Like most of you reading this I am from working class stock. I was brought up in a rough housing scheme (council estate) in the poverty stricken town of Paisley. Like most working class families I had it installed in me at an early age that you need to work hard to get anywhere in life, to avoid the temptations that are everywhere which can so easily derail persons journey through. In every town, in every City, in every country around the world their are people just trying to get ahead in life. Now as we all know chasing the dream is an endless, thankless task, which usually see’s our dreams diminish. As we get older we move the goal posts closer, we let the world beat a sense of realism into us and as the Richard Ashcroft say’s “Your a slave to the money then you die”. To escape the mundane regimented routine of life we turn to sports. As children this is where so many of our outlandish dreams begin and stay with us throughout our lives. We become emotionally invested in sport, we feel like our team/player is an extension of ourselves, we literally get our enjoyment seeing other people live out their dreams, or tales that is what i thought a fans job was.

Boxing is a very unique sport in the way that fights are made. Unlike most other sports boxing doesn’t have a seasonal structure, the sport does not live by anyones schedule. There is no one figure head of the sport, there is no god. We put our faith in promoters and managers to put on the best fights, the fights the fans want to see but all too often we are being let down badly, and better still their are some who applaud it.

The past week has felt a little bit like Groundhog Day as we found out Team Fury had knocked back a derisory offer from Eddie Hearn to make the biggest fight in boxing Fury vs Joshua, a story that is becoming all too familiar when talking bout Hearn. Fury and his team have demanded a 50/50 split which once again has split fans down the middle but I for one am not falling into these murky waters again. I don’t think it is outrageous to suggest that Fury/Joshua will be the highest grossing fight in British boxing history. The fan fair and media frenzy in the build up to this fight would be like nothing we have ever seen before, it would break all UK PPV records, it would pack out 90,000 inside Wembley and with both having such big followings the atmosphere in the arena would be unique. Every major brand in the world would want its logo attached somewhere to this fight. Just thinking of how much money this fight will generate really does make the mind boggle. With all this in mind am I the only one that finds absurd that this fight is not happening due to a dispute over money.

All too often I see on social media boxing fans argue over who deserves what. I see tweets daily by fans who are all too happy that fights have not been made because they think a fighter is over valuing himself. I see tweets by fans who would rather see fights not happen because they believe so firmly that the A-side boxer should call all the shots. Greed is the most detrimental thing to boxing. There are times when greed robs fans of the best fights at the right time, there are times when greed robs fighters of the biggest night of their lives and most importantly greed is slowly killing the sport. In todays world boxing is nowhere near as powerful as it once was as people can get their blood lust elsewhere like the UFC. Whilst boxing has spent decades shooting itself in the foot time and time again. UFC has given it’s fight fans the best fights possible time after time which has its popularity soar.

Boxing is littered with stories of broke former pro’s that didn’t get their fair share of the pot and are now potless. Boxers put their lives at risk every time they step in the right for a fight, these guys are literally risking it all and should be rewarded for it, no one is disputing that. Where the full thing leaves a sour taste in my mouth is I cannot support multi millionaires arguing over a couple of million pounds when their is tens of millions on the table. What I cannot do is support the biggest and best fights not being made. Once again boxing fans are being taken for granted that’s why this should never be applauded, just like in every professional sport the fans are the life blood that keeps the sport going, We are King.

Steven Donnell