Many will be disappointed with this fight, but I am proud of Mike Tyson.It takes real heart to wake up at 58 years old, as a millionaire, and find it in you to train for a fight. He may never be what he was, but that warrior spirit never leaves you.Only casual fans can be disappointed with what they saw. What did they expect a 58 year old man to do…

6 1/2 years after Eddie Hearn, proclaimed DAZN was the home of Boxing. Frank Warren has made the zone, the whole of Boxing 6 1/2 years of tools and insults a decade of his integrity being questioned BoxNation being questioned, and now Frank Warren seems to be the senior partner in the Suzanne situation and look this has been for years in the making…

A decade ago a group of young boxes including Ohara Davies, Anthony Yarde, Craig Richards and a few others became the first bridge between conventional media and social media.They were the first generation that proved you could demonstrate marketability through social media and while many others had social media before nobody utilised social media …

Be there for your people, with love, when they are winning and when they are losing.Af Highfield Boxing

When the two best fight to be #1 in their division, you expect it to be close.So, when it is close, you can’t be surprised at the result.Beterbiev and Bivol gave their best, and now, we should let them go their separate ways and allow the division to freshen up.Af Highfield Boxing

Beterbiev versus Bivol, is the Hardcore’s dream matchup, but this fight doesn’t seem to have gathered much traction in the mainstream media.Is this is down to the effect of Anthony Joshua versus Daniel Dubois, and the kind of emotional fatigue that boxing fans will have after such a big event? It poses a question, are we having too much boxing in a…

With Anthony Joshua versus Daniel Dubois now complete. We have an opportunity to reflect on what was one of the most spectacular seven days in British boxing history, and the big winner in the last seven days have been Don Charles, with his reputation, greatly enhanced, and many of the things he’s been saying for years finally vindicated.For many o…

Wow! Just wow!These are the times you live boxing.Af Highfield Boxing

We’re so close to fight night, and this week has been a week or so many plot lines. From the status of Don Charles being debated to the tension between Willy Hutchinson and Joshua Buatsi, and the weigh-in on Friday was kind of a good moment to bring everything together. Fans were in good spirit. The promoters in good spirit. The boxers were clearly…

There is no question that Anthony Joshua is a massive favourite in this fight against Daniel Dubois.From his experience, power, size and strangely enough skill, he has a lot of things over Daniel, but the real test is whether he still has the desire in his mid thirties to to be the man in the division again.To do so he’ll have to stop Daniel Dubois…

There is an argument to say that Daniel Dubois has not lived up to the potential he had as a as an 18 or 19-year-old making his way in the professional ranks.But, he has shown his resilience and ability to fight back from setbacks to finally become a world champion. On September 21 he has the opportunity to cement his reputation as a genuine world …

Does a promoter have the right to recoup their investment costs from the fighters? Matchroom have spent a lot of money promoting Joe and get him to world title status and it looks like now Eddie is in for a cash out mode and Joe Cordina, while not necessarily happy with it, has to accept that this is just how it works in boxing.…

This is a great opportunity to shake off some ring rust, and kind of feel my way back into recording.Boxing is in a really interesting place. There’s a lot less money in boxing than there used to be and as such, you have more people chasing less money and we are starting to see the effect of that on both international and domestic boxing.…

In August 2024 everybody is an expert on gender.Everyone is quick to the label someone as trans when we don’t even have a workable definition of gender for sport.We lack a workable test with workable thresholds. People talk about these matters like XX versus XY is that simple when, as a human race, we haven’t gender tested at scale ever and now wer…

While there is juice in the lemon we will keep on squeezing.I guess that’s the philosophy of boxing for where we are in 2024.As long as these ageing stars can give us entertaining fights they will keep creating entertaining fights because the new generation it doesn’t seem that there up there yet and so I can understand the value in a Joe Joyce ver…

Is Boxing in South London working? Now, we have seen so many boxers from south London Chamberlain, Riakporhe, Azeez, Bentley, Cheeseman all winning titles, but we’ve never felt confident that, at the top level, we had guys that can do it. In fact we haven’t had a guy we felt confident a boxer could dominate since David Haye.Is that a sign that is t…

So the Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney saga continues.It now looks like both guys could be on the shelf for a whole year with Ryan Garcia serving a drug ban and Devin Haney, seemingly needing to get his whole life correct before he boxes again.The sum total of it is, in the 140 pound division we’ve got chaos where we thought we were getting close to or…

Boxing is such a hard way to make money, but it’s an even harder way to build a singular proposition. What Turki is proposing to do in buying up promotional companies to create a boxing league is commercial madness. It taps into the ongoing boxing saga of finding rich men and separating them from their money. The shameful thing is that people don’t…

A man should be able to have a beer in peace without the media watching and reporting on it, but when it comes to Tyson Fury and his history with substance abuse and depression, it’s always a worry to his fans and those that care about him.When you dig deeper, and you look below the surface. You remember that this is the guy who, as much as he tell…

Top-level, Boxing is a rough rough spot. The one thing you should never do is deviate from who you actually are in a boxing ring.On Saturday. We saw Deontay Wilder, try and be somebody he’s not. Now, the real questions to ask did that win over Robert Helenius and the effect it had on him post fight, did that change his outlook on knockouts or was t…

The waiting is over we finally get Matchroom versus Queensbury five versus five supposedly the best versus the best If we are being honest, we know there is a large amount of politics at play here and if you’re being transparent Eddie has probably sent the B team out and Frank has sent his A team.As great a card as this is we don’t feel that it’s a…

I was wrong about Usyk I can hold my hands up. I was 100% wrong about the man. He showed on Saturday night what it is to be truly eliteIn a fight that was going against him for the first seven rounds, for him to turn it around, shows the mark of the man and shows why he’s a champion.We have to see him as a great now.…

We're finally here. We finally get one face, one king of boxing.Now will it be Tyson Fury or Oleksandr Usyk?I don't think the answer is obvious, but I hope the analysis here helps.Af Highfield Boxing

Sometimes it’s easy to forget how dangerous boxing is.No parent should ever have to bury their child and this weekend was a reminder that for all the things we say, all the issues we talk about in boxing, boxer safety should always, and I mean always, remain top of that list.We may not be where we want to be but we are further ahead than we were a …

So Ryan Garcia fails a drugs test. He failed for Ostarine and he failed for nandrolone and these are worrying substances because no boxers should really have them in the system. We’ve been through this so many times with boxers that it’s no longer a joke and everything that Larry said it’s turning out to be correct. Now that Boxing has a massive dr…

As always, click the link for everything.https://linktr.ee/highfieldboxingWe’ve all been able to witness the Ryan Garcia’s victory tour and as much fun as it has been and as interesting as it has been, I think we’re at the point now where those close to Ryan Garcia need to put their arms around him and bring him back down to earth, getting back in …

When two people spend their formative years as rivals, it is hard to understand how intense a fight between them as men can be. Add to that, the eyes of the boxing world, and you have something that has the capacity to bend minds and upset odds.Ryan Garcia surprised the world in beating Devin Haney, despite the antics leading up to the fight. In tr…

We finally get the Queensberry v Matchroom clash we were promised in the pandemic – only took us one vaccine and 4 boosters to get there.As boxing fans, we should be happy that we have a big card, which has meaning, supported by 5 really strong fights.The only dark cloud is whether we are running this Saudi experiment at the expense of our domestic…

What is going on with our promoters? It seems like chaos in the worlds of Hearn, Warren, and Shalom.It’s a great soap opera for men that like to be the little spoon, I guess. However, it doesn’t help make the sport stronger.The sad bit is, now that Eddie and Frank are forced to be cool, Eddie has taken to bully Ben Shalom. Yes…this is really how a …

Before anything, a few ‘thank yous:’Alfie Warren - @alfieRwarrenWarren Boxing Management - @warrenboxingmanagmentHannah Rankin - @team_rankinRival Boxing Gym - @rivalboxinggymkingsxAmy Andrew - @amyandrewboxingHuman Hussain - @numan007hussainMasood Abdulah - @mas_masood1Steve Broughton - @sb_boxing_We are in the era of boxing where we have media cr…

The world needs more superheroes…It’s very rare that you get a British title fight where two men leave everything in the ring, where two men go to places they’ve never been before, and where they find out things about themselves that they never knew.It is so rare to see that Sunday’s fight between Fabio Wardley and Frazer Clarke, even though it end…

At some point, British boxing has to address its issues around doping. Doping in Boxing has massively watered down the credibility of the sport and left us in a position where we don’t believe results anymore. We don’t believe fighters are clean and we don’t believe our boxes are competing with honour.UKAD and the British Boxing Board of Control wo…

What do you do if you’re Canelo?Do you chase legacy or do you chase money, or do you chase safety?It seems clear that Canelo is at the point in his career where he is chasing safety in terms of safe paydays and low risk fights, as if he’s built his legacy and has nothing further to prove.But, is this good for boxing when the main man in the sport, …

For as long as the Saudi Arabia money flows into boxing Frank Warren won’t put any of his A team in a UK ring.So, what we going to get on TNT sport and in UK venues will be Frank’s B team, and on Saturday we got a glimpse of that and based on Saturday it’s not too promising. Nathan Heaney showed that, without enough of those serious fights against …

You can define being a professional as, the ability to do what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, in the way that it needs to be done.Anthony Joshua is the best example of being a professional from rarely being out of shape to very rarely being out the gym, he stays focused on his craft in a way that many of his rivals do not. What we saw …

Why is boxing on the decline in the West?Part of it has to be the lack of genuinely competitive and interesting 'big men.' It seems that there is a dearth of real talent in the bigger weight classes, allowing other nations to dominate.In the UK is it a question or 'rubbish in, rubbish out' as many speculate?…

In this episode I give a quick(ish) rundown of the things I missed between episodes 199 and 200.Boxing is in a perilous place right now, but the promoters are happy to ignore that as they do their pilgrimage to the bottomless pit of money.It cannot last forever and when it ends, will that be boxing done?…

It is incredible that this version of the pod has made it to 200. 100% of that is down to you guys. You are the best audience anyone could hope for.As a group we punch well above our weight and we will only get stronger.There are also others I need to thank for where the podcast is today:Martin and Andi – No idea why Andi hasn’t just changed it to …

Joshua, Yoka, Dubois, how have three gifted athletes and boxers fallen so far below expectations?Also, will Day of Reckoning cut through beyond boxing ciricles?Af Highfield Boxing

Sometimes you watch a unification fight and expect a battle of equals. We didn't get that on Saturday.The gap in class surprised everybody and British boxing has to ask whether it builds boxers that are really good enough.At the moment, the answer is no.Af Highfield Boxing

Finishing off what I started on Saturday...like Jordan GillAf Highfield Boxing

The Conor Benn saga reappears. The Board are taking a strong stance on Conor Benn boxing in the UK.Is it 'better late than never for them to be taking such a strong stance and can Matchroom find a way though?Af Highfield Boxing

Boxing has a handful of people, men and women, that actively shape the lives of our young. Some of those are also able to create some of the best boxers this country has seen.Mick Carney was one of those guys.12 years later, we still miss him just as bad. A man that helped us become better, a man that brought us together under the banner of Fitzroy…

https://linktr.ee/highfieldboxingSo, we got all the boxers we wanted to see this year, but none of the fights we wanted to see.However, all is not lost because the card on December 23rd will be a lot better than Carry on Camping and Bambi on ITV2.Af Highfield Boxing

https://linktr.ee/highfieldboxinghttps://linktr.ee/highfieldboxing The battle for the worst weekend in boxing intensifies.Lat weekend's action is right up there in the trash stakes.The Newcastle show was interesting as it was a reminder that the talent pool in British boxing is poor and has been for a while.…

What you do outside the ring will show in the ring as Andre Sterling once said.What we saw from Fury was a man struggling to cope with the realities of his physical condition, and a man out of love with boxing.When you love boxing you are faithful to it, loyal to it and the rhythms and routines it demands.Fury faced a man in Francis Ngannou who had…

If anyone has had a harder 5 years in boxing than Isaac Chamberlain, please send them my way.Watching him win the British and Commonwealth was the definition of a feel-good story and what we watch boxing for.In contrast Jack Catterall is sill waiting for his fairytale moment and it is likely that wait will continue well past his retirement.(0% of b…

Tonight, we have two boxing shows that are a hard sell individually, and a hard sell collectively.As much as we are happy the boxers are getting paid, the fans should see some value for their time and expenditure.Until promoters, managers and boxers understand this, we are digging our own grave for boxing.As fans we also need to do better and stop …

Say what you want but KSI has built a boxing business without having to work with the boxing business.He is proof that, in todays era, you need to be interesting more than you need to be talented.Until boxing realises that, the sport will continue to decline as it is held prisoner by the type of people you’d never buy a used car off.…

Leigh Wood is having the best Indian summer to his career. The king of comeback wins pulls another one out the bag.He showed the value in being ready in key moments. Leigh saw his opportunity and he took it. No matter the opponent, real champions always find a way to win.Leigh Wood did that.Af Highfield Boxing