I am always very suspicious when it comes to the world of boxing. This is especially true now that these crossover fights rather than the real boxing matches are created and pull in a much wider audience. I think we have Conor McGregor and the Paul brothers to blame for this and well as Triller, but the original source isn't really all that important. Boxing has always had a huge amount of money associated with it, so when things go a bit nuts in these fights I will normally have a tinge of my spidey senses that things could have been rigged from the start just to fill the pockets of the people involved.
There are a number of real factors that could have lead to this match being a lot closer than I think anyone believed it ever would be such as Tyson Fury not training as seriously as he would be if the fight was against a seasoned boxer but the conspiracy theorist in me thinks that it could be something a bit more dirty than that. Fury has been a relatively dominant champion for quite some time so for an MMA guy to come in there and almost defeat him (some believe he DID defeat Fury) doesn't seem quite right.
Now, because of the controversy created by the very close split decision victory, there is going to be calls for a rematch which of course will mean tens of millions of dollars for both of the men involved as well as a ton of money for the promoters. When this much money is involved in something isn't it at least conceivable that there might have been some sort of arrangement, particularly with Fury, to make certain that the fight goes the distance? I'm not saying that this is necessarily the case, but it seems like a very real possibility to me. The fact that Mike Tyson popped onto the scene as a trainer for Francis just adds a bit more celebrity to the big show and it just makes me feel more like it was a fix from the start.
Had Fury gone out there and completely dominated Ngannou, which in reality is what really should have happened, this could have seriously hit the brakes on the whole crossover fight scene, which unfortunately is an extremely big business right now.
I'll be honest and say that I didn't even watch the fight. There was no way I was going to pay for it and based on where it took place in the world I wasn't going to make plans to see something that was going to be on at a strange time of day like that.
I am reminded about the time that Logan Paul fought against Floyd Mayweather and Floyd actually helped Logan to remain standing after landing a sharp blow
Was this because of a rider in the contract stating that Floyd was not supposed to KO Paul? It certainly looked that way at the time. Then we had the geriatric cup where Mike Tyson had basically a sparring contest on Triller with Roy Jones Jr.
During this unsanctioned fight it appeared as though neither guy was really going for it at any point and then when we got to the end of it and it was announced to be a draw, a lot of people were upset. Was that the idea from the very start? In my mind it could have been and might have even been in the contract.
I just don't trust boxing anymore these days and believe that since the crossover fights have been so incredibly lucrative for the people involved, that there is a very real interest in keeping the idea of it alive. There is a reason why we don't see boxers jumping over to MMA, because it would be much more difficult to make that transition and if the fix is truly in, it would be very evident on that side of things.
I didn't watch the first Francis / Fury fight, and when there is another one - which will not surprise me at all - I won't be watching that either.