Tom Aspinall Hits Out At Boxing Promoters For Harming The Sport

December 1, 2023
1 year
Tom Aspinall Hits Out At Boxing Promoters For Harming The Sport

Tom Aspinall has hit out at the sport of boxing for not putting on the biggest fights. 

The heavyweight’s comments come after his spectacular win over Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295 as he stopped his opponent in the first round. Thereafter, Aspinall made his intentions clear of wanting to fight the best in the division.

As of now, the current champion, Jon Jones, is out injured after injuring his pectoral muscle in sparring, which caused him to pull out of his fight with Stipe Miocic. However, moving ahead, Aspinall was keen on facing the best.

And yet, when it came to the sport of boxing, Aspinall called out the lack of competitive fights. He highlighted how the vast majority of cards are set up so that it is possible to predict the winner before the fight due to the massive gulf in class between the fighters. And that did not sit well with him. 

Aspinall Reacts

“You can literally look at a card, you can look at an Eddie Hearn show, a Frank Warren show, any other promoter’s show and know — say there are 10 fights on, you can know at least eight of the winners before the bell rings on any of the fights. I can’t stand it. We’re talking about the top guys in the world, none of them are fighting each other. What is this?” Aspinall said

Aspinall is well aware of the sport, having helped Tyson Fury prepare for his boxing fight against Francis Ngannou. The former UFC heavyweight champion was making his boxing debut against the WBC heavyweight champion.

Despite Fury clearly being the favorite, Ngannou almost caused an upset. The MMA fighter sent Fury to the canvas in the third round with a powerful left hook. That was followed up by him going the distance in a fight where the decision divided many. Fury’s split-decision win was questioned, with Carl Froch labelling it as corruption at the ‘highest level.’ However, for Aspinall, he felt that boxing was headed in a bad place unless changes were made.

Implications

In comparison, the UFC has shown a tendency to produce shocks on more than one occasion. Sean Strickland’s win over Israel Adesanya was indicative of that, with many expecting Izzy to have come through and face Dricus du Plessis. And with the rise of MMA, boxing has to make changes in order for it to remain competitive. And there is no getting away from that.

“I am a massive boxing fan. I absolutely love the sport of boxing, [but] I absolutely can’t stand the boxing model. Hate it. I hate the way boxing is going at the moment. Because I love the sport of boxing. I love the science. [Also] I love the defensive techniques, which is amazing. I absolutely love watching actual classic, traditional boxers who are defensively brilliant — it’s my favorite thing. The way the sport is going at the moment is absolutely terrible,” Aspinall 

‘Find all the latest boxing news and MMA breaking updates on boxingnews.com

THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING boxingnews.COM

TAGS
COMMENTS

RELATED NEWS