We’re going back 12 years ago, maybe more than that since Chavez has been at his best.

I’m not American. I’m certainly not Mexican. So I dunno how big of a name Chavez is out there. It just leads me down that road of thinking, is Jake Paul still trying to convince people that he’s a legitimate boxer? You’re not! He’s not a legitimate boxer. You picked someone who was a professional boxer whose dad was a legend of professional boxing. I’m not sure how big he is on the celebrity scene Chavez, how much of a famous name he is, because otherwise why have you picked him? He might as well pick someone from Love Island or something.

Q: I guess you’re right though. It’s the name. The name means a lot in boxing terms? 

A: Yeah, but it’s the name, cause you’re trying to convince people that you are a legitimate professional boxer, but you’re not, you’re fighting someone who was a decent pro 15 years ago. 

Q: So if he loses, then is that the end of Jake Paul?

A: Nah, it’s never the end for Jake Paul, he probably wont lose either. They’ll probably do an exhibition, they’ll probably do two minute rounds and 16 ounce clubs. 

Q: Have you heard of the enhanced games where juicing is allowed? It’s set for next year, May 21st to May 24th in Vegas. Where does it leave the psychology of sport?

A: I mean is that the end of legitimate sport? Maybe it’s a good thing, maybe not. You people are always gonna push the, push the extremities, and then you gotta know that like anabolic stuff ain’t really good for you long term. But there’s obviously sports where, if they’re sports or not the way they do it, whether it be bodybuilding or strong man, power lifting. So yeah, I mean, it would be fascinating. I’ve seen standup comedians talking about how they wanna see someone run a hundred meters in 4.9 seconds. It would be incredible to see. But maybe they have the enhanced games and maybe they’re not that much quicker and maybe you’re like, oh, so does it work? 

Q: In boxing, unfortunately it’s still a major issue. You know we’ve seen Jaime Mungia recently test positive for PEDs after defeating Bruno Surace. So still people are getting popped and Jamel Charlo said it’s rampant in boxing at the moment. Do you think it’s worse now than it’s ever been? Or do you think the testing is better?

A: Maybe. It’s like I keep getting speed tickets and it’s not, that I’m speeding more. It’s just actually there’s more cameras. The cameras just find you, cycling Mikey coming around, catching you on your phone. Sitting there in stationary traffic, It’s got to be on the mount. And that’s the same rule for drug testing is, if it’s on the mount. It’s fine. Maybe the thing is, for boxing fans at home, this isn’t an open topic being spoken about in gyms. Like, you don’t say, ‘oh how you doing man? Are you boxing really well? What are you cycling, what are you juicing, what are you taking?’ I haven’t met anyone who’s openly said, ‘yeah this is what I’m doing.’ You wouldn’t, because you’re not allowed. So how can you be rampant in sport? Like unless you just keep it quiet from me. Maybe they do, maybe they should. Maybe I’ll get a podcast. I’ll tell everyone. I’ll talk about all their gossip. 

But yeah, you can see and imagine how a lot of fighters are sort of tempted, and especially in America, I think you’ve seen the attitude that they truly believe that everyone else is juicing and everyone else is cheating. So if I’m not, as well, in America there’s a lot more college sports, there’s more organization, there’s more crossover of sports. And these coaches, or these doctors or these physios, I feel like maybe it’s a little bit easier in the states than it is over here. There’s no one in our gym wandering around with a goodie bag or anything. How can it be rampant? 

And the people who get tested, people who test positive, you think, what, what on earth was you thinking? Like, they’re gonna come and test you, and they’re gonna find it, so don’t do it. Like that was always my biggest fear in boxing was taking paracetamol. But actually I didn’t realize paracetamol was bad. So I took no pills, took nothing. Whatever the physio gave you, Like if he gave you an anti-inflammatory, I’d be writing it down in the box you go and you can check it online. Make sure that it’s safe, cause obviously within reason there is stuff you can take. Yeah. If you’re buying dodgy protein powder off the back of someone’s lorry and you test positive?

Q: Boxxer Ben Shalom, they were handed a five year contract worth a hundred million pounds by Sky. It hasn’t been renewed, obviously disappointing for them, but I guess it just goes to show that Sky Sports weren’t impressed with the product that they delivered?

A: I think this is big news. And I think no one would admit it, but I think Sky pulling out boxing, like Sky, doesn’t want to do boxing anymore. I’ve never been a Sky employee, but I know the guys at Sky, I do a lot of their shows. I think they’ve been the number one for boxing for a long time now. And Ben Shalom had some good shows and they got some, they got a good stable of fighters. Ben Whitaker, very talented fighter, massive profile. But, I think they’re going to do what they’re doing as an organization now, you can get your Amazon prime your Netflix off the Sky box. Sooner or later the DAZN will be the sports channel. Sky Sport is a massive headache, it always had to be what it was to bring in the money. But football got so expensive.

Q: Maybe they’re just plowing that money into football instead. Because that’s where the viewers are?

