The other heavyweight fights are expendable, just get the big boys together

Don’t get me wrong, that’s not a criticism of the capable Michigan fighter. He’s getting paid more than he ever has before. Good luck to him. I’d seriously consider stepping into the ring with Anthony Joshua if I saw a cheque with that many noughts on it. Okay, I wouldn’t, but you get my point.

It is never a good sign when one of the most common headlines before a ‘big’ fight is ‘Who is (insert opponent’s name)?’. It’s even the title of one of this week’s brilliant BBC 5 Live Boxing podcasts. Again, that is no slight on Franklin. None of this is his fault.

Devoted boxing fans recognise him, mainly because he narrowly lost on points to Dillian Whyte in November. But to a wider audience that flocks to major heavyweight nights like fair-weather fans to a Super Bowl or a World Cup final, more people would actually pay to see me get knocked out by AJ.

There is a reason why the general public migrate to big sporting events, and that’s because it’s the best against the best. After all the hype, there is actually an end product. In heavyweight boxing that would be, let me think, Tyson Fury against Oleksandr Usyk. We’d still take Fury versus Joshua. Hell, I’ll settle for Deontay Wilder vs Usyk.

I will admit, this is more of a sporting rant than anything else. After two defeats to Usyk, you can forgive Joshua’s ‘comeback’ fight for what it is but, like so many reading this, I’ve just run out of patience with heavyweight boxing.

Fury became world champion against Wladimir Klitschko in November, 2015. That’s five prime ministers and one pandemic ago. Joshua won his first global belt in April 2016. For Wilder, it was January 2015.

In more than seven years, between the three of them, there have been three encounters, all of them Wilder versus Fury. Just let that sink in. For all the smack talk and propaganda, for all the foul-mouthed virals and contract negotiations, we have only that trilogy to show for it. In seven years.

That’s like going to see The Expendables in the cinema, only to find Statham and Stallone are patiently negotiating with the Somalian pirates for a peaceful release of hostages.

Usyk gets a pass, for now, as he’s only had four fights at heavyweight level, and two were wins against Joshua. As Tony Bellew said on social media, ‘Usyk dodges no one!’, and at least he can point to his fight record as evidence.

Fury is bearing the brunt of the anger from boxing fans after the latest ‘fight for the ages’ descended, again, into the World Finger Pointing Championships.

What keeps us engaged through all of the horseplay and shenanigans is the belief that it will eventually happen. Everything will click into place and we will have a two or three-year period in which heavyweight boxing is on top of the world. Well, time is running out. Wilder is 37, Usyk is 36, Fury is 34 and Joshua is the baby at 33. If things don’t change soon, the only sponsorship they will be courting is from Werther’s Original and Stannah stairlifts.

That’s obviously a stretch too far but right now heavyweight boxing deserves our irrationality. After having to go yet another round of bravado and bulls***, we have every right to reach for our pitchforks and scream blue murder, regardless of who is to blame.

The answer to that question is simple. You are, boxing. You are to blame. Time and again. Not the fans. They are the ones filling your purses, through ticket sales, pay-per-views and subscriptions.

Well, the next fight I pay for will involve two of four names, otherwise I’m using that money to go see The Expendables 4 at my local cinema in September. At least they’ll f***ing fight each other.

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