A: But I think percentage wise, football is billions and boxing made money because you’d have a pay-per-view event twice a year, maybe three times a year. And that paid for the rest of the shows. Now with the Riyadh season, they create the shows, they just deliver Sky the content, Sky put it on their Pay-Per-View platform. I think they still do 90% of the buys? So they’ll probably think, ah well, we’ll just do the pay-per-view and we’ll bring DAZN in now, DAZN’s a lot more prominent now on the homepage, DAZN has done a deal with Channel 5 I saw the other day they showing the football, had DAZN plastered all over it. I think there’s talk that they’ll stay in boxing and they’ll have ad hoc shows. The truth of the matter is it won’t really work. 

They would love to be able to just pluck out decent shows. You know, even a lot of small hall shows are really good quality boxing, the production is not as good, but then Sky brings the production and elite level boxing ain’t always what people desire. You can get 50-50 fights Chris Eubank versus Conor Benn right, it’s not elite boxing. Eubanks way past his best. And they got him shrunk down to a weight he can’t make properly and Conor Benn never got to the top level, and to have a good old scrap everyone’s Happy. Fight of the year, biggest event of the year. That’s what it is now. I think Sky will essentially put no resources behind boxing, they’re not gonna put on any of their own shows. They’ll be looking, they’ll pick up the American shows.

Some of which will be matchroom, may soon be Queensbury obviously top rank, these shows are easy to pick up, but maybe they’ll try and everyone will be funneled through DAZN and DAZN will be shown on Sky and that’s that. And I think, I’m not sure if that’s good for boxing to be honest. You definitely want competition. We want them to fight each other. But I boxed on every channel throughout my career, but the ones that were the most memorable were on Sky.

For the fans because they see it.

Q: A lot of people kind of sneered at DAZN when it came through, boxing on an app, like Frank Warren famously said, but now look everyone’s coming on side and they’re changing the game?

A: If it ends up on your tv, right, that’s it. Because I think they got the youth wrong. They think we’ve got to get down with the kids. We’ve gotta understand what they’re after and they want  TikToks. You can’t put boxing on TikTok. You can’t, you can’t have an elite fight and be only 12 seconds long. So we need more than that, it’s got to be built for a TV so you can sit down and all watch it together. Not watching a smart device, that’s how sport works in general. It’s good for your highlights. If you want to catch up, who won the fight last night or if you just wanna look at the knockouts, then that’s that.

Q: Well that’s the problem with the TikTok generation, isn’t it? They don’t wanna sit down and watch a 90 minute football match or 12 three minute rounds of boxing. They just need instant gratification. So how do you find that? 

A: Yeah I think if you said to anyone, you say, “you watching the big fight this weekend?” They’ll go, where’s it on, Sky? No one’s saying yet, what on DAZN? But if you were to watch it on Sky and it’s on Sky, but it’s on DAZN, then it will only take a couple of years when people are now, it’s DAZN. You watch this new series, what’s it on Netflix? Is it on Paramount? Is it on Disney? That’s ultimately where sports are going now. It would be sad if Sky don’t throw everything behind it the way they do, because I think they’ve got a lot of wisdom. They’ve got a lot of knowledge and if they’ve managed to keep them people over the years, there’s something about the way we live in nostalgia now, like maybe that’s just me get into my late thirties where I, like, I reminisce about, oh, I like the way they used to do that. I can’t be bothered to learn anything new. I used to like to build up, but some stuff gets done to death. The gloves are off is like X factor, isn’t it. We don’t need to watch the same thing over and over again. Someone’s gonna sing good, someone’s gonna look like they can’t sing, and then they can, and this one’s gonna be crap and then Simon Cowell’s going to be mean about them. It runs its course.

There’s a lot of boxing out there at the moment, let’s see if the talent can get brought through. Let’s be honest, when Joshua won the Olympics and you listened to how it was amazing for boxing. It was amazing for Anthony Joshua. It was amazing for Eddie Hearn. It was amazing for a handful of others, and it was terrible for everyone else. No talent came through. If he wasn’t a heavyweight, we wasn’t interested.

Joshua sold out this stadium, this stadium, this stadium. No one else sold out any stadiums. In the meantime. There wasn’t even room for Tyson Fury. And I was like, where’s the next generation? They pinned all their hopes on Josh Kelly, Joshua Buatsi, Lawrence Okolie, Okolie won a world title but he only fought in the stadium when he fought Chris Bilam-Smith as the away fighter. Bazzi never got there. Josh Kelly’s still light years off getting there. They never brought anyone through, fighters obviously got through, but none of them are big household names. After Joshua your biggest name is probably Conor Benn and it’s because he’s got a famous name.

It was all heavyweight dominant. They never brought anyone else through. You could be a mediocre heavyweight and you would get for example, I’m not saying he’s mediocre, but Dillian Whyte was the A side of Pay-Per-View fights for probably a couple of years. Never fought for World Title up until that point and then when he finally did, it was Fury for his first one, and he got stopped. Derek Chisora is just fan friendly, you can always have a fan friendly heavyweight on the card. It’s good and then if you have them near the main event, job done